The big town was indeed the landing site designated by a huge bonfire now burning on the right shore of its river, the side with the rocky mountain. The first two shuttles were full of Marines, as was the fourth; Kris's team was in the third. Kris left the driving to others as she scanned everything they knew about the Abdicators. That they were noisy about their views and secretive about their plans was known to all.
ANY HINT AS TO WHY THEY IMMIGRATED OUT PAST THE RIM? Kris asked Nelly.
NO HINT IN ANY OF THE MEDIA AT THE TIME. THEY WERE A GENERAL PAIN IN THE NECK, PREACHING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ON STREET CORNERS ONE MINUTE, THEN GONE. MOST REPORTS REMARK ON THE UNIVERSAL APPROVAL OF THE PEACE AND QUIET.
BUT NO ONE KNEW OR CARED WHERE THEY WENT?
APPARENTLY NOT, KRIS. THE MEDIA HAD THE USUAL NUMBER OF CELEBRITY MURDERS, DRUG USERS, AND ANTICS TO COVER. AND THE DEBATE ON TAXES, BUDGETS, AND EXPANSION.
SHOW ME THE PICTURES OF THE GREAT GUIDES.
Nelly did. A dozen men, all in middle age, all looking very intense, stared back at Kris. None looked at all interested in what she might have to say.
The shuttle landed smoothly and ran itself up on the bank of the river. Jack dismounted first, then offered Kris a hand so she might step from the shuttle to dry land at no risk of falling into the river mud. The Marines in her shuttle trotted past their officers and ran to join the other Marines in formal ranks.
Not everyone stood row on row, making a great target. A dozen qualified snipers roamed a sort of perimeter. They would have kept back any crowd … if there had been a crowd. On the streets visible from where Kris stood, a half dozen women walked as if they had someplace to be. And ignored the show.
The one exception was an large open-top car with a driver in front and a man in back. Kris and Jack, Abby and Penny maybe two paces behind, strolled through the break between first and second platoon and up to the car. The man in the back stood.
''I am Princess Kristine,'' Kris said to him.
''I am Prometheus, who talked with you earlier. My driver is Lucifer, who had the honor to talk with you first.''
Who would name a child after the devil? But now that she was closer, other things became clearer. It wasn't just women walking by, but men as well. All hair was long. Both sexes wore the same bedsheet thing as the two men in the car.
MAYBE IT IS A TOGA? Nelly offered.
Toga, Prometheus, Lucifer was all coming up Greek to Kris. But then, that could be one of the reasons they set off on their own, to build a world they wanted. Get ready for a wild bunch of mixing and matching, Kris warned herself.
Prometheus opened the door and stepped to the ground. ''I brought you a car, not fire. But from the looks of matters, I would have needed a truck convoy, and we really don't have that many trucks to spare. Would you care to ride with me or walk with your, um, friends.'' He finished with a bit of a smile, though Kris had no idea why.
''Is that where we are going?'' Kris said, pointing at the huge mound at the other end of the street where they stood. It was marked by two stone spires. One was white and richly veined in gold. The other was a kind of blue-gray stone with silver running through it. Kris would have bet anything one was for the good aliens, the other for the one that fried your eyeballs.
''Yes,'' Prometheus said, ''that is where our Great Guides assemble to meet with us. They have graciously agreed to meet with you today.''
''If it would not inconvenience your Great Guides, I will walk,'' Kris said. ''I've been cooped up in a starship for way too long. I suspect my Marines would enjoy the walk, too.''
''Understandable. It will give us more time to gather the full assembly. Your arrival was more than a little surprise.''
''Most systems have jump buoys that announce ship arrivals.''
''You will understand our reluctance to do that.''
Gunny got the company moving in the direction Jack ordered. The snipers deployed as skirmishers, but the others put on a solidly intimidating show of mass and potential firepower.
Kris and her staff fell in between first and second platoon. Prometheus ambled along, never quite falling in step, on Kris's left. Lucifer was sent off to return the car, clearly borrowed just for guests. Kris took a first try at getting Prometheus talking. ''Those spires look huge. Are they one huge rock each?''
''One piece, cut from the living rock and pulled here by raw human power,'' he said proudly. ''The Guides thought such a project would bind us together against anything, and it surely did. Not a single person who Bore the Stones has ever left. Lucifer keeps telling me that his generation should be given the chance to Bear the Stones. A different set, maybe for the rear entry. What do you think?''
''Anything that builds community spirit is always good,'' Kris said. No need to raise the subject of Pandemonium. Then again, the claim that no one who had Borne the Stones had ever left hinted that some who hadn't had indeed walked away.
Just how much trouble was this colony in?
''Would it be too much to ask how you found us?'' Prometheus said carefully. ''There's nothing at the jump point. When we arrived, we installed a fiber-optic hub. Nothing is sent over the airwaves.''
''I came looking for you after we talked to a trader who had been here.'' Or so the pirate claimed.
''Oh,'' the local said.
''Once we were in orbit we saw your heat signature and your mounds.'' Kris hoped she was not condemning the local peasants to heatless winters. Still, she wanted to keep them talking.
''Hmm,'' Prometheus said. ''The last ship here showed us how our power lines were visible to the jump point, so we bought everything he had to make superconducting wire and restrung our power grid … underground. I guess we'll have to add an extra meter of earth to our homes and civic buildings to make sure they stay closer to the ambient temperature.''
''You really believe some alien horde is coming?'' Kris asked.
Prometheus opened his mouth to reply but then closed it and nodded to something ahead of Kris.
The company approached a large crossroad, grassy like the one they walked, unmarked in stone or otherwise. However, there was a large bluish stone, a meter on a side. Standing atop it, a man in only a breechcloth was in full harangue. His back was to the Marine company, so he didn't see why some of his two or three dozen listeners suddenly grew distracted and looked past him.
It didn't matter, he was either in love with his voice or his message … or both.
''The unbelievers will be damned, and boiled in their own blood. The Choosers will take them, by the dozens, by the hundreds and serve them up broiled and fried. Poached and minced. Woe to those who ignored the shouts of we who have heard the Angels of Light and did not turn to follow us.
''But joy shall come to those the Choosers pass over. Those who have given themselves over to the Angels of Light will rise up to the ninth heaven, there to be ministered to by the most high angels. Great is the reward of those who have done everything that was asked of them.''
The preacher turned then, following the gaze of his listeners to Kris and her Marines. But it was not them he next addressed.
''Woe to you, Prometheus? It is not the warmth of fire or the guidance of light that you bring. Always it is outsiders. The damned, fit only for the demons to eat. Why do you waste your time and our goods on the likes of these with hardened hearts and deaf ears? Smite them down. Give up your life of comfort and plenty and join your brothers who tell only the truth about what is to come.''