by P F Walsh
He went into his rooms and fell on the bed to try to slough off the adrenalin he was pumping through his veins. He lay there recalling the same feeling he had the first time his F-15 alerted him he was being painted by an enemy missile he managed to evade.
“It is a rush where your mind becomes so clinical and crystal clear. Never felt more alive, until now.” He mused. After a bit he dozed off knowing the action was over for now.
“You did what?” Doris snapped, as she heard the story Sean was reciting at dinner. She had slept through the whole thing except for the bump when the ship evaded, but went back to sleep.
“You mean the ship was attacked by some plasma thing, Allister was scared motionless, and you took over?” She continued.
Sean answered, quietly amused at her astonishment, and said,
“Well, we didn’t want to wake you up from your beauty rest, so I just handled it, me and the Ship I mean.”
Doris looked at him with a frustrated look and turned to Allister,
“Allister is he telling the truth about all this?”
Allister smiled and said,
“The Captain is quite right, although the part about me being frightened was incorrect. My software code was in a loop and unable to rise to defense. It was quite fortunate that the Captain was there to issue orders to bring defenses online, and then destroy most of the Zakar ship with one emission from our particle sling.”
“Captain? When did he become Captain?” Doris asked, now more frustrated than ever at having missed a major event while sleeping.
Allister replied,
“My code has recognized Sean as Captain in issues that my operating system cannot resolve, such as threats to the ship or our mission. There was prior damage to my resolution code set and it is inoperable, so he fills that resource... nicely.”
“Damn, a girl can’t even take a nap without being left out of the party.” She mumbled.
Sean smiled and said,
“It all happened in just a few minutes Doris, in fact, the ship has recordings of the whole thing if you want to watch it.” as he casually took another fork full of mashed potatoes to his mouth while Allister just stood there, also smiling.
After the attack, both Sean and Doris took a much more intense study of the information on their terminals, and each spent all day in their rooms coming out only for dining; although after dinner, they spent time in the Upper Lounge having drinks and asking Allister questions about what they had learned in their research through the ship’s massive database. Both Sean and Doris spent time on the histories of the other members of the Council of Worlds.
Doris invested a half day on known weapons and found a listing similar to ‘Jane’s.’ The list was voluminous and described some unusual weapons that Earth did not have, but she noticed that Earth’s projectile-firing hand guns were unusual to them since the most they were developing or relying on were known hand lasers and stun weapons which could be dialed up to be fatal. Both of those required power modules, which while changeable, did limit the number of discharges the weapon could accommodate.
“So,” she thought, “some similarity with regard to her reloadable and dependable .357, but information on exactly how many discharges at full strength could be fired varied by weapon.”
Mixed in with all the sophisticated weapons were those that were intertwined with religious or honor-saving burdens. These were similar to earth’s weapons, swords, knives, spears, and so on. To deliberately choose one of those weapons over say, a laser pistol would evoke great respect and lay the requirement on the other party to meet with similar arms that they could not turn down, at least not on Hhearn, and not without surrendering all honor.
“Councilor Tamn-Kar, I apologize for disturbing you, but the most interesting event has occurred, and I thought you should know immediately. I have just received notice from Central Communications that a courier drone has arrived from Seeker number eighteen. It has found a sentient populated planet and has sent in a registration claim. In addition, the Seeker has on board a representative who wishes to file an application for membership.” exclaimed the aid to Councilor Tamn-Kar, senior councilor on the Council of Worlds.
The Councilor looked up from his work as the aid told him of the receipt of a registration discovery and said,
“Really? It’s been a long time since we have found one of those, how many annuals now?” He asked.
The aid answered,
“I believe it has been twenty-seven annuals since the last world was discovered.”
The Councilor searched his memory for that day and recalled the splash of blood and the screams and not much else, but aside from that, he knew in full detail how much he had profited from that world’s submission into Vassal status, and just smiled as he thought,
“Perhaps another opportunity here?”
“Very well, prepare for the Seeker’s arrival and inform the rest of the Council.” He said to his aid, as he waved his hand for him to leave.
The Councilor leaned back in his chair and wondered if he should contact Jesst-Tak and then decided that it was too early yet. He kept his connection with Jesst-Tak untraceable.
“One does not wish to be connected with assassins.” He thought, “Still, will I need him to remove this representative like he did the last one, quite neatly? No, this one must be a public challenge in which the representative loses.”
He mentally reviewed the rough amount in his concealed cash supply in his privacy box at home. There was more than enough to pay for discrete services like Jesst-Tak. Satisfied that, for the moment, he had dealt with this new situation, he returned his attention to the report he was reading.
Nasht-Mer walked to her window wall and stood there looking out from her spacious, well-appointed office suite on the sixty-eighth floor of the Council administration building. It was raining today with the mild wind blowing from behind the building so her plasglas wall stayed dry and clear.
“The Mystics would say this was a bad omen following on the receipt of the courier drone.” She thought, but she never put much dependence upon such musings, preferring to look for things more secular and provable.
“Still, I wonder what the Sisters of Mak’am will think of this.” She mused.
“I noticed Tamn-Kar stayed away from them the last time.”
She was tall, one might say willowy in her early elder years. Silver thick hair, full of glistening highlights topped an attractive figure of a woman one might take for a Duchess or person of great authority, which she was both. While Hhearn was no longer a monarchy, the royal families all maintained positions of power and influence throughout the world in both planet affairs and business. She was un-mated, preferring her world of diplomacy and royal affairs to the more intimate callings of a male mate.
She was often mocked for this in the media, but had learned many years ago to ignore such muttering as irrelevant to her life. Yet, she had to admit, that the primal, overwhelming ‘Sashpet’ calling, that every Hhearn woman who life mated had experienced, had never happened to her.
In Nasht-Mer’s case, she was a sitting councilor on the World Council, Director General of interplanetary Affairs, and Duchess of Mer. She was the senior diplomatic person in the World Council, not having a mate had no effect on any of that.
She had received notice that another sentient world had been discovered and soon a representative would be meeting with her to apply for membership, she mentally reviewed the last one many annuals ago when she had just been made Director General.
“It was a fiasco” She thought,
“The applicant representative murdered just before he appeared before the council. I know that snake Tamn-Kar was somehow involved. I will never forget how he smiled as the announcement was made of the murder. I will wager he thought no one noticed, but I did. This time, things will be much different.”
Again, she recalled him deliberately moving away from the Sisters of Mak’am as the announcements of the representative’s d
eath was made.
“Perhaps this time, I can arrange to get them much closer.” She calculated. She returned to her desk, picked up her pocketcomm slate and contacted Security.
Hhearn’s Capital City was founded hundreds of annuals ago along the fast currents of a river that drained the snow melt and runoff from the adjacent mountain which now darkly glowered over the city in the veil of rain. Just upriver a few lengths, was an old mill, abandoned two hundred annuals before as being no longer efficient, it was now the Mother Den of the Sisters of Mak’am. Now, restored, with thick stone walls, no windows, and a large, massive wooden door that was never seen opened. The waterwheel turned incessantly, night and day, powering what? No one knew, since no one had been inside the mill in centuries, except the Sisters, and everyone avoided the Sisters.
No one really understood the Sisters, how they came be, how they survived, not even if they had individual names since they seemed to move as a collective in groups, never speaking to anyone, but drawing from each they came close to, skimming minds with a touch so delicate, most inhabitants of the City no longer paid any attention to. That is, those who pursued innocent pursuits without malice. The others who had those thoughts steered away from the Sisters who seemed to float across the sidewalks and streets. None could ever recall having seen a single foot under the black robes and hood edged in red piping that wrapped them completely as they moved, and no one could see either hands or face. Their spookiness was offset by their silent and non-threatening movements, making them appear slightly vulnerable, though they were not.
It was believed that the Sisters knew everyone’s secrets with their deft mind scanning, but revealed nothing, until they came next to someone who had committed a serious crime or was planning to do so. Then, their robes would start to turn red as they gathered around the subject, visually identifying him or her to all within sight. Such people ran away as fast as they could to escape revelation of their guile. It would cause any rule enforcement agent nearby to quickly intercept them and begin questioning, wholly undesirable for a criminal. The Sisters were avoided by many.
Allister notified both Sean and Doris that the ship was preparing to leave for Hhearn,
“We will have a few days of sub-light travel to leave your solar system and then we will transition for Hhearn. The trip will take one of your weeks before we arrive outside the Hhearn solar system, and another day at sub-light speed to dock at the Seeker Orbit Station.”
“I will alert you when to go to your transition couches in your rooms, where you will be safely comfortable during the transition, which by the way, will be a bit more remarkable than in the shuttle. It is best if you are secured in your couches. However, you may both secure yourselves in the Bridge chairs if you prefer for that event.”
Later, both Sean and Doris opted for the chairs on the bridge where they could watch the forward screen as they began to leave the area of Ceres, heading for deep space and transition to what Allister called “no-space” where many of the laws Earth physicists built all their theories on were malleable, especially the one on exceeding light speed. Sean considered asking Allister to explain how this was managed, but stopped himself when he realized he would understand none of it. Doris though, clearly wasn’t interested in ‘how’, just ‘when’, and stayed silent when the subject came up.
They both watched as the ship transitioned into ‘no-space’ along with the familiar feelings of being disassembled, except this time, the feeling lasted twice as long with a small increase in intensity. Once their senses were back and they could see the forward screen, it was full of rivers of multi colored light, seemingly flowing in the same direction as the ship, but the ship was faster, pushing the bands of color aside by its bow wave. There was no sound other than the deep faint hum of the drives further back in the ship. Sean and Doris unstrapped themselves and after watching the screen for 20 minutes, and decided it was time for lunch.
At lunch, Sean queried Allister on why they had to leave the solar system before transition when the shuttle didn’t. Allister brightened up at the question and said,
“I am pleased you noticed that Captain. It appears you do not miss much, that talent will be valuable when you are engaged in the application process.
“Since the concepts are complex and above your level of professional training, the simple answer is mass and distance. The gravitational influence within the solar system upon a ship of this size will disturb the transition and destination quite directly, so much, it is undesirable or dangerous to do so.”
“In the case of the shuttle, the distance between Earth and the ship was very small, the ship was broadcasting a homing beacon, and the shuttle’s mass was so low in the scheme of things, our systems were able to overcome the errors and correct. Despite that, the shuttle could have arrived many hundreds of miles away from the ship and sometimes does. When that happens, the ship updates the setting for that location and the next shuttle flight on that route should pretty well be on target. All things are pliable if you have the right wrench for the job.” Allister described.
After lunch, Sean went back to his rooms and his terminal and brought up a description of the physical and functional attributes of the inhabitants of Hhearn, along with many anatomical photos of body images of both males and female. There were minor physical differences. Hhearnians had hair only on their heads, and wore it longer than Humans, there was no body hair. Ears were flatter. Male hands were broader than humans, females not so much. Body masses were slimmer than humans, and obesity did not seem to exist, or there was a treatment for it. Eye colors were varied, but no blue. Everything from hazel, grey, black, brown, and even a few with rare silver.
Most diseases had been controlled or eliminated and the assortment Sean read about did not sound familiar to him. Life span was about double the human span. An almost religious commitment to honor was endemic and those who breeched that boundary were shunned and unsuccessful in continuing to live among those who had preserved theirs. No mention of where those people went or lived was in the records. The Hhearnians were spiritual and believed in an overall deity, with an active brotherhood of ‘Assisters’ who led regular ‘Assistance’ services to provide guidance in principles of honor and concordance with moral principles of which there were many, all attributed to the Deity.
Sean, after reading for hours thought,
“This society is way more complex than I am going to learn online, since I don’t know which principles are intractable, and which are optional when driven by emotions. Emotions? God, let me look up that section...” Sean continued learning how similar and yet how different the Hhearnian culture was.
At dinnertime, Sean drew Allister out on many of the points that seemed unclear to him, while Doris just listened, not revealing what she had spent her time researching, and Sean did not think to ask since he had so many questions on protocol and societal norms and breeches. Allister was a fountain of clarity and most of Sean’s questions were able to be answered or placed in comparison to those of Earth that Allister had learned in his massive, stored Earth database. Some of his Earth analogies were antiquary, but most were contemporary. Sean listened to these answers very carefully since he realized that the Earth database information would also be available to the Councilors and those who would challenge him for membership.
On the day of arrival in the Hhearnian system, Sean was frustrated. His last hours of research had been trying to search an endless list of what Earth might have that Hhearn and the Council of Worlds would value. Membership was contributory, that is, a world could offer what they believed was unique and contributory to the overall membership. Every time he did a search on something he thought was of value, he could find the Council of Worlds had a wide array of items that were more numerous or more sophisticated, especially in technology. Clearly, the Council of Worlds, based upon what he knew of the Seeker, was far in advance of anything Earth could raise for weaponry or defense.
“There must be something,�
�� He said, discussing this with Doris,
“There has to be something, or we are doomed to vassal status.” He spit out looking at her in a mix of frustration and fear.
Doris responded,
“Sean, no one will convince me we are not unique, not even you. Wait until we get there, we will have time to figure out what that is, Allister says we will be there for at least a week before you will be asked to declare yourself ready to demand membership. Keep your mind on the word ‘demand’..., arrogance does have its strengths. Offer no appearance of weakness, or surrender of honor.” And with that, she turned to walk away saying,
“Let’s have dinner, I’m hungry, Allister has really got that food fabricator thing working well, not so good on the wine and spirits though, he can’t seem to match the grape diversity and barrel-aging contribution to flavor” Sean with his shoulders slumped, followed behind her.
Chapter Eleven
Book One
Nasht-Mer looked at the chronodate on her desk. The days had flown by as she set into motion her plans for the arrival of the Seeker and its applicant representative. She had spent a whole day reviewing the last arrival many years ago, and the hideous results which cast a whole world into vassal status. She did not approve of vassal status since to her, it was tantamount to slavery, which she found immoral and without honor. But the wealth to be made because of it was huge, and powerful forces within the Council and industry had more than enough influence to keep this distasteful system going.
Her feelings on this matter were well hidden and she was careful never to express an opinion or action that displayed her true inclinations. Such was the skill of diplomacy, declare only what is politically correct, despite personal pledges and desires. She knew that she and her family had benefitted from the vassal system and in her own case, she kept a journal of those amounts with the hope that one day she could return those funds to the injured parties. This hope was a mere whisper, but keeping the journal provided an emotional balm to the burden her sense of morality placed upon her. The rest of her family never considered this issue, since the contribution versus their other income was minuscule.
