“Yes,” Aurora agreed. “They’re incredible. I’ve catalogued over forty.”
“What’s behind there?” Freya asked.
“That’s his psyche. It’s very cute, but he keeps it hidden behind a shell of arrogance. Would you gals like to see it?”
“Oh yes,” Danae said. Freya nodded enthusiastically.
“OK,” Aurora said. “It will take me just a minute to remove his shell.”
Hamilton knew what was coming. Aurora was going to humiliate him in front of her friends. He tried to stand up to leave, but his muscles refused to answer his command.
“Now, Hamilton,” Aurora began, “let’s go back to the time when you were five years old and…”
It took only a minute for Aurora to summon up a string of embarrassing memories from Hamilton’s early childhood, and then he was stripped. Inside his mind, his psyche stood naked, a little boy staring upward at three beautiful smiling women.
“Awww, how cute!” Freya and Danae said in unison.
At this moment Kolta Bruna appeared. “Hello ladies,” she said. “Having some fun with an Earthling, I see. And you have his psyche stripped already. How delicious. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s tickle him a bit and expose his innermind.” She slid into the vacant chair at the table, and simultaneously Hamilton felt a fourth presence enter his mind.
Aurora grabbed Hamilton’s hand and held it tightly in hers. He felt her voice speaking firmly inside of his mind. “Hamilton, you are not five years old, you are an adult. You are a soldier in the United States Army. More than that, a Ranger, a Sergeant in the Rangers. The best of the best. Stand tall. Stand proud!”
SuddenlyHamilton’s psyche was half-grown and had clothes. Two of the feminine presences slipped out his mind, leaving only Aurora and the newcomer. Now Aurora’s voice said: “Here, take this.” Inside his mind Aurora’s presence seemed to give something to his psyche, something that somehow resembled a small round shield. “Good,” Aurora’s voice said. “Now hit her with it. I’ll help you.” He felt a force inside him lift the shield, and it smashed into the newcomer with a violent blow. The newcomer fled. Aurora gave his psyche an affectionate pat on the head, and then, leaving him with the shield, followed the intruder out.
Kolta Bruna rubbed her forehead. She looked angrily at Aurora. “That was rude!”
Aurora stared at the reporter coldly. “Stay out of my property,” she said.
Kolta Bruna shook here head. “You people. When will you learn that the war is over?”
“Is it?”
There was several seconds of uncomfortable silence at the table. Then Freya reached out and touched Aurora’s hand gently.
“Aurora dear, we know how much you have been through, butyou’ve got to let your hatred go. The war is over.It’s time to forgive. Kolta Bruna is a wonderful and kind person. We went to college together and hit it off from the first day. Danae is friends with her too. I know you would like her if you would just give her a chance. She’s so savvy and sophisticated, and has so much insight into relationships. The four of us could be such good friends, if you could just put the past behindyou.”
Aurora didn’t answer, but tears formed in her eyes.
Danae spoke with sympathy. “Listen, Aurora, you know how I feel about the Central Empire. My father won three gold triangles and was commended by the Empress herself for his role in helping to defeat them. After the Central’s raid into Sagittarius, our home planet was considered too risky to stay on, and I spent the second half of the war growing up in a battlecruiser. I saw their cruelty in action in their sneak attack in the Orion Cluster, and in the Pegasus campaign, and every battle right up to the end. But it did end. Their empire is disarmed, their Empress has abdicated, and apologies have been given and accepted. It’s all ancient historynow.”
Aurora shook her head. “Fifteen years ago is not ancient history.”
Kolta Bruna scoffed. “There’s no point talking with her. She cannot forgive because she cannot love.”
“That’s an age-old antiMinervan slander,” Aurora said.
“It’s simply the truth,” Kolta Bruna smiled. “You deny Aphrodite, ergo, you cannot love. Everyone knows it.”
Aurora looked to her friends for support, but to her dismay, they just stared down at the table. Infuriated, she launched a counterattack.
“Oh, and I suppose it was love that you were demonstrating on Pegasus 3?”
Kolta Bruna was dismissive.“There you go again. Always fixated on thepast.”
Aurora crossed her arms. “Is it the past? Your broadcast yesterday would seem to indicate otherwise.”
“So you object my bringing to Galactic attention your oppression of the natives?”
“I object to the fact that you are running a campaign whose purpose is to mobilize Galactic opinion to pressure the WGE to stop supplying us with tools we desperatelyneed to defend ourselves.”
“Well I hardly think the WGE would have given you your advanced weaponry if they had known you would use them tomassacre children.”
Danae broke in. “The arms in question were surplus class-8 reflective
disarmers. They hardly could be termed ‘advanced weaponry.’ In our opinion, they are the minimum required to provide the Minervan settlement with security from the local savages.”
“But wouldn’t peace be a better path?” Freya asked. “Why can’t we learn from the past? No good ever comes ofviolence.”
“Freya,” Aurora said,“we offered the natives all sorts of benefits, but they just want to kill us. We tried peace. Believe me, we tried.”
Kolta Bruna smiled. “But if you didn’t have your WGE-supplied weapons, perhaps you mighthave tried a little harder.”
Aurora looked at the reporter coldly. “You haven’t changed a bit. You’re just trying to get us all killed.”
Freya said, “Aurora, its really very unfair of you to link prior Central Empire anti-Minervan excesses with their current opinions. The Centrals have repented of their old militaristic ways, and are trying to be the opposite of what they once were. That is why they are so upset now, when they see the oppression going onhere.”
Aurora was adamant. “It’s not oppression. It’s selfdefense.”
“When the strong do violence to the weak,” Kolta Bruna said, “that is oppression. And all people with love in their hearts must oppose it.”
“Why don’t you take your loving heart back to Pegasus 3 and jump into a photolysis chamber. I’m sure there are still plenty of people back there who can operate it for you.”
“Aurora, that was a horrible thing to say.” Freya’s eyes were tearful. “You know, Aurora, how special you are to me. We were like sisters when we were girls. It pains me so much to see you like this. Why can’t you embrace the Goddess of Love, alongside the Goddess of Reason? Can’t you see that there is a whole side of reality, a wonderful side, that you are missing out on? I wish so much that you would open your heart to Aphrodite. You’ll feel so blessed when youdo.”
Aurora looked at her girlhood friend. “Freya, your people were kind to me, to all of us, and every Minervan will always be grateful for the help you gave us in our time of need. But don’t ask us to change our religion. The torch of Reason is an ancient trust, which we have used to bring light to the Galaxy. We will never betray it. We will never dilute it. We will never,” she looked briefly at Kolta Bruna,“pollute it. We are what we are. We are proud of what we are, and we will not change. And certainly I, a Priestess of the Third Circle, as was my mother, and my mother’s moth- ers for five generations, certainly I will never abandon ourfaith.”
“But,” Freya pleaded, “love is such a wonderful thing. Why can’t you…”
“We do love, just as you do.”
Freya was bewildered. “I don’t see how that is possible.”
Danae cut in. “Freya, give the girl some space. Minervans have a right to keep to their ancient ways.”
“Such as oppressing the helpless natives of a
primitiveplanet,” Kolta Bruna chided.
“We are not oppressing anybody!” Aurora shouted.
“Oh really?” Kolta Bruna arched an eyebrow and smiled.“Why don’t we find out? We have an Earthling right here at the table. Let’s ask him.” She turned to Hamilton. “Earthling, how do you feel about the Minervan occupation? And how…oh, I see, well this is very interesting indeed.” She paused and smiled at the other women. “How do you feel about your personal captivity to our brainy little friendhere?”
All four women turned and looked at Hamilton, who found himself completely confused. The question had thrown his thoughts in a jumble. He wanted to be fair. Aurora sometimes could be very cruel, but she was also sometimes quite kind. He had fired on her first, and she had taken him prisoner in open combat. He couldn’t fault her for that, and certainly in all material respects she treated him far better than the US Army treated its POWs. On the other hand, she seemed to be completely oblivious to his need for dignity—it had been only minutes since she had last humiliated him for her friends’ amusement. But then she had protected him from some kind of mind-rape from this very woman who was now trying to get him to denounce her. And then there was the business with the wounded children the previous week. Aurora had let him save them; this other woman had tried to stop him so she could film them dying on camera.
He looked at Kolta Bruna and said: “I think you are full of shit.”
Kolta Bruna was enraged. She looked around the table and said, “Ladies, are we going to tolerate such insolence from a savage?”
Aurora laughed, “Out of the mouths of savages—the primitive truth! Hamilton, you really are a poet!” She laughed again.
Danae said,“His words may have been rude, but I think we all caught his thought-stream. Rather incoherent perhaps, but eloquent nevertheless.”
Kolta Bruna shook her head. “It just proves my point. She has him totally confused.” She turned to Hamilton. “Look, creature. Don’t you realize that she just let you haul off those pups in order to avoid bad PR? If you had just let them die in the plaza, as they themselves wanted, our footage could have helped liberate your planet. Doesn’t that mean any- thing to you?”
Hamilton bristled. “Doesn’t it mean anything to you that the children were dying? Whatever her motives, I’m glad she let me save them. You would have had them die, just to spice up your TVshow.”
“I was thinking of the greater good for your people.”
“Oh, yeah. You’re so concerned about Earthlings that five minutes ago you were going to mindrape me.”
“I’m concerned about the plight of Earthlings as a whole, not partic- ular Earthlings.” Kolta Bruna smiled. “As a woman, I need to have some fun now and then. The kind of pleasure I could have derived by playing around with your inner mind a little bit would have refreshed me, giving me new energy for my campaign to help your people. Of course youdon’t think about that. Youjust think about yourself.” She turned to the others. “Really. What can one expect from a savage?”
Aurora intoned: “Entering the inner mind of any thinking creature, even that of a savage, without its voluntary consent, represents a fundamental violation of…”
Kolta Bruna cut heroff. “Your religion, little priestess, not mine.”
“What you tried to do was a sin,” Aurora insisted. In response, Kolta Bruna just shrugged.
Freya said,“ReallyAurora, youcan’t expect Kolta Bruna to be bound by the commandments of a Goddess she does not believe in. Now why can’t we all just be friends?”
At that moment, a Minervan man ran into the plaza holding a very large dead and discolored salmon. “They’ve poisoned the fish!” he wailed.
Aurora’s eyes opened wide with horror. “Oh no,” she said. “Not the fish farms.”
As the group atHamilton’s table watched, a large crowd of Minervan men quickly surrounded the fish farmer. From the opposite end of the plaza, the Temple gates opened, and out stepped the High Priestess Nendra, followed by the twelve members of the Minervan High Council. A man with two large owls adorning his shoulders stepped out from the crowd and, holding the dead fish in both hands, faced the advancing officials. “High Priestess,” he said. “The men of New Minervapolis demand action.”
The High Priestess looked at the dead salmon and nodded solemnly. Aurora spoke urgently to Hamilton.“Hamilton, run home and stay in your quarters until I tell you it’s safe to come out. All Tartarus is about to breakloose.”
Kolta Bruna grinned. “Well, it looks like it’s not going to be a slow news day after all. If you’ll excuse me ladies, I’ve got work to do.”
Auroradidn’t bother to answer. She looked at Hamilton, who was just getting up out of his chair.“I said run, Hamilton. I meant it. Run, now!”
He just made it out of the square when the riot began.
Chapter 9
That evening, Hamilton watched the broadcast with dismay. “This is Kolta Bruna, reporting from Earth for the Galactic News Service.”
“The Minervan occupation of the Earthling city of Kennewick
reached new levels of horror and brutality today with the unleashing of
the full force of the owl worshippers’ militia on the helpless natives.” The camera showed images of rampaging groups of perfectly fit
Minervan men beating up Kennewickians of all ages and sexes. One
Earthling man trying to fight back threw a punch, and had his arm fried
by electroshock when it touched the Minervan’s clothing. Another
American pulled a knife, only to have it blow up in his hand. Resistance
was obviously impossible.
“The purpose of these latest systematic atrocities appears to be to
drive the last remaining Kennewickians from their homes.” As Hamilton watched, the terrified Earthling population stampeded
towards the border. Behind them as they fled, their homes were squashed
flat by invisible forces stamping down on them like giant elephant feet. “The evicted Kennewickians are all being forced to live in wretched
refugee camps on the edge of the Minervan occupied zone. There they
will starve or die of disease in droves, except for those who the
Minervans allow to enter the city by day to slave in their greenhouses and
fish farms. But even these will be forced to undergo the most brutal and
humiliating treatment seen anywhere in the Galaxytoday.” “Specifically, all Earthlings not under the direct supervision of a
Minervan mind reader are banned completely from the inner city, all the
way out to the inner perimeter. Between the inner perimeter and the middle perimeter, Earthlings may work, but must undergo automated outer
mind scans once every four hours. Between middle perimeter and the preMay 1 border, all Earthlings slaving for the Minervans must subject themselves to outer mind scans every twenty-four hours. Earthlings living
beyond the pre-May 1 border have been allowed to keep their homes, but
all those remaining between the old border and the new outer perimeter
must now undergo mind scans every ninety-six hours. Between the outer
perimeter and theAmerican front line is the zone of the camps, which the
Minervans now state they will invade ‘as required,’ or in other words,
according to whim, to subject the poor starving folk there to these gratuitous cruelties.”
“As I saw these brutal actions today, my heart broke with pity for the
poor helpless and innocent Earthlings, forced to live under the iron heel
of a people without love.”
“The Universal League Charter calls for freedom from oppression for
all peoples everywhere. Some say the Earth is a trivial planet of no importance. Perhaps in itself it is. But is this not a test case for the UL Charter?
Will the owl worshippers be able to turn it into a meaningless scrap of
osmopropy
lene? And what will be the cost to all of us if theydo?” “From the primitive planet Earth, this is Kolta Bruna, reporting live
for the GNS.”
There was a knock on the door. Hamilton switched off the video and
went to answer it. But before he could reach the entrance, the door opened
and Aurora walked in.
The priestess looked at the Ranger. “I see you’ve been watching
Kolta Bruna’s broadcast.”
Hamilton nodded. “Was it as bad as she said?”
“No, but it was badenough.”Aurora walked to the center of the room
and stared at the fountain.“Over a third of the fish farms were destroyed.
Under the circumstances there was no holding themback.” “Holding who back? You mean the Minervan men?” “Yes. And as you can see, they are not as gentle as we are.” Hamilton joined the priestess at the fountain. “I thought in your soci-
ety the women ran the show.”
Aurora looked amazed. “What? That’s absurd. We have hardly any
power at all. All we control is religion, government, science, education,
and life inside the home. The men run nearly everythingelse.” “Meaning what?”
“They control the military and the economy.”
“So the men in your society own all the wealth?”
“Not exactly. The men own all the factories and fish farms and have
all the jobs in them.” Aurora put a finger in her hair and gently twirled a
lock. “Of course, since we control the government we can balance the
scales a little by taxing their excess income.”
“How much of it do you tax?”
“Only 90 percent. However, when a Minervan woman chooses a man
for a husband, she assumes ownership of 90 percent of his income. Thus
together, these two measures set the male share of national income at 1
percent, which is bearable, although we hope to trim it considerably and
obtain a more reasonable split in thefuture.”
“Ninety-nine to one isn’t reasonable enough for you?”
“Of course not. What do men need money for? It’s only their control
The Holy Land: Fanatical Earthling planet assassins are spreading chaos through the galaxy. Is there any nice way to stop them? Page 8
