The Karasor

by Philip Hamm

  There was a long silence. Kruvak took his place behind Narikin.

  Admiral Yassa stood up and faced them, “Can this be true?” he said, looking at the War Master and then at the little prince beside him.

  “It is no exaggeration,” said Jamadar. “Prince Narikin has proven himself a ranger. Would the same could be said of his younger brother...”

  Titer frowned, “I don’t know what he’s promised you, War Master, but let me remind you that I am the Shōgun’s son and to insult me is to insult him.”

  “You have not served on our ships or fought alongside us, Governor Titer. You have no reputation worthy of our notice.”

  Titer began to grow very red in the face. Before he could order his guards to arrest him, Narikin said, “You were always a bully, Titer. We could have been friends as well as brothers but you chose to be jealous and use your physical strength against me. But I won’t hold that against you. I am glad our father made you a daimyō and I expect your people are missing your leadership. Please don’t let me stop you from returning to your post – I’m sure one of the captains will be more than willing to take you.”

  There was a long silence as Titer considered his position. If Narikin had been on his own, he might have persuaded the captains to disregard him. But Prince Kruvak was too powerful among them to be ignored and the word of a war master was almost as good. The captains wouldn’t follow him now. He had lost and he knew it.

  Titer climbed down from the stage, “Our father will know everything that’s happened here,” he said. “This charade will not go unpunished.”

  “No,” Narikin agreed. “And the sooner you return to Kaishaku, the less painful it will be for you.”

  Titer looked at his brother as though seeing him for the first time. Narikin stared back and the hole in Titer’s confidence widened. With as much dignity as he could muster, he walked out of the room.

  After the doors had closed behind him, Narikin turned to the captains. All of them were on their feet. They lined-up in front of him and bowed.

  “Prince Narikin,” said the admiral. “Please forgive us for our ignorance; we had no idea the Shōgun had sent his heir to serve among us. We did not know he would be a person of quality as well as position.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” Narikin promised.

  “Please take the high seat; we’re at your command.”

  “We have work to do. I believe you have a conference room across the corridor that will be better suited to showing you our evidence and planning our next move. But first, if you could be so kind, Admiral, order our ships back to Sarillon; we are too close to the Taira mandate and I don’t want to see more Pentī lives lost for lack of respect.”

  21 – Takla Makan

  Narikin was summoned back to Pentī Prime as soon as news reached the emperor that three ships had been lost in a fight either between them or, as his letter to his father described, between Pentī and another force. He did not have time to visit Kimidori on his arrival but was ordered to appear before the council on the Takla Makan.

  His formal robes were brought to him by his father but they did not meet. According to Captain Haku, his father was incandescent with rage; another letter, this one from Titer, had informed him of Narikin’s obstinacy and the humiliation he had suffered in front of their most senior commanders.

  No doubt his father was also disappointed his heir hadn’t died on the Kyzyl Mazhalyk, either from the blade of his assassin or when he fell through the deck. But just this once, Narikin was pleased to be a disappointment.

  He entered the hall alone. The heads of the clans were already in their places and Emperor Mizuiro was on his throne. Shōgun Taira had been holding the floor for some time, accusing the Karasor of engineering a war.

  “We will hear evidence from Prince Narikin,” said the Emperor, indicating the cushion in the centre of the room.

  Narikin knelt down and bowed. He could see his father on his right, behind his veil, watching his son without affection. Before he’d left Pentī Prime, before he had become a ranger and served on the Kyzyl Kum, he might have felt intimidated. But he had a point to prove and the backing of captains and war masters; he didn’t care what his father thought of him anymore.

  “We have been discussing Captain Uigur’s conduct in this matter; how do you explain his behaviour?”

  “We will never know the absolute truth, Your Majesty. Everyone was lost aboard the Kyzyl Mazhalyk.”

  “A great loss,” said the Emperor. “But why do you think he took the ship to the Scarp Rock, in the Taira mandate?”

  “He may have been in pursuit of the phantom ships. He may have been coerced, just as we were, into becoming part of the plot to cause a rift between our clans.”

  “Your father mentioned these ships and we understand there is circumstantial evidence of their existence, but Shōgun Taira refuses to believe an outside force was involved. He says the Kyzyl Mazhalyk was defeated by the Gory Kamen and the Kyzyl Kum destroyed her and the Aykhal in revenge. He says the photographs are fake and the object found on the Kyzyl Mazhalyk means nothing.”

  “I am sure Shōgun Taira has his opinion but the facts are these: the weapon used against our ships is Zarktek in design and I am witness to its destructive power.”

  The silence in the hall was absolute except for a slight tinkling as heads turned towards the emperor and the beads of their veils shook. “I am sure Shōgun Taira is not implying that you are a liar, Prince Narikin, but is it possible that you are mistaken? Perhaps you are being manipulated by forces inside the Karasor clan that may have deceived you as to the true nature of the threat?”

  “I do not believe so, sir. I took the pictures that Shōgun Taira believes are fake. I found and matched the evidence of the giant insects that killed the people of Tenrec with the limb I found on the Kyzyl Mazhalyk. I saw the phantom ship, with my own eyes, and discovered it was hunting us on the Meros.”

  “Why did it not attack you?”

  “The weapon requires close-proximity to the target, sir. They may have been waiting for a better opportunity or, as we believe, they needed us in the vicinity as scapegoats for the Taira to blame.”

  “If you knew this, why did Prince Kruvak order the Kyzyl Kum to Larret rather than return to Sarillon?”

  “As far as we were aware, without the Kyzyl Mazhalyk, Sarillon was undefended and there was no help to be had there. By this time, the phantom ship shadowing us had been joined by another and apart from the main weapon, we had no idea what other capabilities it might have. We had no idea my half-brother, Titer, was already crossing the Meros to give us aid. We thought we would find help in the Larret system and didn’t expect the Aykhal to attack us before we had time to explain. We also believed, if the Taira saw the phantom ships, they would know it wasn’t us who destroyed the Gory Kamen.”

  “But they didn’t see these ‘phantoms’, did they?”

  “We realised, too late, that they had manipulated us into a conflict with the Aykhal and its escorts. They did not enter the Larret system but lay in wait for when we were chased out and then took the opportunity of attacking the Aykhal when our mines slowed her down.”

  “But you deny it was your mines that caused its fatal destruction...?”

  “They were ordinary disruptor mines, sir; they may have caused the frigate’s Exarch field to warp and throw them off course, but not blow up entirely. Even the Taira must realise this.”

  “It has been noted,” the Emperor admitted. “Though it has also been suggested without your mines, the Aykhal would not have been sufficiently damaged for the attack, or accident, to occur.”

  “It was no accident, sir; I’m sure the nuclear arsenal on the Aykhal was safe and secure before the electromagnetic wave was used on them. They would not have detonated in any other manner unless the captain of the Aykhal was incompetent and I am sure he wasn’t that. His pursuit had been completely professional until our mines deflected his ship from its path.”


  The Emperor paused and then asked, “Where do you believe these ‘phantom’ ships originate?”

  “I do not know, Majesty. Their design is unique and without parallel. But I can say for certain they pose a real and very dangerous threat to our ships. They did not show up on our radar and they were difficult to spot on our Exarch detectors. If they are carrying giant insects as well, they are a formidable force.”

  “I admit, when I read your account of these creatures, I did feel slightly sceptical of the link you made between them and these phantom ships. Your evidence was very thin even if your explanation had a certain logic. Can you explain to the council why you are sure it exists?”

  “I cannot,” Narikin confessed. “The remains of the limb we found on the Kyzyl Mazhalyk were highly degraded and without any evidence of bodies, the crew may have been removed from the ship or chosen to abandon it instead. I don’t believe they were taken by the Taira, however, even if that was the case.”

  “But you believe these insects were put on the ship to feed, don’t you?”

  “That is my theory, sir.”

  “Based on what...?”

  “Captain Kruvak’s account of the Podagran ship, Felspar and the genocide on Tenrec.”

  “But according to his witness, the creatures were sent to Variola and apart from a piece of a limb, there’s no reason to connect them with the incidents on the Meros, is there?”

  “Your Majesty, as War Master Jamadar says in one of his poems, ‘whomever the unsheathed sword points at is the enemy’. With or without these monsters, our ships were deliberately targeted and destroyed. War exists between us and these phantoms whether the Taira believe us or not. If the genocide on Tenrec is intended for our colonies too, it only makes sense that a rift between Karasor and Taira would make it easier for our enemies to accomplish their goal.”

  “I am inclined to believe you,” said the Emperor.

  Shōgun Taira showed his irritation by moving in his seat. But he had to obey the rules; he’d had his chance to speak and now the Emperor was going to pass his judgement.

  Narikin stayed where he was.

  “I do not believe clan Karasor attacked the Gory Kamen with the intention of starting a war with the Taira,” he said. “I do not believe they were involved in its demise but tried to help her. The photographic evidence we have seen proves the crew of the Kyzyl Kum acted out of compassion when they boarded her but they found nobody left alive. If they had intended otherwise, I don’t believe they would have stayed in the location. According to your own report, Shōgun Taira, there was nothing taken from the ship; this was not a raid by Kruvak, despite his old reputation, but a genuine attempt to record the horror of the weapon that had been used against them and their own ship, the Kyzyl Mazhalyk.

  “Secondly, it is apparent we do not have enough evidence of these ‘phantom’ ships. Despite the misguided attempt by Prince Kruvak and his crew to present that evidence to the Taira at Larret, they failed and another ship was lost. It is imperative we discover their origin and ensure they cease to be a threat to us. I charge Prince Kruvak and the ranger fleet with the task of hunting down these phantoms and eliminating them.

  “Thirdly, it is obvious from the photographic evidence of Tenrec that our colonies in the Third Sphere are facing a new and very dangerous threat from quasi-alien insects being bred in the north. I now charge the Taira with the duty of bolstering our defences rather than running them down. We will not abandon them or our empire.”

  Both his father and Shōgun Taira were half out of the chairs, desperate to speak, but the emperor waved them down. “This is my final word,” he said. “There will be no more conflict between clan Taira and clan Karasor; your separate duties are clear and you will co-operate where necessary to face the threats of the future. If the next hundred years of war have started, if the Zarktek have truly returned, we will face them as Pentī and put our differences aside.”

  Narikin felt over-whelming relief. He bowed to the floor and saw the other leaders of the clans kneeling too.

  “Now, I would speak with Prince Narikin alone,” said the Emperor.

  Narikin heard them leaving and even before the doors were closed, he heard Shōgun Taira shouting for his barge. He doubted if the Emperor’s words would sink very far but at least if aid was asked, both sides were now legally obliged to give it.

  When they were on their own, Emperor Mizuiro took off his veil and told Narikin to do the same.

  “You have changed,” he smiled. “You would never have been able to stand up to my questions without hesitation in your voice before, but you spoke well.”

  “Thank you, sir; I have experienced so many things in the short time I have been away that it is almost as though I now lead a second life.”

  “And what do you intend to do with this ‘second life’?”

  “I don’t know, sir; now I’m back on Pentī Prime, I’m not sure my father will let me leave again.”

  “What would be your choice?”

  “I would like to return to the Kyzyl Kum and help my cousin find and destroy those phantom ships.”

  “I would like you to do the same. You will be wasted on Kimidori. Your father does not need you here and you have used his authority wisely in the Third Sphere. Prince Kruvak says you are a ‘peace-maker’ and we have use of more like you among our people. I will make you my ambassador too – so you can treat with the Taira and your words will carry weight.”

  “You honour me, sir,” said Narikin, bowing again.

  “Honour belongs to the honourable,” he replied. “Re-join the Kyzyl Kum, Narikin Karasor, ranger-extraordinary, and make us even more proud.”

  Afterword

  Narikin’s story runs parallel with the events in the Platinum Mind series. While Narikin is training, James Stone is studying at the University of Rhyton. When the Kyzyl Kum is attacked by the phantom ships, James Stone has a similar encounter with a black ship in the Cromornan system. While Narikin is trying to resolve the differences between the clans, James Stone is negotiating with the Sagan for an army.

  It was James Stone’s information that took the Kyzyl Kum to Tenrec. He encountered the mantids on Micelle Sanidine’s ship, the Felspar, and was told by one of the crew where they had been bred. He also claimed they were being taken to Variola but he had no proof.

  The damage to the Kara Kum was sustained while Kruvak and Subarsi were trying to bring James Stone to Penti Prime. Though Narikin was unaware of the human’s true origin, he did know his father had accepted, albeit reluctantly, Kruvak’s assurance that he wasn’t Zarktek. The Taira clan’s claim to the contrary, that Stone represented the return of the tsars, was their primary motivation for withdrawing from the Third Sphere.

  The build-up of Taira forces in the Larret system was a direct result of the events happening on Cromorna less than three days away. A Karasor listening post on Jyntee, monitoring the situation, sent reports to Titer describing the increase in military activity. While Narikin’s brother failed to respond, Taira spies intercepted the messages and concluded they represented a significant threat.

  The fact the Taira misinterpreted the actions of the Tun Imperial Navy is symptomatic of their ignorance of the other empires in the Third Sphere and their isolationist attitude – an attitude Narikin was attempting to change.

  PH