Cross of the Legion (9 page)

"Criminal!" the Orman squeaked from the floor. "You're torturing an innocent! That's clearly illegal! It was found innocent! You're all criminals!"

"It's all right," I responded calmly. "A recent Calgoran court decision concluded that it was all right for criminals to torture innocents. So don't get so upset."

"A lot of your troopers have died because of this subhuman," Dragon said to the governor. "Next time ConFree asks for custody of a criminal, advise the System to comply. We'll be going now. Thanks for your assistance, sir."

"Does it really think the System is going to ignore this arrogant attack on its sovereignty?" the governor asked, flashing Dragon a haughty look. "Doesn't it realize this could spark another galactic war?"

"I'm just a soldier, sir," Dragon said, smiling. "I just follow orders. War or peace, it makes no difference to me."

The sub rolled around on the carpet, moaning, stunned by the enormity of what was happening to him. He had undoubtedly never been struck by anyone representing the interests of his victims.

"We're going to castrate you publicly, sub," Valkyrie told him, planting one boot firmly on his throat. "We're going to neuter you. Then we're going to cut off your arms. And that's just for starters! Any more smart comments?"

The sub could only croak, squirming on the carpet.

"You can't mean it!" the Orman objected in shock. "He's got rights! He's a citizen of the United System Alliance! He's just as good as you are!"

I raised my E and shot the Orman, blowing his head apart with a single round of x. The echo rattled around the room. The governor sat frozen behind his desk, stunned, splattered with the Orman's blood.

"You shouldn't have done that, Thinker," Dragon chided me.

"Sorry…no. No, I'm not sorry."

"Bring the sub. And don't touch him, Thinker. Nobody hurts him. That comes later. Let's go."

I moved. I was almost frozen with rage…as good as you are! We were going to torture him to death all right, but there was one big difference. He deserved it, and his victims didn't. Systie goodlibs could never make that distinction. Moral judgments were beyond them. The Legion didn't give a damn for laws. We were concerned with justice.

We took the stairs. Tourist took charge of the sub. I didn't want to be anywhere near him, for fear of what I might do to him.

"Three, did you hear the news about Aran?" Priestess's voice echoed in my helmet.

"I've been kind of busy, Priestess. What news?"

"The fungus—it's shown up on Aran. They can't stop it, it's spreading like crazy. They're considering evacuation of the whole planet."

"The fungus!" Aran was a Legion world, on the fringes of the Crista Cluster. The Cluster! I wondered how the fungus had found its way there.

"Kiss, Pits. We're ready for evac. Mission accomplished. Miss, cover us."

"Tenners."

"Ten."

Aran—that was odd. How was the thing spreading?

***

"First, Augusta 6," Doctor Doom said, "an Outvac ConFree world just seized by the O's." We were sprawled on the deck between the bunks and the lockers in Recon quarters, sipping dox and trying to relax after a harrowing mission to confirm an Omni presence on a supposedly deserted asteroid. We had stirred up a swarmer's nest and retreated hurriedly under fire, mission successful.

"Next," DD continued, "Aran, a Legion outpost in the Crista Cluster, sparsely inhabited. Then Veronica 2, a heavily populated ConFree planet, in the heart of the Crista Cluster. And this last one is a true tragedy—the population is over 300 million, and the disease is spreading fast." DD brushed back a strand of long black hair and squinted his Assidic eyes. "Meantime, we're getting reports that two more Omni worlds have been infected—major O population centers. And they're not having any better luck countering the spores than we are." A burst of sonic lektra echoed off the cenite walls. Somebody was always playing the music too loud.

"What do we know so far about the fungus?" Priestess asked. She was in a sleeveless top and tight shorts. Her lovely legs were on display. She had just showered and appeared fresh and relaxed.

"It's unique," DD replied. "It's a parasitic aerobic fungus that thrives in an oxygen environment but needs a host to reproduce. Although it can survive in several higher animal species, humans and O's seem to offer it the most favorable environment. It starts life as a microscopic organism that floats through the air as a spore. If it lands on flesh, it burrows into the body immediately. If it's ingested, so much the better. It rides the bloodstream throughout the body, establishing colonies everywhere it goes, just under the skin. Once it's in the host, it extracts all it needs from the host, without harming it. Then something triggers it to bore outwards and appear on the exterior of the skin. Upon exposure to oxygen in the air, it begins reproducing wildly. The rate of reproduction at this stage is faster than anything our lifies have ever seen. At this stage it starts producing a mycotoxin that is fatal to the host. The fungus spreads rapidly over the exterior of the body, the host goes into shock and dies, and the fungus spreads further in a mad orgy of reproduction. Then it traps the gases from the decomposing host and eventually produces a gaseous eruption that fills the air with spores—thus continuing the life cycle."

"That's pretty scary," I said. That damned sonic lektra was still blasting away.

"What's scarier," Priestess added, "is that there's no cure. Once you're infected, you die. The lifies are helpless. This is the scariest, nastiest, toughest creature they've ever seen. Once it's on you or in you, you're finished. There's nothing the Legion can do."

"Can somebody turn up the music," a lone voice objected. "I can't sleep when it's that low."

"That's right," DD said. "The incubation time is normally eight standard days. By the time it appears on your skin, you have only moments to live. On Veronica 2, they started calling it the White Death, and now even the lifies are using that term."

"And nobody knows where it comes from?" I asked. The White Death, I thought. I've heard that before. Moontouch! A White Death, invincible, wasting mighty empires. Deadman! How could she know?

"No," DD replied. "We don't have a clue. The only way to kill it that we know of is to deprive it of oxygen. Unfortunately that kills the host as well."

"And it only targets humans and O's?"

"Primarily. It's almost as if it was designed to do so."

"So these things live forever?"

"No, the organism has a natural life cycle of only sixteen hours without a host. If it can't find a host by that time, it can't reproduce, and it dies."

"So the solution is to prevent it from reaching a host." A burst of laughter erupted from several bunks over.

"Easier said than done. Once it gets started, there are trillions of microscopic spores released into the air. Breathe it and you die. Let it land on your skin and you die."

"Surely our lifies will come up with a vaccine—or some way to kill it."

"It's currently ConFree's most important research project. They're throwing billions at this problem. No result so far."

"Have any System worlds been hit yet?"

"Not yet. But it may be only a matter of time."

"Well, if the stuff can't survive in the vac, and the life cycle is only…how long did you say…sixteen hours? How is it leaping from planet to planet?"

"Good question. We don't know."

"What are they going to do about Veronica 2?"

"Don't know that either. Nobody's ever evaced a planet of 300 million before."

"If I was on Veronica 2," Priestess said dreamily, "I'd be planning an off-world vacation about now."

"The same thought occurred to all 200 million inhabitants of Veronica 2, at about the same time. It's caused some problems for the transportation folks."

"Hey, DD, alert!" Ricochet, one of Valkyrie's amazons, was leaning out of Mams' squad bay. "Mams is having a wet top contest and Scrapper wants you to check her out!"

"It's a trick, DD!" Sweats said. "They just want to humiliate you again! Ignore the bitch!"

"He's busy!" Trigger shouted back. "He's cutting his toenails."

"Don't you go, DD! Maintain the honor of the squad!" Flash demanded.

"Scrapper said she'll let you peel off her top if you do it ree-al slow!" Ricochet added.

"It's a sleazy trick!" Trigger said. "Remember what happened last time!"

"He's weakening!" Tourist exclaimed. DD was getting up from the floor.

"No balls!' Psycho said. "She's teasing you, dummy! Don't fall for it!"

"I'm just going to the head," Doctor Doom said.

"Oh right! We believe you!"

"No squad solidarity! You deserve whatever grief they give you!"

"Don't expect us to bail you out!"

"Hey, Pits!" It was Ragdoll, peering out of Mams' squad bay. "You subs are all invited. We want some male input on who's going to be Miss Mams for this month."

"All right! Outta my way!"

"Stand back! I am the expert on this subject!" People dropped out of their bunks wildly, crashing down to the deck.

"Do you think they mean it?"

"Who cares? What's to lose?"

"Outta the way, DD!"

"Don't you dare get up!" Priestess threatened me.

"But don't you want to see the wet top contest?"

"No! I want to be alone with you."

"Oh. Hmm. Well—all right. I mean—I didn't want to go anyway."

"How often do we get a chance to be alone?"

"Ah—yes. I see what you mean."

"They're gone. And I'm still fully clothed. Can you explain that?"

"Uhh…because I haven't taken your clothes off yet?"

"That's it!" She stood up abruptly and began pulling her top over her head. Her lovely breasts popped out, bobbing back and forth in a tantalizing dance. The scars from her earlier xmax wounds were barely visible.

"Do I have to do it all myself?" she asked, dropping the top to the deck.

"Let me help," I said, fumbling with the catches on her shorts. She was so slender, so lovely—and those legs—Deadman! My hands trembled.

"But…what if…somebody comes back?" I whispered, glancing furtively at the entrance to Mams' squad bay while sliding Priestess's shorts down her long silken legs.

"They'll have to find somebody else! I'm not sharing you this time!"

***

"This is truly a historical moment," Snow Leopard said. "It may even prove to be a turning point in history—one of those moments that define the future." Dragon and Psycho and Priestess and I were in Snow Leopard's personal cube, watching a large d-screen on the bulkhead. Snow Leopard was captivated by the flickering colored images up on the screen. His pink eyes were alive, and a loose strand of white-blond hair hung ignored over his forehead. We sipped dox, at One's invitation, to watch the latest dispatch from Starcom.

"That's the O delegate. We don't know his designation, of course, but he's obviously the main man." The screen showed a large, bare room, with a single, plain round table set in the center. Half of the room was full of Legion troopers, A & A—armored and armed, ready for anything. The other half was full of Omnis, also fully armored and armed, their force fields merging, glittering violet, a poisonous aurora crackling and swirling around the O's, lighting up the room. One of the O's stood forth from the others. He held something in his hands, a little metal container. He gingerly placed it on the table, and carefully stepped back. One of the Legion troopers then stepped forward and placed a similar device upon the table. The two looked at each other for a moment, then each picked up the other's device.

"That's the first time I know of that O's and ConFree reps have met in a non-adversarial situation for an exchange of knowledge," Snow Leopard said. "Normally we exchange bullets. There's no telling what this could lead to."

"So what did they tell us?" Dragon asked.

"Starcom says they provided a lot of scientific data on the White Death. It's very, very difficult to exchange information with the O's because we still can't comprehend their written language—if it is a language. But genetic diagrams are perfectly clear. And the O's went to a lot of trouble to illustrate what they wanted to tell us. It was almost like they were drawing pictures for retards like us who can't even communicate with our minds. The fungus that's attacked their worlds is genetically the same as ours. It originated from the same ancestor. They evidently aren't having any better luck at countering it than we are. Take a look." The view flashed to a genetic chart of the fungus. It didn't mean anything to me.

"Interesting," I said. "Did they tell us anything new?"

"Yes. They did. Enough to keep the lifies—and historians—busy for quite awhile. They told us some fascinating stuff. It seems this isn't the first time this stuff has showed up."

"Really."

"Really. If our interpretation of the O information is correct, it made one previous appearance, over a hundred thousand stellar years ago, in the Sagitta Spiral, out in the Nulls. Nobody has ever been out that far, from our civilization, but according to the O's there were a lot of inhabited worlds out there in those days. The O's had made a home there. It looks like they settled a series of planets in that sector. There were humans out there too, it seems—and this is evidence that the original wave of migration from the Wanderers reached a lot further than anyone ever suspected."

"Damn! That's amazing!"

"It sure is. It seems there wasn't much conflict between humans and O's in those days. Maybe we can learn something from that. Anyway, the White Death came, out of nowhere. It devastated those worlds, human and O."

"It couldn't be countered?" Dragon asked.

"No. Humans and O's died by the millions. It appears the O's evaced their worlds, and left the whole sector behind. It was inherited by something called the Mind."

"The Mind?"

"Yes. If we are interpreting the O's data correctly, it seems the fungus is intelligent. Once all opposition is eliminated, the fungus metamorphoses, grows together and begins expanding, eventually forming a world-wide forest of fungus—but it's really one great individual."