The Ties that Bind

by Hiroyuki Morioka

  “Thanks for the judicious evaluation of my character,” said Jint exasperatedly, before taking a seat and looking at the live feed of the outside being displayed on the walls. The construction site was zooming larger and larger; they’d be bearing alongside it in no time.

  “Guess it’s nearly time.” Jint took the cat carrier in hand and approached the couch upon which Dyaho lay sprawled.

  “Is it going to be okay?” worried Lafier.

  “Oh, you mean you-know-what?” he said, avoiding the word “bath.” “It’s fine; he’s forgotten by now. Plus, the little guy likes being inside the carrier, for the most part. Don’t even need to pick him up.”

  And, exactly as he said, Jint had only to open the carrier for Dyaho to nestle inside it.

  “Wow. Your cat is a strange one. All of Dyaho’s siblings hate the carrier.”

  “I think he’s just used to it. At your place, the cats hardly ever need to be corralled into carriers.”

  “Fair point.” At Lafier’s “place” — namely, the Royal Palace of Clybh, an artificial planetoid with living quarters spacious enough to comfortably accommodate 50,000 people — the cats were left to roam free.

  “He’ll forget all about me in no time,” Jint smiled sadly.

  “We don’t expect even the cats to remember us.”

  “Which is well-advised.”

  “Now locked beside the target ship,” interrupted the onboard speakers. “All passengers, please prepare at once to disembark.”

  “Shall we go, Jint?” said Lafier, rising to her feet.

  The two of them, seen off by the starpilots of the Baururh, stepped off the carrycraft.

  While atop the personal transporter, Lafier used that time to connect her wristgear to the site’s compucrystal net to retrieve information regarding the new ship. She had, of course, been informed to an extent beforehand, but she needed to get a grasp on the latest info now while she could.

  On a fundamental level, the new assault ship’s crew wouldn’t change. There were some deaths among the NCCs, as well as the injured in need of long-term recuperation. In addition, some had been discharged, returning to their home planets. Their replacements were already lined up. But the roster of starpilots remained the same as before, and it seemed they had already gathered together.

  With the loading of fuel and supplies, and the last adjustments all complete, they could apparently take off whenever they wished to.

  Having thus checked up on the ship’s condition, Lafier noticed Jint was still with the cat.

  “You forgot to drop him off, didn’t you?” She couldn’t help it if her tone sounded a little scolding. When it came time to input the destination into the transporter, Jint had directed it to take them to where the new ship was waiting, Ruc Ceutematdana (Repair Dock 127), without hesitation. Of course, Lafier didn’t really attempt to hide that she was cross-examining him.

  “Think of Linewing Ecryua,” said Jint. “I think she’d want to tell Dyaho her final goodbyes. I’d never slowly whittle away at you until you agree to let him aboard.”

  “Good, because I can’t stand being slowly whittled away at. Promise me you’ll see to him.”

  “Sure thing,” nodded Jint. Then. he laughed. “Looking back, ever since we boarded the Basrogrh, the only point of contention between us has revolved around a cat. It may be dumb of me to say this during wartime, but with us, things are peaceful.”

  “Maybe you feel at peace. And I contend that you never said you’d leave the cat aboard ship.”

  “Now that you mention it, that’s true.” Jint scratched his brown head of hair. “Well, I did have something to say, but what with the war and all, I thought I’d get serious, you know?”

  “You blockhead.”

  Jint changed the subject. “Speaking of which, did you hear the rumors about the new class of ship?”

  “Yep.”

  Word had it that Military Command Headquarters was planning to introduce a new class of ship, based on lessons learned in battles prior. Some were even whispering that the blueprints had already arrived at the Bhoboth Ménhotr (Warship Management Headquarters).

  “Can you imagine? A heavy-class assault ship?”

  “I heard it was a light-weight patrol ship.”

  “Maybe it’s a ship that’s smack dab in the middle. But why would they deploy a half-baked ship like that?”

  The assault ships we have now might be ‘half-baked,’ Lafier thought to herself. Perhaps assault ships were judged to be useless for the battles to come. That said, it would be a while yet before they would come face-to-face with the new class of ship. For the time being, they had to make do fighting in regular old assault ships.

  “By the way, how is that a ‘speaking of which’?” asked Lafier.

  “Huh? Oh, I was thinking maybe there’s room for a cat on a bigger ship...”

  “You blockhead,” she repeated.

  At last, the transporter had reached the ruc (repair dock). Inside, there was microgravity. Lafier’s new ship was floating there, encircled by a slew of tubes. Some steel cords connected the entrance to the dock to the assault ship. The steel cables had grips to use for locomotion. Lafier grabbed a grip and pushed the button. She was then hauled quickly over. Partway there, she released the grip and flew the rest of the way using inertia only. She could change direction or slow down by touching the steel cord with one or both of her military-issue boots.

  To the Abh, who were accustomed to weightlessness, this was hardly worthy of note, but if an inexperienced Lander attempted the same motions, they would only hurt themselves. All too aware that was the case, Jint held onto the grip the entire way.

  Sobash was there to greet them in the air lock room, which was left open.

  “Welcome back, Captain,” Sobash saluted smilingly. “And I commend you for your hard work as well, Linewing Lynn. The accounting NCC has been waiting impatiently for your return.”

  “I’m sure she has a handle on everything, even without somebody like me around,” replied Jint.

  “Yes, she told me as much. Yet it seems there are matters that have need of the Clerk’s approval. You have plenty of work piled up... Now then, Captain, right this way. The Inspector Supervisor and the Deputy Starpilot are awaiting you on the bridge.”

  “Thank you for your trouble, Senior Starpilot.” Lafier breathed in the new-ship smell. It had inherited the name Basrogrh, and since it was exactly the same model, part of her could believe the Basrogrh had come back to life for her.

  They entered the bridge, where stood Mechanics Linewing Samson and Linewing Ecryua.

  “Senior Starpilot, the flag,” said Lafier.

  “Yes, Captain. I will restore it.” Sobash presented a box, and she opened it. Out came the ship’s banner of the Basrogrh, the very same one she’d rescued from the vessel’s predecessor right before it exploded.

  She hung up the wasp-design flag on the wall behind the Captain’s Seat.

  This time, I’ll fight even more skillfully than before. You can count on it.

  Then she spun back around to regard her subordinates. “It’s an honor to have you again.”

  The four starpilots saluted it together.

  “Now, prepare for takeoff!” she ordered. And so the starpilots headed for the door.

  “What about the cat?” she heard Ecryua inquire.

  She wasn’t asking where the cat was; her eyes were on the carrier in Jint’s hands.

  “We’re not allowed to take him with us this time around,” said Jint. “So this is goodbye for the time being. Hang out with him now, if you’re willing.”

  Ecryua pulled a sad expression. This was the first time they’d ever seen her make a face that stark.

  “She’s of a strong conviction that bringing a cat to war is misguided,” said Jint, glancing repeatedly Lafier’s way.

  “So you intend to paint me as the villain, I take it?” She narrowed her eyes at Jint, who was making every indication that this was all Lafier
’s fault.

  “No no, of course not,” Jint grinned ambiguously, looking at each of the Abh ladies in turn. “But, well... the facts are the facts.”

  Epilogue

  The Royal Palace of Clybh played host to a handful of gardens, yet the one that pleased Dyaho the most was the rock-laden garden. It had many nooks and crannies, and most importantly of all, no other cats staking territories. A cat’s stomping grounds were sacred; he would admit no other cats, not even his siblings.

  On that day, like all the others, he climbed up the rocky mountain, his stomach empty.

  The rock garden was a structure with a hemispherical roof covering the ground. That roof always faced the opposite direction from the sun of Abliar, and so the view was always the starry skies.

  Dyaho stood erect at the top of the mountain, and watched the stars with his big, amber eyes. It was often said that the creatures known as cats were unfeeling and forgetful, and they did indeed tend to be, but it wasn’t as though their memories disappeared completely. Dyaho thought back to the days he spent aboard the assault ship Basrogrh. The first face that sprung to mind was of the girl with the sky-blue hair. She had annoyed him from all of the excessive contact, but the way she combed his striped fur felt pleasant — almost like he was being stroked directly.

  By contrast, the girl with a nostalgic scent and the bluish-black hair treated Dyaho with the utmost naturalness. She treated him like he was the wind, yet being by her side always seemed to be the most distant place from anxiety and fear.

  Then he thought about the other people who stalked the Basrogrh, and finally, the housemate came to mind.

  He wondered with worry whether the housemate, who seemed so bumbling to him, was doing okay by himself.

  Yes, Dyaho fretted over the housemate. However, as all members of the cat family were wont, he quickly tired of pondering these things.

  Dyaho stretched with his forelimbs together, and yawned.

  Appendix: Influence Map of Planar Space

  This planar space influence map is not necessarily 100% accurate. In fact, it is a gross simplification of the current reality.

  Imagine, if you will, that planar space is an ocean. Portals would then be small islands dotting it. These islands are of negligible area compared to the vast ocean. Now imagine the majority of those islands are uninhabited, but there are a few that aren’t. One might say that a given interstellar power is an aggregation of these islands. As such, there are no clear boundary lines, as this map might lead you to believe.

  There have been attempts, however, to divide up planar space. In other words, treaties were signed at several points to recognize the sovereignty of respective member-states over a circular area of a certain diameter centered around each portal leading to an inhabited star system. Yet the Humankind Empire of Abh lay ever outside the reach of the “international community,” and due to their indifference with regard to these agreements, the divvying of planar space by dint of treatise ultimately came to no effect.

  Instead, the boundary lines of planar space emerged organically, as a consequence of nature. In order to fully grasp how and why, please humor the following explanation of the basic physics at play.

  There is a “point of inaccessibility” for ships navigating through planar space, but those ships’ cruising ranges are actually much smaller even than that theoretical dead end, because it’s calculated by assuming that the entirety of the absolute greatest amount of mass that can be contained in a single space-time bubble is converted into energy. Since ships in the real world exist to ferry things across space, people can hardly afford to allow cargo and passengers (or the ships themselves for that matter) to turn into energy.

  Owing to this cruising range problem, ships navigating planar space need to resupply often. This means any sector that doesn’t connect to a star system capable of resupplying a ship can’t be crossed. This merciless physical law, combined with each nation’s will to persist, molded the influence boundaries of the present day.

  If an interstellar power must use the portals of other countries to maintain contact between its own star systems, an emergency could very well break up its virtual domain. To avoid such perils, it must set a path connecting all of its star systems using its own portals. Consequently, each power’s area of influence can be seen as a collection of navigation routes.

  In addition, a ship’s cruising range is swayed in no small part by the flow of space-time particles. Because dense currents of space-time particles gush out from the central sector of the Milky Way Portal-belts, if one navigates from the outer edges inward toward the core of the galaxy, they must sail against the stream, causing their trip to be slower and the distance travelled shorter. That current is the biggest obstacle to likening planar space to an ocean.

  Perhaps it would serve you better, in this one case, to instead imagine a mountain.

  In any case, I’d now like to draw your attention to the Ileesh Monarchy in the Twelfth Ring. You might assume that the ideal path to travel from the Hyde Portal to the Ileesh Portal involves crossing the center area. However, in order to do that, there needs to exist portals in the Tenth or Eleventh Rings connecting to resupply bases. Yet the area outside the Seventh Ring is as yet largely undeveloped, leaving traveling alongside the Twelfth Ring while taking space-time particles from the side as the only option. You are not to climb the mountain; you are instead to adopt the contour lines that make up the mountain as your paths.

  Now I would like to inform you of the history of planar space to date in simple terms — and in terms of the characteristics of planar space.

  The first humans to set foot into planar space did so through the Sumei Portal, belonging to the present-day Hania Federation. The Sumei Portal lies in the First Ring. Sumeinians quickly caught on that while traveling from there to the outer reaches was easy, the reverse was quite the challenge. Moreover, the planar space navigation technology of the time made it so that traversing the area between the First and Second Rings was next to impossible.

  They decided thereupon to search for potential trading partners and places to settle along the First Ring, and it didn’t take long for their efforts to bear fruit. A portal to a human-inhabited star system was discovered in the Twelfth Ring, which was to be a foothold for their explorations all the way out to the outer edges. Thus did Sumeinian technology reach the rest of humanity.

  Meanwhile, since Sumeinians actively developed and settled planets, they formed the first interstellar power in human history. Then, the Abh entered planar space through their eight portals. By some strange vagary of fate, not a single one of those eight was to be found in the First Ring. This was rather a blessing in the eyes of the Abh, for if even just one portal into the Empire existed in the First Ring, they would have brushed paths with advanced star systems during their early stages, and given the temperament of the Kin of the Stars, those encounters could not have all been peaceful in nature. The Empire might have been snuffed out before it could bloom into the powerhouse it currently is. Luckily, the Abh plumbed planar space disconnected from advanced star systems, granting them the time necessary to build up the strength to rival their planar space precursors.

  I don’t have the space to elaborate on the history from that point on. To keep things short, the vicissitudes of destiny saw the rise and fall of various interstellar powers, leading to the present situation as depicted by the political map. Do mind that in actuality, as I stated earlier, the boundary lines are not so distinct, and there are places where they are in fact exceedingly vague. There are portals that seep into the domains of neighboring nations like enclaves. Furthermore, there are no portals between rings, which makes securing routes through inter-ring areas nonviable.

  The reason that I present to you this map so akin to the map of a landworld is because a more technically accurate map was deemed to be counterproductively confusing.

  Afterword

  And so it has finally begun.

  First things first,
let’s clarify what BANNER OF THE STARS is in relation to the prior volumes, CREST OF THE STARS. It is not a sequel.

  Chronologically speaking, it does come after the events of CREST, so I have taken to calling it a sequel when explaining it to people is too big a hassle, but in reality, BANNER is the main story. CREST was a side story.

  I think writing the side story before the main story is pretty groundbreaking stuff, wouldn’t you say?

  So you can start reading the series without having read CREST first... is what I’d like to be able to say, but I regret to admit that if you haven’t read CREST first, I think BANNER will be hard to follow. That’s because, just as I stated in the afterword to Vol. III of CREST, it’s also a guidebook — to the Abh race, to the interstellar empire they built, and to the fantastical science that called that empire into being. It exists to provide explanations for those kinds of elements. Think of it as a sort of primer. (Of course, it’s not just a primer.)

  For readers who don’t know of CREST, or who read it but don’t remember it well, I incorporated explanations that were as brief as allowable, without repeating things too at length, which would have been annoying to the people who read the previous installment and looked forward to the next book. To reiterate, I kept the repeated explanations extremely simple.

  If you started the series from BANNER, may I (laughingly) suggest that picking up CREST OF THE STARS as well would make me very happy? To tell the truth, when I finished writing CREST, I thought to myself: I don’t have to write the continuation. I even entertained the notion that it’d be better if I didn’t. After all, though it’s hard for me to say this myself, humble man that I am... that epilogue was a pretty good finale, wasn’t it? Even now, I catch myself thinking that ending the entire series with that epilogue, despite the enormous world I’d created going to waste, would have been bold of me.