Ron paused to consider his own words. “I must admit, however, that the strongest, most productive planets are usually those that are able to exploit those tiny worlds.”
Again, Ron paused. “It was not by accident that you sent flotillas of battlecruisers out to capture that rock and move it to orbit here, was it?”
“No. We call it priming the pump. Your planet desperately needed new resources. We brought it here, but I’m insisting that the first flower of its production goes to finding more resources. We have a story of the Red Queen. In it, you have to run as fast as you can just to stay where you are.”
“Because someone with large teeth is running just as fast behind you, right?”
“You got it, Ron.”
“So many of our planets are running as fast as they can just to stay in the same place. You are trying to help us get enough ahead of those chasing us to get a breath. Grow stronger.”
“Right.”
Ron cocked his head over, something that involved much of his body. “And what will this do to us, my human friend?”
“You will grow stronger,” Kris said.
“And what will we do with this strength?”
“Tear yourselves apart? Build yourselves a better world?” Kris asked with a shrug.
“Human, why do I think that you two-legged, two-eyed aliens are more trouble than you are worth?”
“Because you never know when going into a wave of change just how you will come out, and who will be on top when it’s done,” Kris answered slowly.
“That is so. That is just so.”
Kris chose to have dessert delivered. Chocolate was a beloved taste for the Iteeche. Ron ate his chocolate-covered grasshoppers, or something like it, with a very pensive air about him. He was still quiet as Kris escorted him to his barge for return to his flagship.
Kris said nothing, letting the silence speak for itself. Yes, she was bringing change to this Empire. Forcing change down its throat. She’d done it to this one planet. Someone had still tried to kill her for this, but, as usual, they failed. Now, the question was, could she continue down this trail, or would she be stopped?
Kris returned to her quarters, looking for Jack and distraction, but knowing she needed to get things moving before those with power stripped her of her power to bring change to the lives of those that deserved something better.
31
Kris had a lot of projects to juggle. If she wanted this fleet to strike a blow for the Emperor, she needed to get it battle ready. She now had five hundred more ships that were initiated in her way of fighting and, were as yet, unmodified.
She dispatched Admiral Coth with fifteen flotillas of his ships on a training cruise to test, modify, and train the recently arrived flotillas. With only three of Nelly’s kids with Kitano’s fleet, Kris had to send along Megan to speed up the process. Clearly, an early, below-the-zone promotion to lieutenant commander didn't get her out of any scut work.
Why was Megan not surprised?
The training cruise went faster than expected. The new ship captains were needing less and less persuasion to adopt high gee bunks and let strange computers mess around inside their ship computers. With all the boxes checked off quickly, Coth was headed back when Kris found herself in urgent need of her flag lieutenant.
The transportation net in one major city had suffered a catastrophic failure. If it wasn’t fixed quickly, Iteeche were going to die.
Was it an accident, poor maintenance, or sabotage?
Whichever it was, Megan and Lily drew the assignment. She reported on the run immediately to Kris as soon as the training fleet returned to the station.
“We have a problem?” Lieutenant Commander Longknife asked Grand Admiral Longknife.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever we have, we need someone to fix it right away. As soon as you can change to dress whites, I’d like you to please drop down and get a good look at it. Take along a couple hundred kilos of Smart Metal.”
“That much?” From the look on Megan’s face, it was clear the size of that limited resource told her just how big the problem was.
Kris nodded. “People are out of work because of this mess. Now it’s in one city, but it could spread to more. Take my barge. Prepare to create a palanquin or other fancy ride. You can never put on enough show with these damn squids.”
“Are you having a bad day?”
“Megan, things were going so smoothly, now we have this. Get to the bottom of it.”
“Can Captain Sung come with me? She likes to be there when we’re working with the Iteeche.”
“By all means. Tell her I want her there.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral.”
32
Megan found the Admiral’s Barge several steps up from her usual longboat ride. The seats were more cushioned and looked to be in red leather. The carpet on the floor was plush. There were actually curtains framing the fake windows that now showed the space around them. No doubt, it was all Smart MetalTM.
Captain Sung arrived right behind her and the two of them strapped in. A moment later, the barge fell away from the Princess Royal and began its descent. Atmosphere being no respecter of rank, the ride down in the admiral’s barge was bumpier than most.
They were headed for a city with a long name that basically meant some guy with a very long name and his clan’s “Beautiful Red Sunset.”
Most people just called it “Sunset.”
Kris was right about sending them down in her best barge, there was a greeting party that stepped on board as soon as the aft hatch opened. The new city lordling was a bit on the older side, but he proudly wore his full regalia of many colors and his silver chain of office. He was followed by several local clan chiefs decked out with less color and less fancy chains.
The high muckety-muck announced his full name, every word of it, and his office, that needed a lot more words than city regional governor, and finished with, “We are honored to see so respected a subordinate of such an eminent chosen one as Imperial Admiral of the First Order of Steel Longknife.”
If Megan was right, Kris had just gotten short-changed. However, Megan had been working on her own introduction.
“I am Lieutenant Commander Megan Longknife of the clan Longknife of Santa Maria. I am Flag Lieutenant and aide de camp to Her Royal Highness, Grand Admiral Kris Longknife, Imperial Admiral of the First Order of Steel and personally named by the Emperor as Commander of the Imperial Combined Fleet. She is the personal Emissary of King Longknife of the United Society and chosen war leader of that republic. She is the slayer of alien space raiders and the protector of the populations of the planets Alwa and Susquan. I am her fixer, kindly take me to your problem.”
I WAS WONDERING IF YOU’D EVER GET AROUND TO THE REASON WE’RE HERE, Quinn quipped on Nelly Net.
I HAD TO HAVE A LONG NAME AND JOB TITLE, OR I’D GET DISRESPECTED. BESIDES, THIS JOKER SERIOUSLY DISRESPECTED KRIS WHEN HE SHORTENED HER TITLE. I COULDN’T LET THAT HAPPEN.
YOU MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT. LOOK AT THAT FELLOW. HIS BEAK IS HANGING OPEN.
“If you will come this way,” he said, only after closing his mouth with a hard click.
Megan and Quinn followed the Iteeche out of the barge. There, waiting for them on the tarmac were several sedan chairs and two seriously decked out palanquins carried by a dozen porters.
LILY, LET’S PUT ON A SERIOUS SHOW.
GOT IT, had a serious grin attached to it.
Behind Megan, a large block of metal in the barge’s aft cargo bay sprouted eight wheels and rolled down the ramp. However, as it descended, it began to morph. By the time the last wheel rolled onto the tarmac, it was a large, most decorative palanquin with sparkling jewels set in a golden body that flashed in the sun.
Several Iteeche now needed to close their beaks.
“If you will care to board,” Megan said to the governor. “It is our custom that the juniors enter first.”
“Oh,” the governor sputtered as he and his lordlings r
eorganized themselves and mounted the offered escalator that now took them up to this luxurious moving palace. When the last Iteeche was aboard, Lieutenant Commander Longknife invited Captain Sung to board before her.
WHY NOT? YOU’RE THE LONGKNIFE.
I APPRECIATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING.
In the large enclosure, there had been a long U-shaped couch around the front of the litter and nothing along the rear. Now, with the Iteeche seated all together, two golden chairs rose from the floor of the litter even as Quinn and Megan began to sit down.
PERFECT, LILY.
THANKS.
“Now, I understand that you use a mode of transportation we have not seen on the Capital planet.”
“None of the rolling roads are allowed within five hundred miles of the palace,” the governor said, elbowing the Iteeche beside him to get more room. Those on either side squished together.
“Do the rolling roads provide good service to you?”
“They have worked for Zargoth since it was first opened for the People. We have never had this problem with them before.”
“Very well,” Megan said, and leaned back in her chair. It began to massage her.
Around her, the palanquin rocked along, borne by those who had come to carry the other two.
“Your view from up here is quite nice,” the governor said, “but do you really want everyone gawking at you?”
“But no one can see us to gawk at us,” Megan said. “The material lets us see out, but no one can see in. Would you prefer they could? Lily?”
In a snap, the luxurious moving box was flooded with brighter sun light.
“To make it one way requires us to reduce the light. I always like it lighter, don’t you?” Megan said.
“I would prefer not to be seen,” the governor said, quickly. “All of us cannot be so lucky as your Admiral.”
“Ah, yes. Lily, return us to our previous state.”
“Done,” said the computer at Megan’s throat.
There was more beak-dropping as shade returned to the cabin of the palanquin.
“So, shall I assume that your sensitivity to snipers is based upon a fear that these rolling roads have been sabotaged?”
“It is a distinct possibility, although we have not caught anyone in the act, and there is no explanation for some of the things that have made the problem worse.”
“Well, we shall see.”
By now, the fancy palanquin was swaying out of the space port. There was a small parking lot with a few of the three- and four-wheeled vehicles in it. A few looked like limos, but the lordling did not suggest they stop and dismount.
Megan soon found out why.
They were carried up a few steps with their ride being anything but level. Then, Megan got a view of these rolling roads.
Now it was her turn to make sure she kept her mouth shut.
In front of her was a large expanse. She had to blink several times before her eyes took it all in. At the moment, they were being carried onto a sliding walkway. The porters balanced them well; those that got on the road first quit moving forward and only sidled sideways until the last of those on the far side had managed to get aboard.
This slideway was just wide enough for a palanquin as large as Megan and Lily had built.
To their left were more slideways, each one stepping up the speed as you went in that direction. About half-way to the far edge of the slideways, see-through air fences started to sprout. At first, there was a windbreak every ten meters or so, then less distance as the speed of the rolling road picked up until at the far side, they were about every two meters.
This system was repeated in reverse on the far side of the road, only it was going the other direction.
Four or five meters above the fast lanes there was a freight lane. At least, Megan thought at first that it was. Containers a good ten or twenty meters in length zoomed by, going the same speed as the most distant lane. There were two of these elevated lines, one going in each direction.
Suddenly, one container zoomed by with windows. It was gone in a flash, but Megan was left with the distinct impression of Iteeche looking out at her.
“This is a very nice system you have,” Megan told the governor.
“Thank you. It is when it works.”
“And it doesn’t work?”
“We will show you.”
Megan sped down the rolling road. To each side were buildings of ten and fifteen stories high. Their design was repetitive, just concrete and glass, every corner squared, every surface flat. There were always flowers in boxes outside the first floor, but nothing to break up the monotony as the building rose higher.
Ahead, opened to Megan’s view by the wide expanse of rolling road, she could see skyscrapers that rose five hundred meters or more into the dull gray sky. They stood like soldiers, each in the same uniform, shoulder to shoulder, back to front.
How many Iteeche must live in this city? A million? Ten million? A hundred million?
The slideway carried them into a strip of destruction and construction. The buildings still standing were five or six stories tall. Many of them were built with different materials and to different designs. Here some were brick or stone. There was little concrete and glass.
Yet, those buildings were all being torn down. Next to the destruction, a new building would be going up. From the look of the crane, it might he headed for five hundred meters of concrete and glass.
The older buildings that could hold fewer people were being replaced with skyscrapers where a hundred times that many could be crammed in.
And all of those people would ride the rolling road.
So why was the passenger load on this line so light?
Megan found out rather soon. She was thrown forward in her chair as her palanquin slowed quickly. Then, it rolled to a stop.
The rolling road ahead was not rolling.
“Let’s walk around a bit,” Megan said as she stood. She led the parade down the escalator then turned slowly to look around.
Behind her, the road moved, although most people seem to have exited well back from the sudden stop. The buildings to either side were blockish skyscrapers, all reaching to the same 500-meter level.
It was what lay ahead of her that made her frown.
Someone had spent a lot of skull sweat figuring out how to design an interchange that merged one slideway going east to west with another going north to south. In front of her was just such an interchange. Her rolling road went one way. Another rolling road crossed before her, heading in its own direction.
Her sidewalk merged six or eight lanes into four slower one. That lane rose high in the air and then fell smoothly to match a lane in the north-south road. There were plenty of arriving lanes to let the east-west passengers merge onto the north-south road.
Except the north-south rolling road was dead in the water.
“Lily, give me a picture of this layout.”
A moment later, a holographic map floated in front of Megan. It covered a lot of territory. However, it was easy to see the wide expanse where the rolling road lay. There were a lot that went east and west. There was only one that went north and south.
Haven’t these folks learned about the dangers of single-threading?
Of course, these roads took up a lot of real estate that seemed to be in short supply. At the fringe of the map, green agricultural lands could already be seen running right up to the sad gray of the city.
It took a lot of land to feed fifty billion Iteeche.
“So, your main transportation backbone is broke.”
“Yes, Lieutenant Longknife. The People can travel from one part of their route to the beginning or end, but none of them can transfer to any other road. Neither food nor equipment can move along it either. We are only days away from starvation breaking out in some pockets of this city.”
“You can’t use those three- and four-wheel trucks to move food?”
“We can move some, but we don’t have
nearly enough.”
Megan nodded. “Show me where this breakdown is. By the way, is the guy who oversaw this road before we landed still here?”
“He is now serving the Emperor and his clan somewhere else in the Empire.”
“So, who is the most senior man left from the old regime?”
“I will have him meet us at the break,” the governor said, not actually naming the technician. “Now, we must backtrack to where my vehicles are waiting.”
Megan did not like the idea of wasting time backing and filling. “That won’t be necessary. Lily, please make transportation for us. It doesn’t look to me like there’s much traffic on the dead slideway.”
33
In a moment, the palanquin had converted itself into an open eight-wheeled roadster with comfortable space for ten . . . and the bearers were galloping up the road. The other senior Iteeche looked like they’d love to follow them, but they held off . . . barely.
Megan offered the passenger side seat to Quinn and then walked around the snub nose to the driver’s side, assuming any driving was necessary. The Iteeche piled into the three back seats. The governor sat directly behind Megan.
As the roadster accelerated to a sedate thirty kilometers per hour, Megan had her seat swivel around to face the governor even as she said, “Lily, let me know if you need my help getting us there.”
“Very well, but Megan, where are we going?”
Megan raised an eyebrow to the governor, then thought better of it, since the Iteeche did not have much body hair. “Where is this breakdown?”
“I am not sure. I have not been to it.”
“Could you please order that senior technician to meet us on the road where the break is?”
The governor turned to one of his toadies. He took a radio from his belt that was about as big as a shoe and spoke rapidly. He quickly got an answer. “Sak will be there.”
They sedately motored north, with Megan hoping they would not have to turn around and go south. She had no idea what the range was for this roadster and she really didn’t want to walk.
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