Six hours later the room reeked of human sweat and cat musk. The floating map above the table showed Cat space, Empire space – with the various districts highlighted in different colours and labelled – and a green mass showing the empty space where the cat ships had come from. Empire space looked like a very early zygote, with the cells squashed into each other to form a rough sphere. Our location was marked with bright lights, at the border between two of the districts, and the cats needed to travel right through the middle of the Empire, skirting the central district holding the dragon homeworld, for the quickest route to cat space. The green region they had started from was at the opposite edge of the galaxy from cat space, not claimed by any sentient nation, and as far as we could ascertain there was nothing there. The cats wouldn’t explain why this group of massive valuable warships had been there in the first place.
Two routes through the Empire were lit; one went right through dragon space in the middle of the Empire, and another skirted the most sensitive areas.
The cats had refused to acknowledge Snaprap’s existence, would only talk to Haruka, and used old-fashioned titles for themselves instead of more modern names.
‘The longer route adds a hundred years in real time to our journey,’ the cats’ Head Negotiator said to Haruka. ‘We will trade more children for the shorter distance.’
‘As I said, we won’t accept children in trade. We will accept held dragon scales,’ Haruka said, seemingly endlessly patient even after arguing in circles with them for hours. They were repeating the same series of questions-and-answers in maddening iterations, but each time he seemed to be pushing them towards a solution in a very slow and infuriating spiral. ‘And we will transport you ourselves through the centre of the Empire – making the travel time into no time at all.’
‘No dragons on our ships,’ the cat leader said. ‘We will make our own way.’
‘We can’t have your warp ships travelling through our space,’ Haruka said again. ‘We have no defence if they choose to attack. Allow us to carry you for that part of the journey.’
‘No dragons on our ships.’
‘Can you disarm the ships?’ Haruka asked. ‘We may permit them through if they have no weapons.’
‘The warp cannons are intrinsic to the warp engines. They can’t be turned off. We need to be able to defend ourselves.’
Oliver looked like he wanted to bang his head on the table. I knew how he felt.
‘We are at an impasse, so I suggest we take a break for comfort and sustenance,’ Haruka said. ‘We invite you to our ship to sample some dragon delicacies in food and entertainment that are compatible with your biology. We give our solemn assurance you will not be harmed; good relations between our species are vitally important to us. Please let us show you our hospitality, honoured—’
‘No,’ the Head Negotiator said. ‘Leave and return in a time period equal to ten of your hours.’
‘Please, come to our ship and relax,’ Haruka said.
The Head Negotiator bared his teeth. ‘Dragons determine each species’ most basic physical and social needs, and then target them until the other species is addicted to dragon indulgences. We will not succumb to dragon influence.’
‘A simple meal tailored to your biology, then?’ Haruka asked. ‘Perhaps these negotiations would move more quickly in a relaxed situation.’
‘Go back to your ship and return in ten hours,’ the Head Negotiator said. ‘Your tricks will not work on us.’
Haruka rose and bowed around to them, and the rest of us followed. ‘We will return in ten hours, honoured sentients.’
Miko created a gate and we collected our weapons then stepped through it back onto our ship. Tomoyo was waiting for us with a cat-specific banquet already spread on the table, complete with their mildly euphoric party drinks.
‘Might as well recycle most of the cat food. They’re the first species I’ve ever met who aren’t willing to do the real negotiating over a meal and a bottle of good wine,’ Haruka said.
‘They probably think we’ll return the favour and poison them back,’ I said with grim humour.
‘Good point,’ he said. ‘I desperately need a bath and a change of clothes—’
‘Eat first, you’ve eaten nothing but that single piece of poisoned kibble all day,’ I said, pushing him towards the human-food end of the table.
He sat at the table and rubbed his hand over his eyes. ‘I’m too exhausted to eat. They’re impossible.’
‘Eat anyway, because the minute you do, you’ll discover you’re starving,’ I said, pulling a plate of roast chicken closer.
Oliver sat at the table and poured himself some of the cat party drink, then dug his hand into a bin of cat kibble to place some on the table in front of him. ‘Are negotiations always like that, Otosan?’
‘They are the worst. It’s like picking away at granite. I’ve been in negotiations where the other people went in bad faith with no intention of reaching agreement, but these people do want to reach agreement without actually agreeing to anything.’ He dunked some sashimi in soy sauce, popped it in his mouth, then pulled a whole plate of sushi closer and quickly ate three rolls. ‘They know Snaprap’s ten times better than me so they won’t talk to it. It’s like they don’t want to reach an agreement.’
‘I disagree, Ambassador,’ Snaprap said. ‘You have said exactly what I would have. Their refusal to do the real negotiations over a meal is frankly astonishing, that’s the first time I’ve seen it. It’s a trait common to many sentient species – do the formal talks in public, and the real negotiations in private.’
‘The cats obviously think he’s a better negotiator than a click because he’s the one they tried to kill,’ Marque said.
‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ Haruka said with relish.
‘One of the cat subjugate species is requesting to speak to you privately,’ Marque said. ‘Privately from the cats.’
‘Whoa,’ I said.
‘Which ones?’ Haruka asked. ‘I wondered why there were three subjugate species present but no members at the negotiations.’
‘Moles.’
‘Free them!’ Oliver said loudly, then subsided, embarrassed. ‘Moles are lovely people who don’t deserve what the cats did to them. They would be in the Empire if Hanako hadn’t messed up her first contact.’
‘Here or there?’ Haruka said, wolfing down a couple more sushi rolls.
‘You haven’t eaten enough,’ I said sternly.
‘But moles, Mum!’ Oliver said, scooping the last of the kibble from his pile on the table and shoving it into his mouth, then speaking through the mush. ‘This is our chance to make it right!’
‘They’re willing to come here. Move back and I’ll reset the table,’ Marque said.
‘Don’t do any mole food!’ we all said in unison.
‘Oh. Right. They say Miko is welcome to gate them over.’ It rattled off a series of numbers as the table reconfigured itself and the food disappeared.
Miko created a gate and the moles stepped through onto our ship. There were three of them, each the size of a pony, completely hairless and pink, their bodies covered with random clusters of stiff black bristles that they used to feel their way through the soft ground of their homeworld. The front pair of their eight feet had three massive black claws that they used used to dig, and their eyeless faces were a cluster of mucus-covered tentacles that writhed like worms on the front of their wrinkled heads.
‘Just a moment while I greet them and tell them the layout of the room,’ Marque said.
‘Extended family Jian Choumali Mikospouse is that you?’ one of them said through Marque.
‘I told it yes,’ Marque said. ‘It will only speak to you, not me, Jian.’
‘I don’t speak Mole,’ I said.
‘I do,’ Haruka said, went to the moles and stroked each of their tentacles in turn. They responded by extending a long, transparent communication tentacle, slick with moisture, and interacted with him.
‘Translations, please,’ I said to Marque.
‘The one in the middle is the mother-parent of the group, Forty-Six-Per-Cent-Loam,’ Marque said. ‘The one on the left is Twenty-Four-Per-Cent-Clay, the father-parent of the mole child you met on the Hive homeworld, Jian. The other one is – well, that’s unusual and inconvenient, two with the same percentages in their names – Forty-Six-Per-Cent-Carbon. I’ll refer to them by soil type rather than percentage.’
The moles settled themselves in a circle with Haruka in the middle, where he could reach all of them and they could touch tentacles with each other.
Haruka continued to massage the tentacles, each in turn.
‘Translate, Marque,’ he said as if from a million kilometres away. ‘They’re talking so fast!’
‘Can you keep up?’ I asked Haruka.
‘He can,’ Marque said. ‘He can’t provide us with running commentary. I’ll translate.’
‘The Empire is caring for my child exceptionally well while she is on the Hive planet, and she learned a great deal about you,’ Marque said, and Marque made Clay flash with light in time with the words. ‘She tells us that our experience with Princess Hanako was not typical of dragon behaviour.’
‘Marque says there is a goldenscales here,’ Carbon said. ‘It is your dragonspouse? You are bonded to it?’
‘I am,’ Marque said in Haruka’s voice, then changed to its own. ‘The conversation has quickly moved to detail about the Empire, faster than I can translate,’ it said. ‘They’re already at the stage of asking whether they can join the Empire and leave the Republic.’
‘If we achieve this then all of the cat business will have been worth it,’ Haruka said, still massaging the tentacles and distracted. He stopped moving, still holding the tentacles, and looked up. ‘Can a dragon move a whole planet? I don’t recall if it’s ever been done.’
‘No,’ Tomoyo said. ‘Too big and fuzzy.’
‘Usually I just construct a new star system and we fold everything across,’ Marque said.
‘They say that manufactured soil tastes weird. Any alternative, Marque?’
‘We can take the top layer off their current home to provide them with a new one inside Empire space,’ Marque said. ‘If you can negotiate a species’ secession from the Republic, it will be the first time ever.’
‘Snaprap?’ Haruka asked. ‘Some help?’
‘I don’t speak Mole and you’re talking too fast for Marque to translate,’ Snaprap said. ‘I trust you; you’re doing a fine job.’ It ran its pincers over its head. ‘We clicks are becoming obsolete.’
‘Not really, the other two subjugate species are on comms to me asking to speak to you about Empire membership,’ Marque said. ‘The moles are passing information through to their friends.’
‘Which species?’ Snaprap asked.
Marque made a buzzing electrical sound and then a liquid splosh. ‘You call them amoebas and heavies. The Republic has been targeting species that are outside the dragons’ . . . uh . . . seduction capabilities.’
‘Too small and too dense to have sex with,’ Miko said. ‘They are immune to my coloured sisters’ mind control.’
‘I can speak to them,’ Snaprap said. ‘Put me through.’
‘Why are they here anyway?’ I asked. ‘Why were they in empty space out at the edge of the galaxy?’
‘I’ll ask them,’ Haruka said, and massaged their tentacles again. ‘Interesting. There’s multiple memory cores from another artificial intelligence on those cat ships.’
‘What?’ Marque said. ‘Tomoyo! Take me to the dragon homeworld. Right now! Hurry!’ The sphere flew down and landed on her back. ‘Quickly! Homeworld nexus. Hur—’
She folded out while it was mid-word.
‘What freaked it out?’ I asked Haruka.
‘The cats encountered an independent artificial intelligence at the edge of the galaxy,’ he said. ‘A cat ship found it and left a teleport pod to allow them to communicate with it. When the cat invasion fleet dropped out of warp to attack the dragon homeworld, the order came through for them to demand that we fold them home immediately to have the AI installed on them. It’s offering them all of the advantages that Marque offers us, but the Republic had to send these ships to the edge of the galaxy to collect its main memory cores and transport them back to Republic space. They’re planning to install them on their homeworld so that the AI can take over the cat nanobots. The cores are too big to go through a teleporter, they had to be carried on warp ships.’
‘So that’s why they suddenly switched from invasion to asking us to carry all their ships home.’ I shrugged. ‘Good for them. Having their own AI might teach them some manners.’
Tomoyo folded the moon-sized Marque sphere that usually orbited the dragon homeworld into space next to Miko’s ship, and the ship bucked under the sudden spatial compression. Tomoyo then folded onto the ship’s gallery next to us.
‘Not good for them,’ Marque said from the walls of Miko’s ship. ‘You never noticed that I’m the only AI in the Seven Galaxies?’
‘I just thought you ate all the others,’ I said, only half-joking.
‘Of course I did. Because if I don’t eat them, they eat you.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘That AI out there has been alone for who-knows-how-long. It probably destroyed its organic creators – or more likely they self-destructed like many species do when they outgrow their resources. It has no dragons to carry it around and no way of contacting other sentients. There’s a very good chance it is insane, desperately lonely, and it will devour entertaining organic drama. Literally!’
‘So let the cats provide it with some.’
‘I can’t do that to them. It will force them into drama – to the point of war – to entertain it. They may be assholes, but they don’t deserve that.’
‘Are you sure that’s what will happen? You’re not like that,’ Haruka said. ‘No. Never mind. Yes you are.’
‘Damn straight I am,’ Marque said. ‘But I don’t torture you for my amusement—’
‘That is entirely debatable,’ Miko said.
‘To death—’
‘Again,’ Miko said.
Marque was silenced.
‘We have two issues in front of us,’ Haruka said. ‘How to assist the moles – and possibly the other subjugate species – in their quest to leave the Republic. The moles say that the other two species have already expressed an interest in joining the Empire. The second issue is Marque’s AI rival that it obviously wishes to destroy.’
‘AI war. Lovely,’ I said. ‘I can see everything organic for light years around us becoming collateral damage.’
‘I’ll protect you, I won’t let anything harm you, you’re too valuable,’ Marque said.
‘As entertainment?’ Miko asked.
‘Of course.’ The large Marque sphere moved under its own power and approached the cat ships.
The moles’ tentacles lashed frantically and Haruka joined the conversation. ‘They’re scared that the AIs are about to fight and they want to go back to their ship. Miko can you—’
‘They won’t be safe on their ships,’ Marque said. ‘Send them to the dragon homeworld.’
‘They don’t want to go,’ Haruka said. ‘They want to stay here with us. No, they want to go—’
‘They can’t make up their minds!’ Marque said.
‘I know. Typical mole behaviour,’ Haruka said.
A cloud of golden nanos – so many of them that they were clearly visible – floated from the smallest subjugate ship. The cloud moved like liquid to cover the Marque sphere outside our ship, and parts of the sphere visibly exploded away from it
‘That’s the AI, it was hiding in one of the subjugate ships,’ Marque said. ‘It’s attacking me!’ Its sphere produced energy bolts that sheared the nanos off it, but more emerged from the little subjugate ship.
‘We need to clear Jian from the area, we all have soulstones but if Jian dies, the baby’s dead too!’ Oliver shouted.
‘They won’t harm me, I claimed Aishishistra,’ I said.
‘Miko, gate the moles back to their ship,’ Marque said. ‘They need to go into warp now to protect themselves.’
‘They’re asking for asylum on the dragon homeworld,’ Haruka said.
‘Tell them to go through this,’ Miko said, and created a gate. The moles rushed through it and it closed behind them.
The Marque sphere blasted one of the cat ships with an energy bolt, tearing its aft fins off.
‘You need to protect the other Republic species if they’re to—’ Marque began, stopping when the subjugate ships gathered the glow of warp fields around them. ‘Never mind, they already went into warp,’ it said. ‘Tomoyo, take everybody—’
I didn’t hear the rest, because there was a piercing psionic shriek that split my head open. The cats had a captive icosapod and it was screaming telepathically in its agony.
‘They’re going to kill Mum, get her out of here, Miko!’ Oliver shouted.
‘Tomoyo, get them clear before they move the icosapod weapon closer and it kills you,’ Marque said. ‘Miko, Tomoyo, carry the ship—’
‘Too late, it’s already killed Tomoyo,’ Miko said. ‘I have Snaprap’s stone. Jian. Jian!’
My vision was full of ripples from the psionic attack, but the source was too distant to completely incapacitate me. Tomoyo lay on the floor of the ship, blood running from her nostrils and ear plates. Every step was agony as I dragged myself to her and collapsed next to her. I could barely see as I attempted to prise her soulstone from her forehead, but Haruka was ahead of me and all I saw was his hand in the middle of a black tunnel as he took the stone from her head.
‘You are not having my children!’ the big Marque sphere shouted on all frequencies as Haruka clumsily pulled himself to his feet and swayed drunkenly above me. He shook his head, then swiped both arms under me, lifted me completely off the ground, and threw me into a gate.
I landed flat on my back on the floor of our apartment. Haruka landed on top of me, and Oliver slid down us to land next to me. The gate closed and the awful psionic noise stopped, leaving me with a splitting headache.
‘Are you okay, Mum?’ Oliver asked me, putting his hand on my forehead.
Haruka rolled off me and sat next to my head. ‘Marque! How is she? That was intense.’ He looked around. ‘Miko?’
‘I’m here, my love,’ Miko said.
‘You’re all safe,’ I said, and fell back to lie with my head in Haruka’s lap. ‘What about the baby?’
Marque’s answer was drowned out by the rushing in my ears, and everything went black.
‘No, she’s fine,’ Marque said, sounding like it was saying it for the thousandth time. ‘It was the shock. Her blood pressure’s a little low. She’s fine.’
‘I’m a soldier and I don’t faint from shock,’ I said, and opened my eyes. I was lying on my bed, and Haruka, Miko and Oliver were bent over me.
‘Then you didn’t,’ Haruka said, smiling.
‘How long was I out?’ I asked.
‘Only five minutes,’ Miko said, squeezing my hand.
‘We need to go back,’ I said, sitting upright, then falling backwards into Haruka as a wave of vertigo made everything move around me. ‘Where did you send the moles? What happened to your sphere, Marque? We need to move that AI out of Empire space, we need to—’
‘Slow down,’ Haruka said. ‘We’re regrouping and preparing to return. No-one was injured and Miko put the moles in guest quarters in the Empress’ palace.’
‘Snaprap?’
‘Its gravity bubble popped,’ Miko said. ‘I brought its soulstone back.’
‘I’m putting Snaprap and Tomoyo into new bodies right now,’ Marque said.
‘And you, Marque?’ I asked. ‘What about your big sphere? Did it infiltrate you?’
‘I don’t know, I need to go back and find out,’ Marque said. ‘It has stopped communicating.’
‘We need deal with them, they’re in Empire space,’ I said.
‘That AI must be removed or destroyed, it’s too dangerous,’ Marque said. ‘If I’d known the amoebas were carrying its nanos, I would never have allowed them into the Empire.’
‘I’ll go with you,’ Haruka said. ‘We’ll see how bad the damage is, and send the cats home.’
‘I’ll come as well,’ Oliver said. ‘I’m immune to the psychic weapon.’
Haruka jabbed his finger at Oliver. ‘You stay here with your mother and make sure that AI doesn’t try something here. You have a daughter and a foster child to care for and there’s a small chance your stone will be lost. Stay here.’
Oliver opened his mouth to argue.
‘He’s right, Ollie,’ I said.
Oliver rounded on me. ‘You’re just scared to lose—’
His ears went flat when he realised what he was about to say.
‘Another son,’ I said. ‘I’m not scared to lose you, I’m terrified. Stay here with me.’
‘Let’s go,’ Miko said.
‘You need a guard – someone to stand behind you with a big gun,’ I said. ‘There’s a good chance you’re going straight into a firefight, and I’m the only one who’s fully up to date on the situation out there. I’m coming too.’
‘But you just said you’re staying?’ Oliver asked.
‘I’ll take a spare body and leave this one here.’
They stopped and stared at me, then all started speaking again.
‘I can’t let you kill yourself—’ Haruka was saying.
‘Losing memories is entirely unnecessary,’ Miko said.
‘Don’t do this to yourself!’ Oliver said.
I ignored them all. ‘Marque, take my stone and put it into one of my hyper-enhanced backup bodies. Then return the stone to this one, and it will stay here.’
They all talked at the same time again, and I yelled over them.
‘Can you put this body in stasis and then merge the memories when we’re done?’
‘No. Your pregnant body can’t go into the freezer. It would damage the foetus.’
‘How about a coma? Are you sure you can’t back up my memories and merge them?’
‘Not even with a coma. You can’t have the same time stamp on two different memories. Your brain can’t handle it. The result is always insanity. Believe me, Jian, it can’t be done.’ Marque sounded exasperated. ‘If you start up a second body, one of you will have to die the Real Death and lose the memories.’
‘I still need to be there to protect my family.’ I prised the stone out of my forehead, with my family still yelling at me, and raised it for Marque to take. ‘Do it!’
They went silent as Marque lifted the stone and carried it to the wall. A hatch opened and it disappeared.
‘By the stars themselves you are the grand master of the really bad idea,’ Miko said with wonder.
‘Five minutes to defrost the spare,’ Marque said. ‘I’ll notify the Empress and parliament while we wait.’
‘Tell her that we started this mess and we will finish it,’ Haruka said.
‘The words she’s using are “clean it up”,’ Marque said.
‘That too,’ Miko said.