A Warrior's Sacrifice (17 page)

Yerama-gar reached out with a svelte arm to stop the Car-karniss. The guard hissed again but returned to the Prehson's side.

Corwin spread his hands wide. "I don't mean to offend, but my family was not a part of the original group of Humans that the Prehson contacted. I am not bound by the same customs."

"Truly? Yet you are here, wearing the armor of what I know to be the highest military order of your species. Wearing alien technology granted to you by rights of that accord."

Corwin didn't know why he was arguing the point; he could ameliorate the situation by taking a knee. There was something that pushed him on, made him obstinate when he shouldn't be. "I earned this through successful contest and skill."

"What were your ancestors then? Not-Human?"

Corwin remembered this now. It was a dialogue from a story his great-grandfather had told him of
his
great-great-grandfather. "The Humans that became your servants spoke for themselves, not for all Humans of the Earth. We lived between the Humans and the Choxen."

"You are…" The Prehson said, and Corwin's translator paused as if trying to determine the correct word, "a traitor to your species?"

Corwin bore the word — the accusation — with a shift of his shoulders. "We — I, was, but am no longer."

The gills along the upper part of Yerama-gar's head ruffled in surprise. "Come! All of you attend me now!" The gentle rustle of its voice was now the sound of water being dashed against rocks.

Other aliens emerged from the transports' gaping hatchways, each clad in their own eggshell-white robes. A simian Foralli clambered out, the scales that covered its body so small they looked like fur. A Groaton slunk alongside, six legs and dark fur with a metallic sheen keeping pace. They took their places beside Yerama-gar.

"You called, Diviner?" growled the Groaton.

"We have before us the embodiment of Accession; a Schism returned to the primordial state of Wholeness."

The three aliens hummed, joined after a moment by their Car-karniss guards. They went silent and stared at Corwin.

"Forgive me, but I don't understand," Corwin said after the silence had stretched to an uncomfortable length.

"Do not be perturbed," said the Foralli. "We mortals can never understand the full Path."

"Friends," Yerama-gar said, gesturing with its arms, "we have not come to explain such things, nor to convert. We came to secure an object."

From the depths of its robe, Yerama-gar pulled forth a small holoprojector and used a finger to activate the power; a small, black orb projected into the air. "Have you seen this object?"

"Uh, yes," Corwin said, reaching for the pack at his side. It was gone, and he felt a thrill of fear before he remembered the ruse. "Kai?" Corwin said, turning to the Variant.

Kai surrendered his pouch. At the wide-eyed interest of both Yerama-gar and the Car-karniss guards, Corwin opened the bag and withdrew the orb with deliberate slowness.

The three gasped, and Yerama-gar reached out, all twelve fingers trembling. "Did you find this?" it asked.

"I did."

The three aliens each made a sound of surprise: a growl; a clearing throat; falling water. "Whence did you find it?" Yerama-gar asked. "At a moment of Schism, or one of Accession?"

"I have no idea. I don't know those concepts."

Yerama-gar stared at Corwin for a moment. "We cannot see the auspices attached to this finding if we all are ignorant. Perhaps now is the time to teach. Yes. Follow me," Yerama-gar said, turning. "We have much to discuss."

Their base camp was ten kilometers northeast, and while just the day before the location had been overgrown and wild, a small, alien city had sprung up from the razed ground. Plasteel walls that they had dropped from space enclosed the rectangular base. Pickets of soldiers with the half circle emblazoned on their eggshell-white tunics walked along the battlements where support weapons glared out into the thick trees.

Inside the makeshift fort, soldiers drilled in both ranged and melee weapons. Not all of them were Car-karniss. Ismael — the workhorses of the IGA military — trundled across the open spaces. Each neared four and a half meters in height and almost 500 kilograms, with great barreled chests. Huge scales overlapped to create a natural armor, and each carried what amounted to a vehicle-grade weapon with accompanying ammunition and battery packs.

The Ordeiky were in attendance, too, but what they were doing training for infantry combat none of the Maharatha knew. Their svelte bodies and large football-shaped heads made them inadequate for the rigors of physical combat; none topped a meter in height, and their wide mouths, sharp teeth, and unblinking eyes gave them a perpetual and unnerving look of surprise.

In another area, the insect-like Abtinthae trained. These were true melee combatants, and with giant razor-sharp forearms and mandibles, they looked like Earth's praying mantises, except nightmarish in size and ferocity. This contingent was not just some soft group of diplomats, or, as Corwin expected, priests, but a full-fledged military order.

The Diviner ushered the Maharatha to the largest of the tents at the heart of the compound. At the entrance the Diviner paused. "If you would ask your fellows to wait outside…"

"With respect, no," Corwin said. Again the Car-karniss guards bristled. "The information that I receive from you I will relay to them anyway. I'd rather have them learn it directly from you."

Yerama-gar's gills fluttered, but whether that was out of anger or contemplation, Corwin couldn't say. "You may bring whom you wish. I would caution that what we discuss, and your part within it, may be troubling to you and may cause Schism or Accession in the bonds between you all."

"If I understand your meaning, we can handle that, Diviner," Corwin said. He realized then that it was true. They had come a long,
long
way from the Academy.

Corwin turned to the Mobile Sergeant. "You wait here."

Shota's face turned red, and he inhaled to speak, but a warning hiss from a Car-karniss guard forced the man to hold back whatever he was about to say. He bowed and stepped aside to wait.

They found themselves in a meeting room of sorts, the inner walls made of the same tenting material as the rest of the building. The room was spartan: blank walls and only minimal furniture. The floor was well-trod dirt with rocks and sprigs of grass. The tent was tall by Human standards, the furniture sized for the Prehson. The entire setup made the Humans feel as if they were children again; Kai's were the only Human feet that touched the ground when they sat upon the bench offered by Yerama-gar.

From the rear wall, the Diviner's assistants pushed a bench-like piece of furniture forward. The two segments of the piece, the front horizontal, the rear sloping, were appointed with eggshell-white padding. Yerama-gar slid onto it from behind, resting its bulk into the plush padding, its feet alighting on the ground.

The two attending aliens took their own stools from the back wall as well, these items sized for the alien assistants. The Groaton lay atop his in sphinx-like fashion; the simian Foralli clambered up and settled into a squat.

Corwin removed his helmet and held it in his lap. His Void did the same. Then they waited for the Prehson to begin. The Diviner turned to the Groaton, and the Humans heard the Prehson's words as water flowing through rushes. It leapt from its stool and pulled three small cubes from a chest of drawers with its dexterous forepaws. Returning, it placed one first before the Diviner's chair, and the remaining two before his own and the Foralli.

It returned to its own seat and growled, the small box taking the alien words and converting them to Human speech. "Can you understand me?"

Corwin looked at the Humans beside him. They nodded. "We can," he said.

"Tell us what you know of the First Conflict," Yerama-gar said.

Again, Corwin glanced at the other three, and they shrugged. "We don't know what that is," he said.

"We must start at the beginning then." Yerama-gar caressed a digital screen with its fingertips and the lights — sconces affixed to the tent poles — dimmed. A projector cast a single perfect sphere into the air between the two parties.

"First," Yerama-gar began, "there was One. It was Full; it was Whole; it was Complete within itself." The sphere split into two perfect halves. "Then there was the First Conflict, and Schism occurred. The One became Many; the Full became Partial; the Whole became Pieces; what was Complete became Deficient within itself.

"From that Schism, the Universe was born." A thin layer of light appeared and surrounded the two half-circles. Then the half-circles split again and again, and the layer of light expanded with each division — with each Schism. "Through Schism, the Universe is maintained."

The sphere of light continued to expand until a billion tiny specks of light populated the sphere.

"Yet Schism is not the only source of motion: Accession, the conglomeration of the many, the disparate combing into one, creates power."

The specks began to collect into clouds, and dust formed and mingled and congealed until, after eons, stars ignited to form galaxies. Those galaxies drifted, and despite the vast distances between them, they collided and mingled until they too became one. As they melded back together, the sphere representing the Universe shrank until it returned to where the video had started: a single, Complete sphere. The holograph faded, and the room's lights brightened.

"The Universe is comprised of a dualistic tension between conflict and catharsis, between Accession and Schism. Do you understand?"

Corwin kept his face clear, but inside he sighed. The Oniban had assigned him to the protection of religious fanatics. He glanced at Chahal, who regarded the empty space where the holograph had occupied with blank eyes and a frown.

"I think I do," Corwin said.

"Well
I
wickting don't," Phae said. The aliens looked surprised as their translators converted the Human expletive into their own species' equivalent. "How can there ever be Accession if within every action there is
also
Schism?"

Yerama-gar's gills waved in a sign of joy. "Ah, you understand so fully that you jump layers of comprehension. Does everyone else understand her question?"

"I think so," Kai said, his deep bass rumble somehow not dampened at all despite the tent's material and its open space. "If one were to work towards Accession, the steps one takes would, could, result in conflict and create more Schism than it negates."

"Right! So you would never get ahead. It … it just doesn't fit with how Sahktriya works." Phae was so worked up that her hands shook.

Corwin had never expected her to be so invested in what amounted to the Republic's only fully sanctioned "religion." It wasn't truly a religion like what they encountered now, not even close to the level of belief of Chahal's Exilists. It was more a philosophy than anything else, and the major tenets went something like: there is an energy that connects all things, living and otherwise, together with strands of Sahktriya. Those strands link with greater and greater complexity, like an infinite spiderweb.

Every one of every species could manipulate Sahktriya to some degree, but in particular, the Maharatha were
trained
in its use, and Humanity as a rule was better at it. Some of the more philosophically minded were even apt to suggest that the Siloth and the Choxen were a part of this web and were worthy of the respect due all things in the Universe. Though thinking on this, Corwin realized that perhaps the idea of Accession and the concept of Sahktriya were one in the same.

"It is true," the Diviner said, "that in striving towards Accession, Schism is instead created, yet the end result despite the Schism could be a positive gain towards Accession."

"But … but
how
? How could you ever know? You can't touch Accession. Is it kept on some tally sheet within your secret vaults?" Phae shouted, voice jagged at the edges.

Corwin reached out and laid a gauntleted hand onto her armored forearm, as much to calm her as to be in a position to arrest any sort of violence that might erupt.

"Please, be calm and I shall explain." Yerama-gar played its fingers over the screen once again. The lights dimmed, and the projector rendered a holograph of a stick-figure Human. "Let us take a Human family as an example." The Prehson paused and looked at the four Humans in turn. "I studied your society and familial structures prior to arriving on your world, but my understanding is only as a Xenothropologist studying the mating rituals of the Tha-teyos.

"A male and female of your species comes together and exchange genetic material within the Iron Womb." Another stick figure came into view beside the first, then a box traced itself in beneath the two. "From that exchange, that union, that Accession, younglings are born. Three more stick-figured Humans appeared below the box, these ones smaller than the two adults. Yerama-gar drew in lines from the parents to each other, the parents to the children, and the children to each other.

The corner of Corwin's mouth twitched; the pattern had the same structure as a spider's web.

"Let us say, then, that there is conflict between this youngling and the elder female, and Schism results." The Diviner erased one line. "Then, because of that Schism, that youngling is disconnected from the rest of the family." More lines disappeared.