“No.” Her voice was even sharper and the dislike in it more obvious.
Peter looked at her, then his face brightened. “I have some liquor here if you prefer that. Built the still myself.”
“Hokay, when did you learn to do that?”
“Back in the old days, when we were roaming around Galilaea with Jeshua. He used to do his preaching and the rest of us would brew up and sell the moonshine. Only, Jeshua would never stop in one place long enough for us to set up a decent business. As soon as we got the still set up and established ourselves, he’d move on and we’d have to do the same. That’s what finished us in the end you know.”
“Do tell.” Despite herself, Stevenson was beginning to like him.
“We kept moving on and we never paid the tax duty on the moonshine we were selling. That really upset the Romans. They didn’t care about the preaching but tax evasion was something quite else. Then it turned out that Judas had been skimming. He was responsible for giving the local administration their share of the take but he was short-changing them and pocketing the difference. He’d made thirty pieces of silver on the deal before they wised up and sent some Maccabee killers out to whack him. Anyway, Judas decided the only way to get away was to sell the rest of us out to the Romans for tax evasion. Didn’t help him much, the Maccabees got him and strung him up anyway. Anyway, the Romans were about to crucify us all but Jeshua talked them out of it and took the blame himself. He took the fall, we all got to walk so we carried on preaching his message for him.”
Stevenson laughed delightedly and the old man seemed pleased. “You have got to tell that story to everybody down on Earth. I suppose Jesus – Jeshua is up here in heaven somewhere?”
Michael shook his head. “He never turned up; I suppose he’s down in Hell somewhere. He was only a tool you know, he was possessed by an angel called Elhmas. Once he’d finished with Joshua, he just abandoned him.”
Stevenson’s head snapped around at that, so she was looking at Michael. “And what happened to Elhmas?”
“Most everybody thinks you killed him. Oh, not you personally, you humans. He was in command of the Incomparable Legion of Light when it was nuked. The Host is certain that he died there.”
Stevenson nodded and tried a sip of the moonshine. It was surprisingly good. “Peter, got any more stories about the days in Galilaea?”
“Watch him Colonel.” Michael sounded amused. “Peter loves a good story. He’ll have you here for hours if you let him.”
Stevenson was about to say it didn’t matter and that she had plenty of time. Then, suddenly it did matter and she hadn’t. Because an unconscious body had emerged through Heaven’s Minos Gate and was on the ground.
USS Turner Joy. Seattle, Washington.
The band was playing “Anchors Aweigh” as the crew on the old destroyer made fast. Captain Reynolds gave the order “Finished with main engines” and the adventure was over. A new USS Turner Joy was commissioning soon and she would take over the reputation as well as the name. The DDG-120 Turner Joy was a Flight III Arleigh Burke class AEGIS destroyer with her own portal generation equipment built into her. Yet, she would be a cold, impersonal ship until her crew breathed life into her DD-951 Turner Joy already had her life, a phenomena that only sailors fully understood, but it was already ebbing away as her crew made ready to leave her.
“She’ll be back in the museum soon.” Sophia Metaxas looked sadly at the ship that had been her home for almost three years. In that time, Turner Joy had fought her battles on Earth, in Hell and in Heaven and had brought her crew safely back from every one of them. “It seems a shame somehow.”
“She’s steam-powered Sophia, the Navy is all gas turbine and nuclear now. When the war was on, she had her role to play. Especially since the Navy never expected to get her. That’s all finished now. Now, she can return to honorable retirement again. She has a tale to tell after all, and it’s one generations in the future will want to hear. Reynolds looked suddenly very sad. “I never did get Yahweh under my guns though.”
“I expect she’ll do a lot better than some of the museum ships have though.” Sophia was trying to look on the bright side. The Museum ship fleet had not done well from the war. Mostly, they were too old and too far gone to bring back into commission the way Turner Joy had been brought back. Some had been stripped for spare parts, others of useful equipment. All had been neglected in the driving urgency to concentrate every effort on the ships that could help win the war. Olympia had sunk at her moorings as a result and it was rumored that Texas was in a bad way and unlikely to survive.
“You can count on that. Anyway, my new ship is officially adopting her. We’ll be making sure our older sister gets proper care. We won’t be leaving you in the lurch.” Reynolds would be commanding DDG-120.
“Thanks, Captain. We’ll be keeping her ready though, Just in case.” Sophia nodded and turned to walk down the gangplank and back into civilian life. As she did so, another small increment of Turner Joy’s life ebbed away.
DIMO(N) Headquarters, The Pentagon, Washington
It was over. General Schatten looked around at the rapidly-emptying offices. Within a few hours DIMO(N) would cease to exist. Its military research and development activities would be taken over by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, its civilian activities transferred to other government departments. He recognized it was inevitable, the Salvation War was over, there was no need for an organization like DIMO(N) any more. Others could take over the charge it had led, others could build upon the foundations it had laid. Just as James Randi’s Institute of Pneumatology and closed down and dispersed when its work was done, so too would DIMO(N). In his imagination, Schatten heard the sounds of a trumpet playing Taps.
“What will you be doing now General?” Schatten heard the voice cut through his reverie
“Dr. Surlethe. Come to say goodbye to us all.”
“And to thank you for a job well done. Considering you started off from a bunch of old texts and grimoires and made a start on turning the legends and myths there into the foundations of real science, you people pulled off a spectacular achievement. We’ve got a long, long way to go but it all started here. You achieved something else as well. You took legends and myths and replaced them with science. We really have got a long way to go but it will be facts and experiments that guide us all the way. Anyway, you didn’t answer my question. What will you be doing now?”
“I’ve been appointed the new Director of Celestial Intelligence. It won’t be announced until tomorrow and the Senate has to approve of course.”
“That won’t be a problem. So you’re the new DCI. So we will be working together after all. How do you fancy working with Homo Caelis?”
“Homo Caelis?”
“The genus that contains the Angels and Daemons. They really are closely related, you know. We had to call them something and that was the best bet.
“It’ll be hard to think of them as anything but the enemy.”
“We can’t be sure they aren’t. Not yet. And there is who knows what out there. We know there are at least three other groups up there. The Aesir, the Baals and the Olympians. Then there’s the devils, we’re not sure who or what they are. But, if Homo Caelis is the enemy, they are a defeated enemy. It’ll be up to us to keep them that way.”
Schatten nodded. “Still, there’s Yamantau and what it represents. And we still have the H.E.A.”
Surlethe grimaced. “I know, but it’s spread pretty thin. We’re straining every economy on Earth and a lot of the smaller countries don’t like it at all. With the United Nations sidelined and virtually moribund, they feel they’ve been cut out of the decision loop. Which they have of course. How that will work out is still to be seen. Still, there’s one thing we have to be thankful for. Humans don’t have to fear death any more. Not on Earth, anyway.”
“No, we don’t have to fear death here any more. I just wonder what else is out there, that’s all. And what lies beyond the Minos Gates.”