by P. S. Power
From there he moved back toward his new home, when a craft broke out of orbit and came for him. It was kind of obvious that the thing was magical in nature. It glowed, for instance, to get his attention. It was tan, which probably meant that Sara Debri was on board. That made sense, given that she ran the Martian Circle, as their Ancient. Planets were big though, so it shouldn’t really be that large of a problem for him to be there. Karina might have an issue that way however, not wanting to be around a murderer.
If that was the case, then he’d leave, of course. It would be hard, but not impossible for him to find someplace new. If nothing else, he could live on one of the ships now. Even if he had to trade them out every ten to twenty years, it was within what he could do, now.
The craft wasn’t that large, and even though he tried to ignore it, the thing followed him inside the hangar when he went. There was plenty of room, after all, and the place automatically sent out an airlock for whoever was on the ship. Dare watched as they hooked up the red tunnel that would let them get into his city.
He still got there first, since he was more familiar with where things were there, and simply moved faster than most did. That meant he was standing in the hallway outside of the tan craft, when the people from inside came for him. Though, he understood, they might have simply come to the city. It wasn’t a bad place after all.
Sara Debri was there, looking tan and blonde like always. One of the Samantha’s looked a lot like her, he realized, though the real person had longer hair. Karina seemed concerned when she looked at him, but moved to him directly and hugged him tightly, instead of pointing and ordering him off her planet. Which would be fair enough, he supposed.
With an act of will, he slowed his actions, trying to match the ladies that had come. Samantha could do that as well, since she’d been designed to work with regular people, and act at hyper speed for him as well.
“Dareg! No one knew where you’d gotten off too. Tor is beside himself… I think he didn’t realize that you’d still be in a combat rage when he contacted you like that. It was clear to everyone else. The ones from Noram, anyway. The Austrans are having trouble with the idea that the results of pushing a person into a homicidal rage isn’t a punishable crime in most places, but I think they’re afraid to make too big of a deal out of things. Are you…” She stopped and then looked at the women behind him.
They were all smiling, which was very identical seeming to him, but might pass as being different people to anyone else. One had dark black hair, and was wearing brown workman’s clothing. The last one was in a gold colored outfit that was like a robe, and shimmered a bit under the bright overhead light, that matched the midday sun on Earth.
“I didn’t know that anyone else was here yet? Are your friends from Austra?” Karina looked at the one in gold, who had brilliant blue hair. Also a tattoo around her eye, which did kind of make her seem like that might be the case, now that he thought about it.
Smiling he bowed toward the Ancient of Mars, going low, which the others did as well, taking his lead. Sara did it back as well, nearly matching him. It was a subtle difference, but she was an Ancient, so that made some sense to him. Really, it was her saying that she was uncertain about what his actual place in the world was there.
“These are Samantha. Who is actually from here. Mars? She’s… A magical person. My daughter. They all have one mind, like a Tam-Unit? There are a few hundred of them here, working. They’re also our army. Um, if one of you ladies would demonstrate?” He didn’t point or explain the idea, but the one with black hair moved back rapidly, and changed, becoming a black armored form. She didn’t have a weapon on her, since he hadn’t reworked anything for them to use yet, so she took a fighting stance, which looked both adorable and deadly in the shining black armor that reminded him of a beetle’s shell.
Sara attacked, moving quickly enough to be impressive, but was also unarmed. That meant the one Samantha and the Ancient of the Martian Circle kept going for a long while, striking, grappling and not giving up, until the blonde woman, bleeding in a few places, laughed and hopped back. As soon as she did that, the armored form stopped instantly, and bowed.
“She isn’t hurt at all. Even without the armor she wouldn’t be. She’s basically made of the same shield material that a ship is. Well…” He turned to look at the armored form, who changed back into herself, complete with the same black hair again. “How do you feel?”
That Girl-Sam winked at him, being charming like they all were.
“Not too bad. I didn’t feel any of that. I also don’t get tired, or injured. We should go and get everyone something to eat? A place to clean up, as well? We can have a healing amulet run over, from the magic shop?” Her voice was chipper, but sounded real. Like she was just a woman that happened to work there. A really tough one that could battle full out with super-humans and not even need to take a nap after.
Dareg couldn’t tell what the others thought of that idea, but they allowed themselves to be taken into the city, led by him and his new friends. The one big problem with Samantha, all of them as far as Dare could tell, was that for some reason she’d come out very chatty. A constant stream of information came out of her, directed at the new, and no doubt far more interesting, arrivals.
“We have five working restaurants here, that are fully staffed. The magic shop and two new theaters. One for live performances and another that can play pretty much anything that would be on the handheld network. We also have two large swimming areas, and are planning a forest dome. At least we can do that if we’re allowed? No one told us we couldn’t, but there’s an Ancient for this planet, and we haven’t gotten any direct information from her yet.”
Dareg nodded. He hadn’t exactly been that helpful as far as things like that go. So he waved at Karina.
“Princess Karina Cordes of Noram, on Earth. Also the Ancient of Mars. My former fiancé.” The last bit left him feeling a little bit sad, and from her expression she felt the same way, which was both hard to look at and good to know.
“I… Didn’t realize that things had changed between us. Am I allowed to ask why? I know that might be too much to ask…” The words were tense, and her eyes actually began to tear up.
“Um… I was Tor’s son, and now I’m not. If I’m not that, then I can’t be a Prince, and that means the whole marriage thing has to go away.” It pretty much had to work that way, though Sara rolled her eyes at him.
“Why? You didn’t sign any documents claiming to be Tor’s child, did you? Was your fortune as his heir promised to Karina? Certainly being a Prince can’t hurt anything, but you’re an immortal, regardless of anything else, which is nearly as good that way. If you want to throw her over, then that’s your right, but you should at least provide a better excuse than that. Claim that you love another, or found out that you’re infertile, perhaps?”
Sara was angry, it was clear, but he smiled and shook his head, getting both of them to look at him.
“I… Hadn’t thought of it that way. That was all I meant. The whole thing with Tor. That… It isn’t even really his fault. I mean, I was in a rage when I said the words, but it’s really about Austra. He can’t fix it, and I can’t go around killing people every time they call me a liar. It…” He took a deep breath and force himself to go on. “I know that incident didn’t make me any friends. It has to seem like I’m moody and spoiled to Austra. They don’t understand what combat rage is, really. It’s just a loss of personal control to them. So they’ll keep coming at me. If they do, then I’ll eventually kill them for it. That can’t be allowed.”
It was probably true, and Karina, rallying a little now that she realized he wasn’t set against her, nodded. He wasn’t even against Tor. The whole thing just had conditions on it all that wasn’t going to work.
The Princess, who was taller than he was, moved along side of him as they walked, putting an arm across his shoulders. She was being tentative with it, as if she figured he was going to throw her off
and order her to leave.
“I’m sure we can work something out. Killing that man, Albright… Well, a lot of people are on your side on that one. Even some of the Austrans. He was warned that goading you was illegal under the law in Harmony, and that you had the ability and even right to kill him if he didn’t stop. From the Queen herself, so it’s actual law there. It happened off planet, so Austra can’t touch you over it. Even if you land there to get those scientists? That’s going to happen in a few days. It was pushed back by a week, because no one else can get to Jupiter. Everyone understands, of course. You were just gone. No one knew that this place was even here, really.”
Which made no sense. He’d told Albright, and that had to have gone out live to Austra. The port there had a transport node, which would have brought people to him directly. That got him to nod.
“Fine, I can get them there, but I’m not talking to anyone from Austra. They won’t be allowed on the bridge. That’s for their protection, in case they feel a need to come at me. We’ll leave from here. They can go through the network, or… Actually, I can set up at Jupiter and let them go to the ship directly. Then they can all come and go as they will.”
The words got him stared at, as if he were being strange. Samantha smiled though and led them to one of the restaurants. The one with the inn right next to it. So that Sara could use the facilities, and clean up. The whole place looked nice, being carved ornately into the stone as it was. There were furnishings in the place, made from magic. It had taken work to come up with an amulet for that, but it wasn’t that hard, since all that was required was stealing the pattern from the basic ship design. It was how he’d built the air and gravity devices as well.
Samantha, a new one, with green hair that was short, and an Austran seeming jumpsuit, led the Ancient of the Martian Circle away, as Dareg waved Karina over to the restaurant, which was directly next door. The place itself was large, for that kind of thing, but had staff working there already, even if it was all just different versions of the one girl.
“I need to make a few more different types of people. Like Samantha? This could get a little cloying otherwise. Not that she isn’t nice. I’m just used to variety that way.” That was said for the magical being herself, as well as the Ancient. He didn’t want to be rude after all.
They were led to a nice table, and he glanced at the princess, who was a bit taller than he was still. Not vastly so however. She was six-six, or possibly a bit larger than that, and thin enough, but somewhere along the way he’d stretched a little bit to meet her. It was probably part of why he was hungry all the time. That, and the fact that he just lived so much faster than the rest of them did any longer.
The woman patted the stone table they were at, which was cool to the touch, as well as very fine, in appearance. The chairs weren’t real, and seemed like they were made of carved black wood, but the tables there were part of the walls. That meant they weren’t going to be easily moved around, though some of them were large enough that it wouldn’t be needed, even if they eventually had large groups of people inside the place.
The walls were a bit plain still, the place lacking art of any kind, but a cheery Samantha came over and smiled at them both, her face pleasant.
“Would you like to order now? Food. Drinks? We can make a lot of different things, so don’t feel bad about asking for what you want.”
His fiancé, if that part had been serious, and Dareg thought that the woman meant it to be that way, smiled and nodded.
“Could we start with drinks? I’d like a golden wine, if that’s possible?”
Dareg knew it would be, but let the server handle that part of things. She smiled, seeming happy and simply gave a small nod. Then Samantha looked at Dare, searched his face, and spoke without hesitation.
“A protein drink? Tam-Unit sent her recipe along for that. She’s a bit worried about you, by the way. You should go visit her, if you aren’t going to be arrested for going back to Earth.”
He blinked, since he didn’t even have a handheld for the new girl to have gotten at, and as far as he knew, Tam-Unit didn’t own one of those anyway. She could talk to any other version of herself however, and The Tam-Comps, which made sense, given that they were essentially the same being, and had access to real Taman, somehow, but as far as he knew, he hadn’t built that aspect into the Samantha design.
Being smart, the girl in front of him rolled her eyes a little bit.
“You made the food units so that they’d communicate with all the other food making devices built so far. Tam-Unit is one of those basically, so I was able to talk to her that way. From there I accessed Tam-Comp, and she set it up so that I could use the communications system. That’s all.”
Dareg laughed a bit and shook his head.
“That’s all, she says… As if it wasn’t an act of near genius to work all that out. To answer the question, yes, a protein drink sounds nice, thank you. I guess I should make some way to get in touch with people? I… Hadn’t. I just figured that no one would want to talk to me anymore.” Scooting around in his chair just a tiny bit, Dare sighed, meaning it. “You know, not being… Anything really, anymore? Except a murderer. I…”
That part was hard, so he looked away from Karina, and shook his head. There was a fine line of sorrow inside his being, that just hadn’t gone away, even after all the time he’d had so far.
“When I close my eyes I keep seeing him, the rage coming back. It was like I couldn’t help myself. I held it off, for as long as I could, and then… Something just broke, inside. Even… I could have let him go. Timon tried to get him away, and I executed the man. Albright. It…” Dropping the volume of his words as Samantha moved to the far wall, and started to do things for them, with her back turned, he winced. It was real enough, but not a thing he was proud of. “Even now, I’d kill him, if he were here and alive. I… something is broken, inside of me. There were only words, and… What do I do? I’m not in a rage now, and I feel horrible about what I did, but I swear, if someone else were calling me a liar, right here, and now, I’d be trying to kill them, too.”
Instead of telling him it was all right, or responding in fear, the red haired, well-tanned, woman, just nodded. The move was slow and a bit reluctant, but not hidden or anything.
“It can be hard, with people like that. You can’t just kill people, but knowing that no one can easily stop you means that it’s tempting from time to time. Combat rage isn’t the only thing acting on you here, either. You’re from Noram, which means that Albright accusing you like that, and not stopping, just meant something different to you than it did him. To his mind he was being insistent and trying to do a good job. Getting at the body of a possible scandal. To you it was like he was pissing in your face, and laughing about it, when you asked him to stop.”
The woman leaned forward, her elbows on the table. Her eyes locked on his own.
“So, no. It wasn’t good. In Noram, even if you’d been a commoner, the man would have been guilty of provocation at the very least. You wouldn’t be in trouble for taking his life in those extremes at all. Add to that combat rage, and even if he’d been a noble, no one would be able to touch you over it. So by those laws, you didn’t even do anything particularly wrong. In Austra, well, it would have been illegal, but even there they have some allowance for not being able to control yourself in extreme circumstances. They think of it as mental instability however, not having the same biology that we have.”
Dareg didn’t feel any better about the situation, but figured that it sounded about right. In fact, he’d worked that much out for himself already. Combat rage was kind of a free pass, for any crime that you committed under its influence. It had to be real, and witnessed, but given that he’d worked very hard to get away from the man that he’d killed first, no one from Noram that knew about that kind of thing would have thought that Dareg hadn’t tried well enough.
Karina went on, shrugging as if to let him know that it wasn’t that big of a mat
ter, even if it clearly was.
“Here… Well, so far it looks like you’re the ruler of Mars… So you tell me? Though, technically as an Ancient now you can’t be in charge here. Not for long. Are you setting up a Kingship?” She waved around, as if that made any sense, which got him to shake his head. He hadn’t really considered it before, to be honest.
“No. I was thinking that we’d do the whole voting thing that they do in Austra? Only, if I get to have a say in it, I think that we should have better rules than they do about hounding people. I can see why they do it their way, but…” He felt bad again. Still. Even if he would kill the next person to speak out against him without even warning them first. Murder was still bad and had to be against the law.
The protein drink and golden wine was delivered, with a smile, and then the Samantha helping them pulled back. Waiting for Sara to get there, and join them. That didn’t take long, and a mug of coffee was settled on the table as the light haired woman moved into place. She looked a bit damp still, but didn’t have any wounds from her testing of the new defense system left.
“Thank you! I mentioned that I’d kill for a cup to the lady at the desk next door, and here it is, ready for me seconds later. I could get used to this kind of service. I don’t suppose I could abscond with one of them for my space station?”
Dareg looked at the woman and shrugged, then nodded.
“Well… You’d have to ask her that, wouldn’t you? She isn’t a slave or anything. My bet is that she’d love to be around other people however. It’s sort of built into her. Just like being hard working and helpful are. I couldn’t speak for her however. There are another seven hundred copies of her that haven’t been activated yet, so that could work. Or we could design a different version? Friends for her, if nothing else. A sister?”
It seemed sensible to him, and the Ancient of the Martian Circle smiled and reached out to pat his hand, as if he were being cute. Then, she’d made a point of thanking Samantha for the coffee, and praising her, so it could just have been her trying to build a connection, instead of patronizing him.
