Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  ‘That’s gorgeous,’ I said. ‘Who designed it? The ship looks like a work of art.’

  ‘We did,’ Masako said. ‘The best dragon artists put their heads together and designed it with help from Oliver Choumali Runaspouse.’

  ‘I knew he was involved in the design, but he didn’t tell me exactly how,’ I said. ‘I’m so proud of him.’

  ‘You should be,’ Merry said. She lowered her voice. ‘I’d love to meet him. I’d like to meet your whole family.’

  ‘I’d like that too. My family will adore you.’

  She pulled me tighter and shivered with delight.

  ‘We originally intended the design to be something like the frieze on the side of Sky City,’ Masako said, ‘with dragons approaching other species in peace and friendship, but Oliver advised us that cats don’t like depictions of themselves. Instead we did a stylised message to the cats in their own language that says the same thing.’

  ‘The frieze will change after we’ve signed the treaty,’ Marque said. ‘We’ve installed a set of designs into my storage on the ship, and I’ll regularly change the etching on the ship to honour different species.’

  ‘The goal is to have a message in every Imperial language, so that when we approach a planet the ship will tell them that we honour all citizens,’ Blake said.

  ‘You’re planning to continuously remodel the surface of a ship this big?’ I said.

  ‘It’s just moving the surface around,’ Marque said. ‘It would be boring otherwise.’ Its voice became more brisk. ‘The treaty signing is in three hours. I think we should move the ship into position.’

  Merry glanced at Masako. ‘You can fold it? It’s the size of a small planet.’

  ‘Our folding ability is unlimited when it’s a single unbroken piece of inorganic matter,’ Masako said. ‘If you look at it dimensionally, I’m just punching a simple shape and all its contents through four dimensions. Organics are much harder – the edges are so fuzzy.’

  ‘I’m glad,’ Merry said. ‘I’d hate to see any damage to this shining work of art.’

  Masako looked around. ‘Hands, dear humans, let’s take a look inside.’

  Masako folded us onto the main gallery of the Silver Lotus, a vast space with its black shiny floor. It wasn’t furnished and had no features; it was empty. The matte grey wall, more than two hundred metres high, stretched away on our left, but the other walls weren’t visible. It was like being on the surface of a planet with the blazing night sky above us, and a town wall stretching away on either side of us to the left.

  A batallion of humans – at least a thousand of them – were lined up and waiting for us in dragon-army uniforms. I recognised some of them; these were soldiers who’d fought in the original cat battles.

  Good to see you, Jian! Miranda Twofeathers said telepathically. She was North American First Nations, tall and heavily built, and I knew her from the original psi training academy on Earth.

  I nodded to her. You too, Miranda. It’s good to see some familiar faces.

  My old second-in-command, Griffith, stepped forward wearing a colonel’s uniform and saluted us, smiling at me. ‘Admiral Blake.’

  ‘Are we ready to depart?’

  ‘Sir.’

  ‘Stations, everyone,’ he said.

  A massive door, ten metres tall and wide, swung silently open on the towering wall, and they went through.

  ‘I’ll get Haruka and Miko,’ Masako said, and disappeared.

  Merry looked around. ‘It’s hard to judge how big it is when you can’t see the walls.’

  ‘This deck is seven thousand metres long, three thousand metres wide at its widest, and two hundred metres high,’ Blake said. He pointed down. ‘There’s a system of transport tubes under the floor, so Marque can carry you from place to place. The freight hold is under this deck, a similar size but twenty-eight hundred metres tall, big enough to carry a full-size Marque orbital sphere. The aft half of the ship is modular quarters of different sizes to suit different species, and Shiumo’s ship is at the bottom.’

  Merry looked up. ‘Does this space develop its own weather?’

  ‘I could if you wanted,’ Marque said. ‘But that’s not the purpose here; this space is for meetings, residences or storage.’

  ‘Every space within the ship has a purpose,’ Blake said. ‘I can host the entire army in this area in either offices or residences to share information directly. It can contain a small city with enough space for the entire defence force. During the cat conflict we had to divide the army into different dragon ships during briefings, and share information across them. It wasn’t ideal.’

  ‘I remember,’ I said.

  ‘Did you say a city?’ Merry said.

  Blake smiled at the space. ‘I can fit the entire population of Barracks in the aft quarters, and half that number of civilians in this space.’ His smile softened. ‘I hope I will never need to, and that this treaty means we have peace.’ He turned to us. ‘Speaking of quarters, the command suite and VIP quarters are here in the nose of the ship, closest to the nexus entrance points.’ He gestured formally towards the huge door. ‘If you’ll follow me, we’ll go through to the bridge.’

  He guided us through and the doors swung shut behind us. We were in another gallery with invisible walls and roof. The floor was grey and textured like carpet, and the shape of the area matched the nose of the ship. There were a number of comms panels in rows facing the bow, and at the rear of the room a silver desk – a duplicate of the Empress’ desk in her office – stood next to a Marque ornamental tube. Some of the humans stood at the comms panels, and I watched with interest as they brought up displays of the surrounding space and the planet below. The nose of the ship was facing the planet, and we were looking directly down into it.

  ‘You’re only occupying this small part of the ship?’ I said as Blake moved forward between the stations.

  ‘More isn’t necessary,’ he said. ‘Marque can mind the rest of it. If we’re attacked and Marque is disabled, we can fly the Lotus independently from here. The ship has its own anti-grav engine controlled by these panels, and a few caches of scales to communicate with the homeworld. If the very worst happens, we can jettison the rest of the ship and use the nose as an escape pod.’

  ‘Stewart and I spent quite a lot of time studying the nanos and developing a risk management strategy,’ Marque said. ‘The cat nanos are capable of disabling me, so I want to be sure that if it happens, the passengers on the Lotus are safe.’

  ‘We have safeguards installed to protect the ship if nanos attack,’ Blake said.

  ‘Will the cats have nanos in space around the planetoid we’re going to?’

  ‘No, there are no stars nearby to feed the nanos, but the cats will have them in their bodies. They have a symbiotic relationship with their nanos. The nanos normally feed off solar energy, but can use the cats’ metabolism as a backup. They’re programmed to self-destruct if they become so hungry that they cause damage to the host cat.’

  ‘Will they eat us instead?’

  ‘No. Cats only.’

  I nodded. ‘Good. Where are our quarters?’

  ‘Bring up a floorplan, Marque,’ Blake said.

  A three-dimensional display appeared between us. It showed the entire ship, with its space divided into huge sections, then zoomed in onto the front two hundred metres where we were standing. The top half was the comms centre, and the lower half of the bow was divided into residential quarters, the med centre, and a Marque storage unit.

  ‘We don’t know how long we’ll be there negotiating, so your quarters are prepared,’ Marque said. ‘Knowing the cats, this could take weeks.’

  Masako appeared with Haruka and Miko. ‘I’m very impressed.’

  ‘Thank you, Princess,’ Blake said. He turned to the crew. ‘Are we ready to get underway, Colonel?’

  ‘Whenever the Princess wants to fold us, Admiral,’ Griffith said.

  Masako disappeared to reappear on the bow o
f the ship above us. The planet disappeared and we were in the treaty location. The skin of the ship flared brilliantly white, then faded as Marque filtered out the energy spewing from the nearby black hole. It sat in the sky above us with rods of incandescent destruction spreading for light years on either side of it.

  The cat ship was in front of us, on the other side of a dark planetoid that shaded its warp field. The cat ship was still in warp, its white aura bending the light of the stars around it.

  ‘That’s their flagship,’ Blake said. ‘The Sandbox.’

  ‘The what?’ I said with disbelief.

  Blake shrugged. ‘We don’t know what its name is so we called it that.’

  ‘Why call it—’ Merry began, then stopped as Marque updated her through comms. ‘Oh!’ She choked off a laugh. ‘Don’t call it that in front of them.’

  ‘They wouldn’t understand anyway; they use those bowl things,’ I said.

  ‘How big is it?’ Haruka said.

  ‘Ten kilometres long,’ Marque said.

  Blake looked smug. ‘Ours is bigger.’

  ‘That is extremely petty, Stewart,’ Haruka said.

  ‘For some species being bigger is inferior,’ Masako said.

  ‘Cats?’ Blake said.

  ‘. . . No.’

  ‘That’s the planetoid where we’ll be doing the negotiations,’ Blake said, and pointed. Marque zoomed in on the planetoid so it was visible in front of us. It was a small, dark, and pockmarked potato-shaped object.

  ‘How big is it?’ I said.

  ‘A hundred and forty-one kilometres across,’ Marque said.

  ‘They’ve prepared a flat area to sign the treaty,’ Blake said.

  ‘If we can get them to sign a treaty.’ Marque zoomed in on the planetoid even more, and a glassy platform became visible on its side. ‘That’s it. No nanos anywhere around.’

  We waited as the cat ship dropped out of warp and hovered on the other side of the planetoid. Marque zoomed in on our view of the ship as half-a-dozen bipedal figures left the ship and jetted towards the planetoid. They rotated so that they had their feet towards the glassy platform and landed on it to wait for us.

  ‘Suit them up, Marque,’ Masako said, and my vision filled with the heads-up display. ‘Hands and let’s go.’

  Blake and Haruka stood next to Masako and put their hands on her shoulders. I stood behind her and put my hand on her butt. Miko held the box containing the documents in one claw and put the other claw on the end of Masako’s tail.

  The ship disappeared, and we were at ninety degrees to the surface of the planetoid, with the platform next to us. Marque rotated us and provided us with a gravity platform so we could stand across from the cats. There were three cats in physical spacesuits, and five walkers behind them in their black-and-white battle armour.

  The lead cat stepped forward and I saw its face in the helmet.

  I spoke through comms. ‘I think this is the young cat that killed Oliver’s father.’

  ‘A rising political star,’ Masako said through comms. She stepped forward, bowed her dragon head, and spoke telepathically to everybody. Greetings, honoured Ambassadors.

  One of the cats raised its hand and spoke, but its words were muffled by the spacesuit.

  ‘Just a minute,’ Marque said, and created an energy dome over the platform. It filled the dome with air. ‘There, it’s breathable for all species present.’

  The cats checked their wrist sensors, but didn’t move to take off their helmets. Marque removed the spacesuits from me, Haruka and Blake, and when the cats saw it happen they waved at the walkers.

  The central walker undid the clasps on the neck-ring of its helmet and lifted the helmet off with a hiss of escaping air. It took a few deep breaths and waved one chunky hand.

  The walker’s face was conical and massive with small eyes and a breathing hole at the top of its head. Its skin was the same black-and-white pattern as its armour, and smooth like an orca’s.

  The cats and the other walkers removed their helmets and stepped forward to a metre-high black stone plinth in the centre of the platform.

  ‘Definitely the same cat that killed Ollie’s dad,’ I said through comms. ‘He’s an adult now, but it’s him.’

  ‘Are you Princess Masako, the Empress’ oldest child?’ the lead cat said.

  ‘I am, honoured sentient,’ Masako said. She nodded to Haruka. ‘This is my partner, consort, and love, Prince Haruka. Captain Jian Choumali you know. The other human is the head of our navy, Admiral Stewart Blake.’

  ‘Is this your child?’ the cat said, indicating Miko with one hand.

  Miko’s eyes widened and she stepped back.

  ‘Courage, dear one,’ Masako said to her. She turned back to the cats. ‘She’s my sister, handmaid, and confidante.’

  ‘Perfect,’ the cat said. ‘Do it.’

  ‘Nanos—’ Marque said, and then my head filled with a piercing scream that broke my brain in two.

  22

  ‘She’s waking up. Get her some water.’

  ‘Yes, Prince Haruka.’

  I shot upright with a gasp. I was on the floor . . . I looked around. Prince Haruka approached me, almost unrecognisable without his usual make-up and adornment, his kimono torn and his long green hair loose and tangled. Miko was pouring some water from a jug on a table behind him.

  The low-ceilinged cabin had a rough textured floor and a sleeping platform bolted to the wall, so we were on the cat ship. My head pounded with pain and I rubbed my forehead, to find my soulstone missing. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Haruka said. His soulstone was gone as well. ‘They used something that knocked everybody out except for Miko.’

  ‘It didn’t affect me,’ Miko said. Her voice filled with pain. ‘I thought you were all dead! I wanted to go with Masako, but they separated us and put me with you.’

  I bent with pain. ‘It hurts like hell!’

  He reached to me and touched me on the side of the head, and the pain eased.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know you could do that.’

  ‘It’s a rare skill, and one I’d prefer nobody knew about – it can be misused to cause euphoria.’ He sat on the floor next to me. ‘People think I’m one of the dragonscales who inherited no psychic ability, and I’d rather it stayed that way. When did you do your last backup?’

  ‘Last night before we left, if this is the same day. How long was I out?’

  ‘Miko?’ Haruka said, turning to speak to the dragon.

  ‘It’s been more than twelve hours, my Prince,’ she said, bringing the human-sized cup of water to me. Her soulstone was gone too.

  I drank the water quickly – I was very thirsty – and gave the cup back to Miko. ‘Try to contact one of the other dragons through your scales,’ I said to her. ‘If we can find even one dragon that can fold, we’re all out of here.’

  ‘Uh . . .’ Miko dropped her head and gazed at me with her huge golden eyes. ‘My scales aren’t quantum-entangled with anyone. We goldenscales never have spouses, and we’re always in the company of our coloured sisters who do the communicating.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ Haruka said.

  I checked my pockets, and they were empty. ‘Does anyone else have a scale?’ I said.

  ‘Masako’s the only one with any scales, and I have no idea where she is,’ Haruka said. ‘This ship has warped. We could be anywhere. Have a look around, Jian, see if you can locate our people.’

  ‘I need the bathroom first.’

  Miko and Haruka shared a look, and I groaned. ‘Oh no. Cats don’t use bathrooms. Where are the bowls?’

  Haruka gestured towards the other side of the cell. A single bowl sat on a shelf bolted to the wall. ‘There’s a . . . drain thing under the bowl when you use it, as they have no nanos to clean it up.’ He winced. ‘Effectively a toilet. We’ll look the other way. Go.’

  He and Miko turned the other way and I did what I had to do as quickly as silently a
s possible. I was still deeply dehydrated. I moved to the other side of the room, took another cup of water from Miko and sat with them. I closed my eyes and reached out, looking for our people, and found them in the belly of the ship. We were in the nose section of the cat battleship that had approached us when we were waiting for the treaty negotiations to begin. Masako was a hundred metres away, also in the nose, and I tried to contact her.

  Masako? I said, and she didn’t reply. I tried the Admiral. Admiral Blake, are you there?

  Captain! Sergeant Twofeathers sounded thrilled. I’ll relay for the Admiral. Are you all right?

  Yes, I said to Twofeathers. I have Prince Haruka and Miko here. Masako isn’t responding.

  She isn’t responding to me either. I have a message from the Admiral. Welcome to the nightmare, Jian. Captured by cats without a fight.

  Status of our people otherwise? I said. Any killed by this new weapon?

  All alive, we were taken without resistance, Twofeathers said. Whatever they used on us disabled us completely; the more sensitive the mind, the longer the disability. I’m not surprised you only just came around; I took nearly as long.

  Hypothesis on what disabled us?

  No idea, Captain. Has the Prince contacted home? They took all our dragon scales.

  Damn. They took Haruka’s scales as well. We don’t have any. Do you or the Admiral have any idea where we are?

  None whatsoever. Have the cats talked to you?

  No. Have they talked to you?

  No.

  We’ll work something out, Twofeathers.

  If anyone can, you can, Captain.

  I wished I shared her optimism.

  ‘Jian?’ Haruka said.

  I quickly explained our situation for him. ‘With the Princess out of action, we have no-one to fold for us, even if we did know where we are. We’re in a warp field anyway, so there’s no way out. Our only hope is that Marque finds us – but I doubt it can generate a matching warp field this big. We’re hostages. I know it’s obvious but – have you tried to break into the door mechanism? Is there a circuit to fry?’