Read Online The Wolf Worlds by Allan Cole, Chris Bunch - Free Book Online

how they managed to blackmarket a planetbuster nor how they managed to launch it into their sun, producing both a solar flare and a sudden end to the movement.
    A dozen or so messiahs preached genocide against their immediate neighbors, but were easily handled by the Guard once they off-planeted.
    The messiah of one movement took a fairly conventional monotheism system, added engineering jargon, and converted several planetary systems. The Emperor had worried about that one a bit—until the messiah absconded to one of the Imperial play-worlds with the movement's treasury.
    One messiah decided Nirvana was a long ways off, so his world purchased several of the old monster liners, linked them together, and headed for Nirvana. Since their plot showed Nirvana to be somewhere around the edge of the universe, the Emperor quit worrying about them, too.
    And then there was the faith of Talamein. Founded in reaction to a theology in decay, a young warrior named Talamein preached purity, dedication of life to the Entity's purpose, and putting to the sword anyone who chose not to believe as he did.
    The old religion and the new were at gunspoint when the Emperor stepped in. He offered the Talameins and their Prophet enough transport to find themselves a system of their own.
    Overjoyed, the warrior faith had accepted, boarded ships, and disappeared from mortal man's consciousness.
    The Emperor was fairly proud of his "humanitarian" decision.
    He had interceded not because he particularly cared who would win the civil war but because he knew that (a) the old, worn-out theocracy would be destroyed, (b) the people of Talamein would have themselves close to a full cluster as a power-base, and (c) that faith would inevitably explode out into the Galaxy.
    The last thing the Eternal Emperor needed, he knew, was a young, virile religion that would ultimately find the Emperor and his mercantile Empire unnecessary. The result would be intragalactic war and the inevitable destruction of both sides.
    Not only did the Emperor defuse the situation, but he also guaranteed that if the faith of Talamein survived, he would always be thought of as Being on Their Side.
    All this the Emperor remembered. But, being a polite man, he listened to Mahoney's historical briefing.
    "More fish. Colonel?"
    Mahoney burn-cured a slight case of the hiccups with a shot from their second jar then shook his head.
    After the birchwood fire'd burned down to coals, the Emperor had put the salmon on the sapling grill. He'd left it for a few minutes, then quickly splashed corn liquor on the skin-side and skillfully flipped the slabs of fish over. The fire flared and charred the skin, and then the Emperor had extracted the fish. Mahoney couldn't remember when he'd eaten anything better.
    "So the people of Talamein ended up in this—this Lupus Cluster." the Emperor said.
    He smiled to himself, remembering that when he had picked out the system for the young fanatics, a court wag had translated it "The Wolf Worlds." How appropriate, he thought, thinking of the attack on his Mantis team.
    "Then, following them, it seems as if every renegade, degenerate, and bandit warlord in their sector headed for the Lupus Cluster and sanctuary because they, of course, were True Believers in the Faith of Talamein all along."
    "Tell me more," the Emperor said. "I'm morbidly fascinated on how much worse things can be."
    * * *
    Things were, indeed, much worse.
    About 150 years before, the Faith of Talamein itself had split, conveniently ending with the Talamein A people on one side of the roughly double-crescent-shaped cluster, the Talamein B
    fanatics on the other.
    Talamein A had the "True Prophet," the man who claimed the most direct descent from Talamein himself. But this "original"
    faith deteriorated into opulence, schismatic politics and a succession of less-than-prescient Prophets. This not only split the faithful, but the real power came to rest with a merchant council.
    The council was made