Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  Masako appeared with a click that I hadn’t met before. Its exoskeleton was dark blue and polished to a high sheen.

  ‘Greetings, Admiral, I’m Rapclick,’ the click said. ‘The Council sent me to help you.’

  ‘We appreciate it,’ Blake said. ‘The ship’s nearly out of warp.’

  ‘Colonel Choumali?’ Rapclick said.

  ‘Honoured Click?’

  ‘We need information.’ The click studied me, its twelve faceted eyes – four on each body – gleaming. ‘Can we sneak your cat son onto that ship to find out what their goal is? There are thousands of cats on the ship; he could lose himself easily among them.’

  ‘Much as he’d like to help his brother, it wouldn’t work,’ I said. ‘We tried using him as an infiltration agent before, and it failed spectacularly. They know who he is immediately. His body language is all wrong. He smells wrong. His fur is worn down in the wrong places from wearing non-cat standard clothing. He’s instantly recognisable as a spy, and they can see through the glamour of any dragon who transports him.’

  ‘Very well,’ Rapclick said. ‘Stay with us, you know more about the cats than anyone; you’re mother to one of them. Let’s see if we can’t talk this out.’

  ‘The ship’s fully out of warp,’ Marque said. ‘They’re sending a message.’

  ‘Put it on the table,’ Blake said.

  A small two-dimensional video appeared above the table, and I moved so that I could see it, then recoiled in shock. A cat held my son David restrained in front of it; David’s arms were lifted high behind his back and his face was twisted with pain. There was a dent in the middle of his forehead and I realised with a jolt of dismay that they’d removed his soulstone.

  Another cat stepped in front of the camera. This one was taller than the one holding David, and had black fur. ‘Return all of our ships to our home system or your human soldiers will die,’ it said. ‘We have removed their soulstones and crushed them. Agree with our demands or your people will die the Real Death.’

  ‘We agree to your terms. We will return your ships to their home systems,’ Blake said.

  ‘We are holding thousands of your people – and the evil dragons – hostage,’ the cat said. ‘Agree to take our ships back to our home system, or they will all die.’

  ‘We agree to take you back to your system,’ Blake said, frustrated. ‘Listen to me! We will be happy to transport you around space if you stop attacking – and destroying – the Empire’s planets.’

  ‘The rest of the fleet will come out of warp now,’ the cat said. ‘A dragon may enter each ship and our leader will tell the dragon where to take the ship. Make one wrong move and we will kill eight hundred of your people.’

  Rapclick stepped up. ‘Many of the hostages have families with young children. Please return those ones, so they can be reunited with their babies.’

  ‘If they cared for their children they would keep them on their ships, the way we do,’ the cat said. ‘If they are willing to abandon their children, they deserve everything they receive.’

  ‘You’re completely correct and we’ll stop sending new parents to war if your people agree to a peaceful settlement—’ Rapclick began.

  The cat interrupted it. ‘Do not blame us for your poor parenting! The hostages all stay with us. Don’t attempt to get them back or we will kill them. We cannot trust you. Dragons have been lying to their colonised species for centuries. As a gesture of goodwill, when the warp field is down, you may remove the bodies of the soldiers who died when they foolishly attacked us. Then you will carry our ships back to our home system and leave us.’

  ‘What about our people?’

  ‘When we are out of warp, we cannot stop the dragons from leaving. The humans . . .’ It leaned into the camera and sneered, displaying its sharp canines. ‘Stay here with us until we are satisfied that you won’t attack us with your cowardly and immoral chemical weapon. Attempt to board our ships, attack us, or fold the humans out with dragons, and thousands of your precious human soldiers will die.’

  ‘That’s what we wanted to do in the first place!’ Blake said frustrated, but the transmission blinked off.

  ‘How did they know about the chilli? They were locked inside the warp field,’ I said.

  ‘I wish I knew. They appear to be communicating over interstellar distances,’ Marque said. ‘I can’t see anything when I search space around them – no entangled nanobots, nothing. The only thing that can get in or out is light – but that’s not nearly fast enough to communicate from their homeworld to here.’

  ‘Maybe when we’ve established peace with them and won them over we’ll find out how they’re doing it,’ Masako said.

  ‘We have our work cut out for us, dear one,’ Rapclick said.

  ‘The rest of the cat fleet is dropping out of warp,’ Marque said. ‘Ready, Masako?’

  ‘Help me co-ordinate the transfer schedule with the scales communication centre,’ Masako said.

  ‘I’m there,’ Marque said.

  ‘Put me on broadcast to all personnel,’ Blake said.

  ‘Done,’ Marque said.

  ‘The entire cat fleet is going to drop out of warp,’ Blake said. ‘We’ve agreed to take them home without chilli bombing them. The dragons are organising a schedule and will contact their sisters on the ships to help transport them. When the ships are transferred, we can reclaim our dead that are stuck at the edge of the field. As for the people trapped on the ships . . .’ His voice became grim. ‘The cats won’t stop the dragons from leaving, but they’re holding the humans as surety. They’re hostages. We’ll negotiate their return when the transfer is complete. I repeat. This is a peaceful transfer. Be ready to use the chilli, but only use it if the order comes through.’ He nodded to Marque. ‘Inform me the second any of those bastards charges up their warp cannons.’

  ‘We’re arranging the transport schedule,’ Masako said. ‘If the dragons on their ships are unharmed, they can help.’

  ‘The cat ships are out of the warp field, and they’re not powering up their weapons,’ Marque said.

  Shiumo folded onto our ship, accompanied by her human team leader, Nadine. Both of them had lost their soulstones, and I’d never seen a dragon with such severe injuries – her back legs had been cut off, her front legs were lacerated, and she bled blue, green and red blood, mixing on the floor into an ugly brown puddle. Nadine had nasty burn wounds from cat energy weapons over most of her torso, and her throat appeared to be half gone. She was probably dead. We raced to help them, and Masako folded them to the ship’s medlevel. We followed them down in the internal lift.

  Marque laid Shiumo on the table and prepared to lower her into the liquid. Nadine was gone.

  ‘No, wait,’ Shiumo said. ‘Nadine! Is she dead?’

  ‘Yes,’ Marque said. ‘There’s nothing I can do. Her soulstone is gone. I’ve put her into cold storage in the hold. Go into the table—’

  ‘Not yet! I need to tell you what happened.’ She raised her head slightly. ‘The humans bombed them with chilli, and they were incapacitated. But they’d already gone into warp, so we were stuck in warp with them for two days – nobody could fold out.’ She panted a few times, her voice hoarse. ‘The chilli wore off after a while, and they attacked us with energy weapons. We had to surrender before they broke through our Marque shield and killed us all.’

  ‘That’s why they waited,’ Blake said. ‘They delayed until the chilli wore off, then attacked us. The dragons couldn’t fold from inside the warp field.’

  ‘We couldn’t run, we couldn’t hide, and Marque’s energy field ran out . . . we had to surrender,’ Shiumo said. ‘They’ve removed everybody’s soulstones. They restrained me and cut my legs off. As soon as they dropped out of warp I tried to bring my humans—’ she choked with emotion. ‘And they shot the humans as they touched me.’ She dropped her head onto the table. ‘Some pain relief would be appreciated, Marque.’

  ‘I’ll put you under the minute you’re in
the table,’ Marque said. ‘You’ve lost a lot of blood, you need to go in now.’

  ‘One last question,’ Blake said. ‘What’s their plan?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said, her voice weak. ‘All I know is that they wanted our humans.’

  ‘More dragons are folding out of the cat ships,’ Marque said. ‘The cats are shooting at them as they leave, focusing on any humans that attempt to leave with them. They’re holding the humans hostage.’

  ‘Tell them not to bring their human companions,’ Blake said.

  ‘I am,’ Marque said.

  ‘This is a disaster,’ Shiumo said. ‘I only hope our friends the clicks can talk to them and stop them from killing . . .’ She dropped her head onto the table without finishing her sentence, and Marque lowered her into the white liquid.

  ‘Will she be okay?’ I said.

  ‘I’ll let you know in twenty-four hours,’ Marque said, its voice grim.

  *

  Masako followed the first transfer group to the cat system and parked her ship in orbit around the cat planet.

  The black cat leader appeared on the table display. ‘Leave now or we will kill sixty-four humans. Stay out of our system, transport our ships and then leave.’

  ‘My ship is a staging point for the dragons transporting your ships,’ Masako said. ‘I’m needed here to relay communication so that we can safely move your people.’

  ‘You’re lying. You can communicate without a ship.’ The cat gestured with one hand and the smaller guard cat dragged in a young woman who was either unconscious or dead and threw her to the floor out of view. It moved offscreen and returned with David, alive and conscious, and still bound. His face was covered in bruising and one eye was swollen shut.

  ‘If you continue to lie to us, this one will die slowly,’ the black cat said. It grinned at the camera. ‘We have special plans for it. It is from the corrupt family that murdered one of our explorers and took her beloved child to be indoctrinated against his own people.’

  She’s not dead, David mouthed, and the cats didn’t see it. They’ve killed a few of us— The cat dragged him away again.

  ‘You need to tell us where to take your ships!’ Masako said, desperate. ‘There isn’t enough room in this system for all of them. You must co-ordinate with us.’

  The cat transmission blinked out.

  ‘Warn us if they charge up their warp cannons, Marque,’ Blake said.

  ‘I will. I think they’re arguing about whether our ship can stay, but I can’t listen in on them without being detected and locked out.’

  ‘Can you create some nanos of yourself to infiltrate them?’ Masako said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter how small I go, the cats still see me and shoot me out of the air,’ Marque said. ‘They’re masters of nanotechnology and it may be how they’re communicating. Incoming message. They’re allowing one ship to stay. They’ve provided me with a map of star systems near to their homeworld and indicated which of their ships is to go where. I’ll pass it on.’

  ‘How did they communicate with you?’ I said.

  ‘Standard radio frequency.’ Marque hesitated, then its voice became urgent. ‘Masako, fold home and quickly bring a clean sphere here; I’m self-destructing all my instances in the surrounding light cone. A nanobot entered one of my sentry spheres and hacked into me while they sent their map.’

  The sphere disintegrated into black dust.

  ‘Their nanotech has come a long way in the last ten years,’ Masako said. ‘I’ll be right back with a clean Marque instance.’ She disappeared.

  ‘Is it possible that they’ve just hidden their capabilities from us?’ Blake said as Masako reappeared with a Marque sphere next to her.

  ‘Entirely possible,’ the Marque sphere said. ‘It may be what’s been happening to me when my spheres disappeared in the past. I’ll stay as one instance and keep close to you, Masako. If I start acting weird, the self-destruct word is . . .’ It said something in dragon.

  ‘Got it,’ Masako said. ‘Bring the cat leader onto the screen, and let’s arrange for these ships to be returned to their home space.’

  The cat leader appeared on the table again.

  ‘Stop attacking our AI,’ Masako said.

  ‘We are not attacking anything. You are the ones that drop chemical weapons on us,’ the cat said. ‘Carry our ships back here and then leave.’

  ‘We are,’ Marque said. ‘I’m putting the co-ordinates of the destination worlds through to each dragon ship.’

  ‘And the other ships?’ the cat leader said.

  The transmission froze.

  ‘I muted it so we can talk,’ Marque said. ‘He’s sent me the locations of over a hundred thousand additional cat ships scattered throughout the seven galaxies – and some in intergalactic space that’s well outside the Empire. Some of these ships have been travelling for a very long time.’

  ‘That sounds like all the ships in the cat fleet,’ the Admiral said.

  ‘I think it is,’ Marque said. ‘They want us to bring every single one of their ships home.’

  ‘Do they even have space for that many cats in their home system?’ Rapclick said. ‘They will fill even their nearby systems and most of their colonies. They’ll be overpopulated.’

  ‘Do we care?’ Masako said.

  ‘They’ve also given me the co-ordinates of some systems in cat space as destinations,’ Marque said.

  ‘Put him back on the screen,’ the Admiral said.

  The cat leader appeared again, looking more irritated.

  ‘Why are you asking us to bring in every cat ship?’ Blake said.

  ‘Bringing them here is the only way we can quickly communicate with them,’ the cat leader said. ‘We do not have your four-dimensional capabilities. We will tell them to stop attacking you. Do as we require, and we will return your people.’

  ‘We’ll do it anyway,’ Masako said.

  The cat bared its teeth. ‘We have learned through experience not to trust you.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Masako said. ‘Can you allocate someone full-time to help us schedule all the transfers? This will take a while, even with every dragon on the project.’

  ‘You will work with me,’ the leader said. ‘We want as few of our people to have contact with you as possible. You are deceptive in every way, and I am immune to your lies.’

  ‘All right, I get it,’ Masako said with resignation. ‘Let’s do this.’

  ‘Can we have some of our people back as a gesture of goodwill?’ Rapclick said as Masako buried herself in a flurry of scales taps to communicate with the other dragons. ‘You have so many. Show that you are serious about—’

  ‘No,’ the cat leader said. ‘We will return your people when our ships are all accounted for. Not before.’

  ‘What about the ones who are injured?’ Rapclick said. ‘They’re a drain on your resources, we can care for them—’

  ‘They’ve closed the channel. Dammit!’ Marque said. ‘Now they’re yelling over all wavelengths at me.’

  ‘Just block it,’ Masako said.

  ‘I am, but it’s really . . . annoying. They’re flooding all the wavelengths with the code, especially the wavelengths I use to communicate with my on-ship backup storage. My signal is encrypted, but they’re not trying to break it, they’re trying to override it. It’s like someone constantly shouting over me . . . I can’t do this.’

  ‘You have to!’ Masako said. ‘Block them.’

  ‘I can’t. It’s overwhelming for just one sphere, and I can’t risk creating more; they’ll hack into my code again. I’m leaving a dumb terminal for you to communicate with them, and I’m heading back to Dragonhome. It’s a similar interface to what you used when you were back on Earth, Colonel, you should be able to use it.’

  A featureless white table coalesced out of the air, then a holographic display appeared above it. Controls appeared on it – the type of controls that I hadn’t seen in more than ten years. It appeared to be a pr
e-invasion human communications panel.

  ‘Let me use your scales, Masako,’ Marque said. ‘I’ll send a message back to myself – communication by scales is so low-tech that not even they can hack into it. All right, the terminal’s ready to go. I’m removing myself from the area. If you need me, contact me through scales. I am so sorry, honoured click.’ The sphere disintegrated.

  The bubble of methane around Rapclick popped, and methane burst from its exoskeleton with a horrible scream. It collapsed in a heap as its legs snapped under the higher gravity. Masako ran to it and folded it out.

  They’d probably have to restore the click from its soulstone, as its body was dead. I moved to the terminal and worked through the interface. The terminal had basic communication functions and did everything we needed.

  ‘Can you open a channel to the cats?’ Blake said.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Channel’s open.’ The cat leader appeared as a two-dimensional image above the table.

  ‘Now let’s start moving your people back to your home system,’ Blake said.

  ‘Start with the fleet near the dragon homeworld,’ the cat leader said.

  ‘Very well,’ Blake said. ‘You can send our injured up to us to care for—’

  ‘Mention the hostages again and sixty-four of them will die,’ the cat leader said. ‘You will have them back when the ships are returned.’

  4

  ‘That’s the last one?’ Admiral Blake said. His eyes were bloodshot and his face unshaven; we’d been co-ordinating the transfer of the cat ships for four days straight with minimal sleep. He blinked at the display of the dumb terminal.

  ‘That’s all of them. Wait.’ Masako listened to her scales. ‘Yes. We’re done.’

  ‘Choumali,’ he said.

  I nodded. ‘Channel’s open to the cat leader.’

  ‘We’ve done what you asked. We’re sending dragons down to collect our people,’ Blake said.

  ‘No,’ the cat leader said. ‘If we see a dragon on our planet, sixty-four of your people will die.’

  ‘I understand. No dragons,’ Blake said. ‘So how do we collect our people?’