by Jean Kilczer
“Oh. That's good.” I pictured a Vegan with an apron and a chef's hat barbecuing fish on an open grill, then shook my head to clear the image. “Is that the Vegan Lord of the Damned?”
He nodded and wiped a paw across his eyes, then slapped his chest three times. “This desists away Lord Vorlof,” he said, in answer to my stare. “He is also the Lord of those who have transgressed The Code.”
“Oh.” I gazed out the porthole. “You'll have to tell me about The Code someday,” I said distractedly. What if I could persuade Spirit, and Sye Morth, my friendly Loranth ally who was in geth state last time we'd talked by tel links, and Star Speaker, that powerful Kubraen tel and spiritual leader from Halcyon, who was also in geth, and…no, not my young daughter Lisa, though she had the spectacular skill of moving the elements themselves. No. Not Lisa. She'd been through enough hell with me when we'd faced the dream czar on Halcyon. The others, though… Spirit? I sent on a hunch. Are you out there, and in a mood to converse?
I am here.
What say you to a proposition to find this madman and help us save Earth?
Earth is already a dying world, he sent. You Terrans have desecrated it with your excessive breeding and your greed and indifference. The only variance with the Vermakt general is that he would destroy it all at once.
Give my race a break, Spirit. We're trying to change our ways. Will you help me to locate him? I think his scientists are just days away from finishing the project. Our time may be running out.
If I agree, will it “even the score,” as you Terrans are fond of saying, for your part in ridding my planet of the dream czar?
It would be a move in the right direction. It's not easy to forget how you involved my young daughter on threat of death, you know.
Nor to have my being slashed open like your Earth bovines and carried away piece by piece by Terrans!
OK. This is no time for quibbles. It would even the score. All right? What say you?
I will do what I can, when the time comes.
Do what you can? When the time comes? You're running true to form!
I will not ask, Terran, what that particular phrase means.
“Jules?” Huff said.
“Huh?”
“You were so deep in thought. You frighten me when you turn inward that way, and your lips move without spoken words, as though you plunge to the depths of an icy river.”
I smiled to alleviate his fears. “Just hunting fish, my good friend.”
Our quarters were cramped. Sojourner only slept four, and we were five. Huff volunteered to sleep on the rug. He preferred to curl up there anyway. Joe used the excuse of age to requisition one of the two narrow beds. Doctor Stone took the other one, with a drawn curtain for privacy. Chancey and I flipped a coin for the bottom bunk.
He grinned when I muttered a swear word and threw my backpack on the top bunk.
Huff frowned as he watched me climb the ladder and roll onto the bunk. I was glad he didn't comment about sleeping way up there when there was plenty of rug room. I didn't need a mother to go along with Joe's tough-ass-father act.
Alone in the dark, I closed my eyes and called on Star Speaker, that enigmatic Kubraen spirit who had probed me more deeply and painfully than open-mind surgery.
Star Speaker, I sent, with a touch of trepidation. Gwis? I called her by her unceremonious Kubraen name. Are you reading me?
I am here. I expected your call, Jules, after your talk with Spirit. Though I am not elated to be brought down from the bliss of Nirvana to do the bidding of one small planet.
One small planet? Excuse me, Star Speaker. I don't mean to be arrogant, but I put myself and my daughter's life on the line to lead your people home. At the time, you didn't think the fate of the Kubraens was a small thing.
And so, I have answered your call, though I have learned much since our last meeting.
Have you been in contact with Great Mind? You know, I think I touched on Him myself.
He is but one more manifestation. I have discovered that matter and energy are so intertwined with spirit that planets themselves are mere separations of our one being. They are born with their star, and they are doomed to perish when their star dies.
But it's what we do in between that matters. Isn't it?
If we believe it matters, then it matters. Your telepathy powers have grown considerably since we last communicated. You have reached past star systems to contact Spirit and myself. I suspect it was your mental attack on the dream czar that forced the expansion of your skills. So in protecting Spirit and my people you have also benefitted.
Yeah. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Then I can count on you as part of our team?
Who else do you have in mind?
Sye Morth, a Loranth from planet Syl' Terria whose kwaii is probably still in geth state.
Sye Morth, who almost disrupted his kwaii when he drifted into a supernova?
The same. He, uh, he's matured since that incident. Look, I need all the help I can get. Rowdinth could be anyplace in the galaxy. Only Great Mind knows how many warp jumps he's made, and into which star system.
I'm surprised you have not conscripted Great Mind onto your team.
I would if I could. What do you say, Gwis? To save my homeworld?
I felt her mental sigh. It is but one among billions.
Yeah, but Great Mind endowed us with a sense of love for our home worlds, now hasn't He?
I will join your team, Terran Jules. But as you say yourself, this will even the score.
That's great, Star Speaker. Thank you! I'll try to contact Morth.
Tell him I advise that he keep out of supernovas.
I'll do that.
I laid back and sighed. The links with these super telepaths had worn me out, as usual. Just a short nap, I thought, and closed my eyes, and then I'd contact Sye Morth. I rolled as I drifted into sleep, then yelled and made a grab for the bedpost as I fell off the bunk.
Huff howled.
I found myself sitting on the floor in my underwear with Chancey's grinning mouth breathing against my cheek. He rolled over, his back to me, but I saw his shoulders shake.
“Now what the hell happened?” Joe sat up, a silhouette in the darkness of the small sleeping quarters, and looked around.
If Doctor Madison Stone deigned to comment on my fall from grace, it was sotto voce.
Huff lumbered to my side. “Do you ache?”
I shook my head and got up. “Only my pride.”
“Come.” He nudged me toward his rug with his cold nose. “There is room enough for two good friends.” He took my blanket and pillow.
I curled up beside him and he covered me, then tucked the blanket and lifted my head by my hair to stuff the pillow under it.
“Don't forget to read him a bedtime story, Huff,” Chancey called airily.
“I have no reading material,” Huff responded and raised his head. “But if I did, I would gladly – “
“He's kidding you, Huff!” I told him.
“Oh,” Huff said. “Bedtime stories for kids. Sleep taut, my friend.” He draped a heavy forearm over my shoulders. I wiped a strand of fur from my tongue, but I had to admit, it was comforting to have all that soft fur around me.
I sighed and closed my eyes. I'd contact Sye Morth as soon as I had some privacy again. “Yeah, Huff, you sleep taut too.”
The alarm announced the end of our sleep period. The “slop,” as we called the sous-chef unit, produced bacon, eggs, English muffins, toast, pats of butter, and coffee. I switched it to “Vegan” and it generated ground fish meal and purple seaweed.
I felt like Alice in Wonderland as we sat around the miniature table, elbowing each other and excusing ourselves. Huff ate beside me on the floor.
“It's nothing but a wild goose chase,” Doctor Madison stated and glanced at Joe as she buttered a muffin. “Even if they do locate him, which they won't, they will not find a planet-burning weapon.” The ripped muffin dangled.
&
nbsp; “Still,” Chancey said, and dabbed an egg yolk with toast, “the general's managed to launch a thousand ships.”
“Ships of fools!” Doctor Stone motioned toward a porthole with her half muffin. “And what makes him a general anyway? Because he says so?” Her dark eyes widened within the web of wrinkles on her pale face.
“On the other hand,” Joe said softly, “if the two scientists discovered something about the workings of dark energy that could be used for a weapon, and Alpha took your advice, Doctor, and backed off, it could mean the end of Earth.”
Doctor Stone leaned forward, an exasperated expression thinning her tight lips. “To say that dark energy, a repulsive force, can be used to destroy a planet, Mister Hatch, is tantamount to saying that the attractive force of gravity can be used to destroy Earth.”
I put down my cup. “Gravity doesn't destroy planets, Doctor Stone, until it gets concentrated inside a black hole. Then, as we both know, it eats stars and drinks light.”
“That's very poetic, Mister Rammis,” she said, “but their supposed instrument of destruction is not exactly a black hole.”
“Well what about light?” I persisted. “It doesn't usually destroy. But concentrate it in a handheld laser weapon and it can burn through metal.”
“Are you suggesting,” she said in a tone that dripped disdain, “that their table-top instrument can concentrate dark energy, a force we hardly understand?”
“Alpha seems to be taking this threat pretty seriously,” Joe told her and glanced at a porthole, where fighter craft were racing by.
“Alpha would take the threat from a Terrapin tortoise shell-driller seriously,” she said, and shook her head for emphasis. “It's what keeps the military afloat.”
Chancey glanced at Joe. A frown deepened his dark, heavy brows. “You know something, Doctor Stone,” Chancey said. I found myself leaning away from the knife edge in his tone. “If it wasn't for the military, the barbarians would have broken through the gates a long time ago.” He slammed down his empty cup. “A lot o' good people gave up their lives over the years to make sure those gates are still standing!” He kicked back his chair as he stood up. I stared into my coffee cup as he stormed out of the galley and left an awkward silence behind.
Huff found an itch to bite on his flank.
Joe got up quietly and took his dish to the recycling unit, then followed Chancey out the narrow door.
“Maybe they need help to steer the boat,” Huff said, and went to join them in the cockpit, leaving me by myself with the illustrious Doctor Stone.
“Don't you have someplace you have to be, too?” she asked me.
I shrugged. “There's places I'd rather be.”
She glared at me.
“Then this claustrophobic ship,” I added quickly. Actually, I did have some very important work to do. I had to get in touch with Sye Morth. With the four of us mindlinked, we might be able to locate General Rowdinth.
I squirmed as she continued to stare at me. “How do you do what you do?” she asked.
“Read minds?” I ventured.
She chewed the remains of the muffin and nodded.
“It has to do with the electrical impulses of the brain. Other than that, it's a mystery to me, too.”
“Is the military expecting you to detect his hiding place among the stars?”
“I suspect that's why I'm along on this cruise.”
“Can you do it?”
“Alone?” I shook my head. “No. I've been asking some friends for help.”
She sat back and sighed. “I'll be glad when this madness is over and I can return to my real work.” In a relaxed state, her small frame seemed vulnerable.
“Me too.”
“What do you do?”
“I'm an astrobiologist. I'd like to get back to – “
“You never mentioned that you're a scientist!”
“There was no reason to.”
“A PhD?'
I nodded reluctantly and sipped coffee. I had earned it for my forced study of the race of Loranths.
“Then you're a doctor.”
God help me. Now I had a union card into her exclusive club. “It has nothing to do with this work,” I said, “and obviously physics isn't my area of discipline.”
“I'd still like to discuss your record of accomplishment, Doctor. It's always a pleasure to discuss research with a peer.”
I thought of narrowly escaping from a field of sucking blackroot I was studying on Halcyon, and dangling from the underside of a helicopter while the roots leaped up and snapped at my heels. I took a breath. “I did my dissertation on the parallel evolutionary mechanisms of reptilian life forms on planet Syl' Terria, and those on Earth, as proof of a universal law of evolutionary development.”
“Fascinating.”
I thought of Sye Kor. “It had its moments.”
“How long did it take you to complete your degree?”
I lowered my head. “Five years.” And a lost family, I mentally added. “I was hoping to discover an emerging mammalian life form.” I sipped coffee. “It would've been further proof of parallel genetic adaptation in different star systems. Damn,” I said softly. “I saw one too. A small, shrewlike mammal on Syl' Terria. Crossed the road right in front of me. But, I ran out of time.” I pushed back my chair. “Well, Doctor Stone, I have some tel research to do for this mission. So, if you'll excuse me?”
“Certainly, Doctor Rammis.”
I retreated to a tiny private room with a small chair and a foot-wide desk, which were all we were allotted on the craft, and sat down with my knees up around my chin. Me and my big mouth!
I rested my head in my hands and closed my eyes. Val Tir Sye Morth, I sent. Are you out there?
Oh, no! Not the Loranth Calling Time? So soon. No. I am not ready to take on a new body. I will cloak if you persist!
It's me, Morth. It's the Terran Jules Rammis.
Jewels! Are you already in geth state? What sent your kwaii into the eternal?
I'm still in the same body, Morth. Are you sending in stelspeak, because now I can understand you a lot better?
I discovered a holo called Learning Stelspeak in Seven Easy Lessons in the new Loranth museum. You remember the old one, don't you?
Let's not go there, Morth. You know I had reasons for what I did. I had destroyed the Loranth's Museum/Library/School/Church after Sye Kor infected Terrans on Syl' Terria with his virulent viral disease. I need your help, Morth.
I am counseling the kwaiis of youngsters who fled from their planet when their star went nova and destroyed the entire system.
Sye Morth, this can't wait!
Once we were friends, Sye Jewels, but your destruction of the museum is a wall of old-growth between us now.
You remember my friend Jack Cole?
Of course. He accompanied you on your treacherous excursion into the very heart of our culture, where you destroyed the –
All right, Morth! I remember what I did. Do you also know that Jack's young daughter Heather died from Sye Kor's plague, along with a baby his wife was carrying, and two hundred other Terrans on your homeworld?
I…but I assumed the gland antidote was developed by my people in time. After all, you and Jack survived because of the serum.
You assumed wrong. Now my entire homeworld is threatened by a madman. Listen to me, Morth, two very powerful telepaths from planet Halcyon have already agreed to help stop him before it's too late. Will you join us?
If it means saving your homeworld, then the cause is just. What is your plan, Terran Jewels?
Oh. I'm still working on that.
May I interrupt, Spirit sent.
Sure, I answered him, if you have a –
I suggest that we link our tel forces, somewhat like a pulsar, and form a search pattern that orbits the outer ring of the galaxy in warp mode. Of course it would be useless to scan the inner ranges. Even the mad General Rowdinth would not venture into such killing radiation. In your words, Te
rran, we weed out the bastard.
That's uh, I sent, that sounds like a plan to me. Then we burn his brain cells once and for all and destroy the weapon!
There was silence.
“What? I sent.
We may well locate him on a planet, Spirit sent, so that his scientists can set up a makeshift laboratory with life support, to finish their project. You know the consequences, Terran, if I unleash my powers.
The destruction of the entire planet?
Though I might try, I can do no less.
I sighed. Star Speaker. Gwis. I've been subject to the depth of your probes. I know you can stop him.
Temporarily, she sent. I took the Kubraen Oath of Manifest Kwaii not to terminate a life after I killed the czar's guard when they came searching for you.
Oh. I rubbed my forehead. A pacifist. Sye Morth?
A vegetarian now.
A what?
In my last three lifebinds, before this current geth state, I have sworn that no conscious being, with a face and-or a mother, will ever again suffer at my hands, or flippers, or clawed feet, whichever the lifebind might be.
But this madman could destroy an entire planet of conscious beings! I sent.
I am sorry, Sye Jewels. I will assist you in locating him, but I will not send his kwaii into geth state. The deaths he causes will be on his own head, if he possesses one in his next lifebind. He alone must make recompense.
That should be a great comfort to the dying people of Earth!
Sye Morth, Star Speaker sent, have you stayed away from novae in your present geth state?
I have, Star Speaker. Especially the great wheels that become black holes.
I bowed out of the conversation when I heard a knock on the door. “Come in. There's room in here for everybody!”
Joe opened the door. “You comfortable in there?”
“I've been in tighter places.”
He nodded. “The flag ship's sending a drone pod. Commander Ca Prez wants to talk to you.”
“Oh, yeah?” I unfolded myself from the chair. “What does he want?”
“She didn't confide it in me.” He sucked a tooth. “There's something I've been meaning to tell you.”
“What did I do now?”