The door opened with a squeak. Another man walked in, this one older. He had an air of authority about him and didn’t carry a gun. The bug-eyed one kicked Steo again, making him cough fiercely.
The older man waved them away. “I am Muuk. Who are you?” He sized Steo up.
“A soldier. I work for Slaught. You’ll pay for this.” He knew he was thin for a mercenary and didn’t look tough lying on the floor.
“Do we have to go through this?” Muuk said. He pointed at Steo. The young men rained kicks on Steo’s back and legs. He barely held onto consciousness. They let him catch his breath.
“Okay,” Steo said. “Not a soldier. I came on board your ship to take something and leave. I don’t mean you any harm.”
“You’re the one in the battle against the Scorpion and the other ships in the fleet, aren’t you?” Muuk said.
Steo managed to roll over on one side, protecting his face with an arm. He admitted, “I came to stop Slaught.”
“Who is Slot?” Muuk said.
“Admiral Slaught? The man behind all this? Has he lied to you so much you don’t even know his name?”
“We know the truth!” Muuk shouted. “You will tell me what I want to know! Are you a slaver? Someone who captures humans for foul alien rites?”
“What? No. I’m trying to stop Admiral Slaught from going on a bloody crusade. What do you think this is all about?” Steo said between gasps.
“We are the favored ones, the Exceptionalists of Alpha Centauri. We have been awakened and seek a new homeworld, free of alien infestation and degeneracy. You attacked us!”
“I haven’t attacked this ship. Hey, who woke you up?”
“Councilor Ulay, the star messiah. He has been freed from cryogenic sleep and seeks the paradise planet Ino. We have come out of the graveyard of death by his good will and have joined with him to fulfill the Darmabi prophecy. Humanity will begin again.”
Steo frowned. Even disoriented, with blood pounding in his ears, he recognized those words.
Muuk continued. “We have gathered right-thinking humans to our cause. Our ascent to our destiny has been too long. Our people yearn to rush down the path to Ino and found a new civilization, based on the Old Ways. Our quest requires resources. The initial skirmishes have been glorious victories and with Councilor Ulay we expect many more. Now why have you stood in our way?”
Steo shakily sat up. He’d heard this sort of rhetoric before and he could imagine what sort of mumbo-jumbo Slaught had fed them. “I guess I’m a rebel.”
“What are you rebelling against?” Muuk asked.
“Faith.”
“You don’t follow the Old Ways, that much is clear.”
“I don’t know what the Old Ways are, but they apparently lead to kicking a man when he’s down.”
“We need to get information from you. Now talk! What has made you an enemy of Councilor Ulay?”
Steo began to put the pieces together. If he could convince Muuk of the truth, he might be able to break up Slaught’s scheme. The admiral wasn’t there. His machine of lies and deception was gone. Steo only needed to convince Muuk to doubt, to question, and Slaught wouldn’t be able to put it back together again. He had broken through the admiral’s defenses and was in the core.
Even through the bruises and broken bones, he saw a chance. A faint chance.
The officers of the Fire Scorpion met. The robot Leech watched from the corner, with his hands behind his back.
“Where is the admiral now?” Pesht asked with an urgent tone.
“On the AndroVault,” Hack said. “Headed to the loading bay where they have that hacker.”
Boc said, “I just realized I need to be somewhere else. On the AndroVault, watching that little weasel get his guts ripped out. Ha haaa!”
“Not yet,” said Tech Commander Makkiner. “We need to figure some things out. Like how did they follow us, and where are they? If their captain got on board the AndroVault, where is the Eye of Orion?”
Pesht said, “Probe drones have scoured the area. That ship is not in local space. Kiluth said he just saw the hacker walking the corridors.”
Makkiner said, “I checked the logs. They’re incomplete. They were headed on a collision course and then you lost them.”
“I’m telling you Makkiner, they aren’t here.”
Hack interrupted. “Then let’s look at something else. How in space did they follow us? We don’t want to head out and be followed.”
“I do,” Boc said with a shrug and a smile.
“Were you followed Pest?” Makkiner said. “Did you follow standard protocols?”
“We wiped out every scanner probe in that graveyard. We even found a tracker stuck to the AndroVault and removed it. Then we moved out of the graveyard in a random direction before the FTL jump. There was no one watching us! We took several jumps after that. We’re not leaving a radioactive trail either. And yes, I followed standard protocols!” Pesht stood on top of the table. Leech watched the discussion with glowing eyes.
Makkiner was red faced. He cracked his knuckles. “What about the electronic countermeasures team? Did they run a scan on this ship? Is there maybe a tracker stuck to us?”
“There’s nothing stuck to the AndroVault or any other ship,” Pesht said with a sloppy burble. It was a sign the kalam was getting tired of being accused of things.
Hack said, “I don’t know the technological or tactical side of these things, but that seems to leave only one option: did one of the ships leave a signal anyway? And if so, how?”
Steo said to Muuk, “Have you questioned anything you’ve been told? Do you just follow your Old Ways blindly?”
“We have always followed them, and we follow them faithfully. What’s the point of having an opinion unless it’s strongly-held?”
“What’s the point of having a mind if you don’t use it? You didn’t come up with your ideas. Someone else did. You’re repeating them because of faith. Do you ever question them? Those aren’t your ideas you’re fighting for. You’re fighting for someone else’s ideas. Instead of valuing the invention of new ideas, you think you found the only ideas worth having.”
“I bet you think I should be so open-minded that my brain falls out!” Muuk shouted.
“You were open-minded. You had to be. At one point you didn’t know about your current beliefs. Then you learned about them, and closed your mind. Once you were open to new ideas, that’s how you got the ones you have now. Do you hate yourself for once not believing what you do now?” Steo argued.
“The purpose of opening your mind is to close it on something worthwhile.”
“Even if the truth conflicts?”
Muuk scoffed. “That is a child speaking. What do you know about the truth.”
“You want me to believe in your ideas but you didn’t make them up. Your absolute devotion doesn’t tell me those ideas are right. It tells me you’re a fanatic!”
“What do you offer?” Muuk asked. “Whether it’s right or wrong at least we’ve been offered a way. We believe it is the right way.”
“What if there’s another way? A way for that works for everyone? Even if that way hasn’t been thought up yet, you’ll never find it because you’ve shut the door. You have faith, and it’s the weapon you used to kill yourself,” Steo said.
“What are your beliefs? You already said you rebel against faith itself. I don’t respect people without faith,” Muuk said with certainty.
“What does it matter?” Steo said, but Muuk rolled his eyes at him.
“I don’t have the answer to the meaning of existence. What are we without … I don’t know, the color orange? We’re still alive. There’s a galaxy of possibilities out there. A galaxy of opportunities. You have a chance to save your people!” Steo pleaded. “But your obsession to your beliefs rules out my beliefs. Your belief requires that I’m wrong, whatever I believe. That’s the course to infinite war.”
“There are some things worth fighting for,” Muuk
said with finality.
“No!” Steo objected. “That means you’ll always be looking for a fight. Shouldn’t it be there’s work to be done? Isn’t that good enough?”
“I contribute to our culture. We carry the right way. There is no other way.”
Steo’s voice rose. “There must be other ways! We can’t be identical. There must be room for differences. You can’t be right. You aren’t right if right means perfect, because nobody is perfect! Belief is mortal. No faith is perfect. All faith is flawed.
Listen to me! It’s not united we stand, divided we fall. It’s divided we stand, united we fall! A truly homogenous monoculture can’t exist, because there will always be differences of opinion. If you hate differences, you’ll learn everyone is different than you. You’ll hate everyone! Muuk, accept that you might not have all the answers. A flexible society is stronger than an inflexible one. If you continue seeking perfection you’ll only find war and death. I’m not telling you your Old Ways are wrong. I’m telling you your society is headed for extinction. The question is how many planets you’ll take with you to cold-space.”
“What are we without faith?” Muuk asked.
“There, that’s the first step.” Steo thought he was making headway. “You don’t have to accept an external source for decision making. You can make your own decisions. You can think for yourself. That’s my message, if you want one.”
“I won’t be the first to cast aside the Old Ways,” Muuk said, his voice lower and quieter. He turned to leave.
To his back Steo said, “Councilor Ulay is Admiral Slaught! He works with aliens! Ino doesn’t exist! He only wants war and you’re his tools!”
Muuk said over his shoulder, “We are Exceptionalists. Defend the soldiers, defend the mission, defend the leader, defend the Old Ways. The strength of our soldiers is the strength of our culture. Councilor Ulay – or Admiral Slaught as you call him – is strong.”
Muuk left the room.
CHAPTER 23
Finder’s Fee
Steo slumped. The two young men walked away from him and stood by the door.
Slowly his heart rate and breathing stabilized. He could feel bruises and broken ribs. His hand hurt and when he looked at it he saw a fingernail had been torn off.
As he sat on the floor, he didn’t know if he’d had any effect on Muuk. He still hoped for a chance to turn them away from a course of destruction. He didn’t like where that train of thought took him. Steo had been told he sounded cocky when he got on a rant, but it didn’t change anything.
Looking around, he became aware that he was in a loading bay. The ship was so colossal it probably had dozens or hundreds of them. The rest didn’t have his blood splashed on the floor though.
Another door opening interrupted his thoughts. The two young men stood to attention, then left. Steo didn’t bother turning around. He knew.
“Steorathan Liet,” came the growling voice. “Again you charge into my claws without a thought for your own safety.”
Admiral Slaught stepped around in front of him. He wore robes and had a strange sash wrapped around his head. He removed it and looked down at Steo with his spider eyes.
“I admire your luck, but I would never hire someone like you. You lack discipline. You don’t have a good sense of self-preservation.”
Two mercenaries flanked Steo. They could easily crush his skull if he moved.
Steo decided not to mention the discussion with Muuk. Slaught was just the kind of mercenary to kill Muuk if the Reminder voiced doubt.
“I blew up your fleet there, Slaught. Slowed down your dreams of galactic war.”
“I’ll form another. It won’t be my first fleet, or my last. Anyway, you act like war is a bad thing. Like it can be prevented. Like it’s unnatural. Nothing is more natural than war. History loves violence. The galaxy has taught me that much.”
He observed his prisoner, bound and injured, kneeling before him.
Steo said, “It continues because you want it to.”
“No. I take advantage of it,” Slaught said. “We’re not entirely different. We agree on some points. You don’t have to suffer. That’s why I normally don’t allow torture in my ranks. It rarely does any good. Everyone dies eventually, though. Even me. Some part will wear out and can’t be replaced. Maybe I’ll simply be shot. I look forward to meeting the man who kills me. Don’t fool yourself, that won’t be you.
Nobody thinks they’re evil. Everybody thinks they’re right. From the most passive monk to my men, the greatest mass murderers the galaxy has ever known … everybody feels justified. How will history judge who cared more about their cause? What determines who’s more justified? This. A weapon.”
Slaught drew a gun from within his robes and gestured with it.
“Not the blue-robed Acolytes of Yissadoa. Not the blind, dirt-worshippers of the Huespinax system. Not the degenerate Clottists that seem to spread to every overpopulated world. There are no universal moral truths. This though, this weapon, this is universal. This is truth.
What were the beliefs of the Binary Mandate before I killed them all? Who picked up their banner? Where is their cause now? Forgotten!
Have you heard of the Sect of Kran? It was a fanatical cult that came from the asteroid mines of the Thurnia system. You know what asteroid mines are like. Miserable conditions to live a short life in. The Sect of Kran rose there and spread fast. They were going to throw off their chains of oppression! The company running the operation captured Kran and put him to a slow, messy death. He was martyred and of course the uprising flared. The company’s long gone. Do you know who runs the mines now? The Sect of Kran. It’s been a few centuries. The asteroid mines are still worked, the conditions are still horrendous. There was a report that the Sect’s dogma changed. The leadership uses religion to enforce whatever rules they need to stay in power. No information gets in, everything is controlled.
We had a mission there. A fleet of mercenaries was hired. The goal was to break the Sect’s hold on the system so companies could come in and get those resources. After two years of fighting, our sponsors were losing motivation. We couldn’t make headway in the dense asteroid belts and even then, fighting inside mines is a mess. I quit the moment I knew they were going to cut funding. Stole a ship, took some men, got out of there.
What did I see, though? If Kran were alive he wouldn’t love his followers. They were fanatics. They used the same vicious weapons and tactics we used. Sometimes they employed them first. They were being used and loved it. They cheered when the mercenary ships broke formation and left the system. They cheered! They were joyful that they were going back to lives of toil and grief.
Like any weapon, religion wears out over time. It changes goals and core beliefs, but it has more power than a gun. As you can see, it works. Institutions can be so much more powerful than a gun.”
Cyrus walked briskly through the AndroVault. He tried to follow Admiral Slaught wherever he went. He couldn’t be near him all the time, but he made the effort. He didn’t have much else to do, after all.
Whenever Dr. Fector was around, Cyrus made up reasons to be elsewhere, or he continued working on one of his pet projects. He let Hack believe he was an idiot.
Cyrus was good at losing his robot bodyguard, and he ditched it before seeking Slaught this time. He hurried without drawing attention. Cyrus had a dead serious expression.
Leech spoke up. “This was a failing of the electronic countermeasures team. I will visit the section chief. He will not pass my test.”
“What are you saying?” Boc demanded. He was lost in the conversation, but the other officers were animated. Boc was insane but not stupid. He could normally follow doubletech.
“By all science, he did it,” Makkiner said.
“Did what?” Boc said.
Hack explained slowly, “Hacked the engines. The AndroVault is giving off the signal. His stupidity, it was all an act.”
“Well where is he now?” Boc said. “I’l
l find him and see if those muscles mean anything!”
“He’s on the AndroVault. He could be headed for the admiral,” Hack said.
They split up.
Hack and Boc took off for the docking tunnel. Pesht scrambled for the bridge to get the ship close to the AndroVault. Makkiner went with Leech to shut off the signal. It was a virus, installed by Cyrus.
Steo coughed and swayed.
“One last story before you die. You have some time left,” Slaught said. “We were racing across Demora to our pick-up point. We started with 37 men. Only 14 made it to there. Have you ever seen a man hit by a flicker-pulse proton gun? He’s cut through, split into a dozen pieces. Flicker-pulses ignore reflective armor, lightening fields and superdense materials. Just a flash and you’re ground meat.
Our unit gave as good as we got though. Thermoplasma landmines are illegal on most worlds, but they discourage pursuit better than anything. Watching a sergeant get melted tends to affect the squad’s morale.
We were almost at the drop zone. That was when I saw a Demoran razor-wolf for the first time. Eight hundred pounds of muscle powering teeth and claws like blades.
It bolted out of cover before we could flinch. It buried its claws in a man’s chest and clamped its jaws around his neck. The razor-wolf took him to the ground, snapping his spine in one motion. One terrible, beautiful attack. The man felt no more than an instant of pain. He was dead before the razor-wolf began dragging him away.
I learned something there. The razor-wolf had no expression of evil. It had no feeling of doing something wrong. It didn’t take delight in causing pain. It brought the quickest death it could. It was taking what it needed in the most efficient way possible. That’s what a predator is. It isn’t evil anymore than a herd animal is evil by chewing grass.”
“Did you kill the wolf too?” Steo said through gritted teeth.
“No. I made my men stand down. It wasn’t a threat anymore, and I respected it. The perfect predator needs to test itself against skilled enemies. The razor-wolf did that. That’s why I’m doing this. You were skilled.”
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