Beyond the Song

"...a key capable of reshaping PLANT's political landscape."

When Lin Yuan said this, Lacus was in the living room aboard Xuanwu Three, writing her statement.

Chen Linhai had waited outside for forty minutes.

When the hatch opened, Lacus emerged holding a sheet of paper. Her handwriting was neat, the spacing even. Every line ended with signs of revision; some words had been crossed out and rewritten twice.

"It's finished."

Chen Linhai took the page and skimmed it. He did not comment on its contents, only confirmed one thing.

"Miss Clyne, the recording environment is ready. The background is a standard neutral-colored wall. It won't reveal the ship's internal layout."

"Thank you."

When Lacus entered the recording room, she adjusted her hair. She wore no makeup, and she was still in the light-colored dress she had been wearing when she was rescued.

Standing before the camera, she went over the statement in her mind, then placed the paper out of frame.

The red light came on.

"I am Lacus Clyne."

Her voice carried neither a songstress's softness nor any deliberate force.

"I am currently under the protection of the East Asian Republic, safe and free. I am issuing this statement voluntarily. No one has coerced or instructed me."

"My departure from PLANT concerned recent political events. I will not explain the details here, but I wish to make one thing clear: my safety must not become a reason for any party to escalate military action."

Her gaze lingered on the camera for a beat.

"I ask all political factions within PLANT not to take any action that could cause further civilian casualties in the name of searching for me or protecting me. Peace cannot be won by pointing guns at one another."

She paused there, her lips drawing in slightly, as though weighing whether she should add the final sentence.

"At the same time, I condemn any act of political persecution against one's own citizens in the name of peace and justice."

The red light went out.

Chen Linhai listened to the entire recording from outside the room and pressed the communications key.

"Director, recording complete. One minute and twenty-four seconds in total. She added an implicit criticism of the Zala Faction in the final sentence."

Lin Yuan's voice returned through the encrypted channel.

"Don't change a single word. Send it exactly as she wrote it."

After being encrypted and packaged, the signal was relayed through a node at the East Asian Space Reconnaissance Station and injected as an anonymous broadcast into three separate frequencies: the public frequency of the PLANT Civilian News Network, the Earth Alliance's general monitoring band, and a dark frequency whose access method was known only to core members of PLANT's moderate faction.

Four hours later, the responses began pouring in.

On the terminal screens in the communications hub of the 811 Research Institute, Zhao Wendi divided the intercepted reactions into three columns.

The left column was marked PLANT Internal.

In the moderates' encrypted communications on private channels, quotations of keywords from Lacus's statement appeared. At least four independent sources confirmed that the full text was being circulated among the moderate faction's upper ranks.

The Zala Faction Security Committee convened an emergency meeting within an hour of the statement's release. Intercepted fragments of communication included phrases such as influenced by East Asia and being exploited, but there was no public rebuttal.

The middle column was marked Atlantic Federation.

Jonathan Pierce's news program made a last-minute change to its topic during the broadcast immediately following the statement's release. The segment that had been prepared to continue promoting the East Asia threat theory was pulled and replaced with a vaguely worded report acknowledging that Lacus herself had stated she was safe and acting voluntarily.

The reason was simple: the full statement contained the sentence, "I condemn any act of political persecution against one's own citizens in the name of peace and justice." It pointed both at the Zala Faction's raid on the Clyne Faction and at Blue Cosmos's systemic discrimination against Coordinator civilians. If Atlantic Federation media continued to hype the kidnapping theory, they would only push that sentence before even more people.

The right column was marked Other Forces.

A brief internal memorandum appeared on the diplomatic frequency of the United Emirates of Orb, assessing the effect of Lacus's statement on the public opinion environment among neutral factions. Its wording was cautious and took no position, but attention itself was a signal.

Zhao Wendi organized the three columns of analysis into a one-page report and handed it to Sheng Lan.

After reading it, Sheng Lan folded the report and entered Lin Yuan's analysis room.

"Director, the initial public opinion feedback is in."

"Conclusion?"

"Lacus's statement achieved three effects. First, it blocked the Atlantic Federation from continuing to hype the kidnapping theory. Second, it forced the Zala Faction to shift from an offensive posture to a defensive one. They now have to spend effort explaining why the Clyne Faction gathering was raided. Third, the moderates now have a point around which they can mobilize internally."

Lin Yuan lifted his hand from the desk.

"The third point is the key. The moderates did not dare openly oppose the Zala Faction before because no one with enough influence had stepped forward to endorse their position. Lacus's statement was effectively the first shot for them, and she fired it as a pacifist. No one could accuse her of being warlike."

Sheng Lan opened her memorandum and wrote down two lines.

"Director, Zhao Wendi made an additional discovery."

"Go on."

"Lacus's statement has begun spreading spontaneously across PLANT's civilian network. Within four hours, the repost count exceeded that of the Zala Faction Security Committee's official notice."

Lin Yuan lightly tapped the edge of the desk with one finger.

"Her statement didn't say a single good word about East Asia."

"No. She only expressed gratitude for the rescue itself. She did not even use the words East Asia in a context that suggested trustworthiness."

"That is ten times more useful than speaking well of us. A PLANT citizen taking a neutral stance toward East Asia in her statement will be more readily accepted by Coordinators than one showing gratitude toward East Asia."

Sheng Lan drew a horizontal line in the corner of her memorandum.

"Director, did Lacus write it that way on purpose?"

"What do you think?"

Sheng Lan closed her memorandum.

"She's sixteen."

"Siegel Clyne's daughter had already attended three official PLANT diplomatic banquets by the time she was sixteen, and at two of them she delivered private negotiation messages for her father. Age does not equal naivety."

The communications terminal rang.

Chen Linhai's voice came from Xuanwu Three.

"Director, Lacus Clyne is requesting a call."

"Put her through."

Lacus's voice came through the terminal. Her tone was slightly more relaxed than it had been during the recording, but only slightly.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, has the statement been released?"

"Four hours ago. Feedback has already begun coming in."

"What did the Zala Faction say?"

"They haven't publicly rebutted it. But negative assessments of you appeared in their internal meeting. The prevailing characterization is that you have been influenced by outside forces."

Lacus fell silent for two seconds.

"As expected."

"Are you afraid?"

"No. But I have a new question."

"Go ahead."

Lacus lowered her voice by half a tone. It no longer carried the rhythm she had used before the camera, becoming the cadence of a conversation between two people.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, after East Asia establishes the order you speak of, if one day someone from PLANT disagrees with your methods and openly opposes you peacefully, how would you handle it?"

From the communications terminal came the sound of fingers tapping a desk.

Lin Yuan's answer came a beat slower than usual.

"You're asking whether East Asia's order would allow dissenting voices to exist?"

"Yes."

"It would. But there are conditions."

"What conditions?"

"The means of opposition cannot be taking up weapons and slaughtering civilians. It cannot be activating weapons of mass destruction to threaten all humanity. It cannot be using genetic superiority theories to define half of humanity as inferior beings. Above that line, you may oppose me. Below it, there is no room for negotiation."

Lacus's breathing paused for an extremely brief moment over the channel.

"What if I oppose you above that line?"

Lin Yuan did not answer immediately.

Three seconds later, his voice came through, half a degree warmer than his usual commanding tone, but only half a degree.

"Then I would spend time trying to persuade you. If I couldn't, I would have your opposition put on record and publicly archived."

Lacus did not press further.

Before the call ended, she spoke one final sentence.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, in the materials I read, my father's peace proposals were rejected eleven times. The reasons for rejecting every proposal are in the archives, but not one person seriously debated with him before rejecting them."

The equipment's background hiss filled two seconds of silence on the channel.

"You are willing to seriously debate with me. That matters more than the statement itself."

Before Lin Yuan shut down the terminal, Sheng Lan stood at the door of the analysis room, clutching her memorandum.

"Director."

"Go on."

"She is testing your bottom line while leaving herself room to oppose you in the future."

Lin Yuan withdrew his hand from the terminal.

"I know."

Sheng Lan looked at him.

"You're not worried?"

Lin Yuan turned his chair toward the tactical screen. On the display, the density of intercepted communications from the direction of PLANT was still climbing.

"A sixteen-year-old girl, three days after being rescued by an unfamiliar power, disrupted the rhythm of both the Zala Faction and the Atlantic Federation with a single statement. At the same time, she didn't say a single good word about East Asia, and she even left herself room to oppose me in advance."

Sheng Lan's pen stopped over her memorandum.

"Director, are you worried or not?"

"Not worried."

Lin Yuan brought up Ye Qingluan's next intelligence summary on the screen.

"This person may become my greatest check and balance in the future. But an ally I need to subdue with strength is far less useful than one who chooses of her own accord to stand on my side. Let her keep watching, keep thinking, keep asking."

Sheng Lan pulled the door shut behind her, her boot heels striking out a steady rhythm in the corridor.

In the corner of the newest page of her memorandum, she wrote a name: Lacus.

There was no question mark beneath the name. Instead, she drew an equals sign, leaving the space on the right blank.