Read Online Primary Inversion (Saga of the Skolian Empire) Paperback by Catherine Asaro - Free Book Online

link.
    Understood.
    I unplugged the prong and handed it to Rex. “You next.”
    It only took him a few seconds to upload his memory of the
Aristo. Helda went next, then Taas. When they finished, I jacked back into
Homer. “Comtrace, produce a visual image of the subject based on our memories
of him.”
    “Working,” Comtrace said. The holoscreen on the desk lit up,
lines and speckled patterns swirling inside of it. An image appeared, a holo
about twenty-five centimeters high that showed the Aristo we had seen in the
bar. He stood on the desk in front of me as if he were actually there, watching
us.
    “He wasn’t that harsh,” Rex said.
    The console remained quiet, the holo unchanged.
    Comtrace, I thought. Verify and respond to voice input from
the three units listed in my Zabo squad security file.
    Blackstone, Rex: verifying. Bjorstad, Heldagaard: verifying.
Moroto, Taasko-mar: verifying. Responding to Blackstone.
    Hearing their names was like seeing a microcosm of Skolia.
Rex’s was the modern translation of an ancient name from the planet Raylicon.
Like Rex, it was pure Raylican, dark and powerful. Helda’s was the Skolianized
version of an Earth name; her parents were an Allied couple who had immigrated
to a Skolian colony. Taas’s name was a mix: some of his family came from
Raylicon, some from old colonies we found after we rediscovered spaceflight,
and some from a place on Earth called Japan. My name—Valdoria Skolia—was also a
mix. Although my maternal grandmother had been born in a genetics lab, her
lineage went back to the dynasty that had long ago ruled Raylicon. My father
and maternal grandfather had come from rediscovered colonies, but since they
carried the Rhon genes they too were probably descendants of that dynasty.
    Units verified, Comtrace thought. Responding to Blackstone.
    The Aristo’s features softened, making him look sixteen
years old.
    “Too young,” Taas said. Comtrace aged the man about three
years.
    “Still too young,” Helda said. Comtrace added another three
years.
    “Longer hair,” Helda said. Comtrace added a few inches.
    They studied the image for a while. Finally Rex said, “Looks
about right.” Taas and Helda nodded their agreement.
    “Comtrace, run an ID check on this image,” I said. “Compare
it to every file available on the current Highton Aristo caste.”
    “Working.” After a pause Comtrace said, “No record exists
that matches this image with sufficient accuracy to provide a verifiable
identification.”
    I frowned. “You checked every living Highton?”
    “Yes.”
    “Maybe we don’t have files on all of them,” Taas said.
    “We thought we did,” I said. “There are only a few hundred.”
    “We maybe guess the wrong class,” Helda said.
    Could we have? Although the Hightons were uppermost among
the Eubians, there were other Aristo classes as well, enough to bring their
combined number into several thousand. “Comtrace, what do you estimate is the
probability this man is a Highton?”
    “Working.”
    I glanced at Rex and motioned at the holo of the Aristo. “Something
about him looks familiar. I just can’t place it.”
    Rex nodded. “I thought so too.”
    But when I looked at Helda and Taas, they both shook their
heads. “He has the look of Aristo,” Helda said. “That’s all I see.”
    “Run complete,” Comtrace said. “Based on your four reports
of appearance, mannerisms, speech and retinue, I estimate a ninety-eight
percent probability that the man is Highton. Based on your conversation with
him, Primary Valdoria, I estimate an eight percent chance.”
    Rex whistled. “That’s bizarre.”
    “But that eight percent depends only on my memory of him,” I
said. “Maybe my perception was skewed.”
    “Given your experiences,” Rex said, “I would hardly think your
perception would skew to make him seem less threatening.”
    Comtrace spoke. “My analysis includes correlations of your
reports with all previous reports the four of