Ragnarok: Colonization, intrigue and betrayal.

by Andrew Claymore

  “You don’t say?” She said, hoping she wasn’t encouraging Sulak’s nonsense. Still… Why does it feel like this is more important to him than he’s letting on?

  He let out another gravelly chuckle. “I do say, young noblewoman. They even have several neural interfaces in that network, should they have to deal with some random piece of new equipment and need a quick bit of training.

  “Of course, that was a wildly optimistic bit of designing by our ancestors. It’s been thousands of years since our people have done anything innovative. Perhaps that’s why those tunnels go unused.”

  “Perhaps,” she said as noncommittally as possible.

  “Well, as I said…” He stood, brushing carbon soot from his robes. “The universe has its own ideas on what should have meaning to whom. I’ll leave you to what remains of your solitude.” He gave her a polite bow and wandered down the dark tunnel on the left.

  Gabriella watched, not at all sure why the fine hairs on her arms were suddenly prickling against the inside of her armor.

  Grounds for Grievance

  Come Together Coffee House, Unity

  Frank took a speculative look at the coffee maker in the kitchen. It would do a perfectly good job of turning Trisha’s beans, brought all the way from Earth, into a cup of joe.

  He looked out over the peninsula, past the garden to the tunnel that ran through the first floor of their house to the narrow street outside. The new coffee house was probably also doing a good job of turning her stock of beans into coffee.

  “How would I know,” he asked himself, “if I don’t go and find out?” He confirmed that he was wearing pants instead of pajamas and headed out, across one of the paths running through the garden, and into the tunnel.

  The tunnel was just over nine feet high, six feet wide and paved with the same carboncrete ‘cobbles’ that covered the courtyard around their garden. At the halfway point, a heavy bronze gate secured their home, though there was little in the way of a criminal element in Unity.

  He pushed lightly on the gate and it swung open on frictionless bearings. Sensors built into the heavy, ornate bronze-work could have recognized the residents and unlocked when touched but the gate was purely ornamental for now.

  He stepped out into the narrow pedestrian street, not much wider than his house’s entry tunnel, and headed toward the main street that bisected the town from east to west. Some of the local critters had already taken a liking to the town and a few of them were up in the eaves, cooing and burbling their appreciation of the late afternoon starshine.

  Nature never missed out on a niche.

  Wont be long before we’re able to support the next wave of people, he thought, looking up but not seeing what made the noises. Then we might want to think about locking our gates and building a jail.

  Crime rarely missed a niche either.

  He frowned, not wanting to ruin his relaxed mood but, now the cat was out of the bag, in his own mind at least. The council was going to meet soon. Law enforcement would have to be on the agenda.

  They couldn’t afford to ignore what lay ahead. Hells, he thought in Imperial, there’s going to be crimes committed by the folks that are already living here. You can’t have a group this size live in perfect harmony for a couple of growing seasons without a fair bit of tension developing.

  He passed an intersection and turned left, angling over to the sunnier side of the slightly wider street. The warmth washed over him and he decided he’d make a serious attempt to just enjoy the afternoon.

  No sense worrying about something if I can’t do anything about it right now, he thought, turning again, this time onto the main street.

  A house on that corner had an exterior garden. Rather than the house wrapping around the open space, it sat at the back and a two-meter wall surrounded the garden. A dog barked in warning as he passed and the sound made him nostalgic for Earth.

  Wonder how many folks brought dogs? he mused. We should ask around to see if there are any litters of pups on the way.

  He reached the main square and turned left, walking past the church and turning left again to duck down the narrow aisle between it and the Sikh temple. A block behind the holy structures sat one of the small squares where space had been set aside for low-intensity commercial use.

  The square, roughly forty meters by twenty, was cunningly sloped so anyone standing at the south end could see over the roofs and the wall to the north. The mountains looked magnificent framed by the buildings on each side of the open space.

  There were only four shops so far. One enterprising family had a reliable connection back home who’d taken over their specialty spice shop. They were perfectly positioned to supply an off-world shop with everything that might be needed for a taste of home.

  Two doors down, a store was setting up to supply textiles from home through a similar family connection. It was rumored that the owner was even working on a way to turn local plant fibers into usable cloth using nanite tech.

  Next to that shop was a chocolatier, if the gossip was true. The blinds were closed so he couldn’t see what was inside.

  If it really was a chololatier, they’d make a good neighbor for Frank’s destination. The cafe, like the chocolatier, would rely heavily for milk on the small herd that had come with the colonists.

  At present, everyone was using UHT stabilized milk while the cattle browsed the local fodder and tried to work out whether the whole adventure was just some elaborate prank. None of them were giving milk but that should hopefully change, now that seven of them were pregnant.

  He exchanged friendly greetings with Sushil and Rohan, who sat at one of the tables in the small courtyard, before going in to order. He shuddered involuntarily at the scents inside.

  In the space of an instant, the act of stepping through the door, into the aromas of steaming milk and fresh-ground coffee, transported him millions of miles. He could close his eyes and believe he was back in California.

  “I never tire of seeing that look,” the owner said.

  Frank opened his eyes, not having noticed that he’d even closed them. He smiled, nodding in agreement. “I don’t think your customers will ever tire of it either.” He held out a hand. “I’m Frank.”

  “Adarsh,” he shook hands. “Of course I know who you are,” he added.

  Right, Frank thought, everybody was at the wedding…

  “I’m selling your wife’s coffee,” Adarsh said, pointing a thumb at the menu-board behind him. “Without her, I’d just be helping out on my father’s farm wondering how I might one day get something like this set up.”

  “Right,” Frank made a show of smacking his forehead. “I knew all that but it clean flew out of my mind when I stepped in here.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment!” Adarsh gestured at the menu. “And what’ll you take, Frank?”

  “A large dark roast would be just the thing,” Frank said.

  “Large dark coming up,” Adarsh confirmed, pulling a mug from a stack by the order counter and filling it from one of the pots at the back.

  Frank looked down at the barely visible scar on his wrist. “This is my first transaction in the republic,” he said, waving his wrist over a spot on the counter. The implant vibrated to confirm payment.

  “Milk and sugar’s just over there,” Adarsh nodded toward a station by the end of the counter. “UHT’s all we got till our four-legged friends are ready.”

  “What about sugar?” Frank put a splash of milk in his cup. “Might drive prices up if you have to ship it all the way from Earth.”

  “One of the assigned crops was sugarcane,” Adarsh said. “Production should ramp up before our stocks run out.”

  “Oh that’s right!” Frank picked up his first republic purchase. “This colony’s really coming together. I kind of feel sorry for those guys on Mars.”

  He took a sip and sighed his appreciation. “Thanks, Adarsh!” He saluted the barista with his mug and headed outside.

  Rohan
reached awkwardly, grimacing as he moved his tablet out of the way of the empty seat, an implied invitation that Frank accepted. He placed his mug and sat. “Morning, gentlemen.”

  “Frank,” Sushil nodded affably. “Nice to see the family that supplies our coffee patronizing our only cafe.”

  “This is nicer than sitting by myself in my kitchen,” he said.

  “It’s a relief to see this happening,” Sushil nodded his head at the cafe. “I certainly didn’t want to be responsible for this place but young folk like Adarsh might just turn Unity into a success whether I’m competent or not!”

  “Management 101,” Frank declared. “Stay out of the way and let folks succeed without any meddling.”

  “I can do that,” Sushil said, hoisting his mug as if in a toast. He took a drink and set it down. He frowned toward the south end of the square. “Say, Rohan, didn’t you say Terry was helping out with the watering today? He must have finished early.”

  They all followed his gaze. Sure enough, Terry was coming toward them, walking faster than usual.

  “He seems agitated,” Sushil observed.

  “Frank,” Terry blurted, “you gotta help me!”

  “What’s wrong?” Frank leaned forward in his seat. It was alarming that Terry was worked up enough to forgo his usual polite greetings to the others at the table.

  “It’s Mrs. Naidu; you gotta tell her about what happened up in the highlands yesterday!”

  “What!” Frank suddenly felt the hairs raise on the back of his neck.

  “Terry, what’s happening?” Rohan asked, now very concerned.

  “Mr. Naidu!” Terry said, alarmed and apparently just noticing Mrs. Naidu’s husband. “Your daughter brought me lunch up where your orchard is and…”

  He held up his hands in response to the sudden, alarming angle of Rohan’s dark eyebrows. “No, sir! I would never dream of fooling around with Kiara! Well, that’s not quite… I mean, she’s amazing but I…”

  “Terry,” Frank cut him off firmly before he could make things worse. “Just tell us what happened.”

  “Alright.” Terry looked from Frank to Rohan and back. “I was irrigating the orchard, not far from where we’re putting in the coffee trees. Around noon, Kiara showed up with food and we were just eating and talking and then…”

  “Yes?” Rohan demanded. “And then?”

  “The same thing happened,” Terry said quietly.

  “The animals went into sync?” Frank asked. “You could almost hear a voice coming from the north?”

  Terry nodded. “When it stopped, we’d been sitting there for almost two hours. I flew us back to town right away but Mrs. Naidu is in a real state. She thinks I…” He flapped his hands helplessly, looking to Rohan.

  “Don’t worry, Terry,” Rohan said, a tremor in his voice. “I believe you because I had the same thing happen two days ago.”

  “You too, Rohan?” Frank asked.

  “That’s what happened to my back,” Rohan admitted.

  “What are you talking about?” Sushil demanded. “What is this voice you say you heard?”

  “I don’t know,” Rohan said. “I went into a trance and, when I woke, I didn’t notice how much time had passed because I stepped backwards and tripped on a root.”

  He shifted uncomfortably. “It took a while for me to get back to my runabout and return home.”

  “You said nothing about this,” Sushil accused.

  “And have everyone think I’d lost my mind?” Rohan flared but his anger was short-lived. “I had no idea that Frank had experienced the same thing. I wasn’t sure if it was just in my mind.”

  “We should have said something,” Frank admitted. “It’s much easier when you have multiple witnesses.”

  “Including my own daughter now,” Rohan said, getting up with a grimace. “I should go see how she is.”

  “She’s pretty freaked out,” Terry said, watching Rohan stuff his tablet and notebook back into his bag. “She had the same weird experience as the rest of us and her mom doesn’t believe a word of it. Mrs. Naidu was still shouting when I left.”

  He grabbed Rohan’s bag. “Let me carry that for you, Mr. Naidu. You don’t want to throw off your balance while your back is still sore.”

  Rohan goggled at Terry for a heartbeat. “You’d willingly follow me back into the jaws of an angry tigress?”

  “Kiara needs you.” Terry was practically hopping. “The faster we get you home, the better it is for her.”

  “You’re a good man, Terry,” Rohan said. He looked at him a moment longer, nodding slowly. “Yes, a very good man. Let’s go.”

  He started shuffling across the square with Terry, who kept looking back and forth between Rohan and the other side of the square. “I could carry you on my back, sir?”

  A chuckle. “Thank you, but no.”

  Learning Curve

  Babilim Station

  “Normal geometry restored,” the helm officer announced. “Position matches trace.”

  “Very well,” the officer of the deck acknowledged. “Secure the path drive and bring the pitch drives online.”

  Gabriella stepped closer to the outer view-port. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was that she’d expected to see but it was probably more than she was seeing.

  A brilliant white orb was there but how could she see it if it was encased by the station? Maybe that’s not the star…

  “I see the star,” her mother said, “but what happened to the station?”

  Luna pointed out the window. “You see how it looks like a gas cloud over there? That slightly lighter region of space?”

  “Okay,” Adelina nodded.

  “That’s the station. Watch.”

  I suppose if we’re in a station big enough to house a star, we shouldn’t be surprised if we’re too far away to see it, Gabriella thought, even from the inside.

  The cloud began resolving itself into a wall and the wall seemed to grow as they drew nearer. Details became evident – structures, gaps and a twinkling of what must have been lights.

  Gabriella gasped, putting a hand over her throat and leaning forward. The lights that she’d taken to be windows were nothing of the sort. They were quickly expanding, revealing themselves to be city-sized groupings of lights.

  No.

  The cities of lights were separating again. They were continent-sized groups? “Those structures are larger than Earth,” she whispered in awe. And there’s no apparent curve. It’s so big you can’t even see enough of it to make out curvature. This place is a Flat-Earther’s dream.

  “Several times larger, in some cases,” Luna said. “And it’s currently home to several thousand Humans.”

  “And you really don’t know who built it?” Adelina asked. “Wouldn’t they have left behind something? Literature, movies, civic records?”

  “If the station knows,” Luna said, “it ain’t telling us. We can communicate with it, to a limited extent, but we’ve made no headway on its origins.”

  “Wow!” Gabriella breathed. “It’s like finding a temple in the jungle but times ten thousand! Can you imagine the civilization that could do something like this?”

  “I’m not sure I really can,” Luna admitted, sounding a little smaller than usual. “I was never the creative one in our family and, frankly, picturing how something like this was built is just staggering.

  “I mean, there have to be more than a few entire solar systems missing because of this. It’s hundreds of kilometers thick. Thousands of systems would have to be harvested to create this monster.”

  “Sounds like your imagination is doing just fine,” Adelina shivered. “I wonder if any of those systems had life on them.”

  “That’s a lot of ghosts,” Gabriella muttered. “Let’s assume they were all sterile systems, so we can sleep at night.” She watched for a while in silence, then another thought occurred to her.

  “Even assuming you have the tech to… just harvest an entire system, how do you tra
nsport all of it here and convert it into this?” She shook her head slowly. “This must be how the ancient nomads would have felt when they saw the Great Wall for the first time.

  “That’s us. A bunch of nomads, sitting on their horses staring at the biggest thing we’ve ever seen and trying to comprehend how it came to be.”

  “How is this not the jewel in the emperor’s crown?” Adelina asked. “Why aren’t there imperial ships swarming all over the place?”

  “This place is terrifying,” Gleb said. He stepped closer to the group by the window. “Especially to a Quailu because it’s so humbling.” He waved at the approaching inner surfaces. “This is a reminder of how insignificant they are in comparison.

  “The palace at Throne World, the hab-ring of Kurnugia… Mega-projects built by the empire are insignificant next to this. Whoever built this thing could have snuffed out the entire empire without breaking a sweat.”

  “If they even happened to consider the empire worth noticing,” Luna added. “Does an elephant give a shit about a mosquito?”

  “The empire knows about this place,” Gleb said. “The info lurks in their databases like a primal fear in their subconscious mind. They’d rather ignore it, pretend it doesn’t even exist.

  “And now,” he continued mildly, “their dirty secret, their shamefully betrayed subjects, one of the deadliest species in the galaxy... live here.”

  Gleb cleared his throat, seeming a little embarrassed by his impromptu speech. He offered up a grin. “Who’s up for a tour?”

  Carrier Operations

  Ragnarok Orbit

  “It looks good, Chief,” Captain Hennessy said. “How fast do the re-arming lines work?”

  Turnaround time is about five minutes,” the chief-mate of the Kuphar said, “but Noa’s working on a modular unit for missiles that should cut that by three minutes.”

  “Good!” Hennessy nodded. “Every second counts in a fight and three minutes could count for a hell of a lot.”