by Frank Carey
We entered a room that came right out of a Bavarian ski lodge. Large comfortable chairs were spread around the room while pit fireplaces acted as loci for the weary and cold. Against the wall, two guardians in simple white dresses stood on either side of a buffet filled with delectable-looking local delights. “Please, feel free to eat,” Max said as she waved a hand in the direction of the spread.
My three companions stood up and checked out the food while I chose to take a stroll around the room to examine the antiquities that lined its walls. Shanna would have a field day in here.
“Not hungry, Mr. Jones?” Max asked. I looked over and saw her curled up on a chair like a cat, or maybe, I should say, a hungry mountain lion. Joshua stood next to her in silence, watching me while his ears tracked the others.
“No, I don’t eat much,” I replied as I picked up a sword and spun it. It was real, and its balance was perfect. I wondered how many people were killed or maimed by its razor-sharp edges.
“That sword has never tasted an enemy, if you were wondering,” Max said.
“I heard rumors that some royals could rip out a person’s soul. Can guardians read minds?” I asked.
“Royals have perpetuated many myths about themselves. Tell me, Mr. Jones, what special talents do humans have?” Max purred. Yep, mountain lion.
“Please, call me Hiram. As for special powers, I only know of one. We can violently lash out if pushed too far. The skin of civilization has a tendency to fail catastrophically.”
All four of her eyes crinkled with mirth while her ears randomly flicked. “I shall keep that in mind.”
The others sat down around us with full plates while the two servants handed out beverages. When one tried to hand me something, I waved her off with a smile.
“Nothing to drink, Hiram?” Max asked.
“No. I don’t want to risk my hats suddenly not fitting.”
“Ah, you mean you don’t want to end up improved like Joshua here.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I think it's a great look, but it’s just not me.” I looked at Joshua and decided it was time to stop sparring. “What the hell happened to you, Joshua?”
“I told a little lie and paid the price for the deception.”
Huh?
Max stepped in with a little more information. “We have an interrogation method that dates back to before the arkships left. It involves the use of a gas that renders the subject unable to lie if they're royal.”
“What if they aren’t royal?” I asked.
“If they are non-Venlanten, then they die. If they are non-royal, then they become a guardian.”
I looked at Joshua and chuckled. “Joshua, you lied about being a royal? Why the hell would you do that?”
Before Joshua could reply, Susan explained, “As idiotic as it sounds, having the royal gene opens up doors to Venlantens that are closed to non-royals and non-Venlantens alike. Truth be told, I doubt I’d be on this expedition if it wasn’t for this,” she said as she showed me a heart-shaped tattoo on her shoulder. I looked over at Rex, and he was showing me one just like it on his ankle.
“Are those tattoos?” I asked.
“No, they’re birthmarks. This is a tattoo,” Joshua said showing me his neck.
“My God, all you need is that little mark to own half of Earth?”
“That and a lot of guile,” he admitted. “Literally, I conned my way to the top of the Venlanten pile, marrying a royal woman and fathering a royal child in the process.”
“Does your wife know? Is that why you got divorced?”
“She doesn’t know. We divorced for other reasons.”
“We saw the birthmark and assumed he was a royal, so we misted him. Imagine our surprise when he became one of us,” Max explained.
“I’m surprised you didn’t perform a deep genetic scan on him,” I said, more than a little puzzled. There are several genetic markers for royal lineage. “Wouldn’t that have been a little safer than relying on the presence or absence of a birthmark?”
“What's a genetic scan?” Max asked.
Rex almost choked. While he and the ladies tried to clear his airway, I dealt with the bombshell that was just dropped. “The test isn’t important. It’s just one of those little time savers we came up with. Max, would it be possible to talk to one of your scientists or engineers?”
“Scientist?” she said as she ran the word around in her head in a “Gee, what’s that?” kind of way. “Oh, yes, now I remember. All the scientists, engineers, and scholars were royals, and they left, leaving behind artisans, workers, and warriors. You know, they left behind the important people.”
Now Susan was choking, and I can understand why. I was about to ask something else when another guardian came in and whispered something into Max’s ear. “Oh, hell. A Leader’s work is never finished, I have something to attend to,” she said as she got up and headed to the door with Joshua in tow.
“Max, could Joshua stay a moment? You know, to catch up and all?”
“Of course,” she said. She turned to him and said, “Join me in the Hall when you’re finished.”
“Yes, Leader,” he replied.
Once Max was gone, Joshua dismissed the attendants, leaving the five members of Team Six to discuss matters in private.
“How do you feel, Big Guy?” I asked Joshua as I watched him look around with four eyes. This was going to take some getting used to.
“I am well. The transformation must have been painless since I slept through it.”
“I hate to be indiscreet, but where are all the men? The only guy I've seen is you.” Ruby asked as she munched on something resembling a turkey leg.
“The males are attending to the children. Some are outside while others are in schools found throughout the lower levels. I guess I'm a special case.”
Rex reached over and examined the lower right eye. “What are you seeing right now?”
“You with a halo around you. I think I am seeing your heat signature superimposed on your visual image. I’m also hearing a much wider range of frequencies. It’s amazing.”
“I bet,” I said. “Do you have any idea what happened here after the arkships left?”
“I think the Leader is correct in her statement that the arkships took the scholars, leaving behind the workers and artisans. Listening to others has not been my strong suit until now,” he said as he rubbed his lower left ear. “I have been able to glean some insight into the guardians’ history. They are a hunting/farming society with little dependence on technology and even less understanding of it. They have a book of procedures they follow when something out of the ordinary occurs, which is why I've become one of them.”
“What about the laser staffs?” Rex asked.
“I think they have several warehouses full of them. Broken ones are sent to an automated repair facility run by a centralized computer system, possibly the artificial intelligence that seems to run everything around here. They call her Mykla.”
“Any word on the other teams?” I asked. “We’re damn overdue for a check-in.”
“I don’t know how Max knows this, but all the teams are at a university center under a city near the spaceport. The Tailtiu is on the ground at the port, and team members are using an underground train to travel back and forth between the two locations. I believe the university has not been used for many centuries.”
I glanced at Joshua, and wondered if he had gone heart and mind native on top of taking on the look. I really needed to trust him right now. I briefly closed my eyes and heard nothing from my danger sense. Hopefully, this wasn’t the one time in my long and storied life that it was wrong.
“No tech?” Rex said. “So, what keeps the lights on?”
“I was wondering that myself,” Sue said. “This place is basically a glorified mine, so it needs to pull in fresh air and use it to replace the bad. Then there’s water--Boss, I assume you still drink, right?”
Both Rex and Joshua gave the engineer a sideways
look before shaking their heads in disbelief. “I bet he still does other things as well,” Ruby said as she finished a cake. I have no idea how that girl keeps her girlish figure while putting away all those calories.
“Yes, Ruby. There is no change in intake or output, though one of the other guardians told me I can survive without air for about an hour.”
“Good to know,” I replied. “Rex, you were saying?”
“Oh yeah. Every person in this city needs air, water, waste disposal, cooling, and lighting and all those amenities require power. So, where is all that power coming from?”
“And what about this Mykla AI? If League AIs are any indication, she needs a shit load of power to run,” Sue said.
As if to comment on our discussion, the lights in the room flickered before going out completely. “Did someone forget to pay the power company?” I asked.
“This is unusual. Nothing like this has happened since I woke up,” Joshua observed.
“Anyone have a hand torch?” I asked.
The others shook their heads.
“Great. I really need to talk to our hostess about getting our stuff back,” I commented as the lights returned. “That’s better.”
The door opened followed by Max striding in. She sat down on her chair, and I didn’t need psychic powers to tell she was upset. “What’s up, Max?”
“How many members of your teams are royals?” she asked as her eyes moved about in agitation. I looked at Joshua, and all he could do was shrug. “Assuming no one else was faking it, twelve, including Rex and Sue.”
“And how many of those could repair something called a pulse-fusion power plant?”
We all looked at Joshua. “None. We weren’t expecting a scenario like this,” he replied with a shrug.
Damn! I am such an idiot. “Nancy, the Tailtiu’s Engineer. The ship is powered by three pulse-fusion plants.”
“Is this Nancy a royal?”
“Yes, she’s a cousin of mine,” Sue said. “Her parents are as royal as one can get, but she’s about ten light-years away from them philosophy-wise. Hell, she married a Tralaskan.”
“Hey!” Ruby said.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Sue said as an attempt at unruffling Ruby’s feathers. “You know that.”
“Okay. I just get a little sensitive is all.”
Right, at a little over five feet tall, Ruby could probably take on a dozen Goranthi warriors and not even break out in a sweat. Sensitive my ass.
“Max, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“The underground cities, University, transportation system, and this complex are all powered by a three-thousand-year-old pulse-fusion power plant located on the ocean shore not far from here. The plant is starting to fail. I don’t know what that means, but it has Mykla in a panic.”
“I think it means we need to go see if Nancy can fix it,” I said
“Max, why did you ask about the royals?” Rex asked.
“We’ve tried to access the building, but the gates leading into it are locked solid. The main entryway has a symbol on it, a large red heart like a royal’s birthmark.”
Great, the building is probably secured with a biometric security system. I looked at Joshua and thought immediately about Penny. “Joshua, you're the leader of this expedition. What do you want us to do?”
Joshua rubbed his face in his hands before replying. “Leader, I need to contact my people and see if there is any news about my daughter.”
Max thought for a moment. “Our healers have dealt with many ailments since the day the arkships left. Our approach may be primitive compared to your advanced ways, but we have cured many ailments. Let me offer you this: we will help your people with the search for a cure for what ails them in exchange for your help with the power station.”
“Like Rex, some of our researchers are royals,” Joshua said.
“My people will deal with that issue if yours will. As Hiram said, your people and mine weren't alive then. You might say neither group has a starg in that fight.”
I really need to see a starg before I leave this place. The name sounds so cool.
“Agreed,” Joshua said as he took her hand and shook it. When he finished, she gave him the Venlanten greeting. Damn, I thought two eyes going black were creepy.
“I'll need to contact my people,” he said.
She waved to an attendant. Moments later, four guardians walked in carrying our vests and packs. Joshua retrieved his commlink and made the call. Damn, weren't they going to be surprised?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gail sat back in her chair and fretted. As Head of Security and acting Chairman of Pangaea Corporation, she could delegate, worry, pace, but not fret. She fretted anyway.
“Boss, we’ve got a Priority One message coming in from the Tailtiu. It's marked urgent and for your eyes only.”
“Send it through,” she said as she activated the office’s viewer, setting it to secure mode.
“Hello, Gail,” the creature said in Joshua’s voice. Instinctively, she pulled her weapon from a desk drawer and aimed at the visage before her. “Really?” it asked.
“Who are you, and what have you done with Joshua Ramses?”
The creature looked at her with its four steely-gray eyes as it raised its hand. On the back was the tattoo Joshua had gotten when the two of them were in college. She looked at the back of her hand and saw its twin. “Joshua?” she whispered while placing the gun on the desk.
“In the flesh. How do I look?”
“What happened?”
“My little deception bit me in the ass. How’s Penny?”
“Stable. The docs gave her something that's holding off the syndrome for now, but they’re not sure for how long. What’s your status? How’s the search coming?”
He chuckled at her reaction. “We’re close, real close, and we’ve gotten some help. Listen, I’ve attached a large amount of data to this message that I need you and our lawyers to look over ASAP.”
She looked at the secondary screens on her desk and whistled. “Got it. I’ll start disseminating immediately. When do you think you’ll get back here?”
“I don’t know when the others will be finished, but I’m not coming back.”
“Joshua… “
“We’ll talk more when things calm down here. Saving two planets is time consuming.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“Read the documents, and I'll explain everything as soon as I can. Have I mentioned that you’re the best friend anyone could hope to have?”
Gail had no reply except for the tears beginning to flow.
“I’ve got to go. Joshua out.”
The viewer went black. Gail sat down and stared at the screens in front of her, each filled with data. She took a moment to compose herself before hitting the intercom button.
“Trask, I need the head of Legal in my office right now!”
“Yes ma’am,” Trask replied.
Gail killed the intercom and got down to business.
###
The Head of Law Division arrived with his assistants at Gail's office led by Trask. Just as Trask reached up to knock on the door, the three of them heard a yell from the other side: “Joshua, you moron!”
“Wonderful,” Trask said as he knocked. The big Katalan shook his head and said, “This place never has a dull moment.”
###
Joshua killed the connection to Earth before exiting the communications shack. It’s done and done, he thought as he headed down a nearby gangway.
When he reached the Main Bay, he found Hiram, Shanna, and Taliss waiting for him, while Nancy, the Tailtiu’s Engineer, directed the final loading of the three Ramblers assigned to the trip to the power station.
“How’d Gail take the news?” Hiram asked.
“She took my change surprisingly well, considering. Thankfully, she refrained from opening fire on the viewscreen when I first appeared.”
“And Penny? How’s she doi
ng?” Shanna asked.
“Stable. The treatment they’re giving her seems to be holding the symptoms at bay for now.”
Taliss kept staring at Joshua. Finally, she raised an eyebrow and asked, “And?”
Joshua smiled. “Gail's screams are probably echoing up and down the hallways of Headquarters. She hates being the Head of Security, so being designated Chairman and CEO has probably caused her some consternation.”
“Not to pry, but are you and her, you know…” Hiram asked before Shanna could elbow him in the ribs. “Ow!”
“Wuss,” she said. “Joshua, it’s absolutely none of our…”
“Gail is my step-sister. She’s also a real royal and she knows my secret.”
“Oh,” Hiram said as he stepped out of reach of my elbow.
Nancy walked up while wiping her hands in a red shop rag. “We’re ready, sir,” she said to Joshua. “The other teams have set up shop in the complex and have interfaced with Mykla. The captain is ready to lift-off at your command.”
“Joshua, this ship is incredible,” Max said as she walked down one of the gangways, having finished a tour of the Tailtiu led by the Science Officer. “You must tell me all about it.”
“When I return, Leader. Now, you and the council should debark so we can attend to the power station.”
“You make it sound so routine. I'll go and attend to the search for the cure you came home to find. Good luck, and return safely,” she said as she kissed him. Moments later, she and the council were gone, leaving behind several volunteers who would protect the Earth crew from dangers both seen and unseen.
Joshua nodded, and the ramp was raised and sealed. “Joshua to the Bridge,” he said to the ever-listening intercom system.
“This is the captain.”
“You are clear to proceed to the power plant at best possible speed.”
“Aye, sir,” the captain replied. Moments later the mighty ship shuddered as it took off and headed to its destination.
“Let’s go fix this thing,” Joshua said as he boarded the lead rambler with the others following close behind.
###
Hiram, Nancy, and I sat at the back of Rambler One going over every scrap of information the guardians could supply pertaining to the power station. Most of it dated back to the time of the arkship launches, but Mykla could supply current monitoring data.
