The young man blinked, and Nara took a drink to slow her words.

“Armed occupation seldom pays dividends for anyone,” she said. “But the Empire rewards who it can. You survived, Zai. So you should accept the Emperor’s medal, elevation, and the starship command they’ll no doubt give you. It’s something.”

Zai seem surprised, but not offended. He nodded his head slightly, eyes narrowing as if thinking through her points. Was he mocking her?

But sarcasm didn’t seem to be in the man. Perhaps these were simply new ideas for him. His entire life had been spent among the grayest of the gray. Oxham wondered if he’d ever heard the “Dhantu Liberation” called an occupation before. Or ever heard anyone seriously question the will of the Risen Emperor.

His next question confirmed his naïveté.

“Senator, is it true you have rejected elevation?”

“It’s true. That’s what Secularists do.”

“I’ve heard that they often rescind in the end, though. There’s always the possibility of a deathbed conversion.”

Oxham shook her head. The persistence of this piece of propaganda was amazing. It showed how easily the truth was manipulated. It showed how threatened grays were by the Vow of Death.

“That’s a story that the Political Apparatus likes to perpetuate,” she said. “But of almost five hundred Secularist senators elected over the last thousand years, only seventeen have accepted elevation in the end.”

“Seventeen broke their vows?” he said.

For a moment, she nodded her head in triumph. Then she realized that Zai was not impressed. He seemed to think that few percent damningly high. For gray Laurent Zai, a vow was a vow.

Damn him.

“But to answer your question,” she finished. “Yes, I will die.”

He reached out, placed one hand lightly on her arm.

“Why?” he asked with genuine concern. “For politics?”

“No. For progress.”

He shook his head in incomprehension.

Nara Oxham sighed internally. She had debated this point in street encounters, in public houses and the Vasthold Diet floor, on live media feeds with planetary audiences. She had written slogans and speeches and essays on this issue. And before her was Laurent Zai, a man who had probably never experienced a real political debate in his entire life. It was too easy, in a way.

But he had asked for it.

“Have you heard of the geocentric theory, Lieutenant-Commander?”

“No, Excellency.”

“On Earth Prime, a few centuries before spaceflight, it was widely believed that the sun went around the planet.”

“They must have thought Earth Prime to be very massive,” Zai said.

“In a way, yes. They thought the entire universe went around their world. On a daily basis, mind you. They had severe scaling problems.”

“Indeed.”

“Observational data mounted against the geocentric theory for a long time. New models were created, sun-centered models that were far more elegant and logical.”