Sector Eight (Perimeter Defense: Book #1)

by Michael Atamanov

  "And why not? I am prepared to apologize to your daughter if I caused her any discomfort. Is she there with you?"

  "Oh, no. It's already late night here. She went to sleep a while ago. Princess Astra will get in touch with you as soon as she's available."

  King Kant bid me farewell and signed off. I continued staring longingly at the tables of calculations and discovered that my recent conversation had totally knocked me out of working condition. Out the window it was late evening, almost night, but I had no desire whatsoever to sleep yet. I poured myself some juice and went out on to the veranda with cup in hand to get a breath of fresh air. With a starry sky overhead, everything was blooming and a pleasant smell was wafting over me. Below, under the cliff, an angry sea roared.

  Bionica came out onto my veranda along a path inlaid with multifaceted stone tiles. The android girl was holding flippers and a breathing apparatus again, but this time she had two of everything.

  "Where are you going off to for the night?" I asked in surprise.

  "I saw that you swim well, Prince Georg. So I decided to suggest that your Highness and I take a night swim together in the lagoon," said the blonde, pointing at the diving masks in her hands.

  "Well, the sea is pretty rough right now." The sound of the waves breaking on the rocks really did give me a certain scare, but Bionica waved it off:

  "The lagoon is surrounded by cliffs and is only connected to the sea by an underwater tunnel, so the water there is always calm. Also, my Prince, after all the strain today, you clearly need to blow off some steam."

  I began looking for a reason to say no, but then suddenly made up my mind. And why not, actually? I had never had the chance to go scuba diving, but Bionica assured me that it wasn't hard at all and was totally safe. The main difference between the equipment here and what I'd seen on Earth was the fact that the oxygen for the diver to breathe wasn't stored in bulky canisters, but was filtered directly from the water by a device that worked like fish gills. One filter pack could last for five hours, which was more than enough for our purposes. I followed the girl up the stone stairway, which was hewn into the cliff. On the way, I asked my personal secretary about the results of the great hunt.

  "Better than we could have expected!" Bionica smirked happily. "By the end of the first day, over three hundred individuals suspected of piracy and drug trafficking had been arrested, now the local criminal police are working them over. Around two hundred palaces and villas built on dirty money have been brought to light. The employees of all banks on the planet have been just racing for the last few hours to check all their clients' accounts. They've frozen criminal assets worth almost a billion and a half credits. Well, and of the three "Kings," Gaspar the Second has already been killed. The head of his own personal guard took him out, thus earning amnesty."

  I mentally applauded myself – a billion and a half had already been found. Half would go to the planet's budget, twenty percent has been promised to the lucky hunters, ten percent goes to Orange House taxes, and another twenty percent goes to me as ruler of Unatari. As soon as all necessary checks have been completed in a few days and all formalities have been observed, I'll be transferred three hundred million credits. Not bad, not bad at all... And then, there'll be auctions to sell the confiscated islands, palaces and other pirate property. I suspect that that will also end in a decent addition to my coffers.

  With these pleasant thoughts, I unexpectedly reached a wooden bridge that brought me up to the very brim of the exceedingly black water. Bionica stopped next to me and started preparing the equipment on the spot. She opened and inserted new catalytic filters into the wide, flat box that attaches to the diver's back, turned some valves and checked the data readers' output. The fact that I wasn't wearing swim trunks suddenly dawned on me. I was wearing underwear, but they weren't exactly made for swimming.

  "My Prince, there's no one around. You can't seriously be embarrassed to be seen by a robot, can you?" Bionica asked in surprise, when I told her about my predicament.

  Yes, it really was stupid. I still couldn't get used to treating my android secretary as a genderless object. I decisively threw down my clothes, put on the mask and attached the filtration box to my back. Bionica helped me tighten the straps, put flippers on my feet and showed me how to use the valves.

  "It's only 25 feet deep here, so it's a good place for a beginner to learn. Let's swim toward the underwater tunnel. There's whole bushes of luminescent seaweed there. It's really beautiful!"

  After these words, the girl put on her mask and fell into the black water back-first. I followed after her. Huh, the water isn't cold at all! The only thing was that I couldn't see my companion under water, despite her neon yellow swimsuit. Fortunately, Bionica quickly turned on a bright flashlight, and I was finally able to get my bearings.

  We swam along the very bottom, which was covered in a layer of minute, colorful shells. I quickly learned the ropes, and soon I was practically leaving the experienced Bionica behind. Finally, the girl turned and pointed with her hand somewhere up ahead. She said something through the mask, but I didn't understand a word. Then she simply turned her flashlight off so I could see for myself – the bottom in front of us was covered in illuminated blue and red spots. We swam up closer and Bionica uncurled a vine from one of the bright submarine plants, demonstrating their illuminated, slightly pulsating vein lines.

  After allowing me a sufficiently long time to stare at this miracle, my companion pointed somewhere in the distance and swam off in that direction. I couldn't do anything but follow after her. It got darker and darker, and I almost lost sight of her, but she was smart enough to turn the flashlight back on. We were next to a vertical cliff at a depth of 15 feet. Bionica flashed the flashlight left and right on the wall and waved her hand, trying to get my attention. A wide crevice went through the cliff, and it was there that the girl was headed, fearlessly squeezing herself between the seaweed covered stones.

  After a bit of wavering, I followed after her. I had to swim forward and up. The space grew smaller. For some time I kept trying to swim, but soon I had no choice but to just stand up, as the depth was now less than 5 feet. My head was above water, and I saw that Bionica had already removed her mask.

  "Welcome to the most authentic pirate cave around!" Bionica said to me.

  She shined her flashlight in all directions, and the walls answered back with thousands of tiny glints. The cave entrance was lost somewhere in the darkness. The air was fresh, clearly having seeped in through cracks in the rocks. I even felt a light cross-breeze.

  "My Prince, come here!" said Bionica, calling me from the darkness.

  I followed her voice, went around a turn in the corridor and stopped. It was a small cave, the sole entrance to which we had just gone through. There was no water here. Under my feet, I heard the crunch of sand mixed with little shells. Bionica shone her flashlight on something big and dark. At first, I didn't understand what it was, until I got closer. It was a treasure chest with bronze plate sides. Oh yeah, we've found the pirate's treasure!

  The girl moved her light aside, and I looked at the folding table from the other side of the cave. On it, there was a dish of fresh fruit, a little cake with candles and a bottle of wine with a pair of glasses.

  "I found this cave yesterday morning, and it has a treasure chest in it," Bionica said, answering my unasked question. "I didn't tell you right away, as not to distract your Highness from the preparations for the ceremony. But it also gave me the opportunity to set up a little surprise to celebrate your success. Phobos and Deimos helped me bring the table and two chairs here. Praying mantises can stay underwater for up to half an hour, so it was no problem for them.”

  I walked up to the treasure chest. It was massive, well-built and had a huge lock hanging from it. Next to it on the sand, there was a key-ring with what looked like either keys or lock picks.

  "Have you opened it yet?" I wondered.

  "Yes, of course," she answered, deftly
opening the lock and throwing back the lid.

  Inside the chest there was gold and silver jewelry, goblets, and chains. Basically, your typical pirate treasure, like you see in picture books.

  "Have you calculated the value of the treasure yet?" I wondered.

  "Um, around half a million, more or less," answered my secretary, fairly carelessly.

  It was this wanton estimation from the normally scrupulously accurate Bionica that was the last straw that finally cleared away my doubts.

  "Eleven percent of the total for your four million eighty thousand credit contract comes to slightly less than half a million. Or did you also put the money you had saved up before coming to work for me in there?"

  The girl lowered her eyes in embarrassment, and her toes squirmed in the sand.

  "No, I basically had no money left when you hired me. But how did you guess, my Prince?"

  I pointed at the treasure chest.

  "It's too theatrical. Of course, I can understand why the pirates in the ancient world did it, but why would a modern pirate store funds in the form of valuable objects like this? It's inconvenient, hard to sell, and it leaves a trail when bought or sold. And also, in such a damp cave, bronze should tarnish fast, so right away it was clear that this chest had been brought in, if not today, then yesterday at the earliest. Not to speak of the fact that it's hard to imagine Velesh the First looking all around and making off into the night with such a huge chest on his humpback."

  Bionica laughed and said seriously:

  "Androids don't need much personal money, so I'll be returning what you spent on my advance, whether you want it or not. You've done a lot for me, Prince, and I really am endlessly grateful to you. Ok, let's forget about the chest. It was a clumsy attempt. But are you going to say no to a late dinner in the company of your robot?"

  "I will not," I smiled. "Yes, and your plan with the chest was quite fun and unusual. I liked it a lot. Thank you!"

  The girl adeptly opened the bottle and very evenly, as if from a burette in a laboratory, poured a thick dark wine into both glasses.

  "To the new ruler of Unatari!" my secretary toasted.

  "And to his wonderful assistant!" I added.

  We clinked glasses loudly and took a drink. The wine was sweet and quite strong, with a distinct note of those berries used to make blue juice on Unatari. While the girl poured us a second round, I turned to the table to try the fruits. When I turned back to my companion, I froze. Bionica had removed her swimsuit and was standing before me naked with two wine glasses in her hands. She was a blindingly beautiful blonde with a flawless body and skin, which was impossible to tell from the genuine article.

  "My Prince, perhaps I’m doing the single most reckless thing I've ever done in my life, but I can’t go on like this. If I cannot express my feelings to you with treasure, let me do it another way. Or order me to lower my humanness level..."

  Bionica went silent mid-sentence, looking downward in my direction. I already knew exactly what she was looking at. And what of it? Doctor Nicosid Brandt had assured me that this would happen one day in the process of curing my crystal addiction. There was no way I could tell the android girl I didn't like her now...

  I took one of the glasses from Bionica's hand, drank the wine in one gulp and took a decisive step toward the robot.

  Black Clouds Gather

  The next morning, it was planned that I would visit the orbital docks or, to be more accurate, what was left of them. But the storm that descended on the island spoiled all my plans. With such strong wind the shuttle pilot refused to take off into the atmosphere, explaining his decision with the fact that it was a space shuttle after all and wasn't rigid enough to be an adequate low-atmosphere plane. I probably could have ordered him to do it, and he would have obeyed, but it occurred to me that this wasn't the right time to be throwing my weight around.

  That was why I spent the morning sitting in a glass-walled room in my new palace, drinking a hot cup of the local coffee-analogue, half-watching the news and observing the chaos going on outside. Trees were being ripped from the soil. It looked as if real waves were running across the tall grass and bushes. Taut strings of rain lashed against the glass. Lightning painted the dark sky shades of pink and orange. An incoming call signal distracted me from the display of nature's rage.

  "My Prince, incoming call from the Tivalle system," said my communications officer.

  I accepted the call and brought up the picture on the big screen.

  "Your Highness, this is Lieutenant Ramon ton Klest speaking, commander of the guard team for the warp beacon and ice harvesting plant in the Tivalle system. We have received the following strange message from the Orange House Capital: ‘Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle shall become the holder of the Tivalle system. Confirm? (yes/no)’”

  "What nonsense is this? Say no immediately! Lieutenant, I give you my permission, and even order you to accompany your 'no' with vulgar commentary! Tell them that the Tivalle system belongs to Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky, and any usurpers can go sit on a... Well, you can write the rest. Use your imagination. If more such messages come in, ignore them!"

  "Will do, my Prince!"

  The lieutenant signed off, and I seriously weighed the issue. What is this incomprehensible fuss going on behind my back? After I was unexpectedly and utterly groundlessly refused the rights to two star systems, someone had just tried to put in for one of them. That put me on alert and even scared me. I ordered a call be made to the commander of the Sigur system warp beacon guard division.

  "Space Corporal Valentin ton Osmun on the line!"

  "Space corporal, I am calling to find out whether a request has come in to you from the Orange House Capital about appointing a sovereign for the system?"

  "Yes sir, my Prince! Such a message just came in now. We haven't had time to answer it yet: ‘Crown Prince Peres royl Paolo ton Mesfelle shall become the sovereign of the Sigur system. Confirm? (yes/no)’”

  "I order you to say no! And write in the comments that the sovereign of your system is the Sector Eight Fleet commander, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky, and usurpers are not welcome! If more of the same messages come in, ignore them. Is that clear, space corporal?"

  "Yes sir, my Prince," he said, freezing for a few seconds, as if thinking about whether it was worth continuing, but then decided to continue nevertheless. "Your Highness, I must tell you about the discovery of an anomaly in the Sigur system. Perhaps it was this very anomaly that served as the scout ships' reason for installing a warp beacon here, in that there are no other objects of interest or planetary bodies suitable for settlement and development."

  "What anomaly exactly?" I wondered aloud before receiving a clear answer from my subject:

  "Approximately every eleven hours and seventeen minutes, the warp beacon from the Forepost-12 system becomes visible for a few minutes. The consistent pattern was noted by us yesterday. My people are studying this strange phenomenon now."

  Geez. That really makes me wonder... I opened the star map of Sector Eight. Forepost-12 is an uninhabited system with an automatic warp beacon that serves as one of the linking nodes between the Swarm, the Kingdom of Fastel and the chameleon home-world. It seems that we have discovered the "back door" out of this dead end, which the pirates may have used to enter Sector Eight space undetected.

  "So then, space corporal, you are to consider this information about the unstable warp beacon a state secret, and you are not to tell anyone about it. I order you to study this consistent pattern and turn off the Sigur system warp beacon while the Forepost-12 beacon is on. We already have enough uninvited guests coming in through the back way. But in general, excellent work!"

  I signed off. So, I had basically succeeded in deflecting the claims of the various Orange House aristocrats on the systems I had conquered from the pirates. All that was left to settle the matter once and for all was to repeat the order to the Hnelle system soldiers not to activate their beacon for anyone other than ships fr
om my fleet, and only after my personal sign-off. And then none of the four systems of the former Brotherhood of the Stars would be accessible to unwanted guests.

  I was not able to finish my conversation with the Hnelle guards before the communications officer told me that the head of the Orange House, Duke Paolo royl Anjer ton Mesfelle, would like to have a talk with me. I sighed laboriously, imagining in advance how hard the forthcoming conversation would be.

  "Georg, what do you think you're doing?!" from the first second, the Duke began to yell at me and I pressed the "End Conversation" button.

  A minute later, he called back.

  "For some reason the call cut off," said the Duke, clearly not having understood what happened.

  "That was me cutting off the call. I don't like it when people raise their voices with me."

  "Georg, what is it? Are you drunk?" the head of the Orange House couldn't believe his ears.

  "Not at all. I just would like to discuss these serious issues without unnecessary emotions or shouting."

  The Duke furrowed his brow, went silent for a few seconds, then continued in a totally normal, business-like tone:

  "What the heck, alright, straight talk. Georg, I will never give you my confirmation for the rights to the Sigur and Tivalle systems. It seems to me that you've already made quite the haul in the systems of the former Brotherhood of the Stars. So, it's time to practice some restraint. You got the captured ships and the Hnelle transportation hub and the rich planet Unatari-VII with all the pirate trophies that came with it. And that is why the remaining two systems will be given to someone else who has also done a lot for the Orange House and has long deserved such a reward."

  "Duke, I will not inquire now what Peres royl Paolo and Sivir ton Mesfelle have done that's so great other than being born your son and nephew. I'll just state the facts: they will not become the rulers of these systems, because I will also never allow the local authorities to give their confirmation of that."