those colonies firmly in the reach of the Caliphate. Before the escalation of tensions that prevent serious consideration of anything outside their own borders.
But Father Mallory was still out there, somewhere. They had enough intel from Bakunin to know now that, despite Caliphate interference, he had been able to leave on an expedition to Xi Virginis.
Beyond that, nothing.
Unless Malloryâs expedition had access to the new Caliphate tach-drives, the earliest they could have reached their goal would have been less than a month ago, more reasonably, within the week.
It was quite possible that the Caliphate could have beaten them there.
Anderson stared at the transmission and wondered what Father Mallory faced now.
âGod help him,â Cardinal Anderson whispered.
From the ornate desk in front of him, an assistantâs voice emerged, âThe trade representative from Sirius has arrived.â
He waved, and the troubling holo disappeared from in front of him. âSend the man in,â he told his assistant.
It was time to return to work.
PART FOUR
Crusade
âThere is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and shackles the conscience.â
âST. AMBROSE (340?-397)
CHAPTER FOUR
Miracles
âProblems are never solved, only replaced.â
â The Cynicâs Book of Wisdom
Â
âProvidence is always on the side of the last reserve.â
âNAPOLEON BONAPARTE (1769-1812)
Date: 2526.6.4 (Standard) Salmagundi-HD 101534
Julia Kugara stood on a crystalline outcrop and stared as the sun set on a wasteland. Stretching for kilometers away from her, what had been a forest was now little more than a vast bowl of coals and cooling ash. Close to the horizon, at the limits of visibility in the haze and dimming light, she thought she could see where the burnt trees regained some semblance of individuality as blackened logs scattered like toothpicks. Beyond that, she could see the roils of smoke as the forest beyond still burned.
She wondered how many of her comrades from the Eclipse had died in the blast. The radius of the damage stretched far past where her lifeboat had dropped her and Nickolai, and the lifeboats were supposed to cluster their drops.
What kind of sick universe has me and the tiger as the only survivors?
Much closer, just a dozen meters from where she stood, the blast had been forceful enough to scour the ground clean, leaving a pitted, glassy surface that refracted slight rainbow shimmers in the evening light. About ten meters away from her, the glass stopped in a sharp line.
She spared a glance at the small disposable rad counter, one of the few items left from the lifeboatâs emergency kit that had survived. It still showed safe levels of radiation. It was hard to believe the thingâbut not any harder than believing she still lived.
She looked at the sharp line that marked the end of the nukeâs destruction and wondered what frightened her more, that someone had dropped a nuclear weapon on her, or that something else had deflected it. It struck her in an immediate visceral way that the disappearance of Xi Virginis never had. For all the enormity of it, a missing star was an abstract concept.
This was immediate, concrete. She smelled the cooling ash, felt wind hot and dry enough to scour her skin, tasted a nasty metallic taste in the air.
She walked the perimeter, a perfect hundred-meter circle centered on the alien crystalline artifact that seemed to have grown out of a much more prosaic backwoods encampment. There wasnât much left of that encampment. The nuke had erased it from the face of the planet.
She looked behind her, and the light from the fading sun captured the cluster of crystalline structures. The light reflected the structural details where the surfaces seemed to fold in on themselves in an infinite fractal regression.
Proteus . . .
The alien structure had obviously been the target of the attack. The presence of Kugara
But Father Mallory was still out there, somewhere. They had enough intel from Bakunin to know now that, despite Caliphate interference, he had been able to leave on an expedition to Xi Virginis.
Beyond that, nothing.
Unless Malloryâs expedition had access to the new Caliphate tach-drives, the earliest they could have reached their goal would have been less than a month ago, more reasonably, within the week.
It was quite possible that the Caliphate could have beaten them there.
Anderson stared at the transmission and wondered what Father Mallory faced now.
âGod help him,â Cardinal Anderson whispered.
From the ornate desk in front of him, an assistantâs voice emerged, âThe trade representative from Sirius has arrived.â
He waved, and the troubling holo disappeared from in front of him. âSend the man in,â he told his assistant.
It was time to return to work.
PART FOUR
Crusade
âThere is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and shackles the conscience.â
âST. AMBROSE (340?-397)
CHAPTER FOUR
Miracles
âProblems are never solved, only replaced.â
â The Cynicâs Book of Wisdom
Â
âProvidence is always on the side of the last reserve.â
âNAPOLEON BONAPARTE (1769-1812)
Date: 2526.6.4 (Standard) Salmagundi-HD 101534
Julia Kugara stood on a crystalline outcrop and stared as the sun set on a wasteland. Stretching for kilometers away from her, what had been a forest was now little more than a vast bowl of coals and cooling ash. Close to the horizon, at the limits of visibility in the haze and dimming light, she thought she could see where the burnt trees regained some semblance of individuality as blackened logs scattered like toothpicks. Beyond that, she could see the roils of smoke as the forest beyond still burned.
She wondered how many of her comrades from the Eclipse had died in the blast. The radius of the damage stretched far past where her lifeboat had dropped her and Nickolai, and the lifeboats were supposed to cluster their drops.
What kind of sick universe has me and the tiger as the only survivors?
Much closer, just a dozen meters from where she stood, the blast had been forceful enough to scour the ground clean, leaving a pitted, glassy surface that refracted slight rainbow shimmers in the evening light. About ten meters away from her, the glass stopped in a sharp line.
She spared a glance at the small disposable rad counter, one of the few items left from the lifeboatâs emergency kit that had survived. It still showed safe levels of radiation. It was hard to believe the thingâbut not any harder than believing she still lived.
She looked at the sharp line that marked the end of the nukeâs destruction and wondered what frightened her more, that someone had dropped a nuclear weapon on her, or that something else had deflected it. It struck her in an immediate visceral way that the disappearance of Xi Virginis never had. For all the enormity of it, a missing star was an abstract concept.
This was immediate, concrete. She smelled the cooling ash, felt wind hot and dry enough to scour her skin, tasted a nasty metallic taste in the air.
She walked the perimeter, a perfect hundred-meter circle centered on the alien crystalline artifact that seemed to have grown out of a much more prosaic backwoods encampment. There wasnât much left of that encampment. The nuke had erased it from the face of the planet.
She looked behind her, and the light from the fading sun captured the cluster of crystalline structures. The light reflected the structural details where the surfaces seemed to fold in on themselves in an infinite fractal regression.
Proteus . . .
The alien structure had obviously been the target of the attack. The presence of Kugara