“The Dawn Greeting.” said PesKal across the crew’s connection. “Expected after each Daynight and Night. Announced either by the Emperor or Empress based on who rises first.”
Makoe said: “Ominous. Fascinating that the Miriani find it business as usual.”
“Time until night?” Matrioshka asked.
A student bumped into Damien on the stairs. The smaller Miriani did not seem to care. Damien’s ears twitched, and he replied: “17.82 hours until the start of night. The Miriani sleep twice per revolution of Rosamond’s world, one long-sleep starts at dawn and ends at Daynight, and one short-sleep, which starts in a few hours from now and ends with dusk.“
Matrioshka took the time to position her body on the pillow. She sat cross-legged in her Mirani form, imitating bodily motions she had read from a nearby manuscript as she was led into her temporary prison. Controlling her breathing, she would appear to meditate.
Two royal guards, assigned to watch over Matrioshka, stood just outside her door. One of them glanced inside, and after his ears twitched, he nudged the other.
They both looked at Matrioshka through a small opening in the door. Her eyes were closed, otherwise they might not have been so bold as to stare at her.
The shorter guard, who had helped Matrioshka walk to the cell, whispered:
“Who under the Suns is she?”
The other guard, an aging man with a long beard said: “Never seen her. Think she’s a recruit from the 10th?”
“Could be… She is meditating. It’s their whole thing.”
Both guards watched Matrioshka breathing in silence. With each inhale, she instructed her body to precisely contort her chest and stomach muscles.
The older one said: “She is ripped.”
The shorter guard nudged him a couple times excitedly. “I know! Shit, think she could give me some pointers? I’ve been meaning to get back into the old workout regime. I’ve really started to put on fat.”
The older man patted him on the back, laughing. “Ha! It’s the age. Look at this.” The guard poked his belly, it jiggled under his armor, producing a sound akin to clapping.
Both guards laughed. Matrioshka had to disconnect her lips from her lattice, lest her body also laugh. PesKal looked at his captain, they were back in Yim’s workshop in the virtual.
Matrioshka calmed, and told him: “Ah don’t mind me. I love my guards…”
Damien had reached the underground portion of the academy. Students had made their way into their classrooms by now - there was peace in the halls. Damien explored the north wing, here he scanned classrooms for material science. The students here were being thought how to mix gravel and sand, alongside some yellow sulphurous adhesives, to create a viable alternative to early concrete.
As he moved deeper into the Academy, he passed by another professor. Damien scanned their body, and decided on the usual greeting.
“Hidden Day, professor Lorha.”
The tall woman hadn’t noticed him until then, she looked at him wide-eyed. Lohra had been carrying a bunch of vials, and by their contents, Damien realised she must be on her way to the concrete mixing class. Lorha tripped over her left leg.
She began to fall.
Damien matched her trajectory with the sample vial in her hands. It had a 90% chance of shattering as Lorha fell on it. It would cause bleeding, and the professor would need medical assistance.
Damien extended a firm hand, and grabbed the falling bottle, he directed it fluidly into his other arm, and grasped the falling professor by her neckline. The pale-yellow uniform strained as Lorha’s body hung within it.
Professor Lorha looked at Demien, and he at her.
She strengthened herself, fixed her uniform, and gave Damien a bow.
“Thank you, professor.” And quietly she mumbled: “That could have been my 3rd fall today…”
“No problem.” Damien said, handing her back the vial of sulphur. “Have I startled you?”
Lohra looked embarrassed. “You… No!” she stammered. “I just didn’t expect uh… how to say this…”
Her ears twirled and coiled, Damien scanned the onset of panic across her brain.
“Whoa.” Damien held his arms up. “Calm down. I won’t disturb you. I’m going.” He said, backing away slowly. This seemed to make Lohra breathe even harder. And Matrioshka saw, with much amusement, that Damien’s processing power was spiking.
Damien asked the captain: “Any idea what is going on?”
Matrioshka started laughing again, earning a confused look from PesKal. She told Damien: “Look at the levels of her Ocrisycoline.”
Damien did. It was high. Matrioshka saw him consult the data.
“She is attracted to me?” Damien asked, on the public channel.
“What?” asked Rhea as she opened the doors to her underground quarters.
“Someone is having fun…” said Makoe, as Temri finally led her into an open street in underground Erdon.
“Shit.” Damien said, and switched to a private channel. He told Matrioshka: “I do NOT need this. I’m just gonna go.” He turned away from Lohra, and ran. Lohra ran away too. Muttering confused questions to herself:
“Where the hell did he come from? What… How can someone from the 5th be so pretty?”
Matrioshka sucked in a virtual breath.
These people desperately need the Imperium.
Damien had ran across the Academy, and reached his room. He closed the door with a thump and fell on his bed. He saw PesKal and Matrioshka were in the same VR, and appeared next to them.
He whistled as he looked around. “What do we have here?”
PesKal walked up to him. “An exceptional scientist! We are in the home of Yim Alm.”
Damien walked across the workshop, taking note of the machinery and electronics. Across the city, Omrica knocked on Rhea’s door.
“Come in.” said Rhea as she finished inspecting a large wooden table in the center of the room.
Omrica walked in, now wearing some leathers and light silky fabric. She wore a satchel filled with the medicine Rhea asked for. She gazed at her new doctor: “This will be your clinic. Is the room to your liking? You will switch between here and up above – to tend to the sick and wounded.”
Rhea considered the underground room, the air was clean, curtesy of the ingenious passive atmosphere cycling system. There was enough space so that she could create the necessary instruments, but it was distant from other Miriani, only way in was a relatively tight corridor.
A dull red candle glowed on a wall.
Within sensor range, Rhea could see the underground life of the Miriani. Where air was the volume into which the aboveground world built structure, here the Miriani hollowed out stone and dirt to make space. The city around Rhea was in a good state, the streets were clean, and the 349 Miriani she could scan were in excellent to acceptable health.
Rhea responded, noting the layout of the streets outside her clinic: “It is good. Fairly remote however. It would be better to put me more central to your territory. So that an ambulance can arrive sooner.”
Omrica placed the satchel on a table and her ears curled. “A vehicle which transports people to and from healing facilities?”
Rhea inspected the language pack, seems that words unknow to the Miriani defaulted to being described.
Rhea clasped her hands to. “Yes. An ambulance. So that more of your people may live. Come.” Rhea pulled out two old pillows from a small cupboard and patted the dust away. She sat on one, and offered the other to Omrica.
The white Miriani, approached tentatively, and sat.
“Organise two to three Miriani and a carriage. They should always be at the ready to transport the wounded to me. It’d be even better to have multiple such ambulances.”
“This will work? Won't the rocking of the carriage hurt the sick even more?”
Rhea’s ears vibrated. “It will not. Now, what ails you?” Asked Rhea.
Omrica answered, rubbing her neck. “Well, I’ve had this itch for a couple of months now.”
Rhea held up her hand. “Yes, I noticed that. You tend to favour your right side when you walk, causes undue pressure on the blood vessels in your neck. I will give you something when Uric returns. I mean besides that; As a leader of a significant number of Miriani, they look to you for advice. So then, what do your people need?”
“What?” Omrica was bewildered. “You do understand we met less than an hour ago?”
Rhea stared at her for a moment. “And?” she asked.
“Why would I tell you sensitive information?” supplied Omrica.
“So, I can help you... Why else?”
Both women stared at each other.
“But… No!” Omrica stood up. “Your mind games! You are good. You. You just stay here, and patch up whoever we bring you. Food will be provided.”
“I may not leave?” Rhea rose too.
Omrica spun. “You can! Wait!” Omrica eyes flickered around, looking for nothing in particular. “Slow down for a moment.”
She collected her thoughts; Rhea noted the decrease in activity within a curious organ in Omrica’s brain. The area was tiny, smaller than 8 millimetres across. Omrica cleared her throat and looked evenly at Rhea. “You are good at mental disarmament I will give you that. But please, knock it off!”
Confused, Rhea answered: “Understood.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Omrica clicked with her teeth, and asked: “And under the Giant’s shadow, what is your name!?”
Rhea had prepared one: “Nyaiya Aik-Tol”
Omrica nodded. “You do look like a Nyaiya… Want a change of clothes?” she said, gesturing at Rhea’s gown.
“Please.” Rhea clasped her hands, and approached the woman. She said:
“You can trust me.” And extended her hands towards Omrica.
The white furred woman considered her and nodded. She interlocked her hands with Rhea’s. A promise.
“These are the things you asked Uric to get.” Omrica pointed to the satchel on the table. ”I will be back soon.” She said and ducked out of the room.
Rhea turned in place, she catalogued the space in the room, and instructed her body to begin cleaning and preparing the space for patients. The nanites could grind and irradiate surfaces – to sterilize them. They had the power to bend and reshape metal – to form surgical instruments.
They would prepare quite a fair amount of medicine too, from the materials Uric managed to find. He did good work; Rhea was pleased to see he had managed a 98% success rate.
Rhea saw a pile of steel, discarded outside, she went to fetch it, taking with her about 20% of the nanites in the clinic. As she opened the door, she spied at the end of the corridor leading to the clinic, a man keeping watch. Rhea scanned beyond him, and was satisfied nobody was watching.
The man had his back turned to Rhea, and she silently approached. There was enough space between the ceiling and the man for Rhea to pass unnoticed. Rhea’s body jumped, grabbed hold of a small ledge above the man, and curved fluidly leftwards. Landing between two barrels of dried fish. The man must have sensed the movements of the air, he turned to the corridor, and saw nothing.
Rhea looked at the wide street she was in, a few burning candles illuminated the area sparsely. The Miriani eyes were well adapted to the dark, so they had no problems navigating underground. Rhea noted the Miriani here all carried blades, took great care to watch their surroundings, and were in general on edge. Listening to their conversations using her sensors, Rhea concluded they were all members of the Family, and this part of the city was theirs.
Rhea reached the pile of steel, it had once been some sort of ornate armor, but had been discarded between two run-down homes. A pair of younger Miriani saw Rhea, and didn’t think much of her. “A whore…” one of them whispered.
Rhea looked at them plainly. The pair looked stricken. “Did she hear you?” one of them asked just as they took off running.
Rhea kneeled and heaved the metal up; she determined it was just under the weight which would be suspicious if someone saw her carrying it. She walked back towards the clinic, and nodded to the man keeping watch.
“Hey.” she said.
The guard nodded. “Hidden Day.” he greeted.
Once Rhea had passes him, the guard seemed to realise what was going on. He did a triple take towards the receding Rhea and from where she came from.
“When did you… what?” he said, just as Rhea closed the door to the clinic. She left her body there, to idly prepare the space for surgical procedures. And invited herself into the shared virtual space in Yim’s worship.
Rhea’s tall silvery form appeared next to Matrioshka.
“Hello captain.” she said.
Matrioshka smiled. “Officer Lavigne...”
Makoe had followed Temri to an abandoned cavern, a natural formation within the underground Miriani city. Two passageways led directly into it, but have been caved in some time ago. Makoe pushed passed a hatch, following Temri.
She saw the cavern then, wide and thin. A Miriani could jump from one end to the other, but it curved in the underground for who knows how long. In layers, wooden planks created a living space, hidden from the rest of the city.
The wood creaked under Temri’s feet. She waved to three more Miriani, which lounged in a makeshift living area.
“Hey everyone.” Temri called.
“There you are!” said a grey Miriani, in her early adolescence. “Where were you? We thought you might have been caught in the suns.”
Temri presented Makoe; “Got us some reinforcements.”
Another grey-furred, but gloomy looking boy with a deep scar on his forehead stopped twirling a dagger. “No way...”
“Her name is Mraah Kow.” Temri said through her Miriani vocal cords, and turned to Makoe. “Did I get that right?”
Makoe clasped her hands towards her and smiled. “Close enough.”
“You seriously think we need more people?” asked the scowling boy.
Temri looked at him plainly. “We do Iysik. We really really do.”
The final Miriani was quite a bit bigger than the others, though mostly in circumference. He walked up to Makoe in all his red-furred glory and greeted: “I’m Dokai.” He pointed at the grey girl. “And that’s Rui. Hidden Day to you.”
Matrioshka noted the name. She decided to analyse Rui’s DNA, and as she did, she confirmed Rui was a second cousin of Hiri Bat-Ani, the boy who Damien helped when he landed.
“Hidden Day everyone.” Makoe greeted.
“She helped me score 300 just now.” Declared Temir as she sat down on a pillow and attacked a bundle or fruit. PesKal had assigned grape-kiwi to the small fluffy fruits, they grew in bundles of 11 around a central stalk. Temri chewed on one of them.
Ear twitches all around.
“That’s big money.” said Dokai.
Iysik returned his dagger to its sheath. He approached Makoe, not taking his eyes of her. He sucked in a breath and exhaled. “Look. I don’t know how much Temri told you. But we are in dangerous business…”
“Told her we want to take on the Family.” said Temri.
“’Course you did…” nodded Iysik, closing his eyes and massaging the ends of his ears. He sighed. “Then welcome aboard I guess…”
“Thank you!” said Makoe.
“Not so fast!” Temri sat up. “You.” she said, pointing at Rui. “And you.” Pointing at Dokai. “Will need to do something with me.”
“Again?” complained Rui.
Temri looked at her plainly. “I’m the boss.”
“Yes boss…” said Rui.
“Iysik, you look after Mraah.”
“I’m a babysitter now?” he asked, eyes widening.
“You’re everything I tell you to be.” replied Temir. “Now come, the lot of you.” She said, and Dokai and Rui followed her into the passage from where Makoe had come.
Matrioshka told Makoe: “He won’t bother you if you pretend to meditate. We are in virtual near PesKal’s lattice, come.”
Makoe returned an affirmative response and pulled herself onto a wooden pillar which supported this level of the cavern hideout. “I will be meditating Iysik. Please don’t disturb me.”
He looked at her like she was mad. “Right. You do that.” He sat on a pillow, and was watching her.
Makoe’s body assumed a meditating form, balancing on the pillar, as her attention was brought into Yim’s workshop. She appeared in a whirlwind of sparkles, and sat atop PesKal’s cube, crêpe in hand.
Matrioshka summoned a replica of her captain’s chair and sat. “This meeting is now in session. We will go in a circle, describe your current situations. Damien, you go first.”
“Right.” Damien put down a digital version of a small contraption Yim had made to measure windspeed. “I am in the Academy, a school in Erdon. The biggest on the planet I believe. I have assumed the position of a teacher. I have met three Miriani; a student…”
Damien had summoned a simulation of Hiri.
“I helped him avoid punishment. He was trying to escape.”
Matrioshka added: “His no-show accomplice was a woman named Rui. I believe the same one you just met, Officer Rue.”
Makoe’s eyes widened, but she couldn’t speak with a mouthful of vanilla crêpe.
“More on that later.” Matrioshka said. “Continue, Officer Viris.”
“I met two professors as well; Adra Nan-Tar – whom I share the same race with. We are both from the 5th Kingdom. And professor Lohra Asra-Ul.”
Damien produced the shapes of both women.
“Which one is into you?” Makoe manged to mumble.
Rhea grinned, but turned away as to not show it. PesKal had begun blinking hard – a display of Ankrahi laughter.
“Lohra.” said Damien with a sigh.
“Maybe both.” added Matrioshka.
Damien’s eyes shot up. Matrioshka saw him go back to his interactions with Adra. Taking care to note her hormones through their interactions, and tracking the steady increase of Ocrisycoline.
“Grand megastructures…” Damien whispered.
Makoe snickered. “I did choose a handsome body on purpose….”
Damien looked at her. “Why?”
“Entertainment.” Supplied Makoe.
Matrioshka decided to steer the conversation forward. “Yes, we are all sufficiently entertained. Anything to add, Officer Viris?”
Damien tough about it some more. “Not really, just note that the Miriani use corporal punishment. And are very discriminative based on fur color.”
Nods from everyone but PesKal. The Ankrahi seemed stricken, his face scrounged.
“Me next!” said Makoe.
“The floor is yours.” allowed Matrioshka.
Makoe pounced from atop PesKal’s lattice, dematerializing the remnants of the crêpe, and summoning the bell tower where her lattice was hidden.
“I have landed atop this tower. Pretty central to the city. Its primary function is to alert the population about upcoming sunlight. I have met these Miriani:”
Makoe showed Temri, and the three partners in her crimes.
“This one is grumpy. Cheerful. And the kind one.” Makoe said, pointing at Iysik, Rui, and Dokai.
Matrioshka rose and approached the vision of Rui. “Her genetic composition suggest relation to Hiri Bat-Ani.” She forwarded the data to Damien.
“Interesting.” Damien nodded.
“They are criminals. I think petty.” said Makoe. “Though they do wish to fight an organisation called the Family.” Rhea smiled and Makoe continued: ”There is some unknown animosity there. She is their leader.” Makoe pointed at Temri.
Rhea seemed to notice something. “Rui and Hiri might not be the only familiar revelation of the evening. May I see Temri’s DNA, Officer Rue?”
Makoe sent the data, and Rhea nodded.
“As I suspected.” Concluded Rhea. “Please conclude your report Officer Rue. Though I would like to go next.”
Makoe and Matrioshka agreed, and Makoe finished with: “I might need to do some light crime to gain their trust. But I am worried about Temir, I think she is mentally unwell and I want to help her. Iysik too, most likely.”
“A noble endeavour.” Agreed PesKal.
Rhea took the central position: “I am a doctor for the Family. Memri, who is the younger sister of Temri…” Rhea shared the data which confirmed her statement. “…trusts me. Her mother, Omrica, also mother to Temri, does not. The two girls do not share the same father. My lattice is hidden as a box atop the warehouse on which I landed. As for my play, I will heal and treat the Family, possibly steering them to proper, legal behaviour.” Rhea nodded. “That is all.”
“Succinct and informative!” said PesKal with a smile.
“Not sure I will be able to follow that info-dump. But I’ll try.” Matrioshka winked at Rhea, who winked back.
“I am in the Royal Palace. Belonging to the ruling family of the entire Rosamond’s World.” Matrioshka considered a possibility, and asked:
“Officer Viris, any chance there is Miriani life further north, maybe on the north pole like there is on the south?”
Damien considered he question, Matrioshka saw him go back to the scans generated by the Sliver before it was destroyed. “Highly unlikely. Of the water not trapped within the moon’s crust, 98% of it is found at or near the southern ocean.”
Damien supplied a virtual of Rosamond’s World and continued: “Of that 98%, 99% is salt water. Not drinkable by the Miriani. And the circulation of the water is contained within this southern vortex.” Damien highlighted a circular air current which bordered the southern ocean.
He continued: “Very little water would escape this region. Within the southern ocean, rains are rare – maybe once every 200 days. And outside the borders?” Damien considered what to say. “Maybe once every 1800 years – bordering with never.”
Matrioshka thanked him. “So yes. This royal family rules all the Miriani. And I have witnessed true death.”
Everyone perked up.
“Assassins infiltrated the palace.” Matrioshka showed them in the virtual. “They proceeded towards the prince, called Ketri. They killed nine individuals.” Matrioshka’s VR turned towards the first kill, a knife piercing a guard’s eye.
Makoe’s hands shot up to cover her mouth. Damien was about to throw up, but had managed to turn away and keep it down – manually tuning his parameters.
Matrioshka shared a glance with Rhea, they both looked sadly at each other.
“Would you like me to skip over the details?” asked Matrioshka.
Makoe and Demien now looked to each other. Makoe shook her head; “No. No there is no need. Forgive us. Me and Officer Viris are young.”
Damien nodded. “Please proceed.”
Matrioshka also looked at PesKal – he was angry. But didn’t speak, or even meet his captain’s eye. He started at the virtual.
Matrioshka sped up the gory details. “Eight more dead. In the end, I intervened, created a body to shield the prince. Disabled the two remaining intruders, and was briefly questioned. My lattice is buried in the palace courtyard, and my body is kept in a temporary cell. I plan to learn as much as I can while I’m there, so I will spread sensors around the palace.”
“I’d like to do the same.” said Damien. “I would like to monitor the Academy. There is potential...”
“Agreed. The primary mission is to escape, but a close second is observation.” Matrioshka smiled, and declared: “We will steal the Fifth Wonder.”
Makoe laughed, the others were wide-eyed. Rhea quickly gathered her thoughts and concluded: “A most likely strategy of success.”
Damien was dubious: “We shall take their ship, and fly away?”
“Affirmative.” Matrioshka said. “Officer Rue will repair the atomic press contained within this cube.” Matrioshka tapped the black box, filled with nanites, PesKal’s lattice, and the Atomic Press.
She continued: “There is a chance we receive backup before that. But knowing Shkadov, he will be too hungry for victory. He will try to approach us before any Imperial ships may jump within the Empire system.”
“Will he disturb the locals?” asked Rhea.
“He hasn’t shown any signs of insanity. So, I don’t think so.” Matrioshka remembered her conversation with Reaver. “Though he may not be the one we should be worried about.”
Rhea quirked her head. “I am also worried about our backups. We are disconnected from the Imperium.”
“True.” Matrioshka turned to Makoe: “Can you place a statelite above our position in space? Have it relay our data to the imperium?”
Makoe considered her: “Slower-than-light communication between us and the statelite – which remains motionless from our perspective, keeping itself stationary and hidden from the suns using thrusters... Then uses set-tech to forward everything to the Imperium?”
Matrioshka nodded.
“It will be done.” said Makoe. “I would need a day.”
“And most importantly, stay out of sunlight, we do not want the Emperor and Empress to know we are here.” Matrioshka considered Oliver’s World. Its surface annihilated by pure optical aggression.
“Oh, that reminds me. Can you take a look at this, Officer Lavigne?” Matrioshka asked, and sent the relevant data to Rhea. It was an assortment of scans of the Miriani assassins. Matrioshka had noticed a slight irregularity within their brains. They all had scar tissue bellow and inside their rear cortex.
Rhea nodded. “Report in a couple of minutes.”
The crew turned thoughtful, Matrioshka saw them categorise and plan their behaviour. Rhea and Makoe seemed to have already set out on a multi-day operation of infiltration and control. Makoe wished to guide Temri and her gang, and Rhea was hoping to turn the Family into a quasi-state, fit with elections and taxes. Matrioshka wondered how that would go for her.
Damien was in the middle of planning out his curriculum. And PesKal’s lattice was surging with activity. Matrioshka looked at the Ankrahi – he was trembling, furious.