“What theory?”

  Huber rubbed the bridge of his nose again. “Sir, I’m exhausted. Can I take a break and rest before I simply collapse?”

  Petty’s hard eyes narrowed. “What don’t you want to tell me?”

  “Sir, the truth is that your methods frighten me, and that drains me of energy even faster than normal. I need to rest or I’m not going to be able to help you. If I can’t help you, you’re going to fall behind schedule much sooner.”

  Petty laughed harshly. “That’s a faint threat, but I understand. If I fall behind schedule, Gray will squeeze me out. You have balls after all to threaten me even a little, even if your balls are as tiny as your hands.”

  Huber blushed. He hated the insult, but he strove to hide the hatred.

  “Go on, you dwarf, get out of here,” Petty said. “Take a break. I’ll give you five hours. Then we have to board a rocket plane and go inspect the actual construction site.”

  Huber nodded. He hated being called a dwarf, just as he hated being called Rumpelstiltskin. Abruptly, he realized that he was very tired. He was letting his true feelings through even to himself. That was a mistake around the CEOs and other high officials. Showing fear was one thing. They all liked that. Showing his hatred…no, that wouldn’t do.

  “Thank you, sir,” Huber said. “I’ll take my leave now then.”

  Petty was no longer looking at him, but waved him away contemptuously.

  With that, Huber slid down to the deck and headed for the hatch. He would bide his time. He was always biding his time. One day maybe, men like James Petty would have a reason to rue their contempt of him. For now, though, he would continue to do as ordered.

  -51-

  TITAN

  OCTOBER 2061

  Chief Marshal Assur marveled at the speed of construction at the smelting site in Titan’s valley. Soon, the smelter would be up and running. There were already mounds of ore that needed processing.

  Assur lurched back and forth in his cushioned seat as the crawler moved across the methane-covered snowy surface. He was in back, having completed yet another inspection tour.

  Events had progressed much more smoothly than he’d anticipated in one sense, and much slower in another sense.

  The positive aspect was how the passengers of the Akkad had thrown themselves into the building process. The former passengers had shown tremendous zeal in adapting to the new life here in the solar system.

  There was so much to do, so much to construct. And they had so few people when it came down to it. Life aboard the Akkad had been serene and slow. There had been so little to do really. Moreover, the threat of extinction from the Vim missiles had dampened everyone’s collective spirit.

  Assur smiled as he lurched again in his crawler seat. It was getting hard to remember the crushing feeling of the Vim missiles chasing them. He now thought that most didn’t even realize how crushing to the spirit the missiles had been. It was only now that the missiles were gone, that the spirit of adventure and life blossomed into a full-throated roar of activity.

  People love hard work that led to security and growth. They did jobs that mattered to the survival of the People.

  Indeed, the challenge of dealing with humanity was threatening, but humans were primitive compared to them. The humans had learned about them. The sensor operators had discovered that from listening to radio and TV transmissions from Earth. The humans were frightened of the so-called alien invaders.

  Assur nodded. Well might the humans be scared. He had plans for dealing with humanity. First, he needed a few dreadnoughts. That would take time. Maybe in another ten solar system years he would have a new dreadnought to replace the one used against the Vim missiles.

  Assur frowned. That was the real problem: the slowness at which construction went. So many problems and glitches slowed the process all the time. It was galling, in fact.

  The mind specialists had discovered the reason. Life board the Akkad had been sedate and constant. Life on Titan was constantly different and anything but sedate. Having an entire People change pace meant constant friction with everything. That had demanded will power from him and others to keep pushing. The desire for hard work was there. Using it correctly took constant supervision.

  Assur knew he could have raced to Earth with everything and bombarded the planet with their heaviest ordnance. That would have meant losses to the People because that was the way of war, even when you held most of the advantages. The problem was that none of them wanted to ruin Earth any more than it already had been from the nuclear missiles the humans had hurled at each other.

  The other thing was numbers. That was their greatest disadvantage versus humanity. How could 170,000 Valiants conquer a planet holding billions?

  The Valiants needed to multiply their numbers and build highly advanced warships in enough numbers so they could sweep the humans from orbital space. Then, perhaps—this was the recommendation of the mind specialists—they could find traitorous humans to fight on their side. According to all that the mind specialists had seen via radio and TV programs, the Earthlings were divided among themselves.

  There was an old adage among the People. It was called Divide and Conquer.

  First, however, the Valiants needed to smash Earth’s ruling power with a fierce and stunning blow. That would shake the Earthlings’ morale, and it might cause the weak ones, the soverists, to want to join hands with the People.

  Assur smirked. He would promise those Earthlings whatever they wanted to hear. He would divide and later conquer. All the while, the Valiants would be growing in numbers.

  There were prizes and higher rank as rewards for those couples having more children.

  Assur rubbed his chin. There were a few older and rather useless Valiants aboard the Akkad. Did the generational vessel really need all of them on board out there? He could use those extra hands to help care and raise the children here. Even after a little more than a year, the number of spratlings running around was increasing.

  For that matter, did the Akkad truly need to be all the way out there at Neptune? Assur had ordered it there for safekeeping. Given that the humans lacked true spaceships of any quality, it might have been a mistake to rush the starship out there.

  Assur could envision a multitude of ways to utilize the bulk and space of the Akkad if it orbited Titan.

  He frowned. His mother Ningal was in charge of the Akkad now. It had seemed like an easy way to get rid of her. By official decree and his way of outmaneuvering her, the generational vessel had become a shrine to the old gods.

  Assur frowned more deeply, showing a spider web of lines and creases on his face. The troubles of the new Titan base had created extra tension for him. That tension was aging him much faster than he liked.

  He shook his head. He needed to concentrate on the issues.

  Putting all the old-god fanatics on the Akkad had seemed like a wonderful idea at the time. His mother had started to become unhinged on the topic. Assur had been very glad he hadn’t had to deal with her or the topic for over a year now.

  Did he really want to bring the Akkad near and involve her with everything? Maybe it wouldn’t be that big of an issue. She had been out of circulation with the bulk of the People for a year, a year of intense change. Yes, she could cause some trouble, but nothing he couldn’t deal with.

  Assur sighed. He needed to call her and gauge her thoughts as they talked. That was the only way to be certain about this.

  Assur closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat’s rest, even as he lurched as the crawler continued its trek over the uneven Titan surface.

  A call to his mother would be taxing. Yet, he needed to do it in order to gauge the next move. Yes, he would call her once he reached the largest spaceship around Saturn, the Enkidu, which meant, the Bull of Heaven. It was an Enforcer-class warship. He only had the one. Without Dreadnought Gilgamesh, the Enkidu was his heaviest and most powerful warship.

  The Enkidu was the only warship he possessed capable of spraying protective aerosols during battle.

  Perhaps he should construct a few specialty missiles just in case. Oh, the Akkad could spray aerosols in truly vast concentrations. Maybe that was yet one more reason to have it here near Titan.

  Assur opened his eyes. He needed to place the call. Something was telling him the humans were doing more than he suspected. He would if he were in their place.

  “Yes,” Assur said. “Yes. That’s what I’ll do.”

  -52-

  The call took considerably longer than Assur planned. He used a shuttle to lift off from Titan and reach the Enkidu. From there, he sent a tight-beam radio message to the Akkad in Neptune orbit.

  The present distance from Saturn to Neptune was 20.6 AUs. One AU was the average distance from the Sun to the Earth. Thus, it was over twenty times as far between Saturn and Neptune.

  It took a radio wave that traveled at the speed of light: 299,792 kilometers per second, 171.33 minutes to traverse the distance. That was 2.86 hours for the message to travel one way.

  Thus, the first message Assur sent was to find out if Old Mother Ningal could talk and when to him. He could have sent the first message, but he wanted to speak with her alone for now.

  Thus, it took the probing message 2.86 hours, however long the Akkad communications officer needed to find and ask Ningal, and then for her to make up her mind. After that, she sent a message from the Akkad that took 2.86 hours to reach the Enkidu.

  Fortunately for Assur, he’d retreated to his quarters aboard the enforcer and fallen into a deep sleep. Thus, he slept for a full seven hours of uninterrupted time.

  Upon waking, learning that Ningal agreed to a private talk, Assur took care of his morning toiletries, ate a sparse meal in the refectory and soon sat behind his private desk in his rather tight personal quarters. He composed himself, glanced at his notes and then switched on the recorder.

  It was time to draft the message.

  “Hello, Mother, it is good to speak with you again. It has been over a year already since we last spoke. How fast time traverses. I hope you are in excellent health and enjoying a well-deserved rest and relaxation. I’ve been mulling over various options and wondered perhaps if we miscalculated before. I know I wanted the Akkad far from Saturn. Neptune seemed far enough, even though others suggested the generational vessel go to what the Earthlings refer to as the Kuiper Belt.

  “We have seen now, for over a year, that the Earthlings do not possess deep-space vessels. If they do, they are too afraid to send them to the Outer Planets. I believe we are quite safe out here until we finally begin to act against them. Surely, the humans are scampering to arm themselves for our arrival. The radio and TV programs prove that.

  “Yet, with all that being the case, I think it’s time we reunite the People into one group, in and around the gas giant Saturn. We’re working hard out here, as I’m sure you know. The couples are having many children and that has caused great joy but created a space problem. We need extra space and help in raising the babies who will soon turn into children. I think putting them aboard the Akkad for now would be an excellent idea. The others on the ship with you could once again be gainfully employed in industrious work by looking after and training the young.

  “Thus, I am asking you to redeploy the Akkad to Neptune. Notice, this is not an order. It is a suggestion. I await your reply and ask that you send it as soon as possible.

  “Thank you for your time, dear Mother. Your loving son sends you greetings. Until we speak again, this is goodbye for now.”

  After listening to the recording, Assur confirmed he’d said what he needed. With that, he sent the message.

  Assur stood and stretched his arms. It would be nearly six hours before he could hope to hear a reply. Likely, it would take longer. Therefore, he needed to work, using his time to good purpose.

  An Enkidu communications officer found him eight hours and twenty minutes later. Assur was exercising in the physical room.

  Assur thanked the officer and went to the cleaning chamber. Afterward, he donned his dress uniform and sat at his desk in his quarters. He inhaled, realizing he was nervous.

  Assur shook his head, chiding himself for being foolish. This was his mother, and he wouldn’t have to reply for some time. Besides, she likely missed him and she would be grateful he’d called her.

  With that in mind, Assur turned on the screen, clicking it on.

  There was a moment’s delay. Then, he saw his mother sitting before a communications screen on the bridge of the Akkad. The sight actually made him homesick for the generational vessel.

  Ningal wore a heavy ceremonial robe. It was her robe of religion. She also wore a tiara, a silver-colored crown. Assur didn’t know what that signified, but it unsettled him. She looked older than he remembered, with her face smaller and tighter. Maybe it was because she scrunched her features. When had she started doing that?

  “Hello, Chief Marshal,” Ningal began. Her voice was scratchier than Assur recalled. The voice had another quality he didn’t recognize.

  “It has been over a year since you’ve spoken to me,” Ningal said in that tight, nasal tone. “First, I want to ask you how you are. Are you feeling good? Have you married again yet? Does your new wife have any children on the way? I hope you are eating right and exercising. I hope the homes and factories you’re constructing on Titan have met with wide approval.”

  Ningal cleared her throat, did so again, and sipped from a glass of water.

  “I am not feeling as well as I did before the end of the voyage,” Ningal said. “I know you didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway. I’m sure a devoted son would want to know. The threat of the Vim missiles kept me going for countless years. Now—now I am almost bored with life. No. Let me rephrase that.

  “I was bored in the beginning. That was until I realized that this was a perfect opportunity to delve into a fuller understanding of the old gods of homeworld.”

  Assur frowned. That didn’t sound good. In fact, it seemed ominous.

  Ningal’s eyes seemed to shine as her features tightened even more.

  “I have fasted,” she said. “I have lain awake for hours on end, trying to open direct communications with the old gods. I have led others here in songs of praise. Soon, many others fasted with me. We did this to show the old gods that we understood that they had given us the victory over the Vim missiles and allowed us to reach the solar system.

  “In time, the old gods communed with us. It was not with direct words, but with deep impressions and understandings. Surprisingly, I did not have these impressions to the greatest degree. An omen-taker has risen up among us. She has received many wonderful impressions from the old gods.”

  Ningal leaned toward the screen or camera eye. Her intensity grew. She smiled, a shaky thing at best. “Please listen to me my son, the Chief Marshal of the Valiants. This is so important. We are about to engage in a holy war against the Earthlings. It will be for the control of Earth, a planet where the Valiants can thrive once again. When we win, the old gods will go there to take root. Thus, believe me when I say, Chief Marshal, that the old gods of homeworld are smiling down on you and on us, the People.”

  Ningal smiled while her eyes shined more prominently.

  “We are fasting and praying for your victory, Chief Marshal. We are doing so with great diligence and fervor. The old gods saw us through against the Vims. Now, they will surely see us through against the Earthlings.”

  Ningal moved just a bit closer to the screen.

  That made Assur uneasy. It felt as if she was staring through him to his soul.

  “I do not know why this is so,” Ningal said with great urgency, “but Neptune is critical to our success. For some reason, the space around Neptune is the most receptive location for the old gods to speak with us aboard the Akkad. Perhaps it is because Neptune is the true last major planet of the solar system. I cannot be certain of the reason. That is conjecture only.

  “However, Chief Marshal, it would be a terrible mistake to move the Akkad now. We are nearing a breakthrough to direct communication with the old gods. In a new sense, the Akkad is on a great journey to connecting with the root or essence of the People. Nothing could be more vital than that. Thus, as the Queen Mother of the Akkad, I must decline your suggestion that we relocate to Saturn. You are the military man, my son. I am the religious authority of the People, and the Akkad is the shine or temple to the old gods.”

  A mad smile twisted her features.

  “Listen in awe to this, my dear son,” Ningal said. “We are nearing the day when we shall be able to name the old gods. That is so vitally critical. I understand you may not think so, but I am praying daily that you do receive this knowledge. Please, do not be angry with us or with me. I am doing this for the greater good of the People.”

  Ningal abruptly sat back. She took a rag and wiped sweat from her face. “I suspect you will try to reason with me. Rational thought is important, but it is not always the key to understanding. We are on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough here. We dare not interrupt that.”

  Ningal held up a hand, her fingers in odd positions. “I give you a benediction, my son, blessing you and your efforts. It has been good to see your face. Now, continue your hard work and know that we here on the Akkad are working as diligently, but in a spiritual instead of a material direction.”

  Ningal inhaled deeply, finishing with, “Queen Ningal of the Akkad, signing off the communication.”

  Lifting a frail arm, she clicked a switch, and the screen went blank.

  Assur kept staring at the screen. Had they all gone mad out there at Neptune? Had the release of pressure from the Vim missiles caused their mental facilities to fail? Or did they really commune with the old gods of home?

  Assur was inclined to the first answer, but he couldn’t utterly discount the second.

  He turned his head and chewed on his lower lip. He would have to send another message.