“Where will you go now?” he asked me.
“To find someplace that has the facilities to revive my troopers.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Continue the war?”
“I suppose.”
Randa was the last of the scientists in line. As she placed one hand on the rim of the air-lock hatch, she turned slightly to look at me.
“Would you really have killed us all for the sake of a gang of frozen corpses?”
I heard the words she did not speak: a gang of frozen corpses who are nothing but soldiers, not quite human, fit for nothing but to fight and eventually die on some ball of rock out among the stars.
“If I had to,” I said.
The corners of her lips curled slightly in a malicious smile. “And how do you know that those pods actually hold your precious soldiers? Maybe the Skorpis commander put forty-nine of her own warriors in them, to take you by surprise.”
I made myself smile back at her. “The Skorpis commander made an honorable agreement with me. She’s a warrior. She’d kill me if she could but she wouldn’t deliberately lie to me.”
“You think not?”
“She doesn’t have the same set of values that you do,” I said.
Randa’s eyes shifted from me to her husband. “Let’s go,” she said to Delos, “and leave this madman to his frozen soldiers.” With that she ducked through the hatch.
Delos looked up at me with eyes that were almost sad. “Somehow I get the feeling, Orion, that I would learn a lot more about the universe by going with you.”
“Be my guest,” I said.
But he shook his head. “I wish I could. I’m not a soldier, but I have a duty to perform. And I know my place.”
“Maybe you can help to end this war.”
“How?”
“I wish I knew.”
He put out his hand to me. “We’re on opposite sides, I know. But—good luck, Orion. I wish there really was a way to end this war.”
“Search for it,” I said, taking his hand.
CHAPTER 18
Part of my agreement with the Skorpis commander was that she allow me to leave the Lunga system. Alone now in the survey vessel, I broke orbit and headed in the direction that the Tsihn fleet had taken. The Skorpis battle cruisers remained in orbit, but I knew that as soon as their commander decided to, they could overtake me and blast me into vapor.
The survey vessel was not capable of lightspeed. The only safety I could hope for was to find another Commonwealth ship in normal space. A forlorn hope, I realized. Space is vast, and most of the ships traveling through it go to superlight velocity as soon as they can, which puts them completely out of touch with turtle-boats such as mine.
But I had another means of communicating.
I put the ship on autopilot, with instructions to warn me if any Skorpis or Hegemony vessels appeared nearby. Then I leaned back in the pilot’s chair, closed my eyes, and reached for contact with the Creators.
This time it was easy. The Golden One appeared immediately, decked in a magnificent glowing robe. He seemed to be hovering in the emptiness of interstellar space, a splendid god radiating power and glory.
“What a strange ape you are, Orion,” he said. “Threatening to kill yourself if the enemy refused to return your troopers to you.”
“I’ve died before,” I said. “There’s no great trick to it.”
“But you expect me to revive you each time.”
Vaguely I recalled a slight, soft-spoken Hindu with dark skin and large liquid eyes. “It would be a relief to be taken off the wheel of life,” I said.
“You seek nothingness? Oblivion?”
“It would be an end to pain.”
Aten smirked at me. “Your nirvana is not to be, Orion. Not yet. I have further chores for you.”
“First revive my troopers,” I said. “Awaken them and allow them to live normal human lives. They deserve that much, at least.”
“They will be revived, I promise you. I haven’t given up hope of enlisting the aid of the Old Ones and similar ancient races. Your troopers will help you to establish the next point of contact with them.”