Cross of the Legion (19 page)

"God works in strange ways, Wester. The mathematics of the cosmos is…elegant. Beautiful. Miraculous. We could hardly believe it, when we discovered it. It's the Galactic Field. That's what we named it. It's one of the most powerful forces in our universe. Once you penetrate the time warp, you are riding the Galactic Field, right into the past. It's like a quantum leap, bypassing everything that has happened since your target date. You're trapped in the Field, until you power your way out. You're right there in the past, wherever it was. It's almost impossible to describe. But it's truly…miraculous."

"Well, you've done it again, Tara. Deadman, this is amazing!"

"It's all going to be meaningless unless you are successful, Wester. We've had one ship out there for close to a month, observing. But observing won't do it. The C.S. Lifeline is getting underway to the operational area as soon as I depart ship. The C.S. Salvation will then be launched, to replace the current time ship, which is strictly a recon craft. And when the Salvation arrives at the target, your mission begins. We've got a lot of info for you to absorb. Your briefings start immediately. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready. You must be tired, Tara."

"Yes—I'm ready to drop. But I can't stop until we are successful. Don't fail me, Wester."

"I'll get what we need."

"Goodbye, Wester. It's up to you now. Good luck! Jason—whatever he wants! Wester…"

"Yes?"

She traced a Legion cross over my face.

"Go with God."

Chapter 11
Millie the Mole

"There—perfect!" Alpha Six gave my hair one last dab with the hotcomb and stepped back to admire her work. She was a shapely blonde with very short hair and striking grey eyes. Her warname was Apples. I looked into the mirror. My naturally wavy hair was now straight and considerably thicker, done in a curious bowl cut, the sideburns chopped off, the back of my neck all shaved. My skin was several shades darker. I certainly looked different.

"All right!" Jason exclaimed. "You look just like one of those school kids in the recon shots!"

I got out of the chair and examined my image in the mirror critically. I was wearing a loose grey smock that fell almost to my knees, with sleeves that cut off some distance above the wrists, tight black trousers with slits at the ankles, and chunky, silvery airweight plastic shoes. I did indeed look a lot like many of the young layabouts we had seen in the shots. The humans of Sagitta were physically similar to us, and Chudit's culture seemed remarkably laid-back and quiet. No fanatic religious zealots, no mad power-hungry politicals, no crazy dress codes. The place was fascinating.

Our recon ship, hovering above Chudit in the distant past, had collected millions of remarkable images of the planet. None of the images gave us even a hint of the White Death, or how the authorities had countered it. We did not know exactly when the plague had struck Chudit—or Rima 2, as the natives called it—but we did have a general idea. We were targeting an estimated hundred years or so after the event—slightly before the fateful day in 988 AF when Chudit intersected the orbit of the rogue asteroid Gargantua.

The images of Chudit were by then burnt into my brain. So was the language. The probe had been listening as well as observing. I was ready—as ready as anyone could be to plunge into the past. The
Salvation
was poised above the planet, invisible and fully operational. The Legion had put everything into this one. The fate of humanity might very well be determined by the results of this mission.

It had been over a month since I had seen Tara—a month with very little sleep. And even when I was asleep, the psymon was on and Control was whispering the language into my ears, into my brain. I was ready. I was burning with determination.

I knew I must not fail.

"All set?" Jason was at the controls. Several spectators hovered behind an observation port—Commander Alran and a few others. It was time. I looked over to the open doorway of the E-Sim Holo-X chamber.

"Let's do it." I walked in and took up my position, standing in the exact center of the ES chamber. A featureless white dome loomed overhead. The door sealed itself behind me.

"Commo check," Jason whispered in my ears.

"Ten high," I responded.

"Ten high," Jason confirmed. "All links report ready status. Target acquired. Quantum links live; Holo-X live. Initiating circuit."

The dome flickered and flashed and vanished. I was suddenly in a thick forest, and I almost fell as my shoes hit a wet mossy carpet of rotted leaves. Great dark trees rose all around me. I reached out for one of them to regain my balance. I could feel the texture of the bark. Sunlight shone through the leafy canopy above me. It was slightly cool—delightfully cool, I decided. The Holo-X adjusted itself to reflect it. The entry coordinates rippled across my vision in red. A drop of water hit my temple and dribbled down my face. A thrill crept over my flesh. I was more than a hundred thousand stellar years in the past, and walking the surface of a long-dead world—a world that no longer even existed. And I was suddenly terrified. Last chance, I thought. I was not afraid for me. No one could have been more invulnerable than I, at that point. But I was afraid of what might happen if I should fail. It was unthinkable. I must not fail!

"Thinker, Jason, commo test."

"Jason, Thinker, ten high. Nothing to report. Let's knock off the call signs, all right? There's nobody on this channel but us."

He shut down. I got my bearings and began walking. The insertion point was well inside the forest. It was going to be a moderately long walk, but I didn't mind. I needed the time to adjust to the new environment. Rima 2—Chudit. Our target—the ultimate target! The secret of the White Death was hidden on this world, and I was going to find it! The grav was fine, the cool, pale grey sky was delightful. I came to a foot path and followed it out of the forest to a little dirt road that ran through bright green fields to a wide, dusty highway of packed red earth. This was it. I began walking the grassy edge of the road, passing cultivated fields full of an unidentifiable crop. More forest, a stream, another type of cultivated vegetation, a crude brown earth dwelling set off in the distance, a thin wisp of smoke leaking from a chimney, no people visible.

A vehicle whizzed past me, trailing a plume of dust—an E-car, hissing over the surface of the road on a thick cushion of air. Fracs later, another one rocketed past. They were heading the same direction as I. A road sign materialized out of the dust cloud. I could not read it, but Jason could. Red letters formed in the air, just before me—LAKESIDE, 12 ZM.

"What's a zim?" I asked.

"Sorry," Jason responded immediately. "Measurements—distance—ZM. One Xenom equal to 1.7 K. All right, so that's about 15.4 K."

"Thanks—out." I did not want to chat, except when absolutely necessary. 15 K—as planned. But it was quite a walk. We could certainly insert closer to the target next time. We were being too damned cautious.

Another car blasted past me in a burst of raucous music, then slid to a halt in a massive dust cloud. As it cleared, I saw it was a shiny yellow E-car with an autoroof in the down position. The driver leaned back over his seat, a young male with long blond hair, grinning at me.

"S'na lyto?" The translation appeared before my eyes in brilliant red letters: WANT A LIFT?

THANKS/GA'TO. NO THANKS/TANO GA'TO. More red letters. They were mils from my eyes, in the ES chamber, but nobody could see them on this world except me.

"Ga'to," I said, desperately trying to figure out how the door opened. He solved the problem by triggering it open himself. I slipped in beside him. He sat in the center driver's seat—there were passenger seats on either side of him. We took off in a rush, the music still blasting away. A cool breeze flowed all around us. The driver smiled, bobbing his head in time with the music, his hair floating in the breeze. He wore a loose smock like mine.

"Zemba Ti-sa masi?" HEADED FOR LAKESIDE CITY?

YES/ZED. NO/TANO. "Zed."

We continued the conversation in this way, with several long pauses from me as I read the answers. I had taken the crash psych language course and was anxious to try it out myself, but I was grateful for the autoread on his comments.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"No."

"Where are you from?"

"Peta Jaya."

"Peta Jaya! Whoa! That's the other side of the world! They don't even speak Trib there, do they?"

"No. A little."

"That's really exciting! Have you ever seen any Man-ghuls there?"

"I don't understand."

"Man-ghuls—snow beasts. They eat people."

"No."

"No?" He seemed disappointed. "Peta Jaya! That's something! Well, you'll find Lakeside a little quiet, after where you're from. Very quiet."

"Quiet?"

"Boring. Boring, man! I go there for the bunnies. There's no action there but it's so quiet they're lined up waiting for Mister Good Lovin' to take them away, and here I am, man."

"Bunnies?"

"Girls! Man, you've been away awhile, haven't you? It's vacation. School's out! Permanently for me, man, I've got a guild locked in—ha ha. Locksmith, man. Over in Hishamon City. Security. No worries. Not what I'd planned for my life. I wanted a little excitement—but there's not much of that available here. Look—there's Lakeside."

The city appeared as a line of distant low-rise white stone structures along the shores of a lake glittering in sunlight. A single tall tower with a top like a flower bud dominated the skyline. The dirt road suddenly turned into white gravel, and we passed under an arch of pale, delicately carved stone.

"Welcome to Lakeside!" the driver said. "That arch celebrates the founding of the city. Peace and Prosperity, it says, over the sign of the mailed fist. The last federal tax collector that showed up here was stripped and painted blue and marched back out that arch by the whole city. I still remember that."

"You lived here?"

"Yeah. I went to school here. Nice place—but boring? Whoa! It's quiet, clean, safe. The last real criminal was executed publicly in the stadium. Slime deserved it. I saw that, too. Yeah, it's quiet." We glided past a series of monumental public buildings constructed of white stone, blinding in the sunlight. The lake was somewhere up ahead, hidden now by a line of trees. Everything appeared new, clean, and orderly. A few pedestrians strolled along the sidewalk. More E-cars glided past us lazily.

"Very beautiful," I ventured.

"Oh, it's nice. A good vacation spot. That's the museum on the left, and the library on the right. The Park Road runs around the lake. Shall I drop you off here? This is the center of town."

"Yes. Thanks." He pulled over next to the library.

"Well, keep score. Say, here's my comcard. Rex Two Lammafam, at your service. Give me a call, we'll hoist a cold one. Need a guide, a translator, I'm your man. What's your name, buddy?"

"West One Outfam, at yours," I said, stepping out of the car. I had memorized the phrase. "Thanks. We are friends."

Another handy phrase. He beamed, raised an arm in farewell, and blasted off in a burst of music. I glanced at his comcard. It featured a head and shoulders holo that made him look vaguely like a god. I slipped it into a pocket. One contact. He might come in handy.

I stood on the sidewalk in the shadow of the imposing library building, carved in delicate filigree work from that marble-like white stone. The library faced the lake. Another wide gravel road circled around the shoreline, lined with shade trees. Park Road, Rex had called it. My side of the street was lined with neat little shops decorated with colorful signs and flags. Another impressive public building loomed in the distance. I decided the library could wait. I had to learn a lot more about the environment before tackling the library. Not to mention that my reading skills were very weak. I was definitely going to need some help.

I crossed the street, avoiding the few slow-moving E-cars, entering the shady park that lined the shore. The lake was suddenly visible. A dazzling sheen of sunlight reflected off the water. The lake was dotted with little pedal-boats, families and lovers out for a leisurely float. There was a lovely water fountain some distance off shore. From time to time it would shoot up to a spectacular height, spraying water over the boaters. Their laughter drifted in the air. In the park people sat lazily on benches in the shade, looking out over the lake. A family had spread out a meal on a tablecloth on the grass. Little kids ran around.

I strolled along the shore towards the tower. It was really impressive, a massive stone stem leading up to the structure that looked like a flower bud. There were windows up there with tiny people looking out. It must be quite a view, I thought.

I paused by a large crowd of kids and adults. They clustered around a long series of metal slots set up on the wide sidewalk. Little toy cars rocketed along inside the slots. Every once in awhile one would come hurtling out to crash into the spectators, to the delighted screams of the kids, who would recover them quickly and put them back in the slots. Adults stood around with the toddlers, watching. Older punks hovered in the background, shaking their hair back and pretending to be uninterested in the proceedings, glancing over from time to time at a gang of girls who were studiously ignoring them.

And I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. This was what life should be—a walk in a sunlit park by a lake of liquid gold. Families, holding hands. Children, laughing. But it was the impossibly distant past, on a doomed world. I thought of Moontouch and Stormdawn. I thought of Priestess. We were trapped, in a lunatic struggle that was not going to end until we were all dead. A doomed world? We were all doomed.

I shuffled away from that joyful scene, full of despair. I followed the tacmap hovering in the air before me, away from the lake, past the shops, along a footpath into another park. This one had a lot of plastic tables and chairs set in the shade, most of them occupied by couples or groups chatting over snacks. It looked like lunch time. Two large, monumental stone buildings fronted the park. Several walkways and stairways led up into the buildings. People were coming and going. Control translated the inscriptions cut into the stone—LAKESIDE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL on one and LAKESIDE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE on the other. This was where we had decided to start.

I paused under a tree, looking over the crowd. Some of them were wearing pale blue or green smocks. Probably from the hospital, I thought, or maybe from some lab in the college. Most of these people were probably affiliated with one or the other of these two buildings. Couples—groups.

I noticed a girl sitting alone, nibbling at what looked like a sandwich while peering at a little book. She wore a pale pink smock, but she did not look old enough to be out of midschool. She was tall and thin with short dark brown hair, somewhat ragged, cut in an odd, unattractive style. Heavy, oversized spectacles kept sliding down her nose while she was eating. From time to time she would push them back, but they'd slide right down again. Nice body, I thought, maybe a bit too skinny but slim and fit, nice long legs, possibly a virgin but with a little training she'd be terrific in bed. Those glasses will have to go. That's how I summarized her, brutally, in my mind.

I decided to approach her. I needed a cooperative information source—someone with a link to medical science. She was young, presumably inexperienced in the ways of the world, and hopefully impressionable. I was a bit older, cunning and ruthless. She'd be putty in my hands. Unless she cried—or unbuttoned her blouse. Then I'd be the putty. I tried to think up a good pickup line, and suddenly realized that I'd never picked anyone up in midschool. Tara had picked me up, and that summarized my entire social life on Galgos. I flashed back to Andrion. My son Stormdawn, a precocious playschooler, was romping in the park with me when he spotted two little girls strolling past us. One of them was an especially pretty little blonde doll. Storm stared at her, fascinated. Then he abruptly walked over to her. Oh no, I thought, he's going to pick her up. How do you do that, when you're only in playschool?