The Course of Empire

by Eric Flint

  He had already sent a message back to the primary Narvo kochan-house on Pratus, requesting experienced servitors to be dispatched to him from the home world. They . . . might, or might not be. Replacements for staff killed by rebels might possibly be provided, even though he had been out of favor now for many cycles. But replacements for those killed out of pique most certainly would not.

  Instead, he stalked down to the unsatisfactory local sea with its audacious golden sand and swam the rest of the day, submerging beneath the tossing waves until his brain reeled from lack of oxygen, his vision went gray, and he was forced gasping back up into the damp air.

  How dare that Pluthrak upstart! He should have taken the pieces of that broken bau and rammed them through the jinau officer's brain! If Oppuk wished to kill one of these filthy humans, then he would! Terra was overpopulated anyway. It did no harm to thin the herd.

  He swam back to the beach and stalked out dripping in the cool air. His service hovered with an air of respectful-attention, watching from a prudent distance to see what he desired.

  One of his new staff approached, ears properly deferential, but shoulders outright alarmed. Marb, perhaps, or was it Ullwa? Oppuk turned his back, refusing to have such an unharmonious combination inflicted upon him.

  "Governor?"

  It was Marb, then. Though their vai camiti were similar, he could distinguish the pair's voices. "I hear you," he said, in no mood for inanities.

  "We have received news from the observation station in orbit," Marb said. "Dreadful news!"

  Oppuk turned and regarded the servant with half-lidded cool-indifference. "Compose yourself," he said. "If you wish to serve at this level, you must remember above all else to move well."

  Marb closed her eyes, exhaled, then dropped into a sketchy version of concerned-haste. "The framepoint in this solar system is showing activity," she said. Her ears betraying fear, despite all efforts to control herself. "The advance signature is not Jao!"

  Oppuk froze. His mind raced, but his thoughts refused to come together and make sense.

  The Ekhat, here?

  "It is too soon," he said finally. He felt his body all adrift, every line gone to meaningless, babbling angles. "This lazy, primitive world is not ready."

  "What do you wish us to do?" Marb's eyes were filled with the bright striations of terror.

  "Alert my staff," Oppuk said, "and ready my transport back to the palace."

  The situation was hopeless, of course. But once the initial shock was over, Oppuk began to feel better.

  Much better, in fact. If nothing else, he would probably soon be rid of this vile planet, since the Ekhat would most likely destroy it. And, in the doing, he could see many possibilities for encompassing the destruction of the young Pluthrak in the pyre.

  * * *

  So the Ekhat had come, Aille thought, as he and Kaul studied the holo tank display above a vast black control grid. Everyone had known they would eventually sweep through this portion of the galaxy, and possibly even this system. But the Naukra Krith Ludh, who coordinated the efforts of all kochan, had hoped to have more time. Any possibility of help was far away and most of the Jao fleets were committed elsewhere. Terra would have to defend itself as best it could.

  "Have they attacked?" he said, his body at ready-willingness.

  "No." The Dano Commandant looked ill, his angles confused, his nap patchy and ill-favored. "The signs indicate only one ship approaching the framepoint. The signal being broadcast in advance of its arrival is of the Interdict faction. It seems they wish to parley."

  "That is—unexpected," Aille said, his mind whirling with possibilities.

  Yaut stepped forward. "There is precedent, and when parley is requested, Interdict always follows through. There has never been deception on this account."

  "You will go, and represent us at the parley," Kaul said. "The Governor has expressly commanded. You yourself, young Pluthrak."

  Dano looked aside. His whiskers sagged against his muzzle as though they had died. "Take whatever ship you deem appropriate. I have several available in orbit. Find out what they want and then report back."

  Another maneuver by the Narvo, Aille realized. Negotiation with the Interdict was always a chancy business. No doubt Oppuk hoped that Aille would perish in the attempt.

  So be it. Where there was peril, there was also opportunity. The Narvo continued to blunder, responding to Pluthrak's widening advance-by-oscillation by taking petty countermeasures. He glanced at Yaut and saw that his fraghta obviously shared Aille's own attitude.

  "I have already put the shipyards on full alert and notified all bases on the other continents," Aille said, throwing his halfcape back. Eagerness to prove himself prickled through his veins and it was difficult to maintain a neutral wishing-to-be-of-service stance. "Refitting has been suspended and all available weapons and vessels, converted or not, will be deployed. If we have to fight, we will use whatever is at hand."

  "Terran tech will be useless!" Kaul punched a button on the console, then gazed bleakly at a simulation based on the predicted emergence point. A tiny point of orange light blossomed near the sun and grew. "These are not crechelings to be impressed with the rattling of spears! These are the Ekhat, who made us as casually as a child makes a figure out of mud and who dispose of entire star systems as we dispose of worn-out harness. They will do as they wish."

  "Unless we stop them," Aille said. "It has been done."

  "With Jao ships and Jao armaments, not half-witted primitives wielding sticks and stones!" The Commandant's form slouched into bitter-acceptance. "You are young and but newly arrived. Do not fool yourself that, because you took a few humans into your service, you now know the full measure of these creatures. If you had been here longer, you would understand that they cannot agree upon anything, even to save themselves. They would rather see their world perish than seek strength through association with the Jao."

  The humans in the room stiffened a bit. Aille realized Kaul was unaware that they understood enough Jao to follow the conversation.

  "I realize I have been here only a short time," he said carefully, "but I have found humans to be inventive, as well as clever and determined. They are not Jao, and do not reason as Jao, but if we can persuade them now to turn their strength outward against our mutual enemies, rather than inward against competing factions and ourselves, we may yet prevail."

  "Pah!" Kaul turned his back. "Tell it to the Ekhat. They are insane enough they might even believe you. I weary of prattle."

  Aille motioned to his service and they led him out through the Commandant's command center. Yaut took the lead, letting Wrot and Tamt share the honor of second. "We will take my courier ship," Aille said as they walked, his mind racing ahead with plans.

  "Then there will not be room for all of us," Yaut pointed out. They had reached the entryway, and the fraghta passed through. "Still, I agree, it is the best ship for the purpose. Whom do you wish to take?"

  "You, of course." Aille stepped out into the glaring yellow sunlight streaming out of the west. "And General Kralik, Tully, and Caitlin Stockwell."

  Aguilera stiffened and his face reddened. "Why not me, Subcommandant?"

  "You are injured," Aille said, "and your specialty is the refit of ground assault vehicles. I want you to stay here in the refit facility and make sure preparation and deployment are proceeding as ordered. You have my authority to make whatever changes are needed. Speak to Nath. She will provide you with the necessary assistance."

  Tamt's ears waggled with shamed-distress. "I am Caitlin Stockwell's bodyguard," she said. "She will be in great danger facing our most deadly enemies. Should you not take me?"

  "If one bodyguard, however excellent, could stand between one human and the Ekhat, we would not need armies and fleets here," Aille said. "I wish you and Wrot to go instead with Aguilera and help Nath to swell his prestige. There are some here who will be distressed that a human has been given such authority."

  Kralik
cleared his throat. His hands were clasped behind his back and his carriage stiff. "Miss Stockwell is injured, sir."

  "But not badly," Aille said. "I want Tully and Caitlin to see for themselves what we face. They both have important contacts here on Terra. So, if they see and believe, then it will be easier for those others as well. Most on this world will be required to fight without seeing. It is necessary someone they trust sees first for them."

  "I don't understand," Tully said. "Caitlin is important because of her father, but I'm nobody."

  "Of the many things you are," Aille said, "that is not one of them. I think it is more important for you to go than anyone else. You are a part—whatever the details, which I have never asked—of what humans on this world call the 'Resistance.' Indeed, you have been demonstrating its philosophy and arguments for my education every day since I first encountered you."

  "Does vithrik not demand that you see for yourself?" Yaut demanded, his ears and whiskers stiff with impugned-honor. "If you believe we Jao are distorting the truth about the threat imposed by the Ekhat, here is your chance to test it."

  "I do want to know the truth," Tully said. "We all do."

  Aille turned to Yaut. "Summon Caitlin Stockwell. We leave as soon as the ship is ready."

  The blood thrummed in his ears. Few of his kind had ever stood whisker to whisker with an Ekhat and lived to tell about it. They were notoriously unpredictable and given to actions that made no sense to ordinary sentient beings. He had much to do before leaving, files to review, protocol to absorb, preparations back here on Terra to direct.

  An entire world to save. In the end, it was for this that Pluthrak had shaped him, not quarrels with the Narvo.

  * * *

  Tully preceded Aille and Yaut out of the command center and onto what humans would have called a "parking lot," as inappropriate as the term was here. Jao construction was all irregular curves, like everything of Jao origin, and lacked even a level surface to walk on. When Tully looked at the "pavement" closely, he could see slim flickers of green and blue deep inside, like fish darting in the black depths of some alien ocean.

  The two Jao, bent over the fraghta's comboard, stopped at the edge to wait for the groundcars and ignored him. They seemed to be reviewing downloaded files from their database on the Ekhat, making last minute comparisons and notes.

  He still couldn't get over it—the Ekhat were actually coming. It seemed these reputedly monstrous alien aggressors were not just a fiction, used by the Jao to compel obedience, much like a human parent invoked the bogeyman to send fractious children to bed. But there was no way this could be a pretense.Sweat rolled down his temples and pooled between his shoulders as the two Jao consulted. The late afternoon heat was intense, but, as always, it didn't affect them. If their concern was an act, he thought, it was a damn good one, and in all his time masquerading as a jinau, he had never known Jao to be any kind of actors, good or bad. What they felt was always written all over them, if one knew how to read their body language.

  He certainly wasn't as accomplished as Caitlin Stockwell, but he could interpret well enough now to get the gist of what was going on. Aille, Yaut, Wrot, and Tamt were definitely worried. Before she'd been dispatched back to Aille's rooms to fetch Caitlin, the curve of Tamt's spine had even suggested fear. But then, Tamt seemed a simple soul, who saw things in bright, unalloyed colors and reacted accordingly.

  Caitlin and Professor Kinsey emerged from the command center, Tamt leading the way. The Stockwell girl was dressed very simply in a white shirt and jeans and carried her own small travel bag slung over one shoulder.

  "I don't like this!" Kinsey said, his normally mild face tight with disapproval. "She's already been injured, and now you propose to take her out in space on a small ship to meet with—those—violent creatures?"

  Aille turned and his eyes flickered with pinpricks of green. "Those 'creatures,' as you put it, Professor Kinsey, are the enemy of human and Jao alike, not to mention innumerable other species. They 'cleanse' entire planetary systems, whenever it suits their fancy, and it often does."

  "But why should they bother us?" Kinsey blinked behind his glasses. "Earth has never attacked them. We've never even traveled beyond our own solar system!"

  "They do not have a reason for cleansing the Jao have ever been able to understand," Aille said, "so I doubt humans will be able to understand what they want either. At any rate, if they parley, then at least for that short time they will not be exterminating this world. We will do as they request and it behooves your species to have representatives present."

  "Then take me!" Kinsey gripped Caitlin's shoulders and gazed over her blond hair at Aille. "I will witness for her."

  Shaking her head, she put her bag down, then reached up and covered his hand with hers. "No, it's all right," she said quietly as though soothing a distraught child. "I want to go—to be of use, as a Jao would say. It's my duty."

  Kinsey pulled her around and made her meet his worried gaze. "You're only a student. You have no duty other than to return home safely to your family and get on with your life!"

  "On the contrary," she said with a half-smile, "I'm a member of the Subcommandant's personal service now, and it is my duty to serve him."

  Startled, Kinsey stared at Aille. "When did this happen?"

  "Last-sun," Yaut said, "after the whale hunt."

  "And lucky it did," Caitlin said. "Otherwise I'd be dead—or, at best, still be attached to Governor Narvo's household as a mere servant, being readied to perform for his guests like a trained dog. Until he decided the right day had come to kill me."

  Kralik stepped forward. "I'll look after her, Professor. I promise." He picked up her bag.

  "I'll be back soon," she said, still in that soothing tone of voice, "—and with tons of data! In the meantime, if my presence serves the Subcommandant in any way, I am glad to help."

  "I'll watch after her, too," Tully said, almost despite himself. "We all will."

  "I don't suppose it's occurred to any of you macho men that maybe, just maybe, I can take care of myself!" Caitlin glared at Tully so fiercely that he stepped back.

  Dr. Kinsey threw up his hands. "I'll notify President Stockwell then. There's nothing more I can do."

  "I'm a grown woman." Caitlin took his hand awkwardly with her left and squeezed. "I have to make my own decisions. Subcommandant Aille is on a crucial mission and it's important for us to support him. Tell my father that. I'll contact him as soon as I get back."

  If you get back, Tully could see written on Kinsey's face, but the professor only crossed his arms as two cars pulled up. The man's dark eyes were bleak. Tamt, standing next to him, looked even more upset.

  Tully piled into the first vehicle after Kralik and Caitlin. Aille and Yaut took the second.

  The windows were rolled down and the air was already blistering hot. Tully leaned his head and let the tepid breeze stream over his face. He closed his eyes and could almost feel a dark, malign presence out there in space, hovering over Earth like a blow about to fall.

  The Ekhat. He was beginning to believe in them already—and he did not like the sensation, not at all.

  Chapter 30

  Ed Kralik did not seek out luxury. In fact, extravagance made him uncomfortable because the money spent on frills could have been employed elsewhere to make things safer or more efficient. After boarding the Subcommandant's sleek courier ship, he realized, though, he had subconsciously been expecting luxury at some level.

  Instead, it was a tight little vessel without a right angle anywhere, and, though it had no wasted space, was much larger inside than he had visualized. That was due mostly to the difference in human and Jao proportions. With those shoulders and massive bones, they simply required more room to move around. So, what was probably Spartan for Jao spelled a certain measure of comfort for his kind.

  Only two seats were evident when they first boarded and he had a momentary flash of riding all the way to this momentous parley seated
on the floor, legs crossed like a kindergartner. Others proved available to be folded out from the bulkheads, however, and soon they were all seated and harnessed in.

  Aille would be their pilot, a fact Kralik found interesting. Most human officers would have preferred someone else to pilot so they could concentrate on tactical matters. Aille, however, went through his prelift-off check as though he had done this all his life.

  Caitlin took the seat next to Kralik and sat with her eyes closed. Dark smudges underlay them like bruises. "He was so upset," she murmured.

  He leaned closer. "Your father?"

  "No." She sighed. "Dr. Kinsey. I didn't dare call my father before we left. He would have just made it harder."

  "The Subcommandant isn't afraid."

  "No, but I'm not sure Jao experience fear in the same way we do."

  She opened her eyes and he found himself caught up in their blue-gray depths. She had gold striations in the irises. He'd never looked close enough to notice before.

  From deep underneath their feet, a whine began and built rapidly into a thrumming roar. The ship lifted without preamble, as different from the lumbering suborbital shuttle as a racehorse was from a steer.

  * * *

  Aille concentrated on piloting and left his service to fend for themselves. From time to time he was vaguely aware of conversations in English, movement around the cabin, the preparation of food. He had eaten just yesterday, so did not partake. Fortunately, whoever had stocked the ship had seen to the needs of the Terrans aboard, else they would have been forced to subsist upon provender more appropriate to Jao. He had observed at the Governor's reception that most humans did not care for traditional Jao delicacies.

  He could feel the cabin humming with their suppressed nerves. Even the Stockwell female, injured as she was, got up and moved about, seeking to burn off unused energy. He glanced over at them, but made no comment until finally Yaut suggested the humans view some of the ship's files on the Ekhat.

  "Aren't they restricted?" Kralik asked, settling on the arm of a seat.

  Yaut blinked. "Why would they be restricted?"