Scales of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  Miko turned to face us. ‘The elevator trip will take about four of your hours. Dragons aren’t permitted to fold within orbital distance of Dragonhome as too much four-dimensional manipulation in such a small area can damage space-time. Marque will see to your safety and comfort while you are in the pod. Let me show you your quarters while we travel to the surface.’

  She led us past a pair of blue-finned aquatic aliens floating in a two-metre-wide sphere of water. One of the aliens made a watery sound and Miko stopped. The alien extended an eyestalk out of the sphere of water and spoke to her. She replied in the same language, and the alien withdrew its eyestalk and floated away, still talking.

  ‘What did it say?’ I asked her.

  ‘They asked if you are the ones who will help the Empire to finally break free of the scourge of the cats,’ she said. ‘It offers all it possesses to anyone who can defeat the cats and bring justice for the loss of its planet.’

  ‘And what did you tell it?’

  ‘It’s not my place to tell it anything. Marque will transmit any official announcements.’

  Miko took us into the village and along a small boulevard-like street. The buildings on either side were more shops and restaurants; and the ceiling two storeys above gave off a gentle glowing light like soft daylight.

  ‘Trade in this market is by request,’ she said as we walked past the shops. ‘Please confirm your safety with an in-house Marque before sampling any food, beverages or mind-altering substances. The shops sell them for all chemistries and they may not match your own.’

  ‘What does “trade by request” mean?’ Maxwell said.

  ‘Just ask for anything and they’ll give it to you,’ Marque said. ‘I fabricate everything, so unless it’s something that will require a large amount of my time or energy, you can basically have anything you want. Items that can’t be fabricated, like your potatoes, are sold elsewhere.’ Its voice gained an amused edge. ‘There’s a swimming pool here already, Major. Miko can show you where it is.’

  ‘I like swimming,’ Miko said with pleasure.

  At the end of the boulevard, a hundred metres away, was an arched entrance, two storeys high. Miko led us through it, and into an oval lobby with an atrium soaring twenty storeys above us. There were stairs on three sides of the atrium, and doors – larger at the bottom, smaller at the top – opened onto the galleries on each floor. Everything was constructed from a smooth glazed substance in a soft ivory colour that shone in the mock sunlight.

  ‘Marque has already tailored your rooms to your biometrics,’ Miko said. ‘Your names are on the doors. If you get lost, ask Marque which way to go.’ She led us to a bright blue, raised area on the floor, ten metres across. ‘Just use this lift to get to your floor.’

  ‘They’ve never used one of these before, Miko,’ Marque said.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, her eyes wide, and cocked her head. ‘You’ve never used a lift before?’

  ‘Not like this,’ Maxwell said.

  Miko hesitated. ‘Uh … okay,’ she said, and gestured for us to stand on the blue area.

  ‘Nobody’s afraid of heights?’ Marque said. ‘It just occurred to me that one of you might be.’

  ‘Afraid of heights? What, like being high in the air?’ Miko said, shocked. ‘Why would anyone be afraid of that?’

  ‘Not so much the height as the fall,’ I said wryly.

  ‘But you never fall.’ She sounded confused. ‘Marque will always catch you.’

  ‘Not where they come from,’ Marque said. ‘Do you need visible walls?’

  ‘We’ll get used to it,’ Maxwell said. ‘Don’t give us special treatment. We need to learn how to do things here.’

  ‘Understood,’ Marque said, and the floor lifted swiftly and smoothly. We all moved closer together, away from the edges.

  ‘Throw yourself against the wall to show them it’s safe, Miko,’ Marque said.

  Miko took a small running jump at the side of the platform and hit the invisible barrier with an audible thump.

  ‘Do it again,’ Marque said.

  Miko did the same thing – and this time flew completely off the edge. Maxwell gasped as Miko fell. The goldenscales rose up alongside the lift, matching its velocity, and drifted back onto the platform.

  She shook her head. ‘You should have warned me, Marque. You made me look silly. Only children do that!’

  ‘They grow out of it by the time they’re adults,’ Marque said. ‘They realise I’ll never let them fall and the thrill goes out of it. I’ve put the barrier back up; none of you can fall off.’

  I gingerly walked to the edge of the platform and put my hand out. The wall felt the same as Marque’s usual energy barriers.

  The lift stopped close to the top of the building, and we stepped out onto a gallery with a soft-textured floor. The centre of the atrium ceiling appeared as a sunny blue sky with white drifting clouds. Each door had a name next to it in English.

  Mine was first, and I waved my hand over the door to open it. The room was identical to the one Marque had built for me on Shiumo’s ship.

  ‘We’ll just wash and use the facilities,’ Maxwell said. ‘Then we’d like to go straight to the space elevator pod and down to Dragonhome without delay.’

  Miko hesitated, and looked up at Marque, then to Ambassador Maxwell. ‘I’m sorry, I obviously haven’t made myself completely clear,’ she said, and bowed her head. ‘I sincerely apologise for my failure to communicate. This is the space elevator pod. We will arrive on the surface of Dragonhome in about four of your hours. Please use that time to relax, enjoy the facilities of the elevator, try the food and other substances. I am here if you have any personal needs. Just tell Marque that you require my services and I will come to you immediately.’

  She moved her neck and head in a complicated sweeping motion that ended in a low bow. ‘Welcome to Dragonhome.’

  I used the small bathroom in my room, and went along the gallery to Ambassador Maxwell’s room. I waved my hand over the door and after a moment it opened. One of the specials stood on the other side, radiating a thoroughly impressed reaction to the alien facilities.

  The ambassador and a couple of the senior specials sat at a conference table in the centre of a suite that was much larger than my room. They were all nursing hot drinks.

  ‘Good,’ Maxwell said when she saw me. ‘Come and sit.’

  As I sat at the table, a pot of green dragon tea floated out of the wall in the suite’s kitchenette and landed in front of me. I poured for myself.

  Maxwell gestured at my tea. ‘So everything here is tailored to individual preferences?’

  ‘Marque registers what you like,’ I said. ‘You never have to ask twice, and it’s aware that your preferences may change according to your mood or the time of day. Even the gravity is individually tailored for every species.’

  ‘That’s a level of comfort beyond anything I’d ever considered,’ she said. ‘No wonder the dragons are pacifists. They’re soft from never being cold, hot, hungry or ill.’

  ‘On the contrary, Ambassador,’ Marque said. ‘When your own species realised in the past that it was being too sedentary, the population quickly became focused on physical exercise. In the same way, advanced member societies of the Empire deliberately seek out uncomfortable experiences – so they aren’t, as you say, soft.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Maxwell said, and sipped the drink Marque had provided for her. ‘I have a great deal to learn.’ She eyed me. ‘And I think the best way would be to talk to the other people in this elevator pod. Are you up to a tour?’ She checked her watch. ‘How long have you been active? You’ve done a lot in the past day or so.’

  I lowered my head and tried to puzzle it out. ‘I greeted the dragonscales at Scaleshome about … twenty hours ago? It’s all a blur.’

  ‘Maybe you should take a nap for an hour or two.’

  I was wired on adrenaline and didn’t feel tired, but she was right about the fatigue. It was definitely slowing
me down.

  I rubbed my eyes. ‘You’ll need me if you go downstairs to talk to people.’

  She hesitated, and Marque broke in. ‘I’ll help the ambassador, Jian. You can rest.’

  ‘Not acceptable,’ Maxwell said. ‘Take a ninety-minute power nap, Choumali, then meet us back here. While you’re out, I’ll have Marque give me an overview of the culture, economy and social structure of the dragon capital.’

  ‘I can tune your brainwaves to give you a better –’ Marque began.

  ‘No,’ Maxwell and I said in unison.

  ‘I’ll be back in ninety minutes,’ I said.

  I didn’t feel rested when I returned to Maxwell’s suite. The guards and specials were all listening to Marque’s briefing with varied expressions of incredulity.

  Maxwell rose when she saw me. ‘How long were you living on Shiumo’s ship? How comfortable are you in the dragons’ culture?’

  ‘Marque?’ I said.

  Maxwell raised her hand. ‘Don’t answer. Just the fact that you turned to Marque is all the answer I need.’ She straightened. ‘Marque says we’ve been invited for coffee, and I want your opinion on it.’

  ‘As I was telling the ambassador,’ Marque said, ‘you’ve been pinged by a member of a species with an unpronounceable name that would like to have social contact with you. Their species enjoys introducing others to the Empire, and this individual would gain a great deal of pleasure if you permitted it to show you around.’

  ‘Any weird shit?’ I asked Marque.

  ‘No weird shit,’ it said.

  ‘Is that a code?’ Maxwell said, amused.

  ‘Yes. Marque’s studied our broadcasts and understands our social taboos,’ I said. ‘Richard worked the code out with it after a particularly bad First Contact episode during his travels with Shiumo.’

  ‘The alien that wants to meet you is very similar to your species. They even meet socially over food and drink,’ Marque said. ‘Practically indistinguishable from humans.’

  ‘Let’s go and speak to Mr Unpronounceable,’ Maxwell said.

  ‘They’re hermaphroditic, and this individual’s name is Hrim,’ Marque said.

  ‘Indistinguishable,’ Maxwell muttered as we went out.

  Hrim was a four-metre-long horse-like alien, with three tiny hoofed digits at the end of each of its six slender legs. Its body was covered in brown scales with soft, feathered edges; and its long, narrow head had two normal eyes, with a soulstone between them, and a third bulging, faceted eye above the soulstone.

  ‘Generally, yes, the dragons will negotiate in good faith,’ Hrim said as we sat together in a café. ‘The cats are a danger to us all, and finding a way to deal with them that doesn’t mean going to war is a massive breakthrough. If you can also stop the dragons’ reproductive assimilation program,’ it gestured with one of its hoofs towards the purple scales on its forehead either side of its faceted central eye, ‘you’ll be doing everybody a favour. We’ve been asking the dragons to cut it out forever.’

  ‘We’ll do our best,’ Maxwell said. ‘I’ll let you know how it turns out.’

  ‘You won’t need to,’ Hrim said. ‘We will hear everything the Empress says to you during the negotiations, and the entire Empire will hold her at her word.’

  ‘Everything we say to her will be broadcast?’ Maxwell said.

  ‘Absolutely. The dragon administration is open and transparent. They have to be, or nobody would tolerate their reproductive bullshit. The advantages of being part of the Empire outweigh the disadvantages – particularly when the alternatives are torture and genocide by the cats. I hope you’re successful.’

  ‘Thanks for all your help,’ Maxwell said.

  ‘My pleasure. If there’s anything else you need, ask Marque and it will put you in contact with me. My people enjoy introducing new species to the ways of the Empire. And if you guys can stop the damn dragons’ reproductive assimilation, we’ll all be in your debt.’

  Miko approached us.

  ‘I guess we need to change the topic,’ I said.

  ‘Wouldn’t hurt,’ Hrim said. It pulled itself onto all six feet and towered at least five metres above us. ‘She’s here to tell you that we’re about to arrive. See you around Sky City, humans. As I said, I’m always here to help.’

  ‘Contact us later and we’ll arrange for you to receive some potatoes,’ Maxwell said.

  ‘I would like that very much,’ Hrim said, and it tossed its head and wandered away.

  35

  ‘I hope you are all rested and comfortable,’ Miko said. ‘We are arriving at the base station. If you will come with me, I’ll guide you down to the surface.’

  We joined the throng of people who were headed in the same direction, away from the central buildings. They kept a respectful distance from us when they saw Miko.

  The exit door led out onto a black shiny platform stretching away from us for nearly a kilometre, with the pale blue sky of high atmosphere above it. There was nothing beyond the edge of the platform, just clouds. We still appeared to be high above the surface of the planet.

  The Marque satellite flashed messages across its surface in a number of different languages, together with projections of the Nimestas we’d rescued receiving medical treatment, and footage of what appeared to be another cat attack on a desert-like planet.

  ‘This way,’ Miko said, and led us across the platform to a bus-sized ovoid structure. Its side opened to show seats in a circle, all facing inwards. The top half of the oval was transparent, and the lower half was white.

  Other aliens were entering vehicles of a variety of sizes and shapes; and some went to the edge of the platform and jumped off.

  ‘The people jumping off are being carried by Marque, right?’ Maxwell said.

  ‘Yes,’ Miko said. ‘But it’s easier to talk if we all travel together.’ She gestured towards the vehicle. ‘If you don’t mind.’

  We climbed in, and put the potato locker in the centre of the circle of seats. The seats were a hard, plastic-like substance, but they moulded themselves softly to our butts when we sat on them. The door closed, and the vehicle lifted off and took us down through the clouds.

  As we dropped below them, Sky City became visible. It was so big that the edges of the floating city weren’t visible; it appeared to be at ground level. A vast number of trees with colourful foliage in all shades of the rainbow, from blue to brilliant purple, were interspersed with trees a dull brown or grey colour. The vehicle levelled out and soared over a wide plaza, at least a kilometre each side, paved with shining white tiles and dotted with grassy areas containing more of the colourful and duller trees. There were so many aliens gathered on the plaza that my perception shut down and I couldn’t tell one from the other.

  ‘Goodness,’ Miko said. ‘That’s unusual. Why are there so many people on the square, Marque?’

  ‘To hear the negotiations firsthand. If the dragons accept the humans’ terms, these people’s families may finally be safe from the cats.’

  ‘They’re all there for us?’ Maxwell said.

  ‘Precisely,’ Marque said.

  ‘Which building is the Palace?’ I said. ‘There are two.’

  ‘That one is Parliament,’ Marque said, and an arrow appeared on the glass, pointing at a large blue-white building in a swooping wave-like shape. ‘The Palace is at the other end of the plaza.’

  We swept over the throng towards the Palace, which was built from a shining white material. Its basic shape was the standard dragon dome, but with many spires and towers, some transparent, others opaque white, and many with long silky pennants of different colours snapping on top. A ten-metre-wide terrace with no balustrade ran all the way around the outside of the Palace, five metres above the square.

  The aliens crowded into the square kept their distance from the building. There weren’t any guards or obvious markers, but there was a definite line the aliens wouldn’t cross, ensuring a clear area in front of the Palace.

 
; ‘It looks like something from a fairytale,’ Maxwell said.

  ‘Except the princess is the dragon,’ I said wryly.

  ‘The pennants indicate which of the Empress’s children are in residence,’ Miko said. ‘Each princess has her own hue.’

  ‘What about the plain brown and grey pennants?’ Maxwell said, pointing at some towers on the left. ‘Does that mean the princess isn’t home?’

  ‘Brown and grey?’ Miko said, confused.

  ‘You can’t see those colours; they’re outside your visual range,’ Marque said.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Miko said. ‘That sometimes happens with our visitors. Every species sees the world differently.’ She clasped her front claws together. ‘Isn’t diversity wonderful?’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Maxwell said, her voice heavy with sarcasm, but Miko’s rapt expression didn’t change.

  She isn’t being callous. She’s completely unaware of her species’ activities, I said to Maxwell. The naivety isn’t feigned.

  ‘Makes for a delightfully harmless tour guide,’ Maxwell said.

  ‘I am glad you find my services satisfactory,’ Miko said, bowing her head. ‘Here we are.’

  The vehicle swooped over the front of the Palace and landed in a courtyard under the towers. The side opened, and we climbed out onto the red grass-like lawn. A four-metre-tall crystalline sculpture sang quietly in the centre of the courtyard, with a pair of bright blue, lion-like aliens basking in the sun beneath it.

  ‘This is Princess Shiumo’s tower,’ Miko said. ‘Your guest quarters are here.’

  ‘Is Shiumo around?’ I said as Miko guided us to the base of the tower. Its gleaming white contrasted with the red grass covering the courtyard.

  ‘She is currently off-planet on diplomatic business,’ Miko said. ‘Five of her spouses live in the tower and she plans to visit them soon.’

  ‘Five,’ Ambassador Maxwell said under her breath.