'Priestess, up!' Snow Leopard commanded. She was there in a frac, tearing open her medkit.
'Save him, Priestess!'
'Biotic charge!' she responded, slamming the instrument on to his chest. His litesuit was still smoking. Vacmin is not normally lethal, but autovac is a bit heavy.
He jerked, and took a breath. His eyelids fluttered.
'You got him, Priestess!'
'Corridor is secure,' Sweety informed me.
'Back to the hanger,' Snow Leopard said. 'Give me a hand.' He had the Systie by one foot. I grabbed the other foot and Priestess took an arm. We dragged him through the door and Psycho backed in, waving his Manlink back and forth, giggling to himself. Psycho was getting stranger and stranger. He hit the control and the door hissed shut silently, sealing us off again from the corridor.
Chapter 6:
Oplan Gold
The Systie trembled. We had secured his hands behind his back and when Priestess brought him back to full consciousness, he found himself surrounded by Legion soldiers in black A-suits and darkened red faceplates. He could see no human faces, only his own reflection flashing off the faceplates of the enemy. I stood to one side, my E pointed right at his chest. He was indeed a weird bird, still young, unarmed and unarmored, pale and sickly, thin and wiry, cold blue eyes and shaven head, dressed in a rumpled civilian litesuit. He did not look like a soldier.
Snow Leopard cracked open his helmet and removed it. He was a pale horror, white hair and hot pink eyes glaring at the Systie. The Systie stared at him, wide-eyed.
'Systie, this is a combat tactical interrogation,' Snow Leopard recited coldly. 'You are a combatant, and you are being interrogated by field elements of the Twenty-Second Legion of the Confederation of Free Worlds. We are now in a combat situation, and your cooperation is essential to our tactical success. If you refuse interrogation or attempt to deceive us, you will be shot dead immediately as a combatant. If you cease resistance…'
'Just a moment,' the Systie squeaked. 'Just a moment—Legion's mistaken. We're not a combatant.'
'Silence!' Snow Leopard barked. 'The decision is ours to make. You will speak only when responding to our questions! All Systies here are combatants. You have been designated a combatant by us, based on your presence here. If you cease resistance, and cooperate to our satisfaction, you will be granted official ConFree prisoner of war status and will come under the protection of the laws of the Confederation and of the interstellar code on prisoners of war. Do you understand the situation?'
'No! It's Legion who doesn't understand! We're not a combatant! We're a diplomat! We're a diplomat of the Galactic Service of the Government of the United System Alliance. Our status is protected by interstellar law. We are not a combatant!' The Systie was twitching.
Snow Leopard paused, staring silently at the Systie. Then he turned to me. 'Set your E to flame, Three,' he said calmly. 'I don't want to alert the O's.' I made the adjustment. Snow Leopard focused on the Systie again.
'A diplomat, huh? What's a Systie diplomat doing in ConFree vac? Or—better yet—what's a Systie diplomat doing in an Omni starport? Would you care to answer either of those questions?'
The Systie froze, blinking his eyes nervously. He appeared very uneasy. Understandable, considering the circumstances. 'We are on a diplomatic mission for the United System Alliance,' he answered carefully. 'We're afraid that's all we can tell it. We can discuss no further details of our instructions. We must remind it that we have diplomatic immunity from arrest or detention, under solemn interstellar agreements signed by both our governments.' For a skinny, bald little creep he certainly had a way with words.
'You haven't been keeping on top of current events, Systie!' Snow Leopard snarled. 'The System and the Confederation are at war! Or hadn't you noticed? You seem kind of slow, for a diplomat! As a matter of fact I don't think you are a diplomat—but it doesn't matter now—not in the slightest. You have been officially designated as a combatant by the Legion. Your choice is to cooperate fully, or die! Do you understand?'
'We are not a combatant! We are a…'
'Talk or die! Choose!'
'We object! We object! We're not a combatant! We are a diplomat!' He was wild-eyed and frantic.
'Kill him.' Snow Leopard turned on his heel and walked away. 'Ten, is the aircar ready yet?'
I shouldered my E and centered it on the Systie's chest.
His eyes widened and focused on my faceplate. I knew he could not see my face. I was Death, cold and merciless and totally impersonal. I had never before killed an unarmed, helpless prisoner. I reflected briefly on this as my finger tightened on the trigger, but I could feel no emotion. His death would be mercifully brief, for the flames were quick and powerful.
'Wait! Wait! Wait! All right, all right, we'll tell it! All right!' The Systie was bathed in sweat. He was shaking violently. I raised my E and turned to Snow Leopard. He impatiently returned to the Systie and stood there looking down at him.
'Last chance, Systie. No more games. Complete cooperation, or you die. Do you understand? Yes or no.'
'Yes.'
'Will you cooperate?'
'Yes.'
'One lie and you die. Understand?'
'We understand.' He sat there on the floor sweating, hands secured behind his back.
For the first time, Snow Leopard squatted down before the prisoner. 'Three,' he said. 'Join me. Five, you're on guard.'
'Ten.'
'Ten.' I cracked open my helmet and secured it to my U-belt. The Systie stared at me. I glared back at him.
'Would it really have killed us?' he asked me quietly.
'Silence!' Snow Leopard barked. 'It's you who'll answer the questions. Now—what is a Systie diplomat doing in an Omni starport?'
'We've never really been in the starport proper. We have always been restricted to our own installations.'
'Answer the question.'
'STRATCOM called it Oplan Gold,' he said quietly. 'It was Cosmic Secret—it was our greatest achievement. It's been almost a hundred stellar years we've held the secret. And it's meant a hundred years of peace in the Galaxy. Generations, without the curse of war. And the System was responsible! Yes, we brought it about. Do you expect us to apologize? We're proud of what we've done—proud! We are peacemakers. Peacemakers! Billions of our citizens have lived in peace, without ever knowing the sacrifices made for them by the System. Does Legion think it was easy? So many of us have given our lives, quietly, willingly, for the cause. But now the Legion is here, and it has all changed—it doesn't know what it's done. It hasn't the slightest idea. Billions will die, now. Billions!'
'My patience is limited,' Snow Leopard stated. 'I am getting tired of repeating myself, and I will add that we do not have much time.'
The Systie licked his lips. 'Is it that difficult to comprehend? We made contact with them, almost a hundred years ago. Contact with the Variants—we communicated with them! They communicated with us! It's a wonderful story, a heroic story—so many sacrifices, so many dead! And yet reason prevailed, and we refused to give up on our efforts. Some day there will be monuments to all those who died, for peace!
'The result we see before us—a Variant starport, a System base, two different species cooperating, for a
