The armillary bands now glowed around the first senator assigned to speak. She advanced. Olmy recognized Prescient Oyu, daughter of the still-regnal Gate Opener Ry Oyu. Senator Oyu had worked with Suli Ram Kikura, two years before, to exempt victims of sex-retrovirus from the limit of two incarnations; she was known to have Naderite sympathies, though her background was moderate Geshel. She was a homorph with elaborations designed to heighten both sexual and leadership traits.

"The Thistledown returned to Earth at the precise moment of the Death?" she asked.

"That is in testimony," Ram Seija reminded her.

"Not precisely," Olmy said. "The Thistledown entered the solar system five and a half years before the Death. I have evidence—presented in subtext—that our arrival in fact triggered the Death. It is possible that without the Thistledown's presence in orbit around the Earth and Moon, the earth in this continuum would have escaped the Death."

Gardner raised his hands in horror. "This is an abomination," he said. "Blessed Korzenowski could never have intended this."

"All credit to the Hexamon Nexus," Prescient Oyu continued, "but a question arises as I look over the précis on the agenda. Why has this news not been broadcast through the entire city? I suggest we make an unequivocal report public and convene an emergency full Nexus convention."

Her bands of light changed to amber and she receded a meter. Ram Seija extended both arms and spread his fingers wide to have Nexus attention. "The news is startling and important, but it also could have adverse social consequences. We wish to release the news in the most constructive fashion."

Corprep Enrik Smys, a moderate Geshel with past service to the Hexamon in a capacity similar to Olmy's, objected that the Jarts conference certainly held precedence. The Jarts showed every sign of preparing to advance beyond 2 ex 9. "And even our subject today, compared to that, is trivial."

"Perhaps not, Corprep Smys," said Rosen Gardner. "All these questions may yet be tangled."

"Did you find evidence of deliberate reprogramming of the Thistledown guidance system?" Ram Seija asked.

Olmy rotated to face the center. "I did not," Olmy said. "But the system erased all instructions immediately after arrival. There is no way of knowing."

Gardner formally requested the armillary bands. Ram Seija, with some hesitation, assented.

"It is time once more to ask for a search in City Memory," he said. "There is one who can tell us all we need to know—"

"The Engineer is dead!" Ram Seija objected vehemently.

"We are aware he is inactive," Gardner said with uncharacteristic control. "But Blessed Korzenowski knew of the danger to his patterns when he retired his corpus. We must authorize a search for any parts of his personality not purged by the assassins."

"Overruled," Ram Seija said.

"I request a hearing before the full Nexus," Gardner persisted.

"Disallowed."