Soldiers

by John Dalmas

  Tualurog looked knowingly at the board, then back at Quanshuk. "And how many planets have we colonized here?"

  "Forty-seven."

  "Forty-seven. With how many tribes?"

  "Fifty-six."

  "How many tribes do we have left?"

  "Sixty-four."

  Quanshuk's counsel had been tapping notes on his neckpad. In his own questioning, he would have the grand admiral explain his decisions. They were convincing enough. Even compelling.

  "Sixty-four tribes left," Tualurog echoed, making the number sound every bit as bad as it was. "And our warfleet now numbers?"

  "Two thousand seven hundred and twelve fighting ships. The reduction has been due largely to leaving defense forces in the colonized systems, but losses to enemy action have also been substantial."

  Tualurog looked meaningfully at the hearing board, then turned to Kruts. "Your Honor, I would like to leave that train of questioning for now, and open a new train, which I am confident will change the complexion of this hearing. I respectfully request your indulgence."

  Kruts eyed him mistrustingly. "Proceed, Inquisitor."

  Tualurog drew nearer to Quanshuk now, and his tone became almost confidential. "I have not seen your chief scholar for several days. Is he ill?"

  "Your Honor!" counsel complained. "I seriously object!"

  "Denied for now. Proceed, Inquisitor. But this had better lead somewhere."

  "It will, Your Honor. I have witnesses. Lord Admiral, your answer please."

  Quanshuk had known this was coming since he'd seen the two humans in the witness section. And there was no way to explain it except with the truth. It seemed to him he'd botched the whole affair-everything since they'd arrived in this galaxy-and there was no way in the universe to fix it. He would tell it as he knew it, and take whatever came.

  "Lord Inquisitor," he said, "Chief Scholar Qonits is not ill, so far as I know. I have sent him on a mission."

  "Sent him?"

  "In a long-range scout."

  If the courtroom had been quiet before, it was now quiet cubed. "With the human known as David?" Tualurog asked.

  "With the human known as David."

  Now Tualurog feigned reluctance. He'd guessed the answer as soon as Qonits' absence had taken his attention. With that, uncovering witnesses had been easy. Then he'd requested a fitness board, proposing himself as inquisitor.

  "And what, Grand Admiral, is that mission?" he asked slowly.

  "I greatly underestimated the size of the human empire, Lord Inquisitor. As a result we are dangerously overextended, especially given the potency of the enemy fleets. However, our limited knowledge of humans suggests that while fierce, they are a life-form that can be-negotiated with."

  A buzz filled the chamber. Kruts hammered it into silence.

  "Proceed, Grand Admiral," he said.

  "Of course, Captain. The mission, Lord Inquisitor, is to negotiate peace with the humans."

  This time, instead of a buzz, there was an indignant hubbub. Kruts banged his gavel till the chamber stilled. "Lord Inquisitor, Lord Counselor, members of the fitness board," he said, "this hearing has grown to encompass far more than envisioned. I hereby adjourn the fitness hearing, and recommend that we deal first with this new development."

  He scanned the gathering. "All spectators will leave the chamber until further notice. Security will escort the witnesses to the waiting room, except for the two humans, who will be taken to their quarters. Guards will remain with the humans to prevent suicide. Officers of the court, clear the chamber."

  ***

  When spectators and witnesses had gone, the hearing board declared itself an emergency board, and elected Rear Admiral Tualurog as its chairman. Then work began on what to do about the predicament they were in.

  Quanshuk, as a witness now, pointed out that no known empire except their own had exceeded twenty-eight habitable worlds. And their own had long since ceased to be an empire in its original sense. The second swarm had extended it to twenty-two worlds, and strained the power of the government to govern. The third swarm had set out with the understanding that it would form a sister empire, with loyalty to the same traditions, the Wyzhnyny species, and the high emperor-the ruler of the parent empire. But the sister empire would rule itself.

  Two millennia and six swarms had spread the Wyzhnyny widely, but even so, the Wyzhnyny Empire occupied an expanse only a small fraction as large as the human empire.

  During the day's meeting, no consensus developed regarding the nature of the human empire. The remarkable lack of high technology on any of the worlds so far conquered seemed to rule out a group of sibling empires. And the long interval without military resistance, and the considerable gap between fleet encounters, suggested the human core worlds were not well prepared for invasion.

  But there was consensus on a new strategy, and it did not involve anything so outrageous as negotiation. Speed was the key, and further colonization would be postponed. Strike for the imperial core. When a star was found within detection range in hyperspace, the armada would emerge promptly, and determine from the electronic signature whether the system held a core world. A core world. If not, they'd generate hyperspace at once and speed onward. In that way they'd advance far more rapidly.

  If they encountered a human fleet waiting in other than a core world system, they would bypass it, generate hyperspace and speed on. The first priority was to destroy the core worlds, and particularly the crown world.

  When finally they fought, it would be with the humans' main fleet, and the battle would decide once and for all which life-form would survive. If they won, and they must, then scouting forces would be sent to search out the remaining core worlds. The fleet could then be sent to destroy their technical infrastructures. The following mop-up might take generations, but bit by bit they would exterminate the human life-form.

  Rear Admiral Tualurog was elected grand admiral by acclaim. Quanshuk was stripped of rank and privileges, and sentenced to death by suffocation, for treason. Tualurog's first act as grand admiral would be to question the human known as Yukiko-a parent fixated in female phase-and learn, if possible, the location of the crown world.

  Then he intended to kill both humans. Evil was evil. It was probably contact with the prisoners that had corrupted Qonits, and through Qonits, Quanshuk. He would take no chances.

  Chapter 60

  Strange Message

  "Blessed Buddha!" Foster Peixoto barely breathed the oath, while Chang Lung-Chi watched and listened silently. The screen showed only Ramesh lying in trance, but the words!

  For many months, Annika Pedersen had channeled faithfully. And presumably accurately, Terran as Terran, and Wyzhnynyc as Wyzhnynyc. All seemingly without knowing what she did, or that she did anything at all. David MacDonald and Yukiko Gavaldon always spoke in Terran, except for a few, infrequent Wyzhnynyc interjections. While Qonits' words… Seemingly they'd been channeled as faithfully as Ramesh's vocal apparatus allowed, whether slurred Terran from Qonits' lipless mouth, or Wyzhnynyc muttered to his throat mike or spoken to his guards.

  But now Annika and Yukiko were clearly in very different surroundings. David was either absent or silent, while Yukiko murmured only occasional soothing words to the savant. Everything else was in an incomprehensible mixture of Terran and Wyzhnynyc, in Wyzhnyny voices that differed in pitch, tone, and personality.

  But the numerous intermixed Terran words included the labial phonemes, all properly sounded! A Wyzhnyny could not have pronounced them that way. It was as if Annika was mentally translating from Wyzhnynyc into Terran, live, so far as her mental database allowed. And what she could not translate, sent in the original Wyzhnynyc! At least that's how it struck the president, and the prime minister agreed.

  The proceedings seemed to be a legal hearing of some kind.

  Peixoto and Chang were listening for the second time. When the chamber was cleared again by the-judge?-and Yukiko and Annika had been sent to their cell, Peixoto
turned off the recorder/player. "This is incredible!" he said. "Unimaginable!" Then switched on his desk comm. "Gisella, connect me with the university. This is urgent!"

  ***

  A page interrupted Professor Pelle Clough in class, with a murmured, "The president and prime minister want to speak with you at once." Puzzled and only half believing, the professor took the call. It was brief, but extremely exciting. After dismissing his students, he was picked up on the roof by a security floater, and taken to the Palace of Worlds.

  Linguistics was a modest department in the Institute of Antiquities, but within his specialty, Pelle Clough was prominent worldwide. He taught and had written fascinating books on the history and evolution of languages, was reputedly expert in a dozen, and competent in perhaps a dozen more. Which implied a rare, intuitive sense of language.

  He had, of course, never heard Wyzhnynyc. But he and the two leaders played and replayed the cube, and with the help of the PM's artificial intelligence, wrung as much understanding as they could from it. They quickly agreed it was a courtroom proceeding, and Peixoto was a lawyer with courtroom experience. Before they were done, they'd gotten the sense of it. It seemed that Grand Admiral Quanshuk was being tried for malfeasance, or treason, or both.

  And what seemed almost certain-he'd sent an envoy, Chief Scholar Qonits, as a negotiator to the Commonwealth, apparently with David MacDonald as an aide. The thought first dumbfounded, then excited the two statesmen.

  They'd hardly finished-Clough hadn't left yet-when they were interrupted by Burhan Gokhale with another recorded channeling. This one was ugly, shocking, and very short. An apparent question was barked, repeatedly. Seemingly in Terran, but unintelligible, as if by someone who'd never tried to speak it before. Perhaps getting the words from the Wyzhnyny's shipsmind via an ear button.

  Clearly Yukiko understood it. She cried out as if in pain. "I don't know! God help me I don't!… Please don't hurt her! She's harmless! She can't… "

  Abruptly the recording ended, leaving the eavesdroppers with no doubt at all. Annika was dead, and Yukiko either was or soon would be.

  ***

  Ramesh had been deeply disturbed by what he'd channeled, though as always he remembered none of it. Afterward he sat at his piano and played somber music, until Burhan initiated a shallow trance-the attendant called them "healing reveries"-and put him to bed.

  Then Burhan went to the prime minister's apartment, where the two leaders sat waiting.

  "How," Peixoto asked, "could Annika have translated like that?"

  "Sir, how do savants do any of what they do? We only know what, not how. But Annika was present at all the language lessons. She heard everything any of the others heard. And it all registered, perfectly and permanently. Somewhere in her mind it all registered.

  "And how did she communicate to us over all those months? Instantly, in real time, from how many light years away? She simply did it, in the same way little Esko Rautasjaure can look at a star chart and tell you the travel time to anyplace you'd care to go. Or not go, including a supernova in Andromeda."

  Listening, Chang marveled at this young man-no savant and with only an ordinary education. But his intelligence was obvious, and his humanity beautiful. The president was glad to belong to the same species.

  Then Burhan Gokhale said something else. "Sirs, Charley Gordon may have useful comments on the courtroom material."

  ***

  A savant in trance cannot ask or answer questions. He can only channel. Thus Charley heard the cube of Annika's courtroom account via Ramesh, through Admiral Soong's new savant. When it was over, the prime minister added: "We cannot expect anything further from Annika, and we very much want some idea of what to expect. Can you help us?"

  "Sir," Charley said, "this brings two vectors to mind. I'd felt them both, but they were too vague to articulate. This clarifies them. I feel quite confident of them now. The Wyzhnyny armada will postpone further colonization, and advance much more rapidly. Expect them among the Core Worlds in weeks instead of months, to destroy cities, industries, the entire infrastructure. And our fleet if they can pin it down. They particularly want to raze Terra. After that they will have all the time they need to root out the colonies. Decades. Centuries if necessary.

  "Also, the Wyzhnyny envoy will arrive at the Sol System somewhat sooner than the armada. He will have no diversions, and only astrogational stops. The Admiralty can approximate his arrival time for you, from his departure time from Shakti. Obviously his diplomatic accreditation is no longer in force, but he will have valuable knowledge.

  "As for Annika and Yukiko-I agree, they are dead. The Wyzhnyny commander wanted help in finding Terra, and Yukiko could not or would not help him."

  It was the president who asked the final question: "Is there, then, any hope at all?"

  "Oh yes, Mr. President, there is hope. But there is not much time."

  ***

  When they'd finished, Peixoto gave himself a moment to recover, then looked at the president. "Whew! When I asked what to expect, I didn't imagine such detail. Now we have less time than ever." Keying his desk comm, he had his secretary call War House.

  Chapter 61

  An Envoy Received

  David MacDonald listened to shipsvoice count down to emergence. He remembered Maritimus, and the armada's 16,000 blips, and couldn't imagine the Commonwealth producing a viable defense. Yet twice there'd been battles, and the last one had shaken up not only the flagship, but Qonits as well.

  And apparently the admiral. Otherwise why send an envoy to Terra? And on the sneak, as if Quanshuk couldn't rely on his officers. If that was true, how could negotiations possibly succeed?

  They emerged into deep, star-glittered blackness, one star far brighter than any other, uncomfortable to more than glance at. It had to be Sol; they'd emerged just half a day earlier to orient themselves for this jump.

  Shipsvoice spoke while words scuttled across the navscreen, all unintelligible to him. "We are within a million miles of a pod beacon," Qonits said. "A useful locational reference, and a good omen."

  Good omen, David echoed mentally. Wishful thinking.

  Qonits poised a hand above a rocker switch and looked questioningly at him. "Try it," David said. The Wyzhnyny touched it. A HUD marked with three symbols-perhaps a Wyzhnyny acronym-appeared on the "window." Looking at David, Qonits gestured at the mike. "Speak," he said softly.

  David licked his lips. "War House, War House, War House." The words felt strange to him. At one time they'd been a mockery. It was said that in Proto-Terran-essentially Old Anglic-the words had meant a brothel. War House had long been regarded as a perverse waste of time, a place where grown men spent years in a universe of make believe. How that viewpoint must have changed!

  "This is David MacDonald. David MacDonald. Research leader of the Maritimus Project. I am on an alien long-range scout in the vicinity of a pod beacon. On an alien long-range scout in the vicinity of a pod beacon.

  "I've been a prisoner on the invaders' flagship for more than a year. I have come here with Lord Qonits of the Wyzhnyny Empire. Lord Qonits of the Wyzhnyny Empire. I am his guide and aide. Lord Qonits is the envoy of Grand Admiral Quanshuk, of the Wyzhnyny armada. The grand admiral has sent him to discuss possible peace terms. Repeat: peace terms." He paused. "We will remain where we are, and await an escort. Repeat: We will remain where we are and await an escort."

  He switched off the mike. It would take about six hours for the message to reach Terra, and the government would take-How long? A day? An hour? A minute?-to decide what to make of this, and respond. Or perhaps decide that someone was hoaxing them. Six hours after that would bring the reply. Unless a courier was sent via warpspace, or some system patrol craft intercepted his message and responded sooner.

  He turned to Qonits. "Now we wait," he said.

  Qonits nodded. They were used to waiting. They'd done long weeks of it. Long but not idle weeks. Most of their waking hours had been spent in the expansion and
refinement of Qonits' Terran, until it seemed to David the chief scholar spoke it better than he did. Qonits had remarkable recall, and approximated human phonemes about as well as a Wyzhnyny ever could, without electronic enhancement. Meanwhile their busyness minimized David's fretting about Yukiko, and Qonits' about what might have happened to Quanshuk when he'd announced what he'd done.

  Now, while waiting for an escort, Qonits explained the seven Wyzhnyny genders, which clarified a lot for the Terran. And David elaborated on Terran and Commonwealth history. After a bit they napped. David's dreams were strange but not troubling. Qonits's were troubling enough for both of them.

  ***

  The long-range scout remained parked for ten hours, then its two occupants were picked up by a courier. On the trip insystem, both passengers, secured in their seats, slept again as if they'd been sleep deprived. The copilot wakened them when he emerged from warpspace above Kunming. Near enough that Qonits could appreciate the city's layout, but high enough to give it context. Looking southeast across 400 miles of grasslands and forests, they could see the Gulf of Tonkin. Northwestward, the view was dominated by the deep rugged gorges and towering snow-topped ridges and peaks of the Yun Ling Shan. To the east, spreading to the horizon, lay tawny farmland with intermittent woodlands.

  To David MacDonald it was unbelieveably beautiful. He wished Yukiko were there to see it with him. For Qonits the view was interesting and aesthetic, and for the moment he forgot his mission-its responsibilities and dubious prospects.

  The radio snatched their attention. Internal Security had further instructions for the pilot. They didn't want Qonits seen by the public. Not yet. His presence would no doubt leak, but let it seem only an unlikely rumor.