Halleg Otemaglasnetoveil crouched in the darkness of his viewing cubicle, glowing green virtspecs cupping his eyes as he watched the twisting helices of memory rise from floor to ceiling.
On the left side, catalogued data from the mind of Dira Urtigo swirled in a column of amber and blue, a fountain of grain and water. On the right side, Aldur Bokren's memories rose like a misty fire of crimson and orange.
It had been a few days since the last patron stopped in the Toveil chapter house of Glasne for cataloging. So, when the chimes had trilled that simultaneous memory dumps were about to begin, Halleg had been overjoyed at the prospect. Normally, he spent his shift monitoring the security holocams, but the seneschal bots on the campus provided ample first-line protection. He expected that he wouldn't be missed while he stepped into the upload intercept chamber to skim the memories and enjoy vicarious adventures.
As a datamonk of the Toveil, Halleg owned no property, took no mate, shunned politics, and committed himself to the acquisition of knowledge. He was a relatively new initiate to the caste, just one season since his Worthing trial, and this assignment in Glasne was just the start of his training. In six ruminations, if his elders deemed him worthy of promotion, he would be transferred as an apprentice to a technopriest aboard a Hekayti warship. There, his expanded learning would introduce him to the finer points of starship engineering, personnel management, and the interrelation of personalities and confined environments during long-term voyages. After that, assuming all went according to plan, Halleg would see promotion to technopriest and earn his pick of assignments.
For now, though, he relished the limited responsibilities of a cathedral security guard and the unlimited opportunity to explore other lives through cataloging. Unlimited, that is, as long as none of the elders caught him violating the sanctity of these revered offerings. Catalogues-in-progress were meant only for the eyes of fully anointed technopriests – a mere datamonk lacked official privileges. But a resourceful datamonk, well advanced in his computer engineering studies, could find ways around the normal security protocols that would have prevented him from entering the intercept chamber under ordinary circumstances.
It troubled Halleg, living so austere a life among databanks rich with experience. How could a technopriest truly define himself as knowledgeable when he knew nothing of life? By craftily breaking one rule, Halleg believed that these vicarious experiences would broaden the scope of his understanding and make him a better technopriest.
So he sat in the shadows, watching the swarms of glittering memories rise like sparks from a campfire, oblivious to the fact that the antechamber seneschal had been disabled before it could signal a general alarm or that a knife-wielding Ledelkrig assassin was closing on Dira's chamber.
<<>>
The youngest of three siblings – one of the older children another girl – Dira Urtigo had been denied the opportunity to enter any of the three castes that had evolved on Hekayt Prime.
Her brother Yann, the oldest, had joined the Ledelkrig, serving with distinction in campaigns against the Hivers, in the liberation of the slave colony of Zaluan, and the Medlidikke Uprising. Her sister Inaya underwent preliminary Worthing interviews, determined that she would follow Yann to the stars as a soldier. Her mentor for the Worthing process eventually showed Inaya that she was much better suited to the skills of House Toveil.
Dira wasn't excluded from the caste system due to any deficiency on her part, however. She hadn't tried and failed. She simply hadn't been allowed to try. According to Hekayti tradition, larger families would not be permitted to stack the deck in their favor by excessive breeding and populating the caste system with their kin. So, only the two oldest children were allowed to submit themselves for the Worthing process.
Some might have taken this as a source for grave disappointment. Not Dira. For her, it proved a great relief, because she felt no pressure to achieve the heights that her siblings would be expected to reach. She could remain close to her parents. She could leave open her options for the future, rather than allowing a mentor to shove her into one carefully crafted box or another. Dira had no doubt that Yann and Inaya were well satisfied by their accomplishments. She couldn't be much prouder of them herself. Of course, she often felt a twinge of melancholy when Yann related stories of his heart-pounding adventures and Inaya shared some of the more touching real-life anecdotes from the latest catalogued Hekayti. But her personal freedom gave her opportunities that she might never have enjoyed otherwise.
<<>>
The Hekayti took no official position in the Hiver War for hundreds of years. It wasn't until the Father's Horn incident, which saw a Hekayti medical frigate caught in the crossfire between Hiver-controlled mercenaries and a B'hiri relief caravan at the Plosa Nebula that the Grand Moot determined it could no longer remain neutral in the fight.
When Hekayt Prime finally declared war against the Il'Ri'Kamm Hive Mind, the Grand Moot leadership swore to defend the planet B'hira at any and all cost.
Like many other noble Hekayti, Aldur Bokren submitted his name for consideration to serve aboard a warship – much to the chagrin of his mate, Esora. His commission was accepted. He left behind his job as lead bookkeeper for Hav Glasne and joined the crew of the Frukt Bounty as Chief Facilitator. He coordinated personnel, working as a go-between for the ship's Ledelkrig, Toveil, and Konterbeid leaders to make sure crew rosters, supply manifests, and shift assignments remained up to date. It wasn't long after Aldur's posting on the Frukt Bounty that his oldest son, Vard, completed his Worthing training planetside and earned his choice of assignments. Aldur felt a surge of pride when Vard asked to be assigned as infantry aboard the Frukt Bounty.
<<>>
For the first few years after reaching adulthood, Dira signed on as crew aboard a fishing skiff that scoured the Narag Sea for zimpels and gnurs - favorite ingredients in common stews cooked all over Hekayt Prime. That led to a stint in which she worked as a hand on a roving survey explorer, hovering above the waves while scanning for sunken sea vessels, old riggub gondulas, and wrecked starships to salvage. It had been during the salvage period aboard the Oluf Petar that she met the man with whom she would fall in love.
His name was Erak Angbarskhoyellledelkrig. She loved rolling that triple L, teasing him mercilessly with it every chance she could get. Eventually. That didn't happen right away. It happened some months after he arrested her, along with the rest of the crew aboard the Olaf Petar, charging them as pirates and graverobbers for their salvage work on a sunken Ledelkrig starship called the Fertile Star.
What none of the scavengers realized until Olaf's hoverboat pulled up broadside and demanded surrender was that the old ship had carried aboard it the body of a dead Ledelkrig warrior, honored and of high enough rank to justify firing his remains to the farthest stars aboard near-derelict vessels or space probes. In this case, an old soldier named Magne Revidufjernkanonledelkrig had died. His corpse had been hauled aboard the Fertile Star, which was launched from the Kjernkor spaceport on a course that should have taken it out of orbit at an angle that eventually led many light years away. Instead, the navcomp malfunctioned, the ship followed a shallow arc across the horizon, and then plunged into the ocean.
<<>>
“It's wrong,” Vard shouted at his father. “They deserve a full hearing!”
Sparks rained from the green metal rafters of the cargo bay. Aldur scowled, looking from his willful son to the bound and kneeling mercenaries that they had captured making an attack run on B'hira. Fifteen in all – 10 male Lyiri, two females, and three kits. “Did they seem interested in giving the B'hiri a full hearing before trying to wipe them out?”
“That's not fair and you know it,” the younger Bokren insisted. “The Hivers kidnapped these people and forced them to do their bidding.”
Aldur shook his head. “No arguing, Vard. You have your orders. They attacked this vessel. They killed our commander. We're limping home now. We don't have the supplies to spare to keep them alive as prisoners. So, you can either kill them or face disciplinary procedures.”
“You'd imprison me for refusing to kill them?” Vard laughed, not quite believing the assertion.
“Discipline and order must be maintained,” his father answered.
<<>>
Duly chastened, now aware of their egregious error, the crew apologized, paid a hefty fine, and then helped to raise the Fertile Star from the depths so that it could be carried into orbit and shuttled off with a departing Ledelkrig warship for later release at velocity. Dira held Erak's hand as they watched from a spacedock observation bubble, smiling, ecstatic that the ancient mishap they were rectifying had brought them together.
Due to transfer to his first starship assignment as a security officer aboard the Eye of Hekayt in just a few days, Erak took that moment as his opportunity to drop to a knee before Dira and request her consideration of him as a lifemate. His first tour aboard the Eye of Hekayt would take him away from the homeworld for six months. Upon his return, he wanted to hold a magnificent wedding on his family's estate in Hav Hoyell. After that, he vowed, they would journey to the Gankrizam islands of Kamsho.
“I've never been offworld before,” Dira told him, marveling at the concept but also feeling more than a little terrified. “The farthest I've ever gotten from home is out to sea, not so very far from the coast.” Erak assured her that they wouldn't be gone long – just a few weeks – and then she would be welcome to relocate to Hav Hoyell with her parents while he resumed his tour aboard the Eye of Hekayt.
<<>>
Aldur wore his finest dress uniform as he perched in the rockwood cube of the witness box in the Grand Moot courtroom. The military prosecutor clasped his hands behind his back, standing before a holographic display that showed the ghostly blue images of the fifteen Lyiri prisoners. “It's your testimony that your own son and an accomplice slaughtered these helpless prisoners aboard the Frukt Bounty? Against direct orders?”
“They were angry,” Aldur said. “Understandably so. We lost good people during that battle.”
“You ordered the prisoners fed and protected, though, is that right?”
Aldur nodded. “Followed regulations to the letter, yes. But in the heat of the moment, so much of our blood had been spilled, can't you see why this might have happened?”
“No,” the prosecutor replied, frowning. “I'm not here to make excuses for murder. I'm here to make sure that justice is done for the innocent.”
<<>>
Gleeful, Dira accepted the proposal. Upon returning to Hav Glasne, she told her parents the wondrous news. It was as though a great weight had been removed from their hearts, because they had often felt guilty that she had been deprived consideration for Worthing. Now, despite that, she would marry into a noble house and caste. Thus elevated, she would want for nothing should anything happen to them.
<<>>
Six years after Vard and Yurok were convicted of war crimes, Aldur sat behind his rockwood desk on the estate, serving once more as the top comptroller of Hav Glasne. Olat entered the study, escorting a uniformed soldier of the Ledelkrig.
Aldur steeled himself for the news. He had suspected that Vard might not survive to serve the entirety of his decade-long sentence on the prison asteroid of Lakri Svardok in Rigor Strand.
“Lord Bokren,” the soldier began. “I regret to inform you that your son was among more than a dozen prisoners involved in a riot on Lakri Svardok.”
The older Bokren shook his head sadly, taking a bottle of amber liquor from a cabinet behind the desk. “He died quickly, I hope.” Aldur removed the stopper, pouring the fluid into a glass tumbler.
“Oh, he's not dead,” the soldier said. “He and several other conspirators escaped from Lakri Svardok. They had aid from the Medlidikke. The Grand Moot ordered me here for my new assignment. They have reason to believe your life may now be in great danger, sir.”
<<>>
Sixteen days later, Dira wore mourning blue beneath a drizzly slate gray sky, surrounded by her parents and the friends and relatives of her beloved Erak, who had been among those lost in the notorious Medlidikke Season of Blood.
The Eye of Hekayt had been ambushed on the outskirts of Rigor Strand by escapees from the Lakri Svardok prison facility. He had died defending the ship against the savages who had boarded with mayhem on their minds. Reports indicated that he had killed twelve and wounded four others before one of the cowards edged his way through some lesser-traveled ducts until he could drop in behind Erak and shiv him in the back before cutting his throat.
<<>>
Sjo Starko Odelaglasnetoveil, the day watch supervisor for the city's Toveil House, walked into the surveillance chamber to find the chair normally occupied Halleg Otema sitting empty in front of a series of flashing red telltales and a holographic imager that showed the front steps sprawled with dead and wounded soldiers. That same imager showed a Ledelkrig warrior stalking into the antechamber, knife drawn, approaching one of the cataloging vestibules.
He didn't know what was happening, but just now he lacked the time to fully process it. All he could do was act, quickly, and worry later about the cause and effect sequence leading to this particular disaster. Starko flexed the metal-beaded black glove on his right hand, activating the nanosequencers, and then ducked out of the watcher's creche so that he could proceed down the main corridor toward the antechamber.
Aldur's vestibule opened first, so it was the old Hekayti nobleman who emerged to find himself confronting the young soldier with the blade. He raised his hands in the air. "You're too late," Bokren assured the soldier. "I completed the catalog. Everyone can know now."
"Not if I burn this place to the ground and EMP every shred of data into oblivion," Rojt Omara snarled. "Either way, you won't live to see the outcome." He jabbed the knife toward Aldur's abdomen in a maneuver that should have plunged deep, with lethal results. Instead, the blade dissolved into rivulets of glittering dust as the nanites dispensed by the technopriest's glove followed their programming. The soldier furrowed his brow, throwing the useless hilt aside as he turned toward Starko. "You're interfering with the orders of the High Moot!"
The Sjo let his gaze travel from Rojt to the bodies on the steps to the wreckage of the seneschal bot. "Leave. Your transgression, if sanctioned by the High Moot, is now a matter for Grand Moot consideration. Aldur Bokren and Dira Urtigo are granted sanctuary by the Toveil."
It was Dira's vestibule that opened next. She seemed rather disoriented as she walked out to see Aldur and Starko facing off against the furious soldier. "What's going on?" Dira asked.
"This isn't over," Rojt assured the technopriest, but he said this while backing out of the antechamber and onto the steps. Once safely outside, the Ledelkrig warrior turned his back on the trio and descended toward street level. He disappeared down an alley, vanishing from sight.
"You two should proceed into the sanctum," Starko said, regarding both Dira and Aldur. He sighed. "Meanwhile, I'm off to fire an apprentice."