by Neal Asher
Enough. Sniper backs off and returns the leech to the cargo cylinder.
‘The Prador Fourth Kingdom will be new and dynamic,’ Vrell declaims. ‘A new age has dawned, and now it is time for my kind to put their ignorance behind them, and rise from their long sleep.’
‘Hey, did things just get any better?’ Orbus mutters to Sniper.
‘Buggered if I know,’ the drone replies.
Orbus gazes through the big side-eye screen of the Gurnard as he drops into the Captain’s throne. The King’s ship hovers out there like some giant steel monolith transported into vacuum, and even now, as the Gurnard draws slowly away, the dreadnoughts are busy undocking. The Golgoloth’s vessel, however, remains firmly docked, and Prador are all about it in vacuum, building structures that will permanently lock it to the King’s ship. After a moment he turns his attention to the horseshoe console to one side of him, and its one empty chair, and a sadness rises up within him.
Orbus is now remembering things forgotten about Iannus Drooble during those centuries of madness aboard his sailing ship the Vignette. And now the crewman is dead. The lack of that man’s often irritating presence leaves a raw hole inside him, but he knows the pain will fade. He knows, in fact, that Drooble’s presence at his side served only to delay the healing process that began in his own mind underneath the seas of Spatterjay, whilst he was enslaved by Vrell. He must accept all this and move on.
‘Take a seat,’ he says, waving a hand towards the empty chair.
‘Thank you,’ says the woman, Sadurian. She has held back at the door for a little while, which confirms that she is much older than she looks and has therefore acquired some wisdom along the way. Orbus is glad to have her aboard for this visit, and looks forward to getting to know her better during the time ahead…that is, if she chooses to stay rather than return to the Polity, as seems to be her intent.
Sniper now looms in behind them, and Orbus feels comfortable with the drone’s presence. However, he isn’t entirely sure about the other two presently being taken on a tour of the ship, guided by Thirteen. But the two chrome-armoured third-children have been allowed, as free Prador, to accompany Sadurian over here, and he promises himself he will try to treat them with civility.
‘So,’ says Orbus, ‘I asked Sniper earlier if what happened here is a good thing or a bad thing. Gurnard, tell me, what is the reaction of the Polity AIs?’
‘Reserved,’ replies the ship AI. ‘They were happy enough with King Oberon, and since Vrell is his chosen successor, they’ll not interfere. It also helps that Vrell is now pulling Oberon’s remaining spies out of the Graveyard, and already talking about decommissioning the Prador defence stations–so long as the stations on the Polity side are decommissioned too.’
‘But reserved, you said?’
‘Vrell is a complex and dangerous creature,’ Gurnard observes, ‘and nobody really knows what his intentions are now. In a very short time he went from being a first-child trapped on Spatterjay to becoming King of the Prador. Some major AIs are also quite concerned about the way he managed to accurately fire U-jump missiles through disrupted underspace. The Polity will be watching him very closely.’
‘You gotta admire the fucker,’ says Sniper.
Ignoring the drone, Orbus turns to Sadurian. ‘What do you
think?’
‘I am not sure my judgement is relevant,’ she replies. ‘I would suggest, however, that for building and maintaining a complex civilization, Prador natural aggression needs to be somewhat curbed. If Vrell is as intelligent as he would seem, he will know this fact too.’ She gazes at him for a long moment. ‘Personally I would like to hear what you feel, since that is surely more relevant. The Prador caused you great suffering in the past, yet you allied yourself with Vrell.’
Orbus sits back. He thinks Vrell is indeed a vicious and dangerous creature, but one sufficiently intelligent–and distanced from the rest of his kind–to be able to put racial issues to one side. But what does Orbus actually feel?
‘Vrell knows that open war with the Polity, as well as quite possibly leading to the genocide of his own kind, would be merely a stupid waste. He’ll open up the borders, and then take from the Polity what he can. He’ll do very well.’
Sadurian tilts her head in acknowledgement. ‘That would be my assessment, too.’
‘So it looks like we’ve put the universe to rights,’ interjects Sniper. ‘What now?’
Orbus smiles to himself; the drone sounds bored already.
‘The holds are empty,’ says Gurnard. ‘And Cymbeline has accepted your suggestion.’
‘Huh?’ says Sniper brilliantly.
Orbus turns his head in time to observe the King’s ship firing up its fusion drives and beginning to draw away. The five dreadnoughts then fire up their drives, too, and follow it.
‘We’ve got no spies to hunt down in the Graveyard and meanwhile we need to acquire a profitable cargo,’ says Orbus. ‘I think a good place to look for one now will be beyond the Graveyard, inside the Prador Kingdom itself.’ He turns to Sadurian. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to find another way back to the Polity–if you’re going right away.’
She gazes at him coolly. ‘I think I ll stick around–this might be interesting.’
‘Huh?’ says Sniper again.
‘Of course,’ Orbus adds, ‘with the new King establishing his position at the heart of things, there’s going to be a great deal of contention.’
‘Contention?’ Sniper perks up.
‘There’s sure to be other Prador who’ll dispute his claim to the title.’
‘Yup,’ concurs Sniper, his head nodding eagerly in his grounded shell.
Space distorts about the King’s ship, generating a weird spiral light effect, then it is gone. One after another, the five dreadnoughts flash out of existence too.
‘It’ll be dangerous in there, Orbus warns.
Sniper impatiently rattles a tentacle against the floor. ‘Are we going then, or what?’
Orbus grins. ‘Gurnard, let’s follow them in.’
The Fourth Kingdom: The events that led to King Vrell’s rise to power are obscure at best, but everything he did afterwards has been well documented. By allowing more Prador children to reach adulthood, he caused massive population growth and this forced great societal changes. Allowing artificial intelligence to gain a firm foothold in the Kingdom,’ he enabled it to become a much more stable entity. And the new laws he introduced eliminated a great deal of the destructive competition between Prador adults. However, many cultural historians and xenologists are baffled about what has come to be known as the ‘Prador Renaissance’. Everything Vrell has done, and is still doing, just does not fit the accepted biological and cultural profile of the Prador. It all seems just too humane. Many of the Prador themselves are baffled too, and very much resent King Vrell. They claim that the Prador of the new generations are soft shells, not having been subject to the traditional rigours of previous generations. However, those that object too strongly and loudly often fall prey to the most grotesque and fatal misfortunes, so my guess is that King Vrell, while not quite as vicious as his predecessors, ain’t exactly about to turn vegetarian either.
–From HOW IT IS by Gordon’
