Diaspora

Inoshiro had grafted extensive knowledge of Kozuch Theory into vis mind, and ve had no trouble answering; Yatima, wanting to stay fresh for the Mines, understood slightly less. But ve did know that the computations linking Kozuch's Equation to the neutron stars' dynamics were intractably difficult, and it was mainly just a process of elimination that had left polarization as the most plausible theory.

The exuberant listened calmly; Yatima couldn't tell if this was mere courtesy, or a sign that someone was taking them seriously at last. When the outer-tier translator was finished, the exuberant made a further comment.

"With such low tidal forces it would take many times longer than the lifetime of the universe for the runaway polarization state to tunnel through the energy barrier and dominate the confinement state. Polarization cannot he the cause." Yatima was astonished. Was this confident assertion misplaced—or a mistranslation—or did the exuberant have a solid mathematical reason for it? "However, I accept that the observations are unambiguous. The neutron stars will collide, the gamma-ray flash will occur. We will make preparations."

Yatima wished she could have said more, but with twelve translators involved a prolonged discussion on the subject would have taken days. And they'd finally had one small victory, so ve savored it; a post mortem of the neutron stars' physics could wait.

As Francesca chose the next speaker, several people in the audience stood and began making their way out. Yatima decided to treat this as a good sign: even if they weren't entirely convinced, they could set in motion precautionary steps that would save hundreds or thousands of lives.

With extensive mind grafts, and the library at vis disposal, Inoshiro fielded technical questions easily. When the amphibious exuberant asked about UV damage to plankton and pH changes in the surface waters of the oceans, there was a Carter-Zimmerman model to quote. When a bridger in the audience questioned TERAGO's reliability, Inoshiro explained why cross-talk from some other source couldn't be the cause of the neutron stars' ever quickening waves. From the subtleties of photochemistry in the stratosphere to the impossibility of Lacerta's soon-to-be-born black hole forming fast enough to swallow all the gamma rays and spare the Earth, Inoshiro countered almost every objection that might have made the case for action less compelling.

Yatima was filled with uneasy admiration. Inoshiro had pragmatically become exactly what the crisis required ver to become, grafting in all this second-hand understanding without regard for the effects on vis own personality. Ve would probably choose to have most of it removed afterward; to Yatima this sounded like dismemberment, but Inoshiro seemed to view the whole prospect as less traumatic than the business of taking on and shrugging off their gleisner bodies.

More enclave representatives began signing off; some clearly persuaded, some obviously not, some giving no signals that Yatima could decipher. And more bridgers left the hall, but others came in to take their place, and some Atlanta residents asked questions from their homes.

The three guards had sat in the audience and let the debate run its course, but now the woman who'd sliced off Yatima's arm finally lost patience and sprang to her feet. "They brought Introdus nanoware into the city! We had to cut the weapon from vis body, or they would have used it by now!" She pointed at Yatima. "Do you deny it?"

The bridgers responded to this accusation the way Yatima had expected them to greet the news of the burst: with an audible outcry, agitated body movements, and some people rising to their feet and yelling abuse at the stage.

Yatima took Inoshiro's place at the acoustic focus. "It's true that I brought in the nanoware, but I would only have used it if asked. The nearest portal is a thousand kilometers away; we only wanted to offer you the choice of migration without the risks of that long journey."

There was no coherent response, just more shouting. Yatima looked around at the hundreds of angry fleshers, and struggled to understand their hostility; they couldn't all be as paranoid as the guards. Lacerta itself was a crushing blow, a promise of decades of hardship, at best… but maybe talk of "the choice of migration" was worse. Lacerta could only drive them into the polises if it could hammer them into the ground; maybe the prospect of following the Introdus seemed less like a welcome escape hatch, a means of cheating death, than a humiliating means of allowing the fleshers to witness their own annihilation.

Yatima raised vis voice to ensure that the translators could hear ver. "We were wrong to bring in the nanoware—but we're strangers, and we acted out of ignorance, not malice. We respect your courage and tenacity, we admire your skills—and all we ask is to be allowed to stand beside you and help you fight to go on living the way you've chosen to live: in the flesh."