Four Tomorrows: A Space Opera Box Set

by James Palmer

  More minutes passed as Edd excavated the mouth, which, it became clear, was a tunnel, an artificial structure build by sentient beings. Abruptly, Edd’s alarm went off, signaling that he had completed his task.

  Omar Batrachian walked into the tunnel of the mouth, which was several yards in length. Ahead, doorways to chambers and hallways branching off from the tunnel were visible. There was an entire complex beneath the head.

  Edd stood silently, short and squat, by the tunnel opening as Omar Batrachian explored the ruins. His information had led him to believe this place might be an abandoned temple of an ancient race, long since extinct. His information, unlike Bal Tabarin’s, was unofficial, as much rumor as fact, as much legend as history. Omar Batrachian made his living investigating such information. Sometimes it didn’t pay off. But sometimes it did. After several hours’ worth of searching the ruined temple, Batrachian found a small room within a room, obviously a place only the highest of priests were allowed. In it was a small stone altar.

  On the altar was a brilliant gem. It had unusual runes across one face, and was brightly lit from within.

  Omar Batrachian smiled a broad smile, his wide mouth nearly splitting his sallow face in half as he did so. He picked up the gem from the stone altar.

  Batrachian studied the gem with his large, goggle-like eyes. It was a piece of the Sacred Heart, he was sure. Batrachian put the gem into a pouch which hung from a strap around his neck. He turned to exit the temple.

  Behind small Omar Batrachian stood a fearsome being with smooth, shiny skin, small, round eyes, and whisker-like fins projecting from his jaws. He said in a soft, grating voice, “I am Chon.”

  20 In Which a Destiny

  Is Chosen

  Young Rebani Kalba gazed in wonder at the old stone buildings of the Brotherhood of Sabours priory on Delucern. It was not so long ago that the planet had been attacked by the Sund, and repairs were still new. Although he had dreamed of it for most of his young life, it was hard for him to believe that he was truly here.

  Like many a boy in the Milky Way, Rebani Kalba dreamed of adventure, but, being a Udehe, a race not know for its lightness or frivolity, his motivation for adventure was not excitement, or fortune or glory, but for justice. The thought of making the galaxy a safer place by punishing those who meant it harm was what motivated by the boy. Still, it was not every Udehe male who sought to become a Sabour, but this is what drove young Rebani. Even at thirteen, he was strong-willed, which sometimes manifested itself as a contrary streak.

  Rebani Kalba was fortunate, therefore, to have passed the initial screening to become a Sabour. This consisted of physical and psychological tests, as well as those determining one’s psionic potential. This last was the most important – as least to the boy – for without psionic ability, he had no hope of becoming a Monitor.

  Monitors were knights errant, of sorts, warrior-priests who had been granted police authority by the Galactic Union, and who traveled the spaceways doing good deeds such as ridding the civilized galaxy of evil-doers. They also performed a number of non-violent duties, such as settling disputes, though, by the time a Monitor became involved, these had a tendency to turn violent as often as not.

  There were, of course, other ways to serve the Brotherhood. The famed Tarsids worked in a number of supporting roles, tending the Sabour facilities throughout the galaxy. But this was not for Rebani Kalba.

  So, the boy’s parents, finding him otherwise uncooperative, sent him to the Brotherhood priory on Delucern, the nearest such facility to the Udehle homeworld.

  Within the year, Rebani met Kos Sideran and his twin sister Eriskaye, who were a year older than the Udehe. Both had the golden-bronze hair of the Telaquat race, thought by many to be one of the most beautiful in the galaxy – though his tended towards gold while hers was more bronze. Rebani, who had only seen holos of the race, had to agree when he saw the pair.

  Rebani and Kos did not become fast friends. Their friendship, such as it was, was always an uneasy one; the Telaquat was bold and emotional while the Udehe was grim and driven. The two found common ground in striving to become a Monitor – and rather delicate dispositions that accompanied such drives.

  Kos Sideran, it turned out, was motivated – like a number of young recruits – by the prospect of glory, and nothing was more important to him that attaining his goal. Rebani felt the same way – until he met the Telaquat’s sister.

  Rebani Kalba, who had never been in love, thought that he loved Eriskaye from the moment he saw her. She, it turned out, felt similarly, and it was not long before a strong, though secret, love blossomed between the two. The need for secrecy was due, Eriskaye explained, to her overprotective brother – which seemed quite plausible, given what Rebani knew about Kos.

  “By Soth!” exclaimed Kos Sideran, his golden hair fluttering around his head like a halo. “What are you doing here – with my sister?”

  It was, in fact, obvious what had been going on, even without the ability to sense emotions, as all Sabours could do, even those who had not yet graduated.

  Gazing levelly at the friend, Rebani answered, “That is my business – and hers.”

  “Eriskaye, go home,” commanded the young woman’s brother.

  When she began to comply, Rebani said, “Wait. You are a woman, or nearly so. The decision is yours.”

  “As the male,” reminded Kos, “I am my sister’s chaperone until such time as she is either betrothed, or she is no longer a minor. She is still a child, and under my dominion.”

  “Then you are both children,” countered the Udehe. It was hard for him to think of his beloved as a child, though, in truth, she was.

  “You are not a Telaquat,” said Kos. “This does not concern you.”

  “It concerns me,” Rebani said in a near snarl. Though not prone to emotion, he now found himself consumed by anger. “I love her and she loves me.”

  Kos Sideran’s black eyes blazed at this pronouncement. “Is this true, Eriskaye?”

  The bronze-haired girl nodded, almost sheepishly. Rebani felt a stab of pain, for he would proudly proclaim his love for Eriskaye to anyone who would listen. Instead, she acted ashamed. But it was not shame that moved her, the Udehe sensed – but fear. Fear of what? Her parents?

  “Go,” commanded Kos Sideran.

  Bowing her head in submission, Eriskaye hurried from the room.

  “You,” announced Kos, pointing an imperious finger at Rebani, “shall never see my sister again.”

  But as determined as Kos Sideran was, Rebani Kalba was even more so, and the affair continued in secret for some time.

  It was not the first such talk that they had had, nor would it be the last. Rebani and Eriskaye often argued over their situation, her refusal, as he saw it, to deal with her brother ... her parents, whatever it was that prevented her from agreeing to marry him, although she wanted to. She said so and the Udehe sensed her sincerity.

  Although Rebani might have been capable of piercing whatever was holding her back by probing her mind, he did not. He did not want to break the trust that had built up over their years of secret love.

  Finally, five years after they had met, Eriskaye Sideran agreed to marry Rebani Kalba. And then, shortly before the Udehe was to graduate, he received the news of his beloved’s death.

  The first thing Rebani did when he was released from the hospital on Telaquine was to go to the Sideran house. He believed – hoped – that he and Kos might share their grief ... repair their broken friendship, which had ended that day that Kos had caught the Udehe with his sister.

  Kept waiting by a servant, he was finally met by the young Telaquat Monitor, who had returned to his homeworld for his sister’s funeral. “You are not welcome here,” announced the golden-haired young man.

  Rebani couldn’t believe his ears. “What?”

  “Begone,” commanded Kos. “Or I shall make you leave.”

  “You cold-hearted bastard,” cried Rebani. “I loved her, too.”
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  “You stole her from me,” Kos said hotly, stepping out into the street.

  Unable to control himself, Rebani attacked the older young man. The two fought in the street, evenly matched. Finally, local authorities had to separate the two, and with nothing else to do, Rebani Kalba returned to Delucern.

  Sometimes, an unhealed wound festers. So it was with Kos Sideran. Following the death of his sister, unable to overcome the grief, the Telaquat went red – rogue, renegade ... evil. After Rebani Kalba’s mentor Vagram Ysdrene was killed on Trucar and he was made a full Monitor, he chose to find his former friend and confront him.

  Determined to save him or destroy him, Rebani found himself unable to do either. Kos had no such compunctions about killing a former friend, and the twenty-five year-old Udehe barely escaped with his life.

  With renewed determination, Rebani caught up to Kos again four years later.

  “The first time we met in combat,” said the grim-faced Monitor, “you faced a young Monitor who had just lost his master. You bested me, but only just. The second time, you fled like the coward you are. This shall be our last meeting. This day, you shall pay for the murder of your sister Eriskaye.”

  Kos Sideran’s fine features twisted in amusement at the Udehe’s obvious pain. Even now, ten years after the fact, he still winced at speaking Eriskaye’s name.

  “You stole her from me,” spat the Telaquat renegade. “She was my sister – she belonged to me.

  “And you wanted to take her away.”

  The two circled one another, looking for some sign of weakness. Neither found any. Rebani, searching his former friend’s mind, found it blocked. He was so startled that his feeling showed upon his stony countenance.

  Kos smiled. “So you’ve found out my little secret, eh? A gift from the Order of Sund ... the ability to conceal emotions and thoughts. Not unlike that of the Brotherhood’s Tusha.”

  Rebani Kalba was astonished. This ability was known only to the most disciplined adepts, such as those who joined the Brotherhood’s intelligence unit.

  Before he could recover his composure, Kos struck, landing a blow in the Udehe’s gut. Rebani doubled over. The Telaquat followed this with a low kick intended to knock the Monitor’s feet out from under him and send him to the floor – where he would be at the red Sabour’s mercy. But the foot did not find its mark. Rebani had toppled backwards, rolling away to come up on his feet, balanced like a cat.

  The grim Udehe blanked his mind, let his training take over. Initiates began martial training – kamerat, the fighting style of the Noghrin race – their first day at a priory. It became second nature to Monitors – as was intended, for any fighter who had to think about his next move was too slow, and the penalty for such languor in combat was death. He had to react instinctively, as part of the complex pattern of existence, not as an outside observer.

  Rebani Kalba did that now. He had known that in an even match, he would best Kos Sideran – Kos Sideran, who had abandoned his training before it was over; he had, in fact, missed out on the advanced combat training that Pages underwent on their way to becoming a Monitor, training so rigorous that not all Pages completed it. Rebani Kalba had. The Udehe had five years of this training that Kos did not. The outcome of their battle was a foregone conclusion, after Rebani had stripped away the Telaquat’s tricks and traps, leaving only two fighters to face one another.

  The blows rained back and forth, Rebani landing more – and more damaging ones – until finally, the Udehe emerged victorious. But he felt no joy, only sadness that Kos’ madness had cost him the woman he loved and his best friend.

  Rebani Kalba wept at his loss.

  She was a ghost from the past, the young woman who called herself Nidri, whom Rebani encountered in a saloon on Paradan, in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. With red-gold hair, she was like Eriskaye in so many ways, particularly her appearance.

  But Nidri was no simulacrum. She was not Eriskaye’s twin. Nidri could have been her daughter, if Eriskaye had lived – Rebani’s daughter.

  At thirty-nine, Rebani Kalba had given up foolish notions of love and family, resigning himself to a life alone, an exciting and dangerous life of duty. He had not even taken a page, as was the custom for a Monitor of his age. Although he would never admit it aloud, this was at least partly because he was afraid that he would fail at the task. Certainly, he was unprepared for the feelings which the girl stirred up in him, feelings that Rebani did not understand.

  Nidri, for her part, was as taken aback as the Sabour – for different reasons. “I have never seen you before,” Nidri had said upon finding Rebani staring at her. “Yet you don’t seem the type to ogle women.”

  Standing and bowing curtly, the Sabour said, “Pardon me. We have not met. You remind me of a woman I knew ... long ago.”

  Nidri, being a saloon girl, had undoubtedly heard this before, Rebani realized even as he uttered the words. “I shall trouble you no more.”

  A knowing smile from the girl confirmed this hypothesis.

  Apparently intrigued by the stranger’s manner, Nidri said, “Don’t give up so easily.”

  “You misunderstand me,” Rebani stated flatly.

  “Oh?” asked Nidri, one delicate eyebrow rising in curiosity.

  “I do not lie,” said the Sabour. “And as I said, I will trouble you no more.” And yet, he found that he could not keep his eyes off the beautiful girl.

  Rebani found Nidri’s emotions as turbulent as his own. She was interested in him, yet something held her back. Her own past, perhaps? What was she hiding? The Sabour found his own feelings hampering his attempts to reader her better. Still, she intrigued him. Taking her continued presence as an invitation, he said, “May I buy you a drink ... or a meal?” He thought the girl was on the thin side – another trait she shared with the Udehe’s lost love.

  Again, the eyebrow arched.

  The Sabour spread his arms expansively. “I mean you no ill, I assure you.”

  Nidri laughed at this, as if it was the furthest thing from her mind. The laugh was like tinkling of tiny bells. “I didn’t take you for that type.”

  “What type is that?”

  “The type to casually pick up women in saloons,” Nidri answered. “I’m usually a good judge of character.”

  “I’m not,” said Rebani, a touch of petulance in his voice. “I am a Sabour.”

  “Oh?” said Nidri with a pleasant smile. “I have never met a Sabour before.”

  Again, turbulence. The girl had spoken the truth, but there was a ripple of deception with it. Perhaps she had seen a Sabour, without having been introduced to him. The thought perplexed Rebani.

  Gesturing to one of the unoccupied seats at his table, the Sabour suggested, “Then by all means, please be seated.”

  With a smile, Nidri seated herself.

  In the days that followed, the two were inseparable. Rebani found himself feeling emotions he believed himself incapable of, while Nidri seemed fascinated by the Udehe. He sensed in her a deep desire to understand him. It was not sexual attraction, but something else. But every time Rebani pondered the girl’s feelings, he found himself distracted by his growing fondness for her.

  It was not long before Nidri invited herself to Rebani’s quarters, in one of Paradan’s many hotels surrounding the planet’s spaceport. Guessing the girl’s intent, he told her, “I ... am not ... accustomed to such forwardness in women. I – ”

  “I understand,” answered Nidri, cutting him off with a gentle smile. “This isn’t what you think. I want to discuss something with you in private. I have something to tell you ... a secret.”

  This, Rebani sensed, was the truth. Yet there was still something deceptive about her words. She was, of course, hiding something, but that was the way with secrets. Still, there was something else – what?

  The hotel at which Rebani Kalba had headquartered himself was of a class that no eyebrows raised upon seeing a young woman accompany a man into the establishment. But
the place was by no means ostentatious. The Sabours lived by a code: Take what you need; give what you can.

  And so, the two made their way to the Sabour’s suite without incident. Upon arriving there, Nidri set her bag upon the table.

  “Now,” said Rebani, “what is it you wish to tell me?”

  Nidri’s response was a light kiss on his lips. There was affection, of sorts, in the kiss, but no romance. More of a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of finality. Had she come to his room to tell him that she had no further interest in him? No – he still sensed that. Behind this was a dark, negative emotion – powerful but vague, hidden.

  Rebani suddenly realized that Nidri had some method of masking her emotions! This was why he’d had such a difficult time divining her true feelings, not only because of his own turbulent emotions.

  Members of Tusha, the Brotherhood’s intelligence unit, possessed the ability, and there existed rare technology, believed lost, to hide emotions, but this was not the latter, and Nidri was no Sabour – nor evil. That, he felt, she could not have hidden. Rebani had never encountered anything like it in his twenty years as a field agent of the Brotherhood. Then, he realized, once ….

  “What is your connection to Kos Sideran?!” demanded the Sabour.

  Nidri laughed. This time, it did not sound like the pleasant ringing of bells, but rather, the sharp, grating noise of two knives being run against one another in preparation of slaughtering an animal. “I am my father’s daughter.”