Atiana cast a strange look toward Havlock. “You don’t want me learning what Tranxte might become?”
“On the contrary. I just don’t want you to be overwhelmed.”
“Won’t you be with me?”
“Hmm. George?”
“Why not?”
Havlock went into the net first, dragging Hawke with him. When Atiana entered, they were waiting in a virtual copy of Resolve’s lounge. She looked around, recognizing the dream state. She approached Havlock and took his hand, but since it was a virtual hand created by a computer who could not exactly feel, the hand did not have the same warm consistency she preferred.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Are you ready to meet George?”
“I’ve been ready to meet him since I first boarded the ship.”
George came strolling into the lounge dressed in a long, gilded, and hooded robe with billowing sleeves. He stepped up to Atiana and reached out, taking one of her hands in both of his. “Welcome to my world, Your Majesty.”
She peered into his hood looking for a face. “Can it just be Atiana?” she asked.
“It can. I like names. My name was given to me by a man from an emerging world.”
“Can I see your face?”
“No. You’ve entered a new world here. In a way you’re actually inside me, a part of me. I have no face, Atiana. That doesn’t make me less real, it just makes me different from you. I am as alien to you as is Stven.”
She put her other hand around the hands that enclosed her own. “How old are you, George?”
“By your standards I’m ancient, though I had a rebirth just a few years ago. I got an advanced education while I was at it.”
“It was you who discovered my world and the gleasons?”
“No. It was Lady Krys. I just brought her here.”
“Just.”
“Yes. I'm going to show you what that word means. Are you ready?”
The walls began thinning, though they did not disappear completely. She pulled her hands from George and reached out to Havlock and Hawke who each took a hand.
Havlock said, “I promise you there's no danger here.”
“Right. It’s just a dream.”
“Sort of,” Havlock agreed. “But never forget, this is as real as your world on Tranxte. Someday your people will fully understand what’s going on here. Their children's children might play in places like this, and they'll play without fear.”
“Well, I can’t be less than a child, can I? Get on with it, George.”
Her castle solidified outside the faint outlines of the room which began rising. Soon, the city and surrounding countryside came into view. The sensation was similar to what she had experienced in a shuttle.
“This part I get,” she said.
The room continued rising higher and higher until they were in orbit, something she had also experienced on a number of occasions. But this time she continued out past the transport ship.
“I’ve been on that ship,” she told George.
“We’re going farther this time, all the way to one of your moons,” he replied.
“Oh, please be careful. I like them, but they’re so small.”
“I’ll be careful.”
She had turned to look back at the transporter, so Hawke, still holding one of her hands, turned her to face the moon. In short order that moon filled her view. George let it slide off to the side as he brought them into orbit about the moon, then he brought the room down until it rested on the dusty surface. She could see to the horizon, though the horizon seemed closer to her than the horizon on Tranxte. Then she gasped. A blue and brown and white moon came into view above the horizon, and she knew without him telling her that it was her home.
She stared at that world as it rose higher into the sky, thinking deeply. “We’ve come a long way. Galborae would say we’ve come far. Is this a light-year?”
“No,” George said. “Not even close.”
She pulled her hands free and turned to face them, Havlock and Hawke dressed in their hard-to-look-at uniforms and George in his hooded robe. “I take it we’re going farther?”
“If you’re ready,” George answered.
“I . . . don’t know. I don’t really understand what we just did.” She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, I know we’ve come a long way, but where are we? Why aren’t we falling back? And I’ve wondered since the first time Gar brought me to this place: why aren’t the people on the bottom of my world falling off?”
“The answer lies beyond your present understanding of science,” George said.
Havlock winced, but Hawke did not. With only a moment’s hesitation, he asked her a simple question. “Have you ever flown upside down on your sauron?”
“No! I’d fall off.”
“Has your sauron ever gotten carried away on one of those beautiful days when everything is so fresh? Has it ever taken you through a loop?” He motioned a vertical circle in the air.
“Well . . . yes. Only once. I forbade her to do it ever again.”
“But you didn’t fall off.”
“No.”
“The sauron knew you wouldn’t. I’m sure it’s a sense they’re born with, knowing such things. You didn’t fall off because she kept you on the inside of her circle. In fact, you were probably pressed harder into your saddle.”
“Actually, I was, so hard that I couldn’t sit up. I never fell off, even when we were upside down.”
“Had you been sitting on the outside of the circle, you’d have fallen off. In space, everything moves in circles. Atiana, this moon is flying in a circle around Tranxte, and Tranxte holds it with invisible lines similar to the invisible lines that held you on your sauron. Tranxte itself flies in a circle around your sun. That sun holds Tranxte to itself with the same invisible lines, but Tranxte is not the only world your sun holds with invisible lines. George?”
They left the surface of the moon and sped farther out into space. George brought six other planets and the sun into view, very large, colorful planets about the size of the moon. Nothing in the display was, as yet, to scale. He brought all the worlds close enough that she could almost reach out and touch them.
“They’re beautiful. These worlds are like Tranxte?”
“No,” George told her. “Not at all. Some are much larger than Tranxte, and two of them are smaller. The world closest to your sun is so hot that the ground is always melted. The ones farther out do not get enough heat from the sun so they are always frozen. Nothing lives on any of them.”
George removed the planets from her view and reverted the display to the real scale, then headed away from the moon and Tranxte at high speed. Soon all she saw was darkness. When George turned her to look back at Tranxte, she could not find it so he outlined it with a faint circle. Within that circle a small white light shone like a star, and nearby two other lights shone, but these lights were so tiny they were barely visible.
“Those lights are Tranxte and your moons,” George said. “Keep looking.”
The room was still moving. Suddenly a huge world flashed by, then receded, a world that was just a bright gray, glowing sphere. She thought it resembled one of the worlds George had shown her earlier. In seemingly no time at all, it became a tiny light and another world flashed by, this one covered in striated clouds. George stopped, the enormous planet hanging just out of reach and filling her view. George turned her until the world was off her left shoulder and darkness lay ahead. She stared and stared but saw nothing meaningful until George created a circle around a star and informed her that the star was her sun. She could not see the other planets.
Since they were in the net, George knew what she was thinking. He outlined each of those planets, though she still could not see them.
“This is far,” she said.
“It’s so far it’s impossible to describe with terms in use on Tranxte.” George started the room moving again, but this time he climbed hig
h above the plane of the ecliptic so they could look down on all the planets. He increased the size of each planet until they were easy to see, then he placed faint circles of light within the picture, one for each planet’s orbit. When he started the planets moving along those orbits, she suddenly understood the order.
“More circles,” she said.
“This is what we refer to as your star system,” George said. “Each world circles the sun on its own path. They have done so since the beginning of time.” He enhanced each planet until the detail let her distinguish which was which from his earlier, larger display. Tranxte was the second planet out from the sun, a blue and white gem.
“Is this a light-year?”
Hawke answered for George. “Sorry. It’s not even close, but it’s so far that not even the Sky Lord and I can fully appreciate the distance. We understand it on a conceptual level, but we can’t feel these sorts of distances.”
George added, “I can and I do. It’s one of the things that makes me alien.”
The four of them stood looking down on the Tranxte system for a long time. “In it’s own way, it’s beautiful,” Atiana said. “It feels so perfect.”
“It is perfect, but only from a distance,” Havlock said. “The sun is so hot that nothing can get near it. Most planets are either too hot or too cold to support life. Civilizations like yours are so rare that we consider it our duty to protect them. It’s a real shame what’s happened to Tranxte.”
“But it has happened, and we’re going to fix it. Is my lesson over?”
Havlock squeezed her virtual hand. “No, it’s just begun.”
“I hope you stay long enough for me to understand this in its fullness some day.”
He grinned. “Do you see me doing anything else?”
“Truthfully, no. I think we’re both staring at our home.”
George interrupted. “You’re nearly done for today, Atiana. I just want to show you a little more. He brought another star into her view. “The new star is Aldebaran, our destination. It, too, has a system of planets. Aldebaran is the planet closest to its sun, so we call it Aldebaran I.”
A moment later, a few more stars appeared, then many more. Before long, thousands and thousands of tiny lights filled her view.
“Each of these stars is home to a civilization of one kind or another. They comprise our Empire,” George explained.
“So every star has its own civilization, most of them more advanced than Tranxte?”
“Not exactly. These stars have civilizations, yes, but they are only a tiny piece of the whole.” George added more stars, then all the stars in the galaxy. The blackness turned light, so many more stars springing into view that their light filled the room. In places, there were so many stars that they appeared as a haze.
“These are the rest of the stars. Though there are many civilizations in our Empire, they comprise only a tiny, tiny part of the whole galaxy. That is why Tranxte matters to us. We treat all life as a rare and precious thing.”
* * * * *
Havlock found himself wide awake in the early hours of the morning. He tossed for a while, then just got up and dressed in clean clothes for a new day.
“George,” he asked into the room, “This uniform will be out of place when we get to Aldebaran. I haven’t given up my military rank yet, but I’m sort of a civilian now. Do you carry any extra clothes on board?”
“No, Gar, but I have the ability to fabricate most items. What would you like?”
“Something appropriate for a governor, I suppose, but not formal. Got any ideas?”
“The Queen dresses formally only for special occasions. I think she’ll wear what she calls ‘comfortable working.’ Everyone else will follow her example.”
“The Queen! She’s on Aldebaran?”
“Unless she’s traveling, which she does a lot. She made Aldebaran her temporary home until the Palace is ready.”
He considered Atiana. “Queen Atiana said she would wear no fine clothes until the last gleason is gone from her lands. I don’t think that’s going to work here. If it’s not asking too much, she needs another set of whatever she’s been wearing. Something similar would work for me as well.”
“You might want to consult with someone else. I’m not the best judge when it comes to clothes. In the meantime, her outfit appears to be made of leather, suitable for riding gorlacs and saurons I suppose. I can duplicate it but make it finer in the process. Your’s could be similar.”
“Actually, her clothes were made on our transporter. I was thinking of something more stylish, but what she has will work. Can you make something for me and the rest of my people that resembles hers? I don’t want her feeling out of place.”
“She looks like she’s from a frontier world, which she is. All of you will. Terran officers who come aboard usually wear a non-formal uniform from their own world. You’ll stand out just as they do, but you won’t look poor. I’m better than that.”
“Hmm. Okay, if you’re that good, can you make a fine dress?”
“She said she would wear no fine clothes.”
“I hope to make an exception. Depends on how long we stay on Aldebaran. I’m hoping to take her out on a date.”
“Would a queen’s gown suffice?”
“No. That’s too formal.”
“Sorry, Gar. You’re out of my knowledge base now. I suppose I could copy something other females have worn on the ship, but most of them have been working.”
“Let me do some checking around. I’ll get back to you. Do you by any chance have music?”
“Lots of it. I’ll send you a list. Check your pad.”
* * * * *
He was busy working on the wish list he hoped to give to Governor Seeton when he heard knocking on his door. “Open,” he said to George.
The door snicked aside and Atiana stepped into the room. “Doesn’t look like I’m interrupting your sleep,” she said, smiling. “May I come in?”
“Please,” he said, standing up and pointing to a nearby chair. To George, he said, “Leave the door open, George.”
“Aye, sir.”
Atiana sat and stared up at the ceiling. “You have musicians aboard?” she asked. “I didn’t know!”
Havlock stepped behind her chair and put a hand on each of her shoulders, then leaned forward and kissed the top of her hair. “Good morning, My Lady.”
She leaned back into his hands with her eyes closed and a warm smile lighting her face. “You’ve just made it a wonderful morning, sir.”
He kissed her head again and stepped around to the front of her chair. “And you’ve made mine. I could get used to this.”
She sobered instantly and stood up, standing very close to him, the faint music no longer on her mind. “Do you mean that?”
He looked into her eyes without answering, his eyes betraying an inner turmoil. She tilted her head in a question, but he still did not answer. When he finally spoke, he spoke softly, having made a decision to say something that could never be unsaid.
“In truth I think of little else these days. I’ve been sitting here for an hour trying to work on a list of things we need for Tranxte, but my mind has been more focused on the fact that you were sleeping just through that door.”
A frisky smile found its way to her eyes as she chided him. “Sky Lords dream of maidens from a backward world?”
“In fairness, you’re not a maiden, you’re a queen. Not that it matters.”
“All the wealth of my kingdom, of my province, could never compare to what you have grown up with, sir.”
“The wealth of your kingdom lies entirely within its queen, and she has more value to me than anything or anyone I have ever known.”
Her light attitude evaporated. Her gaze delved into his as she questioned the words she had just heard. When she read the truth in his eyes, the corners of her mouth trembled and her eyes glistened. To hide her eyes from him, she stepped into his arms and pressed her head to his chest with a fi
erceness that surprised him. Gleasons, emerging worlds, even space ships and Riders became distant concerns for both of them. When he reached a hand to her head and leaned back, she did not hesitate. Her lips found his, hungry but soft. Her arms went tightly around his neck.
She eventually lowered her head back to his chest, and the two of them stood there for a long time. Thoughts of the outside world did eventually creep in, forcing both of them back to reality.
He was the first to pull away, though not completely away. “I won’t lie to you, My Lady. My world just changed.”
She reached trembling hands up to his face. “I have so wanted to hear those words, Gar. I’ve sensed your feelings, but you are, after all, the Sky Lord.”
He nodded. “Aye, and you’re Queen. You and I will have to figure out how to exist in two worlds at the same time. The coming few weeks will challenge you.”
“Not if there’s a third world, a world of just you and me, the world that matters most.”
He smiled in relief. He was so far out of his comfort zone that the words he had said had been almost as difficult for him as had talking to the gleason. “We’ll be busy, but I'll do my best to make sure there’s some time just for us. I'll help you through what will certainly be a strange time for you, but in truth, I might need your help, too. Compared to the people we’ll be with, I’m just a lowly soldier. You’re a lot more comfortable with knights and governors and such.”
“I disagree. The work you’re doing on Tranxte has brought you to their level. Already you’re in the presence of four Great Ones, and each of them respects you. I dare say your Queen will, as well.”
He chuckled. “She rules hundreds of thousands of civilizations, Atiana, and she’s embroiled in a war that’s engulfed all those stars we showed you. I hear she’s a bit like you, leading her forces from the front line, but the enormity of her task defies comprehension. If we’re lucky we might actually see her from a distance, but we won’t be introduced to her. I doubt if she even speaks to her servants. She might not even know what a gleason is. Do you know even one of the lowest farmers in your kingdoms?”
Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights Page 33