General Hokotan seemed to have more of the fighting quality than most HQ men, but he wasn’t a Fleet Officer at heart. He couldn’t be compared to Tallis without looking small and mean.
As a matter of cold fact, very few of the officers were in anyway comparable to Tallis—not even the Fleet men. The more MacMaine learned of the Kerothi, the more he realized just how lucky he had been that it had been Tallis, and not some other Kerothi general, who had been captured by the Earth forces. He was not at all sure that his plan would have worked at all with any of the other officers he had met.
Tallis, like MacMaine, was an unusual specimen of his race.
* * * *
MacMaine took the congratulations of the Kerothi officers with a look of pleasure on his face, and when they had subsided somewhat, he grinned and said:
“Let’s get a little work done around here, shall we? We have a planet to reduce yet.”
They laughed. Reducing a planet didn’t require strategy—only fire-power. The planet-based defenses couldn’t maneuver, but the energy reserve of a planet is greater than that of any fleet, no matter how large. Each defense point would have to be cut down individually by the massed power of the fleet, cut down one by one until the planet was helpless. The planet as a whole might have more energy reserve than the fleet, but no individual defense point did. The problem was to avoid being hit by the rest of the defense points while one single point was bearing the brunt of the fleet’s attack. It wasn’t without danger, but it could be done.
And for a job like that, MacMaine’s special abilities weren’t needed. He could only watch and wait until it was over.
So he watched and waited. Unlike the short-time fury of a space battle, the reduction of a planet took days of steady pounding. When it was over, the blaster-boats of the Kerothi fleet and the shuttles from the great battle cruisers landed on Houston’s World and took possession of the planet.
* * * *
MacMaine was waiting in his cabin when General Hokotan brought the news that the planet was secured.
“They are ours,” the HQ spy said with a superior smile. “The sniveling animals didn’t even seem to want to defend themselves. They don’t even know how to fight a hand-to-hand battle. How could such things have ever evolved intelligence enough to conquer space?” Hokotan enjoyed making such remarks to MacMaine’s face, knowing that since MacMaine was technically a Kerothi he couldn’t show any emotion when the enemy was insulted.
MacMaine showed none. “Got them all, eh?” he said.
“All but a few who scattered into the hills and forests. But not many of them had the guts to leave the security of their cities, even though we were occupying them.”
“How many are left alive?”
“An estimated hundred and fifty million, more or less.”
“Good. That should be enough to set an example. I picked Houston’s World because we can withdraw from it without weakening our position; its position in space is such that it would constitute no menace to us even if we never reduced it. That way, we can be sure that our little message is received on Earth.”
Hokotan’s grin was wolfish. “And the whole weak-hearted race will shake with fear, eh?”
“Exactly. Tallis can speak English well enough to be understood. Have him make the announcement to them. He can word it however he likes, but the essence is to be this: Houston’s World resisted the occupation by Kerothi troops; an example must be made of them to show them what happens to Earthmen who resist.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s enough. Oh, by the way, make sure that there are plenty of their cargo spaceships in good working order; I doubt that we’ve ruined them all, but if we have, repair some of them.
“And, too, you’d better make sure that you allow some of the merchant spacemen to ‘escape,’ just in case there are no space pilots among those who took to the hills. We want to make sure that someone can use those ships to take the news back to Earth.”
“And the rest?” Hokotan asked, with an expectant look. He knew what was to be done, but he wanted to hear MacMaine say it again.
MacMaine obliged.
“Hang them. Every man, every woman, every child. I want them to be decorating every lamppost and roof-beam on the planet, dangling like overripe fruit when the Earth forces return.”
THE RESULTS
“I don’t understand it,” said General Polan Tallis worriedly. “Where are they coming from? How are they doing it? What’s happened?”
MacMaine and the four Kerothi officers were sitting in the small dining room that doubled as a recreation room between meals. The nervous strain of the past few months was beginning to tell on all of them.
“Six months ago,” Tallis continued jerkily, “we had them beaten. One planet after another was reduced in turn. Then, out of nowhere, comes a fleet of ships we didn’t even know existed, and they’ve smashed us at every turn.”
“If they are ships,” said Loopat, the youngest officer of the Shudos staff. “Who ever heard of a battleship that was undetectable at a distance of less than half a million miles? It’s impossible!”
“Then we’re being torn to pieces by the impossible!” Hokotan snapped. “Before we even know they are anywhere around, they are blasting us with everything they’ve got! Not even the strategic genius of General MacMaine can help us if we have no time to plot strategy!”
The Kerothi had been avoiding MacMaine’s eyes, but now, at the mention of his name, they all looked at him as if their collective gaze had been drawn to him by some unknown attractive force.
“It’s like fighting ghosts,” MacMaine said in a hushed voice. For the first time, he felt a feeling of awe that was almost akin to fear. What had he done?
In another sense, that same question was in the mind of the Kerothi.
“Have you any notion at all what they are doing or how they are doing it?” asked Tallis gently.
“None,” MacMaine answered truthfully. “None at all, I swear to you.”
“They don’t even behave like Earthmen,” said the fourth Kerothi, a thick-necked officer named Ossif. “They not only outfight us, they outthink us at every turn. Is it possible, General MacMaine, that the Earthmen have allies of another race, a race of intelligent beings that we don’t know of?” He left unsaid the added implication: “And that you have neglected to tell us about?”
“Again,” said MacMaine, “I swear to you that I know nothing of any third intelligent race in the galaxy.”
“If there were such allies,” Tallis said, “isn’t it odd that they should wait so long to aid their friends?”
“No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop superweapons that we cannot understand, much less fight against,” Hokotan said, with a touch of anger.
“Not ‘superweapons’,” MacMaine corrected almost absently. “All they have is a method of making their biggest ships indetectable until they’re so close that it doesn’t matter. When they do register on our detectors, it’s too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same type as they’ve always used, I believe.”
“All right, then,” Hokotan said, his voice showing more anger. “One weapon or whatever you want to call it. Practical invisibility. But that’s enough. An invisible man with a knife is more deadly than a dozen ordinary men with modern armament. Are you sure you know nothing of this, General MacMaine?”
Before MacMaine could answer, Tallis said, “Don’t be ridiculous, Hokotan! If he had known that such a weapon existed, would he have been fool enough to leave his people? With that secret, they stand a good chance of beating us in less than half the time it took us to wipe out their fleet—or, rather, to wipe out as much of it as we did.”
“They got a new fleet somewhere,” said young Loopat, almost to himself.
* * * *
Tallis ignored him. “If MacMaine deserted his former allegiance, knowing that they had a method of rendering the action of a space drive indetectable, then he was and is a
blithering idiot. And we know he isn’t.”
“All right, all right! I concede that,” snapped Hokotan. “He knows nothing. I don’t say that I fully trust him, even now, but I’ll admit that I cannot see how he is to blame for the reversals of the past few months.
“If the Earthmen had somehow been informed of our activities, or if we had invented a superweapon and they found out about it, I would be inclined to put the blame squarely on MacMaine. But——”
“How would he get such information out?” Tallis cut in sharply. “He has been watched every minute of every day. We know he couldn’t send any information to Earth. How could he?”
“Telepathy, for all I know!” Hokotan retorted. “But that’s beside the point! I don’t trust him any farther than I can see him, and not completely, even then. But I concede that there is no possible connection between this new menace and anything MacMaine might have done.
“This is no time to worry about that sort of thing; we’ve got to find some way of getting our hands on one of those ghost ships!”
“I do suggest,” put in the thick-necked Ossif, “that we keep a closer watch on General MacMaine. Now that the Earth animals are making a comeback, he might decide to turn his coat now, even if he has been innocent of any acts against Keroth so far.”
Hokotan’s laugh was a short, hard bark. “Oh, we’ll watch him, all right, Ossif. But, as Tallis has pointed out, MacMaine is not a fool, and he would certainly be a fool to return to Earth if his leaving it was a genuine act of desertion. The last planet we captured, before this invisibility thing came up to stop us, was plastered all over with notices that the Earth fleet was concentrating on the capture of the arch-traitor MacMaine.
“The price on his head, as a corpse, is enough to allow an Earthman to retire in luxury for life. The man who brings him back alive gets ten times that amount.
“Of course, it’s possible that the whole thing is a put-up job—a smoke screen for our benefit. That’s why we must and will keep a closer watch. But only a few of the Earth’s higher-up would know that it was a smoke screen; the rest believe it, whether it is true or not. MacMaine would have to be very careful not to let the wrong people get their hands on him if he returned.”
“It’s no smoke screen,” MacMaine said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I assure you that I have no intention of returning to Earth. If Keroth loses this war, then I will die—either fighting for the Kerothi or by execution at the hands of Earthmen if I am captured. Or,” he added musingly, “perhaps even at the hands of the Kerothi, if someone decides that a scapegoat is needed to atone for the loss of the war.”
“If you are guilty of treason,” Hokotan barked, “you will die as a traitor! If you are not, there is no need for your death. The Kerothi do not need scapegoats!”
“Talk, talk, talk!” Tallis said with a sudden bellow. “We have agreed that MacMaine has done nothing that could even remotely be regarded as suspicious! He has fought hard and loyally; he has been more ruthless than any of us in destroying the enemy. Very well, we will guard him more closely. We can put him in irons if that’s necessary.
“But let’s quit yapping and start thinking! We’ve been acting like frightened children, not knowing what it is we fear, and venting our fear-caused anger on the most handy target!
“Let’s act like men—not like children!”
After a moment, Hokotan said: “I agree.” His voice was firm, but calm. “Our job will be to get our hands on one of those new Earth ships. Anyone have any suggestions?”
They had all kinds of suggestions, one after another. The detectors, however, worked because they detected the distortion of space which was as necessary for the drive of a ship as the distortion of air was necessary for the movement of a propeller-driven aircraft. None of them could see how a ship could avoid making that distortion, and none of them could figure out how to go about capturing a ship that no one could even detect until it was too late to set a trap.
The discussion went on for days. And it was continued the next day and the next. And the days dragged out into weeks.
* * * *
Communications with Keroth broke down. The Fleet-to-Headquarters courier ships, small in size, without armament, and practically solidly packed with drive mechanism, could presumably outrun anything but another unarmed courier. An armed ship of the same size would have to use some of the space for her weapons, which meant that the drive would have to be smaller; if the drive remained the same size, then the armament would make the ship larger. In either case, the speed would be cut down. A smaller ship might outrun a standard courier, but if they got much smaller, there wouldn’t be room inside for the pilot.
Nonetheless, courier after courier never arrived at its destination.
And the Kerothi Fleet was being decimated by the hit-and-run tactics of the Earth’s ghost ships. And Earth never lost a ship; by the time the Kerothi ships knew their enemy was in the vicinity, the enemy had hit and vanished again. The Kerothi never had a chance to ready their weapons.
In the long run, they never had a chance at all.
MacMaine waited with almost fatalistic complacence for the inevitable to happen. When it did happen, he was ready for it.
The Shudos, tiny flagship of what had once been a mighty armada and was now only a tattered remnant, was floating in orbit, along with the other remaining ships of the fleet, around a bloated red-giant sun. With their drives off, there was no way of detecting them at any distance, and the chance of their being found by accident was microscopically small. But they could not wait forever. Water could be recirculated, and energy could be tapped from the nearby sun, but food was gone once it was eaten.
Hokotan’s decision was inevitable, and, under the circumstances, the only possible one. He simple told them what they had already known—that he was a Headquarters Staff officer.
“We haven’t heard from Headquarters in weeks,” he said at last. “The Earth fleet may already be well inside our periphery. We’ll have to go home.” He produced a document which he had obviously been holding in reserve for another purpose and handed it to Tallis. “Headquarters Staff Orders, Tallis. It empowers me to take command of the Fleet in the event of an emergency, and the decision as to what constitutes an emergency was left up to my discretion. I must admit that this is not the emergency any of us at Headquarters anticipated.”
Tallis read through the document. “I see that it isn’t,” he said dryly. “According to this, MacMaine and I are to be placed under immediate arrest as soon as you find it necessary to act.”
“Yes,” said Hokotan bitterly. “So you can both consider yourselves under arrest. Don’t bother to lock yourselves up—there’s no point in it. General MacMaine, I see no reason to inform the rest of the Fleet of this, so we will go on as usual. The orders I have to give are simple: The Fleet will head for home by the most direct possible geodesic. Since we cannot fight, we will simply ignore attacks and keep going as long as we last. We can do nothing else.” He paused thoughtfully.
“And, General MacMaine, in case we do not live through this, I would like to extend my apologies. I do not like you; I don’t think I could ever learn to like an anim…to like a non-Kerothi. But I know when to admit an error in judgment. You have fought bravely and well—better, I know, than I could have done myself. You have shown yourself to be loyal to your adopted planet; you are a Kerothi in every sense of the word except the physical. My apologies for having wronged you.”
He extended his hands and MacMaine took them. A choking sensation constricted the Earthman’s throat for a moment, then he got the words out—the words he had to say. “Believe me, General Hokotan, there is no need for an apology. No need whatever.”
“Thank you,” said Hokotan. Then he turned and left the room.
“All right, Tallis,” MacMaine said hurriedly, “let’s get moving.”
* * * *
The orders were given to the remnants of the Fleet, and they cut in their drives to head homewar
d. And the instant they did, there was chaos. Earth’s fleet of “ghost ships” had been patrolling the area for weeks, knowing that the Kerothi fleet had last been detected somewhere in the vicinity. As soon as the spatial distortions of the Kerothi drives flashed on the Earth ships’ detectors, the Earth fleet, widely scattered over the whole circumambient volume of space, coalesced toward the center of the spatial disturbance like a cloud of bees all heading for the same flower.
Where there had been only the dull red light of the giant star, there suddenly appeared the blinding, blue-white brilliance of disintegrating matter, blossoming like cruel, deadly, beautiful flowers in the midst of the Kerothi ships, then fading slowly as each expanding cloud of plasma cooled.
Sebastian MacMaine might have died with the others except that the Shudos, as the flagship, was to trail behind the fleet, so her drive had not yet been activated. The Shudos was still in orbit, moving at only a few miles per second when the Earth fleet struck.
Her drive never did go on. A bomb, only a short distance away as the distance from atomic disintegration is measured, sent the Shudos spinning away, end over end, like a discarded cigar butt flipped toward a gutter, one side caved in near the rear, as if it had been kicked in by a giant foot.
There was still air in the ship, MacMaine realized groggily as he awoke from the unconsciousness that had been thrust upon him. He tried to stand up, but he found himself staggering toward one crazily-slanted wall. The stagger was partly due to his grogginess, and partly due to the Coriolis forces acting within the spinning ship. The artificial gravity was gone, which meant that the interstellar drive engines had been smashed. He wondered if the emergency rocket drive was still working—not that it would take him anywhere worth going to in less than a few centuries. But, then, Sebastian MacMaine had nowhere to go, anyhow.
The Randall Garrett Megapack Page 50
