Under the Eye of God (35 page)

⁵
Or, to put it more accurately, no tracker who had accepted the contract had yet returned to claim the endowment. Nevertheless, purely as a discretionary practice,
The Lady MacBeth
generally avoided the darker parts of the Cluster, where slavers often cruised in greater strength than in the northern reaches.

⁶
As there already exists an extensive body of literature about the origins, history, and meticulous etiquette of the Phaestor, the author will not attempt to recap that material here. Suffice it to say that the Phaestor, a race of genetically-tailored chimeras, choose to affect a deliberate and studied manner of deportment appropriate to their unique ecological situation.

Because of the extreme fragility of their digestive tracts, the Phaestor must limit their daily fare to a particularly delicate cuisine of predigested comestibles. As a result, the Phaestor have distilled their consumption of edibles into a narrow range of discriminating and fastidious tastes. A primary source of Phaestoric nutrition derives from the blood, the brains, and the livers of the lesser forms of the primate family—especially the humans, especially the blood.

Following the evolutionary logic of this relationship to its logical conclusion results in the inescapable self-recognition that the Phaestor exist as the rightful apex of the human food chain. The Phaestor have no choice but to acknowledge themselves the highest evolved form of sentience, and therefore the natural masters of all other species and subspecies. The recurrent cycles of historical development throughout the Palethetic Cluster demonstrate conclusively that the Phaestor do indeed have an impressive talent for compelling and enforcing this position among their citizens, clients, and other license-holders, the opinions of the cattle notwithstanding.

⁷
Phaestoric authority follows family lines, always determined by the maternal parent. The absolute power of this allegiance extends throughout the entire Vampire species. The species functions not as an aggregate of individuals, but as a rigorously-structured order, closer than a family and more tightly disciplined than an army.

The older and larger a family among the Vampire species, the more authority and revenue it commands from its clients and license-holders. As the head of the oldest and largest family of immortals, the Lady Zillabar held the most powerful claim on the full allegiance of the entire race of Phaestor.

⁸
The Elite Troops of the Regency.

⁹
In truth, the Phaestor had several serious concerns about the creation of any new chimeric species, but one very compelling one in this particular case. The most disturbing questions always revolved about the process of control. Suppose a race of high-gravity Dragons landed on Tharn and conquered its unruly population—what then? Would these newer, hardier Dragons retain their loyalty to the Phaestor? Or would they come to feel their own sense of proprietorship on the high-gravity planet? Would they assume the disrespect of their slaves? A stronger, harder breed of Moktars might feel much less inclination to obey the Phaestor. In such a case, how would the Phaestor restore control? No, the reasons given had little to with the real cause of the delay. The truth remained that the Phaestor never created a new species without also creating the power to destroy it—for their own safety, of course.

¹⁰
Brinewood grows in a multitude of colors, but the shades of rose, maroon, and peach generally have the greatest market value because of their translucent, almost fairie quality. Brinewood of the warmer hues seems to glow with an inner light. Cold brinewood, a more common form, mostly found in shades of azure, turquoise, and verdante, possesses a more subtle quality of luster and enchantment, attributes often overlooked by the gawdier and more extravagant aristocrats of the marketplace. Those who desire to make an immediate impact usually select the warm brinewoods out of dazzled ignorance; those who understand the deeper soul of the wood, and who expect to live with it a long long time tend to favor the blue or royal brinewoods. Amber brinewood also enjoys considerable favor.

That the salon of
The Lady MacBeth
had lavish brinewood ornamentation did not signify that Captain Campbell had a taste for luxury. Rather, it represented a demonstration of her resolve to have every contract honored fully.

The short version: Roderick the Lesser, Ooligarch of The Purple Egg, a minor domain on the planet Peenamoot, decided to build a lavish summer palace for his wives. The plans approved, the architects engaged The Grande Importe Consortiume of Peenamoot for the obtainment of an aristocratic selection of opulent decorative materials necessary to embellish the great confection, including many items not commonly found on the domestic market. The Grande Importe Consortium immediately sub-contracted with the Shakespeare Corporation, the management entity of
The Lady MacBeth
, for the purchase and delivery of one hundred and fifty cubics of unfinished brinewood of assorted colors, and three hundred and fifty cubics of fine polished silk, also in assorted shades.

After some considerable effort spent locating goods of the necessary quality, and after lengthy and expensive negotiations invested in the securement of the cargo, the Shakespeare Corporation finally and reluctantly traded one hundred and twelve shares of itself (with a three-year buyback agreement) for the obtainment of the cargo. Upon arriving at Peenamoot, however, Captain Campbell discovered that Ooligarch Roderick the Lesser had suffered a misfortune common to those who hold the reins of monolithic authority too long or too tightly: death by ideology. This failure of Roderick to secure his reign by popular will triggered a revolution of manners, philosophy, and political theory which swept aggressively through the Peenamootish domains like a broom through a barn, leaving in its dusty wake a transformed population. In almost no time at all, the formerly charming world of Peenamoot became a bleak and dreary place seemingly populated only by lawyers and their victims.

The Grande Importe Consortium had now become The Holocratic People's Interstellar Trade Mission. Although comprised of many of the same officials who had formerly made up The Grande Importe Consortium (only now dressed in much sterner-looking uniforms), the Holocratic People's Trade Mission refused to honor the original agreement. They politely but firmly informed Captain Campbell that because Ooligarch Roderick the Lesser no longer existed, the authority behind her original contract had also become null and void. While conceding neither legal nor moral obligation in the matter, they did sympathize with Captain Campbell's plight and after some consultation made an unselfish offer to purchase
The Lady MacBeth
's cargo of brinewood and silk at the very generous price of one-twentieth its Registry value. After all, they explained, the leaders of the People's Holocratic Party would soon need their own ceremonial palaces.

Captain Campbell did not dignify the offer with even one-twentieth of the cursing it deserved. Instead, she politely and calmly explained to the Trade Mission that the price they offered would not even begin to cover her original investment or the expenses she had incurred in delivering the cargo. The Trade Mission professed its sympathies, but they refused to raise the offer. “The Peenamootish Trade Council has issued a position paper prohibiting lavish or wasteful trade agreements—and oh, yes, they've also decided that it does not serve our interests to become signatory to the Interstellar Registry Trade Agreement; therefore that body obtains no authority in this domain to act on your behalf to enforce the original contract. So, sorry. Would you like to reconsider—? At least, we can offset some of your losses.”

Captain Campbell gave them her deadliest smile. “You have my profoundest apologies. The charter of the Shakespeare Corporation prohibits any dealing with non-signatory bodies. History has proven the virtue of this policy.”

“You'll find no buyers here for your cargo. The Holocratic Trade Mission controls all imports to Peenamoot.”

“I need no buyers.” She smiled again. Some people never hear the warning.

And to prove her point, before she broke orbit, she had the lounge, the dining room, the bridge, her cabin, the six cabins most often used by passengers, the crew's mess, the crew's quarters, the sick bay, the engine room, two cargo bays, four airlocks, both shuttleboats, and all of the major passageways, totally redecorated using as many of the most expensive pieces of brinewood and silk as she could. On the last night of her stay, she invited the members of the Holocratic Trade Mission aboard
The Lady Macbeth
for a farewell supper. During the entire meal, she made no reference at all to the ship's new fittings; neither did the members of the Trade Mission, but they got the point.

Subsequently, Captain Campbell made six unauthorized journeys to Peenamoot, secretly delivering over one million tons of high-velocity plastic projectile weapons to the Republican Liberation Front, a group which not only had signed the Interstellar Registry's minimum basic trade agreement, but which had also committed itself both ideologically and militarily to the violent overthrow of all Holocratic authorities—an event which occurred shortly after Captain Campbell's sixth voyage.

¹¹
An android.

¹²
The offended Vampire reserved the right to select the appropriate manner of death. Often the Vampire designed a circumstance specifically suited to the victim or the crime. Lady Zillabar, in particular, enjoyed a reputation for distinctively nasty inventiveness.

¹³
Of the Dragons, the underground poet Aristol once wrote:

The assassination of Aristol remains unsolved. There exists no official proof of Regency involvement. Nevertheless, it remains extremely foolhardy to refer to the Moktar Dragons as the vampire's claws.

¹⁴
Immortals do not grow bored easily. When one has centuries to plan, one takes the time to create baroque amusements. Vampires particularly enjoy planning and executing intricate patterns of revenge.

¹⁵
These include execution, criminal punishment, quashing of riots or rebellions, police actions, interrogation, public euthanasia, cultural culling, and licensed suicide.

¹⁶
In the Regency legal hierarchy, only one office outranks the Phaestor Authority: the Auditors, a genetically tailored species of hive-insect designed to serve as notaries, legal witnesses, and guarantors. The Auditors remain unbribable and have established themselves as the primary control for all government dealings, as well as many of the major private financial transactions. Auditors also handle wills, bounty payoffs, and a variety of contract guarantees.

¹⁷
Several years previous to this encounter, Captain Campbell had discovered a badly abused Ota at a mining colony on the southwestern edge of the Cluster. The LIX-class bioform had suffered terrible mistreatment at the hands of the miners, including a despicable series of degrading sexual acts. The log of
The Lady MacBeth
records that Captain Campbell immediately offered to purchase Ota; the log fails to record that the transfer of title occurred over the dead bodies of the previous owners, apparently at their own request.

¹⁸
Uplifted canine bioforms, capable of limited speech; designed for entertainment, companionship, and simple labor. Most species have the intelligence of pre-reform humans.

¹⁹
The Regency maintained the only
authorized
landing port on Thoska-Roole. All licensed commerce had to go through MesaPort. Illegal commerce, of course, found its own channels of delivery.

²⁰
Before he fell out of favor, the late poet Aristol once called the Vampires, “a nightmare wrapped in a scream.” The Phaestor interpreted it as a compliment.

Historically, the Phaestoric redesign represents humanity recreated on the model of the wasp—the insect's concept of life superimposed upon a mammalian frame. Ungodly, selfish, mechanistic, and hungry; the Phaestor exist without compassion or mercy. They feed, they breed, they kill, and they die. Given human intelligence, they still lack even the simplest of human motives; instead, they use their cunning to scheme and plot intrigues against each other. They manipulate, they plan, they cheat, they lie, they calculate and bedevil their allies and their enemies alike. Possessed by their own terrifying appetites for blood and power, the Vampires must control everything. Whenever a Vampire reaches out to grasp a fact, it also immediately tries to apply that circumstance to its own profit. A Vampire has no more choice in its lust than a moth possessed by a pheromone; the same process obtains in both cases.

Consider:

Because a female Vampire can lay thousands of fertile eggs after a single mating, the Phaestor consider individual lives to have very little value—even those of their own children. The lives of individuals of other species have even less value to them; slaves and cattle simply don't count. A Vampire lives only for the continuation of the family line; because only from its family can a Vampire derive authority, fortune, and power. A Vampire will do anything it must to advance the goals of its family.

Furthermore, because most of the eggs hatch into males, and only a few produce females, the Phaestoric culture has deliberately structured itself around this severely skewed ratio. Warrior classes abound. Angry duels, ritual killings, blood sacrifices, reasonless murders, impassioned homosexuality, unbridled cannibalism, thrill-seeking gangs, mass hysteria, violent swarming, feeding frenzies, mating frenzies, violent frenzies of all kinds—every appalling form of savagery occurs routinely among Vampire youth. Only a small percentage of Phaestor males survive their adolescence; even so, the unforgiving ratio still remains badly out of balance.