Laine was a most fascinating woman, made all the more intriguing for the brevity of the glimpses I was permitted. I found myself staring off into the middle distance at odd times, thinking about her. I had never before known anyone who had forsaken all human companionship to study an alien species, allowing it to whisk her where it would, with no safety net or means of returning to the Imperium if it should suddenly abandon her in the middle of nowhere. She talked of the marvels of her travel as though it was an everyday occurrence. The wonders that she had witnessed made me envious. I was drawn to her as I had seldom been drawn to a woman. Those moments when we were able to touch filled me with soaring delight.
I treasured the time I was able to spend in her company, so much so that it nearly escaped my attention that my sister and cousins were due back that morning from the planet’s surface. It felt as though it had been eons since they had departed. With no connection to the Infogrid, they could not post pictures or digitavids. I looked forward to hearing stories that would be fresh and unspoiled by previews.
From my wardrobe, I had Anna draw forth the purple bodysuit that I had worn on our departure from Keinolt. Its plain expanse had been decorated by Erita’s idled art teacher over the last two days with landscapes taken from all over Counterweight. I was most fascinated by the image of the seashore on my right bicep. White and blue waves rolled in on a cycle that almost precisely matched my respiration. I had been glad to pay for her expertise, though I believe she was glad for the distraction, since none of the hired professionals had been permitted to descend to Counterweight’s surface. Captain Wold had allowed my cousins to debark as a cover for my mission, but xe had flatly refused to provide security escorts for anyone else. It was a shame, but the time had come to an end. I was enormously pleased by the result, and had displayed it to everyone on the ship that I could cajole into looking at it. Parsons, in a manner that did not surprise me in the least, disliked it on sight. I knew then that I had a hit on my hands.
Clad in my panoramic garb, I awaited my cousins in the landing bay, ready to offer them my welcome-home dance.
They alighted from the shuttle with a lot more gaiety and noise than the stone-faced aliens had. They spotted me, and let out a cheer. That was my cue to begin the upbeat brass band melody I had had composed for that moment. I absorbed their energy, and threw it into my performance. With an explosive leap forward, I tumbled forward into a roll and came up on my feet, arms describing all the places I had been: monuments, stately homes, and the rolling, marvelous undulations of the Whispering Ravines. The music segued to an infectious and complex beat that got their feet moving as well. They followed me, some trying to copy my motions, toward the airlock and the waiting room beyond. I had planted tiny emitters here and there along the path from the landing pad inward, so we were surrounded by sound and light effects as we went. I kept up the high-energy choreography all the way inside. By the time we reached the waiting room, I had achieved a healthy glow. I swept a deep bow, and was rewarded with a hearty round of applause.
“Thank you!” I said, embracing and shaking hands all around the circle of relatives. The military escorts grinned at me, and quietly melted away to report to their superior officers. My cousins’ adjunct personnel dislimned, heading to their cabins. I studied my relatives’ faces with concern. “You are all looking healthy and happy. I trust you had a good time?”
“Splendid,” Nell said. Her white safari shirt was as crisp as ever, but its brilliant whiteness had been dimmed, probably because of inefficient laundry facilities planetside. She threw her arms around me and gave me a sound kiss on the cheek. “I have so many tales to tell you! I’m getting a pair of elephants on our return journey! They’re so sweet! And, oh, I have presents for you, Thomas. Where did they go?”
She looked around, but the LAI porters had already scurried off toward the cargo lift, taking their numerous purchases to my cousins’ cabins. “Oh, you’ll get them later.”
“I have more interesting stories than you,” Jil said. “Oskelev, Sinim and I had some fantastic experiences! We were inducted into a secret society on a tropical island!” She wagged a swathe of jewel-colored beaded necklaces at me. I noticed that both the slender, small human and the big, white-furred Wichu were also wearing similar collections.
Oskelev grinned at me, showing her sharp teeth. “I’ll never live it down. I just hope Lieutenant Plet thinks it was worthwhile sending me.”
“I’m afraid she’s had a lot on her mind,” I said. I signaled then to one of Marcel’s minions, who served champagne around to all the returnees. “A toast to all of us and our adventures!”
“Cheers!” Nell said. She raised her glass, then drank. I followed suit.
“Thanks for the drink, my lord,” Oskelev said, draining her glass. “I better get down to Lieutenant Plet.” She put her empty flute on the tray and headed for the lifts.
“Did your pilot tell you about the new additions to the ship’s complement?” I inquired, signaling to the servers to pour another round of champagne.
Xan frowned into his glass. “Yes, she said we have a trio of Kail on board. It’s not very nice to have us suddenly saddled with the enemy of the Imperium. Of course I will do whatever the Emperor wants us to, but I hope none of us were turfed out of our living quarters to please them.”
“Not at all,” I assured him, taking a well-deserved sip of wine in my turn. “They have been put on Deck 12, near the quarantine facility. Not that they spend much time there.”
“Are they stamping horridly around the ship?” Leonat asked, her shoulders heaving with an exaggerated shudder.
“Quite a bit,” I admitted. “They tear things apart if they are displeased, and they seek to push one out of the way, although they despise the touch of human flesh. Come up to our day room. I want to hear all about your adventures, with sound and images, if you please! Then, I will tell you what’s been going on here in your absence.”
Nell had tons of images on a portable crystal drive that she popped into the entertainment system the moment we arrived in our room. “I hated being without my pocket secretary,” she said. “Hated it! It took away all my spontaneity. But look at the marvelous digitavids that our guide took! Absolutely professional. I will give him the highest rating possible on his Infogrid file.”
The wall screen exploded with images of animals larger than any I had ever seen in person, and I had ridden a plesiosauroid on Dumfalen 4. As in every book or digitavid that I had seen, the enormous pachydermous quadrupeds were predominantly gray, but painted all over their wrinkled skins and huge flappy ears in intricate colored patterns. On one, that was nearly white in hue, I saw Nell’s coat of arms on its sides, and Nell sitting high up, just behind the creature’s head. Its hoselike proboscis, longer than she was tall, reached up to her to receive a bright red apple. It had gold-tipped tusks that protruded dangerously from either side of its affable-looking mouth.
“Her name is Shawa,” Nell said, racing from one side of the moving image to another to point out details. “She and her mate Heggi are coming home with us after the spectacle. We may have to bring Shawa’s mother along, too. Shawa was her last calf, and she’s a bit clingy. Not at all like Mother,” she added, with a pointed look at me. “Here we are, going into the jungle. Here is Lieutenant Stover trying to get down from Heggi’s back.”
All I can say in kindness is that I was glad that the good lieutenant had gone back to his quarters before the show began. His descent was extremely ungraceful, to say the least. I had to laugh. The tour guide had captured the dismount and subsequent fall from several angles.
Nell’s video was likely to go on for some time. I could see a few of my cousins, especially Xan and Leonat, dying to tell their stories as well.
“What did you do on Counterweight?” I asked. Nell had always been good about taking turns. With an awful face at me, she silenced the audio and let the digitavid run on without narration.
Leonat signed to her valet, who
appeared with monogrammed cases. She flung herself down beside one and flipped open the lid. From it, she tossed rainbow after rainbow of textiles into the air. They landed in swathes around her. “I found marvelous silks in a marketplace on the fourth continent,” she said. “The weavers still use technology from five millennia back! And they use non-destructive means to harvest the cocoons. I never thought of moths as pretty before, but the weavers put their wing patterns into the design. Look at this!” She wound one tourmaline and fuchsia swathe around her head and shoulders. It emphasized her bronze complexion like a showcase. “I can’t wait to put this into my dressmaker’s hands.”
“How beautiful!” Sinim and Nalney sat down beside her and began to discuss ways to make the best use of the gorgeous fabrics.
“Where are your pictures, Xan?” I asked, swinging into the nearest couch and putting my feet up. “Those that are fit for tender sensibilities, that is.”
“Since when were your sensibilities tender?” Xan shot back. His valet had rolled into the room the moment we arrived to restore Xan’s viewpad to him. He connected it to his own data crystal, and spread a handful of images on the air.
“This is Cristin, and Hoan, and Belleteniza . . . oh, yes, how could I forget DeMara? Luscious creature that she is. Ah, look at her against that evening sky. I will never forget that last night on the island . . .” At the sight of the tawny-skinned beauty in a minute scarlet beach costume silhouetted against purple and pink clouds, Xan’s face crinkled into a foolish grin. The memories must have been special, indeed. Candid images, taken at discreet angles with decent regard for the ladies’ privacy, showed that they all were indeed beautiful, for descendants of the plebeian classes. I didn’t want to steal Xan’s thunder by mentioning Dr. Derrida, who was by far more fair than any of the ladies in his images.
“What about you, Erita?” I asked, turning to a cousin who had been notably silent since their arrival. “Did you have a good time on Counterweight?”
Erita turned to me with eyes brimming with tears. She did not speak. Instead, she lifted her long nose into the air, and stalked out of the room without saying a word. We all watched her go in dismay.
“She seemed all right on the ride back,” Nalney said, setting down his armload of silks.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Nell said, thoughtfully. “I’ll find out in a while. I’ll pretend I want to borrow her perfume to wear for dinner, or something.”
“You hate her perfumes,” I said. “They’re always simperingly sweet.”
Nell waved a hand. “She never remembers that, Thomas. It’s only an excuse. She’ll understand. I suppose someone she thought would be her vacation love hurt her feelings, and seeing Xan’s mementos made her feel sad. It happens. It’s happened to each of us.”
Everyone fell uncomfortably silent. To dispel the awkward moment, I turned to Nalney.
“So, what was it this time?” I asked. Nalney’s handsome features drew downward. He knew what I meant. Everyone knew what I meant.
“Curse you, Thomas!” he growled. “Nothing!”
“He won’t tell you, but I will,” Xan said, with a laugh. “It was his trousers. He spent half a day at the same marvelous beach that I did, and when he came back to his cabana, he couldn’t find them.”
Over the last several years, I had developed a derisive laugh for just such occasions on this, a combination between a snort and a bray. The joy of it, besides drawing the attention of everyone within a stunningly wide radius, was that the very sound provoked laughter in others. I deployed it then. Nalney’s cheeks glowed with embarrassment.
“Did someone mistake your clothing for theirs?” I asked.
“I had a private cabana,” Nalney said, grimacing. “I am surprised you could suggest that I shared with a stranger, Thomas! Or that anyone could have mistaken them for theirs. They were my family tartan, green plaid with gold.”
“But did you disrobe in there or somewhere else?” Jil asked. “I thought Xan told me that it was a nude beach.”
“Well, it was,” Nalney admitted. “Something I didn’t know until I got there. I started down toward the water, then noticed everyone else had stripped to their skins. I felt a little out of place, so I followed what I assumed was local custom. I suppose I put my pants over a chair near the water or something. I thought my bodyguard was looking after everything.” He looked bemused.
“It’s so easy to lay something where one can’t locate it,” I said, finally taking pity on him. I guessed that the others had been teasing him for days. “Anna swears that I did not give her my souvenir memory crystal of my visit to the surface, and I swore that I did. Then it turned up in a wall pocket on the shuttle. The pilot brought it back to me.”
“I suppose that was it,” Nalney said, grateful to have had a verbal life-ring tossed to him, after suffering the inevitable embarrassment. After all, we were family. “In the end, my beach attendant ran out to buy me a new pair. Not of the quality of the ones I lost, but good enough to spare my blushes. Of course I rewarded him most handsomely.” His brow wrinkled then, as though touched by a distant thought. “I forgot to mention, in all the confusion. I could swear that I had seen Nole on the beach, but how could he have been there? He’s still at home with his precious ship.”
I had given my word not to reveal Nole’s secret, so I joined in the general puzzlement. “I can’t understand why he decided to forego the spectacle.”
“Who knows why he does what he does?” Nalney said.
Xan fanned out the images of his holiday conquests, and made them swirl among the rest of us. Suddenly, nubile females appeared in ancient temples, museums, and among Nell’s prized elephants.
“You should have come with me, Thomas,” Xan said. “You could have had your pick of lovelies, Thomas. When they learned I was the Emperor’s cousin, they could not get enough of me. I think I met everyone in an entire province. Such pretty things, too, with luscious figures and long, dark hair.”
I mused upon Laine, whose delicate face and form were never far away in my thoughts. I suppose a foolish grin played upon my face. Nell interrupted my reverie.
“Thomas, you have been holding out on us!”
“I have?”
“Yes!” Guiltily, I shoved Laine’s image behind my mental back. “No, I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have!” she insisted, pounding on my knee with her fist. “The Zang! There’s a Zang on board, and you knew about it. The shuttle pilot who brought us up from Counterweight said you flew back with one days ago. You’ve been hogging it to yourself all this time!”
I permitted myself to look sheepish and modest. “Ah. That. Yes. Well, Parsons asked me to help out a bit, you know. Asked me to escort it back to the ship. It cut my holiday a bit, but . . . .”
“Never mind all that! We want to see it. Now!”
“Now?” I asked, in a teasing manner, guaranteed to drive my younger sister mad. It worked. She acquired a wild-eyed expression that boded no good for elder brothers generally and in particular.
“Yes!”
“Yes!” Xan said. “Elder race of the galaxy, and all. You can’t keep that a secret from us, cousin. Fair’s fair.”
“Well, all right,” I said, as though letting go of a deep-dyed confidence that otherwise wild horses would have failed to dislodge. I rose to my feet and held out my hand to Nell. “Come along, then. We’ll drop in on it.”
As one happy and ever-so-slightly tipsy crowd, we bundled into the lift and descended to the cargo level. I escorted them to the correct hatch, activated the signal and waited.
Within a few moments, Laine opened the door a crack, and peered out in puzzlement at the crowd. Her small round face lit up when she saw me.
“What a relief! I thought the Kail had come back!”
“They’re not here?” I asked. “That’s a relief. Although we might feel like more of an intrusion than they are.”
“Thomas!” Nell protested, po
king me in the ribs.
“My poor attempt at humor,” I said, absorbing the blow with gallant obliviousness. I bowed. “Dr. Laine Derrida, please allow me to introduce my sister, Lady Lionelle Guinevere Murasaki Loche Kinago.”
Nell extended her hand and shook Laine’s vigorously. “Just Nell.”
“I’m Laine! Nice to meet you!”
As one, my family recoiled from the assault Dr. Derrida’s voice made upon their eardrums, but they surged forward in a friendly mass to be introduced in their turn. I knew that the crowd of cousins was a bit overwhelming to someone who preferred solitude with Zang, but Laine handled the incursion with her usual grace.
“Come on over,” Laine said, beckoning us through. “Proton’s off in the void as usual, but I think it’s on its way back.”
She let the door open the rest of the way, revealing the shining alien in the corner. My family let out a collective gasp that I found most satisfying. They surged forward like an onrushing tide, wanting to get a closer look.
I had by no means become jaded as to the effect Proton had upon the senses, but I forced myself to look away to observe my cousins’ reactions instead. Nell’s eyes were shining with a glow from within every bit as luminous as Proton’s. Her grin stretched nearly from one small but perfect ear to the other. Our cousins ran the gamut from gobsmacked to awestruck. With my sister’s hand in one arm and Laine’s in the other, I brought them to Proton’s side, close enough to feel the cold it radiated.
Rhythm of the Imperium - eARC Page 28