chapter 1

"THE BEST OF TIMES, ASSUREDLY," LORD Dunsmore agreed. He was always eager to agree with anyone whose opinion was worth noting, and in this instance, he could have found no reason not to agree had he pondered the matter for hours. His host, although only a regional manager for GalaxCo, was related to the Mainwaring family by marriage and therefore had to be considered knowledgeable and, to a carefully measured degree, influential. "By any standard," Lord Dunsmore said, "clearly, the Empire is at high tide."

"But Herbert, dearest," his wife protested, "surely a high tide implies the coming of a low tide. You seem to suggest that the Empire's fortunes shall soon be on the wane."

"Not necessarily, Lady Dunsmore," their young host, Richard DuMont, quickly responded. "Here on Mynjhino, we have three moons, you know. One high tide may be quickly followed by another, which may be even higher. Rather a complex business, I fear."

The lad was clever, Lord Dunsmore decided, although perhaps a bit presumptuous to contradict his wife in such a bold fashion. Contradicting his wife was a prerogative Lord Dunsmore embraced for himself, and it was one of his more satisfying pastimes. "It was, in any event," he pointed out, "merely a figure of speech. What I meant, of course"—he looked toward Lady Dunsmore with a peremptory glare—"was that the state of the Empire is satisfactory in nearly every respect. Young Charles is growing into his office in a most splendid fashion, and peace and prosperity are the order of the day. I confess, I had my doubts after that dreadful business three years ago—I suppose we all did, what?—but one can hardly gainsay his performance since then."

"Oh, indeed, Lord Dunsmore, indeed!" young DuMont responded, raising a glass of wine. DuMont nodded toward one of the waiters to summon another bottle. "However," DuMont continued, "I, for one, never had any doubts about the qualities of our new Emperor. You see, I knew him briefly when we were in school together, and just after. Did I mention that already?"

"Five times, at least, dear," his wife, Rosalyn, reminded him. She was quite attractive in a rather obvious way. A bit of a tart, it seemed to Lord Dunsmore, with her High Imperial pretensions. Her skimpy attire was nearly transparent, which seemed a bit much merely for Tuesday afternoon tennis and drinks at their club. Still, she presented distinct possibilities for this evening. He was not likely to find better on this isolated rathole of a planet.

The waiter arrived with a fresh bottle of wine, preceded by an unpleasant waft of pungency. The creature was about five feet tall and covered head to foot in short, rather greasy yellowish-brown fur. Naked, it seemed. It had long, sharply pointed ears jutting outward from its skull at a forty-five-degree angle, and large, liquid brown eyes set wide above a short, blunt snout. It looked like an animated teddy bear or a tall koala, perhaps, and was not unpleasant to behold. But it stank. Lord Dunsmore turned his head away in search of fresher air while the creature did its duty. He stared out from their table on the veranda across the tennis courts and toward the lush green of the plantations in the distance. When the wine was poured and the creature was gone, Lord Dunsmore looked back at his host.

"It's a wonder to me that you can stand the stench."

"One gets used to it, in time, my lord," DuMont replied. "But I do apologize for it."

"Oh, no need for you to apologize, Richard, dear," Lady Dunsmore responded with just the right touch of airy condescension.

"Still," said Lord Dunsmore, "one would think that at a private club such as this, one might find some relief from the locals. Can no humans be found to provide services? Or failing that, robots?"

"Robots might be preferable," DuMont conceded, "but importing them would be a problem. No local construction facilities, of course, and our concession agreement is rather restrictive in that area. We aren't to put the little fellows out of work, if we can avoid it. And as for humans, well, my lord, good luck in finding one to serve you your dinner. They are all out in the hills on the Western Continent looking for gems and ores, or overseeing the plantations here on the Eastern Continent. There are fortunes to be made on a world such as this—or at any rate, there is always the hope of a fortune. No one comes this far at such an expense just to be a menial."

"I suppose." Lord Dunsmore reluctantly nodded. "Still, one would think . . ."

"There are only ten thousand of us here, my lord," Rosalyn DuMont pointed out.

"Yes," her husband agreed, "there's always a shortage of human labor on worlds like Mynjhino. Spirit knows, GalaxCo has its problems finding adequate staff out here. We're 862 light-years from home, and we must compete with hundreds of nearer, better-established colonies. And you are aware that Imperial policy is to make use of local labor, where it exists."

"Imperial policy? Dexta policy, you mean!" Lord Dunsmore sniffed. "Damned bureaucrats. If I have any complaint at all with our new Emperor, it is with his constant truckling to that knave Mingus and his grim, gray army."

"Oh, they aren't all that bad, dear," Lady Dunsmore objected. "We know some perfectly fine people at Dexta. And as for the Emperor, well, one mustn't forget that his wife—or I should say, ex-wife—is at Dexta. At a rather low level, I gather, but perhaps she still has some influence over him."

"I knew her, as well," DuMont couldn't keep himself from mentioning. "Perfectly stunning woman, and smart as a whip."

"If she was so stunning and smart as all that," Lord Dunsmore said with a trace of contempt, "I rather fancy she'd still be his wife instead of some drone in the Department of Extraterrestrial Affairs."

"Oh, but it was she who dropped him," Lady Dunsmore reminded her husband. "Of course, that was five or six years ago, before he had any prospect of ascension."

Copyright © 2005 by C.J. Ryan