Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (57 page)

"Starside, get that brainscan on him."

"Yes sir."

When it was ready I activated the little desk unit and the d-screen came to life.

"Were you lying to me about saving fifty people from execution?" I asked.

"I was not lying. I can’t be sure of the numbers – but it was at least fifty."

No Deception Indicated
, the brainscan read in green.

"How'd you like to have a part in building a new government for Angaroth?" I asked.

This is the life," Arie remarked. Phoenix City at night was not bad, if you were a member of the Occupation forces. We were up on the Palace Hostel's roof terrace by the aircar pad. The hostel had a very nice restaurant set up there for the government elite, but the customers now were Legion soldiers, and no locals were in sight.

I took a sip of lime sour crush, savoring that tangy taste, swirling the ice chips around in my mouth. Arie and I were at the guardrails, looking out over the city. It was a peaceful velvet night, no stars, just a great hush and the musky scent of a nearby river that ran through the town. Phoenix was mostly blacked out as we had hit all power plants when we were enforcing the blockade, and they had yet to be rebuilt. Little islands of pale yellow lights announced the location of occupation bases and offices. The starport glowed on the horizon. We had brought our own power, but were not sharing it. Tiny specks of light were winking in the dark all over town – candles.

The streets were empty. The city was quiet. Curfew. Waiting for the future. Well, we were going to fix that. We were going to hand them the outline of a government that would work. Then we were going to leave, and the future was going to be in their hands.

"Think these clowns will get it together?" Arie asked. He had a frosty beer in hand.

"I don't know," I said. "But Crash told me we went over an endless, very detailed list of alleged patriots that was compiled by the former Commune brain police. They should know. We contacted everybody on that list that was still alive, and who claimed to be interested in building a new government. They're fighting it out in the former rubber-stamp legislative assembly. We've given them free access to all the brain police's records. It also lists all their secret sources – about half the population. But we're letting them sort that out. They can hardly believe it, that they are being given all this freedom to form a provisional government."

"But we're advising them, aren't we?"

"Of course. We've given them deadlines to draft the constitution and set up the provisional government with a firm date for national elections, but we'll be long gone by the time the elections come around – if they do."

"I guess we should wish them well."

"Sure we should. One of my red dotters is working on this very hard. I told you about him. He contacted all the people whose lives he saved, and they're uniting. Looks like it may become a major political party. From what he told me, they are all passionately determined to build a strong government of patriots who will never again accept slavery, of any kind, and will never again bow down to tyranny."

"I'd rather be helping them than killing them," Arie confessed.

"What we're doing is important, Arie. These people – the red dotters – are failed humans. They built a corrupt totalitarian state, a slave state, and allied themselves with the Demons and the Darks, and if we leave them alive, they'll do it again."

"I don't doubt it."

"Then let's take them right out of history. Kill them all. Like you fight a disease. Just exterminate them. The same way you eradicate an especially horrible infectious disease. Until it doesn’t exist anymore."

"Your faith is inspiring." Arie sighed, with a faint smile.

"Yeah. Let's get something to eat."

Δ

The following day I was minding my own business, calmly interrogating an interesting non-red dotter, when a shot rang out. It was so loud it almost deafened me. It was x! I leaped to my feet, pulling out my KXV and snapping it to x while following an alarmed Starside to Arie's office right next door. Arie was standing over his desk, KXV in hand. His enlisted assistant was standing against the wall, stunned. Arie's detainee was sprawled on the deck, his head blown off, blood spouting out of his neck, the walls splattered with blood and specks of shrapnel.

"What happened?" It was Crash, poised in the doorway with his weapon drawn.

"Nothing," Arie replied calmly, placing his KXV on his desk. "I shot him. He said I was a clerk, compiling a list of the dead, sending him away to some place where somebody else would execute him, some nameless thug. He said I was a little coward and didn't have the balls to kill him myself. So I killed him."

"I see," Crash said. "Rampage, drag the body into the corridor, then call for a clean-up crew. Carry on." Crash holstered his weapon and walked away. Arie's assistant dragged the body out and made the call.

"You all right, Arie?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh – nothing. Uh, see you later."

"Right."

Aries' assistant Rampage stood in the doorway over the body, looking down the corridor to where the next group of detainees was waiting. "Next!" he called out.

Δ

My tacmod pinged as Arie and I were having breakfast in the great hall of our palatial hostel. The restaurant was crowded with Legion and Fleetcom and random civilian personnel.

"It's from the Prof! A star tracer!" I exclaimed. Arie put down his dox as I set the device up so that we could both read the little d-screen. Star tracers used wormholes to travel around the galaxy, so they were a lot slower than Q-links, which were instantaneous. But Q-links were highly classified and not for personal use. We had not heard from anyone since arriving to Angaroth, so this was an unusual event. My heart started pounding. Why would the Prof contact us?

UNCLASS PERS ST 1230036127 – CS STARGIRL TO ZONE 3 ANGAROTH PHOENIX LEGION PERS PROPHET 7789732039 OR NITRO 7789732018. PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM PROFESSOR 6045889580.

Hello Prophet and Nitro. My warmest greetings to you. I apologize for not updating you earlier on developments. Our Delta brothers and sisters have been scattered widely as you know but nothing can keep us separated for long, can it? I know I speak for all Delta as I congratulate both of you on your miraculous recoveries and rehabilitation.

At present I am returning home to Quaba on the CS Stargirl. I am accompanied by Saka, Ice and Blackie. Saka and Ice are fine and Blackie has recovered from his wounds. Prophet, Nitro, we all pray for your full recovery every day and we thank God for giving you both back to us.

Here are more current deployments: Doggie, Scout and Smiley are with the B's. Although I have no recent news of them, I have the strongest confidence in our Bright friends and allies and their medical care is the best in the galaxy so I'm sure they will be rejoining us when events permit it. Honeyhair and Blondie remain on Vulcan carrying on with their medical duties. I'm sure we all agree they belong there until relieved. They are both patriots and heroes – just like their husbands.

We have one more Delta blood brother still assigned to Vulcan: Bird has been with the Andraste air wing and was in the thick of the action. He has survived, I am happy to report, and he will be returning to us as soon as I can arrange it. We need his talents badly, but so does everybody else. Bird's wife Mary is also in the war zone, assigned as a nurse to the battlestar Andrion Deep. We are all giving all we can.

Bees is currently on the CS Atom's Will, deployed around Vulcan. This is not the right channel to discuss our beloved Bees, or what she is doing there, but I can assure you that I am doing my level best to return her to her home unit. She is one popular girl, but I plan to use all my influence to recover her. I am also going to be reaching out to you two, Prophet and Nitro, to bring you home, hopefully before everybody else finds out where you are hiding. You have no idea how many fans you have. I thought it quite clever of you two to disappear like that, but now it's time to come home, and rejoin our little band of brothers and sisters. We have some very promising new projects.

I send you both eternal love, Prof.

Hey Prophet, Nitro. You maniacs! It’s Ice. Love you forever! Stay safe! Ice.

Hi guys, it's Saka. We miss you. Come home when you can. Blackie is fine, he's barking up a storm. He misses you too. Yeah, love from me too.

UNCLASS PERS ST 1230036127 END.

"I am so relieved," I confessed. "I thought it was bad news."

"That's all good news," Arie replied. "Everybody's all right, and we're all going to be returning to Delta. Man!"

"See? It's all going to work out. And Honeyhair and Blondie won’t be there forever."

'Yeah." Arie seemed depressed. Very depressed.

"All right, what’s the matter?" I asked.

"I don’t know. That guy. The guy I shot. Why do they do that? Why do they always do that?"

"Do what?"

'They think they rule the world. Those big guys. Just 'cause I'm not as tall as they are, they think I'm inferior. A little runt, a little kid, a little coward, with no balls. Not just a coward, but a
little
coward. As if the words belong together. Well, I don't let anybody get away with that. Normally I just kick them in the face, to show them they're wrong, but this time…well, I don't regret it. But it was so unnecessary. He did that. It's all on him."

"Don't worry about it, Arie. He was going to be executed anyway. You just moved up the date a bit. Saved the taxpayers some money. You saw how concerned Crash was about it – 'Carry on,' he said."

"Oh, I'm not worried. Not a bit. Just – a bit depressed. What do you think, maybe I should wear a warning sign."

"What would it say?"

"Let's see, how about: Do not joke about my height or I will kill you."

"No, it should just say: DANGER, NITRO. That'll do it."

Δ

The day before we left Angaroth, ConFree gave the locals back their independence. Arie and I watched the proceedings in the Unity Coliseum, which we had renamed the Freedom Coliseum. It was a bright sunny day. We were in the bleachers, in camfax, with a great crowd of Legion and assorted ConFree civilian officials. The place was packed with local civilians, thousands of them, and thousands more surrounded the stadium outside. We had phalanxes of A-suited Legion troopers surrounding the great presentation area, as if to demonstrate that this was all our doing. Then the local police militia marched in, smartly dressed and armed with Commune battle rifles, sparking thunderous applause. Then the new government appeared, about forty of them, all clad in grey uniforms. Grey was the symbol of the secret resistance and even though there had not been much of a resistance the crowd went wild seeing that. Everyone stood and applauded and shouted, and did not stop applauding until the provisional president calmed them down and made the introductions. As each new government official was introduced the applause resumed, rolling over the stadium. My red dotter, Medwyn Gramin, was introduced as provisional Minister of Interior. A small delegation of black-suited Legion officers was also on the stage, but they kept quiet. This was Angaroth's rebirth. We may have been responsible for it, but this was their day, not ours.

"Tyranny is dead!" the new president exclaimed. The audience went crazy again, an ear-splitting crescendo. "Your new government is composed of dangerous subversives who dared to commit treason against the party to liberate our people, to free the slaves and tear down the arrogant corrupt genocidal criminal gang who oppressed us all and brought us into an insane war against the rest of the galaxy. Most of those so-called subversives are dead. We honor them! We who survived will never let this happen again! The state is the enemy of the people! Now we have constructed a constitution that will guarantee that the state will be the slave of the people, not the other way around. You, the people, will choose the future. If the state ever again threatens the people, overthrow it!" More deafening applause.

"You the people are the future. Under our new government you have rights and responsibilities. If you want to participate in the birth of a new, free Angaroth, join us! There's a lot of work to be done. Now, we must face facts. We could never have overthrown the slave state without help from the Confederation of Free Worlds. Our armies tragically clashed on Vulcan, and many were killed on both sides. But ConFree is true to its word. They gave us advice on forming a new government, but it was we who did it. And now they will be leaving – as they promised. The representative of the Confederation of Free Worlds has asked to address you. General Wallace."

The general was clad in formal black. He moved up to the podium. The audience was silent. "Greetings to the people of Angaroth from the people of the Confederation of Free Worlds. We applaud your liberation and your rebirth as a free state. We hold no ill will to Angaroth over the actions of the former regime. You are now free men and women and we welcome Angaroth to the galactic community of free nations. We congratulate you on your independence. May God be with you." Then he stepped back. There was a moment of stunned silence, as if the audience had expected him to go on for quite awhile. Then the applause began, and grew. A short speech is always popular.

"The moment of independence is at hand!" the president said. "Let us raise the flag." And to the tune of "The Black March", the flag of ConFree was slowly and ceremoniously lowered from the huge flagpole that seemingly grew right out of the podium. Three Legion soldiers received it and carefully folded it up. Then several local militia attached Angaroth's new flag and it slowly rose up the flagpole to the tune of the new Angaroth national anthem. When it reached the top, the crowd went completely mad, screaming, shouting, throwing hats in the air, applauding madly, jumping up and down. The stadium shook. The new government officials embraced each other, ecstatic. Some of them were actually crying with joy.

'Think it will work out, Prophet? Or will it morph into a dictatorship in a couple of months?"