“Most of the other tribes nearby are in much worse shape than we are,” the chief went on. “We’re much stronger than the rest.”
Scott sighed. Of course this was the best around. It still might not be the best anywhere, but if they hadn’t even heard rumors of a group with tech, then there might just be none left. That left him up a creek without a paddle.
“Toby, you think we can get the ship repaired and airborne without help?” Scott asked, tapping the map in thought.
“Woof,” Toby replied. He whipped his tail against the floor excitedly.
Scott looked over at him sharply. He’d been expecting something more than that from the robot. But maybe it was best if the dog not act like a person too much. He recalled Kendall’s reaction. Some of these people might act before they thought if they became alarmed. Toby would be tough to break, but he wasn’t invulnerable.
“That is the strangest dog I have ever seen,” the chief said. “May I touch him?”
Scott glanced at Toby, who rolled his eyes and gave a tiny nod. He was playing the role of a dog for now, but that wouldn’t last.
“Sure,” Scott said.
The chief ran his fingers over the dog’s head and back. He peered down intently at the robot, then flipped his hand over and rapped with his fingers. Toby jumped at the movement and came to step behind Scott.
“Sorry. I was just curious. He has a metal shell, like steel but shinier. It is an armor of some sort?” the chief asked.
“No, chief. It’s the skin of this sort of dog. Toby is from my home, and special to me,” Scott said.
“Hector,” the chief replied. When Scott looked confused, he added “My name is Hector. I’m the chief here, but nobody calls me that. So, you plan to repair your — ship, you said? A boat of some sort?”
Scott wasn’t sure how much he ought to reveal. If he told these people everything, would they even believe him? On the other hand, they’d already seen his ship fall from the sky, so they’d be inclined to believe at least part of the truth. It didn’t make sense to keep secrets they already knew, and maybe he could win some trust by offering information.
“A ship that flies,” Scott said. “Or did, before the dragon ate part of it.”
“Ah, the dragon you slew?” Hector asked.
“Yes.”
“And how exactly did you manage it?” Hector said. His eyes narrowed and a little menace trickled into his voice. “I’m only asking because you should know that in living memory, no one has ever slain a dragon.”
“Father, the dragon was dead, buried under his ship,” Tamara said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“So you said,” Hector replied. “But no one has told me how it was done. You’ll understand my skepticism.”
“I used a device on my ship to kill it,” Scott said. That was mostly true. Without the ram scoop catching the dragon’s tail, Scott figured it would have flown away rather than being impaled by the ship. “But it’s probably broken along with the rest of the vessel. It’s going to take a lot of work to get her flying again.”
Hector ran his fingers through his beard, nodding. “I think I understand the situation, then. You came from someplace far off, in this flying ship. You used a weapon on the ship to kill the dragon, which in turn damaged your ship before it died.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” Scott said. He glanced at Tamara, wondering why there was such a worried look on her face. The frown, too, what was that about?
“A weapon like that would be incredibly useful to have around,” Hector said.
“I can see why you’d say that, sure,” Scott agreed. He was starting to have a bad feeling about how this conversation was turning. “But like I said, it’s trashed.”
“And like you said, perhaps it can be repaired,” Hector said.
“Did I say that?” Scott chuckled nervously. The last time he’d felt like this, he was being held up at the ATM in downtown Cincinnati at midnight. This little interview had the same vibe.
He backed up a step. Two guards were between him and the door.
“You did,” Hector said. He nodded. “You should be aware, my people live close to the ocean.”
Something struck Scott in the back of the head. Dizzy and unable to keep himself up, he tumbled forward onto the floor. As the darkness overtook him, the last thing he heard was Hector saying, “We are very good at fixing boats.”
Twelve
Scott stared at the picture on his phone, looking to the image for strength and courage. It was almost done — his rocket. He couldn’t believe the thing was finally nearing completion. It had taken five years. But by god, it was at long last almost done. There was one last thing he had to deal with. Of all his worries over the course of the project, this had been the biggest. It was the one hurdle he’d dreaded more than any other.
The house in front of him was elegant. Rose bushes lined the walk on either side. Scott knew from experience that their thorns were as sharp as their flowers were beautiful. This was entirely appropriate, since their owner had similar qualities.
He mustered his courage and climbed the steps up to the old oak door, but his finger wavered over the doorbell button. Did he have the strength to manage this? Scott swallowed hard. He’d been so certain before, but now that he was actually facing the danger, he wasn’t so sure.
In fact, this could definitely be done another day. No need to take care of this particular matter now. He could definitely come back another time. Scott turned to go, planning to beat a hasty retreat back to his motorcycle, when the door opened.
“Scott! So good to see you,” the woman in the doorway said.
“Hi, Mom. Good to see you, too,” Scott replied.
He tried to cover up that he’d been about to flee, but he was pretty sure she’d noticed. She turned away, flowing back into the house. Scott winced. This wasn’t starting well.
“Come, sit,” his mother said, taking a seat on the large sofa in the front room and patting the cushion next to her.
“You’re looking well, Mom,” Scott said as he checked around for someplace to sit that put him outside arm’s reach. There was an easy chair just across from where she sat that ought to do nicely. He plopped himself down.
She frowned at him. Olivia Free wasn’t used to being thwarted. Getting her way in life was second nature to her and always had been. Scott wasn’t like that; everyone told him he was more like his Dad. Bjorn had been a carefree adventurer, wandering the world in search of his next epic stunt.
Where Bjorn had been flighty, Liv had been stolid. Where he had been buoyant, she had been stern. Scott had to admit that it was his mother who had the lion’s share of the brains in the family, however. He often wished that he’d inherited more of that brilliance from her, but he had long since despaired at ever coming even close.
“You’ve got a trip planned, I hear,” his mother said. That snapped Scott’s mind right back to the subject at hand. How had she heard? More importantly, precisely what had she heard?
“Yes, Mom. I have. I wanted to come see you before I left,” Scott said. “I’m going to be gone quite a while, you see.”
She blinked her eyes at him. Scott half-smiled. His mother wasn’t very good at pretending to be vapid. She knew it, too, which meant she was toying with him. That was OK. Mom in a playful mood was better than Mom in an angry one.
“You know everything, don’t you?” Scott said.
His mother snapped a single nod.
“You’ve been following every step of my project’s progress since I first started, haven’t you?” Scott asked. Again, he already knew the answer.
She nodded a second time. “I was only wondering when — or even if — you planned to tell me. I’m glad you did, Scott.”
She smiled, and it was a real smile that lit up her face this time, not a plastic put-on one. This smile went all the way to her eyes, which were shining with unshed tears.
“I’m proud of you,” she said.
Scott’s jaw dropped. Of all the responses he’d expected from his mother, this was last on the list. He’d anticipated anger, at having burned so much of the family fortune on this adventure. Or fury because he was leaving her behind, not for a little while, but forever. Once Scott left, he would never see his mother again.
To the best of his knowledge, his mother had never said those words before.
“Oh, shut your mouth before you catch flies,” she snapped, sounding much more like the mother he knew well. “Yes, I’m proud of you. Damn it, son! It isn’t every mother whose child invents the fastest spaceship ever built.”
“I didn’t so much invent it—”
“—As invest in its invention. I know all about it, remember?” she replied. “Still, you had the vision to understand what the photon rocket could do, and the drive to accomplish your goal. That’s a side of you that you’ve never shown me before.”
“Your father’s influence, I suspect,” she went on. “Oh, I loved Bjorn. His zest for life made mine better every day he was in it. But if the man had one most infuriating trait about him, it was his inability to strive for… well, anything. Most things came easily to him. To you as well. Those things that came hard, he simply avoided.”
Scott had done much the same thing. He’d briefly won enthusiastic support from his mother after being accepted to Harvard at eighteen. But when he dropped out six months later, she had been much less pleased with him. Those courses had been hard! Besides, what did he need a college degree for, if he was just going to follow in his father’s footsteps and travel about on adventures? Skydiving, deep sea exploring, polar treks — the world was his oyster.
Until it wasn’t anymore. Watching his father lose his mind had been the hardest thing Scott had ever endured. Was his mother right? Had something changed inside him? He didn’t feel any different, but his Mom was a perceptive woman.
“The ship is ready to go. I’ll be leaving soon. It’s a two-year trip,” Scott said.
“For you, perhaps. How long for us you leave behind?” she asked.
“Two hundred years.”
The silence hung between them in the room like a shroud. An apt analogy; once he left, he would effectively be dead to her, and she to him. While they’d both live on, it would be in completely separate lives.
“I’ve made you something,” his mother said, sniffling a little. She clapped her hands twice.
“Oh, Mom, you didn’t have to. Really!” Scott said. He was imagining what it could be. His mother’s craft projects were things of legend. Once, he’d worn one into school as a child. The other children in class had sworn the thing was giving them headaches. The girl right behind him ran from the class to vomit in the bathroom. Mr. Humbert politely asked him to remove the sweater and pack it away before exiting the room just as swiftly as the girl had.
That was the end of wearing Mom’s presents anywhere. After that day, Scott had carefully said thank-you for each one, and then just as carefully packed them away someplace where they would never be seen by the eyes of mortal men again.
Some things were too terrible to leave loose in the world.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” his mother snapped. If she knew about the project, then damn it, she probably knew about the Secret Sweater Depot, as well. How many more of his secrets had she guessed? It didn’t pay to have a genius for a mother.
“Woof.”
Scott jumped halfway out of his seat. A metal dog was sitting on the floor beside him.
“Um, good boy?” he said, hesitant.
“Thank you. I like to think I am a better boy than you. Imagine, turning to walk away from your own mother’s door,” the dog said.
Scott’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he turned back to face his mother. “It talks.”
“Yes, indeed he does,” she replied, stressing the pronoun. “Toby here is useful in all sorts of ways. I had him built specially for your trip once I knew the full scope of what you were doing. You’ll need someone out there to keep you company in space for two years. And you never know just what you’ll come back to when you return. Having an ally you can trust will be a boon, I’m sure.”
“Thanks, mom,” Scott said. This time, it was heartfelt. Of all the gifts she’d given him, Toby had to be the coolest.
Thirteen
Tamara felt for a pulse in the stranger’s neck and found one. She hadn’t been sure, at first. She glared up at Kraig, the small club still in his meaty hands.
“He’s alive. Did you have to hit him so hard?” Tamara asked.
Kraig just shrugged and turned away. He wasn’t known for his thinking ability, but he was a big man and hit hard. All good reasons for her father to keep him on his personal enforcer squad. She got back to her feet and turned to her father and chief.
“That wasn’t necessary. He was already cooperating with us,” Tamara said.
“Yes, but he isn’t from our Keep. How can we trust him to have our interests at heart?” Hector said. “Look at his clothing and at his dog. Does it make you wonder what other amazing things might be waiting back on his ship? It should. This could be the thing that saves our people.”
“It’s wrong, father. To strike a person who came to us as a guest is wrong. To steal from him is wrong.”
Hector waved aside her concerns. “There is no wrong when it is for the good of our Keep and our people.”
Tamara disagreed, but didn’t know how to convince her father. There were some lines you simply didn’t want to ever cross, no matter how dire the situation. It felt like they were crossing them all the time now, though. Survival at any cost was the new normal. But were they really surviving if they sacrificed everything that mattered about themselves in the process?
“Take him to the lower holding cells,” Hector said.
Two of his guards picked Scott up under his arms and dragged him from the room. Those cells were tiny, dark, and wet. He would wake up alone and knowing only that he’d been betrayed. Tamara hated every bit of it.
“I told him he would be safe with us,” she said.
“You should not have done so,” Hector replied.
“But this smears my honor now.”
“Not so. He will be safe. In a cell. While we figure out what to do with him.”
Tamara turned away and stared at a wall.
“My daughter, you are angry. Don’t be. Someday, all of these decisions will rest on your shoulders instead of mine. Then you’ll better see why sometimes the hard decisions are necessary for the good of our people,” Hector said.
“If you say so, father,” Tamara replied.
She didn’t think she could ever be so cold about harming someone else. Tamara would fight when it was needful, but that was always against an active threat. The idea of striking an unarmed man down from behind when he was visiting under a promise of security disgusted her. She didn’t think time or duty would change her feelings on the subject.
“We will leave at first light to investigate this stranger’s boat,” Hector said, speaking now to the others assembled in the room. He ignored Tamara as he spoke.
“It’s not a boat,” Tamara said. “More like a tower. It resembles the towers in the ancient cities.”
“But he said it was a boat?” Hector replied, his brows knitting together.
“A ship. He said it was a ship that flew. A tower that came from the heavens,” Tamara said.
“All the more reason to explore it and plumb its secrets. We will bring the dog along as well,” Hector said. “As insurance, but also in case it might be useful.”
He rapped his knuckles on Toby’s head. They rang like a soft bell on the metal plating.
“Remarkable creature. You will behave, won’t you boy?” Hector asked the dog.
“Woof,” Toby said, wagging his tail.
Hector laughed. “I thought so. Good. I will need some of my guardsmen. Kraig, see to assembling a team.”
The big man nodded and left the room.
&n
bsp; “I’d like to come along as well, father,” Tamara said.
“I think that might not be wise,” Hector said.
“But I found the ship. I’ve spoken to your prisoner. If anyone should be able to find the secrets of his ship, it would be me,” Tamara protested.
“You are too close to this, daughter. It might be dangerous, as well. I can’t risk both of us on the same venture,” Hector said. “No, you will remain here, taking my place as leader until I return.”
“But…”
“That is my final word. You are dismissed,” Hector said.
When he spoke like that, more protest would only cause him to dig his heels in deeper. Talking about it further wasn’t going to make things any better. Tamara closed her mouth, making her face a mask to hide her anger.
“May I go then, father?” she asked.
“You may.”
She turned and left the room. It was maddening, a smear on her personal honor that he’d done as he had. The stranger had expected to be their guest, a hero for having killed a dragon. Instead, he’d been assaulted and imprisoned.
But what could she do about it? There were few options open to her. Tamara returned to her quarters and tried to rest, but sleep came very slowly and wasn’t restful when it did. Her dreams were full of dragons chasing her down for having betrayed the man from the sky.
She woke still exhausted after what felt like only a few hours. Tamara dressed and stepped from her room back into the great tunnel. Like her father, her quarters were in the warren of passages which ran between the twin tunnels where most of her people dwelled.
Scant daylight poured in through cracks in the defensive wall. The tunnel spent most of each daylight period in a barely-lit gloom. She preferred to be above ground, living in the light. It would help clear her thoughts at least.
Tamara made her way to the watch-tower where a guard stood at his duty post, watching for danger to the Keep. He nodded to her but didn’t interfere with her passage past his post. There were some benefits to being the chief’s daughter. One of them was having relatively free run of the entire Keep.
The Quantum Dragonslayer Page 5