Lineage (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  Eventually they'd learn, or the party would be over. Either way the problem would end in its time.

  They only had to get through a week now. Not that it was going to be easy.

  Chapter ten

  Given how crowded everything was, not just at the port, but in the entire city, things were kind of happy. People smiled and cheered at the drop of a hat, for instance. Once that happened literally when a city guard lost his little funny covering. The man and the three with him were patrolling the port for them, and a group of kids were tossing a ball around for fun.

  It hit the large and sturdy fellow in the head, knocking his topper right off, into the dirt. Then he stood up, glared a bit, brushed his hat off and tossed the ball back.

  "Watch that kids! We don't want anyone getting hurt." Then he and his fellows walked on, like nothing had happened, even if there was a bit of happy clapping. Mainly because the little ones hadn't been scolded too harshly or beaten. The common people tended to think that would happen any time a guard showed up.

  A lot of the time it did, or close enough, so they had a real reason for it.

  There were two interesting things that took place that day. The first was that Space Fleet was letting people have shore leave. That meant they got to come to the base for the day, to walk around and see the sights. Dareg learned of it when Alice Orange, their leader, got on the handheld for him. He'd just answered, showing his own face, but managed to slap his disguise on first thing when he realized who was on the device.

  At the start the attractive woman made a face at him, but as soon as his uglier disguise was in place, that smoothed into a smile.

  "Is that what you really look like? It is a bit much. This is a lot better." It was a strange way to say hello, but it meant that even knowing what he really was she was willing to let go of her dislike of that kind of person, if the outer trappings changed.

  "I know, but we get the cards we're dealt, don't you think? Now, how may I help you today?"

  "Just a heads up. I told my Captains to call you directly for landing instructions. I have ten thousand bodies coming through over the next week. We need to get on the same page that way, but they kept calling to ask me about it, now that there's something down there worth seeing." She smiled at him, her face pleased enough to be dumping it all on him.

  "Thanks. I'll... Mark the landing areas somehow. Numbers? I should go get to that." Then he smiled in return, trying not to sound whiny. "Next time I do this, I'm not going to start during a major festival. Not that I really know which port should be next. Any ideas for that?" She was the head of Space Fleet. If anyone knew what to do, it should be her.

  That clearly wasn't wrong.

  "Austra next, since they have a good tech base, and a lot of the fleet is made up of people from there. For some reason people seem to want to go home on leave, if you can imagine that? That will take getting with their government, since you'll need them to reset their missile defense system. Otherwise they'll shoot at us when we go for ice cream. I hate that. Then it's a tossup, between Vagus and Afrak. Both are good places, and we need to get them help. There hasn't been a physical facility built in Soam at all, so that will take longer, and be the hardest one to handle. We won't need much for the Antarctic. Unless you plan to build a city there? We're only going to have one person living there otherwise, and even if she is a Blue, that can't be mentally healthy. That would be the order I want however." Then she sat there, staring at him, and not seeming to think anything too bad about him, from what he could tell.

  So his new face worked for her.

  "I'll take that under advisement. I... Let me set up the numbers first, or colors, and then I'll... I don't know who to get in touch with about Austra, do you?"

  Now she made a real face, which was hard and nearly disgusted seeming.

  "Tim Baker. He's... Well, I can't say that I trust him. A bit of a joker really. In fairness, he, or someone else around him, normally manages to get things done. I have to give him that, but be careful there. Family of yours, but still..."

  Dareg thought he understood. Timon was really great looking. Enough that this woman, given her personal biases couldn't think of him as a good person really. It was still good information. Everyone had told him she didn't like, or trust, men that were too good looking. It was a thing that everyone seemed to understand about her. She still admitted that Timon got things done.

  That was important to understand.

  "I will. With all of you. I mean, immortals? That has to be a trap, doesn't it? The last time we dealt with that sort it didn't really go too well for any of us." It was mean of him to say it that way, but rather than deny it, the woman smiled at him.

  "No doubt about that. If it were me in your place, I wouldn't let us come back without using some of your Truth Amulets on us, just to ensure we had your best interests at heart. That would be your job though, not mine. You should have the first contact with my people in... Fifty minutes. Two large and two small craft in first, for today. Then we'll clear out for the return of everyone else, and start back in again that evening. Do you have a time for when people should arrive? Do we get a parade? I do love a nice parade." She was teasing, but she wasn't wrong. They needed something, which he hadn't planned for at all yet.

  There was no way he could get things done on time.

  Luckily, he didn't need to. Dareg was the port boss, not the King of Noram. No, that job belonged to Richard. Smiling he nodded.

  "I don't know what's planned, but I'll check on it. Let me set things up for you people first. Get in touch if you need me."

  Alice snorted at him a bit, and then gave him a funny look.

  "Just like a man, trying to get me into bed... If I need you?" To her it seemed to be amusing, which was nice to see.

  "Yep. Not this week, of course, for that part. I doubt that I'll get to sleep, much less entertain like that. It's a shame really. I do love sleep. Talk to you later?"

  "Out." Then she was gone, just as the thing in his hand, a bit of white focus stone with glowing words on its surface, buzzed at him again.

  Dareg was a bit surprised, but tabbed the sigil, and was only a bit surprised to see that it was Queen Tiera. He kept walking, trying to work out how to mark the places for people to set down inside an hour.

  "Hello! I was going to call you later. Alice Orange was just suggesting that I do my job or something like that, and find out when people were planning to show up here. I was thinking at about five, tomorrow evening? We have nothing planned so far. I need to get with King Richard on it." He flooded her with enough information that her smile fell for a second, and she went a little wide eyed.

  "I'll set that up on our end. Five in the evening. We'll get in touch first. I was really just reaching out, so you wouldn't think we'd all forgotten you. Tor wanted to do it, but I think you make him a little nervous." She watched him closely enough that he understood what she was doing. It was pretty clear that she was a good bit more attentive than most were.

  Like he was, nearly.

  "I'll try to get in touch with him then? I get it. I'm not thrilled with the idea myself, but not taking action won't help. I can tell him about how Gerent and I are plotting to spend all his coin on a new garden project. That will make him happy I bet." He actually expected a frown, but his Aunt Tiera winked at him, hard.

  "Oh? Are you planning to build up the orchards around the entire Capital finally?"

  "The spaceport for now, but I think that Gerent wants to do the whole thing, if we can get it done. So I'm probably in for a paddling, don't you think?" Not that he really would be. If Tor was upset with him it would either end up with him being cut off, financially, or being killed suddenly in the night.

  Well, that, or just possibly a stern talking to. There really wasn't a good reason to assume that the man was evil yet. He hadn't done anything except be a lot nicer, and more understanding, than Dareg would have really hoped.

  Tiera didn't bother correcting him, or
suggest it was true, either.

  "It needs to be done. We have to start rebuilding the Earth soon. Gerent is in charge of that, but you can help. Now, do you feel loved enough? You do know that we're all here for you, right? I wouldn't just hop on and off like this, but I noticed that you've been walking the whole time. That speaks of a busy person."

  "I'm off to try and mark the different landing areas. I need paint, or something. Brilliant lights? I don't know if they could be seen well enough during the day?"

  "That last one. Color code things. We do that here, so people are used to it already. I think the lights that Tor gave you will work, and it will be faster than running into the city to a chemist for the paint. I don't think Tam's little makers can do that one."

  It made sense, so, as he moved walking with a purpose, Dare started to flag down the dirt children in their plain brown outfits, and the brightly colored red and blue Space Fleet people.

  Then, trying to talk to Tiera as he moved, he tried to get even more of them around.

  "Thanks Tiera. I mean, Queen Tiera. I'll do that. Not to be annoying, but I should get on that. We have two large fleet ships and two small coming in a bit." That was spoken loudly, so that the guards would at least understand it.

  "Stay in touch, Dareg. You have family now. We're here for you." Then the thing went back to its normal color of pale white focus stone. The words on it were stable and didn't move, and given what he was doing at the moment, it was just the main list of names of people to get in touch with. There were a lot of them, making the list a bit unwieldy.

  It took about twenty minutes to get everyone to help change the lights for the entire port, so there were four big landing places and ten smaller ones. Not that even the little ones were tiny, being about the footprint of one of the large palaces at full size. The first of the fleet people to call was a woman, who spoke with a clipped accent.

  "This is Captain Willet, of The Hold. Calling to request landing at the Noram Capital Spaceport, if that's allowable, sir?" Her voice was calm and commanding, but not rude. If anything there was a tiny bit of nervousness in it.

  "Permission granted. Please come in straight down, ten miles to the east of the port. Then move over at about two thousand feet and land in the blue section. That's the upper left hand corner, and is marked in blue lights, around the outer edge. If anything goes wrong, please freeze in place. That's the general rule if things are going sideways. When you leave its just up two thousand, go ten miles to the west and straight up." It seemed simple enough to him, but he was required to go over it again several times.

  The funny thing was the nervous woman seemed happy to hear about all his made up rules.

  "I'm on plan then. We should be incoming in... Twenty minutes, give or take ten."

  The second call came in just as The Hold settled into the right spot, stable, but floating like a leaf. Slow and with total control, which was brilliant, since the thing was vast on a level that he'd never even considered before. It fit in the landing place, but it was close. There was a good reason that Captain Willet was worried about it.

  The next ship was The Winter's Kiss. That one was nice and small, so was settle into the bottom orange landing spot, making it almost right next to the main row of entertainments.

  After that, it took about an hour for the next two, the last one being a giant orange and red glowing thing that made an impressive skyline he was willing to bet. Close up it just kind of sent a chill down the spine, and left you wondering if it was going to fall on you, even if it looked pretty stable. It was just that huge.

  Before he could do anything at all, the handheld buzzed at him again. This time, instead of a space captain, or the fleet admiral, it was just another Queen. His, this time.

  "Hey, Queen Constance! What can I do for you?"

  She smiled and actually waved at him a bit. It was friendly seeming.

  "Hello, Dareg. I just got information that two mountains have landed at the port?"

  That was pretty close, so he nodded at the woman in the image, making the movement big and playful. She really was a lot closer in skin color to him than not. In a way she even kind of looked a bit like him. Not a lot, but enough that he could at least pretend it was there. "About like that. Space Fleet vessels. Before you ask, yes, I did feel an urge to run away when they started to land. It's... Impressive. This is just the first part, but they aren't all coming at once. Oh, we're expecting the others in at five in the afternoon tomorrow. Do we have anything planned for that? Alice Orange mentioned she loves parades, if you need an idea?"

  Instead of being upset the woman sighed, in a happy fashion.

  "Finally. Yes, we have that set up. We just needed a time for it. Good. I can get with Collette on that. So, the mountains are expected? Richard will be most pleased. There was some fear of invasion, I hear."

  Dareg hadn't thought about that one, but since the people off the small ships had gone right to the baths and Bawdy House, he really doubted that was the case. Unless they were incredibly clever invaders. Getting ready to go into battle clean and satisfied...

  "I think that's not going to be a problem. So, great! I should go and do something else now. I don't know what, but I'm going to bet that someone wants me to do something." Then he snorted. "That's a bit bitter. It isn't like I'm digging ditches. This isn't that hard." Not that it wasn't exhausting in its own way. The truth was that Dare was used to struggling just hard enough to get by. That most often meant he got to sit, and think, or even play.

  Not great games, but he was good at skipping rocks, and fishing. That one had been useful even. This was different. A lot more intense for one thing. Of course that was going to be about how many people were there, most being all kind of clueless as to what was going on. All big events were like that. Not that he'd ever seen anything like what he was looking out with at the moment.

  Then, without saying anything else, after a pause, when the Queen looked away, he tapped the handheld off, ending the call, to run and make the restroom on the western side bigger. He should have done that the day before, but hadn't thought about it. The palaces could be any size, and he'd made them small, and placed toilets on the outside, so that people would get the idea. Now they did. He still let the outside part stand, but cleared the place with some yelling and hand waving, then made it ten times larger, so that there wouldn't be any lines.

  Jogging, Dare went around the edges, and made all of the things he could larger. The houses weren't a thing he could do, since they couldn't be cleared. He did get into Sam Builder's palace, to find that there were about fifteen people in there. Five of them were staff. Led by the girl from the day before, who he waved at. Since he was paying her, a thing she seemed to understand, he had a cool glass of water delivered to him almost instantly.

  "Busy day, sir?"

  "A bit. Who all is here right now? I was thinking we might want to make this a bit bigger?"

  The new head of the servants, who was called the house manager, if only by herself, didn't actually know. They were tall people, in the main, and that was enough for her for the moment. She was merchant class, which meant city sized in the main. For her it meant she was about an inch taller than he was, but not much more. Five-seven or so.

  Her dress was full and warm looking, though it was cool inside the building. Outside it wasn't blistering for the area, but it wasn't really pleasant either. No one was complaining, or passing out from the heat, but it was nicer inside, which meant the lady he'd hired for Sam could lead him to where the large people were sitting, and talking about what they had planned for the week.

  Sara was one of them, along with Commander Derring, her brother David, and Ruel Havar. Kolb was missing, but there were several others there that he just didn't recognize. Looking up at him, Sara waved at her own face. She was sitting, on a very fine looking wood and soft cushioned sofa. No one was near her, though she was in the middle of it.

  Reaching up, he felt the disguise, and smiled.

/>   "I was talking to Alice Orange. She doesn't like my real face. Here..." He tapped the thing off, and suddenly got twice the attention from everyone in the room. All of the ladies turned his way, if subtly, and started to do things like pat their hair, and smile with lowered eyes.

  A few of the men were doing similar things, except for David, who seemed tired, and Ruel who smiled at him and waved a bit.

  "Ah! I didn't recognize you. Good planning. Did it get you out of any work?"

  "Not even a bit. On the interesting side, Queen Constance didn't mention it at all. No one seemed to care either. Maybe I should wear it around all the time?"

  That got a polite laugh from most of the people, as if he weren't serious. Sara waved at the seat next to her, but he shook his head.

  "I was thinking we should make this place bigger. I did the main restrooms, but we just have so many people. I think that almost everyone that's coming in from Harmony will end up here. That, or on the ground outside. Oh! Tomorrow at five. There's a parade, so it will be worth going to it. Everyone is going to be there. I think."

  Sara hopped up, and moved to the inside wall, touching it casually. The air pressure shifted suddenly, but nothing in the room they were in altered. It wasn't until a minute and a half later that she turned to him.

  "That should do it. We can go a little taller, if we need to. Good thinking. Now, there will be a meal here tonight, and you need to be there, to head the table, until Sam gets in. That's at nine, but you need to be there earlier than that. Fancy dress."