Vatican Assassin (30 page)

“Thanks, I think,” BC says, “but we’re not out of this yet.”

What a stench! Never realized these troop transports smelled so bad! Seems over crowded.

'Course, we're over crowding ourselves. But at least we're off Fortune Station. Not so fortunate
for the cult. I shoulda known Peter wouldn't honor my promises. You know, I swear I saw
something about bearing false witness, somewhere...

BC and Drex are crammed in elbow to elbow with about thirty UTZ soldiers in the hold of the UTZ transport ship. They had to find somewhere on the ship to stay for the trip, and this hold seemed as good a place as any. They haven’t heard any sounds of battle since leaving Fortune Station.
Guess no one’s shooting at us, for now.
Be nice if we’re heading for the moon. Beggars
can’t be choosers, though, huh?

Oh man, again?

BC keeps getting pushed into. He holds his ground, but a guy on his right keeps leaning back into him.

I hate this.

The trooper turns around, finally, and BC catches a hot blast of sour whiskey breath. He's got an almost empty bottle in his right hand.

"Hey, sorry, man. Merry Fucking Christmas, huh? Fuckin' Moslems, no respect at all. Oh, wait, you a priest? Oh shit, sorry Father. Didn't mean to swear in front of a priest. My mom would tan my hide if she heard I did that, even at my age!" He laughs himself silly at his own drunken wit.
Christmas? Wow, almost forgot in all the craziness of the last few days.
It's actually
Christmas already. Jeesh, the Cardinal will be pissed I'm not back there helping him. Hey, I'm
trying to get there. I suppose I better answer the drunk with the gun....

"They never forget, do they?” BC says. “They like to remind us by attacking on Christmas. Probably should have seen it coming, huh?"

The guy's a little confused.

"Huh?" he says.

"The Christmas Massacre?" BC prods him.

Drex leans over, "BC don't waste your..."

The drunk gets louder, interrupting.

"Wait, I remember! Like in that movie, right? We starved 'em on Mars, back in the 70's. Then we came in and hit 'em hard, took back our UTZ stations on Mars. A great victory, right?"

"Don't think I saw that one." BC says.

Probably propaganda… Military training film for the UTZ?

"Might have been a victory for the UTZ," BC continues, "but for the Moslems it was the Christmas Massacre. They thought it was their food transports returning after a year of nothing. Anyone who could get a suit on went to see the landing.

“They were surrounding the ships. The UTZ commanders on board those food transports kept their ships closed up until a massive crowd had gathered around them. Then the doors opened. Instead of food, the starving crowds found troops firing at them."

"Yup," the drunken soldier agrees, then makes a gun with his hand, "fsssshhh, fssssh," he slurs the sound of a laser. "Made quick work of 'em. Glorious victory with few casualties."
Pointless to argue with a drunk, especially one with a gun, let's remember. But I gotta say
something... damn.

“Not too glorious, mowing down the starving and the weak, women and children some of them, huh?” BC says. "Few casualties on our side. But we killed ten thousand people in a matter of hours. Maybe five thousand in the first few minutes. So they don't forget. S’all I was saying." The drunk starts to get belligerent, "What the fuck, Father, you on their side? They're the ones shooting at us out there, ‘case you forgot!"

BC has to laugh. "Not at all, calm down, son. I’m just a man of peace, is all."
Trying the paternal touch. Don't think I can sell it, though.
Such BS, BC...

"Look, it's not funny," the guy says. Before he can say more an announcement blares out over the room's com.

"Attention. Attention. Bernard Campion to the bridge. Father Bernard Campion, report to the bridge at once," a humorless monotone intones.

BC turns to go.

"Hey, that's you? You special or something?" the guy asks, reaching for BC's departing shoulder. BC turns back and grabs the guy's arm on a pressure point.

The drunk lets go of BC, drops the bottle from his other hand, and falls to one knee.

"Ouch! Shit, man, that hurt. I was just asking? What kind of priest beats you up, anyway?" Drex pipes in.

"Oh, I went to Jesuit schools. Trust me, I knew quite a few." He pulls BC aside and strategically stands between BC and the drunk getting back on his feet. He speaks low to BC, "What's up?"

"I don't know. But I better go. They know I'm here, obviously."

"Obviously," Drex agrees. "Or they had every captain make the same announcement and now they're waiting to see if and where you show up. It’s what I’d do, anyways."

"Good point." BC has to admit.

"I know how they think. I was a UTZ grunt for a bit. Anyways..."

"I'll be back," BC says.

"Okay," Drex shrugs.

Now... where's that confounded bridge?

BC finds the door he came in through and traces his way up towards what he thinks is the front of the ship.

The bridge is near the front, usually, right?

BC spies a door with an armed guard in front of it.

That looks promising. Got to get close enough to read...

"Can I help you?" the guard challenges BC.

"Sure. They just paged me? Bernard Campion? I'm looking for the bridge." He explains.

"You found it, see?" the guard moves aside so BC can read "BRIDGE" on the door in block letters. "So you're Father Bernard Campion?"

"Yes?"

He steps even further aside, nods toward the door. "Go ahead in."

"Thanks." BC looks for but doesn't see door controls. He turns to the guard, nearly bumps into him as the guard leans forward to press on a small, unmarked panel in the wall next to the door.

"Sorry." BC apologizes.

"Not a problem. There you go," the guard says. The door slides open. BC steps through into a large open room with a low ceiling.

BC can see out into deep space through windows that make up the upper half of the three walls he's facing. The lower halves of all three walls are lined with consoles, manned by bridge personnel. There's a bustle as people get up from their consoles, cross the room and consult with each other.
Compared to the Paladin, this is palatial!

A large, freestanding console dominates the center of the room. Two sections surround a chair in their center.
A well-groomed UTZ captain gets up out of the chair and approaches BC.

"Father Bernard Campion?" he asks.

"Yes?"

"Pleased to meet you." He extends his right hand. "I'm Taka Yamano, Commander of Mission Alpha to Fortune Station. Welcome aboard my ship!” Yamano says with a smile.

“I didn't know you'd be aboard, but there was a mad scramble to get off that old heap, eh?"

"Yeah,” BC nods. He starts, “I mean, I hope that's okay?"

"Not a problem," he says. "I was briefed on all aspects of Fortune Station before we came out here. Guess you did the initial legwork for us, eh?"

"You could say that."

And, you did. Not quite how I would have put it...

"Good work! They never expected us! And with their old leader dead, and you as their absentee leader... that was a stroke of pure genius, by the way, Father. Well, we just came in, herded them up, sent 'em home and took over. You made it too easy for us! Good work!"
He seems pretty happy about it. I feel like shit. I set the cult up and I didn't even know it.
Didn't even think about it. I used to be able to see this kind of thing before it happened. I used to
know how devious minds operated. I was one. I AM one, dammit. Just out of practice, maybe.
When BC doesn't answer, Yamano continues.

"I just found out you were on board and I wanted to meet you. We've been recalled to the Moon. Thought you might like to join us on the bridge for the trip."
Guess impressing this guy has its privileges...

"Sure. I was heading to the Moon anyway. Or trying to when the UIN attacked and drove us out here,” BC wonders why he’s nervous.

Almost stammering! Get it together…

“I want to go to the Moon,” BC tells him, assuredly.

"Oo, I don't know if you really want to go there right now. The attack on us out at Fortune was a side action. The UIN is hitting the Moon and Earth both pretty hard right now, and hitting some orbitals, too. The UTZ is calling back all ships, even those like us engaged in combat already. Not a good sign," Yamano cautions.

"They haven't attacked in a while," BC thinks out loud.

"Yeah. Saving up to buy us all a nice Christmas Present. Merry Fucking Christmas. Oh, sorry, Father."

"Don't be. Merry Fucking Christmas indeed, Captain Yamano," BC agrees.

Captain Yamano seems to enjoy having BC on the bridge. Whenever there’s a lull in activity, he explains what’s going on to BC.

"There's still fighting going on at Lunar Prime, that's where we're going,” Yamano tells him.

“They're still hitting some Earth targets, too: Sydney, Hong Kong, Manila. They've been dipping up and down from orbit. They hit Moscow, Berlin, London, New York, LA, Tokyo, all the major cities. 'Death swooping down from the skies,' I heard one guy call it." Yamano's brow furrows, "This is bad, Father, all out war. They have to have more Transpace ships than we thought. Shit. Look at that... we're coming up on the Moon,” something catches his eye, “hold on, Father! Grab a seat... you can sit over their by the nav console. Strap in, in case we lose G."

An insistent, pinging alarm sounds. Red emergency lights come on around the bridge. BC bolts to the chair the captain indicated. Out the window ahead he can see the Moon, about the size of someone's head at this distance.

Two small explosions flare up in the space around the Moon. BC can see angry black and orange hot points glowing on the lunar surface, but not much else.

Hard to make out Lunar Prime. That can't be good.

Those small explosions. Weapons fire. Not just that, though. To see it this far away, those
have to be ships exploding.
..

"Damn.” Yamano turns to BC. “That one on the right was the DeGaul. I just hope that other one was one of theirs," the captain says.

BC turns in his chair to face the captain. "The heavy cruiser DeGaul?"

"The former heavy cruiser, unfortunately. This is bad." The captain stops talking as he studies the readouts around him, a mask of concentration freezing his features with furrowed brow. BC looks back out the front viewport. The moon has surged closer, looms larger than the limits of the viewing area, horrid black smears glowing fierce orange-red, like open wounds, marring the surface. BC sees something flash by, sees metallic rain sparkling outside.
Must have been a missile. And countermeasures.

"Pull us up and away off the elliptic a hundred degrees. Now!" Yamano yells. BC watches the moon drop out of sight in the viewports as their ship surges up and ahead in a burst of speed. BC feels the Gs pushing him down in his chair despite the artificial gravity.

"Rear guns, I want answering fire on that missile launcher yesterday!" Yamano calls out. "Launch more countermeasures, we haven't covered this position."

Shit... this is bad.
I’ve never seen it this bad before. The moon looks like Hell.

"They’re probably going to need you down on Lunar Prime, Father, or what’s left of it. Lots of last rites to perform, I’m afraid. I’m getting reports of heavy casualties and wounded.”

“How bad is it?” BC has to ask.

“They hit the main dome of Lunar Prime," Yamano says, "destroyed the central section." The captain is listening to some com source BC can't hear and relaying the information. He looks directly at BC. "They hit the Vatican section pretty hard, I'm afraid, Father. It's being mentioned as one of the hardest hit areas.” Yamano tries to cheer him up. “Guess you're lucky you’re with us here, huh? Well, let's hope..." Yamano is cut off.

"Captain, we're being hailed by the
King
," an officer tells him. The captain nods back.

"Go ahead, King. Yamano on the Eisenhower, fresh back from Fortune. How can we help?"

"Nice to see you, Ike," the com sputters. The signal is just barely holding together. BC can hear explosions in the background on the com.

"We’re picking up a UIN flanking action around the dark side,” the com sputters. “Hey Ike, why don’t you come on over and help us stop them from hitting our line's blind side! Sending coordinates, hope we see you soon, King out." Another background explosion is cut off as the message ends.

"Nav, helm, get us over there. Tactical, I need some scans in that area. Bridge, kill the white light in here, we're going dark side."

Regular lighting blips off at the captain's command. Only the red alert lighting now lights the bridge.

Cool. Just like the movies.

Except here we can die.

Maybe nothing like the movies, come to think of it.

BC watches the moon go from orb to crescent all the while getting larger in the forward viewport.

Going in...

He sees extensive damage to sites on the surface of the dark side as they get closer. He thinks about what Yamano told him.

Man, did they hit us hard. The atrium of Lunar Prime. All those good restaurants and
bars... and our section…

I wanted to forget that, pretend I didn't hear it. God, I hope everybody got to safety in the
shelters. I have no idea how much advance warning they got. Merry Christmas from your friends
in the UIN. Happy Anniversary.

BOOM-ANG-THUD!

A blast shakes the bridge. The entire bridge crew snaps into a spurt of precise activity as they take battle stations in earnest.

"We’ve got company!" someone shouts. "That was a hit!"

"Tell me something we both don't already know, Chargon," Yamano says, cool and sarcastic.

"Damage?"

"Minimal," an officer on BC's right reports.