Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (22 page)

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The situation on Terra continued to worsen. The cities were burning as the mobs continued to attack new targets, loot and burn. When the military countered, the rats were scattered, but there were so many restrictions placed on the military by the politicals that not many PJ's were killed and the mobs would just reform at another site. Galactic Info sent us an unending stream of classified sitreps revealing the story behind the story. The schools were finally closed after one mob attacked a midschool and dragged away all the girls. The military countered immediately, hunting down the girls who were all found serving as free-love objects in the PJ camps. In rescuing the girls, they killed quite a few PJ's. The local authorities demanded the military officer in charge of the operation be handed over, along with all his men. The PJ's were behind that, and had taken hostages from the city council. The military handed the young officer over for trial and he was murdered on the same day by the mob. The enraged military then attacked the mob and killed scores of PJ's. The President of New Aztlan denounced the military and ordered them disarmed. The mobs laid siege to the military bases and the military resisted. The President sent heavy armored units to help the mob, the air defense forces strafed the milbases, and the civil war was underway.

It was sheer chaos. Peace and Joy, brother. Right. Peace and joy plus cowardice equals chaos. The place did not have any effective government any more. And it wasn't just the continent of New Aztlan, all of Terra was reeling as the formerly docile slaves decided they wanted more money. The PJ's were setting up their local encampments inside the banks – and the banks were soon empty of money. It was the same on the other side of the world, in the oppressive Caliphates of Eurasia and in SubAfrica where millions of primitive villagers were trekking out of the tropical jungles in search of Mawany, that magical substance that transformed itself into whatever you wanted. They had never possessed it, but they wanted it.

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We continued working on our telepathy and I went to sleep every night with my mind whirling with the terrible developments on Terra – but it didn't help. I didn't have any more DX visions. Nobody did.

"Terrific, both of you," Ice said. "You've both improved markedly. You're really good!" She was addressing Saka and me, in the lab. "Bees confirms it. We're a real hot team now, all four of us. Both of you aced the recent exams. Congratulations!"

"Well, we're not as good as you and Bees," Saka said.

"You're very close. Both of you. I'm proud of you!"

"I still feel like a deadhead," I said.

"Well, you're not. You're a psycher!"

A psycher. I sure never thought I would grow up to be a psycher. Strange things happened in this universe, things you would never expect. I never expected I'd become a soldier of the Legion, and I never expected I'd become a psycher either. In midschool I was just another dummy, chasing after girls and not thinking about much else. Strange.

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The Prof called us all into the lounge to see the installation of the New Aztlan People's President on a huge wall screen. The ceremony took place on the steps of the Rainbow House, which the PJ's had thoroughly trashed. The Rainbow House was the official home of New Aztlan's president, in the capital, Montezuma Federal, on New Aztlan's east coast. The old President stood by mutely as the revolutionary PJ representative addressed a massive crowd, surrounded by scruffy civilian thugs with SG's pointed in every possible direction. The crowd looked like the typical PJ gang that I had seen in earlier news broadcasts except there were a lot more of them.

"Peace and Joy!" The People's President raised his arms and the crowd let forth with a thunderous applause and lots of screams and whistles. The People's President was clearly a PJer, a thin young man with long greasy hair, a scruffy beard and a soiled coldcoat. His skin was brown but presumably he claimed no race. The former president clapped weakly by his side. He was a large, clean-shaven man with mahogany skin, clad in a black overcoat.

"Our revolution is complete!" Another giant burst of applause.

"Our Revolutionary Politburo has approved the following actions, which are to be effective immediately." More applause.

"The abolishment of all current government ministries and their replacement with the revolutionary structure!" Applause.

"A People's Emergency Committee to oversee the transformation of the government into a People's Egalitarian Commune." A scattering of applause.

"In brief – the Peace and Joy Party is to coordinate all policy directives for the PEC through a PolOr Council. The Ministry of Equality is to ensure redistribution of all wealth with the goal of true equality. Inequality will be a felony punishable by death." Tremendous applause.

"The Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Law will ensure compliance through Psymed and Directed Service. The Ministry of Peace will oversee the disbandment of DefCom and the transformation of the armed services into a People's Militia serving the state." There was scattered applause but this was quite a lot of information and the crowd evidently had a short attention span.

"Traitors will be punished!" Deafening applause.

"Thought crime will be punishable by death!" Further applause.

"Free love will be available to all!" More deafening applause.

"All citizens of the People's Egalitarian Commune shall receive a guaranteed income from the people's government." Thunderous applause followed by shouts: How much? How much?

"The Ministry of Equality will shortly determine the amounts. All citizens will receive identical incomes to ensure equality." There was not much of a reaction from the crowd to that.

"Private property is abolished!" Applause. "All formerly private property will be redistributed fairly." More applause.

"All banks are to close and new currency will be issued." Heavier applause.

"The People's Emergency Committee and the People's Militia will maintain order in the streets and take charge of critical public facilities." Silence.

"Peace and Joy!" He raised his arms again to massive applause.

"The Peace and Joy movement is victorious. Now let's return to stability and show all those doubters that the revolution will bring wealth and comfort for all. We don't need any more demonstrations. We have succeeded. Peace and Joy!" More applause.

The Prof abruptly turned off the broadcast.

"It's a shame," he said, "to see UMC society devolving so quickly. They are reinstalling the worst features of the System, and making them even worse with this redistribution nonsense, and the guaranteed income. Of course that's impossible. I had hoped that the UMC was going to go the other way. But keep in mind this is only one world, even though it's an important one. Galactic Info tells us that it will not last long because the UMC stellar forces on Alphard have initiated plans to reimpose control over Terra by force. Ultima Spring in New Aztlan is the administrative capital of the UMC and the Mocains are furious over this development. The former New Aztlan President was a puppet of the Mocains, but that's over now. The UMC government, speaking from Alphard, has declared the People's Egalitarian Commune an illegal terrorist organization. The UMC leadership and military in New Aztlan completely lost their nerve, it seems, following the spineless civilian leadership, and have been neutralized and have agreed to remain in the military bases. The UMC plan is to first reinstall order in New Aztlan and they believe the rest of Earth will fall into line. However, this may take some time. It looks to me that by the time they get ready to intervene, the revolutionary government will already be crashing because their new currency will be worthless and famine and disease may be taking their toll by then as well. But there will be this little interval when the PJ's will be able to demonstrate conclusively just how stupid they are."

"Their proposals are so crazy," I objected. "Don’t they realize all this has been tried before – repeatedly – and failed miserably, always? Doing away with private property, enforcing non-existent equality, paying everybody not to work, printing paper money that isn't worth the paper it's printed on, punishing people for success, redistributing all wealth until it's all gone, nationalizing everything and living communally? Are they really that stupid? Do they really believe it will work?"

"There's not a lot of thought involved," the Prof replied. "Most of the people who propose these things are ideologues who have never worked a day in their lives and who have no idea how the real world works. They are arrogant and angry, especially if their government-subsidized grants are under threat. They are convinced that they alone have the answers to mankind's ills. And if you disagree with them, they will kill you if they can. They know that if you take from Peter to give to Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul, and that's what keeps them going. Until Peter runs out of money. Just thank God you are a ConFree citizen."

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"Good morning, good morning all. Beautiful day, isn't it?" The Professor was in a very good mood. He was addressing us from behind the lectern in Conference Room D, which was a small but cheerful place, with morning sunlight streaming in from the skylights. Delta Research's core team was there, Doctor Dimension and Paula Deep and Ice and Saka and Bees and me and our support, Doggie and Blackie, Scout, Smiley and Nitro. The medics had been invited as well, Honeyhair and Blondie, and even Bird was there. In addition, Kwan was there – he was the official Assid Confederation delegate. Sometimes you could guess the subject depending on who was there but this time I had no idea – except that it was important.

We were all seated at the long conference table with the Prof near the center behind the lectern. "All right, well let's get started. We're in a strange profession here, as you all know. And very strange things have been happening lately. Our mission to Bliss was a success and ConFree is pleased. However, we are still left here with no permanent contact with the Brights, and so that critical objective remains unfulfilled. Meantime Prophet's disturbing DX dream remains – a possibility. We must not let that happen so we must remain alert to any avenues to regain contact with the Brights. Meantime we must work with people who have similar goals. Captain? Please." He looked over to the door. It opened, and Captain Nan Man strode in, a very large, strongly-built Mocain clad in a plum-colored uniform, bald head, pale slightly-greenish flesh, golden earrings, a chest fill of medals, confident and calm. He walked over and stood next to the Professor.

"Delta, let me introduce Captain Nan Man of the Tenth Recon Strike Force of the StarCorps of the United Mocain Coalition," the Prof said. "He is temporarily assigned to the Strategic Information Corps of the UMC, and is here on official duty. Some of you may remember him from when he pressed the barrel of an SG up against my forehead on Bliss and almost blew me away."

"We remember you, sir," Scout said with a smile. "I had you in my sights almost all night when you were with the Prof in that squadmod."

"I'm glad it was a happy ending," the captain said, with a faint smile.

"The captain is here because I asked for him," the Prof said. "We need an official UMC rep here, because of the threat to Terra. Until we resolve that threat, Captain Nan Man will be our colleague and comrade, fully authorized for access to all our secrets. We're going to do the right thing, you see, no matter what. However, the situation is complicated by the political mess on Earth. Captain, welcome to Delta Research. I'd like everyone to make the captain feel at home."

"Thank you, Commander," the captain said. "It was quite unexpected, but I am happy to be here."

"Delta, I asked for the captain to be the UMC rep because he has more experience with the Brights than anyone else in the UMC, and he knows exactly what we are dealing with. The UMC proposed somebody else, undoubtedly a professional intelligence officer, but I turned them down and said it was the captain or nobody. It's because I trust the man. He came through under the most trying circumstances on Bliss. I think he even impressed the Brights. His mission here is to defend Ultima Spring, and the planet Terra. That's our mission, too. So we are going to work together. He'll be reporting regularly back to the UMC. That's fine – we expect it. Captain?"

"I am anxious to work closely with all of you, and perhaps we can even work out some of the historical and political differences that have caused serious disagreements between the UMC and ConFree. We are all professional soldiers. We can start with that similarity, and get acquainted. I have always respected the Legion."

That's about all Captain Nan Man would say from the lectern but I was curious to learn more about him. A visit to the Viking was in order.

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The Viking was a cozy little bar that was set up fronting the rec park so you could either drink outside in the garden terrace or inside in the darkened Blood Hall, which was set up to look like a Viking drinking hall. We chose the Blood Hall. The walls were lined with primitive, edged weapons. The Viking was closed during working hours, but at 2000 hours it opened up. Our chief janitor, Fred, was the bartender. He earned extra money doing it, and he enjoyed the camaraderie. He was a very good bartender.

"Mead!" Scout called out. Doggie and Arie and I were with him. Blackie was with Doggie as usual.

Fred brought us the usual, golden-dark tankards of knock-you-on-your-ass mead. We each had our own personal tankards, which were stored at the bar. Blackie had his own plate, from which he was soon lapping up mead.

"All right, Scout, let's hear it," Arie said. "You've been around. What's the secret of life?"

"The secret of life," Scout mused. "Yes, I was searching for that for many years." He paused for a deep draught of mead. "Finally found it."

"And?"

"It was on Sirrah during the insurgency. Even in the midst of all that crap, I was searching. I heard about this old mortal mystic who was a hermit – lived by himself on top of a mountain, chewing narcotic berries and communing with nature. Or whatever. I hiked up there seeking wisdom. I was really confused at that time."