***
When Ran-Del was pushed into Stefan Hayden’s office, he gave the room a quick, curious glance. An office seemed to be a room like any other. One wall was mostly windows, another mostly shelves. A large glowing ball stood in one corner, but it was the blocky table behind which Stefan Hayden sat that dominated the room.
“Why is he in restraints?” Stefan asked, closing a drawer in the table and getting to his feet. Was it a table or a chest of drawers? It had a space for his chair, too.
The guard grunted. “He wasn’t exactly eager to come here.”
“It’s just as well,” Stefan said as he came around from behind the table-chest. “This way you can leave him alone here.”
Toth looked unhappy, and Ran-Del could sense his unease. “Are you sure you want to do that, sir? Remember what happened this afternoon?”
“I can remember,” Stefan said. “But you’ve got him trussed up like a roasting hen, Toth. He’s not going to do me any harm.”
“All right, sir,” Toth said, exuding reluctance. “Just keep your shock pistol handy.”
“I will.” Stefan waved a hand. “I need to talk to Ran-Del alone.”
Ran-Del stood, feet apart, facing the row of windows. His eyes scanned the night sky. The stars were just coming out over the city. They seemed dimmer here than in the forest. Would he ever see them again without walls around him?
“It’s a nice view, isn’t it?” Stefan said.
“Yes,” Ran-Del said. “It’s a shame you’re alive to see it.”
Stefan laughed. “You did your best. You had no way of knowing I had Toth standing by.”
“Toth will not always be there.”
“Maybe not.” Stefan looked at Ran-Del sympathetically. “I’d ask you to sit down, but I don’t think you’d be very comfortable. I hope those restraints aren’t as painful as they look.”
“I’ll survive.”
“I’m sure you will. You’re young and healthy.” Stefan’s mouth twitched in a reluctant smile. “You seem to have recovered from the shock rifle.” He moved to the corner of the office where the giant ball stood. “Come over here, Ran-Del. I want to show you something.”
Suspicious, Ran-Del moved slowly. The glowing sphere spun slowly, floating freely above a cylindrical base. He realized with a shock that it was meant to represent the world. The oceans were golden, the continents a deep brown, ridged with mountains. White swirls of clouds wound about the whole, reminding Ran-Del of a psy bead from a giant caste bracelet.
“This is Haven,” Stefan said. “This is our world, yours and mine. It hangs in the heavens like a beautiful jewel, and we sit upon it, a poor scrap of humanity, little more than dust on the surface.” He kicked a button on the base, and a short string of white lights appeared on the globe. “That’s us, Ran-Del. This is Shangri-La.” He indicated a small cluster of lights. There were two other clusters nearby. “Those are Paradise and Eden, our sister cities. Eden is six hundred kilometers down river and Paradise is four hundred or so kilometers up the river, in the foothills of the Decatur Mountains.”
Baron Hayden waved a hand at a ridge of mountains to the north and east of the cities. “The Horde live in the Decaturs—fiercer than your people. No mysticism or meditating among the Horde. Their ancestors were anarchists; they came to Haven to get away from any kind of government. Once they had settled in the Decaturs, they proceeded to do exactly as they chose, which in many cases included killing each other off for no discernible reason. We estimate there are only between twenty and thirty thousand of them.”
Stefan touched a section of the globe that seemed to Ran-Del to be very near to Shangri-La. “This is your forest. It stretches for over a thousand kilometers; your people live in only part of it. Your ancestors sought a life free from the cares of city living, but they actually work harder than we do to survive. According to the last guess I heard, there are about fifty thousand Sansoussy.”
Stefan sighed. “That’s it. There are a little over two million people in Shangri-La and another million and a half in each of the other two cities. A little over five and a half million people on all of Haven. We’ve been here for almost five hundred seasons. This planet has traveled around its sun one hundred and twenty times since humans first set foot on Haven’s soil, and yet there are fewer than six million humans alive on Haven today. What do you think of that, Ran-Del?”
Ran-Del looked down at the glowing globe. “How much is a million?”
A reluctant laugh burst from Stefan. “I’m sorry. I never thought—a million is a thousand thousand.”
Ran-Del pondered this information. “There are a hundred times more of your people than of mine?”
Stefan raised his eyebrows. “You’re very good at arithmetic for someone who didn’t know what a million was.”
Ran-Del shrugged as best he could with his arms restrained. “Why are you telling me this? Why did you have your guards drag me here to show me lights on this ball that you say is the world?”
“There are things I want you to know. One of them is that I firmly believe we all depend on each other. What would happen to the Sansoussy if the cities disappeared?”
It was an easy enough question. Anything they bought from peddlers would become unavailable. “We’d run out of metal. Knives, razors, arrowheads, and cooking pots would be in short supply within a few seasons.”
Stefan nodded. “You’re right. What would happen in the cities if your people were gone one morning?”
Ran-Del tried to stretch his shoulders back. His arms ached. “Nothing. Your people don’t need mine.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Stefan said. “We buy herbs from your people to make medicines. And in my grandfather’s time the Sansoussy warned us that there would be an earthquake two days before our instruments showed any sign of it. Besides,” the Baron said with a smile, “there’s the question of what we could learn from your people, if we were only willing. We do need each other, Ran-Del.”
Ran-Del snorted. “What about the Horde? They raid my people’s villages, looting and killing. We wouldn’t miss it if it stopped.”
“Almost certainly not,” Stefan said. “But the Horde are not all the same. They’ve changed over the years. And even the Horde serve a purpose. They keep the predator population down considerably.”
Ran-Del saw no point in arguing so he said nothing.
“Did you know that some of your ancestors may have come from this city?” Stefan asked.
Ran-Del could sense no deceit but still, he let his disbelief show on his face.
“It’s true,” Stefan insisted. “When people in the city were born with psy talents, they were persecuted and so eventually, they left and made their way to the forest. Your people welcomed them, made them part of the group. Their descendents are Sansoussy now.”
The claim of kinship was too remote to impress Ran-Del. “It was a long time ago. And what has this to do with me?”
Stefan smiled. “Nothing directly. It’s just that your being here fits in with a dream of mine. We’re too separate, Ran-Del. We’ve split humanity up, and it’s hurt our ability to survive and to prosper. Your people live only for the life of the mind. Mine live for control of resources, of scientific and technological knowledge. The Horde—well, the Horde have their own set of values. We’re all so completely different, it’s as if we're different species. I’d like to see that change. I’d like to see us all learn from one another, help each other.”
Ran-Del snorted with disgust. “Fine talk from a man who trapped me like a wild animal and holds me prisoner even now.”
Stefan grinned. “You have a point. Anyway, the time has come. ”
“The time for what?”
“For this,” Stefan said, moving to his table-chest and reaching into a drawer.
Ran-Del turned, uncertain what was coming. What purpose could Stefan Hayden have for him? Stefan pulled out an unfamiliar object. It looked vaguely like a shock pistol, but it was smaller.
&nb
sp; “Don’t worry,” Stefan said. “It isn’t in the least painful.”
Ran-Del tensed and balanced on his feet, prepared to run, even if he couldn’t get out of the room.
“I want you to know,” Stefan said, “that I’m well aware how much I’ve wronged you. I’ll try to make things as easy for you as I can. I was damned lucky to find you, Ran-Del.”
The Sansoussy tried to use his psy sense to fathom the other man’s intent. He didn’t sense any hostility as Stefan brought the weapon up and fired. Ran-Del fell to the floor before he even knew what was happening.