Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail (40 page)

“I doubt it. Not until we’ve gone through the bloody motions. How about it, Morah? Will they understand a show of force and resistance, or will they simply go all-out?”

“They understand the game, if that’s what you mean. How they will play is anybody’s guess and is certainly beyond my ability to predict. However, they have gone along with it this far, and that is an achievement.”

The agent rose from the table. “I have to call my people.”

He gave it to them straight, but they didn’t really believe him. Not all of it. He was surprised at the start that they had accepted most of his report as gospel—certainly the computer had backed him up, and their own analysis of the same data seemed to have reinforced it. What they could not accept was the concept that the Altavar were in any sense militarily superior to the Confederacy. In weaponry, yes, but not in total weapons systems or firepower.

“But what kind of a solution can you have?” he asked, frustrated. “Nothing less than their offer will give them the security they want, and we can’t possibly accept it.”

“We think we were more than fair in our initial offer,” Luge replied, “and it is still the only offer we can live with. Ypsir certainly has a nerve suggesting we can’t turn over the Diamond to the Altavar—by their own admission now they are in a state of open rebellion. But these squishy, tentacled things give me the creeps. We all wish we had something other than the Diamond to hold over them, but we don’t. We don’t know their power or their forces. In one respect, old squirmy had us pegged. Power and fear of power is the only thing that really counts in situations like this. I know you think they can beat us, but we can’t see any way that’s possible. The only way to get us the information we need, and to learn the true situation once and for all, the Council feels, is a demonstration attack.”

He sighed. “I thought as much, but I’m against it. I don’t know what it is, but I have this crazy feeling that the Altavar, and Morah, are laughing at us.”

“Bluff. They have no place to even hide a fleet, and even if the Diamond is extremely well defended, as we think, they are entirely on the defensive there. Any fleet of theirs capable of menacing the Diamond would be weeks, perhaps months away. Since the Diamond is all-important to them, we must put it in jeopardy. This will force their fleet, if in fact they have one, out into the open to counter us, or it will reveal their bluff. Either way, we’ll know what we’re facing.”

“But if you attack the Diamond you lose the only card we have,” he pointed out.

“Not the Diamond. Not entirely. Just one. One of the four worlds. A demonstration of power—for both sides. If they can keep us from doing it, then we’ll know something. If they cannot, they risk losing the other three, one at a time, unless they agree to our original terms. This way we destroy a quarter of their eggs or whatever, but leave them three quarters. Unless they choose not to call us, in which case the bluff is revealed and we are in complete control. We still feel that if they could have destroyed us, they would have done so at the outset The fact that they are talking at all indicates our original hypothesis is correct.”

He shook his head sadly. “I was afraid it would come to this, but I hoped not. You will have to give the ultimatum yourself—I simply cannot bring myself to do it.” He hesitated a moment. “You intend to target Medusa, is that correct?”

Luge looked slightly surprised, then nodded. “Yes. It has the smallest population, is the system’s industrial base, and is also, in fact, the only world where hard evidence of an Altavar colony exists. Eliminate Medusa and you eliminate the technological base of the Diamond. None of the others could support the needed factories.”

“I’ll need details,” he said softly.

“What you suggest will cost you far more than it will cost us,” the Altavar told the Council. “Perhaps it was destined to be this way. But there will be no limited, demonstration wars. If a Diamond world is destroyed, then we will take appropriate action to bring this matter to a conclusion.”

“You ask us to take your word for your honesty and trustworthiness with nothing whatever to support it,” the agent interjected, trying to avoid what he Was beginning to believe could not be avoided. “You say that our racial histories are not as different as they are similar. You surely must appreciate, then, that a civilization with over nine hundred worlds cannot totally capitulate on the word, the promise, the threat of one opponent whose entire race and history are a blank to us.”

“We know,” Soog responded, and there seemed genuine sadness and regret in that electronic voice. “We have known that all along. That is why generally we simply make an all-out comprehensive attack. It is far less costly to our side, yet comes down to the same thing.”

“But if you felt this way all along, why didn’t you do it here?” Luge responded sharply, thinking he had scored a point.

“If you were faced with this prospect, and there was but a five-percent chance this could all be avoided, would you not try?” the Altavar asked him. “We saw that one chance, and allowed ourselves to be convinced of it. It was a mistake, and many more will die because of that mistake, yet we are not sorry we made it. To have
not
taken the opportunity would have always left the question begging—did we wipe out so many countless intelligent beings for nothing?”

“I’m sorry,” Senator Luge said, not sounding very sorry at all, “but we simply cannot accept your unsupported threats. If you can stop us from destroying one of the worlds, then do so. If you can not, then you better call all this off and accept our terms before we do.”

Morah, sounding very nervous, broke into the proceedings. “How long before you strike? The Altavar must have time to deliberate this matter and take it up in full.”

The Council could understand that. They would have had the same problems, and the Altavar probably had greater distances to figure in, and, perhaps, a slower communications system. “Beginning at 2400 this night, we will allow exactly seven standard days for deliberation,” Luge told them. “Then we will either have a settlement, or we will commence offensive operations—unless the Altavar can come up with a counteroffer we can accept in the meantime. This channel will be kept open, and our agent will remain on the scene, in case anything must get through to us.”

“Seven days!” Morah thundered, rising to his feet. “But we can not possibly evacuate a world in seven days! Using the entire Warden fleet, with pressurized freight containers, we couldn’t hope to evacuate a tenth of the population of the smallest worldl”

Luge nodded. “This is a demonstration, not an intentional bloodbath. We have many grievances against the Four Lords, but have no wish to destroy the innocent. We are operating on contingency plans made up when the task force was dispatched, and thus, we have provided for some of this. Sixteen transports, capable of moving twenty thousand people each, with drives capable of making interplanetary trips in one to two hours, are available. If you move only the people, at the most rapid rate, you ought to be able to make four trips a day even with loading and unloading. All ships are automated and computer-driven, but will be commanded by anyone you designate to obey voice orders. The ships will be on station in orbit off Medusa within hours—if the Altavar defenses don’t shoot them down. If you start as soon as they arrive, and mobilize the rest of the Diamond fleet, and cram them in as best you can, you
can
evacuate the planet. Or you can settle this now.”

Talant Ypsir was up and screaming as he heard the target. “You can’tl You bastards! You swine! You hellish spawn of animals! That is my world you are talking about!
Mine!
Not the Altavarl It is
mine
and
I will not let you rob me of it!”
The combined effect of his inner nature and the Medusan peculiarities of the Warden organism started to change his appearance. He became, in that instant, something terrible, horrible, loathsome to behold, a monstrous, ever-changing vision of evil itself. The creature turned to the agent who sat, impassive, across the table, while next to him Dumonia watched the change with horrid fascination.
“You!”
Ypsir screamed, pointing a rotting, crawling finger at the agent.
“You put them up to this!
I will
kill
you,
kill
you,
kill—
” He made to launch himself across the table.

Yatek Morah turned in the same instant, a laser pistol in his hand, and pointed it at Ypsir. “Oh, shut up, Talant,” he sighed wearily, and pulled the trigger. Ypsir collapsed instantly into unconsciousness and slid beneath the table. They all looked down at the crumpled heap and saw it slowly changing back to the familiar face they knew, the expression alone soon becoming the only measure of the hate that was inside him.

Kunser entered the room from the back dorm in an instant, but they all saw immediately that he was not threatening. “Let me get a couple of people in here and get him back upstairs,” he pleaded. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Morah nodded and bolstered the weapon. “We will move everyone we can to the southern continent of Charon at the start,” he told the Medusan assistant. “If time becomes short, we’ll start putting them down wherever we can on Lilith. Cerberus simply can’t handle any such loads. Tell Ypsir when he wakes up that he can settle scores in eight days. If he does anything else than exactly what this meeting decides, or in any way makes trouble before that point, he will meet the fate of his predecessor instantly. Remind him that we do not need to know where he is or what he is doing, that the Altavar can and will simply order his Wardens to consume him if
any
of the rest of us say so. Is that clear?”

Everyone else in the room was just getting over their stunned and shocked feelings at the proceedings when Ypsir was finally carried out and away. Even Luge remained frozen on the screen, horrified and shocked by his first direct look at what the Warden organism could do.

Only Morah remained completely in control. “These proceedings are now in indefinite recess. All parties agree that commencing seven days from 2400 this night a state of war will exist between the Altavar on the one hand and the Confederacy on the other.”

Luge seemed to snap out of it. “Any move against us prior to that point will result in even more dire consequences,” he warned. “We are allowing this period not only in hopes of a diplomatic solution but also out of common decency and mercy. If any attempt is made during this period, or is perceived by us to be made, we- will abandon our plans and instead all modules will be directed by the task force with the intent of inducing the sun to nova.”

The others on both sides looked particularly shocked by the threat, but the Altavar seemed to take it in stride. “That would be most interesting,” it noted coldly. “However, it would cause quite a lot more problems than we are currently prepared to handle. We will, therefore, uphold the waiting period. But make no mistake on this, Senators. Neither you nor the Confederacy will survive many hours after you know just what you have done.”

The agent who called himself Mr. Carroll frowned and looked nervously at the Altavar on the screen. What an odd way to put it, he couldn’t help thinking. What a
very
odd way to put it….

7

Talant Ypsir spent most of his time brooding on his palatial orbiting satellite, but he did not interfere with the evacuation nor prevent his aides and infrastructure from doing what had to be done. For himself, though, he spent almost all of his time in his pleasure garden accompanied only by Ass, emerging only briefly to make certain that the station itself would be moved from orbit by tug.

The transports, too, were built on the modular concept, so it was relatively easy for the great ships to break into small compartments and move down to various collection points on the surface. These were troop transports, designed to hold half of what they were being asked to hold; but in a war without troops they could be spared by the Confederacy, which was, according to Commander Rrega, still confident that the Altavar bluff would break at the last minute.

The Medusan population proved unusually easy to move. Virtually all of them had been born and raised to obey the orders of the monitors and their superiors, so while they grumbled and complained a lot they did pretty much as they were told. There was some panic in the big cities, among groups who simply would not believe that there was a threat. Others suddenly lost faith when their well-ordered society was proven incapable of protecting them, but these were quickly quelled by monitors with efficient brutality. It was also simply stated that those who did not want to go could remain—but their lives would probably be abnormally short.

Mr. Carroll was particularly concerned about the colonies of Wild Ones. They were too spread out for all of them to be contacted easily, and most disbelieved the news if they heard it and fled into the wild. Finally, he commandeered a shuttle craft and went down to a particular settlement he knew well.

The shuttle landed not in a cradle but on a flat, something it really wasn’t designed to do but could because the possibility of an emergency landing always existed. The door opened and he emerged, the only one aboard, dressed in a protective orange spacesuit with the helmet removed. Still, he wore goggles and a small respirator as he walked up to the rock cliff with the twin waterfalls, aware for the first time of just how hard this land really was on one not redesigned as a Medusan.

The courtyard was deserted, as he’d expected, but he didn’t hesitate a moment, walking up to the one ground-level cave and inside as far back as he could. The torches were still lit, which told him that people were in fact still here somewhere. He cursed himself for not bringing some additional light source. The last time he’d been here he’d been riding along in a Medusan body and hadn’t realized just how damned dark and dangerous the path was.

As he’d hoped, the three elders waited for him across the underground river, eying him without suspicion or fear. He stopped and faced them.