Scales of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s quick to prepare, that’s all. You don’t have to wait a long time for it.’

  ‘How about we take you to a comfortable negotiation area,’ Dr Mogambo said, obviously trying to regain control, ‘and we will arrange for a selection of …’ she nearly choked on the words, ‘fast food to be brought to you.’

  ‘No. We do it here,’ one of the spacesuits said.

  ‘Just hurry up and do the trade,’ the dinosaur said. ‘I have places to be!’

  ‘You are the first delegates we’ve received,’ Dr Mogambo said. ‘So we need to set up terms of trade –’

  ‘You’ve heard some of the things we are willing to offer,’ the dinosaur said. ‘What trades are appealing to you? We can offer any amount of any material you wish. Or a full-sized orbital Marque. Or ships. Anything you want in exchange for the opals.’

  ‘Ships?’ the general said. ‘What sort of drive? Faster than light?’

  ‘Ships your dragons can carry – the usual empty canisters.’

  ‘One of the things we would like to trade for is the service of more dragons,’ Dr Mogambo said. ‘We need pilots to carry ships for us. Would you be willing to trade the services of your dragon friends for our opals?’

  All of the delegates became completely still. The only sound was a wet sucking noise from the slugs’ and spacesuits’ breathing apparatuses.

  ‘Did you just say that you need dragons?’ the sheepdog said.

  ‘That’s correct. So far we only have Shiumo to carry our ships, and we need more.’

  ‘This planet is in First Contact?’ The dinosaur swung its head to glare at the blue dragon next to it. ‘You brought us to a planet that’s still in First Contact?’

  ‘Did you see those stones?’ the blue dragon snapped back. ‘Whoever’s first to trade gets them, and I want them.’

  ‘You broke First Contact protocol for rocks?’ the sheepdog said. It rounded on the red dragon next to it. ‘You too?’

  ‘I’m out,’ one of the spacesuits said, and all three of them folded to form cubes five centimetres across and shot straight up, leaving a contrail as they broke the sound barrier.

  ‘They’re at the tail end of First Contact,’ one of the green dragons said, waving its front claw. ‘Just about finished and into Second.’ She nodded to the slug. ‘And we want those stones, right?’

  The only sound coming from the slug was its gurgling breathing apparatus. Then what appeared to be three eyestalks emerged from its back end and waved around.

  ‘Let me understand this situation very clearly,’ the dinosaur said to Dr Mogambo, speaking more slowly. ‘Princess Shiumo is the only dragon you have encountered, and you want us to give you more dragons to fold your ships?’

  ‘Princess Zianto popped in to share a message from the Empress, but apart from her the only dragon we’ve seen is Shiumo,’ Richard said. ‘Oh, and we met a black one when the Nimestas were attacked –’

  ‘Yes,’ Dr Mogambo said, interrupting him. ‘We need more pilots for our ships.’

  ‘I just used a word that is outside the parameters for this level of polite translation,’ the sheepdog said.

  ‘You’ve only had one dragon visit for any length of time?’ the dinosaur said.

  ‘Yes, I just said so,’ Dr Mogambo said. ‘Why is asking for more dragons a problem?’

  ‘I just used a word that is outside the parameters for this level of polite translation,’ the dinosaur said. ‘Another word outside parameters.’ It rounded on the blue dragon. ‘I cannot believe you did this to me! It’s all right for you, but when your grandmother finds out about this, a metaphor indicating that I will be in personal jeopardy.’

  ‘But we had to be first here to get the stones,’ the dragon said. ‘And there are four other species here already! Do you realise how much of a profit –’ She stopped and glanced at us humans. ‘Uh …’

  ‘Thought so,’ Dr Mogambo said.

  ‘Profit, eh?’ General Maxwell said.

  ‘Argh!’ The dinosaur roared with frustration and shook its head, revealing blue scales between the feathers on its temples. ‘Marque, bring down the pod. And you!’ It poked the dragon with its feathered front appendage. ‘No stone is worth breaking the rules like this. Your grandmother will be word outside parameters. If you weren’t my half-sister, I would kill you myself.’

  ‘Oh, give me a break,’ the dragon said, and disappeared.

  ‘I just used a personal slur!’ the dinosaur shouted.

  ‘I just used a word outside parameters,’ the sheepdog said. ‘My speech is moving completely outside polite translation parameters; suggest changing the language constraints to a more casual level.’

  ‘My sister took off and left me,’ the dinosaur said to the sheepdog. ‘Can I share your pod?’

  ‘Sure. Let’s get the word outside parameters out of here,’ the sheepdog said.

  ‘Listen,’ the dinosaur said to Dr Mogambo, ‘if anyone asks, none of us were here. Except the suits – they’re word outside parameters anyway and practically indestructible. We’ll be back once you’re at Second.’

  ‘But I wanted the pretty stones!’ the red dragon wailed.

  ‘Marque, bring the pod down now,’ the sheepdog said. ‘You are in serious trouble. I just used several words outside polite translation parameters. Get us out of here!’

  The aliens entered a variety of coloured cubes and spheres that landed on the lawn, and the dragons hopped on top of the pods and folded them all away.

  As the pods disappeared, one of Dr Mogambo’s aides arrived with a plastic storage bin containing a selection of fast food. He pulled out a brown paper bag and held it out to Richard. ‘Chip, sir?’

  17

  Richard and I were having lunch together the next day in the cafeteria at ground level in the New Whitehall building when his tablet pinged. He checked it, and flashed with pain. It was Shiumo.

  We took the elevator down to the underground conference room, and he routed the communication through to the big screen while I pinged General Maxwell. I moved to the side so Shiumo couldn’t see me. I wasn’t ready to have this conversation yet, even though we’d spent hours working out what we’d say to her.

  ‘Richard!’ Shiumo said, sounding desperate. ‘The general just told me that she’s splitting us up! Where are you? I’ll come and fetch you.’

  ‘I can’t, Shiumo. My career is too important to me. The ring was a parting gift.’

  Her face filled with confusion. ‘You’re not coming back to me? What happened?’ She lowered her head, her voice coy. ‘You do still love me, don’t you?’

  ‘I do, with all my heart,’ he said, the truth ringing from him. ‘But I’ve been reassigned; and if I refuse the order, I’ll have to resign. I can’t disobey a direct order. My career means a great deal to me, and I’m not sure I want to throw away my life on Earth. I need more time. Will you give me some time?’

  ‘Just come to me. I’ll take you away from here. You don’t need to work again.’

  ‘I love my work. I don’t want to give it up.’ He sounded desperate. ‘I need time to think!’

  ‘But you love me!’ Shiumo opened her mouth, showing her small needle-like teeth, then hissed with anger. ‘It’s that General Maxwell. She’s convinced that I’m controlling you. I’m not, Richard – I love you! Don’t let her do this to us. Remember all the fun times we’ve had together. We love each other!’

  A blast of pain radiated from him. ‘I feel differently when I’m away from you, Shiumo –’

  ‘Yes, because you doubt your own feelings when we’re apart! I am not controlling you,’ Shiumo said. She walked away from the screen, her tail thrashing, then returned. ‘Maxwell’s brainwashed you. Don’t listen to her! She just hates what we have together.’

  ‘Princess, is all well?’ one of the Japanese representatives asked Shiumo. ‘The first group of transport capsules are ready for you to take up.’

  ‘Look, Richard and,’ Shiumo’s vo
ice became scathing, ‘Maxwell, wherever you’re hovering – I made a commitment to Japan to transport their colonists, and I’m a dragon of my word, so I need to load the ship now. Richard, please, think about what we have. I love you so much …’ She choked. ‘Don’t let Maxwell make you doubt our love. You mean everything to me.’

  She spoke to someone offscreen: ‘Yes, I understand, I’ll be right there.’ She looked at Richard again. ‘I’ll return in three days, and I want to see you in person and sort this out.’ She lowered her head and closed her eyes, obviously grief-stricken. ‘Please don’t leave me, I love you,’ she whispered.

  General Maxwell stopped just inside the doorway of the conference room, then moved to stand next to me, where she could see Shiumo without being seen.

  ‘I just want to be on my own for a while to work things out,’ Richard said. ‘Please take Marque back. I don’t want it hovering over me any more.’

  ‘But it keeps you safe,’ Shiumo said, then nodded. ‘Very well. Marque, you heard him.’

  Marque shimmered into view above us, and the general glared at it.

  ‘You asked me to remind you that Maxwell is a paranoid xenophobe, Richard, and you were right,’ Marque said. ‘I’ll show myself out, Maxwell. I don’t need you screwing anything else up. You’ve already done enough damage.’ It zoomed out of the room.

  Shiumo gazed at the screen with such anguish that Richard’s misery deepened.

  ‘Please take yourself away from Maxwell for a while and think about this,’ she said. ‘Trust your feelings. If you just get clear of the pressure for a few days, you’ll see that you truly love me. I will have you back any time, Richard. I love you deeply, and I want to take you with me when I return to my homeworld. There are so many things I want to show you!’

  The general shifted, radiating concern. The overload of emotions in the room was making my head ache.

  ‘If you’re absolutely sure about this, then let me give you a parting gift,’ Shiumo said.

  Richard shook his head, too emotional to speak.

  ‘I must give you something! When I’m back on Earth, come to me and let me replace those awful primitive prosthetics. The biological replacements are ready, and you deserve the best.’ She looked coy again. ‘I was sincerely hoping to see what human dragonscales children would look like if you fathered one on me.’

  Richard opened his mouth and closed it again, his desperation changing to near-panic. ‘Thank you, Shiumo,’ he choked, and turned off the communication. He flopped to sit in a chair, and put his head in his hands.

  ‘Good,’ Maxwell said. ‘Now let’s see what happens in three days when she returns from Kapteyn – whether she was genuine about giving you your freedom.’

  Richard radiated overwhelming grief. He shook his head. ‘I feel like I’ve lost my family again.’

  ‘You did the right thing, soldier,’ Maxwell said. ‘Do you need to see a therapist?’

  He looked up at her, his natural eye full of tears.

  ‘Say yes, Richard,’ I said.

  He hesitated, then nodded.

  My tablet pinged: Shiumo was calling me.

  The general tapped on her tablet. ‘Alto, I’m assigning you some help. Go and wait in the office next door.’ She glanced at me. ‘Your turn, Choumali.’

  Richard fled, radiating relief. I steeled myself and accepted Shiumo’s call, routing it through to the big screen.

  ‘You’re in the same place,’ Shiumo said. ‘Is Maxwell taking you away from me as well?’

  ‘No, I want to stay with my spouses,’ I said, using the story we’d worked on. ‘I made a huge mistake. We have a baby coming, and I want to be part of that. I regret leaving them.’

  ‘Do you think you can patch it up with them? I saw what happened; it was awful,’ Shiumo said.

  ‘I panicked. I hope they take me back.’

  Shiumo studied me with her silver eyes and I wondered if she could see my lies.

  ‘I understand, dear Jian. Some species place children and family higher than their own lives. My species is one of them; our children are more precious to us than anything. So go back to them, and I hope you can work it out.’ She opened her mouth, smiling. ‘And I want to meet the baby as soon as he’s born. I haven’t seen a human baby in person yet. They look so cute!’

  ‘I’ll make sure you can,’ I said, smiling back despite myself. The guilt at the deception ate me up inside, but I had to get away from her. ‘And hopefully they’ll understand and let me go with you when the child is old enough.’

  ‘No, you should stay with your child,’ she said. She tilted her head. ‘I want to give both of you something you can use to contact me anywhere at any time. If you use it, I will sense it immediately and come to you instantly, no matter where I am in the cosmos. It’s very important that both you and Richard have one. I want to protect you.’

  ‘How does it work?’ I said.

  ‘It’s complicated. Can I fold to you and show you? I want you and Richard both to be safe.’

  General Maxwell was racked with indecision. She wanted to know how the device worked. Shiumo had said the dragons had a means of instantaneous communication, but hadn’t told us what it was. Maxwell’s face hardened, and she nodded, then went out.

  ‘Richard and I are in the same place. Marque just left,’ I said. ‘Maxwell pulled us in to reassign us.’

  Shiumo appeared on the other side of the room. ‘Of course she did.’ She approached me. ‘Are they planning to shoot me now?’

  ‘Of course not,’ I said, full of delight to see her again. I put my hand on the side of her face, feeling euphoria at the contact. ‘What’s this instant communication device? I’m intrigued.’

  She stood on her hind legs without taking two-legged form and held out her front claw. I couldn’t see anything, then realised she was holding two of her own scales, red against red.

  ‘Take one,’ she said.

  I hesitated, then took it out of her hand, and the euphoric feeling heightened. The scale was a rounded diamond with ridges carved into it that shone different colours under the conference room’s lights.

  ‘Our scales are quantum-entangled,’ she said, falling back onto four legs. ‘Hold it between your hands so you can feel both sides.’

  I clasped my hands together with the scale between them.

  ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Now feel.’

  She ran her claw over a scale on the side of her neck, and I gasped. I felt the sensation on the scale in my hands.

  ‘If you need me, rub the scale hard, or tap it, and I will feel it, and come to you.’ She smiled again. ‘Please don’t use it unless it’s a life-or-death emergency. I have given each spouse one scale, and if everybody used them all the time I’d never get any peace.’

  ‘I understand,’ I said.

  She held out the other scale. ‘Where’s Richard? He needs to have this.’

  ‘He’d prefer not to see you, Princess.’

  ‘He should stay with me! We love each other.’

  ‘Do you love him enough to wait for him to work it out?’ I said.

  She lowered her head. ‘I understand. I’ll be patient. Give him the scale, and tell him I love him.’

  I hesitated, then took the second scale. ‘How will you know which is which?’

  ‘When I remove a scale, the replacement is entangled when it grows back. Each of you has a different scale. Yours is the larger and darker one here.’ She tapped the side of her neck, and I felt it on one of the scales. ‘Richard’s is the smaller lighter one here.’ She tapped her chest, and I felt it on the other scale.

  ‘Is this how you contact your homeworld?’ I said.

  She nodded. ‘Exactly. There’s a communication centre on Dragonhome with one scale from each dragon. It’s not useful for complex messages, but it works well for emergency calls and notifications of new discoveries. We use a tap-code for different messages.’

  ‘Thank you, Shiumo,’ I said.

  She ho
isted herself upright onto her back legs and transformed into her human male self.

  ‘Do I get a hug goodbye?’ he said, and put his arms out.

  ‘A kiss goodbye as well, and I hope it isn’t forever,’ I said.

  He pulled me close and smiled. ‘I hope that as well.’

  The general turned the scale over in her short, square fingers with the nails bitten down to shreds. ‘Quantum-entangled. Our scientists have been trying to achieve this for years, and she just gave you two.’ She handed the scale back to me. ‘The Japanese colonists have reported that she’s doing exactly what she promised. She’ll return next week, and then it’s our turn.’ She studied me piercingly. ‘If you can call her for immediate help, it’s even more strategically important that you’re involved. I won’t order you, Choumali, but we need you on Wolf 1061.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ I said.

  ‘I know it’s a big step, and it would mean leaving your child with your exes. But you were going to do that anyway –’

  ‘I’m sorry, General,’ I said, interrupting. ‘I meant, yes, of course I’ll go. That’s why I joined the program in the first place. The baby will be fine with Dianne and Victor.’

  ‘Oh.’ She quirked a small smile. ‘Good.’

  ‘What about Commander Alto? Will he be going as well? We need him to lead us.’

  She walked to the other side of the room, and stared at the blank concrete wall as if it were a window. ‘He’s asked us to remove his prosthetics. They were compromised by being on her ship, and too much of a security risk. He’ll go into surgery in a few days, and when he comes out, only forty-five per cent of his body will be usable. One arm, no legs, and waste disposal will become a major issue for him again. He wouldn’t survive on New Europa.’

  ‘How long will it take to have new prosthetics made for him?’

  She looked down. ‘Those prosthetics were a special project funded by the King himself. They’re irreplaceable. The lab that created them is gone, and the technicians were reassigned to food and water production. He’ll have to make do with something much more primitive.’

  ‘Can I see him when he comes out of surgery?’