by P. S. Power
"Fast would be good, if only to test what we can do." She guided him to the side as the ship's crew ran to do their part. She wasn't in on that, and didn't seem needed at all, so took a moment to make certain this hadn't broken the bank.
"Oh, not at all. True, we're spending a lot on new business right now, and schooling, but this isn't a hardship. I've allotted ten gold per day for your personal expenditures, and this only came to four of those. You have a reserve already, as you'd suspect. You can also take more than that if you require? The old count required fifty a day, according to the old books. It seemed excessive to me however. If that needs to change..."
Tiera shook her head.
"I shouldn't need that either, I should start my own personal businesses, since there's some land for it here, not just County ones. How are things going with the new focus stone facilities?" That started them on a conversation that probably would have taken longer than the rest of the day, if they'd kept going on it. Instead she was waved into the craft by Alice, who actually wanted to do their first landing in daylight. Not that they wouldn't do it in the dark too. That would just come later.
Laughing a bit, she said her goodbyes quickly and got on board, since she really didn't want to make an Ancient angry with her on the first day.
The hallways were well lit, the ceiling glowing and the colors bright, but mainly running to blues and greens with some brown and tans mixed in. Natural colors. Nothing too drab or boring. It took a few minutes to get back to the command deck and they finally got underway, going straight up at first, and tracking the rotation of the Earth, and then locating the big central city of Soam.
"Maya." Alice looked at Doris for confirmation for some reason, even though she clearly had the location down. The other woman got it before Tiera did.
"Yes, Julie still lives there. I believe you will want the large central square?"
It was still up to Digs, the efficient man, who wasn't very good looking, working carefully to match the complex rotations that were needed while changing location in space. Then, slowly, he started to move the thing down. It wasn't that slow, only taking about twenty minutes, but they had to be very careful when landing, since the thing they were in was so vast that it would have easily crushed a few dozen people as they fled in terror. They didn't, because the people, who only wore skirts, all brightly colored, just moved back a way and waited to see who was getting out.
Doris smiled.
"These people are very well behaved. Not overly violent and rather friendly with strangers. You'll want to have a shield on however. It helps to prevent Julie from influencing you, according to Tor. He also suggests that you resist allowing her to touch you. It should work, as long as she isn't making an actual effort to entrap you." Her voice was peaceful, but she clearly seemed more interested now. As if things had finally become real for her.
Orange grunted and looked at them all. "You heard her. Shields on. If White isn't enough for that, the bugs here should be. You'll sleep better tonight without a thousand bites, and the swelling they bring."
Tiera did hers instantly, having met the woman they were going to meet before, herself. It had been intense, even with a shield on. Slowly, as if not knowing if it was a joke, the others did it too. The crewmen didn't have things like shields, which meant they'd have to stay well back from Julie.
Alice had them all outside the craft not ten minutes later explaining it all again. "Don't wander off too far. We may be here for hours, or have to leave in a few minutes. Stand ready. Digs, rest as you can now, but in the command center. When your shift is over you can come back out and look around. John, I want you to stand as second in command for now. If anything happens to me, make certain the rest of the mission goes as smoothly as possible." She went on for a bit, but the gist was, she wanted her people to be ready at all times, which meant Havar and Karen checked their weapons and Sam flat out pulled his, looking both scared and determined not to show it.
Julie was just standing there, when Tiera turned around. Alone. She looked an awful lot like Doris, when you saw them close up, but she almost forced you to pay attention to her with her presence. It was like they were all metal and she was a magnet. In fact, Tiera had to resist going and hugging her when she opened her arms in greeting.
"Welcome! Thank you all for coming. To what do we owe the honor of this visit?" She addressed Doris first too, but then shifted to include Orange and Tiera, then the others, one by one, including the crew members that were of common stock.
Something clicked in her head. The man that had been placed second in command, John, he was nearly eight feet tall. The woman in front of them was terrified by giants. The rest of them were big enough, but not like that at all. Havar was close, but the woman merely smiled at him. It was good enough, it seemed. No one ran away screaming at least.
Tiera was just going to start in on the idea of someone killing Timon, but Doris intervened quickly, just as her mouth opened to speak.
"We would request an audience. On our vessel. In orbit." She smiled a bit, but Julie moved away from them and went to touch the side of the thing, her eyes going wide and looking impressed. Very much so.
"This is a craft that can do such? Already? Torrance Purple's work?"
Orange didn't really look at the woman, having taken several large steps away.
"That's right. It lacks a fast enough drive system yet for interstellar work, but we have hopes. Would you like to join us? After assuring everyone here that we will be back inside a few hours?" It was nearly polite sounding, though cautious. Why that was, Tiera wasn't really certain.
It was handy however, that the woman had been close by. Both Tor and Tim had mentioned having long waits each time they went to visit her, having to sit and just hope they were noticed. Then she always came flying out on a plain stone cube, somehow. One with horns being played on the top. This was different than that, wasn't it? It was like they were expected or something. It was, of course, possible. While Soam wasn't supposed to use the old technology, the craft they were in was big, and some new use of harmonics, whatever that was, might have let them be tracked. Or, of course, she could have some things hidden away, that she brought out after the Treaty was temporarily rescinded. That even made sense. After all, how was she supposed to know what was going on all over the world, otherwise?
It took clearing her mind for a few minutes to really get ready to test the Ancients field, but she finally managed, with Sam Builder bumping her arm familiarly the whole time. That would have been fine, otherwise, since they were friends, but it was a bit distracting in the moment.
White's field was similar to Doris's. The problem was a thing that she got almost instantly, having dealt with the problem before. Julie was much younger than Doris. Not just years, but the woman, if Tiera had it right, felt to be about twenty, in her body, with a very old brain stuck in it. One that wasn't White at all.
But Cordes.
Tiera had to force a smile she didn't feel, but got it done in time not to be overly noticed doing it.
"Yes. We even get to have the first meal up in space, which is going to be an adventure. Well, you understand not the first, but the first one for this program. I'm taking lead on that, unless you have a chef in the crew too, Aunt Alice?"
"I don't. I just figured that we'd have to muddle by. Thank you for stepping forward. Anyone else?" She looked at her crew and being all men, they hung back from the women's work, except one of the commoner fellows, who tentatively put up his right hand, like it was grammar school still.
"Ma'am? I can't do much, but I can do what I'm told." It sounded meek, but Orange nodded at the man and then looked at the others in the line before they could smirk about it.
"Done. Thanks Smith."
Tiera didn't wait, just winking at Julie and then pointing at the others she wanted anyway.
"Sam, Karen, Havar and Wendy, along with myself and Smith. That's a full team for a crew several times this size, but that way no one will h
ave to do too much on their own." If the fact that she was supposed to be there with most of those others to see to the questioning didn't occur to Doris or Alice, she was going to be more than a little shocked about it. "We should also add in that observation deck now, so that we can dine there, I think. It will make a good meeting space." One not right by the controls, just in case things got interesting.
It was remarkably easy to take Julie away from her land, at least this one. No one leaped forward to protest or insist they come along at all, just watching from a distance. They seemed to be interested in the process, but no one insisted they be given a free tour even. So about right really, for her world.
Alice did the redesign, using it as an opportunity to teach, even if it meant taking longer, and Tiera got everyone in her team to the kitchen, to get started. She had no clue what to make really, but decided on meatballs with a white sauce and vegetables, served with mashed potatoes and gravy, along with a side of carrots, served drenched in butter.
"It's not a healthy meal, but this is a celebration, after all." She said it to everyone in the room and set them to the proper chopping tasks, making sure they had stoves that would heat and that the meat balls were roasted in the oven for forty minutes before they even left the Earth at all. Just as they got all the dishes ready, she called everyone together.
"Havar, Karen and I will go in first. Sam, I'd like you and Wendy at the door. Shields on everyone. Smith... Here" She slid her second shield off and put it carefully around the tiny man's neck, which got Havar to make a face.
He actually seemed angry about it for a moment, which was out of the norm for him.
"Commoners are forbidden such things." It was spoken with a gruff air that made the smaller man shrink away, but Sam moved between them, before a grab could be made for it.
"In Noram. We're so far outside of the King's domain that I doubt we have laws here, except what the Captain says. Like on the sea. Only more so." There was no threat to the words, but Havar didn't bull through either, just stepping back after a moment and making himself bow. It was clear it took a lot of work on his part, but he did it, which made Tiera want to smile.
"Forgive me, crewman Smith. I erred."
"Um, no issue." The much smaller man still looked frightened.
Karen, at least, realized that most diplomatic meetings didn't have shields involved. Not at the meals.
"Something of note going on?"
Tiera started to nod then made a face.
"Really I don't know. Julie White, the one in there, isn't the one I met before. She feels like the version of King Cordes that Tor has in his head."
That got emphatic nodding from Sam.
"Exactly. I tried to point that out earlier, but that's really hard to do with nudges. What do we do?"
"Feed them lunch. Everyone in fact, since that was the plan. Unless we can get the crew separated off? If the version of Julie in there seems to be attacking, or trying to take over, stop her, but alive if possible. Smith, I want you to take the outer hall. Here, grab something to eat now, before we go. If for some reason we lose control and she's taking over the ship..." Tiera looked at the man, not knowing anything about him except that he could, by his own word, follow orders. "In that case, I want you to touch the wall, and try as hard as you can to turn the ship off. It will kill us all, so don't do it lightly, but don't let yourself be taken or coerced either. Do you understand? If you have to do it, you can't hesitate, even for a moment."
That he did was clear, from the fear in his eyes, but he took a breath and stood a little taller.
"I do. No one will take our ship by force or guile. No one." The sound of his breath was raspy, and he was sweating just a little, though that could have been from the heat in the room. It was warm. The temperature equalizers didn't work in space, it seemed. They probably needed to get the crew to shift the heat into storage before the meal then. It was their job, if that would be a good way to get some of them away from fake Julie, who might well be able to steal their minds from them with a few magic kisses, or whatever it was she did.
That, it seemed, wasn't going to be needed. Orange had made a separate crew dining facility for them, so all that was needed was running back to the kitchen and splitting the portions between two sets of dishes. They were magical ones that, when she checked with Sam, had been made mainly by Farlo Ross. The things were very nicely decorated, but weren't real, which meant that one of the crew had to drag a tiny chest of things around, but they couldn't functionally break either.
When they got into the executive dining room, the others were already speaking at the table, which looked like old and heavy stone, rather than polished wood or glass. It didn't exactly fit, Tiera didn't think, but it did leave an impression of power and made a statement.
No one thinking that would get the idea that the new Space Fleet was less than a rough and ready organization, would they?
"Here we go. Sorry it took so long, but we had to learn our way around the facilities here. It's a bit different, using recaptured heat like we do." Tiera turned her outfit a deep green, since that's what servers wore, and made sure to plate the food herself, which put the others at the far end. Orange nodded to her and then looked boldly at the door, which was so obviously being guarded by Sam and Wendy that it was nearly funny. After all, neither of them was an overt threat, where they?
Havar and Karen were at the far end of the table and seemed relaxed, both of them looking like they dined with Ancients all the time. That, and they gave the impression that they were truly more interested in the food than the meal probably deserved. It wasn't fine cooking after all. Tiera was hoping for edible.
As soon as she worked her way around the gray stone expanse, the world hanging beside them out the window, Tiera shifted her clothing again and sat down, which got more than a bit of attention from Julie.
She didn't touch the food, but licked her lips a little, staring at Tiera, who'd moved in by Havar at the far end.
"Thank you niece. I must say, this is all very nice. I can't believe that you all went from horses to this in a few years. It took hundreds to make that step the first time humanity did it. It's far beyond impressive." She was actually trying to be seductive, which was a little odd, from what she'd seen of the woman before. That time she'd clearly tried to down play everything.
Tiera waited for Orange to stand, which she didn't, just obviously taking the first bite herself. The Noram people all used poison detectors, including Doris, who made a point of checking Julie's food for her, and then passing her amulet, an older kind on a small copper bit, to Alice. The food was clean, but it was a good point. If it had come on tainted, they could be in danger after all. She should have checked it in the kitchen.
Julie looked at the door again, understanding that having a guard there wasn't exactly right, since no one would be able to attack them easily, but she didn't comment on it. Orange did though, lying about it so smoothly that Tiera found herself believing her for a moment.
"We're experimenting with ceremony. That sort of thing draws an organization together after all. It marks them as a specific unit, which is binding. I don't know if I like the idea of guards all over the place, myself, but it's a good idea to have something. Perhaps a valet or two? This ship is a true marvel, White. It lacks weapons, or a true faster than light drive so far, but it's nearly indestructible and can be made to do things that we would have loved during any of the old wars. Tiera destroyed a house, in atmosphere, ramming it. She plowed up earth doing so and the hull was perfect after the event. Plus, the whole thing can be carried in your pocket, on demand. That isn't a joke either. Literally in your pocket." She spread her hands and then slapped the table. She grinned while doing it, and her plate didn't move, then fixed the woman with a hard glare. "The best part? It uses virtually no energy. No fuel at all. We can collect heat from the sun, or our own bodies, but that's all we need. Even if the Treaty wasn't in abeyance, this would be allowed in any land, and should be.
"
Tiera nodded. It wasn't that she cared that much about some Ancient Treaty, it was that she understood what Orange was doing, making sure that Julie had the information she needed to do her assigned job, which was making sure no one hurt the world, with the rules being gone for a bit.
She nodded and touched the table herself, petting the rough stone, making it seem more like she wanted to hop up and mount it than like she was considering policy. Havar noticed, and so did Doris, though she wasn't having to cover nearly as much as the large man was. He wanted Julie and it was work for him to pay attention to his food instead of just staring. Even with a shield on.
Sam was doing better, over at the door, but it was clear that he'd dropped into a trance to make it happen. Wendy watched, and was busily digging her own fingernails into her left palm, trying to keep herself under control. That meant, whatever it was that this version of White was doing, she was working pretty hard to influence everyone in the space with it.
It actually was needed, but wasn't what the real Julie should have been trying to do. She might mention that the guards were too much, or ask if they could join them, but she wouldn't try to steal their minds. Tiera...
Felt fine, really.
The woman was attractive and she could see the allure, but her shield seemed to be keeping her mind clear without too much struggle. She took a bite of meat ball, which was decent really, having just enough onion and green pepper to keep it from being bland, and then looked up at the woman, not knowing if anyone else was catching on to the whole thing. Orange was clearly working to resist her, but Doris seemed very much like her normal self.
Tiera smiled and looked at her meditation instructor.
"Doris, are you immune to this kind of coercion?"
She didn't ask what was meant, and simply nodded.