Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (19 page)

“All right, but, well... if this is true, why are some parts of God at war with others, I mean like the Brotherhood fighting and trying to dominate others?”

“I believe in your world you have a disease called cancer, a disease where cells in the body malfunction and mutate into cells that threaten and can kill the host body they are in.  Even though the person, whose body the cancer cell is in, may know it’s there, it doesn’t stop those cells from growing and threatening, or even killing its host.”

“So God can’t stop people like the Brotherhood from being evil?”

“Evil?  Thumumba grinned.  “Yes, if you want to call it that, we won’t get involved in the semantics of that word at the moment.  Why do you think God isn’t involved in dealing with the Brotherhood?”

“Well he’s allowing them to continue.”

“Let’s go back to the cancer in the body.  Does the body immediately surrender to cancer or does it fight it?”

“Well it tries to fight it,” I answered.

“How?  How does it try to fight it?”

“Well it produces antibodies and white blood cells that attack the cancer cells.”

“I see”, Thumumba said with a knowing grin on his face, “So living cells that make up your body organize to fight against living cells in your body that are trying to kill you.”

“Ah, I see what you’re saying; the Federation is like the cells in the body that try to fight off the infection.  However, God didn’t tell us to fight the Brotherhood,” I said.

“Do you tell your body to fight off the infection of cancer?  Alternatively, does it do so out of a normal programed reaction that is built into the cells?”

“Okay, okay, I see this is far more complex than I thought.  However, I’m seeing your point.  So back to my original question.  You’re saying that you believe in a god and we are all a part of that god, like cells in our body, but is God conscious of his existence?”

“The very fact that you are asking that question means he does, Tibby.  Since you are a part of God and have awareness that means God does also.”

I started to feel dizzy as I tried to grasp the complexity of it all, realizing that God must have as many conscious aspects as there were sentient life forms in the universe and even more.  Were they all somehow connected and dumping information into some gigantic cosmic brain that was God's?  I didn’t know –  and I realized I would never be able to know that any more than the cell in my toe could know all that I, the collective being of cells which makes up my body, knew.  I looked at Thumumba, who smiled and nodded his head.  “Now you understand, at least as much as you are able to.”

“Do you communicate with God?”  I asked.

“Tibby, every living thing communicates with God.”

“I mean, do you talk with him and him with you?”

“I see you still are missing some of this,” Thumumba said, “Let’s go back to our analogy of your body.  The cells in your stomach get invaded by bacteria and it becomes ill.  It sends messages to your brain in the only language it understands, a cry for help and pain.  Your brain passes the information on to your body and you feel ill.  Do you talk to your stomach and say, “Hi there, sorry to hear you’re not feeling well?  What can I do for you?”

“Well no, I take some medicine that cures it.  My stomach wouldn’t understand if I talked to it.”

“But you did respond to its communication to you, didn’t you?”

“I see, so we talk up to God, he doesn’t talk down to us?”

“Not in the same way we communicate with him.  You didn’t respond the message your stomach was sending you in the form of pain by punching yourself in the stomach to send pain back; you provided medicine that gave relief. Your stomach may never even have realized you actually responded at all.  It only knows it got better.

“So the Federation’s reactions against the Brotherhood may in some way be us responding to God’s will in a communication we are getting but not realizing?

“Again, yes and no, loosely translated you might say so.”

“But you're closer to God because you are on a higher level; doesn’t that give you a greater understanding of him?”

Thumumba laughed and I swear for a moment the entire world shook; then he said, “Tibby, what makes you think I am a higher life form?  Is it because I have a different form than you?”

“I don’t know; I guess I simply assumed it.  I mean you can do things we can’t.”

“Tibby, a drodoceal can do things you can’t; does that make it superior, or more advanced than you?”

“Okay, I get your point, I think.  I’m going to need to give this more thought.  I’ll need time to digest this.”

“We got off track from what I came to discuss with you,” Thumumba said, “however, all of this is relevant to what I must tell you.  You once asked me if I could see the future and I told you that I could not, but that I could see probabilities and make relatively accurate predictions in some areas.  I know that right now you are dealing with some personal issues of your own regarding your health.”  I let out a gasp when he said this, but he raised his hand, stopping me from saying anything.

“Tibby, I cannot heal you if that is what you were going to ask, but I can tell you that things will not end up as darkly as you may come to think in the next few years.  Know this, that in your darkest hour when all looks like there is no hope and no future, I will be there for you and that you will survive and life will be more glorious than you can now imagine.”

“So you’re telling me my condition is going to get worse,” I said as a sinking feeling settled in.

“It’s going to change and with that change, there will be good and bad,” Thumumba said.  “What I am telling you is not to dwell on it; live your life, do your best as you have been doing and things will work out better than you can ever imagine.”

“And this is what you’ve come to tell me.  That no matter how bad things look, not to worry about it but keep on going like it’s not real?”

“That’s an oversimplification of it, but basically, yes!”  Thumumba said and then, in a manner that reminded me ever so much of A’Lappe, Thumumba vanished.

I was sitting there contemplating what Thumumba said when there was a knock at my door.  This was strange, as people in the Federation didn’t knock; there were door bells and communication systems that announced people's arrivals or requests to enter.  The only one I knew who ever knocked was Lunnie and I am not sure where she picked the habit up from.

“Come in,” I said as I activated the door control.  Lunnie peeped around the corner and came into my study; her eyes were all puffy and I could tell she had been crying.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” I said and quickly she ran to me and threw her arms about my neck and sobbed.  Dad the horses are all dead.  Poccot is dead!  They all got killed in the attack on the estate.”

“By the stars, I’d forgotten the buildings at the south end of the estate weren’t covered by the RMFF shield A’Lappe made to protect things.  Listen, we’ll get Cantolla to have her people clone you a new horse; it will be like Poccot,” I said as I wondered what else had been destroyed that I was not aware of.

“But dad, I want Poccot.  Another horse won’t be the same.  I will have to train it all over again.”

“I’m sorry, Lunnie, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.  The best I can do is to have another horse cloned for you exactly like Poccot.”

“Dad, I don’t think I want to go back to the estate.  Can I have my friends come here to visit me?”

“I don’t see why not.  We let Rory come visit Reide; I think we can let your friends come and visit you also.  We’ll need to make some arrangements with security for them to come through the Cantolla Gates.”  I said this knowing full well, it would be a security nightmare, as security would want to scan Lunnie’s friends before allowing them through the gates every time they came or went.

My com link beeped and I answered, “Tibby here.”

“Tibby,” Kerabac’s voice began, “Captain Felenna is here wishing to speak to you.”

“Ah, yes.  I guess I am several days late getting with her.  Send her to my study, please,” then I turned to Lunnie, “Look sweetie; I'll see to it that Cantolla has her people clone you a new horse as soon as possible.  Is there anything else you need?  Felenna will be here soon and I need to discuss some things with her.”

“No, I guess that was all,” Lunnie said with her lip projecting.  “Dad, I miss having you around more.”

“I miss being around more,” I said, “but if I don’t stop the Brotherhood, none of us will be around at all.”

“I know, Daddy, but I still miss you being around,” she gave me a quick hug and ran out the door.

Piesew ushered Captain Felenna in a few moments later and after serving foccee to both of us, he departed.

“So, Captain, did you find anything we can use in the Brotherhood’s old database that was still in the computer?” I asked.

“I may have found a few things, but I can’t be sure.  There are some references in old communications about some worlds and getting ships there.  I am not familiar with these worlds, but I was able to look them up on star maps and they all are outside Federation territory.  One of them appears to in the general region nearest Sectors 2 and 3.  I thought that might be significant.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I’ve sent the information and database on to Admiral Wabussie for them to look at as well.”

“Very good, Captain, thank you.  I hope it turns up something.  We need to…” my comment was interrupted by an emergency beeping on my com.

“Admiral, this is Marranalis; we've received word of a Reduviid attack on Bi-rand 3.  They have blown-up several schools, a medical center and a number of government buildings.”

“By the stars,” I said as I rose from my chair, “Captain Felenna, why don’t you come with me back to the
MAXETTE,
so we can finish our discussion and I can check on this Reduviid attack.”

“Certainly, Admiral, lead the way.”

The information from the attack on Bi-rand 3 and the information Felenna had provided us about the planet, was added to the 3D hologram.  I anticipated it would give us some new clue to Brotherhood bases and activities, but all it did was add to the confusion.  Bi-rand 3 was nowhere near any recent Brotherhood attacks. Their attack was both brutal and senseless.  It seemed to serve no other purpose than to instill terror among the citizens.  In what I assumed was an effort to maximize the terror they created, the Reduviids made vids of their conquest, displaying the torture and executions of many of the citizens.  Scenes of people having their skin flayed and being set on fire, as well as teens and young children being chained to be sold in sex slave markets, were displayed.  By using remote satellites, which broke into normal broadcasts on Federation vid transmissions throughout the Federation, the Brotherhood promised that planets which didn’t secede from the Federation and submit to the Brotherhood would suffer the same fate.  I was hoping Jenira wouldn’t see these since at one time she had been a child sex slave of the Brotherhood.  I feared that seeing the vids might set her off on some senseless vendetta.  Once again, the Reduviids had attacked a defenseless planet and treated it without mercy.

Unlike military attacks where you could track the retreating enemy, the Reduviids were much harder to track and trace.  The attack on Bi-rand 3 was no exception; our only hope was that we find some trace of the ships used to transport the slaves captured on the planet, but the ships used must have been cloaked and the lack of sensors in the area left us with nothing to go on. 

Admiral Wabussie met Captain Felenna and me when we arrived in the War Room, having arrived there shortly before we did.

“Admiral,” I began, “did you have any sort on intelligence that an attack was going to happen?”

“We’ve been picking up some hints that an assault was being planned for several months, but we had no idea where it was going to take place and we didn’t realize it was going to be anytime soon.  The Brotherhood is getting better about containing their information and it’s getting more difficult for us to infiltrate them.  Since they have figured out how to use the deep-space communication systems, the amount of information we are getting has nearly dried up.  We’ve managed to get a few people inside their organization, but everything is so compartmentalized that we get very little useful data.”

“You’re right about compartmentalization," Felenna interjected.  “Even back when I was in the Brotherhood things were contained and you only knew or were told what you needed to know for you to function in your assigned area.”

“That’s right.  You once were in the Brotherhood,” Wabussie commented.  “I keep forgetting that.  Is there anything you can tell us that might help?”

“No, not really, the only thing I remember hearing was Shydak talking about some planet where the higher ups spent a lot of time and made a lot of their plans.”

“Did he ever mention the name of the place?” Wabussie asked.

“Not that I can recall, though he did say one time that even Tibby with all his wealth couldn’t buy his way in.”

“So it’s a Brotherhood world,” Wabussie said with a sigh.

“I don’t think so, sir,” Felenna said, “Shydak laughed about how the planet was too 'sophisticated' for anyone to think it would be a location where most Brotherhood planning took place and it would be the last-place anyone would look for them.”