Orion Among the Stars

of the atoms slowing, shifting, energies glowing and radiating in an endless coruscation, rising and waning like the tides, like the moon, like life itself.

Nothing happened. When I opened my eyes I was still in the shattered remains of the long-dead city, lying on the littered floor of one of its roofless bombed-out buildings. It was deep night; the stars had shifted noticeably above me. The luminous ribbon of the Milky Way twisted across the sky, clouds of stars, rich beyond counting. That pale, tiny, distant moon looked down on me sorrowfully. It seemed vaguely familiar, as if I had known it in another life, a different era.

Who are you?

I felt the voice, rather than heard it. The faintest thread of a question, inside my mind.

Who are you?it repeated.

“I am Orion,” I answered aloud.

You are not like the others.

“What others?”

Those who call themselves the Skorpis. And their allies.

That made my chin come up. “Allies? What allies?”

We have seen you before. You were here yet not here.

“What do you mean? Who are you?”

No answer. Only a sense of utter revulsion. And then it was gone. I was alone again. Whoever—whatever— it was, it had left me.

I sat up and pondered. I had not imagined the contact; it was real. And it was here, in this space-time. It knew of the Skorpis. And it said that the Skorpis were not alone; they had “allies” with them.

“Who are you?” I called out.

No reply.

“I identified myself to you. It’s only fair that you tell me who you are.” The words sounded slightly ridiculous to me even as I spoke them. Some entity contacts me telepathically and I demand that they follow the rules of etiquette.

I sensed an amusement, although it might have been merely my own feelings of foolishness.

I waited there, squatting on the littered floor, until the sky began to turn milky pale above me. Admitting defeat, I got up and returned to the building where my troopers had camped.

Manfred was standing in the doorway at street level, rifle in his hands.

“Captain!” he snapped. “You’re all right!”

“Of course I’m all right,” I said.

“We spent half the night searching for you. When you disappeared—”

“I was inspecting the city,” I said curtly. “If I had run into trouble I would have contacted you on the emergency frequency.”

In the gray light of dawn Manfred’s taut face looked half disappointed, half relieved. “Yes, sir, I suppose so. But still, we expected you to return and when you didn’t…” His voice trailed off.

I clasped him on the shoulder. “You’re right, Manfred. I should have told you that I was going to spend the night exploring. It’s my fault. I hope you didn’t lose too much sleep.”

“No, sir. I’m fine.” But now that I looked at him closely I could see that his eyes were baggy from sleeplessness.

The troop breakfasted on prepacked rations; then I sent them out by squads to check out the ruins and locate the best defensive positions they could find. Each squad went out under its top sergeant; I kept the officers with me.

“We need to scout the Skorpis base,” I told them. “And, if possible, to get inside it.”

Quint made a snorting laugh. “Sure. We’ll just walk up to their perimeter and ask for a tour.”

“Or tunnel from here to there,” Frede suggested, grinning.

“I’ve done some tunneling in my time,” I said, “but I don’t think that would work in this case.”

“Then what do you have in mind?” Quint asked. Then he added, “Sir.”

I considered telling them about my telepathic contact but decided against it. I wasn’t certain that I believed it myself. But the thought that the Skorpis might have allies inside their base was too important to neglect.

“I’m going alone,” I said.

“You can’t do that,” Frede snapped. “With all due respect, sir, you can’t go out on a suicide mission and leave your command to fend for itself.”

“It needn’t be a suicide mission, Lieutenant. I’m not a total fool.”

“Then let me do it,” she said without hesitation.

I shook my head. “I’ve had more experience at this sort of thing than you. I’ll do it. If I’m not back by sundown tomorrow, you can consider me dead.”

Frede looked as if she wanted to argue, but she knew it would be pointless. Manfred looked as if he thought I was crazy. Quint almost smiled. If I was killed, he would be in command.

Manfred cleared his throat. “May I ask, sir, how you intend to get to the Skorpis base? There’s a couple of klicks of empty beach between the edge of these ruins and their perimeter.”

“Wait until dark?” Quint asked.

“They see better in the dark than we do,” Frede reminded him. “Any advantage we have, it’s in daylight.”

“Cross the beach in daylight?”

I smiled. “No, that would be like trying to sneak up on a pack of Tyrannosaurs.”

“Tyranno-what, sir?”

“Very large carnivorous reptiles, ten meters tall, teeth the size of your forearm,” I explained.

Frede looked as if she thought I was making it up.

Manfred brought us back to the subject. “Sir, if you can’t get across the beach without being seen, how are you going to get to their base?”

“Swim.”

“Swim?”

I said, “Their base is laid out along the beach, isn’t it? There are even some projections like piers that extend into the water, aren’t there?”

“Yessir, but—”

“I’ll double back to the bay, slip into the water there, let the current carry me into the ocean and then swim along the beach to the Skorpis base.”

“That’s a lot of swimming, sir,” said Manfred.

“I’ll use a flight pack. I assume they’re watertight.”

“Yessir, but salt water is very corrosive and—”

“What if there are animals in the water like the ones we met in the swamp?” Frede asked.

I hadn’t thought of that. Sucking in a breath, I said, “I’ll have to outrun them, I guess. Or kill them.”

“It’s suicide,” she said flatly.

I gave her a tight smile. “I’m not asking permission.”

Chapter 8

The water was surprisingly warm.

I had expected the bay to be cold, fed as it was by the river that came down from the snowcapped mountains. But instead the water was almost bath temperature, warmed by the sun during the long hot days.

The current was strong and swift, once I got away from the shore. I made a mental note to remember that for when I returned. I would have to struggle against that current unless I hugged the shoreline closely. The flight pack would help, of course, if it wasn’t drained of power or corroded by the salt water.

With a final wave to Frede and Manfred, who had accompanied me to the edge of the bay, I ducked beneath the surface and let the powerful current carry me out to sea. I had stripped down to nothing more than shorts.