by P. S. Power
"That's right. Prince Gerent said that I should fly into space, to one of the stations, but I missed and ended up in a ship. Noram One? The Captain, Conserina Cannor, is debating asking me out on a date, I think, versus tossing me outside without a shield if I'm lying to her about the latest turn of things." Looking at her he grinned. "I'm kidding of course. There was no mention of a date. So, if you know the story of your new bastard relation, you might want to mention it to her?"
"No." The word was a bit soft, and followed by a laugh, as Gemma glared at him a little harder. "You aren't a bastard. Tor put the paperwork in already, both in Harmony and in Noram, with King Richard. Who, by the way, wrote the official documents up himself, with his own hands. Tor did it on our side here. No matter what else has really happened, you're legitimate, as of this morning. Really, given the wording, you always were. Now, back to the more important things. How did the new shield handle? What kind of time did it take you to get up there?"
That made him smile, since it was clear that the man was trying to make him feel at ease. Not even just to protect him from the might of Gemma, who seemed surprised for some unknown reason. Which, if he thought about it, probably had to do with him talking about dates like he had, not who he was. A liar wouldn't have called Tim the Wizard in the first place. Hence her reaction when the fellow had said no. Clearly Dareg at least believed in himself, or he would have made up a different lie. Or not lied at all, just giving his name. That probably would have stopped some problems, he realized.
"The controls are really easy to use. Here I thought that flying sounded hard, too. So great work on that. The speed? I was at the spaceport, and I think all the way into a real orbit about two minutes later? I went straight up. The longest part of it was trying to get in, but like the Captain said, most people call ahead first. So that one is my fault." Then he looked at the man's picture closely, trying to figure out anything he could about him.
There wasn't much to be seen. He was clean, and tidy. His clothing was nice, and probably made of magic, like his own. All black, or at least the top part of it was. In the background there was a woman he thought. It was hard to tell, because all he could see was a black line with part of a hand sticking out from the sleeve on the bottom. The other thing he noticed was that the man on the other end was doing the same thing to him. Observing intensly.
Which caused them both to smile at the same time.
Timon, his uncle, nodded then.
"Good. We need to test it out for a longer trip. It should take you about a day to go from the port to Harmony. Twenty-two hours. Can we schedule that? No one has ever tried a trip like that before. Not alone. So, no food, which is fine. No restroom, so don't drink too much first. The air will hold for nearly two days if you don't vent it. After that, you'll start to use up the dead skin, bacteria, and eventually your hair to make more. That will get you to about three days. After that you'll start dying. Dissolving." He grinned, and then looked away, toward the person standing there. She was whispering something.
The man laughed though, a bit darkly.
"I'm just telling the truth. He can make the trip. It will be hard. Most wouldn't even try it, but that's why it's worth doing. I need to know if it can be done. So, in two days?" That was for him, he figured.
Thinking about it he shook his head.
"I don't know. High Servant Erid is supposed to come in a few days, to help with some building projects. That's a lot of time to be gone like that. You know, if I don't die, trying. Of course if that happens my troubles are over, so it isn't worth worrying about. I guess? I'll get in touch right before I leave? Right now I need to get back. I left a whore in my little house, and don't want her to realize she could just steal the whole thing. I'm letting her sleep on my floor in return for sex." It was just the truth, and he didn't feel embarrassed by the idea, himself. It was just good bartering really. They both got something they wanted.
A new face, the woman from the side, ducked in then, right in front of Tim.
"Really? Finally, a Baker relation that isn't afraid of sex? Good. We can get together then, I think. The blood lines should work out for that really well. After all, I got married to you Tim, so it shouldn't be a problem."
Instead of screaming at the woman, Timon laughed.
"True. Though given that Lairdgren and Tor were so close biologically, and my mother was essentially the gray lady, that means that... Well, functionally, any of my sisters or brothers are fair game for you too, Dareg. Not Tor, but the rest should be fine. On the good side, that will make Tor's head explode. You already know Taman? You should meet Tess, too. Great girls." He smiled, but was pushed a bit by the woman.
The one that was apparently his own slatternly aunt.
"You're mean, Tim." The words weren't totally playful, from the way they sounded.
Her husband smiled a little larger, and let it go sly.
"I know. But the only person that it would bother in the whole world would be Tor. I'm not wrong, either, about the bloodlines. You weren't raised with any of them either, so there's no reason in two, or even three, worlds for you to hold to social convention that way. I'll draw up a chart to explain it when you get here." Then the device went blank.
Dareg kept looking at it for a bit, then turned to Captain Gemma.
"It is so much easier to meet women as a Prince than it was as a wandering orphan, you know that?"
Instead of making fun of him, she winked, and patted his right shoulder. She was bigger than he was, but didn't seem to mind that. Not if he had her expression down correctly, which he did. He was good at that kind of thing. It had saved his life more than once.
"If you want sex on tap, you should try being a woman. Tim can set you up for that. Anyway. We're not scheduled to go back to Noram for three weeks. You are, of course, welcome to wait here. Or we could call space fleet and see if they can pick you up?" She seemed to mean it.
Which made no sense whatsoever.
"Or I can just fly back. It sounds fun to me." It really did. For a moment he could nearly envision the Earth coming directly for him. Right before he stopped dead, hovering in the air. Magic was such a wonder that way.
Rather than tell him no, the girl nodded.
"Well, that tells me a lot about you, doesn't it? Only the insane do space-drops. Not that I'll stop you. Just try not to die? That would make me look bad, and I have to answer to King Richard personally. On the good side, that means you have two whole days to fix that hellhole people call a spaceport before you leave. What are the plans there?" She sounded interested, and for some reason the men and women around her did, one of them, a dark haired woman who was clearly a noble of some type being tall and having blue eyes to go with her dark skin, smiled at him.
"A real bath house? The food here on N-One isn't bad, but I miss having real people around. Entertainment sounds nice, too. I could use a decent lay as well. We aren't allowed to have relations on board. I get edgy though after a while, if all I get is my hand."
Dareg could understand that, and the rest of the people nodded along, so he did too.
"Well, if any of you can think of anything you want in a facility like that, that's you understand, legal? We'll try to get it in. It will probably take a while. You're coming in three weeks? We might, possibly, have the worst of the trash taken care of by then." It was a lot to promise if he had to do all the work himself.
Then, as if it weren't just as crazy as jumping from a ship to the Earth, the Captain pushed him toward the wall he came in from.
"Take care then, Prince Dareg. Get back safe and work hard. I vote for the tavern first, if anyone cares?"
Then she built a little room on the far side, and he activated his shield, to catch the air before it was taken from it. It had to be about preventing that from happening, didn't it? He could hear a hiss, that eventually faded. That told him he was right. Then the room vanished, letting him get back.
It was, he found, extremely different dashing toward th
e planet, rather than away from it. The other way had been fast, but kind of boring really. Mentally interesting, but there hadn't been a lot to see at first. Going down, flying as fast as he could toward the surface was much better. His heart sped up, and palms began to sweat, just a little. Not that they had time for that really.
At about a thousand feet up, just outside the port itself, near his little pod house, he stopped dead. Then drifted down over the course of a few minutes time. Easy. The whole thing only lasted a few minutes too, which meant he could probably go anywhere he wanted then. On or off the Earth. Maybe not Mars, since that was a long way off, but that was a lot more places left open than his feet could carry him to.
While his little pod house was still there, his new friend, Stara, was gone. There was no note or anything, and when Dare looked around, which didn't take long, he couldn't find her. After all, the entire port had two places something as large as a person could hide. His space, in the pod palace, or the focus stone High Servant building. It was a little sad, since there was a lot they could have done together. Then again for all he knew she'd just gone into the Capital to try and set up some acts.
Maybe she'd gotten what she'd come for? Which, if that wasn't sex with him, or that mouth sex that they'd had, he couldn't guess at. For a moment nothing came to him, and then he figured it out. She'd come to him, to honestly see about robbing him. There had just been nothing worth taking, so she left. That didn't leave him feeling good about the whole thing.
Still, it was a lesson for him, wasn't it? Some people were just going to want to use you in life. Most of them, really. Whores were, in the main, honest people, he was willing to bet. They didn't lie about what they were doing, they just provided the service. It did explain why the lady had been so worked up around the Guardsmen, didn't it?
Friendless now or not, which he wasn't, still having his small army of Tam-pals around, Dare checked the whole thing out. There was no one there, at the moment, other than a few people who were sitting, and waiting for something or another to happen. The High Servants weren't in their hut either. That probably meant they were trying to gather those apples for Gerent. They were supposed to be very hard working after all. Legendary about it, from what little he'd heard.
Spurred on by their good example and having a few hours of daylight left, he started working on the litter and waste problem. That mainly had him making four large piles of things, not having anyplace better for it to go. It wasn't until he went back to his pod house, which still looked neatly white and black, that he learned a new trick.
Tam-unit clued him in.
"On ships they store waste as blocks of stone. If you want, we could do that? That would look nicer anyway. Something in the twenty pound range should work pretty well. Light enough for you to lift without getting tired, but large enough that it won't take forever to get rid of it all." She spoke in a matter of fact manner about it, sounding like she normally did, which was pretty chipper and pleased with the whole thing.
On the good side, he was able to get through one of the big piles that evening. It was probably five percent of what he needed to get done, but it was a nice start. Moving all the blocks was a pain, but Dare got a tidy square going that way, before the sky got too dark to see. The purple glowing wall river gave a little light, but it was too far away for him to really see by. What they needed was for him to make his own river glow. The one on by the orchards did, in an eerie silver color that made the world spooky in that area at night. It was like the glow of the Moon, but constant and unmoving.
Something more like sunlight would work, if he could figure out how to get it done.
That wasn't going to happen that night though. He was tired, so locked the door, using the little latch on the inside, and fell into the very soft and cozy bed. The top blanket was just like he figured it would be. Almost tickling him to be in contact with. There was a piece of cloth under that one however, that while fine and soft, wasn't as pleasant. That let him sleep, after he climbed under that part. There was even a bottom sheet. That had been a thing that he used to have at home, but not for years. He'd never heard of two sheets being on one bed however.
That was what lulled him to sleep, which was the nicest night he'd had in as long as he could remember. When he woke up, he stretched his arms over head, and then showered for the first time in a good long while. No one had mentioned him having a strong body odor, but he nearly had to have had. Now he smelled a bit like soap, and even that went away when he headed out into the sun, to see if the Tam-unit near his house could get him some toothpaste and a brush.
Being wonderful she did.
"How can you be so perfect, Tam-unit?" It was a bit over the top, but the girl box giggled at him, so it was probably all right.
"Just lucky, I guess. So, after you eat, we can make more blocks? That was fun."
Which was a word he would have never associated with it, but he had to admit, the process was better than his piles of waste and trash.
"Great plan. Food would be good first. Hey, did you see where my friend Stara went yesterday? She was supposed to be staying with me, but she just left."
There was a pause, and something like a click, then the Tam-unit shook her head.
"Nope. I didn't see a thing. That isn't too surprising. My range for scans only goes out about ten feet. I can kind of get an idea of things about twenty feet away, but that's it. There's nearly three quarters of a mile between each of me on the outer rim here. If she went the other way, I probably would have gotten something. Sorry, I wish I could be more help. I'm not really designed for that kind of work."
He shrugged.
"What do you think I should have for the morning meal?"
The girl didn't hesitate then, her pretty face turning to beam directly at him.
"Do you like egg toast? I can do that with honey, or a nice strawberry jam. You should have some milk, or a high protein drink to go with that. You're growing, so need it." Then as if he'd said yes, a plate came out, followed by a large cup. "The drink isn't that good, but you should have it all. Think of it like medicine. It's an Austran thing, but it works."
It wasn't good, but didn't require holding his nose either. The flavor, if it was possible, had a chalky overtone to it. As he drank it, the Tam-unit explained what it was for.
"This kind of drink is popular in Austra, if you can believe that? One cup has all the dietary requirements needed for a growing adult. They swear by it. There's a different version for elders, that helps them stay strong and not get fat, even if they aren't very active."
That seemed like a good idea to him then, because being even a few inches taller wouldn't harm him in life. He'd heard that a lot of giants couldn't see all the way down to commoners. That wasn't a literal thing, he was willing to bet, since Gerent had managed the trick just fine.
Still, life was filled with high shelves, and someone had to reach up there to get the needed things from it.
The rest of his day, except an hour at noon, when it got too hot to work and hunger pounded on his middle, was filled with loading hoppers or stacking bricks. Right until meal time. Then he got the luxury of stopping for a while, and drinking a whole lot of water. It was late Fall already, but the world around him was still incredibly warm. Cannor would probably have snow on the ground in places soon, but this place was a long way from there.
Dare didn't let himself dwell on that. He'd nearly frozen to death in the last few years, more than once. Living in the broken ruins of his old house, it had been really hard to get even a small fire going, especially in the rain or snow. Eventually he'd worked out how to do it, making an oven out of focus stone slabs and rock. The gaps had to be filled with mud and sand, but it was still mainly outside.
This was better. It would cool down at night, and inside his little pod place he could keep himself safe and just warm enough the entire time. Snug was the right word for it, he thought.
The next day went a bit differently. The first part wa
s spent with him making more piles of trash to turn into useful rock, and then doing that, over and over. The second portion was that people decided to come visit.
Not from space, or anything unbelievable like that, but simply by riding out in a little blue vehicle. A thing that hovered above the ground and moved in total silence. A Tam-car, he'd heard them called. It had a pink roof, and was kind of like what a vehicle might have been if a girl had designed it, after a hard day of playing with her dolls. That, or his aunt was substituting real people for toys. That could, he understood, been the case. After all, the thing stopped near his little place, right at the front, and a living doll got out.
At least that was what it looked like to him, as he walked over. She had long black hair, a very fancy hat on her head that sat on the top with bits of lace coming out, and perfect, flawless, ivory colored skin. Even her red velvet dress gave her an air of not being anything but a wealthy girl's toy brought to life.
She stood there, smiling at him, all alone, while he scurried over. She was also tiny. Like commoner small, even if that couldn't possibly be the case. If she were five feet it would be thanks to her high shoes. He called out to her as he jogged over.
"Sorry, I was just trying to get this place fixed up a bit. May I help you with anything, ma'am?"
"Tamerlane. Tamerlane Thomson. Countess." She looked at him like she was searching for something in his eyes. It probably wasn't there, but she seemed to be willing to keep trying.
Her gaze was suspicious seeming to him. Sharp, and intelligent, which gave the lie to the idea that lovely women were never bright. It was a bit like what Timon had done, nearly drinking the world in around them. The first thing she did was look at the Tam-unit, then the pod house. Tracing around the entire place, she finally settled on him.
"My reports mentioned that you were doing good work out here. My man on the ground seems to like you as well. Though I was a bit concerned to hear about you taking off into space using only a shield?"
