Marshall Thomas: Soldier of the Legion

I wondered what Cubes thought, as I found a seat. Cold waves from the far past, washing over dead sands. Lost worlds, lost races, lost wars. The Black March, opening up the Cosmos. The Omni’s, suddenly there. Black swarms, exiting star drive, alien ships filling evil skies.

Most civilizations never learned from the past. Doomed to repeat history, they don’t survive. The Legion doesn’t have that problem. We are immortals. We carry our history with us. We try not to make the same mistake twice. Everyone on that stage had lived through the Race Wars and some had seen the Yellow Wars. Even though I did not know what Cubes thought, I knew I would accept his orders, without question. I certainly wouldn’t have any better ideas. But whatever they announced would be bad news, I knew that much. More dead immortals, we could count on it. I felt powerless, powerless to object, powerless to even complain. We were in the grip of history, I knew, in the hands of the Gods.

“At ease, troopers.” The wardroom overflowed. The aisles were full of standees and the whole ship listened over the SA system. Cubes still stood, hands behind his back. He did not have to raise his voice. The mikes picked it up and magnified it, a steely whisper. We settled down. Beta sat together, but only six of us remained. Merlin and Dragon were still in the body shop, and Ironman was back in Atom. It did not seem right.

“Attention the ship,” Cubes began. “We have called this meeting to brief all hands on the current sit.” He paused and looked out past us, over our heads and into some unknown space. Then he took a breath, and resumed.

“We have just taken some casualties…too many. We’ve had wounded and dead. The full stats will be out shortly. Some of our closest comrades are gone. We grieve for them. They all died in the best traditions of the Legion, fighting for the future. They did not die in vain. Nobody here dies in vain! Nobody!”

Cubes paused for an instant, regained his composure, and continued, calmly. “We accomplished all our missions. Valkyrie of CAT 24 is back with us, and her captors are dead. My personal congratulations to everyone who participated in that op, the 24th and the 21st and everyone who supported them. That is exactly what the Legion means by ‘instant reaction’. The Legion thanks you. ConFree thanks you. Your descendants thank you.

“The System Ship Preference is now space junk. The monastery no longer exists. We dropped an antimat on it, once we were sure all our people were out. And the whole inhabited galaxy is going to learn about that.”

I wondered about the philosophy behind our actions. It sounded like a good incentive not to take any Legion prisoners. Perhaps it was just as well.

“That was the first mission. The second mission was unitium. Well, we’ve done that, too. With the help of some outside assistance…which we still can’t talk about…and with some brilliant and daring work from our own Gravelight, we now have the explanation for the unitium mine on Andrion 2. The mission which Gravelight led in conjunction with the recovery of Valkyrie was absolutely vital to our understanding of the purpose of the mine. The objective was to recover a Mocain officer who had knowledge of the mine. This mission was also conceived and executed on an instant reaction basis under the leadership of Lowdrop. Although we failed to recover the officer, Gravelight got close enough to the target to obtain the information we needed.

“The information we got from our secret source-and other data we got from a Systie informant-revealed a major covert starport hidden under a lava lake beside an active volcano on Andrion 3. It revealed that the Systies had been exploiting the unitium mines on Andrion 2 for close to a hundred stellar years, and carrying the product to the starport on Andrion 3. The starport in question proved to be far in advance of Legion technology. It was a major, long-term, covert installation, constructed in a star system in ConFree vac, in direct violation of treaty.

“At that point, we were very concerned about the apparent Systie technical superiority which enabled them to build the advanced starport on Andrion 3. And we did not understand why they needed two starports, one on Andrion 2 and one on Andrion 3. We also had no explanation for the use to which the unitium was being put. It took Gravelight to answer that. She became aware of the Systie officer-the Mocain-during the negotiations, and she was able to locate her when we raided the monastery to recover Valkyrie.”

Cubes had not moved. It seemed he was speaking to himself, lost to us all. “You may have wondered why we got such a hot reception at the monastery. The Spawn learned why, from Systie commo picked up during the engagement. Valkyrie and the Systie officer, Millina, were hiding out from us in the monastery. The Systie troopers had two missions, both equally important. Kill Valkyrie, and recover or kill the Mocain officer in whom Gravelight was interested. Recover or kill her. Either was acceptable to the System. It made us wonder what it was that made Valkyrie such a hot property. And we wondered what was in the Mocain’s mind that we were not supposed to find out. Well, it turns out that Valkyrie had overheard some conversations which didn’t make sense to us until Gravelight told us what was in the Mocain’s mind. Then it all came together.”

The Second slipped a datapak from a pocket and placed it on his lectern. “I’ve read Gravelight’s report. I’d like to give you a few quotes. Our psychers have a way of crystallizing issues in understandable, if somewhat emotional, terms. I quote: ‘It’s too late for us, too late for us all. I can tell you we’re all bound for perdition, we’re all falling together, psychers and deadheads, Legion and Systies, Outers and Inners. I’ve seen her mind, Deadhead! Say your prayers! We’re falling, like motes of dust, into a star. An endless line of starships, orbiting a world of fire. And a lake of lava, opening to draw them in…Death is all around them, an evil presence. Millina prays to God in the dark. She is afraid she will die of fear.

“ ‘They deal with Satan. A black ship, blotting out cold stars. Satan’s skin is black leather, an evil scratching and slithering in the dark. He radiates power and hate. His will cuts like a knife. You cannot resist. His power is total. He can stop your heart, He can stop your star. A generation of slaves, doomed, disappearing into the dark. Cowards, selling out humanity for little slices of life.

“ ‘Star carriers full of unitium for the ovens of Satan. Food for his metal mouth, tribute to stay his awful hand. Messages for Satan, from the System, delivered in the dark.’ Millina is giddy with relief, and later she is convulsed with guilt. She sees a galaxy of peaceful worlds, glowing in space. ‘Then something stirs, out in the space between the stars. A black cloak approaches, irresistible, falling silently over star after star. Blotting them out. Forever. A starry sky full of black ships, alien ships, hovering like ghouls. No…no. It’s not just one. It’s a migration, it’s a fleet, it’s the whole race…I don’t know.’ Millina doesn’t know. She only knows there are many, many of them, and it is impossible to resist, and the horde has paused, briefly, because the System is giving them something they want.

“We are fortunate,” Cubes continued quietly, “to be able to participate in events which will be remembered by our descendants. What Gravelight found was Omnis, on Andrion 3.”

Gasps and curses filled the air. Cubes paused and waited for the commotion to die down. “The starport on Andrion 3 was not constructed by the System, but by the O’s. The unitium was being mined by the System on Andrion 2, transported by Systie ships to the Omni starport on Andrion 3, and then transferred to the alien ships. Command believes the O’s use the unitium in the containment systems of their antimat drives. It appears to be vital to their efforts. And the exosegs were not placed on Andrion 2 by the System, but by the O’s. You see, the O’s are meat-eaters. They’ve acquired a taste for human flesh and use the captured Taka as food.”