Free Omega Point Trilogy by George Zebrowski Page A

out on the terrace and took a deep breath. The air was cool and clean and stimulating. Standing there, he felt little of the stress and anguish that he knew were inside him, readying to take over.
    “How are you feeling?” a familiar voice asked from behind.
    He turned and said, “Hello, Julian — are you here?”
    The image shook its head. “Waste of time — just dropped in to see if you’d changed your mind.”
    “No. Any more news of the Herculean ship?”
    “Nothing at all.”
    “Maybe that’s the end of it.”
    “I don’t think so. I’ve been doing some checking — this ship has appeared before. From the scattered Herculeans still alive on more than a dozen star systems, besides those on Myraa’s World, I’ve learned that the Whisper Ship is probably manned by an officer named Gorgias and his son of the same name. He’s more than four centuries old, his son at least half that age — but much of that time may have been spent in stasis somewhere.…”
    Like an old disease virus , Kurbi thought, or a spore .
    “There must be an undiscovered base,” Julian said. “If there is not, then the ship may very well disappear for lack of supplies and repair facilities. We were never able to capture a Whisper Ship — the only record is of one destroying itself rather than surrendering. Some of the Herculean legends reported to me say that the ship is tied to the personality of its commanding officer in some way, and destroys itself when the officer dies. In any case, this vessel has appeared in centuries past, each time taking action against some locale in the Snake, always disappearing for long stretches of time.”
    “What’s the point, then?”
    “Revenge, from what I’ve managed to guess. A few of the Herculeans questioned by our operatives have shown admiration for what has happened. A thing like this could grow.”
    “Into what?”
    “Insurrection — takeover of a world here and there.”
    “What do we care?”
    “There is civil order to preserve — and some of the Chamber members won’t stand for a Herculean survivor causing trouble. They’ll do anything to quash it, out of pride.”
    “Let the locals do it — they do almost everything else for themselves.”
    “Raf, what it comes down to is this — we want the ship and we want the base. It’s a combination of curiosity and completing unfinished business. There may be more attacks on transports, and many worlds have no protection against attack from space — they have no need of it, since it’s not the kind of thing that happens very often.”
    “You can do well without me, Julian. Look at the worlds around Earth — what do they care about anything that happens to old-style human types like you and me and the frontier worlds? Reality is a menu they write each morning; their bodies are clay to be molded from one generation to the next. The acts of this terrorist are part of an unpleasant game for them, one they don’t care for much, so they give it to you or me. You know, Julian, these Herculeans are probably a lot like you and me, relics from another time; and they’re out there kicking and screaming, getting in their licks before they’re blown away.”
    “That’s very nice, Raf, but they could destroy the Earth, the ring, most of the life in the solar system, if they can get followers. They’re probably not aware of that yet but they’ll catch on. It’s up to those of us who have an idea of the potential danger to stop them.”
    Kurbi did not reply.
    “It’s that serious, Raf.”
    “You think they may have the equipment to do that?”
    “If they have a base, maybe worse. They may not be aware of what they have. We don’t have much will to fight back. The Whisper Ship could do quite a bit of damage if it came into our sunspace. How do you protect the ring? It wasn’t made to be defensible.”
    “You’re assuming a lot of motivation, a lot of hatred on their part.”
    “Raf, you know more than I do how we destroyed