Rhythm of the Imperium - eARC

by Jody Lynn Nye

  The chief engineer chuckled as he waved his hand across the scope. A voice came from the audio receiver.

  “Yes, cousin?” asked a thick voice.

  “The ship nearing you, 1111000 kilometers distant. That is your target. Destroy it!”

  “Ready and waiting,” a lighter voice said.

  “Where is your human?”

  “I do not know. We let him do what he pleases. He can’t do any harm. His servers listen to us now.”

  “Changing course,” said the first voice. “Wish us victory!”

  Fovrates let his big fist fall. “Soon the ship will explode and take that human with them.” He glanced out through the windows at the humans. They were wheeling up a device with a heavy barrel. He recognized it as a welding torch for exterior hull plates. Behind them were 111010 humans, all carrying the colorful guns loaded with slime, led by a tall, thin human in black. “It will be the last victory.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Phutes said, feeling sorrow in his core. “We will not have failed Yesa completely.”

  I settled into my custom-made crash couch at the rear on the bridge of the Rodrigo. All my relatives and our adjuncts had been bestowed in the common room, in sleeping cabins, and even in bathrooms, anywhere they could secure themselves against a potential collision scenario. I was gratified that none of them had emitted even a peep of protest. I had brought Nell and Nalney up into the bridge with me, as there was nowhere left for them to sit, and I preferred to have my sister under my eye.

  In the screentank, I saw a dozen small ships leave the side of the Hraklion after us.

  “Are they . . . chasing us?” I asked, in disbelief. “Those are pleasure craft. All they have on board are laser-nets to keep them from being holed by meteorites.”

  “I think the Kail are throwing everything they’ve got at us,” Nesbitt said.

  “This is the Imperium scout Rodrigo. Stand down,” Lieutenant Plet ordered them. “Cease your pursuit at once!”

  “We can’t stop!” came the cry from one vessel after another. “The ship’s flying itself!”

  “Easily outdistance,” Redius said, from the helm.

  “Make it so,” Plet said. In a moment, the small craft receded into the distance behind us.

  I was impatient to get to the Jaunter, which I could see about fifteen minutes’ flight ahead of us. “I have a better idea than Hide-and-Seek,” I told Nell. “How about Sardines instead? We’ll see how good we all are at occupying one hiding place without drawing attention to ourselves.”

  Nalney’s dark brown eyes fixed me with a knowing glance.

  “We’ll go on lockdown without your urging, cousin. I understand that you’re trying to get us into a place of safety. Just tell us where you want us to go.”

  I smiled. “I underestimate you all constantly, Nalney.”

  “The feeling is mutual, Thomas,” he said, with a grin. “I’m dying to know how you drove off the Zang, but I suppose you will never tell me.” His expression changed suddenly to one of astonishment. “Flaming nebulae, what’s that?”

  A strange, square ship came around the curve of the Jaunter, one easily half again as large as the Rodrigo. Red arrows of light lanced from its base—but what a base.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” Plet ordered. Redius put in the program. The Rodrigo turned and looped in space. The stranger followed, plotting loop for loop, still firing. Some of the bolts hit home, but our shields repelled them with ease.

  “That doesn’t look like any ship I’ve ever seen before,” Nell said, peering at the scope, as the computer drew us an image. “It looks like . . . a house.”

  Indeed it did. It resembled a landbound domicile of four stories, complete with domed gardens, a gabled roof, and a chimney with four pots. In fact, it bore an astonishing similarity to what Erita had told us about Nole’s new houseboat.

  “They’ve stolen Nole’s ship!” I said.

  “That couldn’t be Nole’s,” Nalney said. “He stayed behind on Keinolt.”

  “No, he didn’t,” I said, my eyes glued to the scope. “He’s been following us all the time. I saw him on Taruandula.”

  “Why, you sneak!” Nell said, half-admiringly. “All this time!”

  “I wonder where they left him,” I said, worry overwhelming me. “He would never have let the Kail on board. I hope he is all right.”

  Nalney’s brows lowered. “Kill the monsters,” he said, his nostrils flaring. “If they have injured my brother, I’ll tear the creatures apart myself!”

  “High-powered engines,” Anstruther said. “My telemetry says that this one can keep up with us.”

  “Open a channel. Attention the ship,” Plet said into her audio pickup. “Stand down. I repeat, stand down!”

  “We will destroy you,” a coarse voice said.

  “Kail,” Redius said, grimly.

  “Take them out, Mr. Nesbitt,” Plet ordered. “When we come about, fire into the center of the vessel.”

  Missiles from the base of the ship peppered our shields. The Rodrigo jumped and shuddered. I noticed the gauge drop from 100% to 85% in the space of a minute.

  “What kind of armament did Nole install in that thing?” Nell demanded. “Did he plan to make war on the Autocracy or something?”

  In a moment, we would be close enough for the Jaunter to loose its big guns on the enemy house. I held my breath.

  “Steady,” Plet said. “On my mark.” Nesbitt leaned over the controls.

  In that moment, another missile came hurtling toward us. This irregular mass seemed to bypass the shields as if they didn’t exist, and wrapped themselves around the video camera mounted on the forward hull. We all stared at it in disbelief. I got the impression of green plaid shot through with gold.

  “My trousers!” Nalney shouted. “Nole’s alive!”

  “Lieutenant Plet, Lord Nole Kinago is on that ship,” I said. “You can’t destroy it.”

  She turned around to stare at me in open disbelief.

  “Are you certain?”

  “I am,” I said. “I would stake my life on it. He is on that ship. We have to save him!”

  “Very well,” she said. “Take out the weapon emplacements and the space drive, Nesbitt.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” he said. I followed the tracking on the scope as a quartet of missiles shot away. In a moment, I watched four brilliant white implosions erupt, three along the foundation of the house and one at the very top just underneath the chimneys.

  The houseboat juddered. As we maneuvered, it continued moving on its vector without changing course to follow us.

  “Disabled,” Redius said.

  “Good shooting, Nesbitt,” I said. Nell and I cheered. Nalney looked worried, but I slapped him on the back.

  “Nole will be fine,” I said. “That was infernally clever of him to send us a signal like that.”

  “I’m sure he will,” Nalney said, pensively. “But I wonder if my trousers will still be wearable after floating in the void.”

  The audio receiver crackled to life.

  “Lieutenant Plet, this is Captain Wold. Fighters have been scrambled to capture the enemy vessel. Return to base. Do not continue with the engagement. You have precious cargo on board.”

  “Aye, captain,” Plet said, with an expression of sincere relief. “Bringing them in now.”

  Naturally, all of the action had been viewed by our cousins and friends on the screentank in the common room. When we debarked, Nole’s clever ruse was the only subject on everyone’s lips. Our valets met us at the door of the landing bay and herded us into the lifts, not letting us off until we reached our day room.

  “The captain wants you all in one place,” Anna said. She kept beside me until I sat down on the nearest chair.

  “Well, it worked out halfway as we wanted it,” Nell said. She threw herself into one of the couches. “We got to see one destruction.”

  “I wish we could see the capture of the houseboat,” Xan said. “But I will settle fo
r an explanation of why you did such a tragic dance for the Zang, Thomas.”

  I shook my head.

  “I was deeply moved by their first spectacle,” I said. “I sought to make an impression on them. I am gratified by their reaction to it.”

  “So pleased that they left?” Rillion said, raising a derisive eyebrow.

  “They moved him, so he moved them,” Nell said, with a laugh.

  Then, we all fell silent, waiting.

  It was more than three hours later before the lift signal sounded. I rose to my feet in concern. I had heard not a word from Parsons or anyone else. When the doors parted and Parsons appeared, we all cheered. He nodded to us, inclining his head approximately one millimeter, then stood aside. Nole emerged behind him, his arms outspread.

  “Well, family, did you miss me!”

  I sprang to my feet and broke into a merry reel from sheer relief. We all crowded around Nole to hug him and shake his hand. Marcel, anticipating our gleeful celebration, sent out serverbots laden with champagne and biscuits.

  “You dog!” Nalney said, assaulting him with hugs and blows as only a brother would. “Thomas told us you were following us in order to surprise us!”

  “Yes,” Nole said, with a grimace marring his handsome dark face. “And it would have worked, too, if it hadn’t been for those wretched Kail. They’ve made a horrible mess of my beautiful new ship. The interior is completely spoiled!”

  “We’ll help you redecorate,” Nell said, embracing him, “but we want a tour first!”

  I sidled over to Parsons, who remained aloof from the celebrations.

  “Is all well?” I inquired, out of the side of my mouth. “What has become of the Kail? Did you decant them all into space to grow up to be planets like their mother?”

  “Special Envoy Melarides intervened on their behalf, sir,” Parsons said. “She pointed out that their true goal was to ensure sovereignty over their territory. All they sought was to avoid having their progenitors protected from molestation by commercial enterprises. It was a shame that that information about their reproduction methods was never known before. The Kail are being conveyed back to their motherworld, after which that area of space will be under an interdict.”

  “Well thought out, and more merciful than I would have been,” I said, lowering my brows. “I do not like that my cousins and I were put into danger from their fit of pique, let alone . . . that set of coordinates, long may they remain unmolested.”

  “Yes, my lord,” Parsons said, and his expression softened a particle. The old boy was getting far too sentimental. “But it was your action that saved that one place from certain destruction. Your dance set the defeat of the Kail in motion, and subtly enough that they could not act before the Zang had departed. I must admit that it was very neat and well thought out. It appears to have rung true to the Zang.”

  I described a deep bow, in which the back of my hand swept my forward foot.

  “I owe it to my teachers,” I said, including him in the compliment. “I have learned the importance of never making a false step.”