Smith - Paradise Drift

As always, grateful appreciation to Dave Trowbridge for his tech help. (Kewl tech ideas are his, oopsies are mine.)

Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things.

DANIEL DEFOE,

CY 1701, EARTH,

ALL SYSTEMS UNIVERSITY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

From the slip point beyond the water planet Rigos, the top layers of Paradise Drift circling its gravity well looked like a glowing golden crown. Alphyra Kodos, human codirector of the Drift, so loved the image of a glowing crownan appropriate metaphor, she thought itthat she often took a skimmer cruise out into space, ostensibly to view the planet below, but actually to look back with complacent pride at the brilliant glow of the Drifts upper levels.

The spires of the crown were where the directors lived and worked, and the base of the crown the exclusive gambling rooms that were the main draw for Paradise Drift across the Known Worlds.

In the middle of the topmost spire Alphyra Kodos stood, looking out the vast meters-thick plazglaz windows. She did not spare a glance at the glorious blue planet below, with its swirling cotton tufts of weather systems passing over the graceful lines of volcanic archipelagoes. That was rare for her, not to look at the planet she loved; it was a measure of the importance of this moment that her gaze remained steady on the tiny pinpoints of light moving slowly toward the Drift.

Her sister, Delta, stood next to her, the data port at the back of her skull interfaced as always with the Drifts data system, sending a constant stream of information, some of it audio, some to the flexi she kept in one hand, along with a handsome Vedran stylus.

Delta stood poised, ready for orders, switching her gaze between the planets distant beauty and the lights that indicating an approaching spacecraft.

A tiny chime sounded in the room, and Alphyra, recognizing whom the complex tone signified, lifted a hand. Delta pressed a key on her flexi, opening the doors before Vandat, the Perseid director, had to slow his steps in his approach. It was good etiquette, one of the many little touches Delta quietly saw to.

The tall, lean, gray-skinned Perseid scurried in, his age impossible to guess. Alphyra and he exchanged bows, both to the exact same degree.

Then Vandat whirled, his robe swirling, and lifted his gray, bony chin as he gazed out the windows. The Andromeda Ascendant he said on a long, low note, almost an exhaled breath. It is truly here.

Alphyra smiled. And even more beautiful than I had imagined, she responded, as the graceful curves of the warship slowly coalesced into clarity, highlighted by its own running lights.

Vandat turned his head. You find a warship beautiful?

Alphyra gestured, her filmy sleeve fluttering. As a symbol of hope, of peace, of bonding for the common good.

Vandat let out another long breath. Yes, I comprehend!

As an artifact of the old Systems Commonwealth, it truly represents the hope of the new Commonwealth, Alphyra went on. To adapt an old Vedran quotation: As it was, joined by this ship and its captain with as it shall be. And we shall be a part of it. Is that not a beautiful prospect?

Vandat pressed his gray fingertips together as he gave a small bow. You express it well, he said.

Alphyra sent him one of her smiles. She really was a beautiful woman; nanobots of course could eradicate the little signs of age in anyone, but that honey brown skin, the long bones, her high-bridged nose, all indicated the blessings of a fine genetic background.

Vandat was immune to the sexual signals of humans, but he always noted them, for humans used them at important moments in their lives. He wondered if that subtle altering of her posture, the slim hand raised to touch a coil of her shining dark hair, was for his benefit or for the benefit of the as-yet unseen captain aboard the approaching vessel.

Alphyra said, Thank you. And you have my gratitude for your untiring work in bringing not just your Perseids to agreement with our invitation to Captain Hunt but for convincing our Than-Thre-Kull compatriots.

Vandat bowed and smiled again, thinking: You do not comprehend that their distrust is based on fear. You humans have betrayed us before, and they fear you will again.

Vandat kept to himself his own fears. He had his own reasons for supporting this negotiation.

Delta, listening to the stream of communication between the warships AI and Drifts docking authority, thought sympathetically of the two Than who were probably standing two levels below, in the dark so that their compound eyes would see the approaching ship better, without the distraction of room lights. One insectoid with a decorated green carapace indicating her caste as warrior leader (and chief of the Drifts security), Blossoms on the Wind, would be speaking to her littermate and colleague Reflections of the Sun, whose decorated crimson carapace indicated his caste as a technician and builder. Delta suspected that the Than directors had fewer misgivings about the promises of this new Commonwealth, as offered by the human captain of this single warshiprelic of the old Commonwealththan they did about Alphyras reasons for wanting to join. Too many humans, shed heard, over and over again. It can only mean ill.