Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree)

by Marshall S. Thomas

  "She's something, isn’t she?" Bees asked.

  "I hardly dare think when she's in the room. She's good. But a little…well, never mind."

  "All right, I'm going to try and read your thoughts. It was easy with the Brights. But we'll see. I've never heard any thoughts from a non-Bright, as Paula said."

  "Fine. I'll just lie here thinking of a word or two."

  I lay there quietly, wondering what I should think about. Maybe it should be about Bees. And what words would I associate with Bees? Spirituality, certainly. She had been in charge of faith, in Delta. Nobody had appointed her to do that, at first. She had just done it. Effectively. It was like she had a direct link to God. Faith. Yes. At first I thought she was spooky. Creepy even, chanting to God when we were charging into battle. But then I had seen her faith in action. Good lord – she was like a soldier of God, fearless and faithful, speaking to God for us all. Faith. Yes, that was the word. Faith faith faith. That was Bees' word.

  "I hear you, Prophet," she said quietly.

  "Really? What did you hear?"

  "Faith. And yes, it is my word," Bees said.

  I shouted with delight, leaping out of my chair. Paula burst in the door. "What!"

  "She's done it," I said. And that was the start of our telepath project.

  Δ

  "Tell me again how this works," Honeyhair said. We were stranding by the bed, looking over the little black device on the nightstand. We were ready for a good night's sleep. I was in shorts and tee and Honeyhair was in a silky nightgown.

  "Well, they've attached four little receivers to my scalp," I said. "And it's true, I'm hardly aware of them. They're set up to receive any neural signals from my DX brain structure. So if I have any DX dreams they should record it, and feed it to the lab. But only if this device is on. We turn it on before we go to sleep, then turn it off in the morning. They did some testing on me in the lab and it seems to be working."

  "So it will record your DX dreams?"

  "That's the idea."

  "Is it going to record anything else that goes on in this bedroom?"

  "Well, I sure hope not."

  "Are you sure you need to turn that thing on to activate your DX brain?"

  "It won't activate my brain. It will only record any DX signals."

  "So now I'm sleeping not only with you, but with the whole lab."

  "Don't be silly. All they'll see is the DX signals."

  "Well, I feel like I'm sleeping with three at least. Maybe we should name him."

  "Him?"

  "Yeah, let's call him Oscar. Our silent companion."

  "Oscar. Fine. I've got to get some sleep. Goo-night, Sweetie Pie."

  "Good night, Dear. Good night, Oscar. Shall I turn him on, or will you?"

  "I'll get it," I said, activating the unit.

  I was exhausted. It had been a long day, struggling to activate my apparently non-existent telepath receiving skills. It was hard – very hard. What if I didn't have the correct gene or whatever was required? I tried to relax my mind but the day's events were swirling around in my head. Got to relax. Got to sleep. I started to drift off.

  "Dear."

  "What?" I asked.

  "I want to play." She wants to play, I thought. Great.

  "All right," I said. "What do you want to play? Checkers? Strato? What?" In my defense, I was totally exhausted and not thinking straight.

  "Does Oscar's range extend to the sofa in the living room?" she asked icily.

  "I'm sorry, Sweetie Pie." I hurriedly turned Oscar off. First things first. Honeyhair was always Number One on my list of Things to Do Now. And if I ever forgot that, she reminded me very quickly.

  "I'm not your sweetie-pie!" Oh no! Now I'd have to spend at least an hour calming her down. All right, all right, I can do that. No sleep for me.

  Δ

  Paula was getting frustrated with me. I just wasn't "hearing" any thoughts from my DX colleagues. Bees and Ice were already reading each other's thoughts, but Saka and I were still struggling. Paula had paired me with all three, Bees, Ice, and Saka. I could transmit, all right, but I couldn't receive. Psychically challenged, she called me. But she wouldn't give up. The fact that I could "transmit" meant that my DX structure was all there, and it was just a matter of activating it correctly. I had "received" just fine, on Vezhedak when real Brights wanted to communicate with me, so I knew it could be done. So we continued trying.

  Now it was Ice. We sat in the soft darkness, relaxing in airchairs, close together. Paula had left the room to avoid distracting us. Ice – my! She had successfully read my thoughts already, and was getting better at it quickly. And Bees had read her thoughts, too. But I hadn't read anyone yet.

  "You all set?" she asked me.

  "As ready as I'll ever be. Go ahead," I said.

  I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the thoughts in my head. How could I know what were my own thoughts and what were thoughts from somebody else? What would Ice's thoughts be like? Would they sound like her? And what did she sound like? Quiet, guarded, private. In the old days she was hostile, angry, suspicious – and full of hate. But she had changed – a lot. Now she was more – open. Trusting. Vulnerable. I guess getting killed can do that to you.

  I tried to relax, and listen to my thoughts. Thoughts like little butterflies, flittering around silently in the garden of my brain neurons. Could I hear anything? What would Ice broadcast? I couldn't "hear" a thing. Just silent butterflies. I thought about Ice. On Starhaven we had come across a dying slaver. He was burnt black from the airstrike, but still barely alive. Ice had shot him without a word. Was it an act of hatred, or mercy? Nobody dared ask her.

  Faint faint flutters. What was that? A ghostly impression of a word. Did I hear that right? Love. Love. Could that be it? No. No, I am imagining it. I must be imagining it. Ice wouldn't send that to me, would she?

  "I think I hear something," I said. "But I'm not sure."

  "What did you hear?"

  "I'm probably imagining it. It was very faint. Like a whisper from the bottom of a well."

  "What did you hear?"

  "Love. That's what I heard. Love."

  "Yes, Prophet, that was me. That was my word. Congratulations! Welcome to the psycher community. You are no longer a deadhead."

  I felt a great relief. Success, at last. I knew I had a long way to go, but now I was on the right road. A little butterfly, so that's what they are like. All right, I'll nail the next one.

  "Ice. Any reason you chose that word?" I asked.

  "Yes. That was for Delta. That's what I feel for Delta – everyone in Delta."

  Δ

  "Feel better?" Scout asked. Scout and Smiley and I had just finished blasting away on Delta Research's excellent indoor firing range for an hour. We were catching some fresh air on a wide balcony terrace that ran around the building.

  "I feel terrific!" I said. "I love it. I just love it. I'm not sure why." I took a sip of steaming dox. We had visited the snack bar right after our shooting session.

  "It's part of our genes," Scout said. "That's why. Cheers!" He raised his cup.

  "That's a ten," Smiley said. "You don't ever miss, do you?" he asked Scout.

  "It's why I'm still here," Scout replied. It was only true. Scout was an intense, rangy Outworlder, tall and wiry and tough as nails. I knew he had been with the Deadman Scouts on Sirrah, with the insurgency, battling the local System clones, and had fled the planet only when the insurgency was crushed. The Legion was lucky to get him.

  We leaned on the guardrail, looking out at the view. We could see much of Quaba City, but it was a dark, overcast day. A cold wind blew into our faces. Dark grey clouds scudded close overhead and we could not see either of the stars that gave life to the planet.

  "Look at this place," Smiley said, looking up into the sky. "Not too inviting, huh? The first settlers must have wondered if they were doing the right thing." Smiley was a young Outworlder with short blond hair and a ruddy face with
freckles and a constant faint smile on his lips. It was hard to discourage him. He loved his life, he loved the Legion and he knew he was in the right place. He was a refugee from Katag, from slavery and race hate and oppression. He loved ConFree – he told me he had kissed the ground when his family had arrived in ConFree as dirt-poor refugees. He always made me feel ashamed of myself for growing up in ConFree and never appreciating it.

  "It looks like the end of the world," Scout said. A light rain had begun, just a cold mist, floating in with the wind. Evil dark clouds blew past overhead, casting us into darkness. It was cold and bitter. I could see some of the government buildings not far off – seemingly embracing that dark sky.

  "They were extremists," I said. "The first Outworlders to land here. They were extremists, fleeing slavery, seeking liberty. They were strong, fearless people, determined to forge their own future here. Crazy brave. Who else would have chosen a planet that orbited a double star? Crazy. And look what they’ve done! They would have looked up at this sky and said, fine. That's our sky. We'll settle right here. Nothing is going to stop us. And if the System follows us, we attack them, and fight to the death. They had nothing to lose, you see. Nothing to lose. Yeah, you're right, Scout. It's in our genes."

  Scout laughed. "Well said! Where did you learn that?"

  "Oh, I studied history, that's all."

  "Yes," Smiley said. "That's what my dad taught me, too. Secretly."

  "How are the wedding plans going?" I asked Scout.

  "Just fine," he said. "I'm just trying to keep out of the way. Bees is having fun, acting like a teenager – instead of like some cosmic avenger. She's enjoying herself."

  "When will it be?" Smiley asked.

  "I haven't been informed yet. No need to know, I guess. Um, Prophet, you're going to be best man, is that all right?"

  "Why thank you, Scout, I'd be honored."

  "Smiley, you'll be right up front, too. All of Delta will be there. And there will be plenty of free-roaming honeys there too, for anyone who has managed to escape the fair sex so far, like you and Doggie and Bird."

  "I think Bird has been captured by that blonde nurse from Valhalla Hospital on Veda. Remember her?" I asked.

  "Are they, um, still together?"

  "Distance is not a problem if you have your own starship," I said. "Bird can't seem to forget her. Funny how the girls do that to us."

  "Ice is going to be Maid of Honor," Scout said. "Bees will be wearing Ice's wedding gown, I've learned that much."

  "The ice princess outfit. Wow. Good choice." I said.

  "Bees really admires you, Prophet. You know that?"

  "Well, I really admire her, too."

  "She says you saved her life."

  "You saved her life. Not me."

  "She said…you gave her hope, at a bad time."

  "She gave us all hope. You know that. You're lucky to have her."

  "Yeah, I know. That I know."

  Δ

  "Good morning, boys and girls," the Professor said. He was addressing us in one of the smaller briefing rooms, standing before a large wall screen that showed the Delta Research seal, a delta entangled with the infinity symbol. There were six of us there, seated in airchairs, the project core, Ice and Saka and Bees and me, plus Doctor Dimension and Paula Deep. They were our two most important facilitators, although we had plenty of others who lectured us and interacted with us in various ways. It was a fairly relaxed meeting, with dox available for all. The only formality that the Prof insisted on was that we all wear our blacks when on duty.

  "I'm pleased with the progress we've seen so far," the Prof said. "You are all growing as telepaths. It's exciting to see how fast you are all catching on. My thanks to you all for your hard work, and especially to Miss Deep for her patient guidance to her flock." Paula smiled in delight.

  "Of course our primary mission is to encourage DX dreams from you, and the steps we've taken so far will, I am convinced, result in success. But we must be patient. We continue to study the DX neural pathways and if we come up with any promising new methods we will certainly introduce them to you. For the present we can only wait. In the meantime, however, we want to prepare you to be able to recognize what you are seeing, for that day when you do experience another DX dream. One thing we can do is to ensure that you are all well briefed on the current galactic situation. You must all realize what is happening all around us as the various imperfect instruments of galactic governments respond, or fail to respond, to challenges facing themselves and their populations. I feel myself capable of briefing you on this issue and I will do so, from time to time. Feel free to help yourselves to more dox or tea or whatever you want from the snack table." The wall screen flickered into a depiction of the entire inhabited galaxy, a glorious starmap with an overlay showing the political divisions.

  "A wise man once said that peace is that brief moment in time when everyone stands around reloading," the Prof said. "That's exactly where we are at this particular moment in galactic history. The Demons recently sent massive invasion forces into our universe and into our galaxy, landing on Traunair, Galinta, Dajusdevon and Veda. They were repulsed, at considerable cost – as you all know from personal experience. ConFree, the biogens and the AC all countered the D's, and the Brights intervened on both Galinta and Veda to assure a defeat for the D's. Then they returned to their own universe, without a word. And Delta Research played a big part in those events."

  A big part, I thought. That's for sure. I tried not to think about that nightmare. Piracy duty, Drusweaven, Quatar, Galinta, Kratar, Vezhedak, Veda. Violence, blood, death and resurrection. Walking the immortal's unholy road, chanting to dead gods.

  "We have no idea what is going to happen next," the Prof said. "Will the D's strike at us again? If so, where? And what about all the other forces, humans and aliens, that have reason to hate us, and would like nothing better than to harm us? This is why Delta Research exists. We need advance warning, for whatever may be coming. Just a hint, that's all we need. Just a hint of the event, the target, the enemy, whatever it may be, to allow us to take action to counter it, whatever it is. Hundreds, thousands or millions of lives may be saved, if Delta can alert the Legion. Like we did on Galinta, Prophet. Like we did on Veda, Ice. I am confident we will do that, again. Now – the galactic political situation – perhaps it will stimulate some DX thought but even if it doesn't, you will be better informed citizens.

  "Let us begin with the Omni Swarm. These dangerous, advanced alien psychers from the universe Plane Prime established a primary base on the world Traunair, some sixty-five hundred light years from the Crista Cluster. They were advancing relentlessly into humanity's portion of the galaxy for years, killing two billion humans as they did so, when the Legion finally discovered how to counter their weapons, and repulsed them back to the Traunair Sector." The starmap expanded to allow us to view the Traunar Sector. "In 381, the Demons hit Traunair hard and landed large numbers of troops. Sometime later the AC captured the Demon weaponry that allowed us to discover the weak points in the D's defenses. We passed that info to the O's, and they used it to repulse the D's. The O's are currently in genetic hibernation but we hope our assistance caused them to cross us off their list of things to be killed and eaten.

  "Which brings us to the D's. You know all about these nasty aliens. They are from the universe Mid Haven, which we didn't even know about until they appeared here. We know quite a bit about it now, thanks to Delta Research and to captured weaponry and one cooperative Demon – again thanks to Delta Research."

  "Thanks to you, Prof," I said.

  "No, no, Prophet. Thanks to all of you. The D's were initially superior to us technologically, but we succeeded in countering their weapons systems, and defeated them on Galinta, Dajusdevon, and Veda. This is the most likely current threat. They seem quite determined. Despite losing their saucer starcraft factory to suicidal aliens."

  That was us, I thought. That was Delta. Suicidal aliens, that was us, all ri
ght. What a perfect description.

  "They may attack at any time. Any place. They are desperate. They are under attack by the Brights, in Mid Haven. They are fleeing extermination. Fleeing their own universe, under attack. So they must achieve victory or face death, for the race. And so must we. They are merciless and ruthless. They will exterminate us if they can. That's the wheel of history. Victory or death. And the strongest will survive. So let's hope we can see any new threat in advance.

  "And now we have the Brights. Totally unexpected, they intervened briefly on Galinta, turned the tide against the D's, and left. And, almost in passing, revived our dead. And that created Delta Research. Then later the Brights intervened in depth on Veda, ensured our defeat of the D's, and once again disappeared without comment. You carry the Bright colors on your armor now. I understand nobody wanted to have that insignia erased. I sure don't blame you. The Brights are the biggest potential threat, because they are so far advanced we have no idea even how to begin understanding their science. Bees, the armor they gave you was clearly stripped of the more advanced capabilities, but what they left was very useful. We have duplicated their forcefield shielding and it is – well, almost miraculous. We can expect future models of Legion armor to incorporate Bright shielding.

  "Now, the Brights have so far proven to be friendly and benevolent towards us, as you know. But they seem disinterested in further contact. Our worries center around their miraculous technology. Should they change their attitude toward us, we will be in deep trouble. They'll kick our asses all to hell, the way things stand now. So we'd better hope they don't change their friendly – or neutral – attitude towards us.