Treasure Of The Stars

Chapter 18

The Menel spaceship went into orbit around Kanan and stayed there for several hours. Riyannah had plenty of time to tell Blade what led up to the confrontation over the clearing. She answered most of his questions and he didn't want to bother her with the rest. She looked as if she hadn't had a good meal or a full night's sleep in nearly a month.

As Blade suspected, they'd done more than teach him the Kananite language while they had him under the Teacher Globe. They'd explored his memories from top to bottom and learned the truth about where he came from and how he'd come to Targa.

«I didn't feel happy about how you'd lied to me,» said Riyannah. «But I could see that you had many reasons for doing so. Everyone was particularly interested in your two meetings with the Menel.»

«I can imagine,» said Blade.

«I don't think you can,» said Riyannah. «They may have been the most important things you ever did.» After listening to her for a while longer, Blade began to suspect she was right. He'd known it was only common sense and basic decency to avoid killing Menel unnecessarily. He couldn't have guessed how much would eventually depend on that common sense and basic decency.

The first person to get involved in the situation after Blade's examination was Vruomanh, Second Councilor of Mestar, a gifted scientist but also an ambitious and intolerant man. He had the notion of keeping Blade under guard while methods were developed for exploring his brain more deeply. Such methods might kill him, but that wouldn't matter. When they'd finished exploring his brain, Mestar would have the Dimension X secret. Then they could use it to win the war against Targa single-handed.

All the other Cities would be eternally grateful to Mestar, which would then become virtually the ruler of Kanan.

«I imagine that idea wasn't entirely unpopular among the Councilors of Mestar,» said Blade dryly.

«No, it wasn't. But there were a few Councilors who opposed it. My uncle Yu Hardannah was one. There were others who thought it might be a good idea, but needed more study first. Vruomanh didn't like the thought of waiting. He pointed out that if we delayed, the secret might get out and Mestar would lose its chance.»

«He was right, wasn't he?»

«He certainly was. I made sure the secret got out. I went straight to the Menel Degdar-I think your word is 'ambassador'-and told him everything. Meanwhile my uncle was making sure they didn't put a Trail Voice in your head, and-«

«A Trail Voice?»

«Yes. It's a little radio transmitter they can put in a person's skull. After that they can pick up the transmissions and know exactly where he is.»

«I see.» Blade also saw what a narrow escape he'd had. With a radio beacon blatting away in his skull, he'd have been picked up within hours after his escape. As it was-

«They didn't have any method of tracking me without the Trail Voice, did they?»

«No. You're the first fugitive they've had to track without one in something like two hundred years.»

No wonder the Targans were a trifle out of practice chasing escaped criminals. «I owe your uncle a great deal.»

«Yes. He pointed out that your brain was something unknown. Putting a Trail Voice in your head might destroy your ability to travel among the Dimensions.»

Another narrow escape. Riyannah's uncle might very well be right. Being stuck here on Kanan as a friend or ally would be bad enough. Being stuck here as a pawn in some ambitious politician's schemes was something Blade was very glad not to be facing.

Not knowing any of this, Blade escaped. His escape promptly made an already confused and complicated situation even worse. As a Councilor, Riyannah's uncle was immune from arrest while in office. However, Vruomanh and his supporters badly wanted to have Riyannah locked up and interrogated. Again her uncle saved the day. He threatened that if anything happened to Riyannah he would fly to every other city on Kanan and tell them what was going on in Mestar. Nothing short of death would stop him.

«I was safe after that. But you weren't. It was obvious that Vruomanh wanted to capture you alive. It was just as obvious that if you didn't do what he wanted, he would see that you were killed in an 'accident.' I had to make sure you didn't fall into his hands.»

That might have been impossible, without the help of the Menel ambassador. Taking matters into his own claws, he called up his own personal starship and made sure it followed Vruomanh everywhere the Councilor went. That was fortunate, both for Blade and for Kanan.

«When the Menel showed they were ready to fight to save you, the crew of Vruomanh's own ship overpowered him,» said Riyannah. «He's now back in the same tower where you were held, and his guards are going to be more alert than yours were.»

«What will happen to him?»

«He'll lose his seat on the Council at once. Then he will probably have his mental patterns altered so he can never even conceive of a violent act again. He will also lose his rights as a citizen of Mestar and become a Yarash-a Lone One, who can live nowhere on Kanan for more than a year at a time.» No wonder Vruomanh might have preferred a beating. «Now the whole matter is coming before the Council of Kanan.»

«All twenty Cities?»

«No. In an emergency, any six Cities can form a War Council and act for the others for half a year.»

«I'm glad somebody on Kanan finally realizes this is an emergency.»

Riyannah frowned. «Blade, that's not quite fair. You can recognize a war crisis because your people fight all the time. That doesn't make you so superior to us, and I'd wish you'd stop talking as if you were. I can ignore it, but I don't think the Council will care to hear it. If you want a chance to help us you won't get it by insulting us.»

Blade had to admit she was right. He shouldn't grumble at the Kananites any more, particularly when he owed Riyannah and her uncle so much. However

«Riyannah, I apologize, and I'll try to control my tongue before the Council. But I can't help wondering if we've wasted enough time to let Loyun Chard finish Dark Warrior. What happens then?»

There really wasn't any answer to that question.

The War Council met three days later. It was not only the first War Council to meet on Kanan in more than three centuries, it was the first to include the Menel. In addition to delegates from the Councils of six Cities, the Menel ambassador was on hand along with three of his staff. Everyone was plugged into a Speaker mounted in the center of the table.

«He insisted on it,» said Riyannah's uncle. «If we did not let him sit on the Council, he would send a full report of what happened to his government. If the Menel thought we of Kanan were going to be slow and stupid in preparing to meet the Targans, they would start arming by themselves. They would arm heavily, fight the war, and perhaps win it without our help. Even if they did not win the war outright, their new fleet would make them stronger than Kanan. Then the alliance between us might break, and would certainly have to be changed.»

Blade knew it wouldn't be tactful to suggest this might not be a bad thing, particularly to Yu Hardannah. However, it was obvious that Kanan would neither treat other worlds as full equals nor conquer them outright. They'd got away with this for so long only through receiving more cooperation from the Menel than they deserved. The Targan war was going to break that pattern, no matter what Blade did.

After that he concentrated on getting the War Council to move against the Targans and refused to worry about other matters of high interstellar politics. It was easy to work out his plan and it came out smoothly and clearly when he spoke to the War Council.

«The first thing we must do is defend the asteroid base in the Targan system. More warships must be stationed there, hurd-ray projectors mounted on the surface, people unable to fight evacuated, food, water, and oxygen stored.

«However, none of this will be enough. Loyun Chard's great starship must be nearly finished by now. The attack will come before we can hope to strengthen the asteroid base enough. Then the base will be destroyed. We will no longer be able to observe or attack Targa or help the underground in its fight against Chard. They may give up their fight. We cannot betray men and women who have risked their lives to help us, or leave Chard with a united planet behind him.

«So we must find a way to destroy the starship. Chard had poured men and material into building Dark Warrior, starving the rest of his military effort. If we destroy the ship, Targa will be helpless in space for years. Men and metal can be replaced, but not lost years.

«During these years we can build up our fleet-«his glance took in the Menel as well as the Kananites «-and the Targan underground can win support. Chard himself may die or be overthrown, and our own planets will be safe.»

«How is the starship to be destroyed?» said one of the Menel. Engraved bracelets on all four arms showed he was of the Warrior Goran, probably the equivalent of a military attache to the ambassador. «From what we have learned, it is much too strong to be attacked in space with the ships we have now.»

«True. But the underground on Targa may be able to find a way to destroy it from within.» He turned to Riyannah. «The underground has friends among the scientists and engineers at some of Chard's space bases, don't they?»

Riyannah nodded. «They have even won over some of the shuttle pilots who fly men and equipment up to the starship in orbit.» She hesitated briefly. «They also told me they had plans of Dark Warrior. I didn't see the plans before I had to escape, but I think they were telling the truth.»

«So the underground seems to have everything needed to enter the starship and destroy it from within,» said Blade. «I suggest that we send a small mission to Targa with equipment and weapons to help them carry out the attack. It will take only a few people and one ship. It will also take less time than anything else we can do against Dark Warrior.»

«You, of course, would be part of this mission?» said the Councilor from the City of Quinda.

«I think I am certainly one of the best people for it,» said Blade. «You know that my people are warlike and that I have been trained in war skills almost since I was a child. I do not say this makes me a good man or a wise man, but I think it makes me the right man for this mission.»

«Perhaps it does,» said the Councilor. «But it also makes you a brother in spirit to the Targans. How can we be sure you aren't proposing this mission so that you can then cause it to fail? If we let everything depend on this mission and you destroy, what happens after that? Then-«

The Councilor didn't get any farther. «You fool!» snapped Yu Hardannah. Riyannah looked as if she wanted to leap across the table and attack the Councilor. The Menel ambassador's claws were clicking angrily.

Blade rose and glared across the table at the Councilor from Quinda. «If you know that much about me, you know more. You know how much I hate people like Loyun Chard and his soldiers.

«You know that my own planet has suffered from people like them. You know that while I may not think much of the way the Kananites are running this war-«

At that point all the Menel burst into the hooting and whistling that was their laughter. Blade stopped, realizing he'd done exactly what he'd promised Riyannah not to do-insulting and abusing the Kananites. He found he didn't care. If the Kananites wouldn't help him carry out this mission, he'd ask the Menel and the Kananites be damned!

Eventually the chairman of the War Council restored something like order and allowed Blade to continue. «I will submit to another brain probe, if you wish, since you do not seem to trust the results of the first one. But I hope you will decide we do not need to waste that much time. I am an enemy of Loyun Chard. I will be until I die. I hope that is enough for you.»

«It is,» said the chairman. «But-may I ask how you plan to get aboard the ship and destroy it?»

Blade shook his head. «I wish I could tell you, but I can't make any detailed plans until I've talked with our Targan friends.» Privately he suspected the attack on the starship would be a one-way mission, no matter how it was done. They might even be reduced to ramming it with one of the shuttlecraft. That would at least delay Dark Warrior's first mission by several priceless months, even though it might not be fatal to anyone except the crew of the shuttlecraft. He saw no point in mentioning any of this. He was a barbarian warrior in the eyes of most of these people, except for the Menel and possibly Riyannah. If he talked about ramming the starship, they might think he was too mad to be trusted.

That was the end of any argument against carrying out the mission or having Blade lead it. The Council moved on to details, and once more politics reared its stubborn head. Should people from all six Cities represented on the Council be sent on the mission? That would mean taking the time to choose them. Or should they send the first half-dozen people who came to hand? That would mean only the Cities of those people would have any share of the credit for the victory. Was it wise?

After listening to an hour of this nonsense, Blade was ready to pound his head against the wall or pick up a chair and start pounding Councilors over their heads. The Kananites wouldn't give up «politics as usual» even if the Day of Judgment was staring them in the face. He noticed the Menel ambassador's claws clicking again and Riyannah's face turning grim.

Before matters could build to another explosion, Blade decided to interrupt. «I've been thinking this over. If I can have just one reliable person to help me, I think I can do everything necessary. If you can send the equipment and weapons to give to the Targans-«

«I'll come with you,» said Riyannah. «The Targans already know me, so I won't have to win their trust. Also I already know the weapons we'll be using.»

Before Blade could thank Riyannah, the Councilor from Quinda intervened once more. «You are of Mestar,» he said sharply, looking at Riyannah. «What is more, you have done some questionable things in this affair already. Can we trust you? Even if we can, do we wish to give Mestar all the glory in this-?»

This time the Menel ambassador's claws reached out toward the Councilor. He got himself under control just before the claws closed on the man's throat. All the other Menel were hooting like sirens and bubbling like stewpots. The Speaker wasn't translating any of it, but from the tone Blade suspected they were all cursing Kanan and the Kananites.

Blade picked up his water glass and banged it on the table to get silence. Then he nodded to Riyannah.

«I am quite willing to give up my rights as a citizen of Mestar,» she said quietly. «I will become a Yarash, a Lone One, with no City to call my own for more than a year at a time. That way no one can say Mestar has won this victory. Now will it be safe to send me to Targa with Blade?» If her eyes had been lasers, the Councilor from Quinda would have been fried in his chair.

«Riyannah — «began her uncle, his face twisting in surprise and pain. She shook her head.

«No. There must be an end to this nonsense. Can we do nothing like sensible beings? You've said we can't trust this warrior Blade. I wonder what he could say about not trusting stubborn fools?» She went on like that for quite a while. By the time she ran out of breath, Blade didn't need to say anything. Riyannah had said it all for him.

«I think Riyannah and I can do the job,» said Blade, when he could speak again. «But more is needed to earn the trust of the Targans. Riyannah told me you have promised to give them some of your science and technology, after they've helped you defeat Loyun Chard. Is this correct?»

The chairman and several other Councilors nodded slowly. «I don't think you've done the right thing. Consider. The Targans are a proud people who have suffered much. Many of those who follow Loyun Chard do so because they honestly believe in his promises to put an end to that suffering.

«In spite of this the underground holds out against Chard. They hope to defeat him and give Targa a better government. How can they promise anything better without some of your science and technology already in their hands?» Blade slapped both hands down on the table with pistol-shot cracks. Several of the Councilors started. «Yes! Suppose they have to go to their fellow Targans and say-help us overthrow Loyun Chard, because the Kananites have promised us some of their knowledge after we win? Promises!» Blade made the word sound like an obscenity.

He went on more softly. «Even the underground may not believe you. They've been fighting Chard since before they ever heard of Kanan, losing friends, starving in the forest, always on the run, never sleeping soundly. If anybody in the whole galaxy has been fighting your battles, it's them. I think they have a right to more than promises.»

He smiled. «I'm not asking you to give them the secrets of the hurd-ray or the Zin Field. But what about the solar collectors, the power cells, the anti-gravity generators, the Teacher Globes? I think they deserve some of that.» He rose. «I won't ask you to answer me now. I won't even ask to listen to the discussion. This is a matter for you and the Menel, not for me. I must have an answer soon, though, and if that answer is 'No,' I don't know how much you can expect from the Targans.»

He turned to Riyannah and offered her his arm. Together they swept out of the Council room, like a king and queen leaving an unruly court behind them. A buzz of conversation was rising as the door slid shut.

«Blade,» said Riyannah softly, «I sincerely hope your people are in some other Dimension a long way off and stay there. You frighten even me, and as for those poor Councilors-«She shook her head.

«Do you think I've frightened them too much?»

«No. Just enough.» She slid her arm through his and they walked off down the corridor.

Riyannah was right. The War Council called them back the next day to listen to the chairman propose a bargain.

«We admit that it is just to give the Targans certain items of our technology at once. It is quite likely this will help win their trust and cooperation.»

It will also help them become independent more quickly, thought Blade. Trying to make the Targans clients like the Menel won't work, and there will be a bloody shambles if you even try. Much better of you don't have the chance to try. His attention returned to the chairman.

«-a warrior people,» the man was saying. «There is no way we can send our knowledge to the Targans without also giving it to you, and to your people if you return to them. We do not know how your people will use such knowledge. You may end your wars and live in peace forever, as we have done. You may also become as great a menace to the universe as the Targans under Loyun Chard. We cannot afford to leave ourselves defenseless, so we must ask you to help us.

«You have traveled across an aspect of reality that is neither time nor space. We have learned much about how you did this. We need to know more. We believe that other knowledge lies buried in your brain, at levels we cannot reach without your cooperation unless we are willing to endanger your sanity. We wish you no harm, so we ask your cooperation. Let us probe your brain again for all the knowledge you have of how to travel into Dimension X.

«Then we will give you all the information that is necessary to build the solar collectors and power cells. We will implant the information in your body so that only you will know it is there and only you can remove it. We will ask only that you get some agreement from the Targans before you give it to them.»

The chairman rambled on for a while after that. Blade only listened with half an ear. He'd heard the important thing: the Kananites were asking him to give up the Dimension X secret, in return for their scientific knowledge to give to the Targans and then take Home if he could.

Blade's first reaction was a mental shout of: Not until your sun goes nova! Behind that shout were years of living with the Official Secrets Act and the knowledge of what leaking the Dimension X secret could do. He also remembered the sensations of the Zin Field transition across the light-years. Something in that Transition was too close to the trip into Dimension X for comfort. The Kananites might be halfway to the Dimension X secret without even knowing it. If they picked his brains and learned everything there, how much farther could they go? Certainly they had computers far beyond Lord Leighton's. The risks were enormous.

On the other hand, what about the certainties? If he didn't go along with the Council's proposal, Loyun Chard's war would become inevitable. Whatever else happened, millions of beings, Kananite, Targan, and Menel, would die. If Loyun Chard won, a Targan empire would spread across this Dimension, perhaps discovering the Dimension X secret on its own and then spreading blood and ruin even farther.

Even if Loyun Chard was defeated, the Menel and the Kananites would bear the scars for generations. The Targans might be completely destroyed, and they would certainly end up confined to their own impoverished planet, bitter and vengeful.

Either way this Dimension would pay a grim price for Blade's refusal.

And the risks of revealing the Dimension X secret-were they really so great? Blade began to wonder. They could not get out of his brain more knowledge than was already there: All he knew was what the Project had done so far-randomly shooting a single naked man off into Dimension X. Even if the Kananites learned how to do that much at once, it would hardly make them a greater inter-Dimensional menace.

If they did learn more eventually, that might be serious. It would take a while, though. The Menel would not appreciate being left out, and that meant taking time to develop Dimension X travel techniques suited to Menel brains. Then there would be a host of political problems to be solved, and Blade knew far too well how long it took the Kananites to deal with these.

It might be generations before the Kananites could become any sort of menace, even if they wanted to. By that time Home Dimension Earth would either be in such bad shape it needed Kananite help or advance so far the Kananites would be no danger to it.

No. He could not condemn millions of people to death by refusing this proposal. Not when there was so little chance that anything really dangerous would come of accepting it. He had to live with the Official Secrets Act, but he also had to live with himself.

Blade straightened up, and felt as if all the millions of prospective war dead were joining in his sigh of relief. The chairman was looking at him.

«Mr. Chairman, Kananites and Menel of this War Council, I agree to the proposal.»

This time everybody was applauding, Riyannah was embracing him, and the Menel ambassador was practically dancing around the room, waving all four arms over his head.