“The blade should make one revolution then stick into the target. Now you try.” He handed the next knife to Shaidan. “Don’t forget to pace out your distance.”
At first, the knives bounced off the wood, but gradually, every other one would hit, Some hit but then fell out, and others really hit home and stayed in the wood. By the time they’d been at it an hour, Shaidan seemed to have gotten the knack of throwing.
“Now it’s just practice,” said Jerenn.
“We should see if we can backtrack that secret passage,” said M’Nar. “It would make getting here a whole lot easier. I don’t like to think of Shaidan climbing in and out of here alone, and especially not on a fuel vehicle.”
“You are definitely not to come here alone,” said Jerenn sternly. “Anyone could snatch you, and we’d never know till it was maybe too late. Promise you won’t come here alone?”
“I promise, but how can I practice if I don’t come here?”
“One of us will take you,” said M’Nar. “You do not want to go looking for danger by going off miles from the Palace on your own.”
“We’ll try and find the secret passage another day,” said Jerenn. “We’ve already been gone almost as long as your time allows. We have to get back pretty quickly today. Leave it with us, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Shaidan used the wheel to boost himself up onto the hood of the vehicle and then clambered up the cab window to the roof, Jerenn and M’Nar right behind him. M’Nar boosted him up onto the roof proper and then followed.
“You know, Jer, this sounds hollow. I don’t think there is any fuel in it.”
Jerenn knelt down and began rapping on the roof of the cab, then the roof of the tanker part, comparing the sounds. “I think you’re right. That makes me a lot happier. That fuel is very volatile, and we really shouldn’t be down near it if we can avoid it. Here will do for now, but we have to find a better place to practice.”
“Agreed,” said M’Nar, grasping Shaidan round the waist and lifting him up until he got a firm grip on the edge of the floor above them.
“Time to head back at a run, I think,” said M’Nar. “Who’s up for a race?”
M’zull, Lorishuk’s estate, evening, same day
I bring gifts, came the mental voice of Annuur. Is it safe to join you?
Yes, but not for long, Kusac replied.
Moments later, Annuur materialized in the office. “Nanites I have for you both, important ones. Have you released yours for your people and the mountain tribe yet?”
“Not yet. I haven’t been back to the village . . .”
“No more excuses! Must do or too late. Have you at least done self and Primes?”
“I’ve done us, of course. I’ll go to the village later this week and do it then.”
“Good. Rezac, you done your people?”
“Done, Annuur,” said the other.
“Excellent. These ones special. This one changes scents of all officer caste so that they lose scent which prevents soldier caste from attacking and challenging them.” He handed first Kusac, then Rezac, a small black vial. “This blue one prevents you and your staff from being affected by it. You get each person to touch open tube to transmit to them.” He handed them each a blue tube. “And last one I drop now anywhere as it spreads the memories we want these sand-dwellers to wake up with when all is done.”
This larger tube Annuur dropped on the floor where it shattered. Kusac watched, as fascinated and repulsed as when he’d released them before, as a tide of metallic liquid appeared to flow out of the broken tube. Within a heartbeat or two, it had vanished, its color changed to match the surface it was traveling over.
“Does that make you feel nauseous, too?” Rezac asked him.
“Yeah, very.”
“Memories won’t attach to you,” said Annuur. “We set it so that repulsor works for this as well. Now use the officer one on self, then release them in a crowded place. Should only take a few days to cover officers. Memories will keep duplicating to population even after their minds are wiped. It will take the Touibans’ signal to activate them. Those not reached by memories on that day will get the nanites at a slightly later date. Touibans and Ch’almuthians will have more memory nanites to release when they come.”
Kusac pocketed the black vial and opened the blue one, putting his thumb over the opening and briefly tipping the contents against his skin. With a queasy feeling he watched a tiny drop of the metallic liquid seep into his thumb and disappear as he screwed the lid back on.
“Good, now you remain unchallengeable while around you anyone else can be challenged. It will be your protection in the last few days. This will activate now, so treat all your people with it as soon as possible. Does not mean other officers won’t try to attack you because these nanites have less time to spread. Those not affected can attack you, and once you attack those affected, they can fight back, so be on guard.”
“I will. Thank you, Annuur.”
“Yes, thanks, Annuur,” added Rezac.
“What about Kaid and the others back at the den? Have they got it yet?”
“They got it first, now you two.”
“What about the mountain folk, the hybrids of all castes, and Ch’almuthians already here. How will they be affected by all this?”
“All affected except those you choose to protect. Oh, almost I forget, translocators I have for you.” He pulled a small bag off his belt and handed it to Kusac. “Only go to den and back to place you set as home. You use in your office, you return to office. You arrive in outer cave in place they keep clear now for arriving people. You test, get used to using. I go now. Much to do.” With that, Annuur vanished.
Kusac opened the bag and looked inside. It held half a dozen slim devices. Kusac pulled out three for Rezac and his two commandos and handed them over to him. “I do suggest practicing with them; it’s a very disorienting experience. These ones are way smaller than the one I originally got from Annuur.”
“Probably because they only go to two places,” said Rezac.
“I suggest we make the estates our home. We’re likely to be safer there than anywhere else, except the mountain den.”
“Good point. When do you have to go back to the base to be yourself again?”
“In three days. You?” asked Kusac.
“Tomorrow. I suggest we practice tonight since you’re staying the night here anyway. We can take it in turn to accompany our people there and back. You can set this room to home for now.”
Kusac nodded. “ We’ll do it after your staff are all asleep.”
Prime world, Zhal-Oeshi 8th (August)
Shaidan was relaxing after dinner on his bed. He’d drawn the curtains round it, the only privacy the cubs had in their communal dorm, but they were still so closely attuned to each other that they wanted that closeness most of the time.
First he felt the weight on his bed, then he saw a Cabbaran suddenly appear on the foot of it.
“Shhh! I Kuvaa. Hello, Shaidan,” she whispered.
Eyes like saucers and ready to shout out in fright, Shaidan scooted up the bed as far as he could go.
“What do you want?” he hissed. “How do I know you are Kuvaa? You could be anyone!”
I am Kuvaa. Unity, please confirm this.
She is Kuvaa, Shaidan. She will not harm you today.
What do you want with me?
I bring you to meet Unity. It has physical presence that few get to see, but I thought you might like to meet it.
Him, he’s a him, Shaidan corrected absently as he thought about going to visit this amazing AI that was so much more than the Palace ZSADHI.
How long would I be gone? he asked.
Can bring you back moments after you leave. No one will know you’ve been away.
Of course. You manipulate time and space,
don’t you? Where are you and Unity?
Not that far from where you are on world called Ghioass. You want to come?
Why? Why do you want me to visit?
So Unity and I can find out more about you,
You want to study me. Suddenly he was suspicious.
Know all about your origins. Is not that I am curious about . . .
You want to know why I vanish, he sent, frowning at her. Giyarishis here in the Palace is already watching me for that.
Giyarishis watching you? No orders has he to do that! Must talk to him about this. Unity, privacy always when I talk with Shaidan or am with him. See to it.
Yes, Councillor Kuvaa, said Unity.
So are you coming?
Yes. I’ll come, he sent, moving cautiously back down the bed until he was squatting beside her.
Kuvaa reached out a forelimb tipped with a tripartite hoof. Then take hold of me and we’ll go!
Shaidan reached out a tentative hand and grasped hold of Kuvaa’s forelimb. Instantly, he was engulfed in cold and darkness. Then, as he was about to panic, suddenly it was over and he hit the ground with a slight bump. Around him, the air glowed with a faint blue light, and as his eyes became accustomed to it, he was able to make out his surroundings. Seating was a pile of cushions, or a slanted chair-like thing he quickly realized was built for a Cabbaran. In front of both was a table at a comfortable working height. There the familiar ended. A large monitor of some kind, with outlines of light, glowed against a wall. On it, multicolored lights swirled like a tide around a small bluish glow, ebbing and flowing before they merged into each other in the constant stream of light.
On the tables, holographic input devices, also made of light, waited for their beams to be broken by fingers or hooves.
Kuvaa settled herself on her chair, gesturing Shaidan toward the cushions. “Sit, sit, just touch nothing for now. What you see on wall is what is happening around us right now. Only one major nexus at the moment and that is your father. His actions we read in how the colors flow around him.”
“So you’re watching now?” asked Shaidan.
“Yes, this is happening right now, from minute to minute. But this screen shows many other things. Unity, show the mountains outside this town on Ghioass,” said Kuvaa.
The images changed to show a landscape of blue skies and green-clad hills and mountains.
“So beautiful,” murmured Kuvaa. “We can look at anything we wish from here. Unity can be used as you would use a computer, but with your voice or by typing in commands, or by touching the screen.” She leaned forward, hitting a few keys until the keyboard was replaced by a smaller holographic monitor in front of her. She swiped her hoof across the virtual surface bringing up a series of icons. With a few more strokes she had called up a view of the Prime Palace.
Shaidan let out an exclamation of surprise as Kuvaa, using her hooves, zoomed in closer till he could see the people walking across the grand courtyard, looking at the shops there or going into one of the restaurants.
“That’s now?” he asked.
“Right now,” she agreed. “We see only a general view, and only from this angle. Can’t look for specific people . . .”
“You can’t see anywhere you don’t have a nexus,” he said, looking over at her. “Even so, you can spy very effectively on us there.”
“That’s not the purpose of the nodes,” she said. “In the past yes, but have been dismantling them.”
“So what is the point of them now?”
“Just to check what is really happening if we get a warning from the potentialities you saw first. If we see a conflagration—an important large event about to happen—we can look to see what it is. We can only see places we have been to, places we’ve been able to physically place the nodes first.”
“What about my home world, Shola. Have you got nodes there?”
“Unable to put any there as your telepaths would notice them.” A few taps on her screen and the keyboard in front of Shaidan changed to a small screen like Kuvaa’s. “Place your hand against the screen so Unity can read you,” she said. “You’ll feel a faint buzzing against your palm when in right place.”
Shaidan slowly stretched out his hand, feeling with all his senses for that faint buzz against his palm. “Oh! I feel it,” he said, turning to let his mouth drop open in a grin. “It feels really strange, sort of all tingly. What will Unity do?”
“Unity just scanning your hand for basic information—things like your temperature, your pulse and so on. With that information, it will be able to identify you from any other Sholan. I can also give you limited access to Unity when you are here, like now.”
“What will you let me do? Ouch!” Shaidan snatched his hand back, sticking one of his fingers into his mouth. “That hurt! What was that for?”
“Just a blood and DNA test,” she said soothingly. “Plenty of them you must have had. Unity is done now.”
“Too many,” Shaidan agreed ruefully, examining his fingertip. “So what will Unity allow me to do now?”
“Unity teaches our young. I allow you to access its teaching programs. You have met U’Churians, yes?”
Shaidan nodded.
“Then you can access some programs about them, their world and their culture that will teach you more than you could learn elsewhere.”
“I’d like that.”
Kuvaa pulled up a program for him. “This is a general knowledge one about them to begin with,” she said.
“Kuvaa, how come I can understand you and Unity? How will I understand a program for your children?”
“Universal translators I wear, that Unity controls. It changes the language to one you can understand.”
“He,” said Shaidan absently, already drawn into the program about the U’Churians. “Unity is a he.”
Prime world, Palace of Light, same evening
“General,” said Zsurtul, entering Kezule’s office where he was just winding down his work for the day. “I would like to talk to you about a personal matter.”
Kezule got to his feet, gesturing to the easy chairs set around a low table. “Certainly, Majesty. Please, take a seat.”
“Not Majesty, please, just Zsurtul when we are alone,” said the young King, taking a seat. “It’s Zhalmo. She’s started going out to train with her brothers and sisters again. I’m worried about her.”
Kezule joined him. “You knew she was a warrior when you married her, Zsurtul. You can’t change what she is and still have the female you love.”
“You have me wrong, Kezule. I don’t want to change her, I want to find a way to let her be what she is, to have a purpose in her life that’s hers, without putting her in danger. She can’t go on missions any longer, but there must be something she can do.”
“I take it that running the Palace artisan guilds doesn’t hold too much fascination for her.”
“About as much as it does for Doctor Zayshul,” the young male smiled. “At least she has her profession as a Doctor to continue, but Zhalmo just can’t be a commando any longer.”
“Since she wants to train with her Brothers and Sisters, why not put her in charge of your bodyguard? As their head, she would be intimately involved with all the security details like training and rotation of personnel. It would give her a purpose again, one she had before, yet shared with the rest of your bodyguards.”
Zsurtul smiled, his face losing the worried look it had had since he’d walked into Kezule’s office. “That would work, I’m sure,” he said. “She’d not be able to turn down such a job. But what about her? I need to know she’s being guarded securely, too, not just me.”
“We need to give her a title, a rank within the guard, but insist that she has someone who is an equal to her in rank. That person will only overrule her if it is thought she is jeopardizing her security for the sake of your
s.”
“All we’ll have to do is be sure she doesn’t choose someone she thinks she can push around.”
“If she does that, you appoint someone else. M’kou can tell you who would fit into that category, so have him there with you when she chooses her staff.”
“Thank you, General. You’ve given me a solution I am sure Zhalmo will approve as much as I do,” he said, getting to his feet. “I won’t hold you up any longer as I am sure you want to be with your wife and daughter.”
“Good night, King Zsurtul, I’m glad I was able to help.”
M’zull, Palace, same day
“I have new orders for you, Nayash,” said K’hedduk as Kusac was admitted to his office. “Your reports on the raids by the insurgents were excellent, and I found them accurate and detailed. They haven’t helped us to capture this Zsadhi group yet, but they have given us vital information about them. I now need you to visit all three fleets and put together a dossier on how loyal the troops and commanders out there are to me. You have three days to do this.”
“Three days isn’t long enough for a full report, Majesty,” he began, but K’hedduk cut him short.
“It’s all I can allow at this time. I need a first impression of how loyal they seem, and that’s all for now. I concur with your feeling that the Generals here are plotting something, and I need to know who I can depend on in the fleets. Report back to me on the eleventh. You can get your orders from my secretary on your way out. Dismissed.”
“Yes, Majesty,” said Kusac, bowing his way back out of the door. He stopped by the secretary’s desk to get his orders and headed back to his apartment to pack a bag, get his staff, and make an urgent call to Azwokkus.
“I need undetectable explosives,” he said. “I need to set up some major charges that I can detonate remotely at a later date. I want those fleets utterly destroyed before the M’zullians are wakened up, if your nanites sleep plan works.”
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