March of the Legion (24 page)

"No, I was just wondering."

"How about you, Tara? Don't you have a lover? You're certainly not alone in this world—I can't imagine that."

She smiled. Still not looking at me. "Sure—I've got Gildron. He's my live-in."

"Gildron! You're not serious. You can't be serious!"

"He's a real man," Tara said dreamily, "and he knows how to treat a woman. I feel so helpless when I'm in his arms."

"You must be insane! You mean you let that ape…"

A little-girl laugh, a squeal of pure delight, and it was the Tara I had known all those years ago. "He fell for it! I always could rattle your cage, couldn't I, Wester? You still believe everything I say!"

"All right, you got me again." I was positively relieved. Gildron! Idiocy.

"My work keeps me very busy, Wester. I have no time for nonsense. But even if it were true about Gildron, who are you to object? You have an alien lover, don't you?"

Tara always took my breath away. I knew she was psychic, but I was always surprised when she demonstrated it. "She's not an alien," I replied quietly. "Moontouch is as human as we are." I was always on the defensive with Tara. Moontouch was an ache in my heart. You can't have lovers in the Legion—they are torn right from your arms.

"And she's had your baby—hasn't she?"

"That's right." I looked around nervously.

"That's a big responsibility, Wester. I'd be disappointed in you if you didn't do what was right."

"It's not always clear what's right."

"On the contrary, I've found that the most important issues are rarely that complicated."

"I'm glad everything is so clear to you. It must be a great comfort when you're delivering a cargo of slaves to some Systie rat-hole."

At first she did not respond. Then she sighed. "We all serve the same master, Wester, according to our abilities. My doubts are long gone. I'm on a mission from God." She sounded deadly serious, but with Tara I never knew.

"Well, could you ask God to get us to Veda 6?"

She turned to look at me, soft liquid eyes and a cascade of silky hair. "Sure." She picked up a starlink and activated it. Only Tara would be contemplating flowers in the night with a starlink by her side. The d-screen flickered and a face appeared. It was her Cyrillian security chief, jet black skin, cold slit eyes and sharpened white teeth.

"Pandaros, how's it going up there?" Tara asked.

"Fine, Commander. All quiet."

"Well, get the Maiden warmed up. Recall the crew—now. We're going on a little trip."

"Right away, Commander! When do we leave?"

"Can it get the crew back in four hours?"

"Whatever it says, Commander! We are all anxious to leave!" The
Maiden
's crew was on the Legion death list, I recalled. A visit to a Legion planet was probably not their idea of a good time.

"All right, do it. We leave in four hours."

"Done!" Tara broke the connection, and the screen faded. A soft, warm breeze washed over us. It was a spectacular night.

"I can't ask you to do that, Tara."

"You didn't ask."

"It's not your ship, Tara—I know that much. You can't just take off on a joy-ride to Veda 6 because we want to go there."

"You just watch me."

"But what about your responsibilities? What about that mission from God?"

"Pack your bags. I'm taking you to Veda 6." She stood up, looking past me, somewhere off in space.

"The Legion will have your head."

"They can burn in hell!" Her eyes were blazing.

###

"God! This is incredible!" I exclaimed. Stars, wheeling slowly overhead. A frozen night of icy stars, glowing red and golden nebulae, blue hot supernovas crackling a million light years away—an infinity of green gas and silver dust. Starstuff, awesome, magnificent. Meteors, streaking down from the heavens. The music of the stars rumbled away in the background, an awesome symphony, hot young stars screeching in agony, black holes booming out their deadly heartbeats, the voice of the cosmos, popping and snapping and whistling, running over my flesh with a little chill.

"It's beautiful!" Priestess whispered. We were together in the pleasure palace, floating on an airbed in one of Tara's sex cubes, going first class all the way to Veda 6 on the starship
Maiden
. We could do anything we wanted in that cube, but I liked the stars best of all.

The meteor shower continued. It put a chill to my flesh. I was naked, feverish and dizzy. We had been making love for hours. We could not stop. Priestess was so slim and lovely and vulnerable I could not keep my hands off her. She was a sex child, all long legs and arms and tousled dark hair and limpid eyes and yielding lips.

"Will you take off that thing?" I pleaded again. Priestess was naked except for a loose sleeveless top that she refused to remove.

"Kiss me," she whispered. I lost myself again in her sweet mouth. Starstuff, we were starstuff, floating in space.

"Come on, take it off," I insisted, caressing her breasts under the shirt.

"No. It's ugly. I want you to remember me the way I was before." Priestess had been hit on Mongera, point-blank auto x, and almost died. They had rebuilt her breasts, but the scars were extensive.

"I told you, Priestess—it's the mark of the Legion. It shows what you gave for humanity. It's something holy and beautiful. You shouldn't be ashamed to show your wounds. It's a badge of honor."

"No—it's ugly."

"It doesn't bother me! If it bothers you so much, why didn't you have it done back on Atom?"

"There was no time. Beta was off to Veda, and I didn't want to be left behind."

"Then it wasn't that important, was it?"

"Bet you can't make love again."

"Oh yeah? Well, that's up to you."

"To me? Me? Really? What do I have to do?" Another burst of silver meteors, shooting down from a starry sky. It was like a dream—a wonderful dream.

###

Veda 6 appeared on screen, a heavenly orb, phospho blue, brilliant polar ice caps glowing white, the filmy skin of atmosphere showing clearly against the black of space. I had to turn my eyes away—it was simply too much. When you saw it from space, it became awesomely clear just how fragile was our position in the universe. We were pond scum, wriggling in a thin sheet of life. Every inhabitable world was precious, as our race exploded into the dark. I knew it could all end in a cosmic instant, unless we were stronger and faster than everything else that was out there.

We contacted Veda Station as soon as we exited stardrive. A very young Legionnaire appeared on the screen as we watched behind Tara and Whit in the command chairs. We had never seen him before.

"This is Veda Station," the kid said. "Repeat your call sign please."

"This is the Personal Ship Maiden," I said. "Can you patch us through to Beta One, please."

"Who?"

"Beta One of CAT Two Four, Second of Atom's Road, Twelfth of the Twenty-second. Say, what's the story there? We've got three Beta troopers who want to rejoin their squad."

"Atom's Road! Sorry, guys, your squad is long gone, and so is your ship. Hold on, though, we've got a message for you somewhere."

"A message. Terrific." We were stunned by the news.

"We are in deep fecmat, guys," Dragon said.

"Something wrong?" Whit leaned back over the exec's chair. Her skin was its natural pale color again, and her own blonde hair was starting to grow back. It was still so short she looked like a boy.

"Yeah, I knew it was here. Stand by," the kid said. The screen flashed and Snow Leopard appeared suddenly, his pale face expressionless, his pink eyes focused right on us.

"Nice of you to drop by," he said quietly. "If you're listening to me now, it means you've made it back to Veda 6. That's good, but not as good as it could be. Our new mission is Uldo 4. Beta is under strength and we need you as soon as you can get there. I don't care how you do it—just get there! We'll be waiting. Your mission orders are attached. Beta One signing off."

The mission orders materialized in the doc tray. I called the young Legionnaire right back. "We need fast transportation to Uldo, trooper," I said. "What's available?"

"Sorry, Beta, there's nothing at all. Everything that could move is already on the way there. We're pretty much marooned here until the sit changes. Let's see…there's a supply run due here in two weeks—they're going on to the Meco Sector. That would put you in the general vicinity."

"Thanks—it won't do."

"We could use some extra help down here, guys—it's a bit quiet, but it's honest work."

"We'll let you know." I cut the transmission.

"Do we need another taxi ride?" Whit asked brightly.

Tara turned, and looked back over her shoulder. "We'll set a course for Uldo."

"Wait a frac, Cinta," I said. "We certainly appreciate your help, but you'll lose your ship if you show up at Uldo. A major Legion op is like a black hole—it sucks up everything around it. They'll confiscate the Maiden, and you'll be lucky to ever get it back."

"We know all about the Legion," Tara replied. "And we assure you we always know exactly what we're doing."

"Goodness gracious," Whit smiled, "So our guests are staying! That's nice!" She shot a knowing glance at Eight. He gave her a wolfish grin.

Uldo, I thought—we're bound for Uldo. They had mentioned Uldo in Basic, but I couldn't remember what they had said. Something historical—what was it? I knew nothing about Uldo.

"Set course for Uldo," Tara instructed the ship.

Uldo 4, I thought—a System world, under attack by the O's. And the Legion was intervening, with the System's open agreement. That was a first. Hadn't the Legion learned yet that Systies are not to be trusted? They had betrayed us on Mongera!

"This is the big one," Dragon said. "This is where we stop the O's—or they stop us."

A historical mission. The survival, or the end, of humanity. That's what was at stake, I knew, on Uldo. But I didn't care about history any more—I cared only about Beta. How many dead so far? And how many more dead, for Uldo? I felt trapped and doomed and helpless, rushing onward to certain destruction, caught up in a cosmic typhoon, a galactic maelstrom of catastrophic, uncontrollable events. We were just like ants, fighting for our nests. Will it really make any difference to the galaxy, who wins and who loses? No. But it will make a difference to us.

"I heard Uldo 4 is already lost," Priestess whispered. "Millions of O's have landed; the locals are being overwhelmed."

"We'll fix that," Dragon replied confidently.

The Omnis—they were a galactic curse. They had appeared as if from nowhere, invincible, merciless alien extremists with a brutal star fleet and seemingly endless resources, psychers with extraordinary powers swarming over world after world, focused only on exterminating human beings. Two billion humans had been killed so far.

We had faced one O on Mongera, and almost perished. We would be facing a whole army of O's on Uldo. I didn't even want to think about it. We're insane, I thought, the Legion is insane. We never beat the O's before; what makes them think we can do it now?

"I'll be right by your side, Thinker," Priestess said. She knew what I was thinking. Yes, we'd be together when we died. With luck, we'd be buried in Uldo's rocky soil, with maybe a Legion cross to mark the spot. Here they lie, two Legion immortals, crossed over to the other side, to fight Heaven's wars.

Immortality and death—that was what the Legion promised, and delivered. My blood was running cold. Uldo! I closed my eyes. My heart was pounding. Let it come. I'm a soldier of the Legion. I'm ready to die. I'm ready for anything! Deadman, do your damndest! I'll follow my orders to the death!

END OF MARCH OF THE LEGION: THE AUTHOR'S CUT
To be continued in Slave of the Legion

Welcome to the Confederation of Free Worlds (ConFree). The citizens of ConFree greet you in friendship, and wish you a pleasant and productive visit. Your itinerary is designed to familiarize you with ConFree's society, history and government, as well as any specialized subjects in which you have declared an interest. We are proud of our Confederation and welcome information requests from both the System and unaligned worlds.

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History

ConFree was founded by Outworlder refugees who fled the Inners to escape oppression and slavery under the United System Alliance (the System). They settled in the Crista Cluster on the edge of the Outvac, some 1,400 light years from the Inners. The early Outworlder pioneers were fiercely independent individualists who had personally suffered greatly at the hands of a tyrannical regime, and were deeply suspicious of organized government. They had also been fleeing racial extermination by the System, which viewed Outworlders as a dangerous gene pool fostering political resistance to the System's centralized control. These settlers found scores of habitable worlds in the Crista Cluster and formed independent governments on each world, wanting only to be left alone to live in peace. When the System launched slave raids and attempted to expand its zone of control into the Crista Cluster, however, the settlers quickly organized, forming the Confederation of Free Worlds in Year One, ConFree Galactic Standard (CGS).

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