Urania grinned. “Yes, I know.You’re Priestess Aurora’s study specimen. I’ve read her report. Such excellent research, truly amazing given the primitive conditions she had to work in. You must be very proud of her.”
“Yes, Aurora is …amazing,” was all Hamilton could muster.
“You know,” Urania continued breezily, “much more could be dis- covered if proper facilities were available. At the Anthropo Institute we have a complete array of the latest mind-probing technology and comprehensive backup with top-quality specialists available in all related subdisciplines. Perhaps after this war is over you could help me prevail upon Aurora to take you back with us. With the equipment we have, we could map every thought, pseudo thought, and neurosis in your outer mind with unequalled precision, perhaps well enough to allow us to assist you in overcoming your instinctive defensiveness against an inner-mind survey. The gains for science could be sospectacular.”
Hamilton gulped. “I’m not sure that would be such a good idea.”
Urania detected his alarm.“There’s nothing to worryabout,” she said reassuringly. “At the Anthropo Institute Aurora would be given full CoInvestigator status, with complete authority to direct the research. So there would be no loss of experimental continuity. And you would be kept in safe, sanitary facilities that are fully compliant with the Interstellar Committee on Scientific Practices in Anthropological Research regulations on the humane treatment of laboratorysubjects.”
Hamiltondidn’t like where the conversation was going.“Why do you need me for an investigative subject? There are six billion other Earthlings.”
Urania shook her head. “Unfortunately they’ve all now been contaminated by uncontrolled contact with Weegee consumer technology. You were collected under pristine conditions, and Aurora has done an excellent job in documenting all of your interactions and mental changes since that time. So as a scientific specimen for studying Earthling psychology, you are absolutely unique. We really must haveyou.”
The Ranger decided to change the subject. “So, you are from the Northern Confederation. What are you doing here with the Weegee fleet?”
Urania smiled.“We’re here to help our sisters in the Western Galactic Empire in the war against the Peruvian planet assassins. The Empress Minaphera has called for an grand interstellar coalition to fight this menace, and the Universal League has endorsed her call. Accordingly, our squadron has been sent here to join in the liberation of Peru.”
“I didn’t realize the WGE needed any help in fighting Peru,” Hamilton said.“I heard they had a thousand space battleships in this fleet, plus over ten thousand cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and patrol boats. How big is yoursquadron?”
“We have five frigates and a fast emergency repair vessel.”
“That doesn’t sound like it should change the strategic balance very much.”
“In strictly military terms, no,” Urania conceded. “However from a political point of view, it is essential that the galaxy stand united against such barbarism. So we have sent our reconnaissance squadron, the Eastern Galactics have sent a prison ship, and the Central Federation is sending a medical vessel. As soon as the latter gets here, the assault should begin.”
“All for an attack on Peru.” Hamilton shook his head. Even the US Army would have no trouble taking out Peru. His guess was that any one of the WGE warships would have been more than sufficient to do the job. Urania read his mind. “Actually, our presence in the Interstellar Coalition Armada is not superfluous. While the planet assassins must be brought to account, it is essential that the archeological treasures and unique natural environment of Peru not be damaged in the process. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the Weegees, while good-hearted people, lack refinement in certain areas. By participating in the expedition, we can help insure that the campaign is conducted with proper attention to esthetic considerations.”
Hamilton was bewildered. “You are concerned about the fate of Peruvian archeological sites?”
“Yes indeed,” Urania said. “Inca art represents a priceless storehouse of neoprotoarcheosymbolic representations, and is valued as such by connoisseurs across the galaxy. Many people in the Northern Confederation were quite skeptical about the merit of this expedition, but when we heard about the wanton damage that the Peruvian planet assassins were doing to Inca statues, we realized we had to act. At our initiative, the Cultural Committee of the Universal League has identified the preservation of Inca artifacts as a key priority to be incorporated into the rules of engagement for this war. We intend to make sure that those priorities are observed.”
“That’s nice,” Hamilton mumbled.
Urania nodded. “I’m sure that, as an Earthling, you must be very proud of your Inca heritage.”
“Well, actually…” Hamilton began.
Urania cut him off. “Have you been to Peru many times?” she asked suddenly.
“No, never,” the soldier replied. “But I went to Mexico once. I think that the ancient Aztecs there had statues and buildings a lot like those of the Incas in Peru.”
“No, no, not at all.” Urania shook her head. “Amazing. You’ve lived your entire life on Earth and never once gone to Peru. But don’t worry, we have an extensive collection of Inca art at the Anthropo Institute, which we should be able to augment significantly at the conclusion of this campaign. We can make duplicates of the best pieces, and put them in your living quarters. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? You could spend the rest of your life in a naturalistic setting of scientifically-authenticated Incadécor.”
Just then they reached the restaurant. The party was shown to a long table. Hamilton tried to maneuver to sit near Aurora, but was unsuccessful. Instead he found himself at the far end, with Urania as his sole conversational companion.
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 18
Aurora looked across the table at Danatus. The man had tried to act amiable throughout the dinner, but it was clear that underneath there was something that was worrying him.
“Danatus, what wrong?”
The young lieutenant strummed the table nervously with his fingers. “You can tell me, Danatus, we’re old friends,” Aurora urged Danatus looked around for guidance to the other assembled WGE
junior officers and Fleet Chaplains.
“I think it would be OK,” said Kalia, who with an appearance sug-
gesting an age in the mid thirties, was the most senior of the Chaplains
present. “She’s clearly loyal, and seems pretty sharp. Perhaps she might
be able to help.”
“Right,” Danatus said. “That’s what I was hoping you would say.” Aurora folded her hands together. “Well,” she prodded. “What is it?” Danatus looked at Aurora with deep concern. “Aurrie,” he began,
“something terrible has happened.”
Aurora was alarmed.“What? What is it?”
“Someone has launched a series of attacks on our senior officers from
inside the flagship. We fear much worse is tocome.”
“Someone? Who? Attacks from inside? How? Tell me.” Danatus spread his hands.“That’s just it. Wedon’t know who or how.
All we know is that starting yesterday, a series of our most senior officers,
including Admiral Phillipus, High Priestess Pallacina, and the Princess’s
own Captain of Bodyguards all became violentlysick.”
Aurora looked at the young officer amazed.“What do you mean,
sick? You mean sick like an Earthling infested with microorganisms?” “Yes,” Danatus said.
Aurora was horrified. Civilized humans did not get sick. At least not
naturally. “Reason help us! How could such a thing have happened?” “We don’t know,” Kalia said.“The only real clue is that in each of the
victim’s quarters we found a small sheet of compounded tree-flesh, with
each sheet carrying traces of what appear to be bioengineered spores of
&n
bsp; Pathocoli Cygnus.”
Aurora stared in shock. Pathocoli Cygnus was a type of bacteria with
interstellar distribution. Long ago it had killed billions, until starfaring
humans had been genetically immunized. In modern times it persisted as
a mere nuisance, known only to afflict the most primitive worlds of the
Southern Sector. Now someone had weaponized the old scourge, and was
releasing it inside the flagship. “How is the Admiral?” she asked breath-
lessly.
“Still alive. It looks like he’ll recover. But Pallacina and the Captain
of Bodyguards are dead. It seems that the largest doses were received by
those closest to the Princess.”
“Holy Minerva! It was an assassination attempt!”
“That’s what we think,” Danatus said. “The question is, an assassination attempt launched by who?”
Aurora had a pretty good idea of “who.” She turned to Kalia. “Tell
me, were there any markings on the sheets of tree flesh?”
Kalia nodded. “Yes, there were.” She closed her eyes and projected
in image ofthe markings into Aurora’s outer mind.
Aurora recognized the markings immediately. They were American
Earthling writing. The inscription read; “Jesus is Love! Death to the
WesternGalactic Empire!” She dropped her jaw. Surely the Weegees
must recognize the nature and source of the message. She looked at Kalia.
“It was clearly sent by Earthlings!” she exclaimed.
Kalia said,“Now don’t jump to conclusions, dear. Anyone could have
put that inscription on the tree-fleshsheets.”
“Anyone, that is,” interjected a thirtyish officer who had not spoken
much during the dinner, “who had a good knowledge of Earthling.” Aurora looked at Danatus with alarm. “Danatus, what is this?” Danatus looked sheepish. “I’m sorry, Aurrie, but I had orders. This is
Lieutenant First Class Firanus, of the Special Security Division.” “Greetings,” Firanus said with a sardonic smile. “Please don’t be
alarmed. We have not yet concluded that your are guilty. We have another suspect as well.”
Aurora’s eyes blazed. “How dare you accuse me of this crime?
Admiral Phillipus is my friend. What motive could I have to try to kill
him, or the Princess? And what means?”
Firanus laughed. “Oh, I think your potential motive is pretty clear. You want to enrage the Empire into action against the American Earthlings, so you commit an atrocity against the royal household and sign it in their name. But you made a mistake. We are not naïve, you know. The notion that the Earthlings would be so foolish as to try to kill the Princess and then claim credit for the deed was too preposterous to
believe.”
“You are too preposterous to believe!” Aurora shouted. She calmed
herself and turned to Kalia. The Chaplain had to be the one running this
show.“Priestess Kalia. I am amazed that you have allowed yourself to be
diverted from the obvious truth. My record of loyalty to the WGE is well
documented. It goes back to my childhood.”
“Yes,” Kalia said. “But you are a Minervan first.”
“I see no contradiction.” Aurora’s voice was firm. “And in any case,
you’ve had me confined and under guard the entire time I’ve been on this ship. I’ve had no access to the internal matter distribution system. So
there is no way I could have sent the contaminated treeflesh to anyone.”
Kalia nodded. “Those facts do pose certain difficulties for your accusers. However, as Lieutenant Firanus has stated, we do have an alter- native suspect. Perhaps you can help clear yourself by providing some
information.”
“I’ll tell you anything I know,” Aurora said.
“Very well.” Kalia gestured to Firanus. “Proceed, Lieutenant.” Firanus pressed his right forefinger to a ring on his left hand, and a
recessed holoimage appeared on the table. “Priestess Aurora,” he said.
“Do you recognize these people?”
Aurora gasped. It was the elderly Weegee and her granddaughter,
from the space transport. “You suspect them?” she asked, amazed. “Yes, we certainly do.” Firanus’ voice was deadly serious. “That’s
Priestess 3rd Class Premora, the WGE medical-science attaché to the
Universal League observation team on Earth. She warned us that the
Earthlings might attempt a biopathogen attack on the Empire, but her
reports were not deemed credible. By launching such an attack herself,
she would not only redeem herself, but be made famous across the
Empire for her unique foresight. Her promotion to Priestess Second Class
would be virtuallyassured.”
Danatus said, “So she had the motive, and with her knowledge of
Earthling, her access to Earth’s native pathogens, and her biological
expertise she certainly had the means. That’s why I’ve been telling them
Aurrie, it has to be her.”
Aurora sighed. WhileDanatus’pointing the finger away from her was
no doubt well-intentioned, the idea that the Weegee matron was the guilty partyseemed completely absurd. “I saw her come aboard the spacetransport. Both she and her granddaughter were scanned. It was a full spectrum job, biopaths included. There was no way should would have been able
to transportpathocoli.”
“The perfect alibi, wouldn’t you agree?” Firanus said.
Aurora shook her head. “No. It was obviously Earthlings.” Firanus looked at Kalia.“It seems, Your Eminence, that the Minervan
and Premora are singing the same tune. Perhaps they are working together.”
Aurora’s ears lifted. “Your Eminence” was an honorific reserved for
Priestesses of the Second Class or higher. Chaplain Kalia was more than
she appeared. Aurora zoomed her eyesight in on the Chaplain’s skin.The
traces of at least two rejuvenations were evident. Chaplain Kalia was
older than she appeared, too.
Kalia faced Aurora. “My dear, you really need to be more forthcom-
ing. Your attempt to pin the blame for this on your Earthling enemies is
simply not credible.”
“Your Eminence,” Aurora pleaded. “The Earthlings have just assassinated three of your planets. They celebrate openly the 200 billion deaths
they caused. They hold hate rallies demanding your destruction every
day. The Goddess-forsaken notes carrying the diseases have their signatures right on them. For Reason’s sake, why do you find it difficult to
believe they sentthem?”
Kalia was cool. “The modus operandi in this attack was totally dif-
ferent from that of the previous planet assassinations. Also, the technology used was clearly beyond Earthling means. While they certainly have
access to Pathocoli Cygnus, they almost certainly wouldn’t know how to
weaponize it. Also, they have no means to deliver it aboard our ship. But
you and Premora, on the other hand…”
Aurora thought fast. “No, Your Eminence. With all due respect, you
are wrong. The Earthlings have piles of bluebacks. They’ve already
shown they have the sophistication to buy antitelepathy technology on the
open market. They could also have boughtthis.”
“But aside from your study specimen,” Kalia said, “there are no
Earthlings aboard this ship.”
“Not so,” Aurora said. “There are at least three.”
“That’s right,” Danatus chimed in helpfully. “I saw them come
aboard myself.”
Kalia turned to F
iranus. “Lieutenant Firanus. You told me there were
no Earthlings on board. Would you care to clarify thismatter?” Firanus gulped nervously. “I meant there were no credible Earthling combatants. The three individuals observed by Danatus were reporters for the Earthling news service CNN. They came here to report the news, not
to createit.”
“Oh, really?” Aurora sneered. “Well it just so happened that there
were originally four of them, and one tried to crash the space transport
into the flagship.”
“And he was dealt with. The others were entirely innocent. You
should know, Your Eminence, that this Minervan tried to implicate them
as soon as they came aboard our ship. Commander Tiranus noted it himself. He predicted that she would attempt to transfer the pathogen attack
blame to them as soon as she was confronted.”
Kalia looked at Aurora sadly.“Really my dear, your constant attempts
to direct us against the Earthlings do you very littlecredit.” “Your Eminence,” Aurora interjected, practically in tears. “Surely
you must see that…”
Kalia held up her hand with forbidding authority. Aurora stopped
speaking instantly.
Kalia asked Firanus. “Lieutenant, where are these three Earthlings
now?”
“They are all gone, Your Eminence.”
Kalia arched an eyebrow. “Gone, how?”
“Two were inadvertently photolysized when they got into a barroom
fracas with some Space Marines.”
Kalia looked shocked. “Our Marines photolysized some civilians ina
barroombrawl?”
Firanus nodded. “Yes, Your Eminence. They claim they were pro-
voked by the Earthlings urinating on images of the Empress. It seems
more likely the soldiers involved were just venting anti-Earthling prejudice. There’s been a lot of that among the lower ranks since the Draco
tragedy.”
“And the other Earthling,” Kalia enquired.
“He was deported back to Earth after he was caught trying to shoplift
a portable anti-matter generator from the Dolphia Camping Supply Store
on Deck19.”
Aurora broke in. “So you see, Your Eminence, there are your assassins. Fanatics who openly display their hatred for the Empress. Criminals
The Holy Land: Fanatical Earthling planet assassins are spreading chaos through the galaxy. Is there any nice way to stop them? Page 18
