Aftermath

24

Celine found herself not in a room but a tunnel, running away in front of her in a long arc until it curved out of sight to the left. The roof, like the walls and floor, was timber, heavily braced every twenty yards. Lanterns, located at the braces, did not use the oil that their appearance suggested. Their light came from electricity, carried by power lines looped to brackets on the walls.

Celine turned to Eli, who had arrived at the foot of the ladder. “I said that we need rest, but maybe I didn’t put it strongly enough. I don’t think you realize what my crew has been through. For the past six years, we have never lived in a gravitational field as strong as that of Earth for more than a few minutes at a time. Our bodies are exhausted. It is impossible for us to walk six kilometers — or even one kilometer — before we have had food and sleep.”

“Did I say you’d have to do that?” Eli gestured ahead. “The leader knew, just like she knew about the supernova without bein’ told. She said you’d be tired. You don’t have to walk six kilometers, not even one. Think you can manage fifty yards?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all I’m asking. After that it’s comfort city. See ’em yet?”

Celine saw them. Steel rails three feet apart, with wooden sleepers between, began at a buffer in the middle of the tunnel. Two cars, five feet wide and ten feet long, sat on the rails.

“Runs straight to headquarters,” Eli said. “Electric power, or hand-pumping if you want or need it. We’ll use the ’lectric today. The leader told me to get you to her in good condition. It’s better than defilers deserve, but it’s orders.” He motioned to Reza and Jenny, who were already standing by the cars. “On board.”

The cars were open, their bodies formed from a single piece of molded graphite composite. The seats seemed at first of the same material, but they were soft to the touch and gave luxuriously under Celine’s weight. She settled back with a sigh. Five minutes of this much comfort, and it would be hard to remain awake. The only car controls that she could see were two foot pedals in front of Eli. She looked around. Wilmer and Celine sat right behind Eli, with Reza and Jenny behind them. Two uniformed women at the back rode shotgun — literally. Their weapons were old-fashioned, but armed and ready.

Eli pressed the right pedal and the car moved forward with a steady surge of acceleration. When the speed leveled off they were probably moving at no more than twenty miles an hour, but the low roof and uncertain light made it seem to Celine that the dark board walls flashed past at monstrous speed. The tunnel had become almost straight, descending steadily. She tried to estimate the gradient. Even if it were as little as one in fifty, six kilometers of this would plunge them a thousand feet underground — more than enough to shield completely from the gamma pulse. With the rest of Earth devastated, the technology of this mole group might have come through unscathed.

Reza leaned over Celine’s shoulder. “I don’t understand what’s going on here,” he said loudly. “There’s no way that all this could have been built after Supernova Alpha hit. This place must be ten years old at least.”

Maybe Jenny hadn’t delivered Celine’s order to remain silent, or maybe Reza in his present strange state had misunderstood. It made no difference, because Eli was turning eagerly in his seat to face them.

“Old? It sure is! We’ve been buildin’ here for twenty year an’ more. We knew it was comin’!”

“You knew about the supernova?” Wilmer asked. “You predicted it. How?”

“Why, it was prophesied. In the leader’s writings, long before she was a martyr to the cause. She knew. She said the supernova would come, and we would go from strength to strength. We have, and we will.” Eli’s face was alive with rare excitement. “ ’You must continue the labor, as we have labored together for fifteen years. In this dark hour, take comfort. Do not fear for me, nor grieve at my leaving. Labor on. Very soon, within this mortal lifetime, I will return to you.’ “

Celine hoped that the others would know enough to keep quiet. Reza and Wilmer, unknowing, had found the button that worked for Eli and the Legion of Argos: evangelical zeal.

“ ’Before the second prophecies of the Eye of God, there will be certain proof that my resurrection is imminent.’ “ The voices of the two women added to Eli’s, in a slow, chanted litany that echoed along the dark tunnel. “ ’There will be portents. When these signs appear, prepare for my return: Another sun will rise in the southern sky, turning night into day. Winter will become summer. Heat will draw from the seas the poison fogs of contagion, dropping their pestilence on the land. Fire and floods will sweep away nations and powers and principalities. Hot winds will scourge the face of Earth, scattering it like dust across the whole world. Lightning from afar will shatter the false temples of Mammon and destroy the fools who seek to defile the face of Heaven. In that same hour, as the trappings of false governance are broken, you will come to me. I will rise again, as our star rises. The Eye of God will prophesy, and the holy work of cleansing our nation and our world will begin. This time there will be no turning back, no quarter given.’ “

The car was slowing. Celine had felt her ears pop twice, more evidence that they were riding deeper and deeper below ground. The seat was as comfortable as ever, but any fear of nodding off was long gone. The Eye of God. The group had been known as the Legion of Argos long before its charismatic leader rose to notoriety. The Schiaparelli had already boosted away from Earth orbit by the time of the trial, but beamed radio reports provided coverage. The “Eye of God” — Celine would surely remember the woman’s name if she were less tired — had demanded absolute obedience from disciples and followers. As evidence of commitment to the causes of the Legion, she had directed a group of recruits to kill the four judges who had ruled against her in a property dispute. They had done that — and much more.

Celine felt her stomach tighten. Eli must be a minor player in the organization. But he, or one of the armed women sitting at the rear of the car, could have been in that group of blood-besotted recruits. And the Mars crew were defilers of Heaven. Better hope that obedience to the orders of the leader remained absolute. The Eye of God wanted the crew to arrive in good condition.

The holy work of cleansing. As the car stopped and Celine descended, she stared again at the emblem on Eli’s tunic. The scarlet talon grasping the blue-green globe of Earth. It made sense now, but only as a symbol of insanity.

How many people were in the Legion of Argos? Was the group big enough to be a national threat? One thing was sure, Eli was not about to tell her.

They were descending again, this time in a regular elevator. Celine could not be sure that it needed microchips for its operation, although almost every device made in the past thirty years had chips in it somewhere. Suppose they were a thousand feet down. Then the natural shielding of Earth’s crust should damp below danger level any electromagnetic pulse from Supernova Alpha.

Wilmer would be able to tell her in a moment at what depth that was true, but now the elevator door had opened. Eli was urging them forward, remaining inside himself.

No guns, no threats? It seemed that way. Celine walked from the elevator into a pleasantly furnished executive office. Half a dozen padded chairs were grouped around a glass-topped coffee table. On the table sat a painted samovar and a tray of cups. At the other side of the room a longer table formed a T-shape with a big desk at one end of it. The oddity was that Celine could see no telcoms, no displays, and no terminals.

And no guards. Only one other person was present, sitting in a chair by the coffee table. She smiled warmly and beckoned the new arrivals to come forward and join her.

“I know you are terribly tired,” she said. “It won’t make you feel any better, but let me tell you that at the moment I myself am hardly able to stay awake. I wanted to spend just a few minutes with you, before we all collapse into bed. Please sit down.”

She was a big woman, full-figured, probably close to six feet when she was standing up. Her hair was long and auburn, piled up onto the top of her head, and she had a pale, unblemished complexion and clear skin. Her eyes were bright gray, with a touch of golden brown at the center of the irises. At the moment the skin beneath them was dark-smudged with weariness. Her age might be anything from forty upward. The voice was warm and musical, with careful diction and soft vowels. Celine tried to analyze the accent, and decided that the speaker was native-born American, probably from somewhere like Tennessee. Her manner was utterly unlike Eli’s wooden personality.

“I was told that you were with the Mars expedition.” The woman made a quick survey of the four arrivals, and by some instinct spoke directly to Celine. “I find that totally fascinating. I have just awakened from judicial sleep. But before I was placed there, six years ago, I recall that there were to be seven crew members. Did the plans for the expedition change?”

She showed no hint of shame at admitting to a crime bad enough to justify her commitment to a syncope facility.

“There were seven of us.” Celine sat down, and Reza, Wilmer, and Jenny followed her lead. “All the way to Mars, and on Mars. We had a problem on our final descent to Earth, because all the people on the space stations are dead and the ground support network is not working. The rest of our crew died attempting atmospheric reentry.”

“That is truly terrible.” The woman had turned her head, and Celine could see two angry red stigmata on her pale neck. “You have my sympathy. But we do not know the ways of God. Comfort yourselves, if you can, with the thought that no one dies without a purpose.”

“It’s hard to think that way at the moment.”

“Impossible, I should think. But give yourselves time. And if there is anything that I can do to ease your grief, please let me know.” The woman leaned forward and extended her hand. “I am Pearl Lazenby. Welcome to the Legion of Argos.”

Pearl Lazenby. Celine knew she would have recalled the name once she was less exhausted. More difficult was the match of the apparently charming woman in front of them with the reputation of the Eye of God. That analysis would have to be postponed until she could think more clearly.

“I’m Celine Tanaka.” She gestured to the others in turn. “Reza Armani, Jenny Kopal, Wilmer Oldfield. I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but the man who brought us here — Eli — was not pleasant at all when he heard we were the Mars crew. He accused us of defiling Heaven.”

Pearl Lazenby had been repeating their names under her breath. Now she nodded. “I’m afraid that he was right. All space beyond Earth is God’s domain.” Her smile took the edge off her remark. “But I’m sure you did not initiate the Mars program, or sell it to a credulous world, or provide any part of its funding. You are merely the brave souls who believed the publicity and volunteered to fly the ship. Eli is wrong if he criticized you. You are to be pitied, not censured, and forgiven rather than punished. Behave acceptably, and you will be treated well here. I guarantee it.”

Wilmer leaned forward. “Eli said that you knew about Supernova Alpha before it happened. That you’ve been preparing for its effects for twenty years. Is that true?”

Pearl Lazenby was filling a cup from the tall painted samovar. At Wilmer’s question she passed the tea to Celine and leaned back.

“That is a very complex question. If I say I knew in 2006 that a specific star would turn supernova in the year 2026, that would not be correct. However, I was certain that some great catastrophe would take place over the whole world in that particular year — this year — and I saw many of the consequences.”

“You mean you foresaw consequences.”

“No, Dr. — Oldfield, was it? I said that your question was complex, and it is.” Pearl Lazenby sat, a little painted cup steady in her hand. She became perfectly still. Her eyes widened, although she was looking at no one. “When I was eighteen years old — nearly twenty-eight years ago, I was hardly more than a child — I began to see. I witnessed events that had never happened. It might be broad daylight, and I would watch a fire at midnight, a woman with smoldering clothes carrying two infants from a burning building. It might be evening, and I would witness a redheaded man’s fevered death by the light of dawn. I dared not drive, because when I saw I could observe nothing else around me.

“You might think that my visions would have drawn wide attention, but they did not. The year that my seeing began was 1998. The world then was full of millennial prophets and vast prophecies, and what I saw was nothing compared with other warnings: Judgment Day,

and World’s End, and Armageddon, and Ragnarok. I saw only smaller events, taking place at a time that at first I could only dimly suggest.

“As the months and years passed, that changed. The millennium came and went, and the universe did not seem to notice. Prophecy went out of fashion. But what I saw became more vivid and more precisely placed in time. I could mark on a calendar what I saw, and when that day or week arrived the media would report it. Little by little, I realized that my gift had been given to me for a reason. At first I had no idea what, only that some great task lay ahead.

“And then, twenty years ago, my fate was revealed. One night I could not sleep. I did not understand why, until in the hours before dawn I saw a thousand disasters. I saw floods sweep away cities and dams and levees. I saw fire run unchecked across a thousand miles of parched forest, jumping rivers and gorges, and man-made firebreaks. I saw dust storms swirling and smothering over a whole continent. I saw icebergs in tropical seas, and great whales basking in summer heat. All these things would happen at once, as the world tottered under a gigantic blow from Heaven. The damage would be made worse by a false faith in new technology, new technology that seemed like magic.

“And the Word came to me. What I saw would happen not then, nor in a week or a month or a year, but in twenty years. The machines of that time, the near-intelligent machines of which their creators were so proud, would fail. And even that was not the worst news. Unless humanity learned a lesson, and cooperated over the whole world, a still greater disaster would come. I could see no details, but all would die. Humankind had only one hope, one way of averting that new catastrophe. The City of God must be created here on Earth. It was my role to lead that building. Humanity must be purged of evil, if necessary by force. It was my role to lead that purging. Humanity must be cleansed of sin, even if it meant scraping to the bone. It was my role to be the Eye of God, to prophesy and define what must be done. Then it would be my task to lead the carrying out of that cleansing. I could not rely on new technology, but old technology would provide me with my tools.

“I did not like the burden laid upon me. I fought against it, prayed that the cup might pass. I tried to reject it and to deny it. I hated many of the things that I knew I would be required to do. But, finally, I accepted my destiny.” Pearl Lazenby turned to Wilmer and offered the cup that she was holding. “Would you like tea?”

He shook his head, and leaned toward her. “You saw disaster in this year, 2026. And you saw a possible later disaster. When? What did you see around 2076?”

“Fifty years from now?” A frown wrinkled the skin of her high forehead. “I saw nothing. Should I have?”

“Yes. In that year, or within five years of it, a second great disaster will arrive.”

“What kind of disaster? Can you describe it?”

“Yes.” Wilmer’s face took on the blank look of Pearl Lazenby’s, five minutes earlier. “Let me put it in terms easy to understand. There will be fire in the sky, as a deluge of high-energy particles hits our upper atmosphere. We will see auroras bright as no one has ever seen them. Worse trouble follows. For a short time the atmosphere will become opaque to visible wavelength radiation — darkness at noon. When sunlight returns, Earth will be unprotected. The ozone layer will have been lost. Ultraviolet radiation will hit Earth more fiercely than we have ever known. And while this goes on, the global temperature will rise. The thermal shock to the planet will be ten times that of the past two months. Civilization, even if it has been rebuilt from today, will crumble and collapse.”

“You see it.” Pearl Lazenby was sitting bolt upright, absorbed in Wilmer’s words. “That’s it, isn’t it? You see these events.”

“You could say that I see them, yes.”

“But where does your vision come from?”

“From the equations governing stellar energy release, clear to those who can read them. It is in the formulas for element nucleosynthesis, in the equations for radiative transfer, and in the quantum laws that govern the interaction of the electromagnetic field with atoms and electrons. It was foreordained by the occurrence of the supernova itself. And beyond 2076, far beyond it, I see a faint shadow of something even more ominous.”

“Can others see these things?”

“Some. But if I am honest, I have to say, not many. It requires a lot of training.”

Pearl Lazenby subsided slowly in her chair. “It is like my own gift. It must be grown from its first seed. Native ability is nothing without long, hard work. Could you teach me to see as you do?”

“I think not.”

She nodded. “Any more than I have been able to teach others. I accept that. It was clearly foreordained that you come here. You will tell me more of your visions. But not today. You are, I know, exhausted, and so am I. My people will show you to your accommodations.” She did not seem to move, but three armed women appeared at the door of the room.

Celine took the hint and stood up. The others of the Mars group, more slowly, followed her example.

Pearl Lazenby rose, too, a little unsteadily. She patted Wilmer’s arm. “We have much to learn from each other. Good night.”

She waved to the uniformed guards, who escorted Celine and the others away.

Following Celine’s lead, Wilmer, Reza, and Jenny said nothing until they had been taken along another underground corridor and shown two small rooms, each containing two cot beds. The armed women motioned Reza and Wilmer to place their small backpacks in one room, Jenny and Celine to use the other.

“What about food?” Celine asked. “It is many hours since we ate.”

One of the women shook her head. “There will be no food tonight.” She had the same wooden manner as Eli, and she spoke as though she grudged every word.

“Mealtimes are fixed. At seven in the morning, at midday, and at six at night. Anyone who does not eat at those times does not eat.”

“I don’t believe it. Food must be available for people who have been working late or working at night.”

“There will be no food tonight.”

“Then tomorrow I will report your action to Pearl Lazenby herself. She said that we would be treated well here. She does not expect us to be starved.”

Mention of the leader’s name had an immediate effect. The other two women turned to the one who had spoken and Celine could see fear and worry on all three faces. After a few seconds the first woman nodded.

“You will have food. But you must eat here, nowhere else.” She nodded to one of her companions, who hurried out. “Tonight you may not leave these rooms.”

“Believe me, we don’t propose to go anywhere. We are hungry and exhausted. Something to eat, then we’ll collapse into bed.”

“We will be on guard outside, to make sure that no one tries to leave. Your food will be brought in.” The woman looked all around the room as though searching for some invisible escape route, nodded, and motioned to the other woman. They left in silence.

Celine looked at Jenny. “Are we going to let them dictate who sleeps where?”

Jenny shook her head. “I don’t see why. It’s our business, not theirs.”

She moved her pack to the bedroom with Reza. Celine brought Wilmer’s things in with her. Then she sat down on the bed and stared at him thoughtfully.

“You know, sometimes I wonder about you. All that stuff about visions and foreordained disaster.”

“I told the exact truth,” Wilmer said placidly. “When a supernova occurs, the initial burst of radiation must be accompanied by particle emission. Those ions travel more slowly, at a small fraction of light speed. Foreordained describes very well the nature of physical laws, and the inevitable future arrival of a particle storm from Supernova Alpha. Thousands of scientists on Earth could have told Pearl Lazenby that. And if she’d asked me, I could have suggested a possible way of avoiding the disaster. But she didn’t. I guess scientists don’t have much clout in this place.”

“But what about her visions? That’s all mystical gobbledygook.”

“We think so. But she believes what she sees, and so do her followers. That gives her visions a reality that we have to accept, even when they sound vague enough to apply to a lot of natural disasters.” Wilmer motioned toward the door. “Those guns are real. The willingness of her followers to do anything that Pearl Lazenby commands is real. Based on the evidence, I can make a case that she has a better handle on reality than the rest of the world. After all, she was the one who predicted and prepared for disaster. We had no idea it was coming.”

“I agree with Wilmer.” Reza had been standing in the doorway, a rapt expression on his face. He came forward. “She knew, many years ago. No one else did. There are more ways to truth than science admits. I think that Pearl Lazenby is an amazing woman.”

“Or at least a lucky one,” Jenny said. She came across and sat on the bed next to Celine. Her eyes were red from fatigue and loss of sleep. “Don’t glare at me like that, Reza, pure luck would do it. Pearl Lazenby decided, for whatever reason, that she disliked smart machines that made use of microchips. So she predicted that they would fail, and after that she and her followers avoided them. Did you notice the railcar we rode here on, and those guns and bullets? They were old. No chips in them.”

“Maybe. But they are more useful than anything that does use chips.” Reza seemed ready for more argument. “So who was the smart one, tell me that. Pearl Lazenby, or the rest of us? Hate the Legion of Argos as much as you like, you can’t deny that her prophecies came true.”

“By dumb luck.” Jenny stared up at Reza, who shook his head. Celine sensed a new tension between them. “Pearl Lazenby and her followers are one-eyed prophets,” Jenny went on, “in the country of the blind.

She knows she has a temporary advantage, and she intends to do something with it. My question is, what? How many followers does she have? A thousand, or a million? Where are they? And what are they going to do?”

“She made her intention clear enough.” Celine was watching the other three closely. “You heard her, humanity has to be cleansed of sin, even if it means ’scraping to the bone.’ I don’t know what that means, but I don’t like the sound of it. We have to find out what they propose to do — and we have to find a way to warn other people, so the Legion of Argos can be stopped.”

“I do not think that they can be stopped.” Reza stared at Celine defiantly. “Not by anyone or anything. The Eye of God has seen the future.”

“Stopping them certainly won’t be easy.” Celine changed her mind about what she was going to say next, as the door opened and two women entered carrying trays of food. She took the offered bowl of thick lentil soup, and went on, “We don’t have enough information. We don’t know what’s been happening in the world since the supernova. We don’t even know where we are, within a couple of hundred kilometers. One thing’s for sure. In the next few days we must all become the most loyal, devoted, and dedicated members that the Legion of Argos has ever had. And I suspect that Wilmer will be our star performer.”