Contents
Title Page
Dramatis Personae
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
By Harry Turtledove
To learn more about other great ebook titles from Ballantine . . .
Copyright
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
(Characters with names in CAPS are historical, others fictional)
HUMANS
ANIELEWICZ, MORDECHAI
Jewish partisan, eastern Poland
Archie
Military Hospital Orderly, Chicago
Auerbach, Rance
Captain, U.S. Cavalry, Syracuse, Kansas
BEAVERBROOK, LORD
British Minister of Supply
Berkowitz, Benjamin
Captain, U.S. Army; psychiatrist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Beulah
Receptionist, Hanford, Washington
BLAIR, ERIC
BBC newsreader and author, London
Calhoun, Jake
Cavalry trooper, U.S. Army
CHILL, KURT
Wehrmacht Lieutenant General, Pskov, USSR
Chung, Horace
Laundryman, Lewiston, Idaho
Daniels, Peter (“Mutt”)
Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Chicago
DEIBNER, KURT
Nuclear physicist, Tübingen,Germany
Doc
Physician, Chicago
Donnelly
Bomb disposal expert, U. S. Army Chicago
Dölger
Wehrmacht captain, Pskov, USSR
Edie
Whore, Lewiston, Idaho
EINSTEIN, ALBERT
Physicist, Couch, Missouri
EISENHOWER, DWIGHT
U.S. Army General, Couch, Missouri
Embry, Ken
RAF pilot, grounded in Pskov, USSR
Eschenbach, Wolfgang
Panzer loader, Rouffach, Alsace
FERMI, ENRICO
Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Fleishman, Bertha
Jew in Lodz, Poland
Fred
RAF Flight Sergeant, Watnall England
Friedrich
Partisan, Eastern Poland
George
Local resident, Hanford Washington
GERMAN, ALEKSANDR
Partisan Brigadier, Pskoc, USSR
GODDARD, ROBERT
Rocket expert, Couch, Missouri
Goldfarb, David
RAF radarman, Bruntingthorpe, England
Gorbunova, Ludmila
RAF pilot
Grillparzer, Gunther
Panzer gunner near Breslau Germany
GROVES, LESLIE
Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Denver, Colorado
Gruver, Solomon
Jewish fireman in Lodz, Poland
Gus
Private, U.S. Army, Chicago
Hagerman, Max
Cavalry trooper, U.S. Army
HALIFAX, LORD
British ambassador to the United States
Henry
RAF man, Nottingham England
Henry, Marjorie
Physician, Hanford Idaho
Hexham
Colonel, U.S. Army, Denver Colorado
Hines, Rachel
Escapee from Lakin, Kansas
Hipple, Fred
RAF Group Captain, Bruntingthorpe, England
Ho Ma
Midwife, refugee camp west of Shanghai
Horton, Leo
RAF Radarman, Bruntingthorpe, England
Hou Yi
Dung-beetle show man, Peking
Howard
Cavalry trooper, eastern Colorado
Hsia Shou-Tao
People’s Libreation Army officer, China
HULL, CORDELL
U.S. Secretary of State
Jacobi, Nathan
BBC newsreader, London
Jacobs
Private, U.S. Army, Chicago
“Jacques”
French farmer near Ambialet
Jäger, Heinrich
Panzer colonel, Rouffach, Alsace
Jerzy
Partisan, eastern Poland
Jimmy
Stretcher-bearer, Chicago
Johannes
Panzer driver near Breslau, Germany
Jones, Jerome
RAF radarman in Pskov, USSR
Karpov, Feofan
RAF colonel south of Moscow
Kennan, Maurice
RAF Flight Lieutenant, Bruntingthorpe, England
Kipnis, Jakub
Interpreter, Lizard POW camp in Poland
Larssen, Jens
Nuclear physicist with the Mettalurgical Laboratory
Lidov, Boris
Colonel, NKVD
Liu Han
Peasant woman in refugee camp south of Shanghai
Magruder, Bill
Lieutenant, U.S. Cavalry , Syracuse, Kansas
Mather, Donald
Captain, Special Air Service, Dover, England
Mavrogordato, Panagiotis
Captain of tramp freighter Naxos
Maxwell
Cavalry trooper, eastern Colorado
Meinecke, Klaus
Panzer gunner, Rouffach, Alsace
MOLOTOV, VYACHESLAV
Foreign commissar, of the USSR
Muldoon, Herman
First sergeant, U.S. Army Chicago
MUSSOLINI, BENITO
Italian Fascist leader, Couch, Missouri
NIEH HO-T’ING
People’s Liberation Army officer, China
Nigel
RAF corporal, Watnall, England
Nordenskold, Morton
Colonel, U.S. Army, Lamar, Colorado
Norma
BBC worker, London
Nussboym, David
Jew in Lodz, Poland
O’Neill, Red
Cavalry trooper, U.S. Army
Okamoto
Major, Japanese Army
Oscar
Sergeant, U.S. Army, Denver, Colorado
Pete
U.S. Army sentry, Denver, Colorado
Pirogova, Tatiana
Red Army sniper, Pskov, USSR
Porlock
Supply officer, Minneapolis
RIBBENTROP, JOACHIM VON
German Foreign Minister
Roundbush, Basil
RAF Flight Officer, Bruntingthorpe, England
Russie, Moishe
Jewish refugee and broadcaster, London
Russie, Reuven
Son of Moishe and Rivka Russie
Russie, Rivka
Moishe Russie’s wife
Schultz, Georg
German soldier working as RAF mechanic
Sholudenko, Nikifor
NKVD officer
Silberman, Pinchas
Jew in Lodz, Poland
SKORZENY, OTTO
SS Standartenfürher
Smithers
British Army major
Smitty
Cavalry trooper, eastern Colorado
STALIN, IOSEF
General Secretary, Communist Party of the USSR
Stanegate, Fred
British soldier
&
nbsp; Stansfield, Roger
Royal Naval Commander; captain HMS Seanymph
Stella
Barmaid, Bruntingthorpe, England
Summers, Penny
Escapee from Lakin, Kansas
Summers, Wendell
Escapee from Lakin, Kansas; Penny’s father
Szabo, Bela (“Dracula”)
Private, U.S. Army, Chicago
SZILARD, LEO
Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Szymanski, Stan
Captain, U.S. Army, Chicago
Terence
Storekeeper, Couch Missouri
Tompkins
Major, U.S. Army, Hot Springs, Arkansas
VASILIEV, NIKOLAI
Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR
Wiggs, Ralph
RAF meteorologist, Bruntingthorpe, England
Yeager, Barbara
Sam Yeager’s wife
Yeager, Jonathan
Son of Sam and Barbara Yeager
Yeager, Sam
Sergeant, U.S. Army, Denver, Colorado
“Yetta”
Telephone operator, Lodz, Poland
York, Hank
Radioman, U.S. Army, Chicago
THE RACE
Atvar
Fleetlord, conquest fleet of the Race
Diffal
Security officer
Ekretkan
Casualty, St. Alban’s, England
Elifrim
Airbase commander, southern France
Hisslef
Base commandant, Siberia
Hossad
Killercraft pilot
Innoss
Airbase armorer, southern France
Jisrin
Killrcraft pilot
Kirel
Shiplord, 127th Emperor Hetto
Msseff
Reasercher in China
Nejas
Landcruiser commander, Alsace
Nivvek
Killercraft pilot
Pshing
Adjutant to Atvar
Ristin
Prisoner of war, Denver , Colorado
Rokois
Assistant to Pshing
Skoob
Landcruiser gunner, Alsace
Sserep
Killercraft pilot
Straha
Shiplord, 206th Emperor Yower
Teerts
Flight leader, prisoner of war, Tokyo
Tessrek
Researcher in human psychology
Ttomalss
Researcher in human psychology
Ullhass
Prisoner of war, Denver, Colorado
Ussmak
Landcruiser driver, Alsace
Vesstil
Shuttlecraft pilot for Straha
Wuppah
Smallgroup commander, Chicago
1
The fleetlord Atvar had convened a great many meetings of his shiplords since the Race’s conquest fleet came to Tosev 3. Quite a few of those meetings had been imperfectly happy; the Tosevites were far more numerous and far more technically advanced than the Race had imagined when the conquest fleet set out from Home. But Atvar had never imagined calling a meeting like this.
He used one eye turret to watch his leading officers as they gathered in the great hall of his bannership, the 127th Emperor Hetto. The other eye turret swiveled down to review the images and documents he would be presenting to those officers.
Kirel, shiplord of the 127th Emperor Hetto and a staunch ally, stood beside him on the podium. To him, Atvar murmured, “Giving a good odor to what happened in the SSSR won’t be easy.”
One of Kirel’s eye turrets swung toward a hologram of the tall cloud rising from the nuclear explosion that had halted—worse, had vaporized—the Race’s drive on Moskva. “Exalted Fleetlord, the odor is anything but good,” he said. “We knew the Big Uglies were engaged in nuclear research, yes, but we did not expect any of their little empires and not-empires—especially the SSSR—to develop and deploy a bomb so soon.”
“Especially the SSSR,” Atvar agreed heavily. The Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialesticheskikh Respublik sent a frisson of horror through any right-thinking male of the Race. A short span of years before, its people had not only overthrown their emperor but killed him and all his family. Such a crime was literally unimaginable back on Home, where emperors had ruled the Race for a hundred thousand years. Among the Big Uglies, though, impericide seemed stunningly common.
The gas-tight doors to the great hall hissed closed. That meant all the shiplords were here. Atvar knew it, but was still less than eager to begin the meeting. At last, Kirel had to prompt him: “Exalted Fleetlord—”
“Yes, yes,” Atvar said with a hissing sigh. He turned on the podium microphones, spoke to the males waiting impatiently in their seats: “Assembled shiplords, you are already aware, I am certain, of the reason for which I have summoned you here today.”
He touched a button. Two images sprang into being behind him, the first of a brilliant point of light northeast of the Soviet city of Kaluga captured by an observation satellite, then that ground-level shot of the cloud created by the SSSR’s atomic bomb.
The shiplords, no doubt, had already seen the images tens of times. All the same, hisses of dismay and fury rose from every throat. The tailstumps of several males quivered so hard with rage that they could not stay in their seats, but had to stand until their tempers eased.
“Assembled shiplords, we have taken a heavy blow,” Atvar said. “Not only did this explosion take with it many brave males and a large quantity of irreplaceable landcruisers and other combat equipment, it also moved our war against the Big Uglies into a new phase, one whose outcomes are not easily foreseen.”
To the Race, few words could have been more ominous. Careful planning, leaving nothing to chance, was not only inherent in the temperament of most males but inculcated in all from hatchlinghood. The Race had sent a probe to Tosev 3 sixteen hundred years before (only half so many of this planet’s slow revolution around its star), decided it was worth having, and methodically begun to prepare. But for those preparations, little in the Race’s three-world empire had changed in that time.
The Big Uglies, meanwhile, had gone from riding animals and swinging swords to riding jet aircraft, launching short-range missiles, using radio . . . and now to atomic weapons. The Race’s savants would be millennia investigating and explaining how a species could move forward so fast. Neither the Race itself nor its subjects, the Hallessi and the Rabotevs, had ever shown such a pattern. To them, change came in slow, tiny, meticulously considered steps.
Atvar, unfortunately, did not have millennia to investigate the way the Big Uglies worked. Circumstances forced him to act on their time scale, and with too large a measure of their do-it-now, worry-later philosophy. He said, “In this entire sorry episode, I take comfort in but one thing.”
“Permission to speak, Exalted Fleetlord?” a male called from near the front of the hall: Straha, shiplord of the 206th Emperor Yower, next senior in the fleet after Kirel—and no ally of Atvar’s. To Atvar’s way of thinking, he was so rash and impetuous, he might as well have been a Big Ugly himself.
But at a meeting of this sort, all views needed hearing. “Speak,” Atvar said resignedly.
“Exalted Fleetlord—” Straha used the proper deferential title, but sounded anything but properly deferential. “Exalted Fleetlord, how can any part of this fiasco cause you comfort?”
Some of the shiplords muttered in alarm at the harsh language Straha used; males of the Race, even those of highest rank, were expected to show—and to feel—respect for their superiors at all times. But a disquieting number of officers—and not just those of his faction—seemed to agree with Straha.
Atvar said, “Here is the comfort, Shiplord.” He used Straha’s title, high but not supreme in the conquest fleet, to remind him of his place, then went on, “Analysis shows the plutonium the SSSR used in its weapon to have come fro
m stocks stolen from us in a raid during Tosev 3’s past autumn. The Big Uglies may be able to make a bomb if they get nuclear material, but we have no evidence they can manufacture it on their own.”
“Cold comfort to the thousands of males dead because you didn’t think the Tosevites could do even so much,” Straha jeered.
“Shiplord, you forget yourself,” Kirel said from beside Atvar; sometimes a near-equal could call attention to a breach of decorum a superior might feel he had to ignore.
“By the Emperor, Shiplord, I do not,” Straha shouted back. At the mention of his sovereign, he cast down both eye turrets so he looked at the floor for a moment. So did every other male in the chamber, Atvar included. The murmurs among the shiplords grew; as Kirel had said, Straha’s conduct was most out of place in a staid officers’ meeting.
But Straha himself was anything but staid. “Who, Exalted Fleetlord, led the raid in which we lost this nuclear material?” he demanded.
Upsetting the Balance Page 1
