The First One's Free (6 page)

“I might get careless and… Oooh, yes, curl it
around like that… Might leave my pills out on the basin.” She cried
out, her breathing getting more rapid.

“And maybe it’s time I had your chamber
inspected.” As she became unable to speak, he said, “so when the
crime is discovered, I will have to punish you again.”

Tishla could only respond with an incoherent
“
Unnh!
”

Kai began working his finger faster and
faster, the tip rubbing all four pressure spots. He could feel his
tongue swelling again. “And so, in order to have the child you
promised me, I would have to extend your contract.”

“
Yes!
” Her whole body shuddered and
went limp. She gasped as he pulled her finger out. “If that is what
you want… Me and a child… Do it.”

“And when the child is born?”

Tishla took a moment to relax her body. “Oh,
I have a headache from that. What do you want of me, Kai? If I gave
you a son…”

“A child. Anything I make inside you is my
child, son or daughter. What I’m asking is… Would you consent to
marriage if a child binds us together?”

“Yes.”

She kissed him and had to feel his tongue
becoming stiffer. “I think you need to practice making a child some
more, my Master… My husband.”

Kai crouched over her, now unable to speak,
and plunged his tongue inside her navel.

*****

The next morning, Kai descended for his
breakfast only to find Laral seated at the head of his table. A
servant had just served the general a plate of eggs and meat,
imported from more developed worlds, and a tuber cut up and fried
as a side.

“That’s my breakfast,” said Kai. “And I’ll
take my seat now.”

Laral looked up at him the way a father
stares down an impudent child. “What did you just say? I am a
member of Council, Kai. You’d better…”

“You are Warrior Caste,” said Kai. “You are
also a guest here. That means you ask permission to eat my food –
which I import for myself and my staff – and you do not sit where
the head of the household
and
the Governor of the colony
sits. Your caste tends to forget these things.” He looked over to
the servant. “Once the general has made himself comfortable in his
new seat, have the kitchen make him whatever he wants.”

The general rose and moved two places down
the table. “I beg your forgiveness, Governor.” His voice lacked any
trace of sincerity. “A warrior sometimes forgets who serves whom.”
Laral sank into his new seat barely making eye contact with
Kai.

Kai took his seat and began digging into the
breakfast Laral had ordered for himself. “That’s quite all right,
General. A man of your accomplishments and stature has a right to
expect preferential treatment.” When the servant returned with a
beverage for Laral, Kai said, “Summon Palak. Tell him I require a
witness.”

The general finally smiled. “Will the lovely
Tishla be joining us as well?”

“The lovely Tishla was up all night with her
duties.” Kai shoved a forkful of tuber into his mouth and again
regretted not importing any salt with the last shipment of
provisions. “I bonded her for her mind as well as her beauty, you
know. Which is why I’ve summoned Palak. I will need Tishla’s
brilliant mind to shape those two new planets you will be helping
me secure.”

Laral had started to raise his cup to his
lips and stopped. “Need her?”

“Oh, yes, General,” said Kai. “I slept on
your proposal last night. I accept on condition you make a vow in
front of another member of the Warrior Caste.”

The captain of Kai’s palace guard entered,
dressed in black with no visible armor this morning. “Sire, you
wished to see me?”

“Ah, Palak. The General has a business
proposal I’d like to accept.” He looked to the ceiling. “House,
record.”

“Begin recording,” a dull female voice said,
sounding about as real as the stuffed birds Kai knew Laral kept in
his own home on Blutoch.

“General Laral Jorl,” said Kai, “the terms
you outlined yesterday are as follows: You agree to militarily
support the taking of two rogue colonies at the coordinates given
us by the Tianese known as Marq. You will provide transportation,
weapons, and incursion capsules for my colonists to neutralize the
squatters and agree to send colonists recruited to take over and
develop both worlds. Is this correct?”

Laral looked like a trapped
meezu
. He
bowed his head.

“General,” said Kai, “this is an audio-only
recording. Please signify that this is your offer with a yes or a
no.”

“Yes.”

The answer made Kai giddy, particularly
because Laral looked nauseated saying it. “And your terms offered
were as follows: We acquire for you a city near the second planet’s
northern pole to secure its manufacturing capacity. We agree to
give you ten percent of our harvests as payment for your support.”
Kai struggled not to sound like he was gloating with his next
statement. “And once my new worlds are officially secured, you
agree to take possession of Essenar as compensation.”

“Have you not considered selling Tishla’s
indenture contract?” asked Laral.

“I did. And I reject that option. Therefore,
I offer you an entire world, one you have the resources to mine
that I do not have. Are we agreed, General?”

Laral stared down at the plate of hot food
just placed before him. “I could not change your mind.”

“General, Tishla’s indenture ends in one more
revolution. In the interest of producing a child, I may extend it.
If she successfully conceives, she will become my wife and be
elevated to High Born. If she fails, her talents and her brilliance
assure that she will always have a place with me as a Free Woman.
Therefore, I must reluctantly offer you Essenar instead.”

“Sentimental cub,” Laral muttered under his
breath. “Very well. Governor Lattus Kai, I humbly beg you to accept
the terms we have just outlined. Upon securing the two rogue
colonies brought to our attention by the Tianese Marq, I, Laral
Jorl, your servant, will accept possession of Essenar.”

Kai had one more item to add before asking
for Palak’s assent as witness. “Then upon confirmation of
possession in Confab, General, Essenar will become yours. Palak,
please give your name and make a statement of witness to this
deal.”

Palak’s eyes shifted between Kai and Laral.
His look told Kai he wanted to be anywhere but the Governor’s
private dining room. “I, Orial Palak, Captain of the Governor’s
Palace Guard on Essenar, member of the Warrior Caste, and son of
Orial Rufeed, do hereby attest that this recording was made freely
by both parties and the terms were attested to. On my life, I swear
this to be true.”

“House,” said Kai, “end recording.
Congratulations, General Laral. You just purchased a mudhole.” He
grabbed a piece of meat and chewed off an end. “Subject to Confab,
of course.”

9

Best spent the last half of the trip throwing
up into his flight bag. Traveling to and from the hypergates did
not bother him. Most of the time, he had no clue the spacecraft was
even moving. That brief interval when the ship would enter a
wormhole, however…

The human mind was not designed to deal with
more than four directions. In fact, time was, for all the
physicists’ talk of it being intertwined with three-dimensional
space, simply why everything didn’t happen at once. Inside
wormholes, however, a ship moved in directions the human brain
lacked the wiring to perceive. For a small number of people, this
meant sudden, often violent nausea. If a world’s hypergates were
not calibrated properly, the number of affected people grew.

Jefivah’s hypergates dated back two
centuries. Often times, the planet had to wait months to find a
contractor to recalibrate their network, the knowledge required for
technology that old becoming rarer and rarer.

“Are you all right?” asked the Dimaj when
Best’s vomiting had turned to dry heaves.

Best looked up at the Dimaj and nodded,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Now that the ship was
in transit to The Caliphate, his nausea was starting to subside.
“Glad we didn’t take a projection drive ship,” he said, referring
to the class of vessels that could create their own wormholes. He
had taken half a dozen of those ships in his lifetime. After his
first trip on one, he made it a point to be sedated the entire
flight.

“Are you sure it’s safe for you to be in
your… priestly garb here?” he asked.

The Dimaj sat impassively in his seat, his
eyes fixed on the human flight attendant, a Nordic female who
looked very much like his goddess. “We will stay in the Secular
Quarter of Rashidun. I may not be one of the People of the Book,
but in that part of the city, it doesn’t matter.”

Best leaned back in his seat to wait for the
ill effects of the wormhole transit to subside. “That’s good. Last
thing I need is to get thrown in jail for ordering a ham
sandwich.”

“Almost all ham is vat grown these days,”
said the Dimaj. “Therefore, Jews and Muslims can eat it.”

Best sat up and looked over at his
benefactor. “It was a joke.”

“I never joke about faith. Or even someone’s
lack of it.”

Everyone jokes about yours
, thought
Best. Before he could say anything else, the captain came over the
ship’s speakers and announced that reentry would begin in five
minutes.

*****

“Governor,” said a voice over the speakers,
“we are about to make the jump.”

“Acknowledged,” said Kai. He swallowed a
couple of small white pills and turned out the lights in his
quarters. He would ride out the jump lying down in the dark.

A pair of arms slipped around him. “My poor
Kai. Still can’t handle interstellar travel.” Tishla blew in his
ear.

“A small price to pay,” said Kai. “We only
have to do this one more time.”

“Two. Don’t forget you have to confirm this
deal at Confab.”

That, Kai mused, was worse than riding a
wormhole. “I hope we’re not making a mistake.”

Tishla nuzzled his neck. “You aren’t. Hanar
will make us wealthy. Make
you
wealthy.”

“It will be your wealth, too. I’ll see to
it.” He lay back and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the
projection drive’s inevitable warping of space and time around him.
“That’s assuming Laral’s plan for conscripts to take out the
Tianese works.”

“We have the element of surprise, my love.
And they are renegades. Unless some big commercial or planetary
interest is arming them, they’re probably hiding from their
precious Compact.”

“It’s their precious Compact that worries me.
What if they see this as a threat?”

“Engaging projection drive,” said the voice
from the ship’s command center, “in three… two… one…”

Tishla rolled on top of Kai to face him and
covered his mouth with hers. She pulled his tongue into her mouth.
Kai forgot about the wormhole. And the Compact.

*****

JunoCorp had its headquarters on the 110th
floor of the Burj Rashidun, a gaudy, monstrous replica of the Burj
Khalifa that once towered over Dubai on old Earth. Actually, the
building stood roughly five hundred meters taller than the
original. Best expected a spectacular view of Rashidun, capital of
The Caliphate, and the surrounding plains.

JunoCorp’s offices were tucked into a corner
of the building that allowed an impressive, but not breathtaking,
view of the city’s so-called Recycling Quarter and a dull
conglomeration of suburbs to the southeast of town. Best could get
that standing on a mountainside outside of Tyson on Jefivah.

He and the Dimaj barely had time to take in
the view as they were escorted to the center of the floor. Instead
of an executive suite, the concierge drone led them to a large room
dominated by a swimming pool. Best wondered how so much water could
be contained on the one hundred and tenth floor of a building. Even
with smart structures, nano-polymer framing, and wind compensators,
a pool would have been something to keep below the fiftieth
floor.

Or were skyscrapers yet another technology
where Jefivah was a century or two behind the rest of the
Compact?

“I suppose it seems odd,” said an older
gentleman named Pope as he watched his guests survey the room.
Unlike the Dimaj and Best, Pope seemed to be perpetually frozen at
thirty, the lines in his skin evidence more of repeated
rejuvenation than actual age itself. For all Best knew, Pope was in
his nineties. If so, it was a good thing Pope took rejuvenation.
The man swam the pool completely nude. “An Etruscan company
headquartered on The Caliphate.”

“The thought occurred to us,” said the Dimaj,
“but it’s not relevant to our visit.” He sat at the edge of the
water with his robe up around his knees, feet kicking idly in the
water.

Pope stopped to tread water and studied his
two guests over. “They don’t rejuve on… Gee… Gee… Gee…”

“Jefivah,” finished Best. “Not often. It’s
expensive.”

“It’s only a week’s pay for the working
poor,” said Pope. “And our taxes pay for the destitute to have it
done. Cheaper than paying for elder medical care. Besides, who
wants to spend the final fifty or sixty years of their life wearing
diapers or rolling around on a hover scooter? It’s one of the
reasons we domiciled here. The taxes and Medicomp tribute are the
lowest in the Compact.”

“Mr. Pope. Could we please talk about
Luxhomme?” asked Best. “I’d like to track him down.”

Pope lay back and started doing the back
stroke, providing a view that was much more than Best wanted to
see. “Ah, yes. Luxhomme. Ambitious man, that one. Claims to be
Etruscan, but we know better. Uses one of two legal aliases to pass
himself off as Etruscan – one Neo-Latin, the other Byzantinian. The
fact is, the man’s from Metis. Seems to be ashamed of it.”