Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

We’re heavily constrained by the Xeelee operations. You
realise we probably won’t be able to get you out of here alive.’
    It struck me as somewhat ironic that in the middle of a
Galaxy-spanning military crisis I was to be killed by mud. But I had
made my choice. ’So I understand.’
    ’But, Kard,’ Xera said, her thin face fringed by blocky pixels,
’he has completed his primary mission, which is to deliver Tilo’s
data back to us.’
    Kard closed his Eyes, and his image flickered; I imagined Tilo’s
data and interpretations pouring into the processors which sustained
this semi-autonomous Virtual image, tightly integrated with Kard’s
original sensorium. Kard said, ’Your report needs redrafting, Tilo.
Sharpening up. There’s too much about this dark matter crud,
Academician.’
    Xera said gently, ’You were here on assignment from your masters
in the Navy, with a specific purpose. They wanted to know what the
Xeelee are up to. But it’s hard to close your eyes to the clamouring
truth, isn’t it, Academician?’
    Tilo sighed, his face mud-covered.
    ’We must discuss this,’ Kard snapped. ’All of us, right now. We
have a decision to make, a recommendation to pass up the line - and
we need to assess what Tilo has to tell us, in case we can’t retrieve
him.’
    I understood immediately what he meant. We were about to put the
Xeelee in the dock - us, right here on this beaten-up planet, while
the mud rose up around us. And the recommendation we made today might
reach all the way back to the great decision-making councils on Earth
itself. I felt a deep thrill. Even the locals stirred, apparently
aware that something historically momentous was about to happen, even
in the midst of their own misfortunes, stuck as we were on that
battered wooden roof.
    So it began.
     
    At first Tilo wasn’t helpful.
    ’It simply isn’t proven that this volcanism is the result of
Xeelee action - and certainly not that it’s deliberately directed
against humans,’ Despite Kard’s glare, he persisted, ’I’m sorry,
Admiral, but it isn’t clear.
    ’Look at the context.’ He pulled up historical material - images,
text that scrolled briefly in the murky air. ’This is not a new
story. There is evidence that human scientists were aware of
dark-matter contamination in the stars before the beginning of the
Third Expansion. They called the dark-matter life forms they found
>photino birds<. It seems an engineered human being was once
sent into Sol itself to study them… An audacious project. But this
learning was largely lost in the Qax Extirpation, and after that -
well, we had a Galaxy to conquer. There was a later incident, a
project run by the Silver Ghosts concerning a >soliton star<,
but - ’
    Kard snapped, ’What do the Xeelee care about dark matter?’
    Tilo rubbed tired eyes with grubby fists. ’However exotic they
are, the Xeelee are baryonic life forms, like us. It isn’t in their
interests for the suns to die young, any more than for us.’ He
shrugged. ’Perhaps they are trying to stop it. Perhaps that’s why
they have come here, to the halo. Nothing to do with us.’
    Kard waved a Virtual hand at Mount Perfect’s oozing wounds. ’Then
why all this, just as the Xeelee show up? Coincidence?’
    Xera protested, ’Admiral - ’
    ’This isn’t a Commission trial, Tilo,’ Kard said. ’We don’t need
absolute proof. The imagery - human refugees, Xeelee nightfighters
swooping overhead - will be all we need to implicate the Xeelee in
this destruction.’
    Xera said dryly, ’Yes. All we need to sell a war to the Coalition,
the governing councils, and the people of the Expansion.’ They seemed
to forget the rest of us as they engaged in an argument they had
clearly been pursuing before. ’This is wonderful for you, isn’t it,
Admiral? It’s what the Navy has been waiting for, along with its
Academy cronies. An excuse to attack.’
    Kard’s face was stony. ’The cold arrogance of you cosseted
intellectuals is sometimes insufferable. It’s true that the Navy is
ready to fight, Commissary. That’s our job. And we are ready. We have
the plans in place - ’
    ’But does the existence of the plans require their fulfilment? And
let’s remember how hugely the Navy itself will benefit. As the lead
agency, a war would clearly support the Navy’s long-term political
goals.’
    Kard glared. ’We all have something to gain. Xera, you
Commissaries are responsible for maintaining the unity of