Mech 3: The Empress (25 page)

Again the Duchess eyed her momentarily, before regarding Aldo again. “And you are?”

“Aldo Moreno, madam. Aide to the deceased Ambassador Garant. Effectively, I’m the diplomatic representative of the Nexus Senator Lucas Droad.”

Hearing Droad’s name, the Duchess recoiled slightly, but recovered. “The original Ambassador is dead, and you claim his title?”

“I do.”

“Ambassador,” said the Duchess thoughtfully. “A respectable position.”

“That is my title,” Aldo said, deciding on the moment he liked the ring of it. Clearly, these people liked titles.

“And why have you come, Ambassador?”

“To warn you of the coming ship. The aliens aboard are very capable—like nothing humanity has faced before. We have excised them on two worlds, but only after millions lie dead in each case.”

“I see,” the Duchess said, “you realize, of course, that your government has already transmitted this warning?”

“Yes, but it is the experience of Nexus officials that local colonial governments do not always grasp the depths of the danger.”

The Duchess nodded slightly, then looked over her shoulder toward Garth, who followed them with a stumbling gait. At that moment, Garth was engaged in systematically plucking single hairs from his own head. Her lip curled a fraction. “And who is that person?”

“A skald,” Joelle said, “do you have them here? They have battled with these aliens in the distant past.”

“A
skald
, do you say? We have no such—persons.”

“Odd,” Aldo said. “I thought they wandered every system in the Faustian Chain.”

“Perhaps I’ve never been made aware of them. I doubt that, however. They are—distinctive.”

“Yes, well…” Aldo said, seeking to change the subject. “About your preparations for war… What kind of fleet do you have to defend this world? Have they been deployed into high orbit to intercept
Gladius
?”

Duchess Embrak made a flicking motion with her fingers, as if to rid herself of some fleck of filth. “The coming ship is the concern of Nexus officials. We have increased their funding, three-fold, and they have assured us they can handily destroy a single freighter the moment it enters our system.”

“Uh, right,” Joelle said. “Is there any way we can meet with these Nexus people?”

Duchess Embrak made a face that indicated a hint of disgust at the prospect. “As you are a Nexus official yourself, you should be able to pass their security curtains. People of high birth do not normally associate with off-world officials here, be warned.”

“This matter must rise above local traditions and politics, Your Grace,” Aldo said. “The aliens that are coming will not have been idle during their long years aboard
Gladius
. They will probably reach Ignis Glace, and wreak havoc here.”

Duchess Embrak looked surprised. “We are quite capable of defending ourselves, Ambassador, should such a thing occur.”

Aldo sighed quietly. As they passed through a vast portal into the red-onion building, he began to realize why Lucas Droad had sent him to this world. They weren’t going to drop their mindsets and cooperate easily.

He glanced sidelong at the Duchess. She was clearly a major player in world politics here. She was not his usual type, but then, exploration always had its own rewards.

Forcing a confident smile, he began to flirt with her in his own swaggering fashion. She seemed distantly amused.

It was a beginning.

#

Aldo and Joelle were left on their own in the spaceport terminal when the Duchess declared their interview at an end for the time being. She offered them accommodations at the local hotel named Gloaming Splendor, and suggested they meet at a later date at her own residence. She then took her leave.

The moment she left, the crowd of lesser nobility descended. Everyone wanted a holo-pic, a tapping of fists in greeting, and cheek-touching hugs. Aldo found these repetitive actions pleasant with the younger females, but tiresome with the rest.

They finally extricated themselves from all these hangers-on and reached an official purple door with a bored-looking guard standing nearby. Joelle straightened her uniform, approached the guard and presented her credentials. He waved her toward the door.

She attempted to open it with her pass, but it simply made a bonking noise and remained sealed.

“Excuse me,” she said to the guard.

“Yes Miss?”

“Why is this door locked?”

“It’s ninth-day,” he said, as if this information conveyed every possible nuance of meaning.

“So? I’m a Nexus official, and I require access to the command center.”

The guard looked her up and down bemusedly. “You aren’t serious, are you Lieutenant? Like I said, its ninth-day. Those doors won’t open to anyone until one-day. Come back then, ten a. m. sharp. You might think about showing up early, there is generally a line at opening on one-day.”

“Are you telling me there is no one inside the headquarters?” Aldo asked, stepping forward.

The guard shrugged. “There is the AI, I suppose. A few mechs, doing clean-up.”

“What if there were an emergency?”

“You mean, like a fire? The doors would open automatically in that case.”

“No, like an invasion.”

The guard blinked at them. He shook his head. “A what? Here in Lavender City?” He began a rumbling laugh. His belly, which spilled out beneath the lower edge of his uniform and overflowed his utility belt, bounced. “Don’t worry about that. Those mechs will never get within a hundred leagues of this town. We aren’t some cut-off hick fief in the wilds. We’ve been fire-walling our perrupters, too.”

Having no idea what he was talking about, Joelle and Aldo retreated away from him. They exchanged concerned glances.

“They don’t seem to be taking the alien threat seriously,” she said.

“They are barely aware of it. Odd, isn’t it? How humanity is so masterful at self-delusion?”

“What delusion are you talking about in this specific case?”

“The delusion that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday, if only because it always has been. Complacency has destroyed countless populations historically, you know.”

“I had no idea you were such a scholar.”

Aldo turned her a sour eye. “You are not being helpful. May I ask as to the source of your irritation?”

“It’s you, Aldo.”

Aldo took several steps toward the street exit, attempting to digest Joelle’s odd mood. “Was it the attention I paid to various females today? I am a diplomat, after all Joelle. Such things are to be expected.”

“Polite talk and graceful conduct, I expected that. But not your eyes, crawling over every half-attractive woman in sight. You’re the same old Aldo, aren’t you?”

“Bitterness does not become you.”

They barely spoke on the cab ride to Gloaming Splendor. The cab itself was an odd contrivance. Shaped in the general configuration of a wheeled egg with an open-air top, it glided over the cobbled streets smoothly. Both Aldo and Joelle were entranced by the streets themselves. Every shop and building was unique in its shape and configuration, but similar in materials used. Cut sandstone formed brick walls and every doorway and window was arched at the top.

. The hotel was no less ornate and enchanting than the rest of the city structures. An elaborate fountain in the center lobby spat an endless stream of cobalt water and was thronged by buzzing creatures called humming-birds. Strange fish swam and sang quietly in the bowl of the fountain, while the birds themselves did not chirp.

“Where did that skald go?” Joelle asked as they admired their surroundings.

Aldo glanced behind himself in surprise. “He did not join us for the cab ride. He was so quiet, I forgot about him. At some point, he must have slipped away.”

“Can he care for himself?”

Aldo shrugged disinterestedly. “Probably better than most of the inhabitants of this pompous world.”

Joelle and Aldo separated in the lobby with little more than icy nods for one another. Aldo took a room and immediately bathed. He took the next hour to locate suitable clothing.

He liked some elements of Ignis Glace’s society already. They liked to dress-up, which he found enjoyable. They also did not stigmatize a man for wearing a power-sword on his belt. Most of theirs, however, were longer, thinner blades with ornate, bejeweled pommels and scabbards covered in colored velvet. His was plain and functional, with a black, rook-hide sheath and only one jewel on the pommel, which doubled as a selector stud to power the weapon.

As he ate dinner alone in the guest ballroom, Aldo began to appreciate the colony even more. The food was delicate in flavor, and yet inspiring. He had a flavorful meal the waiter assured him provided a mix of local tastes. He’d reached the third course, which was an oddly flavored blood-pudding, when a familiar face appeared. It took him a moment to recognize the girl. She was no longer wearing military garb, but instead a green chiffon gown that trailed to her ankles.

“Nina Droad?” he asked. “Won’t you join me?”

She did so, and he found her company pleasant, but slightly disturbing. She was pretty, young and vivacious. She was so like her father—but with an extra spice of fire added into the mix. It was the similarities to her sire that he found most disturbing. Lucas Droad had become a friend after sharing years adventures together. Droad had gained Aldo’s respect as few others had in his lifetime.

This made for an awkward situation, because upon his very first meeting with Nina Droad, he’d immediately determined he wanted to bed her. Normally, he’d ignore any qualms or perhaps ask the father’s permission. Neither of these were easily done, however, as Droad had earned his respect and loyalty, and he wasn’t on hand to discuss the matter. Even if Aldo took the step of transmitting the question on the deep-link to Neu Schweitz, it would take years to reach the distant planet and further years for the response to come back.

In the end, Aldo took his usual course in such matters: he shrugged his shoulders and stopped worrying about it. One could only fuss and worry about such niceties for so long, life was stunningly short and may be artificially shortened further at any moment. And so after the third hour and the third glass of wine, he no longer cared that Nina had her father’s thoughtful eyes and an identical shade of brown hair. Her intense personality wasn’t quite the same, and he found it magnetic.

He relayed to her in detail all the horrors of the coming war with the aliens. Nina explained to him in turn that the Nexus people had presented to the populace that they had the alien situation well in hand—that the warning they’d been given had provided sufficient time to exterminate the enemy in their vulnerable cargo vessel long before they could reach Ignis Glace. Mostly, the local news stories concerned themselves with who among the government was going to accept responsibility for destroying
Gladius
, as the ship was of incalculable value.

Aldo chuckled at their naiveté and smug self-confidence. “I’d also hazard the Nexus people are more worried than they are letting on. But someone in charge fears a panic and isn’t allowing all the news out. That’s the wrong choice. Panic has a way of getting people to cooperate if it goes on long enough.”

Nina stared at him. Aldo found her gaze piercing and felt as if she knew more of his thoughts than he normally allowed others to divine.

“I like you, Aldo,” she declared suddenly. “And I will allow you to proceed with your intentions.”

Aldo’s eyebrows shot high, and he laughed. “So direct! I’m impressed, and burning with curiosity.”

That was it—the seduction, in its entirety. He marveled at her self-confidence, rare in one of such a young age. She had simply called his bluff and said yes to his non-verbal request. Other men might have been frightened by such a woman, but not Aldo. He was rarely frightened by anyone—at least not anyone human.

He followed her up creaking steps to a fine bed of alien-smelling feathers. There, he indulged his curiosity, and he did not find himself disappointed.

Seventeen

The single person everyone soon forgot about after
Aareschlucht’s
landing was Garth, the skald. In a society that so valued rank, pomp and circumstance, a twisted soul such as Garth was almost automatically ignored. He carried no more interest for the people of this world than might a blob of manure left upon a cobbled road. The most they would do, if forced to recognize its existence, would be to steer around it, so as not to be soiled. Such was the way they treated Garth.

Ornth, the Tulk driving Garth’s body, found it very easy to escape the attention of the human throng. Their very presence in his vicinity he found disturbing—even more than they found him. To him, they were creatures of unrelenting filth, exposed as they were to the filth, grit and microbes of the world. They were dirty reefs of organic mud. Looking out through Garth’s eyes, he could not help but think of the trillion microbiotic things that crawled within each mass that passed by. At first, these filthy creatures waved and pawed at him when he exited the ship. But over time, they came to realize he wasn’t interested in their attentions and, as he remained unresponsive to their queries, they left him alone. This was exactly what Ornth wanted.

A day after landing, he drove Garth’s long, thin shanks down the shadow-laden streets of Lavender City. Overhead, the sky was a pleasant light blue, but down here in the streets he found the shade permanently lit with soft lamps that resembled drooping flowers. The city itself and the open sky above he could appreciate to some degree. But the people—there were far too many of them about. Crouched inside Garth’s skull, he could excrete toxins to prevent microbial infestation, but he was forced to witness it everywhere while using Garth’s eyes. For Ornth, this was a first. He’d looked through the eyes of his various mounts on many occasions before, of course. But never for so long, and certainly never in such a dingy environment as a city street.

To make matters worse, he was forced to share this crowded skull with a skald mount who refused to shut up.