Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [71]
Zan’nh bowed. “I will see that it is done to your satisfaction, Liege.”
Chapter 35—OX
OX, the only Teacher compy allowed deep inside private security levels of the WhisperPalace, performed his daily duties, as he had done for almost two centuries. Young Raymond Aguerra, renamed Peter, had been an interesting, well-behaved, model student. Prince Daniel, however, was…not.
With a rude noise, the young man turned away from the news feed, in which the King was receiving the first shipment of stardrive fuel delivered from the Hansa’s new skymine. On the screen, Peter spoke clearly in his well-trained voice. “These shuttles carry fresh ekti. Not purchased from Roamer cloud harvesters. Not removed from our stockpiles. This is stardrive fuel obtained by a Hansa-operated cloud harvester on Qronha 3, which has been cleared of the evil hydrogues.”
“The Ildirans cleared it,” Daniel said with a snort. “ We didn’t do anything. Why is Peter taking credit?”
“He is taking advantage of the situation. He is not taking credit,” OX said. “For as long as that gas planet remains safe, we should mine its clouds. It is surprising that the Ildirans themselves have not brought their own facilities.” He knew, from his ancient experience, that the Ildirans were rigid in their behavior and followed complex, and often slow, patterns.
The Teacher compy had calculated that the amount of stardrive fuel produced by Sullivan Gold’s single facility was far from sufficient to meet the Hansa’s ekti needs, but the symbolism was vital. On the news feed, he and Prince Daniel watched the fuel shuttles open; uniformed workers stepped out, wearing clean and perfectly pressed work uniforms. They carried tanks of compressed ekti, each one mounted on antigrav clips.
“Oh, why should I care?” Daniel said. “No one ever lets me set foot outside of this Palace.”
“You are the chosen Prince.” OX’s modulated voice expressed patience, designed not to provoke or upset a volatile student like this boy. “That is sufficient reason for you to care.”
“Will I ever get to go out there? Make a public appearance? I want to take a look inside that hydrogue wreckage, but you won’t let me.” Daniel pouted.
“Chairman Wenceslas has given explicit instructions. You are to be sheltered. It is for your own safety.”
“Peter gets to do it. If I’m a real Prince, then why shouldn’t I be with him? I’m his replacement if anything bad happens.”
Considering Daniel’s intractable behavior, his resistance to even simple instructions, OX knew that nothing “bad” was likely to happen to the King anytime soon, despite Basil’s implied threats. “Perhaps you will earn a change of status, once you achieve certain milestones.”
“If the hydrogues came and wiped out this city, then I could do what I wanted. Ha! I’d probably survive this deep in the WhisperPalace.”
“Do not speak that way, Prince Daniel.”
“I’m the Prince. I can speak any way I like.”
“And I am your instructor. My job is to see that you learn the proper ways to speak. And to behave.” The compy added a sharp edge to his voice, which startled the young man into silence.
For many months now OX had diligently worked with Daniel to make him understand his role. The basic data of the Prince’s prior life explained that he—whose real name was withheld from OX—had been taken from a bad household. He’d had a stepfather, no mother, and an “obnoxious older sister,” according to Daniel’s comments. At first the Prince candidate had been overjoyed with his new circumstances, showing excessive hedonism and gluttony. Through prior models of human behavior, OX expected that