Galactic Empires by Gardner Dozois Read Free Book Online

about that dance.”
    A sheepish Aidan shuffled out past Christabel, who did her best not to laugh at his schoolboyish delight.
    “Is he really your type?” Christabel asked.
    “I don’t have a type,” Paula said. “But he is an honest policeman. I value that.”
    Nelson looked at Christabel, then Paula. Took a breath. “Anyway… I’m also here to deliver my Dynasty’s thanks. We appreciate the effort involved in securing the verdict.”
    “You’re welcome,” Paula said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t use Fiech to uncover his co-conspirators, but that memory wipe was very efficient. There is nothing left of his life prior to his arrival in Sydney for that job. Until we finally arrest the entire Free Merioneth Forces, we’re not going to find out who he is.“
    “Was,” Christabel corrected.
    Nelson’s expression turned bitter. He made a show of closing the door. “That’s unlikely to happen. Not now.”
    “What do you mean?” Christabel asked.
    “Confidentially: my Dynasty, along with several others, has agreed that Merioneth will become an Isolated world.”
    Paula let out a hiss of exasperation. She’d suspected something like this would happen. The last few months, while they’d assembled the case against Dimitros Fiech, had seen the Free Merioneth campaign expand to alarming proportions. After the Nova Zealand plane, the movement had been steadily refining their operations, developing into more sophisticated assassins. The results were dramatic. Their targets were now dispatched with cool efficiency, and the number of collateral casualties was significantly reduced. In the last twelve attacks, thirty-nine Dynasty members had suffered complete bodyloss. The new generations were now running very scared, with few of them leaving their mansions on the private family worlds. “You gave in,” she said in frustration.
    “We couldn’t afford it,” Nelson said with equal chagrin. “The cost of providing upgraded security for every member of every Dynasty was completely unrealistic. Far beyond writing off the investment costs in Merioneth.”
    “There’s more at stake here than money,” an annoyed Christabel snapped.
    “I know that,” Nelson said. “Of course, it won’t appear to be any kind of climb down. We wouldn’t allow that. We negotiated the terms of Isolation with the new Nationalist Party that sprung up on Merioneth. The terrorists stop their attacks, and in a couple of years we close the wormhole. They’ll be on their own. Forever.”
    “It’ll come back to bite you,” Paula said. “You’ve shown your opponents a weakness. It can be used every time someone wants a concession out of a Dynasty.“
    “That was one of the reasons we agreed,” Nelson said.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “We don’t have other opponents, not in this category. The Intersolar Commonwealth is a relatively civilized place. Sure, we can all disagree with each other; politicians on half of the planets we’ve got aren’t speaking to the other half; but there’s only a tiny minority who want to leave, and an even smaller number who resort to violence to obtain their ends. This whole succession notion is ridiculous. An Isolated planet will never benefit from the advances the rest of us make. Their social and economic development will be stunted; hell, Merioneth will probably regress. When we announce that the wormhole is to be closed, we’re expecting a lot of Merioneth’s ordinary residents will rush back to the Commonwealth before Isolation begins. Our analysts have reviewed this; they’re not sure Merioneth will even be able to maintain basic rejuvenation technology levels, not in the short-to-medium term. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live there. Bodyloss will become death again.”
    “And the Dynasties consider that a big plus point,” Christabel reasoned. “Anyone who doesn’t like the Dynasties and what they represent will be free to emigrate to Merioneth.”
    “Then we slam the door