The first feeling Thane had when he came out of the Stoltz shock was
lightness. He raised his right arm as he came back to consciousness,
and he noticed that the effort required was less than he had
expected. He opened his eyes, and they gradually came back into
focus. He was lying on a cot in a dimly lit room. The light, he saw,
came from a small window across the room. With an unfamiliarly light
tread, Thane stepped over to the window. The pane was double,
transparent metal. It took only one glance at the bleak, wintry
landscape outside to explain the feeling of lightness. It could only
be the landscape of Onzar II, whose gravity was about 80% that of
Kadell IV.
Someone obviously had reason to cart him, unconscious, across a few
light years. Apparently, the duel had not been what it seemed. But
how? And why? Quite possibly the Third Officer was an agent of
Onzarian counter-espionage. If so, what had happened to Astrid? How
had Pyuf and the others been taken care of? On the other hand, it was
quite possible that Astrid was behind it. He remembered how she seemed
to have been talking to the Third just before the challenge. But for
what motive? Thane smiled to himself. The speculation was interesting,
but a little barren till more data turned up.
It was not long in coming. Thane had begun to explore the room
carefully when a door opened. It was Pyuf, armed. "You'll come with
me, please." No longer the half drunk duelling attendant, Pyuf was now
quite sober and quite serious.
Thane went. There were questions to be answered.
He had somehow expected a long corridor with many doors. Instead, he
walked directly into a brightly lighted room, filled with a great deal
of equipment. He recognized the latest model lie-detector, a rather
outdated narco-synthesizer, a Class B Psychocomputer. Much of the rest
was unfamiliar.
There were two Onzarians in the room. Both, in contrast to Pyuf, who
was dark and shorter than the average, had typical Onzar
features--yellow eyes with a slight slant, and golden skin. Pyuf
gestured towards Thane. "Give him the whole routine. We want to know
everything you can get. Then let us know."
Thane, of course, had been prepared for this sort of thing. He'd spent
time in Medico-Synthesis after every major job to immunize him against
interrogation. He'd had three separate, integrated pasts built up, all
quite fictional, which could be used during interrogation. He was
protected, at a certain level, against physical torture, and he did
have a certain protection against most of the drugs.
But the older medic simply asked him to sit down. He did, and his
assistant twisted a few dials. Indicators gave readings, quite a few
hundred readings. A metal recorder plate dropped out. The assistant
dropped this into the computer which began busily to eject tape. The
older man read the tape as it ticked out. The computer stopped and he
crumpled up the tape and tossed it into a corner. "Injection A17," he
said.
Vaguely he heard his name. He sat up, blinked his eyes open and looked
around. He was in quite a different room. There were curtains at the
windows, a desk, a rug, even a fire. There was a figure in front of
him speaking to him. "Roger Thane, we know you now. There is much that
we do not know, that has been hidden from even our methods. But we
know enough."
Thane was now fully alert. The voice had been soothing, but the shock
on seeing the face, when his eyes had come back into focus, was enough
to change all his ideas. It was Manning Reine.
Reine was sitting close to him, one elbow casually thrown across the
desk. He smiled, and asked if Thane would like coffee or a drink.
"I've had both," Thane said, "and they're not what I need now. Right
now all I want is what goes on. My job, which I didn't particularly
want, was to nursemaid you. Frankly, it's turned out to be quite a
job. After three or four very thorough stoltzings, one space battle, a
challenge, and a duel, you have me kidnapped. All right. I've got a
reasonably open mind. I'll listen. Now just what in the hell is going
on?"
Manning Reine said calmly, "Undoubtedly you have reason for anger,
Thane. It is true that we have used you. We have had to. But you
should know that there was nothing faked about my abduction. Those who
took me were Onzarians, agents of Candar, and they were deadly
serious. It was only with the greatest of good fortune that I was able
to escape. Only the presence of Pyuf at Aberdeen Spaceport made it
possible.
"And another point for your consideration. We did not know your
position. Your appearance is Onzarian. We could not be sure that you
were what you claimed, an agent of Liaison. And even if we could have
been sure, there were considerations that required us to proceed with
the greatest caution. Now, I hope you will accept my apologies and
listen. There is much that you can do, important for us and for the
whole Galaxy."
Thane controlled his anger and nodded assent. At the moment it was his
job to listen if he was going to be useful from here on in.
"You already have some knowledge of the second-stage drive," Reine
began. "You already know that it frees man for flight through the
Galaxy at an average speed ten times greater than that now possible
with the present warp-line drive. You are aware of the warp-line type
of movement. We cannot leave the warps without reverting to finite
drive. As you know, the warps are electro-gravitic lines of force in
space, along which interstellar travel has proved possible with
certain devices...."
"As you say," Thane broke in, "I know all that. I know too that the
second-stage drive allows practically instantaneous travel across the
warps. But just what does that have to do with your disappearance, and
the attacks that have been made on me?"
"Just this. I am, you know, one of the researchers responsible for the
development of the second-stage drive. I am more than that. I am also
the present leader of the Onzarian underground."
* * * * *
Manning Reine relaxed in his chair and sipped his coffee. "At the same
time I want you to understand that I am completely, wholeheartedly
loyal to the Allied Systems. As you know, I was educated at Earth
University at a time when that was possible for an Onzarian. I left
Onzar for good at the beginning of the Candar revolution, expecting to
devote the rest of my life to research within the A.S. But now I am
convinced that Candar must be overthrown if our own systems are to
survive."
"It's a proposition that will take some explaining," Thane said
coldly.
"The basic ideas are simple enough," Reine said, "once you see how they
fit together. There is, of course, nothing new about the basic theory of
the second-stage drive. Even at the beginning of the ancient atomic era,
scientists were groping for the Unified Field. The basic unified field
equations were the first step. Then came the charting of the
electro-gravitic lines of stress in space, which we know familiarly as
warp-lines. That was the foundation for faster-than-light travel, and
all that went with it. But of course it was awkward. We could not leave
the warp-lines unless we returned to finite speed. We could change
direction only at the intersection of warps. Many star-systems were far
off the warp-lines, and could be reached only after days or weeks of
travel at finite speeds."
"All very true," said Thane, "but it still doesn't explain a thing to
me. About your place in this or Candar's."
Reine hardly noticed the interruption. He went on, professorially.
"The solution has always seemed clear. In order to travel at will
through space, at faster-than-light speeds all we needed to do was to
create our own Field with its own warp-line. If a ship could generate
its own electro-gravitic warp it would be able to travel in almost
unlimited directions with no time lapse except for pauses at each
warp-line crossed. The power factors were such that an entirely new
principle of operation was needed. We have found it in the so-called
gold catalyst principle, and we now have a practical, economical
second-stage drive."
Thane frowned. "But that would seem to make Onzar less important. Why
do we need to worry about them now?"
Reine was about to answer but the door opened and Pyuf was there. "How
goes it, duellist?"
"It was a great fight," Thane said, "until you decided to tear up the
rules. You forgot to tell me that you included 'kidnapper' in your
list of trades."
Reine smiled. "That's just one of many that Pyuf forgot to mention.
Forger, propagandist, and political theorist might also have been
added." He turned to Pyuf. "I've about covered the technology. Why
don't you give our friend the politics?"
"Sure." Pyuf sat on the desk swinging his short legs. "First, though,
I'm sorry about the duel, Thane. We had to do it."
"Reine's already assured me of that once or twice," Thane said drily.
"I would like to know, though, just how you did it."
"That's simple enough. For months now we've been using the duelling
court on Kadenar as an exchange point in the underground. It's been
very helpful because of the ease that duellists have in getting
through customs. In your case we were lucky. Or I should say that
Astrid was quick and intelligent enough to take advantage of a
fortunate situation. A few words from her were enough to instigate the
Onzarian officer to challenge you. Remember that Onzarians have a
tradition of duelling, and you had insulted him. Furthermore, he was
still confused from the stoltz artillery."
"Clear enough. But may I ask why you bothered to let the duel go on at
all? Why not just take me when we got to the court?"
"We wanted to explain your disappearance. At the same time that you
were unconscious, your opponent and the other junior officer were also
out. With a touch of post-hypnotic suggestion, they were both quite
convinced that the Third Officer had won the duel and that you were
dead. We had no trouble getting your 'corpse' back through customs and
to Onzar."
"Probably," Thane said, "you had a purpose for all this. Before we go
any further, let's have it."
"If you were an agent of Candar we would have eliminated you," Pyuf
said. "You had already learned too much, and you had shown that you
were a dangerous man. If you were a Liaison agent, it was still
necessary for you to 'die.' At the moment, it's imperative that no
word of our activity gets to the Allied Systems. And, if we can
convince you, we badly need your help."
"It'll take some convincing from what's happened up to now. But go
ahead."
"Ever wonder," Pyuf went on, "why the Darzent Empire hasn't attacked?
What are they waiting for? They're aggressive. They have the edge in
power, with two inhabited systems to one in the A.S. Their technology
matches ours and their heavily centralized dictatorship allows them to
move faster, at least at the beginning of a war."
"Well?"
"Two reasons. One, they never could be sure that we didn't have the
second-stage drive. Two, they couldn't be sure of the allegiance of
Onzar."
"Onzar--the whole five systems--is probably more of an armed camp than
any other political entity in the Galaxy. But that isn't the real
reason for their overwhelming importance." Pyuf jumped down off the
desk and flipped a switch on the far wall. The galactic map appeared,
with the warp-lines superimposed in red.
Pyuf pointed with his cigarette. "Take a look at those warps. All nine
of the principal ones, crossing the Galaxy between the Allied Systems
and the Darzent Empire, pass within a parsec of Onzar. A
faster-than-light fleet going either way _has_ to surface at the Onzar
Confluence. And Candar, no matter how he sounds to you or me, is no
fool. He, you can bet, has taken some long quiet looks at a map like
this and he knows his position. So does Darzent. So do the people who
are presumably running things in the Allied Systems."
Thane stood up. He had been off at the perimeter of the struggle,
working in obscure but possibly important systems for the past three
years. He hadn't been in a position to see all the factors in the
struggle that was shaping up. But now at a glance he saw that Pyuf was
probably right. "It makes sense," he admitted, "but what about the
second-stage drive? Isn't that supposed to cut across warp-lines?
Wouldn't that reduce to zero the strategic importance of our friend,
Candar?"
At this, Manning Reine broke in excitedly, "But that's just the point,
Thane! Remember I mentioned there were certain limits to the
second-stage drive. We can, to a large extent, manufacture our own
lines. But they are never wholly independent of the existing natural
lines through space. Our dependence on the galactic lines varies from
almost zero to almost unitary, depending on our position in space. The
Onzarian Confluence has much the same effect as a whirlpool.
Theoretically, we could force our way out of the whirlpool and go
through the center of the Galaxy by a different route. But the energy
required approaches infinity."
Thane stepped over to the map. He pointed to the Onzarian Confluence.
"O.K. There's our bottleneck. But where's the cork? Just how do you
figure on stopping a fleet if it does surface at the Onzarian
Confluence for two or three microseconds?"
Pyuf slapped the butt of his cigarette across the tray on Reine's
desk. "There, Agent Thane, we reach the point of the whole show. But
let's get the story straight from the source." His eyes went to Reine.
Reine, pouring his second cup of coffee, looked up. "If you mean me,
that's not very accurate. It's true that it was developed in my
laboratory but Astrid was the one who saw the hint, originally, and
did all the development. I'm not even familiar with all the details."
He smiled apologetically to Thane. "We're talking about the Tracer. As
a by-product of our main job we discovered a new way of plotting
warp-lines. Instead of doing it by mathematics we found a way of
plotting warps directly by instrument. Well, I was on the main line of
research, and I had three times as much as I could do already. I just
regarded this as a curiosity. But Astrid took it and built the
Tracer."
Pyuf interrupted. He was not the man, Thane saw, who could abide
technical explanations when they had a clear political implication.
"The Tracer," he said, "is the cork for your bottleneck. With the
tracer, we know when any ship is operating on second-stage drive. With
two tracers, separated on a baseline of a few million kilometers, we
can plot position closely. Three tracers will pin-point them, and for
a trip across the center of the Galaxy, we will know when and where
they'll have to surface."
"That fits all right," Thane said, "but why tie in Onzar? Why not let
the Allied Systems have the tracer?"
Pyuf shrugged impatiently. "Gentlemen, from here on, we need a drink.
The explanation is simple, limpid, computable logic. As far as we can
see, it's the only course." He stared pointedly at Thane. "But it also
could be construed as treason. So we'd better have a drink." He
stepped to the door. "Astrid, will you bring glasses and the bottle?
We've got a bit of dialectics to dispense with."
* * * * *
After Astrid had handed the drinks around, Pyuf downed his. Then he
went on. "First of all, Thane, don't get me wrong. Maybe I couldn't
pass a security check with some of the boys in the Department of the
Outside. Maybe I could, I don't know. I've never tried. But I like the
Allied Systems as well as anything the Galaxy has to offer and I want
to live there. But let's take a hard look at them." He stopped to pour
another glass. "Within the A.S. you have the main federation, and you
have a lot of loosely confederated systems. Space only knows what the
confederations will do. We can only hope. But look at the rest of
them. Every couple of years, absolute, they rear back and elect an
assembly of 13,000 members, a really efficient size for a deliberative
body. So that sterling group elects a senate of 300 or so, and then
goes home. But it reserves a lot of rights, like declaring war. And
the senate, of course, goes ahead and elects the council. Which does
its best to keep things going."
"I know the system," Thane broke in. "Just what do you want to do
about it?"
"I don't want to do anything about it," Pyuf looked up earnestly. "I
want to prevent it from being wiped out. And right now the only way
that can be done is to work outside it, rather than through it. Or do
you want to hold a systems election when the Darzent fleet surfaces at
Onzar Confluence?"
Manning Reine was on his feet now. "And they will, Thane, they will.
We know there have been security leaks in the development of the
drive. It's just a question of time."
Thane calmly reached over and took the bottle from Pyuf. He filled his
glass and looked at the bottle, then at Pyuf, Astrid, and Reine. "All
right. We have our bottleneck. And we have our cork--the Onzarian
fleet. Just how do you propose we shove the cork into the bottle?"
Astrid was the first to answer. "We'll take the fleet! The Onzarians
are ready for freedom!" After that they were all talking. The
underground had convinced the people of the truth. They were ready to
rise up and throw off the yoke of Candar. There was conflict between
the government and the religion. The people would not stand any
further reduction in their living standards. Two-thirds of the gross
product went for armaments now, and the amount was steadily
increasing.
At last Thane banged the desk until they had all stopped talking. He
looked at them a moment in silence. "All right. You've got your
gadgets. You've got your political theory. You've even got your
strategy. But there hasn't been an atom's worth of tactics in anything
you've said, any of you. I think you're badly in need of some
engineering for your revolution."
Astrid walked over and looked up into his eyes. "That's about the way
it is, Roger. And that's why we need you so badly."
That was when they began going into details. Strength of the
underground, possible allies, weaknesses of Candar.... Thane was
beginning to see the picture, and the tremendous obstacles to be
overcome, when a buzzer sounded and a red light over the door blinked
DANGER ... DANGER ... DANGER....