"There's nothing further we can do," one of them said.
"It's not going anywhere," somebody else confirmed.
"We've got twelve marks," a third trooper added.
"Attention all Legion personnel!" The announcement crackled over the E-net. "The Star of Dindabai will self-destruct in twelve marks! Anyone within 100 K of the site will be vaporized. All personnel are to leave the area immediately! There's no sense in risking your lives pointlessly. If anyone is still inside at this point, they're not getting out before detonation. Please evac now—your comrades don't want you to die needlessly!"
"What's up?" I asked the nearest trooper.
"They're trapped," he said, turning his face away abruptly. I looked down at his feet. There was a viewport there. We were standing on an escape pod. In an extreme emergency, if the ship is doomed, explosive bolts blow away portions of the skin and a fleet of escape pods separate from the ship. This one had run into trouble. It was blocked by the wreckage. And everyone within was certainly going to die.
The viewport showed the interior of the pod. I kneeled to look in. I could see people moving around in there.
"Can't they get out another way?" I asked.
"The escape hatch is fused and blocked. We can't get to it from here. Neither can they. Is that lifeboat going to stop here? Uniden lifeboat, please pick up survivors here!" One of the troopers shot a nova flare out into the vac. It burnt like a golden star, lighting up the entire ship in an icy electric glare. A lifeboat glided slowly past, seemingly ignoring us.
"How much time we got?"
I peered into the viewport. It was dark and murky in there. Somebody came over from inside and looked up at me, a girl with a pale face, not even wearing a helmet. And she was a vision from my past, from my dreams, big dark liquid eyes and tender lips and black silk hair. It was Priestess, looking right up at me. Priestess! My heart leaped.
"Priestess! It's Thinker! Can you hear me?"
"Thinker! Yes!" Her voice came over the E-net. "You made it! Is that Valkyrie? Oh Thinker!"
"We'll have you out of here in no time, Priestess!"
"Don't lie to me, Thinker. You were never good at it. How much longer have we got?" She was gazing up at me—breaking my heart.
"Attention! Attention! Ten marks to detonation! Nova! Nova! Evac! Evac! All personnel abandon ship immediately! All rescue craft are ordered to depart the area immediately!"
"Uniden lifeboat—what the hell is his number? Pick up survivors immediately! Can't you see us?"
"Where the hell is he going?"
"Forget it. We're going to fry like microbes."
"Thinker? I always loved you." It was Valkyrie, kneeling contentedly by my side.
"Yes, Valkyrie. I love you, too," I replied.
"Priestess?" Valkyrie looked down into the viewport. "I have a confession. I love you, too. I'm sorry I hit you—back then." The two of them had fought over me once—a real catfight. It seemed like a million years ago now.
"It's all right, Valkyrie," Priestess replied. "I love you, too. I guess I love everyone in Beta." She put one hand up against the viewport, and I placed my hand against the outside, palm to palm, separated by only a few mils of armored plex. "Goodbye, Thinker," she continued. "I'll see you in Heaven." I could see her eyes were wet but she was smiling bravely.
"We'll go together, Priestess," I said. "We'll go through the gates together."
"No!" she said. "Thinker, you've got a wife and son. You shouldn't leave them. I'll see you in the next world, but you have to think about your family now. Get on that lifeboat!"
"I can't do it, Priestess," I said wearily. "I don't want to die, I know I should think about my family, but I can't do it. I can't leave you."
"Oh Thinker! You were always such a foolish idealist!" The tears were flowing down her cheeks now. "Valkyrie, get out of here! There's no need for you to die."
"I kind of like it here," Valkyrie said, looking up at the stars. "My squad is here. I'm not leaving Beta. Where are the others, Priestess? Have you seen Scrapper?"
"Snow Leopard and Psycho are here in the body shop," Priestess replied. "I don't know about the others." We were still pressing our hands together on the plex. We would go out that way, hand to hand, as close as we could get, into the next world.
"Seven marks to detonation!"
"That's it, we're history," one of the Legion troopers said. They were standing around in resignation. "That lifeboat's still screwing around out there." I didn't bother to look up. I was looking into Priestess's eyes. It was all right, I thought. It didn't matter. We were going to be together forever. I prayed Moontouch and Stormdawn would be all right on their own.
"It's all right, guys," one of the Legion troopers said to his buddies. "We saved a lot of people. We did all right." His voice broke at the end.
A brilliant flash lit us up suddenly, and a shudder ran over the ship. For an instant I thought the end was at hand, but my chron revealed we still had five marks. I looked up in annoyance. The lifeboat was firing at the Star of Dindabai, blasting laser and chainlink into an area just forward of midships. Junk was flying everywhere.
"What the hell is he doing? Isn't that one of ours? Hey, retard, quit clowning around and pick us up! Damn you!"
A massive, soundless blast flashed icy green and the shock wave rippled over the fuselage. The lifeboat was still firing at us. A gigantic chunk of wreckage ripped off the ship and arced over our heads, whipping off wildly into the vac.
"What's the sit, Thinker?" Priestess asked. "What was that?"
"Nothing," I said. "It was nothing." One of the troopers was praying. His words echoed over the E-net:
"I am a soldier of the Legion
I believe in Evil
The survival of the strong
And the death of the weak.
I am the Guardian.
I am the sword of light
In the dark of the night.
I will deliver us from Evil…"
Another big jolt shook the ship. The E-net was counting down to destruction. Nothing could stop it now; it was too late for the code or anything else. Death was at hand for us all.
"Seventeen…sixteen…fifteen…fourteen…"
Priestess was still looking up at me, glowing in a pale light just like an angel, completely calm, completely at peace.
"Thinker," Valkyrie said. I ignored her.
"Thinker! Look!" I looked up. Valkyrie was pointing out into space. A silvery delta-shaped structure with a long power boom on the nose was rapidly receding into the distance, tumbling in the vac, getting smaller and smaller as I watched. It took a few fracs before I understood. It was the front end of the Star of Dindabai, dwindling into insignificance. And then I saw the flat cenite tail of the lifeboat, protruding up from our own portion of the ship, spitting nuclear exhaust. The lifeboat had cut the ship in two, rammed us, and was now ferrying us away from the front portion of the ship.
"Valkyrie," I asked. "Where are the scuttle charges located?"
"…three, two, one, ignition." The vac erupted, a brilliant soundless nova dazzling our eyes, filling all creation with a glittering white-hot core, shock waves of blue and green rings rippling through space, dancing sparklers of gold and orange, a brand new star crackling out of nowhere, a Legion star, the Star of Dindabai, lighting us all with its glorious rays.
"I'd say—offhand—the charges were in the front of the ship," Valkyrie replied.
Chapter 22
Granite
Great heat, rolling over me in waves. Blast furnace heat, hammering at me without mercy, without pause. A fierce yellow-white sun, burning my skin, sapping my strength, turning the sky to a throbbing white haze.
I raised the sledge and brought it up to my shoulder. I was standing in a field of granite boulders, breathing lava air. My sweat-drenched skin was burnt almost black and had turned as tough as leather. My muscles were whipcords, and the fat was long gone. I was clad only in ratty shorts, a disintegrating
sweatband, and tough armorite field boots burnt white with age. My hair was long and ragged, scorched almost blond by the sun's merciless rays, and I had a full beard. I guess I must have looked pretty scary.
I swung the sledge, and the cenite tip smashed onto a huge chunk of granite. It split with a sharp crack, raising a cloud of white dust. I lifted the sledge again. Good, I thought. Good. It was all I did, all day, smashing boulders into pebbles. They had told me the pebbles were to be used for a children's playground, and I had to make them very, very small. I didn't quite believe it, of course, but on another level I was kind of glad they had told me that. It was a noble goal, I thought. I often had visions, as I worked, of the children playing in the playground, running over my gravel. I would be standing there in the sun, smashing away at the rocks, and the children would be all around me in my mind, laughing, running, playing tag, having fun. Sometimes one of them would fall down and get hurt on the gravel, and I would stop working, in concern, until a teacher came running up to help the child. The teachers were always there. Then I would go back to work, determined to make the gravel even smaller.
A shrill whistle pierced the heavy air. Water break. I dropped the sledge and trudged wearily back to base, through sullen waves of heat. A small group of prisoners was there already, clustered around the water tank. Normally there was only me, but once in awhile they brought people in from the desert to work the road. The road was another fun project. Dindabai didn't have many prisoners so we all got to play every game.
A tall female caught my eye. She was burnt so dark that at first I thought she was a Cyrillian, and her muscles were so hard and defined it almost looked as if she was wearing a skin-tight metal suit. Her auburn hair had been cut short and glinted red in the sunlight. She was wearing a torn sleeveless top and loose, ragged shorts. As she turned, I saw slanted Assidic eyes squinting in the blazing light, a bronze face with high cheekbones, and a wide mouth. Tara!
"Wester!" A flash of even white teeth, as she lowered a battered metal ladle dripping water. "I was hoping you'd be here." A hot rush of emotion ran over my skin as we embraced. How many years had I worshipped this girl?
"You look terrific, Tara."
"Yeah, you too. Don't worry, Wester—we'll get out of this."
"I'm not worried. I kind of like it here."
"Have some water. It's exceptionally good today."
"It's always exceptionally good." I scooped up a ladle full and let it run down my gullet. Cool, clear, sweet—indescribably wonderful. I had never really appreciated water before. It was the drink of the Gods.
"How've you been?" she asked.
"Can't complain. Lots of fresh air and sunshine, no responsibilities, no need to deal with people. No, I can't complain."
"I know what you mean. I think we need this, Wester. It's therapy."
"Do you think two years will be enough to cure us?"
"Oh, I don't think we'll do all that time, Wester. Things are changing in the galaxy. Things are going our way. Those gates will open for us sooner than you'd think. Don't worry."
"I'm not worrying." I didn't bother asking her what it was that was changing in the galaxy. I did not really care. I was taking life one day at a time.
"Justice is the Legion's obsession, Wester. What we did was beautiful. It shines like a star. Our motives were pure. Only the Legion could have conceived it, and only soldiers of the Legion could have carried it out. The Legion knows that. There's no way we're going to rot here much longer—you'll see!"
"It doesn't matter." The other prisoners milled around the water tank, watched over by a bored Legion guard squatting in the shade of the tank. We ignored them.
"I enjoy the work," Tara said. "Do you?"
"Yes."
"I wonder sometimes, about life."
"So do I."
"There's something I never told you about our escape from the Star of Dindabai, Wester."
"Oh? What's that?"
"It's about…that squad from Dindabai's Strike Force that freed us. I've been thinking about that lately. You know, right after those ConFree troopers captured Whit and I, the SF attacked, and we were trapped. By the time the ConFree troopies surrendered, it was too late. We were deep in the interior of the ship, there was no time to escape the scuttle charges, and we suddenly realized we were all going to die. Time seemed to slow down, Wester. It was really eerie. The Legion squad leader brought his E up, and his eyes were pale and cold. My powers have been fading, Wester, but I could read him like a book. He thought…we were plunging into Hell, because of them, ConFree, and executing them was like…a last act of defiance. It was like…cursing the Gods. I don't know what happened, Wester, but I didn't want to see any more blood. I stepped in front of him, and reminded him that he was a soldier of the Legion. It worked. I don't know why. He lowered his E, and we all faced death together. We prayed, ConFree and Legion, together. Whit embraced me. I held hands with the SF squad leader as the ship counted down to destruction."
"I see."
"Then Redhawk came after us in that lifeboat and blew the ship in two, and ferried the whole aft of the ship away from the detonation."
"He certainly saved our butts." Redhawk had not wasted any time during the engagement with ConFree. He had been ferrying survivors away from the Star of Dindabai when he had realized that the ship had been cut almost completely in half just aft of the site of the antimat scuttle charges and our one surviving D-neg probe. A little further work and he succeeded in severing all connections and then ferrying the aft of the ship to safety, along with everyone trapped inside. We all owed Redhawk our lives.
"It's strange, isn't it, Wester? One moment we're ready to kill each other in cold blood, the next we're praying together. Gildron said it best. He said we're a very strange species."
"He was right. Tell me—what if the Strike Force had executed the prisoners? Would you have informed on them?"
"I don't know. Maybe not."
"Why not? It would have been murder! That's not justice."
"I don't know, Wester." She turned her eyes away, uneasily. "Life isn't that easy. The SF rescued Whit and me from ConFree. They were about to die for us. Anyway…they didn't do it. The SF squad leader visited me here. He thanked me for…staying his hand. He thinks I'm some kind of angel, Wester. If only he knew what a cold, evil bitch I am! He says his squad is mine, whenever I want it. I've got my own private strike force, Wester."
"Give it up, Tara—enough people have died for you already!"
"You're right, Wester. I'm so tired."
Tired. I was tired too. I had not informed on Dragon, but his ConFree prisoners had. Dragon and his surviving SF troopers had escaped the Pride of Alana in an SF shuttle, and had rescued all those ConFree troopers who had not been in armor. The court-martial had exonerated Dragon, ruling that ConFree's deception in feigning surrender classified them as active combatants, and justified summary executions. It made perfect sense to the Legion.
Dragon had visited me recently. He said the Legion was giving him his own squad. It was long overdue. Dragon was a natural leader, a warrior's warrior. He would make a perfect squad leader. He was one of the reasons the Legion was so feared. He was a child of the Legion, a human wolf, and anyone who got in his way was going to regret it. Accusing him of murder was like accusing a starship captain of evading the speed of light. Murder was his profession.
"I think I'll settle down after we get out of here, Wester." Tara scooped up another ladle of cool water and poured it over her head. I watched it evaporate in the heat.
"Sure you will."
"I will. I still have Willard. I'm going to devote myself to Willard, and raise him up to be a good person. Someone who has no desire to join the Legion. He loves me, Wester."
"How does he feel about the Legion?"
"It's all he wants. I'll have to educate him."
"You may not be the best person for that task, Tara."
"He misses his Daddy so much."
"Gil
dron?"
"Yes. So do I. I feel Gildron's presence every day—every single day. There isn't an hour that I don't think about him, there isn't a night that I don't long for him."
"He was a true hero. He saved us all. He rid the Universe of a ghastly evil—something we were too weak to do."
"Yes. He did the right thing. But so did we, Wester. The ConFree attack wasn't our fault. We did it right! We did the mission and we did it right! It was Dindabai Command that blew it. They violated standard Legion security practices by ordering us to appear at a specified time and place. Without that, the ConFree psychee would never have been able to betray us. It was an effort by the LC to control us, and I didn't dare resist because I thought it would be misinterpreted—but it resulted in disaster. And they were also at fault for allowing ConFree to infiltrate LC vac with stardrive sensors. That's all ConFree needed. The LC was fat and secure and happy."
"Blink once and you're gone."
"What?"
"It's something they taught us in Basic."
"Well, I'm sick of that kind of life. After all our work, can't we slow down a little? Can't we live a normal life?"
"I've heard this from you before. Just before you cooked up that scheme to rocket us into another universe. Forget it, Tara. You're too far gone for that. I don't know what your fate will be, but I know it won't be normal. I think you're insane."
"Really? And what about you?"
"Me, too. I'm insane, too. We're both raving lunatics. So is everybody in the Legion. It's a refuge for suicidal, murderous, maladjusted psychotics." I took another drink of cool water, and poured some over my head. It was just like a steam bath. Waves of heat blurred the air.
"Maybe you're right. But I'm going to try, Wester. I'm really going to try and make the break. How about you?"
"I'm going back to Andrion with Nine, as soon as the Legion retakes the place. If the Legion will reassign us both there, we'll stay in. If not, we're both resigning."
"Nine doesn't mind sharing you with Moontouch?"
"She minds—but she'll do it. She's an angel. I know I don't deserve her. I pray to God she'll wait for me."
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