The Imperial Hammer Series Set, page 24
“You’ll get it back,” I promised.
“That’s if I come back here after.”
“That’s why you’re in here? Contemplating your mortality?” I said it gently. Every soldier had to deal with death in their own way. More than a few were like Dalton—they needed to be away from everyone while they faced the possibility. Still others like to party hard, squeeze in as much life as possible. I had my own rituals, honed from decades of battles and wars.
“Actually, I was lying here wondering why I didn’t set up a garden instead of the lake house.”
“You like to garden…” Amazing.
“I like the idea of a garden,” he shot back. “I never have stopped in one joint long enough to plant anything. Soil’s short on starships, anyhow. Only, the idea grabbed hold of me sometime in the last forty years and kinda stuck around.”
“It took root?” I suggested.
He didn’t roll his eyes at that groaner. “Every time I found myself hunched in the rusty guts of some clunker freighter, running away from yet another close call, the idea would resurface. A garden, peace. Planting things and watching them grow, then eating the harvest. No running…”
“That’s why you didn’t build a garden out of Lyth’s nanobots. You’re still running.”
He nodded. “That’s what I’d figured out when you busted in here.” He straightened and looked around. “So when does everything go zap?”
“I think it’s already happening.” I pointed to the far distant peaks. They were growing indistinct, the colors running together. “It might take a few minutes,” I added.
He turned and watched the mountains sink and disappear, then the lake water. “This is not going to end happily,” he murmured.
I knew he wasn’t referring to the disappearing lake. I knew, too, that he had been facing his mortality, after all.
When the walls and the rooms had all disappeared, there was nothing left but a yawning space a hundred meters long. Even the gallery corridors on either side were gone, for their interior walls had been nanobots, too.
Juliyana stood where the galley had been. A printer sat on the floor, ten meters from her position.
Lyth had gone. He would use the energy needed to generate his avatar for the work he faced.
Between me and Juliyana, my sack sat on the floor. Bits and pieces from the sack were scattered around it, including my pad, which I had left on the bed.
Dalton’s possessions, too, were spread around us. Five concierge panels squatted on the floor where each of our rooms had been, including Sauli’s new room, and the stellar room, too.
I thought I might miss that mountaintop.
From here, I could see the ramp up into the bridge, and the bridge itself. I turned. Behind us were the multiple entries into the service compartments, including the stairs down to the engine rooms. Sauli would be down there, unaware of the changes, for the service compartments were made of solids.
The lights came down to an early evening gloom.
“Wow,” Juliyana breathed, and her voice echoed.
“Suddenly, the bridge seems cozy and welcoming,” Dalton said.
“Okay, then,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
22
THE IMPERIAL CITY WAS ALSO known as the Crystal City. The city is listed on official star maps as The First City of Carina-Sagittarius, a name that no one bothers to use. Even Imperial documents refer to it as the Imperial City.
The Crystal City hung in geo-stationary orbit over an unremarkable ball, Eugorian II, which had once held a breathable atmosphere and a fortune in rare ores and minerals that a hungry and expanding human diaspora desperately needed. As the resources were on a family-held ball, and not floating in rights-free ore belts where anyone could grab them, the family exploited the windfall with systematic deliberation.
With their unsurpassed, unimaginable wealth, the family turned their attention to researching more efficient travel about the known worlds that didn’t require spending generations upon a city-sized ship moving at sub-light speeds.
The family paid for the best research and development, pulling in talent and expertise from the known worlds. They developed the first working gate, then gifted a second gate to the nearest inhabited planet. It took seventy years to deliver that first gate, but the return journey back to the family seat took only seventeen hours.
Traffic through the pair of gates became a thick, congested highway.
When the other planets clamored for gates, the family franchised them and took a share of the profits from the taxes those planets charged for the use of the gates, in addition to their franchise fees.
And thus was borne the fourth Carinad Empire.
The present Emperor, Ramaker III, was the 76th. Ramaker had come to power by overthrowing his cousin, Karsci, in a bloodless coup. There were unofficial records and myths proposing that Ramaker had led the coup because he couldn’t stand Karsci’s imbecilic leadership. Ramaker became the 1st of the Tanique Dynasty, two hundred and ninety years ago, and had ruled with a stern and ruthless hand since then.
In the very long lifetime of the Fourth Carinad Empire, the array has been the foundation of their power, and the Crystal City their glittering statement of that power.
Eugorian is a binary system, which the Crystal City takes full advantage of. The domes of the city are not smoothly curved, but angular and faceted. The largest dome, the one which encloses the Imperial Palace, is a fractal geodesic structure a full five kilometers across. Inside the dome were parks and public areas and the palace itself.
Domes made up the city. The last official count I have heard was five hundred domes of various shapes and sizes. Every year, more are built, hooked up to the city, pressurized and gravitized and the real estate sold in a flurry of eye-popping deals.
From the top of the palace, it is said, the light of the suns bouncing from dome to dome, making them glitter and dance, could blind anyone who stared for too long.
I doubt it’s true. I’ve been to the Crystal City once or twice and my first glimpse of a dome was disappointing. The facets I could see were dirty and grimed. Later, I learned that the dirt was exhaust from ships pulling away from their landing bays. The dirt was caught by the edges of the gravity fields which extend a little way beyond the dome itself. The gravity pulled the crap against the dome, to stay there until some mug in a suit and waldos got to clean the facets.
The magic of the city was ruined for me, after that.
We eased through the gates before the rise of either sun, on the day of the Birthday Honors. We were all on the bridge. Even Noam had returned for this moment and stood out of the way, next to Lyth. We all held our breath, even those who did not breathe.
“Any warnings or notices, Noam?” I whispered, as The Supreme Lythion swung around in a big arc, skirting the mass of the Imperial fleet where it had been parked off to one side of the city. Shuttles buzzed around the monster-sized ships like bees, for even at this hour, the preparations for the parade and the festivities were in full swing.
“Nothing,” Noam said.
“Regulation speed, remember, Lyth,” I said.
“Slower, actually,” Lyth said. “Just over one gee, for Dalton’s sake.”
Dalton didn’t bother being offended or apologetic. He had his back to the captain’s shell, ready to take over. He glanced at me. “You should probably get going. Even at this crawl, we’ll reach the city in less than an hour.”
I nodded and looked at Juliyana. She gripped her hip above where her gun once sat. Her fingers squeezed, then she turned and moved off the bridge.
I lingered for a moment next to Dalton.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t let the big chair go to my head,” he muttered.
“I was going to say thanks.”
He looked at me, startled. “For what?” He pulled his attention back to the control panel.
“Lyth and Noam may have pulled you to Badelt City on this ship, but it was you who stepped through the landing bay door and whistled to get my attention. No one else made that decision but you, and it saved our lives.”
He glared at the windows before him. “What was I supposed to do? Stand there and watch them mow you down?”
“You could have. It would have saved you a packet of trouble. No one would have known, if you had. That’s why I’m saying thanks.” I walked away without waiting for his reply. I didn’t want one, for this was part of my ritual; squaring up debts, so nothing lingered.
I moved down the ramp to the still-empty living area, where our personal possessions were strewn across the floor like a child’s toy collection. There was still far more empty gray floor than there was mess to step around.
I moved directly to the corridor that led to the dropship and down it to the ship itself.
Juliyana was strapping herself into the pilot’s chair. She had protested over this. “I am a shitty pilot, Danny! I’ve done basics, but I’ve been in the bowels of stations for years!”
I pulled rank. “I go first,” I told her. “The AI does most of the flying, anyway. You just have to pat it on the head and tell it it’s doing fine. No arguments, Juliyana. Or I take Dalton instead.” That shut her up, as I had known it would. She wanted to be there, to confront the Emperor. To see his face.
I punched up the viewscreen. The Lythion drifted underneath the city, an aspect rarely seen by residents and visitors. The underbelly was a complex of service modules, shafts, pipes, exhausts belching noxious fumes. Recycling plants, bio scrubbers, air conditioners and more scattered across the city’s ass in a maze that defied solving.
We watched the far edge of the city draw closer, and the clear sky beyond, lit blue by the first sun rising from behind Eugoria II. “Second sun, twelve minutes away,” Lyth said.
“We’ll be ready,” I replied.
I got out of the chair and moved to the interior of the drop ship. The bag with the suits sat on the bench where Moroder had been sitting. I pulled out one of the suit packs and eased my arms into the straps, settling it on my back. I was wearing a supple bodysuit that covered me from neck to toes. The feet of the suit were super-non-slip, to the point where I had to lift my feet properly when I walked or risk tripping over them if even part of the sole brushed over the floor as I walked.
Juliyana wore the same outfit, and her pack rested in the bag.
“Coming around,” Juliyana announced.
I glanced at the screen. Nothing but planetary crescent ahead, and the glowing dawn of the blue sun.
Juliyana played her hands over the controls, bringing the drop ship to a dead stop. “How’s that second sun going?” she asked.
“Two minutes,” Dalton replied. “Hold until my mark.”
“Holding.”
I moved over to the side door that generally remained closed, opposite the one Lythion was usually attached to, and prepped it for opening.
“Start your ascent,” Lyth said. “Ten meters a second…now.”
The ship lifted with a roar of the hover engines.
“…and…” Dalton said. “…hold!”
The ship came to another dead stop, as the engines reversed sharply, then cut out. Not a meter lost or gained. “Neat,” I told Juliyana and threw her pack to her.
She scrambled out of the pilot’s chair and shrugged into the pack. We both touched the control pad on the straps.
And I held my breath, despite having gone through this process a dozen times, testing the speed and function of the process.
The nanobots swarmed over us at a speed that felt like the run of water from a shower, only they were moving upward. As they rose around my face, I closed my eyes.
Then…light once more and air around my face. I opened my eyes, to look through the faceplate that had formed. Juliyana wore the same matte black environment suit. Her eyes were wide behind her faceplate, but she nodded at me and bent over the arm of the pilot’s chair and hit the door controls.
Warning klaxons sounded. She muted them.
Air was sucked out of the cabin until the door had equal pressure on both sides. With a clank I could feel through my feet, but couldn’t hear, the door slid open.
“Ten seconds,” Dalton warned in my ear.
Between the edge of the floor at the open doorway lay nothing but vacuum and a very long way below, the surface of Eugorian II. We hovered ten meters away from the very lowest section of the bottom of the Imperial dome. Ten meters was just outside the borders of the proximity alarms. One facet, forty meters across, was directly in front of us. It was opaque with dirt, for this tucked away corner of the dome was right up against the Emperor’s private landing bay.
Then the second sun rose, a dazzling white ball which spilled its energy upon the planet and the city…and the dome itself.
I threw up my arm as the glittering array blinded me. Then the faceplate compensated, adding a layer of polarization that cut the dazzle.
I lowered my arm, still blinking, and watched the dome, waiting.
The polarization ran down the dome like water over an upturned bowl. As it reached the facet we hovered beside, I eased back a step or two and took a running leap out of the door.
All I needed to do was push beyond the reach of the pseudo gravity field of the drop ship. Momentum would do the rest.
I got my hands and feet out in front of me as I floated through the air. I was aiming for the top of the facet, for the dome’s gravity would reach beyond it a meter or two, and pull me down.
Halfway across, when I could feel the lightness of zero gravity, I pressed my left thumb against the sensor on the side of my glove’s index finger. There was no sensation that anything had changed, but the sensor glowed a muted green.
I began to drop as the gravity from the dome kicked in. I pushed forward with my hands, reaching for the glasseen steel. I slapped my hands against it as my body was dragged down.
My hands stuck like limpets.
Using them as leverage, I swung my feet up and planted them squarely against the dome. They stuck, too.
I bent my knees and elbows, pulling myself in against the facet. Then I broke the grip of my right hand by rolling it slowly to one side. I reached into my belt, pulled out the tether launcher and turned carefully to sight toward the drop ship. Juliyana stood in the doorway watching me.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Yes.”
The drop ship was coated in the same masking nanobot skin as the rest of the Lythion. With the suns blazing behind it, it was a dark shadow. Nothing glittered or even gleamed. It also shielded me from the blast of the suns, letting me aim at Juliyana.
I triggered the launcher. The guiding weight shot toward her, trailing unbreakable cable behind it.
Juliyana caught the weight as it slapped her belly, then wrapped it around her waist and hooked it to itself. She couldn’t attach it to the nanobot environment suit, because Lyth wasn’t certain a sudden jerk against them wouldn’t disperse them the way his fist dispersed if he tried to put much effort behind it.
But the bots would withstand the few minutes we would be outside.
I attached the rear end of the launcher to the facet next to my hand. It used the same powerful suction devices that were on my hands and feet.
“Attached,” Juliyana said and disappeared inside the ship. She would be firing up the self-directing program that Lyth had left in the AI’s core for this moment.
The ship dropped sharply, as the hover engines reversed. The cable played out, then slowed, as Juliyana reappeared at the open door of the drop ship. She stepped out into vacuum.
I reversed the launcher and the cable wound up, bringing Juliyana with it, while the drop ship floated back beneath the city and disappeared from our view.
“The drop ship is heading back to you,” I told Dalton.
“Copy.”
“As soon as you have it, go park yourself on the back side of the gate,” I added, watching the cable slow even more as Juliyana drew closer.
Twenty hours ago, Noam had suggested the Lythion hide behind the gate.
“It won’t hide a damn thing,” Dalton had argued back. “When the gate isn’t active, with a wormhole showing, you can see the stars right through the middle of it.”
“As soon as the Lythion is through, I will deactivate the gate and set up an ion screen that will reflect the view behind the Lythion. It will look like you’re staring through the ring. No one will realize anything is wrong, unless someone tries to leave Eugoria through the gates.” He smiled. “Then they will find it doesn’t work.”
“Okay, so the chances that anyone is leaving the system today is pretty small,” Dalton said. “But there has to be a shit ton of ships trying to arrive here in time for the celebrations. What happens to them?”
“There are, indeed, many ships traveling toward the gate,” Noam said. “The first of them will request the gate form an exit one hundred and three minutes after we emerge.”
“That’s our window, then,” I said. “We have just under two hours to get this done.”
Now Dalton growled at me through my earpiece, “I know my bit.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I know you do. Can’t help being a Colonel.”
“Shit, and she apologizes,” Dalton said. “Now I know the impossible can happen.”
I reached out and took Juliyana’s wrist as she was drawn up alongside me and pulled her hand up against the facet. Her hand anchored and she quickly anchored the other and her feet and pulled herself into a crouch like me.
“Ready?” she asked me.
I nodded, and realized that unlike most environment suits, in this one, Juliyana could actually see my head nod.
She rolled her hand away from the glasseen and prodded at the control panel on the strap of her suit pack.
The back of the pack opened and a nanobot soup flowed over us as we hunched in small and tight.
This was the second reason why Juliyana had to be hauled over from the ship instead of jumping. Not only did she have to start the program for the drop ship’s return to the Lythion, it also turned out that nanobots were heavy. That had surprised all of us.
