Aftermath

by Charles Sheffield

  The man nodded slowly. His brow furrowed, as though he understood—or listened to—only a few of her words. "Now, lady, was your ship stored underground? So that the gamma pulse didn't ruin it?"

  "No. The chips in that orbiter were a long way from Earth when the pulse hit." Celine gestured, to include Wilmer, Jenny, and Reza. She spoke slowly and carefully, seeing his finger tight on the trigger. "We were in deep space, returning to Earth from Mars. We landed at this location because we had no choice. We had to adapt an orbiter using our own equipment and programs, and this was the only landing site that we could reach." She hesitated before the next words. "We are the only surviving members of the first Mars expedition."

  It was a bad moment. Nowhere near as awful as watching Zoe and the others immolated on their attempt at reentry, but piercing and heartbreaking in its own way. Talking about the expedition made the contrast more striking. A couple of weeks ago they had done it all, they had won it all. The crew was returning intact and healthy, coming home to certain honor and glory and acclamation.

  Now they stood, the lonely four who had lived, cold and exhausted in this snow-covered valley, facing a hostile man who showed no shred of interest or excitement at meeting the first people ever to walk the surface of the red planet. So far as he was concerned, they were just intruders. At her words he had raised his gun and was pointing it at her chest.

  "You are defilers of Heaven." He was broad-chested and tall, topping even Wilmer by a few centimeters. The left side of his chest and the cuffs of his long-sleeved gray tunic bore an unfamiliar emblem, a bird's scarlet talons enclosing a green globe. "If your fate lay in my hands, it would lead you straight to hell. Into the vehicles. And giddyup!"

  Celine was afraid, for Wilmer and Reza more than for her and Jenny. They were all used to taking orders—but not from strangers. Jenny would be cautious. Unless Celine acted at once, though, either Reza or Wilmer was likely to balk. Given Reza's unpredictable mood for the past few days, he might do absolutely anything.

  "Come on," she said, and moved quickly forward to climb the step into the backseat of one of the trucks. She sensed rather than heard the stir of rebellion on her right, and patted the seat. "That includes you, Wilmer. This is no time for heroics."

  Her companions hesitated, looking from the man to the woman with the gun in the other truck. To her relief they moved forward without arguing. Wilmer settled himself on one side of Celine, placing his little backpack on the seat next to him. The man with the gun took the seat on the other side. "Smart move, lady," he said gruffly. "If you got troubles, you sure brung 'em on yourselves. Didn't you know your actions defiled God's domain? As for your arrival here, that was foreordained."

  Reza and Jenny had gone to sit in the other vehicle. Celine decided that they would have to fend for themselves—perhaps not too difficult, since no one but the man with the machine gun had so far said a word. She turned to face him, and found that his gun was still pointing at her chest.

  "You must know who we are," she said. "I'm sure that for months before Supernova Alpha, the media were full of news about the Mars expedition. I'm Celine Tanaka, and I was in charge of instrumentation. But who are you, and what is this group? Why do you say that our arrival was foreordained?"

  Knowledge is power. When you can't do anything else, try to collect information.

  He scowled. "Call me Eli, an' a devoted servant of the Legion of Argos. That will be enough. As for news of you and your flight, I didn't hear nothing. The media, as you call them, are pure corruption." His voice changed to a programmed chant. " 'Attend not to their mindless babble of invented trivia, nor to the self-aggrandizing trumpeting of their own importance. They are the instruments of Satan. Reject them, and dismiss their posturing.' We done that, even at the height of their power. Then God's strike came, and they were smashed. That is a blessing."

  "So, Eli," asked Wilmer, "if you didn't get news from the media, how do you know anything about the Mars expedition?" He was leaning across Celine, and she knew that look. It was blind obstinacy combined with a lack of concern for consequences. Wilmer was as tired as she was, and at the end of his patience. If he started needling Eli it could be fatal.

  "Wilmer Oldfield, shut up," she said, and gave him a sharp elbow in the ribs. Before he could do more than grunt in surprise, she turned to the other man. "Forgive his lack of control—or my lack of control over him. I'm afraid that our party lacks the strong discipline of the Legion of Argos since the death of our original leader. I now serve as leader, but I am new to the task. I request that you ignore all communications from this group that do not come to you directly from me."

  She was taking a chance—among other things, on what Reza and Jenny might be saying in the other car. But Wilmer had understood the message of the elbow. He remained silent. And organizations generally approved of what they practiced. Eli was nodding with what might be approval.

  "Without discipline," he said seriously, "there can be nothing."

  He made no attempt to answer Wilmer's question of how the Legion of Argos knew about the Mars expedition. Celine wondered if she could find a more tactful way to phrase the same inquiry, but the two cars were already moving into the A-frame barn. The wooden door swung closed, and Eli indicated with his gun that they should step down from the truck.

  Celine descended with difficulty. Their original mission plan had called for them to be coddled and resting after the return to Earth, sitting in a quarantined facility while their bodies made a first readjustment to higher gravity and physicians tested them inside and out for evidence of un-Earthly organisms. Instead, after days of tension and sleeplessness they were forced to remain alert for new danger.

  She stepped close to Jenny, waiting by the other vehicle, and said softly, "Anything I should know about while you were driving in?"

  Jenny shook her head. "I think they must have taken vows of silence. Nobody spoke, so we didn't."

  "Good. Take my lead, and tell Reza to do the same. Treat me as an absolute boss. Don't say anything unless I ask you to. I'll explain when we have privacy."

  "I'll tell Reza, and hope. But he's still acting weird. That guy giving you trouble, is he? Bet he's not one of their top people. Pushy type." But Jenny was turning away as she muttered the last words, so that the approaching Eli did not hear her.

  Maybe he wouldn't have noticed anyway. Celine saw that he was talking and listening on a black handset. At least some radio communication was still working—or more likely working again. The world was fighting back. Supernova Alpha was not going to wipe out civilization.

  "Right," Eli was saying deferentially. "Very good. I sure understand that." Then, in quite different tones to Celine and the others, "As I said, your arrival was foreordained. Our leader, newly returned to us, confirms it. She says that she will meet with you and she will speak to you in person. It is a great honor."

  Celine saw Reza's expression. Angry now, he seemed ready to say, Damn right it's an honor. She'll have the honor of meeting the members of the first Mars expedition. Jenny gave him a warning nudge.

  "Meet here?" Celine asked, before Reza had a chance to speak.

  Eli shook his head. "Six kilometers from here."

  "Which is where?"

  He stared at her. "You don't know where you are?" His smile for a moment seemed as though it might reflect an actual feeling of pleasure. "Oh, I like that. We got us one prize example of arrogance and folly. You fly across space, millions an' millions of miles to no place, intruding upon the very domain of God. You come on back. An' you tell me you don't know where you are when you git here. Do I have it right?"

  "We don't know where we are. I am not from this part of the country, and the last step of the return to Earth was not as we had planned it. We landed somewhere in the northeastern United States, that I am sure, but I could not tell you where within a hundred kilometers. Where are we? And where will we be going?"

  Eli turned to wood again. "I don't believe I oughta answer
that question, 'cept to say you'll travel to the headquarters of the Legion. If the leader permits, you may ask questions. If she chooses, she may decide to answer."

  "How should I address her? Doesn't she have a name, other than just being your leader?"

  "If the leader permits, you may ask her name."

  And if she chooses, she may decide to tell me. We already went through that one. Celine was fishing again—and getting nowhere. If she couldn't do better than this, she ought to hand over to one of the others.

  "We are ready to go," she said. Delay would do nothing but make them more tired, and she was beginning to feel giddy and nauseated. They were long overdue for food and sleep. The members of the Mars expedition had been chosen for cast-iron stomachs and physical stamina, but there were limits. "We all need rest."

  "After you meet with our leader."

  "When will that be?"

  "Right soon. We're heading there at once."

  Celine expected to be told to return to the vehicles. Instead, Eli motioned them forward. At the rear of the barn a wooden trapdoor had been lifted. An iron ladder descended from it. Wilmer followed a woman with a shotgun, climbing down backward but turning his head to see where he was going. Reza and Jenny went after him.

  Celine stood on the brink, staring down. The ladder was not a long one, it had nine or ten steps and ended in a narrow space lit by hanging lanterns. The walls and floor, all that she could see of them, were dark-stained wooden boards. Celine smelled creosote, turpentine, and moldering earth.

  "Don't just stand there, lady." Eli spoke from close behind her. "Git on down."

  Had it all been a lie? Eli had made his own feelings clear. He would kill them gladly. And the space below more resembled a grave than a meeting place with the Legion's leader. For all Celine knew, the command had been "Get rid of them—at once."

  With the gun at her back, Celine had no choice.

  She took a deep breath and climbed down the ladder.

  24

  Celine found herself not in a room but a tunnel, running away in front of her in a long arc until it curved out of sight to the left. The roof, like the walls and floor, was timber, heavily braced every twenty yards. Lanterns, located at the braces, did not use the oil that their appearance suggested. Their light came from electricity, carried by power lines looped to brackets on the walls.

  Celine turned to Eli, who had arrived at the foot of the ladder. "I said that we need rest, but maybe I didn't put it strongly enough. I don't think you realize what my crew has been through. For the past six years, we have never lived in a gravitational field as strong as that of Earth for more than a few minutes at a time. Our bodies are exhausted. It is impossible for us to walk six kilometers—or even one kilometer—before we have had food and sleep."

  "Did I say you'd have to do that?" Eli gestured ahead. "The leader knew, just like she knew about the supernova without bein' told. She said you'd be tired. You don't have to walk six kilometers, not even one. Think you can manage fifty yards?"

  "Yes."

  "That's all I'm asking. After that it's comfort city. See 'em yet?"

  Celine saw them. Steel rails three feet apart, with wooden sleepers between, began at a buffer in the middle of the tunnel. Two cars, five feet wide and ten feet long, sat on the rails.

  "Runs straight to headquarters," Eli said. "Electric power, or hand-pumping if you want or need it. We'll use the 'lectric today. The leader told me to get you to her in good condition. It's better than defilers deserve, but it's orders." He motioned to Reza and Jenny, who were already standing by the cars. "On board."

  The cars were open, their bodies formed from a single piece of molded graphite composite. The seats seemed at first of the same material, but they were soft to the touch and gave luxuriously under Celine's weight. She settled back with a sigh. Five minutes of this much comfort, and it would be hard to remain awake. The only car controls that she could see were two foot pedals in front of Eli. She looked around. Wilmer and Celine sat right behind Eli, with Reza and Jenny behind them. Two uniformed women at the back rode shotgun—literally. Their weapons were old-fashioned, but armed and ready.

  Eli pressed the right pedal and the car moved forward with a steady surge of acceleration. When the speed leveled off they were probably moving at no more than twenty miles an hour, but the low roof and uncertain light made it seem to Celine that the dark board walls flashed past at monstrous speed. The tunnel had become almost straight, descending steadily. She tried to estimate the gradient. Even if it were as little as one in fifty, six kilometers of this would plunge them a thousand feet underground—more than enough to shield completely from the gamma pulse. With the rest of Earth devastated, the technology of this mole group might have come through unscathed.

  Reza leaned over Celine's shoulder. "I don't understand what's going on here," he said loudly. "There's no way that all this could have been built after Supernova Alpha hit. This place must be ten years old at least."

  Maybe Jenny hadn't delivered Celine's order to remain silent, or maybe Reza in his present strange state had misunderstood. It made no difference, because Eli was turning eagerly in his seat to face them.

  "Old? It sure is! We've been buildin' here for twenty year an' more. We knew it was comin'!"

  "You knew about the supernova?" Wilmer asked. "You predicted it. How?"

  "Why, it was prophesied. In the leader's writings, long before she was a martyr to the cause. She knew. She said the supernova would come, and we would go from strength to strength. We have, and we will." Eli's face was alive with rare excitement. " 'You must continue the labor, as we have labored together for fifteen years. In this dark hour, take comfort. Do not fear for me, nor grieve at my leaving. Labor on. Very soon, within this mortal lifetime, I will return to you.' "

  Celine hoped that the others would know enough to keep quiet. Reza and Wilmer, unknowing, had found the button that worked for Eli and the Legion of Argos: evangelical zeal.

  " 'Before the second prophecies of the Eye of God, there will be certain proof that my resurrection is imminent.' " The voices of the two women added to Eli's, in a slow, chanted litany that echoed along the dark tunnel. " 'There will be portents. When these signs appear, prepare for my return: Another sun will rise in the southern sky, turning night into day. Winter will become summer. Heat will draw from the seas the poison fogs of contagion, dropping their pestilence on the land. Fire and floods will sweep away nations and powers and principalities. Hot winds will scourge the face of Earth, scattering it like dust across the whole world. Lightning from afar will shatter the false temples of Mammon and destroy the fools who seek to defile the face of Heaven. In that same hour, as the trappings of false governance are broken, you will come to me. I will rise again, as our star rises. The Eye of God will prophesy, and the holy work of cleansing our nation and our world will begin. This time there will be no turning back, no quarter given.' "

  The car was slowing. Celine had felt her ears pop twice, more evidence that they were riding deeper and deeper below ground. The seat was as comfortable as ever, but any fear of nodding off was long gone. The Eye of God. The group had been known as the Legion of Argos long before its charismatic leader rose to notoriety. The Schiaparelli had already boosted away from Earth orbit by the time of the trial, but beamed radio reports provided coverage. The "Eye of God"—Celine would surely remember the woman's name if she were less tired—had demanded absolute obedience from disciples and followers. As evidence of commitment to the causes of the Legion, she had directed a group of recruits to kill the four judges who had ruled against her in a property dispute. They had done that—and much more.

  Celine felt her stomach tighten. Eli must be a minor player in the organization. But he, or one of the armed women sitting at the rear of the car, could have been in that group of blood-besotted recruits. And the Mars crew were defilers of Heaven. Better hope that obedience to the orders of the leader remained absolute. The Eye of God wanted the crew t
o arrive in good condition.

  The holy work of cleansing. As the car stopped and Celine descended, she stared again at the emblem on Eli's tunic. The scarlet talon grasping the blue-green globe of Earth. It made sense now, but only as a symbol of insanity.

  How many people were in the Legion of Argos? Was the group big enough to be a national threat? One thing was sure, Eli was not about to tell her.

  They were descending again, this time in a regular elevator. Celine could not be sure that it needed microchips for its operation, although almost every device made in the past thirty years had chips in it somewhere. Suppose they were a thousand feet down. Then the natural shielding of Earth's crust should damp below danger level any electromagnetic pulse from Supernova Alpha.

  Wilmer would be able to tell her in a moment at what depth that was true, but now the elevator door had opened. Eli was urging them forward, remaining inside himself.

  No guns, no threats? It seemed that way. Celine walked from the elevator into a pleasantly furnished executive office. Half a dozen padded chairs were grouped around a glass-topped coffee table. On the table sat a painted samovar and a tray of cups. At the other side of the room a longer table formed a T-shape with a big desk at one end of it. The oddity was that Celine could see no telcoms, no displays, and no terminals.

  And no guards. Only one other person was present, sitting in a chair by the coffee table. She smiled warmly and beckoned the new arrivals to come forward and join her.

  "I know you are terribly tired," she said. "It won't make you feel any better, but let me tell you that at the moment I myself am hardly able to stay awake. I wanted to spend just a few minutes with you, before we all collapse into bed. Please sit down."

  She was a big woman, full-figured, probably close to six feet when she was standing up. Her hair was long and auburn, piled up onto the top of her head, and she had a pale, unblemished complexion and clear skin. Her eyes were bright gray, with a touch of golden brown at the center of the irises. At the moment the skin beneath them was dark-smudged with weariness. Her age might be anything from forty upward. The voice was warm and musical, with careful diction and soft vowels. Celine tried to analyze the accent, and decided that the speaker was native-born American, probably from somewhere like Tennessee. Her manner was utterly unlike Eli's wooden personality.