posted 12-15-98 04:11 PM ET            

Jarek could hardly believe his luck. It was almost as if nature were conspiring to aid him. And not just in the elimination of the captain, which had been so easy, but also in his purpose. The captain had been gone for only a few hours and already the command crew had voted to split themselves up among the pods in case some of them were destroyed in the landing process. They didn't even know that he was dead, and already the chaotic nature of the mission was driving them apart.
And he knew what would happen next.

Each would chose a pod based on their personal preferences. Deirdre would take the one with the most hydroponics equipment and Zhakarov would take the one with the best scientific equipment. The each their own. They would land on the surface separate, and they would not make any effort to collect themselves. They would fight, and the strongest would survive and be made stronger in the conflict. Such was the natural order of things, and Jarek was a servant of that order.

But only if he could make it to the surface of the planet alive. He had decided to land in Zhakarov's pod, knowing that the shrewd scientist would find the safest one for himself. There were other benefits as well. Jarek suspected that the curious scientist would want to make contact with the natives early on, which would give him an opportunity to investigate them for himself. Everything was proceeding smoothly for Jarek now that the captain was gone.

posted 12-15-98 04:12 PM ET            

"Let me get this straight. That ship contains ten thousand humans that have been in suspended animation for the last forty years. They'll wake up as if they've been asleep, and they'll want to pick up as much or their old lives as possible, correct?" Julian was still having trouble accepting it.

"Yes. Isn't it wonderful? Think of the historical value of it! It's like a forty year old time capsule, only it's filled with PEOPLE!"

Julian had had enough, and was beginning to lose his temper. "Chu, do you have any idea what we were LIKE IDEOLOGICALLY forty years ago!? Those aren't people, they're a mob of entropists!"

"Oh, there you go, always yammering on about ideology. You're no better than those young ones, you know. And you act as if they're all that different from us, but they're not. Hell, I was just like any one of those folks before I met Erik. Just because we lived through a Revolution and they didn't doesn't meant that we're all that better than them. You should think of this as an opportunity, think of everything that we can learn from them."

"Chu, you are really starting to worry me with that heretical talk. This is not an opportunity, this is a disaster. Have you forgotten that we are the caretakers of thirty thousand ideologically backwards individuals? Do you know what will happen if they find out about this?"

"I don't see what you're getting at�"

"Right now, those prisoners feel isolated, alone, and backwards. As far as they understand, nobody else in the known galaxy thinks the way they do, or even has the slightest amount of respect for them. This is encouragement for many of them to change their ways and conform. Those that do not change are being held back by reminiscence of the days when their ideology was commonplace and accepted, of the chaotic days before the Revolution straitened everything out."

"I still don't see what you're getting at."

Julian was becoming exasperated. For all his kindness and good memory, Chu didn't have the best logical skills. The Administrator finished his argument. "If those colonists land, it will ruin all of that. The people who are changing out of a desire to conform will suddenly realize that they are not alone in their beliefs, and will feel vindicated, whereas those who hold back out of nostalgia will have a sudden and powerful symbol of the past to cling to. Both groups will want to reclaim their autonomy. We will have a full riot on our hands. I don't have to remind you that we are totally unprepared to deal with such a thing."

The aged historian was silent.

"Good, then you agree with me. Now we must make preparations."

posted 12-15-98 04:12 PM ET            

Julian walked over to the nearest control panel and punched in the call number of Skywatcher Yovar. The computer determined which screen he was nearest to, and opened a connection. The Skywatcher was surprised to see the Administrator, and caught off guard by the worried look in his eyes.

"Um� Ah� Sir! Administrator, sir, I was, uh, just preparing for the upcoming conclave. Is something the matter sir?"

"Yes. Target the incoming craft and begin charging the defensive cannons."

Julian was expecting at least some minor objection, since arming the weapon took an enormous amount of energy, which the closing of the portal had made difficult to obtain. But he got none. Not even the slightest hesitation. Such was the faith of the Indoctrinated in the system that had selected their leader.

"Aye sir, beginning main sequence now. Sir, it's very cold out there, and the cannon may take as long as several days to prepare for firing."

"Several DAYS?!"

"Sir, it hasn't been moved or fired since it was tested for operation ten years ago."

"Very well."

"Sir, I must inform you that our studies of the ship design suggest that it will break apart into sections as part of the landing. If it does so before we are ready to fire, we will most likely not be able to destroy all of it. Shall I proceed anyhow?"

"Yes. Try and target the crew pods, if you can figure out what they are. Make as much of an effort as possible not to hit the fusion core. We may be able to use it ourselves."

"Aye sir. I live to serve the Great Order. Sir, may I ask a question?"

"Absolutely, Skywatcher."

"Sir, are we at war now?"

"Yes. Yes, we are at war. We are fighting for the survival of the colony, and perhaps for more. You are excused from attending the Conclave, so that you can concentrate on arming the cannon. I'm sure that your comrades will fill you in. Fear not, Skywatcher, we will triumph."

Administrator Julian deactivated the screen and turned to face Chu. The old Historian was glaring at him.

"Administrator, don't you think we're being hasty? And excessive? Destroying the ship, without even offering them a chance to surrender?"

"Chu, if it were only our lives and our colony at risk, I would agree with you. But there is more at risk now than just us. The Conclave begins in five minutes. Take your seat, Historian, I will explain myself to the others and to you when we begin."

posted 12-15-98 04:13 PM ET            

Junior Warden Thomas activated his viewing screen to watch the Conclave. He was not required to, but since most of the Citizens would be watching, he felt that he should as well. Thomas was proud that he was allowed to watch the conclave, even though he was not a Citizen. He expected that most, if not all, of his three hundred-odd followers would be watching as well.

Thomas and his group lived apart from the other prisoners. They had shown such zeal in their reeducation that they had been promoted from the subhuman status of prisoners to the more dignified position of Adherents. With this promotion came new rights and responsibilities. They were no longer under constant observation by the automated monitors, and they were given their own rooms. Now they continued their education at their own pace, while contributing to the good of the colony. Since they were more trustworthy than the other prisoners, Julian allowed them the honor of maintaining much of the equipment.

And their leader had been given a title. Junior Warden Thomas. This was very important to them. The Citizens of the colony did not treat them with the respect and absolute trust that they gave each other, but everyone in the group was working towards the day that they could return to Nexus and be made Citizens themselves.

The Junior Warden considered his imprisonment to have been a matter of bad luck, one of those rare mistakes made by the system. He had been a Citizen before the Counterinsurgency War. His title had been Neuroarchitect Thomas, and he had been one of the many designers behind the Plan of Indoctrination. The Plan was ambitious: to give every Citizen an extra lifetime worth of experience in an immersive virtual reality before sending them out into the real world. The methods and technologies had been extremely complicated, especially since the entire virtual lifetime had to be sped up to only take up a few years of real time at most, else it would be useless. The idea of this was so hateful to the remaining dissidents that they had banded together in resistance. Even many Citizens had opposed the Plan, and had joined them. The Counterinsurgency War was to be the last ever conflict of ideology, because the Indoctrination Procedure would leave no room for dissidents.

Thomas had not had a philosophical objection to the Plan. He thought it a wonderful idea. His objection was a technical one. He was concerned that the procedure would damage brain tissue and lead to personality disorders or even premature death. But unlike the other scientists who shared this belief, Neuroarchitect Thomas had made his objections public. Under normal circumstances this would have been accepted and even encouraged, but in troubled times it was interpreted by the system as a threat, and he was imprisoned for political dissidence, stripped of his title and his Citizen status.

Sometimes he thought it unfair that he had been persecuted for this. Sometimes he cried out at the injustice. But those were heretical thoughts, and he did his best to repress them. It was better that the system accidentally punish a few innocent, than to let even one true dissident go free. As an individual his life meant nothing, only the life of the Great Order was important. And so now he spent his days trying to serve that Order in any way he could, even though he was temporarily without Citizen status.

There were a few others like him in his group that had been Citizens wrongly accused of crimes. But most of them had been true dissidents. Communists. Fascists. Naturalists. Capitalists. Fundamentalists. Even Anarchists. Now they were all followers of the Doctrine of the Great Order. They were not Citizens yet, but just like any other Citizen they trusted each other and would willingly give their lives for the Great Order. And they trusted their leader. And their leader trusted the Conclave. Thomas had lobbied very hard to get permission to watch the Conclaves� it was a great honor.

Julian called the Conclave to order, as the Citizens and Adherents throughout the colony watched.

posted 12-15-98 04:13 PM ET            

Jarek seated himself in the landing pod, pretending to look busy preparing something.

It had been difficult to convince Zhakarov to let him on board. Jarek was neither a scientist nor a Russian, and so had nothing of interest to offer the aging technocrat. There was precious little room for Zhakarov's own loyal followers, much less some stranger with no skills to offer. But Jarek had been able to convince him that that he did have valuable skills to offer, just not academic ones. Zhakarov had allowed Jarek a spot on his landing pod in exchange for his covert skills.

Zhakarov had wanted to bring as many of his followers and countrymen with him as possible, but was unable to do so directly. If the others on the command staff found out that he was allocating to himself a disproportionate number of the engineers and scientists on board, they would have surely moved to oppose him. Zhakarov needed some way to accomplish his goal without being noticed.

With Zhakarov's help, Jarek assembled a team to obscure the computer records, and divert attention away from Zhakarov and his landing pod. It was easy enough to create distractions for the other leaders, but Morgan had seen through the ruse. Fortunately, he had agreed to keep quiet about it in exchange for a list of people that had been wealthy back on earth. Everybody had an agenda.

It was tiring work under the considerable time constraint, but it was what Jarek excelled at in life. Now he just wanted to rest. Planetfall would be soon.

posted 12-15-98 04:14 PM ET            

Ideologist Lal was left deeply disturbed by the Conclave. While in a bitter sort of way the arrival of the Unity was a triumph for human civilization, it could not have come at a worse time. Humanity didn't need that ancient ship any longer, and its arrival would certainly be a disaster. As the Citizen in charge of the ideological health of everybody in the colony, Lal understood this better than anyone. The students had been making such progress, it was a pity that they might have to destroy the entire colony now.

This was the point that Administrator Julian had driven home the hardest. With the portals closed, perhaps indefinitely, Chiron would become a festering wound of unhealthy ideology. If the prisoners revolted and took control of the colony, then the ancient invaders from Earth would be able to establish a foothold on the planet. Incubated by their isolation, whatever unhealthy culture they brought with them could grow in sophistication until it could rival that of the Doctrine of the Great Order itself in technology and weaponry. Nexus was undoubtedly crippled by the closure of the portal matrix, and by the time it recovered and repaired the portals, it could already be too late.

So now more than just the colony was at stake. The entire civilization was in danger of falling back to its pre-Revolutionary level of thinking. Julian had informed everyone on the Conclave that he was considering detonating the reactor to kill off all of the prisoners and wipe out the advanced technology in the prison colony complex. It was a much better alternative than letting the prisoners and technology fall into the hands of the enemy. Sergeant Alvarez had convinced him to at least wait until they had tried eliminating the threat before taking such drastic measures.

But Lal had a more personal reason to be disturbed by the meeting. He remembered the Unity mission fondly from his youth. All of the buzz and excitement in the newspapers, and everybody talking about how it was humanity's last hope at redemption. But he mostly remembered his uncle Pravin Lal, who had been one of the senior crewmembers on the ship. His uncle the Humanitarian, who had abandoned humanity to fly off to the stars.

The Ideologist had been a child then, but with the effects of the cryochambers he would be about the same age as his uncle now. It was his flesh and blood on that ship, but it might as well have been an alien species for all that separated them.

The last forty years had seen the end of the Revolution and subsequent consolidation of power under Erik Seth and the Doctrine of the Great Order. Within a decade the world infrastructure had been rebuilt and the Portal Matrix, built by some ancient unknown race, had been discovered. The center of human civilization was moved to the world of Nexus, the hub of the portal system. Earth itself had been abandoned, an almost lifeless world inhabited almost exclusively by borderline dissidents and eccentric Historians.

But that world, that past, had managed to survive through the Unity. It was as though the ideologies of the past had foreseen their impending doom and found a way to preserve themselves until such time as they would be able to rise again. Unless Julian found a way to stop them, the invaders from the past would have this world as their own, and could conceivably some day challenge Nexus itself.

As a cynical and depressed child before the Revolution, Lal had been given a writing assignment by his school asking what any one item he would put into a time capsule to be opened in the distant future. He wrote that he would put a doomsday device in the box, as assuredly the people of the future would be so wretched that destroying them would be a favor.