by Kylie Chan
‘You’re the one who told me that staying busy would help with the homesickness,’ Cat said, and she and David shared a smile. Their love for each other was what had really helped with her homesickness.
‘I appreciate you all coming. I love you dearly, kids.’
‘Aww, Mum,’ Oliver said, and hugged me. David joined him and they wrapped themselves around me.
‘Now we need to find something to pull you out of this funk,’ Oliver said. ‘It’s making us just as miserable.’
‘Don’t guilt-trip her!’ Cat said, horrified.
‘There is something,’ I said. ‘Aki just asked me to accept the Empress’ offer to be Captain of the Imperial Guard. What do you think?’
All their faces lit up.
12
I stepped out of Dragonhome’s space elevator onto the platform and headed towards the edge.
‘Captain Jian!’ someone shouted to one side, and I turned. Five Imperial Guards, in their blue and silver uniforms, were waiting for me. Two were small mammals, one was an aquatic in a liquid bubble, and one was a metre-long slug. Graf itself towered over all of them at the back.
I went to them and they each placed a limb over various parts of their bodies. I put my hand over my heart in return.
‘Thank the thousand-legged hellspawn you’re here,’ Graf said. ‘Welcome, Captain. Come with us.’
I followed the group towards a transparent floating disk, and we all stepped up onto it. The disk lifted and carried us over the edge of the platform then headed down towards the Imperial Palace. I’d travelled this way enough times that I didn’t panic at the lack of walls. Flying over the Palace precinct wasn’t encouraged, to preserve an uncluttered vista, and when people did fly on transparent disks, the preferred travel method was to have the passengers made invisible by Marque.
‘Captain Shudo can’t make it; the babies are still too small,’ Graf said. ‘So unfortunately you’re stuck with me to show you how everything works.’ It raised its three front hairy legs, which reflected the light in pearlescent rainbows. ‘I am so sorry.’
‘Marque can help,’ I said. ‘I’m sure you did fine.’
‘Yeah, that’s not the case,’ Graf said.
‘Graf tried, ma’am,’ the aquatic said. ‘It did its best.’
‘That’s the part that hurts the most,’ Graf said. ‘It’s terrible when your best isn’t good enough.’
We arrived onto the square next to the Empress’ Palace.
‘I’ve moved out of the captain’s quarters, and the habitat’s been erased,’ Graf said. ‘Come this way.’ It turned on all thirteen legs to face the other guards. ‘Leave us to it and come back tomorrow.’
‘Captain?’ one of them said, and they all focused on me.
‘Uh, dismissed?’ I said. They appeared satisfied with that and left.
‘Good,’ Graf said. ‘Excellent start.’ It gathered itself, rising and dipping on its legs. ‘The Empress sleeps in a floating dome above the Palace – it’s not physically connected to the rest of the building; she’s carried by Marque into her bedroom. We occupy the top of the building beneath her; anyone else who wants to see her outside audience hours has to go through us.’ The disk lifted again and carried us through the floor of the mushroom-shaped tower in the centre of the Palace. We arrived at a round room that was twenty metres across, decorated in blue and silver, and obviously their common room. There were tables, chairs, mats and holographic entertainment areas.
‘Ready to see your quarters?’ Graf said. ‘You should start there; you have to tailor them.’
‘Yes.’
It guided me through the door – ducking so that its eyes didn’t hit the top of the frame – into a curving corridor with more doors opening off it. It led me along the corridor for a few doors, and we arrived at a door that was the full height of the corridor, nearly three metres, with a blue and silver chevron embossed into it. Graf led me through to an area that was obviously a section of the circular tower. Each long side was thirty metres, and the curved part was a similar size, with huge windows overlooking the Imperial Square. The room was a massive triangular space thirty metres to a side, and the short wall with the door was ten metres across. The gravity was so low that I grabbed the door frame to avoid slinging myself into the room. The oxygen was too high, the humidity was saturating, and it was raining gently.
‘Sorry, I left it on Graf’s specs,’ Marque said, and the weather stopped. The air dried to Earth-normal bio parameters and the gravity became close to Earth-normal.
‘How long do you need to work with Marque to set it up for you?’ Graf said. ‘Let me know and I’ll have everyone gather in the common room to meet you when you’re done.’
I walked up to the windows; the room was up so high that nearly the entire square was visible, with many citizens of the Empire strolling among the exhibition domes displaying the current featured planet’s wildlife. The blue-white sun was setting, throwing pale blue shadows across the white tiles of the square.
‘I want to see my office first,’ I said. ‘I take it there’s a workspace with a private meeting area and room for the records close to the Empress’ own? That’s more important than my living space.’ I looked around. ‘Marque, put together something like I had on Shiumo’s ship to start off with – bedroom, bathroom, living room – and I’ll tweak it later. Create a small garden-type area for Endicott, and ask a dragon to bring her.’ I turned to Graf. ‘I want to see the workspace, catch up with the protocols, and speak to the Empress. I’ll talk to the rest of the team after that – there’s no point in giving them a huge lecture about what I’ll do in the job if I have no idea about the internal culture.’
‘This way, ma’am,’ Graf said, broadcasting awe.
‘How many members in the guard at the moment?’ I asked Graf as Marque took us down to the administrative centre.
Graf’s mouthparts moved uncomfortably. ‘We lost many, ma’am, because of my incompetence. I’m very intelligent with numbers and records, but hopeless with species that aren’t similar to my own. Eating your young is just so normal for me, and in other people’s eyes it makes me a monster. I keep forgetting not to joke about it.’
‘You must have a blast comparing social cues with the clicks,’ I said.
‘I have asked a click to give me tips on negotiating and dealing with—’ Graf began, then stopped. ‘By the many-legged. That was a joke. I adore you and want to hold you down and force you to have sexual relations right now.’ It made a low rumble deep in its abdomen. ‘We have twenty-seven members remaining from the allocation of forty-six. Eight are on rotation at any one time, but this does not give us sufficient numbers to handle sudden time off in emergencies. The Empress is not sufficiently guarded by living subjects.’
‘I am deeply offended,’ Marque said.
‘She’s only guarded by a worthless AI that would rather see drama than safety,’ Graf said with emphasis.
Graf showed me to the captain’s office: the area was still configured for its own species, who kept records in their webs. There was a central open space with a scaffold for Graf to sit on, surrounded by a dense tangle of scarlet webs that were its records.
‘Marque hasn’t reconfigured it yet,’ Graf said. ‘You need to tell it what you want.’ It stood in the middle of the room under the scaffold and fidgeted with its front palps.
‘Did you cross-index the records? How did you organise them?’ I said, looking up at the maze of threads. The ceiling was twenty metres above, in a cone shape, and the webs covered every surface.
‘Yes!’ Graf said, and raised all three front legs with enthusiasm. ‘The records were totally disorganised when I came – Shudo relied completely on Marque and cared more about morale than efficiency.’ It lowered its legs. ‘Probably why we lost so many staff. I’ve reindexed them, cross-indexing on date, officer involved, and type of incident. Some interesting trends have appeared – I think you need to talk to one or two of the officers about the
ir relations with particular species types.’ It crouched with shame. ‘I didn’t want to bring it up with them, after doing such a poor job.’
‘I understand.’ I hesitated, then ploughed on. Graf was hopeless with social cues, and Marque wasn’t helping. ‘I’m going to move everything in the office around, and you don’t need to stay and watch. You’ve done a great job, and I’ll convert this to something more suitable for myself. If you want to go out while I mess up your hard work, I would understand.’
Graf stood looking at me with all ten of its eyes. ‘You will be a wonderful captain,’ it said, turned and went out, closing the door behind it.
‘Marque, you fucker!’ I shouted at the ceiling. ‘You complete bastard. You do that to any of my fucking staff ever again and I will fucking banish you from every family meeting that I have for the next ten years and you will hear no more Choumali drama for a long time. Do you understand?’
‘What did I do?’ Marque said, sounding bewildered.
‘How fucking dare you,’ I grumbled, still pissed. ‘You’ll put up a strong socialisation filter for the clicks because they’re useful, but poor Graf gets its words translated directly. You know damn well that Graf’s compliment was an offensive threat of violence to humans, you fucker.’ I waved at the webs. ‘Turn this into a written searchable database in Euro on a standard holodesk.’
‘Oh,’ Marque said, and the room reorganised itself. The webs disappeared, revealing white walls, and the desk grew from the floor, with the display above it showing all the incidents in a complex network of connections.
‘Meeting table for six, with space big enough for aliens of Graf’s size,’ I said, moving behind the desk to see the database. I pulled one of Graf’s marked connections closer and inspected it. ‘Make an area for Endicott behind my desk, with a dog bed for her. Heh. Graf’s right, it looks like Five-Shriek really hates aquatics.’ I looked around for another door, and none were visible. ‘Does this room connect to the Empress’ office?’
‘Yes. There’s a portal in the ceiling that comes out through the floor, next to my decorative tube at the back of her office.’
‘Move this office next to hers and give me a connecting door that I can use. Confirm with her as to whether she wants a privacy atrium between the two areas.’ I swung the display around. ‘Bring up the roster.’
The names, species and designations appeared on the desk, and I sat to go through them. I checked the local time; it was near to the end of the working day. ‘Tell the guard I’ll meet with them first thing tomorrow, and let me know when Endicott arrives.’ I glanced up and said, ‘You’d better look after my dog.’
‘I will, ma’am,’ it said, sounding sheepish.
Many hours later I yawned and stretched; it was nearly two a.m. my time and I should really get some sleep, even though the incident records were fascinating. I rose to head towards my quarters, and realised that I’d been so engrossed in the job that I hadn’t been thinking of Aki at all. The knowledge that she’d be glad to see me like this pierced my heart.
*
My investiture was a major ceremony held in the middle of Sky City square. A raised circular dais stood in the middle of the square, three metres higher than the surface. Marque carried the Empress and me over a surprisingly large crowd of spectators – there must have been more than a thousand, human and alien, but many of them were probably there for the obligatory post-ceremony party. Marque dropped us onto the dais, where the rest of the Imperial Guard were arrayed in ranks waiting for us, with Graf at the front. A couple of smaller dragons that I didn’t recognise were there as well, and a goldenscales servant dragon.
Even though the blue-white sun had set, artificial light wasn’t needed. The dragon homeworld had no moons, and its location close to the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy made the sky a haze of bright, colourful stars. A blue and purple nebula was close enough to fill half the sky in Sky City; the city’s location was chosen to give the maximum benefit of its beauty, and the dragons occasionally moved the floating city when the view became stale. The folding nexus of linked satellites with their space elevators connecting to the ground glittered like a web over the brilliant surface of the sky.
The Empress stepped forward, and Marque created a projection of her above our heads. The crowd went quiet.
The Empress turned to face the guard. ‘Captain Graf.’
‘My Empress.’ Graf raised its three front legs and stood quietly in front of her.
‘You are discharged from your position,’ she said. ‘I accept your resignation. You have served me faithfully and well.’ She turned to the spectators. ‘We recognise the exemplary service of Captain Graf and wish it well in the future.’
‘I pass my commission to my successor, Jian Choumali,’ Graf said. It stepped back and gestured with one of its palps for me to come forward.
I stepped up and stood in front of the Empress next to Graf.
‘Do you promise to protect the Empress, even to the loss of your own life?’ Graf said.
‘I do,’ I said.
‘Do you promise to obey her orders without question?’ Graf said.
‘Oh, hell no,’ I said. ‘I’ll question her orders if I think she’s being unwise.’
Graf turned to face the Empress. ‘I recommend you accept Jian Choumali’s service as Captain of the Guard. She’ll protect your life, and intelligently advise you in matters of household security.’
‘Jian Choumali,’ the Empress said, and the crowd went silent. ‘Do you place your soul in my hands?’
I reached up and levered my fingertips around the edge of the soulstone in my forehead. There wasn’t any adhesive holding it in; it was more like a magnet, clinging to the soul within my body. I prised one edge away and the entire stone popped out of my head. It was three centimetres across, and faceted red in acknowledgement of Shiumo, the first dragon to visit Earth and begin our reproductive conquest. I knelt and held the stone out to the Empress.
It seemed that everybody present was holding their breath. The Empress took my stone and nodded to me. She raised it to the crowd. It was highly unlikely that a drop from a couple of metres could damage a soulstone, but there was still a chance of it happening, and it truly felt as if she were holding my life in her hand.
‘I accept Jian Choumali as Captain of the Guard,’ she said. ‘Obey her as you would me.’ She gave me the stone back, and I popped it back into my forehead with relief. It really did feel like a magnetic tug, and the weird energy from the stone pulsed through my head. It wasn’t painful, more like a rush of pins and needles as it attuned itself to my soul frequency.
‘Tomoyo,’ the Empress said, and a pale grey dragon, almost white, with deep brown eyes stepped forward. She had four legs and a pair of massive wings that she kept carefully folded at her sides. ‘This is your personal dragon transport,’ the Empress said. ‘Tomoyo is yours to transport you anywhere you wish, any time.’
Tomoyo bowed her dragon head to me. ‘I am honoured to work with you.’
‘Wait what—’ I began, but the Empress didn’t let me finish.
‘Please join me in celebration for the new Captain of the Guard,’ the Empress said. ‘We will have a four-sector celebration, with fringe contests of strength, skill, intelligence and battle. Enjoy!’
Transparent walls of rainbow-like energy sprang up from the corners of the square to the centre, and four grey symbols appeared above each person’s head.
‘I don’t need a personal dragon transport,’ I said to the Empress through the cheering of the crowd.
‘It’s part of the job. It’s as prestigious for her as it is for you.’ She glanced down at me. ‘Deal with it.’
‘What she said, Captain,’ Tomoyo said. ‘Any time you need me – day or night, on-world or off-world – you can call on me. I’m based on the folding nexus, so I can carry you from the homeworld at any time.’ She eyed me appreciatively. ‘I’d be delighted to show you my two-legged form later.’
; The Empress snorted with amusement, then grew serious. ‘Heads up, diplomats incoming.’
A group of ambassadors approached the central area. The Empress graciously introduced me to everybody, and Ambassador Maxwell had brought her husband. He was much taller than her, and had undergone the rejuvenation treatment to make him appear in his thirties, to her fifties. His translucently fair skin glowed under the lights of the party and highlighted his bright red hair – something not often seen since the Great Migrations of the early twenty-third century.
‘I’m showing my husband how dragon celebrations work; this is his first time,’ the Ambassador said.
‘How do you know which section is which?’ he asked her.
‘Ask Marque for confirmation when you move from one to another,’ she said. ‘We have preference indicators over our heads; nobody will ask you to have sex with them, don’t worry. Tell Marque which sector you want to participate in, and the symbol above your head will glow. It stays grey if you don’t.’ The Ambassador nodded to me. ‘No rest for poor Captain Choumali, though, she has to follow the Empress through all the festivities.’
‘It’s shapes as well,’ I said. ‘Squares for food and drink. Circles for music and dance. Triangles for storytelling, and a wobbly rounded shape for the orgy.’
‘It’s not an orgy,’ the Empress said with scorn. ‘Reproduction is an important social activity for many species. And I should ask: if you do it in private, how do your young learn to do it right?’
The Ambassador smiled. ‘There are ways.’
‘And the fringe?’ the Ambassador’s husband said.
‘The fringe contests are fun to watch, if you’re interested,’ I said. ‘Although the contest of battle skills can get a bit . . . bloody.’
He made a face. ‘Maybe not.’ He turned to the Ambassador. ‘I’m relying on you to help me out here, Charlie.’
She put her arm around his waist. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you have fun.’
Shudo staggered up to us, holding a wooden cup full of the fiery alcohol from his homeworld. He barely came up to my waist, and was covered in bright pink fur. But his size was deceptive; he was a master of his species’ particularly nasty blend of martial arts that used their poisoned heel-spurs to lethal effect. He grinned at me, revealing his three rows of sharp teeth. ‘Jian! Silver! It feels so good to be away from the babies for the night.’ He waved his cup around. ‘Isn’t this party the best?’