The First One's Free by TS Hottle Read Free Book Online Page B

member of the Warrior Caste, and son of
Orial Rufeed, do hereby attest that this recording was made freely
by both parties and the terms were attested to. On my life, I swear
this to be true.”
    “House,” said Kai, “end recording.
Congratulations, General Laral. You just purchased a mudhole.” He
grabbed a piece of meat and chewed off an end. “Subject to Confab,
of course.”
     
     

 
Episode 3: The Caliphate
     
    9
     
     
    Best spent the last half of the trip throwing
up into his flight bag. Traveling to and from the hypergates did
not bother him. Most of the time, he had no clue the spacecraft was
even moving. That brief interval when the ship would enter a
wormhole, however…
    The human mind was not designed to deal with
more than four directions. In fact, time was, for all the
physicists’ talk of it being intertwined with three-dimensional
space, simply why everything didn’t happen at once. Inside
wormholes, however, a ship moved in directions the human brain
lacked the wiring to perceive. For a small number of people, this
meant sudden, often violent nausea. If a world’s hypergates were
not calibrated properly, the number of affected people grew.
    Jefivah’s hypergates dated back two
centuries. Often times, the planet had to wait months to find a
contractor to recalibrate their network, the knowledge required for
technology that old becoming rarer and rarer.
    “Are you all right?” asked the Dimaj when
Best’s vomiting had turned to dry heaves.
    Best looked up at the Dimaj and nodded,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Now that the ship was
in transit to The Caliphate, his nausea was starting to subside.
“Glad we didn’t take a projection drive ship,” he said, referring
to the class of vessels that could create their own wormholes. He
had taken half a dozen of those ships in his lifetime. After his
first trip on one, he made it a point to be sedated the entire
flight.
    “Are you sure it’s safe for you to be in
your… priestly garb here?” he asked.
    The Dimaj sat impassively in his seat, his
eyes fixed on the human flight attendant, a Nordic female who
looked very much like his goddess. “We will stay in the Secular
Quarter of Rashidun. I may not be one of the People of the Book,
but in that part of the city, it doesn’t matter.”
    Best leaned back in his seat to wait for the
ill effects of the wormhole transit to subside. “That’s good. Last
thing I need is to get thrown in jail for ordering a ham
sandwich.”
    “Almost all ham is vat grown these days,”
said the Dimaj. “Therefore, Jews and Muslims can eat it.”
    Best sat up and looked over at his
benefactor. “It was a joke.”
    “I never joke about faith. Or even someone’s
lack of it.”
    Everyone jokes about yours , thought
Best. Before he could say anything else, the captain came over the
ship’s speakers and announced that reentry would begin in five
minutes.
     
    *****
     
    “Governor,” said a voice over the speakers,
“we are about to make the jump.”
    “Acknowledged,” said Kai. He swallowed a
couple of small white pills and turned out the lights in his
quarters. He would ride out the jump lying down in the dark.
    A pair of arms slipped around him. “My poor
Kai. Still can’t handle interstellar travel.” Tishla blew in his
ear.
    “A small price to pay,” said Kai. “We only
have to do this one more time.”
    “Two. Don’t forget you have to confirm this
deal at Confab.”
    That, Kai mused, was worse than riding a
wormhole. “I hope we’re not making a mistake.”
    Tishla nuzzled his neck. “You aren’t. Hanar
will make us wealthy. Make you wealthy.”
    “It will be your wealth, too. I’ll see to
it.” He lay back and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the
projection drive’s inevitable warping of space and time around him.
“That’s assuming Laral’s plan for conscripts to take out the
Tianese works.”
    “We have the element of surprise, my love.
And they are renegades.