Halo: Broken Circle by John Shirley;

Author:John Shirley;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2014-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

“Cresanda,” Mken said in relief as she came into the front room of their living quarters. She wore a blossom-filigreed antigrav belt over her robe; she rarely used a chair. Mken was standing by his own antigrav chair, one hand on it, breathing hard. He’d been doing knee bends, holding on to the chair—he was still thinking about how weak he’d felt, physically, in the gravitational field of the San’Shyuum homeworld.

Cresanda looked at him wryly. “You have been exercising again.” She took off her wrap and hung it on a peg. She had worn her maternal wrap, not because she was pregnant—there was a special shawl for that—but because as a wedded San’Shyuum female guiding young unmarried females, she had a proper appearance to keep up. She’d been assigned to help the young, would-be brides from Janjur Qom in adjusting to their new life on High Charity.

Mken slipped into his chair and puffed out his cheeks. “Enough for today. How are the new females, Lilumna and the others?”

“They’ve resigned themselves to staying—and marrying here.”

“ ‘Resigned themselves’ sounds less than enthusiastic.”

“There is a certain homesickness. But they’re also excited, and quite bedazzled by this place.”

“Have they met anyone?”

“They’ve only been here a handful of days, my darling.” She came to stand near him, putting her arm around his neck. “Of course, they have possible suitors—but have only seen them on the promenade. That kind of thing. They were a bit appalled by the physical aspect of some of our males. I take it the Janjur Qom males are rather burlier and straighter in posture. But they enjoy the courtesy, the gentleness of the males they’ve met. I think it will be all right.”

“Hmm. If Excellent has his way, some laboratory form of procreation might be considered.”

“His ideas are always in repugnantly bad taste.”

“Yes. I find his latest one regarding me to be especially in bad taste.”

“Are they really going to make you lead that expedition? You’ve only been back so short a time—you nearly got killed twice on the last one. And that was the homeworld!”

“Oddly enough, the homeworld is one of the most dangerous places I’ve ever visited. But yes—it has just been confirmed. Excellent has convinced the other Hierarchs I am to be the Prophet in charge of the expedition because, as he says, I ‘allowed Ussa ‘Xellus to get away’ long ago and now I must atone. He is hoping I’ll get killed out there. He knows I suspect he was behind Vervum’s attempt to assassinate me. That is—he was behind R’Noh’s little plot. One puppeteer puppeteering another. Yes, Cresanda.” He sighed. “You see, a certain Sangheili, one Salus ‘Crolon, has been captured in a vessel associated with Ussa ‘Xellus. He has gallantly offered to show us where this mysterious Forerunner world lies—not that we need his help. The information is in that vessel’s records. But ‘Crolon may be useful yet . . .”

“You are going to this place?’

“I am—when we assemble the fleet. Very soon, with a sizable force.

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