by Steve M.
“This is a good start,” said Allor with the slightest smile to the ambassador.
“We only ask two minor indulgences, My Lord Allor.”
“Be careful,” said Canto. She stood and drew her sword. “You may become part of my collection, so choose your words carefully.”
“Understood, Princess Canto. Understood. Our indulgences are minor. First we ask that forgiveness be given for the next one hundred revs to those that still try to reach higher unconsciousness.”
“Do you mean the breath-holders?” asked Canto.
“Yes, Princess,” Ambassador Duplantaine replied.
Allor burst out laughing. He laughed hard and held up his hand after a few tix. Finally he regained his composure. He realized the moment as perhaps his first step towards healing.
“Dear Sir, your people can hold their breath as long as they like. As long as it does not include the worship of any god, then it is not a concern of mine. It is just a silly thing that silly people do. That’s all. Consider this matter closed. I hope that over time the former followers of the Cult of Niddler will realize the illogic of their actions. But if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. Now tell me, what is the other indulgence?”
“My Lord Allor, Hundil, the former high priest of the former Cult of Niddler, would like to hold a banquet in your honor. He wants to share all of the details of the former Cult of Niddler with you so that your assimilation of their flock will be smoother. During this feast, Hundil will make his case that you are best served with him alive. However, if at the end of the banquet you are not convinced, then he will submit to your sword.”
“Sounds reasonable,” said Allor. “Pens is not here to object,” he added with a chuckle.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Koven was in the shower on the cruiser after a lengthy exercise regime in the gym room. The shower was having problems with the temperature again. He could feel the very minor fluctuations in temperature. The slightly colder burst every twenty tix. He would run the maintenance routines later and recalibrate the range of response.
The warm air dryer felt good on his skin. He felt the slight spray of moisturizer as he exited the shower stall, then walked naked into the bedroom. His PPS was hanging from a rod next to the bed. He lay down on the bed, needing to get some sleep. He hadn’t slept since before Tal’s murder. He wasn’t sure if he would ever sleep again. He was trying to come to grips with his career choice and was wondering just how many dead bodies he would have to see before becoming an educator. Then his mind went to the most horrible place as he wondered how many of them he would cause.
His door opened and Rusa came into his quarters. She was carrying a remedium.
“I noticed that you haven’t healed in the last couple of days,” she said.
“Maybe that will help me get some sleep,” he said as he got up and put on a robe.
“You don’t need that,” she replied, pointing at the robe.
“I’d prefer it,” he said.
“Suit yourself. Now come lie back on the bed,” she said.
He walked over to the bed and lay down on his back. She opened his robe, exposing his naked body. She turned on the remedium and moved it to his head. He could feel the soothing effects of it in his head. The terror he had been feeling since that first weapon was shot at him subsided some, not going away completely but diminished.
“I am so tired,” he said as a result, and closed his eyes.
“You have a significant sleep deficit,” she said. “I noticed it on your last health check.”
She continued moving the remedium over his body. He felt muscles relax and a tingling on his skin where the remedium was working. Rejuvenation of skin cells causes a tingling sensation. When she placed it over his groin, he responded by putting his hand on hers and moving it away.
“It’s OK,” Rusa said. “I am fully capable of pleasure and discretion. Tanit need never know that you have taken advantage of my capabilities.”
Then she did something that Koven didn’t know she could do without permission. It felt so good to him that he lasted only a few tix—in fact, only one tox and fourteen tix before he exploded.
After, as he lay there, she removed her clothing and lay down beside him.
“That was nice,” she said. “I like the way you do that.”
“I’m sorry it didn’t last long. It felt too good.”
“I know, I could tell. But that’s good. You enjoyed it. You need to get some sleep and I need to clean up.”
“Clean up?” he asked her.
“Yes. Spermatozoa will react with the polymers inside of me and cause an unpleasant odor if allowed to stay there for more than a few days. It’s best if they are removed soon after ingestion.” And then she got up and walked over to the sink and did what could only be called an android version of puking. It contained no convulsions like human puking, but rhythmic movement along the torso to bring up the contents of the android stomach, which Rusa politely spit into the sink. There was a very similar process for different species. And I can tell you very sincerely that watching my cat cough up a furball is profoundly non-erotic.
Koven yawned deeply.
“How do you know this? Have you studied the chemical reaction?”
Rusa laughed. “In a way, yes.”
“What do you mean?” Koven asked.
“My creator, Venkat Tiwari, and I discovered it.”
“Really?”
“Yes, we had sex five hundred forty-nine times during my final testing.”
“Oh,” replied a surprised Koven. He yawned again and closed his eyes.
“Are there any limits to the use of your pleasure apps? Can I make use of them whenever I want?” he asked her as she lay down beside him and put her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her. She took his limp manhood in her hand and held him gently.
“There are no limits other than causing damage or putting the mission at risk,” she replied, and squeezed him gently. “But they aren’t just apps. They are me as well. I have a fully developed personality, and my learning modules will continue to make it a more complex personality until I am on a par with humans. So when you are talking of using the apps, you are talking of using me. While I don’t have complex emotions learned yet and integrated, I do have rudimentary emotional response. And disassociating me from the apps that make up me causes some form of crude sadness.”
“I’m sorry,” Koven said. “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“I know,” she said. She began to stroke him ever so gently.
“I need to sleep,” he said as he felt himself beginning to respond to her movements.
“How long would you like to sleep?” she asked him.
“A hundred tox,” he replied.
“Is there any particular music you would like to wake to?”
“Injunction At Sunset,” he replied.
“I’ve set it up,” she replied.
“One last thing?” he asked her. “Can I wake to the feeling of you…you know, what you were doing before?”
“Of course,” she said.
Koven slept so soundly that the call from Tanit went unanswered. The periodic beeping from his comms bracelet didn’t wake him either. And one hundred tox later he felt Rusa. It was wonderful. He rolled over a little to make it easier for her. He heard the beeping on his comms and knew he had a message. He activated the message. It was marked “private only.”
“Hey lover, I just wanted you to know that I am all set to meet you at your parents’ at the weekend. I’m getting a ride with a couple of professors testing a new drive motor. It’s really fast, so I should arrive before you get there. I guess I will introduce myself to your parents. Or I can find a restaurant and wait if you like. Just let me know.”
Koven looked down at Rusa.
“And this is what you have to look forward to,” she said. Then she started taking off her clothes. When she was completel
y naked, she walked over to the bed and lay down on it.
It was too much for him.
A few minutes later he decided to take another nap.
This time he woke to music only. While eating a late breakfast, he read the instructions on the explosive device he was taking down to the planet later in the day.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Wingut went to see Professor Trill on his way back from the Travel Department. Trill was not alone in his office. Professor Droka was with him, sitting on the couch in his office while Trill sat behind his desk. Wingut had to wait outside of the office for ten tox before being allowed to enter.
“I know you have agents down on Earth 7,” he said as he walked into the room and sat down on one of the two chairs across the desk from Trill. Droka quickly got up and sat in the other chair beside him.
“I have no such thing,” replied Trill in an annoyed tone. He remembered the old saying “Only a fool argues with a historian.”
Wingut slid a piece of paper across the desk. It was the travel vouchers for Collins and Hope. At least Wingut didn’t know about the long-term agent on Earth 7.
“OK. I sent two agents down there. But their sole purpose was to take a survey of conditions in the event of a transfer of custodial power to the Sociology Department. I felt it was important to know what we had to deal with. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Except your attempt to conceal it,” replied Wingut.
“You know the tension between our departments,” said Droka. “Why cause problems when a little stealth avoids the conflict?”
“Right you are,” added Trill. “I know you get information about us. But I don’t know how you get it.”
“In this instance, your men tried to kill one of mine. A mission I sponsored.”
“Trust me, Professor, I would never, ever give the order for my men to kill a historian. Put me in one of your recertification rooms and you’ll see it’s the truth. I don’t want a dead historian any more than you do,” replied Trill.
“Indeed,” replied Droka. “It would be a stupid move.”
“Here, let me show you the latest report,” replied Trill.
He started a holocast of a report less than two revs old. It contained data on communicable diseases on the planet and the recommendations for adjustment to the atmospheric meds. It looked in order. This was one of the many cover activities conceived by Trill and Droka during a retreat at a Nebula resort planet.
“Professor Wingut,” said Droka with his usual whiny tone, “it seems that you are most capable at knowing the activities of the Sociology Department. I would be most interested in knowing how you obtain your information. We would like to bring in the Management Department to study the informal communication channel.”
“Ugo,” replied Wingut, dropping the polite formality, “if I told you about the people that tell me things, people would cease telling me things.”
“Most likely the case,” replied Droka. “But it would assist the Sociology Department, and that comes with rewards.”
“I’m sure it does,” replied Wingut.
“You should consider taking advantage of them. You support our cause, so why not?”
“Because then it would appear that I have been bought. And that violates the second and the eleventh Articles of Historians. I am in no way inclined to proceed in that direction.”
“Others of your department don’t share your conclusion,” replied Trill from behind his desk, leaning back on his chair with a smirk on his face.
“I have enough work being responsible for one historian,” Wingut replied.
“So why are you here?” asked Trill confidently.
“To learn the things I didn’t know before. And to issue a warning. As soon as I heard of your agents, I gave Koven Modi authorization to kill them,” Wingut said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Koven and Rusa landed almost a kilomaatar from the cave. From the edge of the cave, the valley was stretched out before it. They landed just over the top of the hills at the far end of the valley. While they were cloaked, the bubble ships that brought them were not.
“I have identified four new species of moths on Earth 7. They are mutations from the originals used to seed the planet,” said Rusa.
“And will you log them with the Zoology Department?”
“Done. I send them out via sublight as I find them,” Rusa replied.
“You have sublight comms built in?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Good to know,” he replied.
“Regrettably, it is a slow method, but for non-critical data it is a sensible choice. Venkat made a wise design choice.”
“And many others,” said Koven with a smile.
“Do you wish to have sexual pleasure again? It has been nearly two hundred tox,” said Rusa with a wide smile. “You still haven’t discovered some of my most unique capabilities.”
“No thank you. Let’s wait until we are done here,” replied Koven too politely.
They continued their walk among the trees in the valley. Finally they came to the mountain on the other side. As they began to climb the steep rock trail to the opening of the cave, Koven reached out to find Rusa’s hand. He steadied himself with her help as he climbed.
The opening to the cave was wide, yet no more than five maatars tall. But then it opened into a huge cavern. It was well lit. Koven and Rusa climbed carefully over the rocks to the lights. They were ion extractors with batteries with liquid catalyst.
Just past the lights they were able to see the crude laboratory. Wooden tables were numerous, and each dedicated to a device. Koven used his remedium to identify them. A macerator pump for grinding up solid human waste before being pumped out into space was the first item identified. It was in pieces and looked like someone had been trying to sketch the blades. Many of the parts were sitting in small containers of water in a manner akin to soaking dishes in a sink.
At the far end of the cave were a man and woman. They were trying unsuccessfully to get a media player to work. Without the holo-controls, Koven realized they didn’t have much chance of getting it to work, except by accident. Accidents were their standard modus operandi.
Other items were equally unimportant with a couple of notable exceptions. The first were Babylon Dots, those small black dots put on earlobes to facilitate translations from all languages in the known universe. Koven had to wear his just inside of his ear.
Modi was born without earlobes. Babylon Dots, or BDs for short, hadn’t hit the market when Koven was in his mother’s womb. People still used ear inserts. Indira was much more concerned with a genetic predisposition towards a weak respiratory sub system, so his parents spent the money at the geneticist getting him a first-class set of lungs.
The last table contained only a book, an old book of paper with a leather cover. Koven recognized it immediately. It was the only book banned in the galaxy. It was not banned for what was written inside. Instead it was banned for the history of what humans had done after reading the book. And it was not even a single story. I was a trilogy laid out in chronological order. The first was a story of a young boy that battled a giant and won. He became king and many people died for it. His name was David. The second was the story of a nice man that was hated by the powerful until he was executed. The third story was about a man who had visions and a goal to bring his message to many people. And again many people died for it.
The stories were not well written and contradicted themselves often in detail. They were made long before the advent of historians. But the problem is not with the words in the book. In fact, it was only three stories from an original book that has since been lost in time. But those who prefer one story to another not only publicly announce their preference, but they also killed those who prefer the other stories.
That is why this is the only book banned in the Galaxy. That also made the book one of the most priceless objects in the un
iverse. Of everything they had found, this was the most dangerous of all.
“It was working yesterev,” complained the man at the far end of the cave.
“I know. Do you think the little piece with the buttons and the strange script is needed?” the woman asked, holding up a remote control.
“No. I’m sure that piece will be of no help,” replied the man.
“OK,” said the woman. “But it started yesterev while I was playing with it.”
“Pure coincidence,” replied the man.
“OK,” said the woman, and then she pressed the button she had pressed previously when it started working. And again the image jumped out in front of them.
“There it is. Got you. I must have pressed a secret button on the box mechanism,” he said as he held up the long, thin box.
“Good for you,” the woman replied with a smile.
Back at the tables, Koven spoke softly. “We need to set explosives and destroy everything.”
“What about the people?”
“Do you have any ideas?” he asked her.
“I cannot help you unless we have a means of ensuring that the man and woman survive,” Rusa replied.
“Let me set the charges in position and then let’s discuss how to get them out of here without letting them know we’re here.”
“Something with fire, perhaps?” Rusa offered.
“Good idea,” Koven replied, and removed the small square charges from his pockets. The tiny little pillow-shaped see-through pouches contained a red liquid and had a very thin digital display covering one side.
Koven walked around the cave for the next few minutes putting his charges under the tables containing the tech. He placed the final four back at the opening to the cave then returned to the table containing the book. He picked up the book and put it inside of his coat. And a moment after he touched the book, it shimmered for a brief moment then disappeared to everyone except Koven. And that was when the shooting started again.
