Warpath (24 page)

“No fixer can live up
to his full potential if they don’t have territory. Territory they
can learn all the details of, become well known in, respected. I am
homeless, and worse, I only have a few crewmembers, no ship I’d put
my name on, and one half of the galaxy wants me in prison or dead. I
have information though, and ways to get more, so where would you go?
What would you do, especially if you saw a Governor getting a little
thick in the middle, an administrator who is waiting to be a real
leader again? I saw that, and I said to myself; ‘Lucious, why don’t
you go over there and introduce yourself? Show him a few tricks, like
entering without breaking, and teach him a few things you’ve come
to know, like how to talk to the most frightening commander in five
sectors?’ So I did, and so I started getting to know this space
you’ve taken control of, and I think it’s a good place for a
fixer like me. I’m simply a man who helps people get what they want
in trade for a few things I like. I want my piece of revenge on some
people who got the three largest governments in the Core Worlds
looking for me, and that’s already in the works, but what else do I
want? That’s what you’re asking. What does this Wheeler weirdo
want in my back yard? What am I going to have to trade when he offers
me something I can’t afford to refuse?” Wheeler sat up on the
ledge, the gathering masses behind him.

“I don’t know,”
Governor Tate said. Whatever, whoever Wheeler was, it was always
amusing to watch him talk. “That’s exactly what I need to know.”

“I want to be
connected again,” Wheeler said, pushing his hands together as
though overcoming some resistance between them. “Not brain-bud,
neutrally wireless connected like other idiots who got themselves
addicted to the virtual fields of useless information and burned out,
or let their enemies get the upper hand while they were reading a
million different menus from a million different restaurants without
realizing that they were doing it because they were starving.

“I connect, but I
look at the networked wasteland of gossip and data, find what I need
and get out. I want to get connected to a network with reach, like
that big, fat Regent Galactic, Order of Eden network that’s chock
full of humans who don’t know they’re in the middle of two of the
biggest social experiments in history. On one hand you have religious
crazies and the people who play along for a hot meal. Some of them
actually believe, and are trying to elevate themselves, bravo. On the
other you have commercialism, and billions of people who don’t
realize they’re slaves to the debt they’re always trying to work
off. Not these people,” Wheeler said, waving so broadly that it
looked like he was about to fall off his perch on the building’s
edge. “No, they know they’re slaves, they can feel it in the
chemical film on their skin, smell it when they wake up in the
morning and taste it in that same air whenever one of your refineries
opens the exhaust up for a few minutes. I’m talking about the
people who live well in your solar system, beyond your solar system.
They think they’re working for a living, paying into a dream,
staying upwardly mobile, and making a home for their kids, so they
can do better than they did when they grow up. Those people are
living in an experiment run by you, by Regent Galactic and the
thousands of corporations that own hundreds of worlds, and you, my
Governor, balance the scales in your solar system so well that most
of those people will never know. I’ll recruit the special ones from
those folks and you’ll never miss them. They are the malcontents,
the people who know how to play your game and win, some of them are
even like me, fixers who can get you anything you want.” Several
beaten shuttles started landing in the massive lot behind Wheeler,
dropping off people by the hundred. “They’re the people who don’t
fit in your culture, and they don’t fit in with the Order of Eden
types either, so you won’t miss them.”

“Then? When you have
your people together?” Governor Tate asked.

“That’s it,
Governor,” Wheeler said. “After I get my revenge they’ll keep
me interested. I’ll be the one who delivered them from debt and
monotony. We’ll find something to do, and I bet we’ll live pretty
well while we’re at it, too. Today I’m here because you asked me
to be, and because I’m looking for a few good men and women I can
entice onto my crew.”

“You still need a
ship,” Governor Tate said, pleased that he mentioned something that
Wheeler neglected to mention in his list of needs.

“For what I want to
do, I’ll need a carrier group,” Wheeler said. “Something I’m
not afraid to work for, but I’m not going to wait forever.”

“You’re a few
trillion short,” Governor Tate said. “It’s going to take you
some time and impressive work to earn your way there.”

“I’m sure I’ll
find an opportunity,” Wheeler said.

They watched the crowd
below them grow. It was joined by food shuttles that sold cheap
beverages and cheaper sustenance, but the lines were long. By
mid-morning Wheeler and Governor Tate were both bored with watching,
and they were relieved when the first Order of Eden fighters streaked
overhead. The new four thruster design was impressive. At the end of
four pylons attached to an elongated fighter fuselage was a long
thruster that could fire forward or backwards. The ships would be
unable to glide if they lost power in an atmosphere, but from what
Governor Tate understood, they carried enough fuel to last days.

His facilities had
manufactured thousands of them, but he was only allowed to keep a few
hundred for his personal fleet. There were what seemed to be hundreds
of the fighters in the air after a few moments. They flew in a slow
circle high over the rooftop. Three broad nosed combat shuttles
descended through the middle slowly.

The crowd that gathered
on the roof had come just close enough so Governor Tate could see the
awed expression on their faces. With a glance below he could see that
they were silently watching the decent as well, the only difference
being that many of the adults held half-eaten wraps, and a few
children had toy ships or dolls in hand, purchased from the same
vendors who brought food.

The shuttles finally
touched down, and a large hologram of the lead shuttle hatch appeared
above them, large enough for all to see, as it dropped open. Eve
emerged in a long green and white dress, her hair pushed back and
aloft by a wind Governor Tate could not feel from where he stood only
fifteen metres away. Her arms were outstretched, her smile was wide
and beaming. “I have finally come to you!” she announced.

The hologram above was
twenty metres high, and through some trick of optics, it looked like
you were looking up at Eve as though you were in a kneeling position
in front of her, regardless of where you were. She was actually
taller than the Governor expected, a littler taller than he was. She
crossed the distance between them and took both his hands in hers.
Her open smile and a brief kiss she gave him on his cheek were more
disarming than he expected.

Her smile barely
wavered for a second when she saw Wheeler, but she did not offer him
the same respect or warmth. “Do I speak to your people with your
blessing, Governor?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

She turned her back on
him and strode to the middle of the front of the rooftop. Eve waved
at the larger of the two crowds below with her right hand, and the
smaller to her left, on the rooftop behind the shuttles with the
other. “Many of you have been waiting a long time for me to come to
you,” she said, her voice carried over the crowd through hidden
amplification. “I have been on the other side of the Iron Head
Nebula, a place filled with danger, lawlessness, and the violence of
this war. The people who would keep you poor, directionless and
suppressed live in that vast space, and I crossed it for you.” She
extended her arms and clapped, as though applauding the growing
crowd. With a fleet of transports arriving, Governor Tate was sure
there would be over a hundred thousand there in minutes. The cheering
was already deafening. “She speaks as though she crossed it on her
own wings,” he said under his breath.

“Respect and
gratitude,” Wheeler said, joining the audience in their applause.
“We are her grateful servants.”

Despite her simple, but
regal attire in her simple silk textured dress, Eve seemed to be full
of energy and youthful. She seemed almost approachable. Governor Tate
did his best to smile as he clapped his hands for the last few
seconds of applause.

“I will be here, on
this side of the nebula for months, years, and even when it’s time
for me to move on, I will leave the promise to return behind me. Like
all the people who work to escalate themselves every day in this
Order, I recite my vow; ‘I serve this Order. My service will make
me immortal. My service will elevate me to paradise.’ That’s what
this is all about, that’s why I’m here. I am breaking the doors
down for you just by being here. So many of you have not been
educated on what the Order of Eden is, so the first thing I will do,
with the permission of your generous Governor, is educate you,” she
turned towards Governor Tate, half bowed, then applauded him.

To his surprise, the
crowd joined in on her applause. He returned her gesture, half
bowing. By the time he was standing straight again, only two seconds
later, certainly not three, the applause was stopping. It was
difficult not to be disappointed that she’d moved on, facing the
crowd again. She was conducting the entire affair expertly, and
Governor Tate’s worry only grew as it went on. They already liked
her more than their Governor, who had provided opportunities for
billions.

“The Order of Eden is
a simple organization that does a remarkable number of things,” Eve
said. “All are welcome, joining is as simple as approaching a
member and asking them to take you to the Gate. That is the cost. You
must ask. No credit must be given, no coins will be taken from you,
and no property will be offered in trade of a membership, those days
are over. We are interested in seeing how high you can rise in our
organization, and we will help you elevate yourselves, because you
will serve yourself and us better as you live up to your potential.”

“After you ask to be
taken to the Gate, you will be brought to one of our Entrances where
we will ask you about everything you are leaving behind. You no
longer have to worry about the bad things, debt, poverty, adversity,
or strife. You are under the Order’s protection, and even early on
your brothers and sisters in the Order will protect you. We want to
know if you’re leaving good things behind. Family, treasured
possessions, even pets are things we don’t want you to be parted
from. We’ll do our best to find lost family members so they can
join you, and, if the life of an initiate will permit you to have
your most treasured possessions with you, we’ll make that happen
for you as well. Oh, and pets? I have a pride of Kawaii Cats that I
breed in the little spare time I have, so you should be able to keep
a pet of your own. We will keep any pet you enter the Order with in
stasis for you through your Orientation Phase, your time as an
Initiate, and they’ll be waiting for you when you elevate yourself
to a state of mental fortitude where that kind of companionship is
welcome. Some of our Initiates progress so fast, that they’re
reunited with their pets within two weeks.” Eve took a breath,
looked across the crowd. “Some of you don’t believe any of this,
but you’ll have an opportunity to ask someone in the Order, and
they’ll tell you that I’m not lying. Word would spread very
quickly if I were. Aside from the good things I mentioned, we provide
food, lodgings, appropriate work for your talents. Are you an artist?
Do you enjoy building? Gardening? We have a place for you, and if you
have no interesting skills, I can tell you that we’ll find one in
you. So many Initiates who told me that they were uninteresting, and
just wanted a safe place to sleep and a good meal were actually full
of potential. They were so busy pursuing survival in their old lives
that they would have never found it without the support of the
Order.”

Governor Tate could see
she was already winning the crowd, why she was stopping, looking at
them without saying a word, he didn’t know. Eve peered at the
masses as though seeing them for the first time, her smile waning.
Concern slowly overwhelmed her expression, and finally she turned
around and beckoned someone forward. It was a man and woman in a
filthy work suit. They looked like processing plant workers, and
Governor Tate knew that they were containment workers just by seeing
their reddened eyes and thin hair. They probably only had three
fingernails left between them, and at least one of them was fighting
a special condition called suit rot. It was an issue with skin
infections caused by ill-fitting and unclean protective wear,
something workers had been asking their employers and the Justice
Offices to remedy for years wherever people had to wear heavy
protective clothing in the solar system.

Two white and green
robed followers, as clean as fresh clones, led the filthy suited
couple to Eve. She seemed to take them in with her gaze, examining
them from head to toe. “What are your names?” Eve asked them.

“I’m Yonda,” said
the woman without hesitation. “This is my husband, Merig.” He
looked like he was trying to shy away from whatever digital recorder
was capturing his image then projecting it above.

Eve took Yonda’s hand
and unfastened her gloves, revealing puffy reddened skin and scarred
fingers with no nails. She continued on to the other glove, then
unfastened her husbands gloves. His hands were blackened in several
places, suggesting that the seals on his wrists were most likely
faulty. It was everything Governor Tate could do to keep himself from
stopping the scene from taking place. He caught himself taking a step
forward and stopped.