Empire of Dust

by Jacey Bedford

  “Any idea what it’s about?”

  “No. Maybe he wants to thank everyone for their hard work so far.”

  “Hmph. Is that likely?”

  Cara paused, briefly, to relay the message. When she turned back to the notice board, Gen was already out of sight.

  Damn, I hope she knows what she’s doing.

  • • •

  Cara pushed her way into the meeting hall, between settlers. Some said hello and nodded politely, others backed away once they realized what she was as if she had psi-tech cooties. Wenna, Ben, Serafin, and Suzi had arrived early. Cara tucked herself behind Ben into the only clear space in the room, returning his smile briefly. The pariah effect was a positive advantage in this heat.

  Serafin compressed his lips together as if to keep from smiling. *I’m tempted to start a conga line through the crowd to see how many join in and how many run away. Who’s with me? I bet we could clear the room in a minute and a half, tops.*

  Ben’s eyes crinkled in a half-smile.

  *Me. I’m in.* Yan Gwenn made his way through the crowd to join them. Much as they had done for Cara, the settlers parted to let him through. He gave a shuffle in a one-two-three-step! A rhythm that no one outside their tight conversation would have recognized, but Suzi gave a soft snort and put her hand over her mouth to turn the noise into a cough.

  *Sorry.* She took a deep breath and bumped a gentle fist into Yan’s arm as he reached the group.

  *What did I miss?* Marta asked as she slid into the lineup.

  *Tell you later,* Cara said.

  *Anna?* Ben asked.

  *On her way,* Marta said. *She’s been working with Saedi Sugrue to talk one of the settler paramedics through an appendix surgery in the Rollins Settlement. Routine stuff.*

  *I thought they had a qualified clinician at Rollins,* Ben said.

  *They do. She’s the one with appendicitis. Don’t worry, the paramedic seems to be handling it just fine.*

  Victor Lorient stood on the platform with his back to a semicircle of chairs that usually held his immediate Council. Today only Rena and Jack Mario were present. They sat, impassive, while Lorient delivered his set speech to encourage the last batch of settlers on their difficult journey. This lot were going the whole way by wagon, traveling north.

  The psi-techs stood at the back of the room, biding their time, listening. Pep talks like this had been a regular occurrence as each group of settlers set off from Landing and passed through Timbertown to join the mass of colonists rippling outward from the center to make new lives for themselves.

  Cara watched Lorient and examined the way he impressed himself on the crowd. Yes, he was fully in character as the charismatic orator.

  The crowd yelled and stomped.

  “We love you, Director,” a woman shouted from the front row and the cry was met with a round of enthusiastic applause.

  When he was dealing with the psi-techs, he was a different man. If only they could get through to him on some kind of human level. Pie in the sky. He didn’t even think of them as human. His fear of psi-techs was so deeply ingrained that it would take more than their remaining time on this planet to make him see things differently.

  Victor’s voice was firm and strong. He was in full flow now.

  “You will, no doubt, encounter many hardships along your way, but through it all you must hold firm to our ultimate goal, a free natural society without the abominations created by man. Go with good grace, brothers and sisters.”

  *Hypocrite! His settlers are willing for us to give their tight-arsed society a kick-start. The man makes me sssick.* Marta Mansoro’s mental tone was so bitter she even managed to place a mental sibilance on the final ess.

  Cara had heard Lorient’s standard speech before, but the ripple of agreement that ran through the audience at the line about “abominations” always chilled her.

  *I’m not saying it’s right . . . * Anna Govan arrived and slipped in between Ben and Cara. *But you can see why he does it. These poor people are going into the unknown without the benefit of the industry and technology they’ve grown up relying on. They’ve had to learn how to harness horses and milk cows by hand. They’ll be breaking new ground with plowshares and spades, and when the supply of tools finally runs out, they’ll have to make their own. They’re going to be using manual skills our ancestors discarded centuries ago. If they cling to the security they’re leaving behind, they’ll crack at the first disaster. Better to remember technology as evil and deviant rather than life-giving and labor-saving.*

  *As long as he doesn’t overdo it,* Ben said. *There’s still a lot of work to do, and until we leave, we need their cooperation, not their animosity.*

  The settlers began to filter out, heading toward their wagons and their new lives. Lorient waited on the podium for the section heads to make their way to the front of the hall.

  • • •

  *I wonder why he called us in today? I have three harvest gangs working.* Suzi Ruka was impatient. *I’d rather not spend time listening to this Eco-maniac.*

  Victor Lorient waited until the last of the settlers had filed out and then addressed himself to the assembled section heads. “Come forward, please. I called you here today to discuss infringements of our charter.” Victor delivered the words like stones dropping into a deep well.

  Cara caught a sudden wave of emotion from him. High anticipation. Excitement. Self-righteousness. She tried to home in on it, but it dissipated, leaving barely an echo. Damn, if only Ronan were here. His Empathy was stronger than hers. She picked up a faint impression of numbers. Random numbers. Weird. She stood behind the others and concentrated on Lorient. He’d definitely changed from the man who’d emerged from cryo pale and shaking. She’d barely seen him for the last couple of months, but it seemed that as his empire had grown, his ego had expanded to go with it. All of a sudden he had no restraints. He was the highest law in the land, and his followers had given him executive authority. Where some men—Jack, for instance—would have treated that as a duty of care, it seemed that Lorient had treated it as a mandate to rule. What did he think he was creating here?

  *Watch out,* she said to Ben.

  He kept them standing at the foot of the podium, enjoying the superiority of height.

  “One of our major concerns, when we contracted for the inclusion of your psi-tech support teams, was the interaction of your personnel and ours. Because of that, we laid down very clearly that there should be no social fraternization between psi-tech and settler. This rule has been broken.”

  Cara began to go cold. How could he know about Gen and Max? No. Keep calm. He couldn’t know. This must be something altogether different. She kept her face straight and concentrated on breathing evenly. Lorient looked as though he was in a mood to show them that he didn’t take this thing lightly.

  “A mating. A copulation.” He almost chewed the last word. “The woman in question, Mariel Fenec, is ours. She has been dealt with.”

  Cara was so relieved that Gen’s dalliance hadn’t been discovered that it took her brain a few seconds to catch up with Lorient’s “dealt with.” And then she began to get cold shivers.

  Lorient continued. “The young man, Erich Coburg, falls within your jurisdiction and I would remind you that, to discourage this kind of behavior, he must be dealt with severely. Very severely.” He paused for dramatic effect and then delivered his punchline using each word as a hammer blow. “I demand that you charge him with statutory rape and take the appropriate action.”

  Cara went cold all over. Coburg, one of Lee Gardham’s junior exobiologists, was definitely in breach of contract, but that wasn’t a criminal offense. Lorient was really going over the top.

  “Wasn’t the Fenec woman a willing partner?” Ben asked.

  “Willing or not, intercourse was illegal.” Lorient’s eyebrows were drawn together across his forehead, his expression thunderous.

  “The penalty for rape is too high a price to pay for a technical offe
nse,” Anna said. “I’m not prepared to carry out a chemical castration here on Olyanda, and neither will any of my staff.”

  “Director Lorient.” Ben barely kept the anger out of his voice and Cara could sense his pent-up urge to act instead of debate. “We’ll discipline Coburg appropriately, but it won’t include anything permanent.”

  *God, these people are primitive.* Marta was not impressed. *What have they done to the woman? And what might they have done to Coburg if it was the other way round, one of our women and one of their men?*

  *Cut off his tackle with a rusty razor, I expect.* Serafin’s coarseness was probably a cover for his emotion. *Well, something like this had to come sooner or later, human nature being what it is.*

  “Where’s Coburg?” Ben asked.

  Now that she knew to seek him out, Cara had forged a link to him already. She thought that he was nearby, but he was weak and confused, either drugged or injured. She hoped that, wherever he was, he was still in one piece and not suffering the fate that Serafin had suggested.

  “We have him,” Lorient said and nodded to two thuggish-looking men who’d been lounging near the door trying to look inconspicuous. “Tell them to bring Coburg in.”

  *The emperor’s palace guards,* she said to Ben. *Already.*

  The door opened and two more tall Ecolibrians supported a young man whose face, between the bruises, was deathly pale. They let him slump to the floor at the foot of the podium. Cara’s stomach churned. What a bloody mess; no wonder she hadn’t been able to get any sense out of him. She felt the reaction of mixed horror, sickness, and anger from all the psi-techs.

  Anna stepped forward from behind the others. One of Lorient’s heavies moved to grab her. Ben turned, but Marta was closer. She threw a punch straight from the shoulder with a gloved right. The heavy dropped like a stone. Marta shook her fingers. The glove probably saved her from breaking her hand.

  Another heavy started to react, but Ben held up his hand and took his attention, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

  The man on the floor groaned, rolled to his knees, thought better of it, and then slumped again.

  “Take your buddy to a first aider,” Ben said to the second thug. “Man’s got a glass jaw. He’s in the wrong job.”

  Anna reached Coburg in four strides and dropped to her knees beside him. Cara saw the two heavies who’d brought him in begin to move forward. In the same instant she was aware of Ben gathering himself to intercept them. His emotions were on the surface, barely in check. It was a moment of infinite possibilities for further violence, but Lorient signaled his men to stand down and for someone to get the fallen thug out of the room.

  Ben held himself steady, not making the first move.

  Anna turned on Lorient sharply. “We should be looking at assault charges. You’ve half-killed him.”

  “He needs a prison cell.” Lorient’s face was stony, but, again, Cara sensed an unexpected flash of high emotion.

  Ben stood protectively above Anna. “You had no right to do this.”

  Coburg’s cuts and abrasions were recent enough to have opened up again, and there was blood on the floor.

  “I’ve done what I saw fit, Benjamin. That’s my job. Keeping your people under control is your job.” His pointing finger took in Coburg and swung toward Marta. “If you don’t do your job, I’ll have to do it for you. You can have Coburg back. Make an example of him, or I will. Get him out of here before I change my mind.”

  “The charter is very clear about where your jurisdiction begins and ends.” Ben’s voice was hard.

  “We’re a long way from where that charter was written. There are a lot more of us than there are of you. Don’t talk about legalities.” Lorient dropped his voice to a low growl. “We’ll be drawing up a new set of laws. New laws for a new world. My people are working on it now.”

  Behind Lorient on the platform, Cara saw Jack Mario lean forward as if to speak, but Rena put out her hand to restrain him. The heavies, Lorient’s psi-tech-hating fundamentalists, no doubt, were a very solid presence. They wouldn’t be much of a match for the psi-techs if it came to a skirmish, but this wasn’t the time.

  “Director Lorient,” Ben said. “Have a care when drafting your new laws.”

  *If he wantsss a war, he can have one.* Marta Mansoro’s telepathic voice hissed with anger. *He can fucking have one! We may only be three hundred strong, but he’s never seen what we can really do. Just letting the engineersss loose would ssscare him ssshitlesss.*

  *Calm down,* Ben said. *That’s exactly what he’s frightened of. We need to buy time. Get a medical transport and a security team here fast. Let’s get Coburg to the med-center before Lorient changes his mind and we have a brawl on our hands.*

  *They’re on their way,* Cara chipped in.

  *I’ll stay until they get here,* Anna said. *And I’ll make sure this bastard doesn’t do any more damage.*

  *We’ll all stay,* Ben said.

  Lorient came to the edge of the podium so that he towered over Ben. “I know you’re all talking about me. Think-talking. Conspiring. Don’t imagine that you can put one over on me, Benjamin. We have our own ways of doing things now.”

  He marched out, leaving his heavies not knowing whether to stay or follow. Rena rushed after Lorient, but Jack Mario was a little slower. He dismissed the heavies and looked across at the psi-techs. His eyes held an apology, but he said nothing.

  Cara saw Ben incline his head very slightly to acknowledge Jack.

  She wondered what the definition of certifiable insanity was. Though, if they put Lorient in a straitjacket, the fundies would start a war.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  RIOT

  Back in Mapping, Wenna met them with a worried frown. “Sorry about Coburg, Boss. More trouble, I’m afraid. Cas has lost touch with Lee Gardham’s party.”

  “When? Where?”

  “Over the mountains. The last report she had was that they were on their way home, then nothing.”

  “Can you raise Gen?” Ben asked Cara.

  She retreated into that peculiar stillness that Ben had come to recognize as a momentary absence from her own body as her mind ranged outward. After a few moments her eyes focused on his. She squeezed her lips together and shook her head.

  His stomach churned. “Lee?”

  She shook her head. “Lee’s only a weak Psi-3, but I’ve never had any trouble contacting her before, whatever the distance. Now . . . it’s as if she doesn’t exist. Sorry.”

  “Dead?”

  The thought filled Ben with dread. He’d lost too many on Hera-3. He’d promised himself no more.

  “Or deeply unconscious.”

  He swallowed rising bile and took a deep breath. “Get two Finders into the area. Divert Bronsen from the survey on Sector 41.”

  “I’ll get Sami Isaksten airborne. I know she’s on a rest day, but—”

  He rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “Yes, Sami, she’s damn good. Make sure they’ve both got full backup.”

  He desperately wanted to storm out and take a long walk to clear his head, but he didn’t have that luxury. “Wenna, get four of your best survey crews flying a search grid. Send Ronan with a first-response team out in the medevac flitter. Have him establish a base near the search area. I have to deal with Coburg.”

  And just how was he going to deal with Erich Coburg? At best, the kid was an idiot; at worst, a starry-eyed romantic. Ack, that still made him an idiot.

  • • •

  Leaving Cara to coordinate the search teams, Ben checked Coburg’s records. He was a Psi-4 exozoologist with only a passive rating in telepathy. He was straight out of University with one six-month field placement on Toronto, the planet, not the city. He had good references and Lee Gardham had teamed him with a more experienced man and had been monitoring his progress. It was all down in his file. No cause for concern.

  Ben walked over to the med-center, deep in thought.

  “How’s
the patient?” He found Anna Govan in her office.

  “Feeling very sorry for himself, but he’ll live. He’s got a broken nose and lost an eye. I can fit him with a temporary ocular implant, but not until the bruising has settled. The nose is going to take a couple of surgical sessions, too. Otherwise a couple of cracked ribs and the kind of bone damage to his right hand to show he landed a couple of good punches before they took him down.”

  “I’m going to get Gupta to assign someone round the clock to keep an eye on him. There’s no sense taking chances.”

  “If you think it’s necessary.”

  “I do. Is Coburg conscious? Can I see him?”

  “He’s had a mild sedative. Don’t be surprised if he falls asleep on you. Room Eight. Don’t be too hard on him. He knows he’s messed up bigtime.”

  “Kid gloves, I promise.”

  If Ben had been going to tear him off a strip, he’d have changed his mind the instant he saw Coburg lying semi-reclined, the visible portion of his face pale between the bruising. His left eye was covered with a dressing and his right was barely visible behind the swelling.

  Ben moved into his field of vision, and the young man tried to struggle into a sitting position.

  “Sorry, son, I didn’t mean to startle you. I guess I should have whistled first. How are you feeling?”

  “Fine, sir.”

  “No, you’re not. You feel like shit, but you’re in good hands, and you will be fine, given time.”

  “Yes, sir.” It came out slightly slurred.

  “So I need your side of this story.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I let you down.”

  “You let yourself down.”

  “I didn’t mean to, but . . . you know how it is, sir. You’re from Chenon, too, aren’t you?”

  Ben nodded, realized Coburg couldn’t see him and said, “I am.”

  “I grew up in Lomax County. My dad used to talk about you. Said if one farm kid could make it through psi-tech training, then so could another.”

  Lomax County was barely fifty klicks from the Benjamin farm. It wasn’t an area teeming with sophisticated social circles. Ben remembered how naive he’d been when he’d hung up his mud boots and joined the Monitors.