Transmission: Ragnarok: Book Two Read Online Free

his world shrivelled into death.
    ‘Here,’ said Jed. ‘Let me show you something gruesome.’
    Roger sat down. ‘I’m afraid to ask.’
    ‘No, see’ – Jed pointed – ‘follow my finger with your gaze, then relax all your muscles and just let— There, you’ve got it.’
    Something twisting, shards of transparency and blood; and a sound: a modulated screech that matched the awful rotation.
    ‘Ugh.’ Roger pulled back in his seat, snapping his senses back into mean-geodesic reality. ‘What the hell is that?’
    ‘Sort of a public monument, in a nasty way. Every now and then,’ said Jed, ‘someone raises a petition to get it removed, but nothing happens. Exactly as Dirk intended, I guess.’
    ‘You mean Dirk McNamara?’ Roger tapped the tabletop, placing his order, while trying to remember something of Pilot history. Dirk and Kian had been the twin sons of the first true Pilot, Ro McNamara; that was all he knew. ‘That’s Dirk in there?’
    ‘No, that’s Admiral Schenck at the moment of his death which will last literally for ever, provided no one intervenes. The moral of the story is, don’t pick a duel with Dirk, unless you’ve got a really unpleasant death wish.’
    ‘Dirk killed him? Really?’ Roger’s food rose through the tabletop, but he ignored it. ‘I’m still trying to get to grips with this place, but wasn’t Admiral Schenck opening some official building yesterday?’
    ‘That’s the grandfather in there.’ Jed nodded toward the distortion. ‘The current Admiral Schenck is also supposed to be a nasty piece of work, but what would I know?’
    Roger chewed a hotbean sandwich.
    ‘I don’t really understand what the Admiralty Council does,’ he said. ‘I mean, sometimes I think it’s the high command of a military-style fleet, but at other times it seems to be the government, and sometimes … I don’t know. A different thing entirely.’
    ‘That’s because,’ said Jed, ‘our culture and protocols are Byzantine.’
    ‘You mean Labyrinthine.’
    ‘There, you’re getting the hang of it.’
    For a while they both ate – Jed had ordered some kind of omelette – then Jed answered more seriously. ‘People rotate in and out of different styles of service. Most of the time, the majority of us are free traders. Then there are the Shipless of course – not everyone in the Admiralty has their own vessel. The Council is all of those things you said, and none of them. They say that the regulations had to be written in Aeternum, because no other language supports the temporal and philosophical concepts that underlie the entire system.’
    ‘Bloody hell,’ said Roger.
    ‘Yeah, pretentious, isn’t it? But it’s still true. It also allows for things like Pilots raised in realspace who don’t yet know their way around Labyrinth.’
    Roger stopped eating. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Like, if someone has to attend a hearing, an enquiry, then they have the right to take a friend with them. Someone with a bit more experience.’
    ‘I thought we were here for breakfast.’
    ‘We are,’ said Jed. ‘And over breakfast, right now, I’m telling you about the hearing.’
    ‘What hearing?’
    ‘The one I’m accompanying you to, old mate.’
    ‘Is this one of those regulations you were talking about? Like, I have to attend a hearing and you’re the one who finds out about it?’
    ‘Pretty much. I asked proactively at the Admiralty, they confirmed the meeting, and I took responsibility for telling you.’
    ‘Shit.’
    Roger turned away, his eyes acidic with confusion, feeling light-headed with shame. He was a child here, unable to travel by fastpath rotation, unaware of the institutions and laws surrounding him, needing a grown-up like Jed to look after him.
    ‘We have to get you in training,’ said Jed. ‘So you can get a handle on how things work.’
    ‘I’ll manage.’
    ‘There are programmes, and the reason no one’s suggested it yet is that you’re in mourning. Think of