Rhythm of the Imperium - eARC Read online

  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  RHYTHM OF THE

  IMPERIUM - eARC

  Book 3 of the Lord Thomas Kinago series

  JODY LYNN NYE

  Advance Reader Copy

  Unproofed

  Book Three in the View from the Imperium series from humorous SF master Jody Lynn Nye. Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago and his trusty constant companion, the unflappable Parsons, are back. And this time they've got a planet to save.

  The Zang, an elder race of the galaxy, may be a shrinking population, but they're also intelligent, curious, and powerful. What's more, they practice a most unusual art form: they bonsai star systems. Eager to witness this first hand, Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago, accompanied as always by his personal assistant Parsons, sets out on a several-week jaunt to see the Zang destroy a moon to enhance the beauty of a star system.

  But the trip is sidelined when Kinago's uncle offers to take him to the seldom seen human homeworld, Earth. Unable to resist, Kinago goes along, only to find on his return that the planet he's just visited may be in danger of being eradicated. Earth lies within the protective sphere of the Zang, but enemies of the Imperium are lobbying to have Sol system turned over to them.

  It is up to Kinago and Parsons to save Earth. Kinago has the key, but will he be able to persuade the Zang to spare the human homeworld before it's too late?

  BAEN BOOKS BY JODY LYNN NYE

  Imperium series

  View from the Imperium

  Fortunes of the Imperium

  Rhythm of the Imperium

  The Grand Tour

  School of Light

  Walking in Dreamland

  The Ship Errant

  Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear

  License Invoked (with Robert Asprin)

  With Ann McCaffrey

  The Ship who Saved the World

  The Death of Sleep

  The Ship Who Won

  Planet Pirates (also with Elizabeth Moon)

  RHYTHM OF THE IMPERIUM

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Jody Lynn Nye

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

  A Baen Books Original

  Baen Publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  www.baen.com

  ISBN: 978-1-4767-8091-7

  Cover art by David Mattingly

  First printing, December 2015

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: TK

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  PROLOGUE

  The elder being called One Zang moved toward three more of its kind who stood on the tossing waves of a gas giant’s upper atmosphere. They all stood immersed in infinity, watching the liberated energy flowing away from them in huge glowing explosions of radiation that created shock waves felt throughout the white dwarf star’s system and beyond. One Zang enjoyed the sensation of riding the wild force through its ups and downs. It had the urge to burst forth with a wordless thought of pleasure, but reined it in. One had to retain one’s dignity.

  Like its fellows, the Zang’s senses extended infinitely far away from its corporeal body. Their minds were rooted among the stars, but centered upon a diaphanous form that occupied a space one meter by three meters by 1.45 meters and excited wavelengths in the visible light scale close to the ultraviolet. Some carbon-based ephemerals from certain star systems had described its shape as a chopped-off tree trunk or a gigantic half-melted gray candle. It felt outward with its extended senses, touching the substance of its fellows, then into the deepness they were studying. The immediate space, for nine hexaprag in all dimensions, was serene. Perfection. The process had been a success. Nothing more needed to be accomplished there to bring that portion of the present universe into harmony. Its colleagues had done well. Truthfully, it could not recall a time when they did not.

  The other three Zang acknowledged One Zang. The four of them contemplated the shock wave that spread out from the place where the enormous, misshapen asteroid had been. One Zang sent out a portion of its consciousness and enjoyed the sensation, riding it like a light wave until the energy was dissipated to barely perceptible vibrations. Charm Zang, leaner and taller than the others, sent a thread of inquiry.

  “Do you like it?”

  “You have removed a disharmonious obstruction,” One Zang replied, overspreading its colleagues with waves of shared pleasure. It received some in return.

  “The transient mass interfered with the orbit of two planets in this system,” Zang Quark said. It had the most opaque form of the four. “Now, it is energy.”

  “It is good.”

  Low Zang interjected a wobble of dissent.

  “The asteroid might have had a purpose one day.”

  “It looked bad. It had to go,” Charm Zang replied. It gave off a sensation of impatience that shook them all. “See how much better it does as dark energy?”

  Low Zang retreated from its stance, both physically and in spirit. It was the newest to the group, and was uncertain of its mastery of matter. One Zang noticed the withdrawal and moved to include Low Zang in the group, wrapping it in warmth gathered from the tossing inferno of the gas giant’s surface. A gathering of the usually solitary Zang was rare, so it did not want to discourage Low Zang from feeling comfortable joining such conclaves in future.

  “Why pull away?” it asked. “We are a unit.”

  Low Zang lowered its aura until it was nearly drawn around its physical form. “I did not mean to imply the action to change its state was wrong.”

  “It is not disrespectful. If you truly disagree, then it is wrong not to offer your input,” One Zang said, kindly. “We believe in you.”

  “Yes, we do,” Charm Zang said, moving close. The tall being chimed its empathy. “We could have brought any of the others into our group, but we appreciate your insights into harmony and artistic arrangement.”

  “You do?” Low Zang broadcast its wistfulness.

  “Yes,” One Zang said. It gathered the approval of the others, and focused it upon the youngster. “So much so that we are going to permit you to decide which disharmony we will dis
pose of next.”

  Low Zang was thrilled. Its person, out to the very ends of its energy streams, glowed with joy. The art that they created was beautiful, both in physical and aesthetic terms. Low must not throw away this opportunity. It had wished to be part of this unit for many ages. Eternity would be very long if it was dismissed from the group for making a poor decision.

  It studied the cosmos for hundreds of hexaprag in every direction. Over eons, the Zang had rearranged or disintegrated errant heavenly bodies that interfered with the beauty of space. Low Zang turned its attention to a sector on a galactic arm that for whatever reason had never been well-furnished with stars, planets or other artifacts. Its emptiness suggested quiet meditation. It was a place much loved by the senior Zang, but like so many things in the chaotic universe, it could be improved further. Low evinced daring, a sensation that caused its fellows to hum along in tune. One gleaming ball in particular excited its interest. Its hazy blue color was not in tune with the other spheres that circled the lone, low-quality star at the heart of its system. The planet’s placement seemed superfluous, considering the larger orbs further out. Only one satellite circled it. The moon was much too big for the planet. Whoever had permitted the out-of-proportion spheroid to continue existing had not paid attention to that detail.

  “That one,” Low said, highlighting it with a tiny burst of energy. “I feel that it does not belong there. It does not add to the flow of its system.”

  One Zang projected pleasure toward Low Zang.

  “We have chosen well, as have you. Agreed.”

  “So you approve?” Low Zang asked, hardly able to accept the notion.

  “Yes,” Charm Zang said. Zang Quark added the pleasant regard of its assent and One Zang enveloped them all in the sense of unity, making Low Zang feel warm to the tips of its being. “That will be the next planet we demolish.”

  CHAPTER 1

  After my sixteenth spin, during which I realized I was becoming intensely dizzy, I leaped into the air, with both heels arching toward my back, then sank upon my left knee to the ground. My right leg extended with toe pointed in the direction of the sunset. My arms were crossed upon my chest, my back bowed to show that all energy was spent. The recorded music rose around me in a splendid crescendo, and I let my chin fall to my breastbone.

  I waited for a moment, but the expected applause failed to materialize. I glanced up at my audience.

  My cousins sat or reclined upon the various sumptuously upholstered chairs and crash couches arranged about the elegant private entertainment center of the Imperium Jaunter. Though each of them was dressed in the height of fashion and styled within a millimeter of their lives in the latest of sartorial, tonsorial and aureate splendor, all of them wore a uniform expression of befuddlement.

  “I’m sure that was very meaningful, Thomas,” my cousin Jil said, patting a bored yawn with a slender but heavily beringed hand, “but I have no idea whatsoever what it was you just did.”

  “Oh, come now!” I said, rising to my feet. A squat, cubic LAI attendant trundled up to me and offered me a towel almost glowing in its pristine whiteness from the hatch on its top side. I mopped my forehead and the back of my neck. Such was the intensity of my training for my newest art form that I scarcely had to collect any droplets of exertive moisture. That did not stop my mechanical shadow from mopping up and down the skin-tight, plum-colored bodysuit that I wore on my long frame. “That was my tribute to the final sunset we just witnessed as we departed Keinolt!”

  Jil fluttered a hand and tossed back her mane of caramel-colored hair.

  “Why? What is wrong with simply saying that it was pretty? If it was. I didn’t notice. Did anyone else notice?”

  Several of my relations shrugged their shoulders.

  “But merely saying so is excruciatingly ordinary,” I said, coming over to throw myself upon the couch beside hers. “I wish to evoke the special energy of the moment, to give it the importance that it deserved. Are we all so jaded by our circumstances that we pay no heed to natural phenomena?”

  “Not at all,” my cousin Xan insisted. He stretched his long feet out before him, admiring the toes of his polished bronze-colored boots, which were tinted to go with the tunic counterwoven with gold that fit his muscular torso like a glove. His entire ensemble was designed to point up his natural good looks. He had thick, dark, wavy hair and almond-shaped blue eyes startling in a golden-hued face. “But, Thomas, the sun sets every day. Why draw attention to a single sunset?”

  “Because,” I said, infusing my voice with as much melodrama as it could absorb without creating a distressingly cloying precipitate, “it may be the last one we ever observe on our homeworld. Has no one thought of that?”

  “To be honest, no,” Erita said, toying with her wine glass. Our cousin’s long blonde hair had been swept into an updo of ridiculous elaboration, with the inclusion of a bamboo cricket cage, a cluster of bright red pinpoint lights and a golden charm featuring her monogram. “Travel via jump points has been safe for several millennia. This is the best and newest of the Imperium leisure fleet, and we are accompanied by military vessels to ensure our well-being, as is fitting for scions of the noble houses. So, I assume that I will see many more sunsets over Keinolt that rival the one we just left behind.”

  “True,” I said. It was hard to argue when faced with facts. I sighed.

  “But don’t be upset, Thomas,” Jil said, encouragingly. Her lovely, golden-skinned face wreathed itself with smiles. “Just because we didn’t understand it doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.”

  “Oh, I know it was good,” I said, dejectedly. “I wish you understand how meaningful it was.”

  “I thought it was pretty amazing, my lord,” Ensign Nesbitt said, his voice hoarse with shyness at addressing me in the midst of my noble family. The big, dark-haired man seemed embarrassed to have spoken. He twisted his very large person into a series of uncomfortable postures that indicated in rapid succession abashment, discomfort, fear and admiration. I made a note of the sequence for later. It might come in handy in some of my future performances. “I never saw anyone make jumps like that outside of low-grav.”

  Nesbitt and other members of the small but select crew that usually traveled with me on missions for the good of the Imperium had been assigned to accompany me to the Zang sector. The Rodrigo, my small naval scout ship, was bestowed in the belly of the Jaunter, but a full destroyer led us toward our second jump point. There would be five jumps in all, with long transits in between each. Zang space was difficult to reach, not unusual considering its inhabitants. Nesbitt and the other navy personnel sat in modestly upholstered chairs arranged at the side of the chamber as though afraid to touch the bubble of nobility for fear it might burst.

  “Thank you,” I said, with a gracious inclination of my head. “But did it touch your soul?”

  Nesbitt looked bemused, not an uncommon expression for him to wear. He glanced at our fellow naval personnel as if to gather wisdom from one of them. None seemed to be forthcoming.

  “I think so,” he replied.

  Oskelev, a white-furred Wichu and the best pilot in the Imperium Navy, shrugged her meaty shoulders. Unlike the rest of my crew, she wore only a harness to hold her viewpad and identifier patches. Her thick pelt was more protective than any clothing up to cold-weather gear, though brilliant pink nipples and other exterior genitalia protruded therefrom. All Wichu were unselfconscious about their bodies, so humanity had perforce to come to terms with their culture and customs.

  “I don’t know if we have souls to touch,” she said.

  “Of course you do!” I declared. “Even the least amoeba, the merest slip of grass, the most distant star has a soul.”

  Oskelev put her candy-pink tongue between her lips and blew a derisive sound.

  “Okay. What use do stars have for souls?”

  “How do we know they don’t?” Lieutenant Anstruther piped up.

  I smiled at her. The slender, quiet brunette ofte
n championed me in arguments with the others. I thought it was rather sweet of her, though I could wax loquacious on my own behalf. I prepared to launch a philosophical argument, based upon my theories of the movements of the stars through the observable galaxy.

  “I’m sorry, Thomas,” said my sister Lionelle, drawing my attention away. She curled her slim legs up under the skirt of her cerulean-blue gown. Of my mother’s three children, Nell, the youngest, was the one who most resembled her: petite, small-boned, waves of soft hair framing a heart-shaped face, though her vivid brunette coloring and sapphire-blue eyes came from our father. By contrast, I had acquired our father’s physiognomy and our mother’s sea-blue eyes and sandy hair. “I’m afraid that symbolism has never been an open book, as far as I am concerned.”

  “That’s not true at all,” I argued. “Language is a purely symbolic form of communication. Nothing that we say is concrete. Every word is a concept. Every phrase is a collection of action and meaning. Interpretive dance merely turns such symbolism into meaningful movement.”

  “So it’s one step further removed from actually doing something,” Xan, said, looking amused.

  “You have it exactly,” I said, very pleased. I knew I could count upon Xan to catch the somewhat wayward drift of my discourse. “It both obscures and reveals meaning. In this case, I am telling the story of the regret that we experience for leaving our home planet, coupled with the excitement for the upcoming spectacle we will witness at our destination.”