The Valkyries of Andromeda

by Lindsay Peet

EPILOGUE

  Revelations and Confusions

  As usual, I found the Commandant seated behind his enormous desk, and both were immac-ulate. “Agent Daskal, I imagine you’ve had an interesting few weeks since last we spoke. Report on your assignment.”

  ‘Few weeks’? It must have been longer than that! I’d had a lifetime full of adventure since I’d been in that office last! But I could wonder at time’s relativities later – now I had to report. “I made contact with both parties trying to obtain the treasure. Using support from one and information from the other I found the treasure, which turned out to be two great rubbery balls. Then, to keep the treasure from falling into the hands of the more wealthy and powerful party, I enlisted the support of Wanliet, the grizzled prospector who had started the speculation with his maps of the area, and who knew something of their legend.

  “When fleeing from my sponsor, who turned out to be Basoolah – yes, that Basoolah --, we ‘jumped’ onto a planet that is apparently outside the Empire. This planet, which the natives call Caliuga, was first settled some hundreds of years ago when part of a pilgrim caravan got lost. Since then, others have arrived, also lost, and settled down. Caliuga is fertile and temperate, and the colonists seem to be thriving.

  “There we were mistaken for envoys from the Empire, and toured the planet in that role. The Caliugans were mostly very eager to re-join the Empire, excepting one group of fugitive outlaws which had established what they called the Planetary Union, and was assuming the roles, including taxation and security, which are usually the Empire’s exclusively.

  “Our arrival precipitated convulsive change on Caliuga. A religious revival welled up, and the Planetary Union made efforts to force the remaining colonies to join the Union. I left Caliuga before the final results of those efforts could be known.

  “I also learned something of what the treasure balls were about. They apparently allow one to jump in space, merely by visualizing where you want to be. Wanliet figured that out, I don’t know how, and he’s disappeared again. The balls we buried where we found them, as that seemed a safe place. I saw no way to keep them safe on my ship, with Basoolah after me and knowledge of their existence and power bound to spread.”

  The room was silent as the Commandant considered my report. “Tell me more about Caliuga, as they call it. The various colonies – they get along? They have distinct characteristics?”

  That was strange. I’d expected more questions about the treasure that had started the assignment and the whole adventure, maybe even a reprimand for not bringing them in; for me, Caliuga was just a place outside the realm of normal where crazy stuff had happened. “Yes, Commandant, I understand there are over thirty settlements on Caliuga, and each one we visited seemed to prosper, and exist for the most part in harmony with others. Excepting, of course, Solip City, which founded the Planetary Union.”

  “And each was filling a role, fitting into a larger planet-wide social fabric?” he continued.

  “Yes, sir, so it seemed. Sir, if you’d like, I can return to Caliuga and report further. Our ship eventually figured out the co-ordinates, so I can jump there.” No telling how Sirah would take that – or the Planetary Union, for that matter.

  “So you might think. In fact, Daskal, you can’t return, even with your co-ordinates. Odd, isn’t it, we equip you with the best mastoid translator, a good solid ship, with the best navigation system, and it turns on us.” He shook his head. “You weren’t meant to know the co-ordinates, Daskal. Caliuga is a secret, and must remain so.”

  I was baffled. If Lordano had said this I couldn’t have been more confused. “Sir?” I managed.

  “Caliuga is an experiment, Daskal. The Empire is sclerotic, bound up with its own history and hidebound tradition! The problem with controlling an empire as effectively as we do is that nothing new can grow, experimentation, extinction and rebirth are all frozen, and our society slowly withers within. So, we’ve begun planting seeds in out-of-the-way places. To see what we can see, learn what we can learn, and maybe breathe new life into our society.“

  I thought of Sirah, and Erah, and Chugtallis, and was outraged. “You’re sacrificing these people like rats in an experiment?!”

  “You said yourself they were happy, Daskal. Just because they don’t have the latest rejuvenation processes or entertainments doesn’t mean their existences are empty. The wise urge us to live more simply – here, we’ve made it possible for the Caliugans to do just that. Tell me more about this religious revival.”

  This was far too much to process, so I dropped my filters and just answered. “It seems one or two drugs can be made from native supplies, and they can be used to enhance sexual experiences, and to enhance a sense of community, of non-sexual love. One of my crewmen, Lordano, who we picked up on Mobahey to help with the treasure hunt, claims to have found enlightenment through these, and is kindling the Caliugans deep-seated religious impulses. He’s got quite the little army of devotees calling him ‘Gurjoo.’ I’m not sure what it means, but he’s their religious leader, some kind of prophet, I guess.”

  “And this Gurjoo is opposing the Planetary Union?”

  “Yes, sir, he says they crush people.”

  “Very good! Now, the first Caliugans – they were religious folk, I believe you said.”

  “Yes, they were, but I didn’t say so. How much of this experiment was accidental? How many of these transplants were accidents?”

  “A good experiment has no accidents. Too many variables makes the result too open to interpretation. No, the arrivals were all planned, selected.”

  “Including mine?”

  Another damned smile. Between Lordano and the Commandant I was beginning to feel like the butt of some giant cosmic joke. “Would you like to sit, Daskal? You may.”

  Forgetting propriety, I collapsed in a chair, which fortunately was behind me. “How … how much was real?”

  “Oh, it was all real. You really did what you did, and you really might have died. There really were politics and scheming and dying. And now, you really can’t go back.”

  “What’s to stop me, sir? If I resign, I can return when I want! I have the co-ordinates! I don’t need the damn balls!”

  “And, if you were to set those co-ordinates into your computer, and factor in the additional variables as you would for a normal jump, you’d return to orbit above this planet.”

  I was glad I was sitting. “I can’t jump to Caliuga?”

  “Not now, now that you know the truth. You’d ruin the experiment. We couldn’t allow that. We’ve been getting very promising results from these little planets, and look forward to properly re-invigorating the Empire. We couldn’t very well allow you to go back and contaminate the whole thing, could we? No, Daskal, no ship in the Empire will allow you, or anybody else, to go there, unless we want it to.”

  Monstrosity clambered on the back of monstrosity. “All … all of the colonists arrived because you altered their jump-computers so they’d end up at Caliuga? Their arrivals weren’t accidents, or mistakes, they were all planned? By you?”

  The Commandant looked quite pleased with himself. “By me or my predecessors. Designed into every jump-computer control chip is an Empire security override. Easy enough to trigger if you’ve got the clearance.”

  But the balls, I thought, the balls, whatever they were, the balls weren’t controlled by the stinking Empire, I bet! I still had means to return! The Commandant continued. “And that’s how we knew you returned to Mobahey after Caliuga, so we went and retrieved our treasure. Those balls are fascinating, I can’t imagine where they came from. Wanliet’s to be commended for divining their use, too! It seems there were legends and myths and, maybe, he attuned his intuition to figure them out.” ‘Attuned his intuition’? Had Lordano’s enlightenment been part of this experiment, too? Had any of my adventure not been the result of their carefully calibrated probability vectors? Did I have any free will in this scheme to speak of? Now he was looking more
smug, if possible. I wanted to know more, but didn’t want to know more; sometimes it’s best that your worst fears not be borne out, that you can feed yourself a more palatable tale. “Sir – why did you tell me all this? Surely … surely I didn’t have a ‘need to know’?”

  “Daskal, you’re a good agent. Unseasoned, but with good instincts on the whole. I didn’t want you wasting your time trying to go back. Sirah wouldn’t have you now, anyway, you know. She saw you were trying to escape. As for the Battle of Caliuga City, and the Gurjoo – well, trust me, in the long run everything will turn out for the best.”

  “And Basoolah – he’ll be after your ‘good agent.’ In your little charade I’ve managed to make an enemy of one of the most vindictive and vicious gangsters in the Empire. How will you take care of that?”

  “Unseasoned, I said, but with good instincts, and I appreciate your ability to improvise. You put great stock in surviving, do you not, Daskal? Surely you did not think serving in the Emperor’s Secret Service, even if only occasionally, would leave you with no enemies! It is part of the job! An agent’s measure is taken by the enemies he’s made. And, by the alliances he’s forged. One thing you will learn, should you reach my age, is that vendettas and alliances are two sides of the same coin, and those who play the game longest use that fact to advantage. ‘Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and know the difference between the two is the thickness of a coin.’”

  I couId hear the Valkyries of Andromeda howling at my heels, so I sat there a bit, trying to think of the question I could ask that would embarrass the Commandant, make him share my unease, but realized there was none. His world was so brutally cynical that I could never catch him unsuspecting or innocent.

  Then I tried to think of the question whose answer would make me happy, would help me to fit all this in to a story with a happy ending, but finally had to give up there, too. After the appropriate time I took my leave, humbled and distraught.

  So what, no big deal, eh?

  But this wasn’t over, I knew it wasn’t. Just as Wanliet had answered the call of the treasure balls, so I could hear the balls talking, whispering to me. We’d be together again, somehow, somewhere, somewhen, I just knew it. Until then life had to be lived, I’d have to survive, and maybe Wanliet and I would work together again, maybe I would be together with Sirah once more. How the future would play out even my Commandant didn’t know, but I knew, deep in my gut, that strange days were ahead.

  The End, for Now