* * * * *
But Colenso was wrong. My Third Battalion showed up when we had just
less than an hour to live. They took us off. The Earth mining outfit
haggled over the contract because the job had not been finished and I
had to settle for two-third contract price. Rajay-Ben did better when he
ransomed Arjay-Ben's two Sub-Commanders. It wasn't a bad deal and I
would have been satisfied, except that something had happened to Yuan
Saltario.
Maybe it made him realize that he did not want to die after all. Or
maybe it turned him space-happy and he began to dream. A dream of his
own born up there in the cold of his dead planet. A dream that nearly
cost me my Company.
I did not know what that dream was until Saltario came into my office a
year later. He had a job for the Company.
"How many men?" I asked.
"Our Company and Rajay-Ben's Patrol," Saltario said.
"Full strength?"
"Yes, sir."
"Price?"
"Standard, sir," Saltario said. "The party will pay."
"Just a trip to your old planet?"
"That's all," Saltario said. "A guard contract. The hiring party just
don't want any interference with their project."
"Two full Companies? Forty thousand men? They must expect to need a lot
of protecting."
"United Galaxies opposes the project. Or they will if they get wind of
it."
I said, "United opposes a lot of things, what's special about this
scheme?"
Saltario hesitated, then looked at me with those flat black eyes.
"Ionics."
It's not a word you say, or hear, without a chill somewhere deep
inside. Not even me and I know a man can survive ionic weapons. I know
because I did once. Weapons so powerful I'm one of the last men alive
who saw them in action. Mathematically the big ones could wipe out a
Galaxy. I saw a small one destroy a star in ten seconds. I watched
Saltario for a long time. It seemed a long time, anyway. It was probably
twenty seconds. I was wondering if he had gone space-crazy for keeps.
And I was thinking of how I could find out what it was all about in time
to stop it.
I said, "A hundred Companies won't be enough. Saltario, have you ever
seen or heard what an ionic bomb can ..."