Toth Page 4

  Michael could hear his heart beating in the silence that followed. They were on Emerson—and they were not alone.

  His eyes found Krisha, and he walked towards her while the scientists scrambled to help Nik unload the cargo pod. Once emptied, both pods would serve as a command post and communications center, buried under two meters of earth. They were taking no chances on this drop, but Nik had orders to leave no trace of their presence when it was time to go. It was part of the drill for him.

  “No movement of any kind, sir,” said Krisha. “You suppose the whole village is out in those boats?”

  “I doubt it. Our counselor friend has probably shooed everyone inside. I can’t see the village from here.”

  “Just over that knoll, maybe a twenty-minute walk. A few meters from here there’s a clear trail of bent grass, so people get over here often enough. Did you see anything besides the boats and the village when you were coming in?”

  “No.”

  “Doesn’t that seem strange to you, sir? I mean, after all these years could the colony still be so small? I’d have expected cities and highways all over the place by now, and all I see are trees.”

  “That’s one of the things we’re here to check out. By the way, I watched your deployment. Looked good.”

  “Thank you, sir. Excuse me, but we have a visitor.” Krisha was looking past his shoulder.

  Michael turned to see Osen standing only a meter away, his assault rifle cradled in one arm. “Osen, what the hell are you doing here? You should be pulling cargo with the others.”

  “Sorry, sir. I thought—”

  “Don’t think! All non-security personnel pull cargo. Do it!”

  Osen showed no expression. “Sir,” he said, then turned and marched back towards the cargo pod.

  “The commander seems to feel I need an orderly on this drop.”

  “Maybe a watchdog, sir. With the size of this perimeter I can use another sentry if you think so.”

  “No, it’s Mootry’s orders, so I’ll stick with it. I think we’re exposed out here, so make sure all of your people have night glasses. A battalion could hide in all those trees. If you see something, call it in. If you’re fired on, you have my permission for lethal response.”

  “I’ll get on it, sir.”

  By mid-day two concentric circles of huts had gone up, and Nik had dug the trenches for the pods with his front-loader. By dusk the pods were buried, and Michael had set up housekeeping in one of them. He shared the space with Osen and a wall of communication gear. When he briefed Mootry on planet fall, on what he’d seen and not seen, he asked about the necessity for an orderly. All he got back was a terse, “Trust me on this, Mike.” They agreed that without voluntary contact on the part of the colonials, they would march to the village the following morning.

  Emerson’s star looked like an ellipsoidal ruby when it touched the western horizon that evening, and darkness came quickly. Food odors came from the huts, where each marine was his or her only cook. Earlier in the evening they had all stood outside to watch the sails come in from the sea and disappear behind the knoll separating them from the village. The silence on the plateau was oppressive: no bird song, no animal cries, not even the buzzing of an insect.

  By twenty-two hundred, Osen was asleep on his cot and Michael quietly left the pod to walk the perimeter of camp from west to east. He nodded a greeting to each sentry he passed. When he reached the east side a sentry had his glasses up, looking towards the knoll separating them from the village. Michael stopped, brought up his own glasses and saw two figures on the side of the knoll, burning like candle flames in IR. As he watched, they turned and marched away to disappear around the knoll. When he brought his glasses down, the young sentry was looking at him. “There were four of them a minute ago, Major. The first two had greenish lights with them; you could see the lights by eye. They’ve been over there for nearly an hour. Must have seen us looking at them just now.”

  “Good eyes, private. Keep it up, and be sure to call this in.”

  “The Captain saw them too, sir. She was out here half an hour ago.”

  So why hadn’t he been informed? Michael started back towards the pods, his heart racing when a dark figure seemed to rise out of the ground in front of him, assault rifle slung casually.

  It was Osen.

  “You following me, mister? I left you asleep back there.”

  Osen grinned. “I go where the Major goes, sir. I believe you discussed all this with Commander Mootry. I have his trust, and I hope to earn yours, if you’ll let me.”

  “Well, you stay out of the head when I’m in there. I don’t need any help with that.”

  Osen grinned again, but Michael was noticing things about him as they walked: the easy, fluid stride, hand high on the rifle sling for fast deployment, eyes constantly moving, scanning the area.

  “Your first drop, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “No combat experience?”

  “Not in the traditional sense, sir. I saw some service during the Elsen overthrow on Brown’s planet.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Afraid I can’t tell you that, sir. It’s still classified.”

  By the time they reached the pods, Michael was damn curious about that.

  * * * * * * *

  The contact party left at sunrise, after Michael had argued Krisha out of her insistence that security personnel be included. He compromised by allowing her to place two marines on top of the knoll and in constant radio contact with them. They would enter the village without weapons. Michael chose four scientists and a linguist to accompany him, along with Osen, who again reminded him of Mootry’s orders. Kari was with them, and Vilos Compagno, anthropologist and cultural historian. Takey Xu spoke seventeen languages and four Arkon dialects, although the initial radio contact made his usefulness seem unlikely. Biologist Utaka Fujioka and plant geneticist Cletus Euell rounded out the group and brought up the rear as they followed the faint, grassy trail away from camp. Kari walked beside Michael, and he wondered if Krisha was watching them as they reached the edge of the plateau. A well-worn trail curved out of sight around the knoll. Thick stands of Ellis pine covered the knoll; trees he knew were unlikely to be native to Emerson, since they had traveled with colonists as seedlings since the beginning of the expansion.

  Beneath the trees the ground was carpeted in bizarre plants with leaves colored green, deep red and purple. Flowers were there in profusion. He saw one that looked like an orchid the size of a dinner plate, and a bush with crimson buds and what looked like walnut-sized raspberries.

  When they rounded the knoll, even Michael had to stop, for the view was breathtaking. The trail suddenly turned to skree, and they were at the edge of a cliff dropping a hundred meters to a beach of white sand below them. Dozens of boats, sails furled, were anchored in a small bay of turquoise waters gently rolling in towards shore. The globe of Emerson’s sun was just appearing above the eastern horizon.

  “My God,” said Kari softly, and then there was a chirp from the radio carried by Osen. He answered it, mumbled something and looked at Michael. “Security, sir. Just checking in.”

  To their left and below them the forest of great firs came right down to the beach, and rising from the base of a hill was a monstrous obelisk of white stone, towering above the trees. Even at this distance they could see the obelisk was topped by the inverted cross of The New Christians. “What do you know, it’s a church,” said Michael, and somehow the sight of that cross made him feel more at ease in this place. Small, white houses were scattered along the hillside to their left and below them near the beach, but they saw no people, heard no voices. It was plain these were fisher-folk, yet it was early morning and all the boats were in. Where were they?

  They stepped gingerly across the skree at cliff’s edge until they reached the trees again and the path turned to dirt, switching back and forth below them. They descended it and came out near the beach, hearing for the first t
ime the sounds of surf, and all the time Michael was thinking to himself, This is a paradise. I could live here.

  But nobody was there to greet them.

  “Maybe everyone’s in church,” said Kari. “This could be a Holy Day.”

  “You might be right,” said Michael. “Let’s see if we can join them. Anyone wearing a cross?”

  Kari, Osen and Vilas Compagno raised their hands. “Good,” said Michael. “Keep them out and visible.”

  They skirted the edge of the beach and walked directly to the obelisk, crossed a large clearing surrounded by stone houses with uncovered windows and little yards packed with flowering plants. In the center of the clearing was a circular amphitheatre, concentric layers of benches dug from the ground and covered with short, carefully clipped grass. It was a meeting place, a stone podium in its center. They walked around it and came to the base of the obelisk. A long flight of polished granite steps led up to giant double-doors of pine, into which was carved the symbol of the New Christians. Michael climbed the steps and found the doors were locked from the inside. The obelisk towered above him, a needle pyramid with smooth walls and no openings except for those doors. Michael shrugged at the others. “Well, I guess we wait until someone shows up.” He descended the stairs as Vilas came around from the side of the obelisk, pointing.

  “There’s a stone construction leading from the tower back here. The main sanctuary must be inside the hill.”

  “Let’s all stay together, lieutenant. I don’t want anyone wandering around here. If people are in there they’ll be coming out, and we’ll be waiting for them in the amphitheatre. Let’s move.” Michael followed them to the amphitheatre, and they sat down on the top edge facing the obelisk. Sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees surrounding them, and there was a gentle, salty breeze coming in from the sea. Michael closed his eyes and leaned back on his elbows in the soft grass. Something was missing, his senses were telling him, and yet he felt completely at home here. The peacefulness, a quiet feeling of solitude was there, even with the others around him. There was no scalding sun or clouds of dust—no sound, except for gently rolling surf—that was it. There were no forest sounds here: birds chirping, animal shrieks of territorial claim, the buzzing of insects. “Where are the birds?” he said.

  “I noticed that, too,” said Kari, sitting beside him. “I haven’t seen a single bird, animal or other living creature since we landed. Doesn’t make sense with such a lush ecology to support them. All those plants under the pine are nothing I’ve ever seen before, Mike. There must have been a profusion of life here at first planet fall, and it’s been less than three hundred years since then. The sea must be loaded with life, unless all those boats were out there for pleasure cruises. How could a sea full of life fail to produce a single evolutionary line to mammals of some kind? Wasn’t there anything in the ship’s record about this place?”

  “I read what was there,” said Michael. “It says Class I, Earth-like, no sentient life forms observed. No data on flora and fauna not even a list of the colonists, just that they were farmers and fisherman, and the usual assortment of scientists and engineers. It was a small group, around a hundred. This might be the youngest colony in the federation. No strategic value, right at the edge of our expansion, so nobody cares. It’s no wonder these people these people feel no connection to the federation; it has taken us over two hundred years just to say hello.”

  “It’s so beautiful,” said Kari.

  “Yeah.”

  “Romantic. Let’s go down on the beach tonight, Mike, and watch the sunset.”

  Michael opened his eyes, found her leaning close to him. “I’m sure Krisha would love that, lieutenant. Behave yourself.”

  Kari laughed deep in her throat. “I can remember a time when you would have taken my hand and led down to the beach without asking. We’d make a hollow in the sand so we couldn’t be seen, and then we’d—”

  “That was then, not now. Then was a long time ago.”

  “Only if you count deep sleep. I still love you, Mike.”

  “Right. And Krisha loves you. She all but said it to me face-to-face before we left the ship.”

  “I know. She told me about that conversation. Maybe it’s an ego thing with you, Mike. You can’t share someone. You can’t see how a woman can love two people at the same time.”

  “One of them a woman, no.”

  “How can I make you understand?”

  “Don’t bother. And if you bring this up again, samples or no samples, I’m sending you up, so drop it.”

  Kari looked at him sadly, but Michael’s eyes caught movement behind her. The others were dozing, but Osen was sitting up and alert. He pointed to the radio in his ear, then up towards the knoll and gave him a thumb up as if to say, I’m right here, and everything is under control.

  He’d been watching them.

  Michael leaned back again, closed his eyes for just a moment—and awoke to a loud sound of heavy wood scraping wood in front of him. Osen yelled, “Major, they’re coming out!”

  The others were standing when he got up, looking at the obelisk as the great doors opened out. A face peered briefly around a door, then disappeared. Beyond the door was blackness, then movement, and a white apparition floating towards them out of the darkness. The apparition took form; it was a man, very tall, in a white silken robe. His hands were folded together reverently on his chest as he came out into sunlight to stand in the center of the doorway. He was over two meters in height, huge hands, large features in a long face, and deep-set eyes glowered beneath a hairless brow. His head was shaven smooth, and hanging from his neck was a pendent of the symbol of the New Christians. “We have been with Toth,” he said in a deep, resonant voice. “He has told us of your presence and of his will for us. Please be seated where you are, and we will talk.”

  The man turned, gestured to the darkness beyond the doors. “Come, please, there is no harm here. It’s time for us to meet our neighbors from the stars. Come, now. Toth is with us in all we say and do here today.”

  He came sedately down the steps, and behind him people began to emerge from the obelisk. All were dressed in white robes. The people frowned, men, women, and children alike. All wore crosses, and the women had braided garlands of tiny flowers into their hair. Tall people, all of them, with Aryan faces, those of the men burned red and leathered from the sun. They followed their leader down the steps and across the clearing to the amphitheatre, fanning out behind him at the edge of it and standing there. Michael’s quick count placed the number of them at only about one hundred and seventy, and no more were coming from the obelisk.

  Michael said, “I am Michael Queal of Her Majesty’s Survey Ship Belsus. I bring you greetings from the Rubion Federation of worlds and her people.” With a wave of his hand he introduced the members of his party, giving their names and professions and carefully leaving out all military ranks. “We have a simple mission to survey the progress you have made, and we will only be here for a short while. If you will allow it, we would also like to take some samples of plants native to this planet. Your world is truly lovely.”

  “Thank you, leader Queal. I am Diego Segur, Counselor to The People, and a servant of Toth. I fear out first communication was cautious, but you did surprise us and we had concern for our safety. Please be seated—all of us. Let us get to know each other, if only for a brief time.” He turned to the people standing behind him, gesturing them forward. “Come, come. Have you not heard the words of Toth this morning?”

  The people, still looking suspicious of their guests, filed dutifully down into the amphitheatre. They sat down tightly together and as far from Michael’s group as they could get while Diego walked regally to the podium and smiled back at them.

  Michael was uneasy again. The man’s words didn’t ring true. Diego had spoken without expression, his face a mask, and his eyes never met Michael’s.

  For the moment, however, Michael was distracted by something else; it was the sig
ht of a woman, tall, fine featured with a generous mouth, a mass of jet-black hair framing her face. She was holding the hand of a boy perhaps four years old, a beautiful child, and she kept his hand tightly in hers when they sat down. Her eyes met Michael’s and quickly averted his gaze.

  It was the most beautiful face he had ever seen.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Diego’s voice boomed in the hollow of the amphitheatre. “Leader Queal, these are the First Families of Tothwelt. Our Lord has assigned them as guides for your group. They will take you to examine our agricultural methods and yields, and the quantity of fish we take from the sea each year. There is nothing more to show you. We are a simple people. We lead quiet lives of devotion to Toth, and the world he has provided for us. You will find no technology or other monuments to human ego here. We are content to be caretakers of this planet, and to live peacefully, according to the laws of Our Lord. The information you wish to have should be complete within three days, Leader Queal. As a gesture of our hospitality, several families have volunteered to serve as hosts to you in their own homes. You should learn our customs, and appreciate the simple pleasures of our lives.”

  “Your offer is generous, Counselor. We appreciate your hospitality,” said Michael. “We’ve established a camp on the high plateau just west of here, and can take care of all our needs rather than cause unnecessary inconvenience for you.”

  “Ah, but that would be most disappointing to the families willing to open their homes to you. It would deprive them of an opportunity to acquaint themselves with star-faring neighbors from other worlds. Please consider our offer carefully before you respond.”

  “I’ll consult my superior about this, Counselor. I can bring you my answer tomorrow morning. I hope that is acceptable to you.”

  “Of course. I spoke with your superior when your ship first arrived. He is a military man, I believe, and there seem to be other military people in your group. Two of them are now trying very hard to watch us from the top of a hill while we speak. They have weapons, Leader Queal. Do you feel danger here?” Diego smiled, while behind him the favored people of the village sat stony-faced and silent.