A Larger Universe (36 page)

Lord Ull's bodyguard, Fen, stepped forward and said in the
lords' language, "Welcome, Lord Tommy.  How may we serve you?"

The men stood closest to the door, at tables in groups of
three to five.  All of them were over six and a half feet tall.  Beyond them,
groups of women also stood at attention.  Near the far wall, stood children of
both sexes and various ages; the oldest and tallest, who had to be teenagers,
shushing the younger children scattered among them.

Tommy's attention returned to the women, then back to the teenagers. 
The adult women were a bit shorter than the men, and the youngest teenagers had
to average six feet. 
That’s what’s wrong with Sisle!  She’s too small!  She
doesn't fit into the lords' breeding program.

In English, Tommy said, "Hello, Fen.  I asked you to
speak to me in English and call me Master Tommy or Tommy."  His gaze took
in everyone.  "I hope everyone here will.  Please return to your seats. 
Sisle and I are here to have a meal with you, if you’ll have us."

"I'm sure, Master Tommy, that everyone here is pleased
you have joined us."  He glanced at the other warriors as if daring anyone
to contradict him, but received a chorus of "Yes!" in response.

After some discussion, a group of men moved from a table a
few rows in from the entrance, and Fen invited Tommy to sit at the vacated
table.  From what Tommy overheard, their training dictated that, even in their
own meal room, he must be seated away from the most likely source of danger,
the door. 
That must be why the women and children are grouped near the far
wall.

At the table, when Sisle attempted to continue toward the
back of the room, he grabbed her upper arm, stopping her.  At his touch, the
first since he had found her starving, she spun in place, beginning to bring
her arms up to a defensive posture.  When she saw who had touched her, her arms
dropped to her sides, and she took a deep breath.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back to the women's tables."

"No, you're not.  You will be eating at my table with
me."

"That's just not done," she said, her voice
shrill.  "I can't do that!  You can't do that!"

He leaned over to whisper in her ear, "What's the point
of being a lord if I can't eat with whomever I want?" Louder he said,
"Fen, Sisle will be sitting with me."

Fen reacted with a moment of silence and a prolonged blink. 
"Yes, Master Tommy.  Someone will bring food."

Tommy pulled out a chair for Sisle, as his mom had taught
him, and invited her to sit down.  A low hiss echoed through the room.  With
her seated, he said loud enough for everyone at the nearby tables to hear. 
"Fen, Sisle isn't going to have problems because she sat at my table, is
she?"

"Problems, Master Tommy?" 

A man that big should not have any nervousness in his
voice, but he certainly does.  The humans on this ship are completely
domesticated.  Any one of these men could tear me in half.  Any one of them
could probably tear one of The People in half.  And the artisans could take
over the ship, but they're afraid of the warriors.

"Her welfare is important to me, Fen." he made his
voice a little louder.  "I would appreciate your treating her as you would
me."

That brought several gasps from the women's section.

Tommy took his seat as one of the women brought two full
plates of food and another brought a pitcher of water and two glasses.

After a couple of bites, Tommy smiled.  "What do you
think, Sisle?  Maybe we should eat here more often?  The food is certainly
better than that in the artisan or farmer meal rooms."

"Um," she said with her mouth full.

As he continued to eat, he looked around the room.  The
women outnumbered the men.  Even with men on duty, the ratio was way off.  He
leaned over to Sisle.  "Why so many more women than men?"

She made a tight frown and said in a subdued voice,
"The lords like it that way," her eyes became slits.  "The
warriors do, too."

Sisle didn't say another word until they had finished eating
and were in the elevator.  "Why did you do that?"

"What, no Lord Tommy?" he asked.

"Why did you do that, Lord Tommy?" she said
through stiff lips.  "I live with those people."

"Actually, you don't, except maybe to eat, and I can
take care of that, too, if you like."

"What do you mean?"

"You're already living in my chambers.  If you want me
to, I can fix it for you to eat in the artisan meal room.  There, you are a
warrior.  You're not small to them.  Of course, if the warriors can't be mean
to you, you can't be mean to the artisans in their own meal room."

"I wouldn't.  Would you?  What do you mean by
small?"

Tommy laughed.  "Which question to you want me to
answer?  Yes, I would, and you know perfectly well what I mean by small."

She gazed down at her feet.  "Yes, I do.  That's why
they gave me to you."

"Well, I'm shorter than you are.  Your size isn't
important."

"It is here.  I won't be allowed to have
children."

"I guess that means I won't be allowed to either,"
he laughed.  "Not that I intend to be here long enough to find out."

Outside of his Nesu chambers, she paused after opening the
door.  "That's not the first time you have given me an order."

"What?"

"You said you were giving me my first order.  When I
was given to you, you ordered me to take a bath." 

He laughed and returned to his work.  When he finished
several hours later, he found her asleep on the pallet she had placed near the
pool. 
At least she's comfortable enough with me to sleep when I'm here.
 
He stood over her. 
She certainly is beautiful.  At least to me.  On Earth,
she wouldn't give someone like me a second glance.  Here she has no choice.
 

As for that, I have no choice either.  She's the only
human girl close to my age within fifty light years who doesn't look like a
short stick or a tall beanpole.  On Earth, I might not care for her either. 
What do I know about her, anyway?  We haven't shared a real conversation.  She
might be a total dunce. 

After a few moments, he walked to the door and turned down
the lights.  Time to go to his quarters below the commons and get some rest.

#   #   #

Leegh sought out Tommy on the day the bore reached the
center of the asteroid.  "I have made some progress on the drive control
matrices," she said.

"You mean the arrays?"

"That is not the proper mathematical term for what I
have been manipulating.  Their instantiation in your programs may be as
arrays," she replied.

"Whatever.  What have you discovered?"

"Two things.  I understand how to project the point
source gravity field for the insystem drive somewhere other than directly in
front of the ship.  For the second, we will be able to calculate this
asteroid's mass and our transit pseudo-velocity using the programs you wrote
for me and some short calibration transits."

"Ull has a crew moving
My Flowing Streams
into
the asteroid this morning.  We should be able to do your calibration tests this
afternoon.  In the meantime, maybe she will let us test your first idea before
they move The
People's Hand
into place."

Leegh had discovered, with mathematical manipulation and
with a lot less risk, what Tommy might have needed months of experimentation to
establish:  which cells in which arrays controlled the direction of the
projected gravity field.  The tests confirmed they could project a point source
gravity field out to over five hundred thousand kilometers.   Tommy already
knew how to vary its strength.  They now had a new way to maneuver the ship and
a potent new weapon.

The transit test provided further confirmation of the
relationship of mass to transit interval and brought Ull to Leegh's quarters,
interrupting a programming lesson. 

"The telemetry from these tests must be wrong,"
were her first words when she entered the chamber.  "This is not
possible."

"What is wrong?" Tommy asked.

"The results show the
My Flowing Streams
and the
asteroid transiting just under a thousand times faster than
My Flowing
Streams
alone."

Leegh voiced a rough whistle.  "Well.  The relationship
is not linear.  I am sure you were expecting a 300 trillion metric ton ship to
travel much faster."

Ull's tail twitched back and forth.  "No, this is fast
enough.  The council worried about making up all the time we are losing, but this
will end that.  We can reach Toblepas in a day of transit.  We could cross the
galaxy in less than a year.  If these results are correct, this is more than
enough."

"I am certain the mathematics is correct," Leegh
said.

Tommy smiled.  "So, when are we leaving?"

"Soon,” Ull said.  “As soon as we dock
The People's
Hand
with the asteroid and complete the cable connections to
My Flowing
Streams
.  Perhaps late tomorrow."

"Has anyone decided on a name for our new ship?"
Tommy asked.

"Yes, the council has named her
The People's Fist
,"
Ull said.  "And Leegh, the council is having a meeting this afternoon. 
Please plan to attend.  I will be here before the meeting to escort you."

After Ull left, Leegh got up from her chair and paced back
and forth, her tail swishing from side to side.  "What could the council
want with me?  I have been doing what Ull asked of me.  I have even been
working with you." She stopped.  "I mean no offense.  It is just that
you are a human.  An intelligent human, to be sure."

"Stop," Tommy said.  "I know how difficult it
is for The People to work with humans as equals.  I am accustomed to your
prejudices.  I am developing my own."  He walked toward the door. 
"Never mind.  Maybe we can work on your programming skills later." 

After the hatch closed behind him, he added in English,
"Your social skills could use some work, too."

He felt dirty.  A bath and a swim might help, but that meant
dealing with Sisle.  The situation with her hadn't improved at all.  He had
been going to his lord's quarters almost every day to work, and every day she
sat near the door, watching his back. 
I know what I'll do.  I'll bring
Potter with me this time.  At least he cares about me.

He made a quick trip below the commons and back again with
Potter in his arms.

He opened the door to find Sisle in the pond, dog paddling
beside the rock on the far bank where the water was at least fifteen feet
deep.  He watched for a moment, then put Potter and his change of clothes on
the floor and walked to the other side of the pond. 

"You can't swim can you?" he asked.

"What!" she sputtered, and her head went under the
water.  After an unsuccessful grab for the bank pushed her toward the middle,
her head came up and went under again.

"Uh oh," Tommy said. 

He pulled off his tunic top, kicked off his sandals, and
dived into the water. 

When he got to her, she was flailing in all directions and
sinking deeper. 

She knocked away his first grab for her arm. 

He swam above her, grabbed her hair at the top of her head
and kicked hard for the surface. 

A moment later, he dragged her out on the rock, where she
lay on her stomach, coughing water from her lungs.

"Learning to swim with a partner is safer," he
said.

"You're not funny." Her voice was a croak.

"I'm not trying to be funny.  It wouldn't have been
funny to find your body floating in the pond.  You could have told me you
didn't know how to swim."

She coughed again and frowned.  "The women don't.  The
men learn to swim as part of their training.  They use the lakes in the Commons. 
Humans are never allowed in the lords' ponds.  I thought you knew."

"If I knew, would I have asked you to join me for a
swim the day we ate together?"

She rolled over and sat up.  As she bent her head between
her knees for another racking cough, he realized she wasn't wearing anything
above the waist.

"I'll be right back."  His words came out a
stutter.  "I brought some towels with me."

He felt much better when she had wrapped herself with a
towel.  "Is it my imagination, or have you stopped addressing me as Lord
Tommy?"

She was using his second towel to dry her hair.  He would
have to make another trip down the elevator.

"You told me not to," she said.  "Have you
changed your mind?"

She's crying.  Some of those drops rolling down her face
aren't from her hair.

"No, I haven't changed my mind.”  He managed a smile. 
“Are you going to be all right?  Can I get you something else?"

"I'm fine.  I just need to put on dry clothes."

"Do that while I get some more towels.  I need a bath. 
Would you like to get something to eat after?"

She wiped her nose with her towel.  "I would like
that."

"If you see a black and white cat, that's Potter.  He's
mine."

He saw her smile for the first time.  "I met your cat
when he was here before.  We had a long talk.  It's nice to know his
name."

#   #   #

The council put newly made Director Leegh in the rotation
for ship commander immediately, and she had the podium when
The People's
Hand
backed into the newly created
The People's Fist
.  In Tommy's
opinion, she was too absentminded to be ship commander, but he wasn't asked. 
According to Ull, Leegh had been serving as a commander of
My Flowing
Streams
for ten years, so there should be nothing to worry over.  In any
event, the ship moved into its prepared hole without incident.

They completed the cable connections between the two
original ships within the hour, making the combined ship ready for its first
voyage.