Setosha - the Beating Heart
Copyright© 2010 by Prince von Vlox
Chapter 26
First Landing, Home
“Has the rot gone far?” Eldest Marie asked. The sun was setting, and the Nebula rising. The light from the latter cast wavering shadows across the gardens outside Eldest Marie’s office.
“Far enough,” Prophet Tabor said. “Too far, actually. It should never have been permitted in the first place. Even if this were God’s War, I believe things have gone much too far.
“I fear for these children of ours who were sold into a spiritual slavery to the Emperor. I fear that the great Corrupter has endangered or even devoured their souls. Denying their own heritage, denying their own relationship to God makes me fear for them, Marie. I fear what they may yet do, and I fear what has been done to them. You told me that one even took her own life?”
“The one who shot Admiral Korina and killed her sibling, yes, Tabor. She turned her gun on herself when she saw she would be captured without completing her mission.”
Prophet Tabor closed his eyes and said a prayer for the tormented and departed soul of this child of his flock. “Life is a precious gift from God,” he said carefully. “To end it by your own hand when not in the service of God is to potentially deny God’s gift and thus to deny God. That is a terrible thing for one of The Faithful to do. God’s Revealed Wisdom reserves that action only as a penance for a Great Sin.”
“I am told by our Intelligence people that these children are conditioned to kill themselves if captured. Most of them died fighting when the circumstances said they should have surrendered.”
The Prophet bowed his head and remained silent for a long moment. He looked up at last and sighed. “And yet one survived.”
“My granddaughter removed the girl’s means of ending her own life.”
“And in so doing she saved the soul of one of The Faithful. Our profound thanks for that act.”
“If you knew my granddaughter you would know she did it for purely pragmatic reasons. She wanted a live prisoner to question. She also needed another pair of hands to help carry her wounded sibling. Her other sibling, who had lost a hand in the war, could not help her with this.”
“To your granddaughter it may have seemed a practical decision, Marie,” Prophet Tabor said. “It is more likely that God worked through her to not only provide the needed hands, but also preserve one of the Faithful from the ultimate corruption. The ancient oral traditions say He works in mysterious ways and chooses tools that seem inappropriate or confusing at the time, but in retrospect are seen to be the perfect choice for His tasks. We try always to observe and to learn, that we may better understand when His Path seems difficult to us.”
Eldest Marie glanced at the clock on her desk. “Tabor, we have talked for over three hours, and we could easily talk for three more. I need to stretch. My bones are old, and--”
“It is I who should have thought of this,” Prophet Tabor apologized quickly. “By all means, let us pause for a few minutes. You will also wish to talk with your people, even as I must talk with mine.”
Eldest Marie rose. “At the end of the hall, we have a room we use for private meetings,” she said. “You may freely use it for as long as you need it. You have my word that you will find privacy there.”
Prophet Tabor rose and bowed. “Should we continue our talk today, Marie?” He was ready to continue as long as necessary. “Or should we continue tomorrow?”
“It is your choice, Tabor,” Eldest Marie said. “I am home. You have traveled far. We will abide by your needs in this.”
Prophet Tabor nodded. “I will return in a few minutes. We can decide then.”
God’s Prophet stepped out of the Eldest’s office. He gathered the Gnostic Princes and the Lay Brethren up by eye. Stena led them down the hall to the private meeting room.
“I made arrangements for refreshments to be brought for them from their ship,” Stena told Eldest Marie when she returned. “One of the Lay Brothers took care of the details.”
Eldest Marie nodded. She felt tired, but it wasn’t the worn-out tired after a bad decision. It was the exhilarating tired of matching wits with a man every bit as subtle as she, a man who came from a culture that was alien to her experiences, but strangely familiar to her ethics and principles.
“We’re getting back together in a few minutes,” she told Stena. “Tell the others I will see them in Kihei’s office after I use the ‘fresher.”
“It’s going well,” Eldest Kihei said a few minutes later, translating the eager expression on Eldest Marie’s face.
“Oh, this is just the part where we feel each other out,” Eldest Marie cautioned. “You’ve heard: we’ve both admitted mistakes were made, blood shed, wrongs done. Their government is ... it’s not what people think it is. We call it a religious dictatorship, but given the way they look at the universe, that’s the only way it could look to us. To The Faithful, it just makes sense. Did you hear the way some of them describe us? Not flattering.”
“I liked what he said about the way we govern things,” Eldest Shawna said, “that bit about the elder women of the village being better at running things than the men.”
“Subtle flattery there,” Eldest Marie said with a smile. “And he is subtle. Did you all notice that?”
Eldest Reesa laughed. “You’ve found someone every bit as capable of sideways thinking as you, Marie, and you like it, don’t you?” The others smiled.
“I like him,” Eldest Marie confessed. “I like his mind. If he were living here, I’m sure he’d be an Eldest.”
Shawna laughed. “There’s the little matter of gender, Marie,” she said. “Would the Prophet have the same mind if he were a she and was raised here?”
Eldest Marie shrugged. “We’ll never know, will we?” She drew a deep breath. “All right, enough of that. I can see you are all bursting with news. What is it?”
“This morning, before local dawn, we captured the base these saboteurs and assassins have been using,” Eldest Kihei said. “No fatalities on our part and none on their part either, though it was touch and go for a bit. I understand the prisoners are in pretty bad shape. Lesions, small cancers, low white cell count, infections, and other radiation damage, about like what our people went through when they first came here. I don’t know how much our doctors can do to help them. The best thing would be to send them back to their own world as soon as possible.”
“There’s more,” Shawna added. Her pleased smile disappeared. “We also arrested six gals from Family Sweetwater River who were helping them. The captives we took this morning identified them by name.”
“They were helping them?” Eldest Marie frowned. “What were they doing?”
“Getting them supplies, fronting for them, and helping them maintain their cover. Two of the Sweetwater River gals have confessed.” Shawna shook her head. “I got Shelley Crawford out of bed, and they confessed to her.”
Eldest Marie sat down stiffly, her face stricken. “Shelley must feel awful.” Everyone avoided looking at each other for a long moment.
“That area’s always been a hotbed for the anti-Space crowd,” Eldest Reesa said finally. “I’d like to think these girls just went a little further than common sense would have suggested.”
“Are they being questioned?”
Eldest Shawna nodded. “Eldest Shelley is sitting in on that.”
“If this gets out... “ Eldest Marie started. She shook her head, staring at the floor. “What are we going to do? When it gets out that some of our own have been aiding the Idenux ... I have no idea what will happen to them or to their families.”
“A public lynching, for starters,” Eldest Kihei said sourly. “But maybe we can head that off. Beyond that...?” She shook her head. “You’re right. What can we do to help Shelley? What will happen to these girls’ families? What will happen to them?” Nobody had an answer for her questions.
“We do have some good news,” Eldest Shawna said.
“Good news?” Eldest Marie looked up, her expression bleak. “Good news? It had better be really good.”
“I think you’ll like this,” Eldest Shawna said. “And it may be that something really good could come from it. We have the opportunity for one of those grand gestures that can remove many problems.” She leaned forward and began explaining.
A few minutes later, Stena swallowed, squared her shoulders, and knocked on the door of the room the delegation from Medina was using.
“Yes?” The Lay Brother for the Prophet’s Safety opened the door in response to her knock.
“Compliments of the Eldest,” Stena informed him respectfully. “This morning, we took into custody several members of The Faithful. Three were harmed in the capture, though none badly. However, they are all suffering from prolonged exposure to the ionizing radiation of our planet. The Eldest wished to know if the Prophet would like to take custody of them. The sooner they are returned to their families and the Faithful, the sooner they will truly begin to heal.”
The Lay Brother gaped in surprise, and then quickly recovered his composure. “I will ... I must consult with...”
“I will remain outside,” Stena said, stepping back from the door.
A minute later, the door opened again, and the Lay Brother invited her into the room. As the Senior Aide of an Eldest, she was used to unusual situations. Even so, it was with no little trepidation that she stepped into a room full of men.
The Prophet Tabor was at the far end of the room with the two men Stena knew as Gnostic Princes close beside him. He approached her, a puzzled expression on his face. “You have news of more lost members of The Faithful, Sehrin?”
“I have only the information I was given,” she said. “This morning we took into custody thirteen women native to Medina. They had in their possession weapons and equipment of Imperial manufacture. When we questioned them, we learned that they had instructions to carry out a campaign of sabotage and murder on this world. Two of them were wounded in the assault, while another was injured. They are all suffering from prolonged exposure to the ionizing radiation prevalent here. Our doctors tell us they can make a complete recovery only if they are quickly returned to their homes.”
The Prophet looked at the Gnostic Princes, and they withdrew to the far end of the room. After a minute of quiet conversation in their own language, the Prophet returned. “Do I correctly understand that your Eldest wishes to return these children to us?”
“That is her desire, Your Grace,” Stena said. “She said that if they were returned to The Faithful, they could be led back to their God, and perhaps their bodies could be healed as well.”
“Truly, there is much I would learn from your Eldest,” the Prophet said. “Please tell her we accept her offer. We will assist with whatever transfer arrangements you make.”
“I will tell her that immediately, Your Grace.” Stena looked at the Lay Brother who had answered the door when she first knocked. “I will coordinate the travel with this ma- ... with your advisor.” The Brother smiled and nodded slightly.
Stena returned to Eldest Kihei’s office. “He accepted, ma’am,” she said. “I’ll set things up.”
Eldest Marie nodded. “Very good, Stena. Wait just a moment, please.” She looked at the other members of the Executive Council. “When should we show him the ones from the cargo pod? Do we question them first?”
“If he’s willing, I would question them with him there,” Eldest Shawna said. “Between our babble-juice and seeing their own clergy, it should be enough of a shock that they’ll tell us everything. That’s just fair. If it were our own people, we’d want to have somebody there, just like Eldest Shelley and her gals.”
Eldest Marie nodded in agreement. “Stena will be busy with this prisoner exchange. Kihei, could you have Gwylln set it up for us? I’d like it as soon as possible, this afternoon if we can.”
Three hours later, the aircars bearing the delegation from Medina and members of the Executive Council landed at a small hospital operated by the Navy. It was set at the head of a deep valley in the mountains, well to the east of First Landing. There was a glittering, deep blue lake on one side of the property, and steep, tree-covered mountains on the other three. A park surrounded the hospital, and formal gardens bordered the lake. The hulking white shape of a standard cargo pod dominated the normally open grassy grounds.
Admiral Maria Benson waited to one side, ready to greet everyone. She was a mature woman with iron-gray hair and a solemn expression. She was spare, even by the standards of the Families, and wore a brown shipsuit marked only with her rank.
“We have the prisoners upstairs,” she said by way of introduction. “As for the others, we haven’t opened the cargo pod yet, though we have investigated the interior with remote sensors. Aside from being filled with equipment, there are also a dozen long-sleep containers. We can awaken the occupants at any time.”
“There are more of The Faithful in that cargo pod?” Prophet Tabor asked. Eldest Marie had told him before they flew to this place; he only sought confirmation. Admiral Benson explained briefly what she had learned about the cargo pod. The Prophet smiled. “Awakening them should be interesting.” He glanced at the Lay Brother who shadowed him. “I believe some fascinating things could be learned from these lost ones,” he added in his own language.
“Each of the prisoners is being kept in isolation,” Admiral Benson said. “We didn’t want to keep them together because they might attempt to hurt each other.”
“Has that been a problem?” Eldest Kihei asked.