A Dubious Peace

by Olan Thorensen

  Seconds later, on the craft housing the AI orbiting the planet, the second and third alerts came close together. The new data on biped No. 2 changed the recognition probability to 95.7. However, that was not the most crucial information. One of the three bipeds without facial hair was another of the individuals deposited by the creators—with an 88.1 percent probability. This third individual had been placed on yet another of the major landmasses—about halfway between the other two bipeds. The AI made no particular note that biped No. 3’s features more resembled inhabitants from the opposite side of the landmasses than those from the island. Three of the five deposited bipeds had come together.

  ***

  Mark heard a buzzing behind him. He swiveled his head to locate the source. When his eyes focused in the indicated direction, he stopped with momentary dizziness. A section of his view field seemed to shimmy. His eyes flickered back and forth across an area that rippled as if with heat waves—but the day was chilly. He shook his head. A sense of warmth washed over his face as if he had flushed. He put a hand to his forehead, closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them and removed the hand. The shimmy was gone. So was the buzz.

  “You okay?” asked Heather from behind him, having put a hand on his arm. “You seemed a little unsteady there for a moment.”

  Mark turned and looked down at her concerned expression. “For just a second, I was dizzy. Weird. Maybe I turned too quick.”

  Heather arched an eyebrow. “Not likely, from what I hear you guys went through to get here. Has this happened before? I’ve come to think of you as the Rock. You know, Dwayne Johnson. The actor. Big hulking guy who runs through walls and protects people like me. I loved him in the movie Tooth Fairy.”

  He smiled at the comparison. “I think I read he might be the lead in another Jumanji movie. I can’t imagine him being better than the original with Robin Williams, but he was okay in a couple of those Fast and Furious movies.”

  “Well, I liked him in almost everything he did. What a hunk. I saw one of the Fast and Furious movies. Not my preferred choice. And don’t change the subject. What just happened with you?”

  “As I said. Weird. I heard a buzzing sound, but that’s gone too. Oh, well . . . just one of those things. I’m okay.”

  ***

  Within minutes of the AI confirming that three of the five abandoned bipeds were together, it sent another message to the creators. It didn’t know whether the recipient was the home of the creators or a relay. It did not know the direction or location of the creators. Entangled communication was omnidirectional. Neither did the AI know details of the entangled technology. It composed a message and passed it to a “black box,” a section of the AI’s craft that it did not have access to. Messages were sent and received using whatever was behind the impenetrable physical and electromagnetic firewall.

  As a consequence of first noticing an anomaly related to biped No. 1, the creators had activated dormant faculties of the AI to allow greater flexibility and on-site initiative. As a result, the AI could now wonder. This time, when it sent a communication to the creators, it wondered whether they did not want it to know their location.

  Because the AI did not forget anything, another wonder occurred when the creators responded to the news of the three bipeds coming together. Why had the creators changed their planned visit to this planet to arrive in three years? Were the creators worried, excited, curious? The AI knew of these states, though their significance was still just beyond its understanding.

  Until then, the AI would continue observing, but on its own initiative the drone would focus solely on the island and the three individuals. It did not concern itself with the fate of the other two bipeds placed on the southern coast of the largest continent and the southern tip of the easternmost landmass. They were no longer of a high-enough priority. Unless . . . they too appeared on the island. An extremely low probability had been assigned to that possibility—a probability now raised significantly higher after two of the bipeds had refuted fallacious assumptions about the original probabilities.

  The AI would further develop a model of the island society. Given three years, it estimated it could maintain a 95 to 97 percent tally of all the island’s bipeds and their interrelationships—the missing percentage accounted for by deaths, movements, and inevitable observation lapses. Then, when the creators arrived, the AI would be prepared for whatever the creators decided, whether that be continued scrutiny of the island and its inhabitants or direct action to correct the three anomalous bipeds’ impact.

  What the AI would not be able to do is communicate again with the creators until their arrival. The last message ordered all further communications to cease until the creators’ arrival This directive led the AI to reassess why the creators were returning earlier than previously planned. After microseconds of consideration, the AI evaluated that the creators considered the events on the island to be a danger. How this could be, the AI did not understand. The technology difference between the islanders and the creators was too vast to infer a threat. Was the issue that the transplanted bipeds should have no contact with one another? For the first time, the AI considered reasons for the mandate. The creators obviously were interested in the biped race, but the AI had no information on how the same biped race came to exist on at least two planets—the one the AI observed and wherever the transplanted bipeds had originated. Again, for the first time, the AI had a new thought. Were the inhabitants of this planet transplanted by unknown actors? If yes, then who? Was this the source of the creators’ interest? Not the bipeds, but another sentient race? If yes, was this third race considered a threat by the creators? So many questions. When the creators arrived, the AI would ask for answers.

  While the AI waited, it noted that the island’s technology level had rapidly advanced ahead of the rest of the planet’s societies. In one example, the bipeds were stringing wire attached to poles across extended distances. Searching databases and excluding cultural reasons that might not be inherently understandable, the only plausible utilitarian purpose of the wires was communication via electrical transmission. No such signs had been detected elsewhere on the planet, even after the AI retasked the drone for a quick survey over a random selection of terrain on the major landmasses.

  The steam engine explosion that had led the AI to send an earlier alert to the creators was supplemented with other observations. The AI was confident the creators would be interested in this update. Unfortunately, the blackout of communications prevented passing on the information. The AI considered breaking silence, but it had not yet developed independence.

  Penmawr, Pewitt Province

  A wry smile graced Frenko Holuska’s face as he waited for the train station clerk to check the latest mail deliveries to Penmawr, the Pewitt Clan capital. How kind of the Caedelli to provide a more efficient means for Holuska to receive communiqués from a person whose name remained unknown but who lived in the island capital, Orosz City. It wasn’t necessary for him to know the person’s identity for him to carry out a mission given to him personally by an advisor to Kolinka’s ruler. That had been made clear to him when he received instructions in Chikawan, the capital and largest Kolinkan city in the northern part of the Iraquinik Confederation. In fact, Chikawan was the only large city in his homeland.

  Not that messages came that often, as was only appropriate because communication should occur only to transmit important information. Otherwise, someone might wonder why a Caedelli from Orosz City had engaged in one-way correspondence to a Kolinkan trader in Penmawr.

  Holuska checked for mail only once every few sixdays. Originally, his mission had included other province capitals in northwest Caedellium. Then, for reasons never explained, he had received instructions to restrict himself to Pewitt and Seaborn Provinces. He lost track of how many times he had made the circuit from Penmawr to Brudermyn, the Seaborn capital. He was the trade representative of the Kolinkan ship that had assumed a regular schedule shuttling between Penmawr
on the Caedellium mainland and South Island, the southernmost of the three main islands that comprised Caedellium’s Seaborn Province.

  Kolinka trade with Seaborn had ceased when the Narthani arrived at Caedellium and resumed once the invaders left. However, the Caedelli had been perplexed when his ship, the Sunrider, had docked at Penmawr six months earlier and announced its intention to provide regular trading service between the two provinces. No such service existed at that time, and the local population doubted the need for it. There was no rigid schedule. The Sunrider waited until there was enough cargo to justify the hundred-mile sail. Holuska and the captain accepted losses from meager cargoes to establish frequent-enough trips that they would be taken for granted by the Caedelli. However, as predicted by Holuska’s superiors, once the service existed, the need developed. By now, Caedelli on both ends of the route were appreciative and would be disappointed if the shuttle service was discontinued. In addition to material cargo, an unexpected demand developed for passenger traffic. Caedelli with personal or business connections between Seaborn and mainland provinces now had an efficient-enough means to travel.

  Holuska yawned. He looked forward to retiring to the room rented for his use while he was in Penmawr. It was too late in the day to make himself available for securing cargo and passengers for the return trip to Brudermyn. The Sunrider’s crew had finished unloading this evening, and tomorrow morning Holuska would be at the dock working on cargo for the next trip. Until then, he intended to nap in his room, change clothes, and spend the evening touring three of Penmawr’s pubs he’d found to be the best sources of local and island-wide news and gossip. He would buy rounds for individuals or groups he judged most useful, all the while carefully husbanding his own drinks.

  He was on the verge of becoming irritated at the clerk taking longer than expected to search the latest mail packets. Instead, his pulse quickened when the elderly man returned from a back room and held out a sealed envelope.

  “Just this one piece.”

  Holuska took the mail and handed the clerk a small coin, not that it was needed. The cost of sending mail was paid by the sender, but it never hurt to curry favor. It also served to foster rumors that Kolinkans were not as disagreeable as thought.

  This was the fifth time Holuska’s contact in Orosz City had sent a letter. Twice before, there had been an alert, followed sixdays later by a cancellation. If this were another alert, the Sunrider would have to remain in Penmawr until he could pass on the message to a Kolinkan ship returning to Kolinka’s main port at Onunza.

  He wondered how long he would have to remain traveling between Penmawr and Brudermyn before his mission was complete.

  CHAPTER 7

  MEETINGS AND SHOPPING

  Meetings

  Yozef would have preferred to spend more time with Mark and Heather. However, his hastily planned visit to Preddi Province led to hetmen inevitably scheduling meetings to take advantage of the Paramount’s presence. Balwis predicted the meetings would take an entire day. He was wrong. Most of two days were filled until sundown. The first meeting started with Balwis updating the clan’s status; then he was joined by his principal advisers and aides, followed by a hurriedly arranged gathering of Preddi Province district boyermen, and a group of scholastics agitating for Preddi City housing a branch of the University of Caedellium. Some meetings would require second sessions the following day, which included those with individual Preddi citizens and merchants. A committee of province theophists also wanted the Paramount’s opinion on a disputed proposed change in the province’s standard liturgy to account for the deliverance from the Narthani.

  Balwis had sniggered on hearing the last item when Storlini listed the next day’s schedule.

  “I doubt they would have asked me to give an opinion, but just in case, it’s a good thing the Paramount is around. I believe the theophists realize there’s a big difference between me and a Septarsh. So . . . thank you for this, Paramount. I won’t be present for that part of your day.”

  Yozef cursed without directly responding. However, two positives resulted. The first: it was the final formal gathering of that day. The second positive result came from the opportunity to set the precedent that the Paramount position had no role in internal church matters.

  The second day began with meeting Roblyn Langor, the Selfcell Clan hetman, who had arrived in Preddi City with a brother, three advisers, and two militia officers.

  “Sorry, Yozef,” said Langor. “You’ve probably already had your fill of meetings yesterday with more to go today, but we haven’t met for almost a year, and I need to take advantage of you being in the next province.”

  “Of course, Roblyn. A good idea. We have a lot to catch up on. You can brief me on how things are going in Selfcell, and I can update you on what’s happened recently in Orosz City.”

  Langor had not seen Yozef’s expression and heard his groan the previous day when a grinning Balwis handed him the semaphore message that Langor was on his way. The Selfcell hetman had risked everything by meeting Yozef secretly while his clan was still forcibly allied with the Narthani. Later, Selfcell had rebelled, drawing off a fraction of the Narthani forces when outright war began. The clans accepted Selfcell back after acknowledging the Selfcellese had had little choice when their call for help against the Narthani was refused by the other clans.

  The remainder of the second day’s meetings involved a selection of merchants with commercial issues or ideas Storlini judged worthy of the Paramount’s attention. Next on the agenda were individual citizens or groups who managed to pass through Storlini’s and Ceinwyn’s screening for valid rationales to meet with the Paramount. Yozef was surprised that both sets of supplicants took as long as they did, and the sessions were more interesting and useful than he’d predicted.

  Finally, it was time to meet with the theophists.

  “Thank you for summarizing your positions,” Yozef said to the eight leading Preddi theophist men and women after the two factions presented their cases. “I believe you all have carefully thought through the issue, and both sides have the best interest of the province clanspeople at heart. However, this is clearly an issue beyond the providence of the Paramount and is something to be decided by the people of Preddi and yourselves as their representatives.”

  Half of the theophists appeared disappointed that the Paramount had declined to become involved and solve their problem. The other half seemed pleased. Yozef preferred to think the latter approved of the separation of church and state, though he left open that they believed their opinion was bound to prevail and didn’t want the Paramount to supersede their perceived inevitable victory.

  “Well, did you successfully solve the church issue today?” Carnigan asked later.

  “Solve the issue of a meaningless difference in wording? No. I told them not to bother me with such stupid trivia and to solve the problem themselves.”

  “Okay, now what did you really tell them?”

  Yozef laughed. “I thanked them for their careful consideration of the issue and said the Paramount would not become involved in internal church issues. That’s going to be the answer to all such attempts. I’ll remain steadfast that the limit of the Paramount’s involvement is to ensure reasonable freedom of religion in Caedellium and to forbid conflicts between different religions.”

  Shopping

  On the morning of Yozef’s second day of meetings, Balwis had knocked on the new arrivals’ door. Mark answered, expecting to find the men who had delivered the morning meal two hours earlier.

  “I assume you’ve all finished eating,” said Balwis, letting himself in before being invited. “We left you alone yesterday, figuring a day of rest would be appreciated. Yozef will be occupied all of today with meetings. Either tonight or tomorrow night will be some kind of social event . . . Ceinwyn will tell us later.

  “I thought maybe today you’d like to move around a little after being on the Buldorian ship for that long. We’re thinking of two options.
Mark, you said you and your wife are from ranch country in Frangel. If you’re up for it, we can take a horseback tour of the city and countryside. A carriage is possible, too, but you wouldn’t see as much.

  “The other option is shopping in the city. You arrived with not much more than the clothes you were wearing. Ceinwyn’s offered to fix that problem. I suppose we could do both today.”

  “Uh . . . both are generous,” said Mark. “I’ll check with the women to see what they prefer.”

  Balwis smirked. “Given the choice between riding a horse or shopping for clothes, I’ll make an experienced guess what the choice will be.”

  “You gotta be shitting me,” Heather exclaimed, after listening to Mark’s question. “Ride a horse when I’ve never been on one of the beasts? The only horses I was ever involved with had me riding in wagons or carriages in Sulako. It wasn’t a common activity in San Mateo. And even if I could ride, I need some clothes. This cut-down sailor outfit scratches, and I feel like I’m a sack of potatoes.”

  “How about you, Maghen?” asked Mark.

  “I’ll go with Heather and Ceinwyn. We need new clothes. I might like a ride some other day, but clothes now. You go ahead with the hetman. I know your patience for shopping. I’ve picked out most of your clothes for the last three years, so I’ll find things I think will fit. We have some coin left. Maybe Ceinwyn can help me exchange them for Caedelli ones. I also think Alys will tolerate moving around shops more than riding. Do her good to walk and be among people we don’t have to worry about.”

  “I confess I’m a little nervous about leaving you and Alys alone. For the last year, I’ve wanted you within sight as much as possible.”

  “We’ll be fine. I suspect they’ll have a few guards accompany us. But . . . just in case.” She lifted the bottom of her skirt to reveal the knife strapped to her calf. “I heard you talking with the hetman. I’ll also take one of the double-barreled pistols in a bag with a few of Alys’s things.”