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construction of the vessel began five point two six days after our arrival.”
    “A new Sandrisson Drive vessel constructed and launched in less than one month. How?” he murmured, stunned. “Physically it’s not impossible, but…even with what I gave the SSC I would expect it to take at least a few weeks just to settle on the basic design, let alone construct it.”
    “As yet there is insufficient data to answer the question,” Mentor answered. “However, additional data may be forthcoming. Mio and I have been tracking another small vessel and it is now preparing to dock with Holy Grail .”
    “Who is it?”
    “The identification provided by the onboard AISage, and indirect verification from other data available, indicates that our visitor is Saul Maginot. There may be at least one more vessel approaching but that is uncertain at this time.”
    Oh dear. That cannot be good news. “Well, allow Commander Maginot aboard, of course.”
    “Security deactivated for outer lock,” Mio confirmed.
    By the time he and Gabrielle arrived, the lock was cycling. Saul Maginot stepped carefully from the lock on surface-cling boots; his AISage Elizabeth drifted near him, dressed in what appeared to be formal partywear from several centuries past. “Welcome aboard, Commander,” Simon said.
    “Thank you, but we have little time for pleasantries. My coming here is itself going to be a signal to certain parties, of course, but I will be damned if I am going to talk anywhere someone can spy on me.”
    “The Anonymity—”
    “—Protocols, yes, yes, but in a public project that can get rather fuzzy, and in a public space even more so. Here there’s absolutely no fuzziness about it, thank goodness, and moreover I have confidence that you’ve made sure of your security here as well.”
    “Your confidence is well placed,” Mentor’s deep voice responded, “and our examination of you and your personal belongings show that you are ‘clean,’ as the saying goes. You may speak freely.”
    “Good, because there isn’t much time; I hope DuQuesne and Captain Austin return soon from…wherever they have gone. The public announcement hasn’t yet been made, but as of tomorrow I am officially Commander of the Combined Space Forces…and as of tomorrow, that is all that I am. Oscar Naraj will be head of the Space Security Council, and his right-hand woman Michelle Ni Deng has already been in charge of the new Arena Research Division. The ship—christened the Duta , which Elizabeth informs me means ’emissary’—will be ready to leave very shortly; Elizabeth and I estimate no more than a week from now, possibly as little as five days.”
    “This is unfortunately entirely in line with our Visualization,” Mentor said.
    “That’s terribly fast, Mr. Maginot,” Gabrielle said. “You’ve been running things there for fifty years, more or less, and people’ve always been supportive of you. How in the world did this happen so quickly?”
    Maginot smiled sadly. “I had fifty years partly because…if we are being entirely honest with ourselves—there wasn’t much for us to do . We were not expected to act , only to re act, and administer the security update operations for destructive nanos, engineered biologicals, and malicious code. That’s the way it’s been for half a century—and that was after Hyperion tightened things up. Oh, you get little flareups, friction between groups crowding each other, a few people forgetting that their right to be offended ends at the other person’s personal space, but nothing that can’t be dealt with using a couple patrol vessels, maybe one warship.” He looked up. “And then you came back, and everything changed.”
    Oh, great Kami. “Politics matters again.”
    “How succinctly you put that, Dr. Sandrisson,” Saul said with a sigh. “But yes, that’s exactly it. The situation before was stable, overall. There was no lever that someone like Oscar could find that would make it