The Crucible of Empire (28 page)

Third/Half ordered the Anj to release the probes, then the two of them spent a few moments dabbing spangles of white gore upon one another's face and shoulders. Half was now in full submission, reveling in the ritual. She was sure he would be a superb mate, until her pregnancy allowed her to terminate him. He would exult in his own final rending.

But that was still some time away. It would take several couplings before she could be assured of continuing the Ekha line. For the moment, there was still the menace in the nebula to contend with.

All through the rest of the duty cycle, Third/Half practiced for the approaching moment when they would contribute to the Great Song. They sang their combined notes, so deliciously close, until the ship's hull vibrated at the frequency of their booming voices. By now, in their own chambers, the last remaining coupling pair would be paralyzed if they had not already rent themselves. Dominance was total. Down in their pit, the little Anj pranced and shouted in rapture.

No other note had come through on the song-claxon, indeed might not for some time, but the spaces between notes were equally meaningful. Out in the blackness of space, Melody ships were hunting the universe for lesser intelligences. The entire ship was poised, ready for their part in advancing the Ekha.

The planetary probes did not return on schedule, which was puzzling. Something, or someone, must have interfered. Third/Half had just sent word to the other four Melody ships to move in closer and assume orbit around the planet when the Anj down in the control pit positively exploded with chirps.

Third/Half leaned over the railing. "What is the meaning of this cacophony?"

"A ship, Great One!" an Anj said, looking up to the pod, while doing its best to stand on its stunted hind legs and utterly failing. Its fellows mobbed it, pulling it down.

"We have five ships, single-brain!" Really, the Anj were so dim, it was a wonder they could even consume nutrients or reproduce.

"Not Melody ship!" the Anj said, struggling back to the top of the slithering pile of bodies. It chittered hysterically in its own language, unable in its distress to communicate sensibly. "Other ship! Other!"

"From the planet?" Third/Half strode over to a screen, but could detect nothing untoward.

"No, Great One," the Anj said, gaining tenuous control of its inferior self. Its squishy little face contorted with fear as it gazed up to the Conductor's pod. "From the star!"

Third/Half's hands reached for the controls and brought up a view of the sun in this system. Were more Melody ships coming to investigate? Irritation surged through the linked pair.
They
had been given Conductor's rights in this matter. No one else should be intruding to impose their sensibilities upon the situation.

But that was most certainly not a Melody ship shedding fiery plasma as it emerged from a point locus in the system's sun. The shape was huge and solidly oval, lacking the characteristic angles of Ekhat construction. It was not a Jao ship either, though there was a hint of their pedestrian esthetics in its flowing lines.

Anticipation of tuneful ecstasy flooded Third/Half. It was so seldom these days that the Melody had the pleasure of destroying a hitherto unsuspected species, and one so relatively advanced! What lovely music she and Half would make while reducing this ship to its constituent atoms!

The monstrously large ship was coming very fast, though, and already maneuvering to fire weapons. Below, in the control pit, the Anj were screaming, fighting one another in their frenzy to bring the Melody ship up to readiness to respond.

One ship against five, Third/Half mused. It would be a woefully short battle, but the note they would contribute afterwards to the Great Song would be magnificent. She would probably be assured of dominance for at least four or five more mating cycles. And already she was one of the oldest females of record.

Pyr approached Jihan as she was working early that morning in the Jaolore Duty Chamber where the main tasks of the
elian
were carried out. Thin gray sunlight, half obscured by clouds, slanted in through the old house's tall glass windows. The heat-source was blazing comfortably, though the day was quite chill without. Wind coming off the mountains blasted along the eaves overhead. She should acquire flags to signify the number of residents, she thought, looking up at her young subordinate. One by one, she was seeing after the proprieties.

"Eldest!" Pyr said, when he'd caught her eye. His hands were dithering in agitation. "Come quickly!"

The former unassigned was filling out, his aureole brightening, his dull skin gaining a bit of luster. Whether the improvements came of a better diet or his pleasure in finally being accepted by an
elian
, she thought he looked almost presentable these days. She straightened, then turned away from the viewer where she'd been going through yet another cache of fragile ancient records, this lot from the Historykeepers. "Yes?"

"A representative of the Starwarders is here to see you!" Pyr's meager gray aureole stood on end. "She says there is reason for haste!"

Jihan adjusted her new robes with their simple but tasteful design, the outline of a Jao ship. Jaolore might be only a small
elian
, but she would conduct their affairs with decorum. Satisfied that she would not shame her associates, few though they were, she followed Pyr into the Application Chamber.

The spacious room had been swept clean, the wooden floor polished by industrious servants acquired from the
dochaya
. It smelled pleasantly of herb-scented oils, though as yet there were only two scavenged benches for seating. A female of middle height looked up from contemplating the barren gardens through the window. Outside, a few flakes of snow drifted out of increasingly leaden clouds. The sunlight was rapidly being occluded.

"Greetings . . . Eldest," the visitor said, as though the honorific passed her lips with difficulty, and settled on one of their battered benches with exaggerated care.

"You honor us," Jihan said, taking the seat across from her and wondering what could be so important as to bring a Starwarder to Jaolore. Surely they had enough responsibility patrolling the system during these troubled times to keep them busy. "Shall I call for sustenance?"

"I am Hadata," the newcomer said with indecent haste, then glanced at Pyr whose mouth gaped at the breach of protocol. She glanced at him. "Do not presume to judge me, child!" Her expression darkened as she turned back to Jihan. "However did you come to accept such an unpromising creature? His skin is positively gray! Surely even the
dochaya
could provide better." She waved a hand when Jihan opened her mouth to protest. "No, no, it does not matter, and the situation is far too dire to be remediated by having him scrounge up a bit of biscuit."

Off to one side, Pyr had gone stiff with shame. Anger suffused her, but no matter what had happened among the Starsifters, Sayr had never once given way to crudely raising his voice, much less to graceless shouting. She would conduct herself with the same propriety.

"We do not require service," Jihan told the youth when she was sure of her voice. "You may go." Pyr lowered his head and bolted from the room.

"That was badly done," Jihan said as soon as he was gone. "We are a new
elian
, but I have never heard it said that outsiders may criticize the choices of an Eldest."

"You wish to speak of proprieties?" Hadata's magnificently upswept black eyes regarded the Jaolore shrewdly, and in them, Jihan saw again how badly she had behaved up on the mountain, her disgraceful breaking of
sensho
. By now, everyone in the entire colony knew what she had done. That brash moment would shadow all of her days. She might be an Eldest now, at least in name, but her achievement of the rank was tainted. Shame tingled up through her face, dried her mouth, flattened her aureole.

"Never mind," the Starwarder said abruptly, gazing out the window again, plainly seeking to alter the course of the conversation. "Such matters pale in light of current troubles."

Her visitor's manner stilled. She closed her eyes, then opened them again, and it was as though another, more practical, Starwarder had entered the chamber and now gazed out at her. "As a former Starsifter, you have ship training. Therefore, we petition Jaolore to grant us your service in this crisis." The Starwarder's fingers twitched an errant fold in her robes back into place. Her expression was bleak. "We have been maintaining a presence in orbit around Valeron since the battle. Yesterday, we detected an incursion into our space, vessels entering our system through a point locus in the outer layers of the sun, as is necessary when journeying between star systems."

Framepoint travel. Jihan had read of such, both in the course of her recent research and during her Starsifter training, though it had been many generations since the Lleix had dared to travel in such a bold manner. "Is it the Jao?" Her aureole stood on end.

"Child, no one believes that nonsense you were spouting up on the mountain." The Starwarder rose, arranging her robes into proper folds with great care. Her hands were shaking. "It is the great devils, themselves, the Ekhat!"

Jihan found it suddenly difficult to breathe. Her mind struggled to think and she felt ill. This was too soon! The colony was not yet ready to protect itself or flee. "Then—it is Ekhatlore that you want, and Weaponscrafters."

"They have been alerted, but several Starsifters have already come forward to help crew Starwarder ships, and Sayr suggested that you be recruited," Hadata said. "You have been trained to operate the Starsifters' vessel and data stations, and we have grown too few. We cannot adequately staff our remaining ships, so our Eldest asks that you help crew the next ship to be launched."

The Starsifters' vessel had been ancient and small, meant only for the gathering of data and retrieval of minute portions of debris for analysis. Piloting it had been one thing, traveling upon one of the Starwarders' ships was bound to be quite another. Jihan found herself trembling. "Is it your intention to attack these ships?" If so, they would die even sooner than their fellows upon the planet.

"The Ekhat have not assumed orbit around our world yet," Hadata said. "Thus far we are only observing their actions so that we can relay information back to the Hall of Decision. It is possible that they might pass by, as they did once before, though not probable."

"I see," Jihan said, trying to gather the shreds of her disarrayed thoughts. So much needed to be done! How would she ever fulfill so many responsibilities?

"The few remaining mass transports are being readied," Hadata said. "Representatives of each
elian
will be sent on them to another system, if the Ekhat allow us enough time. You should choose one among you for that honor."

It would have to be Kajin, she thought numbly. Poor untutored Pyr would perish from embarrassment to be thrust so amongst his betters, and Kajin possessed skills from his Ekhatlore training which should be preserved. "When will he need to report?"

"Word will be sent," Hadata said, turning back to the windows and the worsening snow outside. The pale flakes were beginning to accumulate and obscure the abandoned gardens. "For now, you and I must make haste."

Jihan excused herself and went to find Pyr, who turned up in the communal kitchen, abjectly scrubbing the floor. "You must dispatch me back to the
dochaya
," he said without looking up, when she entered the homey room with its smells of herbs and simmering blueleaf stew. "I have no wish to shame Jaolore further."

One of the servants, modestly clad in a gray shift, glanced at the two of them from the larder, then slipped out of the room.

"You do not shame us," Jihan said when they were alone. "I forbid you to take any notice of what was said back there. Her remarks were based solely upon your appearance, which has no bearing upon the quality of your work here."

He sat back on his heels, still not raising his eyes. His fingers clutched the damp rag to his scrawny chest.

"Tell Kajin that he has been chosen to represent Jaolore in the exodus and he is to ready himself for departure," Jihan said to Pyr, "then keep up your studies until I return."

If she ever returned, she thought, then went back to accompany Hadata out of the Application Chamber into the morning's frost-ridden air. That was by no means certain.

Fortunately, her meager piloting skills were not required on the Starwarders' patched ship. Hadata took the pilot's seat and Jihan found herself relegated to one of four unoccupied data stations. She was surprised to find the vessel little bigger than the Starsifters' only functioning vehicle and in no better operating condition. Every aspect of the ship was worn and cobbled-together. The first data station she tried to activate no longer worked at all.

And the Starwarders had not exaggerated when they said they lacked trained crew. Only two other Starwarders were on board, so that less than half the ship's functioning consoles were manned, even with the addition of Jihan and Lliant, a sturdy male recruited from Ekhatlore to employ his expertise. Even in this crisis, he had taken the time to groom himself, his eyes heavily outlined in vahl, his robes freshly scented with herbs and carefully draped, his silver skin gleaming, obviously just oiled.