The Rylerran Gateway

by Mark Ian Kendrick

  The morning sunlight finally found its way to the top of the table where he was sitting, diverting his attention. The sliding glass door at the balcony had been open, allowing in a steady breeze. It wasn’t so humid today. He stood, went to the deck and stopped at the railing, gripping it with both hands as he looked over the west end of the city. His view was from twenty floors up, which provided a view with no obstructions. He had been provided with plush quarters, far more luxurious than his station in life warranted. A small favor for providing them with the secret to space travel. A secret they already had but, oddly enough, didn’t. The irony was he had emerged into a universe which had no knowledge of warp conduits yet had mastered the stars. It still surprised and amused him when he thought about it.

  Further on was Koehkelko Bay. The bay with barely any tides. He didn’t care for it at all. Without a good twice-daily flush of water, like what happened all over Earth, the bay smelled. In fact, he was slowly but surely coming to the conclusion that he had made a supreme mistake in his hasty decision so many weeks ago. The decision to help Naylon and his friends. If he had known then what he knew shortly after his arrival on Andakar, he was sure he wouldn’t have done it. How horrible it was that hindsight provided so much information.

  It was becoming increasingly more difficult to hide his fundamental disgust with a culture he had no choice but to live in. It took all the military training he had accumulated throughout his short life to hold his tongue when he saw Naylon reach for Darreth’s hand, or when the planet’s second most famous performer on the vidscreen kissed her partner live on air. But that wasn’t the worst of it. He was already aware of the seemingly all-pervasive greed nearly every native of this planet seemed to exude, due to their entire culture being centered around business instead of conquest. Where was the glory in making photronic credits? And, they had no memory of their very own flesh and blood’s past. Not a single person he had met and asked could tell him anything about someone they were related to more than five generations ago. That disconnect from their very own culture made him feel claustrophobic. That alone was part of general discourse on the two planets he had lived on and the three others he had visited, albeit only briefly. Comparing notes on ancestors was the fluid that oiled civilized interactions.

  That aside, a growing emptiness held sway most of the time. The psychologist assigned to him, who he had grown to admire and be wary of at the same time, had been extracting bits and pieces of grief from him with varying amounts of success before the pharmas had been suggested. He had left everyone behind to escape endless war. Now he felt a tremendous amount of boredom, followed by the knowledge he would never be returning home, followed by periods of elation that he had been brave enough to have done what he had done, followed by his growing antipathy toward the culture he found himself less and less enamored with as time went by. Perhaps all of it was because of the isolation he felt. There were literally only four people he could directly communicate with. And none of them were women. Perhaps the most compelling reason for his loneliness was lack of intimacy with a woman.

  After the initial one-week period where he wasn’t allowed to leave the Guardian space station, several people had interrogated him each and every day. At first, he had been pleased to tell them everything he could: about the Empire, its peoples, the Telkans, how long they had been at war. Everything. Naylon, Darreth and Rehl took time out from their own lives to act as his interpreter. Tann, despite having perfect knowledge of Empire Spanish, had not been among them. He was apparently too young and the far too important juvenile son of a dignitary to be a part of his ‘recovery’. That left three people whom he could communicate with directly after all. When it became obvious he knew nothing of importance strategically or tactically, the questions quickly became much more mundane. During that week, he realized Naylon and Darreth weren’t just buddies or mere friends. They were a couple. A couple which would have been relegated to the fringes of every society he was aware of. Given that he had no choice other than them to communicate with, he had asked as many questions as he could about their culture. That’s when he discovered his view of male-male relationships was considered ‘quaint’, ‘lacking’ or ‘medieval’. Rehl had made it very clear. It was something that would take time to adjust to, if he ever did. Or wanted to.

  Despite himself, he still couldn’t shake a profound admiration for all of them for their incredible bravery. He had no idea a gay couple would be so inclined to do what they had done. That one would willingly risk his life for the other. But did this entire culture have to accept same-sex couples as completely and totally normal? There was RNA and therapy that tilted anyone’s tendency for same-sex anything in the right direction! This culture defied logic and standards that had been in place for centuries, if not millennia.

  His musing over these various issues came to a halt as he mulled over a recent change of events. Apparently, Darreth’s father Siloy was leading what he would consider a rebellion. Several rallies had already taken place and an election had been held. Something of great political importance had taken place, but he was completely uninterested in it so far. At least his estimation of the events, what little of them he was able to piece together, led him to believe this was an extremely important if not unprecedented turn of events for this planet. The long tenure of this Consortium, which seemed to run everything, was apparently beginning to lose steam. Efren was surprised it hadn’t happened long ago. How could any organization keep its citizens in line without a real military? It seemed impossible. Yet, this civilization only just recently resurrected its military, and only on a miniscule scale. The military berthed in Andakar’s orbit was a mere squadron compared to what he was not only familiar with, but had been a part of for his entire adult life. Calling it a military was laughable.

  Naylon told him only yesterday that the head of the entire Consortium was coming for a visit and would be arriving in only a few days. He discovered that the man’s visit would most likely end with some ugly words, declarations and sanctions, not to mention a lot of lawsuits. Efren wasn’t entirely sure he was privy to precisely what was going on, but as far as he knew there was no going back now. Andakar had declared itself independent of the Consortium’s all-encompassing economic snare and was striking out on its own. Indeed, the Manager General of the Guardian space station had recently been declared a military commander. A small purge of sorts had recently taken place where anyone not loyal to their move toward absolute local rule was allowed to leave their ranks. Apparently, at least one person who had been slipping information to the deposed Planetary Director had been given an ultimatum. Naylon wasn’t specific, but it seemed the person would be losing more than his bank account. Much of the political nature of the move toward independence bored him, although he could tell that the entire Andakar economy would probably be in real trouble in the short run. All in all though, it was a situation that he had never had to think about before. He was a military man. Ex-military now, he thought with a sigh.

  He returned to the table, took a sip from the glass next to the vidPAD and pressed the on icon again. He spoke the heading aloud. “Jorga And Kessen Go To A Party.” The words were becoming more and more easy to pronounce. Verbs and nouns more easy to recognize. Except for a few irregular verbs, the majority of them had a single conjugation for each tense, unlike his native language. Stringing them all together into more than just what a two year old would say was becoming a lot simpler. He activated the holographic soundfield and proceeded to listen and respond as the interactive program began again.

  Chapter 43

  Nolis Imla, Inandra’s personal attorney, sat across the table from her down the hall from Inandra’s detention cell. Nolis was a smaller woman than Inandra, with a statuesque body and wavy platinum blond hair. But her looks were not what had brought her to the top of her profession. She had one of the most brilliant legal minds on the planet, which was why Inandra had chosen her when she first became Planetary Director. Plus, she was from
Earth, and thus Inandra expected her to be sympathetic to her interests.

  “Nolis, you will get me out of here by the end of the day,” Inandra demanded.

  “You know that’s impossible,” Nolis replied.

  “You are my personal attorney, not the Chief Counselor’s interrogator.”

  Nolis rolled her eyes. Inandra was becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with. Her normally calm façade, one Nolis was personally familiar with, had all but disappeared in the last week.

  “When have I interrogated you, Madam Director? I am your counsel. And a damn good one at that,” she reminded her client with a cold hard look.

  Inandra fell silent. She was simply angered beyond words that she was still in detention due to an insanely high bail. That alone would result in a monumental lawsuit once she was released, she thought to herself.

  Nolis scrolled through the next page on the flimsy she had on the table in front of her. “The second phase of the hearing starts at two tomorrow afternoon, as I just said. I expect you to be on your best behavior.”

  “What exactly does that mean?”

  “It means that although you are angered at this nonsense you have to be careful about what you say and how you go about this,” Nolis lectured.

  “When does the contingent arrive from Earth?”

  “They aren’t due for another few days.”

  “I don’t want ambiguous replies,” Inandra told her.

  Nolis sighed. “Four days.”

  “Four. Four days,” Inandra spoke, somewhat to herself.

  Nolis just nodded.

  Inandra crossed her arms and pouted like a child. “I will not stand for this.”

  “Madam Director, I can’t make their ships warp through space any faster.” She’s really starting to come apart, Nolis thought, not without some amusement.

  Inandra was quiet once again. Her shoulders dropped noticeably. “Is Raxi here?”

  “He’s in the waiting room.”

  “We’re done.”

  “No we’re not.”

  “I said we’re done,” she emphasized, although in a tone that fell well short of her usual haughtiness.

  Nolis switched off the flimsy’s display and allowed the screen to roll up. She was becoming increasingly exasperated with Inandra’s mood swings. Perhaps having Raxi speak with her would calm her down. Otherwise, something from Andakar’s extremely large pharmacopoeia might be in order.

  Nolis left the chamber. By law, nothing said in detention could be recorded, which was still the case here.

  Zelin gave Nolis a tight smile as they passed each other in the hallway. Nolis left the building entirely since she had to prepare for the next day’s proceedings. This was only the third time she’d been able to see Inandra since her arrest. Inandra’s detention had come as a complete and utter surprise. But once she had read and understood the charges against the Planetary Director, maybe ‘shocked’ more accurately captured her feelings. Being the woman’s attorney didn’t mean she couldn’t form her own opinions and draw conclusions. She would still defend her to the best of her considerable abilities. Yet, if even one of the charges leveled against Inandra were true it would mean the woman would never hold that post again.

  Inandra didn’t speak when Zelin entered the tiny room. He noticed right away she was completely different. Her normally overconfident demeanor was almost entirely gone. There were lines on her forehead, something which he didn’t remember ever seeing before. He quietly took the chair across the table from her. The black stripe across the top of its blank white surface was the only way to determine that an invisible barrier lay between them. They would be able to speak to each other, but anything crossing the barrier would be vaporized. They both knew that.

  “What took you so long to get here?” she demanded.

  Haltingly, he told her. “I-I couldn’t get away immediately. I had to know how much they… knew.”

  “The very fact you’re here means they know nothing,” she retorted icily.

  “Clearly,” he responded, trying to regain his footing.

  “Well?” she barked, making an impatient gesture for him to speak.

  “If you’re asking me to help in your defense you know it will be quite impossible.”

  She stared at him.

  He wondered if she had become dense all of the sudden. “I’m not an Andakar Citizen. You know I can’t come to your defense. If they’re smart, and you know they are, they’ll discover the payments. They’ll know I was… involved.”

  “Get out,” she quietly said.

  “I just got here,” he huffed. He’d never seen her like this before.

  “Go back to Rylerra where you belong. Don’t ever come here again.” He’s a weakling, she decided.

  “You can’t mean that. I came here to provide you with moral support.”

  “I don’t need moral support. What I need is to be out of detention.”

  He needed to divert her attention. “I heard Corren’s on his way,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve been in contact with Second Executive Jafar many times. I don’t know him personally, but I have a working relationship with him, of sorts.” A tic developed under Inandra’s left eye. He noticed that. “I-I still have some weight,” he added.

  She ignored his assertion. “Like you said, Zelin. They’ll discover what was going on.”

  “They need you and they want you to remain PD. Their sole goal will be to get you out of here and put Siloy in here where he belongs. I can be useful in that endeavor.”

  What an idiot, she thought. “They won’t trust you.”

  “I made a normal landing without so much as a nanosecond of official chatter interfering with my right to see you,” he whispered, trying to reassure her.

  “Get out,” she told him anyway.

  Zelin was thankful it was over.

  Chapter 44

  Anoon Tilshar and Marn Sokarikay, his fiancée and currently his second-in-command, were only two hours from breaking out of the wedge from Ethlacos. Breakout would be one point two AU from Andakar. He expected an escort once they arrived but wasn’t exactly sure how they would be received. Actually, he expected explosive decompression to greet them by way of one of Andakar’s Space Navy pilots. Thus the state of dress they were both in before that moment could arrive. He and Marn had only just now started putting their clothing back on. She was still bare-chested when he reached out, gently laid her on her back on the cabin’s bed, squeezed her hard nipples again and kissed her. Despite her moans of pleasure, it was time to get serious.

  After dressing and having the cabin bots clean up the room, both were seated in the pilot and co-pilot’s chairs. They both watched the timer count down to one. The forward screen’s grey instantly shifted to black. A tenth of a second later the nav system overlaid guide stars. The guidance system computer indicated they were within ten thousand meters of their expected breakout point.

  “There’s the signal,” Marn said. “Three hundred thousand kilometers off starboard. Initializing standard greeting.”

  Anoon braced himself, hoping to at least see the beam before it destroyed their ship. Unexpectedly, they received a request to input coordinates to the Guardian space station. One of the escort ships positioned itself behind them as they made their way toward Andakar. Sure now that they were indeed being welcomed, Anoon started looking forward to this. He knew Andakar was a resort planet. He intended to enjoy some of the planet’s offerings sooner rather than later, since he anticipated a quick resolution during his planned meetings.

  Anoon and Marn had not been granted the courtesy of passage to the surface. That slight greatly ticked off Anoon, but he understood he needed to work with Siloy. He didn’t want to push things too far. They had had to wait over six hours before Siloy and several of his staff came up to the Guardian. In attendance too were Rish Illigan, Rylerra’s Planetary Director and some of his staff. Anoon had nearly demanded him to be there as well
.

  “I have something you need and you have something I want,” Anoon told Siloy bluntly.

  Siloy looked across the table from the man in the conference room. He could have easily made it into orbit hours before, but had delayed it on purpose. He had gone over every scant detail of this man’s background. Armed with that, he felt far better about dealing with him. “What might it be that we want?” he asked.

  “Marn,” Anoon said with a slight gesture to her. She unzipped the bag at her feet and lifted a transparent container up from the floor to the tabletop.

  “Rocks,” Siloy stated flatly. There was a ripple of laughter around the table.

  Marn turned the container. The row of lights and the display were obvious to him and the rest of the council members. “You will note that this container is sealed with a Redetch field,” she said.

  Siloy was taken aback. There were only two reasons to have rocks sealed in a Redetch field.

  Anoon glanced at Marn and immediately upped the stakes for the men at the table. “I will be happy to take anyone you elect back with us to the Atriel system. There they can see for themselves that our outpost on Ethlacos possesses a rather large quantity of kajite.”

  Everyone around the table looked at each other. It was well-known that kajite was the raw mineral from which Tetra-G was mined. That was what was in the container. It was also just as well known that the raw material was transported in a Redetch field to prevent its radiation from affecting living tissue. The mineral contained far too many heavy elements for open transport.