The Jesus Incident

"Never." Panille shook his head.

Hali could not understand the exchange, she started to frame a question, but Thomas spoke first.

"What else is in the freighter?"

The Bitten program responded, a crackling voice from the overhead 'coder, full of baps and bursts of static but the listing of the cargo manifest remained understandable.

"Weapons!" Thomas said. He ran to the open hatch, shouted something to people outside, whirled back. "We have to unload this thing before the surf breaks it up or Oakes' people destroy it. Everybody out!"

Hali felt a touch on her shoulder, Ferry standing there. "I think I'm owed an explanation." Even his demands were shaded in whines.

"Later," Thomas said. "There's a guide right outside who'll take you to our camp. She'll tell you everything you need to know."

"Demons?" Ferry asked.

"Nothing like that around here," Thomas said. "Now hurry it up whil...."

"You can't dismiss him just like that!" Hali protested. "If it weren't for him, Murdoch would hav.... We'd be dead!"

Panille directed a quizzical stare at Hali, then at Ferry. "Hali, this old man works for Oake.... and for himself. He's an expert at the game of power politics and he knows that we're a highly negotiable commodity."

"That's all past," Ferry sputtered. The veins in his nose stood out like worms.

"Your guide's waiting," Thomas said.

"Her name's Rue," Panille said. "You might remember her better as Rachel Demarest's cubbymate."

Ferry swallowed, started to speak, swallowed again, then: "Rachel?"

Panille shook his head slowly from side to side.

A single tear formed at the corner of Ferry's right eye, slid down his veined cheek. He took a deep, trembling breath, turned and shuffled toward the hatch. All the energy and urgency he had displayed earlier were drained from him.

"He really did save us," Hali said. "I know he's a spy bu...."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked.

"This is Med-tech Hali Ekel," Panille said.

Hali looked up at Thomas - so tall! His eyes held her. He appeared to be in some ageless ring of middle age, but when she took the hand he held out to her, it felt firm and youthful. A commanding hand, confident. She grew aware then that Waela and Kerro were touching. Kerro's arm was around Waela's shoulder, guiding her toward the hatchway.

"Med-tech," Thomas said. "You'll be a great help to us, Hali Ekel. Come this way."

Hali resisted the pressure of his arm and watched Kerro reach out, inquisitive, to touch Waela's abdomen with one finger.

Thomas saw the gesture and focused on Waela. "Something's wrong with her. She should not be that bi...."

Thomas loves her, Hali thought. The sound of concern was plain in his voice.

"My pribox says she's only a few diurns from parturition," Hali said.

"That can't be!"

"But it is. Only a few diurns. Otherwis...." Hali shrugged. "...she appears to be healthy."

"That's impossible, I say. It takes much longer for a baby to develop int....

"Lewis does it. You heard what the E-clones said." That was Kerro returned from the hatchway, not concealing a faint amusement at Thomas' confusion.

"Yes, but. . ." Thomas shook his head.

"Can you climb down to the beach by yourself, Hali?" Panille asked. "The rear of the freighter is already breaking up. And I think Wael...."

"Yes, of course." She moved past him - the familiar face and familiar voice, his body much thi

Behind her, she heard Thomas muttering: "I want to examine that woman myself."

***

Man also knows not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.

"BLOW THAT cutter. Give me the particulars later." Lewis switched off the com-line, and turned to face Oakes across the Command Center. As though this act conveyed some deep communication, they both turned to look up at the big screen.

The bustle of activity around them went on - some fifty people guiding the Redoubt's defenses under the eyes of the armed Naturals quietly watchful at the edges of the room. But to Legata, who stood near Oakes, it seemed that the noise level went down dramatically. She, too, stared at the screen.

It was early Rega morning out there, and the light showed the massed ring of hylighters, the waiting mobs of demons at the cliffs - all strangely held in check. Something new had been added this morning, however. A naked man sat on a flat rock pi

On the floor of the plain beneath Panille stood a plasteel cutter fitted with wheels, E-clones and what appeared to be Naturals grouped around it. The cutter's deadly nozzle was pointed toward the Redoubt - too far away for that model to do any damage, but unmistakably menacing.

The most menacing thing of all was the fact that no demon moved to molest any of the people waiting beside the cutter. Pandora's terrible creatures waited with the others in mysterious docility.

"We should know in a blink or two," Lewis said. He threaded his way through the room's activities to stand near Oakes and Legata. All of them stared up at the screen.

"Can't we send some people out there?" Oakes asked. "We could take that thing with a direct attack."

"Who would we send out?" Lewis asked.

"Clones. We have clones up to here!" He brushed the edge of his right hand across his throat. "And we don't have enough food. They could get through if we sent enough of them."

"Why would clones do that?" Legata asked.

"What?" Oakes glared at her audacity.

"Why would clones obey an order to attack? They can see the demons out there. And there'll be Ru

"To save themselves, of course. If they stay here and do nothin...." Oakes' voice trailed off.

"Your fate is their fate," she said. "Maybe worse. They'll ask why you aren't out there with them."

"Becaus.... I'm the Ceepee! I'm worth more than they are to our survival."

"Worth more to them than they are worth to themselves?"

"Legata, what are yo.... ?" Oakes was interrupted by a brilliant flash of light and a blast so close that the concussion popped his ears and took his breath away. Sensor images vanished from the big screen to be replaced by static flashes of light. Legata, thrown backward by the blast, steadied herself against a fixed control console. Lewis had sprawled on the floor and, as he climbed to his feet, they all heard screams and clattering feet in the passage outside the Command Center.

Oakes gestured to Legata. "Get that screen working!"

"We must've hit that cutter," Lewis said.

Legata leaped to the screen controls, keyed an emergency search for active sensors, found a high one which looked out over the Redoubt to the distant cliff with its bank of hylighters. Panille still sat on the pi

They could all hear the sound of pounding against the Command Center's hatch. Someone across the room opened it. Immediately, the Center filled with people, a menagerie of E-clones and Naturals, all crying and screaming: "Ru

Lewis whirled to the nearest console, slapped the key for the Seal Off program. As hatches hissed shut, they saw on the screen the first wave of people shrieking in terror at the i