The View from the Imperium (45 page)

“Go safely and return safely, dear,” Aunt Sforzina said, as I rose to depart.

“I shall,” I said, kissing her on her wrinkled cheek.

“Have you told your father where you’re going yet?” Uncle Perleas asked.

“I can’t tell anyone where I’m going, uncle,” I reminded him.

“You can tell your father anything, my boy,” Uncle Perleas said, laying a finger alongside his nose. “For his peace of mind, anyhow.”

And so, I found myself standing outside my father’s workshop again. Father glanced up at once when he saw me and closed the lid of the communications console he had been using.

“Thomas!” he said, coming over to shake my hand. “What a pleasure! When did you get home?”

He wasn’t as lucid as I hoped he would be. “I have been home for a couple of weeks, sir. Father, I’m going to be . . . doing something.”

He patted me on the back. “Good, my boy. It’s good to be useful.”

“Yes, it is,” I said with pride. “I’m going on a diplomatic mission. Er, to the Castaway Cluster.”

Father wrinkled his brow. “It’s a long way off. Are you bringing precautions with you?”

“Precautions?”

“It’s best to have a good defense there.” He leaned close to my ear. “Bugs, you know.”

“Bugs?”

“Yes. Smart as computers, too. And there are billions of them.”

“Well, I am bringing Parsons. I would pit him against any billion computers.”

“Why are you going?”

I mused upon that for a moment. “I don’t really know. I am to look about and listen. Get to know people, I suppose. They’ve stopped trading with the Imperium. We need to find out what they want.”

“Ah!” Father said, taking my forearm in a steel grip. “Don’t ask them what they want. Ask them what they are afraid of.” He nodded several times. “Remember that.”

“I shall, Father.” I pondered that a good deal, and knew I would ponder about it long after we had lifted ship.

He smiled, his eyes hazing over again. If one could call the last few moments lucid, they were over again for now. He reached over to his work station and tucked an object in my hand. “Here. Take this with you.”

I opened my palm to find the puzzle box on it that he had carved. The red gem winked at me tantalizingly from inside its nest of carved spheres. “Father, I can’t take this. It’s valuable.”

He waved a dismissive hand. “I am finished with it,” he said. “I am on to my next invention.” He leaned close to me, after looking this way and that to make certain we were not overheard. “An unbreakable door-stopper!”

My heart sank. “Of course, Father. The world is waiting for that. It will be treasured anywhere.”

Father’s face was alight with the fire of the fanatic. “It is, son! It is. Send me a message when you get . . . wherever it is that you said.”

“I will, Father.”

He smiled at me and gestured toward his communicator. “Your Uncle Laurence sends his regards.”

“Mine to him, as well,” I said.

Poor Father. I corrected myself angrily as I made my way back to my rooms. I refused to fall into thinking that way! He had given me good advice. I hoped that I would come to understand it before I needed it.

* * *

A roar of static woke Councillor DeKarn. She had just settled down in her bunk for yet another night in her lonely cell. She had not seen another living being in many weeks, though she knew upon waking some mornings that others had been there, undoubtedly to search, but also to clean. After the first incident when she had awakened to the scent of bleach, and found her desk chair closer to the entertainment console than it had been when she left it and not a fingermark anywhere in the room, she began to leave a control or an object in a position that she would detect a change. The console sustained the most examination. She had been heartsick to think that the Trade Unionists, for she was convinced they were responsible for her captivity, might detect the news programs she could receive and remove them, but every bleach-scented morning she was relieved to see they were still there.

She swung easily out of the small bed and landed lightly upon her toes. One good thing about enforced idleness, she had been able to stick to an exercise regime. With the survival bars as her only source of nutrition, though she thought about food all the time, she had begun to lose weight slowly. When she pinched the roll of flesh at her waist, it was much reduced. Her new self was cold most of the time, though. She took the coverlet and wrapped it around her shoulders as she approached the console.
More programming?
she wondered. Looked at the screen.

As if it sensed her presence, the screen became brighter. The image, the last graphic in the latest chapter on the history of ore mining on planetary surfaces, vanished, to be replaced by the opening image of the Grid. Her hands shot onto the keys. She entered her code, but the image vanished before she could complete it. She let out a cry of frustration. Another tease of freedom that never came. But it did not vanish entirely. A pale blue message form appeared, the blank upon which she or her correspondents would enter text or graphics for silent communication instead of video or audio. On it was three words. She had only time to read them before the form disappeared again.

Help is coming.

Chapter 27

I arrived at the Oromgeld Spaceport on a bright, sunny morning with all of my luggage organized, packed and locked to my personal satisfaction. My cameras hovered around me like guardian angels. I wore a brilliant terracotta-colored tunic in the newest fashion, with the clever hem cut to echo the line of the mountains that surrounded Taino. Now that I was traveling as a gentlebeing, I was entitled to bring with me or wear anything I liked. As much as I had enjoyed my uniforms, I much preferred this state of being. Conscious of eyes upon me, I strutted along the pathway toward the open air terminal from which I would board my shuttle.

True to Admiral Podesta’s avowal, Parsons and I were not shipping out with him on the
Wedjet,
but aboard another member of the Red Fleet, the
Shahmat
. She was heading out toward galactic north, approximately the opposite direction of its flagship, and would launch us on our way beyond Smithereen. I was sad at the thought I might never see any of my shipmates again. We could have had jolly times—during their off-shifts, of course—until my scout launched on its mission to “points unknown.” Unknown, that was, but to all but my mother, Parsons, myself, the mysterious Mr. Frank, whom I had not yet met, the captain of the
Shahmat,
and the Emperor. It gave the rest of the government plausible deniability, that useful phrase, should the mission take a turn for the worst. I was prepared to die for my emperor, but deep down I hoped it would not come to that. My cousins chided me as being too active. I felt their criticism deeply. I would have sworn that none of them could match me for applied idleness in the past.

My preparation for the trip did nothing to disabuse them. In advance of my upcoming mission, I spent several days flitting around Taino, taking pictures of all the finest sights, and went to some trouble to obtain a few fresh images of the Emperor, to show to my putative hosts in the Castaway Cluster. The chances were that they had never been here, and that any images they had were several years old. Shojan was very patient about the picture session. I jumped around like a droplet on a hot pan to take as many exposures as I could to get the most flattering images. His secretary went over my files to make certain that I had not made a fool of our sovereign, and was actually impressed by one image in particular. In it, Shojan looked so absolutely regal, I nearly bowed to the picture myself. The secretary was pleased to inform me it was going in the royal archives with my byline. I was proud. All those images, with that one enhanced, were duplicated in storage so I would not lose them.

I had prepared, studied and anticipated all that it was possible to do with so little advance information on what we would find at our destination. My nerves jangled so much I was surprised they were not actually audible. I was keenly aware of the trust that had been placed in me by my mother and Parsons. I would play my part of envoy with all that was in me, to reward that trust. It was a great pity I had no one else with whom I could share the proud moment.

“Hey, Thomas!” shouted a male voice as I passed into open air terminal number four. I looked up to see hands pointing at me.

To my astonishment and everlasting delight, I saw familiar faces behind those hands. Redius, Anstruther, Nesbitt, Oskelev and Plet stood together in the center of a ring of bags I had seen two weeks before.

All but Plet descended on me for back slapping and playful elbowing.

“What are you doing here?” Oskelev asked, exchanging furry cheek presses with me. She beamed, showing her sharp teeth.

“I’ve . . . I have to go . . . off-system,” I said, wiping a few stray hairs from my face. “It’s a bit classified. But that’s not important. What about you? Is the
Wedjet
still here?” I quailed a little at the thought of running into Admiral Podesta again. “I thought it left a week ago.”

“It’s gone,” Nesbitt confirmed, looking concerned. “We got orders to remain on Taino. No one gave us a clue. We were just pulled off our regular assignments and told to stay ashore. I mean, I wasn’t going to say no to an extra week of leave. We were told to come here today to await pending instructions.” He eyed me, a half-formed expression of hope on his big, rough face. “I don’t suppose you have the same ones.”

A tiny kernel of joy deep inside me suddenly burst and put forth a shoot of hope. “I would venture to believe that I do.”

“Yay!” Redius caroled, the spots above his eyes growing brighter. “Opportunity for enjoyment!”

Anstruther looked concerned. “But where are we going? What’s the mission?”

I hesitated. “It’s rather important. I think I can say that without fear of reprisal. But I don’t dare say more at the moment.” That didn’t satisfy them; it would not have appeased me, either.

“Bailly grkked off, I predict,” Oskelev said, smugly. “You here, he not.”

“Well, this is an ideal situation for the rest of us,” I said happily. Then I noticed the look of reserve on Plet’s face. “Oh, Lieutenant, I apologize. I am so sorry.”

A thin eyebrow ascended. “For what, sir?

“Well, getting assigned to work with me again. It was Parsons’s doing, not mine.”

The other eyebrow joined the first. “No, sir. It was mine. I volunteered.”

I did a double-take. “You
what?”

“I volunteered, sir. Oskelev was given a special assignment, the highest level of confidentiality. She came to me to ask if I could find out any details for her; I could not. Bailly was also requested, but he has Chinook flu. Seeing as those two were on the Smithereen mission I had a hunch that you might be involved. I asked Admiral Podesta to go in Bailly’s place.”

A triple-take, as my sense of reality was shaken. “You? You relied upon intuition?”

She gave me a perturbed frown. “I also took into account the rumors flying around the crew’s Infogrid groups. You are the subject of much speculation and gossip all over the
Wedjet
. I pieced together enough information to make an educated guess. My application was accepted, as you see.”

“Really?” Suddenly the day looked brighter. “I thought you’d never want to work with me again.”

Her expression really did nothing to disabuse me, though she said, “You are inexperienced, sir, but in time I think you’ll make an excellent officer.”

“Well, perhaps if you work with me,” I suggested, attempting to look humble. Inwardly, I was elated.

“I consider it to be my duty.”

“It’s a deal, then,” I said. “My mother would be so pleased if I came home with the bearing of an officer.”

Anstruther beamed at me. “Do you know where we’re going, Thomas?”

I hesitated. “I . . . don’t know what I may say until I am sure you are coming with me,” I said, cautiously. They looked crestfallen. I foresaw that my new sense of responsibility was going to interfere greatly with casual, friendly exchanges. The new Thomas saw countless pitfalls in his former mode of conversation. There was so much I now knew that must never pass my lips under any circumstances. But, oh, how glad I was to see my friends! I hoped that I would not be disappointed. “Parsons will be here soon. I am sure he can answer all your questions.”

As if he had been waiting for his cue, that dignified person shimmered out of the blazing sun and coalesced in our midst. I greeted him heartily and reacquainted him with our fellow crewbeings. Not that Parsons ever forgot a name or a face. He offered them cool, courteous nods, then turned back to me. He hesitated, and I realized he was staring at my new tunic.

“What is it, sir?”

“It’s the newest trend,” I said, spreading out the fabric of my upper garment to show off the elaborate embroidery. “Very expensive and exclusive—geographic replicas. I thought it would be a tribute to our hosts . . . you know where. Do you like it?”

“There are no words to describe my reaction to it, sir,” Parsons said. I thought I detected a millisecond of emotion . . . was it envy? “May I suggest we discuss this later? The transport is due to arrive very soon.”

I was aware of the hopeful faces around me, and knew that my own bore the same stamp. I edged closer and lowered my voice to an undertone.

“Parsons, they
are
coming with us?”

“Of course, sir,” he said. “I believe you had already surmised as much. In light of your assignment, it would look odd if you did not have a staff attending you.”

Redius, whose Uctu hearing was far superior to that of mere humans or Wichus, cheered. The others discerned the reason, and set up their own clamor. I beamed.

“We’re going aboard the
Shahmat,
” I said. “I, uh, tried to look up the crew on Infogrid, but my access has been restricted. Have any of you met Captain Calhoun?”

A flurry of head-shaking met my query. “No, sir,” Plet added. “I only know she’s good and smart. Her crew would be willing to follow her into a black hole.”

“Splendid!” I exclaimed. “Because there’s one not far . . .” Parsons’s eye froze my tongue, and I subsided before the words “from where we are going,” made it the rest of the way out of my mouth. I rearranged the syllables. “I look forward to meeting her.”