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lost everything. I said I saw the cure for the chaos at the heart of
everything. What was that cure? What did I know? What did I become in that
hour, my self which I have now lost... ?"
Silence.
The clock said in a slow and simple tone: "Does this mean you won't be going
to the celebrations tomorrow?"
Helion did not answer.
The clock said, "Sir "
"Quiet. Leave me to the torment of my thoughts...."
"But, sir, you asked me to "
"Did I not command silence?!"
"Sir, you asked me to tell you whenever someone was approaching."
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"Approaching ... ?" Helion straightened on his throne, his eyes bright and
alert. Who could be here, on this last night before the Transcendence? With
one segment of his mind (which he could divide to perform many parallel tasks
at once) Helion sent a message to Descent Traffic Control, demanding an
explanation. But the Descent Sophotech was occupied with pre-Transcendence
business; only a limited partial mind was standing watch, a copy of one of
He-lion's squires of honor, Leukios. He replied, "No ship is approaching,
milord. She is docked." "Docked? How did a ship come to dock?" "By the normal
routine. I engaged the magnetohy-drodynamic field generators to create a
helmet streamer reaching up past the base corona, to create a zone of colder
plasma through which the vessel could (descend. I posted a report an hour ago.
Your seneschal refused to pass the message along, asserting that you had
instructed all servant systems to leave you in private"
With another segment of his mind he ran an identity check. Since the
Sophotechs were absent, he was not sure to whom he spoke, what type or level
of mind, nor what the voice symbols were supposed to indicate, but the answer
came back: "Helion, your guest is protected under the protocols of the
masquerade. Identification is not available."
"Tell me where this intruder is, at least?" "That is beyond the scope of my
duties." "Then switch me to your supervisor." "My supervisor is Helion of the
Silver-Gray, who is the only sapient being aboard the Array at this time----"
With a third segment of mind, simultaneously, he queried his Coryphaeus, a
partial mind tasked with counting and coordinating the motions of men and
an-imals throughout the unmeasured vastness of Solar Ar-ray habitat space.
Helion was old enough to remember
the days when police minds and watchman circuits were necessary to ensure that
people would not violate the property or privacy of another. His Coryphaeus
also had a security submind, dating from the late Sixth Era, one of the oldest
servants of the many in Helion's employ.
"Your visitor is now a hundred twenty-eight meters away from you, approaching
along the main axial corridor of the command section, Golden Elder Strand Zero
Center, Heliopolis Major."
"Here, in other words, within my private sanctum?"
"Yes, milord."
"Why was an intruder allowed to pass my doors? Why wasn't he stopped at the
outer atrium, at the inner gate, at the command doors, or at my privacy
doors?"
The Coryphaeus answered in its archaic accent: "By your instruction."
"My instruction... ? I told you all to guard my solitude."
"In the case where two orders contradict, I am to assent to the higher
priority. This order is of the highest class of priority I recognize. I shall
repeat the text."
Helion's own voice, blurred and faint as if from an ancient recording, came
then, and the words were in an older rhythm, with words and expressions Helion
had not used for four thousand years. He almost did not recognize the voice as
his own, so different was it from his present way of speaking: "... I tell
you, if ever when my best-loved friend should come again, whole or partial or
anysomeway that be, hale him within, and let him pass. Let pass all doors and
barri-cados, open firewalls, bridge delays, but bring him to me in all haste,
or any who presents himself as him: he has priority higher than anything else
I am doing or shall do hereafter, if only he will come again! If only he would
call! Let be admitted any who come under the name of Hyacinth-Subhelion
Septimus Gray. ..."
Then the Coryphaeus asked, "Those are your orders, eight thousand years old,
but never revoked. What are your orders now?"
Hyacinth-Subhelion Septimus Gray. It was the name of a dead man.
Helion said, "How can it be Hyacinth?"
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