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a later stage. There are associational meanings regarding youth, energy,
enthusiasm, duty, joy in learning. There is also a great question, unresolved
in this image.
Inaction's words don't come as a set speech, aren't rattled off: her voice is
a bit dreamy, her dark eyes focused on something a thousand stades away. It
is almost trancelike, a reflection of her own dream state.
"And the question?" Aiah asks.
"The Apprentice is a transitional figure, in movement from one place to
another, from the gateway to the world beyond. The question involves the
imago's destination will she surpass her teachers and achieve mastery, or will
she find herself with no singular gift, her talent and art lost amid the great
clutter of the world. Satisfaction or frustration the imago promises one or
the other, but does not resolve the matter within itself.
Aiah frowns, looking at herself in the improbable act of balancing a pair of
beakers. "There are other carvings of this figure, yes?" she says.
"Oh yes. The imagoes are repeated throughout our building.
"Is my face on all of them?
Inaction looks blank. "I don't know.
"May we look? I'm curious.
"If you like.
Aiah follows Inaction down the stone corridor. Sorya appears as The Shadow no
less than three times, and Aiah recognizes no one else but herself. No
Constantine, she thinks in surprise. Her own face is repeated a half-dozen
times, and she feels as if she has entered a hall of mirrors improbably
constructed of stone.
For once Aiah catches Inaction in an expression of surprise. "Perhaps," the
dreaming sister says, "you have become important.
PEACE TALKS CONTINUE; PROGRESS UNCERTAINPROVISIONALS DENOUNCE GOVERNMENT'S
"UNREALISTIC CONDITIONS
The oval screen of Rohder's computer is framed in a polished copper case
chased with ornamental scallops and speed lines designed to make the viewer
think that the screen, or at least data, is zooming from place to place with
mighty efficiency. The ornament fails to convince anyone familiar with the
ways of computers. The chief efficiency of the speed lines and ornamentation
is to attract Rohder's floating cigaret ash.
Rohder, Aiah, and Constantine sit before the screen and watch crude images,
gold on gray, blink and shimmer as Rohder's model of his work slowly moves
pictured pontoons and barge outlines into new, ideal configurations. The
computer is in the midst of a ponderous, labored dialogue with another, larger
computer elsewhere in the Palace, for which it relies on data: Aiah thinks of
prisoners laboriously transmitting messages from one cell to the next by
beating on pipes. Gears hum, needles click back and forth on the computer's
yellow dials. Then there is silence as the final image lumbers up on screen,
and the dials drop to the neutral position.
Rohder taps the screen with a nicotine-stained finger. "I've got about as far
as I can with the current crews," he says. "I started at a central location
and moved outward, but as I expanded, the area to be covered increased
geometrically, and in order to continue the work effectively at the current
rate, I've got to increase my workforce by an order of magnitude.
Constantine considers this, then nods. "It will pay for itself," he says.
"Send me a budget and I'll sign it.
Rohder nods and lights a new cigaret off the old. Aiah briefly considers
taking advantage of Constantine's generous mood to ask for an increase
elsewhere in the PED, but she decides that this expansion will cause enough
administrative headaches for the present.
One of the few benefits of Caraqui's state of war is that many of the
necessary government expansions and contractions have been accomplished
without the usual amount of paperwork. But Aiah knows the paperwork will
catch up sooner or later, and then there will be nothing but paper, pay slips,
requisitions, and signatures for weeks and months, and possibly ever.
Constantine turns his eyes from the computer and asks the question that has
brought him here. "How many days of full-out offensive can you give me?
"Can you give me an approximate time frame? When do you intend to begin?
There is a flicker in Constantine's eyes as he considers how much of his
schedule he is willing to entrust to Rohder, or even to speak aloud.
"Before your new crews can make a difference," he says.
Rohder nods, looks at Aiah. "The figures won't change that much, then.
Aiah answers Constantine's question. "Three days of full consumption using
domestic resources only," she says. "If our neighbors fulfill their
commitments, we will be able to extend the offensive for another day, possibly
two.
Constantine nods. "Well," he says. "We must hope to make a breakthrough
early. A soldier cannot advance without a mage clearing the enemy ahead of
him, and he can only hold an area if enemy mages are kept off his neck.
"We've had some unanticipated side effects," Rohder says. "Do you have a
minute?
"Of course.
Rohder taps keys, the screen flickers and the computer makes a grinding noise
as it gets up to speed, and then the crude images are replaced with columns of
figures, gold on gray.
"There would seem to be a synergistic effect to the multiplication of plasm
through the fractionate interval theory," he says. The rest of the department
has taken to referring to fractionate interval theory as FIT, but Rohder
prefers the older, more elaborate term.
"This" he taps figures again with his knuckle "this is the predicted increase
of plasm, by district, in line with theory . . . and this," tapping again,
"the initial increase. It is less than predicted, because the methods we used
to move structures were less than ideal, and our estimates of the composition
of the structures themselves were in most cases approximations. But now note
this third set of figures. These are very recent, based on meter readings
conducted within the last two weeks.
Constantine looks into the screen, columns of numbers reflected in his eyes.
"Some are larger," he says.
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