"I do not have feelings, so I cannot take offense, Captain Odeon, but I thank you for the courtesy."

"You're welcome," Odeon replied automatically, before turning to DeLayne. "Even the little bit I've experienced so far--this Sickbay and talking to your ship--is awesome. It makes me feel . . . I don't know. I'm competent enough in the Kingdom Systems, but it's pretty clear none of us are anything but total incompetents in your terms. I don't like that feeling."

"Neither would I, in your place. But don't worry about it; as I told Colonel Cortin, we aren't monsters, and we don't force ourselves on anyone. If she does decide the Systems should join the Empire, we'll offer but not impose education about us and our science. Also whatever you need to bring yourselves to our level."

"Like you offered to teach me?"

"Exactly. Ready to get started?"

"Definitely." Odeon allowed himself a brief smile as he stood. "Let's go see one of these 'teaching tapes' you mentioned. Are they anything like a book?"

"Nothing at all. They aren't really tapes, either; they just got called that, back when they were invented, and the name stuck. Let's go to my cabin, and I'll introduce you to them. Admiral Columbus, please have a reader and basic-language tape waiting in my fabricator."

"Yes, Captain."

"Fabricator?" Odeon asked as they left Sickbay, going deeper into the ship.

"Yes. Do you know anything about molecular physics?"

"No." Odeon sighed. "I'm really in over my head, aren't I?"

DeLayne chuckled. "Not really; that's one of my degrees, is all, and I enjoy discussing it when I get the chance. Most people haven't the faintest idea how fabricators work; they just use them. We don't manufacture small items any more; once a prototype's developed, the pattern is scanned and recorded. When you want one of that item, you code it into your fabricator, and the fabricator constructs it, with any modifications you specify in the coding, from reconst.i.tuted raw materials. When you're done with it, you feed it back into the fabricator's raw material storage for re-use."

Odeon whistled. "That's incredible. Things like your uniform?"

"Among others, yes."

"And I thought the plague and Families were causing a major social upheaval. What you're going to do to us . . . Maybe Colonel Cortin's right to be afraid of you after all, though not for the reason she thinks."

"I can't deny there'll be stress," DeLayne said soberly. "You won't have to join, and you won't have to accept anything from us that you don't want--but just making open contact will cause changes, yes. It's a good thing for your Systems that Colonel Cortin was able to get Ranger Medart, too. Any Ranger would be good, but he's the Empire's best at anything involving cultural differences--which we don't try to destroy, as you probably already know. To quote a twentieth-century writer by the name of O'Sullivan, our aim is to 'preserve the unique viewpoints of different groups, but at the same time require that each group be tolerant of the others'. We see harmonious diversity as a good thing."

"I'd gotten that impression, but not in so many words. The Sandemans and Traiti, from what I've studied, both maintain their own cultures within their Subsector and Sector."

"And so do the cloudcats, on Ondrian. They're another race Ranger Medart managed to bring into the Empire peacefully--d.a.m.n good thing for us, since that's the only place miracle-weed produces usable rapid-heal."

"I never heard of any of those."

DeLayne chuckled. "Learning from comm intercepts would tend to be fragmentary, especially when the ultrawave beams aren't aimed at you and you don't have the cultural background to understand a lot of what you do hear. That's what we're in the process of remedying. And here's my cabin." He put his hand to a small plate beside the door, which promptly opened onto a small living area. "Have a seat while I go get the tape and player--my fabricator's in the bedroom."

Odeon obeyed, rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't afraid of the Empire, and as he'd told Joanie months ago when he first started studying them, he already had some respect for them. DeLayne was adding to that, even as he was overwhelming Odeon with casually incomprehensible references. Fabricators, cloudcats, miracle-weed, rapid-heal . . . and teaching tapes. DeLayne was emerging from the bedroom carrying what looked like a small book and a thin box of matches, though Odeon was sure those had to be the reader and 'tape'

he'd mentioned.

"Here we go," DeLayne said, pulling up a chair. He handed Odeon the reader, which turned out to be a screen with a row of words underneath--all of which, to Odeon's gratification, he was able to puzzle out--and showed him how to insert the tape, then explained the touch controls for tape direction and speed. "The older models have electrodes that have to go on the temples," he added, "but the new ones don't need them. Some people have a mild reaction, disorientation or a touch of nausea; if you do, slowing the tape down usually gets rid of it. Whenever you're ready, just touch the "Go" b.u.t.ton."

"Okay." Odeon did so--and promptly doubled over.

Alarmed, DeLayne grabbed the tape player and shut it off. "What's wrong, Captain?"

"I thought you said . . . mild nausea and disorientation. Not stomach cramps and . . . the worst headache I've ever had."

DeLayne frowned. "I've never heard of a reaction that bad, or I would've warned you. Let me get Dr. Drulet to prescribe you something."

"Thanks, but no thanks; I'll be okay. It's fading already." Odeon straightened cautiously, shaking his head. "I don't think I'd care to repeat the experience, though. Do you have any ordinary books I can use instead?"

"No, but I can have the ship print you out what's on the tapes.

Normally I'd suggest you try a standard reading tape, but after that reaction, printouts would probably be the best idea. They're a h.e.l.l of a lot slower than teaching tapes, though; it'll take you a day or so to learn what the tape would've given you in a couple of minutes."

"I'll take the day, and the printouts."

"You've got them. Imperial English, or should I have the ship transcribe everything into the pre-Imperial alphabet?"

"Imperial," Odeon said, after a moment's thought. "I'm going to have to learn it sooner or later, so why put it off?"

"That makes sense. And I don't think I'd better let any of your people try taking a tape till the Lindner gets here. An IBC has better research facilities than a scout; they may be able to find out why you reacted so badly, whether it's an individual reaction or something everyone in the Systems shares, and how to avoid it."

"That makes sense, too. Thanks, Captain. Aside from the alphabet, what would you recommend I study first?"

"In your place I'd start with basic history and Imperial structure.

Once you know that, you're in a better position than I am to decide what else you'll need."

"I'll do that, then."

27a. At Harmony Lodge

28. Aboard the Lindner

James Medart was looking forward to his arrival in the Kingdom Systems.

Another new culture to study, this time a group whose ancestors had fled the early Empire in an attempt to escape religious persecution.

From Captain DeLayne's reports, that had been about four hundred years ago, and even though they refused to discuss religion, DeLayne said that from their symbols and occasional references, they were a Roman Catholic variant.

DeLayne's primary informant was Cortin's second-in-command, who was also studying the Empire with considerable interest, DeLayne said, but making slow progress because he had a strong negative reaction to teaching tapes. That was unfortunate, Medart thought, but Odeon's att.i.tude was a distinct improvement on Cortin's fear. He admitted to being a priest, once DeLayne asked about some of his insigne, but was reluctant to go beyond that, and said most of their Founders' records had been destroyed in the Final War. He couldn't provide the historical background Medart would have liked, then, so the Ranger decided to see what he could find from the Imperial side.

After several days' research, he studied what he'd been able to put together from obscure and also incomplete records--not typical of the time, and he found himself wondering if that could be deliberate.

Sabotage, maybe, by some who had stayed behind, to protect those who had left?

The group that founded the Kingdom Systems had begun as a large Roman Catholic parish in the Southwestern United States, conventional except that it was allowed to use the Latin Ma.s.s. In 2148, however, they were a.s.signed a new priest. Until his arrival there, he had seemed equally conventional, though he had already gained a reputation for great charisma and persuasiveness. When he became parish priest, however, he began preaching about the Final Coming--not of Christ, but of a Third Aspect of G.o.d he called the Protector. This Aspect would appear after Satan had been released from h.e.l.l and allowed to wreak his will for a hundred years. He also called for the ordination of women, a priesthood allowed to marry, and numerous other changes.

To the Vatican's dismay, he attracted a large number of followers from all over the world. Many moved to his parish, while those who disagreed with him moved out. The entire group was excommunicated in 2156, branded a heretic cult, and generally scorned by outsiders. At this point, it began implementing the priest's suggested changes, including new terms for Satan and Jesus--now Shayan and Jeshua.

All this got them greater notoriety and contempt. To escape that, the priest persuaded his followers that it would be best to flee this persecution and the Empire that permitted it--though in fact the Empire was simply maintaining its strict neutrality regarding religious matters--and, in 2158, the group left Terra, fleeing in three surprisingly large and well-equipped ships. Nothing had been heard of them since, and apparently no one had particularly cared; there had been no investigation or follow-up of any kind.

Another deliberately self-"lost" colony, Medart thought. At least this one wasn't fighting them, and from Odeon's medical records there didn't seem to be any genetic tampering, as in the case of the Sandemans--just a pseudo-virus, one that enhanced the s.e.x drive, which had surfaced about thirty years ago, and a mutation in Odeon that somehow mimicked it. That, Medart was certain, was natural rather than engineered; the Kingdoms' medical care was more advanced than the Sandemans' had been at Annexation, but it certainly wasn't up to genetic engineering.

He spent the rest of the trip studying the tapes DeLayne transmitted, including what teaching tapes he'd transcribed for Odeon, and brushing up on Roman Catholic theology of the mid-twenty-second century. The church had been starting to splinter then, but from what little Odeon let slip, it seemed safe to concentrate on what was currently called the Traditional branch--while keeping firmly in mind that this was a variant, possibly in more than the Persons of the Trinity and the names of G.o.d and Devil.