Upstarts Part 2

"Not at all. We were enormously lucky to have learned how to control spatial reference frames ourselves. I doubt if you could do it in another two million years." Crownwall rose to his feet. "And now, Your Effulgence, I think it's about time I went back to my s.h.i.+p and drove it home to Earth to make my report, so we can pick up those bombs and start making arrangements."

"Excellent," said Ffallk. "I'd better escort you; my people don't like strangers much."

"I'd noticed that," Crownwall commented drily.

"Since this is a very important occasion, I think it best that we make this a Procession of Full Ceremony. It's a bother, but the proprieties have to be observed."

Ggaran stepped out into the broad corridor and whistled a shrill two-tone note, using both his speaking and his eating orifices. A cohort of troops, pikes at the ready and bows strapped to their backs, leaped forward and formed a double line leading from His Effulgence's sanctum to the main door. Down this lane, carried by twenty men, came a large sedan chair.

"Protocol takes a lot of time," said His Effulgence somewhat sadly, "but it must be observed. At least, as Amba.s.sador, you can ride with me in the sedan, instead of walking behind it, like Ggaran."

"I'm glad of that," said Crownwall. "Too bad Ggaran can't join us." He climbed into the chair beside Ffallk. The bearers trotted along at seven or eight kilometers an hour, carrying their contraption with absolute smoothness. Blasts from horns preceded them as they went.

When they pa.s.sed through the huge entrance doors of the palace and started down the ramp toward the street, Crownwall was astonished to see n.o.body on the previously crowded streets, and mentioned it to Ffallk.

"When the Viceroy of the Seventy Suns," said the Viceroy of the Seventy Suns, "travels in state, no one but my own entourage is permitted to watch. And my guests, of course," he added, bowing slightly to Crownwall.

"Of course," agreed Crownwall, bowing back. "Kind of you, I'm sure. But what happens if somebody doesn't get the word, or doesn't hear your trumpeters, or something like that?"

Ggaran stepped forward, already panting slightly. "A man with knots in all of his ear stalks is in a very uncomfortable position," he explained. "Wait. Let me show you. Let us just suppose that that runner over there"--he gestured toward a soldier with a tentacle--"is a civilian who has been so unlucky as to remain on the street after His Effulgence's entourage arrived." He turned to one of the bowmen who ran beside the sedan chair, now strung and at the ready. "Show him!" he ordered peremptorily.

In one swift movement the bowman notched an arrow, drew and fired. The arrow hissed briefly, and then sliced smoothly through the soldier's throat.

"You see," said Ggaran complacently, "we have very little trouble with civilians who violate this particular tradition."

His Effulgence beckoned to the bowman to approach. "Your results were satisfactory," he said, "but your release was somewhat shaky. The next time you show such sloppy form, you will be given thirty lashes."

He leaned back on the cus.h.i.+on and spoke again to Crownwall. "That's the trouble with these requirements of civilization. The men of my immediate guard must practice with such things as pikes and bows and arrows, which they seldom get an opportunity to use. It would never do for them to use modern weapons on occasions of ceremony, of course."

"Of course," said Crownwall, then added, "It's too bad that you can't provide them with live targets a little more often." He stifled a shudder of distaste. "Tell me, Your Effulgence, does the Emperor's race--the Master Race--also enjoy the type of civilization you have just had demonstrated for me?"

"Oh, no. They are far too brutal, too morally degraded, to know anything of these finer points of etiquette and propriety. They are really an uncouth bunch. Why, do you know, I am certain that they would have had the bad taste to use an energy weapon to dispose of the victim in a case such as you just witnessed! They are really quite unfit to rule. They can scarcely be called civilized at all. But we will soon put a stop to all of that--your race and mine, of course."

"I sincerely hope so," said Crownwall.

Refreshments were served to His Effulgence and to Crownwall during the trip, without interrupting the smooth progress of the sedan. The soldiers of the cohort, the bearers and Ggaran continued to run--without food, drink or, except for Ggaran, evidence of fatigue.

After several hours of travel, following Crownwall's directions, the procession arrived at the copse in which he had concealed his small transportation machine. The machine, for spatial mobility, was equipped with the heavy and grossly inefficient anti-gravity field generator developed by Kowalsky. It occupied ten times the s.p.a.ce of the temporal translation and coordination selection systems combined, but it had the great advantage of being almost undetectable in use. It emitted no ma.s.s or radiation.

After elaborate and lengthy farewells, Crownwall climbed into his machine and fell gently up until he was out of the atmosphere, before starting his enormous journey through time back to Earth. More quickly than it had taken him to reach his s.h.i.+p from the palace of His Effulgence, he was in the Council Chamber of the Confederation Government of Earth, making a full report on his trip to Vega.

When he had finished, the President sighed deeply. "Well," he said, "we gave you full plenipotentiary powers, so I suppose we'll have to stand behind your agreements--especially in view of the fact that we'll undoubtedly be blown into atoms if we don't. But from what you say, I'd rather be in bed with a rattler than have a treaty with a Vegan. They sound unG.o.dly murderous to me. There are too many holes in that protection plan of yours. It's only a question of time before they'll find some way around it, and then--poof--we'll all be dust."

"Things may not be as bad as they seem," answered Crownwall complacently. "After I got back a few million years, I'm afraid I got a little careless and let my s.h.i.+p dip down into Vega III's atmosphere for a while. I was back so far that the Vegans hadn't appeared yet. Now, I didn't land--or _deliberately_ kill anything--but I'd be mighty surprised if we didn't find a change or two. Before I came in here, I asked Marshall to take the s.h.i.+p out and check on things. He should be back with his report before long. Why don't we wait and see what he has to say?"

Marshall was excited when he was escorted into the Council Chamber. He bowed briefly to the President and began to speak rapidly.

"They're gone without trace--_all of them_!" he cried. "I went clear to Sunda and there's no sign of intelligent life anywhere! We're all alone now!"

"There, you see?" exclaimed Crownwall. "Our enemies are all gone!"

He looked around, glowing with victory, at the others at the table, then slowly quieted and sat down. He turned his head away from their accusing eyes.

"Alone," he said, and unconsciously repeated Marshall's words: "We're all alone now."

In silence, the others gathered their papers together and left the room, leaving Crownwall sitting at the table by himself. He s.h.i.+vered involuntarily, and then leaped to his feet to follow after them.

Loneliness, he found, was something that he couldn't face alone.

--L. J. STECHER, JR.

[Ill.u.s.tration]