Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  I nodded to myself as I decided; my family came first. ‘Is there a dragon available to take me to the Embassy site? It’s too far to walk.’

  Tomoyo appeared next to me. She looked from me to the crash site, then back again.

  ‘I am so sorry, Jian,’ she said.

  ‘I thought he’d survived the war with the cats,’ I said with grim humour. ‘In the end one took him out anyway.’

  She stared at me.

  ‘It’s a soldier thing,’ I said.

  ‘She’s also pumped full of chemical assistance,’ Marque said.

  Tomoyo studied me carefully. ‘Are you sure you’re capable of handling the Embassy site? We don’t know what we’ll find . . .’

  ‘Take me,’ I said firmly. ‘I need to know. There’s a chance their stones weren’t destroyed. I . . .’ I took a deep breath. ‘I need to know before I can move forward. Are you sure you haven’t seen Oliver?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Jian, I thought he was with you.’

  ‘Let’s go then.’

  I put my hand on her shoulder and she took me to the cliff next to the remains of the Embassy. A younga floated on the horizon and I shaded my eyes to see it as it approached. Its ten-metre-wide pearlescent dome was full of helium, and the many tentacles that hung suspended from it each carried independent digestive siphons to absorb and convert hard radiation. Younga insisted that each digestive unit was a unique and sentient individual, and what we saw as a single organism was actually a symbiotic colony. It floated to me and raised its closest tentacles in greeting. It had purple dragon scales around the edge of its dome; the dragons had reproductively conquered even this gentle species.

  ‘Captain Choumali,’ it said through Marque. ‘We attempt to empathise at the loss of close entities. We proceed without payment.’

  I nodded to it, well aware that it didn’t understand the gesture. ‘I am profoundly honoured that you would debase yourselves by proceeding without payment, but that is not necessary.’ I reached into the pocket of my new uniform – I’d had the design altered to include pockets, and other guards were mimicking my innovation – and pulled out a handful of dragon scales that I’d collected from my quarters the night before. I held them out to the younga.

  ‘Please accept these as payment for your assistance,’ I said. ‘They are all from the Empress herself.’

  The younga’s tentacles went wild, lashing with delight.

  ‘This is acceptable,’ it said. It carefully took the scales from me without touching my hand – its tentacles were all covered in irradiated slime – then turned to face the water. ‘We will find your soulstones.’

  *

  I woke some time later and blinked at the dim light. I rolled over on the thin mattress and remembered: Marque had set up a temporary camp for me, with a small tent and adjoining radiation-free bathroom facility, on the edge of the cliff.

  ‘How much time has passed?’ I said, still groggy from the drugs wearing off. I remembered David and the grief hit me again. I looked around for tissues to wipe my eyes, even as I pulled on fresh utilitarian clothes that Marque had synthesised for me.

  ‘You’re weeping,’ it said. ‘Do you—’

  ‘No more drugs,’ I said, using my sleeve to wipe my face as I gasped through the emotion. ‘Give me paper to mop it up. I’ll cry on and off for weeks, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ I sniffed loudly. ‘Have you found Oliver yet?’

  ‘No. Nobody seems to know where he went. You do realise that this means he probably—’

  ‘I’m well aware of that,’ I said. ‘How’s the recovery proceeding for the rest of the family?’

  ‘The younga is eating the radiation and I’m moving the broken pieces of the island so that we can reach the bunker that was at its centre. At this stage I have no idea how much longer the process will take.’

  ‘Thank you.’ A towel appeared in my hand and I blew my nose into it. ‘I’ll need more than one of these.’

  A stack of them grew organically next to me, then a large glass of brown-coloured liquid.

  I tasted the liquid – it was a chocolate protein shake, one of my favourites. I stared suspiciously at it; it was sweeter than I was accustomed to, even through the obvious flavour of added protein and vitamins.

  ‘Does this have lactose in it? You know I’m intolerant.’

  The liquid disintegrated. ‘I’m working off limited data here,’ Marque said. ‘This instance of me has only a small subset of my knowledge. I’m constructing a full-size version of me in orbit, but it will take a while. Assume I don’t know anything until we get communications re-established.’

  A new shake appeared and I tasted it, then drank it down.

  ‘All right,’ I said through the tears that kept running down my face. ‘Let me out.’

  The energy-based radiation shielding appeared around me, and I popped open the tent and walked out to the edge of the cliff. The area was deserted; the radiation was too extreme for anyone without heavy shielding to approach. The younga was a series of blinking lights in the water far below me.

  ‘Any luck?’ I said as I settled myself on the edge of the cliff to wait. I had a horrible thought. ‘Oh wait – if I fall you have enough juice to catch me, right?’

  ‘I do. Don’t worry,’ Marque said. ‘The younga is having trouble eating the radiation because it’s in liquid that keeps spreading it around, but it’s doing its best. The island broke into three pieces when it hit the water, and the younga is sifting through the remains, with a couple of spheres of me close by to lift the heavier pieces of rock.’ It hesitated, then said, ‘This is taking longer than I anticipated. The island is still in very large pieces that are hard to shift, and the bunker appears to be intact inside.’

  ‘Was it air-tight? Is there a chance they’re still alive in there?’

  ‘No. It was definitely flooded and they have definitely drowned.’ Its voice became urgent. ‘Move, Jian. Move, move back, quickly!’

  I rose and stepped back, not knowing what the problem was. Everything appeared fine and there was a vibration through the ground that I assumed was aftershocks from the collapse.

  ‘More,’ Marque said. ‘Move back at least twenty metres. Oh come on!’ It lifted me into the air and my arms and legs dangled as it pulled me away from the cliff edge. Thirty metres from the edge it dropped me and I collapsed onto the dead leaves.

  The vibration grew and then a shockwave like an earthquake went through the ground. A wave hit the cliff overlooking the site – nearly a hundred metres high – and the ground shook so hard I was rolled over. The wave surged over the edge of the cliff and charged towards me in a torrent of salt water. Marque put a barrier in front of me as the deluge passed, and I gasped at its ferocity.

  When the wave had finished, I was floating in the air above the water, and the cliff was gone. Marque carried me backwards another twenty metres and dropped me on the new edge of the cliff.

  ‘Is the salvage site still workable?’ I said.

  ‘I need to transfer the younga’s stone to a new body,’ Marque said, and the sphere whizzed away.

  The cliff top was now clear of all vegetation, which had been washed away. Only bare brown mud remained. My little tent and all its contents had been destroyed as well. I looked around for something to sit on and gave up to plonk my behind in the sucking soft mud. The rescue effort had just been set back at least half a day.

  Marque reappeared. ‘This sort of thing is happening all over the place. The planet is severely damaged and we’re working together to remove the population and try to save it. If there’s another vibration like that, run, because waves that big are bouncing through the planet’s seas.’

  ‘I understand,’ I said. ‘Can we save the planet? Would it be easier to build a new one? How about we use my mother’s copy?’

  ‘Your mother’s project isn’t habitable yet. If we stabilise and repair the Earth, we won’t need to move your entire population off it – and there’s a lot of
people living here. I don’t want to see your historical artefacts wiped out. Saving the planet is the better choice.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said.

  Marque fabricated a mat for me to sit on, then set to work making me another small tent.

  ‘I don’t need it,’ I said. ‘The stones in the water only have less than a day left.’

  ‘If you’re going to stay here, you need a clean place to rest out of the radiation. Do you want to leave?’

  ‘Absolutely not,’ I said, and it continued to build.

  *

  I was lost in what-ifs, wondering if there was any possible way that I could have saved David. I hadn’t been there for him at the end, I’d been messing around with the stupid black hole and contributing nothing to its destruction. I should have been with him and said goodbye. If I hadn’t let him join the dragon army – if I’d insisted that he be in one of the follow-up teams rather than the vanguard – if I’d stopped him and not let him go with Cat . . .

  Marque woke me. ‘Jian.’

  I shot upright and checked the time display that I’d asked for. I’d been greyed out and lost in my grief for nearly eight hours, and hadn’t been aware of the passage of time.

  My voice cracked from the crying, and I coughed. ‘Have they found Oliver?’ I said.

  ‘No, but we found a soulstone in the water, and we’re bringing it up.’

  It fitted me with the radiation suit and I left the tent to stand on the new cliff edge. More than twenty hours had passed now, and the stones were halfway to losing attunement. There was no news of Oliver, and little chance that he would be found alive if he was found at all. I stomped in a circle as I tried to focus on the possibility that the rest of the family could be salvaged. The morning chill was piercing.

  The younga rose majestically from the water, its tentacles waving. I couldn’t see what it was holding until it approached; it had a soulstone – a red soulstone – in one of its tentacles. I held my gloved hand out and it gently passed the stone to me.

  ‘We continue,’ it said, and floated back off the cliff and down into the water.

  I studied the soulstone; it appeared intact. ‘Is it all right?’

  ‘It’s irradiated, which will be a problem, but the attunement is undamaged.’

  ‘Who—’ I began, but Marque answered for me.

  ‘It’s Connie.’

  I gasped with relief and clutched it to my chest. ‘Mum.’

  Tomoyo appeared. ‘I’ll take it back to the homeworld and put her into a new body for you.’

  I passed her the stone and she held it in one claw, her large brown eyes wide with delight. ‘I’ll look after it, Jian, we’ll get your mother back.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, but she’d already disappeared.

  ‘We’re in the bunker, so we’re just sifting through what’s in there to find the stones,’ Marque said. ‘It’s a little difficult with so much silt, but we have high hopes that we’ll find the other ones.’

  ‘I hope you can,’ I said, settling myself on the edge of the cliff again. I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I can’t wait to hug my mum again.’

  ‘Uh . . . there is a problem,’ Marque said.

  I shot upright. ‘What? What problem?’

  ‘Not that major. The stone is irradiated. We’ll have to put her stone onto a radiation-proof body and then attune a new stone in that body before we can transfer her back to human.’

  ‘Wait. You mean my mother will be a dragon for five years?’

  ‘That’s the gist of it, yes. Either that or a younga, and I don’t think she’d enjoy that.’

  ‘My entire family will be dragons?’ I said, aghast.

  ‘Hopefully more people than that are in the bunker,’ Marque said. ‘This has never happened before. It will be extremely interesting to see how the dragons respond to this development. They’ve always been very protective of their unique biology, and they’ve spread it to half-dragons, but they’ve never allowed another species to inhabit their bodies.’

  ‘That’s beside the point,’ I said, sitting again. ‘The important thing is getting my family back.’

  ‘We found another one,’ Marque said. ‘The younga’s coming up. It’s not a member of your family, it’s one of the other Embassy staff members that you didn’t meet.’

  ‘I’m delighted,’ I said, and stood. ‘I’m crying again and I need to go into my tent to wipe myself up. Let me know if you find another stone from my family.’

  *

  ‘I have news,’ Marque said some time later.

  I pulled myself out of the greyness and tried to concentrate. ‘Have you found Oliver?’

  ‘We think he’s in the UN bunker in Geneva.’

  I sagged over my knees with relief. I was all cried out; no more tears would come. ‘How long before you know for sure?’

  ‘Another twelve hours. We’re busy clearing people from dangerous areas before we get to those who are safe in the bunker. There’s something else, Jian – it’s about Akiko.’

  ‘Tell me she’s alive!’ I said.

  ‘She is.’

  ‘That is the best news. Oliver, Aki, Mum – you already have Victor – all that’s missing now is Dianne’s stone.’ I smiled as my heart lifted through the misery. ‘Thanks so much, Marque.’

  ‘Would you like to see Akiko? I can arrange for someone to take you to her. I’ll let you know if we find Dianne’s stone – we’re still finding them down there.’

  I hesitated, then nodded. I couldn’t help look for Dianne’s stone, but I could grab this moment to be with Aki before protocol closed in around her.

  *

  When I arrived in Tokyo, the Imperial Palace was gone. The hundred-metre-wide crater centred on where the old Palace building had been, and the small hill was blasted to nothing. The beautiful ancient maple and ginkgo trees that had covered the elegant lawn were destroyed. The bunker inside the hill was exposed by the blast. It hadn’t taken the blast well; half of it had collapsed, making the exposed concrete ceiling slope precariously to one side. None of the people in the area were shielded, so the younga must have finished decontaminating the site.

  Aki was speaking with Kenji and a couple of people that I didn’t recognise. When she saw me she nodded to them, and approached with her hands clasped in front of her.

  I didn’t grab her and hug her; there were media watching. She seemed smaller than when she’d been with me; collapsed in on herself and meek. The brilliant courageous woman I loved was disappearing and it broke my heart.

  ‘Marque, can we have some privacy for a moment please?’ she said.

  ‘Done,’ Marque said. ‘But I can’t break protocol and give you a visual screen. Audio only, I’m afraid.’

  ‘I know that,’ she said.

  ‘Are you okay? You didn’t catch any radiation?’ I said.

  ‘I didn’t,’ she said. ‘We had suits in the bunker.’ She lowered her head. ‘Jian, Hiro killed himself. When he saw that the ceiling was coming down, he ran under it.’

  ‘Is his stone okay?’

  ‘It’s crushed. The Emperor’s dead. They’re preparing the statement now.’

  ‘Oh, holy shit, no,’ I said as horrified realisation filled me. ‘They are not . . . they won’t . . . they can’t do that to you.’

  She looked up into my eyes for the first time. ‘I’m the only fully human one left.’

  ‘But most of the Household administration must have been killed by the blast,’ I said. ‘There’s no bureaucracy left to terrorise you! You don’t have to do this.’

  ‘It’s awful, isn’t it? That was my first thought as well – that they’re dead and they can’t hurt me any more,’ she said. ‘But I’ve been having other thoughts while I waited for them to bring us out. Japan needs its Emperor – in my case its Empress. It’s a tradition that’s been handed down unchanged for thousands of years. We are the longest-lasting unbroken monarchy in the world – one of the longest in the Galactic Empire, actually. I won’
t be responsible for the destruction of something so valuable. After all my ancestors went through during the Meiji restoration, I can’t throw it away. I’ll be Empress, and abdicate when Kenji and I have a grown child to take my place.’ She took my hands and held them. ‘I’m sorry, Jian, I put my country before you.’

  Steward Tokugawa came from behind the bunker and saw us. His face went fierce and he charged towards us, but Kenji grabbed him and stopped him, talking furiously into his face. The steward glanced at us again, then gave up trying to free himself from Kenji’s grip.

  ‘And, of course, he survived.’ I turned back to Aki. ‘You are doing the right thing, my love. Just stay alive long enough for us to be together eventually.’

  ‘Are you enjoying the job of captain?’ she said, smiling sadly.

  I hesitated for a moment, then told her the truth. ‘Actually, I am. It’s interesting and varied and I’m meeting all sorts of weirdos. The Empress is a complete blast to work with – I never know what dumb shit she’s going to pull next.’ I lowered my voice. ‘It’s a bit like being with you.’

  ‘Good. I knew it was the right decision. Now.’ She squeezed my hands. ‘It’ll be at least twenty years before we have a grown kid, so in the meantime, find someone else to make you happy. Don’t stay alone. You had a good relationship with Dianne and Victor, and if you find someone, I’ll be sure to love them too. Find someone to make you happy, please?’ She quickly kissed my hands. ‘Promise me.’

  ‘I promise,’ I said, not meaning it at all.

  ‘Good. The Empress will have to come to my coronation – we don’t really have a crowning as such, and most of the ceremony happens in private, but we’ll still have something you guys can attend. I heard about your family, and I’m so sorry about David.’ She squeezed my hands again. ‘You are strong, and magnificent, and I love you with all my heart. Now go do your Imperial duty while I go do mine, okay?’

  ‘You can change the protocol when you’re Empress.’

  ‘You fucking bet I can,’ she whispered. ‘Just watch me. There are some untouched archaeological sites that only the Empress has access to, and you can be damn sure I’ll be accessing them, as well.’ She pushed me away. ‘Now go make sure the rest of the family is okay. I love them like my own.’