by Kylie Chan
‘Oh, you can talk!’ I said.
Mum’s head drooped. ‘Another reason to skip five years. Yuki is unable to love me like this.’
‘Oh I am so sorry, I forgot about that . . .’ I took her dragon head in my hands. ‘Will she wait for you?’
‘She says she will, and that five years is nothing.’
‘You won’t rush into this, will you? We can spend some time together before you do it?’
‘Of course. I need to sort out my crops – and my project – and make sure they’re cared for.’
‘I’ll miss you, Mum.’
‘I’ll be back before you know it.’
Marque flashed an image into my vision of five armed people – wearing samurai-style outfits and carrying guns, with swords shoved into their belts – charging towards the hall.
‘They’re modified,’ he said. ‘Select a plan.’
‘Beta,’ I said, and ran inside.
The attackers were almost as enhanced as me. The crowd was in slow motion as the attackers operated with flawless teamwork. One threw a concussion grenade into the middle of the room and Namazozo leaped on top of it in an attempt to stop the blast. Namazozo was only the size of a weasel and didn’t have much effect on the blast, exploding everywhere in a fountain of blood and flesh. Marque deadened the blast, but it still knocked people and furniture over and deafened me. Everything was thumping bass as I picked myself up off the floor, half-stunned, to protect the Empress, who’d been talking to the Queen of Euroterre.
Another of the attackers used a laser-based weapon to fire a red-hot beam on Marque’s sphere, and the sphere was forced to protect itself with an energy barrier. With Marque occupied in self-defence it was on me to defend the Empress. She quickly moved into the corner of the room, away from the other people present. One of the attackers fired a similar energy weapon at the Empress. I shot the attacker’s hand off and she missed the Empress, but the wood behind the Empress was scorched and started to burn. I shot the attacker in the chest to finish her off.
‘Running out,’ Marque said in my ear.
‘Gotcha.’ Another attacker raced towards the Empress, pulling a sword from his sash. I shot him in the chest before he could reach her, and he fell with a look of confusion on his face. I went up to him and picked up his sword, then turned to face the rest of the attackers. The attacker who had been focusing the beam on Marque turned to run towards the Empress, and I shot her before she could attack the dragon. Another ran to the Empress and I shot him in the chest before he could reach us.
The last attacker shot at the Marque sphere and must have winged it as it was running out of energy; it fell out of the air. With Marque down I was no longer invisible, and the attacker turned the weapon on me and fired, but missed because Graf lifted him from behind and dangled him from Graf’s front legs. Graf ripped the gun from him, taking his hand with it, and the attacker screamed with agony as he pulled his blade out with his other hand.
‘Don’t let him kill himself – he has no stone!’ I shouted as the human stabbed himself in the abdomen and ripped the blade up through his lungs and heart.
I staggered to the Empress as someone found a fire extinguisher and put out the blazing wood behind her. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘You were all magnificent.’
I looked out onto the veranda to check on my mother, and didn’t see her. I went to the door and found her cowering as far away as possible.
‘Stay there,’ I said. ‘I think we have all of them.’
She stared at me blankly.
I went back in and spoke to Graf. ‘Did we get them all?’
Graf made some random clicks, waving its front pincers.
I switched to dragonspeak. ‘Marque must be completely down. That means there could be others around. Five-Shriek,’ I shouted at the ceiling.
‘I’m checking the perimeter,’ the flyer shouted back in dragon. ‘I can’t see anything.’
‘Do a thorough search of the area for any other armed humans.’
‘Ma’am.’
Graf stood holding the dead attacker with a look of confusion on its face.
‘My dragon is terrible,’ it said with a thick mushy accent.
‘I can understand you, so good enough,’ I said.
People were picking themselves up, but a couple were still prone on the floor, possibly killed by the grenade. Something was wrong with my left side, and when I my put my hand to it, it came away wet with blood – I’d been injured and didn’t even know how or when it had happened. I went to the woman lying on the floor closest to me, and saw it was the Queen – she’d been knocked over but seemed to be okay. She was breathing and blinking with confusion at the ceiling. The man next to her was the Prince-Consort, and he must have jumped in front of her to protect her from the blast, because he had a couple of broken bones, and from his racing pulse and cold skin could be either in shock or have internal bleeding. Namazozo was shredded by the blast, and I looked around for her stone. It must be embedded in one of the lumps of her flesh.
Aki came and crouched next to me. ‘What can I do?’
‘Find medical assistance,’ I said. I raised my head and shouted, ‘I need a dragon.’
‘I’m here,’ my mother said behind me.
I turned to see her. ‘No, I need a dragon to fold us a new Marque sphere.’
‘Masako already went,’ Haruka said. He crouched next to the Prince-Consort, raised his eyelids, and felt his pulse. ‘Nothing life-threatening, but he should go to the Palace infirmary. Is it functional? Or should they go to a hospital?’
‘It’s functional,’ Aki said. ‘It needed to be – to do this—’ he gestured towards himself ‘—to me.’
Masako appeared next to him with a new Marque sphere. ‘Are you okay, Mother?’
‘I’m fine,’ the Empress said from behind me. ‘Poor Namazozo. Is her stone anywhere around?’
‘We’ll find it,’ I said.
Five-Shriek spoke to me through comms. ‘We found their backup team, ma’am, in a vehicle just outside the secure perimeter. Your orders?’
‘I sincerely hope they are scared of spiders, because Graf and I are on our way,’ I said. I rosed and brushed at my stained blue and silver uniform, and my hand came away wet with more blood. ‘Time to have some fun with the man in the van.’ I took a step and the polished floorboards rushed up to meet me, hitting me hard on the head.
*
I rose into wakefulness in a bed full of the scent of miso soup and barley tea, and I was at home with Aki beside me. I opened my eyes and the ceiling was wrong, then looked left and saw the Empress watching me. It all came back to me and I lifted the blanket and pulled up the hospital gown to see a sheet of artificial skin twenty centimetres to a side covering a scar nearly fifteen centimetres long over the left side of my abdomen. I dropped the blanket and turned to the Empress, feeling the twinge as I did.
‘What hit me?’
‘Namazozo’s soulstone. You cushioned its impact with your body, and saved Namazozo’s life.’
‘Oh.’
‘Jian.’ She put one claw on the sheet. ‘Did you see that they weren’t wearing soulstones?’
‘After the first one, yes, I did.’
‘And you shot them in the chest instead of the head anyway?’
I smiled without humour. ‘I couldn’t help it. Extensive training with battle hobbyists. We all know that the location of the stone is sacred, even if they take it out beforehand.’
She nodded. ‘Excellent. It’s good to know that my Captain will take care not to inflict the Real Death, regardless of the circumstances.’
‘Did they have stones stored elsewhere? Marque would know,’ I said.
‘No.’
‘So I did inflict the Real Death.’
‘Do you feel guilt about that?’
I hesitated, then said, ‘No. It was their choice to attack us and I was doing my job.’
‘Good.’
‘Sore and woozy but I’ll be fine,’ I said.
Aki turned to the Empress and bowed deeply. ‘I take personal responsibility for this outrageous crime. The terrorists are dead—’
‘Aki,’ the Empress said gently, and Aki stopped. ‘This has happened every single time our colonised species realised what we were doing. There’d always be an assassination attempt; in fact, many dragons bet on how long it would take. The attempts always stopped when the reproductive conquest was complete.’
‘When you become family,’ I said.
‘Precisely.’ She raised her silver claw. ‘In the case of Earth, you negotiated your way out of conquest, and your subjugation will never be complete. Never more than half of your population will be dragonscales. It will be fascinating to see if the assassination attempts continue.’ She turned her head to me. ‘Do you need more staff in the guard?’
‘No, we had it under complete control, even with Marque as limited as it was. On a planet with a full-size Marque you would be in no danger at all.’
‘Good.’ The Empress turned back to Aki. ‘This is why I have living guards as well as Marque. It happens all the time.’
‘I would still like to pay reparation for the uncouth behaviour of my people,’ Aki said stiffly.
‘There’s no need . . .’ The Empress’ voice trailed off. ‘Actually, come to think of it, my royal behind has an extremely good suggestion.’
18
Fifteen years later, Tomoyo folded Bartlett and me onto Mum’s deck. Mum was waiting for me holding a basket of potatoes.
‘Disappear,’ Mum said as she pushed the basket at Tomoyo. ‘This is private.’
‘With pleasure,’ Tomoyo said, and did.
‘You’re early,’ Mum said as I followed her into her living room. Bartlett raced between us, his tail wagging furiously, hoping that I was going on a trip again and leaving him with Mum instead of Oliver.
‘You said I could view your project if I turned up a little early,’ I said.
‘Only if you tell me what the announcement is about,’ she said, her smile sly.
I followed her into her little theatre. ‘It’s about the cat ships that left their homeworld fifteen years ago.’
‘They didn’t waste any time about heading back after we dropped them home. I heard there’d been skirmishes at the border with them. Are they going to invade the Empire again?’
‘That’s beside the point, because we have a new way to stop them, and the Empress herself wants to share it with everybody. We don’t have to wait for them to drop out of warp and attack us – the second they enter Empire space, we can bundle them up and send them home.’
‘About time,’ she said. ‘This war of attrition has been exhausting.’ She gestured towards the theatre’s circular projection area. ‘Is there anywhere in particular you’d like to see?’
‘Can you show me Wales?’ I said. ‘The Wales we knew – mostly under water – is gone, and it’s been so transformed I don’t recognise it any more. I’d like to see Wales before we wrecked everything.’
A towering forest appeared around us. The ground was thick with leaf litter, and an animal trail meandered between the trees. A stream gurgled nearby, and I could smell the rich, damp soil.
Bartlett ran around the projection, then back to me, disappointed. He knew the difference between projection and reality.
‘This is the location on Gaia that matches here,’ Marque said.
‘Wow,’ I said, turning on the spot and watching the sunlight filter through the canopy as birds sang and flitted high above. ‘The trees are huge.’
‘Humanity does seem to have an issue with trees,’ Marque said. ‘This part of the world was mostly covered in forest, and you destroyed it all.’
‘We’re very good at destroying things,’ Mum said.
I walked around the small area that Marque projected, relishing the experience. There was a rustle nearby, and a red doe as tall as me walked out of the foliage onto the trail, her nose quivering as she scented the air. A fawn emerged a minute later, awkward on its spindly legs. The doe headed along the trail towards the water with the fawn following her. I walked behind them until I reached the edge of the projection and had to stop.
‘If you want to, I can—’ Marque began.
‘I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, no direct neural stimulation,’ I said. ‘I never want to doubt the reality of my experiences.’
‘Suit yourself,’ Marque said. ‘I should point out that you trust me with your soulstone—’
‘Can I see the mountains of China?’ I said. ‘The location where Mum’s family is from.’
The view shifted so that I was standing on a ledge two metres long and a metre wide, close to the top of a steeply vertical mountain. A river meandered through a forest far below, the sunlight reflecting off it to make it appear as a ribbon of light. A cold breeze brushed my face as it rose from the greenery below and swept up the side of the mountain.
‘This is nothing like the place I was born,’ Mum said. ‘Back then, it was a few steep islands sticking out of the water, and they were covered in shanty towns made of mud and shit, pockmarked with damage from the war. Show her North America.’
‘How much longer before it’s finished?’ I said as the view shifted. I was on a great plain of long golden grass, with thousands – millions – of American bison trundling across it and lifting a towering cloud of dust.
‘It will take another fifty or so years before it’s completely stable,’ Mum said. She lowered her voice. ‘No idea what I’ll do with myself when it’s finished.’
‘Do the same thing, but with dinosaurs,’ I said. ‘Not many planets have had what we did – a full ecosystem and major species completely wiped out and replaced. Viewing that one would be very popular.’
‘Yeah, I thought about it, but that’s a little too much like a theme park.’ She shrugged. ‘I might just do what Richard and Echi are doing – travel the seven galaxies. There’s an awful lot to see.’
I turned to smile at her. ‘There is. You’ll love it.’
‘Aki’s press conference is on,’ Marque said.
The image of Gaia disappeared, and we sat to watch Aki’s announcement. Bartlett reclined next to me and put his head in my lap, and I stroked it. ‘I wish you had a chance to meet Aki, Bartlett. Your grandmother adored her.’
‘We all did,’ Mum said, and saw my face. ‘Sorry, honey.’
The projection changed, and it was obvious that the Japanese had gone all-out in an attempt to mimic traditional royal announcements. The antique Japanese television logo appeared in the corner of the display, then a black old-fashioned electric car rolled up to the kerb in a leafy street in Tokyo. Aki and his wife stepped out, and they guided their two children as they emerged. Aki didn’t appear nearly forty; he hadn’t changed much as the years had passed. His wife was much taller than him, obviously physically fit, and had a striking chiselled face that was full of intelligence and good humour. The older son was ten and their younger daughter was eight. Both children were wearing modernised school uniforms and seemed happy to be attending school after years of private instruction.
An official from the school – probably the principal, Marque didn’t bother translating her office – met them at the gate and the usual bows and greetings were exchanged. She took the girl’s hand, nodded to the boy, and led them inside.
Aki smiled at his wife, and she returned it. I felt a pang of pain; that smile used to be for me. He stepped up onto an antique podium – complete with microphones – for the press conference. He’d finally caved in to public demand for media access with the children present and was using their first day of school as an opportunity to do it.
‘Thank you for your well-wishes on our children’s first day of school,’ he said. ‘We hope that by attending here, the future Emperor will gain valuable insight to the needs of the people.’
&n
bsp; ‘Are you planning to change back to a woman?’ one of the press corps shouted.
Aki frowned, and I snorted at the vlogger’s audacity. The Emperor usually gave a five-minute speech followed by carefully pre-assigned questions.
‘Yes,’ Aki said, and there was a gasp of consternation. Aki glanced back at his wife, who nodded. He turned back to the scrum and straightened his shoulders. ‘I am in the wrong body. I am a woman in my heart . . .’ He touched his chest. ‘At my core. The Queen of Euroterre has set a precedent for this. As soon as our son is old enough to take the reins, he will become Emperor. I will return to my true, real sex, and become a woman again.’
‘And how do you feel about that, Empress Hanamaru?’ one of the vloggers shouted.
The Empress stepped up to the podium, and clutched Aki’s hand. She nodded to the microphones and dipped her head to speak at their level. ‘I love the Emperor with all my heart. He has asked me to stay with him – he will be her, then – after he transitions. I will stay with my love because she will fill me with joy, regardless of whichever body she resides in.’ She looked directly at the Marque sphere so that it appeared she was speaking to me. ‘I do not love Emperor Haruhito selfishly. I am not possessive. I love her, and love whoever she loves.’
‘A message for you,’ Marque said.
‘Shut up and butt out,’ I said.
Aki returned to the microphones. ‘The honoured Empress has brought me great joy and two children. My joy will be even greater when our next baby is born, because she is pregnant again, and due in six months.’
The vloggers cheered and applauded, and Hana bowed to them, blushing with genuine delight.
‘My family comes first. When our beloved children are old enough to understand, I will return to my true body.’ Aki appeared to look right at me as well. ‘Even as I am now, I have my loving family, and I am content. I am happy. Truly happy.’
I wiped a tear from my eye.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mum said. ‘That must have been painful to watch. It was a good idea to keep the rest of the family away.’
I chuckled and shook my head. ‘Are you kidding? They’re genuinely in love and happy together, with two terrific kids and another on the way. I’m thrilled to bits for Aki. I thought I’d be jealous and bitter, but I’m just . . . really happy for her. Him.’ I shook my head. ‘Imagine needing an act of Parliament to define your pronouns!’