Shadow Sun Unification: Shadow Sun Book Five

by Dave Willmarth

  “Okay, I guess first contact protocols have come to an end for the day.” He grinned and waved at the retreating forms. “I’ll come back tomorrow and we can chat again, fellas.”

  Turning away from the entrance, he began to walk back toward his people. He’d taken maybe five steps when Helen began waving and pointing behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, half expecting to see a slime missile flying at his face. Instead he found a stream of maybe a dozen smaller slimes, all glowing blue, following him in a loose cluster. When he stopped moving, so did they. A wave of blue flashes passed through them, and they quivered much like their larger predecessors had.

  “Oh, ho.” Allistor grinned. “So it’s feeding time?” He began pulling meat from his ring, gently feeding each of the small slimes. “Aren’t you just the cutest little fellas?” He had to stop himself from using baby talk. “Or… maybe you’re females? The big guys are males?” he continued to speculate out loud in a friendly tone as he passed out lunch. If there were a lot more of them inside, he was going to need to go back to the Phoenix and resupply.

  When he’d fed the last of them, he realized they’d shifted to form a circle around him. As if on cue, each of them moved back about a foot, leaving some shiny offering on the ground in front of them. “Ooh, loot!” Allistor smiled as he carefully picked them up one at a time, making sure to make a big deal out of each of them. There were a couple belt buckles, another ring, some brass boot grommets, a gold filling from a tooth, and what Allistor thought might be a stainless steel medical pin from an elbow or knee implant.

  “So, you little fellas, you ate the humans who got too close, and these are what’s left of them?” He paused to see if there would be a response. The little ones still glowed blue, and seemed content to sit still in their circle and quiver happily. “Alright, that’s fair enough. I can’t blame you for eating. And it was nice of you to return these.”

  They seemed to understand, all of them moving in unison again as they flowed around him and back toward their home. He waved goodbye, and was amused to see the rearmost of them raise a small hand-like appendage and wave back, if awkwardly.

  Allistor strolled back toward his group, head high and quite proud of himself. When he was within normal speaking distance, Helen gushed “Did one of those cute little blue ones wave at you?”

  “Yeah, I think it did.” He looked over his shoulder, then changed the pitch of his voice. “To seek out new life, new civilizations…” He imitated everyone’s favorite classic sci fi show.

  Helen rolled her eyes, and McCoy burst out laughing. “Even after more than a century, still the best!” He held up a fist for Allistor to bump.

  Agni, who was now standing next to Daigath, looked thoughtful. When Allistor raised an eyebrow, he spoke. “I’m sorry, Allistor. We never considered them to be anything but dumb monsters. Our first encounter with them was when one of our gamers charged in there to ‘clear the dungeon’ and was promptly eaten. We did make a similar attempt to bribe them, but as you heard, that didn’t go well. They seem to be at least slightly intelligent…”

  “They understand the concept of trade, at least. Or maybe just give and take. And the larger ones clearly protected the smaller until they’d determined I was friendly. I sort of got a… feeling, I guess? A feeling from the little ones that they were sorry about eating your people, and were returning what was left of them.” He pulled the items from his ring and held them out for the group to inspect. “Maybe they’re a little bit telepathic? Like they could sense my intent, or my feelings, and sent some of their own back at me?”

  “You just might be onto something there, Allistor.” Ruddy agreed. “We can try to find out more tomorrow.” He motioned back toward the factory. “In the meantime, should we see if the folks who’ve already sworn the oath could use some training?”

  “Great idea!” Allistor was in a much better mood than he’d been in an hour ago. He had eliminated an asshat, freed a whole group of people from a dictator who looked at them as peasants. Added several dozen new citizens with the prospect of adding a few thousand more. And possibly made a bunch of slime friends. He could already picture William and Chloe trying to find a way to make them into pets.

  Not a bad day’s work.

  Chapter 19

  Allistor and company elected to remain at the Stronghold overnight. That would give the trainers time to work with several of those who’d already taken the oath, and allow prospective citizens to see their neighbors benefitting from Allistor’s generosity.

  Daigath decided to go on walkabout, saying he wanted to study the surrounding lands. He promised to return the next day, or the one after. Allistor was briefly worried about the elf, until he remembered that there was likely nothing on all of Earth that could harm him.

  Rather than put any of the locals out of their housing, Allistor quartered his people on the Phoenix. There was more than enough room between crew quarters, guest quarters, and the owner’s suite. Kira had long since claimed the captain’s cabin, which she shared with her two girls, who were both on the current bridge crew. The raiders and trainers arranged themselves in the comfortable bunks of the crew quarters and shared guest suites. As Harmon had told him that first day, the Phoenix normally had a full crew compliment of thirty, plus guests. With only a training bridge crew of six plus Kira, there was plenty of space.

  Allistor, for the first time since Amanda’s death, slept comfortably in the owner’s suite bed. He’d never shared it with Amanda, so there was no ghost haunting him. Within thirty minutes of hitting the pillows, he was snoring.

  The following morning he rose early, well before the suns rose, and took a quick shower. Ten minutes later he was down in the crew mess talking to some of the raiders. McCoy walked in, a wide grin on his face, and plopped down next to Allistor.

  “You hit the jackpot boss.”

  Thinking he meant the Phoenix, Allistor agreed. “She’s a beautiful ship. Comfortable beds.”

  McCoy looked confused for a second, staring at Allistor and blinking a few times. “Uh, sure she is. But I meant this Stronghold. Did you look to see what that factory is?”

  Allistor had not. He’d been busy most of the afternoon dealing with Invictus business, spent some time blacksmithing in the crafting compartment on the ship just to work out some anger and work his muscles, then gone to bed early. “So it is an actual factory? I thought Rajesh had just converted the biggest building around.”

  “Oh, it’s a factory. About half the people here either work in the factory, or out gathering and processing materials for the factory. Guess what they make? Go ahead, guess!” McCoy was bouncing in his seat, and Allistor grinned at him. It was good to see him happy after the loss of Goodrich. “Uhm… condoms?”

  “Nope!” McCoy clapped his hands together. “Though you’re not that far off, geographically speaking. Boss… they make friggin toilet paper!”

  Allistor snorted. “Oh, man. We gotta go get Meg and bring her back here. She’ll lose her mind! Probably just jump into a pile of it and swim around like Scrooge McDuck. Then she’ll fill the Phoenix cargo hold. She still maintains a hoard wherever she goes. She says it’s in case of a second apocalypse.” He slapped McCoy on the shoulder. “That’s awesome! Yaknow, we’ve been buying it in bulk from the kiosk all this time. Ever since it became hard to scavenge. Never occurred to me to wonder who was selling it to us.”

  “Well now you’re selling it yourself!” the others at the table chuckled. “And that’s a good thing, boss. Nothing worse than running out of toilet paper.”

  Allistor finished breakfast and exited the ship, and for the next hour he just sort of ambled around, greeting passersby and checking out the Stronghold. It covered a lot of territory, the huge factory building, several warehouses, and other buildings he assumed were residential. Reaching one of the latter, he asked permission to look inside. The local whom he’d asked looked vaguely terrified of him, so he took a moment to speak with her.

  �
�My name is Allistor, what’s yours?”

  “Sirina, sir.” She mumbled, looking down at her feet.

  “Sirina, that’s a lovely name. You live here in this building?”

  “Yes, sir. Myself and nearly one hundred other women.”

  Surprised, Allistor looked at the building. It was two story, roughly the size of a large townhouse building in the former Manhattan. “Would you mind giving me a brief tour? If that’s proper, I mean. Are there… rules against men entering?”

  She snorted, then covered her mouth as her eyes went wide. When she saw him smiling, she relaxed slightly, shaking her head. “It is not a harem, just a dormitory. And since it seems you now own all of this, I am sure that you can enter as you like.”

  Allistor sensed a certain amount of hostility in her voice, and assumed she’d been told he was the coldhearted monster who’d killed their Rajesh. He decided not to push it. Instead, he took a few steps back from the doorway. “I see. Well, unless this building is somehow bigger on the inside, it doesn’t seem like there would be enough room for a hundred of you. Why don’t we see about some better accommodations? Do you have a few minutes to advise me?”

  “M-me? Advise you? I am but a simple harvester. A peasant.”

  Allistor sighed. “I truly wish people around here would stop using that word. You are no peasant, not any longer. Not if you don’t want to be. If you choose to take the oath, you will become a citizen. On equal footing with any other, except those few who have earned positions of authority. You’ll have the same rights as anyone else. You could even challenge me for the throne, if you think you could kick my butt!” He grinned at her, trying to relax her. This was definitely one of those times he wished he’d put more points into Charisma.

  “What would you wish me to advise you about?”

  “Well, I assume you’re from here, you live here now, and you would know the best type of living arrangements for your people, yes? For example, should I build a high rise? Or is there too much wind here? Would big windows create too much heat? Maybe underground housing would be better?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “This I can help with.”

  “Great! Let’s head to the gate. If we’re going to create more buildings, we’re going to need to move the walls. This place is crowded enough already.” Without waiting, he turned and strode toward the thirty foot tall gate on the south side of the compound. When he approached, Nigel opened the doors for him. The moment they stepped outside, the gates closed again.

  Allistor was looking around at the terrain for a likely spot when Sirina cleared her throat. When he turned to face her, she shook her head. “Not here.”

  “Okay, why not here?” He asked, curious.

  “We are downwind from the factory here. There are days when the smell of the exhaust is… unpleasant. Better to place housing where the air is fresher.”

  “You see! You have already saved yourself and your people a bit of unpleasantness. I put myself in your hands. Lead the way.” He followed her as she hiked counter-clockwise around the outside of the wall onto a slight rise. Looking around, she said, “I think… here. If you are building a high rise, it will have nice views in every direction. This location, if you remove the wall, will still be a short walk to the factory, and a gate here would save us harvesters a long hike through the other gate to reach the forest.” She pointed beyond the rise to the north, where a long stretch of forest showed clear signs of harvesting. Stumps littered the field leading up to the tree line.

  “Wait, you’re a lumberjack?” Allistor was surprised yet again. The woman was maybe five foot two and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds.

  She looked indignant. “We call ourselves harvesters. Lumberjack is a silly word! And I am stronger than I look!”

  Allistor held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I’m sorry Sirina. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  She looked at her hands. “I do not actually cut down the trees. I remove the branches and haul them to one side so that the larger logs can be dragged away.”

  He turned back to her chosen location. “Sounds like hard work. If it is not something you enjoy, I’m sure we could find you something different. Have you heard that as a citizen you could relocate almost anywhere here on Earth, or even to our other planet, Orion?”

  “I assumed it was… what is the term you westerners use? Bullshit?”

  “Ha!” Allistor found he quite liked this woman. “It is the truth. In fact, how about I make you my ambassador to those who believe as you do? When we’re done here, I’ll place a teleport pad, and you can visit any of our properties you like. You won’t have a lot of time, but you can see several before noon.”

  “What do you mean?” She looked confused. “You will create a whole building before noon? That is not possible.”

  “I take it you weren’t here when the Stronghold was constructed?”

  “I was not. My family and I found this place while running from a pack of mutant hyenas. The fighters here were kind enough to save us. Well, some of us. I have been here ever since.”

  Allistor nodded. “I’m sorry about the ones you lost. I too lost family in the earliest days. My parents and my sister.” He took a deep breath. “Now, watch carefully and you will learn a little about what’s possible in this new world.”

  Allistor opened his UI and selected the tab for that Stronghold. He hadn’t renamed it yet, so it just said Factory. Rajesh was not the most original thinker, but then Allistor wasn’t one to brag about his naming skills. A few quick mental clicks, and the ground underneath them went clear. Sirina cried out and grabbed ahold of his arm for balance, and Allistor heard similar shouts of surprise inside the wall. He probably should have warned them before he did this. He could only hope his people would help calm the others, and get this adjustment over with as quickly as possible.

  Focusing on the rise, he quickly selected twin ten story buildings with an air bridge connecting them on the eighth floor. It was a plan he was familiar with, having constructed several of them at various Strongholds. He made each one roughly half a city block square, with a total capacity of six hundred apartments. Some of the locals might need to share at first, but they could always add more housing later. He added a defensive turret on the roof of each building, and moved the shield generator up there as well. After a few moments’ thought, he added a swimming pool with a green glass enclosure in between the buildings. The tinted glass would not only limit the light and heat from the sun, but would act as a solar array.

  Finished with the buildings, he altered the footprint of the wall so that it enclosed the new structures as well as a great deal of open space in between. He added a gate facing toward the forest, then an actual road to replace the muddy dirt track they’d been using to transport logs to the factory. Finished for now, he looked at her. “Will this do?”

  She stood frozen next to him, her body rigid, a tight grip on his sleeve. Her eyes moved from structure to structure, then down to the seemingly unsubstantial ground at her feet.

  “Sirina? Is this okay?” He repeated, moving his arm slightly to get her attention.

  “What? Yes. Yes! This is wondrous. I… did not realize such things were possible. Earl Rajesh did not share such things with us peasants.” She took in a breath, realizing she’d just said the p-word. “I’m sorry.”

  Allistor let it slide, finalizing his choices and enjoying the wonder on her face as everything solidified. The wall magically appeared several hundred yards farther out than it had been, the old wall simply melting into the ground. The two buildings appeared fully constructed, and the pool began to fill with water.

  “As my consultant, your payment is first choice of the apartments inside. I suggest one of the top floors, with a view you enjoy.”

  “What? An apartment?” He gently took hold of her elbow and led her into the nearest of the two buildings. There was a small, wide open lobby and a bank of three elevators. Nigel obligingly opened the do
ors for them as they approached, and Allistor pressed the button for the tenth floor. When they exited the elevator, there was an open apartment door directly in front of them. To the left and right a corridor extended, several other open doors visible. At each end, the corridor made a ninety degree turn and continued on.

  “The elevators are in the center of the building, surrounded by apartments on all sides. This way every unit has a view.” He nudged her forward toward the open door. “Go ahead, look inside.”

  She stepped through the door, now moving quickly as she took in the small dwelling unit. There was a kitchen immediately to the right, with an open sitting area. To the left was a door leading to a bedroom with its own bath. The entire thing was maybe six hundred square feet. These apartments were meant for utility, not luxury.

  But she looked at it like it was a palace.

  “My sister and my mother, they can live here with me, too?” She asked as if afraid of his answer.

  Allistor shook his head. “No.” He watched as her face tightened up in disappointment, then quickly shifted to acceptance. The woman had clearly lived a hard life, and learned to accept defeat. He instantly felt bad.

  “What I mean is, if there are three of you, and you want to live together, then you’ll need one of the corner units.” He led her back out and down the hall to a door in the corner. This unit was larger, with three small bedrooms, a master on one side and two more on the other that shared a bathroom in the hall. “If you like the view, this one is yours.” He pointed toward the floor to ceiling windows in the sitting area. They faced the forest, the view from up here showing a green carpet of treetops stretching into the distance.

  She didn’t speak, but the tears forming in her eyes told him that the view was acceptable. He tried to imagine what kind of life she’d lived before the apocalypse, and how dismal her existence must have been since. Growing up where he had, it was hard to believe that in the modern world, people still lived such harsh lives. That this rather basic living space would have such an effect on her…