Table Of ContentVATICAN ABDICATOR
(VATICAN ASSASSIN BOOK THREE)
MIKE LUOMA
____________________________
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s
imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.
VATICAN ABDICATOR: VATICAN ASSASSIN: PART THREE
Copyright 2008 by Mike Luoma. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Michael Luoma except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Michael Luoma at:
[email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4357-4886-6
FIRST SMASHWORDS EDITION
Dedicated to my sister and brother, their amazing and wonderful spouses, and my nieces and nephews. I
love you all!
*****
Prologue
CLASSIFIED REPORT to Ibn Al-Salid, Universal Islamic Nation (UIN) from the UIN Intelligence
Office, April 20, 2011.
INTELLIGENCE DOSSIER SUMMARY on Pope Peter the Fourth of The New catholic Church
(NcC), aka Bernard Campion, aka “BC”
BORN 2080, United States of America
FMR AFFILIATION (prior to reunification & the NcC in 2104): Holy Redemption Church of Jesus
(appears to have been cover for some sort of smuggling operation)
DANGER TO UIN: EXTREMELY HIGH! The Intelligence Office understands your holiness’s interest
in engaging in a dialogue with Campion. We advise against this most vigorously, on the basis of the threat
posed by Campion as detailed below.
BERNARD CAMPION is an unlikely Pope. Recently elected by a plague-depleted College of
Cardinals, Campion (now known as Pope Peter the Fourth) was formerly an agent in the Office of Papal
Operations (OPO) under the previous Pope Peter the Second. Campion is known to the Universal
Islamic Nation’s Intelligence Office to have been a Vatican Assassin answering only to the Pope himself.
Campion is the likely assassin of Lunar Prime Governor Meredith McEntyre at the Lunar Peace
Conference on July 12, 2109. Compromised former UIN Intelligence Office Agent Nita Bendix was
publicly blamed for the governor’s death. See additional file summary on BENDIX, NITA, an apparent
triple agent now known to be ANITA CAPITUNA of Van Kilner’s Project and a close confidant,
possible lover of Campion’s.
Campion is also the likely assassin of the cult figure known as THE LIGHT whose followers previously
occupied FORTUNE STATION until their leader’s death in November of 2109. The evidence is only
circumstantial. Campion was known to be on a mission for the OPO at this time and disappeared for
approximately two months. He was rumored to have been on Fortune Station for that length of time, and
his return to Lunar Prime coincided with the death of The Light. The UTZ moved in and evacuated the
cult at that time, relocating the surviving members to Dubuque, Iowa, United States of America, UTZ.
The Intelligence Office has unconfirmed reports that high dosages of psychotropic drugs were
administered to Campion by the cult on Fortune Station, resulting in Campion’s chronic, debilitating
headaches (which have been witnessed and reported). These headaches of Campion’s could be a useful
weakness to exploit if needed.
After Our Great Retaliation of Christmas 2109, and the death of Pope Peter the Second, Campion’s
activities apparently became more peaceful. He was named acting and then full Vatican Ambassador to
Lunar Prime by Peter the Second’s successor Pope Linus the Second and began organizing the recent
series of peace conferences on Lunar Prime.
As the last of the conferences ended with biological warfare and the infection of our delegation with the
current plague that has wiped out a third of our population, it may be that Campion’s “peace
conferences” were merely an attempt to get us close enough to be infected. Granted, the UTZ’s
population has also been severely affected, but the accidental infection of their own population cannot be
ruled out. The Intelligence Office cautions his holiness to regard this latest explanation that the plague is of
extraterrestrial origin with some skepticism.
At this time, the Intelligence Office believes Campion’s appointment to this highest office displays
desperation on the part of the NcC leadership, and perhaps interference in the church’s processes by
Universal Trade Zone (UTZ) CEO Richard Wentworth. The alliance between the UTZ and the NcC
lasted for many years before the declaration of the church’s neutrality by Pope Linus last year. Given his
past history, the Intelligence Office feels it would be unwise to assume that the NcC will remain neutral
under the leadership of Bernard Campion, Pope Peter the Fourth.
2 Corinthians 10: 3
For although we are human, it is not by human methods that we do battle. The weapons with
which we do battle are not those of human nature; they have divine power to demolish fortresses!
Chapter One
The Moon… Our bright light in the night sky.
Pope Peter the Fourth, Bernard Campion, looks up at the full Moon and sees the glint of light
that marks the main dome of Lunar Prime.
The dome over the atrium… I wonder… How tall are the new trees under there? How
much have things grown back? How long has it been? Feels like only yesterday.
As he watches, the stars around the Moon begin to burn brighter and brighter, nearly blinding
him.
That’s not right!
Suddenly, one of the stars drops out of the sky, disappearing below the horizon. Other stars
follow, first one by one, then in a brilliant cascade of falling stars!
After the last star falls, the sky is left blank and black save for the bright, full Moon.
The Moon explodes! It shatters like glass! Sharp white shards glisten as they fall from the sky
and pierce the ground around him.
BC looks up and sees a shard coming straight down at him. It pierces his shoulder and slices
right through him! He’s ripped in two by the shard of falling light from the full Moon.
“AAAaaahhhhHH!”
BC wakes up in a chilly sweat, realizes he’s in a seat on the bridge of a ship. He collects his wits,
remembers he’s on his way to Wentworth Station on board one of Wentworth’s ships.
Richard Wentworth. Guess I owe him one now.
I don’t like owing him anything! The man’s a snake! I may be the head CEO of the
Universal Trade Zone, but he’s certainly the power behind the throne.
At least he sent his pilot Drex along with this ship to save my ass when everything went
wrong on Mars.
He was supposed to meet with Al Salid on Mars but the man threw him in a cell instead! A
disguised and undercover Fiza helped BC escape and helped him hook up with Wentworth’s rescue
ship.
Fiza! Finding her alive changed my mind about Wentworth. First he said she was dead,
then he let me believe he was keeping her as a drugged up sex slave, or worse! And all along he
had her working as an agent for him deep undercover in the Universal Islamic Nation on Mars.
“Mornin’ sunshine,” Drex the pilot says, greeting BC. “You dozed off for a second there. Then
you shouted out, ‘The Moon!’ or something! Then you screamed. Musta been some dream, anyways,
huh?”
“Yeah, some dream. A dream about the Moon.”
BC tries to clear his head of the vivid images.
Guess I’m worried. What’s not to worry about?
My plans are falling apart!
Well, not all of them. Wentworth says he’ll work with me. With us. That’s good. Maybe I
can bring the Project and the UTZ together.
Otherwise?
It’s all falling apart.
Thought Al Salid and I were going to be able to bring the UIN and the UTZ to the table
together. Didn’t expect Wentworth would have to send a ship to rescue me!
Al Salid… The guy threw me in a cell!
He wasn’t himself. Didn’t even seem to remember me… Or remember agreeing to meet
with me after we’d both met with the Eldred. And it was his idea! It was as if he was forgetting me
right in front of my eyes.
Is it Dolomay? On Mars? Felt like he was there, when he was in my head, when I was in
Al-Salid’s office!
Dolomay is on Mars. The Eldred lost track of him. Told us to find him And all signs point
to Mars.
It felt like he mentally attacked me on Mars.
Those have to be the greater powers the Eldred said the Ancient Enemy possessed. Mental
powers! And who knows how powerful the guy is?
The way the UIN is acting it has to be Dolomay pulling the strings. The UIN is now under
his control.
“You know, after you freshen up on the station, talk with Mr. Wentworth, whatever, I can take
you anywhereyou want to go. You don’t haveto go back to the Moon,” Drex offers.
“Why wouldn’t I want to go back to the Moon?” BC asks.
“I don’t know. Just the way you shouted ‘The Moon’ before, there. Anyways, I cantake you
back to the Moon, if you want. Or anywhere on Earth. Or in orbit. Doesn’t matter to me, anyways. Not
back to Mars though, right?” Drex chuckles at his own joke.
“Right,” BC agrees grimly. “Not back to Mars,” he mumbles, still grateful Drex rescued him from
the planet’s dusty surface after his plan to meet secretly with Al-Salid went horribly wrong.
That whole mission was for nothing! Although, I did find out Fiza was okay. That was a
surprise and a half! Hope she still is. Mars is a dangerous place.
It has to be Dolomay!
So… where to next?
“Just back to the Moon, Drex, I guess,” BC tells the pilot. “Unless something changes while I’m
here. Thanks.”
“No problem, padre.”
BC settles back down in his seat and looks out the viewport at the carpet of stars.
Good. They’re all staying put.
What a strange dream. Killed by a shard from a broken Moon. Wonder if that means
anything?
BC watches out the viewport as the rescue ship arrives at Wentworth Station, watches the
station loom larger as the ship approaches.
It looks like a camera floating in space.
The station has two sections. The lower, boxy section looks like an office building, topped with a
shining, rotating cylindrical section. They approach the camera “body”, the “lens” rising up into the “sky”.
Rotating for gravity… the original section of the station. The lower boxier part has
artificial G. That’s probably where we’ll dock.
Drex maneuvers the ship in to dock with a walkway extending from the lower section. He directs
BC to the airlock, then tells BC he’s staying on the ship.
“I’ll wait for you. I’ve got everything I need onboard.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be here…”
“That’s okay. Long as it takes, I’ll be here. I can wait. Don’t have much else to do, anyways,”
Drex assures him.
“See you when I get back, then.”
BC leaves the ship, walks down the walkway and enters the station alone. It seems nearly
deserted.
He stands in the lobby for a moment and takes in his surroundings: Marble floors, carpeted walls,
tapestries…
Not much has changed. Same color scheme, black and red. And silver. Or is that chrome?
A greeter, a woman in a black and red environment suit, appears from behind a pair of sealed
doors, and welcomes him aboard. She leads him down a red and black corridor. There’s still no one else
around.
BC follows the woman into a small, square room with blank gray walls and a wall-sized mirror
opposite the entryway. There is a table with a single chair in the room.
Utilitarian.
The greeter ducks out and the door closes behind her, leaving BC alone in the room.
BC hears a voice say, “Clear!” The mirrored wall clears to transparency. It’s now a window onto a
nearly identical room. Richard Wentworth stands on the other side of the window, all business in his
black three piece suit and slicked back gray-black hair.
He hasn’t changed. A snake in human skin.
At least he’s on my side, for now. For so long as it benefits him.
“Different. Love what you’ve done with the place,” BC says with some attitude.
“Precautions,” Wentworth says. “You are a disease carrier. And I still have not been exposed.”
“You really know how to make a guest feel welcome! But it’s sensible, I guess,” BC admits. “You really
don’t think you’ve come in contact with the Eldred’s plague yet?”
“Apparently not. I’ve tested negative for it. Best to be careful, eh? We keep ourselves alive by
being sensible. Cautious. Careful. You understand,” Wentworth explains.
Thanks for the fancy treatment. Only befitting the Pope and the chief CEO of the UTZ,
huh? Trying to show me who’s in charge?
“Is this what you call working together?” BC cracks. “Great way to start…”
“Precautions… So,” Wentworth continues, “on your way here from your debacle on Mars, you
said on the com that you believe… you’re convinced… a million-year-old intergalactic war is about to
flare up here in our ‘backyard’, as you put it?”
“I do believe it,” BC confirms.
“An ancient, intergalactic war? Being a bit dramatic, aren’t you?” Wentworth lectures him. “You’d have
us focus on some vague alien threat? What about the UIN? Should we just ignore them?” BC hears the
sarcasm in Wentworth’s voice.
“Not at all. They’re part of it,” BC replies calmly. He tries to keep his cool.
Hard to work with a guy when you have to constantly struggle not to punch him! Arrogant
prick…
“I see. And these aliens you’ve mentioned before, they’re behind it, I gather, from what you
wouldn’t say over the com?” Wentworth deduces. “And this goes above and beyond the plague they’ve
already hit us with?”
“They are called the Eldred, and they are most definitely a part of it. And it most certainly does.”
“But you say there might not be anything we can do to stop it.”
“You say you never like to say never,” BC reminds him.
Wentworth paces back and forth on his side of the glass, thinking. He stops, looks across at BC.
“You think there’s some new player on Mars who has something to do with this ‘war’?” Wentworth
asks.
“I not only thinkthere is. I knowhe’s there. And he does,” BC admits.
He knows something… What does Wentworth know about Dolomay?
“Fiza’s told me a little about this new ‘player’,” Wentworth says, nearly answering BC’s unspoken
question. “I gather you know more?”
“What do youknow?” BC challenges him. “I’d rather not repeat information.”
And I want to know what you know that I don’t!
“Huh,” Wentworth grunts, surprised by BC’s tone, but he continues. “Fiza says there’s a new
advisor to Al Salid, one who’s not a Muslim. According to her, he just showed up one day, after Al Salid
returned from a secret journey.”
“That ‘secret journey’ was Al Salid’strip out to Eldray to meet with the eldest of the Eldred. We
each went out to meet with them, individually. And he and I had decided to secretly meet with each other
after he got back,” BC explains. “That’s why I went to Mars.”
“That plan went well, then, eh?” Wentworth chides him.
“I think this ‘new player’ got in the way of the plan,” BC says.
“Fiza says they keep this ‘advisor’ out of sight, for the most part,” Wentworth informs BC. “But she’s
seen him. ‘Course, Fiza is good at getting into the kind of places where people who don’t want to be
seen go. Places people don’t want her to get into,” he says with a chuckle. “She said he had blonde hair
when she first saw him, but he dyed it black soon after.”
Well! That just about confirms it. And the descriptions I heard of him on Mars certainly
matched the artist’s rendition we have of him from The Eldred.
Dolomay has to be on Mars. And he has Al Salid’s ear… and maybe his mind! Maybe he’s
somehow controlling Al Salid - didn’t even seem like the same guy!
Maybe it was Dolomay in my head!
What did he learn in there?
Has it been him all along?
That first time, too, on Fortune Station?
Somehow, no.
That was different.
“What is it, Campion? You got quiet.”
“Hold on. I’m thinking.”
“What do you know, Campion? I know you know more than you’re telling me!”
Might as well fill him in…
“I know a lot of things,” BC says. “When I met with the Eldred, Wentworth, I discovered that the
human race is descended from a brutal race of galactic conquerors a million years dead, now referred to
only as the ‘Ancient Enemy’.
“The Eldred helped overthrow the Ancient Enemy a million years ago, but the Ancient Enemy sent out
‘star seeds’ as the Eldred called them, small bundles of Ancient Enemy DNA and such, when their
homeworld exploded.
“One of those star seeds landed here.”
“Okay…” Wentworth says cautiously. “Interesting story. But why didn’t the Eldred try to just wipe out
these ‘star seeds’?”
“They did try! They have been trying,” BC tells him. “They told me they didn’t know at first that the star
seeds even existed. When they began finding them, they started wiping them out.
“But it turns out some other alien races interfered in our case, kept our star seed hidden somehow after
the Eldred paid their first visit to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago.”
“The Eldred were here before?” Wentworth asks.
“They might have wiped out the Neanderthals,” BC says. “That’s just a theory.”
“And they’ve been trying to wipe us out with their plague, now that they’ve found us,”
Wentworth realizes, the truth dawning on him. “Now it makes some kind of sense… Not that I like it!”
“They say they’re only trying to ‘contain’ and ‘control’ us, that the plague won’t kill all of us,”
BC tells him. “They want us to stop killing each other and confine ourselves within the orbit of Jupiter. If
we agree to do that, they say, the plague will stop. They just want to keep us, um, manageable. They
want the UTZ Council and the UIN to agree to their conditions.”
“Manageable?” Wentworth erupts. “I’ll give them manageable! Fuck that! They might as well be
killing allof us, Campion. Look around! Our scientists are starting to work with the Project scientists, but
we’re no closer to finding a cure,” Wentworth tries to calm himself, shakes his head. “Why not just
attack us outright? Couldn’t be much worse than this.”
“I hate to say it,” BC says, “but it probably is worse, now that Dolomay is on Mars.”
Wentworth looks confused.
“That’s the new player you mentioned, Al-Salid’s new ‘advisor’,” BC explains.
“Dolomay, huh? Strange name.”
“Yeah. He’s not from around here.”
“So… Why does he make it worse?” Wentworth probes.
“Because the Eldred are afraid of Dolomay, and what he represents. And we should probably be
aware of what he represents, too, if not afraid of him. He’s ruthless, inhuman. He comes from a time and
culture more technologically advanced than we are, so he gives the UIN an unfair tech advantage by
siding with them against us. There are lots of ways Dolomay makes it worse.”
“The Eldred are afraid of Dolomay? Why?” Wentworth thinks out loud. “Wait a minute… How
old is this Dolomay?”
“Ancient,” BC says.
“Ancient?” Wentworth asks, and then pauses. “As in ‘Ancient Enemy’ ancient? How could he
still be… Holy shit! If you weren’t the pope I’d say you were lying. As it is, I’ve got to wonder about
your mental state!”
“I wish I was crazy,” BC cracks.
“But how could one of thembe here now?”
“Well, it’s a long story…”
“We’ve got time,” Wentworth says, but then he corrects himself. “Huh, well, maybe not too
much time, though… The appearance of this Dolomay on Mars… That’s what has you talking about a
million year old intergalactic war, isn’t it?” A crooked grin twists across Wentworth’s mouth. “Can’t we
just stand aside and let the Eldred wipe out the UIN?”
“I’m not sure the Eldred appreciate the subtle differences in politics and religion that divide us
humans,” BC tells him. “They may see us as all one race. And if they feel Dolomay is somehow, I don’t
know, ‘tainting’ us, they may feel justified in wiping allof us out, as the last vestige of the Ancient
Enemy.”
“Right… Let me back up for a second. We’re sick because of these aliens. Our human ‘Project’
is in touch with them?” Wentworth asks. “The Project set up your trip out to see them?”
“The Project is in contact with the Eldred and those other aliens I mentioned before,” BC says.
“The ones who kept us hidden from the Eldred?”
“Exactly. There are several alien races in our area,” BC tells him. “But the Eldred seem to be the
most powerful. Aside from the Ancient Enemy.”
“And the Ancient Enemy are ourancestors?” Wentworth asks for clarification. “And it’s one of
themon Mars?”
“Something like that,” BC says.
“He’s one of them? The Ancient Enemy?” Wentworth is still trying to wrap his head around the idea. “So
tell me, then: How did he end up on Mars?” Wentworth asks.
“I’m guessing he left Eldray stowed away on board the Eldred ship that carried Al Salid back
home to Mars.”
“Shitty security,” Wentworth mumbles. “But that doesn’t explain how it is he’s alive here and
now in the first place!”
“The Eldred and another race found him in deep space, in a suspended animation capsule that
used technology beyond their own,” BC explains to him. “Dolomay had been placed in the stasis capsule
in orbit around the home planet of the Ancient Enemy in punishment for crimes against his people. The
capsule was set free, floating off through space by the same explosion that destroyed the Ancient
Enemy’s homeworld and launched the star seeds.”
“Oh. Great,” Wentworth exclaims. “So this guy was actually a criminalamong those ancient
brutes? Just great.”
“It gets better,” BC tells him. “When I got back from Eldray, even before I could talk to you, the
Eldred got back in touch through the Project to demand another meeting. I met them at the Project’s
asteroid base…”
“Wait a minute… The Project has an asteroid base?” Wentworth stops him.
“Didn’t I mention that?”
“I don’t think so,” Wentworth says cautiously. “You made it sound like they were based on the
Moon.”
“The Project has a base in the asteroids, too,” BC says matter-of-factly, but with a hint of sarcasm.
“Thanks.”
“Just trying to be open and honest. You know, our new, um, relationship.”
“Working together,” Wentworth says, with a touch of irony. “Anyway. At the asteroid base
meeting, the Eldred basically told me about Dolomay, said he was headed this way, and then told me
now it was our problem! They demanded that we deal with it.”
“You’re kidding. They expect us to take care of this guy?” Wentworth asks.
“That’s pretty much how they left it,” BC tells him.
“Did they know he was on Mars?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think so,” BC guesses. “I didn’t know myself until I went there to meet
with Al Salid.”
And even then I wasn’t positive until you confirmed it as well. Fiza told me some, and
Wentworth filled in the gaps.
Should I tell him about the mental stuff?
What do I know about it anyway?
I mean really know?
I don’t know.
“This guy could be extremely dangerous,” BC says.
“Really?” Wentworth challenges him. “Based on whose information? The aliens who are already
trying to kill us? Or your Project? I’m afraid that neither seems at all credible at this point, Campion. We
only have their word that he’s even a member of that ancient race,” Wentworth points out. “You
chastised the board for lacking control over the Project. It doesn’t seem like you’ve got much control,
either. You see my point?”
“You know, I do. I really do, point taken. But they cozied up to these alien races under Van
Kilner’s leadership, not mine,” BC says. “Wentworth, if this ‘new player’ is this Dolomay? This ‘Ancient
Enemy’? He’s more powerful than the average guy. Because there’s one more thing. Something the
Eldred weren’t all that forthcoming with.” BC pauses.
I’m still not sure I should tell Wentworth this…
“What? Don’t hold back now, Campion!” Wentworth cautions.
“I believe the Ancient Enemy had psionic abilities,” BC tells him. “They could get inside your
head, communicate telepathically, maybe even move things with their minds.”
“They were telepathic? Telekinetic?” Wentworth asks incredulously, shaking his head. “You’re kidding
me.”
“You can see why I hesitated to tell you.”
“That’s a lot to swallow, Campion.”
“Do you believe me?” Campion asks.
“I do,” Wentworth says to reassure him. “I believe you. I just don’t believe the people you
believe. Hell, they’re not even people, right? The Eldred are the ones that look like little blue koala bears,
right?!”
“They might be cute and fuzzy… but don’t underestimate them,” BC cautions. “They’ve killed off
more than half the human race,” BC points out.
He looks around at the room he’s in. “Or have you put me in this isolation chamber because I smell
bad?” BC jokes half-heartedly.
“Touché,” Wentworth says. “You know, judging by what they’ve said, you may be safe.”
“Judging by what they’vesaid,” BC says, “those of us who haven’t died yet probably won’t. If
we’re willing to believe the ‘little blue koalas’?”
“I don’t know. That psychic stuff sounds too far-fetched,” Wentworth declares.
“They weren’t ‘psychic’! Psionic. And the Eldred didn’t say anything about that at first. It’s what
I’ve discovered! The Ancient Enemy used more of their brains, somehow. I don’t know how. They were
telepathic. And the Eldred didn’t say anything about that. Only confirmed it when I confronted them
about it.”
“They didn’t tell you about it at first, eh? Where did you get the information, then?”
Should I tell him? Why not?
“I’m pretty sure I heard Dolomay in my head, Wentworth. I know that sounds crazy, but, please,
listen to me!” BC asks. “I’ve heard him in my mind. It’s real.”
“You’veheard him. In yourhead? Are you sure?”
“Not entirely sure. But I’m pretty sure. It’s disconcerting! And I’m even beginning to think my
ability to ‘hear’ him has something to do with those headaches I’ve been getting.”
I am? I do? I guess I’m beginning to… it makes some kind of sense to me as I explain it
out loud to Wentworth. Maybe the headaches are the birth pangs of new mental powers on my
part! Psycho-Man!
Yeah, right!
“Really?” Wentworth looks at BC quizzically through the glass. “So you can hear him.”
“I can. I have. I didn’t realize what it was, or who it was, at first. I heard him in my mind when I visited
the Eldred’s planet, Eldray. That must have been when he was waking up!” BC realizes. “The Eldred
think that my presence on their world somehow triggered the mechanisms of Dolomay’s suspension
capsule, turned them on and made them automatically thaw him out,” he explains. “When I was on Mars
I ‘heard’ him again, louder, stronger, somehow. I figured out how to block him out after a while.”
Wentworth looks down, shakes his head slowly back and forth.
“This… this all sounds ridiculous!” he ends with a shout, lifting his head to glare back at BC through the
wall of glass, unconvinced.
“I don’t care how it sounds!” BC shouts back at the glass. “If Dolomay has already taken the UIN’s
side, that could turn the war. Whether you believe he has the power to bend men’s will to his own or not,
he comes from a time of superior technology, from a people known for their brutal superiority in war. I’m
thinking this may give the UIN a bit of a tactical advantage, huh?”
“No need for sarcasm,” Wentworth frowns. “Fiza’s reports bear out much of what you say.”
“Fill in the blanks and the pieces of the puzzle fit together,” BC says. “Who else do you think Fiza’s
mysterious stranger, this ‘new advisor’, is?”
“I don’t know yet,” Wentworth insists. “I don’t think we can be certain it’s this ‘Dolomay’.”
“I think we can be.”
Wentworth shakes his head.
“Wentworth!” BC shouts at him. “Watch the UIN, Wentworth. See if their ships don’t all of a sudden get
better, start demonstrating technological advances we don’t have! See if this new stranger Fiza mentions
doesn’t start taking over more and more control. Watch for the signs. Be ready for them to take a shot at
us… and be ready to strike back hard! It’s the only way Dolomay knows!”
“Look, Campion. This is all very farfetched,” Wentworth says. He gets a cold and distant look in his eyes
as he continues. “I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by today and fill me in on these very
important details. I’ll look into them and we’ll discuss this at the next meeting of the UTZ board. Thank
you.”
Even as Wentworth says “Thank you,” the glass wall turns opaque and BC finds himself staring at himself
in the mirror.
What the fuck? Come off it! Don’t shut me off! Don’t shut me out!
“Don’t take too much time, Wentworth!” BC shouts at the mirror. “I know it’s a lot to think about,
but we don’t have time to spare! The reappearance of Dolomay has not made the Eldred reconsider their
stance on humanity and the plague,” BC cautions, “even if his escape is their fault! We face two threats,
Dolomay and the plague!”
“Clear,” Wentworth says.
The mirror turns transparent once again, revealing Wentworth still standing on the other side.
“Where do yousuggest we go from here, then, Campion?” Wentworth asks him.
BC looks him square in the eye.
“We watch. We wait. And weprepare for the worst.”
“If you’re right, Campion. But that’s a big if… ”
“So what are we going to do about it?” BC challenges him. “Because it’s up to us now, Wentworth. No
one else is left! Me? I’m thinking I’m going to direct the Project to ramp up Transpace ship construction
and production. And you? You can help me arm those ships. We have war coming our way, on all
fronts. What else can we do? What can you do?”
“Such as?”
“Will you let me turn the Project brain trust loose on your shipyards on the Moon? Double our efforts?
Build some killer ships? Find a way to put up some sort of fight?”
“How many of us do you think will be left standing to fight after this alien plague runs its course?”
Wentworth asks rhetorically. “Don’t you know how many have died? Are dying?”
BC shakes his head. “I know. But what else can we do?” BC laughs. “How pathetic is it that the fate of
the human race is dependent on us two?”
“Who knew it would get this bad?” Wentworth ponders. “I’m in,” he tells BC. “No reason notto
combine our efforts! If the UIN protests politically, let ‘em. It’ll just force the issue already at hand. Let’s
do it.”
“Good. We need to be together on this,” BC says. “Speaking of which, do you really need to keep
me isolated like this?”
“Huh, let me see,” Wentworth says, consulting some readout in front of him. “Well, the sweepers say
you’re clean, even though you’ve been in the plague zones. As far as our instruments can tell. Still worries
me.”
“I really do think that if you haven’t died yet, you’re not going to,” BC insists. “So they said.”
“Sure… but who’s to say they didn’t infect you with something new to take back to take out the rest of
us?”
“Aw, now you’re just trying to cheer me up,” BC jokes.
“I don’t trust the Eldred. Why should we?” Wentworth insists.
“We don’t really have an option,” BC tells him. He laughs. “But I can’t believe you’ve ever ‘trusted’
anyone? Why start with the Eldred?”
“Touché,” Wentworth says with a smile. “Where to next?” he asks BC.
“I think I’m heading back to Lunar Prime.”
“Home base? Or your home away from home, now that you have the Vatican?”
“Yeah, it’s funny, the Moon is one of the few places I do feel at home,” BC admits. “I can relax and
regroup there. Think this through a little.”
“You need some time to think?”
“I need all kindsof time. Weneed all kinds of time. Time to think. Time to strategize. Time to build,
and to rebuild. Time to at least try to contact The Eldred. Tell them we know where Dolomay is,” BC
explains.
“Are you really sure that’s a good idea?” Wentworth questions BC.
“Why not? Despite my doubts, maybe we canget them to help us, make them see the difference
between us and the UIN! If the Ancient Enemy is working with the UIN, maybe we can make the Eldred
see that we are on their side. Maybe they can still come in on our side. The ‘enemy of my enemy’ and all
that?”
“Right.” Wentworth turns away from the glass wall and begins walking away.
“Stay in touch, won’t you, Campion? Let me know what’s going on?” he says over his shoulder.
“Absolutely. So… you’re not going to come see me off?”
“I’m seeing you off right now, Campion! Good-bye!”
Wentworth leaves the room on the other side of the glass.
“Prick,” BC says under his breath.
“I heard that!” Wentworth says, unseen, an echo from the hall coming over the loudspeaker.
“Scary, man,” BC says, knowing Wentworth is still listening.
“Thank you,” Wentworth says over the speaker.
The room door slides open. BC walks out into the corridor. There’s no sign of the greeter, so BC finds
his own way back to the ship. Drex is there waiting for him in the walkway outside the ship.
“You’re not afraid of the sickness?” BC asks him as he walks up.
“Me? Nah,” the pilot says. “Your time comes, it comes. You die, you die,” he says dryly.
“Very pragmatic of you,” BC observes.
“So, you still want to go to the Moon?” Drex asks.
“Yup.”
The two board the ship. BC settles in for the trip to Lunar Prime as Drex gets them underway.
Chapter Two
BC’s thoughts wander as he travels.
Back to the Moon. Get my shit together there before I head back down to the Vatican. The
Vatican. Huh.
I sooooo do not want to go back there. That can’t be good.
