###
'God! This is incredible!' I exclaimed. Stars, wheeling slowly overhead. A frozen night of icy stars, glowing red and golden nebulae, blue hot supernovas crackling a million light years away—an infinity of green gas and silver dust. Starstuff, awesome, magnificent. Meteors, streaking down from the heavens. The music of the stars rumbled away in the background, an awesome symphony, hot young stars screeching in agony, black holes booming out their deadly heartbeats, the voice of the cosmos, popping and snapping and whistling, running over my flesh with a little chill.
'It's beautiful!' Priestess whispered. We were together in the pleasure palace, floating on an airbed in one of Tara's sex cubes, going first class all the way to Veda 6 on the starship
The meteor shower continued. It put a chill to my flesh. I was naked, feverish and dizzy. We had been making love for hours. We could not stop. Priestess was so slim and lovely and vulnerable I could not keep my hands off her. She was a sex child, all long legs and arms and tousled dark hair and limpid eyes and yielding lips.
'Will you take off that thing?' I pleaded again. Priestess was naked except for a loose sleeveless top that she refused to remove.
'Kiss me,' she whispered. I lost myself again in her sweet mouth. Starstuff, we were starstuff, floating in space.
'Come on, take it off,' I insisted, caressing her breasts under the shirt.
'No. It's ugly. I want you to remember me the way I was before.' Priestess had been hit on Mongera, point- blank auto x, and almost died. They had rebuilt her breasts, but the scars were extensive.
'I told you, Priestess—it's the mark of the Legion. It shows what you gave for humanity. It's something holy and beautiful. You shouldn't be ashamed to show your wounds. It's a badge of honor.'
'No—it's ugly.'
'It doesn't bother me! If it bothers you so much, why didn't you have it done back on Atom?'
'There was no time. Beta was off to Veda, and I didn't want to be left behind.'
'Then it wasn't that important, was it?'
'Bet you can't make love again.'
'Oh yeah? Well, that's up to you.'
'To me? Me? Really? What do I have to do?' Another burst of silver meteors, shooting down from a starry sky. It was like a dream—a wonderful dream.
###
Veda 6 appeared on screen, a heavenly orb, phospho blue, brilliant polar ice caps glowing white, the filmy skin of atmosphere showing clearly against the black of space. I had to turn my eyes away—it was simply too much. When you saw it from space, it became awesomely clear just how fragile was our position in the universe. We were pond scum, wriggling in a thin sheet of life. Every inhabitable world was precious, as our race exploded into the dark. I knew it could all end in a cosmic instant, unless we were stronger and faster than everything else that was out there.
We contacted Veda Station as soon as we exited stardrive. A very young Legionnaire appeared on the screen as we watched behind Tara and Whit in the command chairs. We had never seen him before.
'This is Veda Station,' the kid said. 'Repeat your call sign please.'
'This is the Personal Ship Maiden,' I said. 'Can you patch us through to Beta One, please.'
'Who?'
'Beta One of CAT Two Four, Second of Atom's Road, Twelfth of the Twenty-second. Say, what's the story there? We've got three Beta troopers who want to rejoin their squad.'
'Atom's Road! Sorry, guys, your squad is long gone, and so is your ship. Hold on, though, we've got a message for you somewhere.'
'A message. Terrific.' We were stunned by the news.
'We are in deep fecmat, guys,' Dragon said.
'Something wrong?' Whit leaned back over the exec's chair. Her skin was its natural pale color again, and her own blonde hair was starting to grow back. It was still so short she looked like a boy.
'Yeah, I knew it was here. Stand by,' the kid said. The screen flashed and Snow Leopard appeared suddenly, his pale face expressionless, his pink eyes focused right on us.
'Nice of you to drop by,' he said quietly. 'If you're listening to me now, it means you've made it back to Veda 6. That's good, but not as good as it could be. Our new mission is Uldo 4. Beta is under strength and we need you as soon as you can get there. I don't care how you do it—just get there! We'll be waiting. Your mission orders are attached. Beta One signing off.'
The mission orders materialized in the doc tray. I called the young Legionnaire right back. 'We need fast transportation to Uldo, trooper,' I said. 'What's available?'
'Sorry, Beta, there's nothing at all. Everything that could move is already on the way there. We're pretty much marooned here until the sit changes. Let's see…there's a supply run due here in two weeks—they're going on to the Meco Sector. That would put you in the general vicinity.'
'Thanks—it won't do.'
'We could use some extra help down here, guys—it's a bit quiet, but it's honest work.'
'We'll let you know.' I cut the transmission.
'Do we need another taxi ride?' Whit asked brightly.
Tara turned, and looked back over her shoulder. 'We'll set a course for Uldo.'
'Wait a frac, Cinta,' I said. 'We certainly appreciate your help, but you'll lose your ship if you show up at Uldo. A major Legion op is like a black hole—it sucks up everything around it. They'll confiscate the Maiden, and you'll be lucky to ever get it back.'
'We know all about the Legion,' Tara replied. 'And we assure you we always know exactly what we're doing.'
'Goodness gracious,' Whit smiled, 'So our guests are staying! That's nice!' She shot a knowing glance at Eight. He gave her a wolfish grin.
Uldo, I thought—we're bound for Uldo. They had mentioned Uldo in Basic, but I couldn't remember what they had said. Something historical—what was it? I knew nothing about Uldo.
'Set course for Uldo,' Tara instructed the ship.
Uldo 4, I thought—a System world, under attack by the O's. And the Legion was intervening, with the System's open agreement. That was a first. Hadn't the Legion learned yet that Systies are not to be trusted? They had betrayed us on Mongera!
'This is the big one,' Dragon said. 'This is where we stop the O's—or they stop us.'
A historical mission. The survival, or the end, of humanity. That's what was at stake, I knew, on Uldo. But I didn't care about history any more—I cared only about Beta. How many dead so far? And how many more dead, for Uldo? I felt trapped and doomed and helpless, rushing onward to certain destruction, caught up in a cosmic typhoon, a galactic maelstrom of catastrophic, uncontrollable events. We were just like ants, fighting for our nests. Will it really make any difference to the galaxy, who wins and who loses? No. But it will make a difference to us.
'I heard Uldo 4 is already lost,' Priestess whispered. 'Millions of O's have landed; the locals are being overwhelmed.'
'We'll fix that,' Dragon replied confidently.
The Omnis—they were a galactic curse. They had appeared as if from nowhere, invincible, merciless alien extremists with a brutal star fleet and seemingly endless resources, psychers with extraordinary powers swarming over world after world, focused only on exterminating human beings. Two billion humans had been killed so far.
We had faced one O on Mongera, and almost perished. We would be facing a whole army of O's on Uldo. I didn't even want to think about it. We're insane, I thought, the Legion is insane. We never beat the O's before; what makes them think we can do it now?
'I'll be right by your side, Thinker,' Priestess said. She knew what I was thinking. Yes, we'd be together when we died. With luck, we'd be buried in Uldo's rocky soil, with maybe a Legion cross to mark the spot. Here they
