Kris Longknife - Emissary

by Mike Shepherd

  I think as you humans say, it is showtime.

  Chapter 42

  At the top of the stairs, Kris was once again, surprised by what she saw. The actual audience room was big, but not that big. The area inside the twisting screens wasn’t much larger than the library at Nuu House. The floor was a rare blue marble streaked with onyx and silver. On a dais, approachable by six steep steps, was a large throne of delicately carved coral that was a soft pink.

  On the throne sat a young Iteeche, maybe half as tall as a full grown one.

  Ron, you never told me your Emperor was a kid.

  Just another thing you forgot to ask me. Now please be quiet, I’ve got to do my part in this ritual precisely and correctly.

  With that, Ron went to join the two Iteeche already kowtowing to the throne.

  There were three rugs laid out directly in front of the throne. Two were occupied. However, Ron skipped that one and went to bow behind and to the left of an Iteeche in robes that shimmered with every color of the rainbow. His shimmered and sparkled the same as Ron’s. The one on the other side also wore every color, but his were in darker hues and did not shimmer.

  Strange how both can be so colorful, but one seems bright and cheery, the other dour and dull. I hope that tells me something, Kris thought.

  Ron went down on all eights, now using the elbows that got him as low as he could go. Then, in a loud voice, he announced Kris as her King’s emissary.

  “Oh, Most Worshipful One, please allow me to bring before you, for your pleasure, Her Royal Highness, Princess Kristine of the United Society, Chosen Royal Battle Fleet Commander of the mighty war clan Longknife, hammerer of the evil that strikes from the dark deep who comes as Emissary and Speaker for Humanity.”

  On that, Kris stepped forward onto the rug beside the two kowtowing Iteeche and bowed herself low at the waist until she was parallel to the floor. She held the bow for about as long as her back would let her, then stood tall.

  “Your Imperial Majesty, I greet you in the name of His Royal Majesty, King Raymond, Slayer of Planets, who is sovereign to over one hundred and seventy-three human planets. I am instructed to convey to you his warmest affection and my credentials.”

  Kris, something in my storage just popped open. I know what’s in your papers now.

  Do I need to know anything about it?

  There’s no big surprise past what we’ve already figured out, but there is a holograph of the King speaking and I don’t yet know what he’s going to say.

  Let’s hold off on it for a moment.

  The kowtowing Iteeche in the shadier colors said, without looking up. “His Most Worshipfulness will deign to accept your papers of accreditation to His Presence.”

  From behind one of the screens, an Iteeche stepped. Nude, his pale skin was covered with swirls and spirals of every possible color. Eyes downcast, he walked forward. Kowtowed as lowly as the others to the Emperor, he then rose to approach Jack. There again, he kowtowed to the elaborately carved wooden box with Kris’s papers.

  Jack answered his kowtow with a bow from the waist that only went down halfway.

  Good calculation, Jack.

  I hope it doesn’t get us killed.

  The Iteeche rose and accepted the box from Jack, then turned and made his way back to the darker advisor. There he kowtowed again, making a perfect right angle with the advisor and slid the box in front of him.

  Done, the nude Iteeche stood and backed out of the Imperial Presence. Only when he was gone did the advisor open the box. This required him to raise his head and use a pair of his hands. Kris waited while he read from a piece of parchment that was covered with two columns of writing. One side was Standard in beautiful calligraphy. The other side was also in a lovely script. It was the first time Kris had ever seen High Iteeche written.

  The advisor read from the parchment in a high sing-song voice. Nelly translated for Kris. The opening was what Kris had already said. Then they got into new territory.

  “My emissary is empowered to speak for not only me but those who have also allied themselves with me in this historic endeavor to bring our two peoples together in peace, harmony and prosperity. She has my full faith and trust. What she signs her name to will be accepted within human space as if it were mine. So I say, so let it be.”

  Kris, that holograph really wants out now.

  Kris sighed. Let’s see what grampa has to say.

  She bowed again to the Emperor. “Your Most Imperial Sovereign, I also bear a message from His Royal Majesty. May I play it before you?”

  “This is not proper and fit, Your Most Worshipful One,” the dark advisor said, now back to a full kowtow.

  The Iteeche in the shiny raiment, the one Kris took for Ron’s chooser, cleared his throat before speaking. “Oh, Most Worshipful One, we all know that Raymond Longknife, Slayer of Worlds, Hammer of Iteeche and Maker of Peace, is a wily human who is more likely to piss on propriety than walk its path. If such a human has managed to slip his own personal message past all that has been thrown in its way to keep it from your eyes, certainly we can entertain them, even if they are as laughably improper as a late chosen clown.”

  There was a long pause after that. The advisors stayed face down and said not a word, nor did their deity speak. Kris found herself wishing she had four eyes so she could keep an eye on each one of them. The two advisors stayed splayed out on the floor. The Emperor on his throne sat still as a statue. Kris thought of his youth and doubted any human teenager could possibly have pulled that statue gig off.

  Despite all this, somehow, communication must have taken place.

  “Let us gaze upon this message from one who slew so many of our warriors,” the subdued Iteeche advisor finally said.

  Nelly.

  On it Kris.

  Grampa Ray, King Raymond the First to most, appeared in front of Kris. His image looked solid, almost as if he were here. He wore the uniform of a grand admiral with more fruit salad, sashes and orders than it looked possible to pin onto a uniform.

  He faced the Emperor and said, “I come before your Imperial Majesty with great joy in my heart for what you have chosen to do for our two peoples,” he said, bowing from the waist just as deeply as Kris had. He held the bow a bit shorter than she had, she was proud to see.

  Nailed that one.

  “I believe that you can count on my young emissary to assure that propriety is respected among my merchant class in their dealings with yours. If they get out of hand, I won’t mind if you have to lop a few heads off,” sounded like pure Ray.

  “While I suspect that you have ulterior motives for opening your Empire to we humans, still I think that future history will record that we have chosen well for both ourselves and those Iteeche you chose from the primal waters and we humans call our posterity.”

  The King paused, then turned around as looked Kris directly in the eye.

  How’d you manage that, Nelly?

  I’m busy.

  “I trust my young great-granddaughter to balance both her jobs. I’m confident that she can do both the job I sent her here to do and any task you may ask of her. A trillion or more of those space raiders are dead at her hands. I trust she can resolve any duty that you place upon her shoulders.”

  Ray’s image actually seemed to smile fondly at Kris. Then he turned back to the Emperor. “She’s yours to command, Your Imperial Majesty.”

  With that, his image faded away, leaving Kris with one huge question. What has he gotten me into this time?

  Chapter 43

  Kris found herself standing there, in front of the Emperor, wondering what came next.

  BOW, came from Ron on Nelly Net.

  Kris bowed low, but not so low that she couldn’t see the Emperor stand, make one hesitant step toward her, then turn and in a whirl of his sparkling, many colored garments, disappear behind a screen. Two nude and tattooed body servants met him halfway and hurried him along.

  Kris rose from her bow once the Emperor was
gone. Beside her, the two senior advisors stayed down until a half dozen servants trotted from out of sight to offer them assistance. Help was certainly needed; they rose with much grunting and sighing from their place before the dais. The shaded one turned to the brighter one, and growled something low.

  Whatever he just said, I can’t translate it, Kris.

  That done, he whirled about, garments flying and stomped from their company. He stomped out looking as angry as any old guy who had his last bottle of whiskey stolen by some punk kid.

  The one Kris suspected was Ron’s chooser, came to rest one arm on Kris, the other on Ron, who had gotten up on his own, and said, “I figured Ray’s pond scum would be as dangerous as he was. I am told you are a grand admiral in Ray’s fleet. Welcome to my family pond. You are now Chosen Imperial First Admiral of the Grand Order of Steel. You are charged with commanding the Imperial Battle Fleet.”

  Chapter 44

  Kris had faced surprise before. Some had come at her like an alien raider’s base ship materializing a few thousand klicks away from her as it plunged through a jump. Other surprises she’d had to piece together for herself, like figuring out that her ship’s orders to attack an Earth battle fleet did not come from her father but was intended to start a mad war involving all humanity.

  She’d withstood the shock and dismay at all of those.

  Today was different.

  What happened to me making nice nice and Not blowing shit up?

  Sorry, Kris, we told your King that we had need of your services. When he asked for what, I told him that I did not know. Really, I didn’t. Not for sure. Not until just a moment ago. Now, could we please carry out this conversation out loud. I feel it is disrespectful to my chooser otherwise.

  “Sorry,” Kris said. “Can someone brief me on what mission I have just been handed?”

  “Not handed. It is more like we have pushed you off a cliff and into the deep, dark sea,” Roth, Ron’s chooser said, his beak open wide in what Kris took for a smile.

  “All metaphor aside, what’s going on?” Kris asked.

  “In what you might call a nut shell, we have a young Emperor, may he ever be worshiped. Worse, it is a time of rapid change. We Iteeche like our change to come at us over a thousand years. Even longer is better. When we stumbled into that war with you humans, our warships hadn’t changed much in three thousand years. As a just-chosen, I served on a warship that had been built five hundred years before and it was still considered first line, and would have been for another thousand years if you humans hadn’t come along with your frantic changes.”

  He shook his head, a rapid process that looked much like an owl shivering. “And now you give us Smart Metal and take our ground-based power plants to space. It roils the water. It roils the water.”

  From a distance, a large pavilion born by two dozen bearers trotted toward them. Roth used two of his hands to wash some of the exhaustion and tension from his face. “You will excuse me, but I have only just begun my daily allotment of meetings. I must shore up my alliance, and I am told by my ears that you have started several small storms.”

  He glanced at Kris’s own sedan chair as it now came up the steps. “I’d never thought to use Smart Metal to make such a powerful impression. I had expected you to refuse to kowtow. Ray never did touch his forehead to the ground to me. One of my axe men almost took his head off for his insolence the first time he came into my presence. A bold man would, of course choose a bold one from the pond. I fear that I have more storms to calm than even I expected.”

  “I did what I had to do,” Kris said.

  “No doubt you did,” Roth said, again patting Kris on the shoulder. “Still, I must do what I must do. Now, my chosen knows where your palace is. He can take you there and he will no doubt also introduce you to where all the rocks and sand bars are in the ocean you have been dunked into. Farewell, bold human. No doubt we will meet again and you will cause me no end of trouble.”

  Roth’s palanquin arrived. The twenty-four Iteeche knelt as he climbed aboard it. One of them closed the door, blocking him from outside view, and Roth was quickly carried off.

  Kris glanced around. What had started as a near lethal meeting had resolved itself without bloodshed. Of course, the day was yet young and there was, no doubt, all kinds of possibilities. She took in her and Jack’s sedan chairs and Ron’s as well as her eight porters and Ron’s own twelve.

  “Listen, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of riding around locked up in a tiny box. What do you say we make one big platform pavilion for the three of us and let our porters lug us out of here while you answer a whole wad of questions?” she said to Ron.

  “It is not forbidden,” Ron admitted.

  “Nelly,” was all Kris had to say. In a moment, a tendril from Jack’s sedan chair had reached out to Kris’s and the two merged into a single blob that quickly formed itself into one imposing castle supported by four long poles. Harness in finely tooled leather appeared marking ten places forward and ten more aft for porters to stand between the four shafts.

  With some trepidation, the porters approached their new job. One however, seemed to understand the new arrangement and quickly took his position, pointing others to where they should stand. With twenty porters in place, Nelly let down an escalator from the shoulder high platform and Jack, followed by Ron, was quickly carried up.

  Kris waited, as senior, to be the last to enter. She spared the situation one last glance. Did she see small eyes peering around a screen, taking all this in. If she did, curtains fluttered and there was nothing more to see.

  Kris let Nelly’s escalator carry her up to her new, high perch, and into the palatial comfort that Kris strongly suspected Nelly had stolen from some movie’s idea of a harem.

  “Okay, Ron, start talking and don’t stop until you’ve answered all my questions.”

  Chapter 45

  Ron made a major show of settling his large frame down upon several pillows. He fluffed more and managed to rest at least four of his elbows on them. Jack folded himself onto the floor and arranged a pillow for his back. Kris decided to stand.

  It was easier to glare while standing.

  “I am sorry, Kris, that I was not able to talk to you fully before. My chooser insisted that I not let any human know of our circumstances. I was specifically instructed by my chooser to not let any word of our internal situation out until you were here and was brought before the Most Worshipful One to do whatever had been decided in my absence. I suspected you might be asked to command a fleet. I’m as surprised as you are to have you in command of the entire fleet. Still, it is critical to both our peoples that that poor young one on the throne survives.”

  Kris sighed. “So even Ray got played this time.”

  “I wonder how he takes to getting a slug of his own medicine,” Jack said, dryly.

  “Still, Ron, you and your entire Imperial court manipulated me,” Kris spat. “I’ve half a mind to stuff this whole mission, pack up my battlecruisers and go home.”

  There was a long silence after that.

  “You want me to argue you out of that, right?” Jack said.

  “Yes,” Kris said, knowing that she was just spitting and fussing and sulking for a few minutes before she’d do what she damn well knew she’d do in the end.

  “Shall we stipulate that you have thrown a world record fit, said many nasty things about the dirty trick the Iteeche have done to you and richly earned, and get on with it?” Jack said. “Ron, just what is the mess you’re in?”

  “My Eminent Chooser spoke true when he said we Iteeche do not handle change very well. Certainly, not change that comes at us like a massive asteroid.”

  Ron paused to wiggle deeper into the pillows. “We have had civil wars. It is not something that we tell tadpoles in the Palace of Learning. You must be an advisor of the First Order before those scrolls are opened for your eyes. Normally, it would be years before those were shared with me, but my Eminent Chooser chose t
o open my eyes to them after I returned from your rambling of the galaxy.”

  He sat up, facing front on to Kris. “The rebellion had already begun. There were lords of satraps that did not think the Empire should be passed to a young Emperor. The sudden death of The Worshipful One was not expected. Some of us still wonder how it came to pass. Still, we Iteeche are an obedient and loyal people. Civil war does not come often to us, but when it does, it is bloody and brutal. It can leave entire satraps devastated. We have no limits on the power we can bring to bear against planets like you humans have agreed to. Even when a planet surrenders, the loyal supporters of the losers may continue the fight. Kris, I have seen the scrolls. I wish I was not living in times like these,” Ron said, shaking his head.

  “You are not the only one to bring a holograph, Kris,” he said. “I bore one to your chooser from mine. My Eminent Chooser got down on his knees before your King and begged him with tears in his eyes for him to send you to us. He begged him on the memory of all that they did to make peace back then. On all the lives that they saved. That, Kris, is how desperately we need you.”

  “You need me?” Kris said, then found a couple of pillows and settled down on them. She glanced out the screens. They were being rapidly carried through the palace; no stops to kowtow on the way out. She turned back to Ron. “Okay, Ron, tell me what you need.”

  “Kris, it’s a mess,” Ron said, settling back and getting comfortable among his cushions. “We had a space battle, Imperials against one rebellious satrap. We sent five hundred of the new battlecruisers to seize the capital of that satrap. They had five hundred of their own battlecruisers. They are a very productive satrap. Our admirals hurled our ships at their ships. It was a huge battle. I will show you the recordings of how it went down. When it was done, less than a dozen badly damaged Imperial battlecruisers, not one of them with a surviving admiral, managed to straggle home. The rebels were no better off. Kris, we do not know how to fight these ships except to hurl them at each other and watch them blow each other up.”