Chapter Fourteen
Those infernal podships are holding all of us prisoner, leaving our worlds only connected by a thread … the nehrcom communication system.
—Doge Lorenzo del Velli
Following the destruction of Timian One and the Palazzo Magnifico, the Doge had relocated to quarters that were suitable to his position. His courtesan wife, Princess Meghina, had her own royal apartments on Canopa—in Rainbow City—and when the podships stopped she found herself stranded there, unable to return to her beloved planet of Siriki. Lorenzo liked having her nearby, and enjoyed the company of Francella as well. But the two women barely tolerated one another, and had always competed for his affections.
His relationship with them was different in so many ways. The Doge maintained Meghina as his favorite courtesan, taking care of all of her expenses and siring children by her, seven daughters so far. The girls were all on Siriki now, but remained in touch with their mother by nehrcom. Lorenzo hardly ever spoke with them himself, or cared to. Though they were financial heirs to him, they could never step into his shoes to rule the Merchant Prince Alliance. The noblemen would never stand for a female doge.
In contrast, while Francella was his lover as well, she was financially independent from Lorenzo and loathed the very concept of a courtesan, considering such women to be no more than well-dressed harlots who lived off men. No paragon of virtue herself, Francella had borne him a male child out of wedlock, who, while a bastard, might still be accepted by the princes as their doge.
Wishing to maintain his own independence, Lorenzo did not want to live with either of the two women in his life. Even though he had formalized the relationship with Meghina by marrying her, she had—by mutual agreement with him—maintained her status as a courtesan, having relationships with the most famous princes in the realm. And he had his own wandering eye.
With the loss of his palazzo, Lorenzo had taken over a large suite on the top floor of the opulent cliffside villa of the late Prince Saito Watanabe, generously offered to him by Francella, the late tycoon’s daughter. The lease fee had been substantial, as part of the deal she made to also let him use the top three floors of offices in her own CorpOne headquarters building. The villa lease included cliffside terraces nearby, where Lorenzo arranged for Meghina to construct a private zoo, featuring exotic breeds. The facility, nearing completion, would be much smaller than the one she had on Siriki, but it would serve to cheer her up, missing her pets and her daughters as she did.
Raiding private and public collections for animals, the Doge was limited to whatever was available on Canopa. But it was a large, wealthy planet, with an extensive selection. He obtained the services of a genetic technician—a “gene-tech”—who located a number of rare humanoids and animals for the new facility. The gene-tech, while an Adurian by birth, had sworn allegiance to the Merchant Prince Alliance and had passed a thorough loyalty test administered personally by Lorenzo’s Royal Attach, Pimyt.
Despite the fact that the major galactic races could not interbreed, the gene-tech told Lorenzo it was still possible to obtain interesting combinations within the various genetic families. His Adurian race had special knowledge in the field of biotechnology.
O O O
One evening at his villa, Lorenzo met with his military leaders and advisers who summarized the lack of progress that the forces led by the Doge and Francella were making against Noah’s rebellious group. The Guardians seemed to be increasing in number and power, and there had been disturbing reports of robots fighting alongside them.
“Of course we have our own sentient machines,” General Jacopo Nehr said, “and they are replicating themselves at a high rate. We should be able to counter anything they throw at us. The tide will turn.”
“Our machines are breeding like rabbits,” Lorenzo said, “or should I say like robots?” He looked pleased at his witticism.
“Yes, our machine leader Jimu is doing a fine job,” Nehr said, “and we will need every one of them.” He stood up and paced the room. “The Guardians are clever. We can’t figure out where they are or what they will do next. They make guerrilla attacks against our most fortified installations, somehow threading their way through and finding our weaknesses. It is very disturbing.”
Lorenzo heard an explosion outside, rocking the furniture and reverberating in his ears. “What the hell?” he yelled, running to a window and looking out. The officers gathered around him. He saw flames in the crescent-shaped dry dock area at the base of the cliff, and quickly figured out what was burning.
“Damn them!” he said. “They got my space yacht!”
Flames rose high over the burning vessel, illuminating other pleasure craft moored by noblemen at the dry dock. He also saw the shadow of an unlit aircraft speeding away from the scene.
As Nehr and the other officers ran to the door the Doge shouted after them: “Find out who fell asleep on the job and bring them to me! I’ll interrogate them personally for this.”
“We’re on it, Sire,” Nehr shouted back. “We’ll get whoever’s in that aircraft, too.”
Lorenzo heard Nehr yelling into a com unit, dispatching grid-copters to take up the chase. Moments later, the Doge saw aircraft flying out over the valley. At least that was going efficiently. Maybe they would capture or destroy the bastards this time. If so, it would be one of the few successes.
Suddenly he whirled to cross the room, and nearly tripped over Pimyt, the Royal Attaché. Lorenzo had forgotten that the little Hibbil was in the room.
“Sorry, Sire,” Pimyt said, picking himself up, and wiping a trickle of blood off his own furry gray chin.
“Get me a report on this whole sorry affair,” the Doge snapped. He kicked a message cube that had fallen on the floor. The cube struck Pimyt in the chest, an unintended result.
Pimyt’s red eyes glowed brightly, like the embers of a fire, and his face contorted in anger.
For a moment, the Doge focused on the burning glare, but was not frightened by it. His aide was just intense, and Lorenzo had always liked that. Abruptly, the eyes softened, and the little alien smiled. Then Pimyt hurried away.
O O O
Too edgy to sleep, the Doge went out in the middle of the night to his in-progress zoo. As he stepped out into the cool air, a dozen of his house guards snapped to attention and accompanied him.
The Adurian gene-tech, KR Disama, was summoned, and hurried out of his small house on the grounds.
Then, beneath bright lights Lorenzo examined animals that were being kept in temporary cages. One was a dagg-sized creature with high-gloss blue fur and a head on each end.
“Where are its private parts?” Lorenzo wanted to know, for he could not see any.
The gene-tech, a completely hairless homopod with a small head and bulbous eyes, smiled and responded, “It does not have any. Hence, it is, by design, perfectly house-trained.”
“But how does it relieve itself?”
“It exudes through its pores, into the air. Fear not, though. The substance dissipates quickly and is completely odorless.”
As the animal walked around its cage, Doge Lorenzo could not tell whether it was going forward or backward. Despite everything on his mind, he laughed out loud. For a few minutes, he almost relaxed.
Then he remembered his destroyed yacht, and scowled ferociously.
***