Free The Ordinary by Jim Grimsley Page A

of people, stands out again.”
    â€œNow I suspect you’re flattering me.”
    â€œNo, I’m not. In fact, I think this could all be rather dangerous for you. It was what destroyed your friend. Why he could not return.”
    Her heart was pounding. She knew which friend he meant. Two of the seven delegates had now mentioned Opit. She was Hormling, she understood that coincidence could not explain this. Two of seven members of one of the most important delegations in recent history.
    Or a Minister might know him, and that would be worse. This is the end of the well-known joke. She might even know a Minister, or a Minister might know her, and that would be worse.
    â€œDon’t be frightened,” said Vitter, watching with that steady gaze. “I’m not telling you this because I plan to turn you over to Tuk An’s staff.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, Opit was destroyed?” she asked. “Why do so many people know about him?”
    â€œWe’ll need to continue this conversation at more length, later.” Vitter gestured toward Tarma, who had entered with the consul and was preparing to speak. “But the short answer is, he had learned so much about the Erejhen that the Orminy were considering putting him on-link permanently, so that others could have access to his mind.”
    He turned and walked away from Jedda with such a sour look on his face you would have thought they had been arguing, and Jedda understood when she found Tarma looking at them both.
    The gaze moved elsewhere and Tarma seated herself, took a breath, and began. “Fimmin Merekethe and I have been speaking about the situation in which we currently find ourselves. There have been some complications, and since we have no stat capability at the moment, I’m simply going to tell you what we know.”
    Fimmin had his hands behind his back. Himmer appeared then, standing as far to the side of Tarma as he dared.
    â€œThe Orminy has taken our situation here quite seriously, and is sending a naval battle group with full support vessels and air cover. The arrival has been timed to coincide with my return to Evess. This action has been undertaken in order to bring our relations with Irion into a more acceptable status. It is unwise of the strong to behave weakly, as Craken wrote, and this is what we Hormling have been doing in our relations with the people of Irion. We have been behaving as the weak when we are the strong. For twenty years we have studied these people and traded with them in hopes that they might benefit from our knowledge; but in all that time we have been met with no better than primitive superstition of a type with which we have no experience in all our history. Our people have urgent need for the resources and the open land that are to be found here, in order to defeat a much more powerful enemy, and to bring an end to this war with the machines, who are the true danger to us. We cannot win the Metal War when have nearly exhausted every resource we can find for ourselves or expect to find for our children. So we see the opening of this gate, and the opportunity represented by this new and unlooked-for territory, as a sign from God that we are still favored in his sight.”
    She was understandably vague on which God she meant, naturally.
    â€œWe do not intend to cause any harm to the people of Irion, and we have informed our Anin emissaries of this fact. I have been in contact with our warships by local wave, which is still operating, and can tell you that they have the following orders from the Orminy Council. Our warships will enter the bay and our troops will come ashore and occupy Evess. This force will include the 43rd battle group from the continental embargo force along with two air flights, the 93rd and the 112th, returned to Senal from the battle to retake Choss. Another battle group will move behind them and will embargo the city of Charnos and troops will occupy that city as