He fumbled out a cigar and inhaled it into lighting. His words were quick, jerky, harsh. «What has Sol to do with this? It’s a matter for the entire League Council.»
«Which won’t meet for another two years,» said Kaltro. «As our friend Hurulta well knows. It would take six months just to get a quorum together for an emergency session. Oh, they timed it well, those Ulugani.»
«Well, the high command of the Patrol can exercise broad discretion,» Meinz grimaced. «Too broad. I don’t mind saying I haven’t liked all reports of your activities which have come to me. However, in this case—»
«The high command is prepared to act,» said Kaltro. «I’ve contacted all members. Nevertheless, the situation is unprecedented. The Patrol was created to enforce peace within the League. Nothing was said about dealing with a power outside it. If we act against Ulugan, we’ll be on legally shaky ground, and there may be a day of reckoning which would do a lot of harm. Many local politicians are spoiling to take a crack at the Patrol, push through constitutional amendments limiting its scope—if they can persuade enough beings that the Patrol has become an irresponsible machine capable of starting wars on its own initiative, they may succeed.»
«I see. But what can I do?»
«Your influence can swing the Solar Parliament into authorizing the Patrol to act against Ulugan. In effect, Sol will say: ‘As far as we’re concerned, the Patrol can have emergency powers, and use them immediately.’ Thereafter, we’ll proceed.»
«But one system can’t do that. The Patrol belongs to the whole League!»
«Please.» Kaltro lifted shaggy gray brows and smiled, creasing his face as if it were a stiff brown fabric. «You’re a practical political engineer. You know as well as I do that Sol is still the leading system in the League. If it’ll back us, enough other planets will follow that lead to put us in the clear when the business is brought up at the next Council. Technically, it’ll be a post facto O.K. on what we’ll already have done, but that’ll suffice. It’ll have to!»
«Well—» Meinz rolled his cigar between bony fingers, scowling at it. «Well, all right, I see your point. But you still haven’t seen mine. Why should I help you take action against Ulugan?»
He held up a hand. «No, wait, let me finish. As I understand it, Ulugan is a one-system empire lying nearly a thousand light-years outside our territorial bounds. It wants to incorporate one other system into itself. The natives of that system object, to be sure, and ask us for help—but the hard-boiled League Patrol is, I am certain, the last organization in the universe to get interested in noble crusades. The operation of crushing Ulugan would be enormously expensive. The logistic difficulties alone would make it a project of many years—even if it could succeed, which is by no means certain. The Ulugani could, and certainly would, retaliate with raids on our territory, perhaps they could penetrate to Sol itself. After all, interstellar space is so huge that any kind of blockade or defense line is utterly impossible. And you know what horror and destruction even a raid can bring, what with the power of modern weapons.
«The League is not a nation, empire, or alliance. It was formed to arbitrate interstellar disputes and prevent future wars. Such other services as it performs are relatively minor; and its systems are, politically and commercially, so loosely knit that it could never evolve into a true federal government. In short, it is totally unable to put forth the united effort of a war. If Ulugan is as determined as Agent Alak says, it may be able to bring the League to terms even if it is one planet against a million. The League may not feel the game is worth the candle, you see. And the resentment at having been involved in a war of which ninety per cent of its citizens would never have heard before death rained on them from the sky—that resentment could destroy the League itself!»
He put the cigar back to his mouth and blew a huge cloud of smoke. «In short, gentlemen,» he finished, «if you want my support for this project of yours, you’re going to have to give me a pretty good reason.»
Kaltro cocked an eye at Wing Alak. The field agent nodded slightly and took out a cigarette for himself. He waited till he had it going before he spoke:
«Let me recapitulate a little, director. Ulugan is a dense, metallic planet of a red dwarf sun. Terrestroid, which means a human can live there but not very comfortably—one-point-five Terran gravity, high air pressure, cold and stormy. The natives are a gifted species, but turbulent, not very polite or moral, all too ready to follow a leader blindly. Those are cultural rather than genetic traits, of course, but they’ve been pretty well drilled in by now. The history of Ulugan is one of mounting international wars, which pushed the technological development ahead fast but exhausted the natural resources of the planet. In short, a history not unlike ours prior to the Unification; but they never developed a true psychological technology, so their society still contains many archaisms.
«They invented the faster-than-light drive about two centuries ago and started exploring—and exploiting, quite ruthlessly—the nearer stars. They still had nations then, and quarreling over the spoils led to a slam-bang interstellar war. One nation, Unzuvan, finally conquered all the others and absorbed them into a racial empire. That was about thirty years back. It was shortly thereafter that a long-range exploration party from the League, off to study the starclouds near Galactic center, chanced on them. Naturally, even though they are remote from our integrated territory, they were invited to join us. All races of suitably high civilization are, and so far none had refused. They did. Quite rudely, too. Said they were perfectly capable of gaining everything we offered for themselves, and be damned if they’d give up any of their sovereignty.»
«Um-m-m. Paranoid culture, then,» said Meinz.
«Obviously. Well, the League… or rather, its agent the Patrol… did what it could. Sent embassies, cultural missions, and so on, in the hope of gradually converting them. I’ve been more or less in charge for the past fifteen years, though of course I could only get out there once in a while. Too much else to do. We had no luck, anyway, except—» Briefly, Alak grinned. «Well, we do have an efficient intelligence service.»
«Spies, you mean?» asked Meinz impatiently.
«No, never! What, never? Hardly ever!» Alak’s classical quotation was lost on Kaltro, who merely grunted, but Meinz smiled. «We weren’t too interested in the military-political details of Ulugan,» went on the field agent cryptically. «Mostly, we studied the neighboring stars. No one could object to scientific study of primitive planets, could they?
«I’ll see that you get our complete dossier on Ulugani sociodynamics, but briefly, the set-up is simple. There’s a hereditary emperor and a military aristocracy ruling a subservient class of peasants and workers. The aristocracy is hand in glove with the big commercial interests—it’s a sort of monopoly capitalism, partly controlled by the state and partly controlling the state. No, that’s a poor way to phrase it. Let’s say that the industrial trusts and the military caste together are the state. The supreme power is, for all practical purposes, lodged in the Arkazhik, a kind of combined premier and war minister. Right now he’s one Hurulta, an able, aggressive, ambitious being with some colorful dreams of glory.
«Very well. Ulugan, under Hurulta, wants to start conquering itself an empire. Specifically, they intend to annex Tukatan, a fertile planet with a backward population. In fact, by now, in the time it’s taken me to get here, they have begun doing so. But you know they aren’t going to stop there.»