Cross of the Legion Read Online Free PDF Page B

moment, all over Alpha Station.
    "No," I replied, "We don't have to volunteer. We can stay right here, running Alpha Station, with whoever else doesn't want to volunteer. We'll probably get along with them fine." We were standing face to face beside my desk. It was dead quiet.
    "We don't owe the Legion anything!"
    "Except your life. And mine. And everyone else in Beta. Without the Legion, Beta would have died on Uldo."
    "We would have, if Tara and you hadn't disobeyed orders! The Legion would have left us!"
    "We never could have done it without the Legion!"
    "They killed Two and Four and Six and Seven! How many more dead do you want? Let's stay out of it!"
    "Two and Four were killed by the Systies, and Six and Seven were killed by the O's—not by the Legion."
    "It's the same thing! It's suicide! The Legion is the finest instrument ever devised for the killing of young Outworlders! It's a suicide corps!"
    "You always used to believe in the Legion, Priestess. You carved a Legion cross into the walls of that Omni base on Andrion 3. Remember? You've changed."
    "Why are you defending them? They put you away for two years!"
    "We deserved it. I accept my fate. Then, as now."
    "I'm sick of accepting fate! Let's make our own fate!"
    "What do you want to do? Stay here?"
    "Yes, stay here! Otherwise, we die! Otherwise, it's suicide! We've just found ourselves, after all the killing! We love each other! Can't we live together, happily? Can't we have a baby?" There was cold sweat on her forehead. I think she knew how hopeless it was.
    "Stay here. Fine. We certainly deserve it. You're right."
    "Let somebody else fight the battles!"
    "All right. Fine."
    "We've done our part!"
    "Yes. That's true. Tara's probably dead anyway. I mean, chances are high she's dead. Kind of like when Beta had disappeared in the Mound. Chances were very high you were all dead. It was kind of crazy for Tara and me to come looking for you, the way we did. Expending all that effort—with all that backing from the Legion. Billions of Credits, with the total support of the Lost Command. All the resources we needed."
    Priestess was pale and silent, looking into my eyes.
    "It's not as if we know for sure nobody's going to make an effort to find her," I continued. "I mean, chances are high she's dead, and the Legion's certainly kind of busy, but…well, we've done our part, right? Somebody else can find Tara."
    "That's not fair, Thinker."
    "No. It's not. But listen, Priestess, I'm perfectly serious. I'll do whatever you want. If you tell me you want to stay here, I'll leap at the chance. Every fiber of my being wants to stay here, where I belong. I know what it's like out there, in an A-suit—I've been there! But you've got to realize, if we stay, we're going to be thinking about Tara, and One and Dragon and Valkyrie and everyone else from Beta. They're out there still, fighting just like before. And we're going to wake up in the night, thinking about them. I already am! And every time we look up at the stars, we're going to see all those Legion troopers out there, suffering and dying, for us. And we're going to be asking ourselves if we're doing the right thing."
    "Oh, Thinker!" She collapsed against my chest, flinging her arms around my waist. I embraced her tenderly, losing myself in her sweet scent. She was crying. Fate—it was Fate. How the hell do you fight Fate?
    ***
    It was almost like a ceremony when we opened the arms locker again. I sure hadn't planned it that way, but we had to load the A-suits and weapons into the aircar, and Moontouch and Stormdawn and Deadeye had accompanied Priestess and me into the basement, to watch.
    It was deathly quiet when the locker doors hissed open, revealing the two A-suits standing there in all their awful glory. I think it was only then, at that very moment, standing in shock before those two obscene, holy specters, that Priestess realized what it really meant. She gasped and moved closer to me, as if for protection. I'll