Gordon R. Dickson - Childe Cycle 05 (10 page)

She paused behind a ridge to drop off her handgun and then came up along the river road, where she encountered a Coalition-Alliance sentry in rain gear, about five hundred meters out behind the manufactory. She slid the skimmer directly at him and set it down, half a dozen meters from him. He held his cone rifle pointed toward her as he walked forward.

"Take that gun out of its scabbard, ma'm," he said, nodding at the pellet shotgun, "and hand it to me-butt first."

She obeyed.

He cradled the cone rifle in one arm to take the

heavy
weight of the pellet gun in both hands. He glanced at it, held it up to look into the barrel and handed it back to her.

"Not much of a weapon, ma'm."

"No?" Amanda, holding the recovered pellet gun in the crook of her arm, swung it around horizontally until its muzzle rested against the deckface between her and the boot, the deckface over the power unit.

"What if I decide to pull the trigger right now?"

She saw his face go still, caught between shock and disbelief

"You hadn't thought of that?" said Amanda. "The pellets from this weapon could add enough kinetic energy to the power core to blow it, you, and me to bits. In your motor pool I could set off a chain explosion that would wipe out your full complement of vehicles. Had you thought of that?"

He stared at her for a second longer, then his face moved.

"Maybe you think you better impound it, after all?"

"No," he said. "I don't think you're about to commit suicide, even if they'd let you anywhere near our motor pool—which they wouldn't."

He coughed.

"What's your business in town, ma'm?"

"I'm Amanda Morgan, mayor of Foralie Town," she said. "That's my business. And for that matter, your commanding officer's been asking to see me. Don't tell me they didn't give you an image and a description of me?"

"Yes," he said. He coughed, lowered his rifle, and wiped from his cheek some of the moisture that had just dripped from the edge of his rain hood. He had a narrow young face. "You're to go right on in."

"Then why all this nonsense?"

He sighed a little.

"Orders, ma'm."

"Orders!" She peered at him. "You don't look too well."

He shook his head.

"Nothing important, ma'm. Go ahead."

She lifted her skimmer and went past him. The sound of the manufactory grew on her ear. She checked the skimmer outside its sliding door, strongly tempted to look inside and see if Jhanis Bins was still at the control board. The town dump looked even less attractive than it ordinarily did. The nickel grindings, which Jhanis had dumped just the other day, had slumped into pockets and hollows; and now these were partially filled with liquid that in the grey day looked to have a yellowish tinge. She changed her mind about going in to look for Jhanis. Time was too tight. She touched the power control bar of the skimmer and headed on into town, feeling the wet, rain-studded wind on the back of her neck The streets were empty. Down a side alley she saw a skimmer that she recognized as Ekram's, behind the house of Marie Bureaux. She went on, past the city hall and up to the edge of the cantonment area, where she was again stopped, this time by two sentries.

"Your general wanted to see me," she said, after identifying herself.

"If you'll wait a moment while we call in, ma'm…"

A moment later she was waved through, and directed to a command building four times the size of the ordinary cantonment huts but made of the same blown bubble plastic. Once again she was checked by sentries and ushered, eventually into an office with a desk, a chair behind it, and one less-comfortable chair feeing it.

"If you'll have a seat here," said the sergeant who brought her in.

She sat and waited for some ten or twelve minutes. At the end of that time a major came in, carrying a folder of record films, which he slipped into the desk viewer, punching up the first one.

"Amanda Morgan?" he said, looking over the top of the viewer, which was slanted toward him, hiding the film on display from her.

"That's right," said Amanda. "And you're Major—"

He hesitated.

"Major Suel," he said, after a second. "Now, about the situation here in town and in the district-"

"Just a second, Major," said Amanda. "I came in to talk to your general."

"He's busy. You can talk to me. Now, about the situation—"

He broke off. Amanda was already on her feet.

"You can tell the general for me, I don't have time to waste. Next time he can come and find me."

Amanda turned toward the door.

"Just a minute—" There was the sound of the major's chair being pushed back "Just a minute!"

"No minute," said Amanda. "I was asked to come in to talk to General Amorine. If he's not available, I've got my hands too full to wait around."

She reached for the door. It did not open for her.

"Major," she said, looking back over her shoulder. "Open this door."

"Come back and sit down," he said, standing behind his desk "You can leave after we've talked. This is a military base—"

He
broke off
again. Amanda had come back to the desk and walked around it to face the desk viewer.

She reached out to press his phone button and the document on the viewer vanished to show the face of the sergeant who had let her in here.

"Sir—" the sergeant broke off in confusion, seeing Amanda.

"Sergeant," said Amanda, "connect me with Dow deCastries up at Foralie Homestead, right away."

"Cancel that!" said the major. "Sergeant—cancel that."

He punched off the phone and walked to the door.

"Wait!" he threw back at Amanda and went out.

Amanda followed him to the door, but found it once more locked to her touch. She went back and sat down. Less than five minutes later, the major returned with the skin taut over the bones of his face. He avoided looking directly at her.

"This way, if you will," he said, holding the door open.

"Thank you, Major."

He brought her to a much larger and more comfortable office, with a tall window against which the rain was now gusting. There was a desk in the corner, but the rest of the furniture consisted of padded armchairs, with the single exception of a single armless straight-backed chair facing the desk It was to this chair that Amanda was taken.

General Amorine, who had been standing by the window, walked over to seat himself behind the desk

"I've been trying to get you for two days," he said.

Amanda, who had not been invited to sit, did so anyway.

"And I've been busy doing what I promised Dow deCastries I'd do," she said. "I still am busy at it; and this trip in to see you is delaying it."

He looked at her, stiff-faced. A cough took him by the throat.

"Mayor," he said, when the coughing was done, 'you're in no position to push."

"General, I'm not pushing. You are."

"I'm the commanding officer of the occupying force here," he said. "It's my job to push when things don't work"

He checked, as if he would cough again, but did not. A gust of rain rattled loudly against the office window in the brief moment of silence between them. Amanda waited.

"I say," he repeated. "It's my job to push when things don't work"

"I heard you," said Amanda.

"They aren't working now," Armorine said. "They aren't working to my satisfaction. We want a census of this district and all pertinent data—and we want it without delay."

"There hasn't been any delay."

"I think there has."

Amanda sat, looking at him.

"I know there has," Amorine said.

"For example?"

He looked at her for several seconds without saying anything.

"How long," he said, "has it been since you were on Earth?"

"Seventy years, or so," said Amanda.

"I thought so," he said. "I thought it had been something
like
that long. Out here on the new worlds, you've forgotten just what Earth is like. Here, on wild planets with lots of space and only handfuls of people even in your largest population centers, you tend to forget."

"The mess and the overcrowding?"

"The people and the power!" he said, harshly— and broke off to cough again. He wiped his mouth.

"When you think in terms of people out here, you think in terms of thousands—millions, at the most, when your thinking is planet-wide. But on Earth those same figures are billions.
You
think in terms of a few hundred thousand square meters of floor space given over to manufactory on a whole world. On Earth that space is measured in trillions of square meters. You talk about using a few million kilowatt-hours of energy. Do you know how kilowatt-hours of used energy are counted on Earth?"

"So?" said Amanda.

"So-" he coughed. "So, you forget the differences. Out here for seventy years, you forget what Earth really is, in terms of wealth and strength; and you begin to think that you can stand up against her. The greatest power the human race has ever known looms over you like a giant, and you let yourself dream that you can fight that power."

"Come into our backyard, and we can fight you," said Amanda. "You're a long way from your millions and your trillions now, general."

"No," said Amorine, and he said it without coughing or heat. "That's your self-delusion, only. Earth's got the power to wipe clean every other humanly-seeded world whenever she wants to. When Earth moves, when she decides to move, you'll vanish. And you people here are indeed going to vanish. I want you to believe that—for your own sake. You'll save yourself and all the people you love a great deal of pain if you can wake yourself up to an understanding of what the facts are."

He looked at her. She looked back

"You are all, all of you, already gone," he said. "For the moment you've still got your town, and your homes, and your own name, but all those things are going to go. You, yourself, in your old age, are going to be moved to another place, a place you don't know, to die among strangers—all this because you've been foolish enough to forget what Earth is."

He paused. She still sat, not speaking.

"There's no reprieve, no choice," he said. "What I'm telling you is for your own information only. Our politicians haven't announced it yet—but the Dorsai is already a forgotten world; and everyone on it will soon be scattered individually through all the other inhabited planets. For you—for you, only— I've got an offer, that for you, only, will make things easier."

He waited, but still she gave him no assistance.

"You're being non-cooperative with our occupation, here," he said. "I don't care what Mr. deCastries'

opinion of you is. I
know
. I know non-cooperation when I run into it. I'd be a failure in my job if I didn't.

Bear in mind, we don't have to have your cooperation, but it'd help. It'd save paperwork, effort, and explanations. So, what I'm offering you is, cooperate and I'll promise this much for you: I'll ensure that whatever few years you have left can be lived here, on your own world. You'll have to watch everyone else being shipped off; but you, at least, won't have to end your
days
among strangers."

He paused.

"But you'll have to take me up on this, now," he said, "or you'll lose the chance, for good. Say yes now, and follow through, or the chance is gone. Well?"

"General," said Amanda. "I've listened to you. Now, you listen to me. You're the one who's dreaming.

It's not us who are already dead and gone—it's you and your men. You're already defeated. You just don't know it."

"Mrs. Morgan,'* said Amorine, heavily, "you're a fool. There's no way you can defeat Earth."

"Yes," said Amanda, bleakly. Another gust of rain came and rattled against the window, like the tapping of the fingers of dead children. "Believe me, there is."

He stood up.

"All right," he said. "I tried. We'll do it our own way from now on. You can go."

Amanda also stood up.

"One thing, however," she said. "I want to see Cletus when he lands."

"Cletus? Cletus Grahame, you mean?" Amorine stared at her. "What makes you think he's going to land?"

"Don't talk nonsense, General," Amanda said. "You know as well as I do, he's due in by early after-noon."

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone knows it." He stared at her.

"Damn!" he said, softly. "No, you cannot see Grahame—now or in the future."

"I've got to be able to report to the local people that he's well and agreeable to being in
your
custody,"

Amanda said. "Or do you want the district to rise in arms spontaneously?"

He stared at her balefully. Staring, he began to cough again. When the fit was over, he nodded.

"Hell be down in a little over an hour. Shall we find you a place to wait?"

"If it's an hour, I'll go into town and get some things done. Will you leave word at the airpad, so I can get past your soldiers?"

He nodded.

"Ask for Lieutenant Estrange," he said.

She went out.

Back in town she found Ekram's skimmer still parked behind the house of Marie Bureaux. She parked her own skimmer beside his and let herself in the back door, into the kitchen.

Ekram was there, washing his hands at the sink He looked back over his shoulder at her at the sound of her entrance.

"Marie?" Amanda said.

"Marie's dead." He turned his head back to the sink

"And you're still in town here."

He finished washing and turned to face her, wiping his hands on a dishtowel.

"Berthe Haugsrud's dead," he said. "Bhaktabahadur Rais is dead. Fifteen more are dying. Young Marte Haugsrud's sick There's five dead soldiers in the cantonments, thirty more dying and most of the rest sick."

"So you leave," she said.

"Leave? How can I leave? Their medical officer knows something's going on. There's just nothing he can do about it. He'd be an absolute, incompetent idiot not to know that something's going on, particularly since they've been getting word from other occupation units—not from many, but even a few's enough—