Channel's Destiny Part 22

Maddok said, "Zeth, I'm calling everyone into the chapel. Your idea will have to be considered."

After everyone had been calmed by prayer, Bron announced, "We're not safe here anymore. We have to help the ranchers oust the military from their propertya"but that isn't enough. Once word gets out, we'll be the target of the whole territorial army. Fortunately, Zeth Farris has a suggestion."

Zeth made his way to the lectern and faced the overcrowded chapel, noting the way the Simes had arranged themselves to protect those in need. It was the first time he had faced them thus, but he knew this was the only way he'd get to Owen in time, and so he found his voice.

"We are four communities united in a mutual struggle for survivala"ranchers, Mountain Chapel, Fort Freedom, and Freedom Towns.h.i.+p. A law which decrees a parent must be executed for saving a child's life is an abomination of the human spirit. If we are to continue as human beings, we must remove the border that divides us. If we move it so that your communities lie in-Territory, it will not be illegal for you to love your parentsa"or your children."

"I'm for that!" cried a Gen. Another spoke up, "But how can we?" A Sime called, "If we can do it, we'll have autonomous control of the new land for a decade. We can write our own laws!" And a portly man from the back added the clincher, "We won't have to pay taxes on both sides of the border anymore!"

Enthusiasm for Zeth's idea was growing. Eph Norton ex- pressed it for them all. "h.e.l.la"we got nothin' to lose. If we don't move the border, our government's gonna execute every last one of us." He pointed to Jimmy, sitting across the aisle with other Simes. "I got a boy there can't be my son under Gen law. He hasn't killed five months. There's nothing wrong with him now. No reason he shouldn't inherit the ranch I built!"

Soon a plan was formulated: they'd ride out and take the Gen garrison. Zeth breathed a sigh of relief. That's where Owen is!

Had it been up to Zeth, everyone would have gone straight out to their horses. However, there was an immense amount of preparation first. Horses had to be shod and sh.e.l.ls loaded, and men discussed how best to deploy the new, fast-loading guns with the older type. Women packed food and medical supplies.. Meanwhile, arguments erupted as to exactly where they meant to move the border.

The arguments, the preparationsa"all seemed to Zeth a deliberate waste of time. "The reinforcements will reach the garrison while we're fooling around here!" he protested. "They'll have a full force."

"And if we're unprepared," said Cord Ashley, one of the secular leaders of Mountain Chapel, "they'll put us to rout. I've served in the army, son. It'll take them time to gather their mena"and we have to decide exactly what we're going to do. What we can do."

Bron agreed. "We have no right to try to take other communities into Sime Territorya"perhaps one day we'll encourage others, but we must not force them."

"Look at it practically," said Ashley. "What we take we gotta hold. Chances are, if we attempt to hold only land that's ours anyway, they'll think twice about trying to move the border backa"'specially if the Sime government will help us hold it?"

He looked questioningly at Zeth, but it was Slina who answered. "Rimon an' Abel an' mea"we been playin' games with the government the past ten yearsa"an' I ain't forgot how it's done. You worry 'bout takin' the land, and we'll worry 'bout holdin' it."

Bron a.s.sured Cord, "You can trust Slina to know the ins and outs of Sime Government. And you just saw the way the people she commands handle themselves in battle."

Finally they got to what interested Zeth; the garrison. It lay in a plateau beneath a cliff that made a natural barrier across that section of Gen Territory. "If we can take the garrison," said Ashley, "that cliff makes a natural border. There are only two pa.s.ses through it, three days' ride apart. It won't take many people to guard those pa.s.ses. We put the border there, we can defend it! Nowa"how do we take the fort?"

Bron had an answer obvious to the Gensa"a solution no Sime would think of. Find twenty men, Sime and Gen, who fit the uniforms they had taken from the captured soldiers. Send them in as returning troops. By the time they were close enough for Gens to realize that they didn't recognize them, they'd be close enough to charge the gate while the force from Fort Freedom and Mountain Chapel swept down out of the hills. Those who entered the fort would also be armed with a Gen innovation, powder kegs with fuses.

Maddok Bron had further plans. "As a safety measure, and to be certain the Simes fighting with us can tell which Gens are which in the heat of battle, the channels ought to take down the fields of all our Gensa"even those staying behind. You'll have to have that selyn for healing, Zeth."

Much as he itched to be off, Zeth had to agree. As a large number of Mountain Chapel Gens had never donated before, the three channels had to work slowly the next few hours. By the time they were finished, it was finally time to ride for the garrison.

They rode through the night, reaching the hills overlooking the garrison at midmorning. Scouts moved forwarda"Zeth was called up front, as he was the most sensitive of them all. Eagerly, he ran to the top of the rocks and peered over. Small bands of soldiers were leaving the fort on horseback, scattering in all directions. "What the b.l.o.o.d.yshen h.e.l.l is going on?" demanded Slina, now dressed in a Gen officer's uniform that hung shapelessly on her spare frame.

"I can't tell," Zeth whispered back, and extended his laterals. All he could read was a bustle of Gen activity spiked with anger, dismay, annoyance, and apprehension. What he did not read kept him frozen in icy horror until Slina shook him.

"Owen's not there!" he gasped. "Slinaa"he's dead!"

"He ain't there don't mean he's dead. I'd stake Owen against them lorshes any day." Zeth remembered his mother saying the same thing, and took heart. Maybe he'd escaped.

Quickly, before the Gen soldiers stumbled on the ma.s.sed attack force, their little troop of counterfeit soldiers broke up into small groups and infiltrated the others. Without appearing to be bucking the tide, they worked their way toward the forta"and when they were close enough, the charge began.

Gen fear and astonishment permeated the plateau as the force of Simes and Gens appeared. Shots rang out, horns sounded, and the troops wheeled their horses and galloped back toward the gates, which were moving ponderously shut. Zeth could zlin Gens manning the walls, and saw puffs of smoke as they began firing. But some of their planted soldiers were inside by the time the gates closed.

Knowing Owen was not in the garrison made it easier for Zeth to do what he was supposed to: set up a field hospital outside range of those firing from the fort walls. Jimmy Norton, a.s.signed to help Zeth, led up a pack horse and began unloading medical supplies as Hank and Uel set up the standard to mark the location of the channels for the Gens. Ironically, the flag they flew was one of the brand-new vivid green pennants from Slina's pens.

Already wounded were being brought ina"mostly Gen soldiers who hadn't made it back inside the fort.

Then, even through the raging battle, Zeth caught the pain of the inevitablea"the first kill. It came from inside the forta"one of the town Simes, then. Within seconds there was anothera"and then a roar of shock as the garrison exploded, shards of wood flying high into the air on a roiling black cloud. They'd blown the powder depot! With it went one side of the wall. Zeth could barely zlin through the shrieking Gen pain as men were torn to pieces or burned. Instantly, every Sime past turnover was shocked to intil, and the high-field Gen soldiers were plucked up and killed on every side.

Soldiers came billowing out of the fort, on horseback and on foot, their only chance now to attack swiftly and powerfully. At close range, their shots connected, and the hospital was suddenly busier than Zeth had yet seen. He worked, not allowing himself to think or he would sink into total despair. The kill raged around and through him, his heritage, his destiny. There was no way out. Owen was gone.

He worked numbly, glad now for the selyn the Mountain Chapel Gens had donated. He could heal a few more before he killed. Maddok, praying as he worked, was a rock Zeth could lean ona"provided he didn't lean too hard.

Simultaneously, Zeth became aware of two facts. The first was the fighting arrowing steadily toward the hospital. Bron said, "Dear G.o.d! They think the banner marks the command post!"

At the same time, a familiar nager approached from another direction, flickering as it moved between the rocky outcroppings. Owen!

Maddok started for the bannera"obviously to tear it down. Zeth grabbed him. "No! Owen has to see it to find me!"

Bron stared at him as if Zeth had gone out of his head. "Owen's not here, Zetha"but I ama""

"Noa"he's coming. There!" He pointed to where Owen's bright hair could be seen s.h.i.+ning in the sun as he dashed between two rocks, making his way down to the plateau. "And," added Zeth, "all the Gens have to be able to see where the channels are!

A few soldiers were driving directly toward the pennant. Zeth grabbed the ambient fields and sent up a shattering call for help. Nearby Simes fought loose and converged on the station to protect the channels. Mrs. Young, Hapen's mother, grasped one of the Gen soldiers who had made it almost to Zeth's feet, and killed. Zeth knew that he himself was poised to kill right nowa"that he would kill, without compunction, to save himself, or Owen, or anyone he loved.

As Owen's nager continued to work toward him, zigzagging to avoid the fighting, Zeth pulled his concentration down to healing one of the Mountain Chapel Gens. He had to let his own need pour through his nerves to get the Gen cells to produce more selyn, to heal themselves. He tried not to be aware of the long time Owen was taking, not to notice when the distant Gen's attention flicked to some battle scene before him. Slowly, the bleeding under his hands stopped. He gave Jimmy Norton a grim smile. "Bandage it," he instructed, and started to turn to the next patient when he saw and zlinned Owen, not a hundred paces away, caught on the opposite side of a ma.s.s of fighting.

Owen was watching Eph Norton and two burly soldiers. The soldiers closed on Norton, bayonets jabbing. Owen threw himself into the fight, knocking one of the Gens down while Norton rammed the b.u.t.t of his gun into the other's jaw.

Zeth hardly felt the pain amid the scrambled ambient nager, and only realized he himself was in motion when Jimmy zipped past him at the highest level of augmentation.

The first soldier was on his feet again, slas.h.i.+ng with his sword while Norton parried with the clumsier gun. Jimmy leaped to his father's defense, flinging the sword from the soldier's hand with one blow to his wrist, and then even as the man was screaming in pain, grasped him in killmode. On a wave of augmentation, Zeth leaped on Jimmy, hauling him back with all his strength, shenning him out of the attack in pain that put Zeth helplessly into killmode himself.

Jimmy fell unconscious, and Zeth groped toward Owena" just as another soldier charged Zeth with his bayonet. Augmenting again, Zeth grasped the gun barrel, intending to fling it awaya"but he had forgotten the relative weights of Sime and Gen. The man stood rock solid until Zeth got his grip, and then he flung Zeth's lighter body right up into the aira" and toward another man waiting with a sword to spit him!

Zeth twisted in midair to land on his feeta"but as the soldier slashed at him he automatically grasped the man's right wrist with his left hand, twisting until he dropped the weapon. The soldier sought to throw a punch with his left hand, and Zeth grabbed that as wella"and was holding the soldier in kill position while he flared horror.

Owen ran toward Zeth, trying to leap between them, but another soldier caught him in the stomach with his gun b.u.t.t. It reached Zeth as the most exquisite flash of pain he had ever experienced. He was in killmode, the face before him already forming the rictus of fear as he reached for lip contact.

Owen, unable to move or even breathe, s.n.a.t.c.hed his hunting knife from his boot and flung it straight into the back of the man Zeth held. The Gen died in Zeth's arms before he could killa"the nager going flat and tasteless though still replete with selyn., In a rage of denied killbliss, Zeth turned as another Gen field, high, warm, welcoming, closed on him. Pure predator, Zeth grasped and drew. He sought to slake his wakened yearning in true killbliss. But this Gen was givinga"givinga" He speeded his draw, already close to depleting the Gen field. He could still killa"draina"burna" Fierce joy spread through him as the Gen felt pain, then fear, and began to struggle.

Something in Zeth s.h.i.+fted. The searing need for Gen pain was gone. Though need was still there, he was filled with the joy of release.

Something slammed him duoconscious. The Gen fell away from his loosened grasp. In agonized protest, his dual system went into spasm. And then blackness closed over him.

Zeth came to, struggling to breathe, Owen's full weight crus.h.i.+ng him. He was on his back on the battlefield, his hands pinned between their two bodies, against Owen's bare chesta"this time Owen hadn't waited for help to give transfer when Zeth was unconscious. He'd torn open his s.h.i.+rt to let Zeth's laterals find contact. Somehow, it had worked; after the last trickle of termination, Owen lifted his head, smiling in relief to find Zeth looking at him. He climbed to his knees, his field ringing with triumph at overcoming his handicap. Zeth breathed deeply and managed, "Thanks."

The battle was skirling away from them now. Zeth knew he had tried to kill, but couldn't remember clearly why he hadn't. He sat up, ignoring the bruised feeling through his system. Del was bending over Maddok, who was unconscious and very pale. The other channel looked up at once. "He'll live, Zeth. It's just a burn. I zlinned the whole thing, but I couldn't reach you. You shenned yourself, thank G.o.d."

' 'Noa"Owena"''

"It wasn't me. You dropped Maddok before I could touch you. Then you started convulsing like Rimon used toa"just about scared me toa" Anyway, you're both all right."

"Zeth?" The voice was querulous, plaintive. Jimmy Norton. Zeth shoved himself to his feet. Jimmy was clinging to his father for supporta"but there was no nageric link between them. It was Zeth Jimmy was reaching towarda"and Zeth held out his arms to him, feeling in his nager the sweet, clean ease of tension that meant disjunction. The transfer wiped out Zeth's pain as totally as it did Jimmy's needa"and afterward he hugged the boy, saying, "It's over, Jimmy. You made it. No more need to kill."

Eph Norton, his field glowing with joy and grat.i.tude, took his son from Zeth's arms. "He insisted it had to be you, Zeth. You did ita"you made Jimmy my son again!"

But Jimmy Norton was not the only Sime who needed a transfer. As the battle wound down, the channels were faced with lines of people determined not to succ.u.mb to the kill in the weakness of relief. Owen tugged at Zeth. "Jana needs youa"hurry!"

Owen's sister was trembling with need, brought on partly by selyn loss from a sword wound in her thigh, and partly by the same augmentation every Sime in the battle had indulged ina"to win. The Gen soldiers were all dead or captured and a strange hush had fallen. Zeth told Jana, "You came through just fine. You resisted, Jana."

In response, she flung herself on him, and when it was over, she clung to Zeth, sobbing, "I wanted to kill. I only murdered a few of them. Sissy Brandon, thougha"Zeth, she never killed before! Never! And I saw hera""

"We'll have to help her, Jana," Zeth began.

"No, noa"she's dead! I think she let them cut her down aftera"''

"No, Janaa"it was war." Even so, their casualties were light. No one close to Zeth had died, and he chose to take that as an omen of better times.

The evening pa.s.sed in a blura"transfers, post-reactions, and caring for the wounded. Just before sundown, they carried the last of the wounded into the fort, where the men's living quarters, on the side opposite the hole in the wall, were turned into an infirmary. Zeth had no time to think until well after midnight, when he was making a final check through the barracks before trying to find a place for himselfa"and particularly Owena"to get some rest. Finally it occurred to him to ask his Companion, "How did you escape? We came to rescue you, you know."

Owen had tied the torn ends of his s.h.i.+rt together, but his Gen tags with Slina's dagger-like emblem flashed in the candlelight. He had repossessed the tags along with his knife. "I wasn't going to let those fools make me miss my transfer," he explained. "I just pretended to be helpless. None of those soldiers were very bright, especially Commander Whitby. He came to question me this morning. By then I had them convinced I couldn't even b.u.t.ton my s.h.i.+rt without helpa"so when I paced around behind him, pretending I might tell him something, he never thought I'd pick up the washstand and bash him over the head. Then I took his keys, and off I went! The so-called guards never even saw me sneak out the gate. I was halfway up the mountain before they started sending out search parties."

"They never saw you leave? You are trying to earn the t.i.tle 'wer-Gen,' aren't you?"

By this time they had reached a knot of people, Simes and Gens, cl.u.s.tered around the bunk where Maddok Bron was recovering from transfer burn. As they had plenty of fosebine, his headache was only a dull throb. Dan Whelan, Eph Norton, Hank and Uel, Slina, and Cord Ashley were all deep in plans.

"... as a decoy," Slina was saying as Zeth and Owen came up. "Not one trooper escaped today. When the others come back, the Simes here'll zlin 'em. We get some folks in uniform up on the walls, and those Gens'll just ride right into the trap, nice as you please!"

"But half the wall is down!" Cord Ashley protested. "It'll take daysa""

"Shen," Slina laughed, "bunch of my Simes are out hauling logs now. We'll have that wall back by sunrisea"just has to look the same from the outside." Replete with selyn from a guiltless kill that day, Slina was hypoconscious and in a jolly mood. Now she looked up and saw Zeth. "Well," she said heartily, "your plan sure worked!"

My plan? But just then Jana came up from the other side. "Please, Slina, speak more softly. The wounded Gens must sleep."

"Sure thing, kid," said Slina in a whisper far more penetrating than her speaking voice. "Well, Zeth, what next?"

Jana remained behind Slina, looking expectantly at Zeth, as did everyone else. "Slina, you'll handle the legal problems. Maddok, I'm afraid the Simes who killed today will be coming to you for comfort."

"I think I can manage that," Bron said evenly. "I will tell them what we are fighting is no demona"but you overcame kill.u.s.t today, Zeth. I was wrong. My pride could have gotten me killeda"and made you a killer. I couldn't stop you. You did it yourself. I've been thanking G.o.d for your strength since I woke up."

He felt inside his s.h.i.+rt, searching for something.

"I just wish I understood what happened," said Zeth. "I didn't kill, but others, even those who had never killeda""

"Zeth," said Uel, "you zlinned just like Abel Veritt before he died."

Zeth remembered the feeling Abel had given them all. He had gone beyond the kill. "But Abel died. He couldn't accept selyn."

"You're a channel, Zeth," said Owen.

"But Abel wasn't. Why shoulda"?" Suddenly it all fell into place. "Owena"I remember now what Abel and I had in common. We were both almost killed! Marji almost killed Abel at her changeover. And Dad almost killed me. You have to die to be free of the kill!"

A weight lifted from his spirit. He barely heard Uel say, "Then I'll do it, too," as Hank's nager flared real fear.

Jana said, "Do it to me, Zeth. I don't ever want to be tempted again."

"No," said Owen. "You're not a channel, Jana. I'm not allowing any experiments on my sister!"

"That's right, Jana," said Bron. "Let the channels decide what's best." He was holding his papers and tags. Putting the tags around his neck, like Owen's, he said, "Zeth, only someone who is beyond the kill has the right to make such decisions." He held out his papers to Zeth. "You're my channel now. I choose you."

Dan Whelan and the others all looked at Zeth, echoing Bron's trust. It was the same excruciating feeling he had known in the chapel at his father's eulogy. But now it was bearable.

Abel had chosen him to hold the papers of the Gens of Fort Freedom, and he had not been able to accept. Now, his hand closed firmly over Bron's papers. "Abel once told me the truth of our predicament in Fort Freedom. Fear is our real enemy, not the people it possesses.

"So many of oura"familya"have died fighting that fear. But so long as we can live together, they didn't die in vain." He looked up at Owen, then around the circle of familiar faces and back to Bron. "I'll do my part to see that Fort Freedom continues, if you'll all do yours."

The wave of affirmation drove him duoconscious, and there were tears behind his eyes as he added, "I can do it because I know now that Abel Veritt did not die forsworn, nor was his faith in the future unjustified-" Zeth held the papers aloft, accepting without reservation the triumphant knowledge: "Fort Freedom livesa"forever!"