Scales of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  Five streaks of light shot over the far side of the planet. Where the beams hit, the water boiled red-hot, and disappeared into steam. The beams hit the planet again, and molten rock erupted, glowing in the light of the planet’s sun. The planet was being destroyed.

  Shiumo folded us again, and her ship was underwater. It was cloudy, limiting visibility, and the floor of the ocean wasn’t in view. Light shifted through the surface above us. I had a jolt of claustrophobic panic: Richard and I were in a tiny pocket of air in a ship full of water that was submerged in the water planet’s ocean. We could easily drown.

  Richard tried to lift himself using his remaining working arm, then flopped back.

  Shiumo disappeared from the nose of the ship, then there was a flash of red inside the water that filled the other side of the invisible wall. A huge bright orange mass appeared, then two more: they were at least fifty metres long and filled the interior space. Their emotional auras were full of panic that ramped up my own stress levels.

  One of the creatures moved closer to the wall, and an eye two metres across emerged from the water.

  ‘Marque …’ Richard said, using his good arm to scoot backwards.

  ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘It’s not malicious. It’s broadcasting curiosity about us.’

  A couple of tentacles, each shading from brilliant pink to almost ultraviolet purple, came through the invisible wall and hovered above us. They glistened with water, enhancing their intense and beautiful colours. The air around me filled with the curiosity of the marine alien: it was gentle and full of love for all things in a way I’d never sensed from a fellow human.

  I reached to touch one of the tentacles, hoping to feel the love more deeply. Before I could reach it, the tentacle became completely still, then retreated into the water.

  ‘Shiumo asked them to back off from you,’ Marque said. ‘Don’t be afraid. They’re harmless.’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ I said. ‘Their emotions are so deep and complex.’

  Shiumo’s red belly reappeared above us on the nose of the ship. There was a blinding white flash of light, and twenty seconds later the sea around us boiled with a shockwave that tossed the ship sideways, although we didn’t feel the movement. The light shifted above us and the water instantly turned to steam.

  Shiumo lost her grip on the nose and disappeared in the surge. It passed over, and the ship righted itself. The steam collapsed around us, becoming boiling water, but again we were protected.

  Shiumo floated through the wall of the ship into our air pocket, suspended from a Marque sphere. She was unconscious, her four feet, neck and head hanging down and swaying as Marque carried her. It lowered her gently to the deck and she lay motionless.

  The aquatic aliens on the other side of the interface radiated deep concern, and produced a sound so low in pitch it made the wall vibrate in visible waves.

  Richard dragged himself next to Shiumo and put his good hand on her head. ‘Marque, is she alive? How bad is she?’ He touched his forehead to hers. ‘Shiumo,’ he said, full of grief and pain.

  Marque moved both Richard and me back from Shiumo. I tried to return to her, but it placed an energy field around her. The aquatic aliens thrashed against the interface with their tentacles.

  ‘Back off and let me work!’ Marque said in English, then something in their language, and all of us subsided.

  Another dragon appeared next to Shiumo. This one was much larger, with six legs and a longer, slimmer body that ended in a forked tail. Its black scales glittered in the ship’s lights.

  The dragon spoke in its own tongue, and Marque replied in the same language.

  The dragon nodded, and folded onto the nose of the ship. It returned us to space, with the water planet visible next to us. A flash of light so bright it was blinding filled space around us, and I covered my eyes.

  The light disappeared and I opened my eyes, attempting to see through the blinking after-effects. The water planet was gone. In its place swirled clouds of water vapour and glowing molten rock.

  Five sleek black ships, different in shape from the dragons’ ships, floated on the other side of the clouds. They were enormous; larger than Shiumo’s ship. One of them fired a blast of its light cannon at one of the dragon ships, and it was blocked by an energy shield.

  The five destroyer ships turned majestically, then gathered energy around themselves and created huge lenses of light in front of them, but didn’t move away.

  The orange sea creatures inside Shiumo’s ship wailed, an eerie high-pitched cry, and generated a field of grief so enormous that my spirit was crushed under its weight. They shifted into a wordless song of devastation and loss, and I wiped the tears from my face. Their home was gone.

  ‘Is Shiumo all right?’ Richard asked Marque. ‘She looks dead.’

  The black dragon reappeared, and spoke with a woman’s voice slightly lower in pitch than Shiumo’s. ‘How bad is it, Marque? Is it mortal?’

  ‘Don’t you dare say “yes”, you rusted piece of junk,’ Shiumo said into the floor. ‘I have thirty-three scales out there and I do not want to spend three weeks replacing them when the humans have reached day four.’

  ‘She’s fine. Exhaustion, minor concussion, no broken bones. She just needs to rest,’ Marque said.

  Richard collapsed with relief and lay on the floor next to her.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it then,’ the black dragon said. ‘Terrible shame about the Nimestas. I hope they accept our assistance.’ She disappeared.

  Shiumo hoisted herself onto four legs and shook her head. ‘I will have the headache from hell tomorrow.’ She poked her head through the water interface, then withdrew to our side. ‘Only three. I wish I could have helped more.’

  She walked through the interface and floated in the water on the other side, speaking to the aquatic aliens. Their conversation flashed in my empathic vision like a spattering of mud-coloured despair and greyest empty grief.

  ‘Sorry about the water,’ Marque said. ‘It all happened so suddenly we had no chance to prepare. The Nimestas refused to trade with the cats, and you can see how the cats responded.’

  ‘Those are cat ships?’ I said, studying the enormous black ships sitting in their cocoons of light.

  ‘That’s right,’ Marque said. ‘It will take them a while to accelerate to light speed and leave.’

  ‘How many of the water aliens did the dragons save?’ Richard said.

  ‘Not enough. I’m looking for a suitable alternative world for them, but we only managed to save a couple of hundred. They won’t have enough genetic diversity in such a small group to maintain viability as a species. The dragons are discussing whether they should take the Nimestas to the dragon homeworld instead, where it will be easier for us to provide them with reproductive therapy.’

  ‘Tell them I’m sorry for their loss,’ I said.

  ‘They’re too wrapped up in grief to listen to any outworlder’s words right now,’ Marque said.

  Shiumo appeared next to us. ‘They are so intrinsically linked with their planet that they can’t live without it. They choose species suicide.’

  She went to Richard, who was lying on his back on the floor, and touched his face. ‘Are you all right, dear Richard?’

  ‘I am as long as you are,’ he said, clasping her claw in his organic hand.

  ‘Can’t you save them?’ I said.

  ‘We can, but they don’t want it. We’re looking for a new home for them, but they’ve decided to stop reproducing.’ She spat with fury. ‘Those cats have killed them all, and they don’t give a damn about it.’

  ‘Why didn’t you fight back? They’re still there – attack them!’ I said. ‘You just sat there and let them blow the planet up! Are they stronger than you? More technologically advanced?’

  ‘What would be the point?’ she said. ‘If we destroy them, they will send more ships and attack other planets in retribution. Large-scale armed conflict with them would destroy everything with no
benefit.’

  ‘But these … Nimestas lost their entire planet!’ I said.

  ‘Many more planets would be lost if we fought the cats.’ She shook her head. ‘You young races and your armed conflict. It benefits no one.’

  ‘Those damn cats need to be taught a lesson,’ Richard growled.

  ‘They just need to grow up and learn to live with the rest of us. They’ll come around,’ Shiumo said.

  ‘Decision’s made,’ Marque said. ‘The Nimestas won’t go to the dragon homeworld. They want to go to a nearby uninhabited aquatic planet and wait to die.’

  ‘I’ll have to flood the ship completely to transfer them,’ Shiumo said. ‘I’ll drop Jian and Richard on Earth, and then take the Nimestas to their new world.’

  She returned to the ship’s nose and folded us back to orbit around Earth.

  I sat next to Richard, who was still sprawled on the floor. ‘You destroyed his prosthetics, Marque. He’ll need help to leave the ship.’

  ‘Give me a moment,’ Marque said.

  Shiumo reappeared next to us. ‘Can you wait for me in the Earth control centre while I take the Nimestas to their new world?’

  ‘I’ll need to dry out my prosthetics and see if I can’t get them working again,’ Richard said ruefully.

  ‘I am so sorry that happened.’ She raised her snout slightly. ‘You’d assume that a hyper-intelligent AI would think first before immersing you in water – particularly as you said you weren’t waterproof.’

  ‘Which was more important – the art in the gallery or Richard’s prosthetics?’ Marque said. ‘I moved all your treasures into the hold before I flooded it, and you know how fragile some of them are. I had to carry them personally.’

  I took a deep breath to yell at them about priorities when Marque spoke again.

  ‘The repairs are complete. Try standing up, Richard.’

  Richard’s face went blank. ‘You repaired them?’

  ‘Of course I did. I wouldn’t have given the art priority if I couldn’t. Try standing.’

  Richard’s expression didn’t change. He untwisted his right arm, then used it to hoist himself upright. He brushed himself off, then took a few steps up and down. ‘Damn, Marque, I never felt a thing.’

  ‘You won’t feel a thing when we give you your body back either,’ Shiumo said.

  He gazed into her eyes. Then one of the Nimestas made a high-pitched squeal and we all jumped.

  Shiumo lowered her head. ‘They gently ask that we take them to the other survivors. Put your hands on my shoulders, dear humans, and I will drop you on Earth.’ She raised her head. ‘I’ll return before tomorrow morning and you can come back to the ship.’

  ‘Take your time,’ Richard said. ‘They need your help.’

  We were asleep in cots on the floor of the conference room when Shiumo’s voice woke me. She was next to Richard, saying his name softly. I sat up and checked the wall clock: 4 a.m.

  ‘Are the Nimestas okay?’ I said.

  ‘They’ll live. Their species won’t.’

  Richard sat up too. ‘Welcome back, Princess. I was worried you wouldn’t return for us.’

  ‘Of course I returned. I –’ She choked the words off and gazed into his eyes.

  I didn’t need to hear the words; I could feel the love coming from both of them.

  ‘Would you like to return to your rooms on the ship?’ she said. ‘They’re much more comfortable than what you have here.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I need a shower to get rid of the salt water.’

  ‘Valid point,’ she said. ‘Hands?’

  When we reappeared on the ship, the water was gone. It was like it had never been there.

  ‘Go back to bed,’ Shiumo said. ‘Marque will tell the general that we’ll be a bit late starting so you can rest.’ She grinned ruefully. ‘Sorry about all the excitement.’

  ‘You helped save a species,’ I said. She shook her head, but I continued before she could speak. ‘You did your best, lady. We can tell General Maxwell what you did – how you all risked your lives to help the Nimestas.’

  ‘It’s what we do,’ she said. ‘Now get some rest.’

  ‘Goodnight, Shiumo,’ Richard said, and we both turned towards the aft of the ship where our rooms were located.

  Richard stopped after two steps, and turned back to see Shiumo. They gazed into each other’s eyes, and she was obviously talking to him telepathically.

  He looked from me to Shiumo, and came to a decision. ‘Uh, you go on ahead, Jian. Shiumo and I have something important to discuss.’

  They went forward to Shiumo’s quarters together without saying another word, leaving me alone in the gallery. I shrugged and returned to my room.

  13

  When I returned to the gallery at ten o’clock the next morning, I was alone again. Marque provided me with some fruit and yoghurt.

  ‘The general’s been notified that you’ll be a bit late this morning, and they’ve rearranged Shiumo’s schedule. No rush,’ it said.

  ‘Are they still asleep?’

  ‘They’re on privacy. I don’t know,’ Marque said.

  ‘I didn’t know you had a privacy setting.’

  ‘Of course I do. Just ask for it.’

  I nodded, and pinged Richard on his tablet.

  There was a sound towards the bow, where Shiumo’s quarters were, and I turned to see Richard and Shiumo enter the gallery together. I watched, silent with shock, as they sat at the table. They were in a post-coital blissful haze. Both of them. I stared at them with disbelief. I’d seen love-filled sexual satisfaction radiating from people before, but this was particularly obvious.

  I studied Richard more closely: he still appeared to have the same prosthetics.

  ‘Jian can see,’ Shiumo said as she poured herself some tea.

  ‘Oh,’ Richard said, and radiated embarrassment. Then his emotions changed to pleased satisfaction. He’d decided that he didn’t care if I knew.

  I resisted the urge to duck under the table to check Shiumo’s underside. Their mutual attraction had been obvious, but the reptile had nowhere for Richard to put … and he didn’t have … I shook my head. This was ridiculous.

  ‘Oh, go ahead and ask,’ Shiumo said. ‘It’s really very straightforward.’

  ‘She’s as pan-connective as her ship is,’ Richard said.

  Shiumo laughed so hard that she fell over backwards, her legs in the air. She wriggled with delight and smacked the table with her tail. ‘I love you, Richard.’

  ‘I love you too, Shiumo,’ Richard said calmly; and he did. The love was bursting from him. ‘Soft-boiled eggs, please, Marque.’

  My eyes felt like they were about to explode from my head.

  ‘When we humans use the term “pan-sexual” we have no idea what its true meaning is,’ Richard said, still perfectly calm. ‘Its meaning is Shiumo. Her body can change to accommodate any lover. She can even change her appearance to something her lover finds the most attractive.’ He glanced at her affectionately. ‘Show Jian, Shiumo. It will make it easier to explain.’

  ‘She won’t see what you see.’

  Richard shrugged. ‘Show her anyway.’

  ‘But I’ll be seriously attractive. Like, super-hot. Are you sure?’

  ‘We discussed this. Show Jian, so she can help me explain to General Maxwell.’

  ‘Oh, all right,’ Shiumo said.

  She hoisted herself onto her back legs, and they clicked and rotated so she was standing upright in a surprisingly natural-looking two-legged configuration. Then she changed into a tall well-built naked black man with chiselled abs, a wide chest, slim hips and a strong jaw. His long hair was in dreads and tied at the nape of his neck.

  I choked on my fruit.

  ‘What do you see?’ Richard said.

  ‘A man,’ I said. ‘Shiumo, you’re male?’

  ‘No,’ Shiumo said, and his rich male voice resonated through me like a sexual tuning fork. ‘I’m pan-sexual. I ma
ke myself whatever suits you best.’

  ‘I see Shiumo as a beautiful woman,’ Richard said. ‘I …’ He said the words in a rush. ‘I made love to Shiumo, who was a beautiful woman. Her body changes to suit her lover.’

  I waved my spoon at him. ‘But she said … you said … your prosthetics …’

  ‘Marque is growing me new body parts; they’ll be ready in a few weeks. In the meantime …’ He glanced at Shiumo affectionately. ‘Remember when she brushed your pleasure centres?’

  ‘Yes …’ I remembered the experience – intense and orgasmic – and understood. He didn’t need the body parts if she could directly stimulate his brain.

  My eyes were drawn to Shiumo’s manhood, which was as impressive as the rest of him. ‘Is that real?’ I said, trying not to stare.

  ‘No. It’s an illusion,’ Shiumo said, his expression wry. ‘But my body has physically changed to suit yours. You said you see me as a male of your species?’

  ‘Yes,’ I breathed, wanting to touch that dark smooth skin, and run my fingers down Shiumo’s jaw, and taste those full, lush lips. Super-hot didn’t begin to describe it. Shiumo’s form was a sexual fantasy come true – the man of my dreams.

  ‘Then that’s what you prefer,’ Richard said. ‘Change back before she eats you alive, Shiumo, and let’s have breakfast. We still have to talk to the African ambassador today.’

  Shiumo fell to four legs and the illusion of humanity disappeared. Her voice changed back to female. ‘Everybody sees something different, Jian. I take a form that is the most attractive to you.’

  ‘So, if we wanted to, we could …?’ I began, my mind exploding with possibilities.

  ‘I would love to,’ Shiumo said, full of promise.

  I dug into my fruit, remembering the two people I loved already – and who loved me. ‘I would need to think about that.’

  Richard’s face went rigid with restraint, and a blast of jealous irritation radiated from him.

  ‘You all right, Richard?’ Shiumo said.

  His expression softened. ‘Don’t be concerned. You explained it to me. I understand.’ He shot a sharp glance at me, then looked down and shifted his teacup around. ‘I love you too much to let anything come between us.’