"My mother visited me, Scout. She stepped out of her dimension, and visited me. How wonderful! Our love is so strong! Nothing can separate us! And she's happy! I feel so good knowing that."
"I promise I'm going to love you forever, Bees," Scout said. "I'll never stop loving you. When I die I'll be going to Hell, but don't you worry about that. I'll bust out of there real quick. And when you show up in Heaven I'll be just outside the gates, waiting for you. Even if it takes a million years. I'll be there."
"Don't you say that, Scout! God knows all about you; I've told him everything. You're the most wonderful person I know. You'll be going straight to Heaven!"
"There's a lot about me you don't know, Bees."
"God knows."
"That's what worries me."
"Don't say that. God forgives you, whatever it was. His love is unconditional. Just like mine."
Scout didn't say anything else. He just embraced her until he could feel her heartbeat against his chest. It was warm and cozy. He knew he didn't deserve her. But he was not going to question his good fortune. He thought about Arturo. What a shame. But Deadman would sort it out, wouldn't he? Is it really treason if you die for love? Scout didn't know.
Chapter 9
Changing the Future
"Good morning, Commander," Captain Nan Man said. He had just entered the Prof's office, with a minipak of datacards. The Prof stood up from behind his desk to receive him.
"Morning, Captain. Please call me Professor – or Prof. We're very informal here." He gave the captain an easy smile.
"Yes sir – Professor. I have the data we discussed earlier."
"Let's sit over here," Prof said, guiding the captain to a couple of airchairs set by a low table. "Would you like some dox?"
"Why thank you, Professor. Quaba dox is magnificent. You should taste the vile stuff they serve on Alphard. Well no, you shouldn't. It's pretty bad."
They enjoyed their dox for a while, then turned to business.
"These developments are intriguing," Prof said.
"That's the word. It's hard to see where it's going, or what it means."
"Ah well, that's our job, isn't it – to provide answers."
"I suppose so. I'm afraid I don't have any answers yet. Only questions." He spread five datacards out on the table.
"All right, let's take it one incident at a time."
"Fine. The first – 384/12/03 CGS, the P.S. Hardee is spotted exiting stardrive into vac commercial approach channels heading for Luyten. It had no ID pulse but cursory investigation revealed it was the Hardee, a small personal yacht that had been registered in UMC records under that name. The ship was recorded as lost, possibly pirated, around a year earlier. With no ID pulse, that was pretty much confirmed. We sent an interceptor to seize the ship but there was no response to our orders to cut power and unlock ports. A squad of startroopers boarded her forcibly. Here's what they found." He clicked one of the datacards to open on the Prof's large wall screen. The view was taken from the helmet of one of the startroopers. The ship was a charnel house, the walls bathed in blood, the deck running scarlet like a river of blood, and the corridors full of mutilated bodies.
"It's hard to look at," Captain Nan admitted. "Twenty-three pirates, affiliated with a gang called the Living Dead. The entry was from the main hatch and involved a single tacstar blast that took out all opposition in the immediate vicinity. The ship did not decompress, so they were using a hatch seal. Once inside the ship, they used fighting laser. Those pirates who weren't caught in the initial blast all died by laser. The intruders sliced the bodies in two at the waist, then sliced off heads, arms and legs. Very efficient, very deliberate, and quite unnecessary, no?"
"It's almost as if they were angry. Any hint who did it?"
"Not immediately. The Hardee had been set on course to Luyten, preprogrammed to enter orbit. The pirates certainly didn't do that. It was the creatures who killed them that did it."
"I've seen ships that were attacked by the Demons," Prof said. "They used plasma and plasmastars almost exclusively, although they also have laser capability. This does not resemble a Demon attack."
"Oh, it's not. The second incident was the former UMC Suzie C, captured inport on your 381 CGS during a big and very effective raid by the Gypsy Rats. The Suzie C was a star carrier and the most advanced starship ever starjacked by pirates. The incident led to new security updates for all UMC ships. Anyway, it was lost until two weeks ago when it was spotted in normal vac heading for Alphard. Again, a whole ship full of heavily armed rats – thirty six of them, slaughtered. Again, the initial blast followed by a laser massacre of every Gypsy Rat. But this time we learned exactly who the attackers were." The captain clicked the wall screen to life again.
"The Suzie C had one security cam in the cockpit that was so well hidden that the rats had never discovered it. It recorded events when the attackers forced the crew into the cockpit. Um, this is pretty grim. Sorry."
The recording showed that almost the whole crew had been captured – presumably with the use of stunstars. They sat on the deck, shoulder to shoulder, hands secured behind their backs. They were blinking in the glowing reflections from the Bright troopers that were lined up before them. The Brights were clad in silvery A-suits, armed with Battlestorm lightning weapons. It was silent as the sweating pirates pondered their fate.
The Brights fired laser, slicing the pirates with long horizontal strokes, left to right, ripping through them all, cutting their bodies in two at the waist, blood spraying wildly, the victims shrieking in shock and agony. The next slice was right to left, slicing off heads and ending the screams. The heads tumbled off the bodies with fountains of scarlet blood. The Brights finished off the mission by slicing off all the arms and legs. Then, mission presumably over, the Brights left the cockpit, which was awash in still-spurting blood and gory twitching body parts. The captain deactivated the wall screen.
"The Brights set the ship for Alphard orbit, and then abandoned it," he said. "One more thing, though. The rats had a group of ten female slaves, to prepare meals and provide sex. There was no sign of them when our troops boarded. They weren't among the dead, and they weren't on board, although they had definitely been there earlier. It looks like the Brights took them away."
"Interesting," the Prof said.
"Yes, interesting," Nan said. "They evidently differentiated between the rats and the females. I think the rats got exactly what they deserved – but the females. What is their fate?"
"There are more incidents?"
"Yes. Three more missing ships – all with slaughtered pirate crews, two headed to Terra, programmed to orbit, another one headed for Luyten. "
"I see. No Bright ships spotted?"
"Not so far."
"How's the dox?"
"Excellent!"
"All right. So far we have five starjacked ships intercepted by the Brights, pirate crews slaughtered, and some slaves liberated – or at least taken – by the Brights."
"They're doing the anti-piracy mission a lot more efficiently than our own UMC forces, I'll admit. They seem to have remarkably good intel."
"And they send the ships to orbit three UMC worlds. Why is that?"
"I don't know. But it worries me," the captain said.
"Perhaps it's a warning."
"To the UMC or to the pirates?"
"Don't know. The question is – why haven't we seen any Bright ships? I doubt they're commuting from Bright Haven. To do all this anti-piracy running around, they must have a base right here – in our universe, likely in our galaxy. So where is it?"
Silence. The Prof put down his dox cup. "We've got to find it. My mission is contact. We've got to contact the Brights, and communicate with them, again. We've got to scour the galaxy, and find their base. Then we can decide what to do. We've got to send out probes in all possible directions – looking for Bright ships, and that Bright base."
"All right. I'll have the UMC do the same. We can coordinat
e to avoid duplication."
"Fine. Fine. We'll do that."
Δ
"That's it. See it?" Bird was in the pilot seat of the Ruthie, and the target screen was centered on the target – a tiny, seemingly microscopic speck of glittering rock and metal, lost in the infinity of the cosmos, just another silvery dot against star-speckled black velvet. Saka stared at it in fascination. It was there. It was really there!
"Anyone else around here?" Saka asked, looking out the panoramic cockpit portview nervously.
"Twelve," Bird replied. "Nothing. We're fully cloaked, but you know the B's can see right through our cloaking. They don't bother with cloaking themselves. Because they're afraid of nothing."
"Enlarge, please," Saka asked. The image grew. It was a huge, jagged asteroid, reflecting only faint starlight, harsh and dark, splattered with the dust of the cosmos, hurtling through space, lost and alone since the dawn of time.
"It's what they call an M-type asteroid, mostly iron with plenty of nickel and some cobalt, according to our sensors," Bird said. "Take this baby home and you'll be rich for life. Diameter circa sixteen K – depending where you measure."
"This is Pacifica?" Saka asked.
"Absolutely. ID confirmed. This is it." Saka was thrilled.
"All right, I want a close-up look. Put out those eyemotes, but let's stay a safe distance away. At least until we can confirm nobody else is here."
"Sure. But there's nobody else here. Just it, and us. And a couple million other asteroids."
Saka stared at the target in fascination. He knew they were in one of the most crowded neighborhoods of the great asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but of course the distances between asteroids were so great that he couldn't even see another one – just Pacifica and a sky full of silky dreams, the Milky Way, mankind's own home galaxy. He thrilled at the chilling, magnificent sight. This was truly the realm of the Gods.
"Look at that," Bird said. One of the eyemotes had spotted something on the asteroid, reflecting from an inky shadow. A structure of some sort, blinding white in the starlight.
"What the hell is that?"
"Let's see," Bird said. He guided the eyemote closer. Two more white structures emerged from the dark, set close together. A total of three pressurized living mods, or maybe cargo mods, linked together. Scores of massive dropboxes were stacked nearby, and the powdery terrain bore the marks of plenty of low overflights by vac cargo haulers.
"No life?" Saka asked.
"No life. The structures are sealed but abandoned."
"Follow those activity patterns in the dust," Saka said.
The eyemotes led them to a fantastic sight about three K away – a giant metal tower, grounded in the rock, pointed skywards, topped by a mysterious opening. It was dead and dark.
"What is that?" Saka asked.
"I don't know. But our sensors detect a plasma generator. Some kind of power source."
"Is Pacifica still in a regular orbit around the sun? Not yet deflected?"
"Not yet. It's probably been in this orbit for millions of years."
"All right, I want to record every possible view of this thing," Saka said. "I don't doubt this was placed here by the B's. And I think I know what it's for."
"Are we going to visit it?"
"No. This is a recon-only mission. I don't want to leave any signs that we were here. But we leave the eyemotes, on guard from a safe distance, to let us know if anything happens here."
"Sure. We can always return here, and deflect the course, if necessary. They might be able to access this thing remotely, or maybe will have to actually visit here again, to start it up. Either way we should get the word beforehand."
"Excellent! And if it starts to move, we start to move, too." Yes, it was a plan. Of course if the B noticed them, or noticed that their guided asteroid was off course, they would react. Saka hoped they would not end up fighting the Brights. He owed them his life, after all. But he was a soldier of the Legion, pledged to defend humanity against everything else that was out there. And that was not going to change.
Saka awoke slowly, calmly, and gradually realized that it was all a dream – a DX dream. It had been so realistic it was almost as if he had actually been on a mission with Bird. He recognized immediately how important this chronological viewing dream was. A significant DX dream – at last! He was fulfilling his DX mission, at last!
He awoke Lan Hwa excitedly to tell her.
Δ
"This is wonderful, Saka," the Professor said. "Congratulations! What a remarkable vision. So different from all previous chron viewing images." Saka was in the Prof's office, just the two of them.
"Is it a good vision, Professor?"
"Your neural retention is excellent, Saka. The brain scan is crystal clear. Never have I seen a more calm, perfectly focused set of images. This is invaluable. This should assist us greatly in identifying the asteroid."
"Haven't we done that already? Pacifica! Isn't it listed?"
"No, Saka, it is not listed. Asteroids are numbered and the more important ones are named as well. But there is no Pacifica."
"But why not? That was the name."
"Oh, it's clear that it was us who named it – Pacifica because it is fated to drop into the Pacific Ocean, unless we prevent it. But it's not on any current lists because we have not yet named it. It may have a number already or it may not. No matter. Your brainscan views of this asteroid were wonderful. It is jagged, irregular, and I would wager, unique. There are millions of asteroids in Sol's asteroid belt, but we have a fighting chance of finding it. Many of these asteroids have never been named, or imaged, or put on the map, but many have. We'll do what we can to find it, either way. And when we do, we will name her Pacifica and put her on the maps if she's not already there."
"So my dream was accurate?"
"I have no reason to doubt it. You were – or will be – on a recon with Bird to examine this particularly deadly asteroid. Sometime in the future. There was no hint that anyone else was accompanying you?"
"No sir."
"Stop with the sirs, please. Well, there were certainly others with you."
"But how did we – or will we – find Pacifica, sir? Um, I mean Professor."
"Most likely our reaction to your chronological viewing vision will lead to our identifying the location of this asteroid."
"So I have at last made a decent, important chronological viewing prediction, correct?"
The Professor laughed. "Yes, Saka. You may have saved millions – or billions – of lives. You will likely go down in the history books as Saka the Soothsayer. Now stop fretting and get back to work giving us more wonderful visions."
"Yes sir!" Saka leaped up in delight and gave the Prof a big salute.
Δ
"Saka the Soothsayer!" I raised my mug of ale high and the gang broke into wild cheers. We were in the rec park having a party to celebrate Saka's astoundingly important DX dream. It was evening, the park was decorated with soft white lights, the partiers were getting louder and rowdier, and I was feeling great. Yes, what Saka did was what we were paid to do, but I knew he had been gloomy for quite awhile because his visions had never matched mine or Ice's in importance. Now that was over. Lan Hwa was by his side, gazing in adoration at her man – his status now assured. Not that it mattered to her. She would be faithful to the end, I knew, but the public recognition from his peers must have been a satisfying extra. Deeds and status were both important in Assidic society, I knew.
"It's wonderful news," Captain Nan said. "Just wonderful." We were sitting together around a little table with Honeyhair, the Prof, Doggie and Arie.
"You still look pretty worried," I said.
"Of course, I'm worried," Nan said. "As long as Terra is controlled by those lunatic PJ's, we'd better keep worrying. How do you think they will react to any Bright intrusion? Two of those pirate craft were sent into orbit around Terra. Nobody has told me how the PJ's are reacting. We've got to know that by
now. Are we going to be dependent on the PJ regime to shape humanity's response to the Brights?"
"It's critical that the UMC retake Terra from those maniacs," the Prof said.
"I know that," Nan said. "But launching a planetary invasion is a perilous undertaking, even if your opponents are a pack of retarded boy scouts. There's no way of knowing how long that will take. And meantime, there will be more incidents. I received this not twenty marks ago." He passed a little plastic printout card to the Prof.
"Two Bright starships," the Professor read aloud, "in UMC vac. Yesterday. One spotted on track to Terra, approaching Neptune's orbit. The second was spotted in the Orm Sector. It appeared to be on track for Orm. In normal vac, taking its time."
"What’s Neptune?" Arie asked.
"It's one of the outer planets of the Terran system," Prof said. "So – they disappeared when spotted by UMC defense forces."
"Into the DX ," Doggie said.
"Starships. Mother ships," Prof said.
"Correct," the captain replied.
The Hand of God, I thought. That was the Bright starship we had ridden into combat against the D's – through Dragon Shoals and straight to Veda. Full of young Bright knights, immortals, armed to the teeth. My blood felt like ice water, pounding through my veins. Right. What were Bright mother ships doing heading for Terra? Or Orm?
"This is troubling," the Prof said.
"How about the word terrifying?" I asked.
"Well, that's even better," Prof said, with a grim smile. "Captain, do the PJ's know about this intrusion yet?"
"It's doubtful. Most of our fleet downside on Terra lifted off when the PJ's took over – except for a few who had no balls. So Terra's stellar defense is still undertaken by the UMC Starforce. Of course they don't report to Terra. But our forces on Orm are on red alert."
"Well, that's good. Let's keep it that way. I'd suggest not informing the PJ's about this. We certainly don't want the PJ's making any decisions concerning the Brights. And what could they do, even if they knew? We depend on you for the latest from Terra, Captain."
"You'll get it."
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