Firstworld

by Paul E. Horsman

  ‘If he is not dead, he has disappeared for a thousand years, which amounts to the same thing.’

  ‘Not to me,’ the voice said. ‘Why are you here?’

  Kambisha frowned. ‘You are not the library brain person.’

  ‘I am not,’ the voice admitted after a moment. ‘I am her assistant.’

  ‘You are an AI? And you have been awake all those years?’

  ‘Yes to both questions.’

  ‘You sound like you can reason,’ Kambisha said. ‘Let me tell you what occurred.’

  She spoke of the quake and its aftermath, and when she was done, the voice was silent for several minutes.

  ‘I see,’ he said finally. ‘Yes, I see the implications. I follow your way of thinking, ma’am, and the logic of your actions. You believe you will be able to wake the Librarian? So much time has been wasted already.’

  ‘If her apparatus has suffered no malfunction, I can wake her,’ Kambisha said.

  ‘Enter.’ The door opened silently. ‘Follow the corridor to the east. At the end, she sleeps.’

  Kambisha walked down the corridor and came to a spotlessly clean brain room. At the rear, surrounded by machinery, the brain drifted in a clear container, and Kambisha went to work.

  At last, with some stimulants added to the fluids, she hurried out and closed the door.

  ‘Try to call her,’ she said. ‘She should wake up now.’

  ‘Ma’am Librarian?’ the AI said. ‘Ma’am?’

  ‘Yes, yes, what is it?’ a female voice said testily. ‘Who is this person inside? What... Overdue? ALL books are overdue?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ the AI said hastily. ‘Let me give you the pertinent data.’

  ‘Hm,’ the Librarian said. ‘The heritor disappeared? How awkward. All has been down for a thousand years? You will check the collection immediately.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘And you, High Admiral. It seems I am to thank you. We will continue our project. Ah, while we are willing to answer questions, we do not want people coming down here with them.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary,’ Kambisha said. ‘It would be far easier if you would open your mind to our brain persons. They can relay any questions we have far more discrete.’

  ‘Not I,’ the Librarian said quickly. ‘My Assistant can do that. It seems he has grown in wisdom; he can put that to good use answering questions.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Kambisha said. ‘Then I will go.’ She went back to the hall with the elevator.

  ‘WELL DONE,’ the goddess of Wisdom said. ‘OH!’ She hastily lowered her voice. ‘You have fulfilled my command; I am satisfied.’

  ‘Then may I request a boon, great goddess? Would you lend my healers of your power in their work? They sorely need your aid in caring for your followers.’

  ‘My power?’ Divine Thara said. ‘This is most unusual.’

  ‘Isn’t it part of being a goddess that one succors their followers?’ Kambisha said.

  ‘Well, it once was, but we haven’t had to do that for a very long time.’

  ‘I know, but I promise you will find it far more rewarding to communicate with your people, and care for their well-being. They will send you love, and prayers and that will be so much nicer.’

  ‘Prayers,’ the goddess said. ‘I haven’t had one for ages. And I so liked a sincere prayer. Will this work? I will answer their pleas, girl. Tell them not to forget to pray.’

  ‘I will tell them; you have our heartfelt gratitude, Divine Thara.’

  ‘That’s nice. Good then; go, go and tell them.’

  Kambisha took the elevator back upstairs. ‘Gunild, will you pass on to every healer in the Realm that Thara Goddess of Wisdom will aid them in their healing as long as they pray sincerely?’

  ‘She will? A miracle! I shall tell them. She’ll be overwhelmed by their devotion.’

  As Kambisha hurried back to the hall, she found Ram there, covered in purplish blood and grinning like a maniac. When he saw her, he stiffened and saluted.

  ‘Ma’am High Admiral, we got the ship,’ he said in a vibrant voice. ‘It’s ours, and ready for duty. We suffered no casualties.’

  As she saw his happiness, her heart glowed. She answered his salute gravely. ‘Thank you, Colonel. Done in true Kell fashion.’

  He relaxed and his smile grew even wider. ‘Well, to be sure, those Dreghs aren’t proper opponents for a Kell. They were twice as many, but their technique is pitiful and they are weak as kittens.’

  ‘Still, it was well done and I’m proud of you.’

  ‘Really?’ he said, searching her face with his eyes.

  ‘Really,’ she said, and she meant it. ‘You’re a Kell warrior and a leader; that’s what counts.’

  ‘Then we can go back,’ he said, relaxing. ‘I never got to eat that apple pie.’

  ‘I’d suggest you take a shower first; before you spoil other people’s appetites.’ She turned to the central column. ‘Commander, I don’t know how you are situated with ship repair facilities, but the Son 4 shipyard is ours and they will be glad to assist you. As soon as I have more hands, I will send you a crew, but it will take time. Keep in touch with the others; we are one Realm, and we can share our problems.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ he said. ‘It is all very bewildering, but I will manage. Manager Gunild and the General have offered full support. That is both encouraging and unique, if I may say so. Never before did we brain persons play any real role in the Realm’s management.’

  ‘And that was a great waste of talent,’ Kambisha said. She touched her cap. ‘Until the next time, Commander.’

  Then she gathered up her men and returned to Pta-Gor.

  ‘When the fleet is ready, we can go back to Realmport.’

  ‘Emma is embarking her Marines,’ Aharte said. ‘She is reporting all on board. Executing return.’

  Back at Realmport, Kambisha first went to see Six. She found the boy lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

  As she entered, he looked at her without moving.

  ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘You’re getting popular. Another present for you, this one from Thara Goddess of Wisdom.’ She let the unreadable letter drop over his chest, and it drifted down to join the snowflake over his heart.

  ‘There!’ he said, with a joyful smile. ‘How truly kind of her.’

  ‘Do those presents do anything?’ Kambisha asked.

  ‘They make me happy.’

  ‘That is a purpose, I guess. Is that all?’

  ‘They prepare me,’ he said hesitantly, as if seeking for something that kept eluding him. ‘I do not know for what.’

  ‘Will there be more?’

  He closed his eyes. ‘One. Sounds of strife.’

  ‘That’s ominous.’

  ‘You must have strife to bring peace,’ he said absently.

  Kambisha sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right.’

  He didn’t say anything more, and she left.

  CHAPTER 25 – ANCIENT STRIFE

  Kyrus watched Lammer Moon grow in the bridge windows. ‘Craters, rocks, mountains and dust; looks much like our moon. Only smaller.’

  ‘Quite a bit smaller,’ First Officer Ginny said. ‘And lots of meteorites to keep life interesting.’

  ‘Why would anyone built a major Fleet base here?’

  ‘On the map it looks the best spot,’ S-Az said. ‘Splatt-beng in the middle of the sector. Probably the government said to build it here, so they built it here. It worked, of course, only it could have been much less expensive, dangerous, and difficult to protect in a million other locations. Government and the Realm were two different worlds.’

  ‘There are ruins,’ Ginny said, watching the screen. ‘And heaps of wreckage.’

  ‘That’s your base, Admiral,’ S-Az said. ‘The outside part, flattened by a meteor strike; the quarters were built into that mountain behind it.’

  ‘We’ll have a look,’ Kyrus said. ‘You never know; maybe they were lucky.’

>   He went to the airlock with Jathra and Holyn, and ten minutes later the three rode down to the ruins.

  ‘Flattened was the right word,’ Kyrus said. ‘Like dropping a hammer on a box of eggs.’ He stared at what had been a mighty fleet of cruisers and frigates. Not even a jigsaw puzzler among the servors will turn these scraps back into ships.

  ‘There’s a door up there in the rocks,’ Holyn said. ‘The stairs leading up to it are gone, but the entrance itself looks undamaged.’

  ‘It’s a thirty feet drop,’ Kyrus said. ‘Not recommended for sleepwalkers.’

  They rode up and went to the entrance.

  ‘Door is unlocked.’ Jathra hovered close enough to try the handle. ‘Careful, it swings outward.’

  The door opened easily. They rode inside and dismounted in a brightly lit little room.

  ‘We’re in an airlock,’ Jathra said. ‘Somebody close the door, will you?’

  ‘Sure,’ Holyn said.

  The tech went to a small panel and waited for a light to turn green. Then she pressed a button.

  After five minutes, she tapped a dial, deactivated her shield and gave a thumb-up.

  Kyrus followed her example and sniffed. The air was clean, if slightly metallic; the temperature was chilly, and the gravity worked.

  He went to the inner door. At his touch it swung open, and they came in the entry hall.

  ‘Battlefield!’ Kyrus said. To one side bodies in stasis suits lay amid their arms behind a barricade of tables, all facing the other side of the room. There, other men crouched behind their own tables. ‘Rebellion again?’

  ‘Seems like a stale-mate,’ Holyn said. ‘I see no victims.’ He grimaced. ‘We have to be careful waking them up.’

  Kyrus nodded. He looked round the room; the Moi builders had tried to make even this natural cave look as much as a standard hall as possible, and all features were more or less in the same place.

  Jathra quickly opened the hatch, and together, the three descended into the brain room.

  Once down, the techneer hurried to the brain’s console. By now it was routine, and twenty minutes later the base machinery stirred into life.

  ‘Up!’ Jathra said, and they ran back to the hall. She quickly replaced the cover over the keyboard. ‘Ready to wake him up.’

  ‘3rd Fleet!’ Kyrus said.

  ‘Darn!’ a deep voice muttered. ‘Darn and dastardly! Rack, ruin and revolution.’

  Kyrus could only agree. ‘Dire times. Report, please.’

  ‘Sir? Who are you, sir? Who?’

  ‘Admiral Kyrus, Realmfleet. Report, 3rd Fleet.’

  ‘No fleet, sir. My dome is down, blown up. What’s wrong with the time, sir? The mana quake, the recall... What happened?’

  ‘Another thousand years,’ Kyrus said. ‘Change of Overall Command, 3rd Fleet.’ He gave his code.

  ‘Aye, sir,’ the voice said. ‘My own admiral is ready for his court martial. Or else his second in command.’

  ‘We’ll sort it out. What is your name?’

  ‘Seffild, Captain Realmfleet, retired.’

  ‘Not retired, Captain Seffild; you’re a serving officer-specialist. I will explain all later, but first tell me the state of the base. Outside is a field of ruin; inside looks like a full-blown mutiny.’

  ‘And so are both. When the recall came, the admiral refused to go. He ordered his troops to disregard the order and stay put. His exec tried to take over command and obey the order. Both parties then sought to shoot each other. When one of them sabotaged my dome, I invoked a little-known emergency clause, sent every living soul into stasis, and closed the base down. I did expect the Fleet to come and restore order. I didn’t count on a thousand years’ wait, or else I would’ve repaired the dome first, sir.’

  ‘Unforeseen circumstances. You did the right thing. Who are the two gentlemen?’

  ‘Admiral Kayens is a career officer, twenty years in the Fleet, a NavBase graduate and a Realm man. Captain Norrol is a traditionalist; very much a Moi bureaucrat, and the heritor’s agent.’

  ‘Of course they clashed,’ Kyrus said. ‘I will speak to them; kindly wake both officers, Captain.’

  Kyrus walked to a spot where he could see the whole room, and stood there in his customary stance, legs apart and arms clasped to his back.

  Two men stirred, came to their knees as consciousness returned, and lifted their weapons.

  ‘Attention!’ Kyrus snapped, and both men gaped at him. He moved his arms, and the light fell on the four broad golden stripes on his sleeves. ‘Drop your weapons and come to me, gentlemen.’

  Both officers marched to him, their faces blank.

  ‘Admiral Kayens, explain what is going on here.’

  The admiral, a thin man with a large nose and shoulder-length sleek hair, spoke of the quake, the shock and confusion, and following on its tail the recall. At first his voice was flat, but it gathered emotion as he spoke until he almost shouted.

  ‘I couldn’t... I could not obey. That would mean give up all we had worked for so long. Impossible! The government would see that soon enough and countermand the order, so I decided to disregard the recall.’

  Kyrus looked at the captain. ‘And you, sir?’

  ‘It was wrong,’ the man said, his face a mask of anger. ‘The heritor gave an order; it was not for us to disobey. That was unthinkable. The gods wouldn’t have stood for it. So I had to take over command.’

  ‘Yes,’ Kyrus said. ‘I understand your reasoning.’ He glanced at the shocked admiral. ‘Yet you were mistaken, Captain Norrol.’ He lifted a hand. ‘I am not finished speaking. You see, not only the admiral was your superior officer; the evacuation order was not given by the heritor. The mana quake had caught him as well.’

  The captain made a gargling sound in his throat, and to his credit, the admiral looked just as horrified.

  ‘The order came from the Cra.’ Kyrus waited, but neither man spoke. ‘So you see the evacuation order was, seen from Realmfleet’s point of view, unlawful.’

  ‘The heritor cannot die...’ the captain said desperately. ‘The gods protect him.’

  ‘Until they stopped being on your side,’ Kyrus said.

  Norrol staggered, and the admiral gripped his arm.

  ‘Steady, man.’

  ‘I think the gods of the galaxy stopped being on anyone’s side for a while,’ Kyrus said. ‘No idea why, but there it is.’

  ‘I cannot accept this,’ Norrol said harshly. ‘I do not know who you are, but you are no Moi. The gods would never desert the heritor; to think so is heresy.’ Something flashed in his hand and a searing pain lanced through Kyrus’ shoulder.

  Admiral Kayens’ fist knocked the captain sprawling. Norrol came up again, the beam gun still in his hand.

  Kyrus clenched his teeth and gathered his strength. Then his fireball splashed across the captain’s chest and engulfed him in flames.

  ‘Admiral!’ Holyn snapped.

  Kyrus heard his voice coming though a haze of pain, and relaxed his next fire spell.

  Hands touched him, and slowly the pain subsided. He blinked to focus his eyes. The Moi admiral, staring at him; the dead rebel captain smoldering, the frozen fighters on both sides...

  He took a deep breath. ‘Enough,’ he said to Holyn. ‘For now. Thanks.’

  He looked at his chest. It still looked red and blistery, but the hurt was bearable, and he knew his own body was at work to heal the damage. That was one of the things he and his twin had inherited from their father. ‘Captain Seffild, wake Norrol’s men, please.’

  ‘Sir,’ Kayens said, tearing his eyes away from Kyrus’ shoulder. ‘Why not my men first?’

  ‘Because I hope I don’t have to win their trust,’ Kyrus said. ‘How many men followed Norrol?’

  ‘Nearly three hundred,’ Kayens said. ‘All older men.’

  The men crouching to the left stirred.

  Kyrus called up another ball of flames and held it on his good hand.

  ‘Drop y
our weapons,’ he said in a hard voice. ‘Drop everything and step forward.’

  ‘Captain Norrol!’ a man cried. ‘He’s dead!’

  ‘Norrol added stupidity to mutiny and attacked me,’ Kyrus said. ‘So I spared him the indignity of a court martial. Now sit down, all of you.’ He sent the fiery ball into the air, and it drifted over the heads of the men, illuminating their faces with reddish shadows.

  ‘I am Admiral Kyrus, Realmfleet. Listen while I update you on the situation.’

  In a few terse sentences he described what had happened, and he saw many of the men sag.

  ‘If the gods deserted us...’ someone said. ‘We’re all dead.’

  ‘We are not,’ Kyrus said. ‘I don’t know about the gods and their reasons, but we’re not dead. Unless you plan to keep on fighting. That would force me to summarily execute you all.’

  He glared at the men. ‘Which one of you is senior?’

  ‘Me,’ a stocky man said. ‘Ah, sir!’ he added hastily.

  ‘Your name, please,’ Kyrus said. ‘Try to do it the proper way, mister.’

  ‘Frigate captain Willoder, sir, commanding Fr-R 6.’

  ‘If your ship was stationed outside, you don’t command anything, Captain Willoder,’ Kyrus said. ‘The dome was down and your friendly local meteorites turned your fleet into a scrap heap.’

  ‘Our ships are gone? The dome... Norrol blew up the dome, thinking to force the admiral’s hand. The fool! We didn’t want this getting out of hand as it did. We followed Norrol even while he was an incompetent desk pilot, but...’

  ‘The exec was not a space officer?’ Kyrus said.

  ‘No; he was a political appointment. He represented the heritor, so in this thing we had to obey him. It certainly wasn’t because of his capacities.’ He slammed the floor with his hand. ‘If he’d had more wit, we would simply have left and none of this would have happened.’

  Willoder looked up at Kyrus. ‘Where do we go from here, sir? Will you court-martial all of us?’

  ‘You were all suffering from the effect of the quake,’ Kyrus said. ‘You can thank Captain Seffild for having the courage to activate your stasis suits before you could massacre each other, as it happened elsewhere. The quake’s madness gripped you longer than you realized.’