by Skyler Grant
As the Graven came into orbit around Montaya another Sol ship arrived, the Flare.
I'd once offered Hot Stuff a ship if we came through all our battles intact, and she'd taken me up on it. Hot Stuff had never liked playing by the rules or being just another cog in the machine. The Flare was built with the very best of Sol technology, and I didn’t have a single drone aboard. It was built of Mercurian metal, equipped with an Amy-designed computer core that housed a rebuilt Warmonger, and armed with power projectors and absorbers that Hot Stuff utilized with her vast abilities to enhance the ship’s shields or weapons on demand. Crewed by members of over a dozen other young and hungry races, the Flare was part explorer, part privateer, and part treasure-hunter.
I opened a comm channel and after a few moments a video feed opened.
Hot Stuff's quarters—she still didn't make her bed. Hot Stuff looked well, most of her body covered in a silvery sheen that approximated the appearance of a uniform. After absorbing one of the greater power crystals her heat abilities had gone out of control and it was a situation I still hadn't fully corrected. Her body still had to remain encased in a metal shell and she was unable to eat or drink, although with the assistance of Flower's people I'd managed a respirator that allowed her a collection of super-heated gases to breathe. Without accelerated healing she'd have been long since dead.
"Emma! Sylax said you and Anna were off playing planetary gardeners. How did it go?" Hot Stuff asked.
This new life suited her, she was happier than I'd seen her in a long time.
"We found a deranged and murderous AI. We made him spend a few days along with Caya and he committed suicide. Warmonger sick of you yet?" I asked.
"WE EXTERMINATED PIRATES! THEIR SHIPS FRACTURED AND THEIR PULPY FLESH BITS FROZE IN THE DARKNESS OF SPACE!" Warmonger boomed from the speakers.
"Turned out the abandoned moon of Kachunk wasn't so abandoned. Most had bounties. I already sent the IDs to the council and I’m waiting for payment," Hot Stuff said.
Hot Stuff didn't directly represent Sol. She'd wanted her freedom and we'd given it to her on the condition we got a part of her take and whatever interesting intelligence she uncovered. Already she'd proved to have a fondness for the dark and lawless sections of the galaxy where the council had little sway. It was strange in a way. As a part of the empire she'd come to regret how much killing she had to do and hated just how poorly she fitted into a civilization with rules. Now she was a civilizing force in her own right.
An open comm channel really wasn't an invitation to snoop around her ship’s systems, but of course I did it anyways. Although having gone through combat recently her vessel was undamaged. Given her ability to create energy and to manipulate the Mercurian metal, it made sense. A ship like the Flare wouldn't work for either Caya or Anna. This was a craft that only Hot Stuff could manage effectively
"Then you'll spend a week staring mournfully at the brothels and moving on. Know your next target?" I asked.
"Virtual brothels. All the fun and none of the smells and sounds of sizzling bacon. Check them out. Actually, I've got a few targets in mind. Care to offer an opinion?" Hot Stuff asked.
Hot Stuff traditionally had the problem of cooking her lovers alive, and things hadn’t improved in the regard. Sticking to the virtual probably was for the best.
"A captain a few months and already proving your complete inability to make your own decisions? Of course I'll help," I said.
Hot Stuff gave the camera a wry look. Metal-encased fingers tapped away at a keypad.
"The first is unusual. I don't normally do cargo runs, but it’s a priority mission to the Triangulum Galaxy. I've never been," Hot Stuff said.
Nobody from Sol had. Galactic civilization was by its very definition galactic in scope, and others had their own systems and rules in place that discouraged visiting. There was danger in that, but also opportunity.
"A future as a pack mule seems about what I'd expect from you," I said.
"I don't like it either, and given the amount of money they're offering it must involve something highly illegal. Second, news just hit of the discovery of the site of the Battle of the Twelve Suns. Two great armadas beat the hell out of each other eighty thousand years ago and then the whole region was made fallow," Hot Stuff said.
Every so often the council left large swathes of stars to go fallow to give new intelligences and civilizations a chance to arise. A quick check of what galactic records I had showed no claims from any existing species on the shipwrecks of either side.
"Local landing logs show four hundred and seventeen salvage vessels departing this week alone. You'll get there to find yourself fighting over scraps. While I am sure that would bring up fond memories of your impoverished youth, I doubt it would end any better," I said.
"I'll have you know my gang kicked ass in my younger days," Hot Stuff said.
Well, they had until I'd killed them all. There is always somebody stronger.
"Yes, yes, it was all larceny and exhibitionism run amok. What else?"
"The cavern of stars. Story is a passage to another world opens on a random world every century and stays open for only twenty-four hours. It leads to a land of treasures. Warmonger thinks he's found a pattern to it and in about a week a doorway is going to open on a planet in the Casanali system."
Warmonger was no mathematician. That he was aboard the Flare at all was in part a favor to Flower's people, who didn't want him rejoining their collective, but also didn't want to decommission him when he had, after all, served mostly honorably.
The Casanali system was interesting though, in particular Casanali Three where there was a human colony. The Earth of this universe had at its very end just started to achieve interstellar travel before the whole planet vanished. One of their three colonies was on Casanali Three. They'd rebuffed all official overtures—but if Hot Stuff was anything, it was unofficial.
"Well, you've got to do that one, clearly," I said.
"THE INFERIOR COWARDLY ONE IS CORRECT! WE WILL CONQUER THE WORLD BEYOND THE DOORWAY AND MAKE THEM OUR MINIONS," Warmonger said.
I really had no idea how Hot Stuff put up with him. Did she have some kind of filter where she just ignored the insanity that regularly came out of him? It must be exhausting.
"You think? It seemed a little unlikely to me," Hot Stuff said.
"Triangulum is nothing new, just far, and they'll probably try to kill you instead of pay you anyways. Or you could pick over already picked-over corpses, which is neither heroic or exciting. For an adrenaline-addicted attention addict such as yourself there is only one real option," I said.
"You do have a way of putting things in perspective," Hot Stuff said.
Hot Stuff was no diplomat, but perhaps seeing her and her ship would at least make the human colony on Casalani Three curious to meet the rest of their people.
8
Anna had already left the Graven to go meet with council representatives. Despite nearly instantaneous galactic communication nothing quite got their attention like showing up in person. I didn't having to go to them in search of work, but they remained our best route for credits.
Without galactic business to attend to I took a moment to review the situation in Sol. It wasn't that I didn't trust Amy and Ophelia to run things—well, no, it was pretty much exactly that.
Things were going well. As was to be expected a few biosystems throughout the system were having issues. We'd designed them both from scratch and in a hurry. Amy was working hard to keep her unicorns functioning. I'd known she'd thrown in a few on Earth, but it turned out Mars, Mercury, and Phobos had all gotten their unique varieties. It was a disturbing obsession matched only by her tendency to alter atmospheric conditions to make rainbows commonplace.
The population of Earth was maintaining at around two billion, more than enough to fulfil operations there, while throughout the system another two billion were now thriving. I had been genuine about leaving Amy in charge of everything, however I
still kept a connection to my drones.
Amy was constructing new Juggernauts although system defenses were still far too weak. It made it all the more critical that we stay on the good side of the Galactic Council and whatever protection their good graces afforded us.
My attention was drawn back to Montaya. There were dimensional eddies forming around the planet. An eddy was usually the sign of a D-drive-equipped vessel coming in, and this was a lot of vessels.
Ships materialized in rainbow shimmers. The design was unfamiliar, the hulls formed of crystal, and no two ships were identical. Sizes and designs were subtly different and the crystals tinted different hues, although at least a quarter had the coloration of rose quartz.
They no sooner appeared when they opened fire.
It should have been a futile endeavor. Even taken by surprise Montaya was the seat of sector government and protected by some of the most advanced defenses in the galaxy. They were working, mostly, but in spite of them I was still detecting some weapons impacts on the planet’s surface. Energy beams of some sort, and not ones I recognized.
The planetary defenses returned fire and the attacking vessels performed short dimensional shifts to avoid blasts. It was an impressive feat. Our drives required more cool-down time than that.
I didn't have any Juggernauts in orbit and in danger. Orbital space above Montaya was at a premium. I had only the Graven and the Flare to worry about. The Flare's shields were at full power, Hot Stuff had already connected to the ship’s system. The Graven had defenses of its own, a green energy shield that I had nothing to do with and seemed to be projecting from Caya.
Well, well. Perhaps the ascension engine really had done something to her after all? I tripled the scientific monitors on her. It was hard to know how effective the shield would be against the weapons of these ships. I simply lacked any sort of frame of reference for the energy levels being thrown about.
The attack didn't last long. Forty-eight seconds after the first ship appeared the enemy vessels began to blink out.
A few friendly ships in orbit were destroyed. Neither the Graven or Flare had taken a shot. On the planet’s surface there were one hundred and four points of impact of weapons fire.
I couldn't pick up Anna. That didn’t concern me just yet. Although I hadn't detected any damage to the government quarter, part of the defenses going up there involved a psi-blocker. Meanwhile, all ships in orbit were ordered to hold their places. It was several hours before a council patrol ship moved to give the Flare a thorough scan, an hour after that the Graven.
It wasn't until a full day later I got a request to accompany Flower to the government quarter. It was an invitation that made me nervous. Usually we had to fight our way past a legion of greeters just for the opportunity to see them. Perhaps they thought we were behind the attack? That was unlikely, as they had to know the technology was beyond ours. But still, relying on the rationality of others was a quick way to wind up dead. I kept the drives the Graven powered up and had a few Juggernauts primed to jump in, just in case.
I slipped inside a drone and joined Flower on the surface. The council hall was massive, adorned with art that didn't quite register right to human senses and mostly appeared as shadowed walls with eyes watching. Through my drones sensors I recognized these were actually scenes of empowerment in a visual spectrum shifted from the human standard. It didn't stop my drone’s adrenal reflexes from kicking in.
We were guided into a small waiting room. Again nothing was quite human-sized and while the chairs seemed nicely plush they were designed for bodies almost three time an adult’s average height. Anna was there, seated, her feet not quite reaching the floor as she swung them back and forth.
"Normally it is your simple-mindedness and cookie gluttony that makes you seem childlike. This is new, yet strangely fitting," I said.
"Emma!" Anna said, slipping from the chair to give my drone an enthusiastic hug, adding another for Flower a few moments later. "Did they tell you what this is about?"
"Not yet. You know how getting things done in a timely and straight-forward nature is not exactly their strength."
"Good thing too, as it gave you time to get Sol in order before they arrived," Flower said to me.
Any further conversation was cut off as a door at the end of the chamber opened.
9
A Valgor stepped into the room. Valgor were the longest-existing race in our galaxy who hadn't ascended. It wasn't that they were incompetent, rather they were indecisive. In over a million years they'd been purely organic seven times, switched over to a purely digital race on six occasions, and spent most of the time experiencing states in between. Currently they were about eighty-three percent inorganic. I liked them, as much as I liked anybody, and it was mutual given that I straddled the same line they did. Seeing a Valgor was a good sign.
The in-vogue bodies for them were faux-botanical. They looked like nothing so much as large copper-tinted trees with leaves of chiming crystal. Somewhere within that mass were biological sensory organs, the organic bits they'd decided to keep this go round.
"Empress of Sol, Tender Emma, Agent X1777AL," the Valgor said.
"I'm going by Flower these days," Flower said brightly.
The Valgor stared ponderously at Flower for several long moments. "Good. I like that," it finally rumbled in a deep voice.
A projection appeared in the chamber, this time set for human visual wavelengths. A depiction of the recent attack. It wasn't news for myself or Flower, although I could tell from Anna's gasp it was her first time seeing these images.
"This is why you've been holding me? They're dimension shifting?" Anna asked.
"Yes. Your mind was probed, your possible connection explored. We found you non-complicit, an apology stipend has been provided," the Valgor said.
So it had. Two-hundred and fifty credits. It seemed a paltry sum for imprisoning a head of government, but at least helped to show where we were placed on the council's scheme of things.
"You didn't call them here just to issue a weak apology," Flower said.
"We did not, Bloom," the Valgor said after another long pause. In their present incarnation they were slow and ponderous. Humans always seemed the same way to me, the hazard of their trains of thoughts being measured in nanoseconds. I always just distracted myself a little more while I waited.
"How much damage did they do?" Anna asked.
"It was no attack. It was theft. The Sector branch of the Library was stolen," the Valgor said.
It was Flower's turn to gasp.
There was good cause. The Library. Knowledge was power, and when it came to galactic civilization there was a lot of ancient knowledge. The Library served as keeper of it, protector of it, and ones view of that depended a lot on where they stood in galactic society. They were the keeper of dangerous secrets and kept them out of the hands of warlike species. They also served as the guardians of knowledge that would benefit all, but this instead was kept for the few and the favored.
The council didn't run the Library, but the most powerful council races all had some degree of library access and were interested in maintaining the status quo.
There was probably nothing more valuable on the planet than that Library. Nothing more likely to cause panic by it going missing—and nothing more terrifying to fall into the wrong hands.
"What do you want from us?" Anna asked.
"Identify and locate. We will credit the Sol embassy one hundred and fifty thousand credits for identification and another fifty thousand for the location of the stolen property," the Valgor said.
"Why us? You have other agents and ones closer to the technology level," I asked.
"They utilize dimensional shifting and appear to specialize in crystalline technology. You share similar attributes, although not as developed," the Valgor said.
"You want specialized knowledge, you pay specialist prices. Your offer isn't even close," Anna said. I don't know if she understood the importan
ce of the Library, but she understood we were being taken. That would do.
"Two hundred thousand for identification," the Valgor said.
It was both a good step up from where they had been and still too low. Unfortunately I didn't even know what the right price might be in this case. We weren't respectable enough in galactic society to have a clue.
Of course, the Valgor knew that, which meant this entire thing was staged in a way. As a loyal council member it had to put forward their offer, at least when they were watching, but why this assemblage? This could have been arranged over comms.
Flower was a member of the Kidari, a race of artificial intelligences well-established in galactic society even if not actual council members themselves. Much like ourselves, they were frequently council agents. The Valgor had even made that clear by how he'd addressed her in a familiar manner.
I said, "Empress, while I am sure your attempts to negotiate on our behalf would provide endless entertainment and result in entire freighter fleets of cookies, ice cream, and western romance novels flowing towards Earth, I suggest we need an intermediary in this. The Kidari would serve," I said.
Anna narrowed her eyes. "It was one book. I didn't even like it."
"You read it nineteen times. You cried," I said.
The Valgor sat impassively, it was in no hurry.
"The Kidari agree to represent you for twenty percent," Flower said.
"You know we're going to counter at ten and work our way towards fifteen. Can we just jump there?" Anna asked.
Flower nodded. "Deal.” She turned to the Valgor. “An attack on a sector government headquarters and the theft of a sector library constitutes at least a Class Four threat. Two hundred thousand for even taking the assignment, two million for identification, and a branch library for Earth should they locate and aid in the retrieval of the sector Library."
