in conference, there at the top of the steep stone pyramid. They were all standing together before the sacrificial altar: Aten in a white and gold military uniform; the dark-bearded one I thought of as Zeus in a comfortable tunic and slacks; rust-haired Ares; slim, sharp-eyed Hermes; and the beautiful redheaded woman who had styled herself Hera in an earlier age.
It was Hermes who spied me first; the others had their backs to me as they talked earnestly among themselves.
“Look who’s here,” Hermes said, touching Aten on the shoulder.
They all turned toward me, wide-eyed with surprise.
Hera smiled maliciously at me. “Who invited you, Orion?”
“The Old Ones,” I answered.
That stifled any complaints or gibes they intended to make. “What do you mean?” Aten snapped.
“They have given me a message for you. A warning,” I said. “If you try to use the star-destroying weapon the Commonwealth has developed, the Old Ones will destroy you.”
Ares glared at me. “How could they know about the star-wrecker? You told them, Orion! You’re a traitor!”
“I didn’t know about the weapon until they told me of it,” I retorted.
“That’s true,” Aten said. “Orion knew nothing of the weapon.”
“Then how could the Old Ones know?”
“They know,” I said. “And they will eliminate all of us if you try to use it.”
“How credible is this threat by the Old Ones?” Zeus asked.
“What threat?” Aten sneered. “How could they destroy us? We can avoid them by traveling through time whenever we wish. If necessary I can go back to their time of origins and eliminate them.”
“I wonder,” Zeus muttered.
“Your meddling with space-time has caused us enough trouble,” Hera complained.
“My meddling,” Aten retorted, “is what created us. Without me, we would never have come into existence.”
Zeus said to me, “Orion, you must give this warning to Anya and her cohorts, too.”
“The Hegemony—”
“Is developing a similar weapon,” Hera told me. “What did you expect?”
“I am trying to reach Anya now,” I said to them.
Aten fixed me with an angry look. “I never told you to do so.”
“But I told you that I would find her,” I said. “That’s what I’m doing.”
“In the era of the war?” Zeus asked.
“Yes. I am flying my ship to the Hegemony capital to tell her that you have the star-weapon.”
“I told you he was a traitor,” Ares snapped hotly.
I ignored him. “Now I must carry the Old Ones’ warning to her.”
“No,” Aten snapped. “You mustn’t do that.”
“I am already doing it.”
“I’ll put a stop to that! And to you, too, Orion.”
“Wait,” said Zeus. “Perhaps your creature can accomplish what we cannot.”
“Nonsense!”
“Anya has been close to this one in the past,” Hera said, sneering. “Maybe she will listen to him where she refuses to speak with us.”
“It’s worth a try,” said Hermes.
Ares glowered at me and rubbed his chin. “Aten, if this creature is yours, you ought to control him better than this.”
“I can control him!”
“No, you can’t,” I said. “Not entirely. I came here on my own power, not because you summoned me. I decided to find Anya even when you told me it was impossible.”
He smirked at me. “So you think you have free will? That you are not under my command every instant of your existence?”
“I’ve gone against your commands in the past,” I countered.
“Pah!” spat Zeus. “Stop this posturing, both of you. Aten, I suggest you use your creature to make contact with Anya. This threat from the Old Ones must be taken seriously.”
His eyes never leaving mine, Aten replied, “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps this pitifully flawed wretch can be useful to us in spite of himself.”
I seemed to fall asleep then, as deep and restful a sleep as I have ever known. When I awoke, I was back in my bunk aboard the
Chapter 23
Frede computed our course to the Zeta system with conspicuous reluctance. When on duty in the bridge she was crisp, efficient, and knowledgeable. She checked her navigation constantly by having us drop out of superlight velocity at random times so that she could take an observation of the stars. It took only a few seconds; then we accelerated back into superlight again.
At night, in bed, she tried to talk me out of entering the Zeta system.
“It’s suicide, Orion! They’ll blast us before we have a chance to blink our eyes. The system must have automated defense bases all around it, belts of them orbiting the star. They’ll be programmed to shoot the instant any unauthorized vessel pops out of superlight within range of their weapons.”
“We’ll send message capsules ahead,” I repeated each time she brought up the argument. “We’ll tell them exactly when and where we’ll appear.”
“Great! Then they’ll know exactly where and when to shoot!”
“Our mission is a peaceful one,” I said. “Surely the Hegemony can understand that one scout won’t be a threat to their capital.”
Frede huffed at me. “No, they’ll see it as an opportunity for target practice.”
Every night we came to the same deadlock. And every night I would end the matter by saying, “Lieutenant, the time for argument is finished. As your commanding officer, I order this discussion closed.”
Frede would grumble and give it up. Until the next night. We made love infrequently during that flight to Prime; it was difficult to work up any ardor when each of us was convinced that the other was being pigheaded.
And then, the night before we were scheduled to start sending out the message capsules, Frede told me what was really bothering her.
“You call out to Anya in your sleep, you know.”
She was undressing. I did not feel at all sleepy. I did not answer her.
“That’s the reason you want to go to Prime, isn’t it?” Frede asked me. “She’s there.”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“You’re willing to get us all killed, for her?”
“She can stop the war,” I said.
“Dogshit she can. Nobody can stop this war. It’s going to go on forever.”
“Is that what you want?”
“It’s the reason I’m alive, Orion. All of us mutts. Stop the war and they freeze us.”
“Continue the war and you’ll be killed, sooner or later.”
She ran a hand through her short-cropped hair. “Some choice, huh?”
“Maybe I can change things,” I said, not really believing it myself, but wanting to give her some glimmer of hope.
