The Forge of God (50 page)

The brilliant highways and canals of the revealed plasma energy sphere now stretched thousands of miles, vaulting the molten, vaporized material of the Earth outward in a rough ovoid, the long axis at right angles to the axis of rotation. The tips of the ovoid spun away huge globules of silica and nickel and iron.

Against the dominant light of the plasma, the twisted remains of mantle and compressed streamers of the core cast long shadows into near-Earth space through the expanding dusty cloud of vapor and smaller debris. The planet resembled a lantern in fog, almost unbearably bright. Inexorably, the ovoid of plasma pushed everything outward, attenuating, blasting, diminishing all that was left, scattering it before an irresistible wind of elementary particles and light.

Two hours. He glanced at his watch. The moon shined through the vapor haze, a quarter of a million miles distant and seemingly aloof. But tidal bulges would relax, and even though the moon's shape had been frozen by ages of cooling, Arthur thought the relaxation would at the very least trigger violent moonquakes.

He turned his attention again to the dead Earth. The plasma glow had dimmed slightly. Distinct ethereal pinks and oranges and grayish blues gave it a pearly appearance, like a child's plastic ball illuminated from within. The diameter of the plasma ovoid and the haze of debris had expanded to well over thirty thousand miles by now. The ovoid continued to lengthen, spreading the new belt of asteroids into the stubby beginnings of an arc.

The transparent panel became mercifully opaque.

As if released from puppet strings, fully half of the witnesses collapsed on the floor. Arthur hugged Francine and gripped Marty's shoulder, unable to speak, then walked among his fellows, seeing what could be done to help them.

The copper-colored robot appeared at the end of the cabin and floated forward. Behind it came dozens more survivors, bearing trays and bowls of water, food, and medicines.

It is the Law.

The words echoed again and again through Arthur's thoughts as he helped revive those who had fallen.

It is the Law.

Marty stayed by his side, kneeling with him as he elevated a young woman's head and held a metal cup of water to her lips.

"Father," the boy said, "where are we going now?"

AGNUS DEI

The child, ravaged by wolves, falls quiet in the forest, and the long darkness is filled with an undisturbed silence.

PERSPECTIVE

New Mars Gazette, December 21, 2397; editorial by Francine Gordon
:

The screen for today's edition is filled with news from the Central Ark. Four hundred more of us, most from the Eurasian arks, have been revived from deep sleep, and prepared for their arrival on New Mars by the Moms. (Does anybody remember who first called the robots Moms? It was Reuben Hordes, then nineteen, revived eight years ago and now on the New Venus Reconnaissance Mission.) Our population today hit the mark of 12,250; the Moms say we are doing well, and I believe them.

New Mars today celebrates its first year of autonomy. The Moms no longer exercise what my husband has called zookeeper's authority. Already we begin to factionalize and squabble; but these are the signs of a reborn planetism coming once again to maturity. Does that bring us much cheer? Not the politicians, bracing for the arrival of more Marxists.

But what we really celebrate, of course, is the four hundredth anniversary of the Ice Strike that began New Mars. This world has already become home to most of the human race. I feel a stronger connection to New Mars now than to Earth, blasphemous as that might seem; in our hearts I think we must acknowledge that the ten years since most of us came out of sleep have blurred the pain of Earth's death. Not banished, just subdued…

We cannot forget.

In four days many of us will celebrate Christmas. On Earth, that was a time of hope, of the promise of resurrection. Even the atheists among us must feel the power of this particular season and holiday, especially now, for like Christ, we carry the weight of billions on our shoulders; and more, we bear the responsibility of an entire planet's biosphere. We are like children dragged prematurely into parenthood, and the burden is frequently too heavy to stand.

Still, the suicide rate on New Mars has dropped precipitously in the last three years. We are finding our feet once again; we are desperately weak, but we are determined. We will not perish.

We will not forget our duties, nor will those who fly outward on the Ships of the Law to seek the home of the planet-eaters. My son is out there; what does he have to celebrate, on his equivalent of December 21?

For those of you who have supported this ofttimes undisciplined, wandering little journal, on this day of celebration, my husband and I extend our heartfelt thanks. We hope that our philosophy—that New Mars and New Venus are and will be our true homes—has provided some comfort.

All of Earth has been reduced to one small town. Whatever our differences, we are all extraordinarily close. We love you all, and welcome our newly awakened Eurasian brothers and sisters.

Arthur put on his coldsuit and strapped a small tank of oxygen to his belt. Even in the past year, the air had grown richer, and not just in Mariner Valley, but on the green moss and lichen plains of the highlands as well. Still, it was best to be safe; if he should need to exert himself, the oxygen tank could save his life.

In the small individual air lock, he could hear the distant, tinny sound of the celebration in the main hall of Geopolis. He had had enough company for the evening; he needed solitude now, time to think and reappraise.

The hatch opened and he stepped out onto a patch of ubiquitous crisp lichen. The valley air at dusk was cold and still and the stars steady as crystal.

The sky glowed a lovely, subdued mauve, edging toward blue at zenith. To the southeast, the high valley walls caught the last sunlight of the day, a thin irregular horizontal ribbon of intense orange.

New Mars had recovered from its collision with the icy fragment of Europa in the 390 years they had been in cold sleep, dropping its mantle of cloud after two centuries of almost steady rain. Floods had scoured the red and ocher terrain, and the increased temperature had released the frozen carbon dioxide of the poles, thickening the atmosphere. At that time, a century past, New Mars had been ideal for primitive plants. Up and down the valley, the dust and rock had been carpeted by lichens and mosses, and the new small seas had been seeded with phytoplankton.

Oxygen soon returned in quantity to New Mars.

Farther north, the impacted remains of Phobos and Deimos, rich in organic materials, supported highland farms of new wheat strains, and the first experiments at Earthlike forests, chiefly conifers. In a few decades, New Mars would have territories virtually indistinguishable from Earth. She—New Mars had adopted Mother Earth's gender—promised to be a planet of broad green prairies, high semiarid forests, and deep, almost tropical oxygen-rich valleys.

Eight thousand were settled here, two thirds of the human race. The remaining third still lived on the Central Ark, some learning the theory of planetary management, some—a select few—waiting for their chance to ride more starships and carry out the judgment of the Law.

With virtually unlimited power supplies, no weapons, and resources sufficient for a hundred times their number already, their life on New Mars held promise of being idyllic. As always, only their own cussedness could change that.

He marched between the milky glass-walled greenhouses and up a low hill to a point where he could look down Feinman Rift. Far below, breeders tended the first range animals born out of genetic storage. It was warmer down there, and it rained far more often, and some complained that in a truly free society, that would be prime real estate, but the area was strictly reserved for the breeders. To give in to the community's baser instincts now might bring the Moms down on their backs again; it had happened once before, on the Central Ark, when human political authority had broken down into anarchy. Arthur did not wish to see it happen again.

Children do so hate to be disciplined.

Nobody knew who had sent these stern, dedicated robot guardians. Chances were they would never know. Arthur suspected that even benefactors had to be suspicious of their charges; it was best, for the time being, to simply stay hidden and quiet.

Arthur pinched his cheek and closed his faceplate against the cold. Then he looked to the east, above the pink haze of twilight, and saw the silvery point of Venus, still wrapped in a mantle of cloud.

Reuben Hordes was in command of the first exploratory and diagnostic mission to Venus. Twenty years ago, the now-moist Venerean clouds had parted briefly, and a decade-long rain had fallen, driving the planet's surface acids into chemical battle with molten rock thrown up by three centuries of fresh vulcanism. The clouds had closed again, and the reconnaissance expedition had been launched from the Central Ark.

Arthur did not envy Reuben his task. Venus was a hard case; it might be centuries more before humans could live in significant numbers on its surface.

What he was actually seeking was a clear view of the Milky Way, so that he could look at Sagittarius. He missed Martin deeply. To be cut off from the past was to cherish the future all the more; Martin was much of Arthur's future, though they would never see each other again, and hadn't communicated for a year and a half, by Arthur's time frame.

Martin had left on the seventh Ship of the Law, with fifty human crewmates, only eight years after Earth's destruction, before most of the survivors had been put into cold sleep. The ships had been traveling for centuries now, accelerating and decelerating, searching, refueling from dead ice moons.

He found Sagittarius, the Archer, between Scorpius and Capricorn. He lifted his gloved hand and pointed:
somewhere there
. Within the arc subtended by his trembling finger lay the solar system of Earth's killers.

How terrifying the sky was now. Arthur wished he could share Harry's vision of united solar systems forming vast "galactisms." Now, from what the Moms had told them, the galaxy was a vaguely explored frontier at best, a vicious jungle at the worst.

The galaxy, too, was young.

The planet-eaters had not come from such a great distance, after all. The first signs of their builders' interstellar dissembling, their protective coloration, had become evident less than a hundred light-years from the sun.

Martin, a quiet, solemn man who had grown to resemble his father, floated among a crowd of younger student-pilots on the observation deck of the kilometer-long, needle-thin Ship, of the Law. All the Ships of the Law had been hewn from the material of the dead Earth itself. With the galaxy's center in view, still inconceivably faraway, he thought back to the debates he had had with the ship's Moms at the beginning of the journey.

"What if we find the civilization of the planet-eaters, and it's matured? What if it's beautiful and noble and rich with culture, and it regrets its past mistakes? Do we still destroy it?"

"
Yes
, " the Moms had replied.

"
Why? What good would that do
?"

"
Because it is the Law
."

In fact, the builders of the planet-eaters had come very early on, thousands of years ago, to realize their mistake. They had laced the planetary systems around their parent star with dozens of false civilizations, misleading beacons, even genetically engineered biological decoys, complete in every detail but one-the ability to mislead a Ship of the Law.

Three ship-years before, Martin had walked the surface of one such decoy planet, marveling at the creativity, the sheer expenditure of energy.

The planet had revealed sophisticated defenses. They had barely escaped the trap.

Now they were closing…

If they failed, others would follow, more informed, more aware of the dangers and pitfalls of this neck of the galactic woods.

Despite his intellectual misgivings, Martin was committed. He thought often of the age-old Law, and of the hundreds of mature civilizations that had embraced it. In his heart, a cold, rational hatred and hunger for vengeance echoed the demands of justice.

He knew, however strange and out of proportion it might be, that one of his key subconscious motivations was to avenge the death of a single, uncomplicated friend: a dog. He vividly remembered those soul-branding hours in the ark's observation cabin.

Many of the humans aboard the Ship of the Law had been born in the Central Ark and had never known their home world. They were all dedicated to the search, regardless.

Silently, each day before the brief sleep of deep space, Martin swore an oath he had made up himself:

To those who killed Earth: beware her children!

That is how the balance is kept.

Table of Contents

INTROIT: KYRIE ELEISON

QUID SUM, MISER! TUNC DICTUROS?

QUARENS ME, SEDISTI LASSOS

OFFERTORIUM

AGNUS

LACRIMOSA DIES ILLA!

HOSTIAS ET PRECES TIBI, LAUDIS OFFERIMUS

DIES IRAE

AGNUS DEI

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