Quid Pro Quo

"A healthy conversation is a garden and rumors are weeds. Don't let them spread."

-maxim written on the walls of Sid's year 2 Academy dorm room

Sandreas was in a foul mood this morning, Sid noted. He stormed into his office like a cloud full of volcanic debris, and sat down behind his desk with an annoyed posture that Sid could have picked up from a mile away. Halen strode into the room half a step behind, and gently closed the door. Sid was seated on the couch; Ms. Rosario had let him in earlier.

"Something happen?" Sid asked, glancing between the two. Halen took his familiar position, leaning against the wall behind where Sandreas was sitting, though several steps away from where he might have once been expected to reside. Something had driven a wedge between the two men, and Sid wasn't privy to it. Not that he particularly wanted to be, but it was something that he couldn't help but notice. They were still close, obviously, but Halen was cool towards Sandreas where he had once been warm, and took out some of his frustrations on Sid while he taught him. Sid's body ached after several more sessions with Halen training him to resist his power. It was deeply unpleasant, and Sid would take Sandreas's poor mood over that almost any day.

"Yes and no," Sandreas said after a second. "About twenty minutes ago, I was handed a report from some of our people within the Guild."

"And?" Sid asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. The Guild and its goings on were of particular interest to him, partially because he was following its developments for signs of Yan, and partially because he had become entangled with enough Guild politics to last a lifetime. Between the trip to Olar, and the nonsense with the supership and the secret station, he was abreast of all the drama. All except for what had happened at Vaneik's funeral, which Kino (fuck Kino, he thought) had been present for.

"People are reporting that Ms. Olms is dipping her toes back into politics," Sandreas said, leaning forward on his own desk.

"I thought that was what you wanted."

Sandreas laughed, but the humor didn't take any of the frustration out of his posture. "Certainly. Under my direction alone."

Sid narrowed his eyes. "Seriously?"

"You didn't think that Olms and Nomar hadn't been placed in that apprenticeship to specifically get Imperial hands on the Guild, did you?"

"I thought you had basically given up on that," Sid grumbled. "Since it hasn't been working." He jerked his head, motioning to the absent Nomar Thule.

"I had high hopes for Olms, still," Sandreas said. "She's competent, has some loyalty to the Empire, and I like her."

"Then I don't see the problem," Sid said.

"The problem is that the last thing that I want is Guild trouble right this second," Sandreas said. "In five years, when things have settled a bit, sure. Now? I can think of nothing less pleasant."

"What do you mean? It's not like we're actually any closer to solving the Thule problem. Maybe Olms shaking things up will be good."

Sandreas shook his head. "I wanted to deal with him quietly."

"You mean like..." Sid made the rather evocative sign for killing someone.

"No. I figure that Thule can lose favor with the man who is actually elected, and we won't have to do anything that needlessly messy."

"Two murders don't make a successful regime change, I guess," Sid said. "How are you going to make him fall out of favor with Wil Vaneik?"

"I was going to try to quietly have some talks with the people who are supporting him financially, and possibly wait until his family did something high profile and embarassing, but we're a little late on that."

"I don't see why you couldn't still do that."

"Because Olms is going around telling people that she wants to call for a vote of no confidence in Vaneik."

"So?"

"There's no possible way that can turn out well," Sandreas said.

"What's the worst case scenario?"

"You weren't there when Vaneik was elected," Sandreas said. "It was a disaster area."

"Sure. But people have had time to calm down, haven't they?"

"It will only be worse if she does this, or if someone else does now that she's put the idea in their heads."

Sid stared at Sandreas, waiting for him to explain. He didn't see what the problem was.

"They were only able to elect someone at Vaneik's funeral because it happened so suddenly that no one had time to make some sort of complicated power grab. If she starts spreading this, there's going to be time and time and time for every single ship to make a complicated web of who they'll support and under what circumstances. I guarantee that it will rip the whole Guild apart."

"Then let them do that, and let the dust settle. It'll be fine," Sid said. He wasn't overly concerned.

"You say that now. But when planetary supply chains get interrupted, and Guild ships start taking potshots at each other, you'll be singing a different tune."

"Has anything like this ever happened?" Sid asked.

"Did you pay attention in history class at all? Did you learn anything at the Academy?"

Sid resented the accusation, so he leaned back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. "Sure. But no one cares about the Guild except for spacers."

"Then everyone is an idiot. The Guild holds the Empire together."

"Look, if the Guild starts being more trouble than it's worth, why don't you just abolish it?"

Sandreas stared him down. "Image."

Sid rolled his eyes. "It would look bad, but you've stepped in to prevent a civil war before. How would that be any different than Jenjin?"

"You've seen how well Jenjin is working out."

"People will whine about anything. I doubt that's going to go anywhere."

"You don't elect a secessionist to a council seat if you don't intend for something to happen."

"A secessionist would never run for office, because that would be legitimizing the whole thing," Sid retorted. "I don't think it's that big of a deal."

"You know it's my job and yours to worry about this sort of thing," Sandreas said. "You can't just ignore problems and hope that they go away."

"I'm not ignoring them," Sid said. "I'm paying attention. I just think it's a little early to do anything."

"Have I even said that I am going to do something?" Sandreas asked, raising his eyebrows.

Sid relaxed a little. Sandreas was obviously teasing him for getting defensive. Sandreas's posture was more relaxed than when he had come in, and Halen was watching the exchange with a slightly amused expression. "Fine," Sid said, relenting. "What do you want to do?"

"I need to get in contact with Olms."

"I assumed you already were."

"I need to find out what her motivations are for doing this now."

"Presumably she still wants the stardrive she feels like she's owed."

"If it costs me a stardrive to keep the Guild operational, I'll pay that price," Sandreas said.

"You're going to stoop to this kind of blackmail?"

"I wouldn't really call this blackmail. More like a bribe, to get her to calm down."

"Won't the rest of the Guild be suspicious?"

"The Guild already thinks that Olms is an Imperial puppet. Giving her a stardrive probably won't change that in any way."

"Every time you interact with her, it makes it that much harder for her to become Guildmaster," Sid said.

"She's a tool. She doesn't need to be the Guildmaster to be useful to me."

"Fine way to talk about a person," Sid said, trying to keep his tone as light as he could. He hoped his accompanying smile would get the message across.

"Of course."

There was a moment of silence, and Sid continued to smirk at Sandreas. The mood in the room was much improved, at this point. Sid and Sandreas, for how little time they had actually spent together, and how much Sid tended to intentionally rub Sandreas the wrong way, did understand each other and get along fairly well.

"There is one other thing," Sandreas said.

"Which is?"

"We wouldn't be hearing about this if Olms didn't want us to hear," Sandreas said.

"You sure? I thought we had put more people in the Guild."

"There's a limit to what we can feasibly do, and for the most part we have reached that limit. Olms, and most other high people in the Guild, have their ways around our surveillance. You know this. They kept their supership hidden for years."

"And then Thule and company got clumsy, I know."

"Exactly. But this little breadcrumb trail that Olms is leaving, talking to very specific people, I'd say this is a message to us. She's testing the water."

"Trying to see what she can get away with?"

"Maybe just trying to see what we'll do," Sandreas said. "Like I said, I don't actually know what her reasoning is."

"So, are you going to send her a letter?"

Sandreas wove his fingers together and rested his hands on his desk. "You're not going to like this," he said, glancing backwards at Halen.

"Then don't say it," Halen said, speaking for the first time that Sid had seen.

Sandreas shrugged. "I had the thought," he said. "It would be better to talk in person."

"Of course," Sid said. "Summon her here."

"She isn't exactly available at my beck and call," Sandreas said with a slight smile. "But you are."

"I thought you didn't want any of us going--" Sid stopped as he realized what a slip of the tongue he had made. "I thought you didn't want me," he clarified, "going anywhere."

"I don't. But I think it's slightly less obtrusive to send you than to have her family's ship deviate from its natural course, or to give her a reason to travel on other ships and spread her pernicious ideas that way."

"I don't think you can stop pernicious ideas from spreading," Sid said.

"Actually, we're rather good at it," Sandreas said. "It's just that the Guild is a never ending mill of gossip. It's usually harmless, though."

"True."

"Are you opposed to this idea?"

"You haven't fully explained it."

Halen was glowering in the back, in a rare show of emotion. He looked at Sid and shook his head ever so slightly, asking Sid to say no to Sandreas when he asked again.

"You'll hitch a ride on a Guild ship, you'll head to whichever station is next on the Neutron Star's route, you'll wait there until Olms and the rest of her family arrive, you'll have a talk with her about stopping her little instigation."

"You make that sound so easy," Sid said.

"It shouldn't exactly be difficult. You're not actually dealing with Guild policy, you're just talking to someone who, for all intents and purposes, is your peer."

"I resent the idea that a former Guild apprentice holds anything on me, enough to be considered my peer."

"She's five years your senior, at the very least," Sandreas said with a wave of his hand. "Stop being so flippant. Will you do it or not?"

"What about Yan?" Sid asked.

"What about her?"

"Don't you think that there's a chance that she'll come after me?"

"There's a chance of many things," Sandreas said. "But since she hasn't shown herself yet, I don't think that this will be the time that she does. We aren't going to advertise where you're going, after all. This will be a quick trip."

Sid glanced between Halen and Sandreas. Halen's face was drawn, paler than usual, though its chronic red splotchiness remained as always.

"If you think it's necessary and safe," Sid said.

"I've been thinking a lot about this," Sandreas said. "Not this eventuality specifically,but the eventuality that you will have to go off on your own. I can't keep you here forever. As my second, you will need to do tasks in my stead, until you eventually take over my position."

Sid nodded slowly.

"I'm going with him," Halen said abruptly.

Sandreas turned in his seat, looking at Halen. "Are you?" he asked.

"I'm not going to let you risk this for so little," Halen said. "You could just as easily send her a letter, and you know it."

"She wants something out of us, and it's faster and more efficient for Sid to go," Sandreas said. "Do you disagree?"

"Summon her here," Halen argued.

"If you want to go with him, fine," Sandreas said dismissively. "I have no problem with that." He turned back to his desk and looked at Sid. "How do you feel about this?"

Sid's eyes met Halen's. "Fine," Sid said.

"Excellent. Talk to Ms. Rosario. You'll leave as soon as she can arrange passage on a ship."

"I shouldn't be gone for more than a tenday, right?"

"Travel time will depend on what the ideal place to meet up with the Neutron Star is. But it shouldn't take that long. Now, I have a meeting with the representative from Calais in about ten minutes. I suggest you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the information we received about who Olms has been talking to."

Rather unexpectedly, it was Halen who moved for the door, before Sid could stand. He left without a word or a glance back at Sandreas. Sid gave Sandreas a questioning look, but Sandreas seemed to be a combination of mildly angry and impassive, or at the very least he made no indication that he would provide Sid an explanation for Halen's behavior.

"Okay," Sid said, very slowly. "I'll get going then."

"I suggest you do, unless you want to hear all about Calais's mining contracts," Sandreas said, picking up a pen on his desk and twirling it around.

Sid got up and left. He stopped at Ms. Rosario's desk for a moment. "Did you see where Halen went?" he asked.

"Looked like he was turning left," she said. "Do you need me to page him?"

"No," Sid said. "It's not important, thanks."

Sid headed into the hallway, and looking left he did see Halen's massive shadow departing around the corner. Sid followed after him, not getting too close, not trying to make it obvious that he was there and that was what he was doing. Halen made his way through the occupied corridors of Stonecourt, and then down the steps into the lower, less trafficked levels. In one particularly empty hallway, he stopped in front of an unmarked door. Sid wasn't sure what its purpose was; he didn't think he had ever been in this area of Stonecourt before. Sid was a good distance away, behind a corner, and he stopped as well, watching to see what Halen would do.

"You think I didn't know you were following me?" Halen called, still facing the door.

Sid felt the hard touch of his power, compelling his feet to move. Sid had had plenty of training, though, and he shook the touch off like it was a particularly heavy blanket. Halen hadn't been trying very hard.

Sid stepped forward anyway, coming up next to Halen. Halen looked down at him and unlocked the door, holding it open so that Sid could step inside.

It was a little apartment. In the dim light spilling in from the corridor, Sid could barely make out the vague forms of living room furniture: a couch, a table. Halen flipped on the lights, revealing it fully. One wall had photographs hung on it, of various people around Stonecourt that Sid recognized. There was a photo of Sandreas, and next to him, a photo of Sid. Hernan had a photo on the wall, as well as Kino's former minder, Deboan. Sid assumed the other photographs were members of Stonecourt security that Halen worked closely with.

Along the opposite wall there was a table, which Halen walked over to. His bulk shielded it from Sid's view for a second, but when Halen stepped back, he could see that Halen had lit candles, and their smell began to permeate the room. On the table, in between the candles, Sid was very surprised to see something he recognized immediately: Yan's fishbowl, the one she had made as her final project for the Academy. The little gold fish was still swimming around as peacefully as ever, unperturbed by the candles and darkness alike, indifferent to the presence of Sid and Halen.

"Where'd you get that?" Sid asked.

"I had Yan's apartment cleaned out," Halen said. "It seemed a shame to..." he trailed off, seemingly lost for words, a situation which Sid had never seen him in before. "Coffee?" Halen asked.

"Sure."

Halen vanished into an adjacent room, leaving Sid alone.

Sid sat down on the couch. He was surprised to find that it was significantly larger than it looked. Halen must have specialty sized furniture. Halen returned a moment or so later, bearing two mugs of coffee. He passed one to Sid. He must have used the power to boil the water, because there was no other explanation for how he could have made it so quickly. Sid was forced to scoot over to the side of the couch. Even though the furniture was larger than normal, Halen took up a surprising amount of it.

Sid sipped his coffee, somewhat grateful to have his hands occupied in cupping the mug, so that he didn't have the impulse to use them to talk. He felt like he should say something to Halen, but he wasn't sure what. He settled on what felt like the lamest possible opening.

"Are you okay?" Sid asked.

"Are you?"

Sid's mouth twitched in a half smile."I'm always okay."

"Then so am I."

"What are you fighting with Sandreas about?"

"Aymon and I are not fighting," Halen said. "If we were, you would know."

"Then what are you angry at him for?"

"I somehow fail to think that it's any of your business to know."

"I'm going to tell him to apologize to you," Sid said.

"I will politely ask you not to interfere."

"It becomes my business when you and him are taking out your issues on me," Sid said. "You think I don't notice?"

"I don't have any idea what you mean by that."

"You're fucking torturing me when you teach me," Sid said. "And using where I go and what I do as some kind of arguing piece is annoying."

Halen didn't respond for a long second. "If you don't want to train, we can stop," he said. "As for your travel arrangements, I would object regardless. It's dangerous."

"I'm not saying that we should stop, I'm not even, like, mad, I'm just saying." He didn't actually know what it was he was trying to say. "You wouldn't have treated me this way six months ago."

"A lot has changed in six months."

Sid stared across the room, at the fish bathed in flickering candle light. "I haven't."

"The stars change around us, and the sky reflects that change back onto our souls," Halen said. He was quoting something, but Sid didn't know what. "You have changed."

"Maybe."

They were silent again for a minute. "Is Sandreas sending me because he trusts me, or because he thinks it's an easy task?"

"I haven't discussed it with him," Halen said shortly.

"But you know."

"I would assume it's because you've worked with Olms in the past, and you're aware of some of the tensions in the Guild. Don't think too into it."

"Can't help it."

"One of Aymon's problems is that he thinks more of himself than anyone else." Halen was also staring into space.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure he didn't consider your feelings about it at all."

"He asked if I was alright with it."

"That is just him checking to see if the plans he put into place are going to go smoothly."

"Are you saying he doesn't care?"

"Not exactly."

"Okay." Sid drank his coffee.

"You would have been jumping at the starting line for a chance to go somewhere, six months ago," Halen said. "You don't feel thrilled, now."

"Yeah." Sid thought about explaining it. Halen probably knew. "You're right that it's dangerous. And there's nothing but bad memories wrapped up in all this Guild shit."

"You'll have to put all that personal emotion behind you when you're working. That's part of what makes an efficient First."

"I know. I'm trying. I'll do it." He put his cup of coffee down on the table. It was mostly empty. He leaned back into the side of the couch, half turning to face Halen. His hands were slightly shaky, and they were pale in the weird light in the room. "Do you think I'll make a good First?" he signed.

"Yes," Halen signed back, though it took a moment. Sid watched his eyes, noticed them flick upwards as he struggled to remember what Sid's signs meant. Clumsily, he continued. "I know you will."

"How do you know?"

"I hear your heart," Halen said. The sign Halen used for 'hear' was not the usual one, the one that meant conversational listening/understanding. Instead, it was the sign for physical hearing-- the one which contrasted to the sign for physical deafness. It was an odd turn of phrase that Halen had chosen. Sid wasn't sure if he was reading too much into it.

"Hear?" Sid signed back, using the conversational sign and raising his eyebrows to punctuate the question.

Halen just smiled. "I hope that won't be for a long time. I want to see you grow into yourself." Halen's use of idiom was clumsy. He phrased things in sign a way that no fluent speaker would, but the way he picked and chose the limited words he knew formed a coherent picture regardless. Still, it took a second for Sid's brain to process what Halen meant, thinking around the words.

Sid had understood before that Sandreas would only join the Emperor when Halen was dead, but he hadn't quite realized that that would mean that Halen would never see Sid become First. That was an odd twist at Sid's heart, but he kept his face still. Useless, because Halen could 'hear' his heart, but he had to maintain the image. "I already am myself."

"I know," Halen signed. "I know."

---

Sid felt like he had visited Byforest Station a hundred times at this point. It was all so familiar and unchanged. They were very, very lucky that the Neutron Star was making a swing through this section of the Empire, at just the right time for Sid to go and pay it a visit. It cut his travel time down to the absolute bare minimum, and besides that, Byforest was a pleasant place to stay. Far better than some run down mining colony in the middle of nowhere.

The Neutron Star didn't usually come this direction, but apparently Banmei Olms had some business deals to work out with a new mining route, and this was a convenient middle ground for all parties. That was the pretense, anyway. Considering that Byforest was a central hub station, being relatively close to Emerri, it was also the perfect place for Olms to spread her little message. Sid was glad that he was here to stop it before it went too far.

He couldn't know exactly when the Neutron Star would be jumping in, but he had left a message on the station's computers to be delivered to the ship whenever it docked. One of his team would coordinate with the Neutron Star's crew and set up a meeting between himself and Olms. Sid was hopeful that Yuuni Olms's father, Banmei, would understand that this was Imperial business involving his daughter, and not insist on coming to the meeting. The finances of his ship were of no consequence to Sid, and had nothing to do with what he was talking to Yuuni about, but it was Banmei's right as the captain to decide which meetings his crew attended, especially those concerning his own daughter. Sid had to wonder what their relationship was like. He thought about it a little bit too much, because thinking about the lives of spacers brought him perilously close to thinking about Yan, a subject which he wanted to avoid.

It didn't end up taking more than a few days of waiting. Sid kept himself busy by hooking up his computer to the ansible (a rare privilege) and getting as much work done as possible. It was intensely boring, and when he found himself getting too bogged down, he annoyed Halen or Hernan into going on a walk around the station with him, and admiring their big installed forest.

Sid was almost surprised at how pleasant it was to spend time with Halen. Though the man often looked at him oddly, as though he was not seeing Sid but some kind of reflected image of someone else (Sandreas? Yan? Kino? Some stranger?), he was an entertaining enough conversationalist, and his sign was getting better every day. Sid had known that Halen was an intelligent man-- after all, he had managed to build a stardrive as a kid, from just an example, and he was Sandreas's right hand man and constant advisor-- but seeing him pick apart sign into its component pieces and reassemble it into something approaching a conversational level was interesting to watch in real time. He remembered, with almost perfect recall, every sign that Sid made, and could often figure new ones out from context, without Sid needing to fingerspell or explain verbally. Sid took a little bit of pleasure in teasing Halen by dropping new signs in wherever he could fit them, as just a tiny bit of payback for the brutal lessons that Halen put him through. Those hadn't stopped, but there was very limited space for private practice aboard the station, so they practiced in Sid's room, where Sid learned fine control, directing Halen's fingers and eyes.

It was almost a nice vacation.

When Yuuni Olms finally did appear, she agreed to meet Sid in a conference room that he had reserved aboard the station.

"Can you wait out here?" Sid signed to Halen. "Don't want to make this awkward."

"You trust her not to do anything?"

"Yes. And I can take care of myself."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Halen signed. But he agreed to wait outside.

Sid saw Olms approaching before she saw him. The station's corridors, with their massively wide spinning rings, were somewhat confusing, so Sid watched as Yuuni consulted a map on the wall to figure out where she was in relationship to the agreed upon meeting place. Halen nudged Sid in the shoulder, and sent him a message in the power. It was clearer than Sid would have expected.

"You should call her over. Don't let her embarrass herself."

Sid rolled his eyes. He didn't think it was that embarrassing, but he complied, though he wasn't sure how exactly to address her. She wasn't an apprentice anymore, but they were, as Sandreas had said, too close to peers for it to feel right calling her Ms., and too distant of acquaintances for him to address her by her first name. Usually, he wouldn't have cared about such things, but he didn't want to make too bad of an impression, not when he was alone with no backup from the other former apprentices, and when he really needed something from Olms.

"Olms! Over here!" He decided to go with just the last name, which was simple enough. She looked up and smiled, visible even so far down the hallway that she was almost disappearing into the curve. She jogged over, long legs taking the curve of the hallway in stride. She was dressed in the uniform of her family's ship. When she had attended Yan's funeral, she had worn her cassock, but here on Byforest was spacer turf, so Sid wasn't exactly surprised to see her in a jumpsuit.

"It's good to see you again, Apprentice Welslak," Olms said, reaching out her hand to shake.

"It's just Sid," he said with a smile. "Glad to see you as well. Will you come in?"

Olms nodded to Halen, and slipped inside the conference room. Sid shut the door behind them. "I feel like I'm a popular person around the Empire these days," Olms said. "More popular than I ever was when I was Ungarti's apprentice."

"You certainly have been making your rounds," Sid said, pulling out a chair. Olms sat down across from him. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since the funeral."

"I've been alright. Keeping myself busy," she said. "Your hair is getting long. Never thought I'd see you grow it out."

Sid smoothed down his thick hair, growing in dark and somewhat uneven at the top of his head. "Yeah. It just reminded me too much of my trip to Olar to keep it shaved."

"That feels like a hundred lifetimes ago, for the both of us."

"A lot has happened."

"Are you holding up?" Olms asked. "I understand that Yan's passing must have hit you hard."

"I'll survive," Sid muttered. "I try not to think about it too much." There was a pause as Olms studied him, clearly considering what she was about to say. It was clear from her posture that she knew exactly what this conversation was about, but Sid thought that she was probably judging how quickly she wanted to broach the subject.

"I've been thinking about Ungarti's death a lot recently," Olms said.

"Really?"

"Yes," Olms said.

"What have you been thinking about it?"

Olms leaned forward, placing her long arms on the table, staring intently at Sid. "I think that an autopsy should have been done."

"I would have said the same thing, but the past is in the past," Sid said. "Don't spacers hate autopsies?"

"It's desecration of the body," Olms said. "But I think that Ungarti and God would have allowed it to discover who killed him."

So, she knew about that. Sid looked back at her, silent for a second, then leaned back in his seat. "What makes you say that?"

"I talked to Marne Vaneik."

Now, that was a slightly unexpected turn. Sid would have thought that she came to her conclusion simply by watching Thule's behavior. Olms had plenty of reasons to scrutinize him thoroughly, and though he was careful, he was bound to slip up at some point.

"And what did she say?"

"I had to corner her," Olms said.

"I hope there was nothing illegal or untoward that happened," Sid said dryly.

"We used to be quite close, you know. I liked her. Spent a lot of time on her family's ship."

"I can understand that. I would assume from the way you said you had to corner her that you are no longer close."

"I had thought that having me around reminded her too much of Ungarti," Olms said. "I could understand, and so I kept my distance. But when she had no problem with Nomar coming and going from her family's ship, that was when I started to get suspicious."

"Suspicious of who, exactly? Aren't Thule and Wil Vaneik good friends."

Olms laughed and slapped the table. "Nomar hates Wil," Olms said. "Always has, always will."

"It doesn't look that way from the outside."

"Nomar is intensely good at sucking up in order to worm his way into people's favor," Olms said. "That's a compliment, by the way. People tend to trust him. Worthwhile quality in a leader."

"And you're not?"

"I take after my father," Olms said. "If I were in charge, I'd waste less time on pleasantries."

"Perhaps that's why you weren't elected."

Olms shook her head, waved her hand through the air indifferently. "I knew that wasn't going to happen without some sort of miracle," she said. "People wouldn't trust me even if I wasn't so direct. I'm an Imperial stooge, you see." She smiled at Sid.

"Sure, sure." Sid tried to bring the conversation back to the real issue. "So, what did Marne Vaneik say?"

"She gave me some very, very interesting information."

"Which was?"

"A letter that Ungarti had written to my father. It never reached him, of course."

Sid raised his eyebrows. "Why was Ungarti writing to your father?"

Olms's smile was bitter as coffee. "He was endeavoring to see if my father would try to take advantage, were Ungarti to recommend that I be his successor as leader of the Guild."

Sid bit his tongue, both surprised by the news that Yuuni was the real candidate for Guild succession after all, and by the implication that Ungarti's wife had something to do with his murder. "Are you saying that Marne killed her husband?"

Olms shook her head. "No."

"Then who are you saying did?"

"She told her son the bad news. Tried to have an adult conversation about it. Ungarti would have probably talked to him eventually, once he had made up his mind for real, but Wil is such a fucking baby--" Her hand was a fist on the table. "Anyway, he knew."

"And?"

"You don't have to play dumb with me," Olms said. "I know you know."

"Know what?"

"Nomar killed Ungarti!" Olms said. The words crawled across Sid's glasses at their normal pace, but her face was flushed.

"What makes you think that I knew that?"

Olms folded her arms across her chest. "I've seen the way that you talk about Nomar. They way First Sandreas talks about him. Oh, he's fine on the news, but we've spoken in person. I can see it in your eyes."

"Me making a face is not evidence," Sid said.

"Don't play dumb. It makes you look bad."

"And why should I admit it to you, even if I did know?"

"Because it's stupid to pretend, at this point," Olms said. "I'm going to continue acting as though you did know, and have known this whole time, because I know it."

"Fine. Yes. I've known since the funeral."

"How did you find out?"

"I wasn't there. Sandreas told me about it." Sid shrugged. "There were more important things going on at the time."

"Fine," Olms said. She sounded as though she didn't really believe Sid, but he wasn't actually lying. At the time he had been far, far more concerned with Yan's disappearance. How odd and sad it was that once again they were treading over the subject of Vaneik's death, and once again Yan was gone, this time definitely for good. "And so you decided to do nothing?"

"I believe the rationale was that it was better not to risk completely destabilizing the Guild. Nomar had gone out of his way to make it look like a natural illness. I was told he had waited until half the crew of Vaneik's ship was sick with some sort of groundside illness."

Olms nodded. "Not typically a fatal one."

"It is fatal when you're older, and already in poor health," Sid said. "If it had looked even slightly more suspicious, probably someone would have investigated immediately. But we have copies of the medical records, and..." Sid trailed off, letting Olms complete the thought silently.

"I will politely ignore the fact that you were accessing confidential data aboard a private Guild ship."

Sid laughed. "You already know. You made sure to speak to people in such a way that we would find out."

"I'm not going to admit to that," Olms said. "But it's good that you're here, so that I can hear the Empire's side of things."

Sid laid his palms flat on the table. "It is the Empire's position that the Guild's stability is top priority. We go out of our way to keep trade between planets as peaceful and free flowing as possible."

Olms raised an eyebrow.

"There is a reason we attempted to deal with your little ship problem quietly," Sid said. "I suppose I should thank you for the tip off on that one, by the way."

"Please don't thank me for things that I officially had nothing to do with, don't know about, and don't have any connection to," Olms said. "If I had known some vital piece of knowledge for the security of the Empire, I would have said it directly." She smiled at him.

"Of course, of course," Sid said. "Regardless, thank you for your cooperation and honesty. But I digress. We deal with things so that the Guild does not fall apart. If it did, a whole lot of planets would suddenly find themselves hurting for ores, and imported goods, and emergency relief when there are disasters. I would hate to throw the Imperial Council into a tizzy with something like that. So we want the Guild to continue as it always has."

"I believe it always has, up until this point, not been run by a murderer," Olms said. "Wouldn't it be best if Wil Vaneik and his puppetmaster were out of the picture?"

"Perhaps. In a few years. It's too soon, Yuuni," Sid said, using her first name as a bid to get her to listen.

"I get the distinct impression that if the Empire had its way, things would continue quietly until Nomar could be dealt with, and then it would be a relatively easy transition for someone with a tight Imperial connection to jump their way into Wil's good graces."

"How could you say such a cruel thing?" Sid asked with a smile. "The Empire wants nothing more than the peaceful self-determination of the Guild."

"And I want nothing more than a hot lunch," Olms said. "The point remains, the Empire will take far too long to make any move, and in that time,who knows what damage will be done to the whole fabric of the Guild. Our entire moral character is at stake."

"There are many, many rude things I could say to that," Sid said.

"Probably for the best if you don't."

"I know. I would just say that those who live in fragile starships should perhaps not aim their cannons so close."

"I want to get rid of Wil."

"And who do you suggest putting in his place?"

"I don't know," Olms said. "Almost anyone would be better."

"It won't be you, no matter how much you fish for it."

"I know that starship jumped a long time ago. I'm not mourning for things that could never be, and that I probably wouldn't want."

"If not you then who?"

"If not now then when?" Olms asked. "Look, I'd take almost anybody else. If we start this process now, we can see who the likely forerunners are and we can try to steer this in a way that is amenable to all of our interests."

"That is not the position of the Empire," Sid said.

"And what is the Empire's position?"

"The Guild should remain as it is for now. In a few years, we can reevaluate. But there's too much going on already. We don't want to stir this all up so soon after it was settled in the first place. It's just as likely to tear the Guild apart as it is to bring anyone to justice."

"I don't think so."

"There can't be any justice," Sid said. "There's no evidence you could bring, and it would be your word against theirs. It would look terrible to have you try to bring him down with a murder accusation."

"I wouldn't make that accusation," Olms said, her face very still. "No matter how much I want to. That secret can live with me. But I can't let things stand. Ungarti died for the idea that neither Nomar nor Wil should take power. He died for that. I want to respect his wishes."

"We already established that wouldn't be possible."

"This isn't about me!" Olms was angry now. "He decided that neither of them were fit, and so neither of them are fit! How hard is that for you to understand?"

Sid leaned back in his seat. For all Olms's temper, he wasn't afraid of her. He judged that he could probably take her in a fight, if he had to. But it definitely wasn't going to come to that. They both had come to the table understanding that they were going to make an agreement. That hadn't actually changed-- they just needed to work towards it with respect for the other's position.

"I understand," Sid said. "And I empathise with that. If something happened to Sandreas, God forbid, I would want to do everything in my power to uphold his wishes." The thought of something happening to Sandreas actually did make Sid a little sick. "But not now. You play your hand too soon, you let them entrench their power. I think you should spend some time growing your own standing, before you make this kind of move."

"I have my own standing. You wouldn't be here talking to me if I didn't."

"You'd have more with a ship to call your own. Get out from your father's shadow, and from Ungarti's."

Olms stared at him, the blood suddenly draining from her face. "You're here to bribe me?"

"I wouldn't put it in quite so crass of a term," Sid said. "But I am here to offer you a stardrive."

"It will look very, very bad if you give me a stardrive and I tell people to back out now."

"These things don't need to happen exactly simultaneously. And they can be made to look somewhat legitimate."

"How?"

"The Empire can commission a Guild ship to be built, for some specific purpose that is currently being under or unserved. I'm sure there's some colony somewhere that would prefer a more direct route to the central economy of the Empire. Bidding could be opened up on that, and your father could simply outbid the competition. Everyone knows that you have been wanting a starship of your own. It would make sense for him to put in the money for you to win. After all, it would only improve the Olms family fortune."

"It would still look bad."

"As soon as you had your own ship, it would not look nearly so suspicious for wider Guild politics to take a backseat in your priorities. You'd have more things to worry about, and if currying favor within the Guild leadership in order to increase your new ship's standing suddenly seemed more important than fomenting some sort of rebellion... Who could blame you?" Sid tried to sound lighthearted, but he wasn't sure if he managed that or was just shrill. Every time he tried to put specific inflections in his voice he was brought painfully back to his time at the Academy, where he had been taught to speak. It had been far less pleasant than Halen's lessons, even.

Olms stared down at the table. "And if I refuse?"

"Look, Yuuni, I don't want to be crass here," Sid said. "But if things go wrong with the Guild, the Empire will have to step in with a heavy hand. Nobody wants that. I promise you."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'm not threatening you. I'm just saying what you know is true."

Her chest heaved up and down in a heavy sigh. "You're killing me."

"I'm trying to offer you something you want, in exchange for a little bit of time. That's all I'm asking for."

"You know it's not that simple."

"It could be. It should be."

"How long do I have to think about it?"

"Take as much time as you need," Sid said. "Our timeline is only rushed if you decide to push this in the wrong direction."

"What will be the consequences if I take that other path?"

"The consequences for you?"

"Yes."

"For some reason, First Sandreas has a soft spot for you," Sid admitted. "There probably wouldn't be that much. But the Guild would suffer for it. I know you don't want that."

"First Sandreas is that soft?"

Sid thought about the way in which Yan had departed, and how Halen and Sandreas had clearly both failed to stop her. "Yes. He might not be. But I think that he would chalk your behavior up to reckless youth."

"I'm not so much of a youth anymore." At five years older than he was, Sid could see some of the wrinkles beginning to form at the corners of Yuuni's eyes. It wasn't a detractor from her face, just a signal that she was indeed a confident woman, and not a naive apprentice any more. She wasn't old, not really, but she definitely wasn't a child, or anything close to it. Seeing him study her face, she smiled.

"Compared to him, you are. But that's besides the point."

"What is the point, then?"

"The point is that I'm offering you something, and it would be stupid of you to refuse. The Empire isn't going to want this status quo forever. We just want things to get better at a pace that we can manage, to prevent things from falling apart completely."

"I know," Olms said. Her eyes flicked up to the ceiling for a moment as she thought. "Give me time. And I've already set this in motion. Don't think that it will stop on its own."

"It could," Sid said. "But I'm not expecting miracles, just cooperation."

"I'll think about it. Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

"I'm afraid I don't have very many personal reminiscences to share with you," Sid said. "We never really got a chance to become close."

"Maybe in the future we'll work together some more," Olms said. She paused, looked contemplative for a second. "May I ask you a question?"

"A personal one?"

"Maybe. It's not about you, though."

Sid tensed up, thinking for a moment that she was going to ask about Yan. He could just imagine Halen on the other side of the door feeling his momentary spike in anxiety and getting worried. "Go ahead."

"What happened to Apprentice Mejia's hand?" she asked.

The blood drained from Sid's face, and his heart rate spiked. To save face, he took a deep breath, to avoid answering for at least that long moment. Additionally, he used his power to hold the door shut, just in case Halen interpreted his panic as a reason to break in. His power did encounter Halen's own, then, but in the moment that their two powers touched, Halen must have understood why Sid was holding the door shut. After all, if he was preventing Halen from entering, he couldn't be in that much danger.

"You saw Kino?" Sid asked, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

"We were travelling through the same area," Olms said, looking very casual, though studying his face. Sid smiled a thin smile. "We had a little talk. Social stuff. Nothing important. I just was wondering what happened to her hand. It was... cut here. She didn't want to talk about it." Olms made a gesture across her left hand, indicating that several of Kino's fingers had been cut maybe just shallowly, though Sid knew that they had been cut off.

"It probably isn't my business to say, even if I did know. I hadn't heard of her getting hurt. It must have happened while she was with the Fleet," Sid lied.

She must have heard the catch in his voice. "No, it couldn't have been. Looked too healed for that."

"I don't know," Sid said. "I'm just surprised that you saw her. She's supposed to be with the Fleet. Exploring. Did she tell you where she was headed?"

"No, no," she said. "She said she was just passing through on her way to other business."

"Did you see anyone else with her?"

"Is something wrong with Apprentice Mejia?" Olms asked. "I'm sorry I brought it up."

"No, there's nothing wrong. I'm just surprised, because I hadn't heard from her. I thought she was out of contact range. If she was back in it, I would have hoped she'd send me an ansible message." Sid smiled, trying to appear genuine. "You know. Like friends are supposed to."

"I'm glad you consider her your friend," Olms said, interpreting Sid's words as genuine, since she smiled. "Nomar and I never got along."

"Yeah, I don't think we ever really thought of each other as rivals," Sid joked. "I'm in a class of my own." His attempt to lighten the mood, no matter how forced it felt to him, seemed to work.

"Well, if you see her soon, tell her I said hi," Olms said.

"Same here," Sid said. "Though if she was just passing through, I'm sure she won't be back in contact for a while."

"She's a mystery. It's a shame I never got to talk to her that much before. Seems like a sweet girl."

"Well, it's the sweet ones that you have to look out for."

"Ha, yeah. Well, if you don't have anything else..." Olms said.

"No, no, I'll let you get back to your family. I'm sure they can use a hand with whatever they're doing."

"Unloading cargo as always. Do you have a ride back to Emerri?"

"Yeah, in about a day."

"Excellent. I'll see you around then, Sid."

"Yeah. See you around."

Sid got up, they awkwardly shook hands, and he held the door open for her to leave. She smiled and nodded at Halen on her way out, and as soon as she wasn't looking, Sid shot Halen a somewhat desperate glance. When she had gone, Halen stepped inside the room.

"What happened?" Halen signed.

"I think we have bigger problems than just the Guild," Sid replied