“Ready?” she asked me.
I nodded, and realized that unlike most environment suits, in this one, Juliyana could actually see my head nod.
She rolled her hand away from the glasseen and prodded at the control panel on the strap of her suit pack.
The back of the pack opened and a nanobot soup flowed over us as we hunched in small and tight.
This was the second reason why Juliyana had to be hauled over from the ship instead of jumping. Not only did she have to start the program for the drop ship’s return to the Lythion, it also turned out that nanobots were heavy. That had surprised all of us.
“To build the structure you are requesting requires trillions of nanobots,” Lyth explained. “In zero gravity, it is of no matter at all. But you will be clinging to the side of a gravity well.”
“How much will they weigh?” I asked.
“More than either of you weighs.”
So, Juliyana had carried the extra weight and I got to make the free flight jump. Now the nanobots spread over us like a miniature dome, attached to the glasseen facet. The shell hardened and adjusted colors to match the grimy Glasseen.
“Retracting faceplate,” I said, and touched the control panel.
The plate eased open a crack and air hissed out, to be held inside the tiny dome. Juliyana did the same. Our suits retracted down to the base of our necks, and more air vented from the nanobots themselves, who had carried oxygen molecules along for the ride.
“Ready?” I asked Juliyana.
She nodded and reached for her dome-construct control panel and tapped it. Then, quickly, she returned her hand to the Glasseen, planting both hands flat.
At first nothing happened. Then I heard a soft scratching sound. A crunch, and a hiss of air. An aroma of green growing things registered. Air from inside the imperial dome had filled our little hut.
Then the circle the nanobots had cut through the glasseen gave way with a grinding sound and fell inward, for we were leaning on it.
I quickly unfastened my feet and tucked them into the space between the edge of our dome and the edge of the circular glasseen cutout Juliyana and I were clinging to with our hands. Juliyana did the same.
Our feet landed softly on grass.
The cutout was heavy. Lyth had warned us it would be, but I was still caught by surprise. We both staggered.
“Against the dome,” I murmured.
We turned together and moved over to the dome and rested the cutout against it. Then we detached our hands. The cutout rolled to one side by a few centimeters, then settled.
In the meantime, the little dome of nanobots had sunk inward until it was flat, and at the same angle as the facet it stuck to. It had replaced the cutout, sealed the hole, and now looked identical to the opaque corner of the dome. It was possible that the plug would never be found. Someone would have to run their hands over the edges and discover the different textures, to find it.
As the Glasseen looked as thought it had been untouched throughout the entire fourth empire, I figured we were safe from untimely alarms.
I touched my suit’s control panel for the last time. So did Juliyana. The suit flowed and shifted and became the uniform of a full Colonel of the Imperial Rangers. I set the suit and took off the harness. Inside the pack on the back was a personal shriver. The nanobots could not manufacture a working shriver, so we had raided the same antique gun locker Sauli had found, in the far back of the ship. The shriver was an antique, too, but it still worked.
So did Juliyana’s. She shoved it into the holster on her hip, with a satisfied expression.
Rangers and Imperial Shield were not permitted to bring weapons into the Imperial dome, but a Ranger looked odd without a shriver in their holster. It was likely that no one would notice we two were armed. I had no intention of moving through the dome without a weapon. The gun was not all I had on me, either. The nanobots had supplied the rest, for solid blades were within their capabilities.
Directly in front of us, reaching out and up to the sunlight blazing through even the polarized facets of the dome, was a forest of small trees and shrubbery. We were at the back of the public park.
We moved around the edge of the dome, skirting them, looking for a path through. When I spotted a thinner section of growth, I pushed my way through. Juliyana followed.
“The suit will guide you now,” Lyth murmured in our ears.
Haptics in the suit tapped on my right shoulder, giving me a direction. I turned in that direction and felt a gentle pressure on my back, encouraging me to move forward.
“I feel like I’m three and being walked to the bathroom,” Juliyana complained as we followed the tortuous path through the trees.
“People,” I breathed, hearing the murmur of voices ahead of us through the trees. We walked out from the thick growth onto verdant parkland, with the newly risen suns slanting through the treetops to cast dappled shade over the lawn.
Down the middle of the five hundred meter spread of grass was a series of fountains playing in concert. The fountains ran in a straight line directly toward the palace, which sprawled at the end of the lawn.
This was the front of the palace, which was positioned to greet the rising suns, but today, the focus of the festivities would be on the back of the palace, in the balcony at the top of the middle of three spinarets. The Emperor would remain on the balcony to watch through the dome as the bulk of the Imperial fleet drifted past the Imperial dome.
It was still early morning and the parade was not scheduled to start
