Vatican Abdicator

by Mike Luoma

  BC straightens up from the last body.

  The med techs line the alien corpses up in a row.

  BC looks back over the row of dead Eldred lying on the ground and shakes his head. Why? What is this?

  I’ve heard of some animals that die in captivity. Maybe they’re like that? Weird. It’s unusual. They wouldn’t even speak. Why is that?

  “BC?” Anita calls over to him. He straightens up, fights back an upwelling, emotional urge to let tears start flowing.

  Why is it hitting me like this? I don’t really know. Just hits me kind of… funny?

  “What is it, Anita?” he asks in a tired voice.

  “What did we do wrong?” She asks him, obviously pained.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they just can’t live in captivity.”

  “They were acting so strangely. I’ve never seen them so oblivious.”

  “It’s funny. I can see a battle in space, see one of their ships blow up and not feel much of anything. But to see them collapse and die right in front of you like that…” BC doesn’t know how to finish, what to say. He shakes his head again.

  “I’m sorry, BC,” Anita says.

  “Sorry? Why should you be sorry? It’s not your fault.” “I know, but I’m sorry this has put a damper on the victory, our capture of their ship,” she tells him. “I can see it on your face, in your eyes. This really is affecting you.”

  “I’m fine,” BC says. “But thanks for reminding me we do have something to celebrate… How about we do dinner?”

  She eyes him suspiciously, but then she actually smiles.

  “You’re on. See you at eight?”

  “Eight it is!” BC agrees. He leaves Anita in the landing bay and heads for the asteroid base’s control center to see what’s become of Dolomay’s actual forces.

  They were on their way into our neck of the woods… can’t allow our victory here to distract us from him. Wouldn’t be good to let him to surprise us.

  “Dolomay’s ships are gone,” a tech at the center informs him. “We tracked them as they came out of their Transpace jumps. They were hanging back. Seemed like they were watching us battle the Eldred. When the Eldred jumped away, they took off, too.”

  “Well… keep your eyes open. We can’t be sure if they went after the Eldred, or if they’re just trying to fake us out.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  I wonder who Dolomay wants to attack more? Us? Or the Eldred?

  BC and Anita meet for dinner in Van Kilner’s old arboretum. Anita makes arrangements for food to be delivered from the Project’s kitchens. BC finds a table and chairs so they have places to sit and something to eat off.

  BC and Anita sit across from each other at the table, looking at the steam rising from the food, looking around at the vegetation, but not really looking at each other. Anita breaks the silence.

  “Well. Guess we should ladle this stuff out and eat, huh?”

  “Guess so,” BC agrees. They spoon out portions onto their dishes and pass the food between them in awkward silence.

  Damn. I don’t know what to say.

  “Looks good,” BC sputters out lamely.

  “Really? I guess it’s okay,” she says.

  They eat quietly.

  This is so lame. Gotta say something…

  “We did pretty good today, getting that Eldred ship. Everybody did really well. We fooled the Eldred,” BC says with some pride. “And Dolomay stayed out of the way.”

  Trying to start a conversation over dinner…

  “We did well, we really did,” Anita agrees. “And Krish and Dell haven’t been heard from since they stashed that ship away for study this afternoon!”

  “Are they okay?” BC asks with a hint of alarm in his voice.

  “Oh. Yeah, they’re fine! It’s just an expression, BC, sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing!” He laughs. “Forget about them for now. There’s more I want to talk to you abou…” BC is cut off by the sound of the com cutting through.

  “Mr. Campion? The UTZ Council is on the line, priority call. Sorry to interrupt you.”

  “Put them through,” BC says with a sigh. “Campion here, go ahead.”

  “Campion? It’s Wentworth. It’s bad, getting worse. We need you back on Earth.”

  “Right. When?”

  “Now would be good. There’s something wrong. The plague vaccine doesn’t seem to be working for everyone, not anymore. I’m calling an emergency meeting of the UTZ council!”

  “You are?”

  “Actually, no,” Wentworth corrects himself. “You ! How soon can you be back here?”

  Anita is already boxing up their dinner and clearing the table.

  “How soon is now?” BC asks rhetorically. Anita gives him a slightly disgusted look. “What?”

  “Nothing!” she insists.

  Right. It’s never ‘nothing’! Even I know better than that!

  “Campion?” Wentworth asks over the com.

  “I’m on my way, Campion out,” he says, ending the communication. He looks over at Anita.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” She isn’t looking at him, avoids eye contact as she tells him, “You should get going. Here,” she says, finally looking his way as she hands him the box with the rest of the dinner they were sharing. “You can eat it on your way there. I… I’ve gotta get going too,” she tells him. She ducks out of the arboretum before BC can respond.

  Great.

  Chapter Ten

  As BC heads back to Earth space, he gets in contact with the other surviving members of the UTZ Council, organizing a meeting on the Moon at Lunar Prime.

  Back to the moon, once again.

  “It’s the safest place for now,” BC tells each council member. Lunar Prime has thrived under the leadership of Governor Amanda Erskine.

  In a way, she’s fulfilling the promise of Meredith McEntyre that I cut short. She’s turned out to be a true leader. Keeps Lunar Prime thriving despite the plague and the war. The Eldred may have started the plague by planting it on the delegates at my peace conference on Lunar Prime, but she’s kept it contained there. Under control. Back to the moon.

  BC’s trip is short as he travels by Stinger ship, using the Transpace drive to quickly flash from the asteroids to Earth’s orbit. He’s soon back in the buildings and tunnels of Lunar Prime. He enjoys a walk under the city’s main dome through the atrium.

  MMMmm… I love the way it smells in here, like dirt and plants, the moisture in the air…

  look at those trees! They’ve really grown.

  The Moon. Funny. Once again, it kind of feels like home.

  He heads for the Vatican Mission. Pope John Paul the Fourth, M’Bekke, makes sure there are rooms available there for BC whenever he needs them.

  The actual UTZ Council meetings won’t start until tomorrow “morning” on Lunar Prime. BC has time to catch up on some sleep before the rest of the council arrives. There is a call from Anita waiting for him as he gets up the next morning.

  “BC! Krish and Dell surfaced just long enough to update me with some wild news. Call me when you can. Bye!”

  After he refreshes himself and gets dressed, BC calls Anita back.

  “BC! You’ll never guess what Krish and Dell found on the Eldred Ship!”

  No, I never will.

  “What?” he asks, playing nice.

  “Project Technology!”

  “What do you mean, ‘Project Technology’?”

  “They were using our stuff!” she says, with a mix of curiosity and disappointment detectable in her voice.

  “Maybe you should be flattered,” BC offers. “They’re adapting your technology.”

  “They’re using our Transpace drive!” she exclaims.

  “Well,” BC says, trying to bright side it, “You must have superior technology… in some cases.”

  This is not the news I hoped for. I want their superior tech. Don’t tell me they only
more advanced than we are!

  “Great,” Anita says sarcastically, not appreciating his lightness. “It’s a weird thing, though. Aside from our drives, Krish and Dell tell me everything else on board, most of the other parts of the ship, seem to be thousands of years old! Just about everything’s old, and it’s all very well maintained. Even our stuff is integrated seamlessly.”

  “Just how old is their ship?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder just how many times over the ship has been replaced piece by piece,”

  Anita ponders aloud. “This ship could be… well, ancient.”

  “Tell me,” BC asks, “Will any of this make it any easier to reverse engineer their technology?”

  “Maybe. Gotta hope so, huh?” she says with a hint of optimism.

  “Well, I’ve gotta go meet with the council. Keep me informed, okay?”

  “I will. Enjoy your meetings.”

  “Right. Pretty unlikely. I’ll talk to you soon, Anita.”

  “Take care, BC,” she says, and signs off.

  The UTZ council meetings are actually mercifully brief. BC asks the council why there are still people dying of the plague on Earth if Wentworth says he’s got a cure. There is no answer. BC shares his suspicions.

  “I think the Eldred have let the plague continue to ‘evolve’ to its next stage, to take out another segment of the population unfortunate enough to share some randomly chosen genetic marker,” he tells them. “It may be a result of our refusing to go along with their restrictions. The war is apparently over, but we haven’t stayed within Jupiter’s orbit, haven’t withdrawn from our interstellar outposts. And Dolomay is ranging across the systems out there. They no doubt hold him against us.”

  The council agrees this could be happening, and votes to continue fighting the plague. UTZ and Project scientists will be sent back to their labs to see why their vaccine isn’t working. The shipyard in the asteroids is still off the books, so to speak, known to only BC and Wentworth among the council, so some of the councilors ask about rebuilding the old shipyard on Earth. Wentworth assures them this project is under way.

  BC is quizzed on the Project, and answers as vaguely as possible. The UTZ Council is not what it was. No one challenges BC’s vagaries. No one pushes to have him explain in more depth. No one brings up his press conference with the aliens again, either. Although he had broken every agreement of the previous council meetings, no one challenges BC now.

  In his closing statements, BC reiterates his steady encouragement to the rest of the UTZ Council to recruit more potential pilots and troops to bolster the UTZ forces.

  “What good will it do us to build ships if we don’t have the men and women to fly them?” he asks the council. It’s been two long days of meaningless meetings dealing with dull generalities that don’t really seem to bear upon reality.

  Two days of this wasting my time. Well, we need the manpower. Maybe that will be the good that comes out of all of this.

  “And so, in closing, I ask again that you please try to motivate your constituents to join the UTZ

  forces and help fight for the very survival of our species! Thank you.”

  Morons. God help us all.

  BC gets back to his rooms to find an urgent call waiting from Anita.

  “BC! It’s Dolomay! He’s here… he attacking us at the old Project base!”

  And I’m wasting my time here.

  “You know what to do,” he says to her. “Scramble all the stingers you can, keep him away from the ships on the line, and keep him from landing on the base. You know he’s going to try to land and raid for supplies and any tech he can grab! Worse comes to worse, seal the place up, blast your way out and come back here. But try to keep him at bay with those stingers!”

  “I know, they’re scrambled,” she says. “But BC, he’s got more ships! There are five now!”

  “Five? More ships, huh?”

  “Guess he’s been recruiting,” Anita says. “I don’t know, BC. All I know is that he’s got five ships, maybe six, and they’re here now!”

  “If I leave here now, I don’t know that I’ll get there in time to do anything,” BC tells her, thinking out loud.

  “I don’t think you…” Anita is cut off.

  “Anita?” BC tries to reconnect. The signal returns.

  “Sorry, BC, I gotta go. Dolomay’s trying to land on the base! Man, you called that one,” she concedes. “Guess we will need reinforcements! We’re going to fight, hide out, or die trying here if we have to. Gotta run!”

  “Good luck,” he wishes her.

  “Thanks, we need it. Good luck to all of us!” She signs off. BC relays her request for reinforcements to nearby UTZ forces who might have a chance of getting there in time to help them. It’s all I can do. Wouldn’t do any good to hop in a ship to try to ride to the rescue. Never get there in time, not the way Dolomay works.

  Good luck, Anita!

  What’s that?

  “Bernard Campion?”

  Someone at the door?

  “BC?” A voice calls from the speaker in the wall. Someone is calling him from the other side of the door to his rooms.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s the Governor, Amanda Erskine. May I come in?”

  Governor Erskine?

  “Sure, come in. Door open,” he says. Amanda Erskine stands in the doorway. With her straight, short hair and her pantsuit, she cuts a businesslike figure, although the conservative suit still manages to flatter her.

  “Hello, Father Campion,” she greets him.

  “Governor Erskine! What a pleasure,” BC says, gesturing for her to come in. “And please, you know, call me BC, everyone does.”

  “Thank you, BC,” she says as she enters the room. She waits for the door to close behind her before she speaks again.

  A cautious woman.

  “I’m here because there’s been another attack on the Moon by UIN forces. Your UTZ people told me the UIN wasn’t a worry anymore!”

  “They aren’t! It can’t be the UIN. When did this happen? I didn’t feel anything,” BC is confused.

  “They didn’t hit Lunar Prime, that’s why you didn’t feel it. They attacked your Project base, on the other side of the Moon.”

  “I didn’t hear anything about this,” BC admits. “Were there any survivors?” he asks, a little stunned.

  “Don’t know,” she tells him. “The place was leveled.”

  “So… wait, when did this happen?” he asks again, as he tries to sort out the news.

  “About two hours ago. We’re just getting on site reports back now. Looks like they landed, looted, and then leveled the base, destroying whatever they left behind. We leave the place pretty much alone, so we didn’t know anything was happening until our motion detectors and seismic detectors started going crazy during what must have been their final bombardment. We sent some ships rushing over, but by the time they arrived the UIN ships were gone.”

  She shakes her head and then looks BC in the eye.

  “You told us the UIN was through attacking! I didn’t even think they were capable of an attack, after what the Eldred did to them.” There’s a puzzled look on her face.

  “It’s not the UIN,” BC tries to explain. “It’s the guy I was talking about in my press conference with those aliens. Dolomay.”

  “But we registered the presence of several ships! You said he just had two,” she insists.

  “I’ve since been informed that he’s got more ships flying with him, at least five ships. He’s using them to attack The Project base right now.”

  “Was everything you told the public in that press conference true?”

  “It was. Simplified, but true. Those aliens that were with me, the Flaze and the Domo, kept our race’s development hidden from the Eldred. If the Eldred had found us early enough, they would have wiped us out!”

  “I remember you told me something about all this, the Eldred and the plague,” she says. “If I understand you rig
ht, Dolomay is a member of the race known as the Ancient Enemy who has somehow come back to life and is now recruiting human beings as his followers?”

  “Pretty much. Dolomay is ruthless! One reason the Eldred spared at least some of us is that we have empathy, love, religion, at least the capacity of living a little beyond ourselves. The old race didn’t have that capacity. Probably because they didn’t need to guess what other people were thinking,” BC

  tells her.

  “What?”

  “Dolomay and the Ancient Enemy look a lot like we do, but they’re different. They lack our capacity to believe, and our capacity to love. They were a cold and competitive people, if Dolomay is any indication. But they were mentally more advanced than we are. They have the ability to read minds, at least surface thoughts, and to communicate directly, mind to mind.”

  “That’s a little farfetched, isn’t it?”

  “Granted. It is a little overwhelming,” BC admits. “But it gets crazier. The reason I know this is true… well, I’ve heard Dolomay in my mind. He’s spoken to me, mind-to-mind, and he’s tried to attack me with his mind.” Erskine just stares at BC. “I know, I know. It sounds insane,” he admits.

  “Why you?” she asks BC. “Why should he talk to you, mind-to-mind?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” BC admits. “I think I might be more, I don’t know, I guess ‘ sensitive’, to his mental powers. You see, a while back I was taken prisoner by a religious cult. They dosed me with some pretty heavy psychotropic drugs as they tried to brainwash me. I resisted and survived, but it’s as if part of my mind was rewired, and now I can ‘hear’ him in my mind.”

  I’m not telling her I thought I talked to God…

  “After being repeatedly dosed with their drugs I started getting monster headaches. After a while they began to clear, but as they went away I began to sense something, I began to feel another presence out there. And it turned out to be Dolomay. It’s almost as if I’m the only one tuned into the wavelengths he’s broadcasting on. I can sense him probing, casting out, and seeking for us, for our minds. And when I noticed him, he noticed me. I had to find a way to keep him out as he tried to take over my mind.”