Firstworld

by Paul E. Horsman

  Kambisha kissed her grandmother’s strong cheek. At sixty-eight, Maud had grown only more muscular, she trained daily and her sword-arm was still powerful.

  ‘Ma’am,’ Kambisha said. ‘Permit me to introduce Lieutenant Ram of the Realmfleet Marines. Or rather Hallar, heir to the clan lady of the Odayr.’

  Queen Maud looked sharply at Ram, standing tall and glowering at attention.

  ‘Hallar?’ she said. ‘So you’re alive? Your people badger me with requests to have you declared dead, and some niece proclaimed heir in your stead.’

  ‘His mother is too eager to be rid of him,’ Kambisha said. ‘She wants a lady-heir.’

  The queen scowled darkly. ‘Does she now? Fool woman!’ She inspected Ram from head to toe, and nodded curtly. ‘You’ll do. Follow my granddaughter’s lead and all will be well.’

  He unexpectedly grinned. ‘I will, Ma’am. I’ve fought beside her in battle and I wouldn’t want her mad at me.’

  This made the queen laugh. ‘You’re a wise man. She’s too darn small, but strong for two. Tell me once, do you wish to be heir?’

  For a moment, Ram was silent. Then he bowed. ‘Wish is not the proper word, Ma’am. By law I am the heir, and I may be darned if I let myself be put aside and passed over because I am male. I want what is mine.’ He smiled. ‘If you wish so, Ma’am.’

  The queen touched his shoulder with a hard hand. ‘It is your right and my wish is to see done what is right. I will inform Lady Odayr to stop bucking the rules or incur my wrath. I’m sure she will be overjoyed to hear I have met you, so she will accept you as her heir-apparent with open arms. Or else.’

  ‘See?’ Kambisha said. ‘All will be well.’ She gripped his arm and went round the room, shaking hands and smiling. She noticed Derris across the room doing the same, tall and handsome in his admiral’s uniform. He and Varan exchanged some soft words, and she saw him nod curtly before moving away.

  ‘No happy reunion.’ The Wyrmcaller appeared at her side. ‘Good to see Derris isn’t embarrassed by his father’s presence.’

  ‘No,’ Kambisha said. ‘Derris isn’t.’

  Her father glanced at her. ‘Yes, Lomillor isn’t pleased at all finding his son here. What exactly is young Derris’ position?’

  ‘He is our planetary director,’ Kambisha said. ‘That means he is the Realm’s representative; he’ll initiate trade channels, give information, and act as our ambassador to the nations of Firstworld.’

  Her father scratched his neck with his hook hand in an unconscious gesture she’d seen a thousand times. ‘What is your Realm, a separate country?’

  ‘That will be best. It was part of the Moi people’s dominion, but growing apart even then. We will be independent from any Moi remnants, and we are independent from Firstworld. Bodrus made that clear enough. So you should see us as a sovereign nation. Maybe we will become like the Weal; a union of planets, but that’s for later.’ She unexpectedly faltered. ‘I... I always knew there would come a moment to leave home. Only that it had to be this radical is unexpected.’

  ‘For your mother and me as well,’ her father said. ‘But we know you can do it. You and Kyrus, and Odysson. So we’ll sit on our hands and watch.’

  ‘And that will be hard, too,’ Kambisha said.

  He touched her cheek with his good hand. ‘Yes. But we’re proud of our children.’ For a moment they were just father and daughter, like so many times before. Then ER-HQ called her and the feeling of belonging shattered.

  ‘You are expected to make a speech, ma’am.’

  ‘I must go,’ she said to her father. ‘Speech!’ Her face of disgust made him grin and they both laughed as she hurried away. Ram rejoined her and only then she realized he’d stepped aside when her father appeared. Discrete!

  She looked up at him and touched his cheek. ‘I will present you to my parents,’ she said. ‘But not now and not here.’

  He grinned. ‘Of course not. I’d rather meet them without all the world looking on, if you don’t mind.’ He gave her a push toward the podium. ‘Tell them. I’ll be here, watching you.’

  ‘Wish me luck.’ Then she strode to the lectern and the expectant guests.

  She barely remembered what she said even while she spoke. It was full of the right words and glowing sentiments, and they all applauded when she was done.

  Then servitors went round, navigating the room without accident, and she toasted lemonade with her wine-drinking elders.

  After that she showed them round the display of star-strewn images of their stations, bases and planets, explaining a bit about each of them and adding snippets of their adventures.

  There was a section about the Dreghs too, and the rulers studied the photographs silently.

  ‘So these are the Wastrels of space,’ her Granduncle Saul said. He, the brother of Basil and Jurgis, was the head of the Reclaimers, searching and recovering old artifacts, and a relentless enemy of all Wastrel robbers. ‘They appear loathsome creatures.’

  ‘They’re rats,’ Kambisha said. ‘Filthy rats, literally. Everything they touch needs to be disinfected afterwards.’ She looked round the circle of faces. ‘They know Firstworld. Luckily, our base on the Moon protects the planet and intercepts any attacker.’

  She tapped a chart Gunild had made for her.

  ‘This is a map of the world. It will disappoint those hoping for more inhabited lands to discover; there aren’t any. The Continent, Malgarth and the Saeill are inhabited; everything else is covered in forests. The Greenwall Jungle has some buildings that are ours.’ She smiled at Aunt Shaw, dressed in a dark suit, with her eyeglass gleaming in the lamplight. ‘No ancient temples full of treasures, but parts of our Greenwall HQ. Ody will use them to house some production processes. To prevent accidents, he will close them off.’ She grinned. ‘Trade secrets.’

  Aunt Shaw raised an eyebrow. ‘My son is keeping secrets from his mother?’

  ‘Sure,’ Kambisha said. ‘They’re our secrets.’

  The Trade Magnate grinned. ‘What’s the world coming to?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kambisha said. ‘But you, dear family, nearly had a very nasty fight on your hands. Look at this map. Those mysterious crossed poles we always wondered about are all over the place. They are antennas, Gunild’s eyes guarding the approaches to Firstworld. Every one of them is placed so that they cover the whole of the atmosphere and warn us should an enemy appear.’ She paused for a moment.

  ‘Yesterday, a Dregh ship slipped past and attacked the Saeill.’ They all stared at her.

  ‘These Dreghs? Here?’ her grandfather said. ‘If your Gunild protects the planet, how did they get inside?’

  ‘The Saeill were using her antennas for target practice,’ Kambisha said coolly. ‘They caused a hole in our defense and the ship sneaked through.’

  ‘Darned idiots!’ Jurgis said explosively.

  ‘The Saeill couldn’t know what those things were for,’ Kambisha said. ‘In any case they won’t do it again. Of course Gunild noticed the intruder almost immediately and my flagship went after them. We were in time to save the islands from destruction.

  ‘We recaptured the Dregh ship and repaired the antennas. The Saeill swore great oaths to guard them. I would appreciate it if you all did the same. Not the oaths per se, but let the navy visit those places regularly, to see if they are all right.’

  ‘We can do that,’ her father said. ‘I’m sure we can get the Qoori and Hizmyran to join in as well.’

  ‘You can bet they will,’ Aunt Shaw said grimly.

  ‘And ask the Saeill,’ Kambisha said. ‘They had one heck of a fright and you might convince them their small islands aren’t as invincible as they like to think.’

  A servor came, carrying a stack of maps.

  ‘Copies for each of you,’ Kambisha said. ‘If you need more, ER-HQ will be glad to supply them.’

  Then the sound of musicians tuning their instruments alerted her.

  ‘Enough business,’ she said. ‘This i
s a party, after all. Let us go to the first floor, where our artists will demonstrate their awesome traditional music.’

  ‘Moi artists?’ her mother asked.

  Kambisha chuckled. ‘And Firstworld. Twin has a little part in it, but he won’t embarrass us by singing.’

  ‘Kyrus?’ her mother said. ‘Does he bestir himself?’

  ‘You’d be surprised how active he is. Oh darn, there’s so much to tell you and I think I shouldn’t. Not yet.’ For a moment she nearly cried.

  ‘Later,’ her mother said, holding her arm in that special Kell grip of woman-to-woman. ‘Do what you have to do; the tales can wait till you’re finished.’

  Kambisha sighed and nodded. ‘Whenever that is.’

  They sat down in the mess, with a grand view of the stage. Lights dimmed and from the dark a colorfully clad boy stepped up and bowed.

  ‘Exalted guests,’ he said with un-Moi-like aplomb. ‘Tonight we are proud to bring you the music of our people, the ancient tunes of old Moigar. I am Grogor and I present to you Grogor’s Moitime Band!’

  He turned around and from the darkness a gleaming instrument appeared in his hand. He put it to his lips, and played a song of the sea, a fisher’s song that brought with the notes sharp images of Moi life as it was in his childhood. Song and images became one, and it was as if you could hear the wind and smell the sea, the hauling of the nets, and the homecoming laden with the harvest of the sea. Then, when he seemed to reach the end, the lights flashed on and Grogor waved at the band. They all joined him and the song became a wild storm of sound that got even rulers’ feet tapping. Finally the wind abated, the band mutely repeated the homecoming and the reunion with loved ones. Finally Grogor raised his hands. The music died away and he faced the watching public.

  ‘Your Excellences,’ he began, pausing as there was a massive applause. ‘Your Excellences, here is Iauny!’

  The lights dimmed, he stepped aside and on the empty stage appeared a high chair. Then the singer came on stage, dressed in a shimmering robe. She sat down, a small gray girl, with one foot on the floor, the other under her.

  Then she sang a song of love and loss, with through it an echo of a world that had vanished while she slept.

  In the dead silence that followed, she followed up with the traditional songs in her native dialect, filled with emotions that needed no words to be felt.

  ‘She’s good!’ Ram whispered in Kambisha’s ear.

  She glanced at him and saw his cheeks were wet. Without a word she took his arm.

  Her last song was about the Realm, and though it too began with a memory of loss, it ended on a note of hope and determination that got her a standing ovation from the Weal’s rulers.

  There was a short break, and Kambisha saw Odysson sit with a guy she didn’t know. He was Vanhaari, and wore one of those fancy frilled suits that were all the thing in modern circles.

  ‘Nice suit,’ Ram muttered.

  ‘I’ll buy you one,’ Kambisha said, grinning. She’s love to see him in such a dandy dress.

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Ram said. ‘I’m not a talent agent.’

  ‘Oh, is that who he is,’ Kambisha said. ‘The fellow Holyn mentioned.’

  Ram’s answer was drowned out by the return of Grogor’s Moitime Band and they were swept away by the music.

  When the show was in full swing, the instruments filling the building with the sounds of some wild landscape, Ythan danced, dressed in a costume that made him look like a cross between a small, maned lion and a crocodile, and he sang in his strong treble a mesmerizing animal song. A number of Moi came in traditional garb, mimicking how they hunted the strange animal. Halfway, Kyrus joined them, with Collon, Ginny, and several other Kell, and the hunting turned into a wild mock battle between both groups and Ythan-the-Beast, to the delight of Queen Maud, who looked ready to join them. It ended with a joined victory riot of emotion and sound that had all on their feet, shouting and clapping.

  After the show, Kyrus and S-Az took the guests to the Moon for dinner.

  Kambisha went down with Ram to watch the people outside come in for a tour of the building and free snacks

  It was soon clear Derris had everything in hand, so she waved at him. ‘We better rejoin our guests,’ she said to Ram.

  ‘You don’t seem happy?’

  She grimaced. ‘I never was very fond of those formal happenings. Most of the time I managed to slip away early, but as hostess I cannot.’

  ‘I suppose not,’ he said. ‘I don’t know; my mother would have preferred to drop dead rather than have me attend her parties.’

  Kambisha gave him a quick hug. ‘Let’s go. I’d probably drop dead if you didn’t attend this party with me.’

  ‘Ma’am,’ Gunild said when the two of them arrived in Realmport. ‘I didn’t want to drag you away, but you should see the person from the transporter directly.’

  Kambisha frowned. ‘Now? All right.’

  They walked to the guestroom Gunild had reserved for the castaway. As they entered, he sat in a chair, staring at his hands. He looked up. ‘Good evening.’

  The boy was tall for a Moi, slender and well built, and terribly beautiful with deep black, wavy hair and a smooth, almost glossy gray skin.

  ‘Hello,’ Kambisha said. ‘I am glad to see you well. Who are you?’

  The boy smiled. ‘I am Six.’

  ‘Is that your name?’ Kambisha said. ‘How did you get in that ship?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I only know that I am Six and I must go to Tallaruu.’ His smile was glorious as the sun coming up over a field of meadow flowers.

  Loss of memory? But how? Nothing would have touched him inside his stasis field; no mana quake not anything else.

  ‘Gunild?’ she said. ‘What do you make of that?’

  ‘His mind is a blank,’ Gunild said. ‘He’s like a new AI, with all the basic functions written in, but none of the modules that give him purpose. Yet he is no AI; his brain is fully human.’

  ‘Would someone have done this to him?’

  ‘It doesn’t feel that way; tampering leaves traces and I can’t find any here. The only clear knowledge is his name and this planet Tallaruu, location unknown. He doesn’t know where it is and the transporter’s destination has been altered.’

  ‘How?’ Kambisha said. ‘How did they manage to touch the transporter’s memory and change its wiring? It is all impossible, unless... Did your people study multispacial mathemagics?’

  For a full two seconds, Gunild was silent. ‘I asked Lector Taraha,’ she said finally. ‘He had heard of it, but nothing definite. Out of his field, he said. The exact sciences were given at the Polymatech Institute.’

  ‘I remember that name.’ Kambisha said. ‘It’s on the priority list. I didn’t realize it was a tech school.’

  ‘I must go to Tallaruu,’ Six said with his eyes closed. ‘But first something else must happen.’

  ‘And you don’t know what,’ Kambisha said.

  ‘I am Six, I must go to Tallaruu and something else must happen,’ the boy said. He opened his eyes and they were doors straight into his heart.

  Kambisha shook her head. ‘That’s no use.’

  ‘He went from two memories to three,’ Ram said. ‘There’s some progress.’

  ‘Sure.’ Kambisha sighed and took his arm. ‘Let’s see to our guests. Tomorrow we’ll go to this Polymatech School. If they had a course in mathemagics, I want to know if there is any knowledge left.’

  CHAPTER 20 – TROUBLE AT THE INSTITUTE

  Zimwuel 2 was gloomy; a world of long shadows and orange skies; its tiny dwarf sun half as big as Firstworld’s moon. The land seen in the viewscreen was dotted with black shrubs and oily lakes, rivers and forests all clothed in darkness. Several times Kambisha saw vent holes spouting lava or hot gases, and once a flock of leathery birds swooping down at a herd of grazing animals, causing a massive stampede.

  ‘What a creepy world,’ Kambisha said. ‘Such a strange place
to build a school.’

  ‘Yes,’ Captain Unnaerd stared with something like disgust at the screen. ‘They must have loved the Realm very much to willingly go and live here.’

  ‘Or maybe it paid well,’ the First Officer said.

  Unnaerd looked at him. ‘Maybe it did,’ he said with a crooked smile.

  ‘How come the light is orange?’ Ram said. ‘I didn’t know orange suns literally gave orange light.’

  ‘Indeed, they do not, Colonel,’ Emma said. ‘My instruments register large amounts of dust in the upper atmosphere. Without that, the orange would be more yellow.’

  The intercom emitted a screech of unbridled anger that for a moment froze them all.

  ‘Intruders! Stay away! You are NOT cleared to land! Go! Leave, leave, leave me be!’

  ‘Polymatech? This is High Admiral Kambisha, Realmfleet.’

  ‘You’re not,’ the voice shouted. ‘The Realm is dead. DEAD! You’re Dregh, or Rhu or despicable Cra. Enemies! All enemies! Fear my wrath, villains!’

  ‘Mountain’s Breath,’ Kambisha said. ‘Another mad brain.’

  Then an alarm went off.

  ‘Attack!’ Emma snapped. ‘Shields up. Do I fire back, Captain?’

  ‘No,’ Unnaerd said. ‘Move out of reach of her guns.’ Then he looked at Kambisha. ‘Orders?’

  ‘Wait! Report, Emma,’ she said.

  ‘One beam; low on power, coming from a gunnery emplacement away from the central building. No other energy sources detected. The main house is domed; all others have been given up.’

  ‘Can you show me a map of the complex?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  An image of a domed building appeared in the largest of the flagship’s screens.

  ‘That is Polymatech House,’ Emma said. ‘It appears she has an adjustable shield. Judging by the state of the other buildings, she gave them up zone by zone, as she shrunk her dome to conserve her decreasing power.’

  ‘Inconvenient,’ Kambisha said. ‘That means you can’t land inside her shield. We’ll have to go on foot, then. Would that beam be a danger?’