Taquinil, though. I had been aware of two other minds.
Eldrinson.
Yes. Eldrin's father. My father-in-law. It had always bemused me that the father was called Eldrinson and the son was Eldrin. Eldrinson had probably decided that naming his firstborn Eldrinsonson was overdoing matters. It didn't surprise me that I sensed my father-in-law. He, Soz, and I formed the Triad that made the psiberweb possible. I created the net, Eldrinson supported it, and Soz used it to direct ISC. Together, we made a formidable force.
Had made a formidable force.
Soz was gone.
I sat in silence, stunned with this new realization. Soz no longer formed part of the Triad. But it was impossible to disengage from it without damaging your brain beyond repair. The only way to leave the Triad was to die.
Nausea spread through me. I folded my arms across my stomach while my eyes burned with tears I couldn't shed. Damn the Traders. Damn them all. I rocked back and forth. Soz. Soz.
Gradually another tendril of memory curled past my upwelling of grief. I had felt a third mind in that nether universe. Who?
Kelric?
He was my nephew, the youngest child of my sister Roca. Kelric had died eighteen years ago, a casualty of war. I had long grieved for him. Physically, he and I were as different as possible; he was huge and muscular, a military officer, gold rather than dark. But I had more in common with him than other members of the Ruby Dynasty. A gifted mathematician, he shared my love of equations.
But he was dead.
The blurred memory of a conversation in psiberspace came to me…
Aunt Dehya?
Kelric?
Where are you?
Gone…
Have you died?
I exist.
Come home. Our people need their Pharoah. Your family needs you.
I will try…
"Pharaoh Dyhianna?" J'chabi was watching me intently.
I refocused on him. "I'm here."
He regarded me curiously. "Even when you are present, rather than faded away, you are not always here."
I gave a wan laugh. "You put that far more politely than the Assembly does."
He flushed. "My sorry. I meant no offense."
"You gave none." I rubbed the back of my neck, working out kinks. "Did I fade away in the telop chair?"
"Your body became translucent." He blinked rather rapidly. "We feared to touch you, lest it do damage. Your body overlapped the chair, like a holo superimposed on a solid object."
Such a strange image. "I wonder if that's where ghost tales come from. Maybe ghosts are people partially transformed into an alternate reality." Seeing J'chabi's alarmed expression, I gave him a rueful look. "This must all seem bizarre to you."
"It is my honor to serve the Ruby Pharaoh."
That was tactful. "It is my honor to have your loyalty."
He actually blushed at that. "What will you do now?"
"I'm not sure. It depends on whether or not I contacted anyone."
"Don't you know?"
I sifted through my memories. "I recall a vague sense of Eldrinson Valdoria, the Web Key. Perhaps other family members."
"Can they send help?"
"I'm afraid not." Eldrinson and my sister Roca were still on Earth. ISC had sent them there during the war, for protection, because the Allied Worlds of Earth had remained neutral, too small a power to pose a threat, but big enough that neither we nor the Traders could easily conquer them.
Conquer. I winced. But I couldn't deny we called ourselves the Skolian Imperialate for a reason. Unlike the Traders, we didn't blatantly subjugate worlds. But ISC had been known to occupy settlements without their agreement. Supposedly Skolia was a democracy, like the Allied Worlds, with an elected Assembly, but we stretched the definition to breaking.
The constant political maneuvering of the Ruby Dynasty with the Assembly wore me down. I resented the clenched control they exerted over our
Eldrinson.
Yes. Eldrin's father. My father-in-law. It had always bemused me that the father was called Eldrinson and the son was Eldrin. Eldrinson had probably decided that naming his firstborn Eldrinsonson was overdoing matters. It didn't surprise me that I sensed my father-in-law. He, Soz, and I formed the Triad that made the psiberweb possible. I created the net, Eldrinson supported it, and Soz used it to direct ISC. Together, we made a formidable force.
Had made a formidable force.
Soz was gone.
I sat in silence, stunned with this new realization. Soz no longer formed part of the Triad. But it was impossible to disengage from it without damaging your brain beyond repair. The only way to leave the Triad was to die.
Nausea spread through me. I folded my arms across my stomach while my eyes burned with tears I couldn't shed. Damn the Traders. Damn them all. I rocked back and forth. Soz. Soz.
Gradually another tendril of memory curled past my upwelling of grief. I had felt a third mind in that nether universe. Who?
Kelric?
He was my nephew, the youngest child of my sister Roca. Kelric had died eighteen years ago, a casualty of war. I had long grieved for him. Physically, he and I were as different as possible; he was huge and muscular, a military officer, gold rather than dark. But I had more in common with him than other members of the Ruby Dynasty. A gifted mathematician, he shared my love of equations.
But he was dead.
The blurred memory of a conversation in psiberspace came to me…
Aunt Dehya?
Kelric?
Where are you?
Gone…
Have you died?
I exist.
Come home. Our people need their Pharoah. Your family needs you.
I will try…
"Pharaoh Dyhianna?" J'chabi was watching me intently.
I refocused on him. "I'm here."
He regarded me curiously. "Even when you are present, rather than faded away, you are not always here."
I gave a wan laugh. "You put that far more politely than the Assembly does."
He flushed. "My sorry. I meant no offense."
"You gave none." I rubbed the back of my neck, working out kinks. "Did I fade away in the telop chair?"
"Your body became translucent." He blinked rather rapidly. "We feared to touch you, lest it do damage. Your body overlapped the chair, like a holo superimposed on a solid object."
Such a strange image. "I wonder if that's where ghost tales come from. Maybe ghosts are people partially transformed into an alternate reality." Seeing J'chabi's alarmed expression, I gave him a rueful look. "This must all seem bizarre to you."
"It is my honor to serve the Ruby Pharaoh."
That was tactful. "It is my honor to have your loyalty."
He actually blushed at that. "What will you do now?"
"I'm not sure. It depends on whether or not I contacted anyone."
"Don't you know?"
I sifted through my memories. "I recall a vague sense of Eldrinson Valdoria, the Web Key. Perhaps other family members."
"Can they send help?"
"I'm afraid not." Eldrinson and my sister Roca were still on Earth. ISC had sent them there during the war, for protection, because the Allied Worlds of Earth had remained neutral, too small a power to pose a threat, but big enough that neither we nor the Traders could easily conquer them.
Conquer. I winced. But I couldn't deny we called ourselves the Skolian Imperialate for a reason. Unlike the Traders, we didn't blatantly subjugate worlds. But ISC had been known to occupy settlements without their agreement. Supposedly Skolia was a democracy, like the Allied Worlds, with an elected Assembly, but we stretched the definition to breaking.
The constant political maneuvering of the Ruby Dynasty with the Assembly wore me down. I resented the clenched control they exerted over our
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