Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Good!’ Dianne shouted. ‘Your other mum is here. Annoy her while I bring your dad in.’

  David stopped the chair and grinned at me, panting from laughing so much. ‘Marque said the scales network is going silent while Runa reports through. Everybody wants to hear what Oliver has to say, and there’ll be no competition for bandwidth.’

  ‘Good,’ I said. ‘Tea?’

  ‘Coffee, but let Marque make it,’ David said. ‘My personal blend, Marque.’

  ‘Which one?’ Marque said. ‘Front-ass or double-butt?’

  I choked with horror at hearing the nasty slurs some aliens had labelled humans with: we were unique in our females having two permanently engorged breasts on our upper torsos, something no other species exhibited. Most mammal types had four or six nipples, and the breasts of the few that only had two were never permanently enlarged like ours were. The aliens had decided that we looked like we had an ass on both front and back, thus leading to the unpleasant nicknames.

  ‘Sorry, Mum,’ David said. ‘It was a private joke. I’ll rename them.’

  ‘I should hope you will,’ I said.

  Dianne came in with Victor, who was wearing a mechanic’s coverall dusted with stone from the sculpture he was working on. ‘Has she said anything?’

  ‘Ten minutes,’ Marque said. ‘She’s ready to fold into cat space.’

  Victor patted the couch next to him. ‘Jian.’

  I sat next to him and waited with my breath held. The past ten days had been a nightmare of worrying about his safety, particularly after David’s description of the ways the cats had tortured him.

  ‘Runa’s put her ship at the edge of cat space, and she’s preparing to fold herself above the planet and into telepathic range,’ Marque said. ‘I’ll stay on the ship and relay through the scales network.’

  ‘This is so dangerous,’ David said.

  ‘She folded out,’ Marque said. ‘She’s in cat space. I’m relaying her message.’

  It continued in Runa’s voice, speaking slightly jerkily as it translated the scales taps.

  ‘I’m in position,’ Marque said in Runa’s voice. ‘I’m calling him telepathically.’ She was silent for a while. ‘He responded! He says he’s fine, the culture is very interesting.’

  We all sighed with relief and relaxed.

  Marque continued with Runa’s voice. ‘He’s arranged for the humans to be looked after. His father is something like a region, or guild, leader. He says it’s really complicated. He says, “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, I’m doing well.” Now he has a private message just for me . . . what is this? What’s happening? Marque, I’m coming back out. What in the seven galaxies . . . oh no, what? Help, Marque!’

  I was standing without realising that I’d moved. ‘Marque?’

  ‘She folded back to her ship. She’s severely injured. Just a second, I need to re-route some processing power because she brought some of those fucking . . . excuse me . . . cat nanobots with her. They attacked her in orbit, they surround the planet. The damn things were eating her alive. I need to quarantine everything around her to stop them from hacking into me.’ It went quiet again.

  ‘Will they take Marque over?’ David said. ‘Marque was compromised by them before – and Runa just took some of those bots with her.’

  ‘We can only hope that Marque was ready for them,’ I said.

  ‘Of course I was ready for them,’ Marque said from the ceiling. ‘Runa’s ship was in quarantine, and I was only communicating by scales. I’ve studied their nature, but I want to be absolutely sure I’m not compromised, so I destroyed the nanos, then self-destructed everything within communication distance.’

  ‘What about Runa?’ I said. ‘What about her soulstone? Could you save it?’

  ‘They killed her, but I have her soulstone,’ Marque said. ‘I put it in an energy bubble before I self-destructed. It was a close thing: they’d already taken her legs, wings, tail, and most of her scales off. The bots were eating her alive. Fortunately she folded out before they ate her soulstone.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Victor said.

  ‘Now someone needs to fold to the ship’s location and retrieve the stone,’ Marque said. ‘Give me some time while I arrange it. I need to ensure that the stone doesn’t have any nanobots clinging to it.’

  ‘This is some nasty shit,’ Dianne said.

  ‘Message from the cats through the scales we left them,’ Marque said. ‘No dragons are permitted within cat space. Only Jianchou – Jian Choumali – may enter. If you wish to check on . . . Oliver’s name in cat . . . you may visit. No dragons.’

  ‘Me,’ I said, flat with dismay. ‘Only me. Why the hell do they always want me?’

  ‘Go and make sure he’s all right,’ David said.

  ‘The Empress is calling you,’ Marque said.

  ‘The Empress?’ David said.

  ‘Are we close enough to do it holographically or does it have to be through scales?’ I said.

  ‘The delay will be weeks if we do it holographically, so scales,’ Marque said. It changed to the Empress’ voice. ‘Jian Choumali.’

  Everybody stared at me. ‘Majesty,’ I said. I scowled at them. ‘Stop looking at me like that. She’s just a dragon.’

  ‘She’s the Queen of seven galaxies,’ David said softly.

  ‘Jian, the cats will only talk to you,’ Marque said in the Empress’ voice. ‘Please come in so I can appoint you as Ambassador to the Cat Republic.’

  ‘What?’ Dianne said.

  I sat stunned and gasping for a while, then I said, ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘Marque says you’re freaking out,’ the Empress said. ‘I’m sending Masako to carry you; please attend me.’

  Masako appeared in front of me and I didn’t move.

  ‘I can’t do it,’ I said. ‘We don’t know how long they’ll hold me there. I’ll be stuck there with no way off.’

  ‘That’s not the point,’ the Empress said. ‘You’re the only one they’ll take. Come to Masako’s ship and I’ll brief you.’

  Masako approached me and I backed away. ‘What if I don’t want to be Ambassador?’

  ‘Marque, hold her so Masako can bring her in,’ the Empress said.

  Marque held me in an energy field so that Masako could fold me.

  ‘I did not consent to this!’ I shouted.

  Masako folded me onto her ship. The Empress was already there, towering over the conference table and nearly touching the ceiling.

  ‘You’re the only one they’ll take and we need you on the ground,’ she said. ‘You’re a projecting telepath. You can get information out without them knowing – obviously they’ve been watching Oliver so he hasn’t been able to use his scale.’

  ‘I can’t be Ambassador, I’m not qualified.’

  ‘You won’t be Ambassador, you’ll be a spy,’ she said. ‘Find the human hostages and contact us telepathically with their location so we can fold them out.’

  That stopped me. ‘Oh.’

  ‘Find out where the humans are, contact Masako telepathically, and we’ll send a thousand dragons to get everybody out in one go.’

  ‘I’ll fold close enough to hear you once every short time period – a human hour? – then fold out again,’ Masako said. ‘Broadcast the location to me, and we’ll fold all the humans out.’

  ‘I’ll have to do it quickly, because I won’t be able to stay more than three months there,’ I said.

  ‘What?’ Masako said. ‘You’re dragonstruck?’

  I nodded.

  ‘When did this happen?’ the Empress said. ‘We were so careful with the troops!’

  ‘I don’t know; it happened during the first five years of my deployment in your army, while I still wasn’t aware of the true nature of the process. Shiumo told us it was caused by love instead of proximity, and nobody told us otherwise. After five years of being constantly on call, I broke down from the stress. I went to Mok for flying therapy. I did the pre-flight training for
a few weeks, and when I jumped off the cliff for my first solo flight, I passed out in mid-air. They caught me, checked me over, and there it was.’

  ‘But we were so careful,’ Masako said. ‘Oliver isn’t dragonstruck; we made sure he wasn’t with us every minute of the day. How could it happen to you?’

  ‘That’s beside the point,’ I said. ‘It’s three months for humans. Three months away from one of you and I’ll die. Shiumo’s lies could have killed me.’

  ‘I’ll get you out before you can succumb,’ Masako said. ‘I promise.’

  ‘What about the nanos?’ Marque said. ‘They could very well kill any dragons outright – the Real Death. If you fold into orbit – or fold onto the planet – the nanos will eat you alive.’

  ‘What if we remove our soulstones before we fold there?’ Masako said. ‘Sacrifice our bodies to extract the humans?’

  ‘That would work.’

  ‘Will they kill us before we can get the humans out?’

  Marque hesitated, then said, ‘No. You should have time to fold them out before the nanos kill you.’

  ‘Go to the cat planet, Jian, find out where the humans are, and we’ll get them out. Even if it kills us,’ Masako said.

  ‘At least a hundred of my own children are willing to do this for you,’ the Empress said. ‘We owe you our lives.’

  I looked away. So many dragons were willing to be eaten alive to get the humans out. ‘I guess if I’m the only one they’ll take . . .’

  ‘You are,’ the Empress said. ‘You can communicate completely securely. Please, Jian. I will be forever in your debt. The whole Empire will.’

  ‘Come down to my ship’s medlevel,’ Masako said. ‘I’ve arranged one of our cat experts to give you a telepathically implanted crash course of everything we know about them, their language, and intergalactic diplomatic protocols.’

  I winced. Having a language implanted was one thing, but this much information directly slotted into my brain was going to hurt.

  7

  A small group of cats were waiting for me on the landing pad when my little shuttle arrived on their planet. The black leader was there, next to Oliver and another cat in a white jumpsuit. Oliver broadcast distress, looking as if he wanted to run to me as he shifted from foot to foot.

  It’s okay, we can get the formalities out of the way then talk, I said to him telepathically, and he shook his head and frowned. I understand, I added. His anxiety didn’t ease.

  The leader stepped up to me and spoke in Euro. ‘Ambassador Choumali. You are the first foreigner we have permitted on our world. You are honoured.’

  I leaned into him and sniffed loudly in the cat greeting and he returned it. He smelled vaguely unpleasant, like he’d wet himself, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before. Hell, some Empire species existed solely on a diet of the equivalent of our e. coli.

  ‘Thank you for your welcome,’ I said in cat, using extremely formal and polite language. ‘I am honoured to be the first foreigner.’

  He broadcast satisfaction at that, and replied in cat, ‘You will stay with me; follow.’

  The cat in white had its hands behind its back and its head bowed, broadcasting submissiveness. The cat leader gestured for me to walk beside him and we proceeded away from the landing pad towards a black, egg-shaped vehicle that floated above the ground, big enough for all of us. It had open sides and four slender pillars that held up the rounded roof. There weren’t seats, we all sat on the floor and the egg lifted slightly and headed away without making a sound.

  The cats sat with their knees bent so they were under their chins, with their arms wrapped around their knees. I knelt Japanese-style.

  ‘Before we arrive at my residence, if you are asked about your status, make sure that you tell everyone that you have had a child,’ the leader said. ‘If you have not yet had a child, your status will be different.’

  ‘I understand the difference between females who have children and those who have not, but in my species it makes no difference,’ I said.

  ‘You are not with your species.’

  ‘May I ask your honoured name?’ I said.

  The cat in white hissed under its breath, and the cat leader released its knees with one hand to wave the white one down. ‘We do not share our names. Address us . . .’ It appeared confused for a moment.

  ‘You call them by their—’ Oliver began, and froze when the floor of the vehicle rose like a liquid barrier around him. His ears went back and he broadcast fear as the walls reached his shoulder level. He bobbed his head to his father.

  The floor went flat again, but Oliver didn’t relax. He eyed it warily.

  ‘As I said, if you are asked, say you have borne a child,’ the cat leader said. ‘Defer to me in all things. I suggest you do not speak to any other cat until you have learned the basic courtesies.’

  ‘I understand,’ I said.

  ‘To show deference, my title is “sir”.’

  ‘As Ambassador, so is mine,’ I said.

  The vehicle stopped and transformed – like liquid – from a vehicle to a platform. I followed the cat leader as he stood and stepped off. We were in a narrow street, with the gold-clay houses around us. The street’s surface was a uniformly black, ceramic-like material. A couple of cats who were walking at the far end of the street abruptly turned and walked away when they saw us.

  The vehicle had stopped in front of a tower that had black oval gems, ranging from twenty centimetres to a metre across, embedded in its walls. The vehicle disintegrated into black dust that flew up onto one of the jewels and added to its size. Night was falling, and the stars emerged in the sky above us. Lights flicked on throughout the city around us, but they were so dim that they didn’t affect the brilliance of the stars above.

  Oliver’s father took us inside. The tower was hollow up to the domed roof, and wall platforms extended from its interior all the way to the top, twenty metres above us. The tower’s base was joined to a rectangular building with textured grey carpet on the floor, but no furniture. The building was as wide as the tower with a ceiling roughly half the tower’s height that stretched for twenty metres in front of us. The walls were the same golden polished clay. A far wall had two openings on it, leading to rooms that were difficult to distinguish. A number of cats – all of them naked – lounged on the carpet around what appeared to be three-dimensional displays. Circular lights sat in the ceiling, but again the light produced was much dimmer than human normal.

  The cat leader gestured and his jumpsuit disintegrated, together with the clothing that the other cats, including Oliver, were wearing. I was familiar with Oliver’s form so it didn’t surprise me to learn that the black cat leader was male – his four testicles were enormous below his two penises in their small shared sheath. The other cat with them appeared to be female, with no external genitalia visible in her fur. Her fur was longer than the males’, with deep brown tabby stripes over steel grey.

  The cat leader gestured for me to follow him and guided me into the rectangular room.

  ‘Neowra,’ he said, and sat me in front of one of the holographic displays. Oliver sat as well, cat-style, and the female hurried through one of the far doors. The holographic display was a collection of glowing nanobots so tiny that they were dots floating in the air, a formation that created a moving, life-like image of the cat planet as seen from orbit.

  ‘We do not have long before we have to leave again,’ the cat leader said. ‘I have an important duty to perform. We will talk more when it is complete.’

  The female cat returned holding a tray containing a milky green hot beverage in ceramic tubular cups.

  ‘Neowra,’ she said, leaning over the central holographic displays to serve the cups.

  Now we were in an enclosed area, I realised that the unpleasant odour that I’d noticed outside was coming from her. It wasn’t heavy, more a vague nastiness that emanated when she moved. I tried to place its mixture of burning acid and sharp ammonia.
I’d smelled it before, a long time ago, and I realised with a start that she smelled exactly like Oliver’s urine when he’d had small accidents as a child. She was marked by scent as a virginal female in Oliver’s possession.

  ‘Normally I’d ask my AI if this is safe . . .’ I began, holding up the cup.

  ‘It is safe for you to drink,’ the cat leader said. ‘We have checked all the food and drinks we will serve you against your biology. Your safety will not be compromised, you are too important to us.’

  I glanced at Oliver, and he nodded. I sipped the drink and it was a delicious mix of savoury flavours, vaguely reminiscent of rich fish or chicken stock. I opened my mouth to compliment it and the implanted knowledge kicked in: telling the cat leader that it was delicious would make me look weak to them.

  ‘When can I see my people?’ I said. ‘That’s the reason I’m here. All I want is to take them home.’

  ‘After this duty is complete,’ the cat leader said. ‘It will take . . .’ He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. ‘A couple of hours your time. Then we will tour the facility where your people are being held. They have been constantly complaining that their conditions are unacceptable and I want them to stop.’

  ‘Unacceptable how?’ I said.

  ‘They whine about “bathing” as if it is important. They behave like animals and the females are soiling themselves. I’ve studied human culture but I wasn’t prepared for them to be so demanding.’

  ‘I’ll talk to them; their needs should be relatively simple,’ I said.

  ‘Good. Their facilities are acceptable by our standards.’ He glanced at the screen. ‘It is time to go.’

  ‘May I . . .’ I searched for the correct words in the cat language. The implanted information didn’t cover this topic, it may even be taboo. Wonderful. ‘I wish no offence, but I need to expel body waste,’ I said lamely.

  ‘Of course.’ The cat leader rose, and I did as well. He gestured for Oliver to stay put with the female and guided me through one of the doors at the end of the room. It contained shelves made of the black nano material, and a collection of red clay bowls, each about fifty centimetres across. He selected one from the shelf.