by Kylie Chan
‘Not the same way you do,’ the general said. ‘I’m trying to keep my distance. We’ll arrange a rotation of staff near her so nobody has time to be hypnotised, but obviously it’s too late for you and Alto.’ The guard returned with a uniform for me. ‘Get dressed and we’ll talk about how to handle this.’
I quickly donned the uniform they provided – my basic corporal’s fatigues from the training base, not the Britannia coverall. It felt good to be back in the simple cotton pants and jacket. ‘Marque doesn’t have X-ray vision, ma’am. We had to inform it that we were wearing more layers under our uniforms when it fabricated them for us. It wasn’t aware of underwear.’
‘Well spotted,’ the general said. ‘Alto told us that as well. Now we have both of you clear-headed, we can plan with more confidence.’ She gestured towards the door. ‘Let’s make this quick.’
I followed General Maxwell into another room. Richard was sitting slumped at a conference table, radiating shame and defeat. The psi was there as well, with her emotions locked down.
The general sat at the table and tapped it with one of my gold coins. ‘This is real gold, by the way. You aren’t completely slave labour.’
‘She seems to be acting in good faith,’ I said. ‘Is it possible that she doesn’t know she’s doing it to us? It might be us reacting to her, and not deliberate on her part at all?’
‘It’s possible,’ the psi said. Her badge said O’Neil. ‘I can’t sense anything different about you. It may be some pheromone or something that she’s giving off.’
‘We’ll know for sure after they’ve checked my code,’ Richard said. ‘Whatever she’s doing to us, it’s definitely stronger the closer we are to her. I’m full of bliss when I sit next to her; and when she touches me it’s euphoric.’
‘Has she done anything to your hardware?’ the general said.
‘She offered to upgrade it. I wouldn’t let her,’ Richard said. ‘Then she offered me cloned body parts, to bring me back to what I was twenty years ago.’ His voice gained a husky edge. ‘I said no again.’
‘A very tempting offer,’ the general said. ‘You’ve always been exceptional, Richard. It’s an honour to serve with you.’
An officer came in holding a tablet, and sat at the table. ‘He’s clear, ma’am. There’s no change to his code that we can find. We did a full factory reset anyway.’
‘She could have put something into my hardware while I was asleep,’ Richard said. ‘We should remove all of it and destroy it. You shouldn’t be talking in front of me; I’m probably compromised.’
‘I won’t say anything that she doesn’t already know,’ the general said. ‘Choumali, did you feel anything psionic happening when you first encountered her? Any probes, or control?’
‘She hit my pleasure centres when she taught me tight beam,’ I began.
‘So yes,’ the general said.
‘But I’m undertrained, you know that,’ I said.
‘That may be why she kept Choumali around,’ Richard said.
‘Or she could be telling the truth and wants to train me,’ I said. ‘If we share our suspicions with her, she might be as upset about it as we are.’
‘When we return you to her, whatever she’s doing to you will kick in and you’ll tell her anyway,’ the general said.
‘You can’t return us to her!’ Richard said.
O’Neil spoke at the same time. ‘Choumali needs professional training, ma’am. We need someone next to the alien who –’
‘We have to,’ the general said, interrupting them both. ‘We need to keep her happy for now, and find out what her angle is.’ She spoke with more force. ‘If you can avoid telling her about this episode, you’re ordered to do so. If you can keep this a secret from her, it will prove she doesn’t have complete control over you. Understand?’
‘Ma’am,’ Richard and I said in unison.
‘Marque will want to know where we’ve been,’ Richard said. He turned to me. ‘Tell it that you had to change your uniform because you’ve been reassigned. It doesn’t know better.’
‘What about you, sir?’ I said.
‘I’ll tell the truth.’ Richard pointed at a cable running from under his shirt to the wall socket. ‘I needed to recharge.’
‘That works,’ the general said. ‘Anything else?’
Richard spoke with misery. ‘If it ever looks like I’m turning against humanity and taking the alien’s side …’
‘I will shoot you myself,’ the general said.
Richard nodded. ‘Thank you, ma’am.’
I realised with a stab of pain that I already had turned against humanity, and was following Shiumo blindly. I would need to watch my feelings carefully.
The general rose. ‘Back to work, people. If she’s genuine about helping us, and this hypnotism is just a side effect, we will see a Japanese colony on Kapteyn-b by the end of next month, and a number of human colonies by the end of the year. I sincerely hope it’s true.’
It took us two hours to prepare the Japanese schedule. When it was done, Marque and I returned to the main control room. Richard and Shiumo were still engaged with the South American ambassador: a bronze-skinned man in his mid-thirties, with long hair and pronounced cheekbones. His immaculate make-up made him look more like a supermodel than a diplomat.
‘What can we give you to take our people there first?’ he asked Shiumo.
‘You can’t bribe me,’ she said. ‘You have nothing that I need.’
‘You seek love. What sort of love? We will give you anything.’ He half-closed his eyes and made his voice a throaty rumble. ‘The people of my country are experts in the arts of love.’
‘Listen, my friend,’ Shiumo said with amusement. ‘There are five planets almost identical to the one you want within a hundred light-years of Earth. Once the colonists are there, it makes no difference which one it is.’
‘Gliese 667 is closer than Kepler. Much closer,’ the ambassador said. ‘It will only take twenty-four years to communicate, instead of nearly a hundred.’
‘With my folding ability, the distance is academic.’
‘Then you must leave us some method of faster-than-light communication before you return to your own planet,’ the South American said.
‘Oh, I must, must I?’ Shiumo said.
The ambassador was obviously silenced, then he gathered himself. ‘Please, Princess, once you have returned to your home planet, the distance to the colony is critical. If you won’t leave us with a communication method, we must have the closer planet.’ He cocked his head. ‘And if you won’t give us the planet, what can we offer you to stay on Earth permanently? Or others of your kind? We need you to pilot us between here and the colonies.’
Shiumo hissed with laughter. ‘I am enjoying helping your people, but there is nothing you can offer me.’ She put her front foot on Richard’s thigh, and he jumped, then sagged and radiated euphoric bliss. ‘Ready your colonists, and make sure they’re fully prepared. If I think you’ve rushed the process, I won’t take them. Whoever has their colonists ready to my satisfaction first will get Gliese 667.’
‘It will be us,’ the ambassador said, and the screen blinked out.
‘Wow, I really pissed them off,’ Shiumo said. She patted Richard’s thigh. ‘Was that all we had scheduled for the day?’ She turned and rested her front feet on the back of the sofa to speak to the general. ‘I think I need a day off – this is exhausting. How many more nations do you have?’ She shook her head. ‘Why does your species need so many arbitrary national boundaries?’
‘There used to be ten times as many before the climate went to shit and two-thirds of the land mass went underwater,’ I said.
‘I may not be able to help you with instantaneous communication, but I can control the weather,’ Shiumo said. She flopped back onto the couch. ‘Marque, can you provide them with some weather control?’
‘Sure,’ Marque said. ‘I can’t share the process because of the tech level, but I c
an do some things that will definitely help.’
‘Most appreciated,’ General Maxwell said.
‘How’s the cube coming along?’ Shiumo said.
‘Done,’ Marque said. ‘You can move there any time.’
‘Let’s finish for the day, and pick it up there tomorrow,’ Shiumo said. ‘Is that acceptable with you, General? Can you have the staff moved there tomorrow morning?’
‘I can.’ The general checked her tablet. ‘It’s been a long day. I really need to debrief Jian and Richard. Can you leave them here? Their families would like to speak to them as well.’
‘You did tell my mother I was okay, ma’am?’ I said.
The general nodded. ‘Your husband and wife want to speak to you, Corporal. Apparently your wife has news for you.’
I winced. ‘We weren’t formally married.’
‘That’s how they refer to themselves,’ the general said.
‘Have you arranged the Japanese transport schedule, Jian?’ Shiumo said.
I nodded. ‘Marque was a terrific help. It will take you a couple of days to move all their stuff up to your ship, and a similar amount of time to unload it – even if you land your ship on Kapteyn-b.’
‘Why don’t you and Richard spend time with your families while I’m at the Japanese colony?’ Shiumo said. ‘I don’t need you to help me load and unload. Marque can do that.’
Richard shook his head. ‘I want to stay with you.’
‘Your mother wants to see you as soon as you’re out of quarantine, Alto,’ the general said. ‘She’s blaming me for not giving you leave since you were assigned to the generation ship project.’
‘You’re a bad son, Richard,’ Shiumo said with humour.
Richard sighed. ‘I suppose I should.’ He put his hand on Shiumo’s front claw. ‘Only if you’re sure you won’t need me.’
I walked around the sofa and stopped in front of them to get their attention. They were lost in each other’s eyes.
‘I have to go with you to Kapteyn-b,’ I said. ‘You need me to communicate.’
‘Go see your mum, Jian,’ Shiumo said without looking away from Richard. ‘We’ll be fine. And you can’t avoid the conversation with your husband and wife forever.’
I winced. She was right.
‘Anyway, the trip isn’t for another two weeks at least,’ Shiumo said. ‘I can’t wait to be released from this ridiculous quarantine. I’ve been stuck in this room for far too long, and I want to see more of Earth.’
The general checked her tablet. ‘The Earth medical advisors are close to a decision on how long to keep you. It looks like they’ll settle on two weeks so you can begin taking the Japanese colonists according to schedule. We’ll arrange a sightseeing trip for you after we’re all released.’
Shiumo nodded to the general. ‘Thank you.’ She hopped off the couch and stretched like a cat. ‘Let’s go home and have dinner. Marque can route any media requests through to me on the ship, but I think absolutely everybody on your planet has interviewed me. There can’t be anyone else who wants to hear about my search for love.’
The general rose. ‘Princess.’ She shot a sharp look at Richard and me.
Richard saluted her. ‘General.’
We put our hands on Shiumo’s shoulders and she folded us back up to the ship.
12
‘How’s the food now?’ Marque said as we sat around the table discussing the day’s events. Shiumo had folded her ship to a point a hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, with a spectacular vista of a blue-green nebula that covered half the view around us.
‘It’s fabulous,’ I said. ‘Better every time.’
‘Marque is making an extensive study of your cuisine,’ Shiumo said. She raised the leg of mutton she was eating. ‘And this sheep is still wonderful!’
‘I appreciate some variety after serving grilled grakka to this reptile for thousands of meals in a row,’ Marque said. ‘Were you all right when you went into the bathrooms today? Both of you were gone for a long time. You weren’t unwell, were you?’
‘That was ridiculous,’ Richard said. ‘General Maxwell is so paranoid.’
‘I can’t believe they did that to us,’ I said. ‘Did they do a cavity search on you as well?’
‘What’s left of me, yes,’ Richard said. He mimicked the medtech: ‘Try to relax and this won’t be too uncomfortable, sir.’
‘A what?’ Shiumo said.
‘They grabbed us and searched us and did a full mind and body scan,’ I said.
‘They think you’re messing with our heads,’ Richard said. ‘Keeping us close to control us. Hell, Maxwell was so convinced that you’ve hypnotised us, she almost had me believing it for a few minutes.’
‘But I just told you to take some time away with your families,’ Shiumo said with confusion. ‘Doesn’t that prove I’m not keeping you close to control you?’
‘This was before you suggested it,’ Richard said.
‘You just disobeyed a direct order, Richard,’ I said. I saw Shiumo’s curiosity. ‘We were both explicitly ordered not to tell you that Maxwell thinks you’re hypnotising us.’
‘Humph,’ Richard said. ‘It’s perfectly acceptable to disobey orders when they conflict with the mission goals. And in this case, Maxwell’s ridiculous paranoid xenophobia could easily drive Shiumo away.’ He shook his head. ‘And we need her.’
‘You humans are completely bewildering,’ Shiumo said. ‘What in the five galaxies makes General Maxwell think I’m controlling you?’
‘That’s the thing,’ Richard said. ‘They couldn’t find anything to suggest that you are. A psi examined us and found nothing. They did a full body search and found nothing. I mean, I’m attracted –’ He choked the words off. ‘I mean, I like being with you; you’re cute and charming and fun, and take me for rides to all sorts of interesting places.’ He waved his fork at the glittering blue nebula.
‘You’re attracted to me?’ Shiumo said, her voice husky and low. She swung her head to look at me. ‘Are you?’
‘Nuh-uh.’ I shook my head. ‘I have enough issues with Dianne and Victor as it is. We didn’t formally end the relationship when I joined the crew of the Britannia. Since all of this happened, they haven’t stopped calling me, wanting to reconnect. They would kill me if they found out I –’ I filled my mouth with a big forkful of pasta to stop myself saying how charming she was.
Shiumo turned back to Richard. ‘You like being with me, therefore General Maxwell thinks I’m messing with your head?’ She pulled herself off the cushions and stalked up and down. ‘Of course the idea that you could like the ugly scaly alien is so foreign that I must be hypnotising you.’
‘You’re not ugly,’ Richard said softly. ‘Your scales are –’
‘Divine,’ I said.
‘Your eyes are like stars brought down from the sky,’ Richard said.
‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ Marque said.
Shiumo stopped and turned to face us. She concentrated on Richard, obviously speaking telepathically to him. Richard nodded, his expression full of shock.
‘Come and finish your mutton, Princess,’ I said. ‘We all need to build our strength, because tomorrow the Africans will try to talk us out of giving the planet to South America.’
‘I wonder if the African representative will be as hot as the South American one,’ Shiumo said, almost to herself.
‘You noticed that?’ Richard said.
Shiumo crooned with her eyes half-closed: ‘We are experts in the arts of love.’ She opened her eyes. ‘A little obvious.’
‘Next time, Red, don’t say you’re looking for love when you arrive at a new planet,’ Marque said.
‘I dunno.’ Shiumo turned her mutton over. ‘I quite like being …’ She glanced at Richard, and they gazed into each other’s eyes. ‘Courted.’
She stopped eating and lowered the meat, seeming lost in thought. ‘I’m receiving a message.’ She concentrated for a while, tapping the scales on
the side of her neck, then spoke in her own tongue – a deep bass guttural sound – faster than she spoke in English. Then she disappeared.
‘What’s happening?’ Richard said.
‘An attack on a planet in the Empire. We think it might be cats,’ Marque said.
Shiumo reappeared. ‘I don’t have time to explain. I have to go help them. Stay put.’
She disappeared, and reappeared outside on the nose of the ship, visible through the transparent walls.
Water without an obvious source quickly covered the floor of the gallery. I hopped up onto the table, and Richard joined me.
‘Marque,’ I said. ‘What’s going on? Why the flooding?’
Marque didn’t reply.
The water was at our knees now, even though we were standing on the table; it was more than a metre deep.
‘Marque, you’re destroying my circuits!’ Richard shouted.
The water reached our waists. Richard’s circuitry failed, and he fell sideways into the water, thrashing as it rose around us. His arm twisted in on itself then stopped moving, and his legs jerked twice then froze. He was left with one working limb.
‘Marque, we’ll drown if you don’t stop this!’ I shouted. I put my arm around Richard and raised him so his head was above water. ‘Richard’s super-heavy with all this metal – I can’t hold him for long!’
We were both lifted into the air, and I cried out at the suddenness of it.
‘Marque!’ I shouted again.
‘Sorry,’ Marque said. ‘Over here.’
It carried us to the tip of the ship’s nose, so Shiumo was sitting directly above us on the outside. The water in the rest of the interior rose all the way to the ceiling, but we were inside a pocket of air in the nose, the water held back by an invisible wall.
I lowered Richard gently. His prosthetics jerked as the circuits shorted out.
The stars shifted as Shiumo folded, and we were in orbit over a blue-green water-covered planet. Other dragon ships blinked into existence around us in a variety of colours, with dragons of matching hues sitting on their noses.
‘Look,’ Richard said, pointing with his biological hand.
