Dalmas,John - The Regiment A Trilogy

The Regiment: A Trilogy

John Dalmas

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this

book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is

purely coincidental.

thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Megabook

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN: 0-7434-8823-7

Cover art by Stephen HickmanTK

First omnibus printing, May 2004

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

TK

Distributed by Simon Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH

Printed in the United States of America

Baen Books by John Dalmas

The Second Coming

The Lizard War

The Helverti Invasion

The Puppet Master

Soldiers

The Regiment

The Regiment's War

The Three-Cornered War

The Regiment: A Trilogy (omnibus)

The Lion of Farside

The Bavarian Gate

The Lion Returns

The Regiment

Prologue

...So the woman Ka-Shok, who would become mother of the T'sel, sat in

the shade of a fish-hook bush, looking out through the heat shimmers

across the gravel pan where the only midday movement was a drill bird

flying from thorn jug to thorn jug, to listen and peep, peck and swallow.

And Ka-Shok wondered what the truth was of our origins. For to her, the

old stories of gods and demons seemed unreal in the world of heat and

drought, of hard labor beneath the stars, of bore-worms in the root crops.

It occurred to her then that one should be able to look at a place and see

what had been there in its past, seeing things the way they had been

instead of the way they were at present. If one knew how. It also seemed

to her that she did know how, if she could only do it right.

Now to do something, one must first start. And she decided to start by

closing her eyes to what was there at that time; perhaps then she could

see the long before. So she closed them, but before long went to sleep

and saw only dreams until a scorpion stung her.

That was but her first attempt, for its failure, and the failures that followed,

did not discourage her. Before the season of rains came two more times,

she had begun to see the past; and not only the past of where she was,

but the pasts of other places. And of living people-things that had

happened to them before that lifetime, which she had not expected. And

she spoke of these things to her husband, who thereupon beat her and

called her crazy, and to her daughters and son who, in fear, began to keep

her grandchildren away from her.

But she continued looking, seeing more and more, further and further

back, only saying no more about it. And it was as if this activity, though

pursued in silence, was like a signal fire in the night, attracting seekers.

For a certain few people, both old and young, some of them strangers,

sought her out, confiding in her their dreams and wonderings, seeking her

advice. Until at length, she and some of those few went away, west into

the Jubat Hills, where they lived on the sparse catch of snares and fish

traps and the roots of certain plants, and together they sought back in

time, with her as their guide.

Mostly they kept apart from any others. But this one and that would return

to their homes from time to time. And when anyone asked them what they

had been doing, they answered simply that they had been praying in the

hills with an old woman. For what they had seen seemed at the time too

strange to tell others, who might beat them for it or drive them away.

Nonetheless, bit by bit, others, not knowing why they did so, decided to

go and pray with Ka-Shok, who by then had begun to be wizened and

gray-headed. And they became too many to be fed from snares and fish

traps. So one who owned land and water rights took Ka-Shok and the

others home with him, to the dismay of his son there, and they dug many

cells into a hill, that each could have his or her own. And this man

declared rules of conduct, and rules of duties, that so far as possible they

might continue to seek without the distractions of misconduct, for they did

not yet know T'sel.

And not only did they see more and more of what had been in the past,

but they began to glimpse behind the Here, and behind the There. And

before Ka-Shok departed the ancient husk her body had become, more

and more seekers had come to her, until the community moved again,

occupying an entire valley and building irrigation works greater than had

been seen before on Tyss.

For they had seen marvels in their past, not only of vessels going among

the stars, but of the place they had come from. And from the seeing,

learned much.

And of even greater import, they had begun to perceive the T'sel.1

PART ONE

Introduction To Enigma

1

Feature Editor Gard Fendel's index finger, stout and hairy, touched refile,

and the personnel summary for Varlik 681 Lormagen disappeared from the

screen. Not that Fendel didn't know the young man personally and

professionally, but it had seemed wise to examine the background data.

Lormagen had been in athletics as a boy and youth, and ran and used a

health club as assignments permitted. At age thirty he looked physically

rather fit. More important, and Fendel hadn't known this, he'd served a

three-year enlistment in the military a decade earlier. No combat, but he'd

know his way around. The question left was how much stomach young

Lormagen had for discomfort and possible danger.

Fendel's finger moved to his intercom. "Derin," he said, "send Lormagen

in."

"Yes, sir."

The voice quality of the intercom system was excellent. The slightly

metallic timbre had been designed in deliberately, for warships and

privateers. It enabled a crewman or officer, intent on something else, to

know without looking that the speaker was not someone in the same

compartment, and should be acknowledged at once if possible. It also

made the words sharper and clearer, helping to ensure they'd be

understood.

That had been very long ago, very long forgotten. Now an intercom was

just an intercom, made the way intercoms had always been made. They

worked very well.

Varlik 681 Lormagen came in, the door sliding smoothly shut behind him.

Gard Fendel motioned him to a chair.

"Sit, please."

"Thank you, sir."

Leaning his forearms on the desk, Fendel waited until the younger man

was seated.

"You did a very professional, may I say very Standard, job in covering the

Carlad kidnapping."

Varlik darkened just slightly at the compliment. In the context of

journalism, to have one's work called Standard was highly complimentary,

if somewhat inappropriate. "Thank you, sir. You honor me."

"I'm considering giving you a new assignment that's even bigger. One that

can make your byline one of the majors among our subscribers."

Varlik's alertness level rose. He nodded.

"You're aware of the insurrection on Kettle, of course," Fendel went on,

"and that it's continuing. Beast of a place for a civilized man to fight a war,

but there it is. Well, it seems now that T'swa mercenaries are being sent

there to break its back. That tells me it's worth having someone there to

cover it.

"Two regiments of T'swa, actually, which really catches my interest. I'll

certainly want at least one feature on them."

T'swa mercenaries. Varlik had seen a T'swi once, up close: a heavyset

elderly man with skin incredibly dark, the color of a blued gun barrel;

straight, close-cropped hair gone white; nose bold, hawklike; wide,

thin-lipped mouth; unnaturally large eyes shaded by bushy, jutting brows.

Despite his white business suit he'd looked so different, so striking, that

the image, long unlooked at, was easily recalled.

When Varlik had commented on the man's appearance, someone had told

him he was the T'swa ambassador to the Confederation. Tyss was the

only gook world allowed diplomatic representation. The ambassador had a

staff of two or three, housed in a cubbyhole somewhere in one of the

peripheral government complexes. It was doubtful that they did anything.

The T'swa had been granted the privilege centuries earlier by one of the

Consars, probably Consar XVII, "the Generous," acting as suzerain and

administrator general for the Confederation.

"The Department of Armed Forces," Fendel was saying, "admits that this

is only the second time in well over a century they've contracted for a

T'swa regiment. The last time was in the Drezhtkom Uprising, some eighty

years ago."

His eyes stayed on the younger man's face, watching for any sign of

reluctance or even tentativeness. He didn't want to send a reporter who'd

spend his time there in an air-conditioned, safe-area headquarters.

Lormagen's eyes were steady as he nodded.

"If you're interested," Fendel continued, still testing, "and if I decide to

send you, I'll want you to leave day after tomorrow on a military supply

ship. It's a twenty-six-day trip, and I'll want you there while the fighting's

still going strong. Those T'swa are likely to finish off the local gooks pretty

quickly when they arrive."

"Yes, sir. Day after tomorrow, no difficulty. I'd like very much to have the

assignment."

Fendel sat back then, decision made. "Fine. It's yours. Call Captain

Benglet at the Army's Media Liaison Office and find out the departure

details. The supply ship leaves sometime in the afternoon. And while I'm

not expecting full-length video features, of course, take plenty of cubes.

This assignment has strong visual potential."

He dismissed the young man then and watched him leave. There'd been

no trace of unwillingness. They'd said they wanted someone with energy

and imagination; Lormagen definitely had the energy.

Imagination! Fendel returned to his screen. An odd thing to want in a

newsman, or in anyone for that matter. But there were those whose

position put them beyond argument, or nearly enough for any practical

purpose.

2

Excerpt from "The Story of the Confederation," by Brother Banh

Dys-T'saben. IN, The Young Person's Library of Knowing About.

You have already heard, my friend, of the Confederation of Worlds. But as

yet you do not know very much about it. The Confederation of Worlds is

an organization of 27 planets on which human beings live. The primaries of

some of the 27 can be seen from here on Tyss. Ask your master or your

lector to go outside with you some night soon and point out to you those

which are visible.

Those 27 are not all of the worlds on which people are known to live in our

region of the galaxy. They are simply most of those which have

spaceships, and with spaceships, the Confederation worlds can usually

control the others and cause them to do certain things that they want

them to do. Our own world of Tyss is not one of the 27, of course, and we

do not have spaceships. We have the T'sel, and that which grows out of it.

That is why the Confederation does not have power over us, although it is

all right for them to think they do.

The story of the Confederation of Worlds is quite interesting, and only on

Tyss is it known. The first part of it is also the story of how we came to

live on Tyss. Very long ago, many thousands of our years ago, people

came to this region of space from another region very far away. They

came across space in eight very large ships, at a speed much swifter than

light, and the distance was so great that it took years to cross it. If you

decide to follow The Way of Wisdom and Knowledge, or possibly if you do

not, you will be able to visit that time and see that long journey for yourself.

They left their homes to escape a great war. The people who began that

war, and who commanded it, were willing to kill to force their own wishes

on others. They were willing to kill great numbers of people for that,

although few of those killed had chosen for themselves the Way of War.

It was not like any war ever fought in this region, for they used weapons so

powerful that they could kill all of the people on a planet in one attack.

And that is what they did-they killed all of the people on certain planets,

as a warning and threat to others.

On one planet, the government on one great populous island nation bought

eight ships, old but large, for they believed that their world would be

chosen for destruction. And besides that, they were a people who

despised and rejected war, because of the kind of war, called

"megawar,"*2 which they had in that region.

Hurriedly they prepared the ships for a very long voyage. Each ship would

take several thousand people, and also things they would need when they

settled to live on some far world, including seeds and certain animals. For

there would be no towns or manufactories* waiting, or even people, but

only the native planet in its wild state. Then each sept on the island

selected one in 200 of its people to go, and when all had boarded, the

great ships left, never to return.

They traveled together on a set course, not stopping anywhere at all until

they were far outside the region they knew about. They wanted to be very

far away from the war before they chose a new home. After that they

continued on the same general course, but deviated* to one side and

another to inspect star systems along the way for a planet on which they

could live.

In this way they discovered the garthid peoples, who look quite different

from humans. The garthids live on planets mostly too hot, and with gravity

mostly too strong, for humans. Indeed, our own world of Tyss would seem

cold to the garthids, although most humans find Tyss much too hot. But

nonetheless, the garthids did not want humans to settle in their sector. So

the people of the ships got from them the boundary coordinates* of the

garthid sector and went on, not visiting any more worlds until they were

well away. Our ancestors did not want anything to do with wars, because

the wars they knew had been so indiscriminate* and unethical.

At last the little fleet of ships came to systems far enough away that again

they paused here and there to explore for a world they could live on. Soon

they found one. It was our own Tyss.

But meanwhile, certain things had happened on the ships. By that time

they had been gone from their home planet for more than four of our years.

And what did they do, enclosed in a crowded ship for more than four

years? The crews were busy, of course, operating the ships and taking

care of them. The other people had certain things to do too, such as

taking care of children and cleaning. But still, much of the time they had

nothing needful to do, and they were quite crowded. So they sat about and

talked a great deal. And having nothing like the T'sel, soon they were

bickering.* Before long, some of them came to dislike others quite

strongly.

Factions arose. A faction is a set of people who feel very strongly in favor

of some one thing or set of things, or against some one thing or set of

things. It is a group of people who disagree with others, and it exists only

in reaction to its polar* opposites. Factions are a major cause of

destructive war, which is to say, the kind of war that does not respect the

different Ways.

So before they had been very long on their journey, the rulers of the fleet

recognized that they carried with them the seeds* of the very kind of war

they had fled from! For given time, the factions would surely start to fight

among themselves! Therefore the rulers began to counsel together about

what they might do to avoid war. But they did not have the T'sel: They

could not see how such wars could be avoided.

But they did know that the destructiveness of indiscriminate war is

proportional* to the destructiveness of the weapons used. Also, the human

mind is prone to explore the operating rules of the physical universe. You

already know something about that. When done in a particular

systematic* way, following certain rules and limitations, this exploration

was known then by the names "science"* and "research."* Certain

operating rules of the physical universe, or approximations* of them, which

science discovered and described, could be used to do things with, or to

make things with. And the doing and making were known as

"technology."* The weapons of their huge destructive war had been crafted

by technology, by using the knowledge from science.

The rulers recognized all that.

Now, on the ships, not all of the people together had the knowledge to

make those hugely destructive weapons. For theirs had not been a world

which emphasized science. And indeed, not even their ships' computers,*

in which they stored their knowledge, had any great part of the knowledge

needed to make those weapons. But the rulers believed that the human

mind, free to do research, would in time redevelop that knowledge and

once again make those weapons. And this worried them greatly.

Yet they did not want to give up the machines which enabled them to live

the way they had been used to. And to continue to make those machines

and keep them operating required technology. So they believed they could

not do without the technology.

Thus they decided to abolish* research if they could. Without research,

without science, they could not redevelop the knowledge with which to

reinvent those great weapons. Reactive wars they still might have, but

they would not be nearly as destructive as the war they had fled. They

would still be able to kill large numbers of non-warriors-those who had not

chosen the Way of War-but they would hardly be able to destroy whole

populations.

To abolish science was the only thing they could think of to do about it,

and they did not at first see how they could accomplish that. All they

could do at once was to erase certain knowledge within their computers.

So they erased all knowledge which they thought might be dangerous.

But they believed that that would not be enough, for it seemed to them

that in time, the knowledge would be rediscovered.

Now, they knew that some of the people with them, called "mentechs,"

had worked in primitive technologies of the mind, which they regarded

entirely as an electrochemical* system. So they sent to the mentechs

and asked them if they could suggest anything.

And they could. They thought it might be possible to treat everyone who

was on the ships, and their children forever, so that they would never

follow the way of science. They could still follow freely the way of

technology, but research-the activity of science, the exploration of the

rules of the universe-would become impossible. Hopefully, even the

possibility of science-the thought that there could be such a thing-would

no longer occur to them.

The rulers decided to try it.

But, you may be thinking to yourself, that is going about it in a strange

and illogical way. Why not simply decide not to make such weapons?

Why not simply respect the different Ways? But they did not have the

T'sel. So they did the best they could think of.

Soon the mentechs had developed a sequence* of actions, a treatment.

This treatment caused the person to not look for understanding beyond

that which people already had. It would not even occur to them that there

was any further understanding to be had, and they would dislike and fear

and reject any idea of it.

And secret tests showed that it was successful. People treated and then

tested thought exactly the way the mentechs had predicted.

Here is how the treatment worked. The person was given a certain special

substance which, to put it briefly, made him very susceptible to obeying

commands. Whatever the command might be. The commands given him

were, in summation,* that the understanding of nature was already as

complete as possible; nothing further was knowable. And these

commands were enforced by brief shocks of great pain. It did not take

long to do this, and numerous people could be treated each day on each

ship.

Now, people of different septs had been put to live in different

compartments, so far as possible. And when the mental treatment had

been tested and proven, the rulers approached the sept leaders. They told

them only that they had a mental treatment which would make it

impossible to develop great weapons. They did not tell them how it was

done, or what the commands were. And they asked them to prepare their

people to accept treatment.

And because they feared and hated the great war so much, many agreed

to accept the treatment. Some accepted because their leaders told them

to; other septs voted, and accepted because a majority agreed. But five

septs refused the treatment. They voted, and most of their members said

they should not accept. They said that while they abhorred* the great

weapons, they did not trust anything which tampered with the mind and

would make them less able in any way.

The rulers then discussed whether they should force the treatment on

those five septs. But they could not bring themselves to do that, because

they had at least some respect for different Ways. On the other hand,

they could not make up their minds, at first, on what else to do. So for the

time being, the five septs were kept locked up, totally apart from everyone

else, and the rest of the people were treated-even the rulers. Even the

mentechs. And by so doing they denied themselves the satisfactions of

playing or working at science. In fact, there appears to have been some

loss of the willingness to question authority on anything.

What that meant was that they became less willing to decide each for

himself, and thus tended more than before to follow orders and usual ways

in directing their lives.

Soon after that, something happened that helped the rulers make up their

minds about the five septs. They were by then far outside the garthid

sector, and they found a planet where people could live. It was not a

planet where any of them would want to live, for it was too hot there for the

people of that time, and the gravity* was stronger than they were used to.

But people might survive there. And because the conditions seemed so

severe, it was considered that anyone living there would never be able to

make great weapons. So they put three of the five septs there, with certain

animals and the seeds of certain plants, which they thought might also be

able to live there.

That planet was Tyss, our home, and those three septs were our

ancestors. And here we have lived for a very long time. Now we think the

heat natural, and no more than proper, and the gravity seems just right.

Then the ships went on.

In far later times we learned what happened to the rest of the people. After

Tyss, they found other planets on which people could live. Rather soon

they found another that was too hot except in a northern region, and they

put there the other two septs that had refused the treatment. And after

looking at several more planets, they found one which they liked very

much. They called it Iryala, and made it their home.

In time they became very numerous on Iryala, and sent ships out to select

other planets where some of them could go to live. Some people on Iryala

wanted to follow ways that were not welcome there, and some wanted to

adventure, and some, wanting to acquire wealth* and power,* thought it

would be easier to do so elsewhere. After thousands of years, they

peopled many worlds in this region of space. But Iryala held to itself alone

the right to have manufactories to make spaceships, so Iryala was

predominant.

Now, when the people of the ships landed on Iryala, they still had the

machines used to prevent people from doing basic research, and they

could easily make more of them. So it was arranged that each child would

also be treated when it was old enough to survive the treatment.

For thousands of years they have done this, and have never regained the

concepts* of science or research. The most they could do was to

recombine information they already knew into new configurations* and test

them, which, of course, was very useful in colonizing Iryala and doing the

many things needful to establish a self-sustaining* technology there.

But after several centuries, even making new configurations became

disapproved of. So they created the concept of Standard Technology. This

assumed that the existing technology was complete and perfect. Any

changes in it, they believed, would degrade it from that perfection.

Meanwhile, because of the treatment, they could not know what the

treatment was intended to suppress. Except of course at the deepest,

least available subconscious level, the commands were no longer

understood by the technicians who chanted them. The treatment, which

they had named "the Sacrament," was thought of as simply a formula*

which would protect the people from great wars.

And after 20,000 years, knowledge of their origins faded to legends among

those people because of certain things that happened....

3

Mauen 685 Hothmar Lormagen had been home from the shop nearly half

an hour. Small, cute, she looked as pretty as the girls in the ads for the

beauty aids she sold. Varlik was usually home before her, but there was

no sign of him, and no message.

She considered taking out her paints. She was working on a very famous

and popular theme-the Coronation of Pertunis. Occasionally Varlik worked

quite late, and when he did, might have no chance to call. She might have

Dalmas, John - The Regiment A Trilogy

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