Karl Schroeder by Permanence

Author:Permanence
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-12-11T10:46:50+00:00

"That's right," said Evan. "Unless Linda Ophir told the rebels about the Envy ."

"And they planted a spy on board," finished Rebecca.

Rue shrugged. "I bet she did and I bet there is one," she said. "But how does that connect with the faked photos? And it still doesn't explain to me why Crisler is here and not waiting in High Space for us to send him information about the homeworld by message laser."

Rebecca passed some bulbs of coffee around. "Thanks," said Mike. "I… Rue, you think the missing writing tells where the Envy came from?"

She nodded. "It might. In which case, Crisler already knows… but then why not go straight there?"

"Unless it was Linda who faked the photos? Or the rebel?"

"This is getting us nowhere," laughed Rebecca. "No, I don't think the missing writing is about the homeworld. But you guys are going to bust a blood vessel trying to figure what it is. Why not wait until tomorrow?"

"So true," Rue agreed with a laugh. "We're just getting ourselves worked up."

They drank their coffee and the discussion drifted from topic to topic, though it always returned to Crisler and the sabotage. Rue liked having someone outside her tiny crew to talk to— Michael Bequith wasn't so stuck up as the rest of the scientific team. She supposed he wasn't on the career treadmill like so many of his colleagues on the Banshee . At least, not on the same one.

That reminded her of something. "Oh!"

They looked at her.

"You told me to ask you about NeoShintoism sometime," she said to him. "So… I'm asking."

Mike didn't look happy at the question for some reason. Maybe he'd been getting a lot of the same inquiries lately. "NeoShinto is simply a system for summoning and contemplating kami," he said.

Well, that sure explained it. "Kami?" she pressed. "Who're they?"

"Spirits of a place," said Evan. "Right?"

Mike nodded.

"Oh." It sounded a bit cultish.

"There's nothing metaphysical about it," Mike said quickly. He described a truly frightening set of neural implants he'd gotten when younger; having some bizarre AI altering your consciousness went way beyond any of the control mods Jentry had tried. Rebecca listened with particular (doubtless clinical) interest.

"…So I can record the stimulation pattern for this vision and literally e-mail it into the galactic inscape network. You see, it's a technology, not a mythology. NeoShinto is a branch of Permanence, which is a nonmetaphysical religion, like Buddhism would be if it stayed purely methodological and didn't keep Page 144

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