Firstworld by Paul E Horsman

Author:Paul E Horsman [Horsman, Paul E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space fantasy, fantasy epic, fantasy ya, steampunkish, fantasy sci fi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘That was great!’ Llithan’s excited voice said over the comm. as they landed at the other side of the moon. ‘I handled many brooms in my life, but I never knew you can ride them, lord.’

Kyrus merely grinned. ‘Much more fun than sweeping storerooms.’

‘Welcome at Realmstore.’ The auto-voice sounded dreary as they walked toward a roofed entrance. ‘Please mind low-flying spacecraft, honorable customers.’

‘They have a front entrance?’ Llithan said. ‘I always wondered... I never was here before.’

‘They do. Now let’s see if we can get inside.’

But the door was closed.

‘Let me try it.’ Techneer Jathra went with her hands along the inside of the doorway. ‘Ah, got it.’ She turned to Kyrus. ‘It was nothing, freeing the manual lock. Of course there is no power, so it’s for you muscly types to pull it open.’

Kyrus got a clumsy grip on the door and pulled. Stiff with cold and disuse, it resisted, and then gave way so suddenly he nearly fell backward. But the entrance to the trade post was open.

They went inside and looked around. A large hall, walls decorated with advertisement posters, a corner with servor trolleys looking dead and dirty in the shine of his belt light.

Beyond that, a whole row of double doors that normally would have been open.

‘The engine room should be close by,’ Jathra said. ‘Moi techs disliked walking as much as ours do, and this place is pretty big as stores go.’

‘Six hundred square miles, S-Az said. Pretty big indeed.’

‘Just for show, perhaps,’ Healer Holyn said. ‘To prove they could do it?’

They were in a large hall packed with what must have been groceries, but all that remained were spoiled, partly rotten, deep-frozen wastes.

‘Ten percent discount on your buys, ma’am,’ Kyrus quipped.

‘Not today,’ Jathra said. Then she waved to a door to the right. ‘Let’s go that way.’

Kyrus didn’t ask anything, but followed her. Then he noticed the sign overhead, dark and barely readable without power, “To Engine room”.

Through the door and down a ramp they went underground and came to a series of rooms, neatly labeled ‘Power’, ‘Brain’, and several others.

‘Power.’ Jathra went inside. The only thing in the bare room was an immense mana pump. For a complex this size, they would draw the mana directly from the Intermedium instead of depending on the natural amounts in their own universe.

‘It’s like Shan 4.’ The tech tapped the central conduit with the pipe wrench from her belt. ‘Overload brought it to a stop.’ She switched to her own shield, enlarged it until she could work and got out her tools.

‘Am I permitted to ask a question? What is all this, lord?’ Llithan waved a hand at the machinery.

‘You are supposed to ask questions,’ Kyrus said. ‘This is where the whole trade post gets its power from.’ Then he explained the pump, the Intermedium and brain persons. The boy was strangely ignorant. He knew something bad had happened, long ago, but he had never heard of the mana quake, and knew precious little of the Moi and their former Realm.

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