Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree)

by Marshall S. Thomas

  Chapter 10

  A Mission from God

  Bees was walking in a dream. She knew it was a dream, but had no intention of leaving it. She was strolling through a cool mist. It was bright – a sparkling phosphorescent dew, swirling gently around her. Above, a glowing sheet of white clouds. She was in a soft, clinging dark uniform – on her left chest the Bright White Hand and the Delta Research seal were both emblazoned. Yes, that's me, she thought. They both give me life.

  A figure appeared out of the mist. It was a Bright, in full armor, radiating light like a star. He had a Battlestorm lightning rod slung over his shoulder, and the White Hand on his armor. His helmet was clipped to his waist. He was young but old. He had silver hair and silver eyes. He appeared very serious. Bees stopped before him.

  What do you seek? he thought.

  I seek the truth, Bees responded.

  So do we all, the Bright replied. And what will you do with the truth, should you find it?

  I will use it to help my people.

  Or to help yourself?

  No. I am nothing. I am an instrument. I seek the truth. I seek God.

  Do not seek God. If you are worthy, God will seek you.

  Bees was paralyzed with emotion. Her eyes were swimming with unshed tears. The Bright approached her. He cupped her head with his hands, without touching her. A peaceful, warm wave swept through her mind and body. Peace and love, she thought.

  You are a knight, the Bright telepathed.

  I am just a soldier, Bees thought. Not a knight.

  You are a knight. I see it. You are a warrior. Knights make themselves. Then they are recognized by God. You are a knight, in God's army. No one can stand before you. You shall lead your people to victory, over Satan. Kneel before God!

  Bees fell to her knees before the Bright. His battle rifle transformed itself into a long, glittering silver sword. He touched her with the blade – tapping her on the right shoulder, left shoulder, head.

  Be thou a knight, the Bright telepathed, in the name of God, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You cry. Tears of joy, for God. Arise, Sir Knight. You have been chosen by God. Your war name is Black Angel. Go forth and defend the faith and protect the innocent and fight the evil.

  He slowly faded away as Bees watched in stunned fascination. A second Bright approached her. This was a female, surely an angel, long lovely golden hair, golden eyes, pale alabaster skin, clad in a white robe. She reached out her hands to Bees, cupping her head without touching it. Again, Bees felt a warm wave, the love rushing through her body, through her soul.

  You are a healer, the angel thought.

  I am a medic. I heal the wounded.

  Take my hands, the angel thought, holding out her hands. Bees grasped them. It was like an electric shock, coursing, pulsing through her body.

  "Oh!" Bees cried out.

  Peace, peace, the angel thought. Now you are a healer. She leaned in and kissed Bees gently, right on the lips. Thanks be to God, the angel thought. And she too faded away.

  Bees continued walking slowly into the mist. Then the mist lifted, and it was night. She looked up and the sky was completely clear, millions of stars blazing brightly. What a stunning sight. The Milky Way – her own glorious galaxy. Swirling in frozen splendor, so magnificent she just stood there staring at the cosmos. This is the face of God, she thought. She tried to spot some familiar constellations, but could not. Not a one. Bees knew the stars. We must be very far away in spacetime, she thought. Look at that. How sublimely lovely. A warm thrill ran over her flesh.

  Bees awoke from the dream, her cheeks still wet with tears. She just lay there, too stunned to even wake up Scout. That was a DX dream, she thought. A DX dream! Good Lord, oh Lord, I thank You. I thank You!

  Δ

  Bees sat facing the Professor, who had come out from behind his desk and showed Bees into an airchair and settled into another one himself, holding printouts of the brainscan. It was mid-afternoon of the following day.

  "I feel very uneasy about this dream, Professor," Bees said.

  "Oh? Why is that?" The Prof seemed surprised.

  "It was so…personal. Yes, it was certainly a DX dream. But thinking about it later, it seemed… well, strange. As if some of my own – well, dreams, wishes, hopes, beliefs – got mixed in there. Somehow."

  "You mean, because of the religious aspects?"

  "Yes. Yes. It seems so… unlikely."

  "How so?"

  "I get knighted by a Bright? In the name of God? Isn't that a kind of a wish fulfillment? I mean, I never thought of myself as a knight. But maybe it was something from my subconscious. And the battle rifle turning into a sword? Unlikely, isn't it? And the angel, blessing me as a healer. What was that all about?"

  "So you doubt the validity of this DX dream, do you?"

  "I worry about it. And what does it tell us? Nothing. Aimless wanderings in my mind. What good does it do us?"

  "Don't doubt the power of your own talents, Bees. And this, your first DX dream, is very significant."

  "Really?"

  "Really. As a matter of fact, it may be one of the most valuable DX dreams we have ever recorded. I believe in every single detail of this prophecy. Ambassador Wester has already sent a flash critic message to the Director General of ConFree concerning this particular chronview prophesy."

  "Oh my God, you can't be serious! It doesn't tell us a thing! Just my own stupid mental meanderings."

  "Wrong, Bees, wrong. It tells us exactly what we have been desperately seeking. Exactly."

  "What? In God's name, what?"

  "You have identified the exact location of the Bright base in our universe."

  Bees just stared at him, her mouth open.

  "The stars," he said. "You looked up at the stars. The neural image was exceptionally clear. All those unfamiliar stars, spread across the universe. We ran them through our galactic astrocharts. The view you had was from an unidentified planet circling an unidentified star in an obscure nebula located fifteen thousand, four hundred light years from the Crista Cluster. That's where you were when those events unfolded. And what else could that be except the Bright base? Because that's precisely where Delta Research is going, as soon as we can lift off. Now that we know where it is. Congratulations, Bees. I'm looking forward to your knighting."

  Δ

  It was a long trip, into the hole. Time for reflection, as the CS Vampire cruised through vac run red, slicing an impossible hole into the cosmos, encased in sudden death. We were used to it. We loved the Vampire.

  "What’s wrong, Bees? Out with it," I demanded. I knew she had shared it with Scout, whatever it was. He wouldn't be telling. I was getting tired of her morose, silent, gloomy attitude. It was almost like the old days in Providence when she and Ice had stalked around together, glaring at everyone and daring them to say a word. I figured I knew her well enough now to deserve an answer.

  "I'm sorry, Prophet," she said. "I'm really scared." We were alone, just the two of us, in the snack bar, sitting across from each other at a little table.

  "Scared? I don't believe that, Bees. I've never seen you scared."

  "Well, I'm scared now. It's the mission, Prophet. It's that damned DX dream. This is just crazy. I tried to tell the Prof that, but he won’t listen. Yes, I'm scared. This whole mission flows from my dream. Mine! I'm responsible, for whatever happens. And if we find nothing, I'm responsible for that, too. That's scary."

  "Come on, Bees. Before, you were complaining about not having any DX dreams. And now you've got a doozy, and you're still whining. If the Prof thinks your dream is good, it's probably good."

  "What if we arrive there, and there's nothing there?"

  "The base is going to be there."

  "You don't know that. What if it's not there? We launch a major expedition because I have a dream and they run those fuzzy stars through the computers and come up with a location? What happened with Saka's big vision? There was nothing there!"

&
nbsp; "The Prof believes there will be something there, in the future."

  "How do we know that? Because Saka dreamt it? Maybe it's just the wrong place, and there never will be anything there. And what will they say if we show up at this Bright base and there's nothing there? Will they say, well, they haven't arrived there yet? Or will they say Bees is hallucinating."

  "Stop it, Bees, please. Nobody will ever say that about you."

  "Or will they say, this Delta Research thing is just wasting a lot of taxpayer money."

  "Bees, the Bright base is going to be there. Wait and see. And cheer up!"

  But she didn't cheer up. She spent a lot of time praying.

  Δ

  We gathered in the briefing room before the Professor like acolytes of a strange new religion before their priest. We had ultimate faith in him. He stood before a blank wallscreen as we pondered our future in rows of comfy airchairs, gazing at him as if hypnotized.

  "Good morning," he said with a smile. "This blank screen represents what we know so far about our destination. We'll be filling it in as soon as we arrive in the vicinity. Sorry I haven’t had time to do this briefing until now. But I'd like to ensure we are all on the same page. Our mission is to establish an ongoing diplomatic relationship with the Brights so that we will have continuing communications with them. The objective is to have a channel to help them understand that we are friendlies, and that humanity is not their enemy, and to allow us to deal effectively with problem areas that may arise – like human pirates raping their women, or asteroids being used as weapons. We hope to establish an Embassy wherever their base is, and invite them to establish an Embassy in Quaba City. These are the same objectives we had last time we contacted the Brights, but events at that time did not permit us to seal the deal, so to speak. This time we are in a much better position to do so. We have a strong team of DX telepaths – four of you, all fully certified. And you all know our objectives. And we're going right to their base, so they can't break contact and fly away.

  "I am in command of this mission," Prof said. "Captain Nan Man will be the official UMC observer but will not be in the chain of command. I will certainly be taking his comments very seriously." The Nan smiled and gave us a cheery wave from his chair. We all knew him and liked him. "Our core team of telepaths will consist of Bees, Ice, Saka and Prophet, and they will report directly to me," Prof continued. "We do not expect any combat for this mission and our security team – Doggie, Scout, Smiley and Nitro – will function more as a support mechanism, assuming we are to be dealing with Brights and nobody else. I do not expect to need a medic downside and so I have not assigned one. The Vampire has a fully stocked and manned emergency clinic that will be available to us at all times. Our faithful driver Bird will be at our service in the Mary."

  The Mary, of course, was the re-named phantom Ruthie. The sweet little blonde displayed on the ship's nose was now Bird's own Mary, and his old girl friend Ruthie was nowhere in sight.

  "I made the decision to have Blackie accompany us on this mission," the Prof said, "with official approval, for the first time – as a kind of animal ambassador of good will. The Brights were fascinated by him the last time we checked, and anything that spreads good will is what we need."

  Blackie barked. He appeared to be aware that he was under discussion. He was one smart wolf.

  "It's hard to tell exactly what form our contact with the Brights will take. We will attempt to meet with them peacefully and formally. Our probes are racing us to the target vicinity and should arrive there before we do and hopefully will zero and ID the target planet and give us some warning about what the place is like. Assuming we won't need pressurized suits, we will not be wearing armor – just A-vests and comtops initially. Our A-vests and uniforms will be emblazoned with the white hand and the Legion cross and the Delta Research seal. That white hand kept us alive the last time so here's hoping it will again. It has struck me from how the Brights acted last time that their thought processes are similar to how Legion troopers think. And that's good.

  "It's very important that we act in a peaceful manner. We are ambassadors from humanity. Do not raise the subject of the asteroid unless they do. Of course, they can see right into our minds so they will become aware of whatever we know – but there's no reason to raise this subject yet. They do not appear to have constructed anything on the asteroid that Saka identified – or at least not yet, so let's let it lie. I don't want to accuse them of doing something they haven't done yet. Such a subject can be raised at an appropriate time in the future."

  An appropriate time, I thought. When will be an appropriate time? When we spot them building the damned thing? When they set it on course to Terra? And what can we do, if they are determined to do it? Nothing, probably. But we'll try. And fail. And I'll probably die, for Terra, for those disgusting PJ parasites. Well, what's the loss if they wipe out a billion Earthers? A sober, clear-thinking future historian might even record it as a plus for the evolution of mankind. All those loser genes gone, forever. Humanity would certainly be better off, in the long run. I thought all that, and more, and I was not ashamed of my thoughts. I hated Earthers but it sure looked like I was going to die for them. And I'd certainly never hesitate to follow my orders. And I understood that the long-term mission was not over until I was killed in action. After all, I was a soldier of the Legion.

  "All right, we'll be doing another briefing after we receive reports from our probes. There's just one more thing," the Prof said. "We need a second in command, in case anything unexpected happens to me. I thought a great deal about this. I concluded the second should be one of you four telepaths. I have complete confidence in you, Prophet. It's you."

  I was stunned. Me! Why me? Bees and Ice were better telepaths, and Saka was a born leader. Why me? I didn't say anything. But the others all clapped. I'd been working closely with the Prof for a long time. I guess that was it. He certainly knew me well. And what had I just concluded, in my mind? I'd die for the mission. Yeah – maybe he was right. A suicidal fanatic – yeah. That was me. And that’s just what we needed, for this mission. Or any Legion mission. Right?

  Δ

  "This one looks good," the Professor said. We were gathered around the briefing screen again, only this time it was live. "Of course we cannot ascertain the exact planet with the data we have, but it is definitely in this vicinity and there will be only so many habitable planets."

  "How do we know they'll choose a habitable planet?" I asked.

  "Well, we don't – they could conceivably set up shop on an airless moon, but it would be so much easier to pick a nice place with a breathable atmosphere and non-hostile surroundings. Remember although Hab-1 planets are extremely rare, the galaxy is so large that there are an estimated ten billion Hab-1 terrestrial planets orbiting in habitable zones of stars in our galaxy alone. Ten billion! So our probes are examining every planet in the hab zones of suitable stars in this sector. If it's there, we'll find it."

  "It's really beautiful," Bees said quietly. The screen showed a ruddy planet orbited by sparkling multi-colored rings of glittery dust, presumably the remnants of former moonlets that were torn apart by the planet's tidal forces.

  "Yes, looks good," Prof said. "It's a terrestrial planet. And a water world – just what we need – with several large, rocky continents where life has developed – vegetation. That's good! Density is acceptable. It's within the hab zone of the star, a white prime. All that is good. Let's see what else." The probes were spewing forth data via Q-links; we were still in stardrive.

  "Look at the surface temperature. Warm – what does that mean?"

  "See the figures. Day average twenty-two degrees. Night eight. It's mild. Not bad at all."

  "Let's see…orbital period…rotation period. Ha! The stellar day is a bit over Quaba standard, about four Quaba days to rotate, so long warm days and long cold nights. But the axial tilt is fine, they will have seasons and that helps even things out. And the planet rotates counter-clo
ckwise, that's nice of it, so we won't get confused with the sun rising and setting at unusual places."

  "Don't bet on it," Arie said. "I'm easily confused. Quaba drove me nuts."

  "Well, this one has got only one star. So you should be all right. Here's the atmosphere! N2, O2 – oxygen! Wonderful! It's almost all nitrogen and oxygen, plenty of oxygen," the Prof exclaimed.

  "How about gravity?" Doggie asked.

  "There it is. One point three g, only slightly heavier than Quaba's. This planet appears to be ideal! I really hope this is our place. They'd be crazy to pass this one by."

  Δ

  Hurtling into the dark, into the out and out to the in, I tried to remain calm. This was some mission. It was even further away than Dragon Shoals, and that had been far enough for me. Nobody had ever been this far out. At least it was still in our universe, but it was one distant nebula, not yet visited by humans. We were going to be the first. I would have passed on the honor, but I had no choice.

  When we exited stardrive we were uncloaked and were broadcasting DX neural transmissions with our message of greetings and peaceful intentions. A giant white hand was lasered into the skin of the Vampire, to reinforce that we were the good guys. Since we were all experts at breaking things and killing people, I felt strange in our new role as touchy-feely diplomats. But if the Brights had any suspicions about our intrusion, we wanted to reassure them as soon as possible. Travelling uncloaked in unexplored vac was against Fleetcom regs as well as common sense, but this was a pretty unusual situation. There might have been all sorts of hostile life forms out here hungrily looking for something to attack, but we suspected the Brights were here, and we needed to reassure them.

  If things worked out as expected, we'd be going in unarmed. Now that was scary. However, we had worked with the B's before and trusted them as much as you could trust any alien beings that probably had nothing in common with you at all.

  I had to keep reminding myself that the Brights had brought back Ice and Saka from the dead, and saved Bees' life, and given us all the power of prophesy. They were good guys if anyone was.