Celestial Matters (43 page)

“But I could not convince them of that,” I said. “Kroisos is an Akademic; he will not hear the words of history. And Miltiades can not surrender a weapon once it is in his hands, can he?”

Aeson slowly shook his head. “No Archon of Sparta would so betray his oath.”

“The Archons would be trapped by their minds and their duties,” I said, “into doing that which the gods would not have done.”

“And you?” Aeson said.

“I was offered a choice,” I said. “I made it. I will undo the damage of Sunthief and at the same time give the Delian League what it is my duty to give them. But to do that, I must return to Earth with this ship.”

Aeson turned back to Yellow Hare. “Why do you support him in this action?” he said.

“For the same reason you gave him your authority to command,” she said.

“But we are no longer beyond human reach,” Aeson said. “We have returned to civilized space.”

“No,” said Yellow Hare. “We will not have so returned until Aias says we have. Until then we are still surrounded by obstacles to survival and duty, and it is between Aias and the gods to decide what we must do.”

“What have you seen?” Aeson asked, stepping close to her and locking his gaze with hers.

“The face of Zeus through the eyes of ’Era,” Yellow Hare replied.

Aeson stepped back and drew his sword with one swift motion. Yellow Hare stepped aside, giving Aeson a clear path to reach me. Phan gasped, but I stood still, waiting for what was to come. Aeson stepped forward and handed me the weapon hilt first. “I remain at your command.”

“Thank you, Aeson,” I said, handing back the sword. “The first thing we must do is remove our enemies from this ship.”

Anaxamander’s soldiers looked up at me; some glared with defiance, others sweated in their fear. I walked over to where they sat, fourteen men in a row.

“I am not going to kill you,” I said, kneeling down and looking into their worried faces. “You thought you were doing your duty in obeying Anaxamander. You will be set adrift on one of your moon sleds. Our pursuers will find you and pick you up.”

I turned to Yellow Hare. “Tie them tightly to the moon sled. I am going to write a message to the Archons and leave it with them.”

“What message?” Aeson said.

“A cursory explanation of everything that has happened since our departure from Earth, with particular emphasis on Anaxamander’s unlawful takeover of
Chandra’s Tear
and his appointment of that traitor Mihradarius as Scientific Commander.”

“And will you explain why we are not returning to fulfill our mission?”

“That will have to wait,” I said. “But the message will make clear to Kroisos how ill-omened this expedition was, and it will explain to Miltiades why we did not carry out the orders he gave us. The rest of the explanation will follow once we have returned to Earth.”

“Why wait?” Aeson said.

“Because the explanation will require compelling evidence which I cannot give from here.”

While the others secured the prisoners to the sled, I wrote the message and sealed it with the stamp of my commander’s seal. The owl of Athens impressed in black wax on the edge of the paper stared up at me, and I felt Athena’s reassuring presence flutter through the dark places of my heart on the wings of night.

The prisoners were strapped down supine in the center of the sled, forced to stare up at the sky. I approached the glowing silver disk and was about to tie the scroll onto one of their chests when Athena gently nudged me.

“Xenophanes, ’Eraklites, Solon,” I called out. The three soldiers stepped forward and saluted.

“What is to come is beyond the duties of common soldiers,” I said. “Therefore I am ordering you to accompany these prisoners and deliver them to the commanders of whichever celestial ship rescues the sled.”

“Yes, Commander,” they said. There was a glimmer of relief in their eyes. I had no doubt that the events they had witnessed and taken part in since the wreck of
Chandra’s Tear
had been greater trials than they had been trained to endure.

“You will also see to it that this message is delivered to the Archons,” I said, handing the scroll to Solon.

“Yes, Commander,” the soldier replied. The three of them stepped onto the moon sled and secured themselves amid their comrades turned prisoners.

I turned to the rest of the crew. “Only Phan and I are needed to pilot this ship. Any of you who wishes may go as well.”

Yellow Hare said nothing. Her stolid gaze told me what I already knew, that she would stay with me until the day of my death and even beyond if the gods permit.

Ramonojon shook his head with a slight smile. “The Delian League would not welcome me back,” he said.

“Aeson?” I said.

“Are your ordering me to go?” he asked.

I hesitated. I knew Aeson would not leave without such a command, and I was tempted to give the order. The testimony of my writing would be greatly enhanced by Aeson’s presence, and if he went, he would certainly survive what was to come. But to force him to depart, to give up the last vestige of his command for the sake of his life, was to make him betray the spirit of his city. His Spartan soul could not emerge intact after obeying such an order.

“No, Aeson,” I said. “I am not ordering you.”

We set the men adrift, knowing that the gleaming silver dot of the moon sled would attract the attention of our pursuers. With their departure, our crew had dwindled to a mere five from the two hundred who once occupied
Chandra’s Tear.

When the sled had dwindled to the size of a coin far aft of us, I said to the four people remaining under my command, “Now we will run the barricade of the moon.”

I steered
Rebuke of the Phoenix
into the Xi line connecting ’Ermes and Selene. Phan activated the Xi strengtheners and we began to fall toward the scarred body of the silver moon. In the music of the spheres, the goddess sang a dirge into my soul, calling me down to her with a sad lament of youth lost to the ravages of time and man.

Selene called and my ship answered, crossing the one score thousand miles in an hour’s time. I could imagine the reaction on the moon as the patrol ships spotted our approach and the impossibly fast pace we were setting.

As we entered the Xi shoals around Selene, I saw more than twenty celestial ships and over a hundred moon sleds waiting to meet us. If we slowed and greeted them they would have known that all was well. But after I had given one swift tug on the port rein, causing
Rebuke of the Phoenix
to dart deftly around the right edge of their well-ordered battle lines, they had no choice but to adjudge us enemies.

The cannonades of the four nearest ships spat steel into the air; a hail of tetras blanketed the sky before us. I pulled the down rein and
Rebuke
dove toward the surface of the moon, ducking under that wall of flying steel shards.

Ground cannons fired up at us, slamming into our underbelly. Another wall of ships flew up from the caverns of the moon, their forward cannons firing a new fusillade into our underside. I yanked on the reins of our fiery horse, pulling us left and right, trying to dodge as many of the tetras as possible.

The hum of the Xi strengtheners grew louder as Phan fought to hold the ship together against the onslaught.

Then the flagship of the lunar fleet, the battleship
Bow of Artemis,
flew out from the moon’s equator; huge and terrible, shaped like an angry eagle with a two-mile wingspan, her forward edge was lined with cannons from one wing tip to the other. She tried to fly above us, but I pulled the up rein and the
Phoenix
rose above the eagle.

Denied the perfect bow shot, she still fired, and half a thousand tetras struck the underside of my ship.

The harmonic of Selene shuddered up my spine as the ship’s keel cracked under the force of the barrage. There was a rumbling noise from below, a sound I’d heard before but could not identify.

Then we were through the barricade of Selenean ships, past the moon herself, through the inmost crystal sphere, and flying down from the lowest reaches of heaven toward the earth.

We outdistanced our pursuers easily and took up orbit halfway between the earth and the moon. I left my cabin and joined the crew at the base of the hill.

“The ship has been badly damaged,” Yellow Hare said.

“Show me where.”

She led me and the rest of the crew down the tunnel to the storage cavern. The once-solid floor of moon rock had been punched through by the repeated artillery barrages, so that through the many holes in the floor the earth could be seen. Most of the large boxes had been splintered by ricocheting tetras and their contents had fallen out of the ship.

“There is no way to repair this much damage,” Ramonojon said. “This ship will not be able to fly much longer.”

“We have a more serious problem,” Yellow Hare said. “Our supplies are gone.”

I called Phan over from his survey of the cracks in the hull. “How well are we supplied with survival pills?”

“We have taken the last of them,” he said. “They will wear off within two days.”

“The omens are clear,” I said. “Our journey must end soon.”

ρ

“Where are we to go?” Phan said.

“A mountain on one of the borders where the armies of both the Delian League and the Middle Kingdom can find us,” I said.

“You want to be found?” Aeson said.

“Yes,” I said, “but not immediately. We must have a few hours on the ground before we are located.”

Ramonojon took a deep breath and spoke. “There is a place in Tibet we might land—”

“Tibet?” Phan said in disbelief. “The country is swarming with the Son of Heaven’s armies.”

“And the armies of the League are permanently camped on Tibet’s borders,” Yellow Hare said.

Ramonojon nodded and a thin smile broke out on his lips. “And the Tibetans have a myriad of places to hide from both armies. The mountains of Tibet have many hidden communities of Buddhists; one of them is the place where I was taught.”

Aeson cocked an eyebrow at Ramonojon. “Whatever Aias’s plan is, it involves both armies finding us. Do you want your teachers killed?”

“They would give up much more than their lives to stop Sunthief,” Ramonojon said.

“But they do not have to,” Yellow Hare said. “There are mountains in South Atlantea where we could hide for a few hours.”

“Do you know them well?” Ramonojon said. “Can you spot a good hiding place from the air?”

“No,” she said. “We would have to search.”

“I know how to reach my teachers’ refuge,” Ramonojon said.

“Ramonojon’s idea is the best,” I said. “The Buddhists are the only other people on Earth being hunted by both empires. They may be able to give us the aid we need.”

“What aid is that?” Aeson said.

Athena opened my mouth and spoke through me. “A mountain peak, a mountain cave, pens, ink, and paper,” she said. “Those are the last things you will require.”

“My teachers can provide those,” Ramonojon said.

“Then there you will go,” Wisdom declared.

Yellow Hare and Aeson bowed at the divine voice. Ramonojon covered his face, and Phan stared quizzically into my eyes, then slowly bowed.

From that moment until this, Athena has not left me. She has dwelled in my heart and filled my mind with her wisdom, so that even though we had descended into the heavy air of the earth, my mind remained clear and my purpose never wavered.

The goddess returned my voice to me as she settled herself into the two caverns of science that had grown within my heart.

“We will go to Tibet,” I said.

With the underside of the ship badly damaged from the cannonades of the moon, I did not dare let anyone strap down below. We bundled together in the control cabins. Yellow Hare and Ramonojon came into my cabin. Aeson went with Phan to his.

I steered us into the huge Xi flow that joined Selene and Earth, and we fell toward the night-shrouded Pacific Ocean.
Rebuke of the Phoenix
screamed as we plummeted, the now horribly familiar howl of moonstone cracking. There was an angry snap and a large piece of our port side broke off. The gaming fields went spinning off into a silent orbit, carrying half our left wing with them. No more funerals would be held on our ship, and the games of our dead would have to be played on Earth.

The balance of the ship shifted sharply to starboard, and the straps securing me started to loosen. My head slammed into the aft wall, dazing me; Yellow Hare loosened her own straps, freeing her arms but keeping herself securely tied to the floor by her legs. She leaned over and grabbed my shoulders to keep me steady.

The ship continued to dive down toward the moonlit waters of the vast ocean. Out the forward window, I saw dark spots against the waters, islands only a few miles below us. I tried to pull on the starboard wire to drag us out of the Xi flow, but it strained against me; Yellow Hare reached over and took hold of the pull rope, adding the strength of her arms to mine. Phan turned off the strengtheners just as Yellow Hare and I, together, managed to drag the starboard control wire in enough to turn the sun fragment and pull the ship in a wide swoop away from the water.

We took up a swift orbit only two miles above the earth. Groups of islands flashed below us as we flew westward toward the Middle Kingdom and Tibet. In the night sky above us I saw flecks of silver growing larger, celestial ships descending to catch us.

The ship passed from darkness into twilight over the islands of Nippon. Battle kites rose up in their hundreds from that rugged land to meet and challenge us. The air above the mountain air bases of Nippon became thick with strengthened Xi currents, but the currents that buoyed up the silk-skinned bamboo bats and dragons flying toward my ship only gave added speed to
Rebuke of the Phoenix.

Silver dust and boulders of moon rock spilled from
Rebuke
as she cracked again from the strain of dodging two flotillas.

Phan turned on the Xi strengtheners and I released the reins. Given its head, our horse of fire plowed through the assembled squadrons of aircraft, scattering the Middle Kingdom’s wood-and-cloth dragons upward into the sky, where they met the diving moonstone battleships of the Delian League. Evac cannons spat and Xi lances roared as battle was joined between our two pursuers. My people and Phan’s turned and met again across the chasm of their sciences and death erupted from that void. Where he and I exchanged words they exchanged fire.