Billy Thompson faced the catman in spite of Linzete's hiss of
disapproval.
"I know of our danger," snapped the ruler of Sscantoo. "Few know
it better than I. I was on Terra just before trouble struck, and I
know and appreciate the mass against me. And you tell me to submit
willingly."
"Might as well," said Billy. "It's inevitable."
"Sscantoo has one chance," said Linzete. "And that is to use Terra's
secret weapon."
"You haven't got it," said Billy flatly. "And if you mean
spore-bombing, don't be an idiot."
"Idiot?" snarled Linzete. "Better an idiot than a turncoat that is now
fighting his conquerors' battles for them. You commanded a certain
amount of respect, Thompson. But that debt was canceled on the day that
you started to curry favor. Go back and fawn upon the Loard-vogh; do
you think that I don't know what's in your mind? You'll willingly sell
Sscantoo into slavery in order to gain a little more voice in your
plaintive wailing cry to Vorgan."
"I--"
"As you sold Tlembo to the Loard-vogh."
"I've sold no--"
"Where have you been?" snarled Linzete.
"Coming from Tlembo," admitted Billy with a laugh. "And there has been
no communication because we have been traveling in subspace. It took us
four days to cross space from Tlembo to here. We've been out of touch
with the Universe for months, as far as we're concerned. Now if Tlembo
is being sold, I don't know about it."
"Hotang Lu left three days ago because he was withdrawn. His statement
was that Indan Ko was taking the trip to Vorgan's capitol in order to
offer terms of surrender. Explain that!"
"Indan Ko was intelligent enough to understand the implications behind
fighting. Look, Linzete, I sold Tlembo a theory of operations. You
cannot hope to win alone."
"We can exterminate them."
"And in doing so, render unfit for life a quarter of the Galaxy? That
I will not permit. And, Linzete, any extermination you perform will be
strictly post-mortem. Granted that you have the ships and the men and
the spores all grown or collected and packed into bombs. From a single
bombing of a Loard-vogh planet to extermination of life on that planet
will be a matter of six months to a year. Meanwhile, the Loard-vogh
will have attacked and conquered you. Think Terra didn't think of it?
We did and we considered it well. But Linzete, we like to remain alive.
We destroyed seventeen million of the first-line fighting men. That was
war, and the men were expendable. A nice nasty term. Terra lost seven
thousand because Terra does not consider any man really expendable. The
situation is about even. But consider their utter hatred and violence
to find a single planet bombed into lifelessness ever afterwards by
filling it with sheer death-rot."
"I see the point, but if we're to lose, let's lose honorably, die
fighting, and take as many with us as we can."
"A poor attitude. You must fight to win and to live, Linzete. War is
a means of forcing your will upon an enemy, Linzete. That means there
are a number of different kinds of war. War per se is usually the last
resort. There are social wars and economic wars, and people do not
consider them too violent. But a shooting war gets everybody all worked
up.
"There has been a lot of talk about Terra's secret weapon, Linzete.
It has been explained again and again. Terra's secret weapon is the
intelligence to recognize fact, even though obscured. If you had your
choice, Linzete, which would you rather be, the nominal ruler of a
sector or the man whose advice is taken on every decision--who, in
fact, tells the ruler what to do?"
"Lacking the right to be both acknowledged ruler and factual ruler, I--
That is a problem that has never occurred to me."
* * * * *
Billy said, very patiently, "Terra knows. Terra will win this war.
Our will--to be imposed upon the Loard-vogh--is that they take their
decisions from our advice. As such, we have the rule of the Galaxy.
I tell you this because Sscantoo has too much to gain by absolute
co-operation with Terra. Eventually the Loard-vogh will be seeking our
advice. I have sent them Indan Ko, the ruler of a race that has caused
them no end of trouble. Indan Ko will not arrive there for months, yet
I can predict that Vorgan and Lindoo will place the Tlembans directly
under Terran supervision for divers reasons, not the least of which is
the fact that Vorgan will prefer to place under Terra any intelligent
race who are more than conquered slaves. Allies, in a sense. That's
because the Loard-vogh have never yet experienced any allying. Their
past is devoid of practice. So it will be with Sscantoo. You will come
under our jurisdiction."