"Got it," said David, and went off, whistling, to his nearby home of Fal Morgan, to pack his gear for the campaign. Like all his family, he had a fine singing voice and he also whistled sweetly and intricately. Unexpectedly, hearing that tune fade away down his entrance hall and out the front door of Grahame House, Cletus was reminded of a song Melissa had played and sung for him once. It was a small, sad, beautiful tune made by a young member of the Ap Morgan family who had died in some campaign when Melissa had been even younger, long before Cletus had come to the Dorsai.
He could not remember it all, but it dealt with the young soldier's strong memories of the house where he had grown up, remembered while he was waiting for an engagement to begin on some other world.
... Fal Morgan, Fal Morgan, when morning is gray,
Your wall stones and rooftree stand near me, today...
Cletus shook the emotional tag end of recollection from his mind. He turned to the task of picking out the men he would promote and send with David.
During the weeks that followed, the demand upon the Dorsai professional soldiers continued. Everywhere that Cletus had won a campaign, the combined Alliance-Coalition forces were in action, trying to reverse whatever situation his successful actions had created.
The efforts of the forces from Earth were ponderous and awesome. Together, the Alliance and the Coalition had better than half a million military people scattered out upon the new worlds. If the full half million could have been made effective in the campaigns Dow deCastries was trying to conduct, any opposition by the Dorsais or the attacked colonies could not have lasted more than a few days in each case.
As it was, however, nearly half the half million were engaged in military occupations other than those of a fighting soldier or officer. And of the more than two hundred and fifty thousand men that this left technically available for active duty in the field, more than a hundred and fifty thousand at any one time were rendered - or managed to render themselves - ineffective through a variety of means and for a variety of causes.
Among these were deep suspicions and old rivalries between former Alliance officers and their new Coalition partners; also, there was laziness and inefficiency among those of all ranks and political backgrounds, and the sheer blundering that inevitably resulted from the disorganization in such a large, hastily formed partnership of military units.
In spite of this, with all these subtractions, there remained a hard core of perhaps eighty thousand well-trained and superbly equipped troops from Earth to face a couple of hundred thousand almost useless and practically nonequipped local Colonial troops, plus a relative handful of Dorsais. Cletus could hardly have put twenty thousand Dorsai men in the field, even if he had scraped together every male from that small world, including walking cripples, between the ages of twelve and eighty.
Sending small contingents of Dorsais to officer Colonial troops was one solution; but only where the Colonial troops had at least a shred of training and effectiveness. Where this was not the case - as on Cassida - or where there simply were no native Colonial troops to officer - as on St. Marie - actual contingents of Dorsais had to be sent.
"But why don't we just stop?" demanded Melissa, anguished one day after she had come back from visiting a neighboring household that had lost yet another of the family's men. "Why can't we just stop sending men out?"
"For the same reason the Coalition and the Alliance have combined to send men to reverse everything we've accomplished," Cletus answered her. "If they beat us at every point, they'll destroy our value as soldiers for hire to the other colonies. That's what Dow's really after. Then they'll come on to the Dorsai and destroy us."
"You can't be sure of that - that they're out to destroy us!"
"I can't be other than sure. Nor can anyone who's thought the matter through," said Cletus. "We were winning every campaign and proving ourselves superior to their own troops. A little more of that, and troops from the Alliance and the Coalition wouldn't be needed any more on the new worlds. And with the need gone for any military support from Earth, there'd go Earth's influence among the colonies. This way, if they win, they protect their hold on the new worlds. While if we win - "
"Win!" snorted Eachan, who was in the room at the time.
"If we win," repeated Cletus, looking steadily at the older man, "we break that hold for good. It's a battle for survival between us now - when it's over, either Earth or the Dorsai are going to be counted out on the new worlds."
She stared at him, her eyes unnaturally wide, for a long moment of silence. "I can't believe that!" she said at last. She turned to her father. "Dad - "
"Oh, it's true enough," said Eachan flatly, from across the room. "We were too successful - with Cletus' early campaigns on Newton and worlds like that. We scared the Alliance and the Coalition, both. Now they're out to make themselves safe. And they're very big, and we're very small... And we've already sent out the last men we've got to send."
"They haven't any left in reserve either," said Cletus.
Eachan said nothing. Melissa turned back to Cletus.
"No," said Cletus, although she had not spoken, "I don't intend to lose."
Eachan still said nothing. In the silence, distantly, the front door annunciator chimed. A second later, an aide opened the door.
"Rebon, Exotic Outbond to the Dorsai, sir," he said.
"Bring him in," said Cletus. The aide stood aside and a slight man in blue robes entered the room.
His face held the eternal Exotic calm, but his expression was serious nonetheless. He came up to Cletus as both Cletus and Eachan got to their feet.
"I've got some bad news I'm afraid, Cletus," he said. "A military force of the Alliance-Coalition Peace Force has seized the Maran core-tap site and all the equipment and technicians there."
"On what basis?" snapped Eachan.
"The Coalition has filed claims against the Associated Advanced Communities of Newton," said Rebon, turning slightly to face Eachan. "They've seized the core-tap site as an AAC asset pending settlement of their claim. Mondar" - he turned back to Cletus - "asks your help."
"When did this happen?" asked Cletus.
"Eight hours ago," said Rebon.
"Eight hours!" exploded Eachan. The fastest spaceship - and there was no known swifter way of transmitting messages across interstellar space - required at least three days to cover the light-years between Mara and the Dorsai. Rebon's eyes veiled themselves slightly.
"I assure you it's true," he murmured.
"And where'd the troops come from?" demanded Eachan. He threw a glance at Cletus. "They weren't supposed to have any more available!"
"From the Friendlies, undoubtedly," replied Cletus.
Rebon lifted his gaze back to Cletus, slowly. "That's true," he said, on a note of surprise. "You expected this?"
"I expected deCastries to hire help from Harmony or Association eventually," said Cletus, brusquely. "I'll leave right away."
"For the core-tap site on Mara?" Relief sounded in Rebon's voice. "You can raise men to help us, then?"
"No. Alone. For Kultis," said Cletus, already striding out of the room, "to talk to Mondar."
Boarding the spaceship that would take him to Kultis, he encountered at the foot of the boarding ladder Vice-Marshal Arvid Johnson and Battle Operator William Athyer, who had been ordered to meet him here. Cletus stopped for a moment to speak to them.
"Well," said Cletus, "do you still have any notion I gave you a nothing job when I put you in charge of defending the Dorsai?"