Hellfire (THEIRS NOT TO REASON WHY) Read Free Page B

meddle with her fellow sentients’ lives. They did not like it when the pawns in their great Game started playing by different rules, and they
really
didn’t like it when a pawn ousted a player.
    Sometimes their interference was for a Right of Breeding, which was how Ia herself had come into existence. Such things infused most of the known sentient races with psychic abilities. Sometimes their interference was less direct; the Meddlers could manipulate the thoughts of their targets via telepathy, create complex hallucinations via a combination of holokinesis and clairvoyancy, even physically change a person through massive biokinesis. Most of the reasons
why
they did such things gave Ia a headache trying to figure them out.
    As much as she wanted to avoid crossing factions with the Feyori, her own stupid lack of foresight almost two weeks ago had dumped this problem into her lap.
Which means almost half my roster is now rendered void and useless. This purple-Meddler looks like he will have picked up…twelve, thirteen…fifteen or so major faction-groups to help counterfaction myefforts by the time I’ll need
all
the Feyori to swear faction to me. Slag…
    She quickly checked the chronology of the timelines.
It seems he’s quite clever, too. His first real interference-node will happen six Terran years and one Terran day
after
I bartered with that “Doctor Silverstone” Feyori for a Right of Simmerings. And it won’t be anywhere near where I am, so it’ll be difficult for me to counter it face-to-face. Most of these slubs are truly subtle interferences, probably just telepathic suggestions…but they are enough to throw off the weft and warp of the pathways I need. Which means it’s time to rewrite the whole roster…and…ah, hell. I’ll need…
    Ugh. I’ll probably need to accept Belini’s offer to faction me in exchange for far-ranging prophecies. The Meddlers can see a little way into Time, and that means I have to plan dozens of steps in advance, limiting as many of their counterfaction options as I can. If I’m not careful, it’ll really shift the balance of power down through the centuries, ruining plans I’ve already laid.
    At least I’ve already considered her offer as a Plan B to
extend my Right of Simmerings, so I don’t have to break completely new ground in the timestreams…
    I hope I don’t have to use it, though I won’t hold my breath. I’d rather get three Feyori to admit I am the foreseen Prophet, and have the right to rearrange their Game.
She double-checked the timestream paths and winced mentally.
I won’t have many chances to do that, though. Miklinn technically isn’t interfering or counterfactioning by raising the point that I “really should manifest before being accepted” as one of them…and damn him for the legality of it. And damn myself for my carelessness.
Slag.
    Okay, Time,
she ordered silently, rippling the sheet-like weave, doubling over the threads and turning them translucent. She knew how to handle her Right of Simmerings, which would buy her more time to sway the Feyori to her side. For the contingencies where some of the Feyori were stubborn about wanting to counterfaction her, she needed a different crew.
Show me which changes in personnel I will need, starting with Chaplain Benjamin, Doctor Mishka, and my choice of first officer, Lieutenant Brateanu…
    The pathways she needed to check were fairly easy, like two transparencies laid one over the other. The first layer was theFeyori-altered path at the bottom, with her current roster selections. The second layer belonged to the path she had already marked out for the future, the one that led to the one shot she had at saving the galaxy from annihilation three hundred years away.
    Deviations were quicker to see this way, but it only worked because she already had both source-paths to trace and compare. Until she had found the problem—Feyori interference—she couldn’t have made these comparisons.
Good,