I saw that this threat shook them. Even these hard hearts would not willingly kill some hundreds of their own people. Not that the hostages we held would stop them forever; but it was a bargaining point, which might gain us time. I wondered how we could possibly use that time, though, save to prepare our souls for death.
“Well, now,” huffed Huruga, “I didn’t imply I was not ready to hear you out. You have not yet told us why you have come in this unseemly, unprovoked manner.”
“It was you who attacked us first, who had never harmed you,” answered Sir Roger. “In England we give no dog more than one bite. My king dispatched me to teach you a lesson.”
Huruga: “In one ship? Not even your own ship?”
Sir Roger: “I do not believe in bringing more than is necessary.”
Huruga: “For the sake of argument, what are your demands?”
Sir Roger: “Your empire must make submission to my most puissant lord of England, Ireland, Wales, and France.”
Huruga: “Let us be serious, now.”
Sir Roger: “I am serious to the point of solemnity. But in order to spare further bloodshed, I’ll meet any champion you name, with any weapons, to settle the issue by single combat. And may God defend the right!”
Huruga: “Are you all escaped from some mental hospital?”
Sir Roger: “Consider our position. We’ve suddenly discovered you, a heathen power, with arts and arms akin to ours though inferior. You could do a certain amount of harm to us, harassing our shipping or raiding our less firmly held planets. This would necessitate your extermination, and we’re too merciful to enjoy that. The only sensible thing is to accept your homage.’
Huruga: “And you honestly expect to — A hatful of beings, mounted on animals and swinging swords — bub-bub-bub-bub—”
He went into colloquy with his officers. “This confounded translation problem!” he complained. “I’m never sure if I’ve understood them aright. They could be a punitive expedition, I suppose. For reasons of military secrecy, they could have used one of our own ships and kept their most potent weapons in reserve. It doesn’t make sense. But neither does it make sense that barbarians would blandly tell the most powerful realm in the known universe to surrender its autonomy. Unless it’s mere bluster. But we may be completely misunderstanding their demands … and thereby misjudging them, perhaps to our own serious loss. Hasn’t anyone got any ideas?”
Meanwhile I said to Sir Roger, “You aren’t serious about this, my lord?”
Lady Catherine could not resist saying: “He would be.”
“Nay.” The baron shook his head. “Of course not. What would King Edward do with a lot of unruly bluefaces? The Irish are bad enough. Nay, I hope only to let myself be bargained down. If we can wring from them some guarantee to let Terra alone — and perhaps a few coffers of gold for ourselves—”
“And guidance home,” I said gloomily.
“That’s a riddle we must think on later,” he snapped. “No time now. Certainly we dare not admit to the enemy that we’re waifs.”
Huruga turned back to us. “You must realize your demand is preposterous,” he said. “However, if you can demonstrate that your realm is worth the trouble, our emperor will be glad to receive an ambassador from it.’
Sir Roger yawned and said languidly, through me:
“Spare your insults. My monarch will receive your emissary, perhaps, if that person adopts the true Faith.”
“What is this Faith?” asked Huruga, for again I must use an English word.
“The true belief, of course,” I said. “The facts about Him who is the source of all wisdom and righteousness, and to whom we humbly pray for guidance.”
“What’s he babbling about now, Crath?” muttered an officer.
“I don’t know,” Huruga whispered back. “Perhaps these, uh, English maintain some kind of giant computing engine to which they submit the important questions for decision… I don’t know. Confounded translation problem! Best we delay awhile. Watch them, their behavior; mull over what we’ve heard.”
“And dispatch a message to Wersgorixan?”
“No, you fool! Not yet, not till we know more. Do you want the main office to think we can’t handle our own problems? If these really are mere barbarian pirates, can you imagine what would happen to all our careers if we called in the whole navy?
Huruga turned to me and said aloud: “We have ample time for discussion. Let us adjourn until tomorrow, and think well in the meantime on every implication.”
Sir Roger was glad of that. “Let’s make certain of the truce terms, though,” he added.
I was getting more facility in the Wersgor language with every hour, so I was soon able to elucidate that their concept of a truce was not ours. Their insatiable hunger for land made them the enemy of all other races, so they could not imagine a binding oath exchanged with anyone not blue and tailed.
The armistice was no formal agreement at all, but a statement of temporary mutual convenience. They declared that they did not at present find it expedient to fire on us, even when we grazed our kine beyond the force screen. This condition would prevail as long as we refrained from attacking any of them who moved about in the open. For fear of espionage and missile dropping, neither side wished the other to fly within view of the camps, and would shoot at any vessel which lifted. That was all. They would surely violate this if they decided it was to their interest; they would work us harm if they saw any method of doing so; and they expected us to feel likewise.
“They have the better of it, sire,” I mourned. “All our flying craft are here. Now we can’t even jump into our spaceships and flee; they’d pounce ere we could elude pursuit. Whereas they have many other ships, elsewhere on the planet, which may hover freely beyond the horizon and be ready to assail us when the time comes.”
“Nevertheless,” said Sir Roger, “I perceive certain advantages. This business of neither giving nor expecting pledges — aye—”
“It suits you,” murmured Lady Catherine.
He whitened, leaped to his feet, bowed at Huruga, and led us out.
Chapter XI
The long afternoon allowed our people to make considerable progress. With Branithar to instruct them, or to interpret for those prisoners who understood the art in question, the English soon mastered the controls of many devices. They practiced with spaceships and small flying vessels, being careful to raise these only a few inches off the ground, lest the foe observe it and shoot. They also drove about in horseless wagons; they learned to use far-speakers, magnifying optical devices, and other esoterica; they handled weapons that threw fire, or metal, or invisible stunning beams. Of course we English had, as yet, no inkling of the occult knowledge which had gone into making such things. But we found them childishly simple to use. At home, we harnessed animals, wound intricate crossbows and catapults, rigged sailing ships, erected machines by which human muscles might raise heavy stones. This business of twisting a wheel or pulling a lever was naught in comparison. The only real difficulty was for unlettered yeomen to remember what the symbols on the gauges stood for — and this, indeed, was no more complicated a science than heraldry, which any hero-worshiping lad could rattle off in detail.
Being the only person with pretensions to reading the Wersgor alphabet, I busied myself with papers seized in the fortress offices. Meanwhile Sir Roger conferred with his captains and directed the most oafish serfs, who could not learn the new weapons, in certain construction work. The slow sunset was burning, turning half the sky gold, when he summoned me to his council board.