by Kylie Chan
One of the blue lions rose and padded towards us. It was slightly smaller, and longer and narrower than an Earth lion, about half a metre high at the shoulder.
‘Richard?’ it asked me.
I stopped, confused, then realised what it was asking. ‘No, I’m not Richard. None of us is.’
It went back to lie under the sculpture without replying.
‘Richard is a favourite with the other spouses,’ Miko said. ‘They find his jokes very entertaining.’
‘His jokes?’ Maxwell asked me as a set of double doors opened to let us into the tower.
‘Apparently they find some of the things he says funny when he doesn’t intend them to be,’ I said.
‘Wonderful,’ she growled.
There was a red lift circle in a room next to the base of the tower. We stood nervously on it.
‘Don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe,’ Miko said.
A hole in the ceiling opened and the lift propelled us up through the open air – way too fast to be comfortable. I sensed that Maxwell and the rest of the group were in various stages of panic.
‘Blank it out, Marque,’ I said, and the walls went opaque.
Maxwell straightened her jacket. ‘Thank you.’
There was no feeling of deceleration when we stopped. The side of the lift opened onto a transparent-walled room, high in the tower, with soft lounges and red cushions scattered around the floor. The transparent walls gave us a glimpse of the rest of the Palace before they turned opaque pink.
‘Leave the walls transparent, Marque,’ Maxwell said. ‘We have things like this back on Earth. I don’t think anyone will have a problem with it. But if they do, we’ll ask for it to be changed.’
The walls became transparent again. We were spectacularly high, with other Palace towers visible around us. The city stretched away into the distance in each direction, seemingly forever. Through a bank of curving windows on one side of the tower, we could see the space elevator platform, nearly as big as the Palace itself.
Four doors led from the main room to more rooms containing cushions; probably bedrooms.
‘As it is nearly night-time, the Empress will see you in the morning, in seven of your hours,’ Miko said. ‘Captain Shudo, head of the Imperial Guard, will escort you into the Empress’s presence. Is there anything I can do for you in the meantime? Do you require food or entertainment or any other personal services before you see the Empress?’
Marque spoke to her in the dragon language, and she listened attentively.
‘That’s extremely rude,’ I said to it.
‘It’s more efficient,’ it said. ‘Dragons use fewer sounds to convey greater information. I’m telling her what your species usually does at night – the usual meal, sex, hygiene, sleep thing.’
‘No sex!’ the ambassador said, alarmed.
‘We’re quite capable of communicating our own needs,’ I said. ‘Make a meal for us, fabricate some fresh clothing for tonight and tomorrow, and we’ll be fine. Does this apartment have a bathroom?’
‘Some steps will appear on the other side of the room in an hour, leading up to individual bedrooms and bathrooms for you. I’m making them on the next floor up right now.’
I bowed to Miko. ‘Thank you for your kind attention, Princess –’
Her eyes widened. ‘Not Princess!’
‘Goldenscales,’ Marque said.
‘Goldenscales Miko,’ I said. ‘We’ll be fine; Marque will look after us. Will we see you tomorrow?’
‘Probably not until it’s time for you to leave. Captain Shudo will look after you tomorrow.’ She lowered her voice. ‘It is not my place to act on behalf of her Imperial Majesty.’
‘I understand. Thank you for your assistance. We’ll be fine.’
Miko looked around at us, then bowed her head. ‘I am honoured to have served.’ She stepped onto the lift platform, radiating mortification, and the doors closed.
‘She’s horrified that we called her Princess, and convinced she messed up,’ I said. ‘Marque, reassure her that she did a great job.’
‘I’ll do my best, but all the goldenscales are extremely insecure,’ it said.
‘We don’t have time to worry about her feelings right now, Choumali,’ the ambassador said. ‘We have strategies to prepare for when we meet the Empress.’
‘Ma’am,’ I said, and sat next to her on the couch.
36
We were ready the next morning when the Imperial Guards arrived. They were a group of different species, all wearing similar outfits of blue trimmed with silver, and stared curiously at us with a variety of coloured and shaped eyes.
One of the guards stepped forward. ‘I have taken the name of Captain Shudo in your language,’ he said. His Marque-translated voice sounded male. He was short, only up to my waist, and plump, with bright pink fur that grew long enough to obscure his face, and blue scales that peeked between the fur on his temples. He said something in a growling tongue that sounded like the dragons’ language, and Marque replied the same way.
Shudo led us into the lift room. Again, there was no sensation of movement as it swept us down to the ground. The doors opened onto the red-grassed courtyard, and the singing sculpture in the middle had changed from a faceted crystal to a spherical transparent blob.
We followed Shudo to a long breezeway through the gardens, passing plants and flowers of a variety of bright colours and delicate scents, and came to a paved forecourt in front of the Palace’s main doors. Each door was twenty metres tall, and etched with a symbolic dragon in blue and silver.
The doors swung open silently and the captain gestured for us to go in. We entered a hall with a ceiling as high as the doors. Its smooth white floor was inlaid with blue and silver dragon motifs, and the hundred-metre-long side walls were decked with different-coloured banners that swept from the ceiling down to the floor, each with a motif at the bottom that could have been a single alien letter or symbol.
‘Do the banners represent the Empress’s children?’ I said.
‘Correct,’ the captain said. ‘The Empress has one hundred and fifty-three children at the moment.’ His voice gained an amused edge. ‘The Empress can control how many kids she has, but her children seem to have difficulty with the concept. I’m glad you’ll be talking to her about it.’
‘Does the Empress support her children’s assimilation activities?’ I said.
‘She claims she’s too lazy to deal with primitive species, and assimilation is just easier,’ the captain said.
‘That’s what Zianto said.’
‘By the time the new species is aware of what’s happening, it’s usually too late,’ the captain said. ‘Here we are. We would like to check the gift you are bringing for the Empress before you go in, if that is acceptable.’
‘Of course,’ Maxwell said, and gestured for our guards to open the locker.
The Imperial Guards stepped forward with obvious interest, and spoke quickly to each other in the dragon language. Captain Shudo gingerly picked up a yam, breathed in its scent, and staggered back in awe. He passed it around and the guards made similar sounds of appreciation.
Shudo placed the yam back in the locker, and glanced up at Maxwell. ‘Is this all you brought?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Are these foodstuffs rare on your planet? How long do they take to grow?’
‘They’re common vegetables,’ she said. ‘Very quick and easy to grow.’
The guards had a quick discussion among themselves again.
‘I suggest you limit their availability,’ the captain said, his tone amused. ‘Everyone has tried the Marque approximation, but the real thing is …’
‘There isn’t a word in your language for how exceptional he said they are,’ Marque said.
‘You may finally be the leverage we need to control the dragons,’ the captain said. ‘Everybody appreciates their assistance with interstellar travel, but turning us into dragonscales is a very high price.’
‘I hope we are successful,’ Maxwell said. ‘But isn’t it treason to criticise the dragons like that? You won’t be punished?’
The captain stared at Maxwell, then blinked a few times. ‘That is a unique way of looking at the world,’ he said. ‘Welcome to the Royal Palace. The Empress awaits. She has configured her conference room to something you’ll be familiar with. I’ll shut up and let you talk to her.’ He grinned at us, revealing three rows of bright purple pointed teeth. ‘Give her hell.’
We all straightened our uniforms as the enormous doors at the end of the hall opened towards us.
The Empress’s reception hall was even larger than the room we’d come from. The vaulted ceiling was higher, and made up of a network of arches, their edges embossed with twining silver filigree that shone in the light coming from the bank of windows overlooking the square.
The Empress reclined on her throne at the end of the hall, with three bright green, mantis-like aliens crouched on their many jointed legs next to her. She looked similar to the recording we’d seen of her during First Contact: her body was a shining pearl-white silver, and her eyes and soulstone were a deep sapphire blue. She was larger than I’d expected – at least twice as long as Shiumo, but with the transient nature of dragon bodies it was possible that her size was a conscious choice.
The Imperial Guards took up positions around the hall, leaving us to approach the throne.
We stopped at the base of it and hesitated, unsure about the correct protocol. Maxwell broadcast mortification; she was military, not foreign affairs, and hadn’t thought to ask Marque about how to greet the Empress. Eventually she bowed, and we followed suit.
‘Honoured Empress,’ Maxwell said, and waved forward the guards holding the locker. ‘I come in goodwill from Earth. I believe we can solve your cat problem, and I have a gift for you.’
The guards opened the locker to reveal the potatoes.
The Empress’s blue eyes went wide when she saw them. ‘Welcome, people of Earth, and thank you.’ She gestured with one claw towards the three insect-like aliens standing next to her. ‘These are one of my current Imperial dragonspouses, Terrclick. Terrclick is a shared consciousness in three bodies. Take care when moving close to them. They are in a bubble of lower gravity and methane atmosphere.’
The central insect spoke in a clicking language, its mouthparts moving swiftly. Marque translated at the same time. ‘Hi, all. We hear that you have a solution for this assimilation business. We hope you do; our species is all dragonscales and these asshole dragons won’t change us back.’
‘Quiet, bugs,’ the Empress said.
‘Word outside parameters,’ Terrclick said, and rapped the Empress’s shoulder with one of its front claws.
‘Later,’ she said. ‘Terrclick is also here as an advisor. Their species is expert at this sort of negotiation and I could use their input. We’re making history here, and I want to do it right.’
‘I’m honoured,’ Terrclick said.
The Empress changed to a two-legged form: a majestic black woman, twice as tall as me, with broad shoulders and slim hips, small breasts and long legs. She picked up a bright blue robe from behind the throne, wrapped it around herself and stepped down to our level. Her dark skin and long floating hair reflected the light around her, and her bright blue eyes were huge and expressive.
The soldiers behind me made soft sounds of awe.
Don’t let her appearance sway you, I said to them. It’s an illusion.
‘Ma’am,’ one of them said.
‘Let’s do this,’ the Empress said. ‘Human-style table and chairs, please, Marque, so we can speak to our guests.’
A conference table and chairs for us emerged from the floor, as well as a larger chair for the Empress, and a soft pad for the three Terrclicks. The Empress sat, and the Terrclicks positioned themselves next to her.
‘Marque showed me the effects of your pepper bombs,’ she said to Ambassador Maxwell. ‘It seems we can finally deal with the scourge of the cats and protect our dominion without descending into war.’
‘Yes,’ Maxwell said. ‘But in return you have to stop assimilating other species. Vow that you won’t make more than half the population of any species into dragonscales, and we’ll provide you with as many pepper bombs as you need.’
‘Stopping assimilation would be a major change to the way we do things,’ the Empress said. ‘It will have huge ramifications from one end of the Empire to the other. I’m not sure we’re ready for the aftermath of something so drastic.’
‘No restrictions, no pepper bombs,’ Maxwell said, her tone clipped.
‘But it’s such a huge change!’ the Empress said. ‘What do you think, Terrclick? Is this a good idea? Could you handle the aftermath, Marque?’
‘Of course I could,’ Marque said. ‘It’s about time you quit this nonsense and grew up, Silver.’
‘Yeah, stop this bullshit of breeding species out of existence,’ the central Terrclick said. ‘People have been telling you forever to cut it out. So do it.’
‘Are you sure you can handle the consequences of this, Marque?’ the Empress said. ‘It will be an immense strain on your resources.’
‘Now you’re just being offensive,’ Marque said.
‘Promise me you can handle it.’
The Marque sphere went red and floated directly in front of her face. ‘I can handle it!’
‘All right then,’ the Empress said. ‘We’ll agree to stop the assimilation program under one condition.’
‘No conditions,’ Maxwell said, broadcasting determination. ‘We provide the bombs, and you stop the assimilation.’
‘I understand, but we dragons – and our dragonscales – have never fought in war. It has always been unthinkable to us; we are a peaceful species. We are unskilled, while you humans, as well as being immune to the effects of these pepper bombs, have been at war for millennia.’
‘Yes …’ Maxwell said, not sure where this was going.
‘Can we make use of your expertise, Charles? Will you come and lead the defensive operation for us? Your species has turned this around from reproductive assimilation to negotiation on your own terms in a frighteningly short time. We need your skills.’
‘I won’t be mind-controlled by you,’ Maxwell said.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll ensure that you aren’t dragonstruck,’ the Empress said.
‘You have a term for it?’ Maxwell said.
‘It’s an unfortunate side effect of being with us. I’m surprised that Jian isn’t completely in Shiumo’s thrall, and wasting away when she’s apart from her.’
Maxwell shot a sharp glance at me, but I was too shaken to respond. I’d been lucky.
‘Probably because Jian left before the bonding process was complete, and went to your Wolf colony,’ the Empress said. ‘Refusing sexual contact with Shiumo would have been a factor as well.’
‘I knew it!’ Maxwell said under her breath.
‘Refusing sex with a dragon,’ Terrclick said with awe. ‘I admire your willpower, madam, if you aren’t an asexual member of your species.’ Its mouthparts moved on all three bodies, making a soft grinding sound. ‘Even if you are asexual, it is remarkable.’
‘So, Charles, will you help us?’ the Empress said. ‘We’ll put the Empire’s resources at your command.’
‘How big are your armies?’ Maxwell said, still suspicious. ‘Will we humans be a minority in your armed forces?’
The Empress shrugged. ‘We don’t have armies. We run from conflict; we don’t fight. We’re hoping that humanity will be our army. You are probably the only species that can handle the pepper bombs.’
Maxwell hesitated, and I could almost hear her mind running through the possibilities. If humanity became the dragons’ army, we could use the pepper bombs against them, giving us the power to overthrow the entire Empire. Alternatively, the dragons could be planning to enslave us with their mind control and use us as battle fodder. Her emotions wen
t dark; she was obviously thinking of a way to extract us from this situation.
Be ready for a firefight, I said to the guards, and they all shifted into readiness, putting their hands on their concealed pepper bombs.
Terrclick’s three bodies all raised one front claw. ‘Wait, Silver. You’re thinking too much like a dragon, my love.’ Its triangular heads all nodded in unison, and one of the human guards made a soft sound of disgust. ‘Ambassador, this agreement probably sounds too good to be true. You must suspect that the dragons are planning to use mind control on you, since this weapon disables them as well as the cats. The dragons have no control over the dragonstruck process. It happens to those who love a dragon, and anyone who is struck and wants to leave the dragon concerned, receives a scale to keep them safe.’
‘Tell that to Commander Alto,’ Maxwell growled. Then her expression softened. ‘Shiumo did give him a scale.’
‘The dragons don’t do it deliberately, and it won’t happen to you if you’re careful,’ Terrclick said. ‘We – the citizens of the Empire – won’t let them control you. We’ll make sure you are treated with honour as you provide us with this vital service.’ Its mouthparts moved silently. ‘We need you desperately.’
‘In return for your military skills, we will stop the reproductive assimilation and provide you with backup and support, as well as full membership of the Empire with all that entails,’ the Empress said.
Maxwell was torn by indecision.
‘Is it a good deal, Marque?’ I said.
‘I work for the dragons, Jian. I’m not the one you should be asking. Ambassador Maxwell needs to make this decision herself. But I suggest you clarify with the Empress what full membership of the Empire grants you.’
‘Of course,’ the Empress said. ‘Your home planet will immediately receive a full-size orbital Marque, which will ensure the safety and comfort of every member of your species living on-planet. Disease and accidental death will cease. What else? Oh, yes. The Marque will synthesise anything you need; and assist you in controlling your tradeable resources – such as these potatoes – until you have your own dragons. I understand you were in the second stage of the breeding process? So you have dragonscales ready to produce your own dragons?’
