Saga of the Skolian Empire 05 - Ascendant Sun by Asaro Catherine

Author:Asaro, Catherine [Asaro, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Space Opera, Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780312868246
Google: qFMJxoHhXj0C
Goodreads: 831908
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2000-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

14 - Diamond Banquet

Tarquine reclined in a cushioned chair, watching while a techman studied the collar around Kelric’s neck. Resplendent in a black-diamond jumpsuit, the Minister glittered.

The techman straightened up. “It’s solid gold, ma’am.” He set his gauges on the table next to the stool where Kelric was sitting and turned to Tarquine. “The collar has no picotech at all, nothing anyone could use for surveillance on you or your ship. The gold is high quality, however.”

“So Taratus just threw it in as a gift.” Tarquine snorted. “That is unlike him.”

Kelric could guess why Taratus had included the collar. Anything to alleviate Tarquine’s anger when she discovered he cheated her. He doubted it would help.

The techman picked up his tools and went to work again. He tested Kelric’s wrist guards, then knelt to examine his ankle guards. “These are completely different. They’re almost a thousand years old.” He rose to his feet. “You did well, most honorable Minister. The guards are far more valuable than the collar. For their antiquity.”

Tarquine considered Kelric. “Did Taratus give you those?”

He shook his head. “My ex-wife.”

“If she is your ex-wife, why do you still wear them?”

He started to give a nonresponse, then changed his mind. He wouldn’t dishonor Ixpar with any answer but the truth. “Because I still love her.”

“Oh.” Tarquine obviously neither expected nor understood his reply. Her reaction washed over him. She surprised herself with her anger. Why would she begrudge one slave the devotion of another slave? For her to envy his ex-wife was like envying an animal.

“Shall I remove the collar and guards?” the techman asked.

“Yes.” An edge came into her voice. “Melt down the guards.”

Kelric held back his protest. He had already known she would remove them. Without picotech, they had no use as restraints. He would rather she melted than sold them. Better they become ingots than end up on display in a Eubian museum or worn by someone else.

“He will need a collar with picotech controls,” she told the techman. “The same for his wrist and ankle cuffs. After we reprogram his biomech web, I want it interfaced it with the restraints.” She rubbed her chin. “That will take a while, though. For the banquet, install a temporary collar, one that suppresses his enhancements. Make it gold. You can leave the guards for now.”

Kelric knew he was running out of options. As a Jagernaut, he had studied these massive Highton cylinder ships. Once the techman installed the permanent picotech collar, Kelric would become part of the ship, so intertwined with its systems that he couldn’t leave without Tarquine inputting an authorization to his redesigned biomech web. If he meant to escape, it had to be soon. But how?

The techman replaced Taratus’s “gift” with a temporary collar that clicked a prong into Kelric’s neck socket. Then he went to work on his palmtop, sending IR signals to the collar’s picoweb, which in turn sent commands to Kelric’s biomech web through the prong.

At first Kelric felt nothing. Then, with no warning, he went blind.

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