When Jade walked into Kark’s office she figured it was somehow fitting to see her father there too. One more surprise among many on this cockeyed planet. Father and daughter hadn’t seen each other in months, but with Council starting tomorrow there wasn’t much time for a “family reunion”. Jade was anxious to let Kark know what she had turned up, as it could very well effect the proceedings.
“I’m beginning to think we should have brought Corianav in on this” said Jade, “since she will be acting in her capacity as an advocate when Council starts. But I guess I can transmit the date from here, if I can use your comm later.” This last was said to Kark.
“Can’t you just bring it to Council yourself?” asked Zora.
“I’m not going” said Jade “I wasn’t one of those Summoned. Which reminds me, have the Xavvian royals arrived yet?”
Kark checked his screen. “Says here the Emperor will be arriving in about five hours. I’m not in on that, praise Allah, it will only be the really high Security VIPs that receive him. I got word from Kathy Channing that her hubby has arrived, so the both of them will meet q’Stant’Lit, the heir. I understand he and Kathy are old friends. Hmm, I can’t see here where or when the former heir, q’Lit’Liav is to arrive. Seems since he’s technically a “private citizen” now he doesn’t necessarily have to deal with us. But why do you ask?”
"Well, the first research I was doing, when I holed up in that cubicle, was into Xavvian history and evolution, with a special eye out to looking for how these related to their religious history. I also wanted to see what were the roots of the Xavvian/Tharn discord, as they seemed to be religious in nature. With the other incidents of unrest. particularly with the Voss, I felt I might be able to find some pattern, in all of this chaos. I read a lot by this Cowd, since his theories on common religious experience amongst widely seperated races brought him so much fame. Have you read Cowd’s works *A Similar Spirit? * or The Seeds of Faith? she asked.
“Jade, honey, you know I only like to read about things that go BOOM!” teased her dad, and both of them laughed, as it was a longstanding joke between them. jade knew here father was no academic, but he was widely read. On long missions in space, sometimes there’s not a lot to do in your spare time. “but no, I haven’t read much religious history.”
“Don’t look at me!” Kark raised his hands in mock horror. “I haven’t either, except when I made my one pilgrimage as a kid. So what have you got?”
“Cowd used what he called “equations”, a series of logic threads and questions designed to relate the vastly differing religious traditions of different races. Brilliant work, really. It’s been the touchstone, the standard, for thirty years, especially with the inclusion of crystals and their influence on humans and Xavvians in particular. It was so clear and basic that all he’s ever had to do since has been minor tinkering, especially with the crystal theory.”
“Jade, we know the guy is a ‘genius’, whatever that means” said Zora. “What are you getting at?”
“After I heard about his alleged, ummm, predilictions, something kept nagging at me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. So I called up again his career file, that I had downloaded, and finally noted something peculiar. According to the file an associate of Cowd’s died in a freak accident. He was devastated by the loss, and even dedicated *A Similar Spirit? * to this person, when it was published six months later. In part it thanked them ‘for being a source of inspiration to me.’ If what I’ve heard turns out to be true, though, quite a number of women have met unexpected ends around him. I got this hunch, and fed a chapter of his ’ Spirit’ notes into a linguistic analyzer. Guys, it says there is a 95.9% indication that a woman wrote that text!”
“What just a minute now,” said Zora. “Cowd’s not a woman.”
His daughter rolled her eyes. “You noticed, huh Dad? But his associate that died was. I haven’t dug out enough information on her to get a good sample of her writings to analyze , but I think it’s likely that Cowd didn’t write those books, she did, or at least did the seminal research, and he edited later.”
A breath whooshed out of Kark. “In the Name of the Merciful” he breathed. “This could be the ultimate case of academic fraud. A whole frelling career based on a lie.”
“Yes” saide Jade, “and that could go a long way to explaining why all he’s done is tinker. He never wrote all that in the first place, so how could he integrate his own work into that of another? Especially when current crystal developments have been so rapid and complicated? He may not be a genius, but he’s been a great actor!”
Kark’s mind turned to a practical Security matter, blackmail. “If this has been going on for thirty years, I’d lay long odds we aren’t the first to have stumbled on this. So why no big stink?”
“Who would suspect the great Cowd” Zora interjected bitterly.
Kark started to say he would inform Cori of this, and prepared an access code to Security files so she could also view data on the current charges against Cowd.
But even as his hand reachod out to his comm, it pinged on it’s own. Kark was annoyed, and grated out “This had better be good”.
“Sir”, said his comm clerk “There’s a call for you from the Xavvian, M’Artel. Seems two more Voss can be added to our growing collection. He says that some other guests helped save him and Robert Harker, and they wish to speak to your guest, Adm Innison.”