...Nayoki wishes she could disagree and be offended at his thinking she's not qualified to take over. Unfortunately, he has a point. 

She - thinks she could pull it together if Leareth actually died? Probably. She would do a lot of Mindhealing to herself, which arguably she should be doing right now except that she CAN'T bring herself to stop wanting to be there in the room with him. Although it's hard to tell if he even finds it very comforting so maybe that's stupid too. 

Also she has some context that Mao doesn't, which is that they have Healers, and it seems like he's still undervaluing how much they can accomplish by talking to the protomolecule and teaching it Gifts. She's pretty sure that if Leareth can manage to go another two days without some stupid emergency nearly killing him again, he'll be less sick and more with it - he was doing better than this before. 

Then again, they're still operating with a shoestring resource budget and zero local allies who she actually trusts, which is why those sorts of emergencies keep happening in the first place. It - was probably actually worth it, to get the spy's message out without burning even more bridges with the Roci crew...

She can see why Leareth respects Mao. He's...actually asking the right questions, actually thinking this through, in a way that none of the others have been. Not that she can really blame them; the crew of the Roci are clearly in deep over their heads, and Julie is...a very nice person, in some ways, and Nayoki respects her courage. But not really her sophisticated moral reasoning. 

She hates this and she wants to go home. 

Leareth drifts in and out for a while. 

:- We need to know more about the political actors here: he tells Nayoki. :It would go much better if we can get a message to someone specific, and competent, rather than resorting to a system-wide broadcast. While we are here, can you find out what they know: 

She can do that. 

Mao is smart and curious and actually trying to be adequately paranoid, and she doesn't really want to do more active mind-poking on him, he might notice. But hopefully there are some other crew around in Thoughtsensing range. 

She tries to filter for someone who knows as little as possible about what's currently going on - it seems like Mao hasn't immediately decided to brief all his crew, that's helpful - but who seems high-up enough and generally clever enough that she would trust their political assessments– 'trust them more than Holden's', she starts to think, but that's an incredibly low bar. 

Poke poke poke. Can she nudge someone unsuspecting into thinking about who's involved in the 'UN' leadership and what their traits are? 

Sure; politics is on their minds anyway, what with having engineered the current Earth/Mars tensions.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is an elected position. Everyone on Earth and Luna aged 16 or older, or who has paid $3000 in taxes over their life, votes. (Well, turnout is about 40%, but all of them are allowed to vote). The current one is Esteban Sorrento-Gillis. None of Mao's people think much of him, when they think of Earth; he's a politician, he does what he thinks will be politically popular, he doesn't have real convictions, he worries a lot about what the history books will say about him. The Undersecretary of Executive Administration is the most important staff role, usually a springboard from which to claim the top job; that's Sadavir Errinwright, who some of Mao's senior people know works for Mao. They think slightly more of him; he's smart, and inventive under pressure, and personally ambitious. The Deputy Undersecretary of Executive Administration, Chrisjen Avaserala, is more of a problem - she doesn't work for Mao, and has an enormous wealth of political connections she uses to oppose Errinwright when she disagrees with him, and Sorrento-Gillis listens to her as much as to him. She's ruthless, but she's not corrupt; no one's sure what to bribe her with.

The Secretary-General has a full staff but most of the rest handle domestic policy, not space policy.

Nayoki skims minds until she's pretty sure she has an overall gist that isn't too biased by any one person's idiosyncratic opinions, and then she summarizes it to Leareth. 

:What should we do now: 

Leareth really wishes the answer to that question could be 'sleep'. His body is incredibly unhappy with the length of time he's spent sitting upright in a wheelchair. 

...He wants to - not trust Mao, exactly, but it's very tempting to make that an alliance. Julies Pierre Mao is thinking strategically, he has contingencies, he has an inventory of his current resources, he's planning ahead - 

By itself, Leareth wouldn't necessarily update much on the Eros plan, or the empathy modifications to the scientists, or any of the other specific ruthless acts. He knows what he's willing to do, if his plans call for it. ...He's pretty unhappy about the Cant and the Donnager. Not, mostly, because of the deaths involved, or because it was illegal, or because it was by-some-definition-pretty-evil. 

Okay. Why is this making him so uneasy? 

It...feels like playing with fire? It feels like the kind of force that it's really better not to pick up and wield, because it can be very hard to put down again. Easier for him to say, of course, given his millennia of life experience and how he's seen close up what happens when geopolitical tensions spiral out of control. It's not just a matter of weighing up the cost of lives against anticipated benefits; there's something deeper there that's burned, and he's not sure that Mao is fully taking that into account. 

Jules Pierre Mao thinks that he can keep the situation under control, that whatever else happens, Earth and Mars won't actually go to war. But Leareth has been in not-dissimilar positions before, and miscalculated. 

- also it's unclear to him if Mao put what he would consider to be adequate thought, into the downside risks of feeding Eros to the protomolecule. It seems like Mao doesn't specifically know that once it's big enough it can eat rock, or anything about its other interesting capabilities, but...from Leareth's perspective, given what he knows, it's obvious that the point at which the Proto is that big, is past the point where it can actually be contained by force. He's hopeful that they can instead ask nicely. But that's because of context that Mao couldn't possibly have had, and still isn't fully taking into account, which is hard to blame him for - he's making so many massive updates to his world-model and he's trying impressively hard to attack his confusion productively - but still... 

He's going in circles. Focus. He hates not having a long-term plan but he can't piece one together right now, he's still missing too much context. Which pieces are actually relevant, right now, for the next decision. 

He can work with Mao, probably. But he doesn't trust him to get this right, and it matters; the stakes are huge.

(Leareth is kind of upset about this, although he's nudging that aside, it's unproductive to be angry at the universe for failing to give him competent and aligned allies, and it's not like Velgarth was different in that way, he just had a lot longer to build...) 

(He misses Vanyel and that's even less productive.) 

...He's curious about Chrisjen Avaserala. A handful of people's thoughts isn't nearly enough to go on, of course, he could be wildly jumping to conclusions about her character. But the hints he has are - good.

He would like to talk to her, face to face. That would resolve a lot of his open questions. 

That still isn't a plan, damn it. 

:For the moment, I think we should - approach talks with Jules Pierre Mao from the angle of - building a strategic alliance. We will not reveal all of our abilities to him, but I assume he is not expecting full openness. I...think that I want you to stay on the ship as our liaison: And because Mao is a wily snake and he doesn't want to take his eyes off the man. :You can answer questions and offer demonstrations if he wants proof of our origins. I - should return to the lab and its medical facilities, for now. Tell him that I feel it would be wise to contact the UN, and that in particular I would like to speak with this Avasarala, but that we - understand we are lacking context, and will give advice but not go behind his back: 

Well, that's at least sort of vaguely a plan. 

:All right: 

:- Oh, before you say anything - find out what Mao and the crew of this ship have noticed or inferred about the Roci. It seems they have not guessed that survivors of the Cant and Donnager attacks are currently crewing it: 

Sure, she can poke some minds. It seemed earlier like Mao was assuming the ship was OPA? What sensor data and related guesses do they have about it? 

The drive plume suggests an inefficient older ship that has modified its fusion drive a dozen times to keep it working. Competent but poor. Belters. Inexplicably hanging around Io near the site of the lab, having arrived at the right time for the takeover. OPA. They are trying to stay out of its strike range in case it has weapons. There's a fast shuttle aboard this yacht so Mao can get out if necessary, though he's in his seventies, and a serious chase would do his health no favors.

That's all useful to know. 

A fast shuttle is also a way that Leareth could get out, if necessary. They could steal it, head for Earth right now...

- fine, it's tempting but a terrible idea. A shuttle won't have medical facilities, and Leareth's health status is a lot more precarious than Mao's, and who would fly it, mind-controlling some of Mao's crew is a very fraught plan. Also Leareth wants her to be approaching this as a potential alliance, and stealing their shuttle is the opposite of that. 

She'll keep it in mind, though. If she's going to be stuck here as a liaison anyway (damn it, Leareth, though he has a point that she'll be less distracted if he's at least not dying in front of her), then she might as well figure out the route they would have to take, and slip in some conditional set-commands, be ready to grab the shuttle and some crew and burn for Earth as fast as possible if things here spiral out of control. 

It's a few minutes since she checked Jules Pierre Mao's thoughts, she's been distracted. She does that first, before interrupting him to convey their plan. 

Mars has better medical facilities than Luna and he's still reluctant to risk Earth so he's prioritizing composing a message to his Martian contacts, thinking about what they'll know, what might get leaked, how all of it can be stitched together into them being glad to welcome some protomolecule patients and experiments in secret. Probably, though, the thing to do is to ask a lot more questions about the protomolecule and get a better sense of how sure he can be he wouldn't be risking Earth by taking the patients there.

- he should inquire about Julie's condition, first, it's quite possible she won't survive a trip inwards either way in which case quality of medical facilities is besides the point -

She Mindtouches him.

:I wanted to give you an update on our plans. Leareth - is willing to consider working with you, and we can answer any questions you have about the protomolecule or about our world. He would like me to stay on the ship as a liaison; he will return to Io for the moment, since the lab has better medical facilities: 

- right, she needs an explanation of how they know who Avasarala is that doesn't include the bit where she's reading everyone's mind. 

:Leareth is aware that we are lacking important context, and that Julie being our initial contact in this system means our information may be biased. Based on what he has learned so far, Leareth has a tentatively positive impression of the UN's competence, and especially of Avasarala. He would be in favour of bringing this to their attention. However, he would prefer to work with you on this: 

They didn't get that from Julie, whose opinion on any Earther politician is going to be - he doesn't actually know what it's going to be. Negative, though.

What exactly do you want to bring to the UN's attention? The protomolecule? I'm - contemplating it, but I think they might take abrupt action to try to get their hands on it, and I don't want it brought to Earth until I know more about the risk it'd escape containment - which you, actually, might be able to help me understand better.

:The protomolecule, yes:

What would Leareth say what would Leareth say -

:It is obviously relevant to them - to the entire system - and...in general, things go better when leaders are making their decisions based on complete and accurate information, I think? Also, we might tell them of our world's existence. Leareth has a much larger organization back on Velgarth. We cannot currently return, the - transport method we used - was one-way, but with help we could find a way. I think Leareth might wish to ask your civilization for humanitarian aid on Velgarth, in exchange for whatever useful services our magic can provide: 

...This is leaving out the fact that the protomolecule is currently eating Velgarth's moon. Nayoki isn't sure she trusts Mao to do anything sensible with that information. 

He's still not convinced that Velgarth, uh, exists, as opposed to being a delusion, but if it does, then - humanitarian aid seems like probably a concession Earth or Mars would be perfectly happy about? He's having a hard time imagining Velgarth in enough detail to think through specific conflicts that might arise but if it's lower-tech, they won't be scared of it, everybody's entirely hypothetical debates about colonialism will be suddenly not hypothetical which - he'll think about later, one thing at a time - anyway, doesn't seem like a dealbreaker, if Velgarth is a real place that really exists.

I don't think that it's really the case that things go better when leadership is fully informed, he says carefully. Maybe it depends on the quality of the leadership, but the system on Earth is designed to elect the people who do the best on terminal clips, not the people who run the best government. I think we'll need to loop somebody in, but I'd rather know more, first, about what we're looping them in about. If you could let my scientists go back to my research, I think that'd make me a lot more confident in questions on protomolecule containment that seem important to answer before we talk to the UN or anyone else. 

I'm also interested in whether we should be rushing in order to save the people currently infected by the protomolecule. What's their state, how long do their doctors think they have to live?

It's not unreasonable of him to be concerned that Velgarth doesn't exist but it's very annoying. 

:Your daughter was infected over a month ago, and is - arguably in better condition than when she landed on Velgarth, though it is taking a great deal of effort from Leareth's staff. - For context, we have Healing magic on Velgarth, which we can demonstrate to your scientists as proof. I think your scientists are unsure how to extrapolate a prognosis for her given that the protomolecule is behaving differently from their expectations. She is going to need a lung transplant but, with that, hopefully the Healers can show the protomolecule how to avoid damaging the new lungs? We will know more about that in a day or two: 

:Leareth was infected more recently, but also he has suffered - different complications, due to interactions between his magical abilities and the protomolecule. I am hopeful that he will stabilize more if there stop being emergencies where he needs to use magic. His organs are in better shape overall, at least: 

So your best guess is that we have time?

:That is my best guess. We will keep you updated on changes in her condition, of course: 

All of the patients, please, he says, because it seems courteous. 

:Of course. And I can give you a summary now of our observations about the protomolecule, if you want? ...The gist is that I feel comfortable with containing it on Earth if we keep it small; our Healers can directly See it, which makes it much easier to avoid contamination, and it seems to be under the impression that we are its creators and tries to cooperate with our instructions. Once it is large enough, though - perhaps one more doubling from its current size in the lab, we fed it several hundred livestock on Velgarth before reaching that point - anyway, once it is bigger it can eat rock. Which makes containment harder, for various reasons: 

I can imagine. It had been among their projections about how the Eros project might go. Can it also eat steel, at that point or a shortly subsequent point? 

:We had not specifically checked but I expect so. It did obey our instructions not to eat anything in Julie’s shuttle:

Because it thought you were its creator?

Because presumably at some point it'll be smart enough to notice they're not, in fact, its creators. Unless these supposedly-humans from supposedly-Velgarth are its creators, in some sense, which - doesn't make a lot of sense but neither does anything else.