Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (7 page)

"A bit further out in space from the Hyades we find the Pleiades Association, consisting of the Pleiades Cluster and outlying worlds. These people appear to be sincere in cleaning up the mess left over from the System, and encouraging alternate forms of government. ConFree has been encouraging a closer relationship, and giving them advice. It's too early to see what will happen here.

"Straddling the Inners and the Gulf we have the Dark Cloud Alliance, consisting of the Dark Cloud worlds, Berichros and Picos. They have denounced System political philosophy, dissolved redistribution, encouraged private property and freedom of speech. They even went so far as to enter into military cooperation with ConFree. This has certainly upset the UMC. ConFree is developing the relationship.

"Moving into the Gassies, we come to the Pherdan Federation. The principal worlds are Pherdos, Coldmark and Katag. This is one of the larger and more stable of the System successor states. They are a slave state, but relatively moderate and rational in comparison to some of the others. The Pherdan Fed and the UMC both represent real threats to ConFree, should they wish to initiate aggressive actions. We fought a major campaign against the Pherdans not so long ago, and punished them severely. They still pose a real threat, but they are likely to proceed very cautiously before going in for another round. Again, they're reloading.

"Bordering the Pherdan Fed in space-time and not far from the Outmark Frontier is the Gassies Coalition: Monaro, Galgos, Alshana and other states seeking security in the post-System chaos. The Gassies C, as they call it, still embraces the System's failed political model but they are open to reason. Galgos, for example, has always done things their way, and hosts the Galactic Free Trade Zone, which is run by ConFree and spreads prosperity near and far."

Galgos, I thought. The Free Trade Zone. That's where Doggie served, as a K9 officer, before he was assigned to Providence to head up our squad. That's where his first dog was killed.

"And here we find another major world that broke away from the System – Santos. It is now known as the Santos Freestate, or Santos Free, after a unified insurgency of Outworlders and Transgens tossed out the Orman tyranny that succeeded the System. The transgens were pig-human transplants with limited intelligence but good imagination. At first they cooperated with the Ormans in the former government, the Santos Newhuman Socialrevolutionary Diversegalitarian Democooperative. Later the Outwolders joined with the Transgens to rid history of that particular obscenity. Santos Free has friendly relations with ConFree.

"Lastly, we have the Gulf. You've had plenty of experience there, and you know what a chaotic place it is. All three major political entities there – the Asumara Holy Commune, the Gulf Union and the Pegal Stelcom – are insane psychopathic totalitarian slave state anarcho-tyrannies, ruling over populations of ignorant, terrified slaves by brute force, killing anyone who dares to oppose them. We had to fight a full- scale war with Asumara to show them there were consequences for raiding a ConFree world. We pretty much destroyed everything, but they're still there, rebuilding their infrastructure. If they hit us again, we'll destroy them again. The Gulf Union and the Pegal Stelcom are even worse than Asumara, totally isolated from the galaxy, focused mostly on inflicting rape, torture and theft on their populations. Remember, boys and girls, the galaxy is full of horror and injustice. So much of it that we cannot possibly address it. ConFree exists to look after the interests of the people of ConFree – not the rest of the galaxy.

"There are plenty of independent worlds out there – in the Gulf and elsewhere – like Galinta – that answer to no one. If the Gulf states were responsible, or even rational, they should have responded to the Demon invasion of Galinta. But they did nothing. So ConFree had to act. We didn't want to get involved in the Gulf. But if the D's had taken that world without opposition, they would have built up an impregnable base to launch from, to conquer the rest of the galaxy. So that's why we had to act. And why it was the morally correct course of action.

"Now – into the out." The starmap flashed and spun over to a huge sector of space labeled OUTERS. "ConFree is the strongest, most stable and most successful political entity in the galaxy. That's because of our people – fierce individualists who will always fight tyranny, and never submit. Our core worlds are here, in the Crista Cluster. Scattered around the rim of the Outvac are other ConFree worlds. Dindabai and Andrion, on the other side of the Outvac, were attacked by the Omni horde, but Fleetcom and the Legion defeated them in the battle of Andrion Deep. Augusta and Camelora also had to fight off the O's, and did so successfully. Marala is no longer on current starmaps. It perished when the Legion detonated the star as final notice to the O's that they would never inherit a world from us. Everyone died on Marala – all the O's, all the ConFree inhabitants – and the Legion and Fleetcom techs who guided our doomsday weapon into the star. That’s what you have to be prepared to do – to show the entire galaxy that we are a very serious bunch, and willing to die for our cause." The Professor bowed his head for a moment, as if looking over his notes. But I don't think he was looking over his notes.

"Yes. Well, we're still doing that, aren’t we?" he said, taking a deep breath. "That's what you folks did on Kratar, isn't it? I am honored to be associated with all of you. Let's take a ten-mark break, all right?" And he turned abruptly and left the room.

"You know this freescanning stuff really works," Bees said, taking off her earphone receivers. "I'm actually receiving something here." I was with Bees, Ice and Paula in the Freescanning Room where we sat around the DX receiver. It roamed randomly through a wide range of DX frequencies for us to search. It wasn't really an earphone as there was nothing to hear, but it focused the frequencies right into your DX brain structure.

"No kidding!" Paula exclaimed. "Let me try!" She sat down near Bees and fit the earphones over her own head. She closed her eyes and settled back in the chair.

"Nothing," she finally concluded. "But that might be only because I don’t have any DX in my head. Try again. If you can hear it and I can't, it very well may be a real DX thought. That's exciting!"

Bees listened again. "Oh yes, still there. Let me listen a bit." We waited expectantly.

"It's kind of a mess," Bees said, wrinkling her face in disappointment. "It's all garbled and wavy and blurry. I know those are DX thoughts but I can't quite grasp them."

"Let me try," Ice said.

Ice listened for quite awhile, then took off the earphones. "You're right, that's frustrating. But it's real. Maybe it's from a long, long way away."

Paula suggested I try. I did, but the girls were right. Faint, faint fluttering thoughts, barely distinguishable from the cosmic background of distant stars and solar winds and icy humming nebulae and the far- off shrieking of black holes and the hopeless moaning of infinity, billions of light years away. I didn't know how DX thought travelled through the universe but that's what I thought I heard. And, like a little mouse at the bottom of a deep well, something else, a spark of mental life, straining to be heard through all the light years between here and there.

"You'd better listen to it, Bees," I said. "I can’t make it out."

"It's funny," she said after awhile. "I still can't distinguish a single word, but I think I know what it is. I can sense the emotion. Is that possible? It's a plea."

"A plea for what?" I asked.

"I don't know. But I got dibs on this frequency. This is fascinating."

"Feel free," I said. "I'm off to practice telepathy with Saka."

Δ

"Watch this," Doggie said. "You're not going to believe it." We were in the squad lounge, Doggie and me and Smiley and Scout and Blackie. Doggie had been our Delta squad leader, back in the days when we were a regular Legion squad rather than a specialized task force of psycher crazies. Now he led our security force. He was an ex-K9 type, a wiry Outworlder with short brown hair, grey eyes and a love of dogs. He was fooling around with Blackie, our squad mascot. Blackie was a great magnificent wolf from Pandaravos, with thick glossy black fur and grey eyes.

"Blackie, look. Look." Doggie held out a book to Blackie. The title was
Attack Dogs – Training
. Blackie sniffed it up. Doggie tossed the book to Smiley. "Smiley, take this book into the library and file it on the third shelf from the bottom – anywhere. Then come back here."

Smiley did it. We watched him on a monitor that Doggie had set up.

When Smiley returned, Doggie addressed Blackie. "Blackie! Go library. Library. The book. Book. The attack dogs book. Attack dogs book. Get it! Bring it! Get, bring." Blackie shot out the door abruptly.

We watched Blackie enter the library, and bark once, startling the tech who was arranging the books. Then Blackie approached the shelf where Smiley had placed the book. Blackie sniffed around, seized the book in his jaws and hotfooted it back to us, dropping the book into Doggie's lap, panting happily.

"That's pretty good, Doggie," I said. "But it's only because of his sense of smell. Dogs can do that. Wolves, too. He smelled your scent on the book."

"A doubter," he said. "All right – more proof. Blackie, get me a cup of dox. Cup, dox, get."

Blackie pondered Doggie a bit, then headed over to the snack table, picked up a sealed dox cup gently in his jaws and returned to Doggie, dropping the cup into his lap.

"Is that good enough for you?" Doggie asked.

"How did you do that?" Scout asked.

"I didn't do a thing. Blackie did it."

"All right, how did Blackie do it?" I asked.

"He understood what I said. He knows get, he knows cup, he knows dox. That's all he needs."

"How long has he been doing that?" I asked.

"After Veda," Doggie said, "he seems to have gotten smarter. I figure it was because of all those Brights who were petting him and handling him and putting their hands on his head and looking into his mind. That's what I think. I thought one of you psycher maniacs should know about this."

"This is amazing, Doggie," I said. "I'm going to tell the Prof right away. I wonder if you can do a brainscan on a wolf. This is remarkable!"

Δ

"All right. Max alert, max alert." Right in my ears. Adrenalin flooded my veins. I lay belly down in the reeds, A & A, armored and armed, fully cloaked, my E in my arms. Dark grey clouds scudded close overhead as a faint mist blew through the cold air. Then I heard it, a faint buzzing. It shot overhead like a meteor, only a quick frozen glance and it was gone, but that's all I needed to ID it, a Mocain armored assault car, Pterosaur model. Unmistakable. Damn it! Mocains! What the hell were they doing here? The reeds blew around madly in its wake.

"Delta, Prophet. A Pterosaur A-car just overflew me!" I reported.

"Advance." It was like the crack of doom. Advance, of course. No idea what was waiting for us out there.

A titanic blast lit up creation ahead of me, dazzling white-hot stars dancing on my retina before Honey darkened the plex, a heavy concussion wave flattening the reeds and about a million phospho streaks radiating everywhere. The boom shook the earth and I tried to bury myself in the mud. Oh damn, was I still alive?

I woke abruptly, objecting, waving my arms.

"What? What is it?" Honeyhair asked me. "Is it a DX dream?"

"Oh. Oh. Yes. Yes, for sure – DX," I said. "Damn! That was so realistic! I felt I was right there."

"Oh, that's great! Shall I wake up the Prof?" Honeyhair asked.

"Um – no. No, there's nothing that won't wait until morning. No specifics. I guess it could have been anywhere. Oh, man."

Δ

They gave me a brainscan in the morning and looked at Oscar's results as well. Then I discussed it with the Professor.

"Congratulations, Prophet. I'm overjoyed that we're off and running with our mission."

"Yeah, fine, but we didn't learn anything, did we?"

"That remains to be seen. We have the entire episode recorded, and the neural scans from your recollections of the dream are remarkably clear. Now we can look at the recordings and see what happens in the brain and in the DX structure when a DX dream occurs. This is great! Also your visual neural scan was terrific!"

"But we don't even know where this happened, or when, or what it was all about."

"We know the UMC is involved in whatever it is, because of the Pterosaur aircar, and it appears they are targeting the Legion. That's very troubling. It may indicate that this event is happening somewhere in UMC vac. Maybe. We need more details. But there's more. Those reeds, for example. Weren't they strange?"

"I guess. What about them?"

"An initial query on reed species revealed nothing like them. But we've got a whole inhabited galaxy of reed species to research. If we can find that species, we may find where this strange action was taking place."

"But the dream doesn't tell us anything."

"It goes in the files, Prophet. DX Prophet Year 384, episode 001. The first of many, I promise. And soon it will make sense. You'll see."

"Well, I hope you're right, Professor."

Δ

"Help me. Help me. Any thinking being, help me. That's the message," Bees said, yanking off her headphones. "That's the message! Any thinking being! Listen to it, Prophet." She handed me the earphones and I slipped them on.

A cold infinity of space, rushing past, forever. A hopeless chasm. I tried hard but could not make out anything. Only faint flickers of… something.

"Are you sure about this, Bees?"

"Positive! You know how DX thoughts work. They're not words, but they represent words. They think in their language but our brains receive the thoughts and interpret them in our language. Of course these headphones don't magnify sound but they magnify neural energy. We hear only the thoughts, not the words, but those thoughts are clear and our brain tells us what the thoughts are."

"I can't hear either thoughts or words."