Duty

by P. S. Power

  He was just making small talk, since it was kind of interesting. They’d found the handheld of one of that sort in the club. Albert hadn’t thought anything particular of it, but most people didn’t just toss that kind of thing down, if they could help it. The magics were hard to replace, even if they were free. You had to recall all of the data you had on it and would lose all your pictures and recordings with the device.

  It was interesting to the point of being humorous, but no one else seemed ready to forgive the woman for speaking out of turn. At least he figured that was the issue, at first. Until the mean woman spoke again, her voice snooty.

  “High Servants? Good riddance, if you ask me. They should be disbanded, for being useless.”

  There were a few forced chuckles then and a calling out of no doubt from the decorated man. The new one.

  Jeffery just shrugged.

  “That’s different. That they’re going missing. Some kind of killer, do you think?”

  Albert shook his head.

  “I have no clue. Just that one point of information, which could be wrong, I suppose. Still, I’m off to beg and humble myself. It will be fun and interesting, I don’t doubt.” It really didn’t sound that thrilling, but as he walked toward the transport hub, one of the people there seemed to understand what it was.

  The interesting one, who hard to identify by gender or not, was polite. Clearly smart, too. He could tell that by the way they kept agreeing with his plans.

  “You’re linked to the private transportation network? That’s rare. I heard that there were only a about a hundred of these in existence. Why do you have one?” It was just a question, but the other people there all acted as if it might mean something.

  Jeffery simply blinked, then turned to stare at the magical creation.

  “Is that what that thing is? I’ve been meaning to ask, but it was pretty enough that I figured it might be a decoration or sculpture. Maybe a fancy wardrobe you wanted to show off? For storage? Transport pod though… In our quarters? We must be moving up in the world!” There was a happy lilt to the man’s voice, though everyone else had gone quiet, for some reason.

  Probably due to the fact that he’d been insulted and now it seemed like he might have some kind of pull or connections. It wasn’t really like that, of course. Which was a thing he didn't point out or mention. After all, even if he knew what he looked like and it wasn’t top end or anything like that, maybe even below average, that didn't mean he wanted to be rejected out of hand over it.

  On the good side, that rejection meant he wasn’t going to be stuck with the rude woman all night. Not that he would have been anyway. So, ignoring the polite question from the nice, rather androgynous individual, Albert got in the box, selected the Noram Space Port from the menu along the back wall, which was printed in rather lovely gold script, the letters about two inches high as they scrolled down into place, he tapped the correct place name and left. Running from the conversation so nicely that he doubted anyone understood that was his real plan at all.

  It meant getting to the space port in the middle of the night, with nothing to do except wander around as if he were lost. That or a tourist who enjoyed exercise. It was about an hour later that he was called too, which surprised him, a good bit.

  He was still toward the front, where there was an array of focus stone buildings, with almost no one being out and about in the chilly morning. At least he presumed that to be the case, given the time of year. He was fine, having his shield on. The thing was designed to keep you both warm and cool in the void of space. A bit of weather on Earth wasn’t really going to throw it off its game.

  The voice that addressed him was female and oddly familiar sounding.

  “Albert? Is that you? Come closer. Closer to the box, mwa-ha-ha.” She managed to make the words sound cute, as if she were being playful, instead of luring him to his doom. He’d seen plays, movies and even read enough tales as a child to get what she was going for, if not to understand it as a direct quote from anything.

  One of the great things about living around Austrans was just how much entertainment they produced. It was mainly about distracting them from the truth of their existence, which was that they were as meaningless and useless as anyone else, but it kind of worked, if you watched enough of it.

  Moving to the blue box, as requested, he noticed that a woman was on the screen, looking out at him. It was kind of like a giant handheld, so he was familiar enough with the idea.

  “Comp?” He realized, almost instantly, that it wouldn’t be her, so corrected himself. Comp looked the same, but was a computer. This person was, clearly, some kind of food unit. Like the kind that Queen Tiera made, only with a better interface. There was a sign on her side that said trash here, and sigils that indicated input was possible. Controls, more or less. Not that they’d be needed, if the thing had a high-level intelligence inside of it, like it seemed.

  “Or… Tam-Unit?” He winced, waiting to be wrong, totally.

  The face on the screen smiled at him, on the second name.

  “That’s not a bad guess, given that we’ve only met with my mobile body, so far. It’s me, Tam-Unit. I work here. At all the ports, really. I’m even on the Moon and Mars, with a few of me being out with the fleet, which I take to mean I’m moving up in the world. That sounds right, doesn’t it?” She giggled a bit, seeming happy. Her top, what was visible in the picture, was black that day.

  In all she looked good, he had to admit.

  “I’d have to say that as well. What do you do here, if it’s all right to ask? Um… Waste management?” He pointed to the side of the device. Making small talk with her, since she was a polite and gentle person, compared to some.

  “I do at that. I also provide food, drink and certain small amounts of materials. I can make up to one outfit per person, for instance. Basically, what you have on at the moment. Toothbrushes, soap and tooth paste, birth control if you need it? A lot more than that, but the point is that I won’t produce so much that it destabilized the economy, while still making sure that anyone that needs help can have enough to get by. It’s a bit tight, but that’s pretty much what we have to do, or people will start to get lazy.”

  He nodded at her then, understanding big parts of what she was saying. It was a vast subject, of course.

  “Like on the Moon? People work, but most of them don’t get to do anything important and after a while the temptation to let magic do everything for them kind of takes over. I know that… well, I’m not immune to that kind of thing, you know? I spend most of my time drunk, so I won’t have to realize just how much I want to die. Which is mainly about not having a real purpose. It’s weak, doing that, getting myself killed, so I’ve kind of been trying to arrange for it to happen by accident.”

  It was a lot to dump on a food unit. Though she seemed to be more than that, being able to make real items of other sorts as well. Out of trash, if he’d gotten the right idea. Really, he didn’t know if she had the range to even notice what he’d just said. She seemed like a person though, so he didn’t want to underestimate her.

  There was a sigh then and a head nod.

  “You aren’t the only one to feel that way. It’s a problem that a lot of highly intelligent people have to deal with. Worse, it isn’t actually depression, which the healing amulet would fix in a few moments. It’s not a mental disorder at all. It’s simply that under the right conditions clever people can understand the ultimate futility of existence. The only fix for it, long term, is in doing useful things. Great things, that make the lives of others better.”

  He laughed a bit, since he’d already worked that much out, if not that it was a thing other people had to deal with as well.

  “Easier said than done. Plus, I don’t know that I’m particularly intelligent, really. Still, I have a project for the day. Maybe longer?” He covered the plan to test a system that would allow people to have handhelds, even if the things were too expensive.

  Interest
ingly, the blue box had ideas about the topic.

  “You need to get some out for public use. A device like me could do it. Make them green or yellow though, so people won’t try to use me to get in touch with their mother-in-law. Then you can have them put on city streets, so that anyone can use them. Dareg has a plan for something like that, only he never made them. If you did that, then almost everyone would be able to use the Terry system to contact others. Not easily all the time, but it would help. Some people at least.”

  She looked away from him, almost shyly. Then she hunched down a bit.

  “That’s not a good idea, is it?”

  He blinked then shook his head.

  “It’s freaking brilliant, actually. I just don’t know how to get that kind of thing underway. Do I just put an order in with Dare for that, do you think? Or… you two are friends, right?”

  The box, or at least the pretty face on it, nodded.

  “Dating. Karina and I are too, before you ask. Sara as well. I get your meaning though, you want me to ask Dare to make those? Where should we bring them out first, if he’ll do it, I mean? I can probably get him to help, if we have a real plan. Maybe even without one, since he likes to keep busy. I still have to ask, of course.”

  That only made sense.

  “How about Printer, Warden and Canton? Those are important places, and if it’s a free service, no one should object, I don’t think. Well, other than nobles. They might have a problem with that kind of thing. Hopefully not. It’s why I’m here, waiting to see Sam Builder. It’s still night out, so…”

  Not even he was stupid enough to think that such a great personage would see him at all, much less that time of day. Even later, he was likely to be sent away. Tamu was helpful then, since her face lit up.

  “He goes for a walk almost every morning, at about ten. After breakfast. You can ambush him then, I bet. That’s in five hours, so you have a bit of time. I can work on Dareg and see if he likes the idea? In the meantime… There’s a bit of trash, over on the far side of the port. Near the Space Fleet ship that came in earlier? Orange five. If you pick that up you could put things inside of me… just as an idea of what might be fun.”

  He chuckled and didn't mention that if he did that it would have been the first time he’d put anything inside of a woman in over a year. A lot of that was his own choosing. The whore houses were free on the Moon, after all. There wasn’t even a huge social stigma about using them. He’d just been too busy trying to find a way to die that would both work and not seem too obvious. It had distracted him. The constant drunkenness had as well, for a nice long time.

  “All right then. I’m hyped up on accella anyway, so I might as well do something with all this energy. Given the other option that comes to mind right now is dancing, I suppose I could try that whole being useful thing. Just for a bit. Work tends to get pretty boring, you know?”

  The work was also dirty, but he had the whole area around the Space Fleet vessel tidy enough by the time Tamu waved to him, as he packed the side of one of her many blue boxes with glass and paper.

  “Sam is just about to head out for the day. Dareg… is already starting the work on the new public communications system. An organic build, so it will take about a month for it to be ready, but he’ll have enough for ten cities, the size of Canton. Really, he’ll have more than that, since his plan is to have one for every street corner. One every five or so of those will work as well, I think. People will travel a little for a useful service. Anyway, hurry, since you need to get across the way here. Sam is the tall blond fellow who will be dressed in brown, like you are.”

  He looked down, his clothing a bit smudged from trash in places. To that end he cycled his clothing, doing it as he moved behind a low focus stone building, hoping no one could see him. It worked to get him new, clean clothing, but left him naked to the world for a few seconds. If anyone saw him, there was no screaming about it, which was a good thing.

  Almost as if he’d planned it, a nicely tall, clearly noble man walked from the front of the nice palace on the far side of the port, heading off at a nice pace, walking toward the front of the facilities there, around the outside ring. Now that it was daylight, Albert could see that there was a ring of water floating in the air there, instead of just a band of gently glowing light.

  Unfortunately, there was no time to investigate it. Not that he hadn’t seen it before. He was from the Capital, after all. They had a floating river that ran around the fortified wall of the place, off in the distance, as well. There was even a real river on the far side, that didn’t require magic to function at all.

  Instead of calling out, Albert simply moved in next to the marching Ancient and nodded when the other man looked at him. Smiling.

  “Good morning!”

  “Morning! Finally. I was out here all night. Most of it. Picking up trash for Tamu? She got Dare Canton to agree to make a public communications system for different cities. We already have handhelds coming, from Terry Baker. The idea is to rent them cheap. In some places the price will be in labor, hides, a few coins. That kind of thing.” He was being blunt and talking fast, the other man letting him do it, simply looking at him. Not like he was insane, either. For some reason.

  When he spoke, the Ancient seemed bemused, more than anything else.

  “That’s not bad. What’s the plan for the new magic? The part Dare is doing?’

  Albert nearly shrugged, then realized that he hadn’t bowed to the other fellow at all. The Ancient of Noram in his own land. That he wasn’t being yelled at was pretty special considering that. Of course, the other man had asked for it, not stopping in his walking at all. You couldn’t bow and move at the same time well, so it wasn’t Albert’s fault.

  “Outdoor units, a bit like Tamu here. Different colors and the configuration might be different than that. Anyway, since I’m not very good with people, forgetting to bow and stammering most of the time like I do, Terry figured that I might ask you to help introduce the idea to the Counts and Countesses that we’ll want for the initial program? We were thinking of trying it in Ward, Printer and Cannor first, with the new communications devices in their capitals, for regular people to use.”

  He held his breath then, and got to answer a lot of questions as they moved around the entire ring, at a nice pace. The place was big enough that he was feeling the exertion as they came around the other side. The tall blond man, who really was dressed a lot like he was, smiled at his front door.

  “Tentatively… I’m in then. How do you make any profit off of this, personally? You didn’t mention that part. Are you planning to be one of the paid employees? Or to take a tax on the whole thing? That could be fair.” The fellow honestly seemed to mean it. As if that would be why he was doing it in the first place.

  “Oh, no. Why would I make anything from this? Other people are going to be doing most of the work. Besides, I live on the Moon. I don’t need gold or silver, unless I want some decorations for my walls. I just heard there was a need and that this project might help some people. I… was asked to get some funds to specific people, without being too obvious about it. I don’t know how much I can say. It’s not really a secret, but…” Albert took a breath and figured that he’d ruined the whole thing.

  Sam, the Ancient of an entire land, simply rolled his eyes.

  “Let’s see… You’re from the Moon, and asked to do something here in Noram, so… I’m guessing Trice set you to the task? She didn’t use an actual spy, or you wouldn’t have mentioned that it might be a secret, being that you’d already know that it was so… You’re… Albert Benoist?”

  They stopped walking then, and Al bowed, going low.

  “That’s incredible. You’re right. I… magic? Mind reading?”

  The other man tilted his head from side to side, making it seem playful, instead of scary.

  “A tiny bit. Most of it was simply putting together things from what I’ve been hearing. Do you know what’s at the heart of this?”<
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  He really didn’t, but after a moment, he shook his head, as the man beckoned him to follow along with him, moving toward the incredible palace that was just behind them. It was white and gold, reminding him a bit of the box that was in his front room, now. Clearly, it was a magical dwelling, so could be made to look like anything. Not all of the buildings at the port were like that, he didn’t think. In fact, most of them weren’t.

  “Honestly, I don’t know exactly. Trice, the woman from the magic shop, woke me up this morning and asked me to get some coin to a family in Printer. Um, their son is doing secret work for Alice Orange, of Space Fleet, and even though he sends his pay home, it isn’t enough, so the idea is to help them save their home. I guess they’re past due on taxes? The Tolland family. The rest of this was just an idea that we had to hide where the coin is coming from and going to. So far people seem to think it’s all right. A lot of work for some. Terry and Dare, mainly. I have no clue how to get that done. She suggested asking Tor for the coin, but… The last time we met was kind of awkward.”

  They heading inside the place which was impressive enough that Albert had to turn his mind away from the grand structure and remember that he was a jaded man of Second City. Not every place there was a wonder of magic and art, but there was enough of that he didn't have to let his mouth hang open on seeing what the man with him had that way.

  Still, the stone work seemed impressive, even if it was just that. A seeming.

  The Ancient waved him to a side room then, one with many chairs and comfortable looking places to sit. He picked a nice-looking chair that was well appointed with brown cushions. That would let him blend in, he had to figure. Camouflage, after a fashion.

  When he spoke, the words were calm and polite.

  “That’s part of why this will work. That you’re going so incredibly large with the idea. A hundred people or more have been trying to do something like this for nearly ten years. The problem has been that no one just went around and wagged a finger in the right faces at the same time. I mean, enlisting Ancients in this is brilliant on your part, Mr. Benoist. We don’t lead, but are listened to. On occasion, anyway. Plus, your plans here won’t really cost anyone anything, if they’re clever about it. They can’t even blame you for taking too much for yourself, so that works… Now, the first thing we need to do is… Call Richard. He should be awake for the day and available. If he isn’t in a meeting. Let’s see?”