_The Results_
"I don't understand it," said General Polan Tallis worriedly. "Whereare they coming from? How are they doing it? What's happened?"
MacMaine and the four Kerothi officers were sitting in the small diningroom that doubled as a recreation room between meals. The nervousstrain of the past few months was beginning to tell on all of them.
"Six months ago," Tallis continued jerkily, "we had them beaten. Oneplanet after another was reduced in turn. Then, out of nowhere, comes afleet of ships we didn't even know existed, and they've smashed us atevery turn."
"If they _are_ ships," said Loopat, the youngest officer of the_Shudos_ staff. "Who ever heard of a battleship that was undetectableat 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 uswith everything they've got! Not even the strategic genius of GeneralMacMaine can help us if we have no time to plot strategy!"
The Kerothi had been avoiding MacMaine's eyes, but now, at the mentionof his name, they all looked at him as if their collective gaze hadbeen drawn to him by some unknown attractive force.
"It's like fighting ghosts," MacMaine said in a hushed voice. For thefirst time, he felt a feeling of awe that was almost akin to fear. Whathad 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 doingit?" 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, athick-necked officer named Ossif. "They not only outfight us, theyoutthink us at every turn. Is it possible, General MacMaine, that theEarthmen have allies of another race, a race of intelligent beings thatwe don't know of?" He left unsaid the added implication: "_And thatyou have neglected to tell us about?_"
"Again," said MacMaine, "I swear to you that I know nothing of anythird intelligent race in the galaxy."
"If there were such allies," Tallis said, "isn't it odd that theyshould wait so long to aid their friends?"
"No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop superweaponsthat we cannot understand, much less fight against," Hokotan said, witha touch of anger.
"Not 'superweapons'," MacMaine corrected almost absently. "All theyhave is a method of making their biggest ships indetectable untilthey're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on ourdetectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the sametype as they've always used, I believe."
"All right, then," Hokotan said, his voice showing more anger. "Oneweapon or whatever you want to call it. Practical invisibility. Butthat's enough. An invisible man with a knife is more deadly than adozen ordinary men with modern armament. Are you sure you know nothingof 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 beenfool enough to leave his people? With that secret, they stand a goodchance of beating us in less than half the time it took us to wipe outtheir 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 driveindetectable, then he was and is a blithering idiot. And we know heisn't."
"All right, all right! I concede that," snapped Hokotan. "He knowsnothing. I don't say that I fully trust him, even now, but I'll admitthat I cannot see how he is to blame for the reversals of the past fewmonths.
"If the Earthmen had somehow been informed of our activities, or if wehad invented a superweapon and they found out about it, I would beinclined to put the blame squarely on MacMaine. But----"
"How would he get such information out?" Tallis cut in sharply. "He hasbeen watched every minute of every day. We know he couldn't send anyinformation to Earth. How could he?"
"Telepathy, for all I know!" Hokotan retorted. "But that's beside thepoint! I don't trust him any farther than I can see him, and notcompletely, even then. But I concede that there is no possibleconnection between this new menace and anything MacMaine might havedone.
"This is no time to worry about that sort of thing; we've got to findsome way of getting our hands on one of those ghost ships!"
"I do suggest," put in the thick-necked Ossif, "that we keep a closerwatch on General MacMaine. Now that the Earth animals are making acomeback, he might decide to turn his coat now, even if he has beeninnocent of any acts against Keroth so far."
Hokotan's laugh was a short, hard bark. "Oh, we'll watch him, allright, 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 itwas a genuine act of desertion. The last planet we captured, beforethis invisibility thing came up to stop us, was plastered all over withnotices that the Earth fleet was concentrating on the capture of thearch-traitor MacMaine.
"The price on his head, as a corpse, is enough to allow an Earthman toretire in luxury for life. The man who brings him back alive gets tentimes that amount.
"Of course, it's possible that the whole thing is a put-up job--a smokescreen for our benefit. That's why we must and will keep a closerwatch. But only a few of the Earth's higher-up would know that it was asmoke screen; the rest believe it, whether it is true or not. MacMainewould have to be very careful not to let the wrong people get theirhands on him if he returned."
"It's no smoke screen," MacMaine said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Iassure you that I have no intention of returning to Earth. If Kerothloses this war, then I will die--either fighting for the Kerothi or byexecution at the hands of Earthmen if I am captured. Or," he addedmusingly, "perhaps even at the hands of the Kerothi, if someone decidesthat a scapegoat is needed to atone for the loss of the war."
"If you are guilty of treason," Hokotan barked, "you will die as atraitor! If you are not, there is no need for your death. The Kerothido not need scapegoats!"
"Talk, talk, talk!" Tallis said with a sudden bellow. "We have agreedthat MacMaine has done nothing that could even remotely be regarded assuspicious! He has fought hard and loyally; he has been more ruthlessthan any of us in destroying the enemy. Very well, we will guard himmore closely. We can put him in irons if that's necessary.
"But let's quit yapping and start thinking! We've been acting likefrightened children, not knowing what it is we fear, and venting ourfear-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 wasas necessary for the drive of a ship as the distortion of air wasnecessary for the movement of a propeller-driven aircraft. None of themcould see how a ship could avoid making that distortion, and none ofthem could figure out how to go about capturing a ship that no onecould even detect until it was too late to set a trap.
The discussion went on for days. And it was continued the next day andthe next. And the days dragged out into weeks.
* * * * *
Communications with Keroth broke down. The Fleet-to-Headquarterscourier ships, small in size, without armament, and practically solidlypacked with drive mechanism, could presumably outrun anything butanother unarmed courier. An armed ship of the same size would have touse some of the space for her weapons, which meant that the drive wouldhave to be smaller; if the drive remained the same size, then thearmament would make the ship larger. In either case, the speed would becut down. A smaller s
hip might outrun a standard courier, but if theygot 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 ofthe Earth's ghost ships. And Earth never lost a ship; by the time theKerothi ships knew their enemy was in the vicinity, the enemy had hitand vanished again. The Kerothi never had a chance to ready theirweapons.
In the long run, they never had a chance at all.
MacMaine waited with almost fatalistic complacence for the inevitableto happen. When it did happen, he was ready for it.
The _Shudos_, tiny flagship of what had once been a mighty armada andwas now only a tattered remnant, was floating in orbit, along with theother remaining ships of the fleet, around a bloated red-giant sun.With their drives off, there was no way of detecting them at anydistance, and the chance of their being found by accident wasmicroscopically small. But they could not wait forever. Water could berecirculated, and energy could be tapped from the nearby sun, but foodwas gone once it was eaten.
Hokotan's decision was inevitable, and, under the circumstances, theonly possible one. He simple told them what they had alreadyknown--that he was a Headquarters Staff officer.
"We haven't heard from Headquarters in weeks," he said at last. "TheEarth fleet may already be well inside our periphery. We'll have to gohome." He produced a document which he had obviously been holding inreserve for another purpose and handed it to Tallis. "HeadquartersStaff Orders, Tallis. It empowers me to take command of the Fleet inthe event of an emergency, and the decision as to what constitutes anemergency was left up to my discretion. I must admit that this is notthe 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 immediatearrest as soon as you find it necessary to act."
"Yes," said Hokotan bitterly. "So you can both consider yourselvesunder arrest. Don't bother to lock yourselves up--there's no point init. General MacMaine, I see no reason to inform the rest of the Fleetof this, so we will go on as usual. The orders I have to give aresimple: The Fleet will head for home by the most direct possiblegeodesic. Since we cannot fight, we will simply ignore attacks and keepgoing as long as we last. We can do nothing else." He pausedthoughtfully.
"And, General MacMaine, in case we do not live through this, I wouldlike to extend my apologies. I do not like you; I don't think I couldever learn to like an anim ... to like a non-Kerothi. But I know whento admit an error in judgment. You have fought bravely andwell--better, I know, than I could have done myself. You have shownyourself to be loyal to your adopted planet; you are a Kerothi in everysense of the word except the physical. My apologies for having wrongedyou."
He extended his hands and MacMaine took them. A choking sensationconstricted the Earthman's throat for a moment, then he got the wordsout--the words he had to say. "Believe me, General Hokotan, there is noneed 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 intheir drives to head homeward. And the instant they did, there waschaos. Earth's fleet of "ghost ships" had been patrolling the area forweeks, knowing that the Kerothi fleet had last been detected somewherein the vicinity. As soon as the spatial distortions of the Kerothidrives flashed on the Earth ships' detectors, the Earth fleet, widelyscattered over the whole circumambient volume of space, coalescedtoward the center of the spatial disturbance like a cloud of bees allheading for the same flower.
Where there had been only the dull red light of the giant star, theresuddenly appeared the blinding, blue-white brilliance of disintegratingmatter, blossoming like cruel, deadly, beautiful flowers in the midstof the Kerothi ships, then fading slowly as each expanding cloud ofplasma cooled.
Sebastian MacMaine might have died with the others except that the_Shudos_, as the flagship, was to trail behind the fleet, so her drivehad not yet been activated. The _Shudos_ was still in orbit, moving atonly a few miles per second when the Earth fleet struck.
Her drive never did go on. A bomb, only a short distance away as thedistance from atomic disintegration is measured, sent the _Shudos_spinning away, end over end, like a discarded cigar butt flipped towarda gutter, one side caved in near the rear, as if it had been kicked inby a giant foot.
There was still air in the ship, MacMaine realized groggily as he awokefrom the unconsciousness that had been thrust upon him. He tried tostand up, but he found himself staggering toward one crazily-slantedwall. The stagger was partly due to his grogginess, and partly due tothe Coriolis forces acting within the spinning ship. The artificialgravity was gone, which meant that the interstellar drive engines hadbeen smashed. He wondered if the emergency rocket drive was stillworking--not that it would take him anywhere worth going to in lessthan a few centuries. But, then, Sebastian MacMaine had nowhere to go,anyhow.
Tallis lay against one wall, looking very limp. MacMaine half staggeredover to him and knelt down. Tallis was still alive.
The centrifugal force caused by the spinning ship gave an effectivepull of less than one Earth gravity, but the weird twists caused by theCoriolis forces made motion and orientation difficult. Besides, theship was spinning slightly on her long axis as well as turningend-for-end.
MacMaine stood there for a moment, trying to think. He had expected todie. Death was something he had known was inevitable from the moment hemade his decision to leave Earth. He had not known how or when it wouldcome, but he had known that it would come soon. He had known that hewould never live to collect the reward he had demanded of the Kerothifor "faithful service." Traitor he might be, but he was still honestenough with himself to know that he would never take payment forservices he had not rendered.
Now death was very near, and Sebastian MacMaine almost welcomed it. Hehad no desire to fight it. Tallis might want to stand and fight deathto the end, but Tallis was not carrying the monstrous weight of guiltthat would stay with Sebastian MacMaine until his death, no matter howmuch he tried to justify his actions.
On the other hand, if he had to go, he might as well do a good job ofit. Since he still had a short time left, he might as well wrap thewhole thing up in a neat package. How?
Again, his intuitive ability to see pattern gave him the answer longbefore he could have reasoned it out.
_They will know_, he thought, _but they will never be sure they know. Iwill be immortal. And my name will live forever, although no Earthmanwill ever again use the surname MacMaine or the given name Sebastian_.
He shook his head to clear it. No use thinking like that now. Therewere things to be done.
* * * * *
Tallis first. MacMaine made his way over to one of the emergencymedical kits that he knew were kept in every compartment of every ship.One of the doors of a wall locker hung open, and the blue-green medicalsymbol used by the Kerothi showed darkly in the dim light that camefrom the three unshattered glow plates in the ceiling. He opened thekit, hoping that it contained something equivalent to adhesive tape. Hehad never inspected a Kerothi medical kit before. Fortunately, he couldread Kerothi. If a military government was good for nothing else, atleast it was capable of enforcing a simplified phonetic orthography sothat words were pronounced as they were spelled. And--
He forced his wandering mind back to his work. The blow on the head,plus the crazy effect the spinning was having on his inner ears, plusthe cockeyed gravitational orientation that made his eyes feel asthough they were seeing things at two different angles, all combined tomake for more than a little mental confusion.
There was adhesive tape, all right. Wound on its little spool, itlooked almost homey. He spent several minu
tes winding the stickyplastic ribbon around Tallis' wrists and ankles.
Then he took the gun from the Kerothi general's sleeve holster--he hadnever been allowed one of his own--and, holding it firmly in his righthand, he went on a tour of the ship.
It was hard to move around. The centrifugal force varied from point topoint throughout the ship, and the corridors were cluttered with debristhat seemed to move with a life of its own as each piece shifted slowlyunder the effects of the various forces working on it. And, as thevarious masses moved about, the rate of spin of the ship changed as thelaw of conservation of angular momentum operated. The ship was full ofsliding, clattering, jangling noises as the stuff tried to find a finalresting place and bring the ship to equilibrium.
He found the door to Ossif's cabin open and the room empty. He foundOssif in Loopat's cabin, trying to get the younger officer to his feet.
Ossif saw MacMaine at the door and said: "You're alive! Good! Helpme----" Then he saw the gun in MacMaine's hand and stopped. It was thelast thing he saw before MacMaine shot him neatly between the eyes.
Loopat, only half conscious, never even knew he was in danger, and theblast that drilled through his brain prevented him from ever knowinganything again in this life.
Like a man in a dream, MacMaine went on to Hokotan's cabin, his weaponat the ready. He was rather pleased to find that the HQ general wasalready quite dead, his neck broken as cleanly as if it had been doneby a hangman. Hardly an hour before, MacMaine would cheerfully haveshot Hokotan where it would hurt the most and watch him die slowly. Butthe memory of Hokotan's honest apology made the Earthman very glad thathe did not have to shoot the general at all.
There remained only the five-man crew, the NCO technician and his gang,who actually ran the ship. They would be at the tail of the ship, inthe engine compartment. To get there, he had to cross the center ofspin of the ship, and the change of gravity from one direction toanother, decreasing toward zero, passing the null point, and risingagain on the other side, made him nauseous. He felt better after hisstomach had emptied itself.
Cautiously, he opened the door to the drive compartment and thenslammed it hard in sudden fear when he saw what had happened. Theshielding had been torn away from one of the energy converters andexposed the room to high-energy radiation. The crewmen were quite dead.
The fear went away as quickly as it had come. So maybe he'd dosedhimself with a few hundred Roentgens--so what? A little radiation neverhurt a dead man.
But he knew now that there was no possibility of escape. The drive waswrecked, and the only other means of escape, the one-man courier boatthat every blaster-boat carried, had been sent out weeks ago and hadnever returned.
If only the courier boat were still in its cradle--
MacMaine shook his head. No. It was better this way. Much better.
He turned and went back to the dining cabin where Tallis was trussedup. This time, passing the null-gee point didn't bother him much atall.
* * * * *
Tallis was moaning a little and his eyelids were fluttering by the timeMacMaine got back. The Earthman opened the medical kit again and lookedfor some kind of stimulant. He had no knowledge of medical or chemicalterms in Kerothic, but there was a box of glass ampoules bearinginstructions to "crush and allow patient to inhale fumes." That soundedright.
The stuff smelled like a mixture of spirits of ammonia and butylmercaptan, but it did the job. Tallis coughed convulsively, turned hishead away, coughed again, and opened his eyes. MacMaine tossed thestinking ampoule out into the corridor as Tallis tried to focus hiseyes.
"How do you feel?" MacMaine asked. His voice sounded oddly thick in hisown ears.
"All right. I'm all right. What happened?" He looked wonderinglyaround. "Near miss? Must be. Anyone hurt?"
"They're all dead but you and me," MacMaine said.
"Dead? Then we'd better----" He tried to move and then realized that hewas bound hand and foot. The sudden realization of his position seemedto clear his brain completely. "Sepastian, what's going on here? Why amI tied up?"
"I had to tie you," MacMaine explained carefully, as though to a child."There are some things I have to do yet, and I wouldn't want you tostop me. Maybe I should have just shot you while you were unconscious.That would have been kinder to both of us, I think. But ... but,Tallis, I had to tell somebody. Someone else has to know. Someone elsehas to judge. Or maybe I just want to unload it on someone else,someone who will carry the burden with me for just a little while. Idon't know."
"Sepastian, what are you talking about?" The Kerothi's face shone dullyorange in the dim light, his bright green eyes looked steadily at theEarthman, and his voice was oddly gentle.
"I'm talking about treason," said MacMaine. "Do you want to listen?"
"I don't have much choice, do I?" Tallis said. "Tell me one thingfirst: Are we going to die?"
"You are, Tallis. But I won't. I'm going to be immortal."
Tallis looked at him for a long moment. Then, "All right, Sepastian.I'm no psych man, but I know you're not well. I'll listen to whateveryou have to say. But first, untie my hands and feet."
"I can't do that, Tallis. Sorry. But if our positions were reversed, Iknow what I would do to you when I heard the story. And I can't let youkill me, because there's something more that has to be done."
Tallis knew at that moment that he was looking at the face of Death.And he also knew that there was nothing whatever he could do about it.Except talk. And listen.
"Very well, Sepastian," he said levelly. "Go ahead. Treason, you say?How? Against whom?"
"I'm not quite sure," said Sebastian MacMaine. "I thought maybe youcould tell me."