Calandrx leaned over and lightly touched Hunter's arm. "We believe our new friend is here for a reason," he said.
Hunter felt his heart sink to his boots. He glanced over to the corner at Xara. She was about to cry.
It was Gordon, the CIA man who spoke next.
"We are battling the Empire, Hawk," he began. "And that means both the Solar Guards and the Space Forces. But now that we know they are fighting each other, we have to assume that they are distracted, at least for a while. If so, this is a chance that won't come again. If we don't take it, then we might just as well stay here. I, too, think this is a sign — a sign from the other side."
Hunter slumped farther into his seat. He knew what they were getting at. They had talked about this day many times since first arriving here. But after spending what seemed like more than a decade in Paradise, they'd almost forgotten that at some point, this day would actually come.
It was Zarex who finally spoke the words: "Brother Hawk, we believe that someone… or something… is telling us we have to go back."
Again, dead silence around the table.
Hunter looked at each of his friends. They all seemed particularly old at the moment, even though, in theory at least, they hadn't aged a day since coming here. His mind wandered back to the clouds he'd seen in the sky at the previous twilight — and Xara's dream that they were actually red. His spirits dropped even further.
Like the rest of them, he'd fallen in love with this place. And like him, the thought of returning to the other side with the intent of restarting their military campaign was repulsive, almost nauseating. But this place meant something even more to Hunter: while the others in the UPF fleet had met compatible souls here with which to share their time and desires— even the old-timers like Vanex and Klaaz had hooked up with significant others — Hunter already had Xara, his true love, when he arrived. And he had spent all of the past ten years with her, every moment of it, in total happiness with her. She was so beautiful, inside and out, that spending an eternity in Paradise was the ultimate in heavenly rewards.
Hunter didn't want that to change for anything. And he surely did not want to go back.
But the others had anticipated his reaction. It was up to Tomm to change his mind.
"Brother Hawk," the monk began. "Since I've known you and about your quest, you have made one point to me over and over again."
The priest looked around the room.
"We, your brothers, have joined you in your campaign to right the wrong done to the original peoples of Earth. We believed in you. We believed in your cause. It was honest. It was necessary. Something that had to be done for the betterment of all. But again, in all that time, I have heard you say to us that this is really your fight. You started it. You have vowed to finish it. True?"
Hunter nodded solemnly. Tomm was right. During both their struggle to free the Home Planets and while battling their way down the Two Arm, he'd always had an additional weight on his shoulders: that his friends really didn't own a piece of this fight simply because they weren't Americans, nor were they from any of the Home Planets. They really were like his brothers, and each in his own right, fierce warriors. But they weren't like him. They had simply joined his cause. The thought that one of them would get killed fighting his fight haunted him day and night as the campaigns progressed.
"While I owe you all a debt that I can never repay," Hunter finally said to them. "What you say is true; this is my fight, and my fight alone."
Tomm looked across the table at Hunter very sternly. Then he just shook his head.
"Brother Hawk, forgive me," he said. "But on that point you are dead wrong."
Tomm nodded to Gordon, who had repositioned himself at the room's immense porthole, at present covered by an atomic-silk curtain. With no little drama, Gordon yanked back the curtain and suddenly the room was filled with light. The twilight was gone, and the sun had returned to its place in the sky.
On the valley floor directly below them stood the entire 40,000-man contingent of the United Planets Forces, soldiers born and trained on the Home Planets after the prison colony was freed. The small army was assembled in thirty-five huge columns, each formation representing one of the planets contained inside the prison star system. Standing out front was the contingent from Planet America. Its flag was the UPF flag: the Stars and Stripes.
Hunter looked down at the assembled soldiers and felt a lump grow in his throat. They had obviously staged this for his benefit, and now he knew why the valley had looked so empty. But it was hard for him not to get the message. Tomm was right. This wasn't jast his fight. This was their fight, too. All 40,000 of them, standing below, flags billowing in the soft breeze were the descendants of those who had Earth so cruelly taken away from them thousands of years before.
And from the looks of it, they were ready to leave Paradise today — and go to try and get it back.
Hunter glanced at the others around the table, then over at Xara in the corner. She was crying now, and they weren't tears of joy.
He looked back down on the army assembled below. His eyes locked onto the huge American flag out front and just would not let go. That flag meant something very deep and very real to him. Something that had not dulled over the trillions of miles or the thousands of years. In his eyes and in his heart, it represented just about everything that was good and just and right about humanity. Not perfect, but close enough. He just couldn't give up on it now.
"OK," he finally said, softly. "Let's go back—"
No one knew why they found it slightly easier to talk about the nastiness of war when they were in the auxiliary engine room at the bottom of the flagship America.
Was it the proximity to the antique ship's revitalized ion-drive star engine? Or was it something about being in the gut of the hovering ship that put them out of sight from the big brother that seemed to be watching over them here in Paradise? Or was it just their imaginations all along?
There was no real answer to be had. But shortly after agreeing that it was time for them to finally return to the other side, Hunter and the rest of the UPF command staff huddled inside the small anteroom just off the main power system suite. Sitting on the floor, in near total darkness, heads down, they were trying very hard to concentrate on things other than peacefulness and light. They felt foolish, even childish. But this was die only place they knew where they could hide from God.
In the few brief discussions tfiey'd had upon first coming here, it was agreed that there was only one way they could ever attempt a return to the other side: one ship would go first; the others would follow later. That first ship would carry a skeleton crew consisting of the original rebels: Erx and Berx, Calandrx, Zarex, Gordon, Pater Tomm, and Klaaz. Why them? And why just one ship? Because no one was sure if the Vanex Door worked in reverse. Could they leave the way they came in? There was actually a high probability they couldn't, and that those making the attempt to pass back over would be killed. If that happened, it stood to reason — if there could be any reason in these things — that the souls of the lost crew would return here and inform the others that passing back over was probably impossible. Then they really would have to stay in Nirvana.
But if all indications were that the ship and crew did make it back, then the others would follow exactly one week later. And while direct contact with the other side would be impossible — the Echo 999.9 capsules were good for onetime use only — those returning first would have to make sure that the reentry point was secure for the other eleven ships to pass through. Or at least that had been die original plan. Now, with news of the SF and SG fighting each other, the crew of the pathfinder ship would have its work cut out for them. The reentry spot — Zero Point — would be, Vanex had calculated, exactly where the UPF fleet disappeared in the first place: right in the middle of what was now the SG No-Fly Zone.