Lone Star Planet
Page 11
CHAPTER XI
I turned and stepped forward to confront the Bonneys, mentally thankingGail. Up until she'd slapped me, I'd been weak-kneed and dry-mouthedwith what I had to do. Now I was just plain angry, and I found that Iwas thinking a lot more clearly. Jack-High Bonney's wounded leftshoulder, I knew, wouldn't keep him from using his gun hand, but hisshoulder muscles would be stiff enough to slow his draw. I'd intendedsaving him until I'd dealt with his brothers. Now, I remembered how he'dgotten that wound in the first place: he'd been the one who'd used theauto-rifle, out at the Hickock ranch. So I changed my plans and movedhim up to top priority.
"Hold it!" I yelled at them. "You've been cleared of killing apolitician, but you still have killing a Solar League Ambassador toanswer for. Now get your hands full of guns, if you don't want to diewith them empty!"
The crowd of sympathizers and felicitators simply exploded away from theBonney brothers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sidney and a fat,blowsy woman with brass-colored hair as they both tried to dive underthe friends-of-the-court table at the same place. The Bonney brotherssimply stood and stared at me, for an instant, unbelievingly, as I gotmy thumbs on the release-studs of my belt. Judge Nelson's gavel washammering, and he was shouting:
"Court-of-Political-Justice-Confederate-Continent-of-New-Texas-is-herewith-adjourned-reconvene-0900-tomorrow. _Hit the floor!_"
"Damn! He means it!" Switchblade Joe Bonney exclaimed.
Then they all reached for their guns. They were still reaching when Ipressed the studs and the Krupp-Tattas popped up into my hands, and Iswung up my right-hand gun and shot Jack-High through the head. Afterthat, I just let my subconscious take over. I saw gun flames jump out atme from the Bonneys' weapons, and I felt my own pistols leap and writhein my hands, but I don't believe I was aware of hearing the shots, noteven from my own weapons. The whole thing probably lasted five seconds,but it seemed like twenty minutes to me. Then there was nobody shootingat me, and nobody for me to shoot at; the big room was silent, and I wasaware that Judge Nelson and his eight associates were rising cautiouslyfrom behind the bench.
I holstered my left-hand gun, removed and replaced the magazine of theright-hand gun, then holstered it and reloaded the other one. HoddyRingo and Francisco Parros and Commander Stonehenge were on their feet,their pistols drawn, covering the spectators' seats. Colonel Hickock hadalso drawn a pistol and he was covering Sidney with it, occasionallymoving the muzzle to the left to include the z'Srauff Ambassador and histwo attaches.
By this time, Nelson and the other eight judges were in their seats,trying to look calm and judicial.
"Your Honor," I said, "I fully realize that no judge likes to have hiscourt turned into a shooting gallery. I can assure you, however, that myaction here was not the result of any lack of respect for this court. Itwas pure necessity. Your Honor can see that: my government could notpermit this crime against its Ambassador to pass unpunished."
Judge Nelson nodded solemnly. "Court was adjourned when this littleincident happened, Mr. Silk," he said.
He leaned forward and looked to where the three Bonney brothers weremaking a mess of blood on the floor. "I trust that nobody will construemy unofficial and personal comments here as establishing any legalprecedent, and I wouldn't like to see this sort of thing becomecustomary ... but ... you did that all by yourself, with those littlebeanshooters?... Not bad, not bad at all, Mr. Silk."
I thanked him, then turned to the z'Srauff Ambassador. I didn't botherputting my remarks into Basic. He understood, as well as I did, what Iwas saying.
"Look, Fido," I told him, "my government is quite well aware of thesource from which the orders for the murder of my predecessor came.These men I just killed were only the tools.
"We're going to get the brains behind them, if we have to send everywarship we own into the z'Srauff star-cluster and devastate every planetin it. We don't let dogs snap at us. And when they do, we don't kickthem, we shoot them!"
That, of course, was not exactly striped-pants diplomatic language. Iwondered, for a moment, what Norman Gazarian, the protocol man, wouldthink if he heard an Ambassador calling another Ambassador Fido.
But it seemed to be the kind of language that Mr. Vuvuvu understood. Heskinned back his upper lip at me and began snarling and growling. Thenhe turned on his hind paws and padded angrily down the aisle away fromthe front of the courtroom.
The spectators around him and above him began barking, baying, yelpingat him: "Tie a can to his tail!" "Git for home, Bruno!"
Then somebody yelled, "Hey, look! Even his wrist watch is blushing!"
That was perfectly true. Mr. Gglafrr Ddespttann Vuvuvu's watch-face,normally white, was now glowing a bright ruby-red.
I looked at Stonehenge and found him looking at me. It would be fulldark in four or five hours; there ought to be something spectacular tosee in the cloudless skies of Capella IV tonight.
Fleet Admiral Sir Rodney Tregaskis would see to that.
_FROM REPORTOF SPACE-COMMANDER STONEHENGETO SECRETARY OF AGGRESSION, KLUeNG:
... so the measures considered by yourselfand Secretary of State Ghopal Singh and SecurityCooerdinator Natalenko, as transmitted to me byMr. Hoddy Ringo, were not, I am glad to say,needed. Ambassador Silk, alive, handled thething much better than Ambassador Silk, dead,could possibly have.
... to confirm Sir Rodney Tregaskis' report from the tales of the fewsurvivors, the z'Srauff attack came as the Ambassador had expected. Theydropped out of hyperspace about seventy light-minutes outside theCapella system, apparently in complete ignorance of the presence of ourfleet.
... have learned the entire fleet consisted of about three hundredspaceships and reports reaching here indicate that no more than twentygot back to z'Srauff Cluster.
... naturally, the whole affair has had a profound influence, aninfluence to the benefit of the Solar League, on all shades of publicopinion.
... as you properly assumed, Mr. Hoddy Ringo is no longer with us. Whenit became apparent that the Palme-Silk Annexation Treaty would beratified here, Mr. Ringo immediately saw that his status of diplomaticimmunity would automatically terminate. Accordingly, he left thissystem, embarking from New Austin for Alderbaran IX, mentioning, as heshook hands with me, something about a widow. By a curious coincidence,the richest branch bank in the city was held up by a lone bandit abouthalf an hour before he boarded the space-ship...._
_FINAL MESSAGEOF THE LAST SOLAR AMBASSADOR TO NEWTEXASSTEPHEN SILK
Copies of the Treaty of Annexation, duly ratified by the New TexasLegislature, herewith.
Please note that the guarantees of non-intervention in local politicalinstitutions are the very minimum which are acceptable to the people ofNew Texas. They are especially adamant that there will be no change intheir peculiar methods of insuring that their elected and appointedpublic officials shall be responsible to the electorate.
DEPARTMENT ADDENDUM
_After the ratification of the Palme-Silk treaty, Mr. Silk remained onNew Texas, married the daughter of a local rancher there (see file onFirst Ambassador, Colonel Andrew Jackson Hickock) and is still active inpolitics on that planet, often in opposition to Solar League policies,which he seems to anticipate with an almost uncanny prescience._
Natalenko re-read the addendum, pursed his thick lips and sighed. Therewere so many ways he could be using Mr. Stephen Silk....
For example--he looked at the tri-di star-map, both usefully andbeautifully decorating his walls--over there, where Hoddy Ringo hadgone, near Alderbaran IX.
Those were twin planets, one apparently settled by the equivalentdescendants of the Edwards and the other inhabited by the children of aJukes-Kallikak union. Even the Solar League Ambassadors there had takenthe viewpoints of the planets to whom they were accredited, instead ofthe all-embracing view which their training should have given them....
Curious problem ... and, how would Stephen Silk have handled it?
The Security Cooerdinator scrawled a note
comprehensible only tohimself....
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Four-Day Planet
Fenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hourdays and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killingcold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: toughenough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. When thatkind of person discovers he's being cheated of wealth he's risked hislife for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.
Lone Star Planet
New Texas: its citizens figure that name about says it all. The SolarLeague ambassador to the Lone Star Planet has the unenviable task ofconvincing New Texans that a s'Srauff attack is imminent, and dangerous.Unfortunately it's common knowledge that the s'Srauff are evolved fromcanine ancestors--and not a Texan alive is about to be scared of atalking dog! But unless he can get them to act, and fast, there won't bea Texan alive, scared or otherwise!