Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (7 page)

"I'm afraid you're right."

"All right, all right. We wait until the pool closes and ambush them outside."

"Didn't you say the whole area was off limits?"

"Oh damn. Yes – the whole deck! It's for civilian passengers. If we even show up there, alarms are going to go off. Damn."

"Let's not lose hope. Back to the lounge. They loaded the whole ship's directory in our comsets, for our convenience, right? Probably just so we wouldn't be asking a lot of questions and bothering anyone. So see if there's a civilian passenger list."

"Yes! Good idea. But who do I look for?"

"Sheila. Sheila anybody. We'll figure it out."

"And what good does that do us?"

"Look, we arrive in Veltros tomorrow. We don't have time to do anything with these girls now. But they are presumably bound for Veltros as well."

"How do you know that? Maybe they’re the captain's kids, or something. Maybe they stay on the ship."

"Check the passenger lists," I said, patiently. We stepped through the doorway to the cargo lounge and headed for a table. "This is a long-term project. It'll be worth the wait."

"The Legion isn’t going to make it easy. Basic training – they'll be running our asses off." Arie was scanning the comset directory.

"Stop whining. Didn't you see those girls? Angels! I aim to see them again."

"I'm going to be dreaming about them all night. Man! That little blonde – what a treat! Like a human lollypop."

"Stop it. Just find a passenger list."

"All right, all right."

"
We want to go swimming too
," I said. "Good one. Not very imaginative, but good."

"
Um, going swimming
? You big dummy! I thought you majored in girls."

"I lied. I majored in being an idiot."

We stopped. Everybody stopped to gape. A gigantic planet hung before us, blazing reflected sunlight, blotting out the stars, so massive and threatening that I was half afraid we would crash into it and perish. It was stupifyingly beautiful, great green oceans streaked with silky white clouds, tiny magical microscopic islands of red earth and black rocks set in the ocean, and finally a great purple continent sliding into view, stopping the ocean, a miniature volcano spewing black ash into the atmosphere, wild blue mountain ranges and barren mottled badlands and a spidery tracery of glittering rivers reflecting sunlight like molten silver, and great golden lakes winking at us, teasing us. Dark thunderclouds hung low over the land, lightning flickering inside. I squinted and I could see the thin film of the atmosphere that guarded the planet against everything that was out there. Veltros! What a view. We couldn’t see a sign of life, but somewhere down there was Providence, where the Legion was going to hammer us into soldiers.

"Welcome to Veltros," I whispered to Arie.

"Man! Look at that," was all he could say.

Δ

It was a bumpy ride down on the
Hot Drop
, once we entered the atmosphere. The shuttle vibrated and hummed as the skin glowed red in protest. We had a great view out the simport. We were falling into nightside, and soon we could see the soft white mist of inhabited areas through the night. Despite the rough ride, I felt no discomfort this time. Once we entered the at, the planet's gravity and the shuttle's momentum tugged at us.

"So do you think the girls are headed downside, too?" Arie asked.

"Why come all this way and then stay on board? Sure they are. Maybe not on this shuttle, but they'll come."

"But how long will they stay?"

"Long enough for us to contact them and hit on them and persuade them to stay longer."

"They're just kids. They have to do what Mom and Dad tell them."

"Are you kidding? Did you ever do what your mom and dad told you?"

"Well, sometimes. I mean, until I joined the Legion."

"We'll find them. And it'll work out. They love us, remember? That's what the blonde said."

"The Prophet speaks. Well, I hope you're right." Arie turned his attention back to the simport. The ship's directory had provided us with Honeyhair's name – Sheila Dantos – and the pool pass list had allowed us to deduce that Blondie was Katrina Weyvoulias, who was listed right next to Sheila on the list. Sheila and Katrina, thumping in our hearts. Sheila was accompanying her parents, and Katrina was escorted by a female Weyvoulias who was probably her mother. Arie had already claimed Blondie as his own so I was left with Honeyhair, but I didn't mind. She was the most lovely creature in the galaxy so her acid comments didn't bother me at all.

It was all set – and all we had to do was regain contact and tell the girls that we loved them. What could possibly go wrong?

Δ

"Squad heel! No talking! Come! Follow me!" Doggie was leading us. I was thrilled to be on Veltros. We were filing away from the
Hot Drop
through a huge spaceport ablaze with lights. A starry night greeted us overhead but one horizon was bleeding with an ochre glow. I didn't know if it was sunset or sunrise. The air was cool and smelled of wet vegetation. The grav seemed a bit heavier than Eugarat. The other squads were with us. We were evidently headed for a large airbus that was lit up, awaiting our arrival. It had a logo shield on it and as we neared I made out the words:
LEGION TRAINING COMMAND
.

"Board! Now! Move it! Go!" Doggie was in his element. We followed 1
^st
Squad up the steps into the airbus, and Arie and I dropped into our seats.

"Man, I'm getting tired of all this travelling," Arie complained. "Are we there yet?"

"Not yet. Just a little longer."

"How many times do Legion soldiers eat per day? Once?"

"It’s still early. Perhaps breakfast will be awaiting us upon arrival."

"Ha! You're a funny guy."

Once everyone was aboard, the airbus lifted off silently and glided away into the night. The bus had panoramic plex windows but there wasn't much to see out there. The seats were very comfortable. I settled back and closed my eyes.

Δ

"Out! Now! Move it!" The interior lights flashed on. I couldn't have been asleep long, for Providence was not far from the starport. We stumbled out under a dark sky but a rosy dawn revealed a far-off mountain range and a nearby peak silhouetted by crimson. We were in an open space surrounded by endless rows of low white modular buildings set out in neat patterns.

"Form up! First squad right here, second squad behind –
NOW
, damnit!" We hustled to obey. The squad leaders were up front consulting with some officers. Despite the early hour, the place was busy. Columns of khaki-clad troopers trotted past us along spotless white roads. Some wore shorts and sleeveless tops, some were in camfax fatigues, but all were jogging. A squad of girls in running gear passed as we were lining up.

"You'll be saw-reeee!" one of them shouted. I didn't doubt it.

"Sir! Eugarat Transport Platoon Two Nine reports all present or accounted for!" somebody shouted.

"All right, you've got the data – get 'em moving."

"Second squad – come! Follow me," Doggie commanded. We followed, walking along in single file, each squad behind its leader. We walked silently through a vast portable city, hundreds of white low modular buildings of various sizes, each labeled with numbers or functional descriptions. As we walked, the sky slowly lightened. A cool breeze touched us. We were the only group that was walking – everyone else charged past us, trotting. Some were chanting but I couldn't make out the words.

Who were these people? I was amazed at the diversity of racial types in the troopers jogging past us. Our own Eugarat group was straight Outworlder, but it looked like the Legion had been recruiting all over the galaxy. I had studied race in midschool and so I was not surprised to see plenty of Assidics, who were obvious by their light brown skin, black hair, high cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes. These were the descendants of Saka the Invincible who had raised hell with the rest of the inhabited galaxy until his empire had overexpanded and collapsed. They were now strong allies with ConFree and the Outworlder race against all the slave states that had arisen in the wake of the collapse of the System, and a new race was arising as a lot of Outworlder males were attracted to Assidic females and a lot of Assidic males were turned on to Outworlder females. They had taught me that much in midschool but we didn't have many Assidics on Eugarat, and the rest of these exotics really surprised me. There were jet-black Cyrillians with slanted eyes like the Assidics, and as they ran past chanting, I could see the sharpened white teeth for which they were famous – or infamous. From time to time, exceptionally large troopers jogged past us, almost like giants, with shaved heads, invisible eyebrows and pale, slightly greenish skin. These were Mocains, Greenies, the old System's master race, and they had been our most formidable human enemies. What were they doing in the Legion? True, most of the troopers were Outworlders, but there were also plenty of others – including many I could not identify. They did not seem to be Outworlders and I couldn't ID any special ethnic traits. Perhaps they were Inners from the System – but what were Inners doing in the Legion?

Surprising, I thought. I knew the Legion accepted anyone who was willing to bleed for ConFree, but I had also been taught that multi-ethnic nations or empires were weak, not strong, and that they always resulted in serious internal conflict and ultimate collapse.

"Squad halt! Right face. That's it, that wasn't so hard, was it? All right, here's where we say goodbye. It's been fun, hasn't it?" Doggie asked. We were facing a giant building of white stone with a shield that proclaimed
LEGION TRAINING COMMAND
over a large entryway atop an imposing marble staircase where a whole gang of black-clad Legion troopers was evidently awaiting us, grimly eyeballing us and cracking their knuckles. The black ConFree flag hung limply from a huge flagpole in front of the building. I looked around. Long columns of khaki-clad volunteers were converging on this building from several wide, intersecting personnel roads. It evidently wasn't just Eugarat folks who were showing up here today. The other columns revealed a diversity of ethnic types and a goodly number of females as well as males.

"Now walk up the stairs and say hello to the nice men," Doggie said. "This squad is hereby disbanded. I will remember you all with great fondness. Any questions? Good! Now get up there." And he turned and walked away.

Δ

"
NOW! NOW! NOW!
Whattaya, deaf dumb
AND
stupid?
MOVE IT!"

The blackies, as I thought of them, had swarmed over us like attacking pirates and hustled us into the building and along a grand corridor while doing their best to terrify us into submission. We were instantly torn into smaller groups, and then into individual bodies, each beset by two or three blackies shouting contradictory things into our faces. Arie disappeared. Finally I was shoved into a line that led into a room with a sign that proclaimed
MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS
.

"
STRIP!
Off with your boots, off with your clothes, off with your shorts and tees and socks, the beltpak too, drop everything into the bins on your left, pick up a pack from the counter on your right, put on the shorts and tops, then move on." I danced around doing what they wanted. I noted that the females had evidently been diverted to another room, too bad. The new shorts and sleeveless tops were khaki, too.

"Out the door. Go, go, keep moving!" The blackies shoved me into the next room. Two medical types in white approached me, one male, one female. They gently pushed me up against a giant machine, evidently some type of body scanner, guided my head into the proper slot, and pushed my arms and shoulders into place.

"All right, don't move." Several blinding flashes later, they sent me on my way with white hot spots dancing before my eyes. The blackies harried me into the next room.

"Waddaya, blind? Stand in line!" We shuffled slowly forward towards some white-clad medics on both sides of the line. An icy breeze rippled over my right arm and one of the medics shot me in the arm with a little needlegun, then made an adjustment and did it again. My left arm then got cold and somebody else zapped me a few times over there. Then another injection in the left biceps. Both arms felt numb. I was pushed sideways and my left arm guided into a device extending from the wall. It closed over my arm.

"Don't move," a medic said. I felt another needle sliding into a vein. They were taking blood. When it released my arm, there was a little bandage on it.