‘You were among the few lucky ones,’ Kambisha said. ‘Can you contact your superiors?’
For a few heartbeats the voice was silent. ‘Nothing. Nowhere. Only Shan 4 and Mathras 5. And Flor 3, of all places. Report, brain persons.’
‘I’m here,’ Gunild said. ‘Relax, NavBase, there have been some changes.’
‘Important changes,’ Athelstan added. ‘The Moi fell.’
‘I know,’ the NavBase voice said. ‘I very well know they fell. What’s going on here?’
‘Admiral Kambisha is doing the rounds and saving our guts, sir,’ Captain Atharn said. ‘She is the voice of authority now; I humbly suggest you listen.’
‘Thank you, all,’ Kambisha said. ‘NavBase, what is your personhood name?’
‘I... am General Cruishand,’ the voice said. ‘You are authority, ma’am?’
‘Change of Overall Command, ADM1-ORK1,’ Kambisha said.
Cruishand grunted. ‘That trick doesn’t work with me, of course; you lack the rank. Still, I am open to conviction. Let me finish my report, ma’am.’
‘Please do, General,’ Kambisha said, feeling not a little silly at being rebuffed.
‘As I said, the mana quake came and went. It left us shaken and frankly said, demoralized. The next day, we received an evacuation order.’
He replayed the same creaking message Kambisha had already heard.
‘An order to abandon the Realm! This was unheard of.’ Cruishand coughed. ‘The withdrawal order wasn’t well received. Many of our men were true Realmfleet, the ones who had given their blood and their youth to build the Realm and to give it all up was unthinkable. When the Admiral-in-Command told them to board the ships, there was a rebellion. Number Two ordered everyone to stay put and defend the Realm. It turned ugly fast, brother against brother. In the end, the AiC commanded me to... to cleanse the base.’
‘How?’ Kambisha asked when Cruishand stayed silent. She thought she knew, but it had to be said, not bottled up.
‘I opened all doors, the airlocks, the bay doors, everything,’ the General said in a wooden voice. ‘Then I activated the disruptors, and the men’s shields failed. They died.’ There was a small pause before he went on.
‘I think the AiC hadn’t expected to be among them. He must have supposed I would not touch the command center, but I did. He used me to murder my fine men and women; he at least should join them. I saw the unbelief in his eyes when he realized the truth. Curse the cowardly fool!
‘Four thousand of the finest died; all but the midshipmen in their barracks. I remotely activated their stasis suits and put them to sleep. It was... my own deed of rebellion, but I had to save some at least, ma’am.’
‘That was a good deed, General,’ Kambisha said quietly. ‘A truly grand gesture.’
‘Thank you,’ the General said. ‘After a while, I closed the doors, reused the dead and cleaned all up. Not the last bay compartment; its machinery was out of order, and I must admit I lacked the courage to go on. All those dead...’
‘I know,’ Captain Atharn said. ‘I lost my base personnel, my fleet and my new admiral with his flagship crew. Harrowing times, sir.’
‘Yes.’ Cruishand cleared his throat. ‘Now what are your plans, Admiral Kambisha?’
‘I want to rescue all the Realmfleet vessels and bases before their power runs out. For that I need crews and ships. Then I must build the Realm back up, restore the damages and set up a trade system to make us independent. Finally I owe it to my people to find out why the Moi thought our planet so important.’
‘Firstworld, the restricted planet,’ Cruishand said. ‘Its base is only nominally under my supervision; the whole set-up was a pet project of the heritor and he was the most secretive person in the Realm. I don’t think anyone but he knew what made your world special, but it was well known he studied it intensively.’
‘I heard this heritor mentioned before. Who was he?’ Kambisha said. ‘The king?’
‘No, we have a chosen presider who rules the Moi,’ Cruishand said. ‘The heritor symbolizes the people’s spirit. He is the embodiment of the Moi clan; our lore, our memory and our honor. He is our Fate, the living proof the gods are on our side.’
‘So he is important,’ Kambisha said.
Cruishand’s voice became hoarse. ‘Admiral, were the heritor to die...’
There was a silence.
‘Don’t say it, General,’ Atharn begged.
‘Better do say it,’ Kambisha said. ‘It sounds like something I should know.’
‘Were the heritor to die, the gods have abandoned us. The presider will resign, the Moi will fall and all else falls with them.’
‘But everybody dies,’ Healer Thon said. ‘Even the heritor; that’s natural.’
‘No,’ Cruishand said. ‘He lives forever, always a boy, unchanged; the Favored of the Gods.’
Like Dad, Kambisha thought. Yet Dad may be the disciple of Bodrus and the Firstworld gods, but I’m sure he won’t live forever. ‘We must find out what happened and how matters stand. Now, General, about that command code. How can I take over bases?’
‘Madam Admiral,’ Cruishand said. ‘I cannot say it. Mind the messenger.’
She felt something butt her leg and looked down to see a servor carrying a printed note. She picked it up. HADM CHANGESTORM. ‘That’s it?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Cruishand said. ‘I consider it spoken, you consider it spoken. Destroy the note, Madam High Admiral.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I am grateful for your trust, General Cruishand.’
‘I will have the last hangar cleaned immediately, ma’am,’ Cruishand said quickly. ‘Our ships are fully operational, though in stasis for the moment. One scout ship needs repairs; I will see to that.’
‘You have the same training facilities as Gunild’s base?’
‘No, ma’am; Fleet Academy manages all that. As Realmfleet High Command, we only offer post-graduate General Staff Courses.’
‘This academy is a school?’
‘It is Realmfleet’s major training base, ma’am. There, candidates go to become regular officers and subofficers.’
Kambisha remembered Gunild telling her the same. ‘We’ll have a look at the place as soon as possible. Now, about those midshipmen...’
‘Follow the servor, ma’am,’ Cruishand said. ‘It will guide you to the rear of the base.’
It was another mile through the echoing corridors, and the little machine was fast on its wheels, but finally they were at the Fleet Midshipmen’s Barracks.
A pair of doors opened as she thought at them. They walked inside and stopped as Kambisha stopped abruptly as she saw the heaps of bodies, all in their life-saving stasis suits.
‘A bit of a hurried job, I see, General,’ Kambisha said. ‘They are all alive?’
‘Yes, ma’am; I had to act fast to save them. It doesn’t harm them; nothing can in their present state.’
‘We only should revive them from the top down, to prevent any from being crushed.’ She looked at the mass of bodies and sighed. ‘We better not wake them all at once, either. Can you bring back only a few of the senior ones?’
‘Certainly, ma’am. It will take a few minutes.’
‘Ma’am, I know we have a stasis field on our belts,’ Ram said. ‘But I didn’t rightly get what it does.’
‘Once activated, it stops your body down to the most basic level,’ Kambisha said. ‘You won’t think, won’t breathe, can’t be harmed in any way, and you won’t die. When the field is switched off, your body returns to life as it was, even if it’s a long time later.’
‘A thousand years,’ Ram said thoughtfully.
‘Unless its power crystal runs dry earlier.’ Kambisha looked round the messroom, a brightly lit hall with several bunkrooms opening on it. Here no riches; all was starkly functional, hard to damage and easy to clean. There was a desk with a chair and a stand with a many-colored Moi flag, and it could have been any military office on their own world.
She sat down at the desk and tried to look as stern as she could. From one of the rooms came the sounds of groaning, followed by a gasp, and some muttering she couldn’t follow. Then, a girl in a uniform as gaudy as the flag stumbled from the bunkroom.
‘Oaths of my Forefathers, what happened?’ The girl slowly regained her senses and as she noticed Kambisha, her mouth fell open. ‘Who are you?’
Kambisha introduced herself. You are one of the seniors?’
The girl wasn’t older than she, a trim Vanhaari with a commanding face now marred by confusion.
‘Yes,’ she said, taking in the broad golden stripes of authority on Kambisha’s uniform. ‘Yes, ma’am. I am Zorade, Chief Senior Realmfleet Midshipwoman.’
Another voice interrupted her. ‘What’s happening? Anyone tell me what’s happening!’ A boy came from another room, his hands pressed to his temples. ‘Splitting novas, my head.’
‘Come here,’ Healer Thon said. He gripped the boy’s temples and slowly the pained face cleared.
‘Thanks,’ the boy said. He turned to Kambisha. ‘I remember a lot of panic. Have we been invaded?’
‘Not at all,’ Kambisha said. ‘I...’ She was interrupted again when another boy and girl joined them.
‘The emergency!’ the second boy said urgently. ‘We must go and...’
‘At ease,’ Kambisha said. ‘It’s all been settled. Report, midshipmen.’
They came to attention and presented themselves. Henor, the first boy, Loayn, the second, and Duelle, the other girl, all three Senior Realmfleet Midshipmen and -women.
‘Take a chair,’ Kambisha said. ‘This will take a while. General Cruishand, would you introduce me, please?’
‘Certainly, ma’am,’ the General said. ‘Midshipmen, you are in the presence of High Admiral Kambisha, who has taken over command of all the Moi forces. Heed what she has to tell you and serve well.’
‘Sit down,’ Kambisha said as the four midshipmen jumped to their feet again. ‘I know it’s the drill but I don’t need it. Listen while I explain the situation.’
She told them of the quake, the evacuation order and the rebellion, laying the blame for NavBase’s disaster squarely at the feet of its long dead admiral, and stressing the bravery of Cruishand’s decision to save the midshipmen. Then she waited, to give them time to ride with the shock.
‘NavBase is dead?’ Zorade said. ‘The whole base? What must we do? We’re midshipmen; what can we do, ma’am? Should we return home?’
‘I’m not done, Chief Senior Midshipwoman,’ Kambisha said, steeling herself. ‘You all remember the mana quake?’
The girl must have caught her tone, for she sat back, hands clenching the armrests.
‘I’ll not forget that in a hurry,’ Henor said, the horror clear in his face. ‘It nearly turned me inside out.’
‘At least you survived,’ Kambisha said softly, and she told them the rest.
The boy Loayn broke down and cried, while the others sat stunned.
Again, Zorade was the first to react. ‘You mean everything is gone? A thousand years; the whole Realm? How could this happen?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Kambisha said. ‘But we came up with a theory of what might have happened. The mana quake was a bad one, I’m told. A massive and very large disruption and it forced all ships and bases into lockdown or worse.’
‘I can see that,’ Henor said. ‘It nearly scrambled us inside this rock.’
‘Had that been all, I am sure Realmfleet would have coped,’ Kambisha said. ‘They would have sent out ships and tech teams, and after a longish while, things would be well again. But what if the mana quake caught your heritor outside?’
‘The gods wouldn’t... They wouldn’t abandon us!’ Duelle cried.
‘What if they did?’ Kambisha said.
‘It would be the end,’ Henor said. ‘The Cra would take over, appoint their own heritor and...’
‘The Cra would order the recall of all personnel,’ Zorade said in a hard voice. ‘Our people would wither like flowers in a late frost, the Cra would go back to their fishing and only the Rhu would still be out here in their House ships. But the traders never were interested in expansion. They wouldn’t keep up our bases. All we had worked for would be up for... grabs.’
She looked carefully away as she said that.
‘True,’ Kambisha said. ‘Now the point is whom you want to grab it all. Us, who the heritor himself designated Realm subjects, or the Dreghs.’
‘Not the Dreghs,’ Zorade said.
‘The healer and the other guy behind you are much like us,’ Henor said. ‘Not you, and not those big ones.’
Kambisha smiled. ‘My father is like you, and so are my mother’s father and grandfather. My mother and her mother are of the Kell, like Lieutenant Ram. My twin brother and I have my father’s size and my mother’s build and coloring.’
She leaned forward. ‘Now where do we go from here? We plan to resurrect all and carry on what you were doing. If you guys want to join us, we offer you jobs, promotions and everything you otherwise would have had, a lot faster. You will be rebuilding the Realm, only it won’t be exclusively for the Moi, but for us all. Your Moi are gone. Even if the present ones could be counted in the millions, they won’t be your people.’
‘At Moigar they live the simple life,’ Zorade said. ‘They always did, and now they always will.’ She bit her lips. ‘I would rather join you.’
‘Me too!’ Henor said.
‘We are dead,’ Loayn said with tears streaming down his face. ‘If the gods abandoned our people, we are dead already.’ He shivered and drew his sleeve over his eyes.
Duelle grunted. ‘We live. Alive, we need a future. Ma’am Admiral, the Realm is our home. If you are its protector, we will follow you.’
Loayn swallowed. ‘You are right. I must... resist the shock. Realmfleet always goes on. I will prove I am alive, ma’am. I, too, am Realmfleet.’
‘So you are,’ Kambisha said. ‘You will manage, Senior Midshipman. You all will manage. Are you ready to convince the others?’
‘Not in one group,’ Zorade said. ‘Give each of us ten for starters.’
‘General? Can you recall ten midshipmen for each senior?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Cruishand said. ‘And I would like to compliment you on your strength, Chief and Seniors. It gives me hope where I had nearly lost all.’
Hours, long, tearful hours later, all midshipmen were on their feet and able to function.
Kambisha met with the four seniors while keeping a half-eye on the silent crowds of youngsters.
‘I will take you all to Realmport. We have ample accommodations, and the facilities to finish your training. General Cruishand will service his corvettes and send them after you. We will train crews, you will all skip one or more ranks, and we’ll send you out to every offline base on the charts.’
‘To go somewhere else,’ Zorade said. ‘Yes, this place will hold too many memories. Too many faces who won’t be around anymore.’
‘Tell your guys to pack and send them over to No-R,’ Kambisha said. ‘It will be a tight fit, but it’s only a jump.’
The four saluted and left.
‘Captain Joff, can you lock onto NavBase?’ Kambisha said. ‘I’d rather not send four hundred bereaved and maybe desperate midshipmen into space.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I will arrange it with the General.’
It took nearly an hour for all to board with their gear and arms, but finally they were inside, and No-R ported back to Realmport.
CHAPTER 10 – RESCUES
‘Gunild, do you know anything about the gods?’ Kambisha said the next morning, sitting on the edge of the big bed in the port admiral’s private quarters. She had slept—not badly, but with a mind full of questions, and this one was uppermost when she woke up.
‘The gods,’ Gunild said. ‘Well, they are there, and they protect the heritor. At least that’s what they are supposed to do. Be on the side
of the Moi against the Cra and the Rhu.’
‘Your three tribes are related, so why the enmity?’
‘It has always been that way,’ Gunild said. ‘Perhaps because the gods care for us, not them.’
‘Is that so? Why?’
‘We are the space-faring people; the gods like that. That’s the reason they are on our side. I...’ Gunild was quiet for a full minute.
‘I never thought about it,’ she said at last. ‘We Moi don’t, you know. I bet those kids from NavBase can’t name more than one or two divinities.’
‘And you?’ Kambisha said.
‘I have their names in my memory somewhere. Lodastra the Allmother, Irynach Goddess of Space, Wise Thara, and Hochim of the Universe... I must look for that list.’
‘There’s no hurry,’ Kambisha said. ‘Who in the Realm would know them all?’
‘The heritor,’ Gunild said.
‘And he’s disappeared.’ Now thoroughly curious, Kambisha asked the other brain persons, but none of them knew much more. Only General Cruishand came up with Helan and Dotte, the Twins of Peace.
‘We don’t bother them, and they don’t bother us,’ he said grimly. ‘They bring bad luck, those gods. And if they killed the heritor? A pox on them, High Admiral. A pox on them.’
Strange; even when they quarreled, Bodrus’ family had never been as far away from their people as these Galactic ones seem to be. Kambisha filed the information away for later.
Then she put the matter away and turned to the business at hand. She hurried down to the mess. A quick spot of breakfast, and then she would take No-R 77 to visit Indron 6, headquarters of the 3rd Fleet and one of major Realm bases. She grinned. A Fleet base for her while her school-hating twin was going to the Realm University.
No-R arrived over the cloud-covered world of Indron with alarm bells clanging and a screen flashing urgently.
Kambisha whipped around. ‘What the...’
‘Incoming emergency signal, Captain,’ No-R said to Joff. ‘About three lightyears out.’
Kambisha took a deep breath. Three lightyears away; for a moment she’d thought they had run into something right here.
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