The Princess of Caldris (2 page)

I could feel Hammerstein’s
regret like a… “
heavy-metal core
drill
”…he thought, disappointed that he
would have to resort to intimidation.

“
Your family charter,
granted by Queen Altair. How many generations now?” Hammerstein
said darkly. “A shame if it were withdrawn, having been such a long
and fruitful benefit to you, and to yours.”

Now father’s eyes darkened. “You resort to
extortion? There are other Empaths! Why does it need to be the
boy?”

“
We’ve tried others. Older
Empaths are too sensitive. One died, another is in intensive care.
It is the boy’s very limitations that will make him at once useful
to the case, yet not in danger of damage. Any older and he too
would be of no utility. This case moves into the direct security of
our entire stellar system-this world, and all the others under the
dominion of the Royal family.”

I could feel father was
ready to hand the charter back rather than place me at risk. I
could also feel a deep sense of loyalty to the Royals. For many
generations they had stood excellent in good government of the
worlds under their care. “What is this case that you ask my child
to involve himself with? Such that ruins the minds of older
Empaths?”

I answered for Hammerstein,
“The Princess has been taken.”

All the people at the gate
exuded shock. My family for the revelation, the detectives that I
knew.

Vindication ran deep in
Hammerstein now, “The boy is right, and now you see, indeed, his
gift is true. I am the only one in this group that was aware of the
Princess’s abduction.”

He glared at me, solemn-yet sympathetic.
“Say no more about it, young man, of what you sense lest we are
alone.” Then, sharply, at his men: “A word from any of you and your
rank is gone and you’ll find yourselves transferred to the
loneliest moon in the belt.”

There came a clicking of heels. One of his
younger officers, a woman of great beauty and self discipline,
ached with the shock, and struggled with all her being to maintain
her composure.

Quite grand, such
discipline and depth of feeling. I will never forget her
overwhelming pain at the loss of the Princess, and her stolid chin
as she held back her tears, I think, as long as I live.

I determined then I should
find the Princess, with Hammerstein, and root out the devils who
did this. “Duty, father.” I stood, small but somehow towering now
in the minds of the detectives, “Duty and honor. For the Royal
family, for our own.”

“
Duty and honor,” he
whispered. “But the boy takes his personal android, and a
disser.

He tossed me his disser and
I caught it easily, knowing afore he announced it,
and felt the generations of my forefathers (and a
particularly self possessed Grand Matron) land in my hands with
it.

A half smile curled up the
side of Hammerstein’s face, “But of course.”

And I gathered with the
Royal Security detectives and we took to the clouds in their
aircars. The last of the moons had faded and the volcano littered
Tangerine Sea glimmered beneath us. Thus began my first great
adventure.

I could feel mother’s fears as the estate
seemed to diminish with distance like a toy. A dark winter had of
her own had come now. I knew she would not feel the light and
warmth of Caldris again until she held me safe again in her arms.
That day would come, I pledged. This was not that day, but I am an
Empath and I know: there are greater things in Cosmos and Worlds
than men imagine. That day would come.

I knew the ride across the
Tangerine Sea well, straight to the Capitol, Cezanne Mons. The
tangerine is from the reefs, thousands of square kilometers of
them. I understood the name was from an Earth fruit. I had seen
them in a garden once, at the palaces in fact, where we were
headed. I had never tasted one. I had eaten oranges though, and
they too are an Earth fruit, similar it is said.

Hammerstein’s angst
impinged on my senses like his soapy smell. He had his aircars
decked out with some serious weaponry. They were flying in military
formation. I picked up bits and pieces of his memories of Navy
days. Caldera Squadron, edge of the system duty. Hard duty, the
ships had gone into hyper then orbited the entire system. Over, and
over and over again. No communications with command. Silent.
Waiting.

I sensed the man’s patience was like a
continental plate. Slow, persistent, and capable of volcanism when
pressed. I also sensed he cared about what happened to me. Didn’t
want me harmed, was determined to watch my back even if it cost him
his life. That was a good feeling, a rare one I was to learn. Few
people are willing to die for their comrades. Hammerstein wouldn’t
have blinked. He was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for his
duty. Any time, anywhere.

His thoughts that morning, however, were
like a hover-tank in a moon battle; not about sacrificing his life
for his King and Star System, but about finding the kidnappers and
making them pay with theirs. It was the first time in my life I had
actually sensed an anger ready to take life. It was frightening.
Mother and Father’s minds had always been about the family estate.
The most anger I had felt from them was when they were ready to
fire an errant employee. Hammerstein wanted blood justice.

I hoped it wasn’t clouding
his judgment. Even my young mind could sense an array of people he
suspected, all of them powerful across worlds, all of them
deadly-even for a battle hardened Navy veteran, even for a grisly
old detective.

The aircars moved in unison
over the Tangerine Sea. The Detectives were silent, quiet as adults
often get when lost in their thoughts. How quickly they forget a
boy. A boy who can sense their thoughts even. Thus the quiet was
only broken by the hum of our flying machines, but in my mind their
thoughts and feelings were a symphony-sometimes sublime,
courageous, and determined. Sometimes dramatic, grim, and
portentous.

When Cezanne Mons appeared
in this distance, swathed in clouds and even smoking that early
morn, I felt my usual excitement at visiting the capitol. The city
hugged the base of the huge volcano with the casual ease of a
people who had learned to ride and manage volcanoes like the pack
animals of some semi-primitive world.

The Legislature buildings
stood biomorphic, with curving lines, a sweeping and
expressionistic architecture. The Palace buildings, smaller and on
a higher ridge, echoed the more formal and traditional symmetries
of palaces back through the ages, before the dawn of the space age.
They could be any palace perhaps, such as on ancient Earth before
mankind took to the planets beyond the world of our race’s
birth.

Steve Allman

The rest of the city,
private businesses and such, spread out along the shore lines in
various combinations of towers and conglomerations of buildings.
Haphazard, come as you are. Sometimes opulent, sometimes tawdry,
sometimes respectable. Sometimes-even I knew at twelve standard
years-
sometimes very
naughty
.

People, they create new
generations, out among the stars, genetic copies of themselves, and
ever the same tawdry dramas replay. No wonder.

The Detective’s aircar’s windshields were
graced with special displays-many of which not visible to the
ordinary aircar mind you-and I could see the force field domes over
the palace. The general public is not privy to such things.

“
Hammerstein, six cars.
Royal Security. Arriving with Empath to review crime
scene.”

We hovered for a moment and
holes appeared in the force domes. I could sense the hidden guns in
various parapets of the palace engaging on us. They trusted naught.
I hadn’t noticed them on visits to the palace before, field trips
with my teacher. Mr. Gibbons sat mechanical and glistening behind
me.

My father’s disser stuck out of a pocket on
my vest like an old Earth cow man. This was no frontier shack
however. The Royal Palace at Cezanne Mons was storied and fabulous
and built with the finest refined metals mined from the very
volcano poised behind it. Platinum mostly.

Some said it backed the currency. I felt
that was hyperbole.

We followed a flight path
illustrated in hologram on the windshields, Hammerstein was looking
grimmer than ever. I sensed he was hoping against hope the Royal
family would be away today, and he would not have to look in to
their eyes having no news for them,
but
another Empath and a boy at that.

I steeled my resolve.

We traversed the holes in
the force domes and they resealed behind us. The tension I read
from the gunners at the parapets remained high until all six of the
aircars were down and we stepped into the courtyard.

It was full of tangerine
trees, and I felt the echoes of many long evenings which others had
spent there pleasantly. A good portent, I thought, but it didn’t
last. There was a shadow of dread hanging over the palace, and a
few steps forward the tangerine dreams faded and sadness
prevailed.

Caldris is, of course, a
slightly higher gravity world than old Earth standard, and as such
most Caldrisians are in fact more muscular and shorter than say, a
typical Earth person. Hammerstein, his fellows, and now the Palace
Guards, however, I noted, were tall. Even for Earth and worlds of
comparable gravity. The guard that approached us in the courtyard
was exceptionally tall. He must have towered over the King and
Queen.

Impressions assailed
me;
the guard didn’t think much of
Hammerstein and the Royal Security team in general. The guard felt
it was their fault to begin with and their investigation was a
bumbling farce.

Hammerstein’s methods were
circumspect however, so I rejected the guards opinion as self
important judgmentalism by a person unqualified to actually assess
Hammerstein’s efforts.

“
Agent Hammerstein.” The
guard said coolly.

Hammerstein bowed, “Captain
Venkatesan.” He turned to me then, “May I introduce Master
Winteroud, heir of the Sole estate, certified empathic. He will
review the scene with us, slowly, and in phases.”

Captain Venkatesan’s immediate emotion was
concern that I would be harmed. This surprised me. He didn’t strike
one as a soft hearted man with maternal instincts toward young
people. One of the things one learns as an empath early; people’s
exterior appearance is entirely meaningless more often than not
than as a reflection of their deeper

selves. Captain Venkatesan looked as cold an
uncompromising as the business end of a disser. In fact his
essential nature was to protect the weaker around him.

“
I don’t like it,
Hammerstein. Any harm comes to the boy and I’ll have the Kings ear
that you face negligent homicide charges.”

Hammerstein had been expecting that. “I’ve
conferred with the top planetary experts regarding Empaths.
Firstly, the boy’s sensitivity to the quantum echoes hasn’t fully
developed. Secondly, we move toward the scene slowly; the first
sign of discomfort we withdraw him.”

“
On your authority then,
and with my stated reservations.” The Captain’s face was flushed,
but he stepped aside and we moved through the gardens past a series
of low, long fountains with holograms of sea creatures leaping. We
came at length to a tall pointed arched doorway to an exterior
antechamber. A stainless steel door of immense size was carved with
geometric triangular motifs and inlaid with mother of pearl and
brilliant blue lapis lazuli.

I sensed things then.
Doorways are like that, capturing the passing thoughts of people
busy with tasks. This was the Royal libraries and private schools
of the Royal children, and some of the more esteemed nobles, but
there was something else. I could sense the Princess, though I had
never actually been close enough to sense her before. A muddled
compilation of self images came through-
as
she thought the world saw her, as she saw herself, and a grave
concern regarding a task-she had been researching
something
...“The Arcturian Wars.” I said
aloud.

“
This is the Library and
the Princess had been doing research-she was profoundly concerned
that an aspect of the Arcturian Wars had completely been
misunderstood by the public.”