Warpath

by Randolph Lalonde

  “I get the feeling there’s a lot you’re not telling me.” Governor Tate said. Everything he saw so far about this visit was unnerving. He could learn almost nothing about Citadel from the networks, and everything he found advised travellers to stay away from their ships, their bases if one was found, or to leave anyone who claimed to be from Citadel alone. Everything online told him to run in the other direction if he saw one, but the problem was that they were there, in his solar system, and he had a distinct feeling that they wanted something from him, something he didn’t want to part with. “Something about this, here, today, and I think it’s time you started letting me in on all the intelligence you’ve been gathering. Intelligence that someone like you, someone who can escape notice in Regent Galactic territory, can get to.”

  “You know, there’s something I like about you Governor,” Wheeler replied. “So I think I will start sharing. I think it’s time, but you have to start moving faster on delivering on your promise. I need ships.”

  “I will,” Governor Tate said with more enthusiasm than was honest.

  “I’ve learned about Citadel, it cost me a G-Terminal, but I was able to hack into their basic information systems,” Wheeler replied. “And what they keep in their lowest security data storage would put you down on your knees in supplication, so whatever happens today, keep piety in mind.”

  “In my own solar system?” Governor Tate said, irritated at Wheeler’s statements as much as he barely knew what the man was talking about. “What is a G-Terminal, anyway?”

  “It’s a low-latency communications unit that hides the user by piggybacking on the identification of other people accessing a network. I was connected long enough to get what I wanted, and probably a few things you want, but it’s going to cost you.”

  “What? What do you have and what will it cost me?” Governor Tate asked.

  “Let’s just get through this,” Wheeler said, gesturing at the crowd gathering on the landing field below the edge of the roof. There were hundreds there, but there was room for a hundred thousand or more on the large concrete landing field. A few workers were already setting up a barricade on the rooftop sixty metres from where they stood. “You’ll have a better idea of what you need afterwards, and I’ll know how soon I’ll need those ships.”

  For the first time since Wheeler appeared in his apartment, Governor Tate took a good look at the man. He had scraggly long hair down to his shoulders, his face didn’t conform to the kind of attractiveness that fashion dictated in his sector, the narrow, almost pretty man-boy that was idolized on most of his worlds was entirely absent. Wheeler’s face was broad, with strong, expressive features, and he didn’t look young, he looked almost wind-worn, at least that was what his face seemed like that day. Was that Wheeler’s true face? It was the one the Governor had seen on wanted notices from the British Alliance.

  Wheeler didn’t sport a sidearm, but he still had that waist length jacket. There were espionage devices in there, his scans told him weeks ago, electronic parts, and strange drugs no one on his staff could put a purpose to. The boots Wheeler wore were military, and they looked old, scuffed. If anything, Governor Tate would say that Wheeler looked like a constant traveller. “What really brought you here?” he asked him. “Honestly, without giving me an answer that leads to more questions.”

  Wheeler seemed intrigued by the question. He watched the masses gather below, dozens at a time as he answered. A few transit shuttles were arriving, the first of many. “You are a powerful man who seems to have decided he doesn’t need to increase his scope quickly. You manage what you have well, but you could be greater, you could be better. This war is only a season in a long year, and you could come out of it with more power than you ever imagined.”

  “All right, that’s me, that’s the door you promised to open,” Governor Tate said. “What about you?”

  “No fixer can live up to his full potential if they don’t have territory. Territory they can learn all the details of, become well known in, respected. I am homeless, and worse, I only have a few crewmembers, no ship I’d put my name on, and one half of the galaxy wants me in prison or dead. I have information though, and ways to get more, so where would you go? What would you do, especially if you saw a Governor getting a little thick in the middle, an administrator who is waiting to be a real leader again? I saw that, and I said to myself; ‘Lucious, why don’t you go over there and introduce yourself? Show him a few tricks, like entering without breaking, and teach him a few things you’ve come to know, like how to talk to the most frightening commander in five sectors?’ So I did, and so I started getting to know this space you’ve taken control of, and I think it’s a good place for a fixer like me. I’m simply a man who helps people get what they want in trade for a few things I like. I want my piece of revenge on some people who got the three largest governments in the Core Worlds looking for me, and that’s already in the works, but what else do I want? That’s what you’re asking. What does this Wheeler weirdo want in my back yard? What am I going to have to trade when he offers me something I can’t afford to refuse?” Wheeler sat up on the ledge, the gathering masses behind him.

  “I don’t know,” Governor Tate said. Whatever, whoever Wheeler was, it was always amusing to watch him talk. “That’s exactly what I need to know.”

  “I want to be connected again,” Wheeler said, pushing his hands together as though overcoming some resistance between them. “Not brain-bud, neutrally wireless connected like other idiots who got themselves addicted to the virtual fields of useless information and burned out, or let their enemies get the upper hand while they were reading a million different menus from a million different restaurants without realizing that they were doing it because they were starving.

  “I connect, but I look at the networked wasteland of gossip and data, find what I need and get out. I want to get connected to a network with reach, like that big, fat Regent Galactic, Order of Eden network that’s chock full of humans who don’t know they’re in the middle of two of the biggest social experiments in history. On one hand you have religious crazies and the people who play along for a hot meal. Some of them actually believe, and are trying to elevate themselves, bravo. On the other you have commercialism, and billions of people who don’t realize they’re slaves to the debt they’re always trying to work off. Not these people,” Wheeler said, waving so broadly that it looked like he was about to fall off his perch on the building’s edge. “No, they know they’re slaves, they can feel it in the chemical film on their skin, smell it when they wake up in the morning and taste it in that same air whenever one of your refineries opens the exhaust up for a few minutes. I’m talking about the people who live well in your solar system, beyond your solar system. They think they’re working for a living, paying into a dream, staying upwardly mobile, and making a home for their kids, so they can do better than they did when they grow up. Those people are living in an experiment run by you, by Regent Galactic and the thousands of corporations that own hundreds of worlds, and you, my Governor, balance the scales in your solar system so well that most of those people will never know. I’ll recruit the special ones from those folks and you’ll never miss them. They are the malcontents, the people who know how to play your game and win, some of them are even like me, fixers who can get you anything you want.” Several beaten shuttles started landing in the massive lot behind Wheeler, dropping off people by the hundred. “They’re the people who don’t fit in your culture, and they don’t fit in with the Order of Eden types either, so you won’t miss them.”

  “Then? When you have your people together?” Governor Tate asked.

  “That’s it, Governor,” Wheeler said. “After I get my revenge they’ll keep me interested. I’ll be the one who delivered them from debt and monotony. We’ll find something to do, and I bet we’ll live pretty well while we’re at it, too. Today I’m here because you asked me to be, and because I’m looking for a few good men and women I can entice onto my crew.”r />
  “You still need a ship,” Governor Tate said, pleased that he mentioned something that Wheeler neglected to mention in his list of needs.

  “For what I want to do, I’ll need a carrier group,” Wheeler said. “Something I’m not afraid to work for, but I’m not going to wait forever.”

  “You’re a few trillion short,” Governor Tate said. “It’s going to take you some time and impressive work to earn your way there.”

  “I’m sure I’ll find an opportunity,” Wheeler said.

  They watched the crowd below them grow. It was joined by food shuttles that sold cheap beverages and cheaper sustenance, but the lines were long. By mid-morning Wheeler and Governor Tate were both bored with watching, and they were relieved when the first Order of Eden fighters streaked overhead. The new four thruster design was impressive. At the end of four pylons attached to an elongated fighter fuselage was a long thruster that could fire forward or backwards. The ships would be unable to glide if they lost power in an atmosphere, but from what Governor Tate understood, they carried enough fuel to last days.

  His facilities had manufactured thousands of them, but he was only allowed to keep a few hundred for his personal fleet. There were what seemed to be hundreds of the fighters in the air after a few moments. They flew in a slow circle high over the rooftop. Three broad nosed combat shuttles descended through the middle slowly.

  The crowd that gathered on the roof had come just close enough so Governor Tate could see the awed expression on their faces. With a glance below he could see that they were silently watching the decent as well, the only difference being that many of the adults held half-eaten wraps, and a few children had toy ships or dolls in hand, purchased from the same vendors who brought food.

  The shuttles finally touched down, and a large hologram of the lead shuttle hatch appeared above them, large enough for all to see, as it dropped open. Eve emerged in a long green and white dress, her hair pushed back and aloft by a wind Governor Tate could not feel from where he stood only fifteen metres away. Her arms were outstretched, her smile was wide and beaming. “I have finally come to you!” she announced.

  The hologram above was twenty metres high, and through some trick of optics, it looked like you were looking up at Eve as though you were in a kneeling position in front of her, regardless of where you were. She was actually taller than the Governor expected, a littler taller than he was. She crossed the distance between them and took both his hands in hers. Her open smile and a brief kiss she gave him on his cheek were more disarming than he expected.

  Her smile barely wavered for a second when she saw Wheeler, but she did not offer him the same respect or warmth. “Do I speak to your people with your blessing, Governor?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  She turned her back on him and strode to the middle of the front of the rooftop. Eve waved at the larger of the two crowds below with her right hand, and the smaller to her left, on the rooftop behind the shuttles with the other. “Many of you have been waiting a long time for me to come to you,” she said, her voice carried over the crowd through hidden amplification. “I have been on the other side of the Iron Head Nebula, a place filled with danger, lawlessness, and the violence of this war. The people who would keep you poor, directionless and suppressed live in that vast space, and I crossed it for you.” She extended her arms and clapped, as though applauding the growing crowd. With a fleet of transports arriving, Governor Tate was sure there would be over a hundred thousand there in minutes. The cheering was already deafening. “She speaks as though she crossed it on her own wings,” he said under his breath.

  “Respect and gratitude,” Wheeler said, joining the audience in their applause. “We are her grateful servants.”

  Despite her simple, but regal attire in her simple silk textured dress, Eve seemed to be full of energy and youthful. She seemed almost approachable. Governor Tate did his best to smile as he clapped his hands for the last few seconds of applause.

  “I will be here, on this side of the nebula for months, years, and even when it’s time for me to move on, I will leave the promise to return behind me. Like all the people who work to escalate themselves every day in this Order, I recite my vow; ‘I serve this Order. My service will make me immortal. My service will elevate me to paradise.’ That’s what this is all about, that’s why I’m here. I am breaking the doors down for you just by being here. So many of you have not been educated on what the Order of Eden is, so the first thing I will do, with the permission of your generous Governor, is educate you,” she turned towards Governor Tate, half bowed, then applauded him.

  To his surprise, the crowd joined in on her applause. He returned her gesture, half bowing. By the time he was standing straight again, only two seconds later, certainly not three, the applause was stopping. It was difficult not to be disappointed that she’d moved on, facing the crowd again. She was conducting the entire affair expertly, and Governor Tate’s worry only grew as it went on. They already liked her more than their Governor, who had provided opportunities for billions.

  “The Order of Eden is a simple organization that does a remarkable number of things,” Eve said. “All are welcome, joining is as simple as approaching a member and asking them to take you to the Gate. That is the cost. You must ask. No credit must be given, no coins will be taken from you, and no property will be offered in trade of a membership, those days are over. We are interested in seeing how high you can rise in our organization, and we will help you elevate yourselves, because you will serve yourself and us better as you live up to your potential.”

  “After you ask to be taken to the Gate, you will be brought to one of our Entrances where we will ask you about everything you are leaving behind. You no longer have to worry about the bad things, debt, poverty, adversity, or strife. You are under the Order’s protection, and even early on your brothers and sisters in the Order will protect you. We want to know if you’re leaving good things behind. Family, treasured possessions, even pets are things we don’t want you to be parted from. We’ll do our best to find lost family members so they can join you, and, if the life of an initiate will permit you to have your most treasured possessions with you, we’ll make that happen for you as well. Oh, and pets? I have a pride of Kawaii Cats that I breed in the little spare time I have, so you should be able to keep a pet of your own. We will keep any pet you enter the Order with in stasis for you through your Orientation Phase, your time as an Initiate, and they’ll be waiting for you when you elevate yourself to a state of mental fortitude where that kind of companionship is welcome. Some of our Initiates progress so fast, that they’re reunited with their pets within two weeks.” Eve took a breath, looked across the crowd. “Some of you don’t believe any of this, but you’ll have an opportunity to ask someone in the Order, and they’ll tell you that I’m not lying. Word would spread very quickly if I were. Aside from the good things I mentioned, we provide food, lodgings, appropriate work for your talents. Are you an artist? Do you enjoy building? Gardening? We have a place for you, and if you have no interesting skills, I can tell you that we’ll find one in you. So many Initiates who told me that they were uninteresting, and just wanted a safe place to sleep and a good meal were actually full of potential. They were so busy pursuing survival in their old lives that they would have never found it without the support of the Order.”

  Governor Tate could see she was already winning the crowd, why she was stopping, looking at them without saying a word, he didn’t know. Eve peered at the masses as though seeing them for the first time, her smile waning. Concern slowly overwhelmed her expression, and finally she turned around and beckoned someone forward. It was a man and woman in a filthy work suit. They looked like processing plant workers, and Governor Tate knew that they were containment workers just by seeing their reddened eyes and thin hair. They probably only had three fingernails left between them, and at least one of them was fighting a special condition called suit rot. It was an issue with ski
n infections caused by ill-fitting and unclean protective wear, something workers had been asking their employers and the Justice Offices to remedy for years wherever people had to wear heavy protective clothing in the solar system.

  Two white and green robed followers, as clean as fresh clones, led the filthy suited couple to Eve. She seemed to take them in with her gaze, examining them from head to toe. “What are your names?” Eve asked them.

  “I’m Yonda,” said the woman without hesitation. “This is my husband, Merig.” He looked like he was trying to shy away from whatever digital recorder was capturing his image then projecting it above.

  Eve took Yonda’s hand and unfastened her gloves, revealing puffy reddened skin and scarred fingers with no nails. She continued on to the other glove, then unfastened her husbands gloves. His hands were blackened in several places, suggesting that the seals on his wrists were most likely faulty. It was everything Governor Tate could do to keep himself from stopping the scene from taking place. He caught himself taking a step forward and stopped.

  When Eve was finished taking the couple’s heavy gloves off she took one of each of the hands. “You are both hard workers,” she said.

  “Yes,” Yonda said quietly.

  “You don’t ask for more than you’ve earned,” Eve continued.

  “No, we never,” said Merig.

  “It has been hard for you, and you have children, don’t you?” Eve asked.

  Yonda nodded, a tear shaking from her eye. “Three, three girls,” Merig said, suddenly the proud one, the one with something to say. Governor Tate could strangle him.

  “I am not promising a paradise you won’t have to earn yourself,” Eve said. “You will still have to work, but we will take care of you, we will take care of your family. You may have to defend the Order if you join, one of you may become a soldier for a while,””

  The couple in front of Eve didn’t say anything, they just stared at her, frozen, with their suit rotten hands in hers. Merig nodded after a long moment, then his wife nodded.