Scales of Empire

by Kylie Chan

20

  Richard was awake and in his wheelchair when I entered his room two days later. The facial prosthetic made a huge difference to his appearance, but he sat in a sling in the chair. His artificial arm and legs still weren’t ready.

  I sat in a chair next to him and took his hand. ‘I hope you can come and visit me.’

  ‘That won’t happen as long as I have to do it in Shiumo’s ship.’

  ‘I understand. I don’t want to leave you –’

  ‘Do you feel like you’re abandoning me?’ he said, cutting me off.

  I felt a wrench at his brutal honesty. ‘Yes. Of course I do.’

  He squeezed my hand and smiled. The prosthetic attached to his jaw clicked as his mouth opened. ‘Don’t be. You’re taking humanity to the stars. Represent us, Jian. Take the spirit we gave you and don’t look back.’

  I looked down. ‘I’ll really miss you, Richard.’

  He released my hand and touched my face. ‘We both know I don’t have long. Say goodbye, and take your future in both hands and find joy and love in a new world.’

  I gazed into his eye. ‘You’ll recover, Richard. Your new legs –’

  ‘No need to reassure me, Jian. I can tell I’m dying. I have been since I left Shiumo. But it’s not the same with you, is it? You’re recovering. It’s because I slept with her. I’m …’ He searched for the word. ‘Contaminated.’

  ‘I’ll ask her for a cure.’

  ‘Listen to me.’ He took my hand again, and held it so hard it hurt. His voice became fierce and his emotions matched it; he filled the room with determination. ‘If she says the only way to save my life is to return to her, I’d rather die. If she has a cure, then fine. But if it requires a life of slavery with her, I choose death.’ He obviously realised how tight he was holding my hand, and released it. ‘Sorry. But I’d rather be dead, Jian.’

  He held his arm out. ‘Now give me a hug, my girl. Then turn and walk out that door, and go live a full and meaningful life in the stars.’

  I hugged him, and buried my face in his shoulder. ‘Goodbye, Richard.’

  ‘Do great things, Jian.’ He patted my back, and pushed me gently away.

  I ran my hand over my eyes, gave him a smile through the tears, and went out.

  The rotocopter landed on the elevator island next to the building that held the Wolf test habitat. The field area was stacked with equipment packed into bespoke containers that would fit inside Shiumo’s pod. The other colonists, all in their colour-coded coveralls, were noting the equipment as it was loaded.

  I went to Commander Vince, who was overseeing everything.

  ‘There you are, Jian,’ he said. ‘Princess Shiumo requested that you see her the minute you arrived.’

  He waved one hand towards the pod in the centre of the field. A number of Marque spheres buzzed around it, helping the staff to load the inflatable dome and packed modules. The sight of the spheres brought back painful memories of a short and joyful time.

  I saluted Vince, and headed to the pod, waving to my team and Edwin but not interrupting their work.

  A sphere screamed towards me, then stopped in front of my face. ‘Jian!’

  ‘Hello, Marque.’

  ‘It’s about time you showed up. Shiumo’s been desperate. Is Richard here?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Jian!’ Shiumo squealed from next to the pod. She rushed to me like a joyful dog, bouncing on all four legs. ‘Let me hug you!’

  I wanted more than anything to throw my arms around her and hold her forever. Instead I said, ‘I’d rather you didn’t, Shiumo.’

  The energy drained out of her and she lowered her head. ‘All right. Can we talk?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She looked up at Marque. ‘Leave us for a while. This is personal.’

  ‘Of course,’ Marque said, and returned to the pod.

  ‘Walk with me, dear Jian,’ she said. ‘You were going back to your spouses. What happened?’

  ‘It didn’t work out. They’re happy as a couple. I’m still part of the family, but …’

  ‘Oh, Jian,’ she said with sympathy.

  ‘No, it’s fine. I always had their full support to go on the generation ship. Now I’m going to Wolf and they still support me.’ I lowered my head and kicked at the turf as we walked. ‘They’re proud of me.’

  ‘They should be.’ She hesitated. ‘I must know – I’ve been staying away from him, respecting his privacy – but how is Richard? He is all right, isn’t he?’

  ‘Richard’s dying. His blood pressure is continuously dropping. He doesn’t have long.’

  She stopped. ‘What? No! I must take him to my ship and examine him –’

  ‘He won’t let you, Shiumo. He wants nothing more to do with you.’

  ‘But this shouldn’t be happening!’

  ‘It shouldn’t be happening? How often does this happen?’

  She ignored the question. ‘He does have the scale I gave you, doesn’t he?’

  ‘No, he refused it. He wants to be completely free of you. No mementos, no photos. Nothing to remind him of you.’

  ‘But he’s dragonspouse now,’ she said.

  ‘He’s what?’

  ‘It’s his choice if he no longer wants to be with me, but he must keep that scale close by. We’re entangled, much as the scales are, and as long as we feel this love he must keep something of mine near to him at all times. Otherwise …’ She gestured with one claw. ‘I gave you that scale to pass to him! If you’d done as I asked, he would be all right now.’

  ‘So if someone has sex with you and doesn’t keep a memento – a part of you – they’ll die? Why didn’t you warn us? Why didn’t you warn him? This is killing him!’

  ‘Sex has nothing to do with it. How could you possibly confuse sex with love?’ she said. ‘He loves me, I love him, we should not be separated. If he chooses to leave me when he still loves me, he must have this entangled token. Where’s the scale now?’

  ‘It’s safe.’

  ‘Maxwell has it,’ she said, her voice full of venom. ‘Her people are probably trying to reverse-engineer it.’ She hissed a short laugh. ‘That would be like trying to reverse-engineer me. Tell her to give Richard his damn scale and he’ll be fine.’

  ‘Will it control him?’

  ‘This again!’ She reared up on her hind legs, and thumped back onto the ground with her fore feet. ‘I. Am. Not. Controlling. You! Look.’ She cast around. ‘See that worker over there? The man in the brown clothes carrying the box?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Run over there and attack him.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Do as you’re told! Attack him. Hit him. Punch him in the face.’

  ‘What are you talking about, Shiumo?’

  ‘Are you refusing a direct order?’ she said.

  ‘Of course I am,’ I said, bewildered, then realised what she was doing. ‘This doesn’t prove anything.’

  ‘It proves that I have no control over you. Now get on the network and tell Maxwell to give that scale to Richard. It will not control him – I promise it won’t – but it will save his life until he forgets me.’ She lowered her head. ‘It will probably take a long time, because that’s how long it will take me to forget him.’ She raised her head. ‘Now let’s arrange for the pod to be taken up and the gear to be stowed. Your old room – and your swimming pool – are still there if you want them.’

  ‘I’ll bunk with the other colonists,’ I said.

  ‘Suit yourself. You can do whatever you want.’ She gazed into my eyes with her liquid silver ones. ‘Whatever makes you comfortable and happy. I only want to see you happy, Jian – both of you. So I’ll take the lead from you. Now let’s load this pod.’

  I nodded, and messaged the general to tell her about the scale.

  Understood, she replied. I’ll arrange for it to be placed near him. I hope it works.

  I followed Shiumo back to the pod, where Edwin was waiting with a silly grin on his face. I held m
y hand out and he shook it.

  ‘Welcome back,’ I said. ‘How’s your dad?’

  ‘One hundred per cent – he was cured by the “Shiumo Miracle”. After he was healed, I was so disappointed about missing my chance to go to the stars that my family forced me to reapply.’ He grinned again. ‘My existing training stood me in good stead: I’m second-in-command for all the meds. I feel completely inadequate.’

  ‘Imposter syndrome,’ I scoffed. ‘You’ll be great.’

  ‘So you’re a second lieutenant now?’ he said. ‘About time. Have you heard anything about which arm of the military we’ll be attached to? It’s weird being an army lieutenant and reporting to a navy commander. Will we be moved to the navy?’

  There hadn’t been a formal announcement, but rumours had been spreading in the usual military manner. I lowered my voice. ‘They’re still making a decision, but word is that a new branch of the service will be created – the Royal Space Corps. It hasn’t been finalised because they’re arguing over what to call the ranks.’

  ‘Space Corps,’ he said with awe. ‘I love it.’ He jumped and touched the communicator in his ear. ‘My boss is yelling at me that I’m neglecting my job by chattering away like this. Come and talk to Commander Vince and we’ll see what you’re assigned to do.’

  When all the equipment was stowed on Shiumo’s ship, we went up ourselves, ten at a time, in the pod. I took my team up first, to help them acclimatise to their quarters. We sat on the cushions, and a Marque sphere hovered over us, giving us the usual instructions.

  The pod opened, and I guided my team to their rooms. Our quarters were roughly rectangular, with a two-metre ceiling, and located in the middle of the ship. They filled the full width of the massive ship, and the floor and walls were shiny ceramic black. The area was divided into four smaller squares, with single living spaces around the sides, and shared common areas for eating and socialising in the middle. Each room had a double bed and its own bathroom.

  My team made soft sounds of wonder when they saw their rooms.

  ‘This ship is enormous,’ Elise said.

  ‘All this space for just one person!’ Alison said.

  ‘Family members occasionally join Shiumo,’ Marque said from the walls of the ship. ‘And some of her spouses are big enough to take up a good proportion of the space. She had this large ship made because of one particular spouse –’

  ‘Are the next group ready yet?’ I said, cutting it off.

  ‘They’ll be here in twenty seconds.’

  ‘I’ll go meet them,’ I said, and smiled at my team. ‘Settle in and enjoy the comfort. This will be the last we experience for a long time.’

  ‘Probably forever,’ Marcia said. ‘Totally worth it.’

  ‘I’m more focused on getting our habitat established so we can move into it,’ Alison said with enthusiasm.

  ‘As long as we don’t have to eat anything blue-green,’ Marcia said.

  I shared a laugh with them, and went back to the pod hatch to welcome the next batch of colonists.

  I was sitting on my bed checking the last-minute preparations when the door pinged. I opened it, and Shiumo was on the other side. I repressed the urge to hug her, and stepped back to allow her into my quarters.

  ‘Are you comfortable?’ she said. ‘Why don’t you use your old room? This one doesn’t even have a window.’

  ‘I’m fine with my team,’ I said. ‘Why aren’t we all in fancy quarters anyway?’

  ‘Because these are temporary,’ she said, wistful. ‘Your and Richard’s quarters were to be permanent. For my loved ones.’ She gazed into my eyes. ‘Please come back, Jian. Even if it’s just for this trip. I missed you so much.’

  I sat on the bed and leaned my elbows on my knees. ‘You know how we feel – that you’re controlling us.’

  ‘I’m not!’ she said.

  ‘What if you are, Shiumo? What if our minds are weak, and your telepathic abilities are making us fall in love with you? Have you even considered that?’

  ‘No, it can’t …’ Her voice trailed off. ‘Really?’

  ‘We feel differently when we’re with you. Richard doesn’t love you as much when he’s apart from you. When we’re with you, we tell you everything – even classified material, even stuff we’ve been directly ordered not to tell you. What are you doing to us?’ She opened her mouth and I raised my hand. ‘I know. Nothing deliberate. But is it possible you’re doing something not deliberate? Have any other species you encountered had a similar problem?’

  ‘This is the first time this has been an issue for me. Goodness, Jian, I love both of you too much to do anything like that to you. I know General Maxwell is paranoid, but are you sure it hasn’t rubbed off on you?’

  ‘Richard was dying, Shiumo, and you knew that would happen.’

  She watched me with her silver eyes.

  ‘The Earth politicians want to ask you to make dragon babies for us, so we can travel to the stars ourselves,’ I said.

  She looked away.

  ‘If you agree to it, will it kill the participants?’

  Her head swung back. ‘Of course not! And I wouldn’t agree to something like that anyway. It’s a terrible idea. Dragon traits are dominant.’

  ‘All the aliens that came to buy the opals were part-dragon. Obviously some dragons are doing it.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘We find love, we have families. We don’t participate in breeding programs!’

  ‘That’s a definite no? I can go back and tell them that?’

  ‘I’ll tell that Maxwell woman myself. This is not an option.’

  I sagged with relief. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Do you want to show your team around the ship?’ she said. ‘You could bring your friends up to the main level and let them use the pool.’

  I shook my head. ‘We’d prefer to start work on the colony. How many more to load?’

  ‘Everybody’s in and we’re good to go. I just wanted to try to talk you into staying with me before I took you all the way out there.’

  It was my turn to be silent.

  She lowered her head and closed her eyes in defeat. ‘When I leave Earth and return to my homeworld, you’ll be out there all alone. Make sure to keep that scale close by, just in case something happens. I’ll leave a Marque sphere with you to help out, but when I return to my homeworld it will want to go back with me.’

  ‘I hope you’ll come and visit us.’

  ‘Don’t worry, it’ll take a while for me to establish all the human colonies I’ve agreed to help. I’ll be making a few stops at New Europa. And even after I’ve returned to my homeworld, I’ll drop by and see how you’re doing. I don’t want to lose touch with you, Jian. I treasure our friendship.’

  I put my hand on her face and relished the euphoric touch of her emotions. ‘I treasure it too.’

  She rubbed her face on mine, the scales smooth and cool on my cheek, then turned to go out. ‘Let’s take humanity to the stars then. I like your species, and having more of you to play with will be great fun.’

  ‘Play with?’ I said as she left.

  ‘I meant football, silly,’ she said from the corridor. ‘Get your people ready to fold.’

  21

  We stepped out of Shiumo’s pod onto the red soil of our new home, and promptly set to work installing the dome. The sky was yellowish and everything was tinted red from the light of the Wolf star. The soil beneath my feet was as fine and dry as talcum powder. I took a few steps, accustoming myself to the slightly heavier gravity, then turned back and set to work. The colony’s naming ceremony bullshit could wait; we needed to inflate our living space quickly.

  The Marque sphere that Shiumo had given us whizzed around just above ground level, flattening a site for the dome. When it was done, it hovered in the air and produced a series of spheres, which worked their way around the dome, helping us to position it correctly and secure it.

  Twenty spheres helped us to unload our equipment, then five of t
hem produced even more spheres, which immediately flew away.

  ‘Is that Plan A or Plan B?’ I asked one of the spheres as I wheeled a bin full of oxygen bottles towards the dome.

  ‘There’s enough free atmospheric hydrogen and oxygen for Plan A,’ it said. ‘I’m filling low-lying areas with water. If I start now, I may have a precipitation cycle established by the time Shiumo takes me home.’

  ‘In only six months?’

  ‘If I generate enough of me, yes. Good news: the pole is cold enough to store your reproductive bank without additional refrigeration. As soon as we unload all your gear, we’ll place the bank in a location I’m choosing right now.’

  ‘Excellent,’ I said.

  I wanted to watch the dome inflating, but we were on a time crunch until our breathers ran out, so I rushed back to the pod to collect the next bin.

  Lawrence and Alison, with a team of twenty colonists and a few spheres, wheeled the pieces of the water reservoir into position, then the spheres lifted them into place and secured them. The colonists connected up the fittings to attach the reservoir to the dome’s water supply. Two spheres disappeared inside and began to fill it with water.

  ‘On schedule. Well done, everyone,’ Commander Vince said into my earpiece, and I grinned.

  Forty-eight hours later, we were running slow on the time we’d been allocated for our tasks. The soft dry dust that covered the planet’s surface had slowed us all down, especially as we’d been working in the dark. Now, as I waited in the traffic jam of colonists lined up to collect their materials bins from Shiumo’s pod, the sun was just appearing over the horizon. It was smaller and redder than Earth’s sun, and streaked the sky in shades of scarlet.

  The app on my mini-tablet updated the schedule in real time as people reported their status. The dome was at eighty per cent inflation, the hydroponics were ninety per cent installed, and construction of the oxygen generator was at seventy-two per cent. The generator needed to be fully installed and replacing the bottled oxygen before we could move into the dome, but it’d been stuck at seventy-two per cent for a while and it was obvious the engineers were having problems.