Joe Haldeman SF Gateway Omnibus: Marsbound, Starbound, Earthbound by Joe Haldeman

Author:Joe Haldeman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mars (Planet), Martians, Married People, Space Opera, Human-Alien Encounters, Interplanetary voyages, Fiction, Science Fiction, American, Fantasy, Adventure, Space Colonies, General, Angels
ISBN: 9781473201750
Publisher: Gateway
Published: 2014-04-11T23:00:00+00:00

11

HEROES

Paul had always questioned the necessity for radio silence between Earth and ad Astra. It assumed the Others were so inattentive and stupid that they wouldn’t know we were on our way. Of course, our presence would be obvious after turnaround, with a gazillion- horsepower matter-annihilation engine blasting in their direction. The little probe that preceded us would deal with that by sending a warning and a message of peace well before we turned around and started blasting, decelerating.

What if they destroyed the probe before it delivered the message?

What if it delivered the message, and the Others destroyed us anyway?

What if they weren’t on a Wolf 25 planet after all?

We went along with the order and were resigned to not hearing from anyone on Earth for another 3.4 years. Paul kept the radio on, though, in case things changed.

On July 10, 2088, things did. A fifty-two-second message came from Earth. He called us all together in the lounge, Martians and humans, and played it back for us.

“This is Lazlo Motkin, just elected president of the world. One reason I was elected was that I wanted to change your mission and make it more in line with what the Earth’s people really want.

“You are the finest heroes in Earth’s history, hurtling into the unknown on a mission that will almost surely end with your deaths.

“We ask that you make this grim probability a glorious certainty. Rather than slowing down, we would ask you to continue accelerating. Going at almost the speed of light—and invisible until the last moment—you will strike the enemy planet with ten thousand times the force of the meteorite that brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs.

“Even the ungodly science of the Others cannot protect them from this apocalyptic assault. Please answer that you have heard and are willing to give your life in this noble enterprise.

“God bless you and keep you.”

We all just stared at each other. “Who is that guy?” I said. “Lazlo what?”

“Motkin,” Namir said. “He’s a cubevangelist.”

“Powerful signal,” Paul said. “Pretty tight laser.”

Namir shrugged. “He has lots of money, or did when money meant something, and a powerful broadcast site in the Atlantic, beyond the seven-mile limit. He could do it once.”

“Once?” Paul said.

“They’ll have people like me in the water in thirty minutes. Home-land Security. Unless Reverend Motkin really is president of the world, he’s about to have a serious accident.”

“Or had it about a week ago,” Paul said.

“It’s hard to get used to that. He was arrested or dead before that message was a tenth of the way here.”

“What if he really is king of the world,” Moonboy said, “or president or whatever. Some pretty loony people have made it to the top, even in normal times.”

“I still wouldn’t feel I had to kill myself on his behalf,” Dustin said.

“Besides, the order is stupid,” Paul said. “We don’t know for certain which planet in the Wolf 25 system is their home world.” There was a “cold Earth” planet that seemed likely, but also two gas giants with Triton-sized satellites.

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