Storm Fleet

by Tim Niederriter

  “Gellen,” she said. “It is good to have you back.”

  “Ija.” Chakal bowed to the woman.

  Yajain started.

  “Ija… But you’re-”

  “Insubstantial, but present.” Ija folded her hands together in front of her. “You are Doctor Yajain Aksari. I fear you will find it strange here. But you often feel like a stranger, do you not?”

  Yajain shivered. As if the great mind would have missed accessing her files. For all Yajain knew, Ija had been listening in on her conversations in the ship for the whole journey from Rakati to Sirol.

  “I am,” she said with forced calm. “I wish to help you and your people, Great Ija.”

  “Your respect is much appreciated, but the formality of titles is unnecessary.” Ija floated off the floor a few centimeters with more grace and ease than even the most skilled human on lifts could manage. “Follow me to the conference chamber. We have much to discuss.”

  Chakal raised her head. She and Yajain started after Ija’s fleeting image. They passed through arches and down ramps and corridors until they came to a room separated from the hall by a patterned curtain colored in red and blue, streaked with gray. Ija floated to the curtain and vanished. Chakal pushed it gently to one side, allowing Yajain through.

  The room on the other side was vast and circular, a smaller core chamber. Yajain stepped inside, eyes fixed on the glowing central cylinder that went through both floor and ceiling. It was too slender to be the pillar’s natural core, which meant it must be one of the smaller artificial cores that allowed Ija to process the vast amount of data necessary for a pillar core to gain sentience.

  The image of the woman appeared on the far side of the chamber and the light from the artificial core dimmed. Here the processing power of the natural core was focused and could be channeled and used for more than the natural shift between light and dark cycles over the natural periods.

  Chakal led Yajain further into the room. Yajain stared at the core and the complex patterns blooming in the shadows along its length as she walked. The core itself darkened further, and more projected holograms arose around it.

  The holograms formed the shape of not one pillar, but the cross-section of many pillars. Dark clouds billowed at one corner of the three-dimensional map.

  Ija floated over to Yajain and Chakal.

  “This is the Toraxas Cluster. My domain.” She pointed to a pillar with a pure white-stone shell near the storm clouds. “That is Ganshol, where Governor Perdine, once my friend, now rules as a king. I thought him wiser than that.”

  “You were mistaken?” Yajain said with genuine curiosity. “How?”

  “My mind has much processing power, but do not mistake that for understanding, doctor.” Ija’s image turned toward her, almost as if looking through her rather than at her, though. “I did not foresee Perdine’s betrayal because I thought I knew him as well as any person knows another person.”

  “But you were wrong. When did you discover he had betrayed you?”

  “When he sent his message to me telling me that my rule no longer suited him. In all things, he seemed himself. In tone, he modulated five percent more than usual. But I did not dedicate processes to pondering that at the time. Now I believe he may be acting against his will.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Yajain rounded on the mind’s image. “More likely he grew power hungry.”

  Ija folded her arms.

  “If you knew him before, you would know his scholarship exceeds his ambition. He is a kytep raised in the old traditions, to seek knowledge rather than power.”

  Yajain furrowed her brow. Chakal put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Be calm. Ija has contemplated this far longer and more thoroughly than we ever could.”

  “Alas, it seems not. Perdine’s motive is lost to me now. And his forces seek to destroy me.” Ija shook her head. “He sent me this warning just after the storms struck the outskirts of the cluster. The further the clouds move, the further his fleet moves ahead of it.”

  Yajain sighed.

  “Why did you want me here?”

  “I wanted to know about the harvest.”

  “Harvest?” Yajain’s stomach turned. “I don’t know anything about any harvest. Except…I once knew a man who would do anything for something he called by that name.”

  “And you cared for him.”

  “No!” Yajain pulled away from Chakal. She glared at Ija.

  “I understand human nature as an outsider might,” Ija said. “And though I do not wish to pry, I fear when this man passed through my domain he left in his wake the seed of an idea. And that idea has turned someone I counted as friend against me.”

  “Perdine governed for Dilinia,” Yajain said. “He couldn’t have always sided with you in the past.”

  “We differed professionally, shall we say, but never to the point of war.” Ija’s voice remained infuriatingly calm. “Something similar must have happened to you. Otherwise, why would you turn against this man you once loved?”

  “I never loved him. Ija, you have a lot to learn about humans.”

  “Indeed I do. But you have much to learn about minds, doctor.”

  “I think I know about all I can stomach.”

  Ija floated toward her, wrinkles creasing her previously smooth face so deep Yajain felt they could contain the entire abyss between pillars.

  “Do not insult me, doctor.”

  “I’m sorry. Offense was completely intended. But I was wrong.”

  “I’m glad you can acknowledge that.” The hologram of the cluster faded into nothingness and the lights returned to normal. “Calm yourself. Then we will continue this conversation.”

  Yajain nodded.

  “Is there somewhere I can sit?”

  “Go to the lounge a level below this one. Gellen will lead you there.”

  “Thank you, Ija.”

  “Consider how you will speak to me next time,” Ija said. “I fear time is short. So consider quickly if you can.”

  Yajain drank from a cup of water, sitting on a comfortable chair in Ija’ lounge.

  That great mind truly is strange. Not nearly as omniscient as I thought she would be. Yajain drained the cup and set it on a tray suspended in arc field beside her chair. Chakal walked over to her from the far side of the room.

  “You should not have insulted Ija.”

  “Ija shouldn’t have accused me of loving someone who crippled my sister.”

  “Doctor, your attitude is understandable but flawed. Do you not understand that Ija governs us in both peace and in war? She is stretched thin at the moment, giving orders to defense officers. People like me, who are trying to save lives.”

  Yajain put her forehead in her hands.

  “Commander Chakal…”

  “Gellen, please.”

  “Gellen, I’m sorry. But I can’t take it anymore, not like this.”

  “Not like what?”

  “The past. I can’t handle it. I can’t handle remembering it, knowing what happened. And to think he could be doing it again.”

  “Doing what again?”

  “The Harvest,” Yajain said. “It’s an old reef-dweller term.”

  Gellen’s eyes widened slightly.

  “Reef-dwellers. They who lived on living masses between pillars.”

  “Yes.” Yajain nodded. “All humans may be descended from them. That’s where the harvest comes from. Because on the reef there are times to plant and times to harvest on a far wider scale than on terraces or pillars. In ancient times there was a group of officials, trained in law as well as biological science. They would inspect the harvest, make sure it was pure. And they carried the title of ‘doctor’ like I do.”

  “How do you know all this?” Gellen asked.

  Yajain sighed heavily and looked at her empty cup of water.

  “It was passed down through history. Mosam once told it to me, but there
are others in Dilinia who believe the same as him.”

  Gellen stared at her.

  “Who else have you told this?”

  “No one.” Yajain smiled slightly and circled her heart. “But even in this age, the Doctors of Harvest still exist. That’s the important part. Mosam Coe and his master swore never to forget that fact. Not ever.”

  Gellen swallowed visibly.

  “I must tell this to Ija. You know that, don’t you?”

  “I figure she already knows.”

  Yajain and Gellen returned to Ija’s chamber a few hours later. Ija’s image was absent but the core at the center of the room hummed. Gellen walked to the center of the room, but Yajain looked around, frowning.

  “Where is she?”

  Gellen turned with a frown on her face.

  “She’s present. But her attention is elsewhere.”

  “I thought she could communicate simultaneously?”

  “She can. Something must be wrong.”

  A static charge hung in the air between them. Unspoken discomforting thoughts passed through Yajain’s mind.

  Could someone have attacked so quickly? It doesn’t seem possible.

  An image flickered from the core in gold and white. Ija’s white-robed form coalesced in the air. She floated down to a spot between Gellen and Yajain.

  “Excuse me,” she said. “There was disturbance near Katraska Pillar. The commander there requested my assistance. That aside, I am surprised you made up your mind so quickly.”

  Yajain stared at the great mind’s image.

  “Are you really?”

  “Perhaps I chose the wrong word. I wished to convey my understanding.”

  “I know it’s not polite to say so, but I don’t trust you.”

  “Honest, though.” Ija smiled. “Thank you.”

  “It might be something to do with my training. I’m good at guessing, predicting what animals do. It’s harder with people. I don’t even know where to start with a mind.”

  Ija drifted over to Yajain.

  “Tell me about Mosam Coe.”

  Yajain did her best to repeat what she’d told Gellen.

  “He was a friend. Until he betrayed the empire, my family, my sister, and me.”

  “You harbor bitterness toward him.”

  “I didn’t have to be honest for you to get that.”

  “True. But your confession is helpful in other ways.”

  “I hope so.” Yajain turned to Gellen. “If that’s all you need I think I should get back to Solnakite. We’re to continue moving toward the next corridor out as soon as we can.”

  Ija nodded.

  “Gellen, escort Doctor Aksari back to the tumbler.” The image swept over to the tiny woman. “Your actions in defense of Rakati were commendable.”

  “Thank you.” Gellen lowered her head in a deep bow.

  Ija bowed back and then the image vanished.

  “You think she really got all she needed?” Yajain asked.

  “I believe she wouldn’t have told us to go if she had not.” Gellen smiled. “Thank you for cooperating.”

  “I want him caught. It makes my job a lot easier,” Yajain said.

  Despite her words, her mind wandered back to past touches and conversations and the walk to the church with his new chronometer.

  Gellen led her back to the tumbler. She walked up the ramp with Yajain.

  “I will report to Captain Ettasil to thank him,” she said. “Then I will return to Ija. This war will not get easier when the storms arrive from the Shaull Corridor.”

  “Good luck,” Yajain said.

  “Thank you, doctor.” Gellen bowed.

  Yajain pored over poetic biology piece on her reading pad, reviewing the screen of the spider-cattle, byga.

  They are dangerous in numbers.

  Prodigious in appetite.

  And cowardly in nature.

  Such is the way of the herd.

  The lines written by monks hundreds of cycles ago had once been well-known, but few people received classical training in biological poetry any longer. Each line could be read as a single number, the sum of all the characters in it. Each number corresponded to the classifications of the animal in question in a sequence that described the creature’s genetic construction. Those nuances had been hidden by the monks for millennia because of the power that knowledge could unlock, the power to modify the genes of animals.

  She put aside the pad and sipped water from a metal bottle. Her hammock swayed as Solnakite banked. Her orders terminal chimed.

  Yajain stretched her legs and then stood up. The fleet had left Sirol eight hours ago, heading for a pillar near Nantha Hub called Cadon.

  From Nantha, transit became possible to Shaull Cluster where storms already raged.

  The terminal carried a message from Captain Ettasil. Storms approached Nantha already. If they delayed, the fleet would have to begin a linear transit from within the hurricane, a beyond-dangerous maneuver. Yajain didn’t need poetry to know that.

  As a passenger, the danger of the storms left her powerless. Even at the helm of a smaller mist craft, navigating a storm between pillars proved risky.

  Her father’s stories of Ditari hunters braving the gaps alone for the title of predator or carnivore came to mind. Why anyone wanted to carry such names escaped her. Honor did nothing for the dead.

  Yajain looked at herself in the mirror across from the hammock. She wore only her inactive black heatsuit, brown hair longer than she liked easily passed her shoulders. Yajain tied her hair with a loop made of plastic ties. Mosam had once told Lin he liked her hair long, but she and Yajain differed in appearance, despite being sisters.

  Lin took after mother more and looked more nuinn with gentler features and a softer attitude to go with them. Yajain’s gaze fell from her reflection. Full blooded Ditari rarely looked as Ditari as she did.

  Some said the thing that made the Ditari different was always visible in their faces. Lighter but more defined bone structure often resulted in finer features. And why should it not? The divergence of father’s people marked them with hollow bones in several places.

  Yajain remembered studying these things with the monks of Fetayun. But they never spoke to her as if she was Ditari. Physiologically, she was not and that mattered to them. The monks saw nothing wrong with teaching her their order’s classical poetry, making her eligible for the academy.

  A knock came at the door. Yajain turned in surprise.

  “Come in,” she said.

  The door opened, revealing Finder Boskem. The agent stepped across the threshold.

  “We are approaching Nantha Hub, banking toward Cadon Sanctuary.”

  “Thank you, finder. I’ll be ready to assist with the evacuation.”

  “There’s something else.” Boskem raised one arm gingerly, the one he’s been shot in by the sniper. “Medical Officer Narayme told me you could help me reset my wrist.”

  “Reset?” Yajain said.

  “It’s bent slightly. Could ruin my aim.”

  “How thoughtless of me. It could inhibit your ability to kill people.”

  “Don’t mock me, doctor.”

  Yajain shrugged her shoulders.

  “If there’s time before we reach Cadon.”

  “The captain has assured me there is.”

  “The operation will be painful.”

  “In the service of the empress, I will endure.”

  “Right. The empress needs your hand on the trigger.”

  “I play my role,” he said.

  Yajain crossed her arms.

  “Go to the infirmary. I’ll be right behind you.”

  He waited outside while she slipped on her uniform.

  The infirmary sat behind the bridge, near the core of the ship. The location provided access directly to the core’s power supply, allowing Yajain use of many tools and sensors unavailable in the field.

&nb
sp; Boskem sat on the exam chair. A preliminary scan told Yajain his wrist bone lay just off center. She took an echo saw and calibrated it with a tap to the control pad on the handle. The saw used sonic generators to create chinks in bone without cutting the skin.

  Yajain turned to Bosk, the saw in one hand. She pulled the saw’s eyepiece into place.

  “Do you want any anesthetic?” she asked.

  “I need to be sharp for the evacuation.”

  “It will be painful.”

  “I can handle it.”

  Yajain nodded and took his hand. He smiled. She raised the saw and brought it to the badly healed section of his wrist.

  She moved the sonic blade deftly through his forearm. The tool cracked the bone with an audible click. Boskem’s smile vanished, replaced by gritted teeth and trembling eyes. Yajain set aside the saw. She adjusted his wrist slowly.

  The process sent further pain to Boskem’s face. She slid the bone into position, visible thanks to the eyepiece’s ability to see bone through flesh. She injected the wrist with stabilizing gel and then wrapped a bandage around the spot.

  “That should do it, Finder. But you won’t be shooting anyone with that hand for a while.”

  “Thank you…” He winced as he stood up. “…doctor.”

  Yajain removed her eyepiece, then stowed it and the saw. She left the infirmary at a brisk walk.

  Captain Ettasil’s voice came from speakers above.

  “Crew and rescue team, we are arriving at Cadon Sanctuary with the rest of the fleet. Our teams are to assist in evacuating civilians in preparation for the storm.”

  She walked down the corridor to the nearest descending passage. The captain went on.

  “Castenlock is doing the heavy lifting for this operation. We are lending our tumbler and a few personnel to remove the elderly from the settlement’s square. I must inform you also that Admiral Teberide has radioed from the Habandra Explorator back in Abdra. The storm is approaching. This operation must be fast and efficient. Over and out, people.”

  Yajain activated her arc lifts and took off. She flew down passages past where the ship’s crew were busy preparing for high-speed maneuvers. She made her way to the launch bay, arriving just before Sonetta, Loattun, and Ogidar. The tumbler’s pilot, Duty Officer Harish, saluted Tei Officer Sogun as she entered behind Yajain’s team.