The Day After Doomsday
Page 14
She accompanied him inside. A long, airy room, paneled in light wood, carelessly jammed with odd souvenirs and male impedimenta, served him for a private office. She noticed the bunk in one corner and felt the blood mount in head and breast. Then the lustrous blue form of a Monwaing arose and fluted politely at her. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or to swear.
“Miss Holmen, meet Ramri of Tantha,” Donnan said. “He’s been my sidekick since we first left Earth, and my right hand and right eye since we got back. I figured he’d better sit in on our discussion. He probably knows more about this civilization-cluster than any other single being.” The delicate fingers felt cool within her own. “Welcome,” said the avian in excellent English. “I cannot express what joy your ship’s arrival has given me. For the sake of my friends, and your race, and the entire cosmos.”
“Takkar sa mycket,” she whispered, too moved to use any but her father’s language.
Donnan gave her a chair and sat down behind the desk. Ramri went back to his sitting-frame. The man puffed hard for a moment before he said roughly:
“The question we have to answer somewhere along the line, or we’ll never know where we stand or what to expect, is this. Who destroyed Earth?”
“V’Y. . . Kandemir,” Sigrid replied, startled. “Is there any doubt?”
“Kandemir has denied it repeatedly. We’ve ransacked captured archives and interrogated prisoners for a good two years now, ever since Brandobar, without finding any conclusive proof against them. Well, naturally, you say, that don’t signify. Knowing how such an act would inflame public opinion against them, they’d take elaborate security precautions. Probably keep no written records whatsoever about the operation, and use handpicked personnel who’d remain silent unto death. You know how strong clan loyalty is in their upper-echelon families. So Kandemir might or might not be guilty, as far as that goes.”
“But the Solar System vas guarded by their missiles!” she protested.
“Yeah,” Donnan said. “And isn’t that a hell of a clumsy way to preserve the secret? Especially when those missiles were so programmed as to be less than maximum efficient. This is not mere guesswork, based on the chance that the Europa and the Franklin both managed to escape. Three months ago, I sent an expedition to the Solar System equipped with our new protective gizmos. Arn Goldspring was in charge, and what he can’t make a piece of apparatus do isn’t worth the trouble. His gang disarmed and captured several missiles, and dissected them down to the last setscrew. They were standard Kandemirian jobs. No doubt about that. But every one had been clumsily programmed. Doesn’t that suggest somebody was framing Kandemir?”
“Framing?” Sigrid blinked. “V’at . . . oh, yes. I see. Somevun vanted to make Kandemir seem guilty.” She frowned. “Yes, possible. Though v’at ve found v’en ve boarded that vun missile suggests—” she ran out of words.
“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” said Donnan. “What you found, by a lucky chance, was unique. No such clue turned up in any that Goldspring examined. Did you bring your notes along as I asked?”
She handed them to him. He stared at them while silence stretched. Ramri walked around and looked over his shoulder.
“WHAT d’you make of this?” Donnan asked at length.
“One set of symbols are Kandemirian numerals, of course,” Ramri said. “The other. . . I do not know. I may or may not have seen them before. They look almost as if once, long ago, I did. But even in a single cluster, there are so many languages, so many alphabets—” His musings trailed off. Very lightly, he stroked a hand across Donnan’s forehead. “Do not let this fret you, Carl-my-friend,” he murmured. “Over and over I have told you, what you learned on Katkinu is not the end of all faith. A mistake only. Anyone, any whole race, let alone a few bewildered members of a race, anyone can err. When will you listen to me, and forget what you saw?”
Donnan brushed him away and looked hard at Sigrid. “What did you think of this clue, you ladies?” he asked. “You had three years to mull it over.”
“Ve did not think much,” she admitted. “There vas so much else to consider. Everything ve had lost and everything ve must do to regain our hopes. Ve recognized the numerals. Ve thought maybe the other symbols vere letters. You know, in some obscure Kandemirian alphabet, different from the usual Erzhuat. Just as
Europe, Russia, Greece, Israel, China used different languages and alphabets but the same Arabic numerals. Ve guessed probably these vere notes scribbled for his own guidance by some vorkman helping adjust the missile, who vas not too familiar vith the mechanism.”
“There are only six distinct unknown symbols,” Donnan grunted. “Not much of an alphabet, if you ask me.” He frowned again at the paper.
“They might then be numbers,” Ramri offered. “The workman may not have been Kandemirian at all. He could have belonged to a subject race. If the Kandemirians used vassals for the job who were never told what their task was, never even knew what planetary system they were in, that would increase secrecy.”
“But the missiles themselves, you dolt!” Donnan snarled. “They were the giveaway. What use these fancy precautions if anyone who saw a Mark IV Quester barreling toward him, and got away, could tell the Galaxy it was Kandemirian?”
Ramri left the desk, stared at the floor, and said with sorrow, “Well, you force me, Carl. This was explained to you on Katkinu.”
Sigrid watched the paper on the desk as if she could almost read something in those scrawls that it was forbidden to read. “Ve didn’t think much about this,” she said helplessly. “For vun thing, none of us knew much about Kandemir anyvay, not even Captain Poussin. And with so much else—Our notes lay forgotten in the ship. Until now.”
Realization stabbed home. She gasped, summoned her strength and said harshly, “All right. You have fiddled around plenty long. V’at did they show you on Katkinu?”
Donnan met her gaze blindly. “One more question,” he said without tone. “Seems I heard . . . yeah, you’ve got a Yugoslav and an Israeli aboard, haven’t you? Either of them know anything about plans to emigrate from Earth? Were either the Balkan or the Arab countries—the Israelis would be bound to have some idea what the Arabs were up to—either alliance building more ships? Recruiting colonists of any sort?”
“NO,” Sigrid said. “Nothing ’ like that. No.”
“You positive?”
“Yes. Surely. Remember, I vas concerned in the pan-European project. I saw shipyards myself, read the journals, heard the gossip. Maybe some very small ships vas being made secretly. But something big enough to take many people to another planet, no. Not at the time ve left. And I don’t think there vas time aftervard to build much, before the end came.”
“No. There wasn’t.” Donnan shook himself. “Okay,” he said quickly, “that’s clue number two you’ve given me. However fine it would be to have more people alive, I admit I was hoping for the answer you gave. How I was hoping!
“You see, on Katkinu I was shown a film made by the Monwaingi intelligence service. An interview with a trader from Xo, who admitted his combine had sold the Balkan and the Arab alliances something that military theorists once labeled a doomsday weapon. The ultimate deterrent.” His voice grew saw-edged. “A set of disruption bombs, able to sterilize the planet. Armed to go off automatically in the event of an attack on the countries possessing same. Got the idea? The Monwaingi believe Earth was not murdered. They think Earth committed suicide.”
Sigrid sagged in her chair. A dry little sound came from her, nothing else was possible. Donnan slammed the desk with his fist. “You see?” he almost shouted. “That’s what I didn’t want to share. Monwaing was willing to keep the secret. Why shouldn’t I? Why let my friends wonder too what race of monsters they belong to? Wonder what’s the use of keeping alive, then force themselves to go through the motions anyway. You see?”
He checked himself and went on more quietly: “I’ve tried to investigate further. Couldn’t get any positive inf
ormation one way or the other from Xo, in spite of some very expensive espionage. Well, naturally, they’d bum their own records of such a transaction. If you sold someone a gun and he turned out to be a homicidal maniac, even if you hadn’t known he was, you wouldn’t want to admit your part. Would you? Who’d ever come to your gunshop again?
“How do we explain those Kandemirian missiles? Well, Monwaing thinks Kandemir did plant those, but only after the deed was done. To stake a claim. The Solar System is strategically located: outflanks the Monwaingi stars. And when Earth has cooled, it’ll be colonizable with less difficulty than many other planets would give. As for why the missiles are so inefficient, they are intended as a warning rather than an absolute death trap.
“Please note that Kandemir has never denied doing this much. Nor affirmed it, to be sure. But they did announce in their arrogant way that come the proper time, they would exercise rights of salvage. And meanwhile they wouldn’t be responsible for accidents to anyone entering the Solar System.”
Donnan rose. His chair clattered to the floor. He ignored it, strode around to Sigrid hunkered down before her and took her hands. “Okay,” he said, suddenly gentle. “You know the worst. I think we three, here and now, have got all the clues anyone will ever have for certain. Maybe we can figure out who the enemy is. Or was. Buck up, kid. We’ve got to try.”
XV
I tell you naught for your
comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker
yet
And the sea rises higher.
—Chesterton
AS if thrusting away an attacker, she sprang to her feet. Donnan went over on his rear. “Oh,” she exclaimed. “I’m so sorry.” She bent to help him rise. He didn’t require her assistance but used it anyway. Their faces came close. He saw her lips stir. Suddenly his own quirked upward.
“We needed some comic relief,” he said. His arm slid down to her waist, lingered there a moment; she laid her head on his shoulder as fleetingly; they separated, but he continued to feel where they had touched.
Not quite steadily, he went back to his desk, took his pipe and rekindled it.
“I think now I can stand any answer we may find,” he said low.
Color came and went beneath her skin. But she spoke crisply: “Let us list the possibilities. Ve have Kandemir and Earth herself as suspects. But who else? Vorlak? I do not vant to slander an ally, but could . . . v’at you call him. . . Draga Hlott, for some reason—”
“No,” Donnan said. He explained about the treaty with Russia. “Besides,” he added, “as the war developed, I got more and more pipelines into the Vorlakka government. Ger Nenna, one of their scholar-administrator class, was particularly helpful. The Dragar aren’t any good at double-dealing. Not only had they no reason to attack Earth—contrariwise!—but if they ever did, they wouldn’t have operated under cover. And if by some chance they had pulled a sneak assault, they wouldn’t have been able to maintain the secret. No, I cleared them long ago.”
“Similar considerations apply to the lesser spacefaring worlds, like Yann and Unya,” Ramri said. “They all feared Kandemir. While the Soviet-Vorlakka agreement was not publicized, everyone knew Earth was as natural a prey for the nomads as any other planet and, if the war lasted, would inevitably become involved on the allied side to some degree. Even were they able, no one would have eliminated a potential helper.”
“I checked them out pretty thoroughly with espionage just the same,” Donnan said bluntly. “They’re clean. The only alternatives are Kandemir and suicide.” Sigrid twisted her hands together. “But suicide does not make sense,” she objected. “It is not only that I do not vant to believe it. In some vays it vould be more comfortable to.”
“Huh?” Both Donnan and Ramri stared.
“Ja, v’y not? Then ve vould know Earth’s killers are dead and cannot threaten us any more.” Donnan raised his shoulders and spread his hands. “I’d forgotten women are the cold-blooded, practical sex,” he muttered.
“NO, but look, Carl. Let us suppose the doomsday veapon vas actually installed. Then v’y did no country try to plant some people off Earth? Even if, let us say, vuns she had this last resort . . . even if Yugoslavia expected no vun vould dare attack her—still, Yugoslavia vould have been in a better bargaining position yet vith people on other planets. For then they could say, v’atever happened, a part of them vould survive. And any other government notified about the veapon vould have tried to take out similar insurance. Insurance against accident, if nothing else. Or against . . . oh . . . blackmail, in case Yugoslavia ever got a nihilist dictator like Hitler vas in his day. So there vould have been some emigration from Earth. But ve know for sure there vas not. Even if the emigrants left this cluster, spacemen like Monvaingi vould have noticed it and you vould have heard them talk about it.”
Donnan yanked his attention from her to her words. They made sense. He’d speculated along some such lines himself, but had been too shaken emotionally to put his ideas in her cool terms, and too busy making war to straighten out those private horrors that inhibited his reasoning about the subject.
“One possibility,” he said. “If Kandemir got wind of the doomsday weapon, Kandemir might have seized the opportunity, since the destruction of Earth would then be like shooting fish in a barrel. Yugoslavia and the rest might never had time to organize colonization schemes.”
The fair head shook. “I think not,” she answered. “Maybe they vere angry men governing Earth’s nations, but they vere shrewd too. They had to be. Countries, especially little countries, did not last long in this century if they had stupid leaders. The Balkan and Arab politicians vould have foreseen just the chance of attack you mention. Not only Kandemir, but any planet—any pirate fleet, even, if somebody got vun—anybody could blackmail Earth. No? So I do not think they vould have bought a doomsday veapon unless lots of spaceships vere included in the package.”
An eerie tingle moved up Donnan’s spine.
He smote one fist into the other palm, soundlessly, again and again. “By God, yes,” he whispered. “You’ve hit the point that Monwaing and I both missed. The Monwaingi couldn’t be expected to know our psychology that well, I reckon. But I should have seen it. The whole concept of the weapon was lunacy. But lunatics are at least logical thinkers.”
Sigrid threw back her shoulders. The lilting voice lifted till it filled the room: “Carl, I do not believe there ever vas any such veapon sold. It just does not figure. Most specially not in galactic terms. See, yes, there still vere countries that did not like each other. But these old grudges vere becoming less and less important all the time. There vas still some fighting, but the big atomic var never happened, in spite of almost every country having means to fight it. Does that not show the situation vas stable? That there never vould have been a var? At least, not the var everybody vas vorrying about.
“Earth vas turning outvard. The old issues vere stopping to matter. V’at vas the use of a doomsday veapon? It vould have been a Chinese vail, built against an enemy that no more existed. For the same price, buying spaceships, buying modern education for the young people, a country could have gained ten times the power . . . and achievement . . . and safety. I tell you, the suicide story is not true.”
FOR a moment neither of the others spoke. They couldn’t. Ramri’s feathers rose. He swelled his throat pouch and expostulated, “But we know! Our intelligence made that Xoan admit—”
“He lied!” Sigrid interrupted. “Is your intelligence alvays correct?”
“Why? Why?” Ramri paced, not as a man does, but in great leaps back and forth between the walls. “What could Xo gain from such a lie? No conceivable advantage! Even the individual who finally confessed, he got nothing but clearance for his ship to leave Monwaing. Absurd!”
Donnan gazed long at his friend before he said, “I think you’d better own up, Ramri: your general staff was had. Let’s go on from there.”
A B C D E F
M N O P Q M R
BA : NQ
ABIJ : MOQMP
Transliteration of some Delphic language—No, no, don’t be silly. “A” through “AL” simply stands for the first twelve numbers of the duodecimal Kandemirian system, with “L” the sign for zero. So—
It was like a knife stab. For an instant his heartbeat ceased. He felt a sense of falling. The pulse resumed, crazily, with a roaring in his ears.
AS if over immense distances, he heard Ramri say, making an effort at calm:
“By elimination, then, Kandemir does seem to be the murderer planet. Possibly they engineered this Xoan matter as a red herring. And yet I have never felt their guilt was very plausible. That is one reason why I was so quick, however unwilling, to suppose Earth had indeed committed suicide.”
“Veil,” said the girl, “I am not so familiar vith local situations, but I understand the Kandemirians are—or vere, before you broke their power—merciless conquerors. Earth vas still another planet to conquer. And then the Russians actively helped Vorlak.”
“Yes, but Tarkamat himself denied to Carl—contemptuously—that the Soviet assistance was significant. Which does sound reasonable. What indeed could a few shiploads of small arms and a handful of student officers amount to, on the scale of interstellar war? If necessary, Kandemir could have lodged a protest with the Soviet government, and made it stick by a threat of punitive action. The Russians would have backed down for certain. Because even a mild raid from Kandemir would have left them so brutally beaten that they would be helpless in the face of their Western rivals. In fact, Tarkamat proved very knowledgeable about Terrestrial politics. He remarked to Carl that if and when he decided to overrun Earth, he would have used native allies more than his own troops. Divide et impera, you know. Yet for all the strength and information he had, Tarkamat never even bothered to announce that he knew about the Soviet action.