* * * * *
Jon Senesin sat in a soft chair, his hands gripping at the arms as
though it might at any time fall from under him. He looked at the three
other men in the room. His father, Lord Senesin, looking rather tired,
but with a slight smile on his lantern-jawed face, sat on his son's
left. One hand ran nervously through his gray hair.
On Jon's right sat the colonel, looking cool, unperturbed, and very
gentle.
Between them sat the Emperor.
Jon's face looked pale, and there was a slight nervous tic at the corner
of his mouth. "I ... I don't understand," he said. "I--" He swallowed
hard as his voice failed him.
"Nothing hard to understand, son," said the colonel mildly. "We've been
looking for evidence to break up the Federalists for several years. Some
of them are honest men who are simply against any kind of hereditary
monarchy--we'll let them go eventually. Some of them are fanatics--the
kind that is against any form of government that happens to be in power;
they'll get psychiatric treatment. But the leaders of the group are
agents of the Gehan Federation. My men are picking them up now. The man
that contacted you and me last night was arrested within two minutes
after we left."
"But--the _evidence_! Those tapes. The documents. They all seemed
genuine. They seemed so convincing."
"They should be convincing, Jon," said Lord Senesin in his smooth
oratorical baritone. "You see, they are perfectly true."
Jon Senesin looked at his father as though the older man had suddenly
sprouted an extra set of ears. "Y ... You've been brainwashed?"
The Prime Portfolio shook his head. "No, son, not that. Did you see
anything like that on the tapes?"
"N-no. But the others. Fileman Brenner, Portfolio for Defense Vane,
General Finster--all of them. I thought--"
"You thought wrong, son," said Lord Senesin. "I am and always have been
working loyally with His Majesty. He gives the orders, and I carry them
out."
Jon's voice became taut. "You mean you're helping him? You're trying to
get the Empire into a war with the Gehan Federation so that _he_ can
become another dictator, like Jerris the First?" He kept his eyes
carefully averted from the Emperor as he spoke.
Thus he didn't notice that His Majesty looked at Colonel Sorban with an
expression that said, "You're right. He does have guts."
Lord Senesin said: "No, son; I'm not working toward that at all. Neither
is His Majesty. There would be no point in it."
Then, for the first time, the Emperor spoke. His voice was soft, but
commanding. "Mr. Senesin, let me explain something to you."
Jon Senesin's head jerked around. There was a confused mixture of fear
and determination on his face.
"Mr. Senesin, I no more want war than you do. I am trying to avoid it
with every power at my command. I have that duty to my people. But I
have another duty, too. A duty, not just to the Empire, but to the human
race as a whole. And that duty is to establish, not a Terran Empire, but
a Galactic Empire--a single, consolidated government for every planet in
the galaxy. Man can't go on this way, divided, split up, warring with
himself. Man can't live in isolation, cut off from other worlds, other
types of societies.
"We can't have a part of the human race living in constant fear of
another part. We can't allow the conditions that exist at this moment in
the Gehan Federation. To paraphrase Lincoln, 'The galaxy cannot exist
half slave and half free.'
"Right now, there is evidence that the Gehan Federation will collapse
internally within less than five years. The only way for the President
of the Federation to avert that collapse will be to declare war on the
Empire. We have had to take certain risks in order to insure that when
and if war does come, we will win it.
"Bairnvell was one of those risks. Not too great a one, as it turns out;
evidently the Federation government doesn't see that our possession of
that base is a vital factor in our own defense. Strategy in three
dimensions isn't easy to reason out.
"Mr. Senesin, I have no desire for power in a personal way. Any power I
have is used for the good of my people. I have no police system for
terrorizing the people; I don't suppress the freedom of every man to say
or print what he wants. To call your Sovereign a fatheaded slob in a
newsfac might be considered bad taste, but it isn't illegal. I can't
even bring a civil suit against you, the way an ordinary citizen could.
"Now, I'll grant that I sometimes use illegal means to control the
Empire. But there are reasons for that. I--"
He was interrupted by a soft chime. He pressed a button on his armchair.
"Yes?"
"You go on the interstellar hookup in twenty minutes, Sire. The File has
assembled," said a voice from a speaker.
"I'll be right there." He stood up and glanced apologetically at the
other three men. "Sorry. Political announcement, you know. You two go
ahead and explain to Mr. Senesin." Then he looked directly at the Prime
Portfolio. "I'll tell them you're slightly ill." He reached out, took
Lord Senesin's hand, and grasped it firmly. "I'll make it look good, old
friend, don't worry. I'll need your help with Lord Evondering when he
gets the Primacy."
* * * * *
The other men were on their feet already. They watched in silence as he
walked out the door, then eased themselves back into their chairs.
"I still don't understand," Jon said softly. The bitterness and anger
seemed to have left him, leaving only puzzlement in their wake. "If you
take orders from him, Dad, then this isn't a democracy any more. It's
become another Imperial dictatorship."
"Son," said his father, "the Empire never has been a democracy in the
sense you're thinking about. Ever since Jerris the First, it has been
ruled solely by the Emperors. Always.
"The Imperial Family is a special breed, son. It's a genetic strain in
which the quality of wise leadership is dominant. It's a quality that's
more than just intelligence; wisdom is the ability to make correct
judgments, not only for one's self, but for others."
"But, Dad!" There was almost a wail in the boy's voice. "That makes the
whole democratic system in the Empire a farce! It's totally unnecessary!
_You're_ unnecessary! He could run everything by himself!"
Lord Senesin started to say something, but Colonel Sorban interrupted.
"No, you young fool, he is _not_ unnecessary! He is, in a very real
sense, the Emperor's shield. Our Emperors have always given the people
of the Empire the kind of government they _need_, not the kind of
government they _want_. There are certain things that _must_ be done,
whether the people like those things or not.
"How long do you think the Empire would last without the Imperial Line
to guide it? Not ten years! The thing is too big, too vast, for any
ordinary man to handle the job. The voters are perfectly capable of
electing a man to the Primacy on the strength of his likable personality
alone--look at Lord Evondering. A hell of a pleasant guy, without a
glimmering of real wisdom.
"When the people don't like the things the Government does, they throw
it out--even if the thing done was actually for the best. The people
demand a new Government. We can't allow them to throw the Emperor out,
so we need a scapegoat. This time, it happened to be your father, here.
He happened to be Prime at a crucial time, and he had to give orders
that made him unpopular. So he'll have to get out, and let the Loyal
Opposition take over. But the Emperor will go right on running things.
"Your father is far from unnecessary, son. He's a hero, dammit, and
you'd better remember that! He's taking the rap for another man because
he knows that he is expendable and the other man isn't.
"Oh, your father could probably ride this thing out and stay in the
Primacy for a couple more years. But this mess with the Federation is
going to get a lot stickier than it is now. The Emperor is going to have
to do things that the people will hate even worse, and we might as well
let that fool Evondering take the rap. He'll look so bad by the time he
leaves the Primacy that everyone will be screaming for your father back
again, to clean up the mess."
Jon Senesin still looked dazed. "But, if that's the case, why allow the
people to vote at all?"
"Because that's the only way you can keep an Empire stable! As long as
the average man feels he has a voice in his Government, he's forced to
admit that any failures are partly his own fault. Nobody rebels against
a government he can vote against. As long as he has ballots, he won't
use bullets."
Lord Senesin said: "I know it's a shock, coming this way. But look at it
right, son."
* * * * *
"I am," said Jon slowly. "At least, I think I am. But it doesn't really
seem right. Not yet." He looked at the colonel. "One thing I don't
understand, my lord. Why did you let me take all that evidence around to
the newsies? And why are you telling me all this now? I'm still not
fully convinced. Aren't you afraid I'll tell the whole story?"
But it was his father who answered. "You tried that, son. It didn't
work, did it?"
"No. But _why_? Why wouldn't they believe me, even when I had all that
evidence?"
"Because they don't _want_ to believe you," said the colonel. "Ever hear
of a father-image? The Emperor is a symbol, Jon. He's not a human being
in the eyes of the average man. He's the kind All-Father, the godlike
being who dispenses mercy, but not justice.
"Haven't you ever noticed that orders of judgment against criminals are
signed only by the courts and by the Portfolio of the Interior? But
pardons and paroles are signed by the Emperor.
"It may not sound ethical to you, but that's the way the Emperor has to
operate. He takes credit for all the nice things he does, and lets
others take the blame for anything that's distasteful.
"You could blat it around all over fifty star systems that the Emperor
was a louse, and all you'd get is a poke in the eye for your troubles.
"It's not easy for him, and don't ever kid yourself that it is. He's
going out there now to tell the Empire that your father and his
Government have resigned. He has to try to make his best friend and most
loyal subject look a little less black than he has been painted, and all
the time it was the Emperor who wielded the paint gun. Do you think
that's fun?"
"No," said Jon softly. "No, I guess not." He paused. "Wouldn't it have
been easier to take the evidence away from me, though?"
"No. That would have left you furious. No amount of talking would have
convinced you. As it was, you convinced yourself that there is no way to
attack the Emperor directly. He's safe right where he is."
Jon shook his head slowly. "It all seems so ... so tangled. It still
seems as though the whole deception is ... well, _wrong_, somehow."
"If you look at it in a certain way," said Lord Senesin, "I suppose it
does seem wrong. But it's necessary. Absolutely necessary."
"Maybe," said Jon, still unconvinced. "It certainly does look as though
His Majesty has himself in an almost impregnable position. It's a wonder
he needs agents like you."
Colonel Lord Barrick Sorban smiled a little. The boy would see the thing
straight eventually. He had what it took, even if it didn't show much at
this stage. Actually, he was more than halfway convinced now, but
wouldn't admit it to himself yet. At least he'd been able to put a
finger on one thing.
Aloud, the colonel said: "You're not altogether wrong there, son. When
you come right down to it, _I'm_ the unnecessary man."