Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (25 page)

"The raid was in daylight," Captain Nan said. "They're not afraid of anything." We had gathered in the Delta Lounge to discuss the raid. Everybody was there, seated in the airchairs and sofas or leaning against the walls.

"When did the slavers set up there, on that particular island?" the Prof asked.

"We didn't know about it until the raid," Nan said. "It was the Doom Dogs, a major pirate outfit that would never have dared approach Terra in the old days. But it seems they made a deal with the PJ's. Lots of cash for a safe haven. The PJ's economy is crashing and they badly needed cash. They agreed. The Dogs have been there seven months."

"The Brights appear to be better informed about events on Terra than the UMC. How much of this is in the news on Terra?"

"None of it. So far. It appears the PJ's are pondering how they should respond to this. I'd guess the after-action images of those mutilated bodies on the beach can be used to accomplish anything the PJ's want. Horrific images. You can look them over if you want. But I'd recommend against it."

"So. A major slaver base. And what happened to the slaves? Presumably they were there."

"Yes. That's right. Two hundred, seventeen of them, according to our sources. Gone. No slave bodies. This was a precision strike. Again, the Brights appear to know everything. And, again, they take the slaves away with them."

The Prof greeted this news with silence.

"Why?" Nan asked.

"I don't know," Prof replied.

"Slave labor?" Nan suggested.

"No!" Bees interrupted. "The Brights wouldn't do that."

"How can we know? They took them away."

"They took us away too, on Vezhedak," Bees insisted. "But they returned us – later."

"I'm not so worried about the Brights intentions towards the slaves that they liberated," Prof said. "But I am worried about what the PJ's will do to exploit this incident."

"And I'm worried about how the Brights will react to whatever the PJ's do," Nan said.

"This raid sounds just like what we did on Drusweaven," Doggie said. "Except for lopping off heads and limbs." We had hit a major pirate base on the Drusweaven raid, killed every one of the bastards, and liberated a lot of female slaves.

"Yes," Prof replied. "I guess the Bright psywar folks were in charge of that part."

"We may be running out of time," Captain Nan said. "Any progress on finding that asteroid?"

"Not yet. But we'll find it. Fleetcom is joining your Starfleet to comb Sol's asteroid belt to locate it. We'll launch tens of thousands of probes and hunter eyemotes. I'd suggest you motivate your supreme command to invade Earth as soon as possible. There'll be minimal resistance. Just hit the Aztlan Commune. What are you afraid of?"

"Political crap. That's all."

"Tell them to do it. How can we safeguard Terra with those maniacs in charge?"

"Good question."

Δ

When Snow Leopard entered the sprawling office of the Director General of ConFree, the place was deserted. The secretary had shown him in, but Tara was nowhere to be seen. She's gone wee-wee, Snow Leopard thought. Then he spotted her, out on the terrace past the balcony blast doors. She was leaning against the guard rail, gazing dreamily off into the distance.

Snow Leopard joined her. It was cold out there – a light, biting breeze under a close wet cloudy sky that hid Quaba's double suns. The terrace gave them a spectacular view of Quaba City and the starport beyond.

"Mornin', Tara."

"Good morning, Snow Leopard." She didn't even look at him.

"Communing with nature?" he asked.

"No. Pondering the future," she replied. The light breeze was playing with her silky hair. She is exceptionally beautiful, he thought. Dangerously beautiful. Beauty and the Brain. Nobody that attractive should be that smart. It should be illegal. He wondered if Thinker had ever slept with her. She had been closer to Thinker than to any other human, he knew. No, probably not. She had been a tortured psycher, and never knew love until she met Gildron. But Gildron was gone – another willing sacrificial victim for the people of ConFree. Only he had died just for Tara. Snow Leopard thought of his own lost loves. Stop it!, he told himself. Don't go there.

"Do you still keep your psycher skills up?" he asked her.

"No. It’s mostly faded away. It works best when you're lost and hopeless, wandering through hell. I was pretty good at one point, but I can't compete with the latest generation of doomed souls. I feel so sorry for them."

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking I need a vacation. But I can hear what you're thinking about. Lost loves. Phantoms from the past. Yes, just stop it. Don't torture yourself. They're happier than we are."

"I hope you're right."

"I wanted to ask you the latest from Delta Research."

"Did you see the report about the DX dream featuring our favorite asteroid?"

"Yes, I did. That's wonderful. That's what Delta Research is all about. All right. Have we located it yet?"

"No. But we will."

"And how about the Brights? They’re swarming over UMC vac, slaughtering pirates. They’re doing what the UMC should have been doing all along. And doing a damned fine job of it."

"No argument there."

"Where are they coming from? Where is our ongoing contact? Where is their base? They’re not commuting, Snow Leopard."

"Of course not."

"I need contact! I need communication! They may be getting set to blast Earth and we can't even talk with them. What happened with those commo devices you gave them the last time? The Q-links, the DX freescanners."

"We've been calling, but they don't answer."

"Damn it! You hear the latest? They hit a slaver base on this obscure world – Parapattan – in the Orm Sector. Blew the hell out of it from the air. Roasted the bastards. Then landed and finished off the survivors, slicing up the bodies. They took away the slaves again. The PJ's are now publicizing these raids big-time. Broadcasting all those grisly atrocity pix. Shrieking about alien attacks against humanity. Not a word about the victims being subhuman pirates and slavers. It's all leading up to something. This situation is spinning out of control, Snow Leopard. When is the UMC going to attack Terra?"

"They’re about ready, but the date has not yet been selected."

"The bastards have asked for help from ConFree."

"The UMC? When did this happen? What kind of help?"

"It doesn't matter what kind of help! This morning. They want moral support. They want to be able to announce that ConFree approves the invasion. To give justification for their own actions. That's insane! ConFree condemns Terra's government and approves its overthrow? ConFree is an ally of the UMC? Even if we do approve, we can't give the UMC credentials like that. The UMC is the polar opposite of ConFree and we're never going to join them in attacking and invading another world. Even if it's a UMC world. Even if the mission is to extinguish the PJ's. That would be a horrifying betrayal of our ideals, and would terrify all of the UMC's neighbors. We are not going to involve ourselves in the UMC's internal political squabbles. We're not a damned empire and we're not going to act like it. Yes, we approve. But no, there's no way in hell we are going to announce it."

"Fine. Yes, you're right."

"Of course I am. Now get me that asteroid, and find me that Bright base, and visit it. And sic your Delta prophets on the Brights. I want to know what the Brights are up to. Now! And I don't want any damned asteroid crashing into Earth. Do it, Snow Leopard. And do it quickly. Billions of lives are at stake."

"Right."

"No pressure, of course." She flashed him a radiant smile and traced a Legion cross in the air before his face.

Δ

The Prof called a flash-crash so we all dropped whatever we were doing and showed up in his office, breathing hard. A crash meeting was a quick unexpected meeting with an appointment time – generally ten or fifteen marks after the announcement. A flash-crash was an
instant
meeting and you were expected to get there as fast as you could run.

The Prof was calmly standing in front of his desk holding a printout of something. He looked pleased.

"They've found Pacifica," he said. "Appears to be a positive ID. It had neither a number nor a name, but it's got both now. Here's what we're going to do. We need an eyeball recon, just to ensure this is the right asteroid and there are no complications. Saka, it was your vision so you're in charge. You folks are all grown up now and won't need my handholding. I will be on Q-link if you need me, and I need a Q-link report when you get there and do the recon. There'll be no landing or interference of any kind with whatever you find. The tacship Vampire will deliver you to the general vicinity. Bird, you'll be piloting the Ruthie, which will do the actual cloaked, covert recon with the aid of cloaked probes and eyemotes. If any Bright presence is detected, you will retreat immediately. Saka, if the asteroid appears to be uninhabited and the structures you saw in your dream are also deserted, fine. Take lots of images, sow the area with eyemotes, and hightail it home. Just like in your vision. Doggie, Smiley, Nitro, Bees, you will be the security team, and accompany Saka and Bird in the Ruthie. Just in case. Now, I will be reporting this development to Ambassador Wester and, most likely, he will report it to the DG. And while you're gone, we will be pulling together everything we need to deflect that asteroid from Earth, when and if the Brights send her on her way."

"If we do that, won’t they become aware of it, and just point her back to Earth?" Ice asked.

"That's a distinct possibility. The ops plan will take all that into account. Any questions?"

"Yes," Saka said. "When do we leave?"

"Right now. Get what you need, ASAP, and report to the airbus at the main entrance for transport to the starport. Good luck, all!"

Δ

"That's it. See it?" Bird was in the pilot seat of the
Ruthie,
and the target screen was centered on the target – a tiny, seemingly microscopic speck of glittering rock and metal, lost in the infinity of the cosmos, just another silvery dot against a star-speckled black velvet. Saka stared at it in fascination. It was there. It was really there!

"Anyone else around here?" Saka asked, looking out the panoramic cockpit portview nervously.

"Twelve," Bird replied. "Nothing. We're fully cloaked, but you know the B's can see right through our cloaking. They don't bother with cloaking themselves. Because they're afraid of nothing."

"Enlarge, please," Saka asked. The image grew. It was a huge, jagged asteroid, reflecting only faint starlight, harsh and dark, splattered with the dust of the cosmos, hurtling through space, lost and alone since the dawn of time.

"It's what they call an M-type asteroid, mostly iron with plenty of nickel and some cobalt, according to our sensors," Bird said. "Take this baby home and you'll be rich for life. Diameter circa sixteen K – depending where you measure."

"This is Pacifica?" Saka asked.

"Absolutely. ID confirmed. This is it." Saka was thrilled.

"All right, I want a close-up look. Put out those eyemotes, but let's stay a safe distance away. At least until we can confirm nobody else is here."

"Sure. But there's nobody else here. Just it, and us. And a couple million other asteroids." Saka was conscious that every word they were exchanging was exactly what he had dreamed, in his DX dream. What amazing things these DX visions were!

Saka stared at the target in fascination. He knew they were in one of the most crowded neighborhoods of the great asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but of course the distances between asteroids were so great that he couldn't even see another one – just Pacifica and a sky full of silky dreams, the Milky Way, mankind's own home galaxy. He thrilled at the chilling, magnificent sight. This was truly the realm of the Gods.

The eyemotes shot into close orbit of the asteroid, covering every square mike. No artificial structures appeared.

"What the hell," Saka said. "Where are those pressurized living mods? Where are those dropboxes?"

"Hang on. Here's the location on your brainscan," Bird said. The brainscan image showed the white living mods and the stacked dropboxes. They compared it to the realtime images from the eyemotes. There – just below that ridge.

That was the exact location. There was nothing there. No structures, no dropboxes, no overflight activity patterns in the dust.

"Go to that power device. Now!" Saka ordered. The eyemotes shot over to the location where Saka had seen the giant plasma deflector device pointed to the sky.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"Damn it! Get us over there – now! I want to see this with my own eyes!"

"Unfortunately, there's nothing to see," Bird said, as he gently guided the
Ruthie
over to afford a clear view of the target area from the cockpit. There was nothing – just a wilderness of metallic rocks and icy dust. No deflector tower. Nothing at all. By then the whole team was clustered behind Bird and Saka in the cockpit.

"It was there," Saka said hopelessly.

"It was quite clear," Bees added.

"It was there in your vision," Bird said.

"It was real," Doggie said.

"It was a DX dream!" Saka said.

"Right. And I have no doubt it was accurate," Bird said. "But it hasn’t happened yet. It hasn’t happened yet! We have more time than we thought. You saw the future. But they haven't constructed it yet. You're way out there, Saka. There's nothing wrong with your DX dreams. We're going to sow this area with eyemotes, just like the Prof asked. And they will alert us when the B's arrive here, and construct their infernal machine. Right? Shall we do that?"

"Yes. Do it," Saka said. "Damn it!"

"No need to get upset, Saka," Nitro said. "This is good. It means you've seen further into the future than we thought."

"And that gives us more time to prepare for when the B's set up the device," Smiley said. "More time!"

"All right," Saka said. "I guess."

"It's a blessing," Bees said. "God is watching over us. And over Terra as well. We have more time."