“Excuse me, what?” said Upeksha Ranatunga.
“That’s why I’m here,” Marce continued. “My father confirmed it. We confirmed it with data taken from ships coming to End. It’s all shutting down. All of it. End is about to be as isolated as every other system.”
“That’s your interpretation of the data,” Nadashe said.
“It’s already happening,” Grayland said. “The stream from End to Hub is already closed. The stream from Hub to Terhathum is next. Your family’s home system, Nadashe. Your home system.”
Nadashe shook her head and smiled. “No. And it doesn’t matter anyway.” She pointed at Marce. “If he’s correct, then billions are about to die. End is the only system in the Interdependency with a habitable planet. Every other system is man-made habitats. They’ll last for years or even decades. But eventually they’ll fail. They’ll all fail. Except for End. Which the House of Nohamapetan will control, if it doesn’t already.”
The door to the room opened again and four imperial guards came through and marched toward the executive committee table. Hibert Limbar followed behind them.
Nadashe looked at them, and then at the emperox. “Are those for me?”
“Yes, they are,” Grayland said.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, Cardenia,” Nadashe said, as the guards crowded around her. “Keep me alive and treat me very well. The end of the Interdependency is coming one way or another. However it comes, the House of Nohamapetan is going to be there, waiting for its tribute. It’s not going to look kindly on you if something happens to me.”
“We’ll keep it in mind,” Grayland said. “In the meantime, thank you for your service on the executive committee. You’re dismissed.”
Nadashe laughed, stood up from the table, and walked out, accompanied by the guards. The entire executive committee watched her go.
Then when she was gone, Upeksha Ranatunga cleared her throat. “I want to get back to this thing about the Flow streams collapsing in a decade.” She looked at Marce and Grayland. “Is it true?”
“It’s true,” Marce said.
“And you’re only telling us now?” Ranatunga said, disbelieving.
Marce heard Grayland sigh, saw her glance over at him for just a moment, and then turn to Korbijn, who was returning to the table.
“The Prophecies of Rachela is gone,” Korbijn said. “Through the Flow shoal. On the way to End.”
“It’s only ten thousand marines,” Marce said. “And there can’t be that many more at the imperial station there. You have hundreds of ships and hundreds of thousands of marines.”
“All of them have to go through the bottleneck of the Flow shoal,” Grayland said to him. “A few ships and weapons are all they need to defend it.”
“You seem sure about that.”
Grayland laughed, bitterly. “How do you think the House of Wu became the imperial house a thousand years ago, Lord Claremont? We did the very same thing here. In the space above Hub. Controlled the shoals and made everyone who wanted to come or go through them pay a price. We made them pay, Lord Claremont. Just like the Nohamapetans plan to make anyone going to End pay. And at the end of it, they’ll be the new emperoxs, or so they believe.”
“Then seal off End entirely,” Korbijn said. “If the Nohamapetans want to self-exile, let them.”
“It’s not that simple,” Marce said.
“Why not?”
“Because Nadashe was right,” Grayland said. “There’s only one system that will support human life on its own once the Flow collapses. And that’s End. We can prepare every system for the collapse. Give them everything we can to last as long as they can. But it’s End where humans will survive when everywhere else has gone dark. We need that planet. We need to get at least some people from every system in the Interdependency to it.”
“And it’s the Nohamapetans who stand in our way,” Marce said.
“Yes,” Grayland said, nodding.
“So what do we do?” said Upeksha Ranatunga, after a minute. “What do we do now?”
EPILOGUE
“Don’t you have better things to do than to sit around here?” Attavio VI asked Cardenia, as she sat in the Memory Room.
“Are you expressing judgment?” Cardenia asked.
“I remember asking you that question once when you were spending time with me as I was dying. It’s assonant to ask you again now. It gives the appearance that I care. Which is a thing you need.”
“You know you ruin it when you put it like that.”
“I apologize. But the question still stands.”
“I do have better things to do,” she said. “But I’m going to sit around here anyway.”
The simulation of Attavio VI nodded and then sat next to her—or at least, the simulation of him gave the appearance of sitting next to her. “I came here too,” he said. “Whenever I was overwhelmed or exhausted or just needed to be away from other people. I would come here and talk to my mother or grandfather or any of the other emperoxs.”
“Did it work?”
“It worked about as well as it’s working for you right now,” he said. “But I decided it was good enough.”
Cardenia smiled at that. “It is good enough,” she agreed.
“You haven’t been in the Memory Room as often recently.”
“Do you miss me when I’m gone?”
“I don’t exist when you’re gone, so, no,” Attavio VI said.
“I’m busy with the end of everything,” Cardenia said. “I had Lord Marce give a presentation to parliament. I’ve ordered the military to create a plan for taking back End. I’ve suspended the operations and monopolies of the House of Nohamapetan and given them to the House of Lagos to administer.”
“I’m sure that went over well.”
“It went well with the House of Lagos, at least.” Cardenia remembered the meeting with the Countess Lagos and her daughter Kiva, both of whom were profanely delighted at the fall of the Nohamapetans, and the rise in their own fortunes. The countess gave Lady Kiva responsibility for the Nohamapetan monopolies, with Cardenia’s permission. “Marce’s presentation was not nearly as successful. He laid it out as simply and in as straightforward a way as it could be done, and the majority of the parliament still thinks it’s nonsense even though we have proof.”
“But you don’t have proof yet,” Attavio said. “It hasn’t been more than two weeks since Lord Claremont arrived. The ships from End could still be delayed by the civil war. The Flow stream to Terhathum is still open.”
“I don’t know that it will matter even then,” Cardenia said. “I’m continually confronted with the human tendency to ignore or deny facts until the last possible instant. And then for several days after that, too.”
Attavio VI nodded. “This is why I never said anything about it.”
“Yes, and I’m getting a ration of shit for that, too, thank you very much, father of mine,” Cardenia said. “I have seventy percent of the parliament angry with me because they don’t believe this collapse is coming, and forty percent angry with me because I didn’t tell them about it sooner.”