Free The City of the Sun by Brian Stableford

individual nations that putting money into such a scheme would be worthwhile.
    “Even for a disaster,” said Nathan, rambling on for the sake of talking, “you can work up a pretty good story. You can tell a tale of heroism and struggle against great odds, and you can put in a lot of soul-stirring stuff about conquering the star worlds even in the face of huge odds. But for something like this, you can’t do a thing. It makes up its own formula. Pure horror story. Scare sensationalism. Even without the devil’s advocate this would be one hell of a voice against us.”
    “What devil’s advocate?” I asked.
    “I don’t know who it is, of course,” said Nathan, “but there must be one. Surely you realized that? This mission makes no pretense to be an unbiased fact-finding mission. I’m here to try and gather ammunition for a war of ideas—to try and give Pietrasante what he needs to remount the colony program. It doesn’t make sense that the opposition wouldn’t put a man—or woman—in to prepare a different case.”
    “But how would they get him past Pietrasante?” I asked. The idea really was new to me. I just hadn’t ever thought of it before.
    “They wouldn’t have to,” said Nathan. “Pietrasante would be forced to agree. You know how committees work, Alex. Balance and compromise.... Always have the cake and eat it too.... Never decide one way or the other if you can have both. He knows there’s a member of the opposition aboard, but to him that’s a fairly ordinary fact of life.”
    “Who is it?” I asked.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “And I don’t suppose Mariel’s telling.”
    You can’t keep secrets from a mind-reader. You just have to rely on the mind-reader to keep them for you. And, of course, she would. No mind-reader could possibly get along in life without a lot of discretion. The Daedalus was a smooth-running ship now—we’d all got used to having Mariel aboard. But that smooth running was dependent on Mariel’s integrity. If we so much as suspected that anything she inadvertently picked up from any of us might become common property....
    I didn’t insult her by asking her who the devil’s advocate was. Now I looked at the situation coldly, it didn’t really matter. It made no difference at all.
    Somewhere inside me, I felt the fear that had gripped me—the fear of the parasite, that is—ebbing slightly as the new anxiety arose. Even if we got away...the mission was dead. What we’d already accomplished was real enough, but the greater purpose...the thing that really mattered, at least to me, was lost.
    Barring miracles.
    I closed my eyes deliberately, trying to pretend even to myself that sleep might be possible. But I knew that even if I could sleep I wouldn’t have pleasant dreams.

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    We didn’t see or hear the Servants returning to the pyramid, but when we were finally ushered downstairs again there were eight of them waiting in the large hall. The Ego was there, too. It was official pronouncement time.
    I had a lump in my throat as I waited for him to begin his speech.
    It cleared rapidly, and I felt a tide of relief unexpected in its intensity, before he was halfway through. It returned, alas, before he finished.
    “It has been decided,” he said, “that you may stay here. We think it is a good thing that you should study us and try to understand the way that we live. We doubt that there is any help that you can offer us, but if we should discover grounds for cooperation then we will be pleased to accept your assistance.
    “There are, however, certain conditions which we must attach to this decision. We feel that it is vital for both the Nation and yourselves that the understanding which you gain of what has happened and is happening on Arcadia should be complete and accurate. We offer you twenty days to make preliminary observations, but in doing so you must not harm any creature which is augmented by the black companion which you have