He licks his lips in the intervening silence. The low hum from the air ducts snaking their way around the station bounce across the glass tabletop. He sighs and says, “Indeed. Indeed.” The diplomatic speak is over. He sits forward and sighs again. “The Regent would like you to—”
“No,” Joslyn says politely but firmly.
“He is not asking—”
“No. We operate independently and we do not Watch on our own Universe. It is against our purpose—”
“You do not understand.”
“I do not need to understand. We have a singular purpose that we have executed for over three thousand standard years. We monitor the Ancillary Universe for signs of Unification and take steps to prevent it if necessary.”
“The request has to do with the Ancillary Universe,” he cuts in. When Joslyn doesn’t speak right away, he continues. “He is not asking you to violate your charter and Watch on our own Universe. In a report three standard months ago, there was mention of DNA profiling legislation on a planet called Evaga.
“As you mentioned, Atainun is not a unique event. These awful acts seem to happen every ten to twenty years and every time there are calls for Regency to profile all newborns for these abnormal tendencies. He would like you to Watch Evaga to see how it is implemented, how the public reacts, effect on crime rates and report on your findings.”
I can’t keep the disgust out of my voice, “So he can implement something similar?” It’s appalling—a child condemned before they even learn to walk.
The Ambassador’s chair squeaks as it swivels to face me. “No, he shares your disgust and expects the legislation to fail. He hopes to use it as an example of why such laws should never be passed.”
This is an unexpected development. Usually a Regent tries to use Watchers to spy on the competition, under some guise of “protection” or appeals of maintaining stability. None that I know of have ever asked us to specifically monitor something in the Ancillary Universe. Joslyn sits, her clear blue eyes studying the Ambassador, but they’re distant. If I didn’t know her I’d say she is completely in the moment, but I know that look, she is deep in thought.
The Ambassador continues, “We are prepared to offer you the only thing that has ever been denied to you.” He pauses here for dramatic effect. And it works. Had it not been for the severe training by Joslyn in this regard, I’d be on the edge of my seat. “Your origins.”
My heart races, I feel the vein down my left neck throbbing. Finally, answers. All Watchers wonder and ask when we’re small. But we’re told it doesn’t matter and to forget it. It’s not fair really, all the other people on Watch Station know where they came from. Every person living on Watch Station was taken from families of influence from all the major planets, all the major systems, as a way to prevent them from becoming paranoid about our purpose and either destroying the Station or trying to strong-arm us—a barricade of their own children. But Watchers are taken before the age of two; we have no memories of our homes. We’re denied the knowledge to remove the temptation to Watch our own families, and Watching our own Universe is a severe breach. But the other people were children of families that rose to power after they were two. They are would-be Kings and Queens, now service engineers, line cooks, docents, and any of the other thousand jobs it takes to run a Space Station. To finally know ….
“No,” Joslyn said. A simple word with so much command behind it.
“This does not violate your charter or purpose.”
“It is a dangerous precedent, none-the-less. The Watchers have one goal—we do not take requests. I appreciate the earnestness around the request, but we must still decline.”
“I see. And you speak for all Watchers?”
Joslyn stands drawing herself up to her full height, her eyes blazing. But her voice betrays none of her ire at the veiled threat, “Thank you for coming Ambassador Elkier. Please stay and refresh yourself as you need before your journey back.” The fury in her eyes and the calmness of her voice convey their own threat, one of control.
The Ambassador stands and walks to the door. “I regret that we could not come to an understanding.” The door slides open and a docent waiting there welcomes him and escorts him away.
After the door closes, Joslyn waits for two breaths before beginning to pace. “The gall of the Regency. It is outside the Watchers’ scope.”
“It is a worthy request,” I say. The air still smells musty. To think, I could know my own home world and pick its scent to flavor the air. Would I recognize it? I had already tried one hundred and sixteen—none had yet kindled any memory. I had not yet found the one with the spicy floral scent.
“It is, on its face. But there is no evidence that the Regent would use the information for its stated purpose. And when does it end? How do we define what is a worthy request and what is not? Taking requests is a slippery slope, creating a precedent of responding to a pressing need that could then one day be used as an argument for Watching our own Universe in an emergency. I will not have it.”
But to know our origins. And the dirty history was we have Watched our own Universe before when the Watch was severely threatened.
She looks at me, she knows me too well. She’s trained me since I first became an acolyte when I was eleven. “Still, Emre? You still wonder?”
I lower my eyes in shame; it’s unbecoming of a Watcher to still dwell on such things. But then, I’m barely a Watcher, only raised due to my increasing age and Joslyn’s influence. Even at twenty-five, I still have to take lessons from Joslyn, the only Watcher to ever have to do that after being raised.
She gives a deep sigh and moves to the viewing port. “Leave me, Emre. I wish to think this over. We will speak of this in the morning. And tell Acolyte Renya she is to report to Plele for punishment for disobeying my orders and that I will ask Plele of it the next time I see him.”
BY MORNING JOSLYN
is no longer on Watch Station, along with most of the other members of the Directorate—dereliction of duty, refusal to execute the purpose of the Watch: to Watch the Ancillary Universe. The Ambassador and Regent are bolder than I thought.
The Regent himself is now addressing the rest of us Watchers and Acolytes in the main auditorium. He stands in the center, dressed in his ceremonial cream-colored robes, his grave face hidden behind a well-kept chestnut beard that adds to the solemn air. Two Regency Investigative Unit (RIU) agents stand at each end of the raised platform, and there’s more than one unfamiliar face scattered in the crowd. It strikes me as stupid—don’t they know how small we are? How few of us there actually are that can Watch? How we all know each other? I understand the need for positioning people for potential crowd control, but why try and blend in? We all know they’re plants.
The Regent speaks in a quiet voice, his words heavy with meaning and inflection. He uses his hands to emphasize his words, to show his passion, but he keeps his head slightly bowed to show his reluctance—a very effective speaker.
He speaks of the danger to the Regency of such DNA profiling legislation. The disgust of denying people their free will—I think most of us Watchers work to contain a snort at that, thinking of the Directorate currently held against their will. He raises his voice in quiet passion to derail such efforts in Congress, to provide hard evidence of the foolishness of such a motion, that the legislation on Evaga presents a unique opportunity that is within the bounds of the Watchers. He details all of the Atainun tragedy—an entire settlement wiped out from slow suffocation. The brutality caught on all kinds of security feeds—and soon to be leaked for political gain by the proponents of the DNA profiling legislation to generate momentum. He finishes by asking for our support, his arms open to his sides.
Silence settles over the auditorium, not even small coughs, or people fidgeting can be heard. The air tastes charged to me, palpable with possibilities, the potential for violence swirling in the air, waiting to coalesce.
Teren, a newly raised Watcher with broad shoulders and of medium height, stands up near the front off to the right. All eyes are upon him. “It is an unusual request you ask of us, Regent. One that might have held more weight with the backing of the Directorate. What have you done with them?” He remains standing.
“I truly regret the steps taken,” Regent Teife says. “I do not wish to hide anything from you. We asked this first to Watch Director Joslyn—she refused. We approached other members of the Directorate and were met similarly. This is too important to let an old lumbering tradition stand in the way. Nothing we’ve asked of you is in violation to your purpose. Your fellow Watchers are being held on Klast. They are being treated as Royal guests.”
“That cannot leave,” Teren says.
The Regent breathes in through his nose. The action straightens his posture at the same time a slight whistle from his nose fills the silence.
“I will have no part of this,” Teren continues. “I encourage each of you to remember Watch Director Plaiselle. He would not bow to the Regency in the second millennium, and we should not here.” He sits back down.
The air grows heavier. The two RIU agents on stage glance at each other and the Regent. The plants in the crowd sit forward, ready to leave their chairs.
Vinita, a female Acolyte, stands. “I believe the Masters are in error in this—”
The first half-smile for the Regent appears as he finds his first ally.
“—However—”
The smile slips.
“It is intolerable to have Watchers removed from Watch Station against their will. It is against the law. If you will return them, I will Watch Evaga.”
“And I.” Xiao stands.
“And I.” Efren stands.
Regent Teife studies the crowd before responding. “I will agree to return them so long as they are confined to quarters, so as not to make trouble. Agreed?”
All three shake their heads, yes. At this secession another five stand, including me. I am on team Plaiselle after-all. I’m pretty sure Teren chose our team since Joslyn’s being detained, and she’s till tutoring me, on top of me being her ex-acolyte.
Watching represents a potent power and a significant advantage. Starting at the Acolyte level, we’re all trained in various counter-takeover scenarios. In the three thousand years we’ve been operating, there have been sixty-three distinct takeover attempts, some more successful than others. So now a small group of us will appear to cooperate and work from the inside, while the rest work to organize, plan and wait from the outside. Strategy dictates that half the Directorate will attempt to return while the other half remain where they are to keep an eye on things.
One of the first strategic rules of warfare: Get a small force behind enemy lines to feed intelligence while the rest of the force surrounds them.
***
Part of appearing to cooperate is actually cooperating. The officials the Regent appointed to run this operation aren’t stupid. They had read all our profiles and devised a plan to efficiently execute the goals while catering to our strengths. They even asked for input from us after they got done briefing us—a pretty brilliant move actually.
We couldn’t be sure they were making bad mistakes on purpose to try and see if we would or wouldn’t correct them. So to be safe and protect our cover, we made adjustments that improved the plan. Not just correcting the obvious mistakes, but using years of experience to strengthen the approach. Watching the officials, my guess is that they did put some red herrings in there on purpose but didn’t see seventy-five percent of the problems we pointed out. It was a great first step in establishing trust.
Now, I lay in the consciousness projector at fifteen hundred hours, the neural patches attached to my skull, breathing evenly to prepare for my first foray into the minds of Evaga. Nerves eat my stomach like before all jumps—focus on breathing. The metal is cold under my forearms as I settle in—focus on the mission.
My limitations in skimming large groups is well documented and widely known in the community. My assignment therefore is to Watch the hospitals. This will keep it to anywhere from one to eight mothers, or about thirty people total including support staff, at any given hospital in my region.
The much touted statistic is that less than half of a hundredth of a percent of all births will show the genetic predisposition to commit these atrocities, or one in every twenty thousand births. My objective is to skim along until a test is done that turns up positive and observe everyone in the process. Watch the emotions of all involved, how they handle the mother, how the process affects the administrator, the hospital staff and to note any specific thoughts of mutiny, particularly outside the mother.
Breathe. A thirty split shouldn’t be bad. Not as bad as splitting among hundreds, Watching for the Unification thought: The thought that will lead to the people of the Ancillary Universe to realize they are not unique, but an offshoot of our Universe. Thousands of years ago, the old Imperium during the Yersemic plague sent humans into another Universe to experiment on, a guaranteed quarantine in effect. They discovered the cure, but the Yersemic plague was already too advanced, the catalyst for the Imperium’s fall.
The people in the Ancillary Universe were left undiscovered for thousands of years as civilization in the Prime Universe recovered. When they were discovered, the Watch was formed to monitor them. They had been exposed to diseases unique to the Ancillary Universe, diseases that would likely cause an epidemic if they were allowed to return. Plus, these humans, confined to one planet so late in their evolution had turned violent and warlike, competing over limited resources. There is concern that though their military capability was initially inferior, their strategies and cunning surpasses our own. And now their technological level is almost near ours, heightening the worry.