The Starwolves (23 page)

"But if we are not destroying the Union, what is?" Velmeran asked.

"We see the results, but we can only argue the cause," Lake
explained. "Personally, I believe it is because we were not meant for
civilized life. Nature gave us hands and a brain so that we could tie a rock to
a stick to make a better club. All the rest has been our own idea. Then we
began the process of removing ourselves from our environment, the circumstances
and conditions that shaped us. Our evolution has stalled out; our civilization
promises equal chances for both the weak and strong, and nature intended harsher
rules. Cut off from any shaping influence, our species has begun to decline
right down to the genetic level.

"The genetic code that defines a human is becoming too foggy and ragged
to read properly. Over a third of our population is genetically sterile. Random
mutation has driven infant mortality to levels that we have not known since the
dark ages. Mental deficiency and mental imbalance claim a quarter of the
population. Do you wonder if we are not in trouble? Our race is dying out, for
want of proper maintenance."

"But, is this so throughout the Union?" Velmeran asked.

"No, not everywhere," Councilor Lake said, shaking his head.
"Three highly mutated races are thriving – or would if we left them
alone. And the independent merchants are themselves a race apart. Those four
groups might survive, but I doubt that any one of them will replace us. Only
you people can do that."

"Us?" Velmeran asked, surprised.

"Yes, of course you." The Councilor drained his glass in a quick
swallow and reached for the decanter. "You people are best suited for life
as a space-faring race, and for all the reasons that we are not. Machines are
your native environment; they can neither dominate nor intimidate you. Have you
ever considered the civilization you would build, the lives you would lead,
once freed of the task you were made for?"

"Why do you think I fight you?" Velmeran asked in return. "It
was intended that we reestablish the Terran Republic, and then remain to defend
it. I doubt that it was intended that we should replace you."

"That is fairly much what is likely to happen," Councilor Lake
said. "Soon the day will come that we can no longer fight you. The Union
will be dissolved and your Republic will return, and the Starwolves will be
left to nurse humanity through its old age."

The Councilor sat back and drained his second glass, then crossed his arms
and sighed heavily. "That might seem a very dismal prospect, at least for
us. But I am satisfied. So many ages have come and gone, and they left nothing
behind but ruins. At least we are fortunate enough to have you. The Starwolves
are our replacement, made to order, man's own idea of what the superman should
be. You are the offspring of the human race, whoever made you. And, I will be
the first to admit, you are our betters."

"Then why do you fight us?" Velmeran asked innocently.

Councilor Lake afforded him a startled glance. "Because I am human, for
good or ill, and I will not go down without a fight. And I am Jon Lake, High
Councilor and ultimate ruler of this entire sector. We have each inherited a
duty and I will do what I can to buy time for the Union, even knowing that it
must be defeated in the end."

Velmeran only shook his head. "I still do not understand."

"Really?" Lake asked. "I had thought you might. We each have
a duty, being who and what we are. The only difference is that my duty is at
odds with my conscience. To ease my conscience, the least – and yet the
most – that I can do is to warn you of what is coming."

He paused a moment, glancing quickly about the room as if to see if they
were indeed alone, then leaned closer to the two Starwolves. "The best
minds, human and mechanical, at our service have long been contemplating the
problem of fighting and destroying Starwolves. Now we are ready to test our ideas.
The first you have seen, and dealt with effectively. The second trap for your
fighters is something that you have not seen in a long time, and I fear that it
will take Starwolf lives before you remember how to deal with it. The third is
something altogether new – Don's own idea, I might add – and that,
my friends, is a truly awesome weapon that could well be a threat even to your
big ships. Now, that is all the warning that I can allow myself to give. Make
of it what you can."

* * * *

"I am sorry that Don could not make it back," Councilor Lake said
as he escorted his guests to the door. "He was on remarkably good behavior
tonight. I think he learned a thing or two."

"So have we all," Velmeran answered as Javarns assisted him with
his cape.

"Yes, so have we all," Lake agreed. "But I am satisfied...
Ah, that will be all, Javarns."

"Very good, sir," Javarns said, turning away. "I will get the
valuables back out of hiding."

"Don't let him fool you," Lake said quietly. "I think he was
delighted to have a chance to take a good close look at Starwolves."

"Perhaps, but he will never trust us," Dveyella said.

"At least he learned that you are not murderers and thieves."

"Shall we do it again sometime?" Velmeran asked.

"Of course. Your place, next time?" the Councilor asked, smiling
mischievously.

"You will probably be welcome, but call ahead for reservations."
Velmeran paused a moment, and reached into his belt pocket to pull out a
wallet. "Give this to Javarns with my compliments. He will probably want
it back."

Dveyella frowned and drew a watch from her own belt pocket. "He will
probably want this back as well."

"This has been a strange night, and no doubt about it," Dveyella
remarked. "Still, I would not have missed it."

Their tram glided silently atop its elevated rail across the width of the
city. It was near the middle of the night; the walks and avenues were nearly
deserted, and the city lighting had been reduced to a gentle, velvety twilight.
By this time there was hardly anyone about but Starwolves, and they had the
city mostly to themselves.

When Velmeran did not comment in turn, Dveyella glanced over at him. He sat
alone and, for the moment, seemingly unaware of her presence, so lost he was in
his own thoughts. She walked over and sat down close beside him. "Meran,
do you know what to make of it all?"

Velmeran frowned and shook his head helplessly. "I feel like we are
living out that chess game. Councilor Lake has explained the rules, and now he
has turned over his seat to the Sector Commander for us to play out the game. I
only hope we do as well in life as we did in practice."

"We?" Dveyella asked, and shook her head. "You, Meran. This
game is yours. Do you accept what he told you?"

He shrugged. "I do not yet know what to think. The good Councilor Lake might
have been in his cups for all I know, considering how well he likes his wine.
There is some investigating I mean to do, and I intend to check his theories
with a higher authority."

"Who?"

"Valthyrra Methryn, of course. But, beyond that, it is not my concern.
I am only a pack leader, and I can do nothing but pass on the warning. Still,
it does explain one thing."

"What?"

"Lately I have seen Union officers and Commanders try things that were
incomprehensible except for the excuse of rank stupidity, and I have always
found that hard to believe. Perhaps that is exactly the case after all."

"Well, I want you to explain one thing to me," Dveyella said
firmly. "What was all that business about Valtrytians? I know that the
Aldessan are not one of our grand secrets, but we generally do not talk about
them either."

"I know," Velmeran agreed. "But it did have its desired
effect."

"What effect?" she demanded.

"Councilors and Sector Commanders through the years have dreamed of
defeating the Starwolves," he explained. "I just thought that it
should be understood that, should the Union ever manage to get rid of the
Starwolves, it would still have the Valtrytians to face."

"Oh, I see," Dveyella replied thoughtfully, and smiled.
"Meran, you are diabolical."

Velmeran nodded. "It runs in the family."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"About what?" Velmeran asked, but she quickly signaled him to
silence. The tram glided up to its boarding platform, and the door snapped
open. Dveyella took him by each of his left arms and all but pulled him out of
the car. He did not even have a chance to protest until she had him outside and
halfway down the boarding ramp.

"Surveillance," she explained. "Starwolves are under constant
surveillance – so is just about everyone else, for that matter. And what
I am going to tell you is the last thing that I would have overheard. They
cannot listen in if we are in the open."

"How is that?" Velmeran asked. "They would have sonic
scanners."

"But I have a drone," she said, indicating the small device at her
belt. "It broadcasts both a high-frequency tone and a jamming wave at
matching frequencies, producing a pulsing vibration that blocks both
conventional microphones and the crystal receivers of sonic scanners. All they
can pick up is a droning sound."

"How did you come by such a thing?"

"Special tactics. We like to make a personal reconnaissance, when we
can. And we do not want our plans overheard. And be careful to speak only
Tresdyland. As far as we can tell, it is an unknown language to the Union."

They came to the edge of the underground lake and Dveyella paused to look
over the edge of the thick cement rail into the dark water far below. The lake
was not a natural feature of the cavern; rectangular in shape, two hundred
meters wide by three hundred long and smoothly cemented all around, it looked
more like an immense swimming pool. The back end ran up against the cavern
wall, while the inner end, where they now stood, cut well into the city. The
south side was dominated by the port hotel, while the north side, steeply
terraced and overgrown with carefully tended gardens, harbored the very best of
the city's shops and outdoor restaurants.

"It happened when I was here about thirty-five years ago," she
explained. "I was just a new pilot in the pack then, so it was that I was
poking about the city alone. I was standing at this very place when I saw a
large, dark shape moving toward me underwater. The thing was nearly twenty
meters in length and it passed beneath the street directly below me, and as it
did I could see clearly that it was a machine.

"After that I did a little investigating. First, I discovered that
the lake is seawater. Then I found that it has a tide; the entire level rises
five centimeters for noon tide. The lake is down in this hole so that its level
is that of the sea. And there is a tunnel directly across from here, in the
outer wall; the sea is seven kilometers in that direction. This, my friend, is
a secret way into the city, a bolt hole for high officials should Vannkarn ever
come under attack."

Velmeran leaned well out over the rail to peer down into the water, although
the only thing he could see was his own wavering reflection. He glanced back at
Dveyella. "This is how you propose to get into the city?"

"Of course."

"Do you also propose to swim?"

"No, we fly in," she replied, obviously pleased with herself.
"Seawater is hardly more dense than some of the mediums we can fly in,
such as deep into the outer layers of the gas giants."

"Water has no compressibility," Velmeran pointed out, although
hesitantly. Already he could see a way around that.

"Atmospheric shields can be adapted to handle that," Dveyella
provided the answer for him. "Compressibility is no problem when you are
flying inside a column of water moving at graduated speeds. I have worked out
the modifications that permit it, and the computer promises that it will work.
And what works for a fighter will work for our modified transport – which
we will need to carry the memory cell out of here."

Velmeran glanced at her sharply. "This is not Bineck; you know that.
Surveillance is too tight."

She only shook her head. "We can always get down undetected through the
magnetic corridor, and Vinthra's magnetism is proportionally strong enough to
offset its more advanced scanners. And we will fly underwater from the core of
the magnetic corridor to the sea entrance. It will take a couple of hours'
travel time due to reduced speed, but it will work."

Velmeran paused a moment to consider that. If they could just get fighters
into the cavern undetected, then they could get what they wanted and be away
with little trouble through the dome – by shutting down the protective
shields from the inside.

"The first thing is to prove that a fighter actually can fly
underwater," he said. "We are going to need a lot of help, and a
little proof can break through quite a lot of resistance."

"Of course," Dveyella said. "What do you think I want you
for?"

"Me? You want me to test the theory?"

"It is no theory. The computer says that you can take a fighter up to
nearly four thousand kilometers per hour underwater."

"Then I will do it," Velmeran reluctantly agreed. "But I want
to see your computations."

"Of course!" she laughed. "Come along. In spite of Councilor
Lake's generosity, I am still hungry. Besides, I do not want us to be seen
standing here too long."

"You suspect that we might be under observation?"

"Lake had quite a lot to say to us tonight, and I do not doubt that he
is going to be wondering how we will react to it – whether or not we
appear to believe it. And if we do, men he is smart enough to know that we will
be after the memory cell sometime very soon. That is our disadvantage. He has
to know what our next move will be. And if he guesses our strategy, he will
know how to block it."