Free Heretics by S. Andrew Swann

of Staff Sergeant Fitzpatrick in order to merge seamlessly into the flow of immigrants into the anarchic planet Bakunin and avoid the attention of the Caliphate. How he was to find transportation to Xi Virginis to gather intelligence on the colonies here and what may have prompted the transmission—
    â€œAnd Xi Virginis turns out to be missing,” Brody said.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThe biblical quote seems much too appropriate for the situation.”
    â€œMore so because the voice is familiar.”
    â€œIt was?”
    â€œThe same voice was transmitted a few hours ago.” Mallory quoted the part he had overheard from the radio in the troop transport that had brought them here: “ I am Adam. I am the Alpha . . . ”
    â€œWith due respect to the Vatican’s paranoia, that does not seem like the Caliphate to me.”
    â€œNo,” Mallory said. “It doesn’t.”
    â€œOur host said he detected how many ships in orbit?”
    â€œA hundred and fifty.”
    Brody brought his fingers up to massage the bridge of his nose. “A religious conflict is the nastiest kind of war humans know how to wage.”
    â€œThe tensions between the Church and the Caliphate are primarily political, issues of human rights and self-deter—”
    Brody held up his other hand, stopping him. Quietly, he said, “I’m not talking about the Caliphate. Or the Vatican. What was it that Mosasa said before the comm unit blew?”
    Mallory remembered, if only because it was the closest he had seen the faux human AI display something akin to panic. “ ‘If anything trumps your narcissistic human political divisions,’ ” Mallory said. “ ‘It’s this.’ ”
    â€œWhy do you think he said that?”
    â€œA star system disappeared. I suspect it was a little disconcerting.”
    â€œI think he saw this ‘Adam’ in the absence of Xi Virginis,” Brody said. “And I think this ‘Adam’ is the latest in a long history of missionary warriors. Just the little bit of rhetoric he’s given us: ‘ I am Adam. I am the Alpha, the first in the next epoch of your evolution. I will hand you the universe. Follow me and you will become as gods. ’ If that isn’t a messianic message, I don’t know what is.”
    Mallory nodded. Brody voiced his own fears; fears that he had felt ever since he had heard Adam’s transmission to Salmagundi.
    â€œJudging by the absence of Xi Virginis and a missing colony of possibly one and a half million people, I am not optimistic about the fate of those people who don’t choose to follow him. And then there’s that apocalyptic quote from Revelation.”
    Mallory nodded.
    â€œI’ve had an unfortunate thought,” Brody said after a pause.
    â€œMore so than the ones you’ve just mentioned?”
    â€œYou’re present here because the Vatican intercepted a message, correct?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œA tach-comm message?”
    â€œOf course. A normal EM intercept would have been nearly a hundred years old.”
    Brody nodded. “I don’t know if you ever heard this—you were locked in your cabin at the time—but Bill did an astronomic survey when we tached in to orbit here. Xi Virginis isn’t shining in the sky here, which means it’s been gone for at least eight years.”
    It took a moment for the import to sink in. “By the time we got that transmission—”
    â€œEverything was long gone. The video was either recorded nearly a decade ago, or it was completely fabricated.”
    â€œIt was meant to be intercepted.” Mallory struggled with the idea. “But what was the point? Why plant a message to draw attention to Xi Virginis? Why not announce himself the way he did here?”
    â€œMaybe the message wasn’t meant for you.”
    â€œWho then?”
    â€œMosasa.”
    â€œMosasa? Why do you