Guardian of Empire

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Look,’ I said. ‘You’ve tried to bribe me to sell out my people, and now you’ll torture me into complying. Don’t. Nothing you can do will push me into agreeing with you.’

  ‘Intelligent,’ the President said, pleased. ‘We were planning to bring out the humans one by one and kill them. I’m still willing to give it a try. I’m sure you’ll break eventually . . . we have hundreds of them.’

  ‘They’re military,’ I said. ‘I’m military. Our lives are forfeit when we sign up. I’ll salute them, they’ll salute me, you kill them, end of story.’

  The President turned to the Senator. ‘Bring a few up and try anyway.’

  He scowled, revealing sharp canines. ‘Not on the bridge, we might damage something. Do it in the shooting range.’

  ‘It will achieve nothing!’ I said.

  ‘On the contrary,’ the President said. ‘The crew deserve a reward for capturing all of you unharmed. It will be the most fun they’ve had in ages.’

  They took me into an elevator that went down for a long way, then put me on a small railway with open cars. They sat on them with their knees under their chins, cat-style, and I had a moment of quiet panic as I thought of my darling Oliver refusing to ever sit like that again, even when it was more comfortable for him.

  ‘Even if I agree to your demands, you can’t just barge up to Earth and install yourselves as rulers,’ I said. ‘Humanity will fight back with everything they have, and the dragons—’

  ‘Dragons don’t approach planets surrounded by clouds of nanos,’ the Senator said. ‘That abomination of an AI is scared of them, and with good reason.’

  The President was casually menacing. ‘We take over planets all the time, Captain, we’re very good at it. Our ways are different to the dragons’, but still effective.’

  ‘It won’t work with us,’ I said. ‘We’ll fight you.’

  ‘The dragons meddled with your genetics to add the telepathy trait,’ the President said. ‘Our tentacle weapon disables anyone they did this to. Your entire species is helpless against it. They will have a brief period of unconsciousness, and when they wake up all your top leaders will have disappeared and there will be walkers on every street corner.’

  ‘We tailor the assimilation program depending on the resistance,’ the Senator said. ‘With peaceful species, we only put anyone who disagrees with the new administration into reeducation camps. They can be saved.’ He bared his teeth. ‘Your species is heavily contaminated by dragon influence. It will unfortunately mean holding public cleansings of half-dragon mongrels and human resistors so that all can see what happens to them.’

  ‘It’s unpleasant, but very effective,’ the President said, and her emotions were again full of malicious pleasure. ‘Instil a general terror in the population and it doesn’t take long for them to capitulate. People with families, particularly, want to ensure their safety and are usually the first to turn to our side.’ She turned to the Senator. ‘What’s the quickest we’ve torn through a population’s resistance and welcomed them into the Republic?’

  The Senator looked smug. ‘Three of their days from arrival to installation.’

  The President turned back to me. ‘We can have your people enjoying the benefits of Republic membership in a very short time, and install you as leader of all humanity. We don’t need to harm your people, dear Jian, just agree to our proposal and we’ll all have a nice meal and send the dragon home.’

  The little train stopped and we were in a twenty-metre-long concrete shooting range, with three shooting bays in it. Half-a-dozen humans were standing in the target zone, with a similar number of cats in the shooting bay. I buried my face in my hands as I sat on the train; I could feel the humans’ fear. They knew what was about to happen, and even worse they all accepted it. My people were about to die and I had the power to stop it. Death in the heat of battle was one thing; this cold-hearted execution was unbearable. ‘Please don’t do this.’

  ‘One of the males first,’ the President said. ‘Just to show her that we mean it.’

  ‘I know that you mean it!’ I shouted. ‘We all do!’

  One of the cat guards grabbed a man and pushed him from one bay to another, then stepped back. The human didn’t fight him. I felt his terror and courage; he was in desperate fear for his life, but at the same time faced his death without flinching. He saluted me and said something that I couldn’t hear.

  ‘We knew this would happen,’ one of the other people said. ‘This isn’t your fault, Captain. This is war. Hold on and don’t give—’

  One of the cats shot the human crew member and he fell with a smoking hole right through him. The cat continued to shoot until he was a greasy stain on the floor, and the other cats laughed.

  ‘Next!’ the Senator said, and the cats changed shooter, patting each other on the back.

  One of the humans screamed and ran to the end of the bay. He hit the wall hard and fell to a crouch, screaming. The cats laughed as they followed him and dragged him back through the rest of the group, who shouted obscenities at them. They pushed him into the target zone.

  ‘Agree and this will stop, Captain,’ the President said into my ear.

  His screams dissolved into loud sobbing and he knelt and begged for his life as they shot him.

  ‘Next!’ the Senator said.

  One by one the humans were pushed forward and the cats took turns murdering them. I shook with rage and despair and my knees were so weak that I leaned on the wall. Everything was a blur of horror and pain and the room was full of smoke and the smell of burnt flesh.

  They brought a new group of humans in and my attention snapped into focus. Merry was in this group. She smiled sadly at me and gave me a small wave.

  ‘This one’s a different colour, but has no dragon scales,’ the President said from next to me. ‘Is she a different species? She seems to be breathing water. Is there something wrong with her? She’s awfully fat; that can’t be healthy.’

  ‘She’s a civilian,’ I said, my voice a moan of pain. ‘There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s perfect the way she is. She represents one of our new colonies.’ I turned to the President and tried to explain. ‘The others were soldiers, but she’s a civilian. She teaches our children! Send her back to the group.’

  The President broadcast satisfaction. ‘About time you showed some concern for your people. Agree to help us and she can go back unharmed.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you do. You can kill everybody and I still won’t help you conquer Earth.’

  ‘Put her in,’ the President said to the other cats. ‘Slowly on this one; she means something to our dear Captain.’

  ‘Thank you for making my life brighter, Jian,’ Merry said as they pushed her into the target zone. ‘I wish we could have been more. I’ll be dead soon anyway; this water’s foul and they can’t replace it.’

  The cats in the shooting bay argued about who would do it. They could see she was important to me, and a higher-ranked one demanded the pleasure of killing her.

  ‘Goodbye, dear one,’ Merry said, and pulled her breathing tube out. The water gushed from the tube and she stood with her eyes closed, her gills working as they tried to get enough oxygen into her. She swayed on her feet, and fell.

  I took two steps to run to her, but the President gestured for a couple of cats to hold me back. Merry lay on the floor and her limbs thrashed, then went still. One of the cats shot her anyway, burning a line across her prone body. I howled with agony and fell to my knees.

  ‘About time,’ the President said. She grabbed my arm and shook me. ‘Blake is next! Then Haruka. Then Masako herself. All you have to do is agree and this will stop. You are killing your friends. Stop this now.’ She pushed me towards the guards. ‘Take her back and let her think about it for a while.’

  *

  They pushed me into the cell and I fell to the floor and curled up.

  Miko and Haruka ran to me and knelt on either side.

  ‘Did they tor
ture you? What did they do to you?’ he said.

  ‘They killed a bunch of humans – including Merry – and I could have stopped it,’ I said. My throat was thick. ‘I didn’t stop it.’

  ‘You did the right thing,’ he said.

  ‘No, I didn’t,’ I said, my voice hoarse.

  ‘We have to get out of here,’ Miko said. ‘My life isn’t worth a thousand. I have a location we can gate to. I can do it.’

  ‘I understand that you want to help, Miko, but you’re a goldenscales,’ Haruka said. ‘We have to find Masako, she has the skill.’

  ‘I have skill. I can gate,’ she said.

  ‘Not an option,’ I said. ‘You know the penalty!’

  ‘Penalty for what? What is gating?’ Haruka said.

  ‘Look up,’ Miko said.

  Haruka yelped; he was staring at the ceiling. I looked up and saw the back of our heads through the thick glass-like wall of the gate. I looked behind me and saw Haruka’s face looking up. Miko had joined the ceiling of the cell with its wall.

  ‘You folded!’ Haruka said with disbelief. ‘Goldenscales can’t fold. Why can you fold?’ He cocked his head. ‘No, this can’t be you, Miko; this isn’t even a fold, it’s a stable wormhole. That must be exponentially harder. Is Masako doing it? I didn’t know she was that skilled. Jian, can you talk to Masako?’

  Miko raised her snout and the gate disappeared. ‘It was me.’

  ‘Goldenscales can’t fold,’ Haruka said. ‘Some have a small talent, but none are good enough to be worth training.’

  ‘Goldenscales can’t fold, but they can gate – create passageways through four dimensions – wormholes,’ I said, wiping my eyes. ‘But the gates aren’t stable, they can destroy the universe if they get it even slightly wrong. So the penalty for gating . . .’ I glared at Miko. ‘Is death. Don’t do that again.’

  ‘I’m dead anyway,’ Miko said. ‘You’re dead anyway. A thousand people are dead if we don’t do this. They’ll never let us go back home, because we’ll never agree to their demands.’ She raised her head to look me in the eye. ‘They eat sentients!’

  ‘You can gate us out of here?’ Haruka said.

  Miko nodded.

  ‘Even if we’re in warp?’ I said.

  ‘We’re not in warp; the other ship is still docked.’

  ‘Can you gate us home?’ Haruka said, full of hope.

  ‘No, sir, I don’t know where we are in relation to home. But I can see the space around us and I can gate us to the planet where we were going to do the treaty.’ Her voice became softer. ‘There’s a cavern in it that has no openings to the outside. We can travel there and take everyone with us.’

  ‘That won’t work; there’d be no atmosphere,’ I said. ‘You and Masako would be fine, but all the humans would die, and they took our soulstones.’

  ‘Then the dragons should go and leave us,’ Haruka said. ‘Masako would be safe, and that’s all that matters. As Miko said: we’re dead anyway.’

  ‘I have an idea, Captain, but I’ll need help from both of you to talk to the other captives. I can fill a cavern on the asteroid with air, but you’ll have to explain the gate to the rest of them.’

  ‘I don’t see how you can do that without folding,’ Haruka said.

  ‘I’ll put a gate in this ship’s hull, leading to the cavern, so the cats will think the hull has a leak. I’ll let the ship’s atmosphere leak into the cavern, then close the hole. I’ll gate you to where I think the Princess is, and gate the human soldiers and Blake out during the confusion over the hole in the hull.’

  ‘Two gates at once?’ I said.

  She raised her head. ‘I can do it. I have to. Trust me – I won’t fail.’ She lowered her voice. ‘You remember when I said that with training we could do it safely?’

  ‘How long have you been training yourself to do this?’ Haruka said.

  ‘I’m nearly five hundred of your years, my Prince,’ she said. ‘And the universe is still here.’

  ‘Miko . . .’ I hesitated. ‘You saw what they did to Kana.’

  ‘The Empress’ favourite handmaid? She died, didn’t she?’ Haruka said. ‘An accident or something.’

  ‘As I said, Highness, the penalty for gating is death,’ I said. ‘She gated the black hole that was destroying Earth. She saved the planet and everybody on it. And . . .’ I glared at Miko. ‘Her own sisters crushed her soulstone.’

  ‘I tried to stop them,’ Miko said, her voice small.

  Haruka glared at Miko, his gaze fierce. ‘If you do this,’ he said, ‘I will personally share your skill and courage with the citizens of the Empire, and demand that you not be harmed. If they do attempt to go through with it . . .’ He looked to me.

  ‘I can talk Ambassador Maxwell around,’ I said, my feelings moving from despair to hope. If we did this, nobody else would die. ‘The Empire is helpless against the cats without us humans.’

  Haruka nodded, and turned to Miko. ‘So—’

  Are you still there? the octopuses said. They took another one of us. We’re beginning to think that bad things are happening. Can you help us?

  ‘We have to help the octupuses as well,’ I said. ‘The cats are eating them.’

  ‘That adds another layer of complexity, if they’re water breathers,’ Miko said. ‘I won’t have anything to put them in; we’ll only be able to rescue them after Masako has contacted home.’

  ‘We must save them,’ I said. ‘Masako isn’t responding, she might be sedated or in a coma. Blake and the other humans are in the hold. We need to find where the octopuses are. Let’s organise ourselves, make a plan, and start gating.’

  23

  We still had our heads together when the door opened. I stood, and Miko and Haruka retreated to the back of the cell.

  It was the Senator with two guards.

  ‘Choumali, with me,’ he said, and I joined him in the corridor.

  ‘I hate doing this to you,’ he said, and the lie was written all over him. ‘If you agree to help us, it will stop. My mother . . . the President’s moved to her ship to head home; she won’t torture you any more. It’s just me now, and I want to work with you.’

  ‘I’ve been thinking about your offer,’ I said. ‘Can we talk?’

  He filled with glee. ‘Of course. Are you hungry? Thirsty?’

  ‘I’m starving,’ I said truthfully. I was so hungry I was even willing to eat the awful kibble. ‘Please feed the other humans if you feed me. It’s a tradition that we eat together.’

  ‘Agree to our terms and we’ll provide them with the very best care,’ he said. ‘All we need is for you to sit with us and give us your guarantee.’

  ‘I will,’ I said. ‘I’ll do anything you ask.’

  ‘Excellent.’ He led me along the corridor and we went further than the bridge. We seemed to be going to the other side of the ship. A door opened to a medical centre.

  I hesitated without going in. ‘What is this?’

  He gestured towards the table in the centre of the room. ‘We need to ensure that you’re in perfect health.’

  The cat in the medical centre was next to a vat containing pale blue liquid that moved by itself.

  ‘Nanos. You want to inject me with nanos.’ I rounded on him. ‘I do not agree to be mind-controlled by you! You said you’d free me from the dragons, and you want to do the same thing to me?’

  ‘They won’t control you, they’ll assist you. They will monitor and preserve your health, and when you die they will move your awareness to a new body. It’s our version of a soulstone – immortality. You allowed the dragons to implant a soulstone, didn’t you?’

  Now, Miko, he’s distracted, I said. ‘I have a better idea,’ I said out loud. ‘Do it the human way. When I die, have a trained successor ready to take over. Humans are accustomed to hereditary monarchies. Do it that way.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘This isn’t negotiable. If you’re willing to work with us, then you must have them installed. They�
�ll kill you if you attempt to betray us by returning to the Empire.’ He studied me carefully. ‘You did agree to work with us, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I suppose I did,’ I said, and went into the room. ‘Let’s do it.’

  The cat doctor inserted a large syringe into the vat and filled it with at least a litre of the nano liquid.

  ‘You’re going to stick me with that?’ I said. ‘That looks awfully painful. Can’t you infuse them through an IV?’

  ‘They need to go straight into your nervous system through the base of your brain. You may feel some mild discomfort, but it’s only for a short time,’ the cat doctor said. ‘Come and lie on the table and I’ll hook you up to the monitors. Some people respond badly to the initial insertion, and this is the first time the nanos have interacted with human biology.’

  I need to get out of here – they’re going to inject me with nanos! I said to Miko. I’m in the medical centre.

  Warp engines disabled, Twofeathers said. We’re moving the hostages.

  Please hurry; if they put these things into me, I’m dead.

  An aide rushed into the medical centre. ‘Senator, something just . . . hit the middle of the warp drive. We’re under attack!’

  ‘Show me.’

  A display turned on at the side of the room. It was an image of the warp drive, with Miko’s gate in the middle of the nest of coils and wires. The gate was the same as the ones Kana had created on Earth: a thick-sided glass ball with a black centre. The atmosphere in the warp room was visibly blowing into the gate. She’d cleverly linked the warp drive room with the asteroid cavern to extract the atmosphere and destroy the drive with one gate.

  ‘Is that a hull breach?’ the Senator said. ‘How is that even possible? Did they drill a hole through the hull?’

  ‘New weapon. No idea what it is,’ the crewman said. ‘We’re trying to get a team into the warp room, but the failsafe airlocks have engaged. The ship is attempting to heal the hull breach organically, but . . .’ It sounded desperate and confused. ‘The hull breach is a sphere? And not in the hull? I don’t understand.’

  Senator Sishisti glared at me. ‘What new weapon do the dragons have this time?’