Kaldean Chronicles: Kaldean Sunset (Book I) (7 page)

“I don't care. See,” she pointed her finger at him, “when I'm at home I act however I want to, and I'll bet that's one luxury you don't have.”

“You live here?”

“I do. My name is Dhana.” She winked and leaned back so her long black hair moved behind her shoulder.

“Well,” he extended his hand, “Dhana, it's wonderful to meet you. Are you Mr. Varossi's daughter.”

“I am.”

“Then why didn't you come up and meet us with your parents?”

“I like it better at the bar.”

He poured out two shots. “I will definitely toast to that.” They clinked their glasses together.

The room began to move around just enough for the prince to sway with it. The girl was already slurring her words, moving with the flow of things just like he was. She was an intriguing figure, a woman of means who didn't seem ambitious in the least. She just didn't care. She was along for the ride and let the world move around her. She also had that rough demeanor of a woman who shirked of social constraints. She sat with her legs open, her back hunched, even though she was magnificently beautiful.

“I didn't even know we were coming tonight. My father told me just a few hours ago. What this party is for?”

She poured him another shot, and they drank. “It's my parent's 60
^th
wedding anniversary.”

“Oh, that's wonderful.”

“No it's not. My father hasn't shared my mother's bed in almost forty years and has regular shipments from the Orchids. My mother's constantly drunk and hysterical. She only visits the house when there's a bar, and is fucking everyone that will put it in her.”

“That's disgusting.” Antoni slid into stool.

She laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him off the stool. “Come on.”

Dhana led him out onto the veranda, where they took a private table near the railing so they could watch the way the crystal reflected on the water. It was a sublime aurora that cast its light up the beach and onto Dhana's face, which did seem to glow, as she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

“My life has nothing to do with my parents. I've got a ship, and I'm training to be an expeditioner.”

“Have you been to the far reaches?” Antoni leaned closer. He'd only heard little bits about the planets from Rafael, but he'd never visited them and Rafael never really went far outside of Kaldean territory.

“Haven't you?”

“No. I've never had any reason to. I handle all of my affairs either in the palace or within the borders of the Empire.”

“You have no idea what it's like,” she said wistfully as she looked out at the water, “there's so much more out there, things you could barely imagine. Sentients with technology far more advanced than our own, ancient cities that were built long before earth existed. It's like another dimension.”

“I've heard very little about it.”

“Well that's because nobody goes there. You never know what you might encounter. Once, when my ship was orbiting a gas giant, this creature, thousands of miles wide flew out of the center and nearly crashed into us. He was comprised of nothing but gas.”

“I've heard it theorized that gaseous life might be possible, but I've never actually heard of it existing.”

“It does.”

“You've seen so much.” He leaned in with his head in his hands. “Yet here you are, a crowned prince, an heir to what is assumed to be the most powerful Empire in the Milky Way, and you have no idea what's outside its borders.”

“No idea whatsoever.”

“That's sad. You should come with me.”

“You have no idea how much I'd like to do that.” He was sitting in the transport with Cornel again, anxious to reach out and touch the stars, but he couldn't. He wasn't allowed to. His life confined to petty politics led by shallow men and skilled strategists. All he could do was ask questions.

“What's it like to live in the palace,” Dhana asked.

“It's terrible. I have that drunken guard following me around everywhere, my father constantly hounding me about one affair or another. I can get whatever commodity I want, but I barely have time to indulge in them. I'm only allowed to leave on official business. Most of my time is spent meeting with local leaders, governors and such, reporting to my father or trying to get some semblance of rest.”

“But you're revered. People respect you.”

“They lie to me. They laugh behind my back when I'd rather they did it to my face. They patronize me, and try to gain my affections. I have women I don't even know, some twice my age who try to send me gifts or lure me into their beds. Men are constantly trying to strike up conversations with me. They all want something from me. I'm not really respected.”

“I don't think you understand,” she scoffed. “What it means to work your entire life to gain some sort of recognition. My father wasn't always the head of a major business. We lived in a small house in the city designing drones for merchants, tiny things so they could carry their goods around. We didn't always have the things we needed. I had to borrow books for school, and my mother stitched my clothes when they tore up. Even electricity became a burden when things were hard.”

“You're right. I can't imagine what that must be like.”

“No, you can't. You have no idea what the people go through. The only reason he was able to get where he is today is because he knew the right people and he worked hard to make sure that they had what they wanted. He built them ships, transports and eventually moved into robotics once he was able to build a name for himself. You, you've never had to work for anything.”

“We work. We live to solve problems that don't have answers.”

“But it's not the daily grind that normal people have to withstand.”

“I want to understand.”

“Do you?”

He stared at her. “How could I possibly be an effective leader if I don't?”

“You do sound sincere. I think you will make a good leader.”

“You don't know how sincere I am. I would give anything to understand your perspective. I wanna know what it's like out there in the outer reaches, and what it means to live on nothing. If I could leave this life behind, I would. I hate it. I hate everything about it. Please, take my place, because I would gladly take yours.” He was getting heated. “You're not the first person to say these things to me, you know. I bring it up all the time.”

“To your father?”

“Yes.”

She laughed, “And what does he say?”

“That he takes a detached approach to let society evolve on its own. He only works to resolve matters that threaten the integrity of the Empire.”

“I don't get it.”

“I just want to know what it's like to be you.” He sighed, “I want to travel, take up a good ship and see everything.”

“I wanna know what it's like to be you, to have everything you want handed to you.”

They let the silence fall over them and studied one another. They were both envious of one another, and even though they couldn't meet on level ground, their minds could meet. Antoni wanted to sit for hours, asking her everything about the planets and the stars, begging her to tell him stories. He'd never see those things, but at least she could tell him what they were like. That knowledge would sink in and stay with him. It would comfort him while he was standing on the ship gazing out at space. He could hold onto it and dream of a time when he might have the chance to leave the Empire and discover what lay beyond its borders.

“I feel trapped.”

“Once, when I was traveling over an ice planet, my ships engine broke down and needed to be repaired. I was orbiting an alien world, in the middle of a vast expanse, but I couldn't leave. I was stuck there for almost a month while I made the repairs. I hated it. My cabin is only eight feet long, and I was stuck there the entire time. I thought I was going to go crazy. I talked to myself just to hear the sound of my own voice. I'd pace around, trying to stimulate my mind. The isolation was the worst part. I just wanted to talk to somebody. After a while I began to sleep more and drift into my own thoughts. I found a way to pass the time, and the feeling of being trapped started to disappear. Once I fixed the engine, I decided to stay the night there one last time. What I realized was that once I stopped focusing on being trapped, the feeling went away. I just needed to change my perspective.”

Antoni was constantly focused on his lack of freedom. “That's what I do. I can't seem to move past the fact that the only time I can leave the palace is when my father says it's okay.”

“You're free no matter what. Nobody can take that away from you.”

Dhana had seen so much more than he had, and the experience had given her a level of understanding far beyond his own. “I'm going to remember that.”

“You should still leave, though. You can't live like this.”

“No, I can't.”

“Come on,” she jumped up and over the railing of the veranda.

“Dhana?” He ran over, thinking that she had fallen to her death. He was too blind to see that she had jumped onto the sand only 8 feet below.

“Are you coming?” she called up. She was wearing a lavender evening gown made of expensive material, but she didn't seem to mind the fact that it was covered in sand.

“OK,” he vaulted over the railing and landed on his feet. It was an exhilarating feeling. He was standing on the top of a steep slope, looking down at the water rolling back and forth over the sand below. The rush of the waves, and the sight of the woman beside him overtook his senses. She was staring at him, smiling. “What?”

“Have you ever been in the ocean before?”

“No.”

She ran behind him and gave him a good shove, sending him careening down the slope. He landed face first and nearly swallowed a mouthful of sand. “Hey,” he turned around and looked back up to where she was standing, but she was already rolling down the hill, heading straight towards him. It was too late. He couldn't move away fast enough, and she ended up crashing right into him.

“Ah!” she screamed.

He laughed. Their bodies were tangle up together, and her hair was covered in sand. It matted up on one end, so that it was standing up just a bit on one side. He reached out and smoothed it for her then they went quiet. His hands slowed down and passed over her cheek then down her neck, where he withdrew it.

She promptly stood up and held out her hand to help him. The water was loud. It drowned out the sound of everything else, and pulled them in. before he knew it he was standing on the line dividing the dry sand from the wet sand.

“What are you waiting for?”

“I don't know.”

She walked forward, but he didn't follow her. Instead he looked out at the waves. They were moving past, pulling in rocks and sand. He found himself wondering whether or not they were dangerous. He decided it would be best to wait and see what happened when she went in. She looked back and just stared at him.

“You know,” she marched over to where he was standing, “you are the strangest man I have ever met.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She grabbed his hand. “Now, come on.”

He looked out at the wave and tried to dig his feet in, but she wasn't going to let him.

“I will drag you.” She was dead serious. She wasn't going to give him a choice, so he decided to swallow his fear and let up. She broke out in a run and dragged him along with him. He was so scared he was shaking. It didn't make any sense at all. It was just water, but it was water filled with little creatures rolling around the dirt with a serious amount of momentum. He closed his eyes and tried to stave off the gruesome images rolling through them. He wasn't going to get hurt. Nothing was going to happen. He kept telling himself that until he opened his eyes and found the water surrounding him.

“Isn't it wonderful,” she whispered. Dhana had her hand around his waist, and was pulling him closer.

It was wonderful. At first the water moved over his ankles and massaged his feet, then it rose over his knees and up his thighs as he went deeper. He was losing himself in the swell, taking in every second of the sweet relaxation that was pulling him in.

She reached in and let her lips touch his, and the water turned to fire, moving over his shoulders, whipping against his face. His hands found her body, his fingers passed around the curve of her jaw and their eyes met.

“I shouldn't have done that,” he whispered.

“Who cares? Nobody is here to see.”

“I'm not allowed to. You don't understand. It's just not done. I-I'm sorry. I have to go.” He turned around and walked back up the beach, leaving her there.

The Regent System was created in the first century of the Celestial Era, when man deemed fit to mark the creation of a new society, separate from those of the early technologists who built rudimentary mass networks and the first thinking machines. The people built infrastructure so they could control their cities, their agriculture and their manufacturing, as well as a large network of personal bots that fulfilled everything from sexual desires to household duties.

At first, the system was designed to be managed by simple quantum computers that worked by allowing humans to give them commands in the form of algorithms so the device could react within the confines of their programming. As that infrastructure grew, the computers grew with them until they became for too complex for humans to program themselves.

Once the problem reached a critical point, a group of Technocrats, powerful tech giants whose companies ruled the early internet, got together and began to build a solution. They had been working on building artificial intelligence by gathering information from the internet and its users so they could teach their brain how to act, and give it the data necessary to do so.

They brought all of their data together and began a project known as the Regent System, an artificial brain that was built off of their existing codes. The Regent System's original purpose before it came online was to gather data. When it came online, that algorithm was still within its system. The people who built the brain wanted the system to continue collecting data so that it could better itself.