Jack Chalker - Balshazzar's Serpent

I have the honor by the grace of God to be the first of my generation to face true evil , she thought. And I don’t know if I have the guts for it. Please, God! Tell me what You want me to do?

The same thoughts had to be going through the others here, and the others in other caves around the region if the leader’s claim of a hundred captured was true.

I will not deny Him , she resolved, even if death is the end. But denial wasn’t the demand or the claim; it was rather to simply go along and not make waves. Was it enough to refuse to do something that they weren’t asking her to do anyway?

One by one, the process done with the first woman was repeated with the others, often with pauses while someone went out to get the jug or stash of granola-style bars refilled, and, during the whole of it, not one of them, not even Eve, had done anything at all save what they’d been told to do.

When the feeding was done and the three underground women were gone, Eve felt a blackness, a hole in her soul, where confidence had once stood. The fact that none of the others had done anything, nor could they claim to later, having done nothing in this public exhibition, made it somewhat worse, but God would know. God would also forgive, but not forever. This was but the beginning of their trials, and at some point she would either have to demonstrate her faith or watch it shatter.

Even so, she wondered now if anybody among the captured had actually made any gesture of resistance, however futile.

Cromwell didn’t even consider taking the pair of would-be assassins in for a nice questioning. He had the team take them not up to Sinai , since that would be the last place he’d want any of these people, even as prisoners, until he knew them a lot better, but rather to Olivet , still on the ground, still brightly lit although, this long after the service, pretty well deserted. The guard was there, well lit and monitored from inside and from above, to insure that nobody else was going to be snatched, but that was about it. The shields around the ship were certainly more than adequate for the rest; if they weren’t, then the attackers would have seized the ship and its leader instead of random acolytes in the dark.

Now the male captive was in the infirmary, hooked up to a bank of medical monitors and being intravenously fed a very efficient blend of drugs that made him friendly, happy, and otherwise not thinking very much.

“Hello,” said a friendly sounding deep male voice.

The man opened his eyes and saw the huge form and bearded face of Karl Woodward, looking not stern or angry but rather fatherly. The man’s lips formed a childlike grin.

“Hi,” he responded.

“Are we friends?” the doctor asked him.

“Yes, sure. Friends…”

The deep tones suddenly sounded wounded, hurt. “Then why did you try and harm and kill my children? Why did you take my children away? Is that what friends do to other friends?”

There was a sudden sorrow in the man’s expression now, almost like he wanted to cry. “Didn’t wanna do it. It was—orders. Just orders. Nothin’ personal, friend. We don’t wanna hurt nobody, see?”

“Then why did you take my children?”

“Nothin’ personal,” the man repeated, drooling a bit. “See, ’cause we gotta get outa here. Got the big one. Know where the treasure of treasures is. But we can’t get to it. Stuck here, eatin’ grass and drinkin’ sheep dip beer. Cap said you wouldn’t take us. No room. So we make room…”

“Cap? Who’s Cap? Did he give the orders?”

“Yeah, sure. Cap always gives the orders. That’s what cap’ns do.”

“Where is this captain? I’d like to talk to him.”

The man gave an uncomfortable shrug, seemingly unaware that he was lying strapped down on a medical table connected to all sorts of tubes. “Somewhere down below. We don’t see him much, y’know? Like most cap’ns. They just pass down the orders. Ours not to reason why…”

“Stow the ancient quotes. Where did they take my children?”

Another shrug. “All over. Dunno. Lotsa places. Booby trapped places, see.”

“What if we took hostages?”

“Wouldn’t matter. ’Less, o’course, you can find the ossifers. Rest of us, all expensable.”

“You mean expendable?’

“Yeah, that’s it. Exprendable.”

“The villagers—are they crew, too?”

“Not most of ’em, no. They was already here. Stuck here long, long ago. Got conned, y’see. Old con. Used t’do it myself in the old days. Take their stuff, drop ’em nowhere while you fake a fight, lose the fight, then they’re stuck. You spend their money, nobody remembers they was born.”

Woodward looked over at Cromwell. “Pirates all right. It’s amazing that we can learn the basics of subatomic physics, the magic of faster-than-light travel, and still the human soul stays right where it’s always been.”

Cromwell nodded. “Amen to that.”

Woodward turned back to the captive. “Were you ordered to attack my children out there just now? You and the woman?”

“No, not like that,” the man managed. “See, we was just—just—we was kinda rear guards, see? Slow down anybody chasin’ till they can split up the hostages and get ’em set up.”

“You figure you did your job?”

“Oh, sure. I mean, I guess so.”

Woodward sighed and stepped back. “Keep working on him. I want every detail his rather empty head contains, no matter how small. What about the woman?”

“His partner, more or less,” Cromwell told him. They were having an expert female security interrogator work with her in another room using pretty much the same techniques. “More vicious because, we think, she’s of the first group. She managed to snare one of them and dominate him and get entry into their better society, but she’s done it by being meaner than they are. I have a feeling that taking her out of circulation might gain us some local friends.”

“Well, we’ve tried finding local friends,” the Doctor noted, “and it’s gotten us nowhere. No, I don’t think this is a time for being diplomatic. Those stranded pirates were helped by many of the local villagers. You can see it on the recordings. No, I think it’s time we fought the devil on some of his own ground. Tomorrow morning I want every single child in the closest and surrounding villages picked up. Babies to maybe ten or eleven. All of them. Bring down some of our child-care people to help out with them. Treat them fine, but keep them inside here, out of sight. Don’t bring any of their babysitters. If there’s any resistance, knock ’em cold and leave ’em where they fall.”

“You really think that’s going to do anything to help our people?”

“Tom, I have no idea. What I do know is that nothing in your ferret operation here or the other one to the north showed any children underground. Men, women, yes, but no kids. And the kids up here are all getting educated, whether they’re pirate or villager. Let’s see if we can at least get our pirates to talk on a timetable of our choosing, huh? I also want this village locked down. They can stay inside the village, but nobody leaves. Nobody goes anywhere outside. If they want to leave they’re going to have to do it underground and probably with us watching. Let’s see what they think when they see their kids taken away.”

“But surely we’re not going to do anything to the children!”

“Of course not! You know that, and I know that. But do they know that? If we can’t pressure those bastards underground one way, let the villagers do it. Sometimes you can fake even the devil out.”