‘Congratulations!’ Kambisha said. ‘Gunild, please put him on that course.’
‘Yes, ma’am. Just stay seated, sir. The course is in four parts of ninety minutes, with a short break between each part. You can start right away. Don’t worry about your bodily functions; you won’t need the toilet while you’re out, sir.’
Joff’s eyes closed, as did the door to his booth. A sign lit up under the red lamp, saying “Hush, I’m Studying”.
‘It is remarkable, ma’am,’ Gunild said. ‘Your minds are indistinguishable from the Moi I was trained for. There is absolutely no difference, bar the contents, of course.’
‘That’s one of the wonders I’d like to find out,’ Kambisha said. ‘For now, if you can manage it, test all of our people for their chosen profession and alternatives. After that, my brother and I will want some, too. But in short bursts; we can’t be away too long at a time.’
‘I will suggest a selection.’ Gunild’s voice changed from a warm matronly color to her official tone. ‘Ma’am, No-R 77 is ready for duty.’
‘Thank you. Tell Mr. Joff to read himself in as soon as he has finished the course,’ Kambisha said. ‘This command codes business; how does that work between a captain and his admiral?’
‘The captain takes command with the ship’s secret code. Admirals have a code of their own; either CDRE, ADM1, 2, 3, or HADM, plus a secret number.’
Kambisha grinned. ‘And how do I get this secret number?’
‘Those are issued by NavBase, ma’am,’ Gunild said primly. ‘I can give you the one intended for our old admiral, though. ADM1-ORK1. I can send it out, telling our ships you are now the port admiral. That gives you overall direction over all our vessels, without depriving the ship’s captains of their command. Should you run into a drifting ship, you can use the Change Overall Command-order. This adds the ship to the Realmport flotilla, but leaves room to appoint a captain.’
‘All right. I guess being admiral is no longer a joke then. Does this work for outposts and other bases?’
‘Admiral’s codes are sector-bound,’ Gunild said. ‘You can take local command of this sector and take over ships elsewhere, but for anything bigger you need the HADM code. Another reason we need NavBase, ma’am.’
‘They issue those codes?’ Kambisha said. ‘I will go there myself then.’ She hesitated. ‘Do you really think it possible we’d find any Moi survivors?’
‘Given the size of the Realm, I think it likely,’ Gunild said. ‘Anyone who wore their belt had a chance. Those are designed to activate their build-in stasis suit the moment their base or ship’s brain shuts down. What makes it difficult is time. On average, our power crystals have a supposed lifespan of a thousand years, plus or minus ten percent. That means some of them are about to wake up as we speak.’
‘Then it’s even more urgent,’ Kambisha said. ‘We need more hands and more ships to help search. What about arms—and uniforms?’
‘Arms are in the armory below,’ Gunild said. ‘We’ve got everything, from cutlasses to beam guns and all the rest. Uniforms can be supplied in all sizes, but I only have Moi coverall patterns. You can if you wish change the coloring and if you have alternate badges, I will use those.’
‘Light blue coveralls for the ship’s crews, dark blue for Marines, red for mages, bright green for healers, olive for base staff. Matching boots and belts. Make one for me, in light blue.’
‘Yes, ma’am; coming up.’
Within minutes, a servor came carrying a neatly folded ship’s one-piece uniform in light blue, with a rear admiral’s two broad golden stripes around the sleeves, a golden band along the outside of the trousers, the Realmfleet badge, boots and belt, and a light blue flat cap with a wyrmling’s nest of gold braid on the visor.
She hurried to the first unused room and changed. The uniform was formfitting, comfortably warm and on the whole very satisfying.
‘Yes, that will do nicely.’ She went back to the mess, looked around and saw Ram’s guys snoozing in a corner, still scruffy and disreputably in their dirty cast-offs.
She walked over. ‘Lieutenant Ram,’ she said clearly.
He opened his eyes immediately and the sudden, arrested look in them as he saw her warmed her innards.
‘Some uniform,’ he said, and his cool voice left a lot unsaid.
He knows how to behave, she thought over the pounding of her heart. That’s promising. ‘You get them too; dark blue. You’ll be a lieutenant of Marines. For starters you will clean up, dress and return here.’
‘Yes.’ He came to his feet. ‘Up, you lazybones. We’re going to wash and get uniforms.’
‘Wash?’ one of the boys said lazily. ‘Why?’
‘Because I say so,’ Ram said. ‘Because you’re a Marine now, not some layabout on the street.’
That evening, Kambisha watched from her office how the spaceport tender touched down and unloaded a veritable mass of kids, all looking excited and scared at the same time. Her brother lined them up and with a huge grin on his face march them to the hall.
She shook her head. ‘Idiot,’ she said fondly. To Kyrus it was all a great game, which he played with the same gusto as he ate.
Still, game or not, he brought in a good haul of recruits.
‘Two hundred sixty-four!’ Kyrus said as he burst into the office, half dragging Odysson. ‘Some more merchant cadets, fighter guys for the Marines, base personnel.’ He slapped Ody’s back. ‘He got us more mages, healers and elementalists. We got some engineers, and several traders. Now we can go places!’
‘Gunild and Holyn the mindmage are giving them a look-over,’ Odysson said. ‘Any untrustworthy ones will be paid handsomely and returned home with a smile and a pat on the back.’ He frowned. ‘I will work on a way to do that before we bring new recruits here.’
Kyrus gripped her shoulders and looked her over. ‘What’s the fancy outfit?’
‘Uniforms,’ Kambisha said. She patted her sleeves with the broad golden stripes. ‘Rear admiral; that’s the rank the intended base commander had. I’m aiming for more, but I need NavBase for that. Look, we’re taking over a military outfit, guys. You can’t do that as corporals and the like; we must have rank. We need to convince those brain persons out there to join us. Hence the uniforms, which are Moi designs with Firstworld colors.’
Kyrus nodded. ‘You’re right. It does feel funny, though. My sister the admiral.’
‘Very funny,’ she said. ‘I’m laughing. My brother the spaceship captain sounds just as believable.’
Kyrus grinned. ‘You win. As usual.’
‘Besides,’ she said, answering his grin. ‘You’ll both be admirals too.’
‘I will?’ Kyrus said. ‘But I’m not going to stop being captain of S-Az 113, hear!’
‘Don’t get upset, that won’t change. It’s just we need to be seen as the boss. Especially if we find any Moi.’
‘All right. I’ll be an admiral if you think that is better. But I command my ship and no one else.’
‘That’s clear,’ his sister said, and she touched his cheek. ‘I wouldn’t spoil your fun, silly.’
‘My turn now. I won’t be an admiral,’ Odysson said. ‘That doesn’t fit my job; I’m trade and diplomacy.’
‘Then what? Trade Magnate?’ Kambisha said.
‘Gods, no! That’s my mother and one is enough in the universe. I’ll be Grand Trader. That sounds horribly swollen, but it should impress the customers.’
‘Grand Trader Odysson,’ Kambisha said. ‘White uniform and silver stripes?’
‘I’m fine with that,’ Odysson said.
‘Agreed, then. There’s more; Gunild is a very high-class one-woman academy.’ She told about the tests and the courses. ‘Joff finished the Command II training, so I gave him No-R 77. We’ll finish as many courses as we can in the next few days, and then we’ll do our first run. Gunild and I picked two destinations.’
‘Oh?’ Kyrus said. ‘Something juicy, I hope?’
‘
You will seek out Shan 4, which is a big Fleet base, while I go with Joff in No-R 77 to NavBase. If possible, we revive the brain persons and convince them to join us. If they turn ugly...’
‘Well?’ Kyrus said.
‘You port the heck back here.’
‘All right,’ her brother said. ‘I don’t expect fighting a fully armed space navy base is a good idea.’
‘Not even for us,’ Kambisha said. ‘Now the details.’
CHAPTER 8 – SHAN 4
Just after eight in the morning of their first full week on the Moon, Kyrus departed on his rescue mission. As he waited for his small crew to finish their preparations, he walked up and down the bridge, taking in the many controls and checking them with the new information Gunild’s courses had given him. Every button and lever he knew, and he whistled happily. This was it! This was his job.
Until now, he had never known what he wanted to do with his life. He loved speed, and riding a broomstick was pure heaven, but his subconscious said the life of a grunt in the disciplined Broomrider Service would be hell.
His parents had never pushed him to join, either. Not even his mother, who had been a broomrider all her adult life. Now he had this, and it felt right—space, the ship, his crew, everything was as it ought.
‘S-Az, you have any information on Shan 4?’ Ginny, his new first officer, came up to join him. She was a big, rawboned Kell girl of his own age, easily a head-and-a-half taller, and seemed the no-nonsense type he liked.
‘Shan 4 is the home base of the 8th Fleet, ma’am,’ the AI said. ‘There is a Class VI Base with major repair facilities. The 8th employs seven ships; a battlecruiser, three frigates, two corvettes and a scout ship, under command of a rear admiral. Those are, of course, the last pre-quake data.’
‘We won’t barge in just like that,’ Kyrus said with heroic self-restraint. ‘Let’s be cautious for once, kids. No immediate landing, we’ll take it slow and see what’s going on first.’
‘I suppose you want me to assume a safe orbit, sir?’ S-Az said. ‘A lightyear or two away, maybe?’
Kyrus snorted. ‘Don’t be daft. Make it one AU out; we’ll approach on our engine.’
‘She won’t like that, sir.’
‘The engine doesn’t have to like it, S-Az.’
‘I will tell her, sir.’
Beside him, Ginny chuckled.
The Shan system harbored only five planets, all circling a small white star. Two planets were dead, stony and hot. The third was a seething mass of poisonous storm clouds, like a jaundiced eye looking at the outer two worlds, a gaseous giant and the lush planet housing a major Realmfleet base.
They crept closer, unchallenged, until the planet filled their screens.
‘It’s greener.’ Ginny stared at the planet. ‘I’d say there are a lot less seas and lakes.’
‘Shan 4 is heavily forested, ma’am,’ S-Az said. ‘Apart from the base, it is uninhabited.’
‘Any sign of life?’ Kyrus said.
‘Except for the deer, the swine and the other interesting creatures? None, sir.’
Kyrus glanced at Ginny. ‘That AI chap’s making fun of me.’
‘Surely not, sir,’ the first officer said, barely able to keep from laughing.
‘If I find he does, I’ll walk him outside and we’ll fight it out,’ Kyrus said. ‘Let’s get closer, S-Az.’
The ship didn’t seem to move, but the planet’s details grew enormously.
‘Is that a river?’ Ginny pointed at a silvery streak through the deep green.
‘Yes, ma’am,’ S-Az said. ‘A river running into a lake. The base is near to it.’
‘Still no signal?’
‘None, sir.’
‘Get us into visual distance of the base.’
‘I am in visual distance, sir.’ S-Az said.
Kyrus grunted. ‘Our visual, bud.’
‘Your pardon, sir.’
Kyrus balled a fist at the brain’s column, but didn’t say anything.
Then they burst through the clouds and were in full view of the Fleet base.
‘No dome,’ Ginny said.
Kyrus stared at the ruined buildings. ‘Looks like the jungle is busily getting its own back.’
‘I don’t read any sentient life below,’ Healer Holyn reported. Then he sat up. ‘Wait!’
Kyrus sent out his mind. Little animals scurried around, but nothing bigger moved. He concentrated on the image of a brain. Nothing. Although...
‘There is something,’ Holyn said. ‘If only I knew how a mind in stasis felt.’
Kyrus studied the port. ‘Remarkable there still is something left. You’d think that jungle would have swallowed it all by now.’
‘The material of the buildings is weeds resistant, sir,’ Techneer Jathra said. ‘It must be strong stuff to keep the jungle at bay for a thousand years.’
Kyrus nodded as he stared at the once proud fleet. The ships were still there, overgrown by flowering creepers, and it was impossible to see what Nature had left of them. He shivered and quickly looked away at the rest of the base.
Most buildings were still standing, with their doors closed, and they, too, were covered with vines. The main building’s windows were broken, and the interior looked like a den of beasts.
He spied some small animal hop past a creeper-covered building. The critter was the size of a rabbit, though it certainly didn’t look like one. He watched it sniffing the air as it went, alert for danger. As he looked on, a long tendril shot down from the ruins. One of the pink flowers opened, showing a hungry mouth. In went the struggling animal, the petals closed and chomped.
Kyrus swallowed. ‘We must look out for those creepers. They’re predators.’
‘We go down then?’ Ginny said with barely hidden eagerness.
‘I want to search the place. If there is a brain inside, I must know in what state it is.’ Kyrus brought his hands together. ‘All right, guys. Brooms, belts, arms; the lot. S-Az, you stay up here, overhead. We’ll ride down. Anything we need to know? Air, gravity, whatever?’
‘All are within human limits, sir,’ S-Az said. ‘No dangerous pollens, no large animals; it should be safe. A walk in the park, sir.’
‘I always hated those. Open the airlock, will ya?’
Softly, the door swung aside, and sweet-scented air came in. One after another, they dropped to the overgrown floor. Around them were the sounds of buzzing insects, and the sudden, shrill scream of some bird.
They landed on the asphalt of the base. It was cracked, and tall grasses grew everywhere. A small snake on a million legs scurried past and Kyrus blessed his high boots.
‘Keep together,’ he said. ‘No chasing of butterflies or whatever.’
As they came to a building, one of the boys tried the door. ‘Locked.’ Then he screamed as piercingly as that first bird had sounded. A creeper curled round his arm and left a hot red welt on the skin.
‘Curse it!’ Kyrus waved his hands and fire lashed out at the growths. The vines withered and died, while the healer pulled the boy away.
Holyn’s fingers lightly touched the swelling arm, and the boy yelled again. Then, slowly, the red rashes faded, and the poison dissipated.
‘Gods!’ Tears of shock ran down the boy’s cheeks. ‘Thanks, mate.’
Holyn smiled. ‘It is what they pay me those bonuses for.’ He looked at Kyrus. ‘That’s a nasty flower. We have weeds like those on our world, only not as fast and virulent; better burn all plant life you see.’
Grim-faced, Kyrus went round and cast a spell that flamed every creeper in the area. ‘There,’ he said finally. ‘They’re gone.’
‘For now,’ Ginny said. ‘Without the dome, they will grow back. Not right away,’ she added as the lashed boy looked back anxiously.
He grimaced, half ashamed. ‘I know; it was just the shock.’
‘Be prepared for danger,’ Kyrus said seriously. ‘You never know what funny things those strange worlds hide.’
More s
ubdued now, they walked to the main building. The doors stood open, and they entered, all senses alert. Underneath their feet dried twigs broke as they walked and there was a sour smell of animal in the air.
‘Now what?’ Kyrus looked around. ‘Where would that brain be hiding?’
‘In the cellar, sir,’ Jathra said.
‘In the... cellar,’ Kyrus said. ‘Yes. All right. Show me this cellar.’
‘You think I am kidding you,’ Jathra said. ‘I’m not. I took the brain tech course. Watch me, captain, sir.’
She went over to the tall column behind the desk. ‘This is the brain’s nerve center, sir.’
The techneer knelt down at the base of the column and Kyrus went to his knees in the rubble beside to her. There was a small panel, and Jathra brushed the layer of dirt away. She put her thumbs on both corners and pushed. With a tired click, the panel slid away, and she put it aside carefully.
‘The keyboard,’ she said. ‘Now I must type in the name of the base.’
‘S-H-A-N 4,’ Kyrus said, as he looked over her shoulder at the keyboard, a round tableau with the letters of the alphabet and the numbers zero to nine, and some symbols he wasn’t sure of. In the center was a big red button.
Carefully, the girl typed the name of the outpost. Machinery clicked, and she gave a little cry as right beside her the floor fell away.
An ages-old layer of rubbish had hidden a hatchway from view. Unaware, Kyrus had been crouching on top of it, and he disappeared as if swallowed up.
As a broomrider he had been trained to control his body should his broom fail in midair. Now he twisted round and grabbed the nearest handhold; a rusty steel railing. It broke his fall and nearly dislodged his arm, but he grunted and held on. Cursing long and loud, he pulled himself onto a stone staircase.
‘You all right?’ The anxious face of the techneer hovered over him.
‘Yeah,’ he said, chagrined.
‘Sorry, I forgot there should be a door to the cellar. Did you hurt yourself?’
‘Nah. It’s my stupid fault. My mother always warned me never to sit on top of a hatch.’ He rubbed his shoulder and looked down the remaining stairs. ‘This is the cellar you mentioned?’
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