Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (31 page)

"Yes, Prophet. Yes, I did. I've followed the trail further since the last time we spoke. I have confirmation positive that she was on the Ringgold cargo manifest. Here it is." He peered at a document. "'Carol Surinto, female, age 11.' That's all it says. But then there's the delivery receipt on Drusweaven. 'C. Surinto, F, age 11. Detention Bay 8.' I checked with the tacmap and Detention Bay 8 was not targeted by our initial tacstars and was not later damaged. But I have learned that she was not there when we attacked. According to these Brothers in Blood records, on 378/09/12, she was purchased by Household Industries, which is a notorious slave market on the world Quatar 8. Carol Surinto, sex F, age 12, medically certified virgin. Household Industries paid 150,000 Quatar credits for her. From a separate source, I learned that she departed Drusweaven 378/10/03 on the Personal Ship Starstruck, bound for Quatar 8. That's where the trail ends. There is no record of any ship named the Starstruck, in any galactic registry. It just departed from Drusweaven, that one time, but never existed before or after. So my next move has to be to target Quatar 8 to see what I can learn about Household Industries and the Starstruck, which is affiliated with Household Industries."

"And how are we going to do that?"

He looked up at me slowly. "We? Prophet. I can always count on you, can't I? I thank you. I will tell you when I come up with a proper course of action."

"I'll be there, Prof."

Δ

Δ

Louie appeared to be the weak link in our trio of smelly Demons. He was just as concerned about "brights" as Huey and Dewey were, but he was more willing to talk. We didn't necessarily believe him and were careful that he might be trying to deceive us. Our brainscan devices told us a lot about the Demon brain, but at this point it could not highlight either sincerity or deception.

"We talk brights," the Prof said to Louie. Kimmie and I were standing by on full alert. We were getting closer to whatever it was.

"Brights bad," Louie crackled and chirped, followed by the translation.

"You talk brights bad. We talk brights good."

"Brights no good! Brights kill Tribe!"

My adrenalin gave me a jolt.
Brights kill Tribe!
Deadman! We had been waiting for this for months! The "Tribe" was the translation for what the Demons called themselves.

"Brights kill Tribe Brights bad. Why Brights kill Tribe?" Prof asked. The word "why" was a really important concept and it had taken us awhile to come up with a translation. But we had it now!

"Brights hate Tribe, Brights kill Tribe."

"Why Brights hate Tribe?"

"Brights Tribe fight."

"Why Brights Tribe fight?"

"You give choco donut." The Prof handed it over and Louie nibbled at it slowly, savoring the taste.

"Why Brights Tribe fight?"

"Brights take Tribe goodplace." We still hadn't figured out exactly what goodplace was. Presumably it meant home.

"Why Brights take Tribe goodplace?" Without why we would be severely limited in what we could ask.

"Brights want kill Tribe."

"Where Brights?"

"Brights Tribe goodplace." Kimmie and I were frozen, hardly daring to breathe. Louie was on a roll, and so was the Prof.

"You talk Brights body."

"Brights bad no happy eyes yellow-hair. Brights hot sun burn eyes. Brights yes tall no short."

"Brights arms legs yes no."

"Brights arms yes two, legs yes two. Head yes one. Brights bad no happy eyes."

"Kimmie, I think it's time for you to give Louie a donut." She took one over and slid it into the slot.

"We thank happy eyes yellow-hair," Louie said.

"Yellow hair talk Lhwoo-ee have big sex," the Prof said. It was clearly time to further motivate our target.

"We sex yellow-hair!"

"You talk Brights body."

"Brights small sex. Tribe big sex."

"Why Tribe leave goodplace?"

"Brights Tribe goodplace. Brights kill Tribe. Tribe look new goodplace."

"Prophet, please tell Ambassador Wester to come here immediately."

"Yes sir," I said. I was so excited my voice was shaking, the blood was icy cold in my veins and the hair was rising on the back of my neck.

Δ

It was only a few days later when we stood before the ship, looking up at it. It was beautiful – completely seamless, completely invulnerable. Floating soundlessly, glowing softly with those faint agate-like strips – glittering metallic colors. The Prof and I and Kimmie stood there beside Ambassador Wester and General Aran. The rest of the gang – all the techies and scientists – were keeping their distance. A squad of armored Assidics and a squad of armored Legion troopers – our own Squad Beta – were in positions around the ship, clutching their weapons. Several probes and a whole lot of invisible eyemotes were floating around the ship.

Louie stood next to the Professor, snacking on a donut, his stinking moist fur crawling with parasites. He looked around curiously, then let his gaze wander up to the ship.

"You open ship," the Prof said. We were using a portable translation unit.

"You no talk Tribe Lhwoo-ee open ship."

"We no talk Tribe Lhwoo-ee open ship."

"You give Lhwoo-ee new goodplace."

"We give Lhwoo-ee new goodplace."

"Lhwoo-ee open ship," Louie replied. Then he said something else and an opening appeared on the side of the ship and the ship slowly floated downwards and landing skids appeared and the ship touched down and a ramp slid out from the opening and the ship stopped moving.

It was deathly silent. A couple of probes slowly floated into the opening. A terrible stench reached us. We couldn't see what was inside there but it looked like at least part of the interior had been scorched by the Assidic tacstar. And something was dead in there.

It was the stench of victory.

"I saw it, Tara. Excellent news. Thinker has outdone himself." He settled into an airsofa by the picture window. Tara joined him. Thinker was Ambassador Wester's warname. He was an old comrade of both Tara and Dragon.

"Wester says it wasn't him – it was his guys."

"Ah, he's the man. It's his command. You're right, this is just wonderful. So – we know why the Demons are here. They're fleeing the Brights, who are pursuing them in Dimension X. And I don't think there's much doubt that these Brights are the Wanderers, who settled our galaxy in ancient times. Or their descendants."

"Yes, and even then they were warring with the Demons. The Brights were surely the angels, and the demons were the devils, beasts or fiends of our most ancient religions and legends."

"Well, we can't be sure about that, Tara, but you may be right. Now that we've got at least one of these Demons talking, we will certainly learn more. But it's extremely important that we know what we are fighting, and why. It's a migration. Fleeing feared enemies. That's extremely dangerous. And we've got to stop it."

"Agreed."

"Now – about the ship. At last! The damned thing is open!'

"Thank Deadman for choco donuts."

"That's been our most effective weapon so far. So we can expect to learn more about how the ship works, how its weapons work, how they travel between dimensions and a lot more."

"Yes, Dragon."

"Well, it's about time. I understand that we've zeroed in on various weak points of the Demons' individual weapons systems."

"That's correct. It looks very good."

"So. Can we stop ignoring the O's?" Dragon asked.

"Ignoring them?"

"They gave us good info on the Demons. Invaluable info that allowed us to respond properly with a defensive plan. Right?"

"Agreed."

"I'd like it better if the O's didn't exist. But they do and they are a formidable force. You know how they are. If you prove yourself by deeds to be a friend and ally, they will cross you off their list of things to be killed and eaten."

"I'm not sending Legion troopers to defend the O's."

"Neither am I, Tara. Here's what we do. Once we get all the details on the weak points of these demon individual weapons systems, we give them to our friends. The A's, the Biogens, the Santos Freestate, the Dark Cloud Alliance, and the Pleiades Association. Then we send them to the O's as well. That will be our response to their helpful info. All right?"

"That's fine, Dragon. I was going to suggest sending the info to our friends. I guess we can send it to the O's as well. They did us a service."

"They certainly did. How are the construction projects going?"

"Going full blast. The excavation info from the A's was quite valuable. And our architects are imaginative and effective. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to be able to charge into these shelters at once, on foot, with no crowding or pushing, and get instant transport downsides. And once they enter, they'll be safe."

"Good. Good. I feel a lot better about that. Until we start gaining info from the ship, we will be completely vulnerable to a surprise space-air antimat attack like that we saw done to the O's. So these shelters will at least protect our people while our forces are on the way to the unexpected attack."