Herald of the Stars: Chapter Three Hundred and Eighteen

“That is a delightful change of pace,” I say. “Gratitude is the grease of civilization, one that no amount of sacred oils can replace.”

Ignato smirks and Marius laughs.

“Well, consider yourself well lubricated,” says Marius.

“Agreed,” says Ignato. “For men at our level though, that isn’t quite enough. Marius and I spent the hour before you arrived arguing about an appropriate gift. What does one get for a man who already has everything?”

Marius says, “Apart from a few Star Clippers. Alas, my auditors use those and the four I have are not enough as it is.”

“I wouldn’t wish to affect the smooth operation of your realm, Lord Calixis.”

“I’m sure,” says Marius, his tone giving nothing away. “In the end, we decided just to ask you. I’ve heard that you prefer to be direct and I will not have a favour hanging over my head. What will make your departure go a little swifter?”

“Oh, can scarce depart a system without leaving my stamp on it, but let’s set that aside for a moment and wait for my security team to finish killing all the spy teams trying to observe us from distant spires and silent drones.”

“My security is not so lax,” says Marius, “and I do not approve that you would denigrate them so.”

I sigh, and reach out with my telekinesis, pulling three tiny birds from the toxic clouds. Their stealth fails as I drag them to my hand and crush them in a spray of blood and metal. I snatch a bolt round from the air, right in front of Marius’ skull. The tiny gyrojets hiss with fury and I pop the round between my fingers.

A distant boom of a sniper reaches us two seconds later.

“Even now, the man in the pit still causes trouble with his unfounded contingencies," I say. “What a waste of a perfectly good assassin. I know that blaming the governor is a classic staple in the Inquisition's play book, but this is terribly transparent. Sowing discord like that? Let’s label him a Chaos Cultist while we’re at it. I am sure we can make the charges stick.”

Marius reaches for his tea cup, his hand trembling slightly. “Those are some fine reactions you have there, Magos.”

“I dare say not even an Astartes could manage such a feat!” says Ignato.

“They have no need for it,” I shrug. “Their armour is enough. Still, I suppose that makes for two favours now, does it not?”

“Are our observers sufficiently chastised?” says Ingnato.

I say, “They won’t trouble us for a few hours.”

“Good. Thank you, Magos. How on Terra did they shoot through the shield?” says Marius.

“A speciality round of the Vindicare Temple. It is in your best interest to never mention such a thing.”

“Noted,” says Marius.

“Before we get to what I want, I need to share a little information that my crews have uncovered. The Inquisition has a lot of excellent maps, one of which revealed a rogue planet expunged from Calixis’ official astrological data. This rogue planet is six light years from the Lathes. The Inquisition has an observation post on it, one that reported in eight months ago. The planet and the post have obtuse names filled with meaningless numbers, so I will refer to them collectively as Lathe Watch.

“Lathe Watch’s passive augur has reported significant weapons fire at the Lathes. Repeated firing of defensive platforms and multiple fleet engagements. So goes the Lathes, goes Calixis, as the truism spouted by my proud brethren declares. It is not without merit, thus my first request is that Lord Calixis orders a readiness report for Calixis in preparation for a mobilisation of the sector, just in case.”

“Another thing the Inquisition dared to hide from me,” mutters Marius. “Magos Issengrund, this is my job, not a favour.”

“The Adeptus Mechanicus are a fractious lot,” I say. “Perhaps the Divine Light of Solex finally completed their super weapon project and did something stupid with it. Maybe some fool is trying to purge the Techsorcists, despite them being the premier experts on Warp Drives and Geller Fields, just because they don’t like people studying arcanotech. Maybe the Tenninites repaired an ancient Machine-Spirit that should have been left alone.

“Lord Calixis, the point of my ramblings is that there is a significant possibility that whatever is going on in the Lathes is not necessarily your problem, even with the Warp Storm being rather suspicious. Hence the favour. Audits are expensive. 

“However, if an external enemy has come to their shores, the Lathes will require your aid. Aid that would be best sent from Lathe Watch at sub-light speed so that it does not turn up at the other side of the galaxy, sometime last millennium.”

Marius chuckles, “Yes, I do see your point. With a delay from using sub-light travel, it would be best to be ready and have everything in order. The void ships would also require a different set of supplies. My fellow governors are not as proactive as I and even a good prodding will do little more than make them roll over and beg for more. You are asking me to spend a lot of political capital on what might be a wild grox chase.”

“Just so,” I say.

“You would not request this if you did not have your suspicions,” says Ignato. “Magos Issengrund, what do you fear?”

“The Emperor sent me a vision of six Black Crusades, while three of His own set out from Terra. No matter what is going on, trouble will come to Calixis sooner or later and I would not have my new friends be caught flat footed. A vision, however, is not proof and without proof, a favour must be spent.”

“My new friend has the right of it,” says Marius. “Such an attitude is one I can respect.”

The butler enters, pushing a trolley. He doesn’t comment on the blood and twisted metal tossed in the corner of the balcony, or Marius’ pale complexion. Instead he wheels the trolley next to me, and rather than serve the contents, immediately exits without a word.

Ignato says, “I would be delighted to call you my friend, Magos Issengrund.”

“Aldrich, what else would you request from me?” says Marius.

“Two tasks,” I say. “The first is to pass and enforce legislation that prohibits the polluting of Scintilla. The second is to permit and endorse the presence of the Stellar Bank on Scintilla.”

“I can pass the legislation, though there would be little point to it,” says Marius. “Enforcing it would be near impossible. You did not suggest such a thing without being aware, so the solution lies in your bank, yes?”

“Yes Marius, it does. There are a lot of things I could do at this juncture. I could present data that shows how you would benefit from restoring the biosphere, but we both know I could make numbers say whatever I want and it would be of little help.”

“I quite agree,” says Marius. He leans back in his chair and nibbles on a slice of fruit, seemingly recovered from his close brush with death.

He hasn’t in the slightest and his mind is boiling with a rage so intense that were it not for Raphael’s offer to take in new Inquisitors, I’ve no doubt he’d already have mustered the whole planet to flatten the Tricorn Palace, followed by a campaign to wipe the Inquisition from the sector.

I face Ingnato and say, “I could also argue that environmentalism is the greatest act of worship the Imperial Cult can pursue; people with good health cannot be led astray so easily by false cults dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. They do not seek to drown their misery in pleasure or violence, and they do not seek change when they are content.”

Cardinal Ignato stares at me, his face blank, “That is not a proposal I have heard before. Our worlds are as they are, because they must be so, not because we wish to wallow in filth.”

I smile, then turn back to Marius, “I could also point out that despite being on a planet, Hive Sibellus pays many more times more energy per person on its food, air, and water that I do on a void ship, even after ignoring the cost of moving resources around a larger area. This is ridiculous and inefficient.”

Marius sighs.

“Yes, your current industries are cheaper to run as they are,” I say, “but it's like robbing your future to pay for the present. The public data available from your own office Marius, when plugged into the appropriate simulator, show that if nothing changes, Scintilla and every Hive on it will be a dead husk in four, maybe five millennia. Given your youth and our new friendship, the one who will be watching all they have created collapse around them will be you.”

“I am aware of the trends,” Marius purses his lips. “The Tithe is killing us and Terra cares not. They’ll just move Calixis’ Crown World to its next victim. You wish to restore the environment to increase our GDP, improve tax revenues, and raise the standard of living. I can see the logic and would have done so myself were it possible. You wish to invest in Scintilla with your bank and profit? You have a way to shake off the Tithe?”

“Not quite, nor would I dare be so bold. What I do have is a system to monitor discrepancies from multiple angles, revealing corruption and the flouting of regulations.”

Marius crosses one leg over the other and drums his fingers against his knee, his brow creased in a deep frown.

“That sounds too good to be true,” says Ignato.

“No, I can see it,” says Marius. “I am aware of your wife’s energy based currency, Aldrich. One can hide Throne Gelts and move them in boxes in the dead of night, or obscure them behind hundreds of transactions and false registrations. 

“One can even deceive sensors and disguise the heat generated in manufacture as well. However, heat spreads and is pumped into public exhausts. Corrupt owners can trick every record for their own manufacture but the surrounding manufactorums would notice. 

“In addition, the discrepancy within the central ventilation, which is controlled by the Mechanicus to prevent everyone from boiling or suffocating, is not something to mess with or one’s factory become inoperable. Even if an owner tried, they’d have to bribe millions of workers, which is impractical. How am I doing so far?”

I say, “Please continue Marius, this is a novel experience for me.”

Marius clears his throat, “To round it all off, when your money is energy and you try to falsify it, chances are the lights go out. Rather than solely relying on accounting, one can compare heat, energy use, and currency records. Triple entry bookkeeping, if you will. If a manufactorum isn’t using the exact amount of energy expected for their quantity of products and heat generated, you know that they’re dumping their waste, or have some other hidden agenda.

“Link everything together and I could sit on this balcony with a dataslate and view the entirety of Hive Sibellus on a single screen. Trends revealed in seconds, rather than years. That’s what you’re after, Aldrich. Data. Data that you can sell to every merchant house and they have to pay or they'll be left flat footed and crushed by their rivals.”

I clap my hands a few times in polite applause and take care to make my tone warm, not condescending. “Normally I’m the one giving the explanation. Well done Marius.”

Marius says, “You can’t save us from the Tithe, but you can stop us all from choking to death on our own effluent. All I’d have to do is sign over energy production from one Mechanicus faction to another. You wouldn’t do that though, would you? That would piss everyone off and cause a security crisis. You’ll just give the Mechanicus enclave a share of your bank. Ignotus and I too? Yes, that's the best play here. Keep everyone invested and interested in your way of doing things.”

“I don’t have to say anything, do I?” I sip my tea, thoroughly bemused.

“That leaves the shipyard as your last loose end, one that you purchased outright two years ago. A production facility that can no doubt churn out fusion reactors, I shall add. What else do you have planned?”

“An orbital ring of lux panels,” I say. “The power can be beamed down to wherever you need it on the planet. With the right receiver, atmospheric scrubbers and water purifiers can be placed without having to put in extensive infrastructure planetside. These facilities can be moved around on macro-crawlers as needed, once an area is clean. If someone takes them over and tries to reverse the process, or steal the means to produce all the dangerous chemicals and heavy metals that will be recovered, we can cut the power.”

“That certainly sounds efficient!” says Ignato.

I continue, “Once the environment is restored, especially the ocean, Scintilla won’t have to keep importing oxygen, and can turn most of the planet towards food production, especially aquaculture and silviculture. I happen to have some of the few surviving nalwood seeds remaining in the galaxy and the genetic database of Terra’s ancient oceans. It would be a shame if they went to waste.”

Marius sits bolt upright, spilling his hot drink in his lap, “Frack!”