Cédric blinked with the last meaningful realization of his life. Another that seemed so glaringly evident, he could only wonder how it had not dawned on him much sooner.

“They’re magnetized,” he heard himself tell Marius in an almost matter-of-fact tone.

Marius’s eyes were full of terror and confusion behind his view port. In fact, it almost seemed to Cédric that his features had drawn together into a bold, hanging question mark.

Cédric was wondering just what sort of answers were expected of him when the spheres fastened to the hardsuits exploded, and the rushing sea took his thoughts.

“Well, Casimir? My curiosity pesters.”

“We have total success. The neodymium hunter swarm has acquired and neutralized its targets.”

The yacht owner’s eyes were brilliant ice. “Would damage imagery be too tall a request?”

Casimir’s attention held on the monitor and control boards.

“It could be done,” he said. “The killfish has been recalled beyond the outer edge of the blast zone, and its backscatter sensors show a high density of suspended particulate matter within the zone. But we could task it—”

“No need, bring it back in,” the yacht owner said. “Laziness of imagination is a common failing in this day and age, Casimir. We mustn’t allow ourselves to submit.”

“As you wish.”

The yacht owner reclined on his pale orange sofa, his bone-thin form barely impressing weight into its cushions.

“And his spirit moved upon the face of the waters,” he said in a near undertone. “Fiat lux.”

Casimir’s head turned briefly to regard him over a white uniform epaulet.

“What was that, sir?”

The yacht owner passed his fingertips through the air.

“Old words from an old and very fascinating story,” he said.

TWO - VARIOUS LOCALES

TWO

VARIOUS LOCALES

From the Wall Street Journal Online Weekend
Edition:

UPLINK INTERNATIONAL TO COMPLETE
STALLED MARINE FIBEROPTIC NETWORK
Experts Agree Venture May Plunge Telecom Giant
into Choppy Seas

SAN JOSE—In a move analysts believe marks a critical and risky juncture for the world’s leading telecommunications super carrier, UpLink International announced earlier this week that it has concluded a long-rumored deal with Planétaire Systems Corp to pick up some very large pieces left by the France-based company’s financial tumble.

Once UpLink’s primary European rival, Planétaire has been the most recent telecom industry player forced to make sharp operational cutbacks during a period of global economic uncertainty that has seen many established technology firms struggle and fail. While many in the financial sector expect industrywide earnings to improve at least marginally over the next quarter, Planétaire’s losses have been deeper than some due to a combination of heavy capital borrowing—said to have exceeded $1.5 billion U.S.—for its construction of a submerged fiberoptic cable ring in the waters around Africa and steep declines in revenue from its cellular telephony service elements.