Free In the Hall of the Martian King by John Barnes Page B

grasp that and the universe is yours.” In a way he wished they had stayed. Jak did not need forty minutes
     before his next meeting to nervously arrange chairs—
    His purse said, “High priority message from a high priority source.”
    “Screen it.”
    “From Myxenna Bonxiao, coded channels, and it came from
von Luckner.
Eyes only.”
    Von Luckner
was a
Ranger
-class raider; raiders were the fastest ships in the Spatial and
Ranger
-class were the fastest, most modern raiders. A Hive Intel agent aboard one was hardly unusual, but Myxenna was also one of
     Jak’s best and oldest toves, and for her to call him from
von Luckner
meant it was at least semi-official business.
    “Can you do eyes-only protocol here?”
    “It will take three extra minutes for bugsweeping.”
    “Then do it.”
    The door to the room contracted, the locks activated with a synchronous thud, and the windows opaqued. White noise roared
     through the speakers. That must be some side effect of his purse attacking and defeating listening devices.
    The screen flickered to life. “Hi Jak.” Myxenna Bonxiao had blue stars within her green irises, thick dark hair, freakishly
     pale skin, big high breasts, trim little waist, tight round buttocks, and beautiful legs. Any reasonably hetero male had a
     hard time looking away from her. She was also one of the smartest people Jak had ever met, both book-smart and people-smart
     and able to use the two together.
    “Jak, I’m on
von Luckner
because it’s delivering me to Mars, as quickly as it can. The Hive is still four months back from its next opposition with
     Mars, so even at
von Luckner
’s top speed, it’s going to take about ten days for me to get to you. When next you see me, I’ll have the happy expression
     of a girl who’s been mashed by nine g, one hour out of every six, for more than a week, with full grav in between.
    “My job is to secure the lifelog if you haven’t. So if you’re going to grab that thing and save Clarbo Waynong’s career, you’ve
     got ten days, and it won’t be easy. Did you know him in the PSA? He was two years ahead of us and always asking me out. For
     every course he ever passed, his family had to create a scholarship, donate a research grant, or buy the athletics program
     a new toy. He has a major self-confidence problem—he has
major
self-confidence and that’s a problem. When Caccitepe heard who would be assigned to retrieve the lifelog, he turned gray
     and started shouting, and when he was done shouting I had this mission.
    “Oh, and Clarbo is Patridiot to the bone, too, so the people he listens to most pride themselves on being as dumb as their
     genes will let them and as ignorant as possible.
    “Something else you should know about—I mentioned that the Hive is four months from opposition with Mars. That means Earth
     is two, and since the Aerie is two months ahead of Earth in orbit, they’re nearly
at
opposition.”
    At the unexpected mention of the Aerie, where Green-world was (and therefore where Princess Shyf was) Jak was distracted by
     the surge in his heart and the cold rolling over of his intestines. He told his purse “back her message up to where she mentions
     the Aerie, then continue.”
    After half a second of silence and a white screen, Myxenna resumed. “—the Aerie is two months ahead of Earth in orbit, they’re
     nearly
at
opposition. Ten hours ago Hive Intelligence agents reported that Princess Shyf of Greenworld, her security chief—that’s Kawib
     Presgano, poor devil, I’m sure you remember him—and fifteen other people from Greenworld’s defense and national security establishments
     had cleared their calendars for the next month. Eight hours ago—there were leave cancellations all through Greenworld’s Spatial.
     And less than two hours ago, Green-world’s only battlesphere, the
Rufus Karrinynya,
departed from the Aerie, destination unspecified. It’s a superannuated Hive battlesphere, it was originally