Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  My stomach roiled with nausea. ‘Can you remove the memory of them cutting off his legs?’

  ‘Not until I can move him into a new body – and I can’t do that until his soulstone is attuned.’

  ‘So he’ll be suffering psychologically for five years. Can you give him new legs?’

  ‘I’ve already started growing replacements for him.’

  ‘That will take six weeks. What will we do in the meantime?’

  ‘I’ll work something out.’

  Runa folded onto the ship with Dianne and Victor, and I ran to them, enveloping them in huge hugs. Victor had taken advantage of dragon biotechnology to make himself more muscular with better skin; his chronic acne was no longer a nuisance. Dianne had kept her soft, round and slightly overweight body shape, much to my delight. She was gorgeous just the way she was, and I was glad she’d made the choice to keep her body birth-natural. Many humans had rushed to make themselves supermodel-attractive when we’d been accepted into the Empire; Victor and Dianne had chosen to be younger, like my mother, but hadn’t gone that far.

  ‘Where is he?’ Dianne said as they pulled back from the hugs.

  ‘Marque has him in the medlevel. He’s in the table, unconscious.’

  ‘If I bring him out of it he’ll be in a lot of pain, so I’m keeping him under until I have the nerve damage under control,’ Marque said.

  ‘Can we see him anyway?’ Victor said.

  ‘This way,’ Marque said, and we followed a sphere to the centre of the deck, then descended to the med room. The table was opaque, so Marque made it translucent. Dianne and Victor leaned over it, studying David where he lay in the liquid, his face serene.

  ‘We’ll stay with him,’ Dianne said.

  Marque provided them with chairs, and they sat next to the table.

  ‘How’s Shiumo?’ Dianne asked me without looking away from David. ‘I heard she was injured.’

  ‘In a coma,’ I said. ‘The blood loss damaged both her brains.’

  ‘Can’t Marque fix it?’ Victor said.

  ‘It’s quite severe, I don’t know if she’s still in there,’ Marque said. ‘I’ve put a soulstone on her, and I’m keeping her in a table on life-support. We’ll know in five years, when I move the stone to a new body.’

  ‘That’s awful,’ Dianne said.

  ‘Take me back up to the gallery,’ I said. ‘I need to speak to Admiral Blake.’

  Dianne and Victor didn’t seem to notice when I left the room. All their attention was on David.

  ‘The Admiral is too far away for a hologram,’ Marque said when I was back on the gallery. ‘Is over comms enough?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Let me see if I can connect with him for you – there.’

  ‘I just had an update on Baxter; I hope he’ll be okay,’ Blake said through Marque. ‘Have we heard anything more from Oliver?’

  ‘No. He just sent that “check mark” symbol and hasn’t touched the scale since.’ My throat thickened. ‘I hope he’s all right.’

  ‘I’m sure he will be: he’s one of them. Come in, and we’ll work out the plan from here.’

  ‘Permission to speak, Admiral,’ I said.

  ‘Colonel?’

  ‘I resign my commission with immediate effect,’ I said. ‘We’re taking my son to his other parents’ home, and we’ll all help him heal.’

  Blake hesitated, then said, ‘Good luck, Jian. Your resignation is accepted, and if you ever want to rejoin the forces I’ll personally accept you. We’ll still need a full report on your final interaction with the cats to supplement the shuttle’s recordings. Can you work on that while you help your son?’

  ‘Of course, sir, that information’s vital,’ I said. ‘I’ll vacate my house on Barracks as soon as my son is settled and we have his pain managed.’

  ‘With the losses we just suffered, there’s really no need,’ he said. ‘It’s unlikely there’ll be anyone to replace you. Stay as long as you want. You know resources are close to unlimited in the Empire – and if your son Oliver is successful in his mission, the cat attacks will stop. We will finally have peace.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘Damn fine off—’ he said before the communication stopped.

  ‘Can you hang around and help us take him back to Victor and Dianne’s house?’ I asked Runa. ‘My mother will probably want to help as well.’

  ‘Of course,’ Runa said. ‘He’s Oliver’s brother. Where do you want me to take him?’

  ‘Marque will show you, but before you do that – Marque, I need to contact Richard Alto.’

  ‘A moment,’ Marque said. ‘He’s too far away: he and Echi are touring one of the outer galaxies. You’ll have to send a message by scales.’

  ‘Please outline David’s injuries to him, tell him the situation with Oliver . . .’ I hesitated. ‘Is that classified?’

  ‘Yes,’ Marque said. ‘There’s been no announcement. The whole situation is classified, and the dragons and human officers are working together on a press release.’

  ‘Tell him the situation with Oliver anyway, eyes only, and ask him if he can meet us at Victor and Dianne’s place. We’re going to need his assistance to help David through this.’

  ‘He’s on his way.’

  I turned to Runa. ‘Any word from Oliver?’

  ‘No.’

  My heart fell. ‘Let me know the second he taps that scale.’

  5

  It may have been fifteen years since Earth had joined the Dragon Empire, but New Birmingham hadn’t changed much. The original city, perched on the hills, appeared the same, the buildings drab and aged. Shiny new buildings had been erected with Marque’s help where the water had receded: spacious white and pale blue residences with well-tended gardens, and clusters of office towers surrounded by parkland. The roads in the city were gradually changing to gardens as everybody used Marque as a transport method. Cars were no longer necessary.

  Dianne and Victor were still in the same townhouse that they’d lived in while she was doing postdoctoral research. The road in front of it had already been converted to gardens. Runa folded us directly into David’s bedroom, and I was hit with the smell of the place, which filled me with so many memories – like most older houses in Britain, it smelled faintly of damp, with an underlying vague sense of cabbage.

  Marque placed David into a specially-constructed medical table in the centre of the bedroom and we stood around it, breathless, as we waited for Marque to stabilise him completely and bring him out of it.

  ‘Let me know if you need me, I’m going to wait at the edge of cat space for Oliver to contact me,’ Runa said, and disappeared.

  The white liquid on the table receded, and it changed to a hospital bed. David was still unconscious, his legs just stumps, but at least now they appeared pink and healthy instead of burnt. Marque covered him with a blanket and he opened his eyes.

  ‘What happened?’ His dark brows creased. ‘Did we win?’

  Dianne threw herself at him and hugged him fiercely. He looked around at us, and appeared even more confused. He tried to move, and the room filled with his panic. ‘Who took my legs?’ He thrashed his stumps as he tried to lift himself.

  Victor and I held him in place, one arm each.

  ‘I’ll restrain him,’ Marque said.

  ‘No!’ we all said in unison.

  ‘Stay still, David,’ I said. ‘You were injured. You lost your legs. The cats . . .’

  David screamed and threw himself back. The scream petered out to gasping sobs. He cried for a while, sobbing uncontrollably, and we held him.

  ‘Why did they do that? How could they do that?’ he shouted. ‘They’re animals!’ He looked around at us. ‘Mum? Both my mums. Dad. Nanna?’ He gasped and looked over my shoulder behind me. ‘And Marque.’

  I turned to see that Marque had taken its nanny android form, a portly woman in her mid-fifties, that it had used when it was caring for David as a child.

  ‘You’r
e all here.’ David rubbed his hands over his short hair. ‘Okay. I have it. Sorry.’

  ‘Nothing to be sorry about,’ I said.

  ‘That was awful,’ he said. ‘I’ve never been so scared. And then they—’ He choked. ‘It was like being in a nightmare where you know something terrible is about to happen, and then they come up to you with a red-hot knife and—’ His voice petered out again. ‘I want those memories gone.’

  ‘Next body transfer,’ Marque said from the nanny. ‘We need to reattune your stone.’

  ‘What about my legs?’ David said.

  ‘Six weeks and I’ll have new ones for you.’

  ‘I know that,’ David said. ‘What about in the meantime?’ He looked up at me. ‘Prosthetics like Richard’s?’

  ‘Richard’s on his way. He knows more about what happened to you than any of us.’

  David took my hand and squeezed it. ‘Good idea. He will understand.’ He looked around. ‘Where’s Ollie?’ He saw my face. ‘No. He’s dead? No.’ His expression filled with understanding. ‘He swapped himself for me, didn’t he? The black cat that did this . . .’ He waved his hand over the stumps. ‘Said that Oliver is his son. Is that true? That bastard is our darling Ollie’s biological dad?’

  ‘Afraid so,’ I said.

  ‘Ollie’s going to kill him when he finds out what his father did to me,’ David said with grim pleasure. ‘Wish I could be there.’

  ‘Richard’s at the front door with his dragonscales daughter,’ Marque said.

  ‘Go, let him in,’ David said. He appeared to be cheering up and working his way out of the initial panic – the reassurance of having us all there was working. ‘I haven’t seen Echilarghian in forever.’

  ‘That’s her name?’ Victor said. ‘Is that Welsh?’

  ‘Dragon,’ Richard said as he came in. He shook everybody’s hands and hugged me. He hugged David as well, then pulled back. ‘You’ll be fine, David. We can talk.’

  Richard’s daughter entered the room behind him, accompanied by a red dragon. All of us in the little townhouse’s bedroom was a crush. Echilarghian was typical of the human dragonscales hybrids; taller than an average human, breathtakingly attractive in an androgynous manner with red scales on her temples that indicated her half-dragon heritage shining against her dark skin. She was only fifteen, but already appeared twenty-five. Her red scales were the same colour as the dragon’s next to her.

  ‘This is Eri,’ Richard said, indicating the dragon. ‘She’s Echi’s half-sister. Shiumo is dragonfather to both of them.’

  ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ I said.

  ‘Shiumo’s dead too?’ David said.

  ‘She’s in a coma,’ I said. ‘We won’t know for a while if she’ll be okay.’

  ‘Everybody out now,’ Marque said from the nanny body. ‘He needs to rest. I’m going to mildly sedate him for a few hours then you can come back and talk to him. You can sit with him in shifts if you like, but only one at a time. Too many of you is stressing him out and he needs a calm, quiet environment to recover.’ She shooed us with both hands. ‘Out.’

  ‘I’ll take first shift,’ Victor said, and sat next to David.

  ‘I’ll be next,’ Dianne said, and kissed him on the forehead.

  David reclined and his eyes closed, his face relaxing into sleep.

  ‘Out,’ Marque said, and the nanny body disintegrated.

  We all trundled downstairs to the living room and sat on the couches. Dianne and I went into the kitchen and made tea for everybody. I took the tea into the living room and poured. Dianne didn’t have a dragon-sized cup for Eri, so we gave her a soup bowl.

  Richard sipped his tea and closed his eyes. ‘Why is it always better on Earth? Is it the water?’ He opened his eyes. ‘I saw what happened to Shiumo, it was awful.’

  ‘We had so many losses that we’re only just catching up with them all,’ I said. ‘I had an excellent relationship with Fumi, my assigned transport, and now she’s . . .’ I wiped my eyes as the words wouldn’t come.

  ‘A high price for peace,’ Echi said. ‘Dragonfathers are usually forever. You never think you’ll lose a dragon parent. And so many are gone. We’re lucky that Shiumo has hope for recovery.’

  ‘The funerals are next week,’ Eri said. ‘We’ll hold the ceremony on Dragonhome. The folding nexus above the planet is queued back for days as people return. We haven’t lost this many dragons in centuries. Normally a dragon’s Real Death is by choice; they end their days surrounded by loved ones, and the clan succession is known by all. Some of the dragons – Shiumo included – didn’t believe that they could really be killed in this conflict. We need to work out the succession ourselves.’ She lowered her head, and Echi patted her shoulder. ‘The first time in history more than two clans need new leaders – fifty-three of them lost their heads. I’m glad the cats have agreed to a ceasefire until the stones are attuned; it’s chaos on Dragonhome.’ She raised her head as if she was looking at David in his bedroom above us. ‘I just hope the rest of the hostages haven’t been treated the same way as dear David.’

  My mother came in with the kettle and refilled the tea pot, then sat with her cup.

  ‘I believe congratulations are in order, Connie,’ Richard said to her. ‘When are you due?’

  She stared at him for a long moment, broadcasting a mix of outrage and amusement. She glanced at me, then at Dianne, then back at Richard. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  ‘Well Marque told me you were in a relationship with a dragon, and that you’re . . . on privacy,’ he said.

  She scowled. ‘I’m on privacy because it’s none of anyone’s damn business.’ She put the cup on the coffee table. ‘No, I’m not pregnant, and I’m not planning to be any time soon.’

  I felt a weird combination of relief and disappointment – I’d thought I really had a little sister coming.

  ‘I’m far too busy on a private project,’ she said. ‘I put Marque on privacy because I didn’t want anyone to know about it, but I suppose I can share with you if you don’t tell anyone else.’

  ‘What secret project?’ Richard said, fascinated.

  ‘You know our restaurant charges exorbitant amounts for our artisanal potatoes,’ Mum said. ‘We’ve made a fortune.’ She looked up. ‘Put an image above the teapot, Marque.’

  A floating three-dimensional image of the Earth – as it had been before the climate went to hell – appeared above the coffee table.

  ‘That’s not the Earth,’ Mum said. ‘We’re building a whole planetary system identical to the Earth system, with a planet Earth as it would be if people had never appeared. A testament to how beautiful it was before we wrecked it.’

  ‘What, all the animals, the ecosystem . . .’ My voice trailed off. ‘If it’s going to work you’ll have to go down to bacteria.’

  ‘That’s right,’ she said, nodding. ‘The planet’s built and we’ve introduced single-cell organisms and simple marine species into the oceans. We’re ready to start putting plants onto the landmasses.’

  ‘Some of the marine animals were extinct, and I had to genetically engineer recreations based on what you had left,’ Marque said. ‘Working backwards from the description of the lifeform to the fabrication of the DNA took a massive amount of processing power. Now that the cat fleet is gone, I can dedicate more time to the project, and maybe even replace the planet’s moon with an instance of myself to monitor it more closely. I’ve never done anything like this before.’ It lowered its voice. ‘It’s very rewarding.’

  ‘You are an inspiration, Connie,’ Richard said with awe.

  ‘Have you been helping, Dianne?’ I said.

  ‘I never knew anything about it,’ Dianne said. ‘Why keep it such a secret?’

  ‘Because people are people and we don’t want them camping out on our pristine hard work,’ Mum said. ‘I don’t think anyone could resist the urge to see an extinct animal, so we’ve hidden the location and the knowledge is under privacy seal.’ />
  ‘Can I help now that I know about it?’ Dianne asked.

  ‘You definitely have skills that fit the requirements.’ Mum looked up. ‘Marque?’

  ‘That would be a great help,’ Marque said with enthusiasm. ‘Your knowledge will be extremely useful. It would be great to have an academic to answer questions rather than searching your databases all the time.’

  ‘I may be able to have some of my colleagues answer your questions without them knowing what the project is,’ Dianne said. ‘This is a wonderful thing you’re doing, Connie.’

  ‘You never cease to amaze me, Mum,’ I said. I grinned. ‘Any chance I could see it?’

  ‘No, and nobody else will, either,’ she said. ‘It’s strictly humanhands-off, that’s the point.’

  ‘We’ve toured some of the most spectacular places in the Empire, but I think this one will be the most beautiful,’ Richard said.

  ‘So life’s treating you well?’ I asked him.

  He smiled. ‘When I travelled with Shiumo, I only saw what she wanted me to see. Now that I’m travelling with Echi and Eri, I’m seeing much more of the Empire – the seven galaxies have wonders that you wouldn’t believe.’

  ‘Eri’s introducing us to the best oxygen-water locations,’ Echi said. ‘As well as some others that are inhospitable but gorgeous.’

  ‘We’ve been ribbon-skating and fluoro-diving and toured the iridium-rich gas giant that everybody talks about. It’s like floating in a work of art.’

  ‘Now that the cat attack’s been stopped, you can do that too, Colonel,’ Eri said. ‘We’re free from their menace, and we finally have peace.’

  I stopped at that; in all the rush it hadn’t dawned on me – the cats were back in their home system, and it would take them years to approach the Dragon Empire again.

  ‘We’re not completely free from their menace,’ I said. ‘We still need to rescue the human hostages . . . and Oliver.’

  ‘As soon as Oliver gives the word, we can find our humans, bring them home, and never have to worry again,’ Eri said. ‘I hope he contacts Runa soon.’

  ‘I sincerely hope so.’