“I have unpleasant news, Chancellor.”
They stood confronting each other, and everyone in the room could see their mutual hatred. Kanus—short, spare, dark—glared up at the silver-haired aristocrat.
“Our embassy in Acquatainia,” Romis continued icily, “reports that Sir Harold Spencer has requested permission to base a Star Watch survey expedition temporarily on one of the frontier stars of the Acquataine Cluster. A star near our border, of course. Martine has agreed to it.”
Kanus went white, then his face slowly turned red. He snatched the report from Romis’ hand, scanned it, crumpled it, and threw it to the floor. For a few moments he could not even speak. Then the tirade began.
An hour and a half later, when the Leader was once again coherent enough to speak rationally, his ministers were assuring him:
“The Terrans will only be there temporarily.”
“It’s only a small fleet… no military value at all.”
“It’s a feeble attempt by Martine and Spencer…”
At the mention of Spencer’s name, Kanus broke into another half-hour of screaming tantrum. Finally, he abruptly stopped.
“Romis! Stop staring out the window and give me your assessment of this situation.”
The Foreign Minister turned slowly from the window and answered, “You must assume that the Terrans will remain in Acquatainia indefinitely. If they do not, all to the good. But your plans must be based on the assumption that they will. That means you cannot attack Acquatainia by military force…”
“Why not?” Kanus demanded.
Romis explained, “Because the Terrans will immediately become involved in the fighting. The entire Star Watch will be mobilized, under the pretext of saving their survey fleet from danger, as soon as we attack. The fleet is simply an excuse for the Terrans to step in against us.”
But Kanus’ eyes began to glow. “I have the plan,” he announced. Turning to Kor:
“You must push the development of this instantaneous transporter to the ultimate. I want a working device immediately. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my Leader.”
Rubbing his hands together joyfully, Kanus said, “We will have our army appear in the Acquatainian capital. We’ll conquer the Cluster from within! Wherever they have a dueling machine, we’ll appear and conquer with the swiftness of lightning! Let the Star Watch plant their hostages on the frontier… they’ll gather cobwebs there! We’ll have the whole Cluster in our fist before Spencer even realizes we’ve moved!”
Kanus laughed uproariously, and all his aides laughed with him.
All except Romis.
3
Professor Leoh slouched unhappily in a chair at the dueling machine’s main control desk. Hector sat uneasily on the first few centimeters of the desk edge.
“We have adequate power,” Leoh said, “the circuits are correct, everything seems normal.” He looked up, puzzled, at Hector.
The Watchman stammered, “I know… I just… well, I just can’t do it.”
Shaking his head, Leoh said, “We’ve duplicated the conditions of your first jump. But now it doesn’t work. If the machine is exactly the same, then there must be something different about you.”
Hector wormed his shoulders uncomfortably.
“What is it, my boy? What’s bothering you? You haven’t been yourself since the night you caught Odal.” Hector didn’t reply.
“Listen,” said Leoh. “Psychic phenomena are very difficult to pin down. For centuries men have known cases where people have apparently teleported, or used telepathy. There are thousands of cases on record of poltergeists#longdash#they were actually thought to be ghosts, ages ago. Now I’m sure that they’re really cases of telekinesis: the poltergeist was actually a fairly normal human being, under extraordinary stress, who threw objects around his house mentally without even knowing it himself.”
“Just like when I jumped without knowing it,” Hector said.
“Exactly. Now, it was my hope that the dueling machine would amplify the psychic talent in you. It did once, but it’s not doing it now.”
“Maybe I don’t really have it.”
“Maybe,” Leoh admitted. Then, leaning forward in his chair and pointing a stubby finger at the Watchman, he added, “Or maybe something’s upsetting you so much that your talent is buried, dormant, switched off.”
“Yes… well, uh, that is…”
“Is it Geri? I haven’t seen her around here lately. Perhaps if she could come… after all, she was one of the conditions of your original jump, wasn’t she?”
“She won’t come here,” Hector said miserably.
“Eh? Why not?”
The Watchman blurted, “Because she wanted me to murder Odal and I wouldn’t, so she’s sore at me and won’t even talk to me on the view phone.”
“What? What’s this? Take it slower, son.”
Hector explained the whole story of Geri’s insistence that Odal be killed.
Leaning back in the chair, fingers steepled on his broad girth, Leoh said, “Hmm. Natural enough, I suppose. The Acquatainians have that sort of outlook. But somehow I expected better of her.”
“She won’t even talk to me,” Hector repeated.
“But you did the right thing,” said Leoh. “At least, you were true to your upbringing and your Star Watch training. Vengeance is a paltry motive, and nothing except self-defense can possibly justify killing a man.”
“Tell it to her.”
“No, my boy,” Leoh said, pulling himself up and out of the chair. “You must tell her. And in no uncertain terms.”
“But she won’t even see me…”
“Nonsense. If you love her, you’ll get to her. Tell her where you stand and why. If she loves you, she’ll accept you for what you are, and be proud of you for it.”
Hector looked uncertain. “And if she doesn’t love me?”
“Well… knowing the Acquatainian temperament, she might start throwing things at you.”
The Watchman remained sitting on the desk top and stared down at the floor.
Leoh grasped his shoulder. “Listen to me, son. What you did took courage, real courage. It would have been easy to kill Odal and win her approval… everyone’s approval, as a matter of fact. But you did what you thought was right. Now, if you had the courage to do that, surely you have the courage to face an unarmed girl.”
Hector looked up at him, his long face somber. “But suppose… suppose she never loved me. Suppose she was just… well, using me… until I killed Odal?”
Then you’re well rid of her, Leoh thought. But he couldn’t say that to Hector.
“I don’t think that’s the case at all,” he said softly.
And he added to himself, At least I hope not.
In his exhausted sleep, Odal did not hear the door opening. The sergeant stepped into the bare windowless cell and shined his lamp in Odal’s eyes. The Kerak major stirred and turned his face away from the light. The sergeant grabbed his shoulder and shook him sternly. Odal snapped awake, knocked the guard’s hand from his shoulder, and seized him by the throat. The guard dropped his lamp and tried to pry Odal’s single hand from his windpipe. For a second or two they remained locked in soundless fury, in the weird glow from the lamp on the floor—Odal sitting up on the cot, the sergeant slowly sinking to his knees.
Then Odal released him. The sergeant fell to all fours, coughing; Odal swung his legs out of the cot and stood up.