The First One's Free (8 page)

That little tidbit of trivia made the
server’s night, but the conversation made Best realize it might be
time for a change. True, he was a cabinet member in the government
of a founding world of the Compact. However, he was the cabinet
member of a world that could barely feed itself, had a hodge-podge
political system, and whose third largest religion was a cult to an
actress who died centuries before the colony was founded. He paid
his bill and left, mentally composing his resignation letter as he
walked back to the hotel.

*****

They tackled Best halfway back to his suite.
Someone shoved his jacket over his head. Then the beating
began.

“You worship a whore,” one of them
shouted.

“You’re ignorant,” said another.

“Go back to your mudhole, dust muncher,” said
a third.

All the while, the blows, some from fists,
some from feet, punished Best. By the end of the beating, his
unseen attackers chanted, “Whore! Whore! Whore! Whore!”

When it ended, they ran off, their laughter
echoing off the walls of some nearby alley.

Best, stiffened and bruised and possibly
sporting two broken ribs, freed himself from his now-torn jacket
and found a police drone standing over him. Naturally, with Best’s
luck, it began to rain.

“Citizen,” the drone said in
Caliphate-accented Humanic, “stay where you are. Help has been
summoned.”

The drone’s voice likely came from a bored
police officer sitting in a control room miles away, sipping coffee
and keeping one eye on the local football match. Before Best passed
out, he idly wondered why Jefivah did not have any form of football
– soccer or gridiron – like other worlds. They already had the
hooligans and bleacher crowds…

The night, lit up by street lamps and the
glow of the city, faded to pitch black and went silent.

11

The colony transports, large saucer like
craft with sophisticated antigrav lifters, soon arrived at Hanar.
Kai’s troops and Berraa’s crew were given first choice for land
claims. Kai himself took only enough to put together a crude
capital, the one the Tianese had built now a black wound on the
coastline.

Kai chose Palak to administer the planet for
him. “You’re a better man than most High Borns in the Warrior
Caste. And you know the Realm is just giving us more criminals for
transportation.”

“Have to start somewhere, Sire,” said Palak.
“We interrogated one of the survivors. We can’t eat their grain,
but it’s close enough to ours that we know it will grow here, too.”
He reached into his pocket and produced a familiar-looking root.
“And apparently, these things grow like weeds here. Famine is not
going to be a problem for you.”

“Or you,” said Kai. “Play your cards right,
and you can call yourself ‘Governor’ here soon enough.”

Palak bowed his head. “Thank you, Sire.”

Kai looked past Palak at where a shuttle had
landed in the distance. A Tianese man strode down the ramp with
Laral. “Our friend is back.”

Palak turned to see Marq approach with Laral
a few steps behind, following him like a lost pet. “I do not trust
that man. And his companion is a monster.”

“Who’s the monster? Laral? Or Marq?”

Palak turned back to Kai. “You know? I think
they’re interchangeable.”

******

It took two hours to fuse Best’s broken ribs
and laser down his bruises. The police talked to him while he
received treatment at the hospital, informing him there was a small
enclave of Jefivans in this part of the Secular Quarter, many of
them resentful of the Marilynists. The local temple, really a
storefront operation, had been vandalized several times over the
past three months. How, he asked, did they know he as a Marilynist
even though he wasn’t? One of the officers fiddled with her wrist
chip and held out her palm. The nanotat displayed a news video of
Best and the Dimaj getting off the orbital shuttle, the reporter
announcing them as the Grand Dimaj of the Goddess Marilyn and the
faith’s newest prophet.

Best wanted to find a rock to crawl under.
Instead, the second officer who questioned him drove him back to
the hotel. He desperately wanted a shower, only the senior nurse
had warned that the nanoseals on his cuts required twelve hours to
set before he could get them wet.

Stumbling from fatigue, he made his way
across the suite and into his room. Without turning on the lights,
he stripped down and crawled into bed. A pair of arms slipped
around him.

He screamed. “Lights.”

The lights came up to reveal a naked clone of
the Marilynists’ ancient goddess, curvy and blonde with pouty lips.
Upon closer examination, Best could see evidence of rejuvenation
and of cosmetic reconstruction. This woman took her religion
seriously.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The clone of Marilyn smiled. “The Grand Dimaj
suggested I initiate you into our faith as our new prophet. I am
the High Normaj of The Caliphate.”

Best slid out of the bed pulling the
comforter around him. Unfortunately, it also pulled the comforter
off the Normaj, revealing her in all her milky white glory. “I’m
married.”

“Marilyn” smiled. “In our faith, that does
not matter. All those who prefer women sleep with a Normaj upon
their indoctrination. Unless you prefer…”

“I am not your prophet.”

The Normaj pouted. “The Grand Dimaj said you
were a little uptight. Don’t worry. If it makes you feel better,
I’ll pretend to be your wife.”

Best scooped up his clothes and marched into
the bathroom. Before he could finish dressing, the Dimaj appeared.
“After your ordeal, I thought you could use some relaxation. She is
quite good, actually. I indoctrinated her myself. I even trained
her when I taught seminary.”

Best spun on him. “If you wanted to help, you
could have answered my call. You could have picked me up at the
hospital. You could have… I don’t know, maybe talked to the
goddamned police?”

“Douglas,” he said, “you’re upset. I
understand.”

“Upset? Because I got mugged for belonging to
that joke of a religion of yours? Because I spent the afternoon
watching a very rich man swim
very
nude while you sat around
admiring his pool?” He grabbed the Dimaj’s robe in his fists.
“Maybe I’m upset because the man who sold us a bunch of potatoes so
your people could have a home of their own lost seven weapons of
mass destruction and left me holding the bag.” He shoved the Dimaj
backwards. “I’m leaving tomorrow for Metis.”

“Douglas,” said the Dimaj, his voice a little
shaky now, “you’re still in my custody.”

“Really?” said Best. “Try to enforce it here.
Do you think these people give a damn about our little backwater
world?”

He marched back out into his room where he
grabbed his suitcase. The Normaj watched him as he stuffed his
belongings into the bag, but said nothing.

“Where are you going now, Douglas?” asked the
Dimaj.

“My own room,” said Best. “Hopefully my
credit isn’t shot. Yet.” He slammed the door on his way out the
door.

*****

The prisoner squirmed in his bindings. At
least Kai thought it was a he. These Tianese kept their genitals
elsewhere, and neither Kai nor his interrogation team felt like
looking for them.

“Has anyone extrapolated their language yet?”
Kai asked the lead interrogator, a grizzled old enlistee from the
Warrior Caste who clearly didn’t care much for Kai or Laral. Never
mind that he served both at the moment. His name was Rork, and Kai
never did learn if that was his family or personal name.

“It took some time,” said Rork. “Most of what
he said translates as ‘Please don’t kill me. Let me go.’ Have you
considered asking the General’s little alien friend? He’s of the
same species.”

“He only speaks the Mother Tongue in our
presence. Anyway, I don’t trust that man. As alien as they are, I
trust our friend here more. Pity we’ll have to kill him.”

“Do we not do that to our own renegades?”

The similarities between primate species
overwhelmed the differences. Kai could recognize fear on the
alien’s face. He had seen Zaras, truly the most ape-like of the
known sentient primates, bare their teeth and knew whether they
were smiling or threatening. Laputans, for all their bluster, cried
easily. The Qorori, those pale nocturnal beings with six fingers
instead of the usual five, had a reputation for the most sensual
expressions of ecstasy among all the known primate races. Something
else unsettled Kai. Like these hairless apes called the Tianese,
the Qorori kept their genitals elsewhere. Actually, Kai realized
his own people were the odd ones. Being born into this skin,
however, instead of the paler, darker-haired Tianese, made the rest
of the primate universe utterly alien to him.

“Can you translate for me and make it sound
reasonable?”

Rork smiled, revealing several missing teeth.
Most had been taken out in combat, and a man like Rork would leave
the gaps as trophies. “I’ve done this before. Once I pick up a few
words and speak them back at him, he gets really talkative. I
probably know half their idioms now, at least the common ones.”

“Translate for me.” To the alien, he said, “I
am Kai, Governor of this world. One of your people tells me you are
squatting on this planet.”

Rork translated for the alien. The alien
responded back in a language that sounded like gargling. Through
Rork, he said, “We are here legally. This world is a Compact world,
chartered by Metis.”

“Who is Metis?”

“Metis is a…” Rork struggled with the word
the alien used. “He calls it a ‘
kunstichewentasorty
.’ The
word does not extrapolate well.”

“So it’s a group?” said Kai. “Like Juno?”

“I know of no Juno,” the alien said via Rork.
“Metis is the homeworld of most of the settlers here.”

“But not yours.”

“I am from Belsham.”

Kai turned to Rork. “We are recording this.
Right? So far, we know only of Tian and Etrusca in this Compact.
And Juno is a commercial entity.”

“If that little alien is to be believed.”

Kai began to think Marq may not be Tianese
after all. He may even be a Gray in disguise. The Grays were nasty
little creatures, considered the most alien of alien primates,
prone to terrorizing pre-spacefaring races for sport. The Warrior
Caste, Kai knew, made sport of them in return. Maybe Marq was their
way of getting even with both the Tianese and Kai’s people. “Juno
claims they own this planet and gave it to us to develop.”

“Who are you?” said the alien, again
translated by Rork.

“We are the Gelt.”

“I’ve never heard of you.”

“We barely know who you are.” Kai knelt next
to the alien and said, “Tell me, do your people have slavery? Even
indentured servitude?”

The alien’s expression went from frightened
to angry. “We are not savages. The only slaves we have are
convicted identity thieves and stowaways. And their terms are
limited by our Declaration of Rights.”

“And what happens if one of your kind comes
into possession of an alien slave, indentured or otherwise?”

“What else? They’d have to free the
person.”

“And this is the law on all of your
worlds?”

“On pain of expulsion from the Compact. We
have had civil wars over it, sometimes between factions on the same
kunstichewentasorty
.”

“That’s a planet. Right?”

“Usually. Sometimes a whole star system.
Three or four are merely continents.”

Planet would do for Kai’s purposes. “One more
question. Did your people destroy your own main settlement?”

“We thought you did.”

“We did not.” Kai rose and said to Rork,
“Find whatever you can in their food stores, give him and his
family the best possible meal you can make from that. Make them
comfortable.”

“Sire?”

“Have your cook lace the food with sleep
potion. Tishla will give you the proper dosages. Make sure there’s
enough to stop their hearts after they lose consciousness.”

Rork gave Kai a knowing smile. “General Laral
will not like that.”

“General Laral will soon be Governor of
Essenar. He can deal with whatever aliens he finds there however he
sees fit.
I
am Governor of this world, and it is my
decision.”

Rork gave Kai a formal salute, fists crossing
his chest, bowing. Kai doubted he ever gave Laral that kind of
respect.

“And Rork.”

“Yes?”

“Bring their bodies to my lander so we may
burn them properly.”

“They’re not Gelt, Sire.”

“No. But I want their people to know we are
not savages either. We will ceremonially burn them. Tishla will
record the ritual and take it to the Tianese.”

“You think Laral is starting a war.”

“I think Marq is playing us against his own
people for his own ends.”

*****

Tishla could not understand it. Sent to a
Tianese world so soon after they had slaughtered thousands of those
creatures? It was the blast. Kai had been nervous since the blast.
They still did not know who detonated the fusion device.

“Go with that alien to his homeworld,” said
Kai. “Stay there until I call for you. You’ll know what to do when
you get there.”

She hoped so. Leaving Kai behind at the mercy
of Laral Jorl, the most devious man she had ever met, scared her.
What would become of an unclaimed indentured in alien space?

Worse, he sent her to Metis via Ramcat. With
Marq, no less. When Kai delivered her to the awaiting transport,
Marq standing there with his stupid little smile waiting for her,
she felt real fear, wondering if she would ever see Kai again. Now
she found herself waiting for hypergate transit to this…