VATICAN ABDICATOR CHAPTER ONE PREVIEW

2 Corinthians 10: 3

For although we are human, it is not by human methods that we do battle. The weapons with which we do battle are not those of human nature; they have divine power to demolish fortresses!

Chapter One

The Moon… Our bright light in the night sky.

BC looks up at the full Moon and sees the glint of light that marks the main dome of Lunar Prime.

The dome over the atrium. I wonder… How tall are the new trees under the dome? How much have things grown back?

As BC watches, the stars around the Moon begin to burn brighter and brighter, nearly blinding him. Suddenly, one of them drops out of the sky, falls and disappears below the horizon. Other stars follow, first one by one, then in a brilliant cascade of falling stars that soon fades, leaving the sky blank and black save for the bright full Moon.

As BC watches, the Moon explodes! It shatters like glass! Sharp white shards glisten as they fall from the sky and pierce the ground around him.

He looks up in time to see a shard coming straight down. It runs right through him! He’s ripped in two by the shard of falling light from the full Moon.

BC wakes up in a chilly sweat in a seat on the bridge of a ship. He collects his wits, remembers he’s on his way to Wentworth Station on board one of Wentworth’s ships.

The ship just rescued him from his botched mission to Mars. He was supposed to meet with Al Salid but the man threw him in a cell instead! A disguised and undercover Fiza helped BC escape and helped him hook up with this ship.

“Mornin’ sunshine,” Drex the pilot says, greeting BC. “You dozed off for a second there. Then you shouted out, ‘The Moon!’ or something! Musta been some dream, anyways, huh?”

“Yeah, some dream. A dream about the Moon.”

BC tries to clear his head of the vivid images.

Guess I’m worried. What’s not to worry about?

My plans are falling apart!

Well, not all of them. Wentworth says he’ll work with me. With us. That’s good. Maybe I can bring the Project and the UTZ together.

Otherwise?

It’s all falling apart.

Thought Al Salid and I were going to be able to bring the UIN and the UTZ to the table together. Didn’t expect one of Wentworth’s ships to have to rescue me!

Al Salid… Throwing me in a cell! He wasn’t himself. Didn’t even seem to remember me… Or remember agreeing to meet with me after we’d both met with the Eldred. And it was his idea!

Dolomay.

Has to be.

The way the UIN is acting? Has to be Dolomay pulling the strings. The UIN is somehow under his control now.

“You know, after you freshen up on Wentworth station, talk with Mr. Wentworth, whatever, I can take you anywhere you want to go. You don’t have to go back to the Moon,” Drex offers.

“Why wouldn’t I want to go back to the Moon?” BC asks him.

“I don’t know. Just the way you shouted ‘The Moon’ before, there. Anyways, I can take you back to the Moon, if you want. Or anywhere on Earth. Or in orbit. Doesn’t matter to me, anyways. Not back to Mars though, right?” Drex chuckles at his own joke.

“Right,” BC agrees grimly. “Not back to Mars,” he mumbles. He ponders the ill-fated mission, grateful Drex rescued him from the planet’s dusty surface after his plan to meet secretly with Al-Salid went horribly wrong.

That whole mission was for nothing! Although, I did find out Fiza was okay. That was a surprise and a half! Hope she still is. Mars is a dangerous place.

It has to be Dolomay!

So… where to next?

“Just back to the Moon, Drex, I guess,” BC tells the pilot. “Unless something changes while I’m here. Thanks.”

“No problem, padre.”

BC settles back down in his seat. He looks out the viewport at the carpet of stars.

Good. They’re all staying put.

What a strange dream. Killed by a shard from a broken Moon. Wonder if that means anything?

BC watches out the viewport as the rescue ship arrives at Wentworth Station, watches the station loom larger as the ship approaches.

It looks like a camera floating in space.

They approach the camera “body”, the “lens” rising up into the “sky”. The station has two sections. The lower, boxy section looks like an office building, topped with a shining, rotating cylindrical section.

Rotating for gravity… the original section of the station. The lower boxier part has artificial G. That’s probably where we’ll dock.

Drax maneuvers the ship in to dock with a walkway extending from the lower section. He directs BC to the airlock, then tells BC he’s staying on the ship.

“I’ll wait for you here. I’ve got everything I need right here.”

“I don’t know how long I’ll be here…”

“That’s okay. Long as it takes, I’ll be here. I can wait. Anyways,” Drex assures him.

“See you when I get back, then.”

BC leaves the ship, walks down the walkway and enters the station alone. It seems nearly deserted.

He stands in the lobby for a moment and takes in his surroundings: Marble floors, carpeted walls, tapestries…

Not much has changed. Same color scheme, black and red. And silver. Or is that chrome?

A greeter, a woman in a black and red environment suit, appears from behind a pair of sealed doors, and welcomes him aboard. She leads him down a red and black corridor. There’s still no one else around.

The greeter leads him to a small, square room with blank gray walls and a wall-sized mirror opposite the entryway. There is a single table with a chair in the room.

Utilitarian.

The greeter ducks out and the door closes behind her, leaving BC alone in the room.

“Clear!” BC hears Wentworth’s voice say. The mirrored wall clears to transparency. It’s now a window onto a nearly identical room. Richard Wentworth stands on the other side of the window, all business in his black three piece suit and slicked back gray-black hair.

“Different. Love what you’ve done with the place,” BC says with some attitude.

“Precautions,” Wentworth says. “You are a disease carrier. And I still have not been exposed.”

“Sensible, I guess,” BC admits. “You really don’t think you’ve come in contact with it?”

“Apparently not. I’ve tested negative for it. Best to be careful, eh? We keep ourselves alive by being sensible. Cautious. Careful. You understand,” Wentworth explains.

Thanks for the fancy treatment. Only befitting the Pope and the chief CEO of the UTZ, huh? Trying to show me who’s really in charge?

“Is this what you call working together?” BC cracks. “Great way to start… “

“Precautions. So,” Wentworth continues. “You told me on the com, on your way here from your debacle on Mars, that you believe… you’re convinced… a million-year-old intergalactic war is about to flare up here in our ‘backyard’, as you put it?”

“I am.”

“An ancient, intergalactic war? Being a bit dramatic, aren’t you?” Wentworth lectures him. “And what about the UIN? Should we just ignore them?” BC hears the sarcasm in Wentworth’s voice.

“Not at all. They’re part of it,” BC replies calmly. He tries to keep his cool.

Hard to work with a guy when you have to constantly struggle not to punch him! Arrogant prick…

“I see. And these aliens you’ve mentioned before, they’re behind it, I gather, from what you wouldn’t say over the com?” Wentworth deduces. “And this goes above and beyond the plague they’ve already hit us with?”

“They are called the Eldred, and they are most definitely a part of it. And it most certainly does.”

“But you say there might not be anything we can do to stop it.”

“You say you never like to say never,” BC reminds him.

Wentworth paces back and forth on his side of the glass, thinking. He stops, looks across at BC.

“You think there’s some new player on Mars who has something to do with this ‘war’?” Wentworth asks.

“I not only think there is; I know he’s there. And he does,” BC admits.

He knows something… What does Wentworth know about Dolomay?

“Fiza’s told me a little about this a new ‘player’,” Wentworth says, nearly answering BC’s unspoken question. “I gather you know more?”

“What do you know?” BC challenges him. “I’d rather not repeat information.”

“Huh,” Wentworth grunts, surprised by BC’s tone, but he continues. “Fiza says there’s a new advisor to Al Salid, one who’s not a Muslim. According to her, he just showed up one day, after Al Salid returned from a secret journey.”

“That ‘secret journey’ was Al Salid’s trip out to Eldray to meet with the eldest of the Eldred. We each went out to meet with them, individually. And he and I had decided to secretly meet with each other after he got back,” BC explains. “That’s why I went to Mars.”

“That plan went well, then, eh?” Wentworth chides him.

“I think this ‘new player’ got in the way of the plan,” BC says.

“Fiza says they keep this ‘advisor’ out of sight, for the most part,” Wentworth informs BC. “But she’s seen him. ‘Course, Fiza is good at getting into the kind of places where people who don’t want to be seen go. Good at getting into places people don’t want her to get into,” he says with a chuckle. “She said he had blonde hair when she first saw him, but he dyed it black soon after.”

Well! That just about confirms it. And the descriptions I heard of him on Mars certainly matched the artist’s rendition we have of him from The Eldred.

Dolomay has to be on Mars. And he has Al Salid’s ear… and maybe his mind! Maybe he’s somehow controlling Al Salid… Al Salid didn’t even seem like the same guy!

Maybe it was Dolomay in my head!

What did he learn in there?

Has it been him all along?

That first time, too, on Fortune Station?

Somehow, no.

That was different.

“What is it, Campion? You got quiet.”

“Hold on. I’m thinking.”

“What do you know, Campion? I know you know more than you’re telling me!”

Might as well fill him in…

“I know a lot of things,” BC says. “When I met with the Eldred, Wentworth, I discovered that the human race is descended from a brutal race of galactic conquerors a million years dead, now referred to only as the ‘Ancient Enemy’.

“The Eldred helped overthrow the Ancient Enemy a million years ago, but the Ancient Enemy sent out ‘star seeds’ as the Eldred called them, small bundles of Ancient Enemy DNA and such, when their homeworld exploded.

“One of those star seeds landed here.”

“Okay…” Wentworth says cautiously. “Interesting story. But why didn’t the Eldred try to just wipe out these ‘star seeds’?”

“They did try! They have been trying,” BC tells him. “They told me they didn’t know at first that the star seeds even existed. When they began finding them, they started wiping them out.

“But it turns out some other alien races interfered in our case, kept our star seed hidden somehow after the Eldred paid their first visit to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

“The Eldred were here before?” Wentworth asks.

“They might have wiped out the Neanderthals,” BC says. “That’s just a theory.”

“And they’ve been trying to wipe us out with their plague, now that they’ve found us,” Wentworth realizes, the truth dawning on him. “Now it makes some kind of sense… Not that I like it!”

“They say they’re only trying to ‘contain’ and ‘control’ us, that the plague won’t kill all of us,” BC tells him. “They want us to stop killing each other and confine ourselves within the orbit of Jupiter. If we agree to do that, they say, the plague will stop. They just want to keep us, um, manageable. They want the UTZ Council and the UIN to agree to their conditions.”

“Manageable!” Wentworth erupts. “I’ll give them manageable! Fuck that! They might as well be killing all of us, Campion. Look around! Our scientists are starting to work with the Project scientists, but we’re no closer to finding a cure,” Wentworth tries to calm himself, shakes his head. “Why not just attack us outright? Couldn’t be much worse than this.”

“I hate to say it,” BC says, “but it probably is worse, now that Dolomay is on Mars.”

Wentworth looks confused.

“That’s the new player you mentioned, Al-Salid’s new ‘advisor’,” BC explains.

“Dolomay, huh? Strange name.”

“Yeah. He’s not from around here.”

“So… Why does he make it worse?” Wentworth probes.

“Because the Eldred are afraid of Dolomay, and what he represents. And we should probably be aware of what he represents, too, if not afraid of him. He’s ruthless, inhuman. He comes from a time and culture more technologically advanced than we are, so he gives the UIN an unfair tech advantage by siding with them against us. There are lots of ways Dolomay makes it worse.”

“The Eldred are afraid of Dolomay? Why?” Wentworth thinks out loud. “Wait a minute… How old is this Dolomay?”

“Ancient,” BC says.

“Ancient?” Wentworth asks, and then pauses. “As in ‘Ancient Enemy’ ancient? How could he still be… Holy shit! If you weren’t the pope I’d say you were lying. As it is, I’ve got to wonder about your mental state!”

“I wish I was crazy,” BC cracks.

“But how could one of them be here now?”

“Well, it’s a long story…”

“We’ve got time,” Wentworth says, but then he corrects himself. “Huh, well, maybe not too much time, though… The appearance of this Dolomay on Mars… That’s what has you talking about a million year old intergalactic war, isn’t it?” A crooked grin twists across Wentworth’s mouth. “Wait a minute. Can’t we just stand aside and let the Eldred wipe out the UIN?”

“I’m not sure the Eldred appreciate the subtle differences in politics and religion that divide us humans,” BC tells him. “They may see us as all one race. And if they feel Dolomay is somehow, I don’t know, ‘tainting’ us, they may feel justified in wiping all of us out, as the last vestige of the Ancient Enemy.”

“Right… Let me back up for a second. We’re sick because of these aliens. Our human ‘Project’ is in touch with them?” Wentworth asks. “The Project set up your trip out to see them?”

“The Project is in contact with the Eldred and those other aliens I mentioned before,” BC says.

“The ones who kept us hidden from the Eldred?”

“Exactly. There are several alien races in our area,” BC tells him. “But the Eldred seem to be the most powerful. Aside from the Ancient Enemy.”

“And the Ancient Enemy are our ancestors?” Wentworth asks for clarification. “And it’s one of them on Mars?”

“Something like that,” BC says.

“He’s one of them? The Ancient Enemy?” Wentworth is still trying to wrap his head around the idea. “So tell me, then: How did he end up on Mars?” Wentworth asks.

“I’m guessing he left Eldray stowed away on board the Eldred ship that carried Al Salid back home to Mars.”

“Shitty security,” Wentworth mumbles. “But that doesn’t explain how it is he’s alive here and now in the first place!”

“The Eldred and another race found him in deep space, in a suspended animation capsule that used technology beyond their own,” BC explains to him. “Dolomay had been placed in the stasis capsule in orbit around the home planet of the Ancient Enemy in punishment for crimes against his people. The capsule was set free, floating off through space by the same explosion that destroyed the Ancient Enemy’s homeworld and launched the star seeds.”

“Oh. Great,” Wentworth exclaims. “So this guy was actually a criminal among those ancient brutes? Just great.”

“Wait, it gets better,” BC tells him. “When I got back from Eldray, even before I could talk to you, the Eldred got back in touch through the Project to demand another meeting. I met them at the Project’s asteroid base…”

“Wait a minute… The Project has an asteroid base?” Wentworth stops him.

“Didn’t I mention that?”

“I don’t think so,” Wentworth says cautiously. “You made it sound like they were based on the Moon.”

“The Project has a base in the asteroids, too,” BC says matter-of-factly, but with a hint of sarcasm.

“Thanks.”

“Just trying to be open and honest. You know, our new, um, relationship.”

“Working together,” Wentworth says, with a touch of irony.

“Anyway. At the asteroid base meeting, the Eldred basically told me about Dolomay, said he was headed this way, and then told me now it was our problem! They demanded that we deal with it.”

“You’re kidding. They expect us to take care of this guy?” Wentworth asks.

“That’s pretty much how they left it,” BC tells him.

“Did they know he was on Mars?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so,” BC guesses. “I didn’t know myself until I went there to meet with Al Salid.”

Should I tell him about the mental stuff?

What do I know about it anyway?

I mean really know?

I don’t know.

“This guy could be extremely dangerous,” BC says.

“Really?” Wentworth challenges him. “Based on whose information? The aliens who are already trying to kill us? Or your Project? I’m afraid that neither seems at all credible at this point, Campion. We only have their word that he’s a member of that ancient race,” Wentworth points out. “You chastised the board for lacking control over the Project. It doesn’t seem like you’ve got much control, either. You see my point?”

“You know, I do. I really do, point taken. But they cozied up to these alien races under Van Kilner’s leadership, not mine,” BC says. “Wentworth, if this ‘new player’ is this Dolomay? This ‘Ancient Enemy’? He’s more powerful than the average guy. Because there’s one more thing. Something the Eldred weren’t all that forthcoming with.” BC pauses.

I’m still not sure I should tell Wentworth this…

“What? Don’t hold back now, Campion!” Wentworth cautions.

“I believe the Ancient Enemy had psionic abilities,” BC tells him. “They could get inside your head, communicate telepathically, maybe even move things with their minds.”

“They were telepathic?” Wentworth asks incredulously, shaking his head. “You’re kidding me.”

“See why I hesitated to tell you?”

“That’s a lot to swallow, Campion.”

“Do you believe me?” Campion asks.

“I do,” Wentworth says to reassure him. “I believe you. I just don’t believe the people you believe. Hell, they’re not even people, right? The Eldred are the ones that look like little blue koala bears, right?!”

“They might be cute and fuzzy… but don’t underestimate them,” BC cautions. “They’ve killed off more than half the human race,” BC points out.

He looks around at the room he’s in. “Or have you put me in this isolation chamber because I smell bad?” BC jokes half-heartedly.

“Touché,” Wentworth says. “You know, judging by what they’ve said, you may be safe.”

“Judging by what they’ve said,” BC says, “those of us who haven’t died yet probably won’t. If we’re willing to believe the ‘little blue koalas’…”

“I don’t know. That psychic stuff sounds too far-fetched,” Wentworth declares.

“They weren’t ‘psychic’! Psionic. And the Eldred didn’t say anything about that at first. It’s what I’ve discovered! The Ancient Enemy used more of their brains, somehow. I don’t know how. They were telepathic. And the Eldred didn’t say anything about that. Only confirmed it when I confronted them about it.”

“They didn’t tell you about it at first, eh? Where did you get the information, then?”

Should I tell him? Why not?

“I’m pretty sure I heard Dolomay in my head, Wentworth. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out,” BC asks. “I’ve heard him in my mind. It’s real.”

“You’ve heard him. In your head? Are you sure?”

“Not entirely sure. But I’m pretty sure. It’s disconcerting! And I’m even beginning to think my ability to ‘hear’ him has something to do with those headaches I’ve been getting.”

I am? I do? I guess I’m beginning to… it makes some kind of sense to me as I explain it out loud to Wentworth. Maybe the headaches are the birth pangs of new mental powers on my part! Psycho-Man!

Yeah, right!

“Really?” Wentworth looks at BC quizzically through the glass. “So you can hear him.”

“I can. I have. I didn’t realize what it was, or who it was, at first. I heard him in my mind when I visited the Eldred’s planet, Eldray. That must have been when he was waking up!” BC realizes. “The Eldred think that my presence on their world somehow triggered the mechanisms of Dolomay’s suspension capsule, turned them on and made them automatically thaw him out,” he explains. “When I was on Mars I ‘heard’ him again, louder, stronger, somehow. I figured out how to block him out after a while.”

Wentworth looks down, shakes his head slowly back and forth.

“This… this all sounds ridiculous!” he ends with a shout, lifting his head to glare back at BC through the wall of glass, unconvinced.

“I don’t care how it sounds!” BC shouts back at the glass. “If Dolomay has already chosen sides in our war, that could turn the war. Whether you believe he has the power to use his mind to bend men to his will or not, he comes from a time of superior technology, from a people known for their brutal superiority in war. I’m thinking this may give the UIN a bit of a tactical advantage, huh?”

“No need for sarcasm,” Wentworth frowns. “Fiza’s reports bear out much of what you say.”

“Fill in the blanks and the pieces of the puzzle fit together,” BC says. “Who else do you think Fiza’s mysterious stranger, this ‘new advisor’, is?”

“I don’t know yet,” Wentworth insists. “I don’t think we can be certain it’s this ‘Dolomay’.”

“I think we can be.”

Wentworth shakes his head.

“Wentworth!” BC shouts at him. “Watch the UIN, Wentworth. See if their ships don’t all of a sudden get better, start demonstrating technological advances we don’t have! See if this new stranger Fiza mentions doesn’t start taking over more and more control of the UIN. Watch for the signs. Be ready for them to take a shot at us… and be ready to strike back hard! It’s the only way Dolomay knows!”

“Look, Campion. This is all very farfetched,” Wentworth says. He gets a cold and distant look in his eyes as he continues. “I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by today and fill me in on these very important details, Campion. I’ll look into them and we’ll discuss this at the next meeting of the UTZ board. Thank you.”

Even as Wentworth says “Thank you,” the glass wall turns opaque and BC finds himself staring at himself in the mirror.

What the fuck? Come off it! Don’t shut me off! Don’t shut me out!

“Don’t take too much time, Wentworth!” BC shouts at the mirror. “I know it’s a lot to think about, but we don’t have much time! The reappearance of Dolomay has not made the Eldred reconsider their stance on humanity and the plague,” BC cautions, “even if his escape is their fault! We face two threats, Dolomay and the plague!”

“Clear,” Wentworth says.

The mirror turns transparent once again, revealing Wentworth still standing on the other side.

“Where do you suggest we go from here, then, Campion?” Wentworth asks him.

BC looks him square in the eye.

“We watch. We wait. And we prepare for the worst.”

“If you’re right, Campion. But that’s a big if… ”

“So what are we going to do about it?” BC challenges him. “Because it’s up to us now, Wentworth. No one else is left! Me? I’m thinking I’m going to direct the Project to ramp up Transpace ship construction and production. And you? You’re can help me arm those ships. We have war coming our way, on all fronts. What else can we do? What can you do?”

“Such as?”

“Will you let me turn the Project brain trust loose on your shipyards on the Moon? Can we double your efforts? Build some killer ships? Can we find a way to put up some sort of fight?”

“How many of us do you think will be left standing to fight after this plague runs its course?” Wentworth asks rhetorically. “Don’t you know how many have died? Are dying?”

BC shakes his head. “I know. But what else can we do?” BC laughs. “How pathetic is it that the fate of the human race is dependent on us two?”

“Who knew it would get this bad?” Wentworth ponders. “Let’s do it,” he tells BC. “No reason not to combine our efforts! If the UIN protests politically, let ‘em. It’ll just force the issue already at hand. Let’s do it.”

“Good. We need to be together on this,” BC says. “Speaking of which, do you really need to keep me isolated like this?”

“Huh, let me see,” Wentworth says, consulting some readout in front of him. “Well, the sweepers say you’re clean, even though you’ve been in the plague zones. As far as our instruments can tell. Still worries me.”

“I really do think that if you haven’t died yet, you’re not going to,” BC insists. “So they said.”

“Sure… but who’s to say they didn’t infect you with something new to take back to take out the rest of us?”

“Aw, now you’re just trying to cheer me up,” BC jokes.

“I don’t trust the Eldred. Why should we?” Wentworth insists.

“Fine by me.”

“Where to next?” Wentworth asks him.

“I think I’m heading back to Lunar Prime.”

“Home base? Or your home away from home, now that you have the Vatican?”

“Yeah, it’s funny, the Moon is one of the few places I do feel at home,” BC admits. “I can relax and regroup there. Think this through a little.”

“You need some time to think?”

“I need all kinds of time. We need all kinds of time. Time to think. Time to strategize. Time to build, and to rebuild. Time to at least try to contact The Eldred. Tell them we know where Dolomay is,” BC explains.

“Are you really sure that’s a good idea?” Wentworth questions BC’s assumptions.

“Why not? Maybe we can get them to help us, make them see the difference between us and the UIN! If the Ancient Enemy is working with the UIN, maybe we can make the Eldred see that we are on their side. Maybe they can still come in on our side. The ‘enemy of my enemy’ and all that?”

“Right.”

Wentworth turns away from the glass wall and begins walking away.

“Stay in touch, won’t you, Campion? Let me know what’s going on?” he says over his shoulder.

“Absolutely. So… you’re not going to come see me off?”

“I’m seeing you off right now, Campion! Good-bye!”

Wentworth leaves the room on the other side of the glass.

“Prick,” BC says under his breath.

“I heard that!” Wentworth says, unseen, an echo from the hall coming over the loudspeaker.

“Scary, man,” BC says, knowing Wentworth is still listening.

“Thank you,” Wentworth says over the speaker.

The room door slides open. BC walks out into the corridor. There’s no sign of the greeter, so BC finds his own way back to the ship. Drex is there waiting for him in the walkway outside the ship.

“You’re not afraid of the sickness?” BC asks him as he walks up.

“Me? Nah,” the pilot says. “Your time comes, it comes. You die, you die,” he says dryly.

“Very pragmatic of you,” BC observes.

“So, you still want to go to the Moon?” Drex asks.

“Yup.”

The two board the ship. BC settles in for the trip to Lunar Prime as Drex gets them underway.