Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (5 page)

"How do I look?" Arie whispered. We were braced together in the 2
^nd
Squad.

"You look great," I whispered back. "The girls will love you."

"Girls? They got girls? You're dreaming." We really did look good, all of us, in new khaki fatigues that fit us perfectly after we walked through the autotailor, and supple synleather boots that also fit us perfectly after we stood in the autoshoe for a couple of fracs. Even the khaki field caps looked good, transforming us into a pretty good imitation of a bunch of soldiers until you looked a little closer and noticed the long hair and assorted mustaches and beards. We each had a small beltpak for those few personal items that we were allowed to retain. The fellow with the bone in his nose no longer had it, and all earwear and body piercings were either gone or in the beltpaks.

"All right, bodies.
SILENCE
! One column! Follow me!" Our leader marched off towards the ship, and we followed, guided into a column by the other troopers. The quiet of the new day enveloped us. I was fascinated by the shuttle. I had never been in space before. Strange, I thought, how one's fate is determined. I wise off to a sales clerk and the next thing I know I'm in the ConFree Legion. They should put up warning signs about that. But I knew it was my own damned fault.

Δ

"Bodies, take your seats and strap in. We are green for upside." The ship's announcement caught us as we were filing through a narrow tubular corridor lined with webbed personnel seats, two on each side.

"Second squad, sit! Stay!" Our Legion minder was a bundle of laughs. He was a slim, wiry Outworlder clad in Legion black. I slipped into a seat that appeared to be up against the ship's fuselage. It was kind of hard to tell; they had dragged us through a confusing maze of corridors and bulkheads. Arie took the aisle seat beside me. The seats were made of poly fiber webbing, seemingly indestructible, possibly designed for troopers in A-suits.

"Man, I'm lost," Arie said. "I hope this thing doesn't crash, 'cause I don't know which way is out."

"Say, look at this," I said. Lights were starting to come on and a long, flat panel suddenly came to life, full of light and running along the fuselage by my side. It gave me an excellent view of the spaceport and a bunch of cargo groundcars zipping along nearby.

"Is that a window or a d-screen?" Arie asked. I touched it with my finger. It felt like solid plex.

"Beats me," I said. "But it's a nice view. I think it's a digital view." The 3
^rd
squad was settling in behind us and the 1
^st
was ahead of us.

"Probably a safety feature," Arie said. "I'm sure it’s not for our amusement. How do they know we're all here?" There had not been any security nonsense – we had just marched up the entry ramp and onto the ship.

"They know," I replied. "What do you think these buttons are?" We each had a little gold button fused to our fatigue jackets.

"I guess it’s too late to desert."

"Don't leave me behind – you're the only soul I know." There had been zero time so far to chat up our fellow victims.

"Attention the ship! Final warning. Secure all packs and bodies. Crew, stand to launch stations. All personnel strap in." A few warning chimes sounded urgently. I braced myself.

"Lifting off. Temple Port, the Hot Drop is launched. Have a good day!" Outside the ground slowly dropped away although there was no noise and no sensation of movement inside the ship. I gaped at the view – the spaceport drifted away dreamily to one side.

"That's it?" Arie asked. "I thought we were going to blast off."

"Not even a countdown," I said. "Haven't you done star travel before?"

"No, have you?"

"No. I guess it's not as noisy as advertised." That's when the drive kicked in. We could hear it all right, a frightening, unending shriek. The vibrations ran through the ship and we were pressed into our seats by the acceleration. Antimat drive, I knew. Unlimited power, and all for us.

"All right, that's more like it!" Arie exclaimed, over the noise.

"Well that's it, our journey has begun. There's no turning back now."

"Are you always this philosophical?"

"No, it started when I signed up for the Legion." Outside a fiery glow was flickering around the viewport. I quickly looked away.

"This is kind of, uh, scary. When does it end?" Arie asked. The drive continued roaring away and the G's continued building. It was getting downright uncomfortable. I felt a bit worried, but I didn't want Arie to know it. What if something went wrong? We'd all die, vaporized in a giant blast of gas.

"It ends when we reach escape velocity," I replied. "It's not easy breaking away from a planet's grav and entering orbit."

"Stand by for orbit," a metallic voice announced. "Stand by for zero G. All personnel remain strapped in."

The roar cut off abruptly. The G's ceased and we were suddenly weightless, still strapped into our seats. I stole a glance out the viewport and was rewarded with a stunning, magical view of Eugarat, a gigantic orb streaked with white clouds, blue oceans glittering in the sun like liquid gold. I could only see a small portion of the planet but it was enough to bring a lump to my throat. The atmosphere was clearly visible against the black of space, an amazingly thin, insubstantial blanket of air covering the planet, seemingly just waiting to be blown away. What a beautiful planet, I thought. My own planet! We're microscopic worms, I thought, wriggling in a thin sheet of life.

"Look out there," I said. Arie was already leaning over to get the view. He was pretty much speechless. So was I. Everyone was gaping out the viewport, but there wasn't much conversation.

Δ

"Man, I don’t feel so good," Arie said. He looked a little green. We had been weightless for quite awhile and forbidden from getting out of our seats.

"Well, don't puke on me," I said. "There's some vomit bags just under your seat." The sense of balance in my inner ear was going, I was getting dizzy, and my stomach did not feel good, either. I couldn't figure out where my field cap had gone.

"Are we ever gonna get wherever we're going?"

"Why yes," I said. "Wow! Look at that!" Something had just appeared on the viewport. A silvery ship, reflecting sunlight, just like some perfect toy, a long long way away. A starship. Our destination. At that point I knew very little about starships, but that amazing vision transfixed me. I didn't know if it was a cruiser or a tacship or a battlestar or a junker transport, but I can tell you it was one of the most utterly beautiful things I had ever seen in my short life. Look at that!

"Wow!" Arie exclaimed. 'Is that our ship?"

"That's affirmative, Arie. That's our lovely ship. That's what will take us to Veltros, and Providence. And our new life."

"Man! What are you, a prophet? What's our new life going to be like?"

"It's going to be terrific!" I was convinced of it, I'm not sure why.

"Well, maybe you're right. I'm starting to feel better already."

"Look at that ship!" We were getting closer. A silent, glowing silver starship, an indestructible jewel set in that inky vac, an artificial human star, an incredible refuge for wandering souls in a hostile merciless cosmos. It was a huge cylinder, bristling with scores of cargo containers affixed to the ship like metallic parasites. One tiny cargo shuttle slowly detached itself from a container that it had just delivered to the mother ship. The ship glowed with lights and one gaping cargo door was open, black in shadow.

"That's the Dark Lady," our nameless minder told us from his seat, looking back over the squad. He was medium height, with piercing grey eyes and close-cut brown hair. "She's a Fleetcom star transport. She'll take us to Providence. First class, all the way."

As we neared the
Dark Lady
, details became clearer. Besides the cargo containers I noted two tiny shuttles, affixed to the starship like lifeboats, and an empty docking blister between them. Those delta-shaped shuttles were the same type as our shuttle, the
Hot Drop
, and I was pretty sure we would dock right between them. It clarified the size of the starship – it was truly immense, blinding us with reflected sunlight, blotting out the stars. The cargo shuttle I noted earlier was gliding away from the ship, its task complete.

"Stand by for docking. We are go for docking." I continued gaping at the incredible scene outside. I could no longer see Eugarat – just that lovely ship, as we glided closer and closer, in a silent glorious ballet of blinding starlight and inky shadows. Closer and closer, settling right into the docking port.

"Capture. Docking confirmed, all seals confirm secure. Stand by for ship grav." The shuttle shuddered briefly, then stilled. Several warning chimes dinged.

"Activating ship grav. Stand by and secure any loose gear." Gravity returned and we settled gently into our seats. My field cap fell lightly to the deck from wherever it had been floating. My balance center began to reorient itself. My stomach still felt kind of queasy. The
Hot Drop's
artificial gravity had just been switched on, to assist us in getting up and moving into the
Dark Lady
.

"Man. Why didn't they do that before?" Arie objected.

"All right, bodies. Listen up," our squad leader instructed us. He did not appear to be any older than we were. "Follow me into the ship. When we enter the personnel portal, we will lose the shuttle's artificial gravity just before we enter the field of the starship's grav. Just make sure you keep at least one hand on the guide rails or you may lose your balance and float away, or fall and break your head. I'd hate for anything like that to happen because it would look bad on my record. All right, release your restraints, step into the aisle and follow me in an orderly manner. If possible. Squad, stand! Heel!"

I remembered from science class they had once tried to explain to us how a ship's artificial gravity system worked, but I never understood the explanation. I do remember that they said if science could figure out how to use AG to propel a starship it would revolutionize galactic transportation and communications. But they hadn't been able to do it. Starships used antimat drive and artificially enlarged quantum wormholes and they worked just fine so I didn’t see why they would need another method of star travel. But what do I know?

We filed into the starship along the personnel portal and it wasn't so bad. I got a little dizzy near the center of the portal as we lost the grav but we regained it quickly. Our leader marched us under the open entry hatch topped by a heraldic shield that proclaimed
CS DARK LADY * TS-86
, depicting a sultry, captivating, scantily-clad female with long, flowing black hair. A couple of Fleetcom folks, clad in black, manned a com station at the entry gate but ignored us as we marched past. I was so ignorant at that point that I didn't know if they were officers or real people.

We marched along a wide, spotless corridor with a glowing ceiling. I was getting used to the ship grav. It seemed a little heavy to me, but what did I know? We soon found ourselves in a spacious entry hall that intersected with several other corridors. Our minders guided us past a counter manned by two more Fleetcom types, evidently clerks, monitoring some d-screens. As we approached the counter, the line slowed down. When I got there a low, musical tone pinged soothingly, a d-screen instantly filled with data and then glowed green. One of the clerks read the data, extracted a little ID card from a slot below the d-screen, and slid it over the counter to me.

"Rains?" he asked.

"That's me."

"Place this ID over your suit ID button and don't ever be without it. If you lose it, you will be instantly detained. See your super for further info. Next."

I moved on and examined the new ID. Under the heading TS86 Dark Lady, the little metal card identified me as Rains, Richard, classified me as
PERS CARGO
and provided a long Legion serial number. There was no pix. I placed it over the little gold ID button on my tunic and it affixed itself there.

"So we're cargo," Arie said, fooling with his new ID. "Is that good or bad?"

"I think it's good. If we're cargo, maybe we won't have any duties and we get to relax."

"I wonder if they feed pers cargo."

"All right, bodies. Heel! Second squad, follow me!" He still hadn't given us a name. We followed, shuffling along another corridor, then into a wide personnel elevator. It shot down abruptly and then snapped open in the midst of a row of other elevators lining a wall along a wide corridor. We followed our minder along to a grand foyer with a dizzying view of both upper and lower levels. Random crew members bustled past us as if they had something to do. We paused by a balustraded marble railing and I could see up several levels. Richly carpeted personnel staircases wound up and down. Fleetcom was not into luxury but the overall effect was satisfying – clean, functional, and Spartan. I don’t suppose it was real marble, but a damned good imitation.

"This is Deck 15A, Midships," our leader told us. "Your quarters are in Pers Cargo Hold 33. Remember it. Now pay attention and follow me. On a starship you walk on greensides." We followed along another corridor, evidently into the heart of the ship. Little green lights dotted the wall from time to time on our left side. An unmanned cargo pallet shot past on my right, almost hitting me. That wall had little red lights.
Walk on greensides. Fine.