Part 1 (1/2)
Evil Out of Onzar.
by Mark Ganes.
_The orphan system of Onzar was fuming under its leader's driving, paranoid megalomania. For there was a prize. A vast, grand prize within a pa.r.s.ec of this ambitious domain--the major warp-lines of s.p.a.ce crossing the Galaxy between the Allied Worlds and the Darzent Empire. Skyward, hungry legions!_
Roger Thane had, of course, heard of these meetings. The stories of his acquaintances in Liaison had been graphic enough but they didn't begin to do the scene justice. It was, well, jarring.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Through the one-way gla.s.s panel built into one side of the vast meeting hall of the s.p.a.ce station, Thane looked directly across at the delegation from Onzar, though ”delegation” was hardly the word. All top gold from the Onzar group was there, and it was easy to tell their rank--fleet marshals, the technical advisors, the interpreters--by the amount of gold that encrusted their helmets, coruscated from their shoulder boards, and crept and crawled in heavy filigree around their uniforms. In that a.s.sembly it was easy to pick out Candar. Shorter than the average Onzarian, with shaven head, his uniform was quite plain except for small, double-headed platinum s.h.a.gells on the collar.
And Candar was doing all the talking. When he had started one hour and fifteen minutes ago his voice had been harsh and low. Now it had increased in pitch and volume and he was striding back and forth, showing his scorn for the Allied Systems in every gesture. Thane glanced at the ”absolute” dial of his watch and wondered how long it would keep up.
”... we have come to deal with you in good faith and again you seek to exploit us. You would, if you could, take all we produce and give nothing in return. This you shall not do. Onzar is young, but already its power encompa.s.ses five suns. Each day we grow stronger. We do not need your shoddy goods in exchange for our treasure.”
As Candar's voice became louder and more shrill Thane noticed that a technician to his left kept adjusting the recorder dials. In an hour or so the speech would be broadcast through Onzar, three and a half light years from this meeting place in s.p.a.ce. Candar was choosing words to inflame the already fanatical nationalism of his expanding system. ”You would take our discoveries, the fruits of our genius and industry. You would even take our young men into slavery. But this Candar will prevent. We are a warrior race, and what we need, we take.
Our day approaches.”
The last three words were his trademark, his invariable sign-off. So that was that. Candar strode from the room followed by the marshals, the advisors, the interpreters. Thane looked over to Garth who had slumped a bit in his conference chair on the Allied Systems side of the room, and was lighting a cigar. Thane had never particularly liked Garth, but, now, he felt a touch of sympathy with him. Garth took two long puffs on his cigar and then slowly shrugged his shoulders as if to put a final period to the scene.
Back in the Allied Systems naval cruiser, Garth was getting out of his reserve marshal's uniform. He glanced across at Thane, strapping his couch belts at the other side of the compartment. ”I wanted you to see Candar in operation. Figured you might as well as long as this show was scheduled anyway. Could be that it will be of use to you in your new a.s.signment.”
The navigator's voice came over the intercom, ”Prepare for finite acceleration, twenty seconds absolute.”
Garth zipped up his civilian coveralls and dropped to the couch, slipping the stub of his cigar into the converter tube. ”This conference was about like the rest. It makes the sixth, now, that I've sat through with Candar. You remember he was full of cooperation right at the start while we were renewing the gold-trade agreement. After that was settled there was nothing more in it for him except the chance to make another speech.”
Thane looked over at Garth. ”I noticed that. But why? There was certainly plenty of gold splashed over everyone in the Onzar delegation, but what is it that makes the stuff so important to them?”
Garth looked over in surprise. ”You don't know? Well, of course you wouldn't. You've been working on specialized stuff on the other side of the Galaxy. I'll give you some of the background on the way back to Liaison. The sleep-trainer will fill in there.”
Garth stopped. Everything stopped as the acceleration began. Both of them were over-braced for the acceleration was light and even. It was only 5000 KM to the nearest warp-line.
As acceleration slacked off for the five-minute coast into the warp, Garth lit another cigar and began. ”Onzar was one of those relatively distant systems which were colonized back in the days when all they had was the finite drive. Of course, it took them a generation or so to get out there, at just under the speed of light. And when they got there, the best guess is that their s.h.i.+p was too damaged for further flight. Otherwise, considering the planet, they wouldn't have stayed.”
Thane flipped through a systems manual to the geographical data for Onzar IV. He readily agreed that they wouldn't have stayed if it had been possible for them to get away. Onzar IV was cold, bitterly cold.
Hurricane winds were common. The mountains went up to forty and fifty kilometers, and the land between them was largely barren desert.
”They couldn't get back into s.p.a.ce,” Garth continued, ”so they stayed in splendid isolation for about 1500 years. Not another s.h.i.+p touched the system till the warp-lines were discovered.”
Thane looked up. ”I suppose they went through the usual reversion of the orphan systems?”
Garth grunted. ”A lot worse than usual. Of course, our version of their history is largely guesswork because the Onzarians have never allowed any research. But it's clear that the immigration crew, or their first-generation descendants, put on a very effective little war between themselves. By the time they were finished Onzar IV was back in the age of ox-carts, without the ox.”
The intercom sounded again. ”Five seconds to warp-line.” There was a pause, then the familiar shummer and they were on the warp-line drive.
As usual, the shummer had put out Garth's cigar. He re-lit it and went on. ”When we began using warp-line travel we hit Onzar in the first fifty years of exploration. Practically had to. It's only a pa.r.s.ec from the confluence of nine lines running between our part of the Galaxy and the Darzent Empire. Right on the main road, right in the middle of the next war.” He stared in silence at Thane for a moment.
”That's one reason I've called you in on this.”