by Joe Horan
“Don’t you want a husband? Children?” asked Desiree.
“Not really.”
“I thought every woman wanted to marry and have children.”
“Many do, but we don’t have to. We can do other things if we want. We’re free to choose. Do you want to marry and have children?”
She had hit a nerve there. Something was wrong. Desiree was suddenly looking very sad.
“What’s wrong?”
“I would love to marry,” said Desiree. “I would love to have children. I can never do so.”
“Why not?”
Desiree stood up slowly.
“I led my army into battle,” she said. “I killed King Shalmazar in single combat. They say that I saved my land, my people. They call me Desiree the Brave, but there was a price.”
She did something behind her back and her dress fell to the floor. She stood there naked, forcing herself to endure Steph’s gaze.
“I was prepared to die that day,” she said. “I was not prepared for this.”
Running diagonally across her body, from left shoulder to waist, was a partially healed scar. It had destroyed her left breast, cut it clean in half. The flesh had been stitched and had knitted together, but the nipple was gone, the flesh puckered. It was going to be an ugly sight, even when fully healed.
“What happened?” asked Steph.
“King Shalmazar’s sword. My armour saved my life, but it couldn’t completely stop the blow.”
Steph was astonished, but not by the scarred body. She had served in the Atumcarian Spacefleet. The Atumcarian Empire had been almost continuously at war for fifty years. Even without the war, operating spaceships was a dangerous profession, particularly warships where you were continually pushing the limit. People got hurt, and sometimes even the regenerator could not repair the damage. You were wounded, you recovered, you returned to duty. Most large ships and bases had communal showers, and every time you went in you would see scarred flesh. It was nothing remarkable. Heroes came with scars both physical and mental. You loved them for who they were, not what they looked like.
Desiree, of course, misinterpreted her stunned silence. She started to turn away, tears filling her eyes. Steph could not bear to see this brave, strong woman cry. What she did next was purely instinctive.
“Cryo burn,” she said, kicking off the furs that covered her and rolling over. “A seal failed and sprayed me with liquid helium.”
The words must have meant nothing to Desiree, but the sight of her damaged side did. From her armpit to her waist was a mass of scar tissue where a spray of liquid helium no more than a couple of degrees above absolute zero had destroyed the skin on contact.
“In my world this is normal,” she said. “Most of us have things like this. There is a price to pay for travelling between the stars.”
“I had no idea,” said Desiree.
“We have a machine called a regenerator. It heals damaged flesh. It won’t really help me because the skin was completely destroyed, but I think you would respond well. Ask them when they come. See if they will help you.”
“Thank you. Of course, it you tell anyone what you have seen I will kill you very slowly and very painfully.”
“I understand.”
Crazy bitch with a sword!
Shania came out of her door and saw a crowd gathered round the official noticeboard opposite. She carefully crept up to its back. The one physical attribute she possessed was good eyesight; from here she could just about read the proclamation.
By order of Prince Joaquin
The World has suffered irreversible damage and is becoming incapable of supporting life. We have sent a message to the Ancestors asking for their help. We are now awaiting their reply, but I personally am confident they will come in their ships of fire to save us.
As a bald statement of fact it couldn’t be faulted, but Shania wondered what effect it would have on the population. Widespread panic, except that we are a disciplined people and we trust our leaders. People will be scared, but there won’t be riots in the street. I hope.
When she arrived at the palace there was a crowd outside, standing quietly which in itself was bizarre. The guards waved her through – they knew her by sight – but she had the impression that security was tighter than normal. She was just inside the door when there was a murmur from the crowd and then she heard Prince Joaquin’s voice from the first floor balcony. He wasn’t a gifted speaker like his sister but he did his best.
“Fellow Ochirans, I know you are frightened. I am frightened too. Our World is ending, but the girl from the stars has told us there are people living on other Worlds circling other suns. We have sent a message to them asking for help. When they come they will save us. If our World cannot be healed they can take us in their ships of fire to another World. Even if our World dies, Ochira will live on.”
And it seemed to do the trick. There was even muted applause at the end. Shania had been standing just inside the door listening, but now she went up the stairs to the maproom and started her day’s work.
The following day Prince Joaquin left for a tour of the kingdom, an attempt to reassure the people, explain what was happening. He was gone for two se’ennights before returning to Ochira City.
Another sevenday passed and still they waited.
Chapter 9
The Law that Must Never Be Broken
The Garatomba was decelerating from flank. Triangulation by the border listening stations had determined the approximate location of the source. Now the Garatomba was homing in on it.
The message came again, repeating every fifty-eight minutes. It was a young woman’s voice speaking in accented Atumcarian.
“This is Princess Desiree, co-ruler of the Kingdom of Ochira. Our world has been struck by a great catastrophe. It is dying. We require assistance. We call upon anyone hearing this message to come to our aid.”
“Got a fix,” said Ensign Remeliah on scanners. “It’s on the third planet, about sixty degrees north… By the Powers of Jurress, she’s not kidding! What the hell happened here?”
“We did this,” said Captain Oona Lay quietly. She had brought up what passed for star charts out here on her monitor and they were very close to where that climactic battle had ended less than six months ago when the Colossus blew up so spectacularly. The blast wave must have reached here before it dropped sublight.
As the detailed scans came in they built up an incredible picture. Half the planet was completely devoid of life; there wasn’t even any organic residue. The other half was still habitable, but radiation levels were high.
“Send a message…”
“I don’t think they’ve got a receiver, sir, just a transmitter.”
“Then get a shuttle ready. I’m going down.”
They had just sat down to lunch when an excited novice came running in.
“A ship of fire! A ship of fire comes!”
They ran outside, lunch forgotten. Something that looked to Desiree like a giant metal bird, though which Steph identified as a standard spacefleet shuttle was descending towards the valley floor on plumes of fire. It settled on the ground about a hundred yards from the Ractaz, the door opened and…
“What are those things?” screamed someone.
“Men in armour,” said Desiree and received a nod from Steph; actually they were space marines in hardened combat suits. They took up a standard defensive formation, then a diminutive woman got out. She wore a long white coat with four gold hoops on the sleeve.
“That’s the captain,” said Steph. “She’ll be the one in charge.”
Desiree hitched up her sword (a short, blunted ceremonial sword, not the long razor-sharp battle sword she normally wore) and made sure her breastplate was straight – always look like a princess when you’re dealing with the representatives of a foreign power – and set off determinedly towards the strangers. For the first time in her life she was really afraid. When she rode into battle against King Shalmazar’s a
rmy she knew she might die; she was a warrior and accepted that her destiny might be to die by the sword, but never had she thought she would have to face people from the stars.
Captain Oona Lay watched a figure detach itself from the group and start towards her. Orbital scans had showed that this was a Grade 1 civilisation. She shouldn’t really be here, but over there was a V-drive starship. It had been here a long time, but someone had got the comlink working and sent a distress call. She had to investigate. She had to land and find out what the situation was. Someone knew enough, not only to get a sophisticated piece of technology working, but to send a signal into space in the hope of summoning help. Coming towards her was a woman with long blonde hair who was wearing a sword. She had to at least speak to this person.
As she got closer Desiree could see that the captain was probably in her forties, shorter that Desiree herself. The sinister black warriors surrounding her were indeed men; she could see their faces through the front of their helmets. She stopped ten feet from the captain.
“Welcome to the World,” she said. “I am Princess Desiree, co-ruler of Ochira.”
Captain Oona Lay looked at her. She saw a teenage girl wearing a polished metal breastplate and with a sword on her hip. This is co-ruler of a kingdom? Then she saw the eyes and understood. Those eyes have seen things. There is power here. Yes, this girl could rule a kingdom.
“I am Captain Oona Lay of the Atumcarian Spacefleet. We have heard your signal.”
“Thank you for coming. The World is dying. Can you help us, please?”
Captain Lay looked at her again. It looked like a Grade 1 civilisation and if it was she shouldn’t even be standing here, yet this girl’s voice had reached out into space and called for help. Let’s see how much she really understands.
“My ship is in orbit,” she said. “Would you like to come up with me so we can discuss the situation together?”
Did she mean that there was a bigger ship somewhere? Her instincts told her to show no fear; act as if this is normal. She followed Captain Lay into the ship, the guards followed them in and the door closed behind them of its own volition.
There was a murmur of alarm among the monks.
“It will be all right,” said Steph reassuringly, but she wasn’t sure it would be. She hadn’t expected this. She thought the captain would come into the Ractaz to talk to them, not that she would take Desiree back to her ship.
The message got them here, but we haven’t beaten that damn non-interference law yet. She’s got to know what to ask for, and I’m not sure she does.
Desiree sat in the seat indicated and allowed the guard to fasten a strap round her waist. He had taken his helmet off now and she could see that he was a man in his twenties, as tough as any warrior in her army. Captain Lay sat a couple of seats away from her. She had the feeling that she was being observed. Somehow she knew it was important she show no fear.
There was a rumbling sound. She was next to a window, and when she looked out she saw the ground dropping away. I’m in one of the Ancestors’ ships and I’m flying.
They climbed faster and faster. The sky darkened and turned black. The horizon was curved.
The World is a sphere. We knew that.
“Come with me,” said Captain Lay. “I want you to see something.”
She undid her strap for her and she followed her through a door in the front of the cabin. Two men sat in chairs looking out of a window. Lights flashed and flickered in front of them.
It’s like those things in the Ractaz that Steph called consoles, but those were dead. This one is alive. Show no fear. This is normal to them.
“That’s the Garatomba,” said Captain Lay.
This time she couldn’t stop her jaw dropping open.
It’s huge. It’s gigantic. It’s a city in the sky.
“Are you wondering how such a thing can stay up here?” asked Captain Lay.
“One of our Five Truths states that the universe is understandable by observation and reason,” she said. She felt she was being tested here. “Our scholars looked for a reason why the sun rises in the east, travels across the sky and sets in the west. Eventually we discovered that the World is a sphere rotating in space and that it travels round the sun. We realised that the sun pulls it, but because it is moving it never falls. Is your ship of fire circling the World in the same manner?”
It was Oona’s turn for her mouth to drop open. Did this girl with her sword and armour understand about gravity?
Joaquin may not have looked at the books in the library, but Desiree had. She had hoped to gain the same understanding of figures that her brother had. She had failed in this, but she learnt other things.
They docked in the shuttle bay. Oona helped her down the access tunnel. She looked around at the people in their red, blue and white tunics. Men and women serving together, she noticed. Her women’s companies had been the right idea. The air had a strange smell and there was a slight vibration that seemed to be everywhere.
Ignore it. This is normal to them.
Oona conducted her through corridors and up metal stairs. They came to a room. Inside it machines beeped and lights flashed. In the middle, suspended in mid air above a table, was a glowing sphere. She looked at it and…
“Is that the World?” she asked.
“Yes. We picked you up from here. There is a city here…”
“Ochira City,” interrupted Desiree. “My brother and co-ruler is there.”
“This area here is devoid of life,” continued Oona. “Your world was hit by a subspace blast wave in transition. I know that means nothing to you…”
“We understand the World was hit by an energy wave propagating through space,” said Desiree. “We know it penetrated deep into the World and the energy is still there. Our mathematicians have calculated that in less than a year the World will become uninhabitable.”
Oona stared at her for a moment. She went to a grille on the wall, pressed a button next to it and said, “Bridge, this is Captain Lay. Deep scan the planet at once.”
“Yes sir,” responded a disembodied voice.
She turned and looked at the glowing sphere. A few minutes passed, then a glowing red mass appeared within it on the damaged side, from the surface almost down to the core.
“What am I seeing?” asked Oona.
“Unknown, sir. It reads as exotic matter. If it is, it will inevitably penetrate the crust and when it does the effect will be catastrophic. An enormous quantity of radiation will be released. No life on the planet will survive.”
“Our World will die,” said Desiree. “Can you save it?”
“No. The damage is irreversible.”
Oona was watching her carefully. She had the feeling that what she said next was critically important. It really should be Joaquin here; he would know what to say. What could she…?
Her brother once said that the stars might be suns like theirs at a very great distance. Would there be Worlds going round them too? These people travelled among the stars; did that mean that they travelled between Worlds going round the stars? Steph said they moved three million people from a place called Kampoir. Was Kampoir a World like theirs? The pieces were falling into place. If the World could not be saved, might its people be?
“Are there not other suns, other worlds?” she said. “Can we not be taken to one of these?”
She had asked! Captain Lay felt an enormous sense of relief. Of her own free will she had asked. Had she not done so they could not save them. They could give them medicine to ease their passing but they could not save them. The law forbade it. The one great law, the law that all the human worlds had imposed upon themselves, the Law that Must Never Be Broken forbade it. But she had asked, and suddenly the law was changed. Schedule XIV applied; a loophole had opened. She turned back to the grille on the wall, pressed the button and spoke.
“Prepare to send a message to the Imperial Command, priority ultimate. Find somewhere to bounce it off, but make sure it ge
ts through.”
Steph watched the shuttle returning. What had happened? Had Desiree known what to ask for? Would the people of this planet live or die?
Desiree and the captain came across the grass towards them. Desiree seemed happy, but that might be because she did not understand what was happening.
“They are going to take us to another World,” she said. “I must go to Ochira City immediately. My brother needs to know.” She suddenly thought of something and turned to the captain. “It’s at least eight days on a fast horse in good weather, but it’s midwinter and the mountain passes are clogged with snow. Can you transport me there more quickly?”
“Of course,” she said with a smile.
It was time she introduced herself, thought Steph. She stepped forwards and saluted.
“Enlistee Steph Campbell, drive specialist first class, late of the Balastar,” she said.
“Really? Do we have you to thank for repairing the comlink?”
“Yes sir.”
“And how much else?”
“Very little sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes sir. This world may look like Grade 1, but it is not. If you doubt my word, I suggest you ask them about the Five Truths. I also recommend a visit to the library in Ochira City. All the books were made on this planet.”
“As I seem to be going to Ochira City I may take you up on that. Now what can you tell me about these two co-rulers?”
A quick glance at Desiree showed that she wasn’t listening – or didn’t appear to be listening – then she replied, “They make a good team; a scholar to do the hard thinking and a crazy bitch with a sword to do the fighting. I think both of them really care about their people.”
