Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

vivid than anything else in his life - and
far more fascinating than the great star clouds that illuminated the
human empire. He was thrilled that they shared this transient bubble
of isolation.
    When Dolo fell silent, Luca took his chance. He leaned subtly
closer to Teel. ’I suppose the food we eat is the same from one end
of the Galaxy to the other.’
    She didn’t look directly at him, but she turned her head. ’Since
this food comes from the belly of this Spline ship, and since the
Spline are used all over the Galaxy - yes, I imagine you are right,
Novice.’
    ’But not everything is the same,’ he found himself babbling. ’We
are about the same age, but our two lives could hardly have been more
different. There is much about you that I envy.’
    ’You know very little about my life.’
    ’Yes, but even so - ’
    ’What do you envy most?’
    ’Comradeship. I was born in a birthing centre and placed in a
cadre. That’s how it was for everybody. The cadres are broken up in
cycles; you aren’t allowed to get too close to your cadre siblings.
Even at the seminaries I am in competition with the other novices.
Intimacy is seen as inevitable, but is regarded as a weakness.’
    ’Intimacy?’
    ’I have had lovers,’ he said, ’but I have no comrades.’ He
regretted the foolish words as soon as they were uttered. ’At the
Front, everybody knows - ’
    ’What everybody knows is always to be questioned, Novice,’ said
Dolo. Suddenly he no longer seemed drunk, and Luca wondered if he had
fallen into some subtle trap. Dolo turned in his chair, waving his
empty glass at the attendant ratings.
    When Luca looked back, Teel had turned away. She was peering at
the Sagittarius Arm’s wash of light, as if with her deep eyes she
could see it more clearly.
     
    The Galaxy was a hundred thousand light years across, and over
most of its span the stars were scattered more sparsely than grains
of sand spread kilometres apart. On such a scale even the greatest
human enterprise was dwarfed. And yet, as they neared the centre, the
sense of activity, of industry, accelerated.
    They moved within the 3-Kiloparsec Arm, the innermost of the
spiral arms proper, wrapped tightly around the Core region. Here, no
more than a few thousand light years from the Core itself, the Spline
was replenished in orbit around a world that glistened, entirely
covered in metal. This was a factory world, devoted to the production
of armaments. Great clusters of wormhole mouths hovered over its
gleaming surface, amid a cloud of Snowflake surveillance posts.
    On a data desk, Dolo sketched concentric circles. ’The Core itself
is surrounded by our fortresses, our warrior worlds and cities. As
you’ll see, Novice. Behind that, out here we are in the hinterland.
Around a belt hundreds of light years thick, factory worlds churn out
the material needed to wage the war. And behind that there is an
immense and unending inward resource flow from across the Galaxy’s
disc, a flow through wormhole links and freighters of raw materials
for the weapons factories, the lifeblood of a Galaxy all pouring into
the centre to fuel the war.’
    ’It is magnificent,’ Luca breathed. ’An organisation Galaxy-wide,
built and directed by humans.’
    ’But,’ Teel said dryly, ’do you think the Galaxy even notices we
are here?’
    Again Luca was disturbed by her flirting with non-Doctrine.
    Dolo laughed softly. He said to Luca, ’Tell me what you have
learned about our mission. Why are we here? Why was Captain Teel
required to travel all the way out to Earth? What is there in this
outbreak of faith so far from Earth that concerns us?’
    What concerns me, Luca thought, is my relationship with Teel. But
beyond that was his duty, of course; he aspired to become a
Commissary, for the Commission for Historical Truth was the mind and
conscience of the Third Expansion, and he did take his mission very
seriously. ’It is only the Druz Doctrines that unite us, that enable
the efficient working of the Expansion. If even our front-line troops
are allowed to waste energy on foolish non-Doctrinal maundering -
’
    ’Captain? What do you think?’
    Teel pulled her lip, and Luca saw tiny hairs there, shining in the
starlight. ’I think there is more at stake here than mere
efficiency.’
    ’Of course there is. Perhaps I am training the wrong novice,’ Dolo
said ruefully. ’Luca, human history is not a simple narrative, a
story told to children. It is more like a pile of