A War Most Modest (JNC Edition) Read online

  What are the Abh? I’ll tell you:

  They are components of a sprawling machine. To them, children are nothing more than replacement parts manufactured to take over their work before they rust away.

  Then, what is this “machine,” you ask?

  This pernicious machine — and pernicious it is — is the so-called “Humankind Empire of Abh.” They are a menace that continues to threaten the soundness of human society, and should we allow them to persist, they will swallow us and our society whole.

  A menace we are compelled to destroy.

  Quoth Representative Fitzdavid at the Central Council of the United Mankind.

  Welcome to the Abh Empire

  ...or as they would say in their native tongue of Baronh, the great and indefatigable Bar Frybarec!

  “Bar fry-ba-rec?”

  Nope, it’s actually pronounced “Bar Fryoobar”!

  What the hey!?

  Some quick points!

  Things To Look Out For:

  It’s spelled “Abh” but pronounced “Ahv”! “Bh” is a “v” sound! Keep your eye out for other two-letter combinations that use the letter “h” to make for a single sound!

  For Example: Rébh (a passenger ship) is pronounced “REV.” The name of the language, Baronh, is pronounced “BARONYUH” because the “nh” digraph represents a “nyuh” sound.

  You’ll see a lot of “-c” and “–ec” at the ends of Baronh words. These are silent! (They’re there to mark their grammatical purpose.)

  For Example: Lonidec (a base) is pronounded “LOHNEED.”

  When “c” isn’t silent, it’s ALWAYS a hard “c” (like a “k”)!

  For Example: Cénh (a trainee pupil) is pronounced “KENYUH.”

  You’ll also see a lot of “ai”s that represent “eh” sounds (or close enough), as well as “au”s that make “oh” sounds.

  For Example: Arnaigh (an orbital tower) is pronounced “ARNEHZH.” Meanwhile, arauch (the imperial capital) is “AROHSH.”

  “Eu” is akin to a “yoo” sound.

  For Example: Reucec (gentry) is “RYOOK.”

  There are some spelling exceptions.

  For Example: It’s spelled aïbss (surface-dwelling “Lander” human) but pronounced “AEEP.”

  We’re sure you’ll pick it up as you go!

  Pronunciation Guide Legend (for things that are not otherwise obvious)

  ZH is similar to a “j” sound, but softer. (In Baronh, this is “gh.”)

  RR refers to a rolling “r” sound. (In Baronh, this is “rh.”)

  DTH refers to a voiced “th” sound (like the “th” in “the” as opposed to the one in “thin.” In Baronh, this is “dh.”)

  NOTE: The actual phonology is more varied, and these pronunciation guides are handy approximations. For example, “EH” is standing for a multitude of different sounds that are in more or less the same ballpark. The way these words are spelled are based on Baronh’s own baked-in system of Romanization/transliteration (the script is in fact written in glyphs called “Ath”).

  ALSO NOTE: After the first appearance of the majority of Baronh vocabulary, if they appear again, they will be replaced by their English equivalent in bold text.

  The language is just another aspect of what makes this magnificent space empire and its culture so fascinating! And we’re confident that you’ll know your froch from your frocragh in no time!

  CREST OF THE STARS II — A War Most Modest

  Summary of Crest of the Stars I

  One fateful day, Jinto’s home planet suffered an incursion by an Abh fleet.

  In the face of their demands for total capitulation, Jinto’s father, Planetary President Rock, acquiesced to Abh rule in exchange for being conferred a noble rank among them. As a result, Jinto became the rare surface-born human who was legally an Abh, but not genetically. He and his line were incorporated into their vast interstellar empire, and so Jinto was to board a spaceship headed toward its capital.

  However, that ship was then ambushed by an enemy fleet, and Jinto and the royal princess, Lafier, were sent off as the only two to escape, bidden toward the Sfagnoff Marquessate on a small connecting vessel.

  The two made a pit stop at the Febdash Barony to refuel, only to find themselves confined there by a nefarious agent.

  Characters

  Jinto

  ...... the son of the president of the planet Martin.

  Lafier

  ...... a trainee starpilot in the Abh Empire’s Star Forces, as well as the Empress’s granddaughter.

  Klowar

  ...... the ruler of the Febdash Barony.

  Sruf

  ...... Klowar’s father, and former Baron of Febdash.

  Seelnay (“SELL’NYE”)

  ...... a servant of the Febdash Baron’s Estate.

  Entryua Reie (“RAY”)

  ...... Police Inspector of the Lune Beega Criminal Investigation Department.

  Kyte

  ...... Military Police Lieutenant of the Peacekeepers.

  Lamagh

  ...... the Empress of the Abh.

  Chapter 1: The Homemakers’ Office of the Baron’s Estate

  The year was 136 in the faibdachoth (the Febdash calendar). However, each solar revolution at this particular barony was short enough to measure around a third of the cosmic standard.

  In other words, it was quite young for a nation.

  And make no mistake, though the citizenry numbered a paltry fifty, the Febdash Barony was a nation unto itself. While technically a part of the Empire, it had accrued its own storied history unperturbed by outside currents or the affairs that swayed the Empire’s hub.

  Granted, there was almost no disturbance to speak of that year, and consequently, nothing to give life there much zest.

  But now, things were different. Now, a pair of visitors were trying to shatter the peace.

  One of those visitors, Jinto, noble prince of the Countdom of Hyde, had been tossed into the same chamber as the former baron, who was also trapped there.

  “Look over there, boy.” The former Baron of Febdash pointed at the thick marble door. “That’s where they dragged you in from.”

  “What exactly was going on when that happened?” asked Jinto.

  “I was lost in my meditations — I spend most of the day meditating, with a bottle of booze for company, mind you. Then I hear the door opening! Thing hadn’t opened in a good 20 years. For such a momentous occasion, I’d skip my own funeral, so I jumped to check it out, only to see ya on an auto-stretcher inching your way inside.”

  “That’s it? Me on an auto-stretcher? Nobody else?”

  “Oh yeah, there were two servants behind ya — that is to say, out in the hallway. And they were packing heat, too. Not that they’d ever be sticking ‘em on a former baron, but guns they had. Ya know, for some reason, I’ve never been able to relax when I’m around people who’re armed. Anyway, as I glued my gaze on your stretcher, it stopped right in front of me. Gave me the heebie-jeebies. Meanwhile, the ladies were dead silent, and stood there stock still. They looked at me like they wanted me to do something, but they didn’t bother saying what. Not ones to divulge much, lemme tell ya! Could’ve found work as secret agents!”

  “Then what?” Jinto prodded.

  “Well, I figured they wanted me to have you and the stretcher part ways, so I whipped up the energy in these old bones of mine and laid ya down on the floor. Soon as I did, the thing took its leave, and the door closed. And my dear son’s servants stayed frozen and mute the whole time. I’d wager they’re still standing there on the other side of the door as we speak. They must positively adore us.”

  “So, I was out cold all thr
oughout, huh.” Jinto had to periodically anchor the conversation, or else the old man would take the conversation to some uncharted places no one could predict.

  “Ya were indeed, boy. I even thought ya could be dead. Maybe my offspring’s been thinking of just making this place into a mortuary once I died, and he jumped the gun a little with you. That’s what was running through my head until I saw you were twitching in your sleep. Then I knew you were alive. And easy to sympathize with, what with those two escorting ya. Then I whipped my old bones up once again and carried ya to bed. I was holding out hope that a spot of rest might change your personality, too. But when ya came to, ya grabbed me by the collar and started bawling at me for answers, like a cat that’d just nabbed its kittens’ kidnappers red-handed...”

  “At no point did I grab you by the collar, nor did I ever bawl at you,” Jinto reminded him.

  “I was just expressing how startled I was, that’s all. If you’re gonna pick me apart like that, then what was it all for? I whipped up my old bones two whole times for ya.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, though in truth he’d have liked it if Sruf acknowledged how relatively calm he’d been under fire.

  “Wow, boy. Let it be said that the way ya swallow everything is your greatest treasure.”

  And, having lauded Jinto so, Sruf proceeded to show him around their zone of confinement. However, unlike the patrol ship Goslauth’s interior, there wasn’t much of interest to see here, so it took nary a moment to run through it all. They had access to a washroom and bath, a kitchen, and a warehouse-cum-repair room for the automatons, along with five other chambers besides. A small garden lay at zone’s center, surrounded by various rooms connected to it and to each other by corridors.

  “I don’t see any windows anywhere,” murmured Jinto, after crossing into the last of the rooms, the living room. A window might have served as a means of escape.

  “Course not,” said Sruf. “Even if there was one, we’re surrounded by the cultivation ranch, so it wouldn’t exactly be breathtaking scenery. Unless you’d enjoy watching the meat grow in the culture tanks, in which case something must’ve made a deep damn impression on ya when you were a wee one.”

  “Oh no, trust me, I have no desire to watch meat grow,” gainsaid Jinto. He had to wonder whether Sruf had forgotten all about The Escape Plan.

  “In the void of space, windowless is far more practical.” Sruf worked some controls in a corner of the room, and the walls reflected imagery of a terrestrial vista. A mountain jutted tall and stately, capped white with snow. The room’s vantage point was set to be level with its apex. Drawing nearer to the wall, a viewer could look down upon all the other surrounding peaks. Clouds were rolling around each mountain’s foot. Looking up, on the other hand, greeted the viewer with a sky so blue one could almost see it reaching the ends of the galaxy.

  “Impressive,” said Jinto, deciding that it couldn’t hurt to humor the former baron’s digression momentarily.

  “You’re impressed by this old thing? What backwater world did you crawl out of?”

  “No,” huffed Jinto, “not the device. The scenery.”

  “Whoops, sorry ‘bout that,” he said, though without a trace of sincerity in his voice.

  “Wait a sec, isn’t this scene a little unnatural? If the clouds are that far down, that’d place it above the stratosphere. No way the sky would be this blue this high up.”

  “Ya must be of terrestrial upbringing if you noticed that. Abhs, they’re under all sorts of misconceptions when it comes to that stuff.”

  “Then this is what, art? An Abh fantasy?”

  “It’s Delbisex. A videographer who worked during Baïc Rüécotr (Pre-Imperial History, or P.H.) times, known for realistically reproducing terrestrial landscapes.”

  “You mean the Goc Ramgocotr (Space Roving Age)?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then I can hardly blame them.” For that was the era whereby the Abh plied between each isolated colony, with trade as their livelihood. It was little wonder how their grasp of the natural world might slip away.

  “Delbisex entitled this piece ‘Gamh Laca’ (Tall Mountain). Bit boring, though. I’d give it a different name,” said Sruf. “I’d call it ‘Bar Repainec’.”

  “‘Pride of the Abh’?”

  “Think about it. There ain’t nothing else that can express their pride as accurately as this panorama,” the old man expounded. “Recognizing your own nobility on a personal level is all you need. No need to go around advertising it, and still less need to be assured of it by others. It doesn’t matter how humble your role is in life, as long as your self-regard is higher than anybody else’s. High enough to look down on Her Majesty the Empress, even. Get that into your head, and no matter how highfalutin the people ya meet, they’ll never seem like anything more than extras who’re there to set the stage for ya. Funnily enough, I heard that whenever an Abh meets somebody who has no pride, they don’t know how to handle it. Though I guess that ain’t limited to pride ‘as an Abh’; it’s about any sort of pride.”

  Suddenly he was roaming around the living room aimlessly. “Not that my shameful excuse of an heir seems to understand any of that! He’s no tall mountain, no, he won’t go near one. He’s seen fit, instead, to dig a deep ol’ pit by the mountain. Takes solace in being higher than the deepest lows. I may be a Lander genetically, but I’m sure as hell more Abh in spirit than that twit.”

  Jinto once, and only once, had laid eyes on a bear. It was at a Vorlash Countdom zoo. Jinto was staring at the bear, since at first it had been simply pacing its cage in its discontent, but for reasons only it could ever know, it flew into a rage and flung itself into the tempered glass that separated it from him. Naturally, the only damage sustained was to the beast’s claws and fangs, but Jinto would go on to relive that episode occasionally in his nightmares, awakening in a cold sweat.

  And Sruf was currently more than reminiscent of that bear. Only this time, there was no barrier to protect him.

  “Um, sorry to bother you, Lonh-Lym Raica,” he addressed him properly. “But I think we should go about crafting an escape plan sometime soon.”

  “Right, of course.” Sruf nestled into a couch, looking a tad drained. “Boy, if there’s anything ya oughtta take from this, it’s that if you’re Abh, you’ve gotta instill a sense of nobility and pride in your kids before all else. That said, ya don’t need to tell ‘em that. It’s more like a contagion; just mill around and believe you me, they’ll catch it. Unfortunately, that means I ain’t got any real pride inside me. I learned what the pride of the Abh entails while fumbling in the dark, and tried to express that idea to him directly. Ya can see how that turned out. First things first, you’ve gotta be a noble soul. Embody pride, and it’ll pour out naturally in every little thing ya do. Then your golciac (successors) will learn by example what the meaning is of Abh pride.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He knew it just might be useful advice.

  If, that is, he had a future ahead of him to begin with.

  “Now then, what say we get to hatching our little scheme? Got any ideas on how we make a break for it?”

  “Can these walls be smashed open?” Jinto lightly tapped the wall that was still displaying Delbisex’s Tall Mountain. While the former baron didn’t have anyone waiting on him, he was attended by a multitude of automatons. Perhaps it wasn’t impossible to knock down a wall using some of them.

  “Even if we could break through one, we oughtn’t. We’d face a hell of a time leaving without getting spotted from the ranch.”

  “Gotcha.” Jinto figured it was a long shot, so he wasn’t too devastated. “Wait, how do you get your food? From that door, right?”

  “No.” The former baron shook his head. “Remember the huge fridge in the kitchen? The one built into the wall? Thing’s two-layered. Once every ten days, the boxes inside it travel their dedicated passageway. Then they come back full of fresh grub, toiletries, stuff like that.”

&
nbsp; “Could we maybe hide in one of those boxes?”

  “‘Fraid not. They went to restock just yesterday. I don’t think we could make ‘em move all that quickly even if we grew extra mouths. Unless you don’t mind waiting?”

  It was Jinto’s turn to shake his head. “We can’t set them in motion from here?”

  “Whaddya think?” said Sruf, oddly prideful. “I’m being held here.”

  “How about we remove the boxes, or I dunno, break them, and follow the passageway—”

  “Can’t say that idea’s a winner, boy. Where the boxes are headed, there’s another door on that side, too. Trying to open it from within could wind up snapping our bones. My son’s the suspicious type. He’s probably on the lookout for any half-eaten frozen shrimp that might escape, let alone us. I wouldn’t place my bets on the box route if I were you. Got any better ideas?”

  “Oh, I know!” Jinto said with a snap of the fingers. “What about the trash slot? We could just slip through and—”

  “If I recall, there’s a thresher installed at some point of the chute. Ya might be mincemeat by the time you make it to the garbage heap. And it’s pretty hard to walk anywhere when you’re a pile of gore. Well, if that’s robbed ya of the will to do anything at all, I wouldn’t judge.”

  “Ugh...” Jinto hung his head. “Do you have any ideas? You must’ve thought about it before, right? About escaping?”

  “Course I have. It’s perfect for killing time. Everybody and their cousin’s mulled over those ideas before. That’s the only reason I’m able to poke holes in ‘em so quickly.”

  “Yeah, I kind of gathered as much,” said Jinto, crossing his arms. “What’s the procedure for emergencies?”

  “You mean like me getting sick? I’d probably contact ‘em using the phone and have ‘em come over. Ain’t ever happened before, though.”

  “You mean we’ve got a phone!?” Hope sprung in Jinto’s chest, only to retreat once again. “Oh, that must be the phone that only connects to the homemakers’ office.”