I wonder what the world below is like...
That train of thought snapped him out of his reverie. “I totally forgot!”
Lafier eyed him inquiringly. “Forgot what?”
“We’re gonna need info on this planet. Have we got any location data on board?”
“Yes, there should be relevant data in the computing crystals’ büazépcec (memory bank).”
“Awesome! Computing crystals, give us data on the Sfagnoff Marquessate.”
The words Lœbehynh Sfagnaumr appeared on screen alongside a large article entry, with headers for HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, and INDUSTRY listed underneath.
“Please select a category and one or more operations,” said the cyber-voice. “Operations include BROWSE, ADD, COPY...”
Jinto inserted his armrest’s ceumec (wire) into his compuwatch and said, “Whole document, copy.”
UNDERSTOOD flashed twice on screen before shifting into a COMPLETE.
“No more operations, computing crystals,” said Jinto. He unplugged the wire and patted the compuwatch. A little bit of information would go a long way, so he was glad it had occurred to him to check.
Why hadn’t Lafier made any effort to research any potential safe havens? Was she not clear on standard operating procedures for surface-landing? But the second he was about to ask her as much — the shock of impact.
“Did we land...?” he squeaked pitifully.
“Yep.” Their hair was swaying from back to front as the wind rolled through.
Jinto looked behind and saw the door to the air lock room was open. Only there was no air lock room there. What met his eyes instead was tall straw-colored vegetation, rustling in near darkness but for the light emitted by the steerer’s room.
They were on land.
“Jinto, we need to hurry. They may have spotted us from above.” Lafier removed her seatbelt and bade Jinto stand up, too.
“Ah, uh, right.” Jinto got to his feet.
“Open!” Lafier commanded the seats. They folded backward at a precise 90-degree angle.
“Does that opening lead into some secret basement?”
“No, stupid.”
The compartment underneath the seats was for storage. Its contents were covered by the daüch long robe she’d purloined from the barony. Lafier set that wardrobe aside to reveal the two phasers that had been out of sight.
“Take and keep one.”
“I was wondering where you’d hidden these,” said Jinto, who took a gun plus accompanying items.
“I wasn’t hiding them. I simply stashed them while you were having a nap. It is a cramped space.”
“I get it, I get it. Please don’t take every little thing at face-value. It was just banter.” He put on his sash-belt and holstered his gun in it.
“This, too.” She handed him a knapsack. On it was written “FOR EMERGENCY SURFACE EVACUATION” in small text. It contained a bunch of combat rations parcels, an assortment of tools, and some medicines.
“Hope they’re not past the best-by date,” he said, glowering at the rations.
He closed the lid over the knapsack and strapped it on. It wasn’t very heavy on his back.
Lastly, Lafier picked up a mhlamh (FLAHF, pendant)-like trinket and put it on over her neck.
“Jinto.” She held it in her hand for him to see. “The patrol ship Goslauth’s navigation log is in this. If I should die, I’d like you to escape with it.”
“C’mon, don’t go jinxi—” But the royal princess’s intense stare made him feel small.
“It’s just a hypothetical.”
“All... all right,” Jinto nodded.
Lafier returned the nod and tucked the pendant into the collar of her military uniform. Then, she issued the following command to the computing crystals: “Prepare for deletion.”
The words “DELETION PREPARATION COMPLETE” danced on screen.
“Is there anything you’d like to take out of the crystals?” asked Lafier.
Jinto shook his head. “No.”
“Okay.” Lafier’s tone turned pained. “Computing crystals, this is goodbye. For the sake of confidentiality, delete everything.”
“Understood. Executing confidentiality protocols. Deleting all information and system processors. We wish you peace and safety.”
A pair of eyes appeared on screen, only for their lids to slowly droop. Once they were totally shut, the screen blinked out.
Dark sense of humor for a computer, thought Jinto. However, Lafier was of a clearly very different reaction. She faced the screen and saluted it.
“All right, let’s go,” said Lafier, laying her hands on the door’s edge.
“Wait, hold on!” Jinto jumped for the long robe that Lafier had tossed to the side on the floor.
“What are you doing?” said Lafier, having returned. She peered at what Jinto held in hand.
“We’re gonna need money, too!” Jinto turned it over and collected the sash clip. It consisted of a ruby embedded in a platinum base. As such, it could probably fetch quite the price.
“Money?” Lafier cocked her head. “We have money.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll show you.” She worked her compuwatch. “See? 5,000 scarh. I haven’t used any of what Fïac Loranr (His Highness my father) gave me.”
Given that on Delktu, Jinto had gotten by with around 20 scarh a month, that was a positively tantalizing goldmine. And yet...
What use was Empire money on a planet that was this close to succumbing to an enemy occupation? Not only that, but the currency existed purely digitally on her compuwatch anyway. Who here would accept that as legitimate tender?
But it soon dawned on a dumbfounded Jinto. There was nothing like the realization that Lafier was a child of the stars through and through — and a highborn one at that — to clear any illusions he had about her innate royal competencies. She’d no doubt never even shopped by herself before.
“I’ll go into it later. Let’s just get out of here for now.” Jinto stuffed the sash clip into the knapsack and stepped outside.
He looked back at the spherical remains of the vessel they’d soon be abandoning, and noted four wing-like flaps spread out at the top. They probably deployed to create more air resistance and slow their descent. Unfortunately, they also made the vessel stick out like a sore thumb when viewed from above. They needed to leave, and fast.
“Should we run?” asked Lafier.
“If you’re okay running.”
“What do you mean, if I’m okay?”
“I mean, you might be tuckered out.”
“I’m not. I’m more worried about you.”
“Need I remind you that I’m the one who’s more used to running on land?” With that, Jinto was off.
“Wait, Jinto, there’s something wrong with my eyes!” shouted Lafier.
“What!?” Startled, he stopped in his tracks.
Lafier had looked up at the sky after taking a step out of the steerer’s room. “The stars look like they’re flickering to me.”
Jinto likewise looked up. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Sure enough, the stars were flickering for Jinto, too, but he knew that didn’t mean his vision was faulty.
“If this were the capital, I’d have ready access to treatment, but here...” Lafier screwed up her determination and faced Jinto. “I don’t want to be a burden on you. If I lose my eyesight, I want you to take the navigation log and leave me...”
“I hate to piss all over your splendid martyr’s spirit,” cut in Jinto, “but your eyes are totally fine.”
“You’d best not be consoling me with lies,” she said sternly.
“I’m not consoling you. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s refraction that causes it. In any case, the stars always seem to twinkle from inside an atmosphere.”
“Really?” She probed his expression, aided by the light filtering from the steerer’s room.
“I’m not smart enough to come up with such a plausible lie on the fly. Tha
t’s just how the stars appear on terrestrial worlds. Relieved?”
“I suppose,” Lafier admitted, albeit reluctantly. Through the tenor of her voice, he could sense she was, in fact, relieved.
“I get the feeling your education was lacking in a critical department.”
“Shut up, Jinto.”
“I’ll shut up; talking while running is too hard anyway.”
Judging by the orderly rows of identical vegetation, it seemed they were in a field. What that crop actually was, they didn’t know. They looked like some form of grain. The first thing that popped to Jinto’s mind was wheat ears. The plots had been planted such that a single-person file could traverse the gaps between. The dirt underfoot was damp, but not muddy enough to impede their progress. On the contrary, the ground was just soft enough to be perfect for running.
A short while after they’d begun running, there was a shift in the starry sky above. A large number of charged particles, formed in the battle beyond Clasbule’s atmosphere, painted fluttering streaks of red and green as they came raining down.
Chapter 6: The Lœbehynh Sfagnaumr (Sfagnoff Marquessate)
The Sfagnoff Marquessate was founded in the year 648 I.H. (Imperial History).
Sosïéc Üémh Sailar Daglei started the Campaign on Yaktia as glaharérh byrer (Fleet Commander-in-Chief) and was appointed its lord upon distinguishing himself with success.
The Sfagnoff Star System possessed seven main planets, the third of which had seemed suitable for human settlement were terraforming to be carried out. Its atmosphere was chiefly composed of carbon monoxide, with little hydrogen to speak of, but that proved no impediment.
Daglei, the First Bœrh Sfagnaumr (Viscount of Sfagnoff), named the planet after the coat of arms of his House of Sosiec, the Ïadh Chrehainena le Clasbyrh (Silver Branch and Snail) before embarking on the planet’s terraforming (“Clasbule” was one derived transliteration).
There was a standard sequence for birthing a new habitable planetscape.
First came fundraising. Terraforming demanded large sums of capital, but in the absence of some gross oversight, there was guaranteed money in it, so there was seldom ever a shortage of potential investors.
Daglei, however, skipped that first step entirely. Thanks to successive generations of investment, the Sosiec family had amassed a sizable fortune, obviating the need to seek outside sources of seed money.
Second came the work of terraforming itself. The Empire boasted several gareurec fazér diüimr (planetary terraforming engineering unions) taking on contracts to oversee the process from the preliminary exploration phase to the crafting of the ecosystem.
One such gareurec (union) came to Clasbule and set about altering the orbit of an icy planet on the perimeter of the star system such that it collided with Clasbule. This covered the planet in water vapor, rinsing the ground through the resulting cataracts of rain. Rivers emerged. Oceans came into being.
Next to be sown were the algae and the microorganisms centered around them. Those microorganisms exploded in number, absorbing carbon and leaving behind oxygen in their wake. Their husks would go on to pile up on the planet’s rocky surface, becoming soil.
Then higher-class plant life was introduced. Strains like ronrébh (sand-sod) and rodauremzœch (imitation lava pines), which matured quickly and could plant roots even in poor quality soil, were the principal species. The plants raised the soil’s water retention capacity, synthesizing abundant organic matter from inorganic beginnings. Subsequently, with each new generational transition of the plant life, the soil became more fertile, eventually allowing for the successful sowing of species that require a richer environment. Fish, too, were introduced to the seas and lakes, while annelids, insects, and other crawlies were unleashed upon the land.
The evolution that took billions of years to develop on Earth of old had been truncated to an extreme extent through a handful of different processes, and the order of said developments had been adjusted for heightened convenience and efficiency.
On the fiftieth year, a comprehensive ecosystem including higher-order mammals had been instated, thus marking the completion of an inhabitable planet. Typically, that was when colonization would take place. In this case, however, scant effort was made to solicit for settlers. By that time, reign over the planet had been passed down to the Second Viscount of Sfagnoff, Disclei, a man who felt no pressing urge to people his freshly terraformed planet with surface citizens.
As to why, the public is still not privy. Perhaps he saw the planet as a garden or park. If that was indeed the case, then his driving desires were brazen by the standards of the Kin of the Stars. It was commonplace among the Abh to take pride in counting the universe itself as their home, and even grandees only rarely left their orbital estates to visit the terrestrial world below. If an Abh appeared to want to claim a surface world for themselves, it would be cause for scandal. It was therefore only reasonable that that wouldn’t be disclosed.
There was, however, a more favorable way of viewing the matter as well: he was waiting to see whether intelligent life would naturally evolve and serve as the planet’s territorial citizens. If that was true, then he was mad in the singularly Abh fashion, leaving aside the baffling lack of pride he showed in his own Bœrïéc Sfagnaumr (Viscount Estate of Sfagnoff).
Whatever the case, migration to the planet began with the peerage of the Third Viscount of Sfagnoff, Etlei.
Agreements were reached with the lords and saiméïc sosr (territorial civilian governments) of 13 territory nations that were facing impending overpopulation, and a settler recruitment office was opened.
The first day of the first month of the Clasbule calendar coincided with the 29th day of the eleventh month of the year 729 I.H..
Viscount Etlei was made a count thanks to his deed of adding a new inhabited planet to the Empire, and he joined the ranks of grandees. What was formerly the Viscountdom of Sfagnoff was now the Dreuhynh Sfagnaumr (Countdom of Sfagnoff).
93 years after settlement began, the population reached the 100,000,000 mark, thereby warranting an upgrade to marquessate.
At present, the population of Clasbule is around 380,000,000. It has 21 states, with an assembly of state premiers comprised of saimh sosr (territorial citizen representatives)...
...Rattled off Jinto’s compuwatch as, seated atop a hill, he scanned his surroundings. Or perhaps it was not so much as a hill as a giant piece of pumice, a big, holey boulder.
It was nothing but crops as far as the eye could see, in all directions, rows of the exact same plant running down to the horizon and beyond. Even now, following the advent of hydroponic farming, making use of the naturally occurring water and light on a planet’s surface was still the cheapest method of food production, even counting the upfront cost of planetary terraforming.
From up on this hill, they really did look like wheat. Granted, that could be because that was the grain he was most used to. They could very well be a genetically engineered giant strain similar to but distinct from wheat.
Whatever. It’s wheat, he decided. It’s not like it changed their situation. Gusts of wind made the fields rustle in surging waves, swaying from right to left — a virtual sea of gold.
Meanwhile, the “hill” of pumice jutted out from it all like a remote isle. To the distant right stood another isle, which looked to be a forest. Something was circling above that forest. Local planetary transport?
Or maybe...
All in all, the scene before them was idyllic. One would never expect this to be a warzone.
It was early evening now. They had spent all the night prior running, and dawn was cracking when they stumbled across the hill. By that point they were worn out. Luckily, they’d found a hole in the pumice face so big it was nearly a cave, and they slipped in for some much-needed sleep. Lafier was, of course, just as exhausted as he was.
Given their situation, taking shifts standing vigil should have been a matter of course. In fact, Jinto had meant to s
tand vigil, without ever having told Lafier. But the exhaustion had seeped into his very marrow, and sleep swallowed him up in no time. He’d only finally awakened moments ago. The reason he’d left Lafier’s still-dozing side to climb to the top of the hill was to survey their environs.
Jinto shut off the informational audio, and tried tuning into the spot broadcasting frequency.
A middle-aged woman’s face displayed on his small screen. She was orating on something or other. At first, he didn’t understand a word she said.
There was no data regarding languages on the connecting vessel’s limited memory bank, nor was his compuwatch equipped with a translator function. But as he focused on the words, he realized it was, in fact, Baronh.
“We... need... thank... organization... humankind... rule... unite. Reason... they... freed... us... leave... control... belong... Ahw. Now... we... need... stand... independent... government... belong... us... resemble... truly...”
Thus, Jinto picked it up.
This was not the standard Baronh that was the official language of all the Empire, but rather a simplified pidgin.
The complicated-looking declension of Baronh had been removed; now grammatical meaning was determined by word order. Moreover, that word order was the same as Martinese. So, once he’d gotten used to the Clasbule accent (“Abh” was now “Ahw”), he started grasping the gist of her address. Of course, words of seemingly non-Baronh origin were also sprinkled throughout, but he could still understand the overall thrust of the sentences.
To sum it up, this lady was saying “Let us give thanks to the United Humankind, who have liberated us from Abh rule.”
That such a broadcast made it to air could only mean the Star Forces had been defeated. Jinto was quick to come to grips with that fact. He’d already steeled himself to the eventuality. All he could really do was wait until the Empire reclaimed the land.
Jinto fiddled with the frequency to see whether he could turn the channel. He was greeted by footage of a cityscape. It was most likely a movie.
A smirk formed. Really? Entertainment? At a time like this? On second thought, maybe it was a form of resistance in itself. After all, the whole planet had been built up by the Abh to begin with, just like Delktu. The population was composed of the descendants of those migrants who had already accepted Abh rule. Unlike a planet like Martinh, which had been conquered, anti-Abh sentiment here was probably sparse.
A War Most Modest (JNC Edition) Page 9
