Free Pirates of the Thunder by Jack L. Chalker Page B

an eyelash if it meant that an Isaac Clayben or a Lazlo Chen, who is much the same son, would wind up our masters. I know enough history to understand that achieving a revolution is not the same as winning it. I am as dedicated to our revolution as I can be, but I am equally dedicated to not replacing Master System with a human monster.”
    “I’m afraid I shall have to insist on a planetary base,” Star Eagle interjected. “I will need time to convert this ship into something more practical, and I will require independence and mobility.”
    “All right, so we’re agreed that far,” Raven said. “So we go out there and we build a base, more than a colony. Then what?”
    “As I said, piracy. We need mobility. We have the only active colony ship in the known universe. We need another ship, preferably more than one. Their data banks alone might tell us of other targets worth hitting and the schedules we need. We outfit them. Either Star Eagle converts them to our side or we learn to fly them without a core. Outfit them. Weapons. Sensors. Our own communications and codes. Then it will be time for some of us to make contact with the freebooters. By that time we’ll have something of a mysterious reputation. We need information. We need to know about these worlds we’re going to be going to. Who are the people there? What’s the culture, the language, the physical and biological problems? Who’s in charge and who runs what? Which leader wears a large gold ring with a design in it? Does anyone know of another that we do not? Step by step, a bit at a time, with infinite patience and dedication.”
    “It sounds impossible,” China commented.
    “It’s not. Difficult, yes. Dangerous, yes. Certain? By no means. I would say the odds are against us overwhelmingly. But impossible it certainly is not. I have thought it through and thought it through until my head burst, but I think I have it now. What Raven and Warlock, there, and Chen as well, knew from the start.” He looked at the Crow and the Jamaican beauty. “It can’t be impossible, can it? It is required to be at least possible.”
    The Crow grinned. “You got it, Chief. You’re smarter than I thought. I would have explained it, sooner or later, but why bother now?”
    “I do not understand this,” Cloud Dancer commented. “Pardon my ignorance, but I must have much of this explained. The evil lord I understand, and his great power, and the use of the talismans to break his power, but— required?”
    “Don’t feel bad,” China said. “They just lost me, too.”
    “Think about the story,” Hawks urged them. “Master System is incredibly powerful, but it is a computer. A computer designed by humans. All this, all this subjugation of humanity, the reduction of Earth to primitivism, the diaspora that scattered and somewhat dehumanized the vast bulk of humanity, all was simply an interpretation by that computer of its creators’ command. Think about that. Command. It was commanded to find a way so that humanity could never destroy itself completely. It was commanded to find a way so humanity could never use its terrible weapons of mass destruction nor spread them. It was a classic deal-with-a-demon fable. Out of fear, or desperation, or whatever, those people raised a great demon and they offered it absolute power over them and their dominions in exchange for safety. They tried as best they could to build into their wish every safeguard, to close every loophole, but the demon, being a demon, was far too clever for even the most brilliant of mere mortals and found the loopholes anyway. It granted their wish—and took away the souls of their children and grandchildren unto the last generation and swept away all their works. But we’re safe—from everything except the demon.”
    “But they must still have suspected or they wouldn’t have created the rings in the first place,” China pointed out.
    “Indeed. I think, perhaps, it was simply part of the