The Radical Factor (Stone Blade Book 3) Read online

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  "Because the Esavians claimed credit for it," said Micah, "We haven't yet shared that and we would ask that you not."

  "Barbarians!" Apparently that word slipped out before Orris could stop it. After a moment of startlement he looked sheepish.

  "I cannot chastise you, younger brother," said Litho, "It is the Light's own truth that they are not the best of neighbors. The Writ instructs us all to make peace with our neighbors and to share the blessings of the Light but the Esavians seem blind and deaf to either. No doubt the people on Path of Light would deem such words inadequate." He looked at Micah and Ferrel. "I do not know what of our information can benefit you, my friends. We have little contact with the Esavians and none of that is of a pleasant sort."

  "That, First Litho, is exactly what we need." Ferrel handed him a dataspool. "This is all the data we have concerning the Unity of Triumph and the Esavians. Anything you can add to it is more than we have and greatly appreciated."

  The two men took a moment to scan the spool, then Orris nodded.

  "Perhaps we can help," he said, "We must confer with our brothers about what may be found and what can be said of it. I also do not know what it might be but anything we can give we gladly will."

  Micah smiled. "That is all we hoped and more, First Orris. The Semid peoples are strong and long-time allies of ours. They have asked for our help and we have promised it, so anything you give us will of necessity help them as well."

  Orris nodded and smiled. "This will take time, though. Will you dine with us?"

  "An honor under the Light," said Micah, surprising both Firsts.

  ***

  Lunch brought a pleasant surprise. Though Orris and Litho had matters to attend they commended their guests to the care of Georges al'Marklin, Orris' closest friend, aide and confidant. He was as pleased to see them as the Firsts.

  "Welcome, brothers," said al'Marklin, "The Light shines upon our paths that they cross again! It is wonderful to see you."

  "You as well, Signor al'Marklin," said Micah, "And in better times, it seems."

  "Better times indeed," smiled alMarlkin, "The Great Father blesses always. I'm glad you'll be dining with us although the fare may be less elegant than your usual."

  Micah chuckled at that. "Our 'usual,' Georges, is military rations. I don't mind them but Rick usually compares them to recycled dray leather and hull cement."

  "With hydraulic gel for dessert," added Ferrel.

  Several of the others in the room looked at them in amazement then chuckled behind their hands.

  "In that case," said alMarlkin, "eat, drink and be at peace under the Light of the Great Father's hand."

  "This is quite good," said Micah.

  He spoke with simple truth! The meal started with hard-crusted bread and a tangy cheese. The main course brought a spicy hash with meat and vegetables, followed by a fruit tart for dessert. When asked, al'Marklin said all of it came from local sources.

  "Polar," said Ferrel, "It's all worth exporting, especially those tarts! I can think of eight worlds that would love them."

  al'Marklin smiled and started to respond when his comm beeped. He listened a moment, spoke an acknowledgement then turned to Micah.

  "I shall mention your words to the proper people," he said, "but for now First Orris wishes to meet with you."

  This time only Orris did meet them. He had a box of dataspools.

  "This is what we have, my friends," he said, "We would ask for discretion. Some of this information is not widely known here."

  "Then we shall be the only ones to view it," said Micah, "It will remain with our team."

  "No, my friends. Do not misunderstand me. Please do add it to your archives. If any of it is of help we will consider ourselves satisfied. Few here like the Esavians, may I be forgiven for saying it. It is simply... There were... incidents... that are not pleasant to contemplate. Their resolution was effective but brutal. We would not have the burden of it on those of our people who might be distressed by it.

  "I and we realize that the Writ is not well-known outside the Triumph but any man or woman of the Orders or the congregations would sooner lose an arm than force the Writ upon those who do not desire it. Better that we as a people should cease to live than that! Our path is one of peace and learning. The Esavians, though... Theirs is not."

  Micah smiled. "I understand, First Orris. While I do not share your beliefs I do respect them and I respect you for following them. We have both read your Writ quite extensively. It is a commendable life and I honor you for it."

  Orris smiled and half-bowed. "I shall respect you for that, brother. Perhaps one day when we have more years behind us than ahead we can sit at leisure and discuss the finer points of it."

  "Done," said Micah, offering his hand, "We'll leave you now. I know you have matters to attend and we appreciate the time you took for us. Please do convey our thanks to First Litho as well."

  Orris smiled. "May your journey be blessed of the Light, my friends. Please do return as you are able."

  Back at the legation Perry left a message for them to see him when they returned. Puzzled, Micah and Ferrel sought him out.

  "It's about the man you imaged last night," said Perry, "We've collected as much information as we can on Unity's intel agents, such as are. Under the garble, of course."

  "Of course," said Ferrel.

  "This stape isn't one of them. What's more, he doesn't belong here."

  "Howso," asked Micah.

  Perry gave him a strange look. "You don't see it? Slib. I suppose being here long-term does have its benefits. One absolute about every citizen of the Unity of Triumph is, well, unity. Uniformity, more like. They're all consistent. I won't say they all dress exactly alike because they don't, but they do all dress similarly, modulo weather. That's the least of it, though.

  "Every person here, even the most hardened downzone sinner has a core belief in the Unity and the Writ and it shows. It shows in the way they look at each other and the world." He called up a holo. "This man doesn't fit. He looks suspicious. I don't mean he appears suspicious, I mean he looks at everything and everyone around him suspiciously. Constantly. Also, from what I gather about the holos you took he radiates it. Notice how the crowds avoid him?"

  "I actually did," said Micah, "I also felt, well, almost a hatred from him. Not quite that, though. I suppose contempt would be a better word. Or possibly disgust."

  "Six on the beam," said Perry, "Unitites who don't like you will obviously and blatantly avoid you. That or they'll tell you to your teeth; there's nothing subtle or unconscious about it."

  "So any ideas about this one," asked Micah, "We had him tagged as a hostile local. Should we try for more?"

  "Your ball, your call," said Perry, "I'll pass the word to keep an eye open for him. If the two of you want to investigate I'll help any way I can."

  "But," prompted Ferrel.

  "But your mission has a very high priority," said Perry, "I know it's something to do with the Peace Spire and that DOSTRAP wants their data rather badly. I absolutely do not want to keep you from that."

  "Slib," said Micah, "We'll leave this pucko to you, then. let us know if you need us."

  "Plus-plus!"

  ***

  "This is interesting," said Ferrel.

  He and Micah rode their fast courier back toward League space.

  "Which part," asked Micah, "This is a lot of data we didn't have."

  "Precisely my point, my brother. As best I can tell they didn't hold back anything. Every incident they had with the Esavians, trivial to major, is here."

  Micah could only agree. What the Intelligence archives classified as a minor skirmish on Path of Light the Unity spools painted as a major battle. More than once! Before Unity began keeping a strong military presence stationed there the Esavians killed a lot of Unity citizens. At times it seemed they did so just to kill them.

  "Dawn's Hope," said Ferrel.

  Micah nodded. After Unity started a colon
y there and had it well-developed the Esavians again claimed the world and demanded that Unity leave. At first they demanded, then they followed up with military force. After a bloody evacuation Unity withdrew and the Esavians established a strong colony there and started moving colonists in. The Unity forces then attacked, blasted away the minimal defenses there and bombed the Esavian colonies out of existence. The Unity commander didn't restrict himself to military targets nor even put forth the pretext that he did.

  Seventeen Esavian worlds instantly declared war and sent ships against Path of Light, Dawn's Hope and several other Unity worlds. They met with strong opposition, though, since the Unity forces waited at those worlds and two others not attacked. Well-organized, supplied and prepared, the Unity forces soundly defeated the Esavians. Micah investigated the Unity tactics and found that while Esavian forces from one world did act together they didn't bother coordinating between others. Using this fact the Unity commander chopped the Esavians to pieces while only taking light casualties.

  What came next both fascinated and disgusted Micah. The last Esavian group in the battle, the ships from the world Dhubonna, retreated with almost a quarter of their ships intact. The Unity commander, Admiral W. Gregory Shrubbs, organized all his undamaged ships and supplied them off the ones that had taken damage. He then followed his enemies home. Shrubbs waited in high-outer orbits until the comm traffic indicated that the Esavians had all landed and settled down.

  Shrubbs microjumped his fleet in, tore through the few planetary defenses and began raining massive, indiscriminate destruction down on the planet below. First he blasted out of orbit anything that did not come from the Unity of Triumph. Next he saturation nuked the starports. After that he bombed the major population centers using a mixture of mostly-clean nuclear and conventional munitions. Then he bombed the minor cities, villages and any other gathering place. He continued bombing until he ran out of ammunition. Nor did Shrubbs limit himself to the single planet. Though the Esavians had few of them he also destroyed their asteroid grinders, floating megafacs and any other structure or infrastructure within the system.

  Upon his return to Path of Light, and his subsequent report, Shrubbs was allowed to resign and retire to an isolated estate on the planet he sacrificed so much to protect. All the men and women serving with him were sworn to secrecy about his action and as best Micah could tell they complied.

  Even though Shrubbs spent the last years of his life in seclusion the impact of his actions could not be denied. After Dhubonna the incidents between Unity and the Esavians grew infrequent, minor and very easily settled.

  "Effective," said Micah.

  Ferrel, pale-faced, stared at Micah in disbelief.

  "Yes, Charlie, I know. They were also brutal, abhorrent, inhuman and several other bad things but they were effective. Shrubbs spoke to the Esavians in a language they understood. Once he showed the willingness to bring the fight home, use overwhelming overkill and scale it up as far as he could and all of it when the Esavians were weak it worked. Draw your own conclusions."

  "Therein lies the problem, my brother. I did. I analyzed the data, just as you did, and came to the same results." Ferrel held up a trio of spools. "It seems Retired Admiral Shrubbs spent a great deal of his isolation writing histories and memoirs. These constitute his work concerning the Esavians; both tactical essays and observations. I haven't started them yet."

  "Don't," advised Micah, "Let me do it. I have a pretty good idea what they might contain and you probably don't want to."

  "Thank you, my brother! Once we're back in the League dessert is on me."

  "Make it a full meal."

  "Done!"

  Micah dove into Shrubbs' memoirs and found them everything he warned Ferrel against and more. Apparently the Unity forces captured some of the Esavian invaders and Shrubbs ordered them transferred to his custody. The report detailed nothing of their capture save that it happened at the end of the battle over Path of Light and before he departed for the Esavian worlds. Reorganizing and resupplying his fleet took just over a week and these spools contained the information he wrested from the seven prisoners he managed to break.

  Most of the information on the spools concerned tactics and strategies. The prisoners confirmed Shrubbs' hypothesis that forces from different worlds didn't coordinate. They had some communication between members of the same sects of Dhu but nothing past that. The prisoners implied that it was a matter of honor but none of them said it outright; they assumed it was something so elementary that anyone with a single brain cell would know it.

  By reading between what the prisoners said and comparing it to what they actually said Micah inferred that the only thing the Esavians respected was overwhelming force. Then he corrected himself: grudgingly recognize was closer than respect.

  Micah also delved into the reports on the prisoners that didn't break. Three of those committed suicide. Each of them had serious injuries and tried to refuse medical treatment. That confused Micah since two others had more serious injuries and another three less serious ones and all of them accepted aid eagerly. The others at first adamantly refused to give any information. Shrubbs detailed the methods his interrogators used and some of them bordered on torture or brutality. The most effective was skinning and salting but it only worked after the first prisoner died without talking.

  On the subject of Dhu the prisoners did give more information, some openly and more gleaned by secret surveillance. According to the Esavians Dhu created all of space and time and Esav was his chosen child and prophet. Only those with the blood of Esav were his chosen children, hence the only ones worthy to receive the teachings of Dhu. Others, they said, could learn Dhu Lan but would not be accepted as the full children of Dhu but rather as inferior siblings.

  For those who would not follow Dhu Lan only death would suffice. It was the duty of all brothers and children of Esav, bloodlines notwithstanding, to exterminate the infidel. Those who died in that pursuit instantly attained paradise while the rest had to earn their way there. None of the prisoners elaborated on either of those points.

  The transcripts of the prisoners' conversations among themselves also made several references to the 'Marks of Dhu.' The others referred to one of the prisoners who didn't break as 'highly marked.' Micah never found any meaning to it but all the others listened carefully when he spoke, and when he left some of the others spoke of 'earning their marks.' All of the prisoners obviously accorded great importance to 'marks' so Micah searched as hard as he could but found nothing.

  "Make it a ruddy good meal," he told Ferrel when they drew rations, "Those spools were every bit as bad as I thought and worse in some areas. But... Shrubbs was effective. I wish we had some data on those 'marks.' I have a creeping suspicion it's important."

  "Wish in one, pizzle in the other," said Ferrel, "This mission could get ugly fast, no blather."

  "Truth and pure. Given what we have we can probably convince Ted to cold seven."

  "We could, my brother, and I am severely tempted. If we did, though, someone else would end up with it. Besides, we might already have done it."

  "Possible," said Micah, "We are to '... help ensure the safety of the Semid Federation and its citizens.' No constraints other than that. Have we?"

  Ferrel shrugged.

  Micah sighed. "I can think of eight solid ways to do just that. Absolutely. All of them would have Dr. Colwraith walking on sunspots to slap me speckled, assuming Vera left enough of me for him to hit."

  Ferrel made a sour face. "Let's go over a few of them, my brother. Work out some of the details. Maybe we can find a way to accomplish the goal without compromising ourselves and our morals."

  "Fair coin. Option one: total military annihilation of all the Esavian worlds."

  ***

  "Interesting," said Ionoski, "Not what I expected but more so in some ways. I also agree with you, Micah, that the Esavians will not acknowledge or recognize anything other than massive and overwhelming force."
/>
  Ionoski met them at the starport on Aurora Maiora where he told them, somewhat mysteriously, that Kidwell would join them in two days plus jitter.

  "The pious question is whether that force must be military," said Ferrel, "Secondary to that is whether or not terrorism against the Esavians would work."

  "That one we couldn't answer," said Micah, "No matter how we adjusted our criteria. As a matter of record, or at least the ones we were able to access, the Esavians have never kept a single treaty any of them signed. They might give lip service or, more likely, use it to lull the other party into complacency, build up assets and attack by surprise. The ones signing were from a different tribe, sect, planet... Hades! Maybe even hair color."

  "Or," said Ferrel, "they gave no respect to the infidels signing them. That summed the highest but the error cloud was massive, too. We need more information. Ideally we need someone inside Esav."

  Ionoski's expression tightened. "Understood. I'll convey a conversation I overheard in the fresher."

  Micah and Ferrel nodded. He meant data beyond their security clearance but germane to their assignment.

  "Rumor said we tried to infiltrate one or more agents into the Esavian worlds and culture. The agents we got back all showed signs of having been tortured. Slowly and thoroughly. None were able to confirm or deny because they were all dead. Or so I heard.

  "The only place outsiders are even remotely tolerated is Saddireb Libre, and there only if they provide some benefit and only so long as that benefit lasts. Most of the other Esavian worlds will host trade, but only to a very limited extent. Liaison maintains a mission there but it only has two officers: the ambassador and his secretary, who happens to be Intelligence. They're bored but they also make sure to stay within sprinting distance of their courier. Most non-Esavian merchants are strongly encouraged to leave quickly and to leave their valuable cargoes behind. They also tend to back that up with pulse cannon and phase torpedoes."

  That caught Micah's attention. "Phase torps?! Those are at least a century obsolete!"