Dawn of Empire by Kylie Chan

Author:Kylie Chan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 2020-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

14

We gathered near one of the icosapod colonies on Pacifica. My own subordinate, Bubbles, a large fish-like scaled alien with a single arm folded under its chin, had volunteered to help with the final evacuation of the last few icosapods left on their homeworld in cat space. The Pacificans were soldiers in the Imperial Spaceforce who were wearing armour and carrying weapons – there seemed to be a perception throughout the Empire that humans made good soldiers after we’d repulsed the cat fleet all those years ago. This group was small: only me, Bubbles, Haruka, the three Pacifican soldiers, and two icosapods, as well as a goldenscales named Ikako to quietly gate us in and out. I hadn’t met this dragon before, but she’d volunteered and had taken her soulstone out. Miko was back on the dragon homeworld minding our son while we risked our lives.

We floated in the shallow clear water as we made the last-minute preparations. Haruka was wearing his own armour, black embossed with gold chrysanthemum motifs and with a faceplate that made him appear to have four eerie, glowing eyes. Kinked-Tentacle, his icosapod liaison, was on his shoulder and watching the group with interest tinged with more than a little fear.

‘Everybody stay completely still while I do a final backup,’ Marque said.

I closed my eyes, then opened them to see the timer on my faceplate had advanced two minutes. If it took that long it wasn’t incremental, it was a full backup, and an indicator that Marque didn’t expect us to return. Like the goldenscales gating for us, we’d all removed our soulstones in preparation for the assault, but the icosapods were in mortal danger by choosing to come with us.

We’d been trying to explain the benefits of a longer life and soulstones to them, and they couldn’t really comprehend the advantage. They passed their life’s legacy to the talekeeper of the next generation, and that was an important heritage that they didn’t want to abandon.

Pacifican Martha Coldcurrent was the leader of the expedition, and we all went still to listen to her.

‘Remember: daytime. The cats will be in their sleep period but there will still be guards. The icosapods are ready for us but expect the cats to engage if we alert them – these icosapods are some of the last “weapons” they possess. Taking these icosapods from them after they lost the moles, amoebas and heavies will be a loss of status so great that if we succeed, any cat present will probably be forced to commit honour-based suicide.’

‘I still think we can get them to defect,’ Horace Seagrass, one of the other Pacificans, said.

‘Not happening under their new social structure,’ Haruka said. ‘If it was the old ways, we might have been able to turn a virgin female, but now that they’ve gained a small degree of freedom and autonomy, I don’t think that will happen.’

‘Look at my son’s foster child,’ I said. ‘We took Newmea in as one of our own and treated her like family.

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