by Douglas Hill
Keill frowned, feeling slightly unnerved. ‘I think, old man, that you are setting up some kind of elaborate hoax, for reasons that I cannot guess.’
‘It is no hoax,’ Talis said quietly. ‘I have told you only the truth.’
‘But an alien? A mind-reading alien?’
It was not impossible, Keill knew. Just highly unlikely. Intergalactic travel had been tried many times by human explorers – but it presented its own special problems and rigours, and few had returned. Those that did come back had mostly had their minds unhinged by loneliness, unknown dangers and the long-term effects of Overlight, and their babbled accounts made little sense. But recent history included some tales of alien beings making the intergalactic journey in the other direction – and making brief, uneventful contact with humans on the Inhabited Worlds, before going on their unguessable ways.
Keill had never seen such an alien, though, nor had he ever met anyone who had.
Yet there were no such beings native to his own galaxy. When man first went out among the stars, during the Scattering, the planets that were to become the Inhabited Worlds held many kinds of strange life forms. But it had been a grave disappointment for the early colonists (though, for some, a relief) that none of the life forms had been intelligent. Mankind found himself to be the only intelligent species in his galaxy.
As for telepathy, again Keill knew that it probably existed in some form. He had heard of a few humans – some of the altered ones, whose planets had produced mutations in their human populations – who could reach into other minds. But always in a limited, erratic way.
He brought his attention back to Talis, who was expounding on the subject. ’...an intrepid race of explorers, it seems, who think nothing of the awesome emptiness between galaxies. They are very long-lived, of course, and are always in mental contact with one another...’
‘Why is it here?’ Keill demanded.
‘Not it,’ Talis said with a chuckle, ’she. Glr is a female of her species.’
‘All right,’ Keill said patiently, ’why is she here?’
‘Her ship developed a malfunction,’ Talis replied, ’and she was forced to land on a human world. In time a leading scientist met her and befriended her. And she has stayed, finding humanity a source of considerable interest...’
And amusement,said the voice in Keill’s mind, with soundless laughter behind it.
‘When we began the process of setting up our base,’ Talis went on, ‘Glr came as well.’
‘I find this no easier to believe than anything else you tell me,’ Keill said gruffly. ‘Surely the arrival of such an alien would have been widely reported throughout the Worlds. But I have heard nothing of this...
Glr.’
‘I told you the Ehrlil are long-lived,’ said Talis. ‘Her arrival was reported – but it was some sixty years ago. The scientist who befriended her was my father.’
Keill leaned back against the cushions of his chair, feeling slightly dazed. And the alien’s voice formed in his mind again, still bubbling with laughter.
I am in fact quite young – about four of your centuries. The Ehrlil elders think of me as a wayward, foolish child whose curiosity will get her into trouble.
Keill shook his head as if to clear it. Again he wondered if he was in the grip of some nightmare from a terminal delirium – or if Talis was merely a crazed old space hermit with an odd taste in pets. Pets with guns.
‘Isn’t it time,’ he said at last, ’that you told me what I’m doing here, being held at gunpoint by an alien?’
‘I regret the gun,’ Talis said quickly. ‘But the others felt that, because you are given to rash and hasty action, I ought not meet you in person without some protection.’
‘Fearing I might attack you?’ Keill said. ‘If I wanted to do so, old man, your flying alien would not stop me.’ Behind him the creature’s wings flared, but he ignored it. ‘And I might do so yet – if you don’t start now to give me some explanations.’
‘Of course,’ Talis said soothingly. ‘That is why we are here. But there is so much to tell..."
‘I know,’ Keill said, ’and so much you can’t tell me. You said as much, earlier. But you will tell me, old man. You’ll tell me why I am here – and what you know about this person, this enemy, who you say destroyed Moros.’
‘The enemy,’ Talis replied sombrely, ’is why you are here. Just as he is why my group and myself are here.’
‘So you also have said,’ Keill interrupted. ‘But I have seen only yourself, and your alien.’
‘The others are nearby, and are listening. You may see them if you wish – though I fear you will learn little from it.’
He moved one hand to the side of his chair, and a portion of the wall nearest them grew hazy –
changing, as Keill watched, from a solid surface into what seemed to be a window, but was in fact an enlarged viewscreen.
It revealed a group of people, sitting quietly together. Like Talis, most of them seemed elderly – as far as Keill could tell. For, also like Talis, each of them wore a voluminous robe, with a cowl that kept the face in darkness.
Keill smiled sardonically. ‘More mystery. What do you call yourselves – the Hooded Brethren of Secrecy?’
Talis moved his hand again, and the silent group faded from view, the wall resuming its smooth solidity.
‘You will come to understand our need for secrecy,’ he said quietly. ‘And we have no name for ourselves – though Glr has given us one.’
I call them the ‘Overseers’,said the alien’s voice in Keill’s mind, because they alone among you mudheads seem able to see the wholeness of events in this galaxy. You would do well, Randor, to show them some respect.
‘I will show respect,’ Keill replied aloud, ’when I have been given proof that respect is due.’
‘Just so,’ said Talis. ‘I wish to provide such proof. I want you to understand what we began to see, more than two years ago.’
The group, Talis went on, made regular, wide-ranging studies of major happenings in the Inhabited Worlds. They analysed and investigated, and often they also made projections – trying to foresee problems before they occurred, so they could aid and advise planetary leaders whose worlds might be affected.
In the course of their work, they began to see a strange and unsettling pattern in many of the events – no matter how widely scattered these events might be in the Galaxy. They made more studies, more analyses – and reached their conclusion.
‘The fact was inescapable,’ Talis said. ‘It was that many more wars were happening, everywhere, than should have been happening.’
Keill frowned. ‘There are always wars.’
‘Of course. But mostly local wars, growing out of local conditions – and happening at random, with no connections among them.’ The old man leaned forward intently. ‘But the wars we studied had too much in common, for mere coincidence. Too much of a pattern.’
What a violent species you are,said the amused alien voice.
Talis went on, unaware of the interruption. ‘I will give you tapes to study, which are summaries of our findings. You will see for yourself that the pattern had to be contrived. Someone was setting out with the conscious, murderous intention of starting wars, around the galaxy.’
‘And this someone is the enemy you speak of?’
‘Just so.’
‘Who is he? And where?’
Talis sighed. ‘That I cannot tell you, because we do not yet know. We know only that such a being must exist. We know his ruthless and evil purpose, and we know something of his methods. No more. Except that for convenience we have given him something of a code name. We call him the Warlord.’
Keill’s frown deepened. ‘You’ll show me evidence that this... Warlord... exists?’
‘We will. But you already possess one proof of his reality.’
Keill tensed, suspecting what was coming. ‘What proof?’
‘The murder of the Legions.’
‘G
o on,’ Keill said fiercely.
‘Consider,’ Talis said. ‘Everyone knew the reputation of the Legions – that they would fight only on the side of people who were defending themselves, whose cause contained some right and justice in it. But words like right and justice are not in the vocabulary of the Warlord. He would surely have foreseen a time when a war he sought might be prevented by the Legions. And he might have foreseen a time when the Legions themselves would guess at his existence, and move against him directly. It may be that your Central Command had already guessed. So – he moved first, with power we had not imagined, to erase that threat.’
‘A pre-emptive strike,’ Keill said through gritted teeth.
‘Just so.’
‘If any of this is true,’ Keill said bitterly, ’such a war-maker would have to be insane.’
‘It is all true,’ Talis replied, ’and he may well be insane – with the kind of madness that keeps company with a hunger for ultimate power. For we believe it is his aim to set the Inhabited Worlds at each other’s throats, in war upon war that gradually spread to more and more planets – ultimately to the entire galaxy.
And out of that evil, that terrible destruction, he would hope to emerge as the sole and supreme ruler over what remains of all humanity.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
The information tapes provided by Talis, summarizing long months of investigation by the Overseers, were voluminous and thorough. Hour upon hour Keill sat at the viewer, his patient concentration never wavering – hardly aware of consuming the food and drink brought to him at one point by the robot servitor.
He saw, on the tapes, human societies upon world after world torn apart by war. On one distant planet, far-flung tribes of nomads who had roamed their grasslands for peaceful generations came together, over a few brief years, for no understandable reason, to launch a vicious attack on the scattered cities of that planet. On another world, where the people of its one populated continent lived in wealth and plenty because of their supplies of a valuable mineral, a ferocious civil war broke out between two political groups – each side wrongly believing that the other was seeking total control over the mineral.
He saw entire solar systems erupt with violence. In one, a large, industrialized planet moved suddenly and inexplicably to attack a smaller, under-developed neighbour. Elsewhere, two small planets came together to invade – without clear cause – a third, and then after their victory fell out and fought between themselves.
He saw such wars arise, time and again, without warning and almost without reason. An irrational growth of racial prejudice between two planets that had once been wholly friendly – an eruption of a new religious cult that led its followers into holy war – an unexplained political assassination – an outburst of space piracy – a senseless breakdown of simple trade negotiations...
And much more. As the hours passed and the facts accumulated, the tapes made the crucial points clear.
In each case there had been no likelihood or prospect of war – until something had begun stirring up the worst elements of the human character. Greed and self-interest; the urge to power; suspicion, prejudice and fear. And these stirrings were fed by unexpected events – and by deception, lying propaganda, treachery and murder.
Further, Keill saw, on every one of the planets there were one or two people who had seemed to come out of nowhere, but who rose swiftly to positions of power and influence. These individuals were always at the heart of the events that led to the catastrophe of war.
Finally, his mind swimming with the terrible images that had been revealed to him, Keill returned to the relaxation room in search of Talis. The old man had preceded him, and was waiting, still shadowed within his cowl.
‘Now you have seen the summaries of our findings,’ the old voice said, ’do you believe what I have told you?’
Keill looked at him impassively for a long moment. ‘I have seen the stories of a great many wars,’ he said at last. ‘None of them pleasant – but wars never are.’
‘Did you not perceive the pattern?’ Talis insisted.
Keill shrugged. ‘I saw resemblances. But the essence of war is usually much the same, wherever it happens. I saw no final proof of connections. And I still find it hard to believe that all those wars were caused by one... Warlord. Surely others would have guessed at the existence of such a being.’
‘The galaxy is large,’ Talis said, ’and there is not enough information-sharing among planets. Aside from trade and short-range travelling, there are hardly any galaxy-wide links.
So no one would assemble all the data, to see what is happening on the overall, galactic scale.’
‘Except yourselves.’
‘Just so.’
‘Yet for all your overview’ Keill said bluntly, ’youseem to know very little. What of these individuals that the tapes singled out – the ones who rose so quickly to positions of power?’
‘They are of course servants of the Warlord,’ Talis replied, ’sent as emissaries to worm their way into positions where they can spread the infection that leads to war.’
‘Could you not have these people investigated,’ Keill asked, ’to see if there are connections among them that might lead back to your Warlord?’
‘It has been tried,’ said Talis glumly. ‘But on most worlds where they have appeared, they have quickly become too powerful to be investigated. In the few cases, though, where a planet has resisted the infection, and has stopped the Warlord’s servants before they gained power, we have learned some things. We have learned that the Warlord is hidden even to his emissaries, who receive their orders indirectly. And we have learned that a failed emissary, like those of whom I speak, does not remain alive for long.’
‘It is not much,’ Keill said.
‘True – but we dare not press too hard. As far aswe know the Warlord has not guessed our existence.
And he must not, as yet, for we know too little to oppose him properly. That is why we, too, are so secretive – even with you, Keill Randor. If you were ever to fall into the hands of the Warlord or his servants, they would not be able to wrest knowledge from you that you do not have – of who we are, where we are.’
Keill smiled dryly. ‘You must hide, so he won’t know of you – yet while you’re hiding, you can’t learn more of him. This is foolishness!’
‘No,’ said Talis quietly, ’it is the reason why we, too, need an emissary.’
‘By which,’ Keill said, ’you mean me.’
‘Just so. We cannot go out among the Worlds ourselves. We have devices that can monitor events on nearly any planet of our choosing – but we need someone to be our eyes and ears at close range.
Someone who can go on to worlds threatened by the Warlord – and survive.’
‘One man against this... emperor of wars?’
‘Not just a man. A legionary. No one in the galaxy would have a higher potential for survival.’
But as Talis spoke, another voice was also speaking – in Keill’s mind.
In the midst of all your doubts, Randor, you would do well to remember that you survive now only because of the Overseers’ skills, which they gave to you at considerable risk.
Keill turned swiftly. The alien, Glr, was floating across the room on her translucent wings, to settle on a perch near the door, her great eyes fixed as before on Keill. ’
‘I haven’t forgotten,’ he said slowly, ’the unpayable debt I owe, for my healing. If I am healed.’
Glr fluttered her wings as if echoing the exasperation in Talis’s voice. ‘Do you doubt even that?’
‘The medic told me,’ Keill said stubbornly, ’that the effects of the radiation couldn’t be reversed.’
‘True,’ Talis replied. ‘It had settled in your bones, irreversibly. So – we replaced them.’
‘Replaced...?’
‘A process of my own invention, if I may say so,’ Talis went on. ‘Your skeletal structure is now composed of an organic alloy.’
Keill s
tared at him speechlessly.
It was an interesting operation. The replacement had to be done molecule by molecule, taking care to match your original skeleton exactly in shape and weight, and to ensure that your bone marrow adapted.
But—’ he gestured expansively at Keill ’—it all seems entirely successful.’
Keill did not see the gesture. He was looking down at himself, at his arms and legs, his ribs, his knuckles...
‘There is an interesting side effect,’ Talis continued chattily. ‘The alloy has quite surprising resilience and strength. Our tests have shown that it is almost completely infrangible.’
‘Infrangible? What...’
It means, mudhead,laughed Glr in his mind, that your bones cannot be broken.
Keill’s head jerked up, eyes wide with disbelief. Then a smile began to form on his lips – a smile of scornful irony, but tinged with disappointment.
‘Now you have gone too far,’ he said. ‘If you thought you could ease my doubts with a wild tale like that...’
I would gladly arrange a test for you,Glr put in, but your flesh would suffer painful bruising in the process.
Keill stood up abruptly. ‘Talis, if that is your name, I can swallow no more absurdity. You may cling to your fantasies of Warlords and galactic empires – and bone replacements – and tell them to the next fool who comes along. But I have something else to do – a task put on me by a dear friend who tried to save me while she herself was dying. I’m going to look for the one who destroyed Moros, whoever it may be, if it takes the rest of my life, long or short. And I’m going to start looking on that moon of Saltrenius –
with no more delay.’
He turned and moved to the door. But the alien was there before him – wings spread, sturdy fingers revealing small, sharp talons, equally sharp little teeth gleaming in the narrow mouth.
Keill halted. ‘Old man, I wish no harm to you or to this creature. But I’m leaving, one way or another.’
Talis raised a hand, and some mental message must have passed between him and Glr, for the alien swirled away from the door and settled.
