Ancillary Justice

On Shis’urna, One Esk plays a board game with Seven Issa, the human soldier accompanying Lieutenant Skaaiat, while Skaaiat spends the night with Awn. After a comment of One Esk’s, Seven Issa expresses surprise that ships and their ancillaries have feelings. One Esk explains that emotions make it easier to handle minor decisions: “Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things” (88). But when One Esk demonstrates a human smile, Seven Issa recoils.

Meanwhile, others of One Esk’s 20 bodies are out on the lake with Denz Ay and her daughter, who leads them to another cache of guns. One Esk checks the serial numbers against Justice of Toren’s memory banks and realizes that the guns, which were confiscated during the annexation, cannot belong to anyone on Shis’urna. One Esk brings the guns back to Lieutenants Awn and Skaaiat, who deduce that someone powerful must be providing the Tanmind with an excuse to attack the Orsians, under the promise the Tanmind will not receive punishment. Lieutenant Awn tells the head priest to put the Orsians on alert for a possible attack from the upper city.

The next morning, news arrives of Anaander Mianaai’s impending visit. Mianaai, as the sole arbiter of Radchaai law, has ruled the Radch for 3,000 years, and operates throughout Radchaai space in thousands of genetically identical bodies. One Esk notes the “sharp coincidence” of Mianaai finally visiting Ors just as they have discovered the guns, but Lieutenant Awn is glad of the opportunity to speak with Mianaai about the situation with no intermediaries.

Later, a single, elderly body of Anaander Mianaai arrives alone, on foot. Lieutenant Awn, uncertain of how to behave in front of the Lord of Radch, blurts out that there is something they must discuss alone, and that relations between the upper and lower city make it unsafe for the Lord of the Radch to visit the temple. Mianaai publicly dismisses Awn’s concerns and hints that if the situation is as described, then the lieutenant is not doing her job. One Esk, listening to the Tanmind gathering in the upper city, realizes that they perceive Mianaai walking through their city without stopping at the Orsian temple as an insult. Six of One Esk’s bodies go into the upper city to command the Tanmind to return to their homes.

Strigan and Breq discuss the treaty the Radchaai have made with the Presger while Seivarden sleeps off the effects of Breq punching her in the face. Breq notes the Presger regard all other life forms as “their rightful prey, property, or playthings” (101). Strigan objects to the Radchaai negotiating a treaty on behalf of all humanity, arguing that this is simply another way for the Radchaai to exercise dominance. Breq observes that some Radchaai oppose the treaty, because when “one is the agent of order and civilization in the universe, one doesn’t stoop to negotiate” (102). Strigan still finds it difficult to believe that the Radchaai are not brainwashed into unquestioning conformity. Breq insists that they are individuals capable of disagreeing with one another, however alike they may appear to outsiders.

Strigan questions Breq about why the Radchaai seem to have no gender, or to be all the same gender. She speculates about Breq’s identity, wondering how Breq has developed such an intimate knowledge of Radchaai culture if she is not one of them. “I wondered from the start if you were an ancillary, but I don’t see much in the way of implants” (104). Breq merely responds that she is “Breq, from the Gerentate” (105).

The arrival of a Nilter child bearing a wounded family member interrupts their conversation. The child explains her uncle’s injuries as the result of a tundra predator, known as an ice devil, attack. While Strigan treats the girl’s uncle, Breq tries to keep the girl occupied, bringing her fermented milk and asking her if she knows any songs or games. The two play a Nilter game called Tiktik to pass the time cheerfully until the girl’s mother arrives. Later, Seivarden wakes up, “saying nothing, looking at no one” (105).

The residents of the upper city follow One Esk’s orders to return home, but the atmosphere remains tense. Afraid of inflaming the situation further, but anxious to protect the lower city, Lieutenant Awn commands One Esk to stand guard in the plaza that divides the two cities.

Four hours before dawn, One Esk experiences “the third worst thing that has ever happened to [it]” (112). One Esk abruptly loses the link between its ancillary bodies, Justice of Toren, and the numerous trackers and monitors that give One Esk access to the movements and physical responses of others: “[S]uddenly all twenty of me were blind, deaf, immobile. Each segment could only see from a single pair of eyes, hear only through a single pair of ears, move only that single body” (112).

One segment of One Esk wakes the head priest, who sets off the storm alarm warning residents of the lower city to draw their shutters and seal off their houses. Another runs to join Lieutenant Awn while others freeze or react in confusion. One segment is close enough to register the Lord of Radch’s lack of surprise at the event. In the upper city, Jen Shinnan runs out of her house crying. Claiming that the Orsians abducted and killed her niece, she gathers an angry mob and leads it down to the lower city. Lieutenant Awn orders One Esk’s segments to herd much of the Tanmind mob into the temple, despite the misgivings of the high priest.

In the temple, Lieutenant Awn, accompanied by Anaander Mianaai, confronts the rioters. Jen Shinnan says that the Tanmind must take justice into their own hands in the face of Orsian violence: “Now they mean to kill us all, is it any wonder we should defend ourselves?” (118). Lieutenant Awn points out that Jen Shinnan’s earlier claim—that the Orsians harassed her niece in the lower city—proved false. To counter, Jen Shinnan then claims she has just learned of the Orsians’ secret weapons cache planted in the lake. Lieutenant Awn affirms her investigation of the cache, explaining that the Orsian citizens told her of its existence.

One Esk’s segments sense that the Tanmind expect Anaander Mianaai to take their side against Lieutenant Awn. Mianaai chastises the lieutenant for her handling of the situation and forces Awn to admit to Jen Shinnan’s involvement in the plot to attack the lower city under the guise of avenging her niece’s murder. Mianaai then orders Awn to shoot all the Tanmind in the temple.

As One Esk notes, “the idea of shooting citizens was, in fact, extremely shocking and upsetting. What, after all, was the point of civilization if not the well-being of citizens?” (121). When Awn hesitates, Mianaai asks if she is refusing an order. Lieutenant Awn regretfully gives the order, and after a brief hesitation, One Esk’s segments obey, killing all Tanmind present. Mianaai then asks One Esk when she (Anaander Mianaai) last visited Justice of Toren. One Esk is surprised to hear itself giving an answer at odds with its memory. Later, One Esk finds the device used to block communications in Jen Shinnan’s house. One Esk also discovers one segment dead, likely the result of rioters, as well as the body of Jen Shinnan’s niece, who drowned.