Shades of Gray (50 page)

Tirak laughed. “They’re not so bad. Zsurtul’s revamped everything to get most of the pomp and ceremony out of it, but he would be dishonoring you and the Brotherhood if there weren’t a formal dinner. I hear it will be a small one, though, in deference to the fact he’s still recovering from injuries he sustained trying to stop K’hedduk from leaving.”

“Really? The youth has spirit then. Till we meet again, Tirak, Annuur.”

 

Kezule turned off the holo images that they’d taken the day before when he’d shown Zsurtul the state of his world outside the City of Light. The drapes over the windows at the far end of the room slid back, letting in the sunlight again.

He sat down, the chair under him audibly tilting slightly to one side as he did. “You can see quite clearly for yourself that the Prime culture, left alone, is dying out, and we need to regenerate. Now we do have some resources of our own—Kij’ik is being towed here and should arrive sometime this evening to be placed in a geostationary orbit around K’oish’ik. On it is my fledgling colony. It will be ferried down here as soon as we have built at least a temporary township for them just outside the city here. As you came in to land, you may have seen it, L’Seuli.”

“I did. It progresses well. We have brought with us the prefabricated materials you requested, Kezule.”

“We thank you indeed,” said Zsurtul.

“Our other resource is the people of Ch’almuth. They were once an agricultural world with a small military and scientific presence. They have managed over the last fifteen hundred years to return to what the Valtegan people once were, not three castes but one. They are reaching a population level where they are happy to let those who wish to emigrate come here. All we lack is the means to ferry them to K’oish’ik in large enough numbers.”

“There’s an added problem that M’zull has for many years been raiding Ch’almuth not only for supplies but for their young people, mainly the females, as breeding stock,” said Kusac. “We anticipate another such incursion any time now. The details on our current situation were sent to your ship as soon as you docked. I don’t know if you’ve had time to read them.”

“My aide did and brought me up to speed on your situation. I’ll study them myself tonight. As I understand it, your main needs are the building materials we brought for you from Shola, a way to bring the Ch’almuthians who want to emigrate here, and a way to defend the Ch’almuthians from any M’zullian attack.”

“Not so much the latter,” said Kusac. “The Touibans have managed to repair the Ch’almuthian weather platform, which, as it turns out, is also armed. They have that now as well as a couple of fair-sized ships, so they can defend themselves against the craft that will be sent to do the cull. However, this visit will be the last for five to ten years, if all goes as the M’zullians expect. If we let it go ahead as planned, it would give the Primes some time to get up and running here. Five years is half a generation to them. We should have three weeks grace at least until K’hedduk lands on M’zull.“

“We need fighter planes, their pilots, and warriors, Commander L’Seuli,” said Zsurtul. “We need to train more of our military, and for that we are looking to you for help. I know how good the Brotherhood training is.”

“You were trained by Kusac and Kaid at the Warrior Guild, weren’t you?” said L’Seuli with a faint smile. “I remember that now. We’ll need to thrash out the details, but I can leave about two hundred Brothers and some ten extra fighters, but that’s all for now. We have to be prepared for the war to start nearer to home than here. We can also go to Ch’almuth and bring at least a thousand people here for you, if that would help.”

“Enormously,” said Zsurtul, the relief evident on his face. “The task of rebuilding my people back into one species again is enough of a burden without the prospect that the M’zullians will launch an all-out war on us.”

“As to that,” began L’Seuli.

“The war will happen out here at some point, L’Seuli,” said Kusac impatiently. Why couldn’t others see the reality as clearly as he did? “They need this world to recreate their Empire, and since we sent K’hedduk fleeing, his tail between his legs, he will be focused on K’oish’ik. Remember the Valtegan mind-set.” He cast a sideways glace at Kezule as he said that. “The balance has changed. Now we can decide whether to take the war to him from here, or wait for him to come to us.”

“He’s been defeated, very publicly,” said Kezule, his voice clipped with self-control. “However, he can prove that it was due to failed communications between M’zull and K’oish’ik, that the expected reinforcements did not arrive. That, and the presence of my daughter as a captive, will buy him some time on M’zull. We do know now that while he was here, his Generals staged a coup on his behalf and deposed his brother, the Emperor, so he does have all the resources of M’zull at his fingertips. But his Generals will turn on him at the first sign of weakness. At some point, he has to regain K’oish’ik to regain his honor and remain their Emperor. I believe he will try to take Ch’almuth first as the easier target.”

“He sees us as a barbaric backwater, Commander,” said Shyadd, speaking for the first time. “He’ll come, but he’ll come in force to wipe us out for daring to stand against him, and for succeeding, thanks to the bravery of our King, yourselves, and our other allies.”

“The reason we can’t take the war to him remains the same,” said L’Seuli. “Now we do have superior numbers, thanks to the demise of J’kirtikk, but they still have the weapon that destroyed all life on two of our worlds. And if we survive that long, inevitably it will come down to fighting on the planet’s surface. On the ground, we know from experience, none of the Alliance can beat the M’zullians on sheer brute strength, speed, and ferocity. The outcome is still not predictable.”

“Pity we didn’t have a couple of planet-buster bombs,” murmured Kaid, pulling a stim twig out of the pack in front of him.

L’Seuli looked askance at him. “If they existed, there’s no way even the Brotherhood could defend itself for using them.”

“Nice thought, though, you gotta admit that,” Kaid drawled, sitting back in his chair. “We don’t want to leave anything of them to rise up again in another fifteen hundred years, do we?”

“Thankfully, that’s not for us to decide,” said L’Seuli. “Is there anything else you need, King Zsurtul?”

Kusac and Kaid exchanged glances that said it all.

“There is. Since everyone here at this table is fully occupied, can you possibly spare a priest to help me replace the old Emperor cult with one belonging to one of our older Gods or Goddesses? Something more peaceful, perhaps a fertility deity.”

Kusac turned back to see L’Seuli blink in surprise.

“Yes, I can do that,” he said. “There’s no one I can spare on the
Va’Khoi,
but I will ask Father Lijou tonight when I return to the ship if he can send someone.”

Ghyakulla sat back on her heels, and wiping a smudge of wet earth from her nose, smiled.

On Shola, Conner looked up from the book he was reading to Noni.

“I have to leave tomorrow,” he said quietly, reaching a hand across the table to her.

She took it and squeezed his till her claws pricked his flesh. “So it begins, does it?”

“It does, the Gods help us all.”

 

IT had been another bad night, one of disturbing visions of faceless beings and unaccomplished tasks that woke him every few hours. Luckily, Shaidan had asked to sleep with his brothers and sisters for the last two nights, so the only one disturbed by it had been him.

He was already late for his meeting down in the cells with Kezule, so breakfast had been what he could pile on a slice of bread and eat on the way down. Now it lay in an indigestible lump in his gut, which didn’t improve his temper.

He joined Kezule in the office, sitting down to watch the bank of monitors.

“Kij’ik arrived last night,” said Kezule. “They’re preparing to test the corridor.”

He grunted noncommittally. “When are you bringing down the civilians?”

“When we have somewhere for them to live. They’re safe on Kij’ik for now. We have to worry about those who come from Ch’almuth first as they’ll have nowhere to stay.”

“They can always be berthed in Kij’ik for the time being. Less work than trying to build a shantytown around them.”

“No, I don’t want to open up any more of the station until it is fully operational. We had too many botched systems running there. We’ll give them the materials,” said Kezule, “and provide some help. They’ll do the rest and will be on hand to help other newcomers when they arrive.”

“I suppose.”

“Where’s Kaid today? I expected him here but Banner is standing in for him.”

“It’s their Leska Link day. They need to spend the next twenty-eight hours alone, sharing their minds. You won’t see them until tomorrow.” Was that what was bothering him? He pushed the thought aside and sat up, trying to take an interest in what was happening. “I take it there’s nothing new since yesterday?”

“Nothing. I don’t believe that gene-altered monstrosity has anything to tell us. He certainly wasn’t chosen for his intellectual ability. Are you sure you can’t mind read the others?”

“I’ve told you, someone has enhanced their natural barriers that prevent me making a deep enough contact to get what I need from them. If I do force a contact, they’ll have a stroke and die.” Anticipating the next question, he looked at Kezule and said, “You were a different case. You only had the natural protection, which Carrie could force through.”

“Do your worst to the thug,” said Kezule. “He’s of no further use to us.”

“I’m certainly done with him. I’m more interested in the M’zullians and why they aren’t as afraid of us as the ones on Keiss were.”

“Those, from what you’ve told me, were Warriors. These two aren’t, they’re a more intellectual strain. The same memories aren’t passed on to every caste, you know.”

“I’d assumed they were, without really thinking about it.” It felt as though the more he learned about all the different castes of Valtegans, the less he seemed to know.

He reached out to turn up the volume on the monitor for the cell of Lufsuh, Head Enforcer of the Inquisitors.

Banner was sitting astride a wooden chair, arms leaning on the back, facing Lufsuh, who was tied another. To the right of the prisoner stood Kho’ikk, whom he recognized as one of the few commandos that K’hedduk had taken prisoner.

“You’re the last of the Inquisitors, Lufsuh,” Banner was saying. “You meant nothing to K’hedduk; you were merely a stepping stone to power. He considered you disposable. Not a nice thought, is it, that your ruler thinks you’re worthless?”

“He’s a betrayer,” said Kho’ikk, spitting on the ground. “He betrayed his brother to take the Throne of Light for himself, then betrayed you when he left you stranded here during the battle. He’s a coward, not fit to rule, and you’re a bigger fool for protecting him now!”

“Why should I tell you anything? You’ll kill me no matter what I do or say. Perhaps I despise you more than K’hedduk,” said Lufsuh, trying to turn his head away from the brightness of the light shining in his face. “The hatchling you set on the Throne may not be the equal of K’hedduk, but he is a Prime. He trained on Shola as a Warrior, and I hear he fought in the battle.” The V shaped mouth split in a toothy grin. “The blood of Warriors obviously flows in his veins. Be wary of him. One day he will tire of bowing to lesser beings like you, and . . .”

Kho’ikk’s hand lashed out, delivering a blow to the side of Lufsuh’s head.

“Silence!” he hissed. “Our King, unlike yours, would never betray his people or his allies!”

Lufsuh shook his head and turning to face Kho’ikk, spat blood at him. “Whatever you think you know about us as a race, forget it. You know nothing about us! You are the dust beneath our feet!”