Collected Short Fiction, page 238
VII.
THE TALL COMMANDER of the legion stood for a time, within the rich-hued, lustrous pool of a great rug. His dark eyes studied Bob Star. One lean finger was scraping at the angle of his dark jaw.
“I’m glad, Bob,” he said at last, in a very slow, quiet voice, “that you’ve told me this. I can understand the way you feel, for once I felt not much differently.” His dark eyes closed for a moment; and Bob Star saw his face as a schooled mask of tragic resignation. “But you can overcome your fear, Bob, as I did. And you must!
“For as things are now, Bob, it may be necessary for you to kill Stephen Orco.”
“You mean that, commander?” he cried. “I’d give my life for the chance!” And he muttered: “But I’m afraid—afraid I couldn’t!”
Chimes rang softly, then. A door swung open, to admit once more the deep, vibrant song of the geodyne generators that drove the gigantic ship. A steward entered, in white, pushing a covered, wheeled table.
“Breakfast,” he announced, saluting, “for two.”
Jay Kalam silently motioned him to depart. The door closed again, and it seemed that the long, ivory-walled room was in another dimension, remote from the racing ship.
Jay Kalam ignored the table, as Bob Star asked, anxiously: “How does it come that Stephen Orco is still alive? I thought that he was executed for treason, after the revolt.”
“That’s what the system thinks,” said Jay Kalam. “The true history of the revolt is known to only a few: your parents and myself, a few officers of the legion—and, of course, Stephen Orco. I’m going to outline it to you, now, so that you can understand the very important duty before you.
“Stephen Orco himself is a riddle,” he began, as Bob Star listened intently, and the unnoticed breakfast cooled on the covered table. “The legion has spent a fortune, without learning anything about his origin.”
“But I remember his parents,” objected Bob Star. “They visited the academy. Stephen Orco invited the boys to a party they gave. I wasn’t asked,” he added, wryly, “though all my friends were.”
“They are foster parents,” said Jay Kalam, gravely. “His adoptive father, Edwin Orco, found him in a peculiar way. Orco was a wealthy planter; he had extensive holdings through the asteroids. His home was on Pallas.
“Nearly thirty years ago,” he went on, “Orco was cruising in toward Mars in his space yacht. He and his wife had been visiting some of their plantations; they were coming to Mars for the summer season. As it happened, they were cruising far off the usual space lanes.
“Some forty million miles off Mars, their navigator caught sight of a bright object, adrift in space. The meteor detectors had led to its discovery, but it was obviously no common meteorite. Orco’s curiosity was aroused enough so that he had the vessel checked.
“The object proved to be a cylinder of magnelithium alloy, eight feet long. It had a carefully machined screw cap, which was sealed at several points with masses of black wax. Impressed upon each seal, in scarlet, was a curious symbol: It was the looped cross—the crux ansata, which is an ancient symbol of life—above crossed bones.
“When the cylinder had been examined, Edwin Orco wished to have it brought in through the air lock, and opened. But his wife objected. The crossed bones, she said, meant danger. The shape and dimensions of the object rather suggested a coffin, and she suggested that it might contain a corpse, dead of some dreadful contagion.
“BUT Edwin Orco was a hardy man. It was not timidity that had won his fortune, in the rougher days of the asteroid belt. And his curiosity was burning.
“In the end, he had the cylinder dragged into the air lock. Then, when no member of his crew proved willing to touch it, he sealed himself into the chamber with it. He broke the seals, and unscrewed the cap.
“The walls of the cylinder were heavy, and carefully insulated. Inside were tanks of oxygen, water, and liquid food. There were heaters, air cleaners. In brief, except for lack of power, the thing was a miniature space ship.
“In the midst of the apparatus, in a kind of cradle, was Stephen Orco.
“A red-haired tot, apparently not a year old. He was naked, unaccompanied by any means of identification. Apparently he was never able to tell anything of his past history. Edwin Orco advertised discreetly for information, offering large rewards, but nothing was ever forthcoming.
“Stephen Orco had, as you say, an unusual power of fascination. One glimpse of the child’s wide blue eyes won Edwin Orco’s childless wife. The couple adopted the infant, and gave it every advantage their wealth could buy, even to securing the appointment to the academy.”
“His own brilliance could have won him that,” Bob Star put in, “in the competitive examinations.”
“Anyhow,” Jay Kalam went on, “he was graduated, as you know, with honors, and went into service. He received the rapid promotion that his unusual abilities seemed to merit. Within four years, he had his own ship. Two years later he was placed in command of the Jupiter Patrol.
“The Jovian system, you know,” Jay Kalam swiftly explained, “was settled largely by exiled Purples—enemies of the democratic Green Hall. They were sent there when the empire was overthrown, two centuries ago.”
“I know,” said Bob Star, quietly. “My own grandfather was born on Callisto.”
“Within a month after he assumed command of the Jupiter Patrol,” the tall commander went on, “we began to receive ultra-wave dispatches from Stephen Orco, reporting a new uprising of the Purples. He always stated that the situation was well in hand, and requested me not to send reenforcements.
“And for two weeks we did nothing—until a band of fugitives reached Ceres in a space yacht with the amazing information that Stephen Orco was himself the guiding spirit of the revolt, and that all they fighting had been between him and his allies, and the loyal men in the patrol. Civilian friends of the Green Hall had been systematically murdered.
“I called in every possible legion ship, from as far away as Mercury and Pallas, to the legion base on Mars.”
“I recall the day,” said Bob Star, springing to his feet in remembered impatience. “We heard about it, in the classrooms. I was mad to join the expedition against Stephen Orco. But they wouldn’t let me go.”
“When the fleet was ready, I took your mother aboard the flagship, from the Purple Hall,” Jay Kalam went on. “From what the fugitives had reported of Stephen Orco, I thought it might be necessary for us to call upon AKKA.
“Our flight to the Jovian system was not opposed. All was quiet until we approached Callisto. But then a great, spinning sun of white flame burst up from the city of Lei, and came hurtling toward the fleet. It was a vortex of annihilation. Two cruisers were caught in the attraction of the terrific etheric fields that surrounded it, and sucked into its incandescent core of disintegrating atoms.
“We were not completely surprised. The fugitives had reported that Stephen Orco was erecting a new secret weapon, developed from scientific information obtained from the Medusae of Yarkand, when the Purples under Eric Ulnar were in alliance with them.
“And this weapon, I saw, was similar to the vortex guns of the Medusae. But the range and power of it had been vastly increased, by the genius of Stephen Orco. I perceived at once that this one weapon on Callisto threatened every planet in the system, with its bolts of atomic flame.
“YOUR MOTHER, Bob, had already assembled the little instrument of AKKA. And, as much as I dislike wholesale destruction, I asked her then to wipe out the city of Lei.
“You have seen the instrument, Bob. And you must know that the working of it is not spectacular. I was not surprised when your mother operated it, and nothing appeared to happen. But she turned to me, with a puzzled, frightened look on her face, and whispered: “ ‘It doesn’t work!’
“Startled and dismayed, I looked into a telescope. One glimpse showed me that Lei had not been harmed. I was able to see the vortex gun. It was a colossal skeleton tube of metal girders, set on a plateau above the city.
“Even as I looked, another whirling mass of atomic flame came up out of it. It caught three more of our ships—and the whole fleet, at the beginning, had been only ninety-seven.
“Your mother perceived at once that we had been defeated.
“ ‘Some one,’ she told me, ‘has come upon the secret of AKKA. Matter and energy,’ she explained, ‘are phenomena of space. AKKA operates by so transforming the warp of space that they cannot exist. And the only possible barrier against its operation is a counter warp in space, created by another master of AKKA.’
“I made her try again, although she protested that it was useless.
“ ‘You can’t adjust the weapon,’ I asked her, ‘to penetrate the interfering warp?’
“ ‘No,’ she told me. ‘AKKA operates upon a simple principle. It utilizes a singular instability of the universe. And any master of the principle can turn the balance the other way, to make that stability absolute.
“ ‘My weapon,’ she said, ‘will not work again until that other master of it is dead—or at least until his instrument is taken from him, and he is prevented from getting materials for a new one.’
“Retreat was the only course possible,” the tall commander continued bleakly. “And we lost six more cruisers as we fled.
“A triumphant ultra-wave message from Stephen Orco followed us. It confirmed our assumption that he was the new master of AKKA. It demanded that the Green Hall recognize the Jovian empire, under his dictatorship, as an independent state.
“The insolent mockery of the message did not end with that. Stephen Orco demanded interplanetary concessions, apologies from the Green Hall, humiliating prerogatives throughout the system. He demanded the abolition of the legion of space.
“It was clear that he aimed at domination of the entire system.”
JAY KALAM stood rigidly straight upon the great rug, amid the simple, warm-toned luxury of that great, silent room upon the racing Invincible. His lean jaw was grimly set. His dark eyes were flashing. And the vibrant ring coming back into his voice was the echo of battle.
“We were defeated,” he said. “But not vanquished. The legion of space has never been vanquished. Remember that, Bob!”
“Yes, sir,” breathed Bob Star, instinctively saluting.
“With the Purple Hall, Bob,” Jay Kalam resumed, “your father had inherited the records of the first Yarkand expedition. They had been discovered among the private documents of the traitor, Adam Ulnar. From the information in those records, scanty and inaccurate as it was, we set out to duplicate the great vortex gun that Stephen Orco had set up on Callisto.
“The work of many men went into it. Your father made a brilliant contribution. I did what I was able. But it was your mother, Bob—perhaps because of her knowledge of AKKA—who first saw the outlines of the basic problem of insuring the stability and control of the vortex, and suggested a solution.
“It is enough to say that we built, and set up on Ceres, a vortex gun fully equal to the one at Lei. The Invincible he remarked, “now carries one of greater power, but that first one was too clumsy and bulky to be mounted on any ship.
“Meanwhile, Stephen Orco had been busy organizing his new empire and preparing for further conquests, without haste, believing us completely at his mercy. The successful erection of the great vortex gun on Ceres—and it ranks among the supreme achievements of the legion, Bob—was a complete surprise.
“A surprise that defeated him.
“Neither weapon could destroy the other, for each could deflect approaching vortices to a harmless distance. Stephen Orco’s weapon was powerful enough, given time, to desolate every planet in the entire system—one atomic vortex shot from Callisto reduced ten thousand square miles of Mercury to smoking lava.
“But our weapon was equally powerful. And it was a simpler task to blot life from the moons of Jupiter than from the rest of the system. We should have finished first.
“Stephen Orco, as you say, Bob, is a remarkably brilliant man. He saw at once that he was defeated. He was too intelligent to carry on a clearly hopeless battle. He immediately offered to surrender, when our first shot fell on Callisto.
“He demanded, however, that we guarantee his life. He required the personal word of every member of the Green Hall, and of myself, for the legion, that we would protect his life at every cost. He made an odd exception, however, with regard to you, Bob.”
Bob Star leaned forward, to ask in a strained voice: “What was that, commander?”
“I think I recall his exact words,” said Jay Kalam. “He said: ‘Leave out Robert Star. He and I already have an engagement regarding my life. And if the young pup has the guts to kill me, let him do it.’ ”
That challenge jerked Bob Star forward. He was trembling. His lean jaws set, and his nails dug into his palms. The ragged scar upon his forehead went deathly white.
“I will!” he muttered grimly. “I will!” Then his mouth fell a little open, and he sank back into his chair, weakly mopping the sweat from his forehead.
“But I couldn’t kill him, commander,” he whispered. “I couldn’t, if I tried! Something—there’s just something that wouldn’t let me.”
“You will overcome that fear, Bob,” said Jay Kalam, gravely. “You must.” For a moment he was silent, his thin, ascetic lips firmly set. “The word of an officer in the legion has seldom been broken,” he said at last. “Mine will not be broken.
“I am not going to kill Stephen Orco, Bob. I am not going to allow any other man in the legion to kill him. But since Stephen Orco made that mocking exception in your case, it is necessary for us to take advantage of it.
“UNDERSTAND, Bob, I do not command you to kill Stephen Orco. But I am going to leave you with his guard, with authority independent of the officers there, to take any action you see fit. I should dislike very much to see any man of Stephen Orco’s ability needlessly killed.
“My only command is, do not let him escape.”
Bob Star swallowed, and gulped hoarsely: “Yes, commander.”
His arm made a jerky salute.
“It is unfortunate that we had to promise the life of Stephen Orco,” Jay Kalam added. “Your father, Bob, was opposed to making the promise. He pointed out that Stephen Orco’s very life was a continual menace to the system, that at any time, with a few minutes of liberty, he could make AKKA useless once more. Enemies of the system, your father said, would try endlessly to set him free. And his uncanny genius would make him a deadly danger, in any dungeon.
“But if his terms had not been accepted, the resulting war would have cost half the human lives in the system. Even your father at last agreed that we could not pay billions of lives, for his.
“And Stephen Orco became our prisoner—the most dangerous prisoner that locks ever held.”
Bob Star was staring up out of the big chair, with his lean face set and pale.
“So Stephen Orco is still alive?” his bloodless lips formed an almost soundless whisper. “And he’s in prison? And he knows the secret of my mother’s weapon?”
“He has been guarded as well as the legion could guard him,” Jay Kalam was saying. “We announced that he had been condemned and executed for his treason—as he so well deserved to be. And in a secret place, the legion built the strongest fortress that our engineers could devise. Stephen Orco is held there, under another name. He is dead to the world outside. He is permitted no communication—not even with the members of his guard.
“To all but a few, he is dead,” the commander said slowly. “But the invisible raiders from the comet have the secret.”
“Eh?” exclaimed Bob Star, startled by those calm words. Stiff with numbing dismay, his fingers clutched at the arms of his chair. “How is that?”
“That’s the reason, Bob, for our alarm. That’s why your father was so set upon, the destruction of the comet. You see, we kept certain information about Stephen Orco, including the location of the prison, in a vault at the main legion base on Earth.
“We believed the vault impregnable. Your old guardian, Giles Habibula, helped design the elaborate system of locks. They were the best in the system. The vault was always guarded by trusted men.
“But the invisible beings from the comet slipped past the outer defenses of the base. They approached the vault, undetected. They killed four guards—hideously. They entered the vault—which Giles Habibula had said was impossible. They carried off the documents relating to Stephen Orco.”
Bob Star’s lean face was grimly bleak. “If the Cometeers set him free,” his dry throat rasped, “he will join them gladly. He has no loyalty to mankind. He would be eager to fight the system, to avenge his imprisonment.”
“It is hard to believe that of a human being,” said Jay Kalam.
“But I know it,” said Bob Star, with savage emphasis. “He is a man without humanity.” His voice grew faint with dread as he added: “And when he is free, my mother’s weapon will be useless. We shall be defenseless against the science that moves the comet!”
“Still,” interposed Jay Kalam gravely, “I believe that beings so far advanced as the Cometeers must be, must have developed such high qualities as mercy, magnanimity, and tolerance.
“SOON,” he added, “I shall know. After we leave you at Stephen Orco’s prison, the Invincible will drive straight for the comet. Within five days we shall be welcomed as friends—or destroyed.
“For I don’t doubt that the Cometeers are capable of destroying the Invincible, Bob. I am simply staking the ship, and our lives, that the Cometeers will reciprocate a gesture of friendship.
“In a few hours, now, the Invincible will stop to leave you at Stephen Orco’s prison, Bob. I don’t command you to kill him. But don’t let him escape. For if I lose, Bob—if the Cometeers prove to be enemies—His escape will mean the doom of the system.”
Bob Star was a quivering heap, in the big chair. His thin face was a drawn mask of agony, and the ragged scar was lividly white. His tortured eyes stared at Jay Kalam, mutely pleading.
