by Jay Korza
“Disgusting,” Fang spat.
“I thought you might say that.” A few people chuckled as Emily continued. “Usually the weak or dying prey will give themselves over to the predators without a fight. If the prey species’ population is too big for the area, more of them will automatically give themselves up. If there are too many predators, they will stop breeding until their numbers go back down. If there is a natural disaster and both species’ numbers go down, they instinctually know which side of the equation needs to be balanced out and they take appropriate action. So while there is a food chain with carnivores in it, they aren’t aggressive because they don’t need to hunt.”
“And you think this entire planet is like that?” Major Telfer asked.
“I do. But obviously I can’t empirically say that it is, not without years of scientific research to validate my initial impression.”
“What does that mean for us tactically if we encounter this sentient species?” Surgeon asked.
“They shouldn’t have any weapons but we also shouldn’t let that lull us into a false sense of security. Their biology could be deadly to us in any of a thousand ways, even if their intents are never hostile towards us. We still need to follow all security protocols for a first contact situation if one occurs.”
“So you mean, let Doc touch it first?” Joker quipped.
“I will send you out with a glass jar to get a stool sample from one if you keep it up, funny-man,” Daria teased back.
Emily cleared her throat. “I apologize. I kind of got us off track from our original topic. Indigenous population aside, our drones found ruins in the area we are going to. Infrared and sonar scans show some underground caverns that may have been sewage or transport routes below a city. That, of course, means there was a city on the surface at some point, of which there are some building artifacts still in place.
“The scans also show recent craft landing near where we touched down. Their landing party decided to hike in rather than land at the site itself. We don’t know why they did this, but we decided to follow their lead.
“Once we get to the ruins, Father will set up perimeter security while the twins and I take point on getting the investigation started at the site. I will need Bloom, Jeeves, Doc, and Stroth to start out on the investigation. After the perimeter is secured, we can see about pulling more people in to help with the investigation.”
A few questions were asked and answered before small talk broke out between the operators. The hike was a short one, but marches always went faster with a bit of conversation.
When they arrived at the ruins, there wasn’t much to them. Seth set up a perimeter and Emily took her initial investigation team to get their gear from the rovers.
“Jenarah and Kuruk, I’d like you to start working on the sonar ground and perimeter mapping. We need a more detailed scan than our drone was able to get us. Doc and Lieutenant Stroth, I need you to start a vegetation and critter survey. We can get a lot of good information about the age of the site based on the plant and animal life in the area. Jeeves and Bloom, you’re with me; we’ll be looking for technology in the ruins.”
Daria unstrapped some of the survey gear. “Technology? I thought you said the sentient life on this planet is pre-industrial?”
“It is. But these ruins aren’t. Someone else used to live here and I’d like to find out who.” Emily took her equipment from the rover and pulled out what she needed.
Emily looked with wonder at the ruins she stood in. It was as though she were about to step into a time machine. She couldn’t wait to find out what secrets the old buildings held.
Chapter 11
880 Years Ago
Roughly 120 Years After the Withdrawal from the Nortes Empire
Emperor T’Leh had been in and out of consciousness for the better part of the day. His son and wife took turns by his side. Prince P’Tong currently had the watch and he feared it would be the last one for his father. Even worse, he was sure his mother would follow shortly after. The husband and wife had never been apart from each other in life and it would most likely be the same in death.
The emperor stirred. “Father?” P’Tong softly asked. “I’ll get Mother.”
“No.” T’Leh was able to touch his son’s hand before P’Tong stood. “I want a moment with you, my child. I want to look into your eyes and see your mother and father one more time. They were great people, you know. I loved them very much.”
“Yes, Father, you have told me of their bravery and sacrifice. I feel as though I’ve known them and they’ve been with me my entire life. Thank you for that gift.” P’Tong gently brushed his father’s hair back with a moist towel. “You and Mother were not my birth parents, but I love you just the same as if you were.”
T’Leh chuckled and then coughed violently. “Don’t ever tell your mother she’s not your birth parent. Two days of labor with you tells a different story.”
Both men laughed at that. P’Tong’s parents had been killed while his mother was still pregnant with him. The fetus was transplanted into T’Leh’s then-concubine and now-wife M’Tawny. She carried P’Tong as her own and gave birth to him as any normal Nortes mother would have.
“You’re right, Father. I should have said biological parents.” P’Tong sighed. “The empire is almost over now. Its last true emperor can finally rest, his work done, his ancestors’ wrongs righted.”
“No, son—you are the true emperor now.” T’Leh’s grip strengthened momentarily around his son’s wrist. “The new Nortes government is strong and just, but they still need a leader. You will be their emperor now.
“Do not forget the lessons of our past and by all that is holy, do not repeat our mistakes.”
“But Father, if we don’t want to make the same mistakes, then why maintain an emperor rather than a group of leaders put forward by the citizens?”
“Son, if an emperor is flawed, it is not because of his title; it is because he is flawed as a man. Since our separation from the empire, we have tried to use a ruling counsel to govern the Nortes people. It was a thirty-year failure. By its end, the people begged me to take the throne again.”
“How do you know they won’t be begging me to leave the throne?”
T’Leh smiled. “Because, you don’t want it in the first place. Son, the man most suited to rule is the man who wants it the least. You fear the power of the throne—”
“No, Father, I just…”
“It is alright, son. Do not feel less of a man or a ruler because of your fear. Your fear of power is not a flaw; it is a blessing to your people. Your fear will keep you from abusing the trust and lives of the people you will be sworn to protect. But I must also tell you my fear of your succession.”
“Please, Father, do not spare my feelings in this matter. I wish to learn all I can before…” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“I fear that other men will see your strength as a weakness and attempt to exploit it. Do not let them. It is not always easy to do, but you must make sure that you surround yourself with advisors who are as good-hearted as you are and have the best interest of the people in their thoughts.”
“Yes, Father. What else do I need to know?”
“I have already taught you everything I can. It is up to you to use the information to the best of your ability.” T’Leh took a series of small labored breaths before he was able to take deeper, less painful ones. “Please, call for your mother.”
“Yes, sir.” And he did.
M’Tawny entered the chamber, barely able to maintain her grace and poise. She touched her son’s cheek and looked warmly into his eyes. “Sit with us for a moment.”
P’Tong sat to his father’s left while his mother curled up along her husband’s right side. The family stayed that way until the emperor and empress fell asleep in each other’s arms.
P’Tong stood, kissed both of his parents, and left the chamber.
~
It had been several months since his
parents’ funeral and P’Tong settled in to his role as the emperor. His biggest fear of being the emperor had always been the power he would have and whether or not he would wield it properly.
But as he sat in his sixth meeting of the day, all before lunch even, he realized that for all the power he had, he was almost powerless to use it.
The new Nortes government had been set up by his father, and T’Leh had gone to great lengths to purposely mire the emperor’s power in countless committees. So while P’Tong was in power, the committees created so much bureaucratic red tape, the emperor couldn’t make any large sweeping changes to the system even if he wanted to.
P’Tong had learned about the government from his father, but he had always believed that as emperor, his father could bypass the committees and do whatever he wanted if he really felt the need to. And although that may be possible under the most dire of circumstances, the emperor’s absolute power was absolutely conditional based on the support he would or wouldn’t receive from the department heads of his well-designed committees.
P’Tong’s new inside view of the internal workings of the empire helped to put his mind at ease. And with that ease came a greater capacity and eagerness for him to lead his people.
P’Tong brought his attention back to the meeting in progress. “I agree, Minister. Our presence on this planet is a potential threat to the developing sentient species. What are the chances that we’ve already detrimentally altered the environment?”
The science minister tapped a few keys on his datapad and sent some information to the emperor. “The royal palace retreat is the only construction we have undertaken on the planet. Even though the retreat is the size of a small city, our footprint to the area has been minimal. The dominant life forms live primarily in another hemisphere, which also helps. For the past twenty days, drones scanned the entire area and have confirmed, to the best of our ability, that none of the game or other animals we have brought with us have escaped and become a part of this ecosystem. I believe that if we leave now, the inhabitants will not ever be the wiser and their evolutionary path will be unchanged.”
P’Tong looked through some of the figures on his datapad. “Then we will need to leave as soon as possible.”
“Where should we start looking to build the new royal retreat?” the minister of finance asked.
P’Tong leaned forward. “We won’t.” He let that sink in for a moment before he continued. “My father was a great man and had an inspiring vision for our future. Without him, we would still be a part of the old oppressive Nortes Empire, enslaving countless beings across the galaxy.
“But even with his greatness, my father was still a product of the old empire and that’s why this retreat was built after the secession from the empire. My father told me that I was the first true emperor to this new empire. I want that to be true. I understand I have a role to play and although that may mean I’m not getting my hands dirty every day working in a factory, or slaving away over a terminal somewhere, that doesn’t mean I can or should squander our peoples’ money on royal retreats that are not needed.
“We will build a few secret apartments around the world back home that I, and future emperors, can use to get away to and relax in private. But opulent they will not be.”
The minister of finance smiled. P’Tong laughed. “I knew you would be happy about that, G’Nod.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” G’Nod agreed. “But what shall we do with the retreat here? Will we raze it as we did with our colonies during the secession?”
“No. I would like to leave it intact, except we will take all of our technology. It will be a sort of time capsule for the beings of this planet. When they have evolved enough to find this place, they will explore it and learn of who we were. We will leave behind instructions on how to contact us when they are ready, along with a history of who we were and who we hope to be by the time they find us.”
With that, the meeting closed and P’Tong headed back to his private courtyard to have lunch. When he arrived, he found his lunch date waiting for him.
“I am sorry if I kept you waiting, Hugesh.” P’Tong took the seat next to the young woman rather than the one across from her.
“It is not a problem, Your Highness.” She smiled, knowing he hated it when she called him that. “I was just enjoying your garden and reviewing the information I have prepared for you.”
P’Tong had fallen in love with one of his top security advisors and now she worked on a secret research project for him. He hadn’t seen her in three weeks and he was eager to reconnect, but he could tell she was more interested in telling him what she had found.
He touched her hand gently. “We can catch up with each other later, after dinner. I can tell that you are excited to share with me what you found, so please do.”
She smiled, happy to see that P’Tong knew her so well. “I was hoping you would say that!” She dove into her datapad. “The last long-range probe we sent to the old empire ten years ago was disheartening to say the least. Your father was so depressed to learn that his secession plan had failed and the warriors were still alive and thriving. But that is, of course, the part you already know.”
“Yes, my dear, it is. What do you have that is new and worthy of your excitement?”
“Two things. First, I found that your father’s cousin, who was stationed at the warrior birthing planet, launched millions of warrior stasis tubes before he died. They were sent to a planet in the Aryth system. There is no way for us to get there and do anything about it. The system is too heavily guarded.”
“How did you get this information? I have asked you countless times to not risk your life on these outings of yours.”
“Outings of mine?” Hugesh said with no lack of sincere incredulousness. “Do I need to remind you that you are the one who has given me this mission in the first place?”
The emperor sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I did. However, I never thought you would be going out into the field to get this information. I picked you because of your impressive research skills with the Nortes central database!”
“Well, if you had not gone and fallen in love with me, none of this would be problem. I would be just another security officer, risking her life in the service of the Nortes people.”
P’Tong chuckled. “How could I not fall in love you? And I worry about all of my servicemen and women, whether I know them by name or not.”
“Yes, Your Highness, I know you do.” She touched his hand again. “And that is why I fell in love with you.”
P’Tong looked through the surveillance images Hugesh had handed him. “How did you get these images? This system is filled with warships.”
“Ah, that is what took me so long to get back. I had to wait for my camera on the opposite side of the system. Y’Bur’s seventh law of spatial movement got those images for me.”
“Hmmm, the seventh law… If directional force is exerted on an object, regardless of size or mass, the object will move in the forced direction until another outside influence is directed towards the object with sufficient force to overcome the initial force applied.”
“Very good. I see all of your private childhood tutoring did not go to waste.”
“And how exactly did you apply that law to get these images?”
“I mined a small chunk of rock out of an asteroid, and attached a camera to the rock. I put the rock in my ship’s gripper, accelerated to three-quarters sub-light speed, let go of the rock and then put on my brakes. The unpowered rock and passive camera system flew through the system and came out the other side with the images we needed.”
The mathematical calculation needed to make the plan work had been monumental, to say the least. P’Tong was again impressed by Hugesh and her resourcefulness.
“I will look these over in detail later. For now, can you please sum up the information for me?”
“The warriors are patrolling this system to the extent that their ships are almost litera
lly bumping into each other. That could mean one of several things or a combination of any of them.
“The ships could be manned with skeleton crews or less, and that would explain their haphazard maneuvers. The ships could be manned with poorly trained warriors because they have a shortage of seasoned veterans to teach the newly awakened warriors. With the reduction of warriors in the empire, they may be manning the ships with slaves who aren’t trained well enough for that kind of in-system maneuvering. Or, who knows why else?”
“Those are good theories to start with.” P’Tong tapped his fingers on the datapad in front of him. “Regardless of the reason, we can’t risk going into that system. Their fleet, no matter how ill-functioning it may be, is still many times greater than what we have. We also can’t risk them finding out that the plague was a ruse to cover our secession.”
“Agreed.”
“What is the second piece of information you found?”
“This is the exciting part!” Hugesh pulled out another datapad. P’Tong recognized it as a special security model that had multiple layers of encryption built in, along with three biometric scanning points to identify the user. Whatever was on the datapad, Hugesh wasn’t taking any chances with the information.
After getting through all of the security on the datapad, she handed it to P’Tong. “I found information that leads to the last known location of the Cherta outcasts.”
“So, they’re not a myth after all?”
“No, they are not. They are very much a real part of our history.”
“What else did you find out about them?”
“What? Is their last known location not enough for you?” Hugesh teased.
“I’m sorry, you’re right. That is quite the accomplishment in and of itself. I’m very proud of you, my dear.” P’Tong touched her hand again.
“I was just joking around with you. No apology is needed. But thank you.” She returned his tactile gesture. “I didn’t find out much other than they did exist. I will have to go to the planet to verify they were there. Hopefully they left behind some clue as to where they were before or where they ended up. I can’t believe that their existence was covered up so well.”