by Alex Lamb
‘I’m aboard the ship that just destroyed our fleet,’ said Gustav.
Khan’s jaw fell open. He was speechless for a second, then spun around to shout at the men behind him. ‘Silence! Ulanu is aboard the intruder. We need order here.’
Several other faces crowded around the monitor as Khan returned his attention to the screen.
‘What’s going on, Gus?’ said Khan. ‘Are you a prisoner?’
‘Listen carefully,’ Ulanu told him. ‘What I have to say may be hard for you to accept, so I’ve assembled an evidence package that I’m sending you on this line. Whatever you think of what I say, you have to hear me out.’
Khan nodded uncertainly.
Ulanu took a deep breath and spoke. ‘This ship is an example of the technology available to an extraterrestrial civilisation called the Transcended. They have joined the war and sided with the Galateans. The Transcended have delivered us an ultimatum. Unless the Truist government is dismantled and mankind follows a programme they have laid out, they will take steps to extinguish the entire human race. I repeat: the entire human race. I am completely convinced of their sincerity.’
Ulanu paused. Every face Will could see on the screen was transfixed. Some of them bore expressions of horror, others of cynical disbelief, but none of them dared speak.
‘It is the Galateans’ intention to broadcast the truth about the relic and our involvement with it to the entire world,’ said Ulanu. ‘I will not be able to stop them. If we wish to prevent that, we must convince the Prophet to act instead. Oz, you must take the data I’m sending you directly to him. Then, when you’ve both looked at it, get back to me as soon as you can. Use this channel. Do you understand?’
‘I think so,’ said Khan uneasily.
‘Good. I look forward to hearing from you.’ With that, Ulanu cut the line and exhaled.
‘What now?’ said Will.
‘Now we wait,’ replied Ulanu.
The mood on the bridge of the Ariel Two was stiff with tension during the minutes that followed. The suntaps came online at last, but by that time Earth’s defensive fleet had converged around them. Thankfully, though, they held their fire.
Will watched through the external sensors as the fleet surrounded the nestship like a closing fist, forming the same spherical configuration as they had at Ceres. Drones and disrupter buoys poured forth from the Earther vessels. Gravity shields took up positions and prepared to charge. This close to the planet, there was little they could achieve without causing wholesale apocalypse on the surface. Maybe the Earthers didn’t care any more.
An hour passed. The shield cooled. Will sat sweating into his couch, his g-ray banks charged and ready, dreading the implications of another encounter. Then, at last, a call came in on Ulanu’s code.
A split-screen image appeared on the monitors, showing two faces Will knew very well. On the left was the man they called the king, the Earth’s nominal secular ruler. He had a round, softly handsome face, but weak, watery eyes.
The man on the right was the opposite – a frail and elderly figure with a wrinkled face and eyes like neutron stars. It was the Prophet, Pyotr Sanchez. Will stared at that face and felt a shiver of loathing. Suddenly it was abundantly clear how a weak old man had managed to hold almost every human world in his grasp. Willpower crackled out of him like inducer discharge.
The king regarded Ulanu with something between confusion and disbelief. The Prophet eyed him with raw hate.
‘General Ulanu,’ said the king.
‘Your Majesty.’
‘We have seen your evidence. It is startling, but as you know, the Kingdom does not bow to threats. You may tell these Transcended—’
Ulanu cut him off. ‘As you will realise if you watched the entire package, your Majesty, the Transcended are interested in neither bargaining nor defiance. The simple presence of this ship in the Earth system is enough to give them access to our sun as a weapon. They will watch our behaviour and annihilate us if they see fit. You have already seen a small demonstration of their capabilities. Most of this was achieved by a single human pilot augmented with Transcended technology. I watched that process with my own eyes and I can assure you that we are utterly outmatched. Their ultimatum is not so much a threat as a statement of fact.’
The king’s jaw worked from side to side. He was clearly not used to being talked to like this.
‘I do not care how you choose to define it, Ulanu,’ he said. ‘You imagine that you can come here—’
‘Quiet, Ramon.’ The Prophet’s voice was little more than a whisper but cleaved the air like a gunshot. The king reluctantly fell silent.
‘I have watched your entire package, General,’ said the Prophet with a disconcerting smile. ‘It made for amusing viewing. Surely you realise it contains nothing that will sway the people of the Earth? Such an announcement as your Galatean friends propose would be immediately dismissed by the Following as propaganda. For all they know, the funny lights in the sky today were nothing more than fireworks. They are farmers and factory workers, Ulanu. They subsist on a diet of rice and faith. They have no interest in aliens. No understanding of starships.’
Sanchez chuckled to himself at the idea. ‘You talk of statements of fact,’ he said. ‘Let me offer you one of my own.’ He fixed Ulanu with a steely gaze.
Watching through his sensorium, Will felt the weight of those eyes upon him and shivered.
‘The Earth will not change,’ Sanchez purred. ‘You cannot transform the belief system of twelve billion people in a day, or even a lifetime. You cannot stop them from fearing or hating. They will cling to what they know even if their planet stands upon the brink of destruction, as the last hundred years have shown us time and time again. So, if these Transcended intend to destroy mankind, let them try.’
He grinned broadly. ‘If your Galatean friends wish to try to save us by imposing a government through force, let them try it. History has plenty of examples of where that leads. Or if your associates think to topple my church by destroying me and my palace, I welcome them. They will be doing my job for me.
‘I am an old man, Ulanu. Holding the Kingdom together has been hard. Determining what to do with the church in the aftermath of war was already proving even harder. But killing me would create a martyr who would never die. It would crystallise my followers’ faith and make my words live for ever. So you see, there is little for the Galateans’ ludicrous behemoth to do, except perhaps fulfil the alien threat in advance and scour this world of life. Short of that, the only result they can obtain is to make us hate them.’
His smile vanished. ‘And we already know how to do that. So leave, traitor. And take your laughable warhorse with you.’
Will found himself dismayed. There was an awful kind of truth behind the Prophet’s words. The crusades had never been based on sound reasoning. Had they been fools to imagine that Earth would suddenly come to its senses just because they told it to?
Suddenly, Ulanu spoke. ‘Are you finished, your Honesty?’ he asked in clipped tones. ‘Then permit me to reply. Your prediction regarding the truculence of the Following is enlightening, though it tells me more about your opinion of the people you rule than it does about them. However, it leads me to believe that you have failed to grasp the fundamental purpose of this visit.
‘Let me present you with a simple choice. Option one is that you make a statement to the people of Earth yourself. You bring an end to hostilities immediately, renounce your claim on the colony worlds and withdraw your troops. You also announce the existence of extraterrestrial life, warn humanity of the threat from the Transcended and amend doctrine accordingly. In return for this, Galatea will sign a zero-exploitation contract with Earth. It will also agree to share the sum total of its robotics and genetic technologies with Earth for no cost.
‘Option two is that you choose not to speak. In that case, the Galateans will destroy what is left of the Kingdom fleet. They will blockade aid from the colony worlds and put anti-aircraf
t sats into Earth orbit.’
Will’s eyes widened in surprise. They’d discussed none of these measures against Earth with the general. He was making it all up himself.
‘After that, we will broadcast the truth and leave for several years,’ Ulanu continued. ‘You may believe your church is solid enough to withstand such a test, your Honesty, but from my observation of it, it is already on the brink of self-destruction. Upon our return, I would not be surprised to find that the Earth has driven itself back into the Stone Age through purposeless squabbling. I doubt there would be much talk of Truism when we offer free food, aid and passage to the colonies for volunteers.’
The Prophet’s expression didn’t change one iota as Ulanu spoke. However, the king’s eyebrows crept up into his hair.
‘You have two hours to make up your mind,’ Ulanu told Sanchez. ‘Failure to communicate will be regarded as tacit selection of option two.’ He stabbed the off key on his keyboard.
Will noticed that the man was shaking. He felt like congratulating the general but knew that nothing he could say would make Ulanu feel any better about what he was doing.
No one spoke for a while after that. Will felt the atmosphere in the Ariel Two’s bridge grow intolerably tense. The massive fleet of Earther ships held its position, while other munitions were ferried in from the outer planets.
If the Earthers did decide to fight, the Ariel Two would surely not survive another concerted attack in its current condition. His sensor SAPs counted over five thousand antimatter warheads out there. That was enough to crack open a small moon.
Time crawled tortuously by. Ulanu watched them silently like a ghost.
Will’s hope turned to horror as the zero hour slid up to meet them.
‘Guess that’s it, then,’ Ira said heavily. ‘Will, you’d better get back to those g-ray banks. Let’s try to not kill too many civilians as we leave.’
Will swallowed hard and turned his attention to the weapons array. In the solitude of his mental vault, he watched the final seconds count down. He flexed a pair of virtual hands. The nestship tingled in readiness all around him.
Three seconds before the deadline, a call arrived.
‘Hold your fire!’ Ulanu shouted as he hit the button on his console.
On the screen, a single face appeared. It was the king. His cheeks were flushed. A bloody scratch marred his cheek. His hair was in disarray.
‘Galatean Starship Ariel Two,’ he said, slightly out of breath. ‘This is King Ramon the First of Earth. The Prophet has been restrained. Please hold your fire and stand by.’
The message ended. Everyone aboard the Ariel Two sat in stunned silence. Will looked at Ulanu. Ulanu stared back at him with something between ironic amusement and tragedy showing in his eyes.
‘Did we do it?’ said Rachel. ‘Is that it?’
Will had no idea.
Abruptly, a broadcast message filled the public channels, sending to the entire Earth system. It was the king again.
‘People of Earth!’ he said. The scratch had miraculously disappeared from his cheek and a cloak of gold and blue had been hastily pulled around his shoulders. His hair looked tidier.
‘This is an emergency broadcast. In the last few minutes, the Prophet Sanchez has received a vision from the Lord. To reward us for our victory, the Lord has made shocking new information available to mankind. This information will result in an immediate and glorious change of religious priorities for the Kingdom. Having been taught a lesson, the fifteen colonies will be granted independence by celestial decree, and the Prophet is hereby retiring from office to pursue a new spiritual quest.’
Will didn’t hear the rest because the bridge of the Ariel Two erupted in cheering. Rachel sprang out of her couch and grabbed him in her arms, at least so far as his nerve-tendrils would allow. He gingerly pried his arms free of the couch and hugged her back, his fingers trailing moist alien flesh.
‘It’s really over this time, isn’t it?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Will replied. ‘It’s really over.’
21: CAREFULLY EVER AFTER
21.1: IRA
Ira was at the Fleet station when the last of the arks finally returned home. He waited in the transit lounge with a squad of military police behind him. He knew from Evacuation Ark Three security that John had boarded this shuttle, so he’d be here somewhere.
Ira scrutinised every face that came through the doorway. Then, near the back, a man appeared with the right height and the right walk.
Ira squinted at him. The face was similar to John’s but not quite right, and the hair was dark rather than blond. But he’d been told to expect that – he’d read John’s security report the moment he got home and learned all about John’s change of face and his daring capture of the Earther scout ship.
He’d also read the lies. Strangely, it wasn’t the ones about New Angeles that upset Ira most. It was the ones about the threat from Will and the Transcended.
The man sauntered out into the transit lounge along with the others until he noticed Ira’s eyes boring into him. His footsteps slowed to a halt. A sheepish smile came to his face.
‘Hey, Captain,’ he said. ‘Nice to see you.’
It was John all right. Ira would recognise that expression anywhere. He strode straight up to the man and threw his full strength behind a punch to his jaw. John flew backwards and landed hard against a bank of seats. He shook his head and gingerly fingered his face.
He blinked up at Ira from the floor. ‘I guess I had that coming,’ he said.
Ira had prepared a dozen things to say. Now he couldn’t remember any of them.
‘You lost me my ship and my best friend,’ he stated simply. ‘I should kill you for that.’
John’s bruised face twisted into a broken, guilty smile. ‘I tried to do what was best for the mission,’ he said. ‘And for Galatea.’
‘Is that why you lied to the authorities the moment you arrived?’ Ira asked.
John grimaced. ‘I couldn’t have told them the whole story. They’d never have understood.’
‘No,’ Ira growled. ‘I don’t suppose they would. If your little trick had paid off, we’d have lost Galatea. And you’d have left the human race to be fried.’
John’s face contorted. ‘You don’t know that, Captain. The aliens can’t be trusted! They hacked us, for crissakes! They hacked Will!’
To Ira’s surprise, he saw that John was almost crying. Ira shook his head in contempt. That was John – paranoid to the last.
‘Tell it to the court,’ he said and gestured to the military police. ‘You can take him away now, Sergeant.’
The police stepped forward and pulled John up off the floor.
‘Ira, believe me,’ John implored him. ‘I’m sorry for what I did.’
‘So am I.’
‘I did it for Galatea!’
Ira looked the other way as they dragged him from the room. In truth, he was sure John believed in what he’d done. But how to end the mission had never been John’s decision to make. It had been Ira’s.
He squinted hard at nothing and tried not to think of Amy, his great arms folded across his chest.
The sergeant stepped up behind him. ‘Are you coming to the debriefing, sir?’
‘No,’ said Ira. ‘Nor the trial. I’ve already made my statement.’
‘But, sir—’
‘I’ve got too much to do on the new ship,’ Ira explained. In truth, he didn’t want to attend. And ever since the Fleet had started work on Ariel Three, his plate had been conveniently full of other things to think about. ‘I’m hoping to be gone by the end of the month.’
The Fleet had been on a mad building spree since the end of the war. With traffic to and from Earth due to increase and new frontiers opened up, there was a lot of call for starships. The remains of Tang’s fleet were being recycled into new vessels with all haste.
‘But, sir,’ said the sergeant. ‘Inspector Voigt-Drue said told me he was expecting—’
Ira managed a smile. ‘Didn’t you see the news?’ he said, cutting the policeman off again. ‘A whole new galactic shell has been discovered and I intend to be the first person out there.’
With that, he slapped the sergeant on the shoulder and walked away. He’d done what he came here to do. He’d made his peace with Amy. Now it was time to look to the future. There was exploring to do.
21.2: GUSTAV
The fanfare of horns eventually died down and Gustav entered the throne room. For the last time, he began the long climb up the stepped pyramid that led to the Prophet’s throne. A golden spotlight followed his solemn progress. A choir of voices too perfect to be natural sang his praises throughout his ascent.
Gustav loathed this kind of pomp even more now he was the star of it. However, his new social engineering team assured him it was necessary, at least in the short term. The people had been conditioned to it. Their expectations would have to be changed slowly. Gustav intended to make damn sure it happened.
Just like last time, the chamber was filled with courtiers from all the subsects of Earth, dressed in their awful gaudy outfits. Unlike last time, the expressions on their faces were ones of thinly disguised fear and uncertainty.
Their mood was well matched by Gustav’s own. Who knew what the consequences of this sharp political turn would be? A return to the chaos of the past? That wasn’t something they could afford any more.
No doubt some of the courtiers’ concerns related to Gustav’s suitability as a world leader. Gustav shared them. He wasn’t looking forward to wielding so much authority. He hated politics. He didn’t want to be trusted by the Galateans, either. He still disliked everything they stood for. But to his great chagrin, they apparently liked him.
From the moment Monet had suggested it back aboard the nestship, Gustav had struggled to avoid a high-profile role in the new government. Then Monet made his recommendation to Ramon and the king’s team had latched on to the idea immediately. Gustav would make a perfect new Prophet, they said. He was symbolically ideal – the man who’d returned to Earth carrying the seeds of the new faith. He was also the only man on Earth who’d dealt with the Transcended in person, however unsuccessfully.