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2 ~ Glory<br />
The Board room of the <strong>An</strong>gan Corporation was dismally silent. Brolan was absent. Ralm, second<br />
in command, was checking the Corporate and Public Meshes while his AI attended to note-taking.<br />
The thirteen Board members arrived in groups of two and three.<br />
All were silent...<br />
Things had been happening since ShipOne had failed in its mission. Things none of the Board<br />
wanted to deal with. Brolan was recuperating <strong>from</strong> his seizure—expected to be back in action in a<br />
month, if he began to submit to endocrine enhancement, which he was still firmly rejecting. He'd<br />
been out of action for a year.<br />
ShipTwo was nearing its final stages of construction but workers were falling prey to permanent<br />
emotional illnesses and others suited to the task were hard to find. It would still be four years<br />
before <strong>An</strong>ga and <strong>An</strong>la would return to their closest separation yet supervisors were projecting the<br />
ship might not be ready in time. That would delay its launch for five more years as <strong>An</strong>ga and <strong>An</strong>la<br />
completed their orbital dance.<br />
ShipOne, still in orbit at <strong>An</strong>la, was secure but needed to wait for its return until the planets<br />
aligned and there were some who feared the crew might decide to join the criminals on the<br />
ground if the situation on <strong>An</strong>ga continued to worsen. Also, plasma-radio communication with the<br />
<strong>An</strong>lan priests was still not functioning and the connection with the prisoner's implants was still<br />
dead.<br />
Ralm's stare into the Mesh intensified as he said: "Morna and Rednaxela—"<br />
The Board members waited for him to complete his statement.<br />
Ralm said: "Strange..."<br />
The Board members exchanged covert glances.<br />
After a few minutes, Ralm spoke again: "Ah, thank you for coming. Just finished looking at the<br />
stats for our endocrine enhancement program. There's nothing wrong; people are responding<br />
appropriately, they're resorting to the available simulated recreation and the Unbonded<br />
Corporate Mesh is positively throbbing with Plot interactions—"<br />
Ralm reached for his drink. His hand shook ever so slightly. He continued: "However the Plots<br />
are becoming less stable, less sensible. I trust your juniors will report to you soon—I've sent the<br />
reports on to them because we have more serious concerns to deal with."<br />
The Board members liked the money they received but didn't like being on the Board, though<br />
Ralm was less a bother than Brolan. They were considered to be powerful people. They were<br />
actually place-holders that could be manipulated to enforce what Brolan decided. Brolan and<br />
Ralm knew that they usually didn't pay attention to what was happening in the Corporation or the<br />
populace but, with Brolan possibly permanently out of the picture, they were paying keen<br />
attention to what Ralm said.<br />
"We've cracked the encryption of ShipOne's operational records and conditions here at home<br />
are improving. We're apprehending an increasing number of mental criminals and ShipTwo will<br />
undoubtedly be fully loaded. Religious criminal suspects are being dealt with in what I'd call a<br />
creative manner. We've increased the incidence of non-traceable personal transportation failure<br />
so you might say they're killing themselves. But the important news is that Rednaxela's defection<br />
had nothing to do with a malfunction of his endocrine system. The analyses show that the<br />
emotional control mechanisms on the ship were shut down. This means that the mental criminals<br />
on board, our dearly loved settlers, were also deprived of endocrine enhancement."<br />
The "dearly loved" epithet brought a tinkling of laughter.<br />
"What I'm about to say will not leave this room. Sever your connections to the Mesh."<br />
The Board members made the internal thought pattern to stop Mesh-interaction and waited for<br />
Ralm to confirm isolation. The various forms of interest on their faces included a few of almostglee.<br />
"I want to take a vote on the tragic end of our esteemed leader's life."<br />
All present knew this was no vote since a nay meant death.<br />
"All in favor?"<br />
15