Stardrive is tricky—it does things to your mind. And the longer the trip, the more it does. I had enough problems already, and stardrive wasn't helping.
The dreams got worse. It got so bad I didn't want to sleep, but sheer exhaustion is one of the symptoms of extended stardrive. I'd have the dreams every time. It was like going to Hell, every time I slept. I'd drift off, into the mists, and then the gates of Hell would snap open, engulfing me immediately in a white-hot blast of fiery gas. Everything would be burning all around me, the flames roaring and shrieking, and I would be burning too, my cenite skin glowing cherry red, alarms ringing in my ears—and the voices. The voices were there, too, calling me urgently, just like before, calling my name, only now I could hear it clearly: 'Thinker! Thinker! Thinker!' It was a desperate cry for help. She was trapped in the flames, going out like a fleck of burning ash, calling my name. I was frantic, wild, lost in the flames, trapped and doomed, burning, no idea which way to go, no idea where she was. I would scream, horrified, and wake up covered in sweat, and moan, collapsing back onto a wet pillow.
Sometimes I thought I could see her face, peering at me out of the flames—but I could never quite make it out.
"That was Uldo," Dragon informed me, after I told him about it. "We were running from the O's in the bowels of the Mound, and they were blasting us with starmass. It eats right through cenite—our A-suits were melting." I was growing to like Eight a great deal—I was not sure why. I had already decided I could trust him.
"Was anyone lost in the…starmass?" I asked.
"We all were, at one time or another. But Twelve—Scrapper—she was caught in one especially intense burst. And Nine—Priestess—she ran right into the flames, looking for Twelve. That's the last I saw of either of them."
"Scrapper—and Priestess. And the tall girl with the freckles?"
"That was Thirteen—Twister. She was with you when Merlin was killed. And she was accompanying you when you left me behind. That's all I know."
I triggered the holo again, and the squad came to life. Beta and Gamma, triumphant, on Planet Hell. Thirteen wasn't there—she had joined the squad later, replacing the dead. My eyes kept going back to Beta Nine, Priestess. I examined the images again, in the solid. Nine was the medic, a pale, angelic girl with dark hair and dark eyes, clutching a medpak, looking off into the distance, with the hint of a sad little smile. What a beauty—had I really known her? Was she the face in my dreams? Gamma Five, Scrapper, was another charmer, a thick mop of tawny hair, a white flash smile, heavy breasts, leaning against another girl, Gamma Two, a stunning blonde with icy green eyes.
I had known them all, I knew. I didn't want to ask too much about the past. Perhaps I was afraid of what I would find out. Dragon didn't volunteer anything, either. He just answered my questions—but he was uneasy. I knew he was holding back. I think he wanted Cinta to tell me about my past. I found it difficult to ask the really hard questions.
A whole squad of troopers. Some of them may have died for me. Dragon was there, looking totally confident. It was true, I decided—it was all true. I was a soldier of the Legion, and someone had stolen my past away.
And I was going to get it back—no matter what.
***
We ate three times each ship's day on the Stardust. I thought it an unbelievable luxury, and the food was so good I made an absolute pig of myself. About three hours after the last meal of the day whoever was off duty would show up in the lounge, which would transform itself into a bar, and it would rapidly fill up with Cyrillians. There were only the Cyrillians, and the three of us. They normally kept their distance, but things loosened up in the bar. Cyrillians were professional mercenaries, mostly. I got to talking with Pandaros once, and he told me their home planet had been destroyed by the System. The System had always told us it was the CrimCon that was responsible for the destruction of Cyrillia. The Cyrillians, however, seemed to feel differently. It didn't surprise me a great deal. I was beginning to realize that the situation in the galaxy was a lot different from what we had been told on Nimbos.
They played a lot of Cyrillian music in the bar. It was mostly hot metal, but was always sad and moody. We'd drink blue ice, and float away. It was really mellow stuff, and just what we needed for stardrive.
I closed my eyes and the music swirled around me—and it returned, the same terrifying vision that had shocked me awake the previous night. I could still see it in my mind—a naked baby, squirming and crying in the grip of a shadowy female. She had thrust the baby right into my face, as a terrible rhythm beat away in the background, like a great savage heart. It was totally horrific. I could not see the baby's face; I could only sense that it was a boy. And of the female holding it I could only see slim fingers with sharp nails, digging into the baby's tender skin. Long black hair swirled around the girl, but the face was all misty. She was almost throwing the baby at me. Frightening, primitive music, and I sensed horror and terror and a great longing.
I hadn't been able to get back to sleep after that one. I ordered a drink of hot water from the kitchenmod, and it appeared in instants, piping hot in a spotless little white cup, and I sat there in the dark on my bunk, sipping hot water, thinking about Nimbos, and my own lost past, and the dream, and what it all meant.
A burst of applause brought me back to the present. Whit was up on stage, her eyes closed, singing a sad little song. She was absolutely lovely, softly glowing in a luminous white light, and the song was not bad either. She was certainly the most attractive thing on board. There was no competition, since she was the only female. She had a captive audience, that was sure.
"If I was her," I remarked to Dragon, "I'd be a little uneasy as the only female on a ship crewed by a gang of Cyrillians. These people aren't renowned for their social graces."
"She told me they've never given her any trouble," Dragon replied, gazing at Whit with unfocused eyes. "Cinta pays them very well. They don't want to jeopardize what they've got."
When Whit finished, she rushed back to Dragon, giggling as the Cyrillians hooted their approval.
"Not bad," I said, raising a glass.
"Outstanding," Dragon grinned, throwing an arm over her shoulders.
"Thanks!" Whit said, "It's fun!"
"Dragon, aren't you afraid those Cyrillians are going to get jealous and murder you in your bed or something?" I asked.
"They'll have to go through me first," Whit laughed.
"Now I'm jealous," I retorted.
"Now you know how it feels, Thinker," Dragon said, grinning, "We were all jealous about Priestess, too." The grin vanished quickly as he realized what he had just said. Whit went suddenly still as well. The Cyrillian music continued, wailing away about lost loves, lost worlds, a lost past.
"So tell me about Priestess," I said quietly.
"Sorry," Dragon said, his eyes going down to his drink. "I shouldn't have said that."
"You've said it. Let's hear it."
"Cinta was going to tell it," Whit said.
"Tell me," I insisted. My heart was hammering.
Dragon's gaze wandered up to the ceiling. "It was Priestess and you. Ever since Andrion Two. You were…lovers. You were in love. You were quite a pair. You tried to hide it, but we all knew. The whole squad knew. You can't hide something like that."
"Priestess." My skin was crawling. Beta Nine—the medic. She had loved me. Somebody had loved me!
"Your first lover was Valkyrie—Gamma Two," Dragon continued. "She was redesignated Beta Eleven after Gamma was shot up on Andrion Three. You two really had it bad, from Planet Hell to Andrion. But then Priestess came along, and split you up."
Valkyrie! The green-eyed blonde, good God, she had loved me too! I was stunned, listening to Dragon calmly relating my past.
"Priestess and Valkyrie actually got in a fist fight once over you. It was kind of funny—Priestess got a black eye, and Valkyrie got a split lip. Guess they must have seen something in you, beats me what. Valkyrie later decided she like
d girls better than boys. It's a shame—she was hot enough to melt cenite."
Priestess and Valkyrie—Lord! Ghost lovers, from the past.
"Tell me about the baby," I said.
Dragon and Whit exchanged glances, then Whit spoke. "It had a girlfriend on Andrion Two—one of the Taka. It's supposed to be a sorceress—name of Moontouch. It had a baby. We gather it was not planned. A son—its name is Stormdawn. It would be about four now. Cinta said it'll never see either of them again, so it had best just forget about them."
Forget about them! Forgetting things wasn't a problem—remembering was the problem. But I wasn't likely to ever forget that baby, or his mother, coming at me in my sleep, right out of the past, the girl thrusting the baby into my face. A sorceress! Leaping time, right into stardrive, bursting the rusting gates of my mind, holding up my baby for me to see. I sat there, stunned, my flesh crawling. Three lovers—and a baby! And somebody had tried to erase it all. I felt a great anger, rushing through my veins like lava. I decided I was going to get my past back, and then I was going to find out exactly who had done this to me, and kill them horribly.
***
"What is it?" I asked. We were out of stardrive, and it was way too early. I had found Whit in the command chair on the bridge, and now I was looking over her shoulder. It was totally silent on the bridge of the Stardust. Kaga was in the number two chair, and Pandaros was visible on one of the d-screens, manning security and weapons. Stars filled the forward viewport—a glorious view, a velvet sky full of diamonds, a magic road to the future. Banks of instruments glowed softly on the consoles. It was actually a very small bridge, but everything was perfectly arranged. It was so calm and still that I had the feeling that Whit and Kaga had the situation totally under control.
"We've been called out of stardrive by the Legion for a planetary emergency," Whit said.
"Which Legion?" I asked, "Is this the Lost Command or the Loyalists?"
"There's no way of telling. We're actually still in the Inners but we're so close to the Outers that it's not unusual to find Fleetcom patrols around here."
"What is the planet?"
"Here it is," Kaga said. The d-screens flashed, and filled with planetary data. "Tanami—a class A settlement, self-governed, non-aligned…looks like religious people. Non-aligned! That's unusual."
"Temple of Man," Whit read from her screen. "Funny they settled way out here. Probably trying to get away from the System. We've heard of this bunch. They're Outworlders, mostly. They live communally, refuse any association with off-planet entities. Agriculturalists, living in their own world, worshipping…themselves, we guess. They believe in non-violence, settle disputes through compromise, and generally mind their own business and live a healthy, primitive life."
"So what's the emergency?"
"Don't know. We received the message in stardrive—it was an all-ships nova. Can't ignore those."
"What's the Legion got to do with this planet?" It was Dragon. " We're not even in ConFree vac yet." He had appeared silently behind me.
"Don't know that either. According to this data, ConFree does not interfere with events on Tanami. But Fleetcom is responsible for border security. Let's find out!"
Her finger was hovering over the transmit tab when the Legion message boomed through the ship. "Welcome Personal Ship Stardust! Outvac Fleet Command greatly appreciates your assistance. Please approach and orbit Tanami Four and await further instructions. We have declared a planetary emergency for Tanami Four. The planet's human population is in crisis and in need of assistance. Please contact Legion Traffic Control for further information."
"That's a Legion cruiser," Kaga remarked. "The CS Gauntlet. Damn! That's a Lost Command ship according to ship registry!"
"A Legion cruiser!" Whit exclaimed. "They're not supposed to intrude on an independent world."
"Why would the LC be this far from home?" Dragon asked. "It's a long way to Dindabai." It was visible on-screen now, a glowing phospho dot in orbit around the planet. We were still so distant from Tanami 4 that we could not even see it out the viewport. I couldn't even tell which star was Tanami.
"ATTENTION!" The Stardust suddenly warned us at full volume, "STAR PIRATE! I DETECT OUTLAW PRIVATEER VAMPIRE, PIRATE 361, FORMERLY P.S. LUCINDA, IN ORBIT AROUND TANAMI FOUR! RECOMMEND CRASH STARLAUNCH! INITIATING LAUNCH SEQUENCE!" The emergency claxon shrieked to life, almost deafening us, adrenalizing everyone on board. The ship highlighted the pirate for us, some distance behind the Legion cruiser, also in orbit.
"Deto!" Whit exclaimed, jabbing at the transmit tab. "Legion Traffic Control, what's that pirate doing there?"
"Relax, Stardust," the low-key reply came. "The Legion has secured the pirate. There is absolutely no danger to your ship or crew. Please proceed to orbit as marked. Stand by and we'll give you a full briefing."
"Scut!" Whit hit the alarms, and they cut off in mid-bleat. "Secure from starlaunch! Damn it, we don't like this!"
"Commander, can we please leave?" It was Pandaros, on the screen, leaning forward anxiously with a weak grin.
"We sympathize, Pandaros, but we're afraid not."
"It's acting more and more like Commander Tamaling. Sir."
"We have no choice, Pandaros. The penalty for failing to respond to an all-ships nova is confiscation of the ship, and that's just for starters."
"Is it sure we're dealing with the Legion and not the privateers?"
"Which would it prefer?"
"That's a tough one!"
"Calm down, Pandaros. Give us a chance to get the briefing they've promised us. We're sure there's an explanation. One thing's sure, the Legion doesn't mix with star pirates—and vice versa!"
As we approached in deathly silence, the star grew in the main viewport until it was a brilliant, blood-red orb, burning magically in the vac. It was rather scary, watching it grow.
"Tanami Four is over there—see it?" A tiny green speck, a cosmic mote of dust. The star fell away behind us, and the speck floated into our field of view. It grew into a shining dot, stabilizing in the viewport. The screens filled with data as I watched the planet approach. It grew larger and larger, glowing a lovely, luminous green. As we approached, I felt we were falling right into it. It appeared to be drawing us in, sucking us in like a black hole, and now it was we who were the mote of dust and Tanami 4 was a gigantic cosmic whirlpool of deep green oceans and swirling white clouds. How could we possibly avoid it? We were falling, faster and faster, into the future.
***
"It's quite a mess," Dragon remarked. We were downside, strolling rather warily along the center of a wide boulevard adrift with filmy floating plastic trash. Shadowy figures were visible all around us, going our way. The boulevard was lined with stately buildings and they were all burning. A blood-red sun was sinking below the horizon but the city continued to glow a ruddy orange from widespread fires. Oily smoke, charged with glowing ash, hung over the city like a shroud, a black dusk for Tanami 4. There were bodies in the streets—many bodies. Some of them were being carefully recovered and loaded into ambulances by groups of weary men. Others were left to rot. I did not see any efforts to put out the flames. The entire city was burning, and the emergency services had obviously been overwhelmed.
A building collapsed with a tremendous roar, sending a huge ball of fire and a rush of sparks up into the sky, the heat scorching my flesh.
"Damn! They'd better get these fires under control!" Whit said.
"First things first," Dragon replied.
We had to walk around one body, sprawled out in the street. A male, shot all to hell, eyes open, mouth open, abdomen split wide open, viscera spilling out, lying in a pool of blood, stripped almost naked, as dead as a stone. He had been a short, stocky man with coarse hair like bristles and a huge head like a melon. He had tattoos on one arm.
"Never trust a guy with tattoos," Dragon advised us.
The fires roared up around us, and a sudden gust of smoke burned into my eyes. I kept o
ne hand in my coldcoat pocket, clutching a mini. We had been advised not to show any weapons. As the smoke cleared, I saw we were passing a school. It was unmistakable. There was a horrific tangle of bodies just outside the open gate, a chilling, obscene spectacle. One swollen corpse hung from a long rope, dangling under a great tree, glowing faintly red, illuminated by the fire. In the schoolyard a group of terrified schoolgirls were huddled against a wall, wailing and crying as a frantic and exhausted mob of adults tried to comfort them. The moaning and sobbing of the children came to us faintly, like waves falling on a distant shore.
There was a slight movement in the shadows by the tree and I saw it was a Legion trooper in black armor reflecting blood red flames, balancing an E on his hip. He was almost motionless, watching over the pile of bodies and the hanged man and the pitiful schoolgirls and their weary attendants. A Legion aircar glided effortlessly overhead. The sky was sparkling with burning ash, winking red and gold like little stars.
A tall building was silhouetted against the dark sky ahead of us, glowing a rosy pink before the flames. It looked like a government center. There were two flagpoles on the roof, and as I watched a large, shadowy flag slowly unfurled itself in a faint breeze and lazily opened—a jet-black banner with a silvery Legion cross boldly emblazoned across its face. A rush of sparks glittered past it as it faded again into the dark. And I thought I had never seen anything quite so terrifying. The hand of the Legion was on this planet now, for better or worse, and we were about to see exactly what it meant.
***
"Citizens of Tanami!" The amplified voice boomed over a stadium teeming with people. We were with the Legion, at one end of the darkened playing field, and the stadium bleachers were full. The Legion had promised to resolve the problem, and the natives evidently wanted it resolved. The speaker was clad in Legion camfax, spotlighted in a brilliant white glare. He looked like a young recruit but he spoke like a general. "Greetings from the Confederation of Free Worlds, from Outvac Sector Command, and from the officers and crew of the Confederation Ship Gauntlet! I am Commander Kim X-One. I am addressing you after consultations with your Council of Ministers. As you all know, the ConFree Legion has recently intervened to resolve a planetary emergency here on Tanami Four. On behalf of the Legion, I am now pleased to announce that as of 0015 hours local time we have declared Tanami Four secure. As best as we can determine, all of the privateers of the Vampire have now been neutralized."
Secret of the Legion Page 9