Greener Green III: Let Light Reign

by Peter Sowatskey

  I gazed at him, sipping my drink. His information gave me pause, almost disheartened me. I drew a breath. I still existed. There could be no going back.

  "We can't do anything but go on,” I explained. But he knew that. "I'll need a courier sent from your HQ with whatever information we'll need."

  "Already on the way. Our best guess is that you ran into the Research Complex that had a deep space location. It would not have been compromised. How it would have existed these millions of years is another unexplained. It mechanically could have. They might have grown stronger in mind. We Rangers did."

  I had a flash of insight. No wonder the Rangers scorned death. They courted it, and welcomed it. I couldn't imagine the collective guilt of the survivors.

  "Erlo, I need you there, in person. Maybe you need to be there, more acutely for your own sake. Nonetheless, I need you to be there personally. I will be fresh out of the tanks with a new Volunteer body. Sure, I'll have plenty of troops with me. However, I'm not sure we should make your information common knowledge. I'll have to talk with Tild and Trist about that."

  "I see your logic. How wide you spread my data is up to you. I can't promise anything in this state. The matter will be discussed. In a month, I'll be near Polaris with a Ranger Force. If not, you're on your own. Gotta go now. It's been a grand time."

  He left the Café, turned right, and faded away after a short distance, or maybe I focused inward so completely I didn't see him anymore. An avenue of advancement came into focus, drawn from my experiences, and the experiences of the minds I'd absorbed. First, I had to have a conversation with the Seed Ship. With my new data, I expected it would be more forthcoming. Anyway, it would give me a dozen mine recovery vessels, sized to accommodate nine foot high heads. Reports said that ARK V had reconfigured itself to the bigger body.

  Seventeen hours later, I had what I needed. The Seed Ship on ARK V would begin construction in space near Tild and Trist's ships. I just had to tie up loose ends. What loose ends? I didn't have any journey ahead of me. But I did want one last look at Junior.

  I looked. I clamped my emotions shut. I would miss him so totally.

  I NOW VOLUNTEER.

  ACCEPTED.

  Operational Area - Moneslakia Rim Worlds Space

  Chapter Two

  Mary

  "Let me get this straight,” Lewis said. "First you were Marion Prinz. Then M.Verdai, etc. Now you're Mary. Does that about cover it?"

  "Yep."

  "Mine not to reason why, HQ says you're the poster child. I'm to arrange anything you like. What's first?"

  "You."

  "Me! What the hell?"

  "You said you'd meet me for lunch. Lunch is served on a mountain top on Moneslakia."

  "Moneslakia? They still eat each other there, don't they?"

  "Just about. I know you have your bag on the floor behind you. Have your laboratory put in a Brigade Combat Support ship. Attach two Ranger Patrol vessels onto it and head this way; yesterday."

  "When will we return?"

  "Never. Pick your crew on that basis. You're a Captain now. See you on the mountaintop."

  I turned to Lillian and Torken. "Light enough fire under their asses?"

  They weren't trying to control their glee. Torken said, "Good command voice. Look at that ship over there again. Then we go down mountain, and I kill somebody."

  "Just a moment,” I said as I turned back to the radio. "Were you monitoring the transmission Ranger Throckmorten?"

  "I did. You lit a fire at HQ which won't soon go out, congratulations. We've been nice too long."

  "No more. As soon as we get a beachhead established, I'll invite you and your guests to come look over the ship we've occupied. Thanks for boosting my radio signal. Mary out."

  I turned back to my comrades.

  "Day's over half gone,” Lillian observed. "Perhaps it would be better to have a full day in case Torken's uncle has people around him."

  "Today, tomorrow, the same. I miss my head band. Thought to tear it off my brother's head, but didn't," Torken lamented.

  "Terribly kind of you," I said. "Let's do it."

  We retraced our steps from the Battle Wagon to the ANNU KI ship we'd learned about from the ANNU KI swamp dweller. When it landed, it had simply carved away half of a mountain peak, enough to set down a ship three miles in diameter, then another mile around it for good measure. After that, someone carved tunnels into the glazed cliff face of the other half. We'd get to those. The access codes from the swamp dwelling ANNU KI survivor worked. The Rail Gun continued its lock on his swamp bound ship just in case he tried to lift off. The ship on the cliff side resonated within its own space-time continuum, as new as the day it landed, some 100,000 years ago.

  "The Main Lab is supposed to be this way,” Lillian said.

  "Lead on."

  We entered cautiously. Events unfolded smoothly and we found it. Many instruments ringed the circular room. In the middle stood a small table; on it, on a cushion and an elaborate headband commanded attention. Torken started to go to it.

  "Wait, wait," Lillian commanded. "Let's get a sense of this before we start something we can't stop."

  "We don't have the correct instruments yet to get more than an idea that it gives off a field, see here." I said, offering the meter to her.

  She took it and circled the table. She handed it back saying, "Essentially meaningless."

  Torken took his new pistol belt off. "You two know my mind. When I'm not me, shoot."

  He walked to the table, lifted the headband, and put it on his head. His eyes glazed and he started turning in a circle. When he completed the circle, he stood still, tears trickling down his face.

  Lillian and I looked at each other, shaking our heads. I sensed no change in his basic identity. We waited.

  After a long while his tears dried. Then he angrily said, "Lots of people need killing, many, many. I start with my uncle."

  Tapping the ring, he shared with us his turmoil. "Through this I see the planet, thru eyes of the ringed slaves, many suffer."

  "Well, hell," I said. "We'll just set them free, tomorrow. We'll send out drones to announce that those ringed are to be set free to come here to this mountain. Anybody resists, they're dead."

  Lillian looked closely to see if I meant it. Concluding I did, or she should go along anyway, she said, "That's fine with me. Why take a long time to make a splash."

  We laughed, not a humorous sound.

  Taking separate paths as we left the ship to learn more, we slowly exited.

  Lillian hurried over to me as I stepped out. Torken hadn't shown yet.

  "That drone idea of yours is the stupidest thing I ever heard." She said, after we walked over to the cliff’s edge where she sat on the grass beside me. We looked out over the lesser peaks below us.

  "Of course it is. It is a test of Torken; to see if he can think, or if he is too blinded by his hate, to be of any use."

  We pointed out landmarks and trails to each other. Access to our aerie would be only achieved by wings. But from above, one only saw the undisturbed side of the undisturbed mountain, a hologram in which the trees swayed in the wind, and birds flew. The ANNU KI was nothing, if not thorough.

  We both sensed Torken's approach. Our shared telepathy, which Betty had tested and honed, showed him calm in mind.

  "I object to your plan, Mary. Slaves will be killed. We have to make better plan."

  Lillian and I swiveled to face him, exchanging relieved glances.

  "Better we go slowly. Make circle grow slow. One town, one farm, one quarry. Bring them here. Or my valley. We go to my valley early dawn. Be ready."

  With that he strode off. We hurriedly turned our heads away and covered our mouths to stifle laughter. When we'd managed to contain ourselves Lillian said, "I think he has the idea. You take even days. I take odd days. We might make a leader of him."

  "If we don't wear him out."

  "Not a chance. Did you take a look at his memory, h
ow many slave girls he impregnated? Number one stud."

  "I didn't,” I admitted. "I will. Maybe he came up with something new. In any case, this day, the Rim World Alliance is born. Going to be a hell of a trip."

  "This Lillian, or any Lillian, wouldn't miss it for anything."

  Next morning, before dawn, we landed the Battle Wagon in a pasture below our peak and put it on Invis. Covered by robes, we'd found on the ANNU KI ship we walked toward the nearby settlement. Almost there, we met an old woman with an ax, going to cut firewood, I thought. Torken asked for directions to Jale and Wilta Torken's house. (We'd drug that much out of his childhood memories.)

  "The house is back behind me, turn left at the second lane, and go to the end of it. But they don't live there, for a long time, not there." She put her ax head on the ground and leaned on the handle. "After their child disappeared they went to fell trees with Jale's brother and his new wife. Must have been careless, because the brother found them under a tree they'd cut down. Terrible, terrible. Terl lives there, wife and three children, nice house, not like the drafty wreck I have. Must go. I cut firewood for food. Bye."

  Torken looked like he wanted to knock over trees, but calmed himself. "Not satisfied to sell me off. Killed my parents, too. Let's go."

  Early light showed us the house. An enormous one level structure built of heavy squared logs. We stood back a bit as Torken banged on the door.

  A stout woman opened the door halfway. "You're early, but we have work. Can I see your face?"

  Torken threw back his cowl and I saw the woman's instant recognition, though she hid it quickly. "Come in and sit. I'll stir Jale; see what he wants done first. You two can sit outside on the bench."

  They went inside, we sat. "I'm going to exteriorize myself and go into the house to observe. I'll relay what happens."

  Mentally exterior, and inside the house, I saw the woman sit Torken at a table with his back to several doors. She disappeared through one of them. I drifted alongside her as she went to a bedroom. She shook a man mightily.

  "Wake up, you drunken pig. He has come back. The son sits in our house."

  The man's feet hit the floor, understanding rushed over him, "Get my dagger, get yours, we must kill him before the children awake, cut him up, feed him to the pigs. Move woman."

  Both carefully moved along the corridor, through the door, rushed up behind Torken and both thrust into his back. his personal shield stopped the knives. Torken rose, throwing the chair away from him and grabbed both of them by the necks and slammed them back against the wall. They kicked, and struggled, and tried to thrust anew. No avail. I saw Torken shift his gaze from one to the other as he grinned widely. The daggers dropped. Both bodies went limp but he still squeezed. I zipped outside and popped back into my body.

  Grabbing Lillian by the arm, I said, "Come."

  Inside we laid gentle hands on Torken's arms and I said, "They're dead. You can't punish them any further in this world."

  He let go of them and they slid to the floor like oversized flour sacks. "When I get to the next world they will be my first kills."

  "Drag the man out in the yard. Lillian, keep watch,” I commanded as I grabbed the woman's arm and drug her along behind Torken and the man. Once outside in the middle of the yard Torken let go of the man and I put the woman up on top.

  "Stand back!"

  I drew my disintegrator pistol, set it for short range, and fried the piled bodies, back and forth, until nothing showed but a slight indention in the ground.

  "No one has seen us,” Lillian reported. “The children are awakening."

  "No sense to punish them for what they didn't do. Come sit on the bench. Let them find us. Let them search for their parents first."

  We sat. A half hour later a young woman came out and said, "My parents went in the woods, evidently. I will see what they have written for work needing done."

  Torken arose and said. "Don't bother. This house is mine. I’m the son of Jale and Wilta. I've been away. Now that I'm back, I'll decide what needs done. If your parents return I'll discuss your care with them. Meanwhile you're in my care. Go make breakfast."

  Not the way I would have handled it, but there it happened to be. Thereafter, a battle of wills took place, the grist mill slave against the young woman's. The battle didn't take long.

  "You will rue the day you laid eyes on me, Jale's son. I will do nothing behind your back, but you'll see in the end. Come in, my sisters and I will serve you and your consorts."

  That made mine and Lillian's day. We both searched our minds for someone who'd called us consorts before. Barely able to contain our laughter we went in and sat. We linked minds and tried to outdo each other in ways we were going to make this youngster pay for her quick and stupid assessment.

  Torken, meanwhile, sat at the head of the table and tried to look at the hidden, by him, memories of his childhood within these walls. Lillian and I helped him. From his facial expressions we succeeded.

  Operational Area Early - one continent - Earth

  Chapter Three

  Thelma

  PAULA ; WELCOME, DID YOU SIGN FOR THE ISLAND TOUR, OR WERE YOU DIM ENOUGH TO WANT TO BE IN THE BALLS BRIGADE?

  'Balls Brigade.'

  COME BACK IN SIX HOURS, BYE-BYE.

  "Well, well, the new me,” I said, as I handed the mirror back to the Ensign. "Maybe I can get a wig franchise and make a mint."

  Walking through the door Paula, in the same body as mine declared, "I'll be your first customer. You're cleared to go for the walk. Don't forget to check in first. Ask for Carol. If you have pronouncements to make, or conferences to hold, please do them before you leave this ship; easier for me to get away."

  "Only one; I'll not be part of the command structure. Scientific advisor, that's me."

  "Tildore will want you to at least be an ass-kicker. Resist that. I'm just warning you." Paula cautioned.

  "Deeply appreciated. That my bag by the door?"

  "Yes, that's what you get to conquer known space. Don't forget your check-ups. Gotta go."

  Paula popped her head back in, "You're the latest model. You have all the memories and tech data we've gathered. There's a customer satisfaction questionnaire in your bag. Fill it out."

  I tried to salute, but she vanished. Picking up my bag I followed the, 'This way' signs to the initial sign in room and reported to Carol; she didn't know how to categorize me.

  "Run?" I asked. She pointed to the 'Run' signs. Boy, this chute needed no grease.

  I ran. I did head over flips off the walls, cartwheels, back flips, and whatever else I could think of. This body beat out all else I'd been in. I thought for a moment about Jeff and Irene in Special Events. They couldn't be that much better, didn't want to know exactly.

  Making the circuit, I reentered the room I'd left to be greeted by my whole old crew and Admiral Prestrillo, Trist he insisted. We saluted and hugged until my ribs felt the effort. Then there ensued a pause where they all awaited orders.

  "I'm not going to be part of the Command structure,” I announced loud enough for Carol to hear. "You have, all of you, done jobs beyond reproach. I'm not going to come in here and try to tell you how you could be better, when you've done your splendid best. I'm going to act as a scientific advisor. You all know I'm suited for that. Along those lines I have vital information. I'll share that with you as soon as I get over to ARK V and spend time with the Seed Ship. That's where I'll be, in some cramped lab."

  That started a half hour of discussion between them. In the end they, almost respectfully, demanded I take up abode in ARK V’s Battleship, and if I wanted a lab, one would be sent to me. I hemmed and hawed, and acquiesced. I'd expected them to kick the Captain, Hawsters, out of his quarters. They had a launch. They would drop me off. I asked for twenty four hours grace so the big revelation would take place at that time, where to be announced.

  Naturally, Hawsters met me in the launch bay. Thankfully he had only three people with him, his XO Skille
r, and two Signal's Ensigns, who didn't act like the Essences they were, Jim Barto and Hank Twill. What the hell did I need two Essences for? Neither of them cracked a thought. I assured Hawsters that he had the helm, and if I didn't like where he went, I would get off. He seemed to be OK with that concept.

  They left me at the Battleship airlock, all except Jim Barto.

  "I have the first twenty four. You don't have a crew yet. A lottery is being done, unless you'd like to pick and choose?"

  "Oh God, no. Just let me drop my bag inside the door. I need to go to the Seed Ship, do research. Walk with me. What's the latest juice flavor?"

  "Some Phaeton fruit, between lime and walnut flavors."

  "Can't even imagine that. Here we are. Come in, sit and do whatever you do."

  We entered and he took up residence in the waiting room. I continued on to the inner sanctum, as I called it. After I entered all of Erlo's information the whole room tilted on an axis and the screen read 'accessed': First Federation, current status; twenty seven hunter-gatherer civilization level, thirteen-agriculture-peace, five-agriculture-wars. Four regained planetary governments and high civilization-off planet access prevented by orbital forts. Data of each; including orbital fort codes and mine field codes follows; one disc per planet. Recommend plentiful supply of Battle Wagons to be used as farm transport and general unification capability be given to the citizens. Opening that area will lead to disruptions in the following galaxies, see disc fifty.

  Fifty discs appeared, along with a neat carrying case. I put the discs in the case and exited.

  "That didn't take long." Jim observed.