The Web and the Stars Read Free

other pod stations where we set up sensor-guns? Any useful information there?”
    “No reports of activity yet. We’re getting a steady stream of nehrcom reports from all seven hundred ninety-two of them, orbiting the same number of worlds. No additional MPA planets have been lost, and no more podships have appeared.”
    The Doge rubbed his projecting chin. “So, Noah wasn’t crazy after all. Thank the stars I moved quickly, instead of turning his recommendation over to the Council of Forty for study. Those noblemen would have set up committees and wasted a lot of time.”
    The officer flicked something off his own lapel. “You made the intelligent decision, Sire. If you hadn’t moved quickly during the crisis, I daresay we would not be having this conversation at all.”
    “Most insightful of you to say that, Captain Uki.”
    “With your permission, Sire,” Uki said, bowing, “I’d like to be excused, to order the investigation you desire.”
    Doge Lorenzo nodded.
    After Uki left, Pimyt said, “He’s too smooth to be an officer. I don’t trust the man, so I’ve arranged to replace him. In my customary fashion.”
    “Kill him, then. But wait until he completes the assignment.”
    The Royal Attache smiled, and thought back. It was not the first time Lorenzo had authorized him to get rid of someone, particularly the sniveling sycophants who were drawn to the Doge like iron particles to a magnet. At times like this, whenever he felt respect for the merchant prince leader, Pimyt almost regretted what was about to happen.
    Soon, he and his allies would make their move, and it would reverberate across the galaxy.…

Chapter Four
    Nothing is ever as it seems. For each apparent answer there is always another more significant one. This is true at every level of observation and interpretation. Thus, the final answer to any question is never attainable … perhaps not even by the Sublime Creator.
    —Tulyan Wisdom
    For weeks, Acey and Dux had stayed in the Tulyan Visitor’s Center. The globular, posh orbiter wasn’t a spacetel as they had initially thought, since the Tulyans apparently never charged any of the dignitaries for staying there. According to a waitress that Dux befriended in the gourmet dining room, the place had more than a thousand suites of equal size and quality.
    Dignitaries!
    The first day they were there, Dux walked around with his chest puffed out, imagining how important he and his cousin were. In the corridors, they saw well-dressed personages of varying galactic races whom they imagined to be ambassadors, noblemen and their ladies, and even kings and queens by their appearances, replete with royal entourages. The gaping boys’ imaginations ran to considerable extremes. When the two of them later told stories about this experience, any rational listener would undoubtedly discount their assertions, knowing how insular the Tulyans tended to be. There could not possibly have been so many galactic VIPs present at one time. But Acey and Dux, while having the good sense to avoid making any contact with the other visitors, had fun imagining who they might be. The boys also enjoyed picking out the various alien races they could identify, and marveling at those they had never seen until now. It only whetted their appetites for traveling more throughout the galaxy.
    Acey kept saying he was anxious to leave for more adventures, and he’d been developing all sorts of plans about other star systems he wanted to see, and how he would get there. Every day he expressed his increasing restlessness to Dux, and to Eshaz whenever he looked in on them every few days. The Tulyan was performing important work for the Council of Elders, though he would not provide them with details. Whenever the teenagers asked him why they had to stay there, Eshaz said he felt responsible for their safety, and that he would be able to spend more time with them soon.
    Soon.
    Even Dux, who enjoyed the Visitor’s Center far more than