Secret of the Legion (35 page)

"A little later." I reached out and bit her gently on the neck, and she squealed in delight. She was an angel. And why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves, in the face of near certain death? I closed my eyes, and imagined we were back by the waterfall, on Dindabai.

***

"Antimat drive is one hundred percent functional." Tara took the news calmly, leaning her head back against the command chair, her slightly slanted eyes barely open. I could see the patches on her wrists from the VIP chair. 100 percent functional. That was a phrase to ponder, all right.

"Commander to the antimat techs," Tara said into the SA mike. "Thanks. You guys are all right. I'll never forget you…" A sad smile appeared, and she looked over to me.

"Success," she breathed. "Victory, Wester. Victory, from disaster."

"We're not there yet."

"No, but we're on our way. Pilot, initiate antimat drive. Please zero the stargate and re-enter the vac five light years short. We'll just take a little look at the neighborhood before we go charging in."

"Initiating stardrive." There was a queasy feeling in my stomach and an icy tingling on my skin as the
Star of Dindabai
smoothly stretched a hole in the fabric of spacetime and leaped into hyperspace. There's nothing like it—nothing at all. It's hard not to feel superhuman when you can do things like that. But the O's had certainly given us a new perspective on things. I was smiling as we entered the hole. We were getting closer. Closer, every moment. Death, or immortality. Disaster, or victory. And either way, we were doing what was right. I prayed for Moontouch, and Stormdawn. Moontouch had it right. We were grains of dust in the wind.

***

"Vac remains clear. No enemy units within detectable range." The ship was whispering sweet music to us—it was just what we wanted to hear.

"It's a little scary, isn't it?" I asked. I was standing with Gildron and Tara by a viewport on the bridge, looking out to the sinister, dead vac of Plane Prime. Our starjump had been perfectly successful, and now we were cruising silently in the vicinity of the stargate, the magical road back to our own universe.

"It is a dying universe," Gildron said sadly. "An ancient universe, older than we can imagine. Winking out of existence over billions of years as the stars slowly burn out and die, transforming into cold dwarfs or black holes or neutron stars. The O's are an ancient people. We have much to learn from them."

"All I'd like to learn from them is how to counter their holos," I said.

"It feels…cold," Tara said, looking out the port. A shiver ran over her body.

"Commander, Engineering!" Tara jumped, and slapped at her shoulder com.

"Commander here."

"Sir. The D-neg plasma has been successfully injected into the unitium containment field. All readings are stable. We are fully prepped for Stage Three."

Tara did not answer, at first. I glanced over to her. Her eyes were closed and an angelic smile had appeared. "You've got to have good people, Wester," she whispered. "You can do anything, with good people. And we've got 'em. That's excellent news, Engineering! Congratulations! Please proceed with Stage Three immediately."

"Initiating Stage Three."

"Stage Three?" I asked.

"That's when they place the active containment unit with the D-neg into the power compartment in the boom. Then after that there's Stage Four—when they integrate everything."

"Which stage is the most dangerous?"

"They're all dangerous. Our techs are heroes!"

"Why don't we power back into our own universe on antimat drive, and do all this fancy engineering on the other side?"

"Don't you remember that somewhat bumpy ride we had, coming here? It may have been blind luck that we made it through. There's no guarantee we'll make it back at all, on antimat drive. We're going to do this, Wester—no matter what. If it fails, I don't think it matters if we die here or there. Do you?"

"I don't know," I said, looking out at the dead, dark skies of Plane Prime. If you die in another universe, I thought, is your spirit trapped there forever? That would be the ultimate loneliness.

***

"Are you ready, Wester? Are you ready for the future?" Tara was hesitating, putting off the moment of truth. She sat in the command chair, and I occupied the VIP chair behind her. Stage 4 was done. Everything was done, and it all looked good. All Tara had to do was give the word, but she wasn't doing it. She was nervous. I could tell.

"You're having some doubts, Tara?" We were all strapped in, all set to go, but Tara had not yet ordered comtops on.

"If it doesn't work, we probably die," she said. "You understand that."

"Sure. The alternative is O-Rock. Want to go back?"

She looked over her shoulder, fixing me with a surprisingly calm gaze. "It's not that, Wester. It's just…so much depends on this. If the D-neg drive works, and gets us back to our own universe, it means our mission was successful. It means we will change the future of the galaxy. The System will die like a rotten fruit, and I will have done it. We will have done it. It's my life's work, Wester. It means the death of galactic slavery. It means freedom and liberation for billions. Because of us."

"I don't care about that," I said. "Just get me to the other side. I've got things to do there." She looked at me sadly and turned away.

"Attention the ship," she said. "This is the Commander. We are about to initiate starlaunch on our newly installed D-neg drive in an effort to return to our own universe. We have zeroed our former position and all indications are that the D-neg drive is functional. However, as you all know, nobody has ever done this before." She glanced back at me, and flashed a quick smile. "We have recently had a very traumatic experience. We lost some of our closest comrades in the Fighter Force, who gave their lives for us. We were then militarily defeated, captured and imprisoned by a brutal enemy and thrown into a primitive, barbaric world. We were able to survive and return to our ship only by trusting to ourselves, and to divine providence. Now, after all these trials, we are at the threshold of final victory. We have located, isolated and installed the D-neg that was the object of our historical quest, and we are about to test our D-neg drive the only way it can be tested—with us on board. If we succeed, we return to our own universe, bearing with us the dust of the Gods, total victory for the Legion, and the death of the System. I said it before and I say it again. I am proud to be serving with every one of you. You are heroes. I know I am not worthy to lead you, and I feel honored to be doing so. Now, with the grace of Deadman and all the Gods, I pray for a smooth journey. Please secure your comtops and say your prayers. Pilot, initiate D-neg starlaunch."

I slipped my comtop on, secured it, and closed my eyes. Tara certainly had a way with words. She had not mentioned the possibility of instant annihilation if anything went wrong, but I think we were all very much aware of it.

***

"In the red…in the red…in the red…" the pilot was whispering it, an insane chant, a mantra for lost souls. We were into the out, rushing to an unknown fate, powering into the eye of the hole on D-neg drive, blind and helpless, totally out of control, in the hands of the Gods. My skin was ice cold. The viewports were dark and it looked to me like the black dust of the hole.

"What's the sit, Thinker?" It was Valkyrie, hissing in my ears from far away.

"We're in the hole," I replied. "Looks good so far." I hardly dared say it. We had launched into hyperspace, and it had been smooth as slick. We were in—and going deeper and deeper.

"Pressure dropping…still in the red…no deflection yet…we're riding the beam…this is incredible…look at those readings! We're on minpower and look at those readings!"

I knew there was no way back. We would succeed, or die miserably.

"We're past vortex recovery with zero deflection!" the pilot said. We were in the wormhole, stretching Plane Prime, reaching out blindly for U1. If it wasn't there, we were going to be in big trouble.

"Good," Tara replied. "Just keep going. If it's there, we'll run into it. If it's not there, we'll never find it again. Turning back won't solve anything."

I prayed to Deadman and all the Gods of Hell. Let the damned thing work, I thought. Get us back where we belong. Get us out of this insane, dead, starless void. I've got things to do, I thought—things to do! I was trying not to think about the universe we were leaving behind, but I kept getting little flashes from O-Rock. What if we fall back to Plane Prime? What if U1 has shifted? We'll be trapped forever in an alien universe, doomed and hopeless, never to return.

"Zero deflection. Riding the beam." We were going further and further into the hole, straight as a laser, and there was not the slightest hint that we were going to arc back into Plane Prime. We were hurtling directly into the hole, and if our universe was not there, we would probably be lost in hyperspace for all eternity.

"Gliding on beam." The pilot was thrilled with his marvelous new toy.

"Might as well relax, Wester," Tara remarked. "Looks like a long trip."

Relax? I was sitting down, but my heart was going like a trip hammer. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. And Priestess came to me out of the past, a faint dreamy smile, a child's face, dark hypnotic eyes and vulnerable lips. She was sitting on the squadmod steps on Andrion 2, clutching her knees, looking out at me, completely content. I was sitting beside her under the stars, and I knew the tacsit console was going to sound in an instant, and our whole world would never be the same afterwards.

"Attention the ship." Tara was maddeningly calm. "This is the Commander. We have successfully starlaunched, and it appears that we are not returning to Plane Prime. It is still too early to know if we will succeed in penetrating our own universe. Please maintain the alert, but you may remove comtops if you like. I will inform you of any change in our status."

I did not bother to remove my comtop. Three hours, I thought. It had taken almost three hours for us to find our way from U1 to Plane Prime, completely out of control, on antimat drive. Would it take less time, or more, on D-neg drive, to return to our own universe?

Less, surely.

Unless, of course, the stargate had shifted. In which case…we would never get there. But we had to get there. Beta Nine was calling me, again.

***

"EXITING STARDRIVE!" The sudden announcement shocked me awake from a dozing stupor in the VIP chair. My eyes widened as I focused on the viewport.

"We're on track, stargate locked on and open—exit!" The pilot barely had time to say it before the viewports flickered, the ship shuddered slightly, and stars filled the ports.

Stars! A velvet sky, burning with billions of brilliant diamonds. Yes! I ripped off the links and shot over to the viewport, convulsed with joy.

"Stars!" I announced over the net. "Stars!"

We could hear the cheering from the bridge. My skin was crawling. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life. Stars, as far as I could see, a universe of lovely stars, burning hot and bright, stars of every hue, blue-white giants, golden primes, red supergiants, white dwarfs, bright young blues. Stars, the dust of the Gods. What a wonderful place was our universe!

"We've done it," Tara said to herself. "We've done it!" Her voice was so cold and scary it was hardly human.

***

"You're in command, Wester. Let's hear it," Tara said. I knew she was not going to give me an instant's slack, and if I did or said anything wrong I was going to hear about it immediately. We were sitting around the conference table in the conmod, all seven of us—Gildron, Tara, myself, Dragon, Redhawk, Whit and Valkyrie. We were cruising peacefully in the vac, taking our time. Our return to our own universe had been incredibly lucky, the D-neg freaks told us. We had returned to U1 on the far side of the Gassies, quite a distance from the Outvac. It meant that the link with Plane Prime had shifted quite dramatically in our universe. Fortunately, it had retained the same general position in Plane Prime.

"Thank you, Tara," I said. "I want everyone in Squad X to memorize every detail of the tacplan, and every corridor, every door, every room of the interior of the Mound." I triggered the control and an image of the Mound appeared on the wall screen. It rose from a treeless plain, a great earthen mound, a huge circular structure, squatting under a luminous cold grey sky. The top, dusted with a layer of fresh snow, glittered in the sunlight. Faint plumes of smoke drifted from vents on the roof, floating away in a light breeze. Blackened cenite doors could be seen at ground level. The Mound appeared to be dead and deserted, brooding silently on the horizon like a frightening, fossil remnant of some merciless prehistoric totalitarian state. But there was nothing prehistoric about it. The Mound was an Omni base, a bewildering maze of halls and rooms and corridors, and the last stop for thousands of hopeless human captives. It was one scary place.

"I'm not likely to forget that place," Dragon remarked dryly.

"We've got to know it a lot better this time than we did last time," I said. "In front of each of you is a package that includes everything we know about the Mound. It also includes a tacmap showing the exact routes we all took during the operation in the Mound. The positions of all DefCorps Systies, ConFree Spec Ops troopers, O's, and concentrations of civilians are also shown. In red, I have marked the proposed route each of us will take to accomplish our individual missions."

"This looks…rather complex," Redhawk said, pulling out a detailed, multicolored foldout tacmap.

"It is," I said. "You weren't with us the first time, Redhawk, and I expect you to know just as much as the others, so memorize it all. The lives of our closest comrades depend on that. We're the team. Gildron will remain behind, with the ship and the Star. He's not happy about it, but he had to admit we could not bring the Star into the Mound, and we could not leave it with anyone but him. That leaves six of us—and there are five of them. Valkyrie, if your vision doesn't improve dramatically in the next few days, you'll have to stay behind, too."