Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (6 page)

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 right. 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.

Δ

"Beautiful day, huh?" Smiley asked. The Prof had given us fifteen marks and Arie and Ice and Smiley and I were sipping dox around a little plex table in Delta Research's central garden park, which was lined with cooling trees and flower bushes.

"For Quaba, it's not bad," I replied. It was overcast, grey and cold. An icy mist was filtering down slowly.

"Brisk!" Arie exclaimed. "I love it!"

"The Prof is right about the Brights," Ice said. "That's a real problem. What if they show up again – and turn against us?"

We were silent.

"We all owe them our lives," Ice continued. "Not just me – but all of Delta."

"Why should they turn against us?" Smiley asked.

"I don't know," Ice replied. "But I'll not be fighting them. They brought Saka and me back from the dead, and they saved Bees as well. Back from the dead! I'll quit the Legion before I turn my E on the Brights."

"There's no sense in fretting about something that hasn’t happened yet," I said. "Prof just wants to be ready for everything. Nobody has any plans to fight the B's."

"I'll fight Demons all day, all week – but not Brights. I think Bees is right – they're –"

"Calm down, Ice," I said. "It's not going to happen. We'd better get back to the conference room, it's almost time."

Δ

"So. Now we concentrate on our human enemies," the Prof continued. The screen focused in on a huge swath of space labeled INNERS, overlaid by a confusing tangle of political divisions. "Enemies. Yes." He paused, contemplating the term. "Humans, fighting among themselves. Why do we always do that? Here was mankind's origin – in the Inners. Here the diaspora began. We spread outwards to the Gassies, the Gulf and then to the Outers – all the way to the Outvac. Mankind changed, as we settled new worlds and evolved with the new environments. What ultimately happened was the Inners, Gassies and Gulf came to be dominated by the United System Alliance slave state, while the colonists in the Outers broke away, at considerable cost, and formed the Confederation of Free Worlds. Then, not so long ago, the System collapsed into a myriad of successor states. Empires always collapse. And empires based on lies cannot possibly survive.

"Let's look at the Inner states first. The System disappeared but its failed political philosophy survived. Anarcho-tyranny, totalitarianism, auto-genocide, deception, slavery, hate propaganda, brainwashing, resentment and forced redistribution of wealth forms a powerful formula which tyrants love – and it is still in use. The auto-genocide part ensures that peoples who adopt this philosophy will disappear from history, but it takes some time so we are stuck with the problem for quite awhile.

"The UMC – United Mocain Coalition – is the heart of the Inners and the direct successor of the failed System. It represents the Mocain race, which previously controlled the System. They are a warrior people who are now governing without the advice of their former Orman advisors. They have cast off many troublesome worlds and the slice of spacetime they control is greatly reduced and just a small fraction of the System's former extent. They rule over Sol, Alphard, Luyten, Orm and plenty of other worlds – billions of people. We can expect nothing but trouble from them should they make any further efforts to expand their zone of control. So far, it's quiet. Remember, we are all reloading.

"And here we have the Hyadfed." The area lit up on the starmap. "The Hyades Federation broke away from the System, first as a semi-loyal slave satellite, then as a full-fledged independent slave state, offering only new chains to its people. The Hyades Cluster, Elidos and Eiros are the primary systems. The rulers despise us, but are careful not to get us upset. They tried that before and it didn't work out well for them. The people are mostly loyal slaves, shuffling through the usual debris of a failed slave state without even imagining that a better life may be possible. People like that are truly slaves, and deserve that status. However, one portion of the population recognized the situation, acted boldly, and is now free." The Hyades Cluster flickered and revealed an entity entitled BPSA.

"The biogens, oppressed for generations by humans, became self-aware, organized, and launched a violent insurrection. It was successful on several Hyades worlds and they now control a healthy slice of the Hyades Cluster. The Biogen People's Solidarity Accord sent troops to help ConFree when we were attacked by the Omni Horde. That was a good move. The Legion responds well to blood sacrifices. Not a single human state moved to help us when we faced the O's alone. But the biogens did. They are now our faithful ally, and under our protection. This is right in the Mocains' back yard. They must be enraged.

"Another giant nearby pain for the UMC is the AC, the Assid Confederation, located on Pandaravos circling the star Algenib, and the nearby Dajusdevon system. You know all about the Assidics and what wonderful allies they are. They broke away from the System on their own and nobody seemed willing to challenge them. They are now strong and free and fearless as well. They stood by our side on Galinta against the D's, with the Biogens. And then faced the D's again on Dajusdevon – with us at their sides. Without their help we might have lost the war with the D's. They are part of the Triple Alliance, ConFree, the BPSA and the AC. ConFree stands by its friends.

"And here – also in the heart of the Inners – we have the PPDD, the People's Progressive Democratic Distributive. Calgoran and Spartos are the primary worlds. They have adopted all the worst parts of the System's political ideology. It's the perfect form of government for parasite slugs who refuse to work but want to be supported by those who do work. Except it doesn't last long, because in no time at all the workers are gone, the government has no more money, the parasites riot and destroy the state, and nothing is left except misery, ruins, starvation and crime. We don’t expect the PPDD to last much longer. It is not seen as a threat to us.