He looked up with a start. "Greetings, Pharaoh Dyhianna." He spoke in Iotic, with relief. "You look well now."
"Thank you." I hesitated. "I don't remember coming here."
He didn't seem surprised. "You have slept for three days."
"Opalite days?"
"Yes."
That meant twelve hours. I was losing track of time. Nor did I have any idea how much time had passed between when Eldrin pushed us into Kyle space and I coalesced on Opalite. "J'chabi, do you know the date by the Skolian calendar?"
"Not exactly." He came over and sat by the bed on a mossy ridge. "We don't use ASC dates here."
It didn't surprise me. Opalite's residents had little reason to use the ASC dates of the Skolian calendar. Computers here could convert to ASC, to provide a baseline for a comparison with the standard timeline. But from the solitary nature of the community I had so far seen, I doubted much demand existed for such a service.
"Do you have an idea of the Skolian date?" I asked.
He considered. "The web collapse came toward the end of 374 ASC. It has been over a standard month since then, I think. Perhaps two."
That meant I had been stranded in a mathematical limbo for over a month before I reformed on Opalite. So long? That time span fit J'chabi's attitude, though. The web collapse must have sent shock waves through all the settlements of humanity. Yet the Shay seemed relatively blasé about it now, which suggested they had grown used to the situation. Given how long I had spent in a nascent psiberspace, it astonished me that I had come out again.
But wait. Someone had called me there.
I strained to catch the elusive memory. I had sensed Taquinil this last time, but I had no idea when or where he existed; neither time nor space had meaning in Kyle space. It was more than Taquinil, though. I had been aware of two other minds.
Eldrinson.
Yes. Eldrin's father. My father-in-law. It had always bemused me that the father was called Eldrinson and the son was Eldrin. Eldrinson had probably decided that naming his firstborn Eldrinsonson was overdoing matters. It didn't surprise me that I sensed my father-in-law. He, Soz, and I formed the Triad that made the psiberweb possible. I created the net, Eldrinson supported it, and Soz used it to direct ISC. Together, we made a formidable force.
Had made a formidable force.
Soz was gone.
I sat in silence, stunned with this new realization. Soz no longer formed part of the Triad. But it was impossible to disengage from it without damaging your brain beyond repair. The only way to leave the Triad was to die.
Nausea spread through me. I folded my arms across my stomach while my eyes burned with tears I couldn't shed. Damn the Traders. Damn them all. I rocked back and forth. Soz.
Soz.
Gradually another tendril of memory curled past my upwelling of grief. I
had
felt a third mind in that nether universe. Who?
Kelric?
He was my nephew, the youngest child of my sister Roca. Kelric had died eighteen years ago, a casualty of war. I had long grieved for him. Physically, he and I were as different as possible; he was huge and muscular, a military officer, gold rather than dark. But I had more in common with him than other members of the Ruby Dynasty. A gifted mathematician, he shared my love of equations.
But he was
dead.
The blurred memory of a conversation in psiberspace came to me…
Aunt Dehya?
Kelric?
Where are you?
Gone…
Have you died?
I exist.
Come home. Our people need their Pharoah. Your family needs you.
I will try…
"Pharaoh Dyhianna?" J'chabi was watching me intently.
I refocused on him. "I'm here."
He regarded me curiously. "Even when you are present, rather than faded away, you are not always here."
I gave a wan laugh. "You put that far more politely than the Assembly does."
He flushed. "My sorry. I meant no offense."
"You gave none." I rubbed the back of my neck, working out kinks. "Did I fade away in the telop chair?"
"Your body became translucent." He blinked rather rapidly. "We feared to touch you, lest it do damage. Your body overlapped the chair, like a holo superimposed on a solid object."
Such a strange image. "I wonder if that's where ghost tales come from. Maybe ghosts are people partially transformed into an alternate reality." Seeing J'chabi's alarmed expression, I gave him a rueful look. "This must all seem bizarre to you."
"It is my honor to serve the Ruby Pharaoh."
That was tactful. "It is my honor to have your loyalty."
He actually blushed at that. "What will you do now?"
"I'm not sure. It depends on whether or not I contacted anyone."
"Don't you know?"
I sifted through my memories. "I recall a vague sense of Eldrinson Valdoria, the Web Key. Perhaps other family members."
"Can they send help?"
"I'm afraid not." Eldrinson and my sister Roca were still on Earth. ISC had sent them there during the war, for protection, because the Allied Worlds of Earth had remained neutral, too small a power to pose a threat, but big enough that neither we nor the Traders could easily conquer them.
Conquer. I winced. But I couldn't deny we called ourselves the Skolian
Imperialate
for a reason. Unlike the Traders, we didn't blatantly subjugate worlds. But ISC had been known to occupy settlements without their agreement. Supposedly Skolia was a democracy, like the Allied Worlds, with an elected Assembly, but we stretched the definition to breaking.
The constant political maneuvering of the Ruby Dynasty with the Assembly wore me down. I resented the clenched control they exerted over our lives—
Anger surged over me, and a rush of memories. Control, hell. They were maniacs. Eldrin was my
nephew.
The son of Eldrinson and Roca. The Assembly had forced our marriage and demanded we have children. Rhon psions were almost impossible to produce in the lab, which made the Ruby Dynasty the only known source. Without us, the psiberweb couldn't exist. Any telop could use the web, but only we could power it. Desperate to ensure their supply of Rhon psions, the Assembly had given Eldrin and me no choice. Never mind that it threatened to tear apart our family. No price was too great.
J'chabi was waiting patiently. Seeing me focus on him, he continued. "Could you have contacted anyone in psiberspace but not remember?"
Hard as it was to do, I made myself switch gears. Brooding about the Assembly would do me no good right now. "It's possible. I tried to project an impression of my location and situation, but even if I reached someone, it might not register enough for me to remember."
He spoke with a hope that sounded forced. "If anyone can make contact, it is you."
"I hope you're right." Eventually someone would find out we had been here.
I just prayed we were still free and alive then.
* * *
Natil stood in the doorway of J'chabi Na's home. "Come in, may I?"
J'chabi moved aside, inviting her to enter.
I was waiting a few steps back in the hall. "Have you news of Hajune and Skyhold?"
Natil walked into the hall. "Skyhold recovers slowly." The taciturn officer actually cracked a smile. "But recover she does."
"This is good, J'chabi said.
Natil seemed distracted. "Another problem we have."
J'chabi ushered us into the main living area. "Problem?"
"A ship in orbit."
My hope surged. "Skolian?"
Natil turned her dark gaze on me. "Lady, I hope this ship comes not for you."
I regarded her uneasily. "Why?"
She answered flatly. "Trader."
Ah, no. We were fast running out of options. "Are they looking for the crashed Aristo ship?"
"Yes. We gave them the two Razers." Natil grimaced. "Still the Traders say, 'We punish.' "
Her words cut like honed steel. I had seen how the Traders punished worlds. How far they took it would depend on the importance of the Aristo who had died, how close their kinship ties were to his family, and what they thought they could get away with. Their retaliation could range from kidnapping Shay natives to slagging this entire moon. Most likely they would abduct whatever Shay they could sell for a good price in their slave markets and then destroy this city.
"This is a Skolian world," I said. "They're breaking so many treaties by coming here, I can't count them." I could, actually. They were violating four clauses in the Halstaad Code of War. We could take them to trial on any one and win— which right now meant about as much as nits in a nova.
"What can we do?" Natil asked.
Good question. "Are any starport defenses still operable?"
J'chabi answered. "All were destroyed."
I stood thinking. "Tell them this: our ISC backup forces have the Aristo and crew from the Trader ship that crashed."
"No ISC backup here," Natil pointed out.
"We know that. They don't." I had been mangling the Shay syntax, but it didn't matter. The tension indicated by my "inverted" sentences fit the situation. "Remind them about the Halstaad Code. They know they're violating it."
J'chabi frowned. "I doubt that will stop them. It won't be hard to verify that we have no ISC support."
"But it will stall them. I'll keep trying to reach ISC." If I could bring in armed ships, it would put teeth into our bluff.
Otherwise, the Traders would discover that they had chanced upon a far greater prize than they expected: the Ruby Pharaoh.
8
The Brooding Night
…Again I awoke in J'chabi's home. This time I was alone. As I sat up, my arms became translucent. Alarmed, I concentrated until they solidified.
J'chabi appeared in the doorway, holding the laser carbine. "You are back."
I spoke in a rasp, my throat dry. "How long this time?"
Concern shaded his face. "You were gone half a decadar."
Five Opalite days. Twenty hours. It was taking longer and longer to re-form. "The Traders?"
"We sent your message to them." He entered the room, moving with the careful courtesy he always used around me. "They have made no more hostile moves. But they haven't left either. They seem to be waiting."
I could guess why. They had probably surmised that ISC had little presence here aside from its orbital defense system, which was in tatters now. With the destruction of the port, no functional base remained on the moon. And apparently Opalite had only this one city, an outpost intended for scientific research. Soon the Traders would call our bluff.
"Did you reach anyone?" J'chabi asked.
"I don't recall any contact." I wished I had a more encouraging answer. Desperation suffused his mind. Without ISC intervention, we would become slaves or die. And more was at stake than most anyone knew. For the Traders to capture any member of the Ruby Dynasty would create a crisis. If they seized the Pharaoh, it would be a disaster.
I shuddered, trying not to think of pain and fear. My brain had neurological defenses. They blocked me from answering questions that would compromise ISC security or hurt my family. If interrogation became impossible to bear, the implants would erase my memories by disrupting neural links. But no defenses were foolproof. The Traders could learn enough from me to cripple Skolia. I would rather die than betray the people and family I loved.
J'chabi was watching my face. "What do you want me to do?"
