The conspirators weren't ready to give up just yet. The final blow came, quite by accident, during the supper mess that night. Hornbeck was hinting, very broadly, about possibly being recruited into military intelligence.
"You ain't never gonna get into intelligence, so stop trying," Madsen groused.
Hornbeck shot him an angry look. "How do you know?"
"It ain't you. None of us is." He looked at Dan. "And if you have any sort of security clearance, you're gonna lose it. Mark my words."
"What makes you say that?" Jensen challenged.
"Bio-ident," he replied. "You know how they talk about that around here. Consortium doesn't have ID's, licenses, passports, any of that. They want to know who you are they have the system scan your bio-ident, biological identification."
"So? It makes sense, if you have the technology to do it. I mean, you can't fake your genetic code," Kleppie said.
"So?" Madsen echoed. "So, the medical scans they do on us daily are basically the same thing. That means they have our bio-ident in their data base. That means from now on, if they wonder where we are at, or what we are up to, all they have to do is ask their precious information grid and it will match our records on file with our current locations, bam.
"And that means, nobody, and I mean nobody, back home is going to trust us with any sensitive information or missions again. So, bye bye security clearance and bye bye dreams of military intelligence."
Hornbeck and the others paled as the implications swept over them.
#####
Fox found Nara in the hallway outside the quarters she shared with Sukira and Su'nin. She was holding two bottles.
"What are they?" Fox asked.
"Wine," Nara replied. "Good stuff, too," she added with a wistful tone. "Muscatel from Jori prime. Some of the best in the Consortium, or so I'm told."
"What are you doing with it?" Fox asked.
"Gotta repay a favor," she replied. "Come'on."
They crossed one of the central passages to the far side of the ship, where the consortium crew was housed. The upper floor, where the majority of the healers and tech crew were bunked up was crowded but quiet. People passed them in the hall, calling out greetings.
They dropped down a zero G lift on that side. Fox was shocked as he stepped out of the lift. He'd never been to this floor before but he had assumed it would be like the healer's quarters. On the surface it was, the glimpses he saw into the rooms showed the same physical layout.
But the lights were on half dim and the walls were covered in artwork, signs and pictures. About half the doors were open and the volume was several times what the floor above, people laughing, shouting or just talking. Music blared out a few rooms and people were dancing.
Through one open door he saw a man and woman casually making out on one bunk while a half dozen more people crowded on the bunk beneath them, watching something on the viewscreen across the room, talking and drinking.
"Security," a voice hissed as they passed another room, "officers."
"Just Nara, she's cool," another voice assured the first speaker.
"Wow," Fox commented.
"What?" Nara said, a smile playing on her lips. "You thought the entire consortium was like the healers?" She nodded towards the ceiling. "That we spend all our free time reviewing data crystals of interesting cases and having deep intellectual discussions?"
"So who are these people?" Fox asked.
"The Corelean has about eighty civilian workers, laundry, cooks, housekeeping and what not. Maybe another fifty low level technicians. They may not be the educated professionals up there, but they're good people."
There was a loud cheer from a room at the end of the hall. Nara stopped and looked inside. "Nara!" voices cried from within.
Fox stepped up and looked inside. The room was crowded with nearly a dozen people. Most were in the blue smocks of civil service and they looked like a rough crew. On one bunk sat one of the most butch women that Fox had seen, a broad woman with short dark hair. Mandy Tennyson, one Fox's crew, was curled up at her side.
Opposite the woman, to Fox's surprise, was Runningbear. He held a small cup in his hands and shook it. Something rattled inside and when he turned it over on the floor between them, three dice rolled out. A third man counted on his fingers as he inspected the symbols and another cheer went up around the room. The woman handed a couple of rectangular chits across to him.
"Nara," the woman said with a smile. "Got something for me?"
Nara handed the bottle's over. "How did it go?"
The woman patted the bunk. "Come, stay, have a drink We'll tell the whole tale."
"Seeing as it's my wine," Nara said and took a seat.
Runningbear spied Fox. "These guys are alright," he said, gesturing around the room.
"You should have been there, Nara," the woman was saying as she uncorked the bottle with her teeth and then spit the cork into the trash. Someone handed over glasses and she started pouring and handing out the wine. "I hid in the airlock. When the pompous git came to look." She made a gesture to show how she had sprung out. "You should have seen the look on his face, priceless."
They drank and the woman, Daksha, told the entire story; how Nara had told them of Bankim's plan to entrap one of the Americans and how they had turned the tables on him. One of the men spat. "Damn military anyway. Pompous gits, all of them."
"Officers, too," someone added. "Present company excluded."
"Too much politics," Daksha said. "Put a few earth workers and a few Consortium workers together and we'll have peace done, right?"
"Right," Runningbear agreed, holding up a glass. Everyone drank a toast.
After awhile Fox asked, "so what are the stakes?"
"Just candy," the American woman said.
"It's good, too," Daksha added. "I like to play for real stakes, but this guy's six chits up on me." She grabbed the dice cup and rolled.