Guardian of Empire Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  About the Author

  Also by Kylie Chan

  Copyright

  1

  Night had fallen, and the warm breeze was soft against my skin. The white sand shimmered beneath the phosphorescent sea, splashing where my dog, Endicott, raced around in it. The cat invasion fleet was clearly visible above the horizon; sixty-four thousand ships, in a formation like a many-legged starfish, glowed against the sky. In a few months they’d be close enough to the dragon homeworld to drop out of warp and attack it. They hovered in the sky as if they were taunting us. No communication except for light could go in or out while they were in warp, and they were ignoring all our attempts to talk to them. We had to be ready to defend ourselves when they dropped into normal space and tried to destroy the Imperial Capital the way they’d destroyed so many of the Empire’s member planets.

  Only humans could use chilli as a chemical weapon to incapacitate the cats. Rogue cat ships regularly attacked Empire planets, and we humans worked together with the dragons to knock them out with chilli and return them to their own sector of space. The fleet massed in the sky was the largest the cats had ever sent, and once we’d dropped them home it would take them three thousand years to return. Hopefully the distance would discourage them from trying again. We had to stop them before they destroyed the Imperial Capital then moved on to attack every other inhabited planet in the Dragon Empire.

  Endicott ran to me, her tongue flapping from her huge grin, then raced back to splash in the shallows, snapping at the small breakers.

  ‘My dragonspouse, Noriko, didn’t want me to go to Nillitas, but I went anyway,’ Snapclick said. Its three pink, mantis-like bodies, each a metre and a half tall, squatted at the edge of the paving next to the sand. Grey dragon scales gleamed on the sides of its three heads; the clicks were reproductively colonised by the dragons a thousand years ago. ‘Noriko called me in to intervene when everything went bad. When she arrived in their system – the first alien the Nillitas people had ever seen – it brought their long-standing conflict to a head. It was a close thing. I arrived just as they were about to detonate their mutual destruction devices.’

  ‘And you talked them down?’ I said. ‘After ten thousand years of war, you actually did it?’

  ‘I did,’ Snapclick said, and rubbed its front pincers together with pride. ‘Saved them all.’

  ‘But at the cost of transforming all of them to dragonscales,’ I said grimly.

  ‘Now that humanity has made the new pact with the dragons, this will no longer happen, dear Jian,’ Snapclick said, its voice softening in the translator. ‘At least they are alive. You should come visit them; they are very beautiful. Like your birds.’

  ‘I can’t visit anywhere, I’m stuck here.’ I gestured towards the cat fleet glowing in the sky. ‘No rest for me as long as that is there. I live my life from attack to attack, never knowing when I’ll be called to fight.’

  ‘Your mum’s documentary is up,’ Marque said from a sphere above us. ‘Do you want to watch it here?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘Snapclick’s eyes can’t see it here; let’s watch it in my theatre. Want to see, Snapclick?’

  ‘I would love to. I adore your mother, she’s so badass,’ Snapclick said.

  I called Endicott and she raced back to me, bouncing between me and Snapclick and showering both of us in sand. Snapclick affectionately rubbed her ears, then we headed back to my residence, one of several strung along the beach. The peaks of the snow-capped skiing mountains fifty kilometres away were visible behind them. Each residence was the size of a mansion back on Earth, fitted with every luxury that we could imagine, personally tailored for each of us – but they were still the barracks for the dragons’ army.

  We walked along the path through the tropical gardens, full of flowers, and through the gate into my yard. The pool shimmered blue, lit by internal lights. Artificial candles and torches illuminated the terrace around the pool.

  Endicott jumped into the shallow end of the pool and swam from one side to the other, then came out and shook herself, spraying water everywhere from her long golden fur. Marque kept us dry, then dried the dog.

  ‘I will never understand your preoccupation with swimming,’ Snapclick said. ‘Even your dog’s obsessed.’

  ‘Perhaps because you sink to the bottom in a bunch of green bubbles,’ I said, and gestured for it to enter the house. ‘Golden retrievers are a water breed.’

  ‘Animal eugenics as a hobby!’ Snapclick said with disbelief.

  We went inside through the living and dining room to my personal theatre. Outside the theatre, Marque used energy to bend light to produce images, but inside this theatre it produced tiny floating dots that glowed to form a physical image that Snapclick could see. I sat in one of the chairs, and Endicott flopped to lie next to my feet. Snapclick sat its three bodies on the floor, and Marque put the documentary up on the central three-dimensional stage.

  A young woman came into view next to a dragon, standing in the middle of her potato farm. As usual, it took me a moment to recognise my mother – she’d transferred her soulstone to a new cloned body on her eightieth birthday the previous year, and she now appeared about twenty-five. Her name – ‘Connie Choumali’ – appeared next to her, and the dragon’s name in their own tongue appeared next to the dragon. The dragon’s name quickly reassembled itself to the dragon’s designated Earth name, ‘Yuki’.

  Endicott whuffed at my mother’s image and thumped her tail on the floor. Mum was brown-skinned from working in the sun, but she looked well-fed and healthy, a reassuring change from the thin and worn-looking woman she’d been before the dragons’ aborted invasion of Earth twelve years ago. The red soulstone glittered on her forehead as she raised a straw basket containing potatoes.

  ‘You hand-grow all of them yourself?’ Yuki said.

  ‘Yes,’ Mum said. ‘Marque doesn’t have any input into the process. I hand-nurture my potatoes from seed to harvest.’

  ‘Original Earth potatoes, grown by hand,’ the dragon said, her voice hushed with wonder. ‘What’s the process? Is it time-consuming?’

  The scene shifted to earlier in the day, and Mum was digging with an old-fashioned hoe.

  ‘Not even the ground-breaking is motorised,’ she said. She dug out the tubers, shook the dirt from them, and held them up. ‘The plant can stay in the ground, it’s very hardy. All I have to do is dig up some of the roots—’

  ‘Skip this bit where she demonstrates how they’re grown, everybody’s seen that multiple times,’ I said. ‘No, wait. Do you want to see that, Snapclick?’

  ‘No, I’ve seen it before when I visited her. She gave me three hats and made me dig! I looked completely ridiculous; a hat on an exoskeleton is a crime against fashion. I can’t believe people pay her to do that. By all means, skip it.’

  ‘Did she ask you to find me a mate while you were there?’ I said.

  The playback of my mother froze.

  ‘Of course she did, she pesters me constantly about it.�
�� Snapclick rubbed its wing cases together with a high-pitched rasp, its equivalent of laughing. ‘She said that your species is more psychologically stable in a pair-bonded relationship. She wants what is best for you; you’ve been “single” for a long time.’

  ‘Did Mum teach you that term?’ I said.

  Its rasp intensified.

  ‘I won’t start anything as long as I’m on standby,’ I said. ‘But as soon as the cats are dealt with, I’m leaving the military for good, and you can damn well pass that on. I’ll travel the Empire and meet all these wonderful people that you describe, and then I’ll find a partner, settle down and have a family. I’m done with living like this, never knowing when I’ll be called in to drop bombs on the cats. I can’t make any long-term plans, I can’t be too far from my armour and bombs – I can’t even go visit my kids for any length of time, and every time they come here to see me, I’m called away. I am so damn tired of living on standby!’ I realised that I was breathing heavily and tried to calm myself. ‘Three more months and they drop out of warp and we finish this. Then my life will change.’

  ‘I agree with you,’ Snapclick said. ‘I wasn’t going to mention it, but you brought it up.’

  ‘Thank you.’ I nodded towards the ceiling. ‘We’re done with the drama, Marque. You can turn the interview with Mum back on.’

  The hologram scene shifted to later in the day, and Mum stood holding one of the potatoes she’d just harvested. ‘This one is a Welsh Gold, a local specialty. It’s sweet, with a stronger flavour than the white potatoes.’ She broke it open to reveal the interior, and Yuki made a soft sound that could be delight or pain. ‘They’re good roasted in their skins; the flesh becomes soft and flavourful. I have some up at the house, would you like to try?’

  ‘Yes, please,’ Yuki said.

  They headed back along the rows of green potato plants towards my mother’s house. The early prefab box had been replaced by more luxurious accommodation for her: a tall and narrow three-storey residence on stilts with storage for her farm equipment at ground level. She’d converted as much of the land as she could to growing the valuable crop.

  ‘And your daughter is in the army, stationed on planet Barracks and preparing to defend Dragonhome from the cat invasion fleet?’ Yuki said.

  ‘That’s right,’ Mum said, striding through the soft soil. ‘She was one of the first to use the pepper spray on the cats, and she’s . . .’ Her smile turned warm. ‘A leader in the defensive operation. I’m very proud of her.’

  ‘Oh, Mum,’ I said.

  ‘So am I,’ Snapclick said.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said.

  ‘All the hopes of the Empire are with her,’ Yuki said.

  Marque lifted them to the first-floor entrance of Mum’s house, and they went in.

  ‘That smells wonderful,’ Yuki said as they passed through the ultrasonic cleanser in the entry hall and the farm’s dirt was whisked from them.

  ‘I’m roasting them over a wood fire,’ Mum said. ‘It’s a fragrant timber from Earth that enhances the flavour of the potatoes. Real wood, not replicated.’

  Yuki stopped in the middle of Mum’s narrow living room. ‘Real wood? From dead Earth trees?’

  Mum nodded and put the basket of potatoes on her kitchen bench. ‘Our farmers’ co-operative has a restaurant where we serve our potatoes in this style.’ She turned and smiled indulgently at Yuki. ‘But you’ll need to book at least forty-five Earth years in advance, and the meal costs a whole dragonscale.’

  ‘Worth it,’ Yuki said, breathless.

  Mum gestured to Yuki and led her out onto the deck overlooking the fields. The other farmers’ residences were spread over the flat land that had once been under water. She opened the wood-fired oven on the deck and checked the foil-wrapped potatoes inside. ‘They look ready; take a seat.’

  Yuki reclined on a mat next to the table, her eyes wide with anticipation.

  Mum pulled the potatoes out of the oven with tongs, placed them onto a platter, and carried them to the table. She opened the foil and the room around me filled with the rich smell of roasted sweet potato.

  ‘I just used an untranslatable word suggesting excellence in flavour,’ Snapclick said.

  I looked up. ‘Untranslatable? Really, Marque?’

  ‘Marque doesn’t translate the expression; other species find it disturbing,’ Snapclick said. ‘It references my species’ reproductive process.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Mum carefully sliced the potatoes and placed them onto two plates decorated with the motif of a potato plant sprouting from the globe of the Earth. She filled her glass with red wine, Yuki’s with tea, and sat across from Yuki.

  ‘What’s that in your glass?’ Yuki said. ‘Can I try some?’

  ‘Fermented Earth grape juice; the alcohol in it relaxes humans and makes us feel warm and pleasant. You can have a sip, but they’re like the potatoes – have too much and you’ll be sick. Take care.’

  ‘Deadly poison to more than ninety-three per cent of species in the Empire and you drink it as a recreational substance,’ Snapclick said. ‘You people are so weird.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have the chilli without us,’ I said.

  Yuki picked up a dragon-sized fork, scooped some of the potato up, and put it into her mouth. She raised her snout and closed her eyes.

  ‘That is . . . wow,’ she said. ‘I’ve had the synthesised replica, and I’ve had the ones that are grown on some of your colonies, but this is . . .’ She shook her head. ‘Words fail me.’

  ‘Cooking it over real Earth wood makes it even better,’ Mum said, smiling over her own fork. ‘And my potatoes are some of the best on the planet.’

  ‘So how much is this many potatoes worth?’ Yuki asked, taking another bite and moaning with bliss.

  ‘What we have here is probably enough to buy one-tenth of an oxygen-water planet,’ Mum said. ‘Half a dragon scale.’

  ‘Worth every bit of it,’ Yuki said. ‘I wish I had a spare scale to give you.’

  ‘You can take some home with you,’ Mum said.

  Yuki choked with delight. ‘Thank you! Earth has brought us so much. These potatoes, and hope that we can prevent the cats’ destructive ways. You’ve given us the chance to live in a future where we no longer have to run from the terror of the cats and our children don’t need to fear them.’

  ‘I’m sure Jian can do it,’ Mum said. ‘She’s been training for years, she’s ready. They’re all ready.’

  ‘I think I’m in love,’ Yuki said, and smiled a dragon smile that Mum returned.

  My son David entered Mum’s kitchen in faded grey fleecy pyjamas. He’d recently turned thirty, and was tall and lean like his father, Victor, with dark skin and hair from his other mother, Dianne. Having his long hair clipped military-short highlighted his wide, dark eyes and chiselled cheekbones.

  ‘You finished doing this yet?’ he said, and sighed with dismay. ‘Not potatoes again.’

  ‘Oh! Lieutenant Baxter,’ Yuki said with pleasure. ‘Come and say hello to everybody. You’ve just graduated from the officers’ academy, correct? You’ll be joining your mother in preparation for fighting the cats?’

  ‘No!’ David yelled, and ran out.

  ‘He’s sensitive about being “put on display” because my daughter Jian is famous on Earth.’ My mother smiled indulgently. ‘He passed out from the academy two weeks ago; he’ll be deployed soon.’

  ‘He’s joining the fight against the cats?’

  ‘I’m so proud of him.’

  ‘Please ask him if we can share his image,’ Yuki said. ‘It’s a great morale-booster. I’d love to interview him.’

  ‘I’ll talk to him,’ Mum said.

  Yuki turned and appeared to speak directly to me. ‘I’ve been to the original source of potatoes, the part of Earth called South America, and I’ve visited Colonel Choumali’s mother and tasted her Welsh Golds. Next time, I’ll visit Eastern Euroterre and taste an alcoholic spirit they make from potatoe
s – vodka. Apparently, the beverage is rich with the potato flavour once the toxins are removed.’

  The projection filled with the credits of those who had helped make the documentary, along with their three-dimensional portraits, then blinked out.

  I stared at the stage for a moment, transfixed, then looked up at Marque’s sensors on the ceiling. ‘Did Yuki stay with Mum for a while after the documentary was finished?’

  Marque hesitated, then said, ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is my mother pregnant?’

  ‘That information is under a privacy seal,’ Marque said.

  ‘Oh, fuck,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t you want a little sister?’ Marque said.

  ‘Oh, fuck.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t you want a little sister?’ Snapclick said, shocked.

  ‘That would blow my brain out of my skull. I’m old enough to have grandchildren, and my mother is having a new baby? Mum had the awareness training, she knows about the reproductive responsibilities now that we’re effectively immortal. She can’t just have a kid with the first dragon that comes past!’

  ‘You know Yuki’s not the first to go past, she’s had many dragon visitors to her farm,’ Marque said. ‘But Yuki and your mother did hit it off. Would it really be so bad if they had a child together?’

  ‘What does David think?’ I said.

  ‘He doesn’t know,’ Marque said. ‘He was deployed the next day.’

  ‘Geez,’ I said.

  ‘Speaking of having kids . . .’ Snapclick said. ‘We all have responsibilities. Creating a family is the noblest goal a sentient can aim for—’

  I quickly stood to face it, waking Endicott. ‘Oh no you don’t. Don’t you dare—’

  It lowered itself on its jointed legs. ‘I am sorry, dear one, it is already done.’

  I went to it and put my hand out to the edge of the bubble containing the methane that it breathed. ‘The cats attack in a few months. Can’t it wait?’

  ‘No. It needs to happen now, I’m close to the end of my childbearing ability.’

  ‘What will I do without your advice? You taught me everything about the Empire. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve given me skills in negotiation, wisdom in relationships—’