Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (20 page)

"I am a captain, warname Nan Man, and I represent the Tenth Recon Strike Force of the StarCorps of the United Mocain Coalition."

Ice translated it into DX thought, and then gave the captain the Bright response. "What was your mission on this planet?"

"We pursued a gang of pirates to this planet, which they were using as a base to hide from us. Our mission was to terminate most of the pirates, capture some of the leaders if possible, interrogate them for actionable intelligence information, and then terminate them as well."

"Were you aware of the presence of Brights on this planet?" Ice asked at the Martial's prompting.

"We were unaware of it until we captured some pirates who told us about it. They also told us the Legion was here – ConFree. We thought we would have to fight the Legion at first, because they were intruding on our territory. But they told us the Brights were friendly and we should help them. We agreed to do that."

"He asks how you came to liberate Gidnurpel," Ice said.

"He was a prisoner of a pirate group. We killed the pirates and brought him to our base."

"You seized our ship and deployed your forces to defend it," Ice translated. "Did you mean to resist us?"

"The pirates seized your ship, which was undefended. Then we attacked the pirates, killed them, and deployed around the ship."

"And what was your mission concerning the ship?"

"My government ordered me to take the ship and defend it. I did so. But my government also ordered me not to take any aggressive action against your people. I do not know what my government was planning for the ship. Perhaps they wanted me to defend it from the Legion, so they could give it back to you peacefully. They did not say."

The Martial smiled upon hearing the DX translation, and Ice translated his reply into Inter. "He says if you get tired of a military career, you may have a future as a diplomat. Please tell your government we appreciate your guarding our ship for us. We have already retaken our ship but none of your soldiers were harmed as we used a stunstar. We have noted a heavy task force of starships approaching this planet. Are they yours?"

"Yes sir. They told me we would be reinforced."

"Please advise them immediately," Ice said, "that if they take any aggressive action against us they will be destroyed. If they wish to orbit peacefully they may do so. We shall be leaving shortly but may still be here when they arrive. We would prefer not to initiate war with your Mocain Coalition. Tell them that immediately. We have lifted the communications blackout on your ships."

"Yes sir!" As the captain was contacting the task force, the door to the conference room snapped open and Bees stepped in with her flock, the five Bright females. Bees was still clad in that silvery Bright armor with the bold White Hand on the chestplate. Her companions were wearing soft Fleetcom fatigues with the logo of the CS
Vampire
prominently displayed. They looked considerably better than the last time I had seen them. And Bees looked terrific, her ebony face shining with confidence and joy. She spoke up boldly, and her DX thoughts went simultaneously to all the Brights in the room.

By the grace of God, we return these missing angels to Heaven. We thank God and the archangel Michael for vanquishing God's enemies and we stand ready at all times to fight Heaven's wars. May God's will be done!

The Bright leader stood, staring at Bees in amazement. Then Bees spotted Good Soul, who was gaping at her.

"Good Soul!" she said both aloud and in DX thought. "I am the Black Angel." She opened her arms wide and Good Soul ran to her and embraced her fiercely, tears streaming. She knew it was the Black Angel who first heard her pleas, and that had led to the entire expedition. The Black Angel was the one who had been whispering in her ears, reassuring her, when she was huddled in that dirty cave. They stood there for some time, embracing warmly, as the other Brights greeted Gidnurpel and the Bright military officers.

The Prof stood up. "Ice, please translate for me. I wish to apologize to the Bright people, on behalf of all humanity, for the actions of the beings who attacked your brothers and sisters. These creatures are human outlaws, depraved, despicable, obscene subhumans who exist only to commit outrages against others. We greatly regret the actions they took. When we catch them, we kill them. We urge the Bright people not to blame all humanity for the actions of a small band of outlaws. Both ConFree and the Mocain Coalition liberated your people from these savage captors and our attitude towards the Bright people has always been friendly."

I heard the Bright's response clearly:
We thank you, Learned One. We will pass your thoughts on to our leadership. We cannot say what their decision will be regarding our response to this vicious attack on our people, but if the past is any guide, our vengeance will be seared into history for all potential enemies to observe, and consider.

I knew that was not what the Prof wanted to hear.

We said goodbye to Good Soul as she was about to board the Bright assault carrier for transport to her ship, which had been prepped for flight by Bright techs. We had never even seen the damned thing, but it had sure brought a lot of grief, death and suffering to what had once been a quiet, uninhabited world. The pirates had only one cloaking unit and they had wisely used it to hide the Bright ship, which they recognized as the most valuable prize they had ever taken. That's why we had never spotted it.

Good Soul was all teary-eyed, again, as she embraced Bees and pressed something into her hand. Bees took a look. It was a necklace, a miniature locket with an image of Good Soul's angelic face. Bees slipped it around her neck and then gave Good Soul a tiny golden cross on a delicate golden chain. Good Soul accepted it with a sad smile and kissed Bees goodbye, right on the mouth. Then she turned to me and placed a strange device around my left wrist.
Light for the darkness
, she thought.
Peace and love
. She kissed me too, full on the lips. It was like an angel's touch. Then she turned and walked up the ramp, and the ship lifted off.

I watched it go, greatly relieved. However, the Prof did not appear relieved. It had probably turned out all right, but we did not know what the future would bring. My DX dream was still out there. I prayed it was a hallucination, but I knew it was not.

"Did we get continuing contact?" Doggie asked the Prof.

"I gave them a Q-link, with prerecorded messages, and our modified long-range freescanner, and urged them to use it to contact us whenever they enter our universe. We can't contact them in Bright Haven. That fellow Martial has the Director's message and says he will pass it on."

We had watched the executions. Several pirates had survived our attacks on them, ours and the Mocains. Miss Octopus was one of them. Their bodies were now sprawled in the grassy field around us. The Brights had blasted them without ceremony or emotion, as soon as they had sorted out the Startroopers from the pirates. The captain's men were policing up the bodies, dumping them in a common grave.

Live by the sword and die by the sword. It applied to us, I suppose, as well as the pirates.

The UMC task force had arrived and was in orbit. They had been advised to wait for the Brights to leave before landing. Thankfully, they complied.

Blackie barked. He had been out in the forest when the Brights had appeared, and had wisely stayed there until things calmed down. Doggie went to one knee and embraced Blackie. "Good wolf, good Blackie. You're a real lifesaver." He had certainly given us the edge against the UMC, even though we had never wound up killing each other. What a beautiful wolf he was – Blackie had a thick glossy black coat, and clear grey eyes. He was a native of Pandaravos. Although using dogs – or wolves – to defeat cloaking was cosmic secret, we'd heard the Legion was launching a major K9 program with the goal of equipping every combat squad with a trained dog. I knew a secret like that could not last long but the longer it lasted, the better it would be for the Legion's combat capability.

"Hey, Saka," I called out. He was standing nearby with Arie. "What’s this about my having terrible girl handling skills?"

He laughed. "All right, Prophet, I take it back. It was because she stabbed you in the face, that's why I said it. However, I'll admit you must have made a good impression on her after all. She seemed quite enamored of you. And she certainly saved our butts. All right, all right. Your girl handling skills are excellent."

"Thank you."

"I thought we were finished for awhile there," Arie said.

"So did I. When I was looking up the barrel of that Bright lightning gun," I said.

"I guess we were lucky."

"I think it was blind chance, Arie. Whether we live or die. Deadman rolls his dice, and that's what happens."

"How can you say that, Prophet?" Bees asked. She was standing right beside me. "God is watching over us all. He's watching over you, and Arie, and me. All of us. You think this all happened by chance? God is with us, every moment. You think it was blind chance that I heard Good Soul on that freescanner, and followed it all the way to today's result? No. God is with us."

"You're so sweet, Bees. All right, God is with us. Or at least with you. You're the one who made all this happen."

"It wasn't me. It was God," she said. Scout pulled her to him, and embraced her warmly. I thought that if it wasn't for him, she'd be so far out there we would be unable to reach her at all.

"I'm so tired," Arie said. "When did we get here? Two days ago? It seems like an eternity. I didn't think I was going to make it through that first miserable night. Is Bird coming soon? I want to be delivered to the Vampire, get something to eat, and then sleep for about four days." Just at that moment the
Ruthie
appeared in the sky and came serenely gliding in to land.

"You're going to get your wish, Arie."

"Man, that looks good!"

The
Ruthie
touched down and the assault doors snapped open. We hustled to get on board. All of us, I thought. Bird and the Prof and Doggie and Scout and Saka and Ice and Smiley and Arie and Bees and even Blackie, hopping on board. We were all there, and all alive, not even wounded – except for me, wounded by one of our rescue targets. Who should I thank for this wonderful result? I was expecting at the very least to have a showdown with the Mocains, and that would have been perilous indeed. But it hadn’t happened, thanks to… well, thanks to the Prof, and whatever Gods of Courage he prayed to. Thanks to Deadman, and all those extremist genes we inherited from our parents. Thanks to Bees and her icy resolve. Thanks to God, as Bees said. Maybe He was watching over us, all of us, just as she said. It sure looked like somebody was.

Δ

By the time the
Vampire
eased out of orbit around Bliss, the Bright starship was gone. The UMC task force was still there, and Captain Nan Man was probably explaining his actions to his superiors. He had obeyed all his orders, and it wasn't his fault if the Brights took out all his troops with a fancy stunstar and recovered their ship. The troops, at least, had all survived.

Once on board the
Vampire
, the first thing I did was crash in my bunk. I had planned to pray to somebody to thank them for the result of our expedition, but I never got a chance. The instant my head hit the pillow I was out.

When I finally awoke, we were in stardrive and I felt great. I took a long shower, scrubbing off the accumulated grime from too damned long in an A-suit, and then I changed into some soft fatigues, assaulted the mess hall buffet and ate like a pig. The place was not crowded but I only had eyes for my food.

"Prophet. Did you just get up?" It was Ice, looking totally relaxed, holding a dox cup. She approached me and sat down at my table.

"Sure did," I said, through a mouthful of food.

"Wasn't that fun?" She was so beautiful. So precious. And I was so grateful that she was alive.

"What? Sleeping? Yes."

"No, I meant Bliss. That was amazing."

"I could have done without it, personally. But yeah, I guess it was amazing all right."

"It was the Professor. He's the one who pulled it off."

"He's got balls of steel, that's for sure. I thought we were going to have to kill every one of those Greenies. And I was not at all sure that we'd survive. Even with Blackie's miraculous help."

"I got so much practice in DX telepathy. We all did, you too, right?"

"Yeah, but I think I'm a little rusty. I mean, nobody stabbed you in the face, right?" A fleshgel bandage covered the right bottom part of my face.

"Seriously, Prophet, I think we were very lucky this time. We all survived." Her cold grey eyes were looking right into mine.

"You're right, Ice. My thoughts exactly. I can still hardly believe it."

Δ

"Is everybody happy?" the Prof asked. It was a few hours later and we had gathered in the ship's lounge for an informal meeting. Happy? Man, I was ecstatic, sipping dox, flaked out on an airchair lounge with Blackie licking at my bandage curiously and my good buddy Arie right beside me, beaming at the Professor. The entire squad was there and that alone was an occasion for celebration.