Duty

by P. S. Power

  By the time he realized anyone had come, the other man was speaking. A hand held out, to shake. It was how they did things in Second City, so, a bit damply, he took the strong hand. The man in front of him was a true giant, being over eight feet tall, which left him feeling overmatched, naturally.

  “I’m Dareg Canton. Call me Dare. I can seal the airlock as we get to the control room. It isn’t far. I’ve been doing mapping for the last few weeks, so haven’t needed a lot of extra space.”

  They were walking then, a small tug on his arm propelling him along at good speed. The other man was moving nearly as fast as he could go while dragging someone behind him. Albert was trying to do his part, which lead to gasping, the heavy stone box in his hands slowing him down more than it seemed like it should.

  They didn't stop to chat about it, since the instant they were on the control deck, or whatever that kind of thing was called, he was pushed, gently, into a seat.

  “Sorry. We need to hurry though. I didn’t get your name, sir?” The last bit, calling him sir, had an odd air of formality to it. Which made sense.

  Albert was from Second City, which didn't have nobility. So, sir was a safe thing to call him, being polite and even of a higher rank than he could hold. Which wasn’t totally true, since knights could and sometimes did, visit the Moon. Even staying for months on end, if they had reason.

  “Albert Benoist. Um… Not a High Servant or anything, as you probably got already. Commander Johan sent me?” He wasn’t doing it right, dropping the name into conversation.

  The other man just nodded, slipping into the large seat, and doing things that had the ship, which was large still, even if not truly huge, to move silently. First toward a glowing copper wall that vanished and let their vessel pass through it without even having to speak to anyone, which wasn’t normal. Then they moved quickly into space itself.

  Albert lived on the Moon, but he’d gotten there the easy way, using one of the Transport boxes. The little huts didn’t go everyplace and sometimes it was handy to be able to go someplace that didn't have one of those kinds of things. Like what they were doing at the moment. That meant this, the very stars he was seeing as they moved away from the planet below them, was the only time that he’d been in space in a ship. He’d flown there, of course, since knowing how to do that was required training, on moving to the Moon. Below them the slightly tan planet shrunk a bit.

  “We need Ross. I’ve been there before. Let me…” His hand moved under the control bauble, which looked like a crystal. The white kind that was almost see through. This one was about the size of his own fist.

  Palm flat on the arm rest, under that, the man blinked. Then the world did. Suddenly they hung in space, resting directly over the center of Noram.

  To show he was brave and unworried by the sudden appearance of a planet, Albert screamed. It was girlish and hopefully cute, because there was no way to take it back.

  “Gah! I was not expecting that! Still we’re here, so um, good job finding the Earth?” He was probably being rude, saying things that way. The other man just nodded.

  “We’re directly over Ross too. Ready? We need to find the Count. That will be harder. Can you connect with him, do you think?”

  Al nodded.

  “If he’s still alive. He was about to be trapped by flames, the last time we spoke. Or, well, he wasn’t actually speaking to me. Uh… Count Ross?” He had to check, but guessed it would be under Ross, instead of Count. Thankfully it was, since there were only about twenty Ross listings and a good fifty counts as he moved past.

  The older man that popped into being had the same voice as the last one he’d heard on such a thing. This time he was just a touch gruffer, while still being just as rough of voice.

  “What?”

  Albert was used to customers snapping at him, so did what he always did and tried not to get upset in return. That meant he sounded efficient, instead of like he wanted to hit someone over the words.

  “We’re over you right now, we need to be able to find you directly.” He sounded slightly brash, considering he wasn’t a count and the other man was.

  Still, there was no screaming at him about it, even if that made a certain dour kind of sense.

  “Can you make the ship glow at all? Something bright, so we…. You’re the blue light?”

  There was a glow of that color visible through the window, so he nodded.

  “That’s correct, Count Ross.”

  “Ah… Move about five miles to the south, by the line of fire. I’ll talk you in from there. We’re in the center of the triangle, at the moment.”

  That seemed to be an unfortunate place to be, considering it was made of fire on all three sides. After a few deft movements, they were plunging toward the ground, rapidly. It was frightening. Not because they might die, either. No, the danger was that another, an innocent person, might be hurt by their reckless actions.

  Left dead or possibly paralyzed for years. Except that the healing amulet would stop that second one from taking place. So only death was a real threat.

  As they settled in place, Dare waved at the wall on the left.

  “Get them in for us? I’ll make some chairs, then lift as soon as everyone gets on. After that I’ll settle on the other side, so they can keep going after the fire.” The man, younger than Albert was by at least some years, sounded very self-assured.

  Even if it was pretend, Albert tried to do that as well. Moving to the door that appeared and calling out as soon as it opened. It was a hole in the side of the vessel, instead of the more elegant and finished thing that he’d seen before. It was as if Dare Canton had used his mind to tear the side open, instead of simply making a portal. It was very different than the kind of thing that Albert was used to. Not that he’d traveled on jump ships a lot in his life. Really, this was the first time. All of his travel to other worlds had been done using the transport system. A thing that they’d want to use that day as well, as soon as possible.

  “This way! The party is on the other side of the line!” The men and women that ran into the craft were filthy with soot and sweat. They already seemed to be close to exhaustion. Like dancers that stayed too long without seeking their beds, hoping to find some meaning in life that wasn’t going to happen on the floor of a club. “Last one in has to help me figure out how to set the gear up!”

  That had to sound odd, but it made perfect sense to him. Everyone else came, so it was probably good enough.

  Chapter two

  The last man to make it inside actually stayed to do his duty, helping to get the magics set up, about five hundred feet from where flames burned and smoke bellowed up from the ground. The world around them was ash and black, being covered with burnt grass. It smelled of wood smoke. A thing that Albert hadn’t noticed in years. The black patches were still hot, and smoldered in places.

  Albert, not seeing a better place to be at the moment that would work at all, simply pried the top of the little stone box open, after setting it on the ground. They didn't have a table, after all.

  Looking up at the huge man who had stayed with him, a tired looking giant that loomed over the world, covered with as much smut and dirt as everyone else had been, he pointed at one of the tiles.

  “I think this is the food unit and this… Is a magical house. The big kind. Is there water around here, do you think?” He wasn’t being very formal, given anyone as large as the fellow next to him had to be a noble of some kind or at least a close side relation. He didn't look old though, being about thirty or so, at most. It was hard to tell, under the dirt.

  The giant stood up to his full height, looked toward where the others had gone, running off with their equipment and nodded.

  “That way, about two hundred feet. Should we move closer to it?” There was hesitation in what was being said, as if that might not be the best plan ever.

  Albert nearly snapped at the man that he didn't know. It wasn’t his job or anything and his training was in swee
ping, not setting up and running magical food units and restrooms for people fighting fires. Then, once he thought about it, he understood that no one probably had that job. Even the High Servants would be hard pressed to find an expert in all of those things.

  So instead of making an ass of himself, he smiled, going for grim in the look at the same time, knowing his slightly homely face would work for that

  “We’ll need water, if we can get it at all. That will make showering possible. Other washing as well. Is the fire likely to come back this way, do you think?”

  That got a very tiny nod from the man, his red and yellow clothing seeming impressive, under the grime that covered it in places. Even with the black streaks it was clear that the giant was dressed in magic. In Noram that indicated a lot. It meant that he was either very clever or had riches enough to dress himself as only the wealthiest could.

  Albert was in plain brown, but probably had the same make of magical amulet on. A thing that said nothing about him, since everyone on the Moon dressed that way. At least as far as the magic went. Most of them had better fashion sense or at least an appreciation for making a statement than he was showing that day.

  The thing there was that Albert couldn’t care about that at the moment. All he was really focusing on was a desire to go away from the fire and smoke. Except that, selfish and lazy or not, he was the one with the food and drink, as well as the good restrooms for the exhausted people to use. He also wasn’t the one standing in the flames, working a shovel as fast as his body allowed him, desperately trying not to die or let everyone else down.

  Whining about a bit of smoke seemed petty, compared to what everyone else there was undergoing. The least he could do was make sure they had the energy to keep going. Water, too. Clean drinking water was probably close to the most important thing he could arrange for.

  It got him to remember the woman that had come for him, when he was a child. A person who certainly didn’t have that kind of a duty at all. A noble woman, who could have sent a servant to see to him… Or done nothing at all, without anyone even noticing that it should have happened. Instead the lady had walked to his parents’ home with a healing amulet, claiming that Master Torrance Baker, the great wizard, had asked for him to be seen to. Personally.

  Within days of the magic being created in the first place.

  So Al, the little crippled boy with legs that couldn’t work anymore, was able to walk again. Because someone had taken it on themselves to see to him when they didn't have to at all.

  The giant looked at him, took a deep breath, then coughed. It was a deep and wracking thing that sounded like it hurt to do. Even if the man didn't so much as grimace about it.

  “As dark comes, the winds tend to head west. In the morning that will flip, part of the time. If we stay in the burnt zone, it will be fine. The smoke might be intense, but we won’t burn.”

  Albert had a shield on, which was filtering most of that kind of thing out for him. It would if the smoke got to be too irritating anyway. For the moment he was fine, so nodded and tried to act like he thought a High Servant would, being he was filling in for one of that sort.

  “If the people in need have to be in the smoke, then that’s where we need to set up. Let me pack this…” He only had to shut the lid, then started to walk quickly in the correct direction, the man with him following along, as if Albert had a real plan, other than to be near a source of water.

  They set up on the banks of the small stream. It was ruined looking, until it dipped toward the water itself. The trees that lined it were green and healthy and for some reason, most of them had resisted the wild fire well enough that they might survive.

  It was easier to put the food unit up and figure out how to use a second device, earth moving equipment, to fill the pearl colored thing. Albert didn’t set it for its largest size, given they only needed food for a few hundred people. At least in that area. He was used to moving dust around though, being from the Moon and filling hoppers was simply how things were done back home in Second City. Everything was made from dust and dirt there, with rock being used on occasion.

  The magical house was harder for him, since it wanted to be a home, and he needed it to be something different. A place that was more like a combination of bath house and barracks, so that people could sleep at need. It needed to be kept small though, given the space they had. Open inside, so that he could tell if anyone was sleeping when he decided to take it down. Otherwise that person might drop several levels to the ground, which would be a horrible way to wake up.

  That meant, after some trial and error, using more focus than he was comfortable with, Albert had a tidy looking two-story building with restrooms, showers and baths on the bottom, a hundred beds one level up and an outdoor eating area that was going to be less than fun if the smoke turned on them. It was right next to the working food unit, which he put into play almost immediately. People would need food. Not that he had anything except a table to put it on, not having been given any sort of magical plates or platters.

  The device was the simple sort, but not the old-style mass production ones. That meant he had a few hundred things that could be made, selectable from a list.

  He winced, looking at the huge man.

  “It looks like it’s going to be fruit, cheese, meat and bread for now. I can’t really cook and this mainly makes ingredients. I also don’t have any cups. I can set up a fountain for clean water though, that people can drink from. Let me get the transport system set up and I’ll call for some other things, if possible.” Looking around he realized that Dare Canton was still there, at his ship, several hundred feet away. It was tempting to wave him over, given that Albert was already feeling like a nap would be a good plan for the rest of the day.

  Even he wasn’t going to mention that to anyone there though. They’d been out fighting fires for over a day. Behind him there was a small town that had to be guarded, so no one was going to be sleeping any time soon, if they couldn’t get a handle on the flaming death that came for them all.

  “Right. I need…” He needed to keep making food, but also to get some other things going, as soon as possible. It was harder than it sounded like, being helpful like he was supposed to be.

  To that end he finished the bread he was getting the device to make, still wearing the earth moving magics on the back of his hands, the leather thongs chaffing a bit, since they rubbed, being designed for larger hands than his own, then jogged toward Canton. Waving, as if trying to get his attention. It had to look foolish, but he did it anyway, so the man wouldn’t get in his ship and fly away instantly.

  The man stood there, talking to his hand, which was shut off just as Al got to him. The larger fellow had wisely decided not to waste energy throwing himself through the world like a fool. Albert, out of breath from the minimal exertion, resisted the urge to bend over and gasp for a bit.

  Drugs and drink had kept him thin, but they’d done very little for his endurance, as it turned out.

  Standing upright to do that part, even if no one in the world would care how he looked at the moment.

  Gasping, he spoke to the man.

  “You mentioned a transport pod? I need… Supplies.” How he was supposed to get them, he didn't know. He tried to think about what was needed, and finally nodded as the other man reached into his right-hand side pocket.

  Dareg, looking down at him from a rather lofty height, nodded.

  “I have a couple of them on me. I’ll set the first one up and show you how to do it. What do you need?”

  He had a mental list, but needed a moment to get a little more air. He really needed to get into better shape if he were going to be running all over the place. Not that he’d do that. He would have used his shield to float over, except that in Noram you had to be a noble to have that kind of thing at all. Albert wasn’t one of those at all, so had hidden that he owned such a thing.

  “Plates, glasses, eating utensils. Some way to cook, not that I know how t
o do that sort of thing. Maybe a better food unit or two? Drugs, to keep people awake. I know I’m going to need some accella, soon. The people out here doing the real work will need it even worse. I have a supplier for that, but will need the pod up to have it brought in.”

  The big man nodded.

  “Over by the house and food unit then? You can move this if you have to. I generally don’t let people know that, since I don’t want everyone stealing them to have their own private transport unit at home. Just touch the wall and focus on it being off. Same as you would with the house or food unit.” He shrugged, his face seeming charming when Albert looked over at him, since they were already walking back to the emergency camp that had been set up. The bigger man didn’t seem prone to staying still, most of the time.

  Then Dare tilted his head to the left.

  “We… Can you call the magic shop in Harmony? I don’t know if they can manage a delivery at this time of day. It’s early there, still. Plus, they don’t do that kind of thing, as a rule. Special privileges for us, if they’re willing at all. I’ll do the pod up. You can watch me do it while you talk, right?”

  That sounded like a thing that wasn’t going to work very well, even if it was an emergency. Albert didn’t talk about it, hesitating for a bit, then pulling his handheld. Talking to new people wasn’t really his strong suit in life. Still, he was managing so far for the day, with only a bit of stammering and feeling awkward as a reward for his idiotic attempts at being useful.

  The magic shop was hard to find, being listed as Magic Shop, Harmony. Instead of the other way around. Still he had the listing selected and highlighted in blue before Dare started muttering about what he was doing, in the background. A thing that Albert, apparently, was going to need to know how to do.

  “The mental commands for set up aren’t hard. Just imagine the name you want it to have, after bringing up the start menu. Just think about what you want and touch the wall. Then use the pink star. Touch it and think.” He was in front of the red box, doing that, his pale fingers reaching down to tap the pink five-sided star that showed up there.