Swords Above the Stars

by Roman Zlotnikov

  “So?” the man asked.

  “What?” Yv replied, dumbfounded at such a beginning to a conversation.

  “Can we talk?”

  Lucky looked at him for a moment, then nodded and sat back down on his spacesuit. For a few moments there was silence.

  The man broke it first. “Why are you so quiet? Ask me some questions.”

  “About what?”

  “Don’t you have any questions?”

  Yv, trying to hide his fear, rubbed his cheek against his shoulder. “Yes, perhaps I have too many questions.”

  “Well, let's get going then.” The man leaned back in his massive seat.

  Yv rubbed his face with his hand. He had so many questions that he really did not know where to start.

  “Am I already dead?”

  “No.”

  “So, what is this place?”

  The man stared around. “What, you don’t like it here? The floor is strong, and nothing will disturb you…” He suddenly started and asked, “perhaps you are hungry, or maybe need to obey a call of nature?

  Yv shrugged. “No, I already have …”

  For a moment the man seemed to be listening to some distant sound, then he nodded in satisfaction. “Well, you must be hungry, so let me treat you.” He gestured widely and suddenly a table tightly packed with fare appeared in front of Yv. “It will not interrupt our conversation.”

  Yv looked searchingly at the man, then cautiously picked up a fork and gently picked up something that looked like a slice of pickled gherkin. When he crunched his teeth down on it, he put aside all his doubts and eagerly dived into the food.

  A Noble Don always feels confident in three places.

  A few minutes later, Yv came to his senses and looked up at his companion, who had been watching him eating, and happy devils were dancing around his eyes. Lucky awkwardly put a gnawed chicken breast down on his plate.

  “I beg your pardon.”

  “It’s no bother. Just when I was watching you, I recalled some of my… shall we say acquaintances. Believe me if you will, they could never eat … with such gusto as you do.”

  Yv looked down awkwardly, and his companion laughed softly.

  “Oh dear, is the Noble Don confused?”

  Yv shrugged. His companion shook his head.

  “All right, come on leave it. Better to continue our conversation.”

  “So, why am I the only one asking questions? Aren’t you interested in other matters as well?”

  The man laughed. “I beg your pardon, but I have satisfied my interest.”

  “By poking around inside my head?”

  The man shook his head. “Oh, no. It's much easier than that. Although, I do not deny, I can do that if I want to.”

  Yv barely restrained the urge to blurt out the question that was hovering on his tongue, but the man smiled at him reassuringly.

  “Come on, be bold.”

  “Are you God? The Father of all things?”

  The man slapped his thighs and laughed loudly.

  “Wow, spontaneous behavior!”

  Yv pulled a face. No, this one clearly had nothing to do with our merciful and omnipotent Lord. The man suddenly stopped and squinted at him slyly.

  “Oh, what would you know about that?”

  Lucky was taken aback, then he lifted his chin stubbornly and said bluntly:

  “Who are you?”

  The man shook his head. “To some extent I am what you think.”

  “Does that mean God?”

  “Let's just say that I am a Creator. I have something to do with the creation of life.”

  “And the soul?”

  “What is life? It’s just a crowd of compounds consisting of three particles: protons, neutrons and electrons arranged in a certain order. If you take the base, then initially there is just one component, but it is too complicated for a simple Don,” he paused, “so I have something to do with the order in which these particles are lined up, but not the creation of the particles themselves. The Creator, you know, is not a creator, but rather an architect.” He looked at Yv and laughed.

  “OK, let's not get lost in the jungle.”

  “But I want to know!” Yv cried.

  “Everything?” The voice was very sarcastic.

  Yv was embarrassed. His companion shook his head.

  “Think about what you want to know first and foremost, because you don’t have enough life left for all of it, even if we're both talking incessantly.”

  Lucky nodded. “I understand. I suppose that I am interrupting you from doing something important…”

  “Well, aren’t you really something!” The man laughed again. “Do you really believe that I dropped everything just to be here with you?”

  Yv was totally out of his depth. He did not fully understand whether what this… person, or whatever it was, was telling him but the conversation was frighteningly interesting. Or perhaps he was already dead, or close to death, so that what he now saw before him was nothing more than the delirium of a dying brain?

  “No, that’s not the case.”

  “What?”

  His companion laughed heartily again. “I like you, young man, so I will tell you the truth. I just realized that I made the mistake of trying to engage in purposive construction. You are much more interesting than that. Even a simple simulation of the responses within your body, which I am dealing with now, is a pleasure.”

  Yv did not understand anything, apart from the fact that this Creator liked him.

  “So, how did I get here?”

  The Creator threw up his hands. “Luck. Honestly, this is the only variable that I never did learn to control. It clearly manifests itself within you. No wonder you are called Lucky. Anywhere you go, you always find a way out. In truth, not inwardly, but outwardly. On this occasion you happened to be in the right place at the right time, and you did what you needed to do. So instead of dying, you fell and landed right here.”

  “You speak unusually somehow…”

  “In what way?”

  “Well, not like a God.”

  “What can I say, I do what I can!” He shrugged his shoulders again.

  Yv thought for a moment.

  “Who are the Scarlet Princes?”

  The man sighed. “I confess I'm sorry about them. These are one hundred percent my creation. I was trying to create something like assistants, a kind of … sergeant, to watch over life in the Universe”

  “So, what about us?” Yv asked hoarsely.

  “You—no. You turned up by yourselves.” He smiled. “Well, almost, and frankly, thank God. I say this without offence. Those with whom you are fighting now are truly the most advanced intelligent species in the Universe. However, that is from the point of view of abstract theory. If, say, you could remove a couple of tens of millions of variables, such as happiness, luck, bad luck, and so on, then nobody could be their equal, and they would have kept to their place. But instead …”

  “I don’t understand,” said Yv quietly.

  The Creator guiltily shook his head.

  “I'm sorry.”

  They were silent. Then Yv decided to ask something.

  “Is there an Eternal One?”

  The Creator thought for a moment and nodded his head vigorously.

  “There is.”

  “Who is he?”

  “You.”

  “Me?!”

  “Yes. Let’s see. You humans have created quite an interesting philosophy. I swear, I have read it with great interest. Among the many sensible ideas that you have there is one that makes all you can wish for possible. This idea of development, the evolution of mankind through God. Many religions preach it, the most famous being Buddhism, and if you talk about a religion that is closer to you as an example, then it would be the philosophy of Pierre Teilhard. So, if you make enough effort, then it is likely that you can become what I think of as the Eternal One.”

  Yv’s eyes widened in surprise:

  �
�How about a mithril blade?”

  “Well, that can be arranged,” laughed his companion.

  Yv felt his sword slowly shake, then he went dizzy, and his skin was instantly covered with tiny droplets of sweat, but then everything returned to normal. He sat there, listening to his feelings, then asked, “What was that?”

  “Didn’t you want a mithril blade?”

  “Yes, but …”

  “I just made arrangements so that you did not get hurt accidentally.”

  Yv looked at him searchingly, then gently pulled his sword from its sheath.

  At first glance, nothing appeared to be different.

  “So now is it capable of cutting kelimit?” He asked incredulously.

  “That too,” nodded the Creator.

  Lucky thoughtfully rotated the sword in his hand.

  “Then I have to get back.” He put his sword back into its sheath. “Oh, I'm sorry, but I think it would be better if I were there. I didn’t understand half of what you have told me, but if I am destined to become the Eternal One, then my place is there.”

  “Perhaps you're right,” the Creator said thoughtfully, and he nodded towards the spacesuit. “Better get dressed.”

  After Yv had already pulled the space suit over his shoulders, Yv heard a voice say, “I think we will see each other again.”

  The next moment, Lucky was nearly knocked over by a hurricane gust of wind. He gripped on to something stronger with his hands, looked around, and found himself hanging on, clinging to a fallen fence pole. He saw Grey Mustache, who was tethered by a thick rope, stretching towards him, cursing in three languages. Yv held out his hand and grasped hold of a glove.

  When they burst into the airlock, Yv asked him, “How long have I been gone?”

  Getting out of his spacesuit, Grey Mustache muttered, “Who knows when you buggered off outside!” Noticing the strange look on Lucky’s face, he made a guess and answered, “Maybe twenty minutes, maybe forty, what does it matter?”

  Yv shrugged.

  “It doesn’t really.”

  When they left the airlock, Yv’s spacesuit was again fully fueled. He held his left hand in a fist, so that nobody could see his cut nail.

  9

  The droning sound of the combat alarm rang out at three o'clock in the morning. Lucky jumped out of his bunk, hit his knee against Beer Keg’s voluminous stomach, received a painful elbow to the ribs from Grey Mustache, and after a few seconds he was already racing down the corridor, buttoning up his pants on the way. Stubborn Bull’s nasal voice roared down the corridor.

  “Combat alert. Seven enemy ships have entered the system. Be ready to go in thirty minutes.”

  It was already noisy in the Command and Control Center. Don Diaz sat in the command seat, staring at the screen, where there was a background schematic representation of the system, showing what looked like fat blue colored worm shapes signifying the enemy ships. Yv quickly turned on his console, but the screen displayed no signs of ships. He increased the sensitivity of the sensors –but nothing changed. The he simply switched the image from the screen onto his console, and quickly glanced at the columns of figures. He turned to the captain in surprise, and the captain grinned.

  “Putyata has sent two Ushkuys into the asteroid belt. What you see in front of you has been projected by them. It will take these guys about ten hours to reach the system, then at least another forty to reach Zovros.”

  ***

  They took off exactly thirty minutes later. Putyata issued orders, and slowly accelerated in the direction of the asteroid belt. Yv tried to carefully follow the approaching squadron, but his thoughts kept returning to yesterday's incident.

  Despite the empty fuel tank and the cut on his nail, he could not shake the feeling that everything that had happened to him was just some sort of delirium in his brain. But something had changed in him, and he felt it.

  He suddenly realized, for example, that if he wished, he could accurately detect people lying, and he was almost oblivious to hunger. Perhaps he could do much more, but so far that was it. Finally, Yv realized that he now understood much of what his unusual companion had told him.

  ***

  The predatory face of the boyar appeared on screen.

  “Hey, Stubborn Bull, how about we screw these creatures over?”

  Don Diaz, puzzled, looked back at Putyata.

  “You want to fight? Against such massively powerful weaponry?”

  It was easy to understand the captain’s surprise. The Scorpion ships were no less than destroyer class, and the Ushkuy ships only qualified as frigates at best. So, to stand any chance, more than twice as many Ushkuys would be needed.

  “Can you ever remember a time when the Ushkuynik people ever let the enemy go without giving them a tough time?” Putyata laughed evilly. “They just need a little help. If you agree to follow my lead, then we will crush them like lice.”

  The captain shook his head uncertainly.

  “I’m not so sure, but … keep talking.”

  Putyata’s face faded slightly, and a schematic flashed up on the monitor.

  “Watch this. Our Ushkuy ships all look the same, but your ship is totally different.”

  “So, we will cheat. You rush off in front, and we will be behind you, pretending that our main task is to provide you with covering fire. They will send a detachment to chase after you. Two or three ships if we are lucky, and you will drag them here.”

  Stubborn Bull excitedly slapped his hands on the seat’s armrests.

  “So, it’s your people that sent us the image!”

  “Correct.”

  Don Diaz considered the scheme for some time, then nodded his head in agreement.

  “OK, agreed. Of course, they will give us a real slapping, but it will all end much worse for them.”

  Putyata laughed.

  “There is just enough time left to finish painting an icon of Saint Sophia. Just three sets of horns left to collect, and we will have twenty. There are already seven Scarlet Princes here.”

  Everyone sitting in the Command and Control Center looked at each in understanding. So, the story of the seventeen Scarlet Princes who had died at the hands of New City had proven to be true.

  ***

  Cleaver recognized the ship immediately. They had ventured back into the Exile system. Cleaver felt his wing claws pull themselves up in a gesture of cautious bewilderment. A phrase from the Memorandum flashed in his head. "… they seem to be too intelligent to act so blindly, and yet, they seem to be too passionate to submit … " But he rejected those thoughts. This was neither the time nor the place to remember Relate’s Memorandum. He heard Menacing’s voice in his mind.

  “Do I have permission to take responsibility for the role of Leader?”

  Well, OK then. He would be given permission to lead the hunt, but not the actual battle.

  “Yes, Menacing.” He paused. “Take note that the ship is different from the others –it is the same one that I was unable to capture.”

  Immediately the voice of Lamented invaded his thoughts. “Let me deal with them, Menacing.”

  For a while they silently looked at the shape growing larger on the screen then Menacing said, “It looks like they want to keep us away from this ship. I command you, Lamented, Spark, and Admire—it's your booty. We will deal with the rest of them. I recognize them. These are our old enemies. They have the blood of the Seventeen upon their hands.”

  Cleaver felt his palms adopt a posture of mourning, only the claws of his elbows fell slightly lower than was required, so it looked more like a gesture of latent fear.

  The Scorpion ships divided into two groups, and rushed after the enemy.

  ***

  The first salvo was to find the range. The Ushkuy ships moved away from the corvette to the sides, slightly stretching their formation. Yv gritted his teeth and watched the movement of the fat blue worms on the console. They were not moving in a tight formation, but it was already clear to him t
hat in a few minutes, they would split apart into two formations. Three Scorpion ships were approaching closer, running parallel with them. It looked like they were the ones that would soon go after them.

  “That's one tricky bastard!”

  Yv turned and looked puzzled at Stubborn Bull, who broke into an excited whoop. Noticing the surprised looks, he pressed a button on the console, displaying the image glowing on his console on the main display. Everybody gasped out loud. Putyata had deployed his Ushkuys back to front and ran from the chasing ships using the braking jets. They were at almost three-quarters normal speed of the Ushkuy, but the pulsating glow in the exhausts gave the impression that the engines were on overload. This was to give the impression to the Enemy that the Ushkuy ships were trying to get away as fast as possible. In the next instant, a second volley followed. The screens faded for a moment, then flashed up again, showing the three Scorpion ships sweeping in. Don Diaz, as he always did during a fight, yelled something in Russian, and increased speed.

  ***

  They had already been under furious fire for forty minutes. Volleys followed one after another. Ten minutes previously, Yv had been forced to use the protection fields on full power, and they had already begun to show signs of overheating. Of course! These Scorpion ships could use all the spare power that they needed.

  There were still seven to ten minutes of flight before they reached the main part of the asteroid belt, and Lucky was afraid that the protection field might fail before they got close enough. What most oppressed him was the inability to return fire. The fire against them was so massive that even the removal of the protection field for just a millisecond for a retaliatory salvo could have been fatal. Stubborn Bull continued to swear constantly, helplessly clenching his fists, but now everything depended on Yv, and he had proven his competence last time out.

  The only thing that the captain could do to help him was to leave him alone. Thank God, Don Diaz understood this. Beer Keg, standing next to the command chair in his battle armor, was silently moving his lips. “These are the last minutes before the moment of truth.”

  ***

  Menacing could not believe his eyes.