Galactic Empires (24 page)

Then they heard the words "To protect the Union," and that simple utterance changed everything.

Wrapped around a bald statement was stiff, unyielding emotion. Quee Lee and Perri heard the threat, the promise, the conviction and purpose-and they instantly believed what they heard. Now both of them were considering what it would mean if this story, as unlikely as it seemed, was in some fashion or another true. And that was when the formless entity beside them-mysterious and unknowable, bristly and proud-became markedly less interesting than the grim bit of history it was sharing with them now.

Human hands grabbed one another.

Each lover felt the other's body bracing for whatever came next.

Another silence was what the voice decided to offer. And then, from the perfect darkness, came a sound not unlike a tongue or two licking against lips threatening to grow dry.

Quee Lee and Perri had been married for tens of thousands of years. But as long as that might seem to be, marriage was infinitely older than their single relationship. And there were species that took intimacy to higher levels than humans could manage. The Janusians, for instance: Their little husbands rooted into the body of female hosts, literally joining into One. But among human animals, Quee Lee and Perri were famous. Their relationship had evolved gradually, becoming something complex and robust, enduring and very nearly impossible to define. There were a few humans who spent more time together than the two of them. Unlikely as it seemed, some married souls enjoyed their physical lives even more than these two managed to. But no one could believe that any other human pair, on the Ship and perhaps anywhere else in the universe, was emotionally closer than that ancient Earth-born lady and her boyish life-mate.

At some point, everybody tried to tease them.

The happy couple generally welcomed good-natured barbs and admiring glances. But when asked to explain their success-when some friend of a friend insisted on advice for less perfect relationships-they grew testy and impatient, and even a little defensive. The truth was that they were helpless to define their relationship. A marriage was always larger than its participants, and what they possessed here was as mysterious and unlikely to them as it seemed to distant eyes. They couldn't understand why they had drawn so closely together. They didn't see why life had not yet found the means to yank them apart. But they were undeniably intimate and deeply dependent, up to the point where Quee Lee and Perri could never imagine being separated from each other in any lasting, meaningful way.

"Can you read each other's thoughts?" people wanted to know.

Not at all, no.

"But it seems like you can," some maintained. "The way you each know what the other wants, what they're about to say and do."

Did they do that?

"There's a trick at work," a few declared. "Dedicated nexuses that do nothing but let your minds share thoughts and feelings. Is that what you're doing right now?"

Not at all, no. In fact, they made a point of avoiding mechanical shortcuts to real conversation.

Eventually, somebody would ask, "When did you feel closest?"

What did that mean? Close how?

"When was the day-the incident-when you felt as if you were a single brain shared by two independent bodies?"

There were thousands of stories worth repeating, each able to satisfy their audience. They had a few dozen favorites that had become minor legends among the passengers. But the best answer was never offered, not even to the closest, dearest friends. It happened on that particular evening as they sat in that perfect darkness, deep inside the unmapped Vermiculate, immersed in the most isolated corner yet discovered within the Great Ship. That proud and stern and eternal voice told them that it would do anything to protect the Union, and for that singular moment, Quee Lee and Peril were one irreducible soul.

That was when they finally believed the unlikely story.

Then they heard the unseen tongues licking at dry lips, and the two lovers held each other with strong arms, sharing a flurry of thoughts, speaking with nothing but the touch of fingers, the sound of breathing.

"There
is
a Union," they decided voicelessly together. "It is real."

And, in the next moment, it occurred to them that the Union's loyal servant did nothing that did not, in small ways or great, help its ageless cause.

Quee Lee pressed hard against her husband, and she shivered, and just before the voice spoke again, she pushed an obvious thought into her husband's skull:

"Our new friend is on a mission! Now!"

And, in the next instant, with thrilled horror, Perri replied, "It's telling us the story for a reason… we
are
the mission!"

XI

With a sense of deeply buried pain, or at least an old, much practiced anger, the voice continued once again.

"At last, I returned to the island. At last, I touched down in the Sunset Plaza, on an ellipse of crimson glass brick reserved for my shuttle and my immortal body. The plaza was flanked by tall apartment buildings buried beneath masses of vines-engineered greenery that thrived in the volcanic warmth, producing enough fruit and sweet nuts to feed the residents within. A thousand of my grandchildren quickly gathered around me, while thousands more sneaked looks from behind the curtains of their comfortable little homes. Every face made an effort to smile. Every head dipped in a show of respect-gestures that I had never demanded from my subjects, that arose naturally long ago on their own. Only one important face was missing. But the brave traitors anticipated my first question. Several knelt before me, palms to the sky, and they explained that I had been gone longer than anticipated, and my arrival had proved quite sudden, but yes, my mistress was as happy as anyone could be. In fact, she was waiting for me at the palace, rapidly making herself ready for my pleasures.

"The avenue was lined with pruned trees thriving inside big copper pots and rows of intricate geometric sculptures cut from the black native stone. The smallest citizens barely noticed my passing. They were the ants and fat beetles that I had reinvented for the purpose of little jobs, and, unburdened by the demands of awe, they continued cutting down the weeds and disposing of trash. But a crew of enhanced crabs was pulling superconductive cables under the pavement, and when I passed nearby, they paused long enough to salute me with their elegant pincers.

"The grandchildren continued to stare, all working to appear nothing but worshipful, to shine with joy, and a few of them even managing to convince themselves that they were being honest.

" 'You were gone too long,' several complained, at different moments, but always with the same worried, slightly put-upon tone. And then one or two remarked, 'We feared you were lost, that some horrid disaster had claimed you.'

"If hope lay inside those voices, it was kept hidden.

"Then, at the mouth of an alleyway, I noticed a very young grandchild standing in the shadows, waiting for something. Not for me, it seemed… but in his stance and attitude, I could see anticipation.

"I paused and asked his name, even though I had already found his face in the public files. He introduced himself, and, with a charming little smile, mentioned that he had no memory of me. I had left for my errand among the stars while he was still just a toddler.

"He was barely more than that now. I smiled, telling him that it was my pleasure to meet him.

"He mentioned that I looked exactly as he expected me to look, except that I wasn't tall enough, and then his gaze drifted off toward the island's slumbering volcano.

" 'What are you waiting for?' I inquired.

" 'For you,' he replied. But before there was any misunderstanding, he added, 'I'm waiting for you to pass, and then I can go about my business.'

" 'Which is?'

" 'To walk down to the Sunset Plaza and watch the night come,' he explained.

" 'You like the setting sun, do you?'

"The young eyes smiled, and the mouth, too. Then a smart little voice said, 'Yes,' and nothing else.

"The bodies surrounding us began to relax.

"With a fond hand, I stroked the boy's thick black hair and kissed him on the nose, and then continued with my triumphant stroll to the palace.

"No one was invited to follow me inside, and no one asked to join me. My shadow passed first through the iron gates and beneath the brass arches and into the grand hall. The air was scented with spice and smoke. The floor and walls and high ceiling were tiled in a fractal pattern, cultured sapphires and diamonds lending accents to an example of mathematical beauty that I have always appreciated. My throne stood at the end of the hall—the oldest object in the palace, gold flourishes and silk laid over my adoptive father's original chair.

"My shadow hesitated, and so did I.

"My grandchildren stood in a crowd outside, waiting for me to vanish.

"Suddenly a great damp shape emerged from a back door, walking on long mechanical legs. The creature was a leviathan whose ancestors had swum in the local sea. I had made him small while changing his lungs and flesh to where he could thrive indoors, adeptly serving me with whatever little duty that I might require.

"With a high-pitched warble, he welcomed me home.

"Whatever plots were lurking about, I sensed that he was not involved and almost certainly unaware of them.

"I asked if I had been missed.

" 'Always,' he replied with a quick series of clicks.

" 'Where is she now?' I inquired.

" 'In your quarters, lord.'

" 'And has she been faithful to me?'

" 'No,' the creature replied, without hesitation. 'I have seen her use her hands and several plastic devices. And once, the edge of a large pillow.'

" 'Thank you for your honesty,' I said. And good evening to you.'

"No shadow led the way now. Alone, I climbed a long flight of dimly lit steps and entered a narrow hallway that only seemed endless… an illusion lined with tall doors meant to impress and confuse the rare visitor. I walked a short distance and opened what seemed to be a random door. There was only one bedroom inside the palace, and it never occupied the same position twice. I entered through a random wall, and my lover flinched in surprise, starting to pull the sheets over her naked body before realizing that it was me, only me.

"Together, we celebrated my return.

"I had been absent even longer than I had anticipated. The young creature that I had left in this bed was noticeably older. A few white hairs and a hundred little erosions marked the natural decline of a creature not born immortal and never told to expect such blessings. But she was just as fierce a lover as always, and maybe more so. She insisted on satisfying herself by various means, and whenever my attentions seemed to waver, she would offer encouragements or measured complaints.

" 'What kind of god are you?' she teased me once, in the dark. 'Are you going to let this old lady beat you at your game?'

" 'I am tempted to lose, yes,' I confessed.

"Perhaps she heard more than one message in those words, because she paused and pulled away from me. Then, like a hundred times before, she settled on my chest, legs spread, the smell of her thick and close.

"In a whisper, she mentioned, 'Your journey must have

been considerable.'

" 'My task was difficult,' I replied.

" 'We have continued with our work.' She said, 'Our work,' to make certain that I would hear the loyalty in those words. Then, after a pause, she added, 'But of course you kept track of our progress.' "

" 'Always,' I said.

" 'Have we missed any goals?'

" 'Never.'

" 'Are you proud of us?'

" 'Along the narrowest tangents, yes. Yes, I am very proud.'

"She refused to be surprised by my measured answer. And what worry she let show was small and easily controlled. The creature was exceptionally bright, after all. And she was wise in rare, precious ways. Extraordinary dangers were lurking about, and she realized that there was no way to keep me from seeing pieces of her scheme.

"Silently, she dropped her face to my face and kissed me.

"Then I placed my hand against her little throat, feeling her breath and the flinching of soft muscles, and I eased her back up into a sitting position. Then with a flat, cool tone, I said, 'It was sensible, holding to the work schedule. And I was most impressed with the methods you used, how you managed to fool my security systems.'

"Perhaps her plan was to claim innocence. 'I didn't try to fool anything,' she might have said. 'I don't know what you're accusing me of.' Denial might have given the plotters precious time. But it might have angered me, which would have brought my wrath down on them even sooner than they had planned.

"So instead of lying, my lover decided on poise. She shrugged her shoulders, asking, 'What do you know?'

" 'That the good machine being built inside our mountain is almost finished. But your lieutenants have surreptitiously slipped other devices into its workings. You devised some very clever, extremely powerful bombs that you hope will obliterate the purpose of my coming to this world.'

"Most souls would have tensed, hearing those words. Many would have panicked. But for my lover, that moment brought relief. Her duplicity was laid bare, and the simple fact that she was alive meant that perhaps she still retained some little chance of success here.

"I felt her throat relax against my hand.

"Then with great seriousness, I added, 'I also know you hope to murder me. Tonight, if possible. You have an array of weapons hiding here, and you have modified any piece of machinery that might injure me. I can even see dangers inside
you,
darling. Your body fat has been laced with acids that can be set free with a thought… turning you into a burning puddle that falls over my writhing, helpless body'

"She stared down at me.

"In her gaze, I could see her asking herself if this was the moment for suicide. But why would I lie beneath her if I felt at all at risk?