Into the Sea of Stars (20 page)

"But we labored on that, as well. That was our true secret, while we openly prepared in other ways. That is
where we pushed our research, and soon we could im
prove self-sufficiency by a factor of ten. Then the Exodus
began. One unit left, and then another, finally it was in
the dozens, and then the hundreds. The men of Earth
couldn't stop us without forcing a major confrontation.
Finally when they worked up the nerve to do it, the end
was already upon them."

He smiled sadly and looked off into the distance, as if
recalling a half-forgotten dream.

"The Soviet-Pakistani Incident precipitated the first
exchange. Even from fifty thousand miles out, we could
see the flashes and firestorms. We made our moves as
planned—before we ourselves would be dragged into the
conflagration—and abandoned Earth to the fate created
by those who were too inferior to understand.

"Yes, Ian, I was an Alpha
Psi
leader. I was the phi
losopher who motivated the others. We evacuated, Ian
Lacklin
, but it came far too soon for our unit. I want you
to contemplate this, Ian
Lacklin
. We had one hundred
thousand aboard, of which we calculated only twenty-
five thousand could be supported by the ecosystem. Con
template what that meant to us, contemplate what that
did to a philosophy professor who was now the appointed
leader of a colony doomed to die from overpopulation. I
cursed them all. I cursed those who destroyed what might
have been, and set me upon this Hegira."

"I'm not sure I understand. What is a hegira?"

"Ah, yes, but of course you wouldn't understand. I am
weary, Ian, and shall soon leave you. But don't -worry.
This conversation shall continue, for I do find it amusing. Yes, the Hegira. When Muhammad the Prophet was not recognized by the fools and unbelievers of Mecca, he and
his followers were driven out of the city into exile. That
is the time that the True Believers date their calendar
from, the Hegira or exile of the Prophet. And so we were driven out, as well, Ian
Lacklin
—a hegira that has lasted
eleven centuries."

Franklin Smith stood up, stretched slowly, and walked
past Ian and out toward the far door, his silken robes
rustling lightly with his passage.

"My Hegira—which I as the Father have lived through
from the beginning.
And which now, thanks to you and
the present you bring, will soon end with fire and sword."

Ian was alone for three days, as near as he could es
timate, before he was allowed to rejoin the others.

Surprisingly their captors had allowed some of their
familiar items to be brought back from the Discovery, and
Richard greeted Ian with a tumbler and a sad lament.

"I had two cases left, two cases, and the bastards only let me take this one bottle off." And he held up the last
precious container, now three-quarters of the way to
empty.

"Take it as a great honor and sign of my friendship,"
Richard said melodramatically, "that I saved this final
drink for you." He poured the rest of the contents into
the tumbler and offered it to Ian.

"What did they do to the ship?" Ian asked.

Stasz
drew closer. "It seems our messiah friend is a
little nervous about his catch," he whispered softly. "We
were allowed to take off some personal items, but then the ship was sealed."

"Any cargo removed?"

"Nothing that I could see
, "
Stasz
replied. "They did
detect the radiation in that old
thermomine
in the aft stor
age compartment. That really set them off, and they put
a secure lock on the door and left it there."

Ian smiled at this information and reached into his
pocket to hold the alien cylinder, as if it were a talisman
to ward off evil.

Shelley came to
lan's's
side and wrapped her arms
around him. For a second he regretted his earlier confession, but he went ahead anyhow and kissed her lightly on
the forehead.

"We thought maybe you weren't coming back," Ellen
said, a note of concern in her voice.

"We saw him, we did. Saw their great dark Father,"
Elijah proclaimed. "He invited me to their communion of
honor for you. I can hardly wait."

Still not used to Elijah's predilections, Ian backed away from him.

So the friends talked quietly among themselves. Each
had met with Smith. With
Stasz
the talk was technical
and dealt with the operation of an overdrive ship. From
Stasz's
descriptions they all realized he had lied to the
point of absurdity with Smith when discussing the de
fenses of Earth and the limitless fleets of overdrive ships
that swarmed the galaxy.

Ian smiled as Richard described their comparisons of
medical technology and shook his head sadly. Here was
an old friend, lost four-score light-years from home,
brought to an early end by his mismanagement.
lan's
eyes
started to fill, and he looked away.

Ellen said they had spoken of language and culture. She had even asked to use one of her precious survey
forms, which she had saved for just such a moment. Smith
had laughed and said he would consider it. With Shelley
he reminisced about his days as a graduate student.

Only Elijah would not speak of their conversation and,
when asked, would only mumble snatches of verse.

Ian knew that each of them was being judged and
weighed for the slaughter. He knew that for the moment
Smith was using them as a means of entertainment, a way
of looking into the past. But that would soon change, he
was sure of it.

They came for Ian while the others were asleep, and he quietly slipped away, not wishing to create another
emotional scene. Smith was waiting for him in the same chamber but led Ian away through a side corridor and up into the docking bays. Not a single person did they meet,
and Ian finally asked why.

"This whole unit is a shrine. If the ship of Columbus could be found, do you think we would sail it and use it?
The same is true of this vessel—this once-crowded penal colony. Only my priests and priestesses live here, to over
see my needs."

"Your priests and priestesses?"
He knew the tone of disdain couldn't be concealed.

Smith looked at him and smiled. "Come and gaze upon
my power."

Smith led the way to the zero-gravity docking section.
Passing Discovery's port, the two boarded a small vessel
and strapped into side-by-side couches. Smith activated
a command screen then quickly rattled off a statement
into the console mike. The shuttlecraft was activated, and
they were off.

"Voice-activated commands?" Ian asked, impressed
with the technology.

"Yes, I was rather amazed at the primitive piloting
systems of your own vessel."

They traced a parabolic arc away from the main ship,
and as they came up on the opposite side of the vessel,
Ian couldn't help but gasp in amazement. In the harsh
blue-white light of Delta Sag, hundreds of ships hung sus
pended in high orbit like fiery diamonds of light.

"What was once above Earth at the height of her power
in space pales to insignificance when compared to
this.
Gregor
says that there are now over ten thousand home
vessels, from small ones such as the relic I now live in
to giants, one hundred and fifty kilometers in length. Most
are in orbit around this once-dead airless planet, which is so rich in the resources that we desire.

"When we arrived here nearly three hundred years
ago, there were but twenty-five thousand of us. We
fashioned crude landing vessels for the surface below and finally managed to gain a toehold. Those were exciting times, Ian
Lacklin
.
Heroic times.
Within several
years the first mass-drivers were throwing up desperately
needed supplies of silicon, iron, hydrogen, and oxygen, locked beneath the surface. Then we built the skyhooks,
the
powersats
, and the first new habitation units. That
took us fifty years. And then I approved the growth.
Yes, the growth, where a mother could have more than
two children. I now encouraged my people to have as
many as possible. Since that time we've doubled our population every eighteen years."

Ian tried some quick mental arithmetic but Smith had already guessed his goal.

"According to
Gregor
, there are over one billion people
living in space. If we continue for another two hundred
years at this rate of growth, we'll have over a trillion souls.
One trillion souls.
And that small planet down below shall
disappear from our insatiable need. Think of that, Ian
Lacklin
.
One trillion souls."

There was a sudden connection, and Ian couldn't help
but ask.

"Why do they call you the Father?"

"Ah, yes." He chuckled softly with an obvious note
of pride. "Simple, Ian
Lacklin
. Of that first generation of
growth, I was the father of at least one child from every mother."

Ian looked at him and couldn't help but smile.

"You from the Outside, you can smile in my presence,
but not in front of the others. That could be deadly.

"I know what you're thinking, that it must have been
a laborious task. Some were done in, how shall I say, 'the traditional way,' but the vast majority were per
formed through artificial techniques. Of the next gen
eration the same was done again, and again thereafter
and thereafter. The genealogies are watched of course and the males of my community sire children, as well,
but ultimately they all trace themselves back to me. So you see, Ian
Lacklin
, by now all one billion alive today
are my descendents in one degree or another. It's strange,
Ian, to meet a man twice my age, bent over with time, and to realize that I am his father or grandfather. Soon
for me, only a matter of months from now in my life
span, there will be a trillion who are descendents from
my loins.
" .

He said it with the pride of a biblical patriarch. One
billion to date, Ian thought.

"I almost had the same arrangement myself," Ian said
matter of
factly
.

"Oh, what happened?"

"The details of the contract didn't work out." And he
wouldn't say another word on the subject.

They sat in silence for several minutes and Ian hoped that Smith would be duly impressed by that little reve
lation about the IFF and that there would be no more
questions in that vein.

So, they were all descendents of Smith. The sociological implications were fabulous, and he wished that Ellen was with them at this moment. Smith had taken the prim
itive concept of the clan, with its family
bondings
, and
raised it to the level of an entire civilization. He was Adam incarnate, master of an entire star system—and how much
of a master, Ian would soon see.

Ian watched as Smith guided them on their trajectory
toward one end of a cylinder that must have been a hundred
kilometers in length.

Smith called out several approach commands and their
shuttle swung in on the final run that was only a couple
of hundred meters above a rotating surface so big that
Ian felt he was orbiting a planet. His curiosity was aroused
as to the mass of this ship and the gravitational field that
it created.

As they approached the end of the cylinder, the shut-
tlecraft
started to decelerate and Ian was surprised at the sudden realization that Smith's people had mastered in
ertia dampening for a
sublight
vessel.

Clearing the end of the man-made planet, the shuttle finally docked at the very center, in the zero-gravity area.

"This will only take a couple of minutes. Would you
care to come along?"

How could he refuse? Ian eagerly followed behind
Smith.

Their docking port was devoid of people, and it seemed
to be encased, floors, walls, and ceilings, in gold. They floated into a small golden room with a single circular
doorway at the other end.

"I shall go first, of course," Smith said. "I'd appreciate
it if you would stay behind me. If you should drift along
side of me or in front of me, I'm afraid that wouldn't
follow protocol at all. I'd be forced to kill you." He smiled.
"Do we understand each other?"