Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [52]
‘Please join me, Marchella.’
Recording resumed in AiV 197* ‘And what of your family’s operations, Marchella?’ ‘Below is Pellegrini A, and to the south Pellegrini B. Each produces 60,000 tonnes of ore per thirty-hour day. The ore is conveyored back to Dockside and stockpiled. The Pellegrini conveyors are some of the longest known. The mining belt has the perfect geography and climate for our conveyors, flat and hot—no frost to damage the machinery. Subsidiary feeders from the smaller mines join the main conveyor all the way along.’ ‘The process is very primitive.’ ‘Yes, but it works. Our society uses some gro-technology to maintain its infrastructure but we found it to be too expensive on the mining scale. We are still a young planet.’ ‘And youth is so seductive, my dear. What of the non-Pellegrini mines?’ ‘They use land barges to transport their ore, or rent space on the conveyors.’ ‘So indeed your family has the monopoly?’ ‘The Cipriano Clan purchased Araldis after seeing the assay reports from the first exploration ships in this area. The Pellegrinis are the most powerful of the Araldis Ciprianos, the royal family. It is . . . our planet.’ ‘And what would it take for me to convince you that an exclusive minerals contract with me would be in the interest of the Pellegrinis’ great name?’ ‘Orion lucre.’ ‘That is something I am in a position to offer.’ ‘What minerals do you want?’ ‘Only one little mine, Marchella. It is named Juanita, I believe.’ ‘Oh?’ ‘The one that produces a quantity of quixite.’ ‘Our financiers will negotiate with you on that issue, SUPPRESSED. But, if you’ll pardon my frankness, there are others bidding for the same alloy.’ ‘May I enquire who that may be?’ ‘You know that I cannot disclose who bids against you.’ ‘Is there nothing that might convince you to short-cut this. . . this. . . bargaining?’ ‘There is one small thing that would gain you favour in the bidding.’ ‘Which would be?’ ‘You are tyro to the Sole Entity?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I. . . that is, we want one of our familia to be admitted to Belle-Monde to undergo testing by the Entity.’ ‘But only the very brilliant are chosen.’ ‘And you do not think there could be one so brilliant among us Latinos?’ ‘No need to take offence, ambassadress.’ ‘No offence taken, SUPPRESSED. But this point would be, in brutal parlance, a deal-breaker.’ ‘Then perhaps it could be arranged, Marchella, once the terms of export are agreed. Do you have one person in mind?’ ‘I do.’ ‘Then I would say we are close to a deal.’ His tone indicated that he was about to make a further condition. ‘SUPPRESSED?’ Marchella asked. ‘There is one other thing I would also have, which would be, to use your words, a deal-breaker.’ ‘Si?’ Trin sat transfixed as the final moments of the recording played out the unmuffled sounds of the dignitary’s concluding negotiations. He then replayed the beginning, listening for the date—over a year ago. Had the deal been struck, he wondered? And why did the dignitary wish to purchase minerals exclusively from the mine of Luna il Longa? What was this alloy that he, and others, so eagerly sought? Trin stood and paced a little, noticing a sudden aching hunger in his belly. He searched the storage cupboards and found some dried fruits and a tube of sweetener. As he ate he tried to open a farcast link to the OLOSS library on Scolar. The link bounced back with the message that the relay station at Dowl was indefinitely disrupted. Indefinitely? Frustrated, he replayed the trade negotiation. He had heard of the discovery of a strange Entity, out past Mintaka, but to believe that the creature was a god was so . . . unlikely! Why had his tia loco wanted to send a familia to its tutelage? When the answer did not come readily to him, Trin realised how little he knew of his familia’s politics or what really lay at the heart of the trouble between Franco and Marchella. His thoughts drifted to Djeserit. He checked the time. She would be waiting for him now but