The Orphaned Worlds

by Michael Cobley

  ‘My, my, you are a tall fellow! I think I have a big chair somewhere that may suit you.’

  ‘You are most kind,’ Qabakri said in a low, whispery voice. ‘But I am happy to stand.’

  Engineer Bao smiled, gave a short bow and produced small battered stools for the others. Kao Chih quickly took in his surroundings, a narrow room with high rock walls and a level floor covered in matting. There were shelves and boxes of what looked like broken domestic tools while overhead the ceiling was obscured by clusters of pipes that snaked through, criss-crossing each other, some descending the near walls, others continuing into the rock. The air was warm and faint hisses could be heard all around.

  ‘Engineer,’ said Si Wu Chu, ‘these are the special guests I told you about.’

  ‘Ah, you people are from the stars, yes? The up-and-out? From Earthhome?’

  Silveira pushed his goggles up to reveal his decidedly non-Asiatic eyes and Engineer Bao laughed in amazement.

  ‘Round eyes!’ Engineer Bao said in delight, vigorously shaking Silveira’s hand, then Kao Chih’s. ‘But you’re not …’

  Kao Chih breathed deeply. ‘No, Engineer Bao, but my grandparents fled this place with Deng Guo.’

  ‘Well, now.’ Bao glanced at Sister Shi, and chuckled. ‘Si Wu does not approve of you, but it seems to me a good thing that the sons of the sons return home. So, you are here to see what those Suneye devils have done to our world, yes? And afterwards, Earthhome will surely set us free when they see what pains we have suffered.’

  ‘That is our task, Sir Engineer,’ said Silveira. ‘What of your big friend?’ said Engineer Bao. ‘He says little, so his words must be very valuable.’

  ‘He is our silent observer,’ said Kao Chih. ‘And as the ancients said, actions speak louder than words.’

  Engineer Bao’s eyes widened in a mystified expression which then turned into a broad smile. ‘Ah, I see, a guardian. Well, I am sure that we can conduct your business in safety – I know all the secret tunnels and paths, even a few that bypass the sealed corridors to the other districts.’

  Sister Shi smiled at Engineer Bao then turned to the three offworlders with a serious face.

  ‘With Bao’s help your investigations will be in good hands. I must now leave to attend to my children, but I shall return to take you back to your ship when Bao sends word. Till then, may Kwan Yin watch over you.’

  The Engineer saw her out through another wider door, locking it after her, then shrugged on a blue work jacket bearing many oil stains. With Si Wu Chu gone his demeanour seemed noticeably more sombre.

  ‘My friends from the stars,’ he said. ‘Little of what you will see is a pleasure to the eye. There are two hidden routes which lead through Yaotai District, and if there is time we shall explore them both. But I must ask you to be as quiet as mice – youth tong are everywhere and we must avoid arousing suspicion. Follow me and stay close.’

  At the rear of the workshop cave, the matting gave way to grilled metal decking. The rear wall was an array of pipes and valves, both archaic needle gauges and digital, from which a low chorus of drones and hissing came. The Engineer went over to a shadowy corner, and pulled up a hinged metal grille to reveal a set of steps. Producing a stub of candle he lit it and led them down into the gloom.

  Below was a long, winding tunnel whose low ceiling forced Qabakri to move at a crouch. The Roug offered no complaint and Kao Chih wondered if he was using his shapeshift ability to adapt to the cramped conditions. Indeed, when they reached a high section and a set of stairs leading up he seemed to have shrunk, yet when they emerged in a high, narrow side passage off a brighter corridor, he appeared as tall as before. Bao indicated a number of slots and openings in one wall.

  ‘These look down on Shin Sheng Street, one of Yaotai’s walk-ways,’ the Engineer said. ‘This corridor used to be an access to an older section which was closed off when it suffered a huge cave-in. But now I use it to watch for any trouble.’

  ‘Honourable Engineer Bao,’ said Silveira. ‘I would like to make a recording of these sights, and of your own commentary if that is permissible.’

  Bao shrugged amiably. ‘I have no objection.’

  Silveira took out a small triangular device from which he spooled a thin, stretchy headband. Fixing it around his forehead, with the device pressed to his right temple, he pressed a little stud on its casing, smiled at Bao and went over to one of the slots. Sliding a thin wooden slat aside, he peered out. Kao Chih and the others followed suit. Grinding poverty was starkly on display, hollow cheeks and a desperate weariness, old women hunched over dilapidated clothing, stitching, people gathered round small cooking pots, a few children racing along the back alleys, their frantic play the only evidence of any kind of happiness. And apart from a few wrinkled grandfathers watching blankly from windows or sitting by doorsteps, there was no sign of other menfolk.

  ‘They are working in the mineral mines,’ Bao said once the openings had been closed up again. ‘After the Suneye monoclan defeated our forebears, their prospectors found rich seams of ylynly crystal through the roots of this mountain, a profitable opportunity they could not pass by. So they dug out these tunnels, caged our forefathers within them and forced them to work in the lower passages, sorting and extracting in the wake of great boring machines which chewed their way down into the mountain’s vitals. As they do to this day.’

  Kao Chih started to ask a question but the Engineer forestalled him with a raised hand.

  ‘Let us climb to the overpass,’ he murmured. ‘We will be in a higher place and I shall answer your questions.’

  They had to climb two steep flights of steps to get there but it turned out to be excellent for observation. A low corridor cut through oddly pale stone; it had small shafts along one side that looked down through mesh barriers at a wide street and a small market, most of whose stalls were bare and unattended. Engineer Bao explained that food was strictly rationed, especially since the other districts, Shibei and Tangxia, sealed up the linking corridors. This was due to the murder of the district magistrate at the hands of one of the youth tong gangs who were now acting like brigands, abusing people and stealing their food and belongings.

  From the overpass corridor, Bao took them on a winding tour through the walls, ceilings and sometimes floors of Yaotai District. At every turn they saw only privation and suffering, haggard and drawn faces, and here and there among the Humans were other sentients, here a Kiskashin, there a Henkayan, and all escorted by a personal guard of Gomedrans.

  ‘Ah, yes, the Va-Zla,’ Engineer Bao said. ‘They are extortioners, gangsters and bullies, invited in to police us by the Suneye administrators. Bloodsuckers, more like, is what they are.’

  Regarding these non-Humans from an overhead location, Kao Chih noticed that Mandator Qabakri remained at his observation slot after the others moved away.

  I wonder what you think of all of this, he thought. How does such oppression appear from the long-lived Roug perspective?

  From there Engineer Bao took them to a couple more observation points, each confirming what they had already seen. But the last view only came after an unexpected trip outside. A twisty side tunnel sloped upwards and opened out onto a narrow ledge with a sheer rock face falling away beneath them. Kao Chih tried not to think about that drop as he focused on following the Engineer. After ten heart-pounding minutes the ledge curved up to an immense crag jutting from the side of the mountain. Round the other side of it was a natural platform and as Kao Chih stepped onto it a stunning vista opened up before him.

  To the west was that range of massive peaks from which they’d come hours ago. Engineer Bao had told them that a city called Thaul, built by the Suneye mercantilists, lay on the other side, obscured by dark tapering masses. But right there, to the north, was the sight that they’d been brought to see.

  They sat in long lines, rank after rank stretching across a great plain, hundreds of motionless, colossal behemoths, armoured hulls impervious to the elem
ents. Kao Chih had seen pix and vidage of the extractor machines in school, seen images of them in paintings and vee-dramas, and often imagined himself as one of the valiant colonists fighting these monsters, trying to resist the savage theft of their world. But to see them here like this was far more chilling.

  ‘Here are the devourers that destroyed our world,’ the Engineer said. ‘Some of them.’

  ‘Are there more?’ said Silveira.

  Bao smiled bleakly. ‘This horde numbers less than a thousand but over the mountains, south of Thaul, are another four thousand. Reportedly, two thousand are still chewing their way through what’s left of the Great Northern Ramparts and about three thousand are working away on the ocean bed. It takes time and effort to eat a planet.’

  ‘Ten thousand,’ Silveira murmured, adjusting his camera device to be sure of a good shot. ‘How big are they?’

  ‘On average, about 1,500 feet long, 400 feet across and 350 feet at the high point.’ The Engineer laughed. ‘I got those figures from an old book which called them the Tao-Tie …’

  ‘The hungry demon?’ Kao Chih said. ‘Who was so hungry it ate its own head!’

  ‘The very same,’ Bao said, glancing out at the things crouching on the barren plain. ‘But those stories came from long ago and far away. The Suneye barbarians sent real abominations to consume our world, and now that they’ve trapped us in this cage of a mountain, they’re watching as we suffer and starve and turn on each other. Please help us – if you don’t, who will?’

  Silveira nodded and bowed his head slightly, as if troubled. Then to Kao Chih’s surprise, Qabakri stretched out one big, sleeve-smothered, heavily gloved hand and placed it gently on the Engineer’s shoulder.

  ‘We hear your words,’ the Roug said, withdrawing his hand and turning his cowled face back to the distant serried ranks. ‘Help will not be denied.’

  Kao Chih regarded the bulkily robed Roug with surprise at such an overt expression of support. Engineer Bao seemed pleased, yet not overly so.

  ‘Your words are kind, offworlder,’ he said. ‘But ships and guns would be kinder still.’

  Retracing their path took less than half an hour. But as they neared the steps leading up to Bao’s workshop they clearly heard the weeping of children and muffled thuds and shouts. Engineer Bao hurried forward and up the steps, flung back the trapdoor and clambered out. Kao Chih pulled himself up, rolled to his feet and saw Bao approach two children who cowered crying in a dark corner of the workshop’s back room.

  Suddenly there was a massive crash and a woman’s scream from out in the workshop. As one, Kao and the others rushed through in time to see Sister Shi throw herself at the nearest of three Gomedrans who were advancing into the room. Behind them the wide door gaped open, its frame cracked and buckled. Then a vicious punch from the Gomedran sent Sister Shi flying backwards to lie still on the floor.

  ‘Ah, more Humans eager to give up their valuables,’ said one of the intruders. ‘Empty your pockets and hand over the cubs and you may live …’ He paused and stared closely at Silveira. ‘Heh, a round-eye! – you’ll be worth more than the rest put together …’

  Kao Chih was about to deliver a contemptuous response when a figure leaped past him and lashed out wildly at the Gomedran who had knocked down Sister Shi.

  ‘Va-Zla brutes!’ yelled Engineer Bao, wielding a long-handled hammer.

  Then, before Kao Chih or Silveira could react, Qabakri swept past them like a speeding colossus, swept up lengths of heavy pipe in either hand and bore down on the other two Gomedrans. A look of terror seized one, who whirled and made a lunging dash for the doorway. But a pipe, hurled like a javelin, caught him in the back of the neck and struck him to the floor. The other Gomedran stood his ground, snarling as he rained blows on the Roug with a weighted club. Qabakri batted the impacts aside, seized him by his collar and threw him bodily across the workshop. The Va-Zla bandit struck the wall, fell in a heap on the floor and did not rise.

  At the same time, Engineer Bao kicked the legs out from under his opponent, who then received a none-too-gentle clout with that impressive hammer. Seeing the Gomedran crumple to the ground, Bao dropped his weapon and rushed over to the motionless form of Sister Shi. After a tense moment or two he announced that she still had a pulse but her breathing was shallow.

  ‘Valiant offworlders, I cannot leave her side,’ Bao said. ‘I must send word for a doctor and her children need to be watched over. Will you find your own way back to your vessel? – you can have the sensor tower device.’

  ‘We should be able to manage, Engineer Bao,’ said Silveira as he carefully put away his recorder.

  Bao dug into a pocket and produced Sister Shi’s handheld emitter device. ‘Take it, I can fabricate another. All I ask is that Earthhome sends ships and soldiers to help us.’

  ‘I’ll make sure that others see what is happening here.’ Silveira turned to the others. ‘Time we were leaving, I believe.’

  ‘I intend to remain behind,’ Qabakri said suddenly. ‘Duty compels me.’

  Kao Chih and Silveira stared at the Roug, still wrapped in the dark folds of his immense robe.

  ‘A risky decision,’ said the Earthsphere agent. ‘The consequence of discovery could be grave.’

  ‘That is correct,’ Qabakri said. ‘But my decision stands.’

  Bao grinned. ‘I am glad. You are a very handy fellow, almost like the bear of legend.’

  Silveira gave a slight shrug. ‘As you wish.’

  ‘You go ahead,’ Kao Chih said. ‘I want to have a final word with our courageous companion.’

  The Earthsphere agent nodded and followed Engineer Bao to the rear room where the outside door was. Nearby Sister Shi was starting to stir so Kao Chih drew Qabakri aside.

  ‘Are you sure about this, honourable one? The dangers of capture …’

  Then the Roug reached up and tugged aside its capacious cowl, revealing the broad, almost plain features of a Chinese man. With short black hair and deep brown eyes in a large face, the head seemed in proportion to the Roug’s bulky size.

  ‘You’ve transformed?’ Kao Chih said in a strangled whisper. ‘Were you planning to do this all along?’

  ‘I was prepared for the eventuality,’ Qabakri said, adjusting the baggy folds around the neck. ‘After witnessing such desperate suffering, it became a necessary choice.’

  ‘Why would you do this for members of another species?’

  ‘The Ancients laid a grave responsibility upon us,’ the Roug said. ‘But with the passing ages we have denied it and laid it aside. The time has come to take up that purpose again.’ Then Qabakri smiled a human smile. ‘Tell me, Pilot Kao Chih, if the roles were reversed and you had the opportunity to use your strength to help members of my race who were suffering, would you not do the same?’

  Kao Chih nodded. ‘Yes, I would. Perhaps I should stay here as well …’

  ‘You have to return with Silveira to V’Hrant,’ the Roug said. ‘You must ensure that my people receive reliable testimony about the situation here.’

  Kao Chih gave a slow nod as the implication that Silveira might prove unreliable sunk in.

  ‘Well, if you are staying behind, you should give yourself a name for others to know you by.’

  ‘I have thought on this – are you familiar with the story Shuihu chuan?’

  ‘The Water Margin chronicle? – indeed I am.’

  ‘I have decided to adopt the name Wu Song.’

  Kao Chih laughed. ‘The Tiger Hunter! – a worthy name to live up to.’

  Qabakri smiled. ‘I hope I shall. Now you should go, catch up with Silveira and help him regain his vessel. With its abilities you should have no problems departing Pyre.’

  Kao Chih hurried through to the back room, where Bao stood at the door to the outside. Saying goodbye he stepped into the gloom as the door closed behind him. For a moment he stood there, listening as Qabakri told Bao why he was remaining then introduced himself by his new name. Kao Chih heard th
e Engineer utter a delighted laugh, after which Qabakri gave a plausible ambitious-parents explanation which led into a dialogue on fathers. Kao Chih shook his head and hurried after Silveira.

  JULIA

  The plan was simple – fake a hull breach and a shipwide life support shutdown, then while Talavera and her goons were rushing for the escape pods, all the Enhanced would depart aboard a commandeered shuttle. The devil was in the details but with her few remaining polymotes she would be able to open certain doors and keep others shut.

  Nearly five days after leaving Zophor 3, the Holy Armada’s journey through hyperspace was almost over, its arrival timed to coincide with the immediate aftermath of the planned destruction of the Hegemony and Earthsphere warships. The missiles were already on their way, onrushing cargoes of death that could not be stopped, and Julia and the others were determined not to be the creators of even more horrifying weapons. The transition to normal space was due to start in a short while, the ship’s navigationals preparing the shift in hyperdrive field integration that would trigger the transition to normal space in time to reach the destination coordinates. Julia in the meantime went over the plans and schematics in her head.

  After their return to Talavera’s ship, the Sacrament, they were moved back into the cluster of rooms they had occupied on the way to Zophor 3. Only now there were comfortable beds in their tiny quarters rather than cots, along with some personal storage, some softer furniture out in the common area, an entertainment console, and two large tables of research equipment skewed towards biochemistry.

  Talavera, plus her customary escort, joined them shortly after.

  ‘We’ll be travelling for more than four days, and as you might guess I hate the idea of you sitting around doing nothing, idle hands thinking up mischief. So in the interim I want you to come up with a neurotoxin for use against biosimulants, synthetic life-forms.’ She dropped a rubber-edged datapad on the slightly less crowded of the two tables. ‘There’s the background, genome, respiratory and blood profile, it’s all there. Also, I’ll need to know the best vector, gas or liquid.’ She smiled, as if with childlike delight. ‘Don’t disappoint me, now!’