-6-

  Later, Naram Sin knocked on the door and then opened it to Chief Marshal Assur’s office. It was not a huge office like some on Earth, but it was utilitarian and a little larger than most on the colony.

  “Come in,” Assur said from behind the desk.

  The desk was normal. Naram Sin wondered if a drawer was open with a shredder in easy grabbing distance. He had searched himself several times already and could not find any implants or listening devices. Would the Chief Marshal have listening devices in his office? Naram Sin doubted it. Assur was a maniac concerning personal security. For such an old man, Assur still exercised and practiced with weapons, innately believing that his ability to shoot his way out of an ambush might save him.

  Assur had saved himself years ago by killing coup leaders with the help of a few bodyguards.

  In the end, that may have been Assur’s saving feature. He could act swiftly and decisively. Despite that, Assur could also wait patiently. He was a hunter, a predator. He wasn’t the strongest. Instead, he might have been the most cunning and bloodthirsty.

  Naram Sin sat in a chair.

  “Do you know why you’re here?” Assur asked.

  “Because you have unanswered questions,” Naram Sin replied.

  “True. Do you know why you were darted in public?”

  “Because I spoke too freely.”

  “Yes. But now I want you to speak freely once more.”

  “Once more,” Naram Sin said, “as in one more time? Or speak freely because you want to have a conversation with me?”

  “Oh my, my,” Assur said with a sly smile. “How bold you have become. Is that because you believe you are doomed?”

  “Yes,” Naram Sin said.

  Assur shook his head. “You take the fun out of this by being so bluntly honest. What has caused such honesty?”

  Naram Sin shrugged.

  “My psychological profilers believe they have discovered the reasons,” Assur said. “Would you like to hear what they are?”

  “Not really.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Please, Chief Marshal, I know you enjoy toying with your victims, but could we just get this over with…”

  Assur inhaled deeply. He did not take offense just yet. “You have done me great services in the past. I doubt I would be in power now if it weren’t for you.”

  “May I correct you on that, sir?”

  “Feel free,” Assur said with forced cheer.

  “If I hadn’t come to you when I did, you would be dead.”

  “That is only a probability,” Assur said.

  “True,” Naram Sin said, “but it is a high near-certainty.”

  “That is still not one hundred percent true.”

  “I will not argue the point with you, sir.”

  “I accept that you have helped me,” Assur said. “That is why you’re still alive. Because you are so good at seeing ahead, at detecting patterns, at seeing where that will lead to this. I have also allowed you these release valves with Father Wolf or Group Leader Tiglath to let excess energy or some burst of honesty, or whatever you want to call it, burn off. I have done this in order that you keep functioning.”

  “So I am a tool?”

  “Of course you are a tool,” Assur said. “I am a tool in the destiny of the Valiants.” He paused, slowing himself down. “I’ve read your gibberish. It astounds me. Let me state it. You believe that no matter what we do, we will be defeated by the Earthlings in time.”

  “That’s close, sir. I also believe that this defeat will occur militarily. Perhaps not this invasion, mind you, but we will squander our advantage or not be able to use it to the extent that is needed for initial victory. That would give a small edge to Earth. They only need a few advantages in order to defeat us, while we have to do everything perfectly. But even if we do everything perfectly, we will lose ten generations from now. The Valiants will be forgotten and lost.”

  “You started out by saying that my statement was close or almost true,” Assur said. “Does that mean you think we have a way to change our certain defeat?”

  “I do. But before I tell you what this is, sir, may I add one more factor I did not put in my analysis?”

  “Tell me,” Assur said.

  “The Vims,” Naram Sin said.

  “What about them?”

  “They’re coming.”

  “You know this as a certainty?”

  “From what the records tell us, sir, the Vims arrive wherever they fire missiles, if only to investigate. What will they find in the solar system? The Earthlings and Valiants engaged in a death struggle? A star system in which the Valiants have won or the Earthers have won? Whatever the case, I doubt we will have sufficient time to prepare for the Vims. That means the Vims will smash us, and we will face extinction from them. All this fighting, all this work, will be futile. What is the point of that, sir?”

  “Do you think the Vims will attack within the next fifty years?” Assur asked.

  “I cannot give you a timeline with any certainty, although I do think within five hundred years the Valiants will be wiped out as a species.”

  “There’s no way to stop that?” Assur asked.

  “There is most certainly a way,” Naram Sin said. “That is why, after much deliberation, I decided to write you the report.”

  “Then why tell Father Wolf or Group Leader Tiglath these things?”

  “Perhaps that is a flaw in my nature, sir. When those around me say silly or foolish things, and I know the truth, or at least what I believe it to be, I cannot but open my mouth and speak.”

  “You are correct,” Assur said, his features tightening. “It is a personality flaw. Sometimes one must keep quiet for whatever reason. You do not have the hunter’s instinct of maintaining your higher goal.”

  Naram Sin shook his head. “Respectfully, sir, I have an even higher goal above the hunter’s to see beyond that. What I mean is that I can see beyond your fifty or one hundred years. I see a thousand years ahead. It shows me the futility of all this. That has started to debilitate me until I realized what the obvious answer must be.”

  Assur sat back and steepled his fingers, tapping his index fingers against his chin. “Let me guess.” He closed his eyes until they snapped open. He looked up at the ceiling, seeming to contemplate. Finally, he stared at Naram Sin sharply.

  “Over two years ago, it was you who convinced me to coax the Voyager to Saturn,” Assur said. “You said we needed a place to house more people quickly. That wasn’t the real reason for wanting the Voyager here.”

  “I suspect my subconscious must have already understood the answer,” Naram Sin said.

  “What could this be?”

  Naram Sin leaned forward. Here was the moment. “We must repair the Voyager while we can. Then we must leave the solar system. The last of the interstellar missiles crashed into Saturn. Certainly, it must have had a beacon or been sending signals back to the Vims. The greater Vim intelligence, or council, will hear the message and know where to go. So instead of trying to defeat the Earthlings as fast as we can, and then preparing for the Vims, who will most certainly crush us sooner or later, we should take our people and do what our ancestors did long ago. We need to flee. We need to flee far, far from here and begin anew in a fresh star system, without any enemies. Then, hidden from the Vims, but knowing they’re out there, we will have the time. We won’t have the competition with the Earthers debilitating us, either. Then we have the possibility of winning in the long term.”

  “I see,” Assur said, astonished by the idea and his aide. “Do you realize that is a mad plan? Do you realize that few if any would agree to enter the Voyager when we have a ripe world for easy conquest?”

  “Not easy, sir,” Naram Sin said. “The Earthlings will likely defeat our assault. They will see the Enforcers coming. They will have at least a year to prepare. In that time, they will sink their differences and build more and better. It is doubtful three warships can survive such ferocious battle that will occur at the end of their journey.”

  “You’re wrong,” Assur said. “Do you have any idea why we will win decisively?”

  “Sir… Even if you win, you cannot win in the long term. The—”

  “You don’t need to repeat yourself,” Assur said, interrupting.

  “Let me add this then,” Naram Sin said. “Our war in the solar system is a dead-end one way or another. It is suicide. Why don’t we all cut our throats now then and get it over with?”

  “My, what a pessimist you have become.”

  “No, I see too far,” Naram Sin said. “I understand. The patterns are there. They are obvious.”

  “You are dead wrong.”

  “Sir, if you won’t listen to that—” Naram Sin turned his head. He should not say it. He should have kept his mouth shut.

  “Speak,” Assur said. “Tell me your final piece of wisdom, if you would. I am eager to hear it.”

  Naram Sin doubted that, although he put his hands on his knees and leaned forward again. “Sir, no matter what happens, you in particular cannot win.”

  “Me? How will I fail?”

  “If you leave to go on the mission, your power base here will be left wide open and some other hungry, ambitious elder will take your place. He will depose you. You are feared, but I am afraid that you are not loved.”

  “Then I will stay here and send another,” Assur said.

  “And let another be the champion, the conqueror of Earth? Don’t you see? No matter your decision, you are trapped. You hold power. But if another should arise, one who is popular and beloved by the people, and you are not here to put him down, the chances of you being toppled from power even by a revolution at home while he is victorious at Earth—” Naram Sin shook his head. “You are in a fatally weak position because you have based your power on fear and surveillance tactics.”

  “The old gods give me power,” Assur said.

  Naram Sin sighed. “You don’t believe in the old gods. I don’t believe in the old gods. Maybe at best one-fifth of the populace does. That would not be enough to keep you in power. No, yours is a precarious position. You are at an impasse. Each of your plans is checked by some superior or more overpowering hand.”

  Assur pursed his lips as real hatred for Naram Sin shone in his eyes. Was there a way he could win despite all this?

  Assur looked up. Naram Sin watched him. “It is time for you to go. I’m afraid you’re going to be in solitary confinement.”

  “You are letting me live?” Naram Sin asked in surprise.

  “Your brain is much too precious to just—” Assur snapped his fingers. “I’m going to think, and perhaps we will talk again. If so, well… we shall see. I’ve heard your words. Now it is time for me to ponder them.”

  -7-

  Assur pondered what Naram Sin had told him, and reread certain parts of the conversation reports.

  Later, he walked briskly with his security team through the dome to the main hangar airlock. He passed into a boarding tube and entered a shuttle. With a gentle hum of its engines, the shuttle lifted off from the surface.

  In the passenger cabin, Assur gazed out an observation port as the shuttle entered thick cloud cover. Soon, the shuttle broke through the clouds so Assur could see Titan’s surface with its methane lakes and icy plains, and the orange hue above. The view eventually receded as the shuttle reached the darkness of orbital space. The craft banked, aligning itself with the waiting Corsair warship already in orbit. The warship was oval shaped with a dark hull.

  Assur gazed at Saturn with its rings of ice and rock particles hanging in the distance. He couldn’t know it, but from the shuttle, Saturn was eleven times wider than the full Moon would appear to an observer on Earth. This made the gas giant’s bands of swirling clouds in shades of brown, beige, and gold a captivating sight.

  The shuttle’s docking procedure with the Corsair proved seamless. Once on board the warship, Assur settled into the command module.

  “Prepare for thruster burn to Iapetus,” Assur said.

  Soon, the Corsair’s thrusters ignited, and the ship accelerated smoothly away from Titan. Assur watched Titan become a shrinking dot as its hazy atmosphere gave way to the emptiness around it. The warship’s trajectory took it on a sweeping arc around Saturn, providing an even more breathtaking view than earlier.

  As the Corsair passed Saturn and moved further away, some of the smaller moons became visible. Enceladus appeared with its icy geysers erupting from the surface. It appeared as a bright, reflective sphere. Tethys and Dione, both heavily cratered, passed by in the distance.

  In time, Iapetus came into view with its two-toned surface. One hemisphere absorbed the sunlight like coal, while the other reflected it. The long, equatorial ridge gave Iapetus its distinctive walnut shape, casting long shadows across the surface.

  As the Corsair decelerated, the rugged terrain became more apparent. Craters, mountains, and vast plains of ice and rock unfolded before them. As the last part of its journey, the ship’s thrusters fired intermittently, adjusting its trajectory for a smooth orbital insertion.

  Assur eyed the destroyed railgun, the 200-kilometer scar on the moon’s surface.

  “We’re ready to leave, sir.”

  Assur waved goodbye to the bridge crew and, with his security team, hurried down the corridors until they entered the shuttle.

  They left the Corsair without incident as the shuttle glided silently, its thrusters flaring occasionally. Soon, it made its final approach to the main mining base on Iapetus.

  Assur sat by an observation port, watching.

  The shuttle aligned itself with the mining base, which was nestled in a cratered plain on the bright side of Iapetus.

  The base was a sprawling complex of interconnected modules and structures, while mining rigs stood like sentinels, their drills and extractors working tirelessly. A rail line took the extracted ore to a launch site presently out of view. There, the ore entered cargo pods fired toward Titan.

  “Prepare for landing,” the pilot said over the intercom.

  Assur tightened his harness and watched as the shuttle’s landing gear extended, ready to make contact with the frozen ground. The shuttle’s thrusters flared one last time, slowing its descent as it hovered above the landing pad. With a gentle thud, the shuttle touched down, its landing struts absorbing the impact.

  Soon, the airlock hissed open, and a rush of cold air flooded the cabin. Assur stood and moved toward the exit, his breath visible in the frigid atmosphere. He walked along a tube connected to the main building.

  The mining base was active with workers in insulated spacesuits moving between the various modules and machinery. Automated drones buzzed overhead, performing maintenance and monitoring tasks. The base’s central command center, a large, dome-shaped structure, dominated the landscape, its exterior bristling with antennas and sensors.

  Assur and his team made their way toward the command center, the cold biting at their skin despite their insulated suits. As he entered the central core, warmth and the hum of machinery enveloped him.

  Inside the command center, the atmosphere was one of controlled chaos. Technicians and engineers moved between consoles, their attention focused on the myriad of displays and readouts that monitored operations. The room was filled with the low murmur of conversations and the occasional burst of static from communication systems.

  “Welcome to Iapetus, sir,” a blue-uniformed technician said, greeting Assur. “We’ve been expecting you. The crawlers are ready to leave.”

  Assur looked around before he moved to a large display screen that showed a detailed map of the mining base and its surroundings. The screen highlighted ongoing operations, as well as the locations of the various mining rigs and their output.

  “Status report,” Assur said. Sometimes a spot inspection was just the thing.

  After a moment, one of the engineers stepped forward, a large Valiant with a data pad in hand. “The mining operations are at eighty-seven percent proficiency. We’ve encountered some technical issues with Rig Three. Our teams are working on it. Otherwise, ore extraction is on schedule, and we’ve begun preparations for a new rig.”

  Assur only half-listened, already bored with this. Yes, resources from Iapetus were crucial for ongoing operations, and any delays could have serious consequences. He turned his attention back to the display screen as he tried to focus.

  This wasn’t why he was here. He needed to ponder Naram Sin’s ideas. Sometimes, distracting work or inspections let his subconscious wrestle with a problem. Then, when he was ready, the answer would come to him.

  He would take a crawler tour of the destroyed railgun. For morale’s sake, if nothing else, he needed to listen, and reprimand and praise here at the mining base.

  It was all part of the task of ruling the greater colony.

  -8-

  After a whirlwind tour of the mining operation, Assur and his security team headed to the back of a crawler. It was time to study the destroyed railgun. Why he needed to do this, Assur wasn’t sure. It was a gut feeling, something subconscious.

  Two other crawlers joined him. The crawlers were rugged vehicles designed for the harsh environment of Iapetus. They rumbled steadily across the icy surfaces as treads clanked. Inside, Assur sat by a narrow observation window.

  The interior was cramped and practical, filled with manual controls and readouts. The air was rather stale, but it really didn’t matter for his purposes.

  Assur scanned the horizon as the moonscape stretched out before him. There were jagged ridges, craters, and plains, all bathed in the dim light of Saturn. Shadows played across the moonscape, creating a sense of desolation.

  In the distance, a section of the old railgun came into view. The railgun once spanned 200 kilometers across Iapetus’s surface. Now, it was mostly ruins. This portion was a shattered, twisted husk.

  Assur could see where a nuclear explosion had vaporized infrastructure, leaving twisted metal and a scorched surface in its radius. Farther away, twisted rails jutted out of the ground like the ribs of a giant skeleton. Debris chunks were everywhere.