by Ian J Miller
"I suppose not," Tharryt said.
After he left, Gaius was reasonably confident that he had found a new recruit. Tharryt was terrified of the Cardinal, and with cause, but he was also a schemer and not without courage. He would try to ensure a better future for himself just in case the Cardinal lost.
Chapter 28
Natasha Kotchetkova was both bored and annoyed. Gaius had set off to find Kazyn, although officially he had gone back to the Actium. She had tried to contact Hadell, but without success. She was also unable to contact Gaius, although that was by agreement because Gaius had announced that once his expedition was underway he would block all communication other than if there were an emergency. While he was confident that the Ranhynn could not intercept messages, they might be able to detect the presence of messages and locate the sources, so, as Katya insisted, the absence of a message was actually confirmation that Gaius was fine, and the expedition was progressing according to plan. Had he been in trouble, the need for secrecy would have gone, and Marcellus would always be able to get some message out. She had even tried for a "conversation" with Lucilla, but because of the delays due to the velocity of light, conversations with Lucilla had to be essentially text messages, even if spoken, because it took hours to get a response. What she found was that Lucilla was bored too, which was hardly a great advance.
She had to do something, and since she could not contact anybody, the default position was to approach the Space Curia to establish whether any progress had been made with regards to agreeing to sign the treaty. She sent a message saying she would be there in an hour and a half, then she had lunch. When she had finished lunch she gathered some documentation and a tablet, and descended to the front door of the hotel. There she found two armed Ranhynn, who explained they had been sent by Seppet Methrell to ensure her safety. One was an officer, apparently, she found out later, the equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel, and the other was simply a specialist soldier.
As they walked along the street, it was obvious that while some Ranhynn might want to question or harass this woman, they were not going to give the soldiers any excuse whatsoever to deal with them, and the odd party was given a wide berth. Once again she approached the high steps leading up to the Space Curia. She entered the main door, and after going through the security check, which, she was amused to note, the soldiers ignored and effectively challenged anyone to stop them, she approached the receptionist where she was directed to the third office on the left of a rather long corridor.
She knocked on the door, and heard a rather gruff statement from within, to the effect of "Go away!" It appeared that either the receptionist had not forwarded the message or the official had no intention of speaking to her. The Lieutenant Colonel shrugged and opened the door and indicated that Natasha should enter. There behind a desk was a very well decorated Ranhyn, his attire clearly intended to show rank and induce submission, but this was lost on this party.
"What are you doing in here?" the official asked the soldiers.
"Our duty," the Lieutenant Colonel replied. "It may be time for you to do yours."
The uncompromising tone, and the stare that the official could not match in return, meant that the official had to turn towards Natasha, and indicate that he wanted to know what she wanted.
"I have come to see whether there has been any progress on reaching a decision on the treaty," Natasha started.
It soon became obvious that there was none, and it was also obvious that this official could not care less.
"I also have no intention of explaining myself to you," the official concluded somewhat arrogantly, "but I should explain to the Ulsian representative. Where is he?"
"If you mean Space Marshall Scaevola, he has gone back to the Actium."
"What's he doing there?" came the response. "Sitting by himself in a space ship? Is he having a sulk?"
"Of course not. He is not the sulking type."
"Then what is he doing?"
"I don't know," Natasha said. "I am not his keeper. What I do want to know is when will this decision be made?"
"In due course," the official said. He clearly had no intention of showing any signs of encouragement.
"In short course," the Lieutenant Colonel said sharply. "Either there is a treaty, or there is war, and war means the Military Curia has to do the fighting, which ultimately means against Earth, Kroth and Ulse, and we may not want to fight just because you want to be an egg-squasher."
"How dare you talk to me like that. I'll –"
"You'll what? Show some spine?"
"Your superiors will hear of this. You'll –"
"I am simply following orders. The orders of the Seppets."
This had a chilling effect. This was not a soldier "being tough". If true, this was the sign of a highly irritated Military Curia, and that was a Curia not to be taken lightly. And no soldier would risk citing non-existent orders from the Commander in Chief.
"I'll pass the message on," the official almost gulped.
"You do that. Now, Ambassador, we had better go back and leave this undernourished egg-eater to his work. He has a message to take, and only four more hours in the day to do it."
Natasha had quite a smile on her face as she left the Space Curia building, because her previous experience on Earth had often led her to wish she could take certain lazy officials and shake them until they functioned. It was only when she got back to her room did it occur to Natasha that she should have asked which Seppet had given that officer those orders.
Chapter 29
The next morning, while having breakfast, an envelope was delivered to Natasha by the waiter. She was somewhat puzzled by this, but she realized that her only way of finding out more was to open the envelope. Inside was a sheet of paper, with the heading indicating it came from the Space Curia. She was invited to present herself there at 0900 hrs. She looked at her watch, and decided that she would have to set out immediately. She went to the front door and saw the expected two guards, except they were different guards today. She sent a thought message to Katya to protect all her property and documents in her room, and indicated to the guards that she was to go to the Space Curia again, and she would walk.
While the walk was pleasant, it did not stay that way. They were halfway there when five of the Cardinal's Conclave Guard approached. They saw Natasha, and began running towards her, shouting something.
"Into this doorway!" one of the soldiers said, and dragged Natasha through a doorway into the reception area of a large building. The two soldiers stood together at the door.
"Out of the way!" the leading Guard said.
"Your business in here?"
"That's none of your business. Do what you're ordered, or else."
"I am doing what I am ordered," the soldier said. He was brave, but even as an alien, Natasha noted the trembling of fear in the voice.
"Suit yourself," the Guard said, and lashed out with his foot. The guard jumped back and evaded the slashing claw, and yelled to Natasha, "Run!"
Natasha cursed that she had not brought a weapon, and she began to retreat. There was a stairway to her left, but she decided against that. Her best bet was to find another way out, and somehow block the door. As she ran towards the back of the building she heard a scream. She looked around to see one of the soldiers being severely raked, his stomach now open and his intestines falling out, while the other was falling back, blood spurting from his neck.
Where to go? There was no obvious answer. She went through a door into another room, and through the door at the far end, only to find herself in some sort of kitchen. There was yet another door, perhaps to outside, but instead it went into a storeroom, and this had no alternative exit. She was about to go back when she heard the guards coming into the kitchen. She closed her door, and tried to hide in a corner, behind a barrel, in the hope the guard would not see her.
It was just as she reached a crouching position she felt her Krezell wand against the side of her leg, and she i
mmediately felt guilty. She had forgotten that she had left it in a pocket the night before. Had she remembered, perhaps she could have saved her guards. She reached for it and took it from the pocket and was wondering whether she should stay hiding or start fighting when she felt a touch on her shoulder. She looked around to see a human hand attached to an arm that disappeared into a gap where the wall had parted. The hand gave a clear message: follow me! She dived into the gap, then heard the wall close again. On the other side of the wall she heard the muffled efforts of the guards to find her.
She turned around to see in the torchlight, a young man standing there, finger to mouth indicating that she must stay silent. She nodded agreement and the light went out. Before long, the bangings stopped, and there were the sounds of the guards exiting the storeroom and the door closing. The young man turned his torch beam towards a tunnel, and with the same hand gesture, indicated that Natasha should follow.
The tunnel went down at an angle approaching forty-five degrees and the "floor" was polished. The man indicated she should follow as he did, and he let his feet enter the tunnel while at the same time he grasped a rope and lowered himself, hand over hand. The tunnel was quite narrow, and Natasha could see that the average Ranhyn could not use this tunnel, partly because their arms were not designed to carry their weight, and secondly their shape around their hips would mean they would quickly get stuck. There was not even a lot of spare room for her in places, but she grasped the rope and followed, descending hand over hand, using her feet only to provide some friction to stop a too rapid descent. They continued down until they were quite deep, when they entered what could be described as a room, with a defensive barricade five meters from the tunnel entrance. They turned right, then they walked, sometimes stopping to crawl, for several hundred meters until they met another interchange of tunnels, again with an opening and a defensive barricade near the opening of the tunnel. They took another turn right, and kept walking, going deeper and deeper until they came to a small guardhouse, where another person greeted them. There was a brief conversation in a language that Natasha could not understand, then this guard spoke into some device that was presumably some form of telephone, then he indicated they should keep going.
They walked a further two hundred meters past mounds and hedgehog type formations of palisades with very sharp points and razor sharp blades, clearly intended for defence, then they came to a steel door. The young man pressed a button and the door opened. They went through, into quite a significant room, then they crossed that, entered a hall, and walked to the room at the other end. Again, a button was pressed, and the door opened.
Two men and two women were standing beside a large table at the end of a room that seemed more like a museum than anything else, but it was lit by electric lighting. There was the immediate question, in a language she did not understand, but which she interpreted as "Who's that?" followed by a longish answer from the man who had brought her down. The four gave her sympathetic looks, and asked questions, but all she could do was to shrug and indicate she did not understand. As the group began talking amongst themselves, she looked around the room. The walls of the room had a number of paintings on it, some seemingly very old, together with some old weapons, and at one end an extremely old knife that was very well made, and two swords that were very primitive in their manufacture. Natasha's eyes were so obviously fixed on these that she was invited by hand gestures to examine them more closely.
The knife had quite a decorated handle, and obviously had been made professionally by someone who knew what he was doing, whereas the swords were barely more than bits of iron with a point and a sharpened edge, together with a handle. Underneath were the words in Latin, Used by the divine Quintus Flavius. If nothing else, Natasha thought to herself, as she shut her mind to the chattering that she could not understand and was going on behind her, there would be stories here that Lucilla would love to hear, in the event that she could understand what they were saying.
But then, even more strangely, an ancient painting labelled Diva Lucilla. Natasha stared at it, and yes, when you could make the picture out, it looked very much like Lucilla.
It then occurred to Natasha, as she turned to her audience, that these people might still understand Latin. She tried speaking it, but got nowhere, although one of the women seemed to think she picked up something.
"Latin," Natasha said, and pointed to the writing.
Back came the same word, barely comprehensible to Natasha. At last she understood; they were speaking Latin, or some deviant from it, but their accent and word modifications that had changed over two thousand years had blocked communication. She made the picture of writing with her hand and at first there was a blank lack of understanding, but one of the women raised a hand and gave a signal that meant, "Wait!" She darted away, and came back with something that looked like a computer tablet and a thin writing implement. She wrote, "Is this what you want?" in Latin.
Natasha nodded in affirmation, the screen was erased, and she was handed the tablet. She wrote, "Do you speak Latin?"
There were immediate nods of affirmation, and more words that Natasha had trouble coming to grips with. Natasha then wrote, "Can you give me a few minutes?" The response, again, was in the affirmative. Natasha then sat back and tried to make contact with Katya, and soon a weak line of communication was open. Natasha explained the problem to Katya, who immediately suggested that they should try and see if these people had a book. If so, she should scan the pages with her mind, then get them to read the text. She, Katya, would unravel the accent problem, then help Natasha communicate.
"Have you got a book?" Natasha wrote.
"What sort?"
"Anything with lots of words in Latin that you can read."
The woman who had left before immediately ran away and came back with a book. She handed it over, and wrote, "This is part of our history."
Natasha quickly scanned the first four pages, and the disappointment on the faces was obvious when they thought she was not interested, but she then handed it back to them and she said, "Read it, so I can understand how you pronounce these words."
They understood, and one began reading.
After a few minutes, Katya came back and sent the signal, 'The consonants are the same, but there are serious vowel shifts, which is to be expected, and the grammar has changed a bit. Stop them reading, then sit back, tell them to be quiet for a couple of minutes, and I shall prime you up so you can converse. It won't be perfect, but you should be able to manage.'
Natasha took the tablet, wrote what she wanted, and added that if she got a few minutes to absorb what she had heard, she would hopefully be able to converse properly with them.
After five minutes, she looked at them, and said in what she now considered to be a new language, "I am Natasha Kotchetkova, I have come from Earth, and I thank you for helping me avoid those guards."
"You speak Latin?"
"I speak Latin," Natasha said. "I hate to say this, but over the years, your language has changed, and you don't, but now I have learned your language, at least partially. I am Natasha Kotchetkova, and I have come from Earth. That is what we call the planet that your ancestors came from."
"Kotchetkova? That is not a Latin name."
"No, it is Russian. Russia is a large country to the northeast of what you called Dacia."
"Where's Dacia?"
"Stop it!" one of the women intervened. "We have a lot to learn about our home planet, but there is plenty of time. We must introduce ourselves. I am Flavia Livilla, this," she said, and brought the young woman forward, "is Aella. This is Marcus Junius, the man who brought you here is Alexius, and this last one is Lucius Arrius. We are pleased to meet you."
"I am pleased to meet you," Natasha said, then she paused and asked, "Some have two names, others one. Is that . . ?"
"It reflects our preferred heritage," Aella said. "Those who prefer to keep their Roman heritage have two names, while those who prefer to keep their
Greek heritage only state one, although we usually have more. And no," she said, her eyes twinkling, "we have not maintained two races. We are hopelessly intermixed, but when we get to eighteen years of age, we each nominate how we wish to be addressed."
"That seems reasonable," Natasha smiled.
"Tell me about the family Natasha on Earth. Is it important?"
"Actually, Kotchetkova is the family name," Natasha said, "and no, on Earth now there are so many families, that none are regarded as great."
"We have much to learn about our planet of origin," Arrius intervened, "but first, we must ask you, what can we do to help you?"
"Before we discuss that," Natasha said, "I need to know more about you. How did you all get here? I am assuming you all live underground to keep away from the Ranhynn, but . . ."
"Strictly speaking, no, we do not. We have some land to ourselves, and we trade. We have a history that began with the divine Quintus, but before we tell you this, perhaps you might like to follow us and have some food?"
Natasha was quite surprised to be taken to a small hall in quite a large complex, all buried well underneath the city. In the middle of the hall was a table with food being put out. Apparently this was mealtime. They were just beginning to eat when another young man entered, leading Katya, and announced that this young woman had followed Natasha, but she had been attacked by three of the Conclave Guard. The three were promptly killed, although he had no idea how. He then pointed to Natasha, and ran back to take guard.
"You killed three?" Aella asked in puzzlement, "and no weapon?"
"Correct," Katya said.
"And you don't want to tell us how," Aella nodded. "Well, at least come and eat."
"She won't do that either," Natasha said with a smile. "She is actually a machine."
"What?"