Secrets of Rahjen Page 2

  “Mark, you need to go.”

  Okay, now the ‘hidden agenda’ alarms are ringing in Bose surround sound. “What’s going on, Kay-Kay?”

  She became silent.

  A thought chilled my bones, like frozen lightning had struck. I sat on the bed. “You’re not pregnant, right?”

  “Mark Emanuel Bricchetti! Not everything is about sex.”

  “That was creepy. You sounded like my mother.”

  “We don’t even know if you and I could—you know, have children. We’re from different humanoid species.”

  She sat beside me, and even though her body was a thousand light years away I could smell the fresh scent of her hair. Her people, the Miyosians, had the capability to project holographic images that duplicated a physical presence to fool the senses, but Keshikka and I never chose that option. She did allow a little pleasant scent, and an occasional hug and kiss. I wanted to believe she felt my arms around her at such a distance, but never asked.

  “Okay, baby-talk is tabled for now.”

  I waited for her to speak, suspecting she wanted to tell me. Keshikka was quiet a long moment, like she was processing her answer.

  “There are things I shouldn’t tell you,” she said at last.

  I grumbled. “Imperial security?”

  “There is no Galactic Empire anymore, and you know that.”

  “But there is an Empress. You’ll inherit the job someday.”

  “My mother presides over a powerless court,” she said. “Quia Leimor keeps ancient traditions and preserves two million years of memory. I’m heir apparent to a museum curator.”

  “So, what’s going on?” I checked the calendar. “Not that I’m complaining, but you aren’t due to swing by this primitive planet for another week.”

  A midget kangaroo appeared on the braided rug in front of Aaron’s roost, the wicker rattan chair where my best friend had slouched during our school years. The newcomer had rust red fur with a belly like honeydew melon, and a long, opossum face ending in a pink nose. The creature had three fingers and a thumb, plus a sharp black claw where the little finger should be. I smiled at him. We were kinda old friends, too.

  “Hey, Uncle Wricket.”

  “Mr. Bricchetti, listen to my niece, please.”

  Wricket was actually a Kozie, a highly sophisticated computer program which contained the distilled memories, emotions, and technical skills of her deceased uncle, Wricket Granth.

  “How am I not listening?” I said defensively. “She wants me to take her to Tanella’s graduation. Actually, she’ll take me there, because I can’t afford the—”

  Wricket waved a paw. “Mark, shut up!”

  Now, this was way out of character for the genial faux marsupial. Wricket never lost his cool, even when Lutzak pirates attacked Kay-Kay’s starboat, and she almost had to hit the self-destruct to keep Apex Drive technology from falling into the hands of the Lower Horde.

  “The Lutzak Eparchy has bookmarked your homeworld,” Keshikka said. “My father feels deeply responsible.”

  “What’s an Eparchy?”

  Keshikka gestured for the Kozie to give me a quick catch-up lesson from the galactic archives.

  “Long ago the Lutzak Eparchy was a large, powerful district comprised of three semi-autonomous Hordes within the Galactic Empire. They rebelled against the central government, but it wasn’t a revolution for freedom like your American Colonies. They attempted to establish autocratic rule over humanoids and annihilate all non-humanoid races. All three Lutzak Hordes slaughtered billions of innocents on imperial worlds and among non-aligned races. Cold-bloods, insectoids, and reptoid species suffered ghastly losses.

  “The war lasted three centuries, but eventually the imperial forces and their allies drove the Lutzak inside the boundaries of a much reduced Eparchy. They remained within those borders for thousands of generations. A century ago they became militant again. By now the Empire was fragmented. Although many worlds still paid lip service to the Empress, very few star nations actually considered themselves part of the Empire anymore.

  “With no central authority to rally civilization against the Lutzak threat, my brother, Hakkian Granth, secured pledges from a coalition of allied planets, organized the Seven Miyosian Worlds into a strong fighting force, and we fought off the Lutzak Hordes once more.

  “But now, in your century, they are flexing their muscles to attack again. Imperial power is non-existent, and Miyosians cannot find support anywhere. Millennia of wars followed by brief ages of peace have exhausted the older spacefaring civilizations. Most star nations are not eager to join with others. They fight as individual planets and loose alliances with a few other worlds.”

  “So, the bad guys chop them up one by one,” I said.

  “Yes,” Wricket said. “It might take several centuries before a new coalition of species will emerge. But for now, only Rahjen’s planetary shields stand in the way of the renewed Lutzak threat.”

  “Forgive me for taking this personally. What does that mean for humanity, exactly?” I suspected the answer wouldn’t be good news for the big blue marble.

  Wricket said, “The Lutzak want to destroy your world. You, Mark, a mere humanoid from a pre-FTL civilization, scuttled the Lower Horde’s attempt to steal Apex technology. And you humiliated them aboard their own flagship. It was an affront to their honor. Lutzak scout ships have located Terra and registered its coordinates in the Eparchy’s database.”

  “Okay that sounds kinda bad. What does it mean, exactly?”

  Keshikka answered. “Expect an attack on Terra as soon as they can muster an invasion force.”

  “Any idea when that will happen?” The deep chill inside me now became a continental glacier. “How much time do we have?”

  “It all depends on events elsewhere,” Keshikka said. “Centuries, years, months.”

  “The Lutzak are many in number, but they are fighting on a wide battle front,” Wricket said. “Most star nations consider them the mortal enemies of civilization itself, so there is much scattered resistance to their conquests. There are even signs that the Hordes are exhausted from endless warfare, too.”

  “Let’s get back to the subject,” I said. “Earth.”

  “The Lower Horde is unable to get support from other domains of the Eparchy,” Keshikka said. “They won’t have enough combat power to invade even a minor planet like Terra until they conquer the old capital at Rahjen.”

  “Wait,” I said, dizzy from this whirlwind of interstellar politics. “You told me Rahjen is off limits to the bad guys. So, if they can’t take the capital, we’re okay here on Earth, right?”

  “I told you they won’t kill my mother, but they will seize Rahjen if the planetary defense shield fails. The Lutzak badly want to control—not destroy—the old galactic hub. Even if she has no power, Empress Quia Leimor represents a link to the last trace of the ancient empire. If they control her, the Lutzak can claim legitimacy for their conquests.”

  “To use a human analogy,” Keshikka said, “the queen becomes a pawn.”

  “Not used to thinking like this. I’m an American. The only Kings we have play basketball for Sacramento,” I said. “Spell it out for me, please.”

  Wricket’s nose wiggled. “They want to break through the planetary shield, seize Rahjen, and force Quia Leimor to pledge her only child in marriage to a Lutzak prince. If that happens, to put it in American English, you’re screwed.”

  “Oh, shit,” I said. “Tell them Kay-Kay’s spoken for.”

  “They won’t listen,” Wricket said.

  Keshikka said, “It’s not a fate I want to contemplate. I want to be with you, Mark.”

  “What can we do?” I pleaded with her Kozie uncle.

  “Tanella Jennings has invited you to her graduation,” Wricket said. “You should go. Take Kay-Kay as your date.”

  “Let me see if I understand,” I said. “Bad dudes are planning to rain fire and destruction on my homeworld?”

&
nbsp; “Yes,” Wricket said.

  “But only after they seize Quia Leimor and highjack my girlfriend as a conscript bride?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Which will license them to pillage and sack every planet within the forty percent of the galaxy that was part of the old Empire?”

  “Maybe more.”

  “And you want us to go to California for a doomsday WTF vacation?”

  “Correct.” Wricket rubbed his snout with a paw. “Not vacation. Working trip to save the galaxy.”

  I grabbed my head and fell backwards on the bed. “How does watching an academic pageant—”

  “Mark, there are things I can’t tell you,” Wricket said.

  I sat up. “No way! I’m not playing this game unless you level with me, now.”

  Keshikka said, “The First Law—”

  “Don’t hand me that ‘First Law—No Contact’ bullshit, Kay-Kay. I’ve walked on twenty-six planets. I’ve flown your starboat. It’s not like I’m sitting on a hillside, looking for UFOs. I’ve been the friggin’ UFO!”

  My sister Julie picked this moment to knock on the door. I’d forgotten she was two doors down the upstairs hall.

  “Hey, Markie! Who are you yelling at?”

  Wricket and Keshikka vanished.

  “Uh, the professor who assigned this reading material. It sucks!”

  “Did I hear a female voice?”

  “No, no. Just the TV,” I said. “Rachel Ray.”

  “Since when do you watch cooking shows?” Julie scoffed.

  “She’s Italian. I like her smile.”

  “She’s Sicilian, ” Julie said. “Don’t get caught with girls in your bedroom. Mom’s Greek Orthodox.”

  “Right, right. Just the TV.”

  She snickered and went back to her room.

  My alien princess and her tree kangaroo reappeared. Funny how you get used to weird stuff happening.

  Wricket sighed. “I think he needs to know.

  “Know what?” I said.”

  She gestured at Wricket. “This isn’t my Kozie.”

  I studied the red-and-orange marsupial, who perfectly resembled the Wricket I encountered aboard Keshikka’s ship seven years ago and many times since.

  “Who are you, then?”

  “I’m Wricket. Just not your Wricket.” He sat in Aaron’s wicker chair, and I thought, Wricket in the wicker. But which Wricket waited in the wicker?

  “You’re losing me, little guy.”

  “I am a projection of Wricket Granth, true, but not from Keshikka’s starboat. I stand aboard the last remaining battle station of the Empire, known in Miyosian as Hakieth n’diuo Kalieth. This broadcast has traveled back in time, because you, Mr. Bricchetti, must correct two fatal errors which are about to take place.”

  “What can I do? You oughta contact the US government. Make that the United Nations. The USA is kinda messed up when it comes to leadership right now.”

  I looked to Keshikka, who shrugged. “I didn’t know what to believe when he appeared. I summoned my Wricket and the two of them had an extensive chat in computer languages.”

  “How extensive?” I said.

  “About eleven seconds,” Wricket 2.0 said. “My counterpart understood completely.”

  “Well, I don’t.”

  “Tanella is important,” Wricket said. “Not just to Terra, but the stability of galactic civilization rides on tasks she will perform in the coming years.”

  I flipped my hand. “So, she’s important. Does she stop the Lutzak from destroying Earth?”

  “I must be careful,” he said. “If I tell you too much, you could do something that alters the course of history.”

  I frowned at the fuzzy marsupial seated in Aaron’s chair. “You know what’s going to happen. So, why can’t you fix the mess?”

  Wricket guffawed. “Look at me, Mr. Bricchetti. What will happen if I show up at the graduation?”

  “Gotcha,” I conceded. “They call animal control and you’re at a petting zoo in Oakland. Unless you talk, then it’s Area 51.”

  “We can’t show ourselves to your planet openly,” Keshikka said softly. “First Law forbids it. But you and your friends already know about life beyond Terra.”

  “Kay-Kay, if the bad guys have actually target-painted the Earth, I think we can ask for an exception to the ‘don’t mess with the natives’ rule, don’t you?”

  She shook her head sharply. “No! I got away with bringing you to that conference because even the ‘good guys’ were talking about blowing up Earth.”

  “That was hella scary.” I remembered the massive crowd of alien representatives, and the “tests” I had to pass after addressing the multi-species multitudes.

  “But you did it!” she said. “You convinced them to give this world more time to evolve past its xenophobic, violent phase. But just because the Association suspended their plans doesn’t mean those star nations will fight the Lutzak to defend Earth. Some of them are so exhausted they won’t even fight to defend themselves.”

  “I’m getting a headache. It’s like Fox News is running the freaking galaxy.”

  “You must go to Stanford,” Wricket said, “and attend Tanella’s graduation. Then we will stop the Lutzak.”

  “How? Makes no sense.”

  Wricket 2.0 said, “That’s all I can tell you now, Mark. When you prevent the Lutzak from assassinating Tanella, we will discuss—”

  “Run that by me again. How am I supposed to prevent aliens from killing Tanella?”

  “I’ll be with you,” Keshikka said.

  “How much of this assassination game plan does future Wricket here know? And how do the Lutzak today know Tanella’s supposed to be important?”

  Both my bedroom guests were silent.

  “Tell him, Wricket,” Keshikka said.

  He slipped off the wicker chair and approached me.

  “In my time the Lutzak Eparchy has shrunk to a few star systems. They studied how their civilization had crumbled and realized a single human, Tanella Jennings-Blake, was the key. Without her, your people won’t discover FTL for another two thousand years. Without humans out there—flying around the galaxy, bumping into this race and that, making friends and enemies—the future of a vast number of cultures will be dominated by predatory star nations far worse than the Lutzak.”

  “And the bad guys know about Tanella because of you?”

  Wricket scratched the rug with a toe, clearly uncomfortable with the answer he had to give. “I may have provided our thirty-second century Lutzak with a temporal communicator.”

  “May have? I know enough sci-fi gobbledygook to guess a ‘temporal communicator’ is a comm unit that works across the time barrier.”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Wricket said. “For a thousand years, I was custodian of the last battle station. Then the Ovoins discovered the derelict where I stood guard over imperial technologies. They are flighted humanoids covered with light plumage. Very peaceful, but utterly amoral about business affairs. The Ovoins brought Dengathi amphibians aboard to scavenge for marketable items. I could not stop them, so I distracted the salvagers from the most dangerous weapons.

  “They wanted time travel, but I misdirected them to a more primitive time-communication device. The unit allows one-time, two-way communication across time, but cannot send a living being into the past.”

  “One-time?” I said.

  “Opening a time window requires immense energy,” Wricket explained. “This particular device lasts about ninety-one seconds before melt-down and cannot be activated again.”

  “You sold them a self-destructing burner phone?” I said.

  “I sold nothing. Dengathi traders paid the Ovoin bird people for the right to loot technology from my outpost. They sold that time window to the Lutzak. I knew how dangerous two-way time communication could be, so I monitored temporal disruptions and discovered a burst of activity surrounding Tanella Jennings. Lutzak of my time must have alerted their ancestors abou
t the danger Dr. Jennings presents to the Eparchy.”

  “You already know the Lutzak.” Keshikka sat beside me on the bed.

  “Yeah. They’re assholes.” Images flooded my mind. Aaron, Zack Griffin, and me escaping a confinement cell aboard the Lutzak flagship, navigating more-or-less stealthily through the huge vessel to rescue Keshikka, who contacted her father, General Granth. His people teleported us aboard the Miyosian command ship. We barely escaped with our lives.

  “The Lutzak can pass for humans, just like Miyosians. An assassin could slip into a crowd undetected.”

  “Screw the crowd,” I said. “Why not nuke Palo Alto from orbit?”

  “Look at your history, Mark. Think Pearl Harbor or 911,” Wicket said. “A surprise attack by hostile aliens might provoke humans to put massive effort into space technologies. The Lutzak want to prevent Terrans from achieving FTL, not encourage it.”

  “Do you understand what is at stake, Mark?” Keshikka said.

  “Save girl genius, save galactic civilization,” I said. “But even if we prevent the Lutzak from killing her today, won’t they come back later for another drive-by?”

  “Not if she is a member of the imperial family,” Wricket said.

  “What?”

  “Suspend your limited Terran mindset for a moment,” the Kozie suggested. “Like most FTL cultures which once were part of the Empire, Lutzak honor the figurehead Empress. That’s why they want to seize Rahjen, not destroy it.”

  “Remember when Yalid Kavark captured me?” Keshikka said, “The Lutzak never threatened my death. The dynasty is too important. Too many cultures honor their links to us.”

  “Let me guess where this is going,” I said. “We kidnap Tanella, fly her to Rahjen, and she marries a prince or something. Won’t work. Tanella married Dr. Perry Jennings last summer. Sent me an invitation, but I couldn’t go.”

  “Not marriage,” Keshikka said. “Adoption by my mother. As a member if the imperial family, she will be safe from attempts on her life.”

  “That was my suggestion,” Wricket said.

  “Do you really want girl genius to see FTL technology, energy screens, Jump Gates—?"

  “After we complete the mission,” he said, “the Wricket of your time can use the ship’s bio-medical facilities to wipe her memory of everything she sees and hears.”