The First One's Free (5 page)

Kai suppressed a laugh at the thought. “You
did. You gave me this world to build an army out of criminals. The
place is a soup kettle.”

Laral scoffed, stroking his reddish beard.
“What criminals? Thieving merchants, cub buggerers, and the odd
serf rebel who has no clue what he’s rebelling against. These
aren’t criminals. They’re nuisances. Even Marq’s degenerate society
deals with their like.”

Marq sat off to one side. His posture,
standing with his head down, suggested one of respect. The eyes,
those alien blue eyes, told of amusement with a hint of predatory
waiting. Marq had an agenda, all right. But did Laral know
that?

“My point,” said Kai, “is that an army needs
food, the kind of food we can grow here. Rations are fine when you
send them into combat. They’re eventually coming back. When they
are home, especially if we are to train them here, they need food
that is produced locally. Lots of it. The best we can do is grow
these tubers this alien brought to us. Only…” He tossed the one
Tishla had given him in her lab just before the meeting. It landed
not with a solid thud but with a sickening splat. The tuber was a
greenish mush. “This planet fights every attempt we make to grow
food. Did anyone bother to see if this world was good for anything
except robotic mining?”

Laral stretched and laced his fingers behind
his head, looking more like a father amused by his boy’s insistence
of monsters in the cellar than a High Born of the Warrior Cast and
a member of Council. “Kai, believe it or not, I’m not
unsympathetic. The fact is, your friend Marq here has made a
compelling case to me. Seems his people have a problem with… What
did you call them again?”

“Rogue colonies, Your Eminence,” said Marq,
bowing his head as he gave Laral the wrong honorific. Only
relatives of the Sovereign’s family were called “Eminence.” At
best, Laral was “Sire,” maybe “Excellency” if his rank were more
than honorary.

“Rogue colonies,” Laral continued. “Three in
all. One of them was this desert world called
Baah Zun
.”

Kai knew the name must be something slightly
different. It would be an incredible coincidence if the Tianese had
named their world for his people’s mythical land of the ancient
gods. “What of it?”

“As you know Kai, my nephew, your cousin, has
a passion for terraforming. He can take one of those thin-aired
rocks and have the atmosphere breathable and the temperatures
tolerable within five to seven revolutions. Marq here needed a test
bed for some crops his employer specifically designed for such
projects. Since the people were there illegally…”

“It was a mutually beneficial arrangement,”
said Marq. “My people are rid of a nuisance and can bring their
military closer to our core worlds. Your people gained a little
breathing room.”

“Tell him the best part,” said Laral.

“There are two more rogue colonies we’d like
pacified, both more conducive to the grains you desire for
livestock and for your people. Less rain on both of them. One, in
fact, is experiencing something of a greenhouse phase at the
moment. The flatland farms on these colonies tend to burn a lot of
hydrocarbons.”

“If you can take them, Kai,” said Laral,
“they’re yours. We’ll sell Essenar to the Laputans. Let their
Mining Guild squeeze this mudhole dry.”

Kai had seen the aftermath of a Laputan
mining operation on a planetary scale once. It had rendered what
was a jungle world into a hellish desert with a toxic atmosphere
within a decade. Speaking of terraforming… “So what’s in it for
you?”

“I’ll get to that. First, let me show you how
we’re going to do this.”

*****

The cylinder, about the size of a two-story
building, sat in a vacant lot outside the capital. Two rows of
cradles ringed the interior, a dozen cradles to each ring. In each
cradle sat a primitive looking vehicle with a large motor and some
sort of dish device that folded down between the seats. The
vehicles had rubber-wrapped wheels, like the personal cars of the
Ethanol Era, and seating for five.

“What is this?” asked Kai as he and Laral
stood inside the cylinder.

“An incursion capsule,” said Laral. “We mount
a life pod float in the center.” He pointed to the space in the
middle of the cylinder. “Suspend it by its own force field, and
drop this thing from orbit. The crew land. They unpack the battle
wagons you see ringing the interior, and fan out to kill or run off
the unsuspecting settlers.”

Kai examined one of the battle wagons at the
bottom. The motor looked large with a lot of pipes and exhaust
tubing running in and out of it. Beneath it sat a smooth, round
oblong tank. No solar panels of any kind, except on the dish
device. He tapped the dish. “Heat ray?”

“Absolutely,” said Laral. “Our best
intelligence says the Tianese don’t like energy weapons much. It’s
not a tactical strategy or any failures in the technology. They
simply prefer hurling blunt objects at their targets. Their
favorite is to send a large mass of lead or gold at something. They
hit a lot of spaceships that way, but they like hurling them at
cities better.”

“Kind of primitive, isn’t it?”

“Ask the Laputans. When they tried to seize
one of the Tianese established colonies, their Compact military
simply rained giant metal bullets down on the invaders’ positions.
Works better than any fusion device, and the worst of the fallout
is gone in days. And in case you’re wondering, they not only have
fusion weapons, but they have them with clean triggers. But these
are rogue colonies, so you’ll have no problems with their
military.”

“I need a military.”

Laral put his arm across Kai’s shoulders.
“Your problem, Kai, is that you’re too proud to come to the Warrior
Caste for anything. Yes, there is a price for our services. That’s
just good business. But you don’t even wait to hear the price
before you reject it out of hand. Had you come to me before you
accepted the gift of Essenar, this planet would either be a lush
paradise for you to rule over, unmolested by Confabs and the
Council, or it would be a wealth-making machine. You could wring
this planet of every last resource and leave the husk a very
wealthy man.”

“Name your price.”

“The two planets you will be taking are ready
for planting,” said Laral. “All I ask is that you set aside ten
percent of your harvests to feed my troops. I will even recruit and
send colonists once you’ve secured each planet.”

“Sounds fair. But there’s more, isn’t there?
The Warrior Caste always wants more than a tithe. I suppose our
friend Marq wants exclusive genetic customization rights for
anything we need to adjust for our new worlds.”

“That’s a given. You knew that the moment he
handed you the magic root.”

That Kai did. But knowing Laral as he did,
there had to be more. “But you want something else.”

“I do. For starters, there is a city in the
northern plains of the second planet. I will send a contingent of
real troops to seize and neutralize it. They have assets there that
I wish to use. It will benefit you as well.”

“And the other thing?”

Laral laughed. “Perceptive cub, aren’t you?
Very well. I’ll give you a choice on the last part of the
agreement. You can sign over Essenar itself once your claim to the
other two worlds is secured. And I assure you the moment our colony
transports arrive, it will be secured.”

“Or?”

“Or you can sell Tishla to me for the
remainder of her term of indenture. I, of course, plan to exercise
my right to renew it.” Laral closed his eyes. Kai could tell by the
way he worked his jaw that his tongue was swelling. “I find that
woman intoxicating. I must possess her.”

Kai had long ago decided he would kill Tishla
rather than let any man take her away before attaining her status
as a Free Woman. When Tishla first learned of this plan, she was
enraged at Kai. Later, she told him exactly how he was to kill her
if it came to it. By the time she agreed to her own murder, Kai
decided he too would forfeit his life. Killing an indentured
servant in cold blood invited beheading.

Right now, he considered a third option. He
would kill Laral. It was much easier for one High Born to murder
another and get away with it, particularly if the victim was of the
Warrior Caste.

For now, Essenar remained on the table. As
long as it did, Laral could live and Kai could keep his head. And
Tishla could look forward to her freedom.

Finally, he said to Laral, “I’ll consider
it.”

8

Tishla looked startled as Kai entered her
chamber. Wearing only her underdress, she lacked any of the
adornments her indenture contract required in Kai’s presence. “You
startled me.” As if realizing her state of undress, she knelt. “I
apologize for my appearance, my Mast-…”

Kai put up his hand. “First of all, I came to
you, not the other way around. Second, you haven’t called me
‘Master’, except as a joke, since your third turn in my service.
Why start back up now?”

“You look angry.”

“Come here.” He motioned her to him. “Come
here.” When she crossed the room to him, he took her in his arms.
“Do you want to stay with me?”

“I want to be your wife, if that’s
possible.”

Her body pressed tightly against his, causing
his tongue to swell a little. He fought the arousal so he could
speak. “Would you be upset if I invoked the option on you for
another five revolutions?”

She bit his neck. “What’s going on, Kai?
Normally, I’m the one that asks you about my future. And since when
does a Master ask a concubine permission to invoke his or her
option?”

He kissed the top of her hair. “I paid for
your contract so you could get your honors in genetics. If I wanted
a playmate, I’d have signed a common whore instead.”

“What’s wrong, Kai? Why ask me these things
now?”

Kai pulled away and turned his back. “Laral
is going to back my taking of Marq’s two rogue colonies. We arm the
most violent offenders among us and launch them in incursion
capsules against both worlds.”

“What are the terms?” Her tone suggested she
already knew.

“Ten percent tribute from all crops plus I
let him have a city on the second world. Apparently, the rogue
colonists have managed to put together quite a manufacturing center
there.”

“Uh-huh. Laral does nothing by the book, and
that’s a textbook Warrior Caste arrangement if I ever saw one.
What’s the real price?”

Kai swallowed. “I trade Essenar for the two
new worlds…”

“That sounds suspiciously fair,” she said.
“Or?”

Kai turned and said, “Or he wants you. He
wants your indenture contract. And he plans to exercise the option
to extend your bondage.”

“You know how I feel about that. I’d rather
die than serve a new master. Not when I’m this close.”

Kai put his hands on each of her arms. “To
freedom?”

She kissed him in a way that drew his tongue
into her mouth. “And to you.” Taking his hand, she gently bent a
finger straight and pressed it into her navel. “I belong to
you.”

She moaned as Kai worked his finger into her
navel through her underdress.

“No,” he said. “I belong to you.”

“Kneel with me.” The underdress slid down her
body and puddled at her feet. “Kneel with me now. Show me how you
really feel.”

He scooped her up, lowered her to the floor,
and slipped his swollen tongue deep into her navel…

*****

Hours later, as the hidden sun set on the
capital, Kai and Tishla lay naked in her chamber. It was almost
unheard of for a High Born to enter his or her spouse’s chamber,
let alone that of an indentured companion. Yet Kai did not care.
From the moment he met her, he knew Tishla had been born far below
her station. And yet, it would take something extraordinary to
bring her into the ranks of the High Born castes. She would need to
render some incredible service to the Realm. It was not unheard of,
but it usually involved death. Kai did not want to elevate her
posthumously.

“I have a confession to make,” she said. She
waited until Kai turned and looked at her before continuing. “I’ve
been shirking my duties as a concubine.”

That made Kai laugh. “Really? If that was
shirking, I don’t think I have the stamina to handle you being
dedicated to the job.”

“I’ve been taking fertility
suppressants.”

“What a coincidence. I keep forgetting to
have those locked up. Seems some of the guards don’t want to wear
shrouds or take injections when they kneel with their women.” He
rolled on his side and traced his finger along the curve of
Tishla’s hip. “But denying a master the opportunity for a child is
a serious offense. You’re a wise woman, Tishla. I seek your counsel
in resolving this matter.”

She took his hand and guided it back down to
her navel. “Well, my Master…”

“Don’t call me that,” he said. “Even in the
others’ presence.”

“We must follow protocol, my love.”

“Nonetheless, it offends me. You’re better
than that.”

“As you wish. Now, to your dilemma.” She took
his hand again and manipulated one of his fingers into her navel.
It made her moan. “Your concubine has taken anti-fertility drugs in
violation of her contract. You must punish her.”

“Perhaps I should forcefully kneel with her
multiple times a day.”

“How would she stand all that pleasure?” She
smiled and began working his finger around her in navel. “Yes, I
believe you should use her several times a day. I can assure you
that will teach her a lesson. But for her crime. We must…” Her
breath caught again as his finger went sunk in. “Oh, that tickles
good.”

Kai took over, working his finger in deeper.
“You were saying about her crime?”