Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (30 page)

The wolf approached closer, tentatively, pausing now and then. Soon he was almost on Doggie. He stretched out his neck and sniffed at Doggie. Then he was right there, right before Doggie, sniffing him up. Doggie reached for him carefully, touching the wolf gently, ever so gently. Then caressing him along his back, along his head. Both hands now. Looking into his icy grey eyes. Touching the wolf's head with his own. Holding him tightly. A loving embrace. The wolf licked Doggie's face, panting gently, his tail wagging.

I could hardly believe it. Neither could the A's.

That wolf followed Doggie home. He became our squad mascot, Blackie. We even got him an access badge. And I swear, he was more intelligent and a lot more human than those creepy Demons.

Δ

"I could stay here forever," Smiley said, stretching back on his pool lounge, cold drink in hand, sunglasses reflecting the hot lights above. We were in the base pool, a luxuriously large swimming pool that had been constructed rapidly by the A's when ConFree scientists and techs had started appearing like hordes of war refugees and complaining about the Spartan accommodations. There was nothing Spartan about the new pool. It was fabulous, deep underground but under a ceiling of clear blue lights that duplicated the sunlight above. It was fairly busy, lots of ConFree techs and Assidic troopers, the noise of the guests echoing harshly off the blue and white tiles of the pool. We were taking a break, clad in swimming attire, Arie and Smiley and Saka and I in loose Legion trunks; Kwan, Kee and Sza in tight Assidic swimming trunks, and Ice and Bees in hot tight two-pieces. Saka's girl, Lan Hwa, was wearing a one-piece that hinted at wonderful things hidden below the clinging material. Saka was showing off, sitting on the bottom of the pool by himself. Kwan, Kee and Sza were cracking up about that, laughing so hard they were almost falling down. Lan Hwa was quite concerned, standing on the edge of the pool looking down at Saka. The A's didn't know the secret of breathing underwater, so Saka's trick was a big hit.

"Oh man, this is Heaven," I said, taking a sip of ice water. "This is good duty. What do you think about the A's?"

"I am stunned, man," Smiley said. "My faith in humanity is almost restored."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean these A's are great. Good people. They are what humans should be. You may remember I'm from Katag. Those bastards hated us. They pathologically hated all Outworlders. It was race hate of the most despicable kind. I got attacked every day in school. I had to fight my way through the halls, and in every fight, it was me that got blamed."

"What was their problem?"

"They were racist bastards. The government encouraged it. They were redistributing the wealth from people who had it to people who didn't have it. From producers to parasites. Outworlders worked hard, and tried to play by the rules, so they got ahead. That's why the government changed the rules. At the time I didn't understand that – I was just a kid. I thought there was something wrong with us – with me – because the Kats hated us so much."

"Who were the Kats?"

"They were Inners – all sorts of people. Several different ethnic groups. They were united only in hatred for us. And there was nothing we could do. Then my dad taught me about our people. About how we had our own nation, ConFree, and it was powerful and wealthy and free. And then the reunification reps showed up. Man! That's the greatest idea in history. Return to your own people! Do you have any idea how powerful a concept that is? It thrilled me to the marrow, and when we actually arrived in ConFree, I went down on my knees and kissed the ground. I was just a kid but I knew what I was doing. If you don't have a country, you're nothing. That's what I learned on Katag."

"You make me feel ashamed of myself, Smiley. I was born in ConFree but I never appreciated it. I never even thought about it."

"Until you've been a slave, you cannot appreciate the joys of freedom – of living in your own land, with your blood brothers and sisters all around you. That's why I can understand this Assidic renaissance thing, and the calls to return to the homeland. I know how thrilling that must be to them. The A's are wonderful people. I wish them the best, I surely do."

Saka surfaced, to wild applause. His girl embraced him. He looked very happy.

Smiley got up and dove into the pool and started doing laps. It looked like he was a good swimmer. Ice came over and sat in his pool lounge. She had been swimming and seemed content. Kwan watched over her from another pool lounge at a discreet distance. I hadn't quite figured out what it was with him and Ice. She had turned down his marriage proposal, but he was still hopefully orbiting around her.

"You've got a girl friend, don't you?" Ice asked me. I was so startled I almost dropped my drink. Ice didn't normally speak with me. She normally kept to herself.

"Um, yes – she's on Veltros."

"I've heard. You're serious about her?" She was looking off into space – not at me.

"Yes. Quite serious."

"This fellow Kwan seems serious about me. Quite serious. I just wonder what's going on in his head." She stopped talking. My turn, I guessed.

"Well, I can't speak for him. But when someone asks for your hand in marriage, that's pretty serious. And the A's mean what they say. I mean, they are tradition-minded, and focused on the family. He's probably a quite honorable young man – if that's what you're wondering."

"Oh, I have no doubt he is. He's quite charming, and handsome, and – polite. It's just that – well, I'm not sure how I should react to him."

"Well, how do you want to react?"

She turned and looked at me. "I'm sorry, Prophet. I need some advice. I'm sorry to bother you. Bees is just as clueless as I am."

"It's all right. I'll try to help. What do you want to know?"

"I've had to fight my whole life. Boys and men have been attacking me as far back as I can remember. And I've been fighting them off as far back as I can remember. Punching them in the face. Kicking them in the nuts. Stabbing them with cold knives. Bashing them with blunt instruments. That's how I react to approaches from the opposite sex. Now I've got this charming – gentleman. But I've told him I'm engaged. And now I don't know what to do."

"Haven't you ever been in love?"

"No."

"All right, you've had boy friends?"

"No."

"All right, casual sex?"

"Never."

"You mean – you're a virgin?"

"Yes." She wasn't looking at me anymore. "Please don’t tell," she added.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. Ice, I appreciate your coming to me. I'll answer all your questions. I'll give you advice anytime you want it. My first advice is to get to know Kwan better. Let him take you to dinner or whatever he wants. No sex, just let him romance you if you're indeed interested, or even if you just want to know whether or not you should be interested. As you said, he's a charming gentleman, like all these Assidics. He's not going to attack you. Right now he's seething with jealousy. I can see it. He's sitting there watching our every move as we’re talking. Go out with him. When he asks what we were talking about, if you want you can say we were engaged but you just dumped me because you heard I had another girl. Then he'll be overjoyed and treat you very nice. You might tell him you want to learn more about him before he makes any more serious propositions. That's my first advice. If you want advice on sex, I can give you that, too, but that should come later."

"Oh, thank you Prophet. Oh, thank you. It's so nice of you. Bees told me you were a wonderful man. Oh, you make it so clear. I think I'm going to cry."

"Go ahead, it will make the broken engagement story more convincing. Then go over there and sit by Kwan. Let him comfort you."

Δ

"Attention! Present arms!" We snapped to. CAT 3 was in full armor, all five squads. We held our E's before our armored chestplates, our faceplates open so the inspecting officers could see into our eyes. We were in the foyer of the assembly area down in the hole. Ambassador Wester and General Aran and a flurry of black and forest green uniforms drifted in and began inspecting the troops. It was a formidable fighting force and a promise that ConFree and the A's were in this fight together. We had been fully integrated into Site S's defense plan, under General Aran's command. I was told that it was the first time Legion soldiers had ever been under foreign command, but it was deemed to be a very unusual situation and fully justified.

I wasn't worried. Ambassador Wester was in charge of all ConFree nationals here, even those under Assidic command. When dealing with ConFree nationals, he was an absolute dictator when he had to be, but if he was dealing with civvies or techs he tried to settle things diplomatically to make everyone happy. He was good at it, too.

As Wester and the general passed by slowly I heard part of their conversation.

"Think they'll hit this place to get their ship back?" Wester asked.

"Maybe," the general said. "They can shower it with antimats, but that won't hurt us. But if they try to get into the hole, they're going to have a hell of a fight."

That shook me up a little. I thought our integration into their local defense plan was just for show, a political move. Wrong again, Prophet. These folks are serious. Perfect. Just perfect.

Δ

The Prof was taking a break from harassing the Demons. He was sitting at his desk in the Demon Room, as we called it, sipping dox and pondering his notes. Kimmie was compiling her dictionary as usual, and the demon cube view portals were closed so the Demons were left to themselves. I had just made a snack run and passed some choco donuts to both Kimmie and the Prof. Then I slid into an airchair by Prof's desk, a bit tired, and helped myself to a donut.

"What's new, Prof?" I asked. "Any news on the ship?"

"Thanks for the donuts, Prophet. Yes, I've been working with Bird and that dimension doctor. They call him Doctor Dimension, of course. He's quite a character."

"So are you," I laughed.

"He has lots of theories but still can't open a door, neither to another dimension nor to the inside of that ship."

"Well, that's discouraging."

"No, we're really making progress. Believe it or not. We may not be in the ship yet, but we're doing several projects that may end in that goal. We can already see into the interior of the ship, even if we can't get in. We have a complete map of the inside. We have good views of what looks like an antimat generator, the antimat drive, the antigravity center, the Dimension X device that we believe powers them into stardrive and keeps them there, and the antimat weaponry. We can see the flight controls, which appear remarkably compact and simple. But which are anything but. We can see where they eat, where they excrete, where they sleep, and where they work. But we're not inside the ship yet.

"As for useful, practical information to enable us to counter the Demons militarily – well, we're hot. Within a very short time, we should be able to counter the Demon's individual plasma pulse battle rifle. And with all the hardware in our hands, I have no doubt we are going to be able to effectively counter their individual forcefield shielding that protects their A-suits on the battlefield. And maybe do something to rapidly kill those parasites and that will kill the demons. The good news is that they do not have – or at least do not use – individual cloaking like we do. So they will be visible at all times."

"That's great! So we can fight them – they're not invulnerable."

"We can fight them. But there are a lot of unknowns out there. They're from another universe – and that universe has dimensions that we do not. How do they travel there, visit here, and return? How do they move around the universe – theirs or ours? If they don't use artificial wormholes, what do they use to travel? You saw that vid of the attack on the Omni city. They just appear, from nowhere, a giant fleet of saucer spacecraft. And then they spray the target wildly with antimats. And annihilate it utterly. That’s scary. That's not going to be easy to counter, until we can at least understand how it is done.

"Hmm, good donuts!"

A thumping arose from one of the cubes. Insistent.

"I'll check it," I said.

It was Louie. I opened the viewport. He was waiting expectantly, and snarled. "Choco," the translation unit said. "You give choco donut. Please."

"No," I said, and closed the viewport. The Demons had an exceptionally sharp sense of smell.

"He wants a donut," I told the Prof.

"Good. I'll give it." He picked up one of the donuts, walked over to Louie's cube, and opened the viewport. I couldn't give him the donut because I was the designated bad guy.

"You want choco donut yes no," Prof said.

"Yes. Please."

"Good you. We talk good. We like Lhwoo-ee." He passed a donut through the dispenser under the viewport, then closed the viewport down.

"We thank you," Louie said.

The Prof returned to his desk. "More progress every day," he said. "Louie may be our man."

"Did you find anything useful in the Drusweaven documents?" I asked. The Prof had been doing long-term research on a giant stack of handwritten and autotyped documents that we had confiscated from the Brothers in Blood, who didn't need them anymore.