Rhythm of the Imperium (42 page)

One Zang enveloped them all in a kindly air.

“We do not want you to feel less than one of us,” it said. “Very well. I will consider it. What about the rest of you?”

“I accede,” Charm said. “Come, it will be a new experience for all of us! It has been a long time since we waited less than .001 hexaeons in between removals.”

Proton and Quark thought deeply, reaching out to the far extent of their senses. Proton was the first to return.

“I will agree, too. But we must be unanimous.”

Low was jubilant. It issued conciliatory waves toward the conical Zang. “Please, Quark, it is only you. I respect your opinion.”

“Very well,” Zang Quark said, at last. “It is not unprecedented. Perhaps it will be enjoyable.”

Low Zang was jubilant. It sent a touch of power toward the Kail. They dodged the humans and charged toward it, the floor shaking under their heavy feet. It was pleased to be able to give them good news.

“I shall inform my human,” Proton said, opening its aura to attract the small female to its side. “The other ephemerals will also be interested in witnessing another of our works of art.”

Low Zang managed to convey his success to the Kail with less difficulty than it thought it would have with such primitive creatures. They understood at once, and evoked triumph.

Only the mechanical at Phutes’s heels seemed to feel unhappy.

CHAPTER 41

I had missed the spectacle by only a short time, but it was long enough to have been noticed and remarked upon at length. When I returned from the
Jaunter
, accompanied by an LAI carrying all the delicacies I had held back for the party, I was greeted by my cousins with shouts of laughter.

“What happened?” Xan asked, making a terrible face at me. “Did you fall asleep?”

“As it happens, I did,” I said, determined to tell as few lies as possible. “For a while. Then I became involved with a subject of great interest that caught my attention …”

The wide-eyed silence that fell universally upon my nearest and dearest usually was caused by the sudden presence of Parsons. This hush, though, was tinged with an air of pity, giving me all too much information about the source of dismay. I pivoted in place with all the enthusiasm I could muster.

“Laine!” I exclaimed. I seized from the top of the mechanical at my side a huge bunch of fist-sized pink roses that I had brought from the hydroponics garden for just this very moment. I had only hoped it would be a little later on, when I could collect my thoughts. I was horrified to realize that I had not thought of her at all during the past few days. I thrust the bouquet toward her, hoping to make amends. “How delightful! I wanted to thank you, on behalf of all of us, for a splendid narration and guidance through an amazing experience.”

She did not touch the bouquet. Instead, she kept her small fists balled up on her hips.

“Where were you?” she demanded, her voice more shrill than usual. “You were supposed to be with me and the Zang!”

For the first time since my return, I was speechless. “I … I was on the ship,” I began. Naturally, I didn’t say which ship.

“Oh, so you saw it?” she asked. One lovely eye narrowed. I quailed before her.

“Well, not as well as you did. In fact,” as truth overcame me, “not at all. I am afraid I was a bit distracted.”

“A bit?” Laine asked, her voice rising into a range that perhaps only bats could hear.

“You must have spent the last few days in a coma, cousin,” Nalney said, in open disbelief. “It was amazing. To think such an event was possible—well, I am still getting over it. And to think that you had the chance to stand at the center of it all, and you missed it? That’s scatterbrainment on a level that usually only I can achieve.”

It could not, to my mind, have been as amazing as what I had just been through, but I had to take their gibes without returning one. I hugged my secret to myself.

“I am very sorry,” I began.

“I had a place saved for you!” Laine said. If her eyes had been lasers, I would have been reduced on the spot to ashes. I humbled myself, with all the body language I could muster. I hunched my shoulders over my wringing hands. My entire person begged for her forgiveness.

“I am sorry, Laine. I … I just could not be there. I became tied up with another matter that took over my entire attention. Family business. I promise you I would have been there if I could. I am desolated to have missed the opportunity to stand with you. Please, let me make it up to you somehow? Come down to my quarters. I will have my valet make a special dinner, just for the two of us.” I stretched out my hand to touch her fingers.

“No!” she said, recoiling from me in distaste. “Not a chance. Not if you were the last man on Earth!”

I smiled, projecting all the hope in my heart. “What about the second-to-last man?”

For some reason, that brought a reluctant chuckle from her. Though our relationship may never again be what it was, Laine seemed in a mood to relent somewhat.

“Well, you may have another chance,” she said. “This is unprecedented as far as I know, but Low Zang is so new at this. The Kail have pleaded to see another spectacle. The others weren’t quite persuaded, but in the end they agreed. It’s marvelous! Everyone is so excited. It won’t be announced until it’s certain, but I wanted to let you know.”

I brightened. This was going to be a red-letter week for one Thomas Kinago. My cousins crowded around to hear the news.

“Another destruction? Of what?”

My enthusiasm persuaded a smile from the disapproval with which I had earned. Laine was happy to enlarge upon her favorite subject.

“I don’t know yet,” Laine said. “The Kail have been giving them the coordinates of a rock they say is cluttering up the skies in its system.”

“Fascinating!” I seized her hand in delight. She did not pull away. “This time, we will remain together, I promised. It will be a treat!” I thrust the bouquet toward her again.

This time she did accept the flowers, burying her nose in the tallest blossom.

“How long will it take us to get there?” Jil asked, in delight. “We’ll have to notify Captain Wold.”

“We don’t have to get back on our ships,” Laine said. “We can travel there without having to leave the platform. It can make the jump and return us here to meet them. We’d be there in no time.”

“Only one jump away?” I asked.

“Yes, so the Zang said,” Laine said. “Proton has a way of giving me general directional information. It’s how I tell the Trade Union where to move the platform.”

I glanced around, as though the target was within sight. “This is nowhere near Kail space. One jump won’t convey us even remotely close to their systems.”

“Well, what does it matter, as long as they’re happy?” Xan asked. His eyes brightened. “We will get to watch another destruction! This time I shall know what to look for.”

Laine glanced up sharply as though someone had tapped her on the shoulder.

“I had better go back. They still need to give me some more details for the navigator. See you later.”

I reinstated myself with my cousins and served my treats. Though I had surrendered the last of my truffles to Nell, I still had delicately pickled lily buds, fragrant edible fungi, divine cheeses and nut breads upon which to spread them, and petits fours and pastries kept in perfect storage against this moment. Accompanied by digitavids from Nalney, they related to me what I had so absurdly missed.

“It was thrilling, Thomas,” Erita said, holding her hands as though clutching a grapefruit. “The poor little sphere began to tremble. It might have been long dead, but suddenly, lava began to spurt out of cracks.”

“It was red,” Xan added, his eyes lighting avidly. “As though it was
bleeding.
”

“Horrible!” Sinim said, with a shiver. “I could hardly look!”

“But you did, dear,” Jil said, patting her on the hand. “You stared, just like the rest of us. If the glass hadn’t been tempered to prevent our eyes burning in our sockets, we would have been blinded! The planet began to shake even more. We could feel it here where we sat.”

“Then,” Nell said, taking up the narrative, “suddenly, the planet opened up along the cracks like a huge flower! We had only a moment to take it all in before the pieces shot outward! A huge chunk came rushing towards us. I crouched down in the cushions in fear that this was the last moment of my life!”

“Then they vanished,” Nalney said, aiming a hand at his recording, which showed that very moment. “The shock waves kept coming, though. The whole platform bucked and trembled. Now I know what Proton was missing from our digitavids! Having experienced it, I can understand why a plain tri-dee was not as satisfying. I can’t wait to see it again!”

“It looks as though we shall,” I said, deeply pleased. “And I will do my dance at the conclusion of it, for you and Dr. Derrida.”

With that very thought in mind, I went out in search of Parsons. Clearly, the Zang ignored most of what the spectators did during and after their event. It should matter little if I indulged myself in the performance of a lifetime.

Whether or not it was official news, the rumor spread about the second spectacle. Everyone, with the possible exception of the Donre, were thrilled at the prospect. To be able to account a double event in their Infogrid files was to make each of them the envy of their friends at home, even those who had experienced a Zang destruction. From what I could overhear as I passed them, a repeat performance had never in living memory been known to have occurred. I felt privileged, even though I was to witness only the second half.

I completed a circuit of the entire platform area before I finally spotted my quarry. Parsons emerged from a door I had not noticed before, in the angle between our habitat and that of the Kail. He looked troubled, but not so troubled that the sight of my bright and shining visage did not lift his own a millimeter or so.

“I am glad to see you have returned safely, my lord.”

I surveyed him critically. “Well, you look like a rainy day, Parsons. Not that a rainy day cannot give one pleasure, but you resemble a downpour when a parade is scheduled. You should be curious about the upcoming spectacle. I shall not miss this one.”

He studied me closely, a very slight wrinkle appearing between his straight black brows.

“Did you … enjoy yourself, my lord?”

I let the delight I had been cherishing spread across my face like a sunrise. “More than you can possibly know,” I said. “I wish you had come with me.”

“That is impossible, sir.” Did I detect a microgram of regret? I felt suddenly as though I was rubbing his face in his failure to achieve that which only one other person in my lifetime had done. That was inexcusable, considering how much I owed him. I changed the subject with haste.

“You’ve heard the rumors?” I asked. He inclined his head a trifle. “But you do not seem pleased that the Zang will favor us with another project. I cherish it as my only possibility of getting back into Laine’s good graces. I’m afraid that my absence has caused a rift. But you do not care about my love life. What is troubling you?”

“The Zang have chosen their target, but we have no means of determining where it is,” Parsons said, keeping his voice very low. “We are concerned for the safety of one of the Core Worlds.”

I transited instantly from delighted to horrified.

“The Kail wouldn’t dare, would they?” I asked, my whisper hoarse. “Laine told me that the planet they are considering is only one jump away from here. That surely cannot include Keinolt, although it puts Counterweight squarely in the crosshairs. What about Trade Union systems?”

Parsons looked grave.

“Between the mass of information that was transmitted from the
Whiskerchin
to the Kail on the
Jaunter
and the impenetrability of the Zang, we do not know. Did Dr. Derrida give you any indication?”

“Apart from the number of jumps, she doesn’t know, either,” I said. “But they couldn’t contemplate such a thing! I recall distinctly that when we arrived here, the overture of destruction had already begun upon our dearly departed planet up there. If the Zang were to target an inhabited sphere, some manner of mayhem would already be visited. Mass panic would certainly ensue. There wouldn’t be time to evacuate it.”

“No, there wouldn’t,” Parsons said. “That is a point that troubles me. The Zang have not in the past destroyed a world with sentient life upon it. Dr. Derrida stressed that in two of her lectures.”

“Ah, well, there,” I said, much relieved. “It couldn’t be one of the Core Worlds, or even Counterweight. I’d worry about their moons, though.”

“That would cause chaos on the nearby planet as well.”

“Laine will let us know as soon as she finds out,” I said. “Perhaps it won’t happen at all. Maybe the Zang will decide they’ve done enough, and go about their business.”

“Oh, Lord Thomas!”

A most forlorn-sounding female voice reached me through the noise of the crowd. I glanced about for its source.

From the midst of the milling crowds, a bedraggled figure emerged. I could hardly recognize it as belonging to an LAI, let alone NR-111. Her housing was battered and cracked, and a bloom like a radiation burn had scalded the entire front assembly. Two of her lenses were dark.

“My dear creature, what happened to you?” I asked, as she homed in on me.

“Quiet!” NR-111 swiveled her visual assembly around. “Please, I didn’t know what else to do! I had to tell …
someone
, and you’re the only one who has been kind to me!”

I put my arm around her stalk and drew her into a recess that was shielded by a number of helpfully obscuring potted plants. Parsons followed us into its bower.

“You can speak before Parsons,” I said, keeping my voice a discreet murmur. “He’s much more reliable than I am. Why are you so troubled?”

“It’s the Kail,” she whispered, so low that I had to dip my head to hear. “They have given the Zang the coordinates for the planet they wish to have demolished. Low Zang seems to be enthusiastic about the idea, but it’s terrible. I don’t know what to do!”

I allowed my eyebrows to rise upon my forehead. “What are the coordinates?”

The lens array swiveled so that one of the eyes that was still clear met mine. “You must understand that this is against my programming,” she said. “I am sworn to keep anything that they tell me in strictest confidence! But my primary duty is to protect human life.”

“I am certain that you are doing exactly what you have been programmed to do,” Parsons said. “Tell us what you know.”

“I can’t tell you, commander.” The lenses swiveled to face me again. “Perhaps Lord Thomas? He seems to understand what … what I have been going through. And I have been so lonely!”

“Please,” I said. “Confide in me. Consider me an honorary mechanical. I am sure you are doing the right thing.”

“I can’t linger! I will have to get back into the room before I am missed!”

“Show me, then,” I said, tapping her small viewscreen. She must have thought it over in a microsecond, for a series of numbers appeared.

“I translated these from the binary,” she said, her voice desperate. “It took some doing, but I am sure that I captured every digit. I ran a cross-check against the navigational atlases in my memory. I still cannot connect with other systems. You
need
to see it.”

Parsons peered over my shoulder. “I see,” he said. “Thank you, NR-111.”

Upon seeing the set of digits set out, my blood chilled to ice. For a moment, I could not speak. My heart had moved up to choke off any words.