Shades of gray, p.35
Shades of Gray, page 35
“You must be Captain Aldatan,” said Tanjo, holding out his hand in the brief Telepath’s greeting. “I’m Tanjo, Liege. I do apologize for the way they rushed over, but we only just landed, and they’re very excitable.”
“It’s good to see them behaving like cubs, especially Shaidan.” Kusac gave a brief nod to the two guards accompanying Tanjo.
The cubs were casting surreptitious glances in their direction now. Kusac could see apprehension in the lie of their ears and tails. Shaidan, however, had his set at a jaunty angle.
“I wonder what he’s telling them.”
“Probably of your Warrior prowess,” said Tanjo with a small laugh. “They’re as thirsty for knowledge of their parents as plants in a drought.”
Startled, he looked back to Tanjo. “Only Shaidan is mine, isn’t he? I couldn’t detect any of the others having my blood.”
“Only Shaidan,” agreed the Brother as the cubs came over to join them. “I’m glad Liegena Carrie brought them down to K’oish’ik. They need to be able to scamper around fields and streams and be young for the first time in their lives.”
“That’s what I told her. For now, though, perhaps you’d better head into the Palace with us and see M’kou about where he’s billeting you all.”
“That would be most helpful.”
“The Lieutenant is in the office next to the King’s,” offered one of the guards as Kusac led the way to the Supplies entrance.
No sooner than they had entered the Palace than Kusac was hailed by ZSADHI on his wrist comm.
“The Va’Khoi has taken up a parking orbit at the Weather Orbital, Captain. Commander L’Seuli sends his regards to you and says he will leave presently to rendezvous on the surface.”
“Pass the news to M’kou and Captain Kaid, please.”
“As you command, Captain, it will be done.”
Seeing Tanjo’s surprised look, he said, “Palace AI. It has a quirky way about it. It’s got nodes all over the Palace; so if you need anything, just call out for it. That’s right, isn’t it, ZSADHI?”
“As the Captain says, Brother Tanjo. Well come to the Palace of Light. You and your charges are now in my data banks, though I will need you to stop for a quick retinal scan at the first checkpoint. It is my duty to see that you are comfortable and secure and that your needs are met. You will be staying in the nursery on the King’s private floor, the fourth level. If you would proceed there now, I will guide you through anything else you need to know.”
“Thank you, ZSADHI,” said Tanjo.
“I’m on my way up there anyway, so I’ll take you. Now you’re in the data banks, you should have no problems at the various checkpoints. Security’s high right now,” he said, leading them all to the first checkpoint.
“Captain Aldatan.” The guards on duty saluted crisply, then relaxed a little.
“I see you met up with the party from the Tooshu,” said the officer in charge. “If your companions would mind just stepping on this marked tile one at a time, so ZSADHI can scan them, I’d appreciate it.”
“Certainly,” Kusac said, gesturing to Tanjo.
The process took only a few minutes, and then they were all crowding into the small elevator up to the fourth floor.
As they spilled out, Kusac gestured his son over. “Shaidan can show you the nursery from here. I have to go down to the Admin level now.”
“Thank you, Captain. No doubt we’ll see each other again soon.”
“I’m sure we will,” said Kusac, stepping back into the elevator.
The Va’Khoi
L’Seuli got to his feet as the U’Churian and the Cabbaran were ushered into his lounge.
“Captain Tirak, and Annuur, a pleasure to see you again,” he said, offering his hand, palm uppermost, to them.
Tirak barely touched his fingers in greeting, but Annuur sat up on his haunches and put his hoof-tipped hand squarely into the Sholan’s and shook it before letting go.
“A telepath now, are you?” the Cabbaran asked, dropping back down onto all fours.
“I am, but how did you know?” he asked, a faint smile on his face as he gestured them to take a seat.
Annuur trotted over to the large pile of floor cushions placed specially for him, and after a moment’s pummeling them into a comfortable shape, dropped down with a sigh of contentment.
“You use Telepath greeting to Tirak, and you carry the scent of your partner. A Leska maybe?”
Tirak laughed, nudging the Cabbaran with his booted foot before sitting down. “Always so diplomatic, Annuur. Word travels, Commander. You have our congratulations on being gifted with a Leska.”
“Thank you. I’m blessed indeed,” L’Seuli murmured as he took his own seat again. “Can I offer you refreshments?”
“No, thank you, this is a quick visit. You’ll be expected down on the planet shortly.”
“What news have you, then?”
“We haven’t yet resumed trade with the Mryans and Vieshen in this sector because since we lifted our embargo on their goods, they’ve decided to put their prices up. Their regular traders have been behaving more moderately at our station, though, which is why we’ve allowed them back.”
“Some new undercurrent there is,” said Annuur. “They look at us and whisper now, or fall silent when either of our species comes near.”
Tirak nodded. “It’s like watching young ones at lessons—they know some secret we don’t, something that concerns us. Damned if we can find out what it is, though. Meanwhile, the raiding goes on as before, except that Chemerian ships are still least often hit by them.”
“Let me just recap on this,” said L’Seuli. “The Mryans and Vieshen were once slave races owned by the Valtegans.”
“Is so,” said Annuur, bobbing his long head, whiskers twitching at the end of his long, mobile snout. “They are least pleasant of the four races. Vieshen are feathered species not to be trusted. Young males secrete stones inside and are coated with secretions that made them most valuable to ancient Valtegans.”
L’Seuli look at the Cabbaran in horror. “You mean … they actually killed their own young to sell these stones to the Valtegans?”
“Regretful am I to say they did. But only for minerals do we deal with them.”
“I hate to ask what the Mryans did.”
“They were slaves, used to mine and do heavy work, nothing more. Argumentative they are and prone to fights. Like beings of nightmares they look and are behaving.”
“They sound like species to avoid, not trade with! Is it possible that the Chemerians are deep in with them? How do they behave around them?”
“Same as ever—rarely is a Chemerian seen in the station public bars and stores,” said Tirak. “We’ve been watching them closely, and agents of both species have visited the Chemerian Ambassador in his quarters there, but they have legitimate trade agreements with them. Unless we can prove some collusion over the attacked ships, we can’t move against them, even to putting recording devices in their quarters. There has to be trust there, the Matriarch says, or no one will come to trade with us.” Tirak pulled a face at that. “Sometimes diplomacy holds us back from proving what we know is happening.”
“Do you think it involves more than just raiding merchant ships?”
“No way of knowing yet. The raiders are sticking to the same space lines and patterns of behavior. Believe me, if we see a deviation from the norm, we’ll let you know and flag it as high priority.”
“Maybe we should send a few trader ships to your station, Tirak, ones with hidden armaments and crewed by Brothers. If we’re attacked, maybe we can get some useful prisoners.”
Tirak shrugged. “You’re welcome to try. We have, but they’re too fast, even for the Profit.”
“Raiders with expensive ships, not likely. They have backers, funding, so we think,” said Annuur. “Best we be watching them carefully and find out who—their own worlds or Chemerians.”
“Agreed. What of the M’zullians?”
“Watchers all see them continue plundering dead world,” said Annuur. “This interesting.”
“We’ve seen no reaction to K’hedduk’s departure from here as yet, but it would take some little time for them to respond. Plus, we don’t know exactly what the situation is on M’zull. Was there a coup? If so, then one assumes the Generals are in charge, but how loyal will they remain to an Emperor who failed to keep K’oish’ik?”
L’Seuli’s wrist comm buzzed discretely. “Time for me to head down to the surface,” he said, getting to his feet. “I have a meeting with King Zsurtul and his advisers to attend. Thank you both for updating me in person on the Watchers. We’ll meet again before I leave.”
Tirak and Annuur rose. “We have to get going too. I think there’s a banquet planned for this evening in your honor.”
“In that case, my Leska Jiosha’s coming. I’ll not suffer alone.”
Tirak laughed. “They’re not so bad. Zsurtul’s revamped everything to get most of the pomp and ceremony out of it, but he would be dishonoring you and the Brotherhood if there weren’t a formal dinner. I hear it will be a small one, though, in deference to the fact he’s still recovering from injuries he sustained trying to stop K’hedduk from leaving.”
“Really? The youth has spirit then. Till we meet again, Tirak, Annuur.”
K’oish’ik, Council chamber
Kezule turned off the holo images that they’d taken the day before when he’d shown Zsurtul the state of his world outside the City of Light. The drapes over the windows at the far end of the room slid back, letting in the sunlight again.
He sat down, the chair under him audibly tilting slightly to one side as he did. “You can see quite clearly for yourself that the Prime culture, left alone, is dying out, and we need to regenerate. Now we do have some resources of our own—Kij’ik is being towed here and should arrive sometime this evening to be placed in a geostationary orbit around K’oish’ik. On it is my fledgling colony. It will be ferried down here as soon as we have built at least a temporary township for them just outside the city here. As you came in to land, you may have seen it, L’Seuli.”
“I did. It progresses well. We have brought with us the prefabricated materials you requested, Kezule.”
“We thank you indeed,” said Zsurtul.
“Our other resource is the people of Ch’almuth. They were once an agricultural world with a small military and scientific presence. They have managed over the last fifteen hundred years to return to what the Valtegan people once were, not three castes but one. They are reaching a population level where they are happy to let those who wish to emigrate come here. All we lack is the means to ferry them to K’oish’ik in large enough numbers.”
“There’s an added problem that M’zull has for many years been raiding Ch’almuth not only for supplies but for their young people, mainly the females, as breeding stock,” said Kusac. “We anticipate another such incursion any time now. The details on our current situation were sent to your ship as soon as you docked. I don’t know if you’ve had time to read them.”
“My aide did and brought me up to speed on your situation. I’ll study them myself tonight. As I understand it, your main needs are the building materials we brought for you from Shola, a way to bring the Ch’almuthians who want to emigrate here, and a way to defend the Ch’almuthians from any M’zullian attack.”
“Not so much the latter,” said Kusac. “The Touibans have managed to repair the Ch’almuthian weather platform, which, as it turns out, is also armed. They have that now as well as a couple of fair-sized ships, so they can defend themselves against the craft that will be sent to do the cull. However, this visit will be the last for five to ten years, if all goes as the M’zullians expect. If we let it go ahead as planned, it would give the Primes some time to get up and running here. Five years is half a generation to them. We should have three weeks grace at least until K’hedduk lands on M’zull.“
“We need fighter planes, their pilots, and warriors, Commander L’Seuli,” said Zsurtul. “We need to train more of our military, and for that we are looking to you for help. I know how good the Brotherhood training is.”
“You were trained by Kusac and Kaid at the Warrior Guild, weren’t you?” said L’Seuli with a faint smile. “I remember that now. We’ll need to thrash out the details, but I can leave about two hundred Brothers and some ten extra fighters, but that’s all for now. We have to be prepared for the war to start nearer to home than here. We can also go to Ch’almuth and bring at least a thousand people here for you, if that would help.”
“Enormously,” said Zsurtul, the relief evident on his face. “The task of rebuilding my people back into one species again is enough of a burden without the prospect that the M’zullians will launch an all-out war on us.”
“As to that,” began L’Seuli.
“The war will happen out here at some point, L’Seuli,” said Kusac impatiently. Why couldn’t others see the reality as clearly as he did? “They need this world to recreate their Empire, and since we sent K’hedduk fleeing, his tail between his legs, he will be focused on K’oish’ik. Remember the Valtegan mind-set.” He cast a sideways glace at Kezule as he said that. “The balance has changed. Now we can decide whether to take the war to him from here, or wait for him to come to us.”
“He’s been defeated, very publicly,” said Kezule, his voice clipped with self-control. “However, he can prove that it was due to failed communications between M’zull and K’oish’ik, that the expected reinforcements did not arrive. That, and the presence of my daughter as a captive, will buy him some time on M’zull. We do know now that while he was here, his Generals staged a coup on his behalf and deposed his brother, the Emperor, so he does have all the resources of M’zull at his fingertips. But his Generals will turn on him at the first sign of weakness. At some point, he has to regain K’oish’ik to regain his honor and remain their Emperor. I believe he will try to take Ch’almuth first as the easier target.”
“He sees us as a barbaric backwater, Commander,” said Shyadd, speaking for the first time. “He’ll come, but he’ll come in force to wipe us out for daring to stand against him, and for succeeding, thanks to the bravery of our King, yourselves, and our other allies.”
“The reason we can’t take the war to him remains the same,” said L’Seuli. “Now we do have superior numbers, thanks to the demise of J’kirtikk, but they still have the weapon that destroyed all life on two of our worlds. And if we survive that long, inevitably it will come down to fighting on the planet’s surface. On the ground, we know from experience, none of the Alliance can beat the M’zullians on sheer brute strength, speed, and ferocity. The outcome is still not predictable.”
“Pity we didn’t have a couple of planet-buster bombs,” murmured Kaid, pulling a stim twig out of the pack in front of him.
L’Seuli looked askance at him. “If they existed, there’s no way even the Brotherhood could defend itself for using them.”
“Nice thought, though, you gotta admit that,” Kaid drawled, sitting back in his chair. “We don’t want to leave anything of them to rise up again in another fifteen hundred years, do we?”
“Thankfully, that’s not for us to decide,” said L’Seuli. “Is there anything else you need, King Zsurtul?”
Kusac and Kaid exchanged glances that said it all.
“There is. Since everyone here at this table is fully occupied, can you possibly spare a priest to help me replace the old Emperor cult with one belonging to one of our older Gods or Goddesses? Something more peaceful, perhaps a fertility deity.”
Kusac turned back to see L’Seuli blink in surprise.
“Yes, I can do that,” he said. “There’s no one I can spare on the Va’Khoi, but I will ask Father Lijou tonight when I return to the ship if he can send someone.”
Ghyakulla sat back on her heels, and wiping a smudge of wet earth from her nose, smiled.
On Shola, Conner looked up from the book he was reading to Noni.
“I have to leave tomorrow,” he said quietly, reaching a hand across the table to her.
She took it and squeezed his till her claws pricked his flesh. “So it begins, does it?”
“It does, the Gods help us all.”
CHAPTER 10
Zhal-Arema 11th day (March)
IT had been another bad night, one of disturbing visions of faceless beings and unaccomplished tasks that woke him every few hours. Luckily, Shaidan had asked to sleep with his brothers and sisters for the last two nights, so the only one disturbed by it had been him.
He was already late for his meeting down in the cells with Kezule, so breakfast had been what he could pile on a slice of bread and eat on the way down. Now it lay in an indigestible lump in his gut, which didn’t improve his temper.
He joined Kezule in the office, sitting down to watch the bank of monitors.
“Kij’ik arrived last night,” said Kezule. “They’re preparing to test the corridor.”
He grunted noncommittally. “When are you bringing down the civilians?”
“When we have somewhere for them to live. They’re safe on Kij’ik for now. We have to worry about those who come from Ch’almuth first as they’ll have nowhere to stay.”
“They can always be berthed in Kij’ik for the time being. Less work than trying to build a shantytown around them.”
“No, I don’t want to open up any more of the station until it is fully operational. We had too many botched systems running there. We’ll give them the materials,” said Kezule, “and provide some help. They’ll do the rest and will be on hand to help other newcomers when they arrive.”
“I suppose.”
“Where’s Kaid today? I expected him here but Banner is standing in for him.”
“It’s their Leska Link day. They need to spend the next twenty-eight hours alone, sharing their minds. You won’t see them until tomorrow.” Was that what was bothering him? He pushed the thought aside and sat up, trying to take an interest in what was happening. “I take it there’s nothing new since yesterday?”
