Part 17 (2/2)

But he was honest and straightforward, she told herself, even while tears blurred her vision. Ratran Yao was a liar, a congenital and constant liar. He delighted and gloried in lying. He lied and killed and blackmailed and used people . . . people such as Janja. Ramesh was totally honest. He admitted his business of slavery and his sin of incest-for which he had for decades suffered the mind-rot of guilt. (Is Rat capable of guilt? Oh d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n these tears!) Ramesh confided in her, left her her s.h.i.+p and even made it a present from him. He loved her and he was honest about it.

He, only he and Trafalgar Cuw, have not tried to use me.

Surely Rat, laboring for the force of Good, was incapable of love as well as incapable of eliciting it. Even if he were capable of love, could he find the honesty to admit it? No, Janja mused; Rat would see that as an admission of weakness and a danger to him and his TGO effectiveness.

And what does Ramesh do with the billions he takes in? If only I knew that he gave it to thousands or millions of orphans-or returned it to Aglaya!

She knew that he did not. She did not know what he did with the enormous wealth he took in and so possessed. He lived well, but not as well as he might. His income was so great that he and four others could spend 219.

the rest of their lives as wastrels and never deplete the wealth. She thought of TGO's motto. Those were Ra-mesh's means-but what was the end?

She shook her head and, surrept.i.tiously, wiped her eyes. Blinking, she thought: and TGO's motto-is it not mine? Isn't that what I've told myself, while I was adopting any means toward the n.o.ble end of Jonuta's death? And now I have lied and tricked and caused another death-never mind that the Galaxy and Ramesh are the better for Daura's death!

I hated, and I used any means to get to Jonuta, and I did. I killed him. And he is not only alive, but has saved my life! So has Ramesh. Him I do not hate-and yet I must destroy him, and have lied and tricked him toward that end. Are the means justified? Yet how can I compromise still again ?

I serve Good: The Gray Organization. And again her eyes blurred, so that she saw dimly, through a film of gray.

On the sleek s.h.i.+p speeding in toward the undeveloped planet that was Aglaya (valuable only for its extravagant blue orchids), she directed a mental question at her self, at Aglii, at the universe: Is the whole universe only shades of grayness? Is there then no black and no white, and am I as gray as the rest of them ?

As enigmatic as it had remained when Stephen Crane advised it that ”Sir, I exist!”, the universe did not reply.

On the viewscreen one of the little lights in the pa.r.s.ec abyss continued to grow and grow larger and larger. Around it, basking in its radiant warmth, circled eight planets. The clouded one was Aglaya.

21.

If A is, B must be; if B is, then C must be; therefore if A is, C must be. ... if A is, then A must be....

-Aristotle, Posterior a.n.a.lytics A cannot be the same as B, and gray cannot be the same as white. This time I shall not compromise.

-Janjaglaya Wye, TGO They had just made what remained of Daura part of the gentle winds of the gentle planet of her birth. Janja, standing behind Ram who stood with bowed head, blinked at the glint of wan sunlight on burnished metal. She glanced up. Then she stepped back and drew her stopper.

”What-” He swung, looking up. ”A s.h.i.+p's lander! Janja, get-”

Then he saw the stopper in her hand, leveled at him. He frowned at it, raised his gaze to her eyes. And frowned more deeply. Cold, determined eyes stared back at him. Now they were what she had said they were, Janja's eyes: dead.

”Jan!”

”Stand still, King of the Slavers,” she said. ”That will be Ratran Yao. I knew that whether you slew me or Daura, you would return the 'ashes' to Aglaya. Ratran and I arranged this . . . rendezvous.”

220.

221.

He stared speechlessly at her while the gravity-boat slid almost silently down. It settled to the ground a short distance away, with a whoosh. Ratran Yao emerged, with two others. They carried drawn stoppers.

”Ramesh Jageshwar called Kshatriya?”

Ram glanced at Janja, looked back at Rat. He nodded.

”You are under arrest, Ramesh Jageshwar.”

Again Ram looked at Janja, and back to Rat Yao. He nodded. ”All right. But there is nothing illegal on our s.h.i.+p and I really think you can never prove a thing.”

Rat's eyes s.h.i.+fted from him to Janja, who had hol-stered her stopper and was pulling her coppery ”mail-s.h.i.+rt” off over her head. Under it she wore a white garment that had been called a T-s.h.i.+rt for a millennium and more.

”Wrong,” Rat said, transferring his stopper to his left hand. He raised his right to catch the garment Janja slung to him, twinkling and rustling. He caught it and grinned at Ramesh. ”Like the current fas.h.i.+on from Harb? Those barbarians are going through another of their metal phases-you should see the makeup! But this one's special. It takes moving pictures, slaver.”

”A complete record,” Janja said quietly, dully, ”of Ramesh Jageshwar in the act of killing his sister.”

Ratran nodded. ”Jageshwar, I arrest you for the murder of your sister. I believe we can prove that-and with this sort of evidence, just what crime we convict you of, with a very great deal of publicity, isn't important, is it?” His smile was broad, delighted, reminding Janja of Daura's, just before her death. ”We have you, regardless, King of the Slavers.”

”Putting me out of business will be a great mistake, Yao.”

Ratran laughed. ”I don't think so!”

222.

Janja had been regarding Ramesh with a little frown. Now, before he could speak, she went to him and kissed his impa.s.sive lips.

”You are worthy of Aglaya,” she told him quietly, with the sparkle of tears in her eyes.

He thrust her from him. ”You are worthy of a kennel!”

”Enough of that, quite enough,” Ratran said. ”Get away from him, Janja-I'd hate to have him grab you and hide behind you.” Because then I'd have to Poof you both, he thought, and the thought was clear in Jan-ja's mind. ”Quong, get into the lander so you can cover our guest while he enters. We'll follow.”

”You'll never get to have your highly publicized trial and conviction, Ratran Yao. I'm going to have to be killed while attempting to escape.”

”Uh-huh,” Rat said, and that was all the attention he gave Ramesh's strange words. ”Come along, Janja.”

Janja shook her head, watching a little breeze bend tall, bluegreen grain-gra.s.s like a lovingly caressing hand. ”No,” she said. ”I'm home.”

They stared at her, all of them. Then, all of them, at Ratran Yao. He was frowning.

”You're serious, aren't you, or think you are?”

She nodded. ”I'm serious.” Her stopper hung at the end of her arm.

”You can't stay here, Janja-on an undeveloped world! You'd die in no time-every person on this planet will be like a child to you. You belong out there,” he said, jerking his head skyward. ”In civilization.”

Janja shrugged. It was all the reply she intended, but she added words: ”There is no civilization. And no black and white, either.”

”Well, you aren't staying here, my dear! No One Leaves TGO, Janja.”

223.

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