Kugara sighed. "I don't know if you noticed, but everyone here is in the same boat. We've lost our employer, the Caliphate technicians have de facto deserted, and the guys from Salmagundi don't have a planet anymore from what we can tell."

"And our hosts?"

"Yes, them too."

"Great. What are we going to establish in this meeting?"

"What we need to do."

"About what?"

"About everything. Adam and the possibility he might be on his way here."

Parvi grunted and disengaged the harness holding her into the seat. "Well, someone better establish a command structure, or this is going to end up messier than the last couple of days have been."

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.

Conclave.

"No logical method of describing the universe can be completely wrong."

-The Cynic's Book of Wisdom.

"I never met an atheist that was not just a man of faith disappointed once too often."

-MARBURY SHANE.

(2044-*2074).

Date: 2526.7.20 (Standard).

1,750,000 km from Bakunin - BD+501725.

Mallory and the tiger were the last to arrive, even though the "meeting room" was another cargo bay only a single bulkhead away.

They slipped through the door, and Mallory could feel the air temperature rise about ten degrees just from the press of bodies. He hoped that the Daedalus' life support was capable of handling so many warm bodies in one spot. By his count they had twenty-three people; a dozen between the Caliphate and the Salmagundi militia; the trio of civilians; the four crew members of the Daedalus; and the four remaining mercenary crew of the Eclipse.

One of the Daedalus crew pulled herself toward him. He couldn't tell if it was Toni or Beth. "It's your show," she told him.

He moved, pulling himself along some cargo netting, until he was more or less the center of attention. He swallowed slightly. He felt an uncharacteristic bit of stage fright. Even though he didn't minister to a congregation, he had taught and lectured, speaking to audiences larger than this for most of his life after the marines.

This was different. Before, his authority was a given. His students never had cause to question his role as instructor. No one in an auditorium had ever shouted down his right to speak. His role here was nowhere near as clear-cut. To the survivors of the Eclipse, he was a spy, little more trustworthy than Nickolai. To the natives of Salmagundi, he was part of an alien invasion that probably wiped out their planet-at the very least changed it beyond recognition. To the Caliphate technicians he was at best the representative of a rival power, at worst an enemy combatant. To the crew of the Daedalus he was just another refugee, a story little more interesting than that of anyone else here.

He lowered his gaze and silently prayed for strength and conviction.

"Thank you all." He looked up at the Caliphate crew. "I asked for this meeting, not because I have any inherent authority, but because I knew it had to be done." He turned and faced the Salmagundi militiamen. "We've been cut off from those whom we serve. The only direction we have now comes from ourselves."

"What is your point?" The challenge came from the Daedalus crew, the young man, Stefan.

"The point," Mallory told him, "is we face a common problem, one extending far beyond us, this ship, or even this star system. We need to agree on a course of action."

Someone in the Caliphate ranks snorted and one of the Salmagundi militiamen said, "What, exactly? We saw our skies turn to fire, our home disintegrating around us."

"The Prophet's Voice," one of the Caliphate men said, "was completely possessed by this thing."

Dr. Dorner cleared her throat and said, "The only sane thing to do is try and get out of its way."

"Or surrender," Dr. Brody added.

"Take it as God?" Another Caliphate tech spoke broken English and concluded in harsh Arabic whose negation was clear even to a nonspeaker.

Toni or Beth spoke. "We need to get warnings out. If this Adam is as powerful as you say, everyone needs to gather what resources they can to defend themselves."

Someone, Mallory didn't know who, shouted, "There's already a war between Sirius and the Caliphate."

At that, the Caliphate ranks started shouting, the agitation moving across their group slowly as the English speakers translated. Their words merged together, but there was a clear assumption that some aggressive, provocative act must have sparked hostilities.

One said something that must have offended Dr. Dorner, and she started shouting back. The shouting spread to the Daedalus crew, and then the entire room was a cacophony of people shouting at cross-purposes.

Mallory said, "Please, please-"

He was interrupted by an ear-splitting roar. The sound cut through the arguing and left a stunned silence in its wake. Nickolai said, "Allow the priest to speak."

The room became silent, and all eyes turned to face Mallory. "Warnings were sent about this thing," he told them. "We managed to send off a tach-comm message before escaping Salmagundi. We should send another when we have means. But while escape might appear the most rational option, I doubt it is possible. The situation seems a clear indication that Adam intends to move into the systems here."

"You don't know that," Dr. Dorner told him.

"Everything I've heard points to it. The destruction of the wormhole network disrupted normal transportation and communications, as well as closing off a significant intelligence asset." He nodded in the direction of the two Valentine siblings. "It seems clear that the attack originated from Xi Virginis and was powered by the complete consumption of that system."

"And you think something can be done about that?" someone muttered within the militia.

"It is clear that this extraordinary exercise of resources only makes sense if Adam intends to move into the core systems." Mallory looked at a sea of faces ranging in expression from incredulous to hostile. "Adam intends to come here."

"Okay," Dr. Brody said. "But aren't you making an assumption? We know next to nothing about this Adam. Couldn't he be so powerful that consuming a star isn't such a great effort?"

"As if he were God?" Mallory asked.

"He seems to want to give that impression."

Mallory shook his head. "If that is the case, why isn't he here yet? Why didn't he appear simultaneously across the whole of human space? Xi Virginis was the site of a massive project. It took decades to execute."

"So it takes him some time to complete incomprehensibly vast engineering projects," Parvi said. "In human terms that's pretty indistinguishable from omnipotence."

"And we still slipped from his grasp. Are you such a good pilot to fly through God's fingers?" Mallory asked her. "Adam is not omnipotent or omniscient."

"Still more powerful than anything we could hope to fight," Parvi said.

"No," Mallory said. "Adam is clearly vulnerable."

"To what?" snapped Stefan, the young man from the Daedalus. "Prayer?"

"I suspect that Adam is concerned about a more conventional defense." Mallory looked around and saw that he at least had their attention. He described what they knew about Adam, from what he had been able to gather in discussions with Nickolai, Parvi, Captain Valentine, and the one Caliphate technician who was willing to talk to him at length.

As unconventional as the attack had been, Adam's targets were almost textbook SOP for an invading force: communications and transportation. It disrupted the defender's mobility within their system and clouded their view of the larger picture. Next, if the target was accessible, would be the defender's command and control.

They knew that Adam had the use of at least two of the massive Caliphate carriers with a next-generation tach-drive, which meant that all the core capital planets were within his reach. Khamsin, Cynos, Occisis ...

Earth...

Beyond choosing conventional targets, he also used covert agents and spies. Captain Valentine had told him of her CO, a man obviously working for Adam. There was also the Mr. Antonio who had hired Nickolai.

Adam was not above using sabotage and assassination, somewhat base methods for a being that aspired to divinity. And, most important, Adam sometimes failed. Despite everything, Adam did not prevent Mallory's tach-comm. Adam did not prevent the Khalid from leaving the Prophet's Voice, nor did he prevent it from leaving Salmagundi.

Most important, Adam anticipated defense, and that meant a defense was possible.

"A defense against that?" came from the militia.

"The Confederacy wiped out the Proteans," Flynn said, his first words in a long time. "Cleaning out a nanotechnology infection-it's just a matter of putting large enough amounts of energy in a small enough space."

Parvi whispered something that Mallory didn't quite catch, something about escaping the Voice.

There was a pause, and it was filled by Stefan's voice. "What the hell is this? I can't believe anyone is seriously listening to this crap." He pushed from the wall and deftly caught himself just in front of Mallory. "Even if everything you say about this Adam is accurate, which I have a hard time swallowing, what the fuck does it have to do with us? Me and my dad just had our whole lives swiped from us. You think I'm about to let you assholes take over and throw what's left away?"

"I'm not asking for anything, just a consensus."

"This isn't your fucking ship!"

From the fringes, Karl said, "Calm down, Son."

"No, I've had enough. Fine, make a deal with the pirate sisterhood. Fine, render assistance to some random bit of wreckage that's carrying refugees from hell. But I am not going to sit back when some priest starts talking about going to war with God."

"Adam is not God."

"The Devil then. All of you, you have a tach-drive that can take you to the other side of human space. Use it. Get the hell away from all of this."

"Get back here, Stefan." Karl said.

"Why?" Stefan stared into Mallory's face. "The priest here is talking about consensus. You think all these people want to sacrifice themselves? For what?"

For what?

Again, like the time he first met Mosasa, he felt the feeling of a spiritual eclipse. Not just the bulk of the planet Bakunin eclipsing God's light, but the whole of the material universe. He was alone. As he had said, he was cut off from those whom he served. The only light he had was his own.

He silently prayed that it would be enough.

"I cannot speak for anyone but myself and what I believe." He looked at his audience. How many of them could be even counted as Christian? The Valentines, probably: they were from Styx. Dr. Dorner-at least she had been comfortable giving talks at Jesuit universities. Karl and Stefan. Very possibly Dr. Brody. He didn't know about Parvi or Kugara's beliefs, but it would be unusual for them to be Christian, given either's history.

Of course, none of the Caliphate techs would be. Nickolai had his own strange faith. The natives from Salmagundi had evolved something of their own outside any traditional religious practices.

Less than half, he suspected, would share his beliefs.

"So what do you believe?" Stefan asked.

Should that hold my tongue? If this was a test of his faith, should he be anything other than honest with everyone here?

"I believe we face the Antichrist."

The room was silent for several moments. Even Stefan seemed at a loss for words. It was Kugara who broke the silence. "Oh come on. You had me, up until you tell me that we're facing the boogeyman out of some twenty-five-hundred-year-old book. You're trying to tell us we face some supernatural devil?"

"Not supernatural. God works through the universe he presents to us. I believe there is good and evil, and I believe that my faith gives both a message of redemption, and a warning. Take it as metaphor if you will, but Adam, as he has presented himself, is cast into the role of bringer of the end of times."

"Then," Kugara said, "why does he have to be the Antichrist? Why isn't he the Messiah he makes himself out to be? Isn't that just as likely?"

Mallory shook his head. "Christ asks you to follow him. He doesn't demand it at sword point."

"There's a couple of millennia of Church history at odds with that interpretation," she said.

"That is the history of men, not of God. But you are right, Adam is more Cortez than Christ. He holds up his own divinity, asking for worship and nothing else. The only moral law within Adam's world is his own will."

"And this is different from any other religion, how?" Kugara asked.

"Sin." The word was a throaty growl that reverberated through the cargo bay. Nickolai stared across the room at Kugara, as if in reproach. "If there is Good and Evil, and there is free will, there must be sin. If there are moral choices, there must be wrong moral choices."

"Is that more of your self-destructive theology, Nickolai?" Kugara asked.

"He's right," Mallory said. "If the whole of Adam's faith is to worship him, give glory unto him, then his followers by definition cannot do wrong. That means either an absence of any moral constraint, or the absence of free will. Or both. And giving up your right, your ability to choose, is tantamount to losing your soul."

Someone from the Caliphate said, "You know this to be true?"

"I know what I've seen and what I've heard. Aside from any taboos we have upon the technology he utilizes, what defines his evil is his absolutism. He offers a choice to follow him that is no choice at all. He wishes to destroy all who do not follow him, and remake those who do into his own image."

"Not that I disagree with you," Kugara said. "But you just described most Bakuninites' feeling toward any organized religion."

The young Caliphate technician who had the best English said, "Then this is the best place to fight this evil."

Mallory looked at the young man, surprised at where his support was coming from, then finding himself humbled at his own surprise. For all the theological differences between Islam and Christianity, Adam would be an abomination to both. And there were enough similarities in eschatology that a Muslim could easily reach the same conclusions Mallory had.

"I believe you speak the truth," the young man said. "This is an evil that must be fought." Several of his peers nodded in agreement or said phrases in Arabic.

"That thing took apart our planet," Flynn said. "I don't need a theological dissertation on the nature of Evil to fight this thing."

Stefan glanced around, an incredulous look on his face. "I don't believe you people-"