"I've told you everything, ConFree," I continued. "But you've told me things too, with your questions. You've got me, but you haven't got Tara, have you? If you had, you wouldn't be asking me all these questions—because she's the one with all the answers.
"And you don't have the Star, do you? No, you don't. The Star is all you want, isn't it? And you don't have it. If you did, you would have no interest in me. You really botched the Andrion Two raid, didn't you? You got me and maybe Whit, you got us off planet somehow, but neither of us knows a damned thing. We certainly don't know where the Star is. You missed Tara, and you missed Gildron, and you missed the Star. And the Legion knows exactly what you're up to now. Good op, huh, guys? Willard could have done it better!
"I guess my life ends here. ConFree tells me they're going to deep-psych me—they're going to erase my memory. That's certainly something to think about, while I still can.
"Perhaps it's better this way. I still have no idea what happened to my comrades. For all I know, all of Beta is dead. They were a part of me and I was a part of them.
"Priestess was my eternal love, and Valkyrie was my lost past, and the rest of them were little pieces of my soul, Snow Leopard and Merlin and Psycho and Dragon and Redhawk and Scrapper and Twister. Merlin is dead for sure and Redhawk is probably alive, but all the others are phantoms, fate unknown. Moontouch survives, with my son. And Tara—Tara is still out there somewhere, I'm certain of it. But it doesn't matter. They are lost to me—all of them, forever.
"So what is the loss, if they take my mind? I've lost my soul already. All I'm left with is my sorrow. Let them take it. But I'll tell you this, ConFree. You'd better burn it all out of me—you'd better not leave a thing. Because if it comes back, if I remember any of this, I'm coming after you, ConFree. And I won't be alone. For I am the Legion—I'm nothing else. I'm a soldier of the Legion, I'm a slave of the Legion, and you made me.
"And I swear to Deadman, if I remember any of this, you're going to regret it."
THE END
of Slave of the Legion
To be continued…
KEY:
Slave = System rule, Anarcho-Tyranny, government directs people. Insecure, crime-ridden, violent, extreme poverty, lawyers/criminals rule.
Free = ConFree rule, Citizens' Constitutional Republic, people direct government. Secure, crime-free, peaceful, prosperous, lawyers/criminals proscribed.
AT = Anarcho-Tyranny
CCR = Citizens' Constitutional Republic
LCC = Lawyer-Criminal Conspiracy
VS = Voluntary Service (voluntary slavery)
DS = Directed Servitude (involuntary slavery)
VC = Voluntary Contributions (involuntary tax slavery)
Martial Law = Military rule
USICOM = United System Interstellar Commission (System front).
About the Author
Marshall S. Thomas is a retired Foreign Service officer. Marshall attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the University of New Mexico and the University of Miami with a major in Government/ International Affairs and a minor in History. Marshall's 35-year Foreign Service career included numerous postings in East Asia.
Marshall currently lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife Kim Lien. His youngest son Alexander is now in college studying biochemistry. His eldest son Christopher is a graduate of Radford University who studied art and graphic design. Marshall loves to write science fiction but has also written on East Asian subjects. He is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Writers Club, Goodreads and Author's Den.
