bioestheties exhibition

[middlingalong]

The following day they visit the 149th Annual Bioestheties Exhibition, Class A, Dedicated to the Memory of the Celestial Lady. This dedication, though rather last-minute, makes it a key stop for offworlders on Eta Ceta for funerary proceedings. Lord Vorreedi is, unexpectedly, present too; he may be hard to slip.

The exhibits are gorgeous. Unnatural colors of various flowers are sufficiently routine to be used as borders for the real show - fish with clan marks on their scales (this exhibitor is about twelve), a pet unicorn (this one is possibly not even an exhibit), a tendril of vine that attempts to entrap Ivan's foot (its keeper dislodges it), and a kitten tree.

Ivan is displeased by the kitten tree, believing there to be glue involved in the attachment of kittens to their pods. He picks one in a determined rescue attempt. It is not ripe; the kitten expires when detached. Vorreedi offers to discreetly dispose of the poor beast, for which Ivan is intensely grateful.

Their erstwhile friend Yenaro is present. When Ivan notices, he points the man out to Miles.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"At this point I think we need all the information we can get, however faint the hope thereof," says Miles.

[exerce_imperia]

"Agreed."

[thisvorlunatic]

"And, um... I have a suggestion," he says. "If you haven't already considered it - could you recall the gene banks? That would at least prevent Kety from actually getting away with his miniature-empire plan."

[exerce_imperia]

"Hmm," says Lisbet. "It would need a delicate touch - less so in the cases of the other governors, but Kety in particular must at this point suspect that someone knows what he is up to. Whatever story we fed him through the haut Nadina would need to be carefully crafted to minimize that suspicion. Perhaps... we disovered a subtle malfunction in the equipment used to generate the copy, and we want to examine the copy to verify whether we will need to copy it over again. Naturally, the only way to do that is to temporarily reunite it with the original."

"Do we want to recall the rest of the gene banks?" wonders the haut Pel. "We had such trouble getting them out there in the first place... and without the Great Key, they are useless. They pose no threat, and could be useful later."

"Without the Great Key or an incredible analytical effort, they are useless," Lisbet corrects. "If we leave them in the possession of their governors, someone might be tempted to begin that effort. Of course we recall the banks. I think it would be potentially useful to keep backup copies on every planet, strictly under the control of the planetary consorts, but not while anyone who is currently a governor remains a governor. The risk is too high."

"Agreed," Pel concedes after a moment's thought. "That leaves the question of how we disguise the banks to outsiders on their way back in."

"Collections of genetic samples from the various satrapies, requested by the Celestial Lady, for the Star Creche's experimental files," shrugs Lisbet. "Outsiders will not inquire any more deeply. Do I have agreement on recalling all gene banks other than Nadina's, which is a separate case because of the increased risks involved?"

The consorts other than Nadina each indicate that she has theirs.

[isthisart]

Linyabel, meanwhile, is looking up Vio's designer with her pen. "The haut Vio is alas orphaned on that side of the family," she says, spinning the display to show the file she's called up: the lady has been dead for five years.

[exerce_imperia]

"Of course," sighs Lisbet.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Am I still going to be retrieving the Key for you? I'll be honest, I'm not really sure what your other resources are as far as field agents. Or if you even have any. But it seems like you value the Key very highly, and besides my personal sympathy for that, I value not being framed for its theft pretty highly myself."

[exerce_imperia]

"Once I've discussed the recall of Kety's gene bank with haut Nadina, I'll send for you again. Your schedule is empty of public events tomorrow, but it should be relatively easy to pull you away from the Ceremony of Singing Open the Great Gates the day after, if I plan carefully and wait until a later stage of the event. I think that, regardless of what Nadina and I do or do not decide in the interim, we'll need to make our move then. The schedule is too tight otherwise."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I... agree, milady," says Miles. "Is that all for now, then?"

[exerce_imperia]

"Yes. The haut Linyabel will return you to your point of origin."

[thisvorlunatic]

"In my experience, haut Lisbet, we can never get back to exactly where we started, no matter how hard we try."

[exerce_imperia]

[isthisart]

"For one thing," remarks Linyabel, "these chairs don't go up nearly as easily as they go down."

She pats the armrest he was sitting on when she originally dropped her bubble, and puts her pen back on her necklace.

[thisvorlunatic]

"A fact of engineering for which I am somewhat grateful," Miles murmurs as he carefully climbs up to perch on the armrest.

[isthisart]

Bubble.

"Until later," Linyabel tells the Handmaiden and Consorts politely, and she turns the chair around and ferries him out.

[thisvorlunatic]

And a-bubbling they go.

Miles is quiet on the way back. The armrest is not the most comfortable seat he's ever taken, but far be it from him to complain.

[isthisart]

She makes straight for the side entrance of the Garden. "There's a car waiting, but I think we're going to be a bit late relative to my first estimate," she notes.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Damn," sighs Miles. "Well, hopefully not late enough for them to send any form of security after me."

[isthisart]

"Hopefully. We'll go up to the party the same way you got in originally and I'll let you out in some unobserved nook, anyway, you could cover for a few minutes by pretending to have been unable to find them within the space of the roof."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Thanks for the ride, by the way."

[isthisart]

"You're welcome." And, when they approach the exit: "Shhh."

The car takes them back to the building on which the party is taking place, and Linyabel is admitted without a hiccup via lift tube.

[thisvorlunatic]

He shhs and stays shhd.

[isthisart]

Once they're in the lift tube quite alone, she says, "It's convenient that all the bubbles are white this week. Well, conducive to stealth, anyway, I suppose it helps all sides."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Convenient because...? I know nothing about the social standards of bubble colours," says Miles. "Is it customary to keep to a consistent hue or set of hues? Is it noticeable and obnoxious to match someone else's, or difficult to pick something relatively generic and anonymous?"

[isthisart]

"There are conflicting standards and ladies fuss at each other about them when there's nothing else to do. Some people have favorite color patterns - it's usually a shift over some period of time between two or three colors, not a static one. Some coordinate with their clothes, or choose hour to hour at random or based on obscure criteria. People vary in how much they care about being matched. Usually I just slide between robin's egg blue and turquoise every four seconds and people know it's me; someone could copy me, I suppose, but I wouldn't care unless they were going to further lengths to impersonate me."