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situation by sending Guardian ships to blockade the Cytherian Islands instead of trying to reach a resolution more quietly. He and those closest to him were removed from the Council of Mukhtars, and my uncle was among those who forced him to give up his position." Malik had been only four years old at the time, but he could still recall how Muhammad had raged at Abdullah's carelessness. Abdullah's show of force, and the necessity to back down later, had only revealed Earth's weakness to the Habbers.
    "I still don't see —" Yekaterina waved a hand. "Why would you be punished for what happened then?"
    "Because some close to Abdullah feel he was treated unfairly. His people have more influence now. Abdullah Heikal may never be a Mukhtar again, but he has eyes and ears on the Council, and those who will act for him there. They singled me out, knowing that my disgrace would weaken my uncle even more and shame my family as well. They took what I had written and said, ideas I meant only as speculations, and accused me of harboring dangerous notions. I could no longer teach or write. A Counselor came to speak to me. I saw that it might be better to remove myself entirely from the scene of my disgrace."
    "Counselors," a woman said. "They can seem so kind when they're giving their advice, but it's the Nomarchies' interests they think of, not ours."
    Malik did not deny the statement. The regional Counselors who advised those in their Nomarchies were there to promote stability and defuse tensions within a community. They consulted with people on every aspect of life, and their advice had nearly the force of law. They granted permission to families who wanted more children, steered people to various jobs, and noticed when a few discontented souls might be better off in a different Nomarchy. In return. Earth's citizens could feel that the Administrative Councils, and the Mukhtars those Councils served, were intimately concerned with their welfare.
    The people with him now might believe that they had chosen to be here, but he suspected that Counselors had manipulated a few of them to make that decision. Some of them might be troublemakers, and their communities better off without them. Anyone expressing a willingness to start over on Venus, even with no hope of being chosen officially by the Project Council, would be one a Counselor might steer here.
    "The Mukhtars!" Alexei spat. "Venus won't be theirs. It'll belong to the people who build it, whatever the Mukhtars say. If anyone tells me what to do, he'll soon see what he's up against."
    Malik leaned forward. "I've learned that it does no good either to get close to the powerful or to work against them. Better to live out your life in the hope that they won't notice you at all."
    "Those are a coward's words."
    "Silence, Alexei Sergeievich," a black-haired man with the flat cheekbones of a Mongolian said. "Words don't make a man brave."
    Yekaterina put a hand on her brother's shoulder; Alexei pulled away. "I'm still confused," she said. "Couldn't a time come when your uncle might rise again? You would only have to wait."
    Malik was silent. There was no point in explaining the true situation to these people. Guardian Commanders were among Abdullah Heikal's allies now, Guardians impatient with being only the arms of the Mukhtars. Muhammad was powerless against them as long as so many of the Mukhtars did not resist their growing influence. Abdullah had been ready for a battle with Habbers, while Muhammad had counseled against that fight. The Commanders had felt themselves shamed and would always regard Malik's uncle as one of the causes of that shame.
    "Whatever they took from you," Yekaterina continued, "the Nomarchies must have spent much to train you — surely they could have found other work for you here. However humble your position, it would have been higher than ours, and your work easier. Do you really need to run to Venus?"
    "They took more from me than you know," Malik said. "The