She was so far ahead of me, so damned brilliant, that I never even came close to understanding her. Yet we were drawn to each other, as if by an overwhelming magnetism.
She had always been sad when I talked about the future. I didn’t realize until later that she was a psycher. I only had a ring now to remember her by. A silver friendship ring, which I had treasured all the way through Basic. I always suspected that she had gone to the Legion. I never even thought about the Legion until after she left. I suppose I half hoped to meet her again, somewhere out in the vac.
Our psychers came from many worlds. They kept to themselves. I never wanted that kind of power, but the Legion needed it. Now we could hear the psycher at work. Number 8388-Gravelight, they called her. I recognized her voice. I knew her as a pale, thin, nervous phantom of a girl, with limp golden hair. She had evidently reached Alpha’s position a short distance behind us, although I could not see her.
“Voices,” she said. “Voices. Fear, they are terrified. Many, many of them. They are trapped. I feel fear. Terror, waves of terror. Tears, and hatred. They hate you-you have come to kill them. Leave them alone!” She shrieked it, a command. Psychers often got excited.
I heard her crying. “They are all going to die. The mothers are gathering up their children,” she sobbed. “They all have knives. Sharp stones, I can feel the edges. When you get too close, they will plunge the knives into the children’s hearts. The men are singing a death song. They will kill you, they will defend the women. The traps are ready, they will put out the eyes of the seekers, and when you come you will die. They sing the death song…”
“The traps, what can you tell us about the traps?” Lowdrop interrupted.
“Silence!” She shrieked. “Tell him to blackout! Blackout! Who the hell do you think I am? I can’t work like this!” She was a nervous wreck. Someone calmed her down, and a long silence ensued.
“You know what they’re doing now?” she whispered. “The men are crawling along the side tunnels to get in position to kill you when you come down the corridors. Those are dirt tunnels-the probes haven’t discovered them yet-ahh! They got a probe.” One of the probes winked out of existence on the tacmap on my faceplate.
“They’re good,” Gravelight said. “Gooood. They don’t care if they die, now. They’ve decided you are with the Beasts-you control the Beasts. Earthers! Traitors! You betray your own race!” She began crying again. “We will kill you all! Oh, the women-they are dipping their knives into poison. Ahh, you will die like worms, deep under the ground. Crushed, smashed. They will dig to find your bodies. If any survive, they will roast you over fires so you will die slowly. The corridors are all trapped! They will cave in on you, you will not get out. Another probe!” It winked out of existence. “Stupid probes. They only use rocks. Oh, you will die if you go further! They will fight to the death. You cannot talk to these people, you are Death, you are Evil. They will not talk with Evil.”
I will have no talk with Evil-the chant of the Legion.
“It’s the end for them,” Gravelight said sadly. “The end. They pray to their Gods. They know you come with the Beasts to kill them all. Now they only want to make a good end, a good death, to kill as many of you as they can. Even the young boys are out with the warriors. They will cover themselves with glory. They have knives and swords and axes and slingshots and spears and tridents. But the corridors will do you in. Those are one-way roads. You will not come back.”
She went on and said if we went further we would become the beasts that the Scalers feared. She said we would be criminals, murderers of children. Let them alone, she said. And she would not stop crying. Gravelight refused to say any more.
Firefall finally gave the word, and we edged forward. Gravelight had calmed down again. She knew we offered the Scalers a better chance at survival than the Systies. The plan was for Alpha and the lifies to go first, and try to talk.
We all said our prayers. I slowly separated my mind from my body, and became all eyes and ears and muscles and nerves and blood, rushing, pounding through my veins. It was as if I had the view on a d-screen from someplace far, far away. I knew it would not hurt if I got hit. This time we would do it right. We were fully equipped, A amp;A and ready for anything. Each of us wore a plasmapak strapped to our back just in case. Into the unknown, again. If it all worked out, nobody would get killed. But I didn’t believe that. I don’t think anybody believed it, except maybe Warhound, and Warhound was a little slow.
Nothing ever worked the way it was supposed to, no matter how hard we tried. Today, we would try Plan A and when that failed we would go to Plan B, and when that exploded in our faces we would go to Plan C, my favorite. Plan C was to retreat before the Scalers committed mass suicide. No matter which plan worked, we figured we would get some live specimens out of it, thus accomplishing the object of the exercise: to establish contact, preferably friendly contact, and ask some questions about the exosegs and the Systies.
###
“I can’t get the leader,” Gravelight said. “It’s all jumbled. Can we get closer?”
Someone answered, “Can do, let’s go.”
We continued moving slowly down the corridor, in sync with Alpha. We could see the Scalers on our tacmaps, still two levels below us.
“Ohhh, I read them now.” Gravelight said. “They’re all waiting. They know…they know you are coming. They’ve sent more soldiers back to the city, because they’re not sure what you’re up to. There are no traps in the hall-the great hall. The side tunnels are death.
“They’re all very tired now. The fear has worn them down. You can capture the women and children in the shelters. Some of the girls are with the men, ready to fight you.” Her voice broke. “Excuse me, I’m going to be sick.”
A long silence. We waited for her. Central sketched out the probsit on our tacmods. I could see it all on the tacmap. The probes were stationary, waiting for us. I hated waiting.
“It’s very confusing,” Gravelight continued. “There are many war leaders. You cannot talk with them. When they see you, they will fight. All I get is fear and hatred. I’m going to try to reach the nearest war leader, the one in the outside corridor.”
We all prayed she would be successful. I did not want to begin our stay in this new world with a city full of dead children.
She began moaning, “It’s so hard…he’s so hard. He’s as hard as stone. Hatred. Terror! I try…I try to reach him…” she trailed off, and we all waited.
“He is so right, how can you oppose him? He wants life, for his people. He will die, for them. I try to give him love, he returns fear. He brushes me off. Shall I control him?”
“Yes, can you get him to hold off his men until Nomad gets to him?” It sounded like Lowdrop.
“Yes, but if it goes wrong, you have to attack immediately. Because otherwise, we are all going to die.”
“Tenners, we’ll do it right,” Lowdrop said.
“You’re damned right we will.” She was a tough little girl. I’d never dream of talking to Lowdrop like that.
Alpha and Beta were together now, in the same corridor. The lifies set up a portable spotlight and waited for the command to turn it on. Nomad was to make the initial contact. He was out of his armor, stripped down to his jox, streaming sweat. I imagined he was flying pretty high right then.
Lowdrop appeared with Alpha One, watching his tacmod. I could see Gravelight, by his side, on her knees, stringy hair soaked in sweat, her eyes closed. Her helmet lay on the ground and she looked sick to death. Alpha One and Snow Leopard did a quick check on the troops. The Scalers were on our level now, approaching our position.