“I’m not sure I believe in your cause,” Pias continued, “but I do believe in the power of your faith. I’ve seen it in action. I believe that, with your faith to lead you, you could overcome a gravitational field of twenty-five gees, at least long enough to travel up a corridor and plant a bomb – you and a few of your most devout followers.”
“If you’re trying to trick me into an admission of treason, it won’t work,” she snarled at him. “I was ordered to disband my army, and I did so.”
“I’m sure you did,” Pias soothed. “But you could have kept in touch with some of them, couldn’t you? People often keep track of their friends’ whereabouts.
I’ll bet you could find the best of your followers within a day or two and convince them to come with you.”
“Possibly,” Clunard admitted with reluctance.
Pias drew a deep breath. This next subject was the hardest to broach. He finally decided to treat it head on. “I’ll have to be honest with you,” he said. “What I’m talking about could very well be a suicide mission. If you can get in, plant the bomb properly, and get away again before it explodes, so much the better – but that would take at least a double miracle. In a twenty-five-gee field, merely planting the bomb may use up God’s patience.”
“My followers and I are not afraid to die if we’re doing God’s work,” Clunard said proudly.
“Khorosho. I respect you immensely.”
They talked for a while longer as Pias described the problem in greater detail, and Tresa Clunard wavered between her bitterness against the Empire and her true belief in the evil of the PCC and what it represented. In the end, Pias’s persuasion overcame her doubts and she relented. “I will do it,” she said, “but I’ll do it for the glory of God, not for the good of the Empress.”
“That’s fine,” Pias nodded, adding silently to himself, Just as long as you do it.
CHAPTER 14 Inside the Enemy
It took Tresa Clunard two days to round up five of her most ardent followers. Pias explained the situation to each of them, and Tresa Clunard added her own touches about how this mission would demonstrate the truth of their beliefs that machines were evil and responsible for mankind’s decay and damnation.
They returned quickly to Earth in Pias’s ship. Pias learned that the war effort was deteriorating slowly. The rebellion had not captured any new worlds since the initial surge, but they were steadily consolidating their hold on the worlds they already had. Reports from the d’Alembert teams indicated that the rebellion’s forces were well – organized, efficient, and slowly eliminating their opposition. The PCC’s influence was evident; it was using its superhuman abilities to assimilate and correlate the data from hundreds of worlds. It knew precisely what actions to take, and where, and when, to destroy any opposition to its rule. The small, impromptu bands of counterrevolutionaries were rapidly being erased.
Without question, the PCC had to be destroyed.
Before long, the rebellious forces would establish their “Second Empire,” and it would be twice as large as what remained of the first. As soon as it had a chance to rebuild its forces, it would seek to expand and conquer the planets that still defied it. A war between the two factions seemed inevitable, and the PCC looked like the probable victor.
Even knowing how urgent it was to destroy the super-computer, the Head was still dubious about Pias’s plan. He had never personally seen Tresa Clunard exhibit her miraculous powers, and insisted on a demonstration before giving final approval to such a mad scheme.
With the Head and his daughter and the d’Alemberts all watching via monitors, the Puritans were placed in a room with a high ultra-grav field. They were told to carry an object weighing as much as the bomb they’d use in the mission to the far end of the room, and then return within a specified period of time. The Head was skeptical. “Just watch,” Pias assured him.
When the field was turned on, not even the heavy grav Puritans could stand upright. They lay on the floor motionless for more than a minute, until even Pias began to doubt they’d find the strength to fulfill their mission. The group of observers grew very quiet, waiting to see what would happen.
A faint sound could be heard over the monitors – the sound of Tresa Clunard and her followers praying. Their voices were barely audible because it was a great strain even to breathe in a twenty-five-gee field, but they could be heard calling on the power of God to assist them in their holy task, and to prove to the unbelievers the strength of those who served Him.
The trivision screen brightened, from some diffuse light source within the test room. Then, slowly, Tresa Clunard lifted the front part of her body up onto her elbows. A moment later she’d managed to rise up onto her knees as well, so that she was in a crawling position. There was no look of strain upon her face. Her countenance was smooth and beatific, as though in holy rapture, and she seemed almost unaware of her surroundings. Then she opened her eyes, looked around, and began moving forward carrying the make-believe bomb. Behind her, her followers – though less sure of themselves and less confident in their faith – were also rising to hands and knees and starting to crawl after their leader.
Slowly but steadily, the procession made its way across the floor and planted the bomb. Then, turning around, they returned the way they’d come. They almost made it all the way back by the time their deadline was reached.
Pias turned around and looked at the others who’d been watching the monitors with him. “What do you think?”
“I’m a little disappointed they couldn’t make it all the way back,” the Head criticized.
“That’s damning with faint praise if I ever heard it,” Jules said. “They were… well, literally miraculous. I couldn’t do that, and I don’t think anyone in my family could. If they can duplicate that under field conditions, then they’re the best hope we’ve got for slipping inside the PCC and destroying it.”
“If Lady A wasn’t lying to us about that corridor,” Yvette reminded him. “We’ll still have to deal with her, though, to find out where it is.”
Helena, however, was thoughtful. “Does this mean the Puritans are right, that our entire technological civilization is evil and God is on their side? This looks like pretty conclusive proof.”
“Not necessarily,” Pias said. “I’ve traveled a lot around the Galaxy and seen some pretty strange things. I’ve read about even more. People who believe very strongly in something seem able to do miracles. It doesn’t matter what it is they believe in; it’s the act of believing, the faith itself, that lets them perform their feats. Every religion provides its own examples, and they can’t all be right. I think there’s something within everybody, an untapped resource, that gives us powers we don’t normally achieve. An unquestioning faith seems able to reach in and use that resource.”
He shrugged. “Well, it’s a theory. It seems at least as plausible as Clunard’s belief that God disapproves of everything men have ever done to improve themselves.”
“You ought to have a chat with the Emperor-Consort,” the Head smiled. “I’m sure Liu would have some interesting thoughts on the matter.”
“I never claimed to be a theologian,” Pias replied with uncharacteristic modesty. “But if some fanatic has a talent and is willing to help us, I’m prepared to take advantage of it.”
—
With the Puritans’ abilities demonstrated, Zander von Wilmenhorst finally approached the Empress with his plan. He explained to her the options she had available, and told her why, in his opinion, it was crucial to knock out the computer as rapidly as possible to deny its coordinating abilities to the rebels. Unless that step were taken, the Empire would be in for a costly, protracted war it could very well lose.
Edna Stanley looked coldly at the alternatives. She, too, hated the thought of dealing with Lady A – but with the survival of the Empire at stake and so much already lost, this price did not seem as unbearable as it might have once. She agreed to the amnesty, but refused to issue her enemy any title higher than duchess, which Aimée Amorat had been before she officially became listed as a traitor. If Lady A would not accept that bargain, SOTE was directed to kill her immediately and find some other solution.
Lady A balked when she learned she would not be making the assault on the PCC alone. Von Wilmenhorst wanted to leave her out of the assault altogether, lest she try any trickery, but she refused to give the location of the hidden entrance and corridor unless she were included. When he was adamant about the matter of her future title, she relented in turn, realizing she’d played her cards for all they were worth. The amnesty was to be written up and presented to her before she left on her mission; the planet she would rule as duchess would be chosen by mutual agreement from the planets with vacant titles after the rebellion was over. With treason so abundant, there were bound to be lots of planets reverting to the throne for later allocation.