There was a long silence. Earth, MacKinnie thought. Before the Empire, before the CoDominium, before space travel. Those times were no more than legends, yet Todd had seen copies of works written then.
“The first spacecraft used rockets,” Kleinst said firmly.
“Yes, but they had another concept,” Todd said. “It was not used, but it might have been. And it is something we can build …”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
WITNESS
Lieutenant Jefferson tapped nervously at the door to High Commissioner Ackoff’s office. Jeff could think of no reason why the Imperial governor would want to see him. In the past few months he’d worked on a dozen assignments, all routine and all dull, and as far as Jefferson knew he’d done them all satisfactorily; Ackoff couldn’t be unhappy with him. On the other hand, he’d done nothing outstanding either. Jeff didn’t like economic intelligence work, and longed for a space assignment.
“Come.”
Commissioner Ackoff’s office might have been used as a textbook example: office, one each, governor’s, minor colonial planet. There was the large wooden desk and leather chairs; conference table and more chairs; conversation group with couch and soft chairs off to one side; computer screens and input console discreetly hidden in the desk; portrait of the Emperor draped with the flags of Empire; shelves of curios including models of ships Ackoff had served in; large sideboard filled with liquor—
Ackoff was seated at his conference table. So was Captain Greenaugh.
“Come in, Jefferson,” Ackoff said. “Have a seat.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency—”
“Haven’t seen you for a while,” Sir Alexei said. “I miss those government seminars. Really ought to start them up again. Only time I get to meet my officers.” The
Commissioner shook his head slowly. “Too much work, no one to do it. I’m afraid we’ve an additional job for you.”
“Sir?” Jeff looked to Greenaugh for some hint of what was happening.
“Not in space,” Greenaugh said. He laughed at Jefferson’s expression. “Tired of this place already? I’m told you’re practically engaged to a local girl—”
“Not yet, sir. “Jeff was emphatic.
“But you still see her,” Greenaugh said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, sir.”
“Quite often.”
“Yes, sir,” Jeff said. Often, and the relationship was certainly one that Elaine might take as “practically engaged.” Certainly her father had a right to think so. The less said about that the better.
“Not trying to pry into your private affairs,” Greenaugh said. “But I take it you do not intend to apply for transfer to the civil service.”
“No, sir,” Jeff said. “I’m ready for space duty whenever there’s an assignment—”
Greenaugh chuckled. “And you’d like to know when that will be. So would we all, Lieutenant. So would we all. But I’m afraid not even Sir Alexei knows that. Meanwhile, we’ve a job to do here. Know anything about Haven’s military research establishment?”
“Well, a little-”
“A lot, I’d say,” Ackoff interrupted. “It was your economic analysis that got us interested. Haven has a big research station in the Corliss Grant Hills. From what we can see it siphons off a good part of their budget and a lot of their technical talent. We can’t think why.”
“Any ideas?” Greenaugh asked.
“Not really, sir,” Jefferson said. “Frankly, I can’t see any need for a big military research effort. Haven has just finished the consolidation of this continent, which effectively means the whole planet. They’d have finished the job sooner if they hadn’t dragged their feet. They’ve no one to fight.”
“Precisely,” Greenaugh said. “Which is what disturbs us. One, they did drag their feet. From what we know of their history, unification of the planet has been Haven’s dream since the present dynasty took over. We gave them the chance to do it, and they went very slowly. Then all of a sudden they speeded things up and finished with a bang. Two, they’re spending a lot of money and sending the cream of their engineering talent to a military research station that’s working on weapons they’ll never need. Quickfiring cannon. War rockets — big ones, too; Tombaugh’s radar tracked one six hundred kilometers. Balloons, for Christ’s sake. And that’s just what they tell us about. What else are they doing out there?”
Jefferson frowned. “I don’t know, sir-”
“No, and we don’t expect you to,” Greenaugh said. “But we do want to find out. You get along with the locals. Come to that, you’ve got more purely social contacts in Haven than most of us.”
“Yes, sir, but Elaine’s father is a roads commissioner. He wouldn’t know about the Corliss Grant station.”
“Didn’t expect him to,” Ackoff said. “But you go to social gatherings. What’s the mood here? Officially they love us, but what do they really think?” He spread his hands helplessly. “Are they mad enough to be working on weapons to fight us?”
“I’ve heard no hint of that,” Jefferson protested.
“Nor would you,” Ackoff said gently.
“Christ,” Greenaugh snorted. “Aliens in Trans-Coalsack. Half the fleet sucked off to that godforsaken corner of the Empire. Outies not twenty parsecs from here, and nowhere near enough ships to deal with them. All we’d bloody need is some kind of abortive revolt just when we’re ready to report this place pacified.” He shook his head grimly. “Christ, what would we do? We don’t have enough Marines to occupy the place—”
“They’re hardly a threat to the Empire, sir,” Jefferson said.
“They are if they’ve linked up with the outies,” Greenaugh said.
“But — do you have some reason to believe—”
“No,” Ackoff said. “We’ve no reason to believe anything at all. But the fact remains that they’re spending enormous sums for no reason we can determine, and their explanations don’t make sense.”
“I wish we’d never found this damned place,” Greenaugh said. “But that’s neither here nor there. This whole conversation is about to be mooted. Apparently they’re going to tell us what they’re doing out at Corliss Grant.”
Jefferson looked puzzled. “Sir?”
“They’ve requested an official observer,” Ackoff said. “An Imperial officer as official witness to some important test they’re going to conduct.”
“But why would they want a witness?” Jefferson asked.
Ackoff shook his head. “We haven’t any idea. Of course colonials do strange things.”
“I admit enough curiosity to consider going myself,” Greenaugh said. “But the governor won’t let me.”
“Not without sufficient escort,” Ackoff said. “And since our best guess is that what they’re doing is harmless, it would be impolitic for the captain to arrive with a company of fleet Marines.”
Whereas, Jeff thought, lieutenants are more expendable than captains. “Surely they know the Empire’s policy on negotiating with kidnappers,” he said.
“They ought to. We told them often enough,” Greenaugh said.
Imperial policy on the subject was simple. The hostages were counted as dead from the moment they were kidnapped. Imperial forces might storm the place the hostages were kept in, or they might bomb it. The one thing they wouldn’t do was negotiate for their safety. The policy was supposed to take away any incentive for kidnapping Imperial officials, and Jeff had always approved of it. Now he wasn’t so sure …
“It’s possible they don’t believe us, of course,” Greenaugh continued. “But I don’t think so. It’s too raw. Invite an Imperial officer out to their most secret place just to kidnap him? Easier to grab one of you chuckleheads in a local bar after a long night. Also, there’s the matter of the weather.”