Rhythm of the Imperium (35 page)

“How long until the event, in your estimation?” I asked her. Her small face assumed a delightfully thoughtful expression.

“Well, based on the times I’ve seen it, I’d say about a week. It might be sooner or later. It’s hard to tell. I don’t know Low Zang. It’s new to the group.” She dropped her voice, and the others leaned close to listen, risking pierced eardrums if she raised it. “I think it’s nervous. This might be its first time leading a removal.”

“So this is an occasion,” Xan said. “Do they celebrate in some way?”

“Not in any way that we’d notice,” Laine said, with a little shake of her head. “But if Low Zang really becomes a member of the group, that’s important. The Zang are solitary most of the time, like Proton. This is the only activity I know of that brings them together. I’ll be giving lectures all week long, so if you think anything else you want to know, please ask me then. I am happy to tell you anything you want now, but other attendees might get a lot out of hearing the answers to your questions.”

“I understand,” Xan said. “We look forward to the hour.”

He bowed over her hand. She reddened becomingly. I came over and gathered her hands in mine. We looked into one another’s eyes. I opened my mouth to speak, when a tendril of power smacked into the side of my head. Laine let out a shrill laugh.

“I’d better go. They want me.”

“Your departure desolates us,” I said. She giggled again.

She sauntered away. I fetched a hearty sigh. I had read a good deal about the mating habits of birds while immersed in a previous enthusiasm. I was tempted to dust off and review the digitavids in my collection to see if there was a dance I could adapt to draw her attention away from her studies. Surely I, a noble and a member of the Imperium family, was of more interest than the Zang!

“Well, that’s not much of an answer,” Nalney said. “Days or hours?”

“For the experience of a lifetime, how long would you wait?” Rillion asked.

CHAPTER 34

However reticent the Trade Union officers might have been about contact with their Imperium hosts, their staff went out of their way to entertain us and keep us busy. We viewed digitavids and lectures including a few of Laine’s, participated in contests, cooking and wine exhibitions, mixers and individual events. Erita came back from a massage session raving about an LAI therapist. I vowed to make an appointment. Anything that could move my usually lugubrious cousin to raptures must have been something unique.

The Zang did not remain in their round chamber. They drifted here and there throughout the platform. The vibration that had been a mere tremor upon our arrival had grown ever stronger, until it was nearly audible. We lay on our couches and divans in our little garden, staring up at the doomed planetoid. I fancied that I could see lights circling it now and then. Did it realize what was about to happen?

Now and again I would see Laine trailing after Proton Zang and its colleagues across the platform. Once in a while it would allow her to wander on her own, but most of the time she remained by its side. I had come up with various little dances to amuse her, but as I had given Parsons my word not to do any where the Zang could see them, I writhed in artistic frustration.

“You shouldn’t have to keep them to yourself,” Nell said. I had given various excuses for not performing my rage dance or any of the other evocations that I had composed, in case any of the Zang should wander by.

“I … I don’t feel the time is right,” I said.

“Well, that’s a change,” Nell said, with an odd look at me. “All the way here, we couldn’t keep you dancing your feet off.”

“I know, but Art is a fickle mistress. She does not want me to evoke, but to gather impressions.”

“Well, all right,” Nell said. “How about if you wait until after the spectacle, then do a dance for us based on what you felt about it? I mean, once it’s over, there’s nothing new left to absorb, wouldn’t you say?”

Once the Zang had finished their destruction, the chances were great that they would depart. After that, my promise to Parsons would no longer be in force.

“That is a marvelous idea,” I said, giving Nell a brotherly hug, for which I received a sisterly poke in the ribs. “I shall dedicate it to you and Dr. Derrida.”

At that moment, the vibrations increased enormously.

On the settee opposite, Erita and Sinim clutched one another in alarm.

“What was that?” Sinim asked, plaintively.

“The energy has intensified,” Xan said, in an ominous voice. The platform fell silent as everyone looked toward the dome. The planet in the distance seemed to be vibrating visibly.

“Are we in danger?” Erita asked.

I spotted a familiar silver glow emerging from among the potted plants and pergolas. The five Zang floated toward us. I spotted the tiny figure of Laine among them. To my surprise, behind her were the three Kail that had been on the
Jaunter
.

“What are
they
doing here?” Nalney asked, eying them nervously.

“I don’t know.” I rose from my place and went to meet Laine. She smiled up at me.

“The energy seems to have risen,” I said.

“Yes,” Laine said. “Low Zang is getting very nervous. I think that the spectacle is imminent.”

“Marvelous!” I said. I gestured hospitably to the circle of couches. Jil scooted over to make room. “Will you watch it with us?”

“I can’t stay here,” Laine said, with an apologetic grimace. “Proton wants me close by. But you can watch it with me, from the center of the platform.”

“I would be honored,” I said. “My cousins will die of envy, of course. When will it take place?”

“I think it’s today or tomorrow,” Laine said. She paused as though to listen. “That feels about right.”

“Forgive my curiosity, but … ?” I nodded toward the Kail.

Laine gave a helpless shrug. “Low Zang seems to like them. It wants them to be on the platform, too.”

“Well, then, I will certainly attend, if only to keep the creatures away from you,” I said.

She smiled. “That’s sweet, but they won’t bother me. They haven’t said a word to me. Proton sees to that.” A rumble seemed to pass through the entire structure of the vessel, centering on the Zang. They moved away again. “I’d better go.” She let her hand slip out of mine. I remained where I was, seeing her draw away from me. I felt inutterably sad.

“Then, we have between a day and two days,” Jil said, with growing enthusiasm. “I think we should begin the party now! We can celebrate right up until the very moment of destruction! Won’t that be memorable?”

“If we can remember it,” Nalney said.

“Well, you’ve been recording it steadily,” Erita said, gesturing at his ever-present pocket secretary. “We can watch your vids if we render ourselves senseless. But I have no intention of overindulging. This is too marvelous an opportunity!”

“I have some delicious treats that I have saved for our party,” Nell said, taking her pocket secretary in hand. “I’ll have my valet bring them up.”

“I’ve composed a poem,” Nalney said. We all looked at him. “Well, Thomas, you’re not the only only one in the family with talent.”

“And I,” Erita said, “have written a song. It’s to someone else’s tune, but it’s my song!”

“Well done, Erita!” Xan cheered.

My heart, which had been desolated with Laine’s departure, filled up again with delight.

“Very well, I shall perform,” I said. “And I have delicacies to offer you all.”

“Let’s not bring everything out at once,” Leonat said. “Let’s arrange things in courses. One surprise after another.”

“That is a wonderful idea,” I said. I rose.

If I was not going to be permitted to perform for the Zang, I intended to change into the handsome Starburst outfit that I had bought for them and offer the dance as a gift to my sister and relatives at the conclusion of the event. I felt certain that they would be as impressed by it as they were by the destruction of a fairly nondescript planetoid.

But I realized, when I sent for my valet, that the costume itself was not on the platform. It was in my cabin aboard the
Imperium Jaunter
. I looked up at the shivering orb in the sky. There ought to be enough time to get it.

I headed for the lift.

“Where are you going?” Nell called. I turned back. My relatives had huddled in a planning session.

“I have to get a few things from the
Jaunter
,” I said. “I will see you later.”

“Hurry back!” Nalney said, with a lazy wave. “Dr. Derrida said it could start at any time.”

“I know,” I said. Eagerness made my steps bounce. I looked forward to performing my composition. I hoped that Laine would be able to attend it and would enjoy it. It was the least I could do to show my affection for her.

At the lifts, I ran into Madame Deirdre. She and our other supernumeraries had been freed to enjoy themselves as they pleased, pending the spectacle and our subsequent departure homeward. They occupied a set of couches adjacent to ours, among a party of merchants from Leo’s Star. It had become a merry band.

She emerged from a car with a couple of men upon whom Jil had bestowed some of her many favors. They had been taking dance lessons from Deirdre on the side, no doubt to impress my fickle cousin. Deirdre patted one of them on the arm.

“Go on,” she said. “I’ll catch up with you. Where are you going, Lord Thomas?”

“I’m going back to get my Starburst costume,” I said. “I’m going to do my Zang dance for my cousins at the conclusion of the spectacle. Will you rehearse with me?”

“If there’s time,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. “See you in a short while!”

With the spectacle set to begin fairly shortly, the flow of traffic into the platform far outweighed that which was outbound. Everyone else seemed to have brought everything that they wanted to the platform on their first trip. I thought I had: clothes and costumes, not to mention gifts and treats that I intended to give my cousins at the party, a lovely little necklace that I had bought for my mother, but now planned to give Laine. Luckily, shuttles lay empty at nearly all the departure points. I begged a lift on the first one I saw, and was granted immediate access. A securitybot, armed to the gears, accompanied me into the small craft. It kept all circuits open until we had launched safely.

CHAPTER 35

The transit wasn’t a long one, but the small ship bucked and writhed as if it was a seagoing barque. The energy that the Zang employed in their art form was building up, disrupting even deep space. Our platform was made to absorb the waves of power so we did not notice them. The small ship, and probably the
Jaunter
, had not. I was thrown about for the first few moments of the trip, then I picked up on the rhythm of the waves. Thereafter, I had no trouble balancing against them. Laine had said they would get faster and stronger the closer we came to the spectacle. To me, that added to the intensity of the event. I planned to incorporate the increasing rapidity in my performance.

I made my lonely way to the private lift to the nobles’ quarters. Even the spectacle of a planet being reduced to particles wasn’t enough to lighten my spirits.

I stepped toward the door of my suite. It hesitated before it opened. I made a mental note to tell Anna to inform the maintenance system of the flaw.

An odd aroma reminiscent of the outdoors excited my notice as I entered. I didn’t believe that I had brought a cologne or scented product like it with me. Before I could remark upon the puzzle any further, a hand grasped me about the neck and yanked me backward.

In earlier days, I would have ended up flat on my back in an undignified manner, but years of anticipating such pranks by my cousins, particularly Xan, I had taken up a number of martial arts. Those had cut down on pratfalls and bruises, and my new rapid response time had given Xan something to think about in those playful ambushes and skirmishes. Those skills were honed further during our two years at the Naval Academy, and since becoming involved with Parsons and the assignments given us by the mysterious Mr. Frank, those skills had been ground to a fine point verging upon singularity. I used the momentum created by falling toward the floor and gathered my knees to my chest. I continued the backward roll over the arm of my assailant and came up on my feet. My hands, which could not be classified as the deadliest of weapons but were still capable of defending against all but missile weapons, were half-cupped to deal the fiercest of blows. I prepared to go on the offensive.

Instead of going on guard himself, my attacker fell into a relaxed attitude. He applauded and laughed.

“Well done, Thomas!” said Uncle Laurence. “You’ve been training!”

I felt my jaw drop agape as if I beheld a specter. Yet the dimensions and lineaments were familiar as, I might say, my own face, for we rather resembled one another. Laurence Millais Yan Fitzhugh Kinago was within a millimeter or two of my own lofty height, and had as broad a shoulder. He had the same strong jaw and high cheekbones, the same wide-set eyes, and indeed the same straight, patrician nose as I did. I had learned not very long ago that the shape had a tendency to inspire loyalty and obedience. I knew that in Uncle Laurence’s case, at least, it provoked sighs of longing from the female population and not a small number of the male. Like Lionelle, he had thick, shining, almost black hair and sapphire blue eyes, whereas mine referred toward the ocean for their color. That reference brought a question abruptly to my lips.

“Does Nell know you’re here?”

“No one does,” Laurence said, with a grin. He grasped my hand and shook it. I returned the clasp with pleasure. “Not yet. With the possible exception of Parsons. He knows everything. Always did, may he live forever.”

“Naturally,” I said, willing to give credit where a healthy balance already existed. “I would assume nothing less. What are you doing here?”

“Why, I hoped to visit with you,” Laurence replied, slapping me on the back. “I was in the neck of the woods, to employ the cant term, so I dropped by.”

“Come and see Nell!” I invited, extending my hand. “She’d be thrilled. You are her favorite uncle.”

“Not yet,” he said, with a conspiratorial air. “I have a matter to bring up with
you.
”

I opened my clothes closet and began to collect my belongings. My valetbot rolled out a small holdall and opened it on the table for me. I piled colored dance shoes in the bottom, then hauled costumes one after another for Anna to fold. I might as well bring over a few of my other favorites, too.

“Well, Nell is on the viewing platform. I am heading over very shortly. You can talk with me on the way. We have been staying there while the preparations are going on. I presume you’ve already seen the Zang phenomenon.” I emitted a rueful sigh. “You and Father had many experiences in your youth that I will probably never be able to emulate. But this will be one experience that we can share. We can talk on the way in relative privacy, LAIs excepted, of course.”

He laughed again. The warm baritone brought back happy memories of my childhood. One never knew when to expect Uncle Laurence, but his visits were always filled with delightful surprises.

“I did see the Zang bonsai a system, yes—oh, thirty years ago, now? Your father and I were boys then. It was awe-inspiring, astonishing, unique, and with a healthy dollop of ‘children, do
not
try this at home’ laced into it. With any luck, I’ll get you back here in time to view it.”

I blinked, feeling as though I had missed a long section of conversation in the blink of an eye.

“Get back? I’m not leaving, uncle. We don’t know when the Zang will begin. It could be months, but it might be moments. As you say, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, or twice if one is most fortunate. I have a performance planned. I’ve been waiting to do it for weeks now.” I glanced down at my viewpad. “And Parsons will be wondering where I am. He has me on the lookout for …” I hesitated. I knew that Uncle Laurence was in the know about most things, but I wasn’t sure how much that which had been imparted to me in confidence I could reveal. “I have a great deal of respect for Parsons, of course. He has been … of great assistance to me.”

Laurence’s deep blue eyes glowed, taking on the sparkle of their namesake gemstone.

“Wouldn’t you like, just once, to steal a march on the old fellow? To do something that he has never done?”

My entire mental processes underwent an information overload.

“Is there anything that he hasn’t done?” I asked, in a rhetorical manner, for such a thing would never, could never, occur to me.

“Perhaps just this one thing,” Laurence said. The corner of his mouth turned up in a tiny smile. “You shall have that experience, but only if you come with me
now
.”

He never used that urgent tone of voice without reason. Without hesitation, I abandoned my suitcase. Without knowing where I was going, but trusting him as I did with my life, I pulled the thin, insulated coat I had had made for cold weather on the planets we were to visit, though I had not needed it once. I made to step into my custom gravity boots, but Laurence forestalled me with a wave.

“You won’t need those, my lad. Just a pair of good walking shoes will do.” He plucked the viewpad out of my belt pouch. “And leave this here. You won’t need it, either. Besides, it’s not allowed. Too much spyware. Mr. Frank would be horrified at the potential for breaches.” I hesitated. He gestured toward the lockbox set into the wall of my cabin. “Go on. Lock it up.”

More and more intrigued with every moment, I obeyed his order. Anna brought me a pair of dark brown, flat-heeled leather boots with tall shafts and seized my right leg with one of her valeting claws. I fell back into the nearest chair and allowed her to minister as my shoe fairy.

“You know about Mr. Frank?” I asked, seizing upon the first thing that floated to the surface in the whirlwind of my thoughts.

“Know him?” Uncle Laurence said, with a laugh. “Of course I do. So do you.”

That revelation hit me like an oncoming wall.

“No, I don’t,” I protested. “He has been shrouded in mystery. All I know is a name. I suspect a location. I believe that he operates, if not lives, in Taino.” Anna released my right leg and reached for the left. I lifted it within easy grasping range. She divested me of the other soft-soled patent leather slipper and clapped my foot into the second cylinder, which gave forth with an echoing boom. “How do I know him? By what other name has he been called?”

Laurence looked surprised. “Well, if he hasn’t told you himself, I can’t expose his secrets to you, Thomas. I’m sorry. It’s a bit too soon. I apologize. Once we have been colleagues longer, I won’t need to tell you. You’ll slap yourself on the forehead for not having figured it out yourself.”

We were colleagues? That was almost as boggling a concept as the notion that there was an experience that Parsons had not had.

“Give me a hint,” I begged. “A morsel of data! I’ll puzzle out the enigma, but I haven’t enough clues to go upon.”

Laurence shook his head. “Sorry, Thomas. My lips are sealed.”

“You
don’t
know,” I said, feeling as though my lip wanted to jut out in a quite understandable pout. “You heard the name somewhere, perhaps, and you decided to torment me with it to take my mind off this one-of-a-kind experience ahead.”

He laughed, his warm baritone chuckle filling the room. “I spoke out of school, Thomas. Give in. You know you can’t tease it out of me. You’ll find out soon enough. Come along, now, and stop acting like Erita. It’s irritating enough when she does it. It’s unspeakable coming from you.”

The pout definitely attempted to assert itself as I followed him through the now-empty corridors of the
Imperium Jaunter
. A few LAIs passed us.

“Good afternoon, Lord Thomas, Lord Laurence.”

Normally, I greeted them as the good creatures they were, but I was overcome by a mix of puzzlement, wonder, curiosity and, yes, frustration. It so often seemed that everyone in my coterie was party to secrets that not only did they know and I didn’t, but were unwilling or unable to reveal them to me … yet. Still, I forced myself out of my snit enough to smile and nod. They didn’t seem to mind the cursory nature of my hails. Perhaps they were also privy to Uncle Laurence’s hoard of information. Biological beings tended largely to speak in front of those of the electronic persuasion as though they weren’t there or were not capable of comprehending that which was said. Naturally, the opposite was true. They were fully developed personalities, nearly always with far greater intelligence than most humans, at least, could ever aspire to.

Still, it wasn’t like me to maintain a sour disposition for any discernible interval. By the time we reached the shuttle bay, I was hopping with enthusiasm. My favorite uncle had come to visit me! We were setting out on a trip that Parsons had never taken. I couldn’t wait to see my aide-de-camp’s face when I returned and … . And my hand touched the empty holster on my hip. Whatever it was, I would have no proof but my word. Yet, I thought, my mood brightening further, that had always been good enough in the past.

The
Jaunter
, for all its great size, could be run efficiently by computer. At the moment, it was emptied to the bulkheads of humanity, Uctunity, and all other sentient species except for those LAIs who did not want to go to the platform and an unlucky soul or two from the crew who had been placed in the brig or the infirmary. Uncle Laurence and I clumped through the echoing bay toward a distant corner. We passed my ship. It was under the auspice of the LAI on board, Angie, or NG-903, to give her her official designation. As I passed, the exterior lights went on in sequence, just to show she was paying attention to our passage. Every artificial intelligence for a parsec around already knew my viewpad was back in my cabin, so no one could speak to me bar directly.

Uncle Laurence looked up and drew a finger over the name embossed upon the prow as he passed it.

“An honor for your father,” he said, with a smile.

“I’m honored to be his son,” I replied. I meant every syllable. Laurence nodded.

“So you know? His history during the war?”

“Some of it,” I said. I fancied that no matter how many stories I heard from survivors that I would never know the full accounting of Rodrigo Park Kinago’s heroics. My mother never spoke of them to any of the three of us, and my father probably could not recall them, except on a very good day.

“Well, you’re following in his footsteps, far more than that lazy brother of yours,” Laurence said, wrinkling his nose. “I had hopes for him, but he’s happy being the titular governor of a most placid system. His staff does all the work, you know. He’s as smart as any Kinago, but so unmotivated!”

I shrugged. “Most of our cousins are unmotivated except by our whims, though those can be powerful impetuses.”

“Indeed,” Laurence said, with a grin. “Whims are what took me on my travels, but duty is what kept me there. You’ve gone into harness a bit young, but you can kick over the traces for a few years. Mr. Frank won’t mind, I promise you that.”

“I’m enjoying myself a good deal now,” I pointed out. “How many of my cousins can say that they’ve had a parade organized in their honor? One that they did not have arranged for themselves? Who has won the intersystem Grand Prix not once, but twice? Without the aid of an LAI pilot?”

“You, and you again!” My uncle laughed. “Come along, and you can add another entry to your scrapbook, albeit a private one.”

I glanced toward the sole remaining shuttle, the green pinpoint lights chasing around its entry hatch.

“We could watch the spectacle, then go,” I said, hopefully.

“At the rate the Zang move, we could age a year,” Laurence said, with a dismissive wave. “I really cannot afford to have any living being observe me long enough to discern my flight path. You will understand why shortly. Come on! That’s my ship. Come meet
Gaia
.”

Even such a well-defended vessel as the
Jaunter
had its own security drones and single-being fighters. Clusters of these small craft were spaced here and there on hexagonal, black and silver pads in the massive chamber so no individual strike from an invader could destroy all of them at once. The pads of two of the twelve squads were empty, out on regular patrol.

Behind the huddle that made up the currently dormant Squad Three, a needle of gleaming silver protruded upward. It had not been there before. Curious, I scrambled to round the official ships until I was before the newcomer, and had a good gawk.