The City Who Fought Part 13

"Move that we break for lunch," somebody said. "It's 1300.".

"Seconded," Channa said. "1 think I need a full stomach to hear what our guests have to say. s.p.a.ceflot suggests they've got a fairly lurid set of adventures to tell us. Any objections? Adjourned."

A little different from last night, eh Happy? Simeon watched as Channa munched on her thin sandwich. He hoped she was comparing this fare with the feast Mart'an had spread for her. The deck commissary was not up to Perimeter standards, although Gus claimed that they did an acceptable late-night pizza.

"So, brief us with what you know, Simeon, about our latest arrivals," Gus said.

Simeon made a throat-clearing sound. "Data base describes 'em as a "tightly knit, religiously oriented group' in origin," he said. "Judaeo-Sufi Buddhist roots."

"Wow," Patsy said. "Tha.s.sa mouthful. But do they believe in G.o.d?" ** Wondering looks, sage nods and quizzical "ooh's" went around the table.

"Probably wors.h.i.+pping snails and marrying their siblings, or some such genetically stupid custom," Vickers said. The station security chief was a short, rather squat woman from New Newfoundland. "Buddhists, you said? No wonder they nearly crashed us. That kind don't know much about mechanical stuff."

"Wait, just a precise minute." Doctor Chaundra held up a protesting hand. "To begin with, I saw no medical indications of dangerous inbreeding. They may have looked as if they didn't comprehend directions or our comments, but they were all dazed from their experiences. They are needing rest and recuperation, but under that is health. Genetic diversity is low, but there are few recessives. I would hazard that they must have had a good screening program to begin with. The group is above the norm. One or two may have endocrine behavioral problems from the coldsleep drugs. They administered drugs well beyond their storage lives. The Bethelite leader is a very articulate man, educated and intelligent "Although," he went on, with a slight frown, "he has not been particularly communicative."

"Unfortunately, education and intelligence don't always go hand in hand," Simeon commented. "It's not that I've got my heart set on the 'religious fanatics drive the heretics away' scenario, but it does fit the little I've been able to decipher of Guiyon's log. Phrases like, 'd.a.m.n rockheaded elders who said immorality and doubt in the young had brought doom'; 'told them their children had a right to live'; 'feared some of them might betray us'; 'escaped as best we could'; and saddest of all, 'had to leave some behind to face death.'"

Patsy put down her sandwich. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"Nor am I," Ghannajfcaid grimly. "It's rime to get this from the mouths oftfie horses."

Stallion, you mean, Simeon remarked very privately.

Amos ben Sierra Nueva was accompanied by the smaller, thickset-man who had been found beside him on the colony s.h.i.+p. Two of Vickers* guards were discreetly in attendance, more to guide the floatchairs than guard.

They're weak as kittens, Simeon thought, not to mention unarmed and with no place else to go and nothing to go there in. Station personnel developed a special kind of paranoia as a survival trait: nothing, no one must harm their station. Any station, no matter how state-of the art and safety conscious, was totally vulnerable. Had he, in innocence, welcomed aboard terrorists fleeing 'rockheaded' elders? Oddly enough, the presence of Guiyon argued against that possibility.

As their chairs thumped softly off their air cus.h.i.+ons to the floor, the two strangers looked with impa.s.sive expressions at those seated around the table.

Simeon heard Patsy murmuring under her breath; very faintly, almost subvocalizing. He focused, upping the gain on his receptors: "Oh, my oh my, that one is pretty" she was saying. "My oh myohmy"

Patsy's obvious interest in the man did not surprise Simeon but it did suggest he might have an entirely different problem on his hands. However, if Patsy's charms should win Amos, Simeon could relax. Then he caught Channa, glancing surrept.i.tiously at Amos' cla.s.sic profile, slightly clouded with a worry that only gave him a more Jovian solemnity. Then, seeing the look exchanged between Amos and Joseph, Simeon wondered hopefully if the short, muscular man was his boyfriend.

"Dr. Chaundra says that we mustn't tire you," Simeon said by way of calling the meeting to order, "but we'd appreciate your filling us in on a few details."

Amos gave a start, and his eyes widened as he suddenly looked up to the pillar at the head of the table and saw Simeon's synthesized face. So, he knows about shettpeople, bid he's surprised to find one here.

"We are grateful for your succor," Amos began formally, bowed his head, touching forehead and heart with one hand.

"I am Amos ben Sierra Nueva, and my companion is Joseph ben Said." The short man repeated Amos's gesture.

Seeing it, Gusky frowned slightly and moved his fingers. Simeon read the message. I figure the short one for a hard case.

The brain accepted that verdict. There were some things that only personal experience could teach. Amos continued speaking, pausing as he sought the appropriate words but gradually becoming more fluent and his blue eyes began to warm with sincerity.

"We are of the colony on Bethel, I am loathe to tell you, in the face of your generosity, of a terrible scourge, a bright evil that flies upon us even now." "A... bright evil?" Channa asked uncertainly. Scourge* Evil? Shees.h.!.+ Simeon wondered. The archaic syntax made the man sound as stilted as a historical holoplay. What's he talking about? Devils* So he can blame the whole disaster on the supernatural'? There was a rustle as the others around the table leaned forward. They had expected to hear about something safely in the past, not a new threat to the station. Yesterday's had been more than enough for a long while.

"Indeed, lady, you are in grave danger." He caught the blank or startled expressions around the table. "Has Guiyon told you nothing?" he asked desperately.

"Guiyon is dead," Simeon said, and saw both men go rigid with shock and grief. He thought better of them for it and pausedto let them recover. "The s.h.i.+p's logs are all but unreadable. Why don't you fill us in?" Simeon suggested quietly.

"He is dead?" Amos's drawn face had gone pale under its smooth light-olive coloring. "But, how is that possible? He wa&a sljellperson, an immortal. Ah, perhaps that is why we are not at Rigel Base or some other Central Worlds facility where we thought to seek a.s.sistance."

"He brought you here, to SSS-900-C, a s.p.a.ce station and many light years from Rigel Base."

"How can an immortal die?" Joseph asked softly, suppliant as he spread his hands wide in his lap.

"The feeder lines to his nutrient sources had sheared off and, as there was no backup ..." Simeon trailed off and both Bethelites bowed their heads a moment, honoring the dead. "Considering the state of that truly ancient vessel of yours, he did well to get you this for."

Amos glanced at his companion. The other man's hard blocky face was drawn, and he nodded his head slowly twice, as if encouraging. Amos hesitated, cleared his throat and, throwing his chin up, spoke directly to Simeon.

"This is even worse than I had imagined. Guiyon must have been truly desperate. Can you defend yourselves?"

"Well, we fended off your out-of-control s.h.i.+p pretty successfully," Simeon replied. "What did you have in mind?"

Amos leaned forward, supporting himself on the armrests of the chair. His eyes took on a fierce glow.

"I will tell you," he said pa.s.sionately, sweeping a look at those around the table. "We of Bethel are a peaceful Anne MtCaffrey &f 5M. Stating people." His fists met and clenched. "Virtually a defenseless people." His mouth twisted in pain. "We were attacked from the skies above our peaceful planet. I do not know how you countthe hours in a day or the days of a week, a month or a yegr. I do not know how long we were unconscious in the Sleep. We fled our home world for four periods of twenty-five hours before I took the drug. Just before I did, Guiyon told me that he thought we would have a solid five days' lead. So nine days of twenty-five hours-two hundred and twenty-five hours."

"Sixty minutes in yo* hoah, Mr. Sierra Nuevah?" Patsy asked.

Looking over at her expressionlessly, he nodded slowly.

Simeon called up a holo of Bethel, culled and realized from the Survey Service data base.

"That is our world as it appeared before this Exodus," Amos said bleakly, watching the slow rotation on die screen. "Our capital city was there," and pointed to where two large rivers flowed into a bay. "Keriss, we called it. The place where the Pilgrims landed and erected our Temple. The Kolnari. . ." He broke, squeezing his eyes dosed, his face a mask of pain.

Reference, Simeon prompted silently, feeling the computer begin its work. Tlien he felt a mental lurch as he reviewed what Amos had said. The city of Keriss was there:.past tense. Gus caught it as well, his pupils widening.

"They demanded unconditional surrender," Amos was saying, his face wiped dear of any emotion. "By sneak attack, they disabled our orbital habitats, our communications, everything we might have used to call help."

He folded his shaking hands, clasping them so tightly the knuckles showed white. "Tne Council of Elders convened," he said. His lips tightened. "They decided this tribulation was punishment for the increasing immorality of the younger generation. Mel"

He stabbed himself in the breast with his fingers, "And those like me, who only wanted a little more freedom, who only wanted to have answers to reasonable quCstiDnsAThey would not listen to me - even though I am a male descendent, in the Prophet's own line." Locked in bitter memory, Amos did not notice the surprise his words generated.

Ah, patrUineal descent system, Simeon thought.

"I thank the All-Knowing for Guiyon, for when I left the council chamber that last time, he called to me. Escape, he said. 'To go where? How?' I asked. He told me then of the colony s.h.i.+p that had brought us to Bethel. For three hundred years we had used it as a weather and relaying station, nothing more. I left to gather those who might follow me."

His hands knotted together. "And the Kolnari... when the Elders refused surrender, they destroyed the dry with a fusion weapon!"

A shocked murmur ran around the table. No one had used fusion weapons in generations. Certainly not in any sector answerable to the Central Worlds.

"Murderers! Looters! Pirates!" he spat out the words and rubbed his face with his hands.

Another murmur. SSS-900-C was in a very peaceful sector; the only nonhumans were spedes who did not practice inst.i.tutionalized violence. The settlers were mostly well-integrated types, if a bit rambunctious, but no more than was expected on a frontier. Piracy was an historical phenomenon or a sporadic occurrence far out on the Arm.

In a steady voice, all the more effective because of its calm, Amos went on. "A tenth of our people died in that moment, and all our leaders. The Kolnari told us that we must capitulate or they would strike again. They broadcast their message from a dark screen. They would strike again and again until we were obliterated to the last man. Just this implacable voice. The cowardsl They did not even show us the face of our enemy. They gave us two hours to make up our minds.

"And so we began. It was very hard, we had to determine who we could take." His cheeks grew red with shame as he continued. "First we took'Guiyon from his column. We could not open the main bay doors. Ah, but we were so stupid, so innocent, so untrained! We*d managed to get supplies, disconnect Guiyon, gathered our people, flown to the s.h.i.+p without being detected and then," he gave a harsh bark of laughter, "the doors refused to open! Some murmured that the Elders had been right. We were being punished for our sins.

"Then, Joseph here," and Amos laid a light hand on the short man's shoulder, "opened one of the service airlocks. Only it was much too small for Guiyon's sh.e.l.l He insisted that he didn't have to be inside, that we must strap him to the hull near die bridge, so that his brain synapses could be wired into the command panel. He had to tell us everything that had to be done. We knew so little of such matters." Another bitter snort "And we were so afraid. None of us knew anything at all about spatial navigation. I had piloted a s.h.i.+p, but only a small one, and never beyond Bethel's moons. Beyond Bethel's moons," and he made a broad sweep of his arm, "was not fit for men of Bethel. Also, we know nothing of the worlds outside our litde system. Guiyon handled what outsystem commerce was permitted to us on Bethel."

He paused, swallowing hard, and Chaundra filled a gla.s.s with water for him. Amos nodded gratefully and drank before he resumed his story.

"Guiyon dared not risk bringing us to one of the nearer colonies for fear of leading those monsters to an equally defenseless planet. Instead," and he gave a mirthless laugh, "we may have led them to an even more defenseless s.p.a.ce station. At least on a planet, one may know of safe hiding places. I do not know why we are here and not at Rigel Base. Guiyon must have changed course again. There were four fiends in our wake when I had to adtept the drug. Well-armed wars.h.i.+ps, or so Guiyc&i thought. And we have led them here to you who have" saved the poor fragment of our people who fled from our once beautiful planet" He bowed his head, his shoulders slumping with his consummate despair.

An appalled silence had broken into a quickly rising babble of "they've brought trouble here," "they led fiends to its?," "But we're defenseless." Simeon let out a modulated howl and they all shut up.

"Thank you," Simeon said ironically when silence fell. When in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout, he added to himself.

"Guiyon brought them here because first, the engines were about to blow, and second, they were dying fast anyway, and third, SSS-900-C is, after all, on the main route in this quadrant of Central Worlds sphere of influence. Now, if we could examine the problem more calmly?"

Claren turned to May Vickers. "As security chief, you're required to defend us!"

Vickers looked at the man. "With stundart pistols?" she asked incredulously. "I'm a police officer with fifty part-time a.s.sistants. I lock up drunken miners and see domestic disputes don't get out of hand," she said. "I've never had experience with fiends and I want no part of four wars.h.i.+ps." She crossed her arms across her solid chest and looked accusingly up at Simeon.

"Is it possible that you might have lost them?" Chaundra asked.

The two Bethelites shook their heads glumly.

"Unlikely," Simeon said, "not when Guiyon was overdriving the engines and leaving an ion trail a blind alien could follow."

Gus nodded. "Any wars.h.i.+p could."

"Iffen they couldn't see the trail, thar's all them pieces of the s.h.i.+p rollin* about, saying 'theah heahh!'" Patsy waved her arms like a signalman. "We cain't hardly say they pa.s.sed on through."., "My information banks give me no information at all about any group, or star system, known as Kolnari," said Simeon. "While J realize that your experience with these people is short-term, had you even heard of them on Bethel before they struck?"

Amos shook his head. "Guiyon had heard rumors of a band of marauders in the Arm from the few traders that came to Bethel. He was also forbidden by the Elders to tell any but themselves what news traders brought of the worlds beyond Bethel. On the s.h.i.+p, he did tell me," and Amos furrowed his brow, trying to remember the exact words the sh.e.l.lperson had used, "that they struck so swiftly that no alarm could go forth. That that was how they avoided detection by any force great enough to come against them."

"Central Worlds, for instance," Channa said with a rueful quirk of her lips.

Amos nodded. "The first wave of destruction was aimed at our air and s.p.a.ce ports, at communication installations. The strike was as complete as it was unexpected. They chose not to show themselves to us until all our s.p.a.ce capacity was destroyed ... or so they thought. All we know of them was from a very brief time when we fought them. They follow us to destroy the evidence of the destruction of Bethel, the latest of their crimes. They will kill, and quickly. No doubt," he added with scorn, "they feel uneasy being only four instead of three hundred."

"Three hundred?" Simeon asked.

"Three hundred s.h.i.+ps. So Guiyon told me. He had seen them coming in but was forbidden by the Elders to speak until they had decided what to do."

Gus whistled. "If that's three hundred wars.h.i.+ps, people, not only do we have a problem, this whole sector has a problem." The Navy was much larger, but it was scattered. "Have you had any recent word from Central, Simeon?" Channa asjced him.

"Basically no more than an acknowledgement of the ... ah... incident in the vein of 'Gee,that's too bad, but you're equipped to handle it and when your reports are filed, we'll see what we can do.1 But of course that's based on what happened yesterday; this may get us action."

At least I hope it will, Simeon thought. Three hundred s.h.i.+ps! s.h.i.+t! Simeon opened a tight beam to Central with a mayday flag attached. Hopefully he'd have some hard news before too long.

"What sort of armament did they have?" Gus asked while the rest of the station's leaders sat, trying not to look at each other and especially not at Amos and Joseph. Amos had gone even paler and the blue of his eyes had faded. He just sat there. On the other hand, Joseph was watching each and every one of the station heads with a critical gaze and the slightest of knowing smiles on his full lips.

Simeon could see that the initial numbness his people had felt was giving way to fear. Gus was fighting it with trained reflex, but the others were edging slowly toward panic.

"You must have something to fight with," Joseph said, suddenly leaning his arms on the table and directing a piercing gaze from one face to another. "We fought, and we had much less than you did who turned the vessel from your station yesterday. With what did you blow it into pieces? Do you have more? That is something. It is more than we had who saw our s.h.i.+ps . Stirling withered to slag. Our city..." He broke off and struck his fists impotently into the table. "We have brought you warning. We had none!"

Amos caught his friend by the wrists before he could damage his hands. "Peace, my brotfier," he said softly.

"Oh, youah brothas?" Patsy saicfin mild surprise, peering closely at both to find some familial resemblance. ;"

"Not of the blood," and Amos touched his temple with his index finger, "of the mind."

"Unh-hunh!" Patsy blushed and tightened her lips into a straight line.

"I've sent a message to Central Worlds," Simeon told them in a brisk voice that he hoped sounded as if he had matters well in hand. "They're consulting with the s.p.a.ce Navy bra.s.s - to see what to do. I was hoping they'd tell me what they were doing, and or what we can do. I should've antic.i.p.ated a full fledged diplomaticbureaucratic-governmental-bunfight, complete with quarrels over jurisdiction. Everyone with something to say about this has to be tracked down and given an opportunity to give his fardling opinion in triplicate. Amos, believe me, kid, I know just how you feel about elders. The good news is that Navy intends to act fast, only there aren't any Navy units dose. The nearest is eighteen days away. Tliis is a.s.suming the bra.s.s cut movement orders today and not sometime after we've become the subject of mere academic debate, because we don't exist anymore.

"Which means that at best we can look forward to thirteen lucky days with our naked b.u.t.ts hanging out waiting for a kick from a booted foot That nearest Navy unit is a patrol corvette, a wars.h.i.+p only by courtesy."

"Then you must flee!" Amos leaned forward urgently. "You cannot hope to defeat them. You must leave this place."

"Great idea," Simeon agreed, "in principle. Only the station can't move. That's why it's a station. It's stationary. Get it?"

"You mock me most unfairly," Amos replied with solemn and offended dignity. "I have no knowledge of s.p.a.ce stations or of your capabilities. Further, I am not wrong. Ithe stationltftelf cannot move, then its people _*" i ~ must * "As far as such advice goes," Gus cut in, "he has a point. We should evacuate as many as we can - children, the sick, nonessential personnel. Whoever we can, or whoever's hot to go."

"By my calculations," Simeon said, finis.h.i.+ng them in that instant, "given the number of s.h.i.+ps currently in or near me at the moment, we should be able to evacuate over a thousand souls." He liked that touch. "Not counting crews."

Tliere was silence for a moment A thousand was a fraction of the average ever-s.h.i.+fiingpopulationofthe station.

Amos broke the silence hesitantly. "How many people will that leave on the station?"

"Fifteen thousand, or so," Channa said grimly. "Our population varies. Simeon, does your estimate include emptying cargo bays and stuffing our people into them in suits?" A desperation procedure and liable to result in some fatalities.

"No, wecould evacuate a few hundred more that way."

Although, given the average softperson's reaction to longterm confinement in tight s.p.a.ces, we probably won't get many volunteers for traveling that way.

"And before you ask," Simeon continued, "no, I haven't even asked the captains their views on such an . . . exodus. That's a best case scenario. We can't prevent those who aren't docked in the station physically from leaving, so the scheme is still just inside this room. I think diat before we start bringing anyone else into this, we should have at least one plan to present, preferably more than one."

"Evacuation plans?" Chaundra asked, his brow furrowed.

"Those," Simeon said, "and plans to fight for the station."

There was a certain brightening around the table. Nothing visible, but the lift in att.i.tude was almost palpable.

"That's right up your alley, Simeon," Channa said gendy, "even if this isn't a military installation."

"To fight," Joseph said, his dark eyes glinting with revived hope. Or was it vengeance? "Yes, this is what we would like to do, but how? Did you not say that you had no weapons? And surely they will not give you a chance to combat them. Why should they not simply rush in and destroy you? That would be but child's play for them."

"We will employ guile." Ceeze, their lingo is contagious, he thought. "Remember, you said these people were pirates?"

"Yes," Amos said. "When they made their initial demand for surrender-they mentioned deliveries of materials, machines, labor. Pirates, but they speak as though they were a people, a nation. The High Clan, they sometimes named themselves. At others, the Divine -" his mouth puckered in distaste "- the Divine Seed of Kolnar."

"Right" Simeon spoke briskly. This is just (mother exotic scenario, he told himself firmly. Games theory, experience- don't freeze up now. You've done things like this thousands of times. "So they're no more than criminals, not a true army, disciplined, strategically trained. More like guerillas. Jump in, grab what they can, jump out Right now, they're pursuing you, and these four s.h.i.+ps aim to destroy you to keep you from spreading any nasty rumors about them. So, what we better do first, is get their minds off killing by distracting them with the material things they wanted from you in the first place. Right?"

Every station officer thought about this. Then Gus nodded slowly.