“You guys really need to develop encrypted call technology.” Jason was gazing around as well, as if worried about Maxim leaping out of concealment and personally attacking them. “He’s been behind these attacks on us. That ambush of the train. There was serious muscle behind that.”
“You’re absolutely right. I admit it. Sabrin says Maxim was heard boasting about getting his hands on weapons that would allow him to win. She also thinks the former leaders of the Mechanics Guild and those Mages who are trying to recreate the Mage Guild are part of it. They’ve combined efforts. Maxim probably thinks he’s using them, but they’re using Maxim. Civil war within the Empire! That would be horrible.”
“So how can we get that message to your mom?”
“Mages. A message Mage. Maybe one of those Mages we saw can send messages.” She jumped to her feet and walked quickly toward the last place she’d seen the Mages, wishing she could risk reaching out with her Mage senses but not daring to free any of her Mage powers with other Mages so close.
The nearest Mage, sitting gazing at the mountains around the valley, ignored them as they approached. “This one has questions,” Kira said.
The Mage didn’t respond.
Giving him a glare, Kira walked to the other Mage, who was sitting a good distance from the first. He stood up as they approached. “Mage Saburo?” Kira asked, stunned to see him here.
Saburo nodded once. He’d been around non-Mages long enough to have learned a few basic personal-interaction skills. “This one listens.”
“I’m so lucky you’re here!”
“Elder Mari asked this one to come to this place. There was danger if I was seen to be helping you or traveling with you, but alone it was thought I should be able to reach this place. She said that one Kira might require help.”
“I do,” Kira said. She held up the letter. “Can you get this to my mother? Elder Mari? As quickly as possible? It’s very important, and no one else should see it or read it.”
“Hunter and this one will do this task.” Saburo took the letter without displaying any visible interest in its contents. He placed the letter in an inner pocket of his robes before walking away without another word.
They watched him walk into an open area, then stand still. Kira felt the spell building, drawing on the power available in this area, until a giant bird appeared next to Saburo.
“Hi, Hunter,” Jason said, grinning despite obviously still being a bit nervous around the Mage creature. Hunter responded by turning a single huge eye toward Jason and dipping his head slightly.
Saburo mounted the bird, Hunter spread his mighty wings, and with a leap upward the bird took to the air, climbing rapidly with every sweep of his wings.
“Good thing your mom thought ahead,” Jason said as they watched the shapes of Saburo and his Roc dwindle with distance. “Now what?”
Kira turned a determined face back toward the tower. “We’ve been stalled long enough. The librarians need to let you speak to Urth right away. I don’t care if Empress Sabrin herself reserved the next session on the Feynman unit, and I know she hasn’t. If Maxim is after those weapons, they have to be neutralized or destroyed as soon as possible.”
Kira simply bulled her way past the librarian watching the stairs leading up to the level where she knew Coleen’s office lay. She didn’t exactly remember where the office was, so let the shocked librarian run past her and watched which office the sentry dashed into. “There.”
Inside, Coleen looked up, outwardly composed, but Kira could see the irritation in her. “This is improper behavior,” Coleen said to Kira.
“My mother told you how important it was to let Jason speak to Urth on the Feynman unit. This is a matter of life and death. We expect immediate access.”
Coleen smiled. “Life and death? Really? There are many who wish to speak with Urth. We have to remain neutral and not favor any one over others.”
Out of patience, Kira spoke in as close to her mother’s tones as she could manage. “If Jason is not allowed to speak to Urth this afternoon, I will be on the long-distance far-talker to Master Mechanic Mari this evening, informing her that the librarians are refusing us access to the Feynman unit. I will tell her that even when reminded of the urgency of our mission the librarians still denied us access.”
“Access to the unit is ours to decide,” Coleen said, all pretense of politeness vanished.
“You know better than I do that a lot of people think the librarians should no longer have exclusive control of the means to communicate with Urth. The daughter of Jules has so far backed the librarians in that debate. I hope you’re not assuming that her backing is unconditional or guaranteed.”
Coleen eyed Kira for several seconds. “I wonder what your mother would say if she knew you had said that?”
Kira didn’t waver. “You’d be really wise to assume that my mother and I talked over that issue before I came here, so I know what her feelings are. You’d also be wise to remember that my mother told you that on this mission I’m empowered to speak for her.”
“Even the daughter of Jules cannot give orders here,” Coleen said, speaking calmly but with anger clear in the undertones of her voice.
“I could,” Kira said, her temper rising, leaning forward enough to rest her hands on the front edge of Coleen’s desk. “I’ve got a half troop of cavalry out there who will do as I say. I don’t have any wish to employ force. But I will if you continue to disregard the clear request of my mother on a matter of great importance.”
“You wouldn’t dare. The cost of such an action would be far higher than you would want to pay!”
Kira reached up with one hand to tap the bullet scar on her neck. “I’ve faced far more dangerous opponents. Please don’t try to intimidate me. It won’t end well.”
Coleen looked away, her mouth tight, then back at Kira. “This afternoon, one hour from now.”
“One hour,” Kira repeated.
After she and Jason were outside again, he gave her a curious look. “You went hardcore on her pretty quick.”
“Are you criticizing me?”
“No, just wondering why you didn’t try more arguing before you started threatening.”
Kira shrugged. “I’m tired of dealing with people who won’t let me do what needs to be done. You are criticizing me.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Just make sure what you tell Urth gets us what we need to know.”
Jason didn’t say anything else as they waited out the hour. He gave her occasional questioning looks, but Kira ignored them.
She could still sense that other Mage’s presence.
She shouldn’t be able to do that. Not with her Mage powers locked down.
Kira hid her uneasiness, searching inside herself for any flaw in the barriers about her powers.
* * *
The large room below ground in the tower held a lot of original equipment from the great ship. But the only thing in that room still working was the Feynman unit.
Kira had been here before. So had Jason. “I think the librarians were upset with me,” he confessed to Kira afterwards. “They’re used to everybody being amazed by how advanced all the stuff in there is, but I was commenting on how old it all was. I mean, I said they’d kept the stuff in great condition, but it was all old.”
No one was in the room except for Kira, Jason, and several librarians who seemed to have no other task but to watch Kira and Jason. If there was a long line of people waiting to use the Feynman unit, it wasn’t visible anywhere.
Jason leaned close to the unit, grinning. “Ancient interface!”
“Do you know how to use it?” Kira asked.
“Sure.” He tapped the glowing screen, read, tapped, tapped, read, while the librarians watched with growing alarm.
“You should not be doing that!” one of the librarians insisted. “No one should touch anything but the transmit command!”
“He knows what he’s doing,” Kira replied.
/> “You guys have never looked at any of these other menus?” Jason asked. “Hey, do you guys know this unit is set for open access?”
“What’s that mean?” Kira asked.
“It means Earth can send updates or changes to the operating system without any approval from the people here, and can also send commands remotely.”
“Commands?”
“Yeah,” Jason said, pointing. “As long as the unit is powered up. Like, here? They’ve blocked this unit from receipt of messages from other worlds colonized by Earth. That’s why you stopped hearing them. Oh, man, look at that! The people back on Earth have this unit set for monitoring. They can listen in to anything in here at any time.”
Kira looked over at the librarians. “Even if the transmit command hasn’t been used?”
“Yeah.” Jason looked at the base of the unit and on the sides. “It’s probably hard-wired to the rest of the tower. I’d have to dig in a little more, but if this is connected to the original monitoring systems in the tower, they can probably listen in to anything being said anywhere inside the tower or in the outbuildings at any time. You guys might want to think about changing that,” he added to the librarians.
Wil of Altis, the senior librarian present, appeared to be both alarmed and skeptical. “We will consider your words. If you will proceed?”
“Okay.” Jason grasped the hand-held microphone.
Kira could see how nervous he was. “I’m right here,” she said in a low voice. “Look at me while you’re talking, and pretend you’re explaining something to me. You say things really well when you do that.”
“Thanks.” Jason braced himself, then tapped the transmit button on the screen. "Earth Relay and Interstellar Signals, this is Jason… Groveen. I haven’t communicated with you since I chose to remain on this world because I didn’t want to interfere with others who needed to use the Feynman unit, but something really important has happened. I know you’ve been told about this, but maybe it wasn’t explained right. We’ve found a secret underground facility that was constructed by the original crew of the Demeter. We have very good reason to believe that facility holds the beta field generators and possibly other weapons constructed by the crew. I don’t know whether the underground facility also includes fission or fusion bombs made by the crew, but I do know that there was no trace on the remains of the ship or anywhere else on the planet of the beta field generators the Demeter was known to carry. The secret facility sits under a city, so a lot of lives are in danger, and if the wrong people get their hands on those weapons they might try to use them.
“I know you’re concerned about misuse of those weapons. But Master Mechanic Mari and Master of Mages Alain and Queen Sien of Tiae and the others who are trying to eliminate this threat only want to get at those weapons so they can be safely dismantled and the pieces destroyed. Master Mechanic Mari personally told me to tell you that she gives her word that the weapons won’t be studied, that all the parts will be destroyed, and even whatever instructions you send also destroyed afterwards. Nothing will be left for anyone to misuse or try to copy.”
Jason swallowed, nervous, and Kira gave him an encouraging smile.
“The problem is that I don’t know enough about weapons technology to safely guide them in dismantling those weapons. I don’t want to know any more than I need to know in order to help them safely disarm and get rid of those weapons. We need to know whatever you can tell us. I can understand and interpret anything that might be too far above the current tech level here, so if you’ve withheld information until now because you didn’t think they could use it, that’s not really a problem. I don’t even have to understand what I’m doing as long as we have step-by-step instructions for disarming and dismantling the beta field generators and other weapons.
“If there’s some means of sending a kill pulse through the permacrete that would disable the beta field generators for good, that would be particularly welcome.
“Please answer. I’m supposed to wait here with the Feynman unit as long as necessary to hear whatever you can send. This isn’t about me and it isn’t about the culture on this planet. It’s about saving a lot of lives. Master Mechanic Mari is everything you’ve ever heard. If she says the information you send us is only to ensure the safe dismantling and destruction of those weapons, then that’s what will happen.”
Jason paused again, his eyes on Kira. “Ummm, if anybody is concerned about me, let them know I’m doing great. I wanted to stay here, and I’ve never regretted staying. Jason… Groveen, out.”
He put the microphone away, making a face. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be to say that name again.”
“Why did you?” Kira asked. “Your name is Jason of Urth now.”
“I had to be sure they’d know who I was.” Jason gave the librarians a quizzical look as they walked up to him and Kira. “Is there anything wrong?”
“We’re supposed to escort you out,” Librarian Wil said. “Without delay.”
“So the next in line can use the Feynman unit?” Kira asked, pretending to look around for the nonexistent line.
“You can return at the expected response time,” Wil said.
“We will,” Kira said.
“How’d I do?” Jason asked as he and Kira left the librarians at the entrance to the tower. “You seem like you think I screwed up.”
Kira shook her head, looking up at the sky and thinking about Urth. “No. It’s not you. You did great. As usual. It’s the librarians. Jason, they resented us using the Feynman unit.”
“Even I could tell they weren’t happy.”
“Who else is supposedly waiting to talk to Urth? It’s like the librarians are trying to keep anyone besides themselves from using the Feynman unit. But it’s their job to protect things and make them accessible!”
Jason shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the first time that people responsible for guarding something forgot what they were supposed to be guarding it for.”
The sun, dropping down as the afternoon waned, was nearly below the peaks that surrounded the valley of the librarians. Kira frowned at the fading day. “It’ll be hours before we can get a reply. Let’s meet Professor Wren for dinner. You can hear all about the ruined city of Marandur.”
Professor Wren was waiting, nervous at first, but relaxing as she chatted with Kira. “Some others from the Imperial delegation I came with were going to join us, but discovered they had another commitment.”
“That’s too bad,” Kira said, just as glad that she didn’t have to deal with other Imperials during the meal.
“After I told them the dinner would be with you, they remembered the other commitment and were very apologetic,” Wren said.
Kira smiled even though she knew exactly why those other Imperials had suddenly remembered a reason not to dine with her. She looked at her glass of red wine, imagining those Imperials watching her drink and wondering among themselves just what the liquid in the glass actually was.
Wren paused as if something had just occurred to her. “I hope it wasn’t… Lady Mechanic Kira—”
“Please, Professor, just Kira.”
“All right, Kira,” Wren said, smiling at her. “And I am just Wren to you. I was going to say, there are some ridiculous stories inside the Empire about your mother. I hope none of that has rubbed off on you.”
“It might have,” Kira said. Would Wren recognize the term daughter of darkness, and would she be shocked to know that was what many Imperials had labeled Kira? “But don’t worry about it. I think my family has a tendency to surprise people.”
Wren laughed. “Oh, yes! When your parents first reached the university, narrowly escaping the barbarians in the ruins, the guards at the gate told us that Mari and Alain, a Mechanic and a Mage, had kissed each other. We couldn’t believe it! How could the world have changed that much!”
“It hadn’t changed that much yet,” Kira said. “And there are still plenty of Mechanics and Mages out there who wouldn’t come
within a thousand lances of each other if they could help it.” Though some of those Mechanics and Mages yearning for what they thought were the good old days of the Great Guilds were apparently cooperating with each other now, and not in a good way.
Wren talked for a while about Marandur while Jason listened, rapt with interest. “And Mari made it out that second time as well, though there was a great deal of anger among many of the Masters of the University at the students who had helped her. But what could the Masters do to them? They were already imprisoned in Marandur! It was about two years later when we heard the sound of horns and saw Imperial legionaries marching toward the walls of the university.” The old professor’s face lit at the memory. “We watched them approach, not believing what we were seeing. And then their commander stood before our gate and read the Imperial proclamation lifting the ban on Marandur and pardoning all within the city. You can’t imagine how it felt. As if we’d been dead in truth, and suddenly life was given to us again. We all knew that Mari had done as she had promised. Do you think… would it be all right if someday I was able to visit Mari and tell her in person?”
Kira smiled. “Wren, I can promise you that Mother would be very happy to see you again and hear about your experiences. And I know Queen Sien of Tiae would have no problem with you visiting. The queen would probably be eager to speak to you. Please come visit when you can. Let Empress Sabrin know I asked you to come.”
Wren laughed. “Ah, a queen! And I carried a letter from the office of the Empress. Suddenly I’m moving in high circles. Oh, Kira, was that letter good news?”
Kira hesitated. “Not exactly, but I needed to get it. Thank you. Please thank Princess… I mean Empress Sabrin for me when you see her again.”
Wren looked startled. “I haven’t met the Empress in person! I was told to deliver it in her name. That letter was from her? The stories are true and you’ve actually met the Empress?”
Kira smiled politely. “Yes.”
“How did that happen?”
“You don’t know?” Kira hesitated, not wanting to make things awkward for the old professor, and not certain how much she could share. “I guess you wouldn’t. How much did you hear about when I was kidnapped by the former crown prince. Maxim?” “I’m sorry?”