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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20659-8.txt b/20659-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0091fa --- /dev/null +++ b/20659-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2381 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ministry of Disturbance, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ministry of Disturbance + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20659] +Last updated: January 19, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +MINISTRY ... OF DISTURBANCE + + +BY H. BEAM PIPER + + +Illustrated by van Dongen + + ++----------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's Note | +| | +| This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction | +| December 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence | +| that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. | ++----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + _Sometimes getting a job is harder than the job after you get + it--and sometimes getting out of a job is harder than either!_ + + +[Illustration] + +The symphony was ending, the final triumphant pæan soaring up and up, +beyond the limit of audibility. For a moment, after the last notes had +gone away, Paul sat motionless, as though some part of him had followed. +Then he roused himself and finished his coffee and cigarette, looking +out the wide window across the city below--treetops and towers, roofs +and domes and arching skyways, busy swarms of aircars glinting in the +early sunlight. Not many people cared for João Coelho's music, now, and +least of all for the Eighth Symphony. It was the music of another time, +a thousand years ago, when the Empire was blazing into being out of the +long night and hammering back the Neobarbarians from world after world. +Today people found it perturbing. + +He smiled faintly at the vacant chair opposite him, and lit another +cigarette before putting the breakfast dishes on the serving-robot's +tray, and, after a while, realized that the robot was still beside his +chair, waiting for dismissal. He gave it an instruction to summon the +cleaning robots and sent it away. He could as easily have summoned them +himself, or let the guards who would be in checking the room do it for +him, but maybe it made a robot feel trusted and important to relay +orders to other robots. + +Then he smiled again, this time in self-derision. A robot couldn't feel +important, or anything else. A robot was nothing but steel and plastic +and magnetized tape and photo-micro-positronic circuits, whereas a +man--His Imperial Majesty Paul XXII, for instance--was nothing but +tissues and cells and colloids and electro-neuronic circuits. There was +a difference; anybody knew that. The trouble was that he had never met +anybody--which included physicists, biologists, psychologists, +psionicists, philosophers and theologians--who could define the +difference in satisfactorily exact terms. He watched the robot pivot on +its treads and glide away, trailing steam from its coffee pot. It might +be silly to treat robots like people, but that wasn't as bad as treating +people like robots, an attitude which was becoming entirely too +prevalent. If only so many people didn't act like robots! + +He crossed to the elevator and stood in front of it until a tiny +electroencephalograph inside recognized his distinctive brain-wave +pattern. Across the room, another door was popping open in response to +the robot's distinctive wave pattern. He stepped inside and flipped a +switch--there were still a few things around that had to be manually +operated--and the door closed behind him and the elevator gave him an +instant's weightlessness as it started to drop forty floors. + +When it opened, Captain-General Dorflay of the Household Guard was +waiting for him, with a captain and ten privates. General Dorflay was +human. The captain and his ten soldiers weren't. They wore helmets, +emblazoned with the golden sun and superimposed black cogwheel of the +Empire, and red kilts and black ankle boots and weapons belts, and the +captain had a narrow gold-laced cape over his shoulders, but for the +rest, their bodies were covered with a stiff mat of black hair, and +their faces were slightly like terriers'. (For all his humanity, +Captain-General Dorflay's face was more like a bulldog's.) They were +hillmen from the southern hemisphere of Thor, and as a people they made +excellent mercenaries. They were crack shots, brave and crafty fighters, +totally uninterested in politics off their own planet, and, because they +had grown up in a patriarchial-clan society, they were fanatically loyal +to anybody whom they accepted as their chieftain. Paul stepped out and +gave them an inclusive nod. + + * * * * * + +"Good morning, gentlemen." + +"Good morning, Your Imperial Majesty," General Dorflay said, bowing the +couple of inches consistent with military dignity. The Thoran captain +saluted by touching his forehead, his heart, which was on the right +side, and the butt of his pistol. Paul complimented him on the smart +appearance of his detail, and the captain asked how it could be +otherwise, with the example and inspiration of his imperial majesty. +Compliment and response could have been a playback from every morning of +the ten years of his reign. So could Dorflay's question: "Your Majesty +will proceed to his study?" + +He wanted to say, "No, to Niffelheim with it; let's get an aircar and +fly a million miles somewhere," and watch the look of shocked +incomprehension on the captain-general's face. He couldn't do that, +though; poor old Harv Dorflay might have a heart attack. He nodded +slowly. + +"If you please, general." + +Dorflay nodded to the Thoran captain, who nodded to his men. Four of +them took two paces forward; the rest, unslinging weapons, went +scurrying up the corridor, some posting themselves along the way and the +rest continuing to the main hallway. The captain and two of his men +started forward slowly; after they had gone twenty feet, Paul and +General Dorflay fell in behind them, and the other two brought up the +rear. + +"Your Majesty," Dorflay said, in a low voice, "let me beg you to be most +cautious. I have just discovered that there exists a treasonous plot +against your life." + +Paul nodded. Dorflay was more than due to discover another treasonous +plot; it had been ten days since the last one. + +"I believe you mentioned it, general. Something about planting loose +strontium-90 in the upholstery of the Audience Throne, wasn't it?" + +And before that, somebody had been trying to smuggle a fission bomb into +the Palace in a wine cask, and before that, it was a booby trap in the +elevator, and before that, somebody was planning to build a submachine +gun into the viewscreen in the study, and-- + +"Oh, no, Your Majesty; that was--Well, the persons involved in that plot +became alarmed and fled the planet before I could arrest them. This is +something different, Your Majesty. I have learned that unauthorized +alterations have been made on one of the cooking-robots in your private +kitchen, and I am positive that the object is to poison Your Majesty." + +They were turning into the main hallway, between the rows of portraits +of past emperors, Paul and Rodrik, Paul and Rodrik, alternating over and +over on both walls. He felt a smile growing on his face, and banished +it. + +"The robot for the meat sauces, wasn't it?" he asked. + +"Why--! Yes, Your Majesty." + +"I'm sorry, general. I should have warned you. Those alterations were +made by roboticists from the Ministry of Security; they were installing +an adaptation of a device used in the criminalistics-labs, to insure +more uniform measurements. They'd done that already for Prince Travann, +the Minister, and he'd recommended it to me." + +That was a shame, spoiling poor Harv Dorflay's murder plot. It had been +such a nice little plot, too; he must have had a lot of fun inventing +it. But a line had to be drawn somewhere. Let him turn the Palace upside +down hunting for bombs; harass ladies-in-waiting whose lovers he +suspected of being hired assassins; hound musicians into whose +instruments he imagined firearms had been built; the emperor's private +kitchen would have to be off limits. + +Dorflay, who should have been looking crestfallen but relieved, stopped +short--shocking breach of Court etiquette--and was staring in horror. + +"Your Majesty! Prince Travann did that openly and with your consent? +But, Your Majesty, I am convinced that it is Prince Travann himself who +is the instigator of every one of these diabolical schemes. In the case +of the elevator, I became suspicious of a man named Samml Ganner, one of +Prince Travann's secret police agents. In the case of the gun in the +viewscreen, it was a technician whose sister is a member of the +household of Countess Yirzy, Prince Travann's mistress. In the case of +the fission bomb----" + +The two Thorans and their captain had kept on for some distance before +they had discovered that they were no longer being followed, and were +returning. He put his hand on General Dorflay's shoulder and urged him +forward. + +"Have you mentioned this to anybody?" + +"Not a word, Your Majesty. This Court is so full of treachery that I can +trust no one, and we must never warn the villain that he is suspected--" + +"Good. Say nothing to anybody." They had reached the door of the study, +now. "I think I'll be here until noon. If I leave earlier, I'll flash +you a signal." + + * * * * * + +He entered the big oval room, lighted from overhead by the great +star-map in the ceiling, and crossed to his desk, with the viewscreens +and reading screens and communications screens around it, and as he sat +down, he cursed angrily, first at Harv Dorflay and then, after a +moment's reflection, at himself. He was the one to blame; he'd known +Dorflay's paranoid condition for years. Have to do something about it. +Any psycho-medic would certify him; be no problem at all to have him put +away. But be blasted if he'd do that. That was no way to repay loyalty, +even insane loyalty. Well, he'd find a way. + +He lit a cigarette and leaned back, looking up at the glowing swirl of +billions of billions of tiny lights in the ceiling. At least, there were +supposed to be billions of billions of them; he'd never counted them, +and neither had any of the seventeen Rodriks and sixteen Pauls before +him who had sat under them. His hand moved to a control button on his +chair arm, and a red patch, roughly the shape of a pork chop, appeared +on the western side. + +That was the Empire. Every one of the thousand three hundred and +sixty-five inhabited worlds, a trillion and a half intelligent beings, +fourteen races--fifteen if you counted the Zarathustran Fuzzies, who +were almost able to qualify under the talk-and-build-a-fire rule. And +that had been the Empire when Rodrik VI had seen the map completed, and +when Paul II had built the Palace, and when Stevan IV, the grandfather +of Paul I, had proclaimed Odin the Imperial planet and Asgard the +capital city. There had been some excuse for staying inside that patch +of stars then; a newly won Empire must be consolidated within before it +can safely be expanded. But that had been over eight centuries ago. + +He looked at the Daily Schedule, beautifully embossed and neatly slipped +under his desk glass. Luncheon on the South Upper Terrace, with the +Prime Minister and the Bench of Imperial Counselors. Yes, it was time +for that again; that happened as inevitably and regularly as Harv +Dorflay's murder plots. And in the afternoon, a Plenary Session, Cabinet +and Counselors. Was he going to have to endure the Bench of Counselors +twice in the same day? Then the vexation was washed out of his face by a +spreading grin. Bench of Counselors; that was the answer! Elevate Harv +Dorflay to the Bench. That was what the Bench was for, a gold-plated +dustbin for the disposal of superannuated dignitaries. He'd do no harm +there, and a touch of outright lunacy might enliven and even improve the +Bench. + +And in the evening, a banquet, and a reception and ball, in honor of His +Majesty Ranulf XIV, Planetary King of Durendal, and First Citizen Zhorzh +Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the Planetary Commonwealth +of Aditya. Bargain day; two planetary chiefs of state in one big +combination deal. He wondered what sort of prizes he had drawn this +time, and closed his eyes, trying to remember. Durendal, of course, was +one of the Sword-Worlds, settled by refugees from the losing side of the +System States War in the time of the old Terran Federation, who had +reappeared in Galactic history a few centuries later as the Space +Vikings. They all had monarchial and rather picturesque governments; +Durendal, he seemed to recall, was a sort of quasi-feudalism. About +Aditya he was less sure. Something unpleasant, he thought; the titles of +the government and its head were suggestive. + +He lit another cigarette and snapped on the reading screen to see what +they had piled onto him this morning, and then swore when a graph chart, +with jiggling red and blue and green lines, appeared. Chart day, too. +Everything happens at once. + + * * * * * + +It was the interstellar trade situation chart from Economics. Red line +for production, green line for exports, blue for imports, sectioned +vertically for the ten Viceroyalties and sub-sectioned for the +Prefectures, and with the magnification and focus controls he could even +get data for individual planets. He didn't bother with that, and +wondered why he bothered with the charts at all. The stuff was all at +least twenty days behind date, and not uniformly so, which accounted for +much of the jiggling. It had been transmitted from Planetary +Proconsulate to Prefecture, and from Prefecture to Viceroyalty, and from +there to Odin, all by ship. A ship on hyperdrive could log light-years +an hour, but radio waves still had to travel 186,000 mps. The +supplementary chart for the past five centuries told the real +story--three perfectly level and perfectly parallel lines. + +It was the same on all the other charts. Population fluctuating slightly +at the moment, completely static for the past five centuries. A slight +decrease in agriculture, matched by an increase in synthetic food +production. A slight population movement toward the more urban planets +and the more densely populated centers. A trend downward in +employment--nonworking population increasing by about .0001 per cent +annually. Not that they were building better robots; they were just +building them faster than they wore out. They all told the same story--a +stable economy, a static population, a peaceful and undisturbed Empire; +eight centuries, five at least, of historyless tranquility. Well, that +was what everybody wanted, wasn't it? + +He flipped through the rest of the charts, and began getting summarized +Ministry reports. Economics had denied a request from the Mining Cartel +to authorize operations on a couple of uninhabited planets; danger of +local market gluts and overstimulation of manufacturing. Permission +granted to Robotics Cartel to---- Request from planetary government of +Durendal for increase of cereal export quotas under consideration--they +wouldn't want to turn that down while King Ranulf was here. Impulsively, +he punched out a combination on the communication screen and got Count +Duklass, Minister of Economics. + +Count Duklass had thinning red hair and a plump, agreeable, extrovert's +face. He smiled and waited to be addressed. + +"Sorry to bother Your Lordship," Paul greeted him. "What's the story on +this export quota request from Durendal? We have their king here, now. +Think he's come to lobby for it?" + +Count Duklass chuckled. "He's not doing anything about it, himself. Have +you met him yet, sir?" + +"Not yet. He's to be presented this evening." + +"Well, when you see him--I think the masculine pronoun is +permissible--you'll see what I mean, sir. It's this Lord Koreff, the +Marshal. He came here on business, and had to bring the king along, for +fear somebody else would grab him while he was gone. The whole object of +Durendalian politics, as I understand, is to get possession of the +person of the king. Koreff was on my screen for half an hour; I just got +rid of him. Planet's pretty heavily agricultural, they had a couple of +very good crop years in a row, and now they have grain running out their +ears, and they want to export it and cash in." + +"Well?" + +"Can't let them do it, Your Majesty. They're not suffering any hardship; +they're just not making as much money as they think they ought to. If +they start dumping their surplus into interstellar trade, they'll cause +all kinds of dislocations on other agricultural planets. At least, +that's what our computers all say." + +And that, of course, was gospel. He nodded. + +"Why don't they turn their surplus into whisky? Age it five or six years +and it'd be on the luxury goods schedule and they could sell it +anywhere." + +Count Duklass' eyes widened. "I never thought of that, Your Majesty. +Just a microsec; I want to make a note of that. Pass it down to somebody +who could deal with it. That's a wonderful idea, Your Majesty!" + + * * * * * + +He finally got the conversation to an end, and went back to the reports. +Security, as usual, had a few items above the dead level of bureaucratic +procedure. The planetary king of Excalibur had been assassinated by his +brother and two nephews, all three of whom were now fighting among +themselves. As nobody had anything to fight with except small arms and a +few light cannon, there would be no intervention. There had been +intervention on Behemoth, however, where a whole continent had tried to +secede from the planetary republic and the Imperial Navy had been +requested to send a task force. That was all right, in both cases. No +interference with anything that passed for a planetary government, but +only one sovereignty on any planet with nuclear weapons, and only one +supreme sovereignty in a galaxy with hyperdrive ships. + +And there was rioting on Amaterasu, because of public indignation over a +fraudulent election. He looked at that in incredulous delight. Why, here +on Odin there hadn't been an election in the past six centuries that +hadn't been utterly fraudulent. Nobody voted except the nonworkers, +whose votes were bought and sold wholesale, by gangster bosses to +pressure groups, and no decent person would be caught within a hundred +yards of a polling place on an election day. He called the Minister of +Security. + +Prince Travann was a man of his own age--they had been classmates at the +University--but he looked older. His thin face was lined, and his hair +was almost completely white. He was at his desk, with the Sun and +Cogwheel of the Empire on the wall behind him, but on the breast of his +black tunic he wore the badge of his family, a silver planet with three +silver moons. Unlike Count Duklass, he didn't wait to be spoken to. + +"Good morning, Your Majesty." + +"Good morning, Your Highness; sorry to bother you. I just caught an +interesting item in your report. This business on Amaterasu. What sort +of a planet is it, politically? I don't seem to recall." + +"Why, they have a republican government, sir; a very complicated setup. +Really, it's a junk heap. When anything goes badly, they always build +something new into the government, but they never abolish anything. They +have a president, a premier, and an executive cabinet, and a tricameral +legislature, and two complete and distinct judiciaries. The premier is +always the presidential candidate getting the next highest number of +votes. In the present instance, the president, who controls the +planetary militia, is accusing the premier, who controls the police, of +fraud in the election of the middle house of the legislature. Each is +supported by the judiciary he controls. Practically every citizen +belongs either to the militia or the police auxiliaries. I am looking +forward to further reports from Amaterasu," he added dryly. + +"I daresay they'll be interesting. Send them to me in full, and red-star +them, if you please, Prince Travann." + +He went back to the reports. The Ministry of Science and Technology had +sent up a lengthy one. The only trouble with it was that everything +reported was duplication of work that had been done centuries before. +Well, no. A Dr. Dandrik, of the physics department of the Imperial +University here in Asgard announced that a definite limit of accuracy in +measuring the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles had been +established--16.067543333--times light-speed. That seemed to be typical; +the frontiers of science, now, were all decimal points. The Ministry of +Education had a little to offer; historical scholarship was still +active, at least. He was reading about a new trove of source-material +that had come to light on Uller, from the Sixth Century Atomic Era, when +the door screen buzzed and flashed. + + * * * * * + +He lit it, and his son Rodrik appeared in it, with Snooks, the little +red hound, squirming excitedly in the Crown Prince's arms. The dog began +barking at once, and the boy called through the phone: + +"Good morning, father; are you busy?" + +"Oh, not at all." He pressed the release button. "Come on in." + +Immediately, the little hound leaped out of the princely arms and came +dashing into the study and around the desk, jumping onto his lap. The +boy followed more slowly, sitting down in the deskside chair and drawing +his foot up under him. Paul greeted Snooks first--people can wait, but +for little dogs everything has to be right now--and rummaged in a drawer +until he found some wafers, holding one for Snooks to nibble. Then he +became aware that his son was wearing leather shorts and tall buskins. + +"Going out somewhere?" he asked, a trifle enviously. + +"Up in the mountains, for a picnic. Olva's going along." + +And his tutor, and his esquire, and Olva's companion-lady, and a dozen +Thoran riflemen, of course, and they'd be in continuous screen-contact +with the Palace. + +"That ought to be a lot of fun. Did you get all your lessons done?" + +"Physics and math and galactiography," Rodrik told him. "And Professor +Guilsan's going to give me and Olva our history after lunch." + +They talked about lessons, and about the picnic. Of course, Snooks was +going on the picnic, too. It was evident, though, that Rodrik had +something else on his mind. After a while, he came out with it. + +"Father, you know I've been a little afraid, lately," he said. + +"Well, tell me about it, son. It isn't anything about you and Olva, is +it?" + +Rod was fourteen; the little Princess Olva thirteen. They would be +marriageable in six years. As far as anybody could tell, they were both +quite happy about the marriage which had been arranged for them years +ago. + +"Oh, no; nothing like that. But Olva's sister and a couple others of +mother's ladies-in-waiting were to a psi-medium, and the medium told +them that there were going to be changes. Great and frightening changes +was what she said." + +"She didn't specify?" + +"No. Just that: great and frightening changes. But the only change of +that kind I can think of would be ... well, something happening to you." + +Snooks, having eaten three wafers, was trying to lick his ear. He pushed +the little dog back into his lap and pummeled him gently with his left +hand. + +"You mustn't let mediums' gabble worry you, son. These psi-mediums have +real powers, but they can't turn them off and on like a water tap. When +they don't get anything, they don't like to admit it, and they invent +things. Always generalities like that; never anything specific." + +"I know all that." The boy seemed offended, as though somebody were +explaining that his mother hadn't really found him out in the rose +garden. "But they talked about it to some of their friends, and it seems +that other mediums are saying the same thing. Father, do you remember +when the Haval Valley reactor blew up? All over Odin, the mediums had +been talking about a terrible accident, for a month before that +happened." + +"I remember that." Harv Dorflay believed that somebody had been falsely +informed that the emperor would visit the plant that day. "These great +and frightening changes will probably turn out to be a new fad in +abstract sculpture. Any change frightens most people." + +They talked more about mediums, and then about aircars and aircar +racing, and about the Emperor's Cup race that was to be flown in a +month. The communications screen began flashing and buzzing, and after +he had silenced it with the busy-button for the third time, Rodrik said +that it was time for him to go, came around to gather up Snooks, and +went out, saying that he'd be home in time for the banquet. The screen +began to flash again as he went out. + + * * * * * + +It was Prince Ganzay, the Prime Minister. He looked as though he had a +persistent low-level toothache, but that was his ordinary expression. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty. It's about these chiefs-of-state. Count +Gadvan, the Chamberlain, appealed to me, and I feel I should ask your +advice. It's the matter of precedence." + +"Well, we have a fixed rule on that. Which one arrived first?" + +"Why, the Adityan, but it seems King Ranulf insists that he's entitled +to precedence, or, rather, his Lord Marshal does. This Lord Koreff +insists that his king is not going to yield precedence to a commoner." + +[Illustration] + +"Then he can go home to Durendal!" He felt himself growing angry--all +the little angers of the morning were focusing on one spot. He forced +the harshness out of his voice. "At a court function, somebody has to go +first, and our rule is order of arrival at the Palace. That rule was +established to avoid violating the principle of equality to all +civilized peoples and all planetary governments. We're not going to set +it aside for the King of Durendal, or anybody else." + +Prince Ganzay nodded. Some of the toothache expression had gone out of +his face, now that he had been relieved of the decision. + +"Of course, Your Majesty." He brightened a little. "Do you think we +might compromise? Alternate the precedence, I mean?" + +"Only if this First Citizen Yaggo consents. If he does, it would be a +good idea." + +"I'll talk to him, sir." The toothache expression came back. "Another +thing, Your Majesty. They've both been invited to attend the Plenary +Session, this afternoon." + +"Well, no trouble there; they can enter by different doors and sit in +visitors' boxes at opposite ends of the hall." + +"Well, sir, I wasn't thinking of precedence. But this is to be an +Elective Session--new Ministers to replace Prince Havaly, of Defense, +deceased, and Count Frask, of Science and Technology, elevated to the +Bench. There seems to be some difference of opinion among some of the +Ministers and Counselors. It's very possible that the Session may +degenerate into an outright controversy." + +"Horrible," Paul said seriously. "I think, though, that our +distinguished guests will see that the Empire can survive difference of +opinion, and even outright controversy. But if you think it might have a +bad effect, why not postpone the election?" + +"Well--It's been postponed three times, already, sir." + +"Postpone it permanently. Advertise for bids on two robot Ministers, +Defense, and Science and Technology. If they're a success, we can set up +a project to design a robot emperor." + +The Prime Minister's face actually twitched and blanched at the +blasphemy. "Your Majesty is joking," he said, as though he wanted to be +reassured on the point. + +"Unfortunately, I am. If my job could be robotized, maybe I could take +my wife and my son and our little dog and go fishing for a while." + +But, of course, he couldn't. There were only two alternatives: the +Empire or Galactic anarchy. The galaxy was too big to hold general +elections, and there had to be a supreme ruler, and a positive and +automatic--which meant hereditary--means of succession. + +"Whose opinion seems to differ from whose, and about what?" he asked. + +"Well, Count Duklass and Count Tammsan want to have the Ministry of +Science and Technology abolished, and its functions and personnel +distributed. Count Duklass means to take over the technological sections +under Economics, and Count Tammsan will take over the science part under +Education. The proposal is going to be introduced at this Session by +Count Guilfred, the Minister of Health and Sanity. He hopes to get some +of the bio-and psycho-science sections for his own Ministry." + +"That's right. Duklass gets the hide, Tammsan gets the head and horns, +and everybody who hunts with them gets a cut of the meat. That's good +sound law of the chase. I'm not in favor of it, myself. Prince Ganzay, +at this session, I wish you'd get Captain-General Dorflay nominated for +the Bench. I feel that it is about time to honor him with elevation." + +"General Dorflay? But why, Your Majesty?" + +"Great galaxy, do you have to ask? Why, because the man's a raving +lunatic. He oughtn't even to be trusted with a sidearm, let alone five +companies of armed soldiers. Do you know what he told me this morning?" + +"That somebody is training a Nidhog swamp-crawler to crawl up the +Octagon Tower and bite you at breakfast, I suppose. But hasn't that been +going on for quite a while, sir?" + +"It was a gimmick in one of the cooking robots, but that's aside from +the question. He's finally named the master mind behind all these +nightmares of his, and who do you think it is? Yorn Travann!" + + * * * * * + +The Prime Minister's face grew graver than usual. Well, it was something +to look grave about; some of these days---- + +"Your Majesty, I couldn't possibly agree more about the general's mental +condition, but I really should say that, crazy or not, he is not alone +in his suspicions of Prince Travann. If sharing them makes me a lunatic, +too, so be it, but share them I do." + +Paul felt his eyebrows lift in surprise. "That's quite too much and too +little, Prince Ganzay," he said. + +"With your permission, I'll elaborate. Don't think that I suspect Prince +Travann of any childish pranks with elevators or viewscreens or +cooking-robots," the Prime Minister hastened to disclaim, "but I +definitely do suspect him of treasonous ambitions. I suppose Your +Majesty knows that he is the first Minister of Security in centuries who +has assumed personal control of both the planetary and municipal police, +instead of delegating his _ex officio_ powers. + +"Your Majesty may not know, however, of some of the peculiar uses he has +been making of those authorities. Does Your Majesty know that he has +recruited the Security Guard up to at least ten times the strength +needed to meet any conceivable peace-maintenance problem on this planet, +and that he has been piling up huge quantities of heavy combat +equipment--guns up to 200-millimeter, heavy contragravity, even +gun-cutters and bomb-and-rocket boats? And does Your Majesty know that +most of this armament is massed within fifteen minutes' flight-time of +this Palace? Or that Prince Travann has at his disposal from two and a +half to three times, in men and firepower, the combined strength of the +Planetary Militia and the Imperial Army on this planet?" + +"I know. It has my approval. He's trying to salvage some of the young +nonworkers through exposing them to military discipline. A good many of +them, I believe, have gone off-planet on their discharge from the SG and +hired as mercenaries, which is a far better profession than vote +selling." + +"Quite a plausible explanation: Prince Travann is nothing if not +plausible," the Prime Minister agreed. "And does Your Majesty know that, +because of repeated demands for support from the Ministry of Security, +the Imperial Navy has been scattered all over the Empire, and that there +is not a naval craft bigger than a scout-boat within fifteen hundred +light-years of Odin?" + +That was absolutely true. Paul could only nod agreement. Prince Ganzay +continued: + +"He has been doing some peculiar things as Police Chief of Asgard, too. +For instance, there are two powerful nonworkers' voting-bloc bosses, Big +Moogie Blisko and Zikko the Nose--I assure Your Majesty that I am not +inventing these names; that's what the persons are actually called--who +have been enjoying the favor and support of Prince Travann. On a number +of occasions, their smaller rivals, leaders of less important gangs, +have been arrested, often on trumped-up charges, and held incommunicado +until either Moogie or Zikko could move into their territories and annex +their nonworker followers. These two bloc-bosses are subsidized, +respectively, by the Steel and Shipbuilding Cartels and by the Reaction +Products and Chemical Cartels, but actually, they are controlled by +Prince Travann. They, in turn, control between them about seventy per +cent of the nonworkers in Asgard." + +"And you think this adds up to a plot against the Throne?" + +"A plot to seize the Throne, Your Majesty." + +"Oh, come, Prince Ganzay! You're talking like Dorflay!" + +"Hear me out, Your Majesty. His Imperial Highness is fourteen years old; +it will be eleven years before he will be legally able to assume the +powers of emperor. In the dreadful event of your immediate death, it +would mean a regency for that long. Of course, your Ministers and +Counselors would be the ones to name the Regent, but I know how they +would vote with Security Guard bayonets at their throats. And regency +might not be the limit of Prince Travann's ambitions." + +"In your own words, quite plausible, Prince Ganzay. It rests, however, +on a very questionable foundation. The assumption that Prince Travann is +stupid enough to want the Throne." + +He had to terminate the conversation himself and blank the screen. +Viktor Ganzay was still staring at him in shocked incredulity when his +image vanished. Viktor Ganzay could not imagine anybody not wanting the +Throne, not even the man who had to sit on it. + + * * * * * + +He sat, for a while, looking at the darkened screen, a little worried. +Viktor Ganzay had a much better intelligence service than he had +believed. He wondered how much Ganzay had found out that he hadn't +mentioned. Then he went back to the reports. He had gotten down to the +Ministry of Fine Arts when the communications screen began calling +attention to itself again. + +When he flipped the switch, a woman smiled out of it at him. Her blond +hair was rumpled, and she wore a dressing gown; her smile brightened as +his face appeared in her screen. + +"Hi!" she greeted him. + +"Hi, yourself. You just get up?" + +She raised a hand to cover a yawn. "I'll bet you've been up reigning for +hours. Were Rod and Snooks in to see you yet?" + +He nodded. "They just left. Rod's going on a picnic with Olva in the +mountains." How long had it been since he and Marris had been on a +picnic--a real picnic, with less than fifty guards and as many courtiers +along? "Do you have much reigning to do, this afternoon?" + +She grimaced. "Flower Festivals. I have to make personal tri-di +appearances, live, with messages for the loving subjects. Three minutes +on, and a two-minute break between. I have forty for this afternoon." + +"Ugh! Well, have a good time, sweetheart. All I have is lunch with the +Bench, and then this Plenary Session." He told her about Ganzay's fear +of outright controversy. + +"Oh, fun! Maybe somebody'll pull somebody's whiskers, or something. I'm +in on that, too." + +The call-indicator in front of him began glowing with the code-symbol of +the Minister of Security. + +"We can always hope, can't we? Well, Yorn Travann's trying to get me, +now." + +"Don't keep him waiting. Maybe I can see you before the Session." She +made a kissing motion with her lips at him, and blanked the screen. + +He flipped the switch again, and Prince Travann was on the screen. The +Security Minister didn't waste time being sorry to bother him. + +"Your Majesty, a report's just come in that there's a serious riot at +the University; between five and ten thousand students are attacking the +Administration Center, lobbing stench bombs into it, and threatening to +hang Chancellor Khane. They have already overwhelmed and disarmed the +campus police, and I've sent two companies of the Gendarme riot brigade, +under an officer I can trust to handle things firmly but intelligently. +We don't want any indiscriminate stunning or tear-gassing or shooting; +all sorts of people can have sons and daughters mixed up in a student +riot." + +"Yes. I seem to recall student riots in which the sons of his late +Highness Prince Travann and his late Majesty Rodrik XXI were involved." +He deliberated the point for a moment, and added: "This scarcely sounds +like a frat-fight or a panty-raid, though. What seems to have triggered +it?" + +"The story I got--a rather hysterical call for help from Khane +himself--is that they're protesting an action of his in dismissing a +faculty member. I have a couple of undercovers at the University, and +I'm trying to contact them. I sent more undercovers, who could pass for +students, ahead of the Gendarmes to get the student side of it and the +names of the ring-leaders." He glanced down at the indicator in front of +him, which had begun to glow. "If you'll pardon me, sir, Count Tammsan's +trying to get me. He may have particulars. I'll call Your Majesty back +when I learn anything more." + + * * * * * + +There hadn't been anything like that at the University within the memory +of the oldest old grad. Chancellor Khane, he knew, was a stupid and +arrogant old windbag with a swollen sense of his own importance. He made +a small bet with himself that the whole thing was Khane's fault, but he +wondered what lay behind it, and what would come out of it. Great +plagues from little microbes start. Great and frightening changes---- + +The screen got itself into an uproar, and he flipped the switch. It was +Viktor Ganzay again. He looked as though his permanent toothache had +deserted him for the moment. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but it's all fixed up," he reported. +"First Citizen Yaggo agreed to alternate in precedence with King Ranulf, +and Lord Koreff has withdrawn all his objections. As far as I can see, +at present, there should be no trouble." + +"Fine. I suppose you heard about the excitement at the University?" + +"Oh, yes, Your Majesty. Disgraceful affair!" + +"Simply shocking. What seems to have started it, have you heard?" he +asked. "All I know is that the students were protesting the dismissal of +a faculty member. He must have been exceptionally popular, or else he +got a more than ordinary raw deal from Khane." + +"Well, as to that, sir, I can't say. All I learned was that it was the +result of some faculty squabble in one of the science departments; the +grounds for the dismissal were insubordination and contempt for +authority." + +"I always thought that when authority began inspiring contempt, it had +stopped being authority. Did you say science? This isn't going to help +Duklass and Tammsan any." + +"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty." Ganzay didn't look particularly +regretful. "The News Cartel's gotten hold of it and are using it; it'll +be all over the Empire." + +He said that as though it meant something. Well, maybe it did; a lot of +Ministers and almost all the Counselors spent most of their time +worrying about what people on planets like Chermosh and Zarathustra and +Deirdre and Quetzalcoatl might think, in ignorance of the fact that +interest in Empire politics varied inversely as the square of the +distance to Odin and the level of corruption and inefficiency of the +local government. + +"I notice you'll be at the Bench luncheon. Do you think you could invite +our guests, too? We could have an informal presentation before it +starts. Can do? Good. I'll be seeing you there." + +When the screen was blanked, he returned to the reports, ran them off +hastily to make sure that nothing had been red-starred, and called a +robot to clear the projector. After a while, Prince Travann called +again. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but I have most of the facts on the riot, +now. What happened was that Chancellor Khane sacked a professor, physics +department, under circumstances which aroused resentment among the +science students. Some of them walked out of class and went to the +stadium to hold a protest meeting, and the thing snowballed until half +the students were in it. Khane lost his head and ordered the campus +police to clear the stadium; the students rushed them and swamped them. +I hope, for their sakes, that none of my men ever let anything like that +happen. The man I sent, a Colonel Handrosan, managed to talk the +students into going back to the stadium and continuing the meeting under +Gendarme protection." + +"Sounds like a good man." + +"Very good, Your Majesty. Especially in handling disturbances. I have +complete confidence in him. He's also investigating the background of +the affair. I'll give Your Majesty what he's learned, to date. It seems +that the head of the physics department, a Professor Nelse Dandrik, had +been conducting an experiment, assisted by a Professor Klenn Faress, to +establish more accurately the velocity of subnucleonic particles, beta +micropositos, I believe. Dandrik's story, as relayed to Handrosan by +Khane, is that he reached a limit and the apparatus began giving erratic +results." + +Prince Travann stopped to light a cigarette. "At this point, Professor +Dandrik ordered the experiment stopped, and Professor Faress insisted on +continuing. When Dandrik ordered the apparatus dismantled, Faress became +rather emotional about it--obscenely abusive and threatening, according +to Dandrik. Dandrik complained to Khane, Khane ordered Faress to +apologize, Faress refused, and Khane dismissed Faress. Immediately, the +students went on strike. Faress confirmed the whole story, and he added +one small detail that Dandrik hadn't seen fit to mention. According to +him, when these micropositos were accelerated beyond sixteen and a +fraction times light-speed, they began registering at the target before +the source registered the emission." + +"Yes, I--_What did you say_?" + +Prince Travann repeated it slowly, distinctly and tonelessly. + +"That was what I thought you said. Well, I'm going to insist on a +complete investigation, including a repetition of the experiment. Under +direction of Professor Faress." + +"Yes, Your Majesty. And when that happens, I mean to be on hand +personally. If somebody is just before discovering time-travel, I think +Security has a very substantial interest in it." + +The Prime Minister called back to confirm that First Citizen Yaggo and +King Ranulf would be at the luncheon. The Chamberlain, Count Gadvan, +called with a long and dreary problem about the protocol for the +banquet. Finally, at noon, he flashed a signal for General Dorflay, +waited five minutes, and then left his desk and went out, to find the +mad general and his wirehaired soldiers drawn up in the hall. + + * * * * * + +There were more Thorans on the South Upper Terrace, and after a flurry +of porting and presenting and ordering arms and hand-saluting, the Prime +Minister advanced and escorted him to where the Bench of Counselors, all +thirty of them, total age close to twenty-eight hundred years, were +drawn up in a rough crescent behind the three distinguished guests. The +King of Durendal wore a cloth-of-silver leotard and pink tights, and a +belt of gold links on which he carried a jeweled dagger only slightly +thicker than a knitting needle. He was slender and willowy, and he had +large and soulful eyes, and the royal beautician must have worked on him +for a couple of hours. Wait till Marris sees this; oh, brother! + +Koreff, the Lord Marshal, wore what was probably the standard costume of +Durendal, a fairly long jerkin with short sleeves, and knee-boots, and +his dress dagger looked as though it had been designed for use. Lord +Koreff looked as though he would be quite willing and able to use it; he +was fleshy and full-faced, with hard muscles under the flesh. + +First Citizen Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the Planetary +Commonwealth of Aditya, wore a one-piece white garment like a mechanic's +coveralls, with the emblem of his government and the numeral 1 on his +breast. He carried no dagger; if he had worn a dress weapon, it would +probably have been a slide rule. His head was completely shaven, and he +had small, pale eyes and a rat-trap mouth. He was regarding the +Durendalians with a distaste that was all too evidently reciprocated. + +King Ranulf appeared to have won the toss for first presentation. He +squeezed the Imperial hand in both of his and looked up adoringly as he +professed his deep honor and pleasure. Yaggo merely clasped both his +hands in front of the emblem on his chest and raised them quickly to the +level of his chin, saying: "At the service of the Imperial State," and +adding, as though it hurt him, "Your Imperial Majesty." Not being a +chief of state, Lord Koreff came third; he merely shook hands and said, +"A great honor, Your Imperial Majesty, and the thanks, both of myself +and my royal master, for a most gracious reception." The attempt to grab +first place having failed, he was more than willing to forget the whole +subject. There was a chance that finding a way to dispose of the grain +surplus might make the difference between his staying in power at home +or not. + +Fortunately, the three guests had already met the Bench of Counselors. +Immediately after the presentation of Lord Koreff, they all started the +two hundred yards march to the luncheon pavilion, the King of Durendal +clinging to his left arm and First Citizen Yaggo stumping dourly on his +right, with Prince Ganzay beyond him and Lord Koreff on Ranulf's left. + +"Do you plan to stay long on Odin?" he asked the king. + +"Oh. I'd _love_ to stay for simply _months_! Everything is so +_wonderful_, here in Asgard; it makes our little capital of Roncevaux +seem so _utterly_ provincial. I'm going to tell Your Imperial Majesty a +secret. I'm going to see if I can lure some of your _wonderful_ ballet +dancers back to Durendal with me. Aren't I _naughty_, raiding Your +Imperial Majesty's theaters?" + +"In keeping with the traditions of your people," he replied gravely. +"You Sword-Worlders used to raid everywhere you went." + +"I'm afraid those bad old days are long past, Your Imperial Majesty," +Lord Koreff said. "But we Sword-Worlders got around the galaxy, for a +while. In fact, I seem to remember reading that some of our brethren +from Morglay or Flamberge even occupied Aditya for a couple of +centuries. Not that you'd guess it to look at Aditya now." + + * * * * * + +It was First Citizen Yaggo's turn to take precedence--the seat on the +right of the throne chair. Lord Koreff sat on Ranulf's left, and, to +balance him, Prince Ganzay sat beyond Yaggo and dutifully began +inquiring of the People's Manager-in-Chief about the structure of his +government, launching him on a monologue that promised to last at least +half the luncheon. That left the King of Durendal to Paul; for a start, +he dropped a compliment on the cloth-of-silver leotard. + +King Ranulf laughed dulcetly, brushed the garment with his fingertips, +and said that it was just a simple thing patterned after the Durendalian +peasant costume. + +"You have peasants on Durendal?" + +"Oh, _dear_, yes! Such quaint, _charming_ people. Of course, they're all +poor, and they wear such _funny_ ragged clothes, and travel about in +rackety old aircars, it's a wonder they don't fall apart in the air. But +they're so _wonderfully_ happy and carefree. I often wish I were one of +them, instead of king." + +"Nonworking class, Your Imperial Majesty," Lord Koreff explained. + +"On Aditya," First Citizen Yaggo declared, "there are no classes, and on +Aditya everybody works. 'From each according to his ability; to each +according to his need.'" + +"On Aditya," an elderly Counselor four places to the right of him said +loudly to his neighbor, "they don't call them classes, they call them +sociological categories, and they have nineteen of them. And on Aditya, +they don't call them nonworkers, they call them occupational reservists, +and they have more of them than we do." + +"But of course, I was born a king," Ranulf said sadly and nobly. "I have +a duty to my people." + +"No, they don't vote at all," Lord Koreff was telling the Counselor on +his left. "On Durendal, you have to pay taxes before you can vote." + +"On Aditya the crime of taxation does not exist," the First Citizen told +the Prime Minister. + +"On Aditya," the Counselor four places down said to his neighbor, +"there's nothing to tax. The state owns all the property, and if the +Imperial Constitution and the Space Navy let them, the State would own +all the people, too. Don't tell me about Aditya. First big-ship command +I had was the old _Invictus_, 374, and she was based on Aditya for four +years, and I'd sooner have spent that time in orbit around Niffelheim." + +Now Paul remembered who he was; old Admiral--now +Prince-Counselor--Gaklar. He and Prince-Counselor Dorflay would get +along famously. The Lord Marshal of Durendal was replying to some +objection somebody had made: + +[Illustration] + +"No, nothing of the sort. We hold the view that every civil or political +right implies a civil or political obligation. The citizen has a right +to protection from the Realm, for instance; he therefore has the +obligation to defend the Realm. And his right to participate in the +government of the Realm includes his obligation to support the Realm +financially. Well, we tax only property; if a nonworker acquires taxable +property, he has to go to work to earn the taxes. I might add that our +nonworkers are very careful to avoid acquiring taxable property." + +"But if they don't have votes to sell, what do they live on?" a +Counselor asked in bewilderment. + +"The nobility supports them; the landowners, the trading barons, the +industrial lords. The more nonworking adherents they have, the greater +their prestige." And the more rifles they could muster when they +quarreled with their fellow nobles, of course. "Beside, if we didn't do +that, they'd turn brigand, and it costs less to support them than to +have to hunt them out of the brush and hang them." + +"On Aditya, brigandage does not exist." + +"On Aditya, all the brigands belong to the Secret Police, only on Aditya +they don't call them Secret Police, they call them Servants of the +People, Ninth Category." + +A shadow passed quickly over the pavilion, and then another. He glanced +up quickly, to see two long black troop carriers, emblazoned with the +Sun and Cogwheel and armored fist of Security, pass back of the Octagon +Tower and let down on the north landing stage. A third followed. He rose +quickly. + +"Please remain seated, gentlemen, and continue with the luncheon. If you +will excuse me for a moment, I'll be back directly." I hope, he added +mentally. + + * * * * * + +Captain-General Dorflay, surrounded by a dozen officers, Thoran and +human, had arrived on the lower terrace at the base of the Octagon +Tower. They had a full Thoran rifle company with them. As he went down +to them, Dorflay hurried forward. + +"It has come, Your Majesty!" he said, as soon as he could make himself +heard without raising his voice. "We are all ready to die with Your +Majesty!" + +"Oh, I doubt it'll come quite to that, Harv," he said. "But just to be +on the safe side, take that company and the gentlemen who are with you +and get up to the mountains and join the Crown Prince and his party. +Here." He took a notepad from his belt pouch and wrote rapidly, sealing +the note and giving it to Dorflay. "Give this to His Highness, and place +yourself under his orders. I know; he's just a boy, but he has a good +head. Obey him exactly in everything, but under no circumstances return +to the Palace or allow him to return until I call you." + +"Your Majesty is ordering me away?" The old soldier was aghast. + +"An emperor who has a son can be spared. An emperor's son who is too +young to marry can't. You know that." + +Harv Dorflay was only mad on one subject, and even within the frame of +his madness he was intensely logical. He nodded. "Yes, Your Imperial +Majesty. We both serve the Empire as best we can. And I will guard the +little Princess Olva, too." He grasped Paul's hand, said, "Farewell, +Your Majesty!" and dashed away, gathering his staff and the company of +Thorans as he went. In an instant, they had vanished down the nearest +rampway. + +The emperor watched their departure, and, at the same time, saw a big +black aircar, bearing the three-mooned planet, argent on sable, of +Travann, let down onto the south landing stage, and another troop +carrier let down after it. Four men left the aircar--Yorn, Prince +Travann, and three officers in the black of the Security Guard. Prince +Ganzay had also left the table: he came from one direction as Prince +Travann advanced from the other. They converged on the emperor. + +"What's happening here, Prince Travann?" Prince Ganzay demanded. "Why +are you bringing all these troops to the Palace?" + +"Your Majesty," Prince Travann said smoothly, "I trust that you will +pardon this disturbance. I'm sure nothing serious will happen, but I +didn't dare take chances. The students from the University are marching +on the Palace--perfectly peaceful and loyal procession; they're bringing +a petition for Your Majesty--but on the way, while passing through a +nonworkers' district, they were attacked by a gang of hooligans +connected with a voting-bloc boss called Nutchy the Knife. None of the +students were hurt, and Colonel Handrosan got the procession out of the +district promptly, and then dropped some of his men, who have since been +re-enforced, to deal with the hooligans. That's still going on, and +these riots are like forest fires; you never know when they'll shift and +get out of control. I hope the men I brought won't be needed here. +Really, they're a reserve for the riot work; I won't commit them, +though, until I'm sure the Palace is safe." + +He nodded. "Prince Travann, how soon do you estimate that the student +procession will arrive here?" he asked. + +"They're coming on foot, Your Majesty. I'd give them an hour, at least." + +"Well, Prince Travann, will you have one of your officers see that the +public-address screen in front is ready; I'll want to talk to them when +they arrive. And meanwhile, I'll want to talk to Chancellor Khane, +Professor Dandrik, Professor Faress and Colonel Handrosan, together. And +Count Tammsan, too; Prince Ganzay, will you please screen him and invite +him here immediately?" + +"Now, Your Majesty?" At first, the Prime Minister was trying to suppress +a look of incredulity; then he was trying to keep from showing +comprehension. "Yes, Your Majesty; at once." He frowned slightly when he +saw two of the Security Guard officers salute Prince Travann instead of +the emperor before going away. Then he turned and hurried toward the +Octagon Tower. + + * * * * * + +The officer who had gone to the aircar to use the radio returned and +reported that Colonel Handrosan was bringing the Chancellor and both +professors from the University in his command-car, having anticipated +that they would be wanted. Paul nodded in pleasure. + +"You have a good man there, Prince," he said. "Keep an eye on him." + +"I know it, Your Majesty. To tell the truth, it was he who organized +this march. Thought they'd be better employed coming here to petition +you than milling around the University getting into further mischief." + +The other officer also returned, bringing a portable viewscreen with him +on a contragravity-lifter. By this time, the Bench of Counselors and the +three off-planet guests had become anxious and left the luncheon +pavilion in a body. The Counselors were looking about uneasily, +noticing the black uniformed Security Guards who had left the troop +carrier and were taking position by squads all around the emperor. First +Citizen Yaggo, and King Ranulf and Lord Koreff, also seemed uneasy. They +were avoiding the proximity of Paul as though he had the green death. + +The viewscreen came on, and in it the city, as seen from an aircar at +two thousand feet, spread out with the Palace visible in the distance, +the golden pile of the Octagon Tower jutting up from it. The car +carrying the pickup was behind the procession, which was moving toward +the Palace along one of the broad skyways, with Gendarmes and Security +Guards leading, following and flanking. There were a few Imperial and +planetary and school flags, but none of the quantity-made banners and +placards which always betray a planned demonstration. + +Prince Ganzay had been gone for some time, now. When he returned, he +drew Paul aside. + +"Your Majesty," he whispered softly, "I tried to summon Army troops, but +it'll be hours before any can get here. And the Militia can't be +mobilized in anything less than a day. There are only five thousand Army +Regulars on Odin, now, anyhow." + +And half of them officers and noncoms of skeleton regiments. Like the +Navy, the Army had been scattered all over the Empire--on Behemoth and +Amida and Xipetotec and Astarte and Jotunnheim--in response to calls for +support from Security. + +"Let's have a look at this rioting, Prince Travann," one of the less +decrepit Counselors, a retired general, said. "I want to see how your +people are handling it." + +The officers who had come with Prince Travann consulted briefly, and +then got another pickup on the screen. This must have been a regular +public pickup, on the front of a tall building. It was a couple of miles +farther away; the Palace was visible only as a tiny glint from the +Octagon Tower, on the skyline. Half a dozen Security aircars were +darting about, two of them chasing a battered civilian vehicle and +firing at it. On rooftops and terraces and skyways, little clumps of +Security Guards were skirmishing, dodging from cover to cover, and +sometimes individuals or groups in civilian clothes fired back at them. +There was a surprising absence of casualties. + +"Your Majesty!" the old general hissed in a scandalized whisper. "That's +nothing but a big fake! Look, they're all firing blanks! The rifles +hardly kick at all, and there's too much smoke for propellant-powder." + +"I noticed that." This riot must have been carefully prepared, long in +advance. Yet the student riot seemed to have been entirely spontaneous. +That puzzled him; he wished he knew just what Yorn Travann was up to. +"Just keep quiet about it," he advised. + + * * * * * + +More aircars were arriving, big and luxurious, emblazoned with the arms +of some of the most distinguished families in Asgard. One of the first +to let down bore the device of Duklass, and from it the Minister of +Economics, the Minister of Education, and a couple of other Ministers, +alighted. Count Duklass went at once to Prince Travann, drawing him away +from King Ranulf and Lord Koreff and talking to him rapidly and +earnestly. Count Tammsan approached at a swift half-run. + +"Save Your Majesty!" he greeted, breathlessly. "What's going on, sir? We +heard something about some petty brawl at the University, that Prince +Ganzay had become alarmed about, but now there seems to be fighting all +over the city. I never saw anything like it; on the way here we had to +go up to ten thousand feet to get over a battle, and there's a vast +crowd on the Avenue of the Arts, and----" He took in the Security +Guards. "Your Majesty, just what _is_ going on?" + +"Great and frightening changes." Count Tammsan started; he must have +been to a psi-medium, too. "But I think the Empire is going to survive +them. There may even be a few improvements, before things are done." + +A blue-uniformed Gendarme officer approached Prince Travann, drawing him +away from Count Duklass and speaking briefly to him. The Minister of +Security nodded, then turned back to the Minister of Economics. They +talked for a few moments longer, then clasped hands, and Travann left +Duklass with his face wreathed in smiles. The Gendarme officer +accompanied him as he approached. + +"Your Majesty, this is Colonel Handrosan, the officer who handled the +affair at the University." + +"And a very good piece of work, colonel." He shook hands with him. +"Don't be surprised if it's remembered next Honors Day. Did you bring +Khane and the two professors?" + +"They're down on the lower landing-stage, Your Majesty. We're delaying +the students, to give Your Majesty time to talk to them." + +"We'll see them now. My study will do." The officer saluted and went +away. He turned to Count Tammsan. "That's why I asked Prince Ganzay to +invite you here. This thing's become too public to be ignored; some sort +of action will have to be taken. I'm going to talk to the students; I +want to find out just what happened before I commit myself to anything. +Well, gentlemen, let's go to my study." + +Count Tammsan looked around, bewildered. "But I don't understand----" He +fell into step with Paul and the Minister of Security; a squad of +Security Guards fell in behind them. "I don't understand what's +happening," he complained. + +An emperor about to have his throne yanked out from under him, and a +minister about to stage a _coup d'etat_, taking time out to settle a +trifling academic squabble. One thing he did understand, though, was +that the Ministry of Education was getting some very bad publicity at a +time when it could be least afforded. Prince Travann was telling him +about the hooligans' attack on the marching students, and that worried +him even more. Nonworking hooligans acted as voting-bloc bosses ordered; +voting-bloc bosses acted on orders from the political manipulators of +Cartels and pressure-groups, and action downward through the nonworkers +was usually accompanied by action upward through influences to which +ministers were sensitive. + + * * * * * + +There were a dozen Security Guards in black tunics, and as many +Household Thorans in red kilts, in the hall outside the study, +fraternizing amicably. They hurried apart and formed two ranks, and the +Thoran officer with them saluted. + +Going into the study, he went to his desk; Count Tammsan lit a cigarette +and puffed nervously, and sat down as though he were afraid the chair +would collapse under him. Prince Travann sank into another chair and +relaxed, closing his eyes. There was a bit of wafer on the floor by +Paul's chair, dropped by the little dog that morning. He stooped and +picked it up, laying it on his desk, and sat looking at it until the +door screen flashed and buzzed. Then he pressed the release button. + +Colonel Handrosan ushered the three University men in ahead of +him--Khane, with a florid, arrogant face that showed worry under the +arrogance; Dandrik, gray-haired and stoop-shouldered, looking irritated; +Faress, young, with a scrubby red mustache, looking bellicose. He +greeted them collectively and invited them to sit, and there was a brief +uncomfortable silence which everybody expected him to break. + +"Well, gentlemen," he said, "we want to get the facts about this affair +in some kind of order. I wish you'd tell me, as briefly and as +completely as possible, what you know about it." + +"There's the man who started it!" Khane declared, pointing at Faress. + +"Professor Faress had nothing to do with it," Colonel Handrosan stated +flatly. "He and his wife were in their apartment, packing to move out, +when it started. Somebody called him and told him about the fighting at +the stadium, and he went there at once to talk his students into +dispersing. By that time, the situation was completely out of hand; he +could do nothing with the students. + +"Well, I think we ought to find out, first of all, why Professor Faress +was dismissed," Prince Travann said. "It will take a good deal to +convince me that any teacher able to inspire such loyalty in his +students is a bad teacher, or deserves dismissal." + +"As I understand," Paul said, "the dismissal was the result of a +disagreement between Professor Faress and Professor Dandrik about an +experiment on which they were working. I believe, an experiment to fix +more exactly the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles. Beta +micropositos, wasn't it, Chancellor Khane?" + +Khane looked at him in surprise. "Your Majesty, I know nothing about +that. Professor Dandrik is head of the physics department; he came to +me, about six months ago, and told me that in his opinion this +experiment was desirable. I simply deferred to his judgment and +authorized it." + +"Your Majesty has just stated the purpose of the experiment," Dandrik +said. "For centuries, there have been inaccuracies in mathematical +descriptions of subnucleonic events, and this experiment was undertaken +in the hope of eliminating these inaccuracies." He went into a lengthy +mathematical explanation. + +"Yes, I understand that, professor. But just what was the actual +experiment, in terms of physical operations?" + + * * * * * + +Dandrik looked helpless for a moment. Faress, who had been choking back +a laugh, interrupted: + +"Your Majesty, we were using the big turbo-linear accelerator to project +fast micropositos down an evacuated tube one kilometer in length, and +clocking them with light, the velocity of which has been established +almost absolutely. I will say that with respect to the light, there were +no observable inaccuracies at any time, and until the micropositos were +accelerated to 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, they registered much +as expected. Beyond that velocity, however, the target for the +micropositos began registering impacts before the source registered +emission, although the light target was still registering normally. I +notified Professor Dandrik about this, and----" + +"You notified him. Wasn't he present at the time?" + +"No, Your Majesty." + +"Your Majesty, I am head of the physics department of the University. I +have too much administrative work to waste time on the technical aspects +of experiments like this," Dandrik interjected. + +"I understand. Professor Faress was actually performing the experiment. +You told Professor Dandrik what had happened. What then?" + +"Why, Your Majesty, he simply declared that the limit of accuracy had +been reached, and ordered the experiment dropped. He then reported the +highest reading before this anticipation effect was observed as the +newly established limit of accuracy in measuring the velocity of +accelerated micropositos, and said nothing whatever in his report about +the anticipation effect." + +"I read a summary of the report. Why, Professor Dandrik, did you omit +mentioning this slightly unusual effect?" + +"Why, because the whole thing was utterly preposterous, that's why!" +Dandrik barked; and then hastily added, "Your Imperial Majesty." He +turned and glared at Faress; professors do not glare at galactic +emperors. "Your Majesty, the limit of accuracy had been reached. After +that, it was only to be expected that the apparatus would give erratic +reports." + +"It might have been expected that the apparatus would stop registering +increased velocity relative to the light-speed standard, or that it +would begin registering disproportionately," Faress said. "But, Your +Majesty, I'll submit that it was not to be expected that it would +register impacts before emissions. And I'll add this. After registering +this slight apparent jump into the future, there was no proportionate +increase in anticipation with further increase of acceleration. I wanted +to find out why. But when Professor Dandrik saw what was happening, he +became almost hysterical, and ordered the accelerator shut down as +though he were afraid it would blow up in his face." + + * * * * * + +"I think it has blown up in his face," Prince Travann said quietly. +"Professor, have you any theory, or supposition, or even any wild guess, +as to how this anticipation effect occurs?" + +"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect that the apparent anticipation is simply +an observational illusion, similar to the illusion of time-reversal +experienced when it was first observed, though not realized, that +positrons sometimes exceeded light-speed." + +"Why, that's what I've been saying all along!" Dandrik broke in. "The +whole thing is an illusion, due----" + +"To having reached the limit of observational accuracy; I understand, +Professor Dandrik. Go on, Professor Faress." + +"I think that beyond 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, the +micropositos ceased to have any velocity at all, velocity being defined +as rate of motion in four-dimensional space-time. I believe they moved +through the three spatial dimensions without moving at all in the +fourth, temporal, dimension. They made that kilometer from source to +target, literally, in nothing flat. Instantaneity." + +That must have been the first time he had actually come out and said it. +Dandrik jumped to his feet with a cry that was just short of being a +shriek. + +"He's crazy! Your Majesty, you mustn't ... that is, well, I +mean--Please, Your Majesty, don't listen to him. He doesn't know what +he's saying. He's raving!" + +"He knows perfectly well what he's saying, and it probably scares him +more than it does you. The difference is that he's willing to face it +and you aren't." + +The difference was that Faress was a scientist and Dandrik was a science +teacher. To Faress, a new door had opened, the first new door in eight +hundred years. To Dandrik, it threatened invalidation of everything he +had taught since the morning he had opened his first class. He could no +longer say to his pupils, "You are here to learn from me." He would have +to say, more humbly, "_We_ are here to learn from the Universe." + +It had happened so many times before, too. The comfortable and +established Universe had fitted all the known facts--and then new facts +had been learned that wouldn't fit it. The third planet of the Sol +system had once been the center of the Universe, and then Terra, and +Sol, and even the galaxy, had been forced to abdicate centricity. The +atom had been indivisible--until somebody divided it. There had been +intangible substance that had permeated the Universe, because it had +been necessary for the transmission of light--until it was demonstrated +to be unnecessary and nonexistent. And the speed of light had been the +ultimate velocity, once, and could be exceeded no more than the atom +could be divided. And light-speed had been constant, regardless of +distance from source, and the Universe, to explain certain observed +phenomena, had been believed to be expanding simultaneously in all +directions. And the things that had happened in psychology, when +psi-phenomena had become too obvious to be shrugged away. + +"And then, when Dr. Dandrik ordered you to drop this experiment, just +when it was becoming interesting, you refused?" + +"Your Majesty, I couldn't stop, not then. But Dr. Dandrik ordered the +apparatus dismantled and scrapped, and I'm afraid I lost my head. Told +him I'd punch his silly old face in, for one thing." + +"You admit that?" Chancellor Khane cried. + +"I think you showed admirable self-restraint in not doing it. Did you +explain to Chancellor Khane the importance of this experiment?" + +"I tried to, Your Majesty, but he simply wouldn't listen." + +"But, Your Majesty!" Khane expostulated. "Professor Dandrik is head of +the department, and one of the foremost physicists of the Empire, and +this young man is only one of the junior assistant-professors. Isn't +even a full professor, and he got his degree from some school away +off-planet. University of Brannerton on Gimli." + +"Were you a pupil of Professor Vann Evaratt?" Prince Travann asked +sharply. + +"Why, yes, sir. I----" + +"Ha, no wonder!" Dandrik crowed. "Your Majesty, that man's an +out-and-out charlatan! He was kicked out of the University here ten +years ago, and I'm surprised he could even get on the faculty of a +school like Brannerton, on a planet like Gimli." + +"Why, you stupid old fool!" Faress yelled at him. "You aren't enough of +a physicist to oil robots in Vann Evaratt's lab!" + +"There, Your Majesty," Khane said. "You see how much respect for +authority this hooligan has!" + +On Aditya, such would be unthinkable; on Aditya, everybody respects +authority. Whether it's respectable or not. + +Count Tammsan laughed, and he realized that he must have spoken aloud. +Nobody else seemed to have gotten the joke. + +"Well, how about the riot, now?" he asked. "Who started that?" + +"Colonel Handrosan made an investigation on the spot," Prince Travann +said. "May I suggest that we hear his report?" + +"Yes indeed. Colonel?" + +Handrosan rose and stood with his hands behind his back, looking fixedly +at the wall behind the desk. + +[Illustration] + +"Your Majesty, the students of Professor Faress' advanced subnuclear +physics class, postgraduate students, all of them, were told of +Professor Faress' dismissal by a faculty member who had taken over the +class this morning. They all got up and walked out in a body, and +gathered outdoors on the campus to discuss the matter. At the next class +break, they were joined by other science students, and they went into +the stadium, where they were joined, half an hour later, by more +students who had learned of the dismissal in the meantime. At no time +was the gathering disorderly. The stadium is covered by a viewscreen +pickup which is fitted with a recording device; there is a complete +audio-visual of the whole thing, including the attack on them by the +campus police. + +"This attack was ordered by Chancellor Khane, at about 1100; the chief +of the campus police was told to clear the stadium, and when he asked if +he was to use force, Chancellor Khane told him to use anything he wanted +to." + +"I did not! I told him to get the students out of the stadium, but----" + +"The chief of campus police carries a personal wire recorder," Handrosan +said, in his flat monotone. "He has a recording of the order, in +Chancellor Khane's own voice. I heard it myself. The police," he +continued, "first tried to use gas, but the wind was against them. They +then tried to use sono-stunners, but the students rushed them and +overwhelmed them. If Your Majesty will permit a personal opinion, while +I do not sympathize with their subsequent attack on the Administration +Center, they were entirely within their rights in defending themselves +in the stadium, and it's hard enough to stop trained and disciplined +troops when they are winning. After defeating the police, they simply +went on by what might be called the momentum of victory." + +"Then you'd say that it's positively established that the students were +behaving in a peacable and orderly manner in the stadium when they were +attacked, and that Chancellor Khane ordered the attack personally?" + +"I would, emphatically, Your Majesty." + +"I think we've done enough here, gentlemen." He turned to Count Tammsan. +"This is, jointly, the affair of Education and Security. I would suggest +that you and Prince Travann join in a formal and public inquiry, and +until all the facts have been established and recorded and action +decided upon, the dismissal of Professor Faress be reversed and he be +restored to his position on the faculty." + +"Yes, Your Majesty," Tammsan agreed. "And I think it would be a good +idea for Chancellor Khane to take a vacation till then, too." + +"I would further suggest that, as this microposito experiment is crucial +to the whole question, it should be repeated. Under the personal +direction of Professor Faress." + +"I agree with that, Your Majesty," Prince Travann said. "If it's as +important as I think it is, Professor Dandrik is greatly to be censured +for ordering it stopped and for failing to report this anticipation +effect." + +"We'll consult about the inquiry, including the experiment, tomorrow, +Your Highness," Tammsan told Travann. + +Paul rose, and everybody rose with him. "That being the case, you +gentlemen are all excused. The students' procession ought to be +arriving, now, and I want to tell them what's going to be done. Prince +Travann, Count Tammsan; do you care to accompany me?" + + * * * * * + +Going up to the central terrace in front of the Octagon Tower, he turned +to Count Tammsan. + +"I notice you laughed at that remark of mine about Aditya," he said. +"Have you met the First Citizen?" + +"Only on screen, sir. He was at me for about an hour, this morning. It +seems that they are reforming the educational system on Aditya. On +Aditya, everything gets reformed every ten years, whether it needs it or +not. He came here to find somebody to take charge of the reformation." + +He stopped short, bringing the others to a halt beside him, and laughed +heartily. + +"Well, we'll send First Citizen Yaggo away happy; we'll make him a +present of the most distinguished educator on Odin." + +"Khane?" Tammsan asked. + +"Khane. Isn't it wonderful; if you have a few problems, you have +trouble, but if you have a whole lot of problems, they start solving +each other. We get a chance to get rid of Khane and create a vacancy +that can be filled by somebody big enough to fill it; the Ministry of +Education gets out from under a nasty situation; First Citizen Yaggo +gets what he thinks he wants----" + +"And if I know Khane and if I know the People's Commonwealth of Aditya, +it won't be a year before Yaggo has Khane shot or stuffs him into jail, +and then the Space Navy will have an excuse to visit Aditya, and +Aditya'll never be the same afterward," Prince Travann added. + +The students massed on the front lawns were still cheering as they went +down after addressing them. The Security Guards were conspicuously +absent and it was a detail of red-kilted Thoran riflemen who met them as +they entered the hall to the Session Chamber. Prince Ganzay approached, +attended by two Household Guard officers, a human and a Thoran. Count +Tammsan looked from one to the other of his companions, bewildered. The +bewildering thing was that everything was as it should be. + +"Well, gentlemen," Paul said, "I'm sure that both of you will want to +confer for a moment with your colleagues in the Rotunda before the +Session. Please don't feel obliged to attend me further." + +Prince Ganzay approached as they went down the hall. "Your Majesty, what +_is_ going on here?" he demanded querulously. "Just who is in control of +the Palace--you or Prince Travann? And where is His Imperial Highness, +and where is General Dorflay?" + +"I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik's picnic party. If you're upset +about this, you can imagine what he might have done here." + +Prince Ganzay looked at him curiously for a moment. "I thought I +understood what was happening," he said. "Now I---- This business about +the students, sir; how did it come out?" + +Paul told him. They talked for a while, and then the Prime Minister +looked at his watch, and suggested that the Session ought to be getting +started. Paul nodded, and they went down the hall and into the Rotunda. + +The big semicircular lobby was empty, now, except for a platoon of +Household Guards, and the Empress Marris and her ladies-in-waiting. She +advanced as quickly as her sheath gown would permit, and took his arm; +the ladies-in-waiting fell in behind her, and Prince Ganzay went ahead, +crying: "My Lords, Your Venerable Highnesses, gentlemen; His Imperial +Majesty!" + +Marris tightened her grip on his arm as they started forward. "Paul!" +she hissed into his ear. "What is this silly story about Yorn Travann +trying to seize the Throne?" + +"Isn't it? Yorn's been too close the Throne for too long not to know +what sort of a seat it is. He'd commit any crime up to and including +genocide to keep off it." + +She gave a quick skip to get into step with him. "Then why's he filled +the Palace with these blackcoats? Is Rod all right?" + +"Perfectly all right; he's somewhere out in the mountains, keeping Harv +Dorflay out of mischief." + + * * * * * + +They crossed the Session Hall and took their seats on the double throne; +everybody sat down, and the Prime Minister, after some formalities, +declared the Plenary Session in being. Almost at once, one of the +Prince-Counselors was on his feet begging His Majesty's leave to +interrogate the Government. + +"I wish to ask His Highness the Minister of Security the meaning of all +this unprecedented disturbance, both here in the Palace and in the +city," he said. + +Prince Travann rose at once. "Your Majesty, in reply to the question of +His Venerable Highness," he began, and then launched himself into an +account of the student riot, the march to petition the emperor, and the +clash with the nonworking class hooligans. "As to the affair at the +University, I hesitate to speak on what is really the concern of His +Lordship the Minister of Education, but as to the fighting in the city, +if it is still going on, I can assure His Venerable Highness that the +Gendarmes and Security Guards have it well in hand; the persons +responsible are being rounded up, and, if the Minister of Justice +concurs, an inquiry will be started tomorrow." + +The Minister of Justice assured the Minister of Security that his +Ministry would be quite ready to co-operate in the inquiry. Count +Tammsan then got up and began talking about the riot at the University. + +"What did happen, Paul?" Marris whispered. + +"Chancellor Khane sacked a science professor for being too interested in +science. The students didn't like it. I think Khane's successor will +rectify that. Have a good time at the Flower Festivals?" + +She raised her fan to hide a grimace. "I made my schedule," she said. +"Tomorrow, I have fifty more booked." + +"Your Imperial Majesty!" The Counselor who had risen paused, to make +sure that he had the Imperial attention, before continuing: "Inasmuch as +this question also seems to involve a scientific experiment, I would +suggest that the Ministry of Science and Technology is also interested +and since there is at present no Minister holding that portfolio, I +would suggest that the discussion be continued after a Minister has been +elected." + +The Minister of Health and Sanity jumped to his feet. + +"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of His +Venerable Highness, and to extend it with the subproposal that the +Ministry of Science and Technology be abolished, and its functions and +personnel divided among the other Ministries, specifically those of +Education and of Economics." + +The Minister of Fine Arts was up before he was fully seated. + +"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of Count +Guilfred, and to extend it further with the proposal that the Ministry +of Defense, now also vacant, be likewise abolished, and its functions +and personnel added to the Ministry of Security under His Highness +Prince Travann." + +So that was it! Marris, beside him, said, "Well!" He had long ago +discovered that she could pack more meaning into that monosyllable than +the average counselor could into a half-hour's speech. Prince Ganzay was +thunderstruck, and from the Bench of Counselors six or eight voices were +babbling loudly at once. Four Ministers were on their feet clamoring for +recognition; Count Duklass of Economics was yelling the loudest, so he +got it. + + * * * * * + +"Your Imperial Majesty; it would have been most unseemly in me to have +spoken in favor of the proposal of Count Guilfred, being an interested +party, but I feel no such hesitation in concurring with the proposal of +Baron Garatt, the Minister of Fine Arts. Indeed, I consider it a most +excellent proposal----" + +"And I consider it the most diabolically dangerous proposal to be made +in this Hall in the last six centuries!" old Admiral Gaklar shouted. +"This is a proposal to concentrate all the armed force of the Empire in +the hands of one man. Who can say what unscrupulous use might be made of +such power?" + +"Are you intimating, Prince-Counselor, that Prince Travann is +contemplating some tyrannical or subversive use of such power?" Count +Tammsan, of all people, demanded. + +There was a concerted gasp at that; about half the Plenary Session were +absolutely sure that he was. Admiral Geklar backed quickly away from the +question. + +"Prince Travann will not be the last Minister of Security," he said. + +"What I was about to say, Your Majesty, is that as matters stand, +Security has a virtual monopoly on armed power on this planet. When +these disorders in the city--which Prince Travann's men are now bringing +under control--broke out, there was, I am informed, an order sent out to +bring Regular Army and Planetary Militia into Asgard. It will be hours +before any of the former can arrive, and at least a day before the +latter can even be mobilized. By the time any of them get here, there +will be nothing for them to do. Is that not correct, Prince Ganzay?" + +The Prime Minister looked at him angrily, stung by the realization that +somebody else had a personal intelligence service as good as his own, +then swallowed his anger and assented. + +"Furthermore," Count Duklass continued, "the Ministry of Defense, +itself, is an anachronism, which no doubt accounts for the condition in +which we now find it. The Empire has no external enemies whatever; all +our defense problems are problems of internal security. Let us therefore +turn the facilities over to the Ministry responsible for the tasks." + +The debate went on and on; he paid less and less attention to it, and it +became increasingly obvious that opposition to the proposition was +dwindling. Cries of, "Vote! Vote!" began to be heard from its +supporters. Prince Ganzay rose from his desk and came to the throne. + +"Your Imperial Majesty," he said softly. "I am opposed to this +proposition, but I am convinced that enough favor it to pass it, even +over Your Majesty's veto. Before the vote is called, does Your Majesty +wish my resignation?" + +He rose and stepped down beside the Prime Minister, putting an arm over +Prince Ganzay's shoulder. + +"Far from it, old friend," he said, in a distinctly audible voice. "I +will have too much need for you. But, as for the proposal, I don't +oppose it. I think it an excellent one; it has my approval." He lowered +his voice. "As soon as it's passed, place General Dorflay's name in +nomination." + +The Prime Minister looked at him sadly for a moment, then nodded, +returning to his desk, where he rapped for order and called for the +vote. + +"Well, if you can't lick them, join them," Marris said as he sat down +beside her. "And if they start chasing you, just yell, 'There he goes; +follow me!'" + +The proposal carried, almost unanimously. Prince Ganzay then presented +the name of Captain-General Dorflay for elevation to the Bench of +Counselors, and the emperor decreed it. As soon as the Session was +adjourned and he could do so, he slipped out the little door behind the +throne, into an elevator. + + * * * * * + +In the room at the top of the Octagon Tower, he laid aside his belt and +dress dagger and unfastened his tunic, than sat down in his deep chair +and called a serving robot. It was the one which had brought him his +breakfast, and he greeted it as a friend; it lit a cigarette for him, +and poured a drink of brandy. For a long time he sat, smoking and +sipping and looking out the wide window to the west, where the orange +sun was firing the clouds behind the mountains, and he realized that he +was abominably tired. Well, no wonder; more Empire history had been made +today than in the years since he had come to the Throne. + +Then something behind him clicked. He turned his head, to see Yorn +Travann emerge from the concealed elevator. He grinned and lifted his +drink in greeting. + +"I thought you'd be a little late," he said. "Everybody trying to climb +onto the bandwagon?" + +Yorn Travann came forward, unbuckling his belt and laying it with +Paul's; he sank into the chair opposite, and the robot poured him a +drink. + +"Well, do you blame them? What would it have looked like to you, in +their place?" + +"A _coup d'etat_. For that matter, wasn't that what it was? Why didn't +you tell me you were springing it?" + +"I didn't spring it; it was sprung on me. I didn't know a thing about it +till Max Duklass buttonholed me down by the landing stage. I'd intended +fighting this proposal to partition Science and Technology, but this +riot blew up and scared Duklass and Tammsan and Guilfred and the rest of +them. They weren't too sure of their majority--that's why they had the +election postponed a couple of times--but they were sure that the riot +would turn some of the undecided Counselors against them. So they +offered to back me to take over Defense in exchange for my supporting +their proposal. It looked too good to pass up." + +"Even at the price of wrecking Science and Technology?" + +"It was wrecked, or left to rust into uselessness, long ago. The main +function of Technology has been to suppress anything that might threaten +this state of economic _rigor mortis_ that Duklass calls stability, and +the function of Science has been to let muttonheads like Khane and +Dandrik dominate the teaching of science. Well, Defense has its own +scientific and technical sections, and when we come to carving the bird, +Duklass and Tammsan are going to see a lot of slices going onto my +plate." + +"And when it's all cut up, it will be discovered that there is no +provision for original research. So it will please My Majesty to +institute an Imperial Office of Scientific Research, independent of any +Ministry, and guess who'll be named to head it." + +"Faress. And, by the way, we're all set on Khane, too. First Citizen +Yaggo is as delighted to have him as we are to get rid of him. Why don't +we get Vann Evaratt back, and give him the job?" + +"Good. If he takes charge there at the opening of the next academic +year, in ten years we'll have a thousand young men, maybe ten times that +many, who won't be afraid of new things and new ideas. But the main +thing is that now you have Defense, and now the plan can really start +firing all jets." + +"Yes." Yorn Travann got out his cigarettes and lit one. Paul glanced at +the robot, hoping that its feelings hadn't been hurt. "All these native +uprisings I've been blowing up out of inter-tribal knife fights, and all +these civil wars my people have been manufacturing; there'll be more of +them, and I'll start yelling my head off for an adequate Space Navy, and +after we get it, these local troubles will all stop, and then what'll we +be expected to do? Scrap the ships?" + +They both knew what would be done with some of them. It would have to be +done stealthily, while nobody was looking, but some of those ships would +go far beyond the boundaries of the Empire, and new things would happen. +New worlds, new problems. Great and frightening changes. + +"Paul, we agreed upon this long ago, when we were still boys at the +University. The Empire stopped growing, and when things stop growing, +they start dying, the death of petrifaction. And when petrifaction is +complete, the cracking and the crumbling starts, and there's no way of +stopping it. But if we can get people out onto new planets, the Empire +won't die; it'll start growing again." + +"You didn't start that thing at the University, this morning, yourself, +did you?" + +"Not the student riot, no. But the hooligan attack, yes. That was some +of my own men. The real hooligans began looting after Handrosan had +gotten the students out of the district. We collared all of them, +including their boss, Nutchy the Knife, right away, and as soon as we +did that, Big Moogie and Zikko the Nose tried to move in. We're cleaning +them up now. By tomorrow morning there won't be one of these nonworkers' +voting blocks left in Asgard, and by the end of the week they'll be +cleaned up all over Odin. I have discovered a plot, and they're all +involved in it." + +"Wait a moment." Paul got to his feet. "That reminds me; Harv Dorflay's +hiding Rod and Olva out in the mountains. I wanted him out of here while +things were happening. I'll have to call him and tell him it's safe to +come in, now." + +"Well, zip up your tunic and put your dagger on; you look as though +you'd been arrested, disarmed and searched." + +"That's right." He hastily repaired his appearance and went to the +screen across the room, punching out the combination of the screen with +Rodrik's picnic party. + + * * * * * + +A young lieutenant of the Household Troops appeared in it, and had to be +reassured. He got General Dorflay. + +"Your Majesty! You are all right?" + +"Perfectly all right, general, and it's quite safe to bring His Imperial +Highness in. The conspiracy against the Throne has been crushed." + +"Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince Travann a prisoner?" + +"Quite the contrary, general. It was our loyal and devoted subject, +Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy." + +"But--But, Your Majesty----!" + +"You aren't to be blamed for suspecting him, general. His agents were +working in the very innermost councils of the conspirators. Every one of +the people whom you suspected--with excellent reason--was actually +working to defeat the plot. Think back, general; the scheme to put the +gun in the viewscreen, the scheme to sabotage the elevator, the scheme +to introduce assassins into the orchestra with guns built into their +trumpets--every one came to your notice because of what seemed to be +some indiscretion of the plotters, didn't it?" + +"Why ... why, yes, Your Majesty!" By this time tomorrow, he would have a +complete set of memories for each one of them. "You mean, the +indiscretions were deliberate?" + +"Your vigilance and loyalty made it necessary for them to resort to +these fantastic expedients, and your vigilance defeated them as fast as +they came to your notice. Well, today, Prince Travann and I struck back. +I may tell you, in confidence, that every one of the conspirators is +dead. Killed in this afternoon's rioting--which was incited for that +purpose by Prince Travann." + +"Then---- Then there will be no more plots against your life?" There was +a note of regret in the old man's voice. + +"No more, Your Venerable Highness." + +"But---- What did Your Majesty call me?" he asked incredulously. + +"I took the honor of being the first to address you by your new title, +Prince-Counselor Dorflay." + +He left the old man overcome, and blubbering happily on the shoulder of +the Crown Prince, who winked at his father out of the screen. Prince +Travann had gotten a couple of fresh drinks from the robot and handed +one to him when he returned to his chair. + +"He'll be finding the Bench of Counselors riddled with treason inside a +week," Travann said. "You handled that just right, though. Another case +of making problems solve each other." + +"You were telling me about a plot you'd discovered." + +"Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay's best efforts. All the voting-bloc +bosses on Odin are in a conspiracy to start a civil war to give them a +chance to loot the planet. There isn't a word of truth in it, of course, +but it'll do to arrest and hold them for a few days, and by that time +some of my undercovers will be in control of every nonworker vote on the +planet. After all, the Cartels put an end to competition in every other +business; why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, whenever there's an +election, we just advertise for bids." + +"Why, that would mean absolute control----" + +"Of the nonworking vote, yes. And I'll guarantee, personally, that in +five years the politics of Odin will have become so unbearably corrupt +and abusive that the intellectuals, the technicians, the business +people, even the nobility, will be flocking to the polls to vote, and if +only half of them turn out, they'll snow the nonworkers under. And +that'll mean, eventually, an end to vote-selling, and the nonworkers'll +have to find work. We'll find it for them." + +"Great and frightening changes." Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized the +phrase. Probably started it himself. Paul lifted his glass. "To the +Minister of Disturbance!" + +"Your Majesty!" They drank to each other, and then Yorn Travann said, +"We had a lot of wild dreams, when we were boys; it looks as though +we're starting to make some of them come true. You know, when we were in +the University, the students would never have done what they did today. +They didn't even do it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt was dismissed." + +"And Van Evaratt's pupil came back to Odin and touched this whole thing +off." He thought for a moment. "I wonder what Faress has, in that +anticipation effect." + +"I think I can see what can come out of it. If he can propagate a wave +that behaves like those micropositos, we may not have to depend on ships +for communication. We may be able, some day, to screen Baldur or Vishnu +or Aton or Thor as easily as you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains." +He thought silently for a moment. "I don't know whether that would be +good or bad. But it would be new, and that's what matters. That's the +only thing that matters." + +"Flower Festivals," Paul said, and, when Yorn Travann wanted to know +what he meant, he told him. "When Princess Olva's Empress, she's going +to curse the name of Klenn Faress. Flower Festivals, all around the +galaxy, without end." + + +THE END + + ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's Note & Errata | +| | +| There were 2 instances of 'cooking-robot' and one of | +| 'cooking robot' | +| | +| There was one instance of 'patriarchial' which was not | +| corrected. | +| | +| The following typographical errors were corrected: | +| | +| Page Error Correction | +| | +| 15 attion attention | +| 19 Ranuf's Ranulf's | +| 25 Tammsen Tammsan | +| 29 rerespectable respectable | +| 33 student's students | +| 34 Geklar Gaklar | +| 34 tyranical tyrannical | +| 36 Duklas Duklass | ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ministry of Disturbance, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 20659-8.txt or 20659-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20659/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Beam Piper. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + h4 {margin-top:0;} + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bbox {margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%; margin-top:3em; border: dotted 1px; padding: 1em;} + ins.corr {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + span.ralign {position: absolute; right: 10%; top: auto; text-align: right;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ministry of Disturbance, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ministry of Disturbance + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20659] +Last updated: January 19, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-000.png" width="500" height="252" alt="" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<h1>MINISTRY ... OF DISTURBANCE</h1> + +<h2>BY H. BEAM PIPER</h2> + +<p><span class="ralign">Illustrated by van Dongen</span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<h4>Transcriber's Note</h4> + +<p>This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction December +1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Sometimes getting a job is harder than +the job after you get it—and sometimes +getting out of a job is harder than either!</i></p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/illus-003.png" width="250" height="749" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>The symphony was ending, +the final triumphant +pæan soaring up +and up, beyond the +limit of audibility. For +a moment, after the last notes had +gone away, Paul sat motionless, as +though some part of him had followed. +Then he roused himself and +finished his coffee and cigarette, looking +out the wide window across the +city below—treetops and towers, +roofs and domes and arching skyways, +busy swarms of aircars glinting +in the early sunlight. Not many people +cared for João Coelho's music, now, +and least of all for the Eighth Symphony. +It was the music of another +time, a thousand years ago, when the +Empire was blazing into being out of +the long night and hammering back +the Neobarbarians from world after +world. Today people found it perturbing.</p> + +<p>He smiled faintly at the vacant +chair opposite him, and lit another +cigarette before putting the breakfast +dishes on the serving-robot's tray, +and, after a while, realized that the +robot was still beside his chair, waiting +for dismissal. He gave it an instruction +to summon the cleaning +robots and sent it away. He could as +easily have summoned them himself, +or let the guards who would be in +checking the room do it for him, but +maybe it made a robot feel trusted +and important to relay orders to other +robots.</p> + +<p>Then he smiled again, this time in +self-derision. A robot couldn't feel +important, or anything else. A robot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +was nothing but steel and plastic and +magnetized tape and photo-micro-positronic +circuits, whereas a man—His +Imperial Majesty Paul XXII, for +instance—was nothing but tissues and +cells and colloids and electro-neuronic +circuits. There was a difference; anybody +knew that. The trouble was that +he had never met anybody—which +included physicists, biologists, psychologists, +psionicists, philosophers +and theologians—who could define +the difference in satisfactorily exact +terms. He watched the robot pivot on +its treads and glide away, trailing +steam from its coffee pot. It might be +silly to treat robots like people, but +that wasn't as bad as treating people +like robots, an attitude which was becoming +entirely too prevalent. If only +so many people didn't act like robots!</p> + +<p>He crossed to the elevator and +stood in front of it until a tiny electroencephalograph +inside recognized his +distinctive brain-wave pattern. Across +the room, another door was popping +open in response to the robot's distinctive +wave pattern. He stepped +inside and flipped a switch—there +were still a few things around that +had to be manually operated—and +the door closed behind him and the +elevator gave him an instant's weightlessness +as it started to drop forty +floors.</p> + +<p>When it opened, Captain-General +Dorflay of the Household Guard was +waiting for him, with a captain and +ten privates. General Dorflay was +human. The captain and his ten soldiers +weren't. They wore helmets, +emblazoned with the golden sun and +superimposed black cogwheel of the +Empire, and red kilts and black ankle +boots and weapons belts, and the +captain had a narrow gold-laced cape +over his shoulders, but for the rest, +their bodies were covered with a stiff +mat of black hair, and their faces were +slightly like terriers'. (For all his +humanity, Captain-General Dorflay's +face was more like a bulldog's.) +They were hillmen from the southern +hemisphere of Thor, and as a people +they made excellent mercenaries. +They were crack shots, brave and +crafty fighters, totally uninterested in +politics off their own planet, and, because +they had grown up in a <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's Note: Spelling as in original.">patriarchial</ins>-clan +society, they were fanatically +loyal to anybody whom they +accepted as their chieftain. Paul stepped +out and gave them an inclusive +nod.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Good morning, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Your Imperial +Majesty," General Dorflay said, bowing +the couple of inches consistent +with military dignity. The Thoran +captain saluted by touching his forehead, +his heart, which was on the +right side, and the butt of his pistol. +Paul complimented him on the smart +appearance of his detail, and the captain +asked how it could be otherwise, +with the example and inspiration of +his imperial majesty. Compliment and +response could have been a playback +from every morning of the ten years +of his reign. So could Dorflay's +question: "Your Majesty will proceed +to his study?"</p> + +<p>He wanted to say, "No, to Niffelheim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +with it; let's get an aircar and +fly a million miles somewhere," and +watch the look of shocked incomprehension +on the captain-general's +face. He couldn't do that, though; +poor old Harv Dorflay might have a +heart attack. He nodded slowly.</p> + +<p>"If you please, general."</p> + +<p>Dorflay nodded to the Thoran captain, +who nodded to his men. Four +of them took two paces forward; the +rest, unslinging weapons, went scurrying +up the corridor, some posting +themselves along the way and the +rest continuing to the main hallway. +The captain and two of his men +started forward slowly; after they had +gone twenty feet, Paul and General +Dorflay fell in behind them, and the +other two brought up the rear.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty," Dorflay said, in a +low voice, "let me beg you to be most +cautious. I have just discovered that +there exists a treasonous plot against +your life."</p> + +<p>Paul nodded. Dorflay was more +than due to discover another treasonous +plot; it had been ten days since +the last one.</p> + +<p>"I believe you mentioned it, general. +Something about planting loose +strontium-90 in the upholstery of the +Audience Throne, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>And before that, somebody had +been trying to smuggle a fission bomb +into the Palace in a wine cask, and +before that, it was a booby trap in +the elevator, and before that, somebody +was planning to build a submachine +gun into the viewscreen in +the study, and—</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Your Majesty; that was—Well, +the persons involved in that +plot became alarmed and fled the +planet before I could arrest them. +This is something different, Your +Majesty. I have learned that unauthorized +alterations have been made +on one of the cooking-robots in your +private kitchen, and I am positive +that the object is to poison Your +Majesty."</p> + +<p>They were turning into the main +hallway, between the rows of portraits +of past emperors, Paul and Rodrik, +Paul and Rodrik, alternating over and +over on both walls. He felt a smile +growing on his face, and banished it.</p> + +<p>"The robot for the meat sauces, +wasn't it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Why—! Yes, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, general. I should have +warned you. Those alterations were +made by roboticists from the Ministry +of Security; they were installing an +adaptation of a device used in the +criminalistics-labs, to insure more uniform +measurements. They'd done that +already for Prince Travann, the +Minister, and he'd recommended it +to me."</p> + +<p>That was a shame, spoiling poor +Harv Dorflay's murder plot. It had +been such a nice little plot, too; he +must have had a lot of fun inventing +it. But a line had to be drawn somewhere. +Let him turn the Palace upside +down hunting for bombs; harass +ladies-in-waiting whose lovers he suspected +of being hired assassins; hound +musicians into whose instruments he +imagined firearms had been built; the +emperor's private kitchen would have +to be off limits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dorflay, who should have been +looking crestfallen but relieved, stopped +short—shocking breach of Court +etiquette—and was staring in horror.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty! Prince Travann +did that openly and with your consent? +But, Your Majesty, I am convinced +that it is Prince Travann himself +who is the instigator of every +one of these diabolical schemes. In +the case of the elevator, I became +suspicious of a man named Samml +Ganner, one of Prince Travann's secret +police agents. In the case of the +gun in the viewscreen, it was a technician +whose sister is a member of the +household of Countess Yirzy, Prince +Travann's mistress. In the case of the +fission bomb——"</p> + +<p>The two Thorans and their captain +had kept on for some distance before +they had discovered that they were +no longer being followed, and were +returning. He put his hand on General +Dorflay's shoulder and urged him +forward.</p> + +<p>"Have you mentioned this to anybody?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word, Your Majesty. This +Court is so full of treachery that I +can trust no one, and we must never +warn the villain that he is suspected—"</p> + +<p>"Good. Say nothing to anybody." +They had reached the door of the +study, now. "I think I'll be here until +noon. If I leave earlier, I'll flash you +a signal."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He entered the big oval room, +lighted from overhead by the great +star-map in the ceiling, and crossed +to his desk, with the viewscreens and +reading screens and communications +screens around it, and as he sat down, +he cursed angrily, first at Harv Dorflay +and then, after a moment's reflection, +at himself. He was the one +to blame; he'd known Dorflay's paranoid +condition for years. Have to do +something about it. Any psycho-medic +would certify him; be no problem at +all to have him put away. But be +blasted if he'd do that. That was no +way to repay loyalty, even insane +loyalty. Well, he'd find a way.</p> + +<p>He lit a cigarette and leaned back, +looking up at the glowing swirl of +billions of billions of tiny lights in +the ceiling. At least, there were supposed +to be billions of billions of +them; he'd never counted them, and +neither had any of the seventeen +Rodriks and sixteen Pauls before him +who had sat under them. His hand +moved to a control button on his +chair arm, and a red patch, roughly +the shape of a pork chop, appeared +on the western side.</p> + +<p>That was the Empire. Every one +of the thousand three hundred and +sixty-five inhabited worlds, a trillion +and a half intelligent beings, fourteen +races—fifteen if you counted the +Zarathustran Fuzzies, who were almost +able to qualify under the talk-and-build-a-fire +rule. And that had +been the Empire when Rodrik VI +had seen the map completed, and +when Paul II had built the Palace, +and when Stevan IV, the grandfather +of Paul I, had proclaimed Odin the +Imperial planet and Asgard the +capital city. There had been some excuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +for staying inside that patch of +stars then; a newly won Empire must +be consolidated within before it can +safely be expanded. But that had been +over eight centuries ago.</p> + +<p>He looked at the Daily Schedule, +beautifully embossed and neatly slipped +under his desk glass. Luncheon +on the South Upper Terrace, with the +Prime Minister and the Bench of Imperial +Counselors. Yes, it was time +for that again; that happened as +inevitably and regularly as Harv Dorflay's +murder plots. And in the afternoon, +a Plenary Session, Cabinet and +Counselors. Was he going to have to +endure the Bench of Counselors twice +in the same day? Then the vexation +was washed out of his face by a +spreading grin. Bench of Counselors; +that was the answer! Elevate Harv +Dorflay to the Bench. That was what +the Bench was for, a gold-plated dustbin +for the disposal of superannuated +dignitaries. He'd do no harm there, +and a touch of outright lunacy might +enliven and even improve the +Bench.</p> + +<p>And in the evening, a banquet, +and a reception and ball, in honor of +His Majesty Ranulf XIV, Planetary +King of Durendal, and First Citizen +Zhorzh Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief +of and for the Planetary Commonwealth +of Aditya. Bargain day; +two planetary chiefs of state in one +big combination deal. He wondered +what sort of prizes he had drawn this +time, and closed his eyes, trying to +remember. Durendal, of course, was +one of the Sword-Worlds, settled by +refugees from the losing side of the +System States War in the time of the +old Terran Federation, who had reappeared +in Galactic history a few +centuries later as the Space Vikings. +They all had monarchial and rather +picturesque governments; Durendal, +he seemed to recall, was a sort of +quasi-feudalism. About Aditya he was +less sure. Something unpleasant, he +thought; the titles of the government +and its head were suggestive.</p> + +<p>He lit another cigarette and snapped +on the reading screen to see what +they had piled onto him this morning, +and then swore when a graph +chart, with jiggling red and blue and +green lines, appeared. Chart day, too. +Everything happens at once.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was the interstellar trade situation +chart from Economics. Red line for +production, green line for exports, +blue for imports, sectioned vertically +for the ten Viceroyalties and sub-sectioned +for the Prefectures, and +with the magnification and focus controls +he could even get data for +individual planets. He didn't bother +with that, and wondered why he +bothered with the charts at all. The +stuff was all at least twenty days behind +date, and not uniformly so, +which accounted for much of the +jiggling. It had been transmitted from +Planetary Proconsulate to Prefecture, +and from Prefecture to Viceroyalty, +and from there to Odin, all by ship. +A ship on hyperdrive could log light-years +an hour, but radio waves still +had to travel 186,000 mps. The supplementary +chart for the past five +centuries told the real story—three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +perfectly level and perfectly parallel +lines.</p> + +<p>It was the same on all the other +charts. Population fluctuating slightly +at the moment, completely static for +the past five centuries. A slight decrease +in agriculture, matched by an +increase in synthetic food production. +A slight population movement toward +the more urban planets and the more +densely populated centers. A trend +downward in employment—nonworking +population increasing by +about .0001 per cent annually. Not +that they were building better robots; +they were just building them faster +than they wore out. They all told the +same story—a stable economy, a +static population, a peaceful and undisturbed +Empire; eight centuries, +five at least, of historyless tranquility. +Well, that was what everybody wanted, +wasn't it?</p> + +<p>He flipped through the rest of the +charts, and began getting summarized +Ministry reports. Economics had denied +a request from the Mining Cartel +to authorize operations on a couple of +uninhabited planets; danger of local +market gluts and overstimulation of +manufacturing. Permission granted to +Robotics Cartel to—— Request from +planetary government of Durendal for +increase of cereal export quotas under +consideration—they wouldn't want to +turn that down while King Ranulf +was here. Impulsively, he punched out +a combination on the communication +screen and got Count Duklass, Minister +of Economics.</p> + +<p>Count Duklass had thinning red +hair and a plump, agreeable, extrovert's +face. He smiled and waited to +be addressed.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to bother Your Lordship," +Paul greeted him. "What's the story +on this export quota request from +Durendal? We have their king here, +now. Think he's come to lobby for +it?"</p> + +<p>Count Duklass chuckled. "He's not +doing anything about it, himself. +Have you met him yet, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. He's to be presented this +evening."</p> + +<p>"Well, when you see him—I think +the masculine pronoun is permissible—you'll +see what I mean, sir. It's this +Lord Koreff, the Marshal. He came +here on business, and had to bring +the king along, for fear somebody +else would grab him while he was +gone. The whole object of Durendalian +politics, as I understand, is to get +possession of the person of the king. +Koreff was on my screen for half an +hour; I just got rid of him. Planet's +pretty heavily agricultural, they had +a couple of very good crop years in a +row, and now they have grain running +out their ears, and they want to export +it and cash in."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Can't let them do it, Your +Majesty. They're not suffering any +hardship; they're just not making as +much money as they think they ought +to. If they start dumping their surplus +into interstellar trade, they'll +cause all kinds of dislocations on +other agricultural planets. At least, +that's what our computers all say."</p> + +<p>And that, of course, was gospel. +He nodded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why don't they turn their surplus +into whisky? Age it five or six years +and it'd be on the luxury goods +schedule and they could sell it anywhere."</p> + +<p>Count Duklass' eyes widened. "I +never thought of that, Your Majesty. +Just a microsec; I want to make a note +of that. Pass it down to somebody +who could deal with it. That's a wonderful +idea, Your Majesty!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He finally got the conversation to +an end, and went back to the reports. +Security, as usual, had a few items +above the dead level of bureaucratic +procedure. The planetary king of Excalibur +had been assassinated by his +brother and two nephews, all three of +whom were now fighting among +themselves. As nobody had anything +to fight with except small arms and +a few light cannon, there would be +no intervention. There had been intervention +on Behemoth, however, +where a whole continent had tried to +secede from the planetary republic +and the Imperial Navy had been requested +to send a task force. That +was all right, in both cases. No interference +with anything that passed for +a planetary government, but only one +sovereignty on any planet with nuclear +weapons, and only one supreme +sovereignty in a galaxy with hyperdrive +ships.</p> + +<p>And there was rioting on Amaterasu, +because of public indignation +over a fraudulent election. He looked +at that in incredulous delight. Why, +here on Odin there hadn't been an +election in the past six centuries that +hadn't been utterly fraudulent. Nobody +voted except the nonworkers, +whose votes were bought and sold +wholesale, by gangster bosses to pressure +groups, and no decent person +would be caught within a hundred +yards of a polling place on an election +day. He called the Minister of Security.</p> + +<p>Prince Travann was a man of his +own age—they had been classmates +at the University—but he looked older. +His thin face was lined, and his +hair was almost completely white. He +was at his desk, with the Sun and +Cogwheel of the Empire on the wall +behind him, but on the breast of his +black tunic he wore the badge of his +family, a silver planet with three silver +moons. Unlike Count Duklass, he +didn't wait to be spoken to.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Your Highness; +sorry to bother you. I just caught an +interesting item in your report. This +business on Amaterasu. What sort of +a planet is it, politically? I don't +seem to recall."</p> + +<p>"Why, they have a republican +government, sir; a very complicated +setup. Really, it's a junk heap. When +anything goes badly, they always +build something new into the government, +but they never abolish anything. +They have a president, a +premier, and an executive cabinet, +and a tricameral legislature, and two +complete and distinct judiciaries. The +premier is always the presidential +candidate getting the next highest +number of votes. In the present instance, +the president, who controls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +the planetary militia, is accusing the +premier, who controls the police, of +fraud in the election of the middle +house of the legislature. Each is supported +by the judiciary he controls. +Practically every citizen belongs either +to the militia or the police auxiliaries. +I am looking forward to further reports +from Amaterasu," he added +dryly.</p> + +<p>"I daresay they'll be interesting. +Send them to me in full, and red-star +them, if you please, Prince Travann."</p> + +<p>He went back to the reports. The +Ministry of Science and Technology +had sent up a lengthy one. The only +trouble with it was that everything +reported was duplication of work that +had been done centuries before. Well, +no. A Dr. Dandrik, of the physics +department of the Imperial University +here in Asgard announced that a definite +limit of accuracy in measuring +the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic +particles had been established—16.067543333—times +light-speed. +That seemed to be typical; the frontiers +of science, now, were all decimal +points. The Ministry of Education +had a little to offer; historical scholarship +was still active, at least. He was +reading about a new trove of source-material +that had come to light on +Uller, from the Sixth Century Atomic +Era, when the door screen buzzed +and flashed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He lit it, and his son Rodrik appeared +in it, with Snooks, the little +red hound, squirming excitedly in +the Crown Prince's arms. The dog +began barking at once, and the boy +called through the phone:</p> + +<p>"Good morning, father; are you +busy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all." He pressed the +release button. "Come on in."</p> + +<p>Immediately, the little hound leaped +out of the princely arms and came +dashing into the study and around +the desk, jumping onto his lap. The +boy followed more slowly, sitting +down in the deskside chair and drawing +his foot up under him. Paul +greeted Snooks first—people can wait, +but for little dogs everything has to +be right now—and rummaged in a +drawer until he found some wafers, +holding one for Snooks to nibble. +Then he became aware that his son +was wearing leather shorts and tall +buskins.</p> + +<p>"Going out somewhere?" he asked, +a trifle enviously.</p> + +<p>"Up in the mountains, for a picnic. +Olva's going along."</p> + +<p>And his tutor, and his esquire, and +Olva's companion-lady, and a dozen +Thoran riflemen, of course, and +they'd be in continuous screen-contact +with the Palace.</p> + +<p>"That ought to be a lot of fun. Did +you get all your lessons done?"</p> + +<p>"Physics and math and galactiography," +Rodrik told him. "And Professor +Guilsan's going to give me and +Olva our history after lunch."</p> + +<p>They talked about lessons, and +about the picnic. Of course, Snooks +was going on the picnic, too. It was +evident, though, that Rodrik had +something else on his mind. After a +while, he came out with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Father, you know I've been a little +afraid, lately," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me about it, son. It +isn't anything about you and Olva, +is it?"</p> + +<p>Rod was fourteen; the little Princess +Olva thirteen. They would be +marriageable in six years. As far as +anybody could tell, they were both +quite happy about the marriage which +had been arranged for them years +ago.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; nothing like that. But +Olva's sister and a couple others of +mother's ladies-in-waiting were to a +psi-medium, and the medium told +them that there were going to be +changes. Great and frightening +changes was what she said."</p> + +<p>"She didn't specify?"</p> + +<p>"No. Just that: great and frightening +changes. But the only change of +that kind I can think of would be ... +well, something happening to you."</p> + +<p>Snooks, having eaten three wafers, +was trying to lick his ear. He pushed +the little dog back into his lap and +pummeled him gently with his left +hand.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't let mediums' gabble +worry you, son. These psi-mediums +have real powers, but they can't turn +them off and on like a water tap. +When they don't get anything, they +don't like to admit it, and they invent +things. Always generalities like +that; never anything specific."</p> + +<p>"I know all that." The boy seemed +offended, as though somebody were +explaining that his mother hadn't +really found him out in the rose garden. +"But they talked about it to some +of their friends, and it seems that +other mediums are saying the same +thing. Father, do you remember when +the Haval Valley reactor blew up? All +over Odin, the mediums had been +talking about a terrible accident, for +a month before that happened."</p> + +<p>"I remember that." Harv Dorflay +believed that somebody had been +falsely informed that the emperor +would visit the plant that day. "These +great and frightening changes will +probably turn out to be a new fad in +abstract sculpture. Any change frightens +most people."</p> + +<p>They talked more about mediums, +and then about aircars and aircar racing, +and about the Emperor's Cup +race that was to be flown in a month. +The communications screen began +flashing and buzzing, and after he +had silenced it with the busy-button +for the third time, Rodrik said that +it was time for him to go, came +around to gather up Snooks, and went +out, saying that he'd be home in time +for the banquet. The screen began to +flash again as he went out.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was Prince Ganzay, the Prime +Minister. He looked as though he had +a persistent low-level toothache, but +that was his ordinary expression.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to bother Your Majesty. +It's about these chiefs-of-state. Count +Gadvan, the Chamberlain, appealed +to me, and I feel I should ask your +advice. It's the matter of precedence."</p> + +<p>"Well, we have a fixed rule on +that. Which one arrived first?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the Adityan, but it seems +King Ranulf insists that he's entitled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +to precedence, or, rather, his Lord +Marshal does. This Lord Koreff insists +that his king is not going to +yield precedence to a commoner."</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-012.png" width="500" height="407" alt="" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<p>"Then he can go home to Durendal!" +He felt himself growing angry—all +the little angers of the morning +were focusing on one spot. He forced +the harshness out of his voice. "At a +court function, somebody has to go +first, and our rule is order of arrival +at the Palace. That rule was established +to avoid violating the principle of +equality to all civilized peoples and +all planetary governments. We're not +going to set it aside for the King of +Durendal, or anybody else."</p> + +<p>Prince Ganzay nodded. Some of +the toothache expression had gone out +of his face, now that he had been +relieved of the decision.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Your Majesty." He +brightened a little. "Do you think we +might compromise? Alternate the +precedence, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Only if this First Citizen Yaggo +consents. If he does, it would be a +good idea."</p> + +<p>"I'll talk to him, sir." The toothache +expression came back. "Another +thing, Your Majesty. They've both +been invited to attend the Plenary +Session, this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Well, no trouble there; they can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +enter by different doors and sit in +visitors' boxes at opposite ends of the +hall."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I wasn't thinking of +precedence. But this is to be an +Elective Session—new Ministers to +replace Prince Havaly, of Defense, +deceased, and Count Frask, of Science +and Technology, elevated to the +Bench. There seems to be some difference +of opinion among some of +the Ministers and Counselors. It's +very possible that the Session may +degenerate into an outright controversy."</p> + +<p>"Horrible," Paul said seriously. "I +think, though, that our distinguished +guests will see that the Empire can +survive difference of opinion, and +even outright controversy. But if you +think it might have a bad effect, why +not postpone the election?"</p> + +<p>"Well—It's been postponed three +times, already, sir."</p> + +<p>"Postpone it permanently. Advertise +for bids on two robot Ministers, +Defense, and Science and Technology. +If they're a success, we can set +up a project to design a robot emperor."</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister's face actually +twitched and blanched at the blasphemy. +"Your Majesty is joking," +he said, as though he wanted to be +reassured on the point.</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, I am. If my job +could be robotized, maybe I could +take my wife and my son and our +little dog and go fishing for a while."</p> + +<p>But, of course, he couldn't. There +were only two alternatives: the Empire +or Galactic anarchy. The galaxy +was too big to hold general elections, +and there had to be a supreme ruler, +and a positive and automatic—which +meant hereditary—means of succession.</p> + +<p>"Whose opinion seems to differ +from whose, and about what?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, Count Duklass and Count +Tammsan want to have the Ministry +of Science and Technology abolished, +and its functions and personnel distributed. +Count Duklass means to +take over the technological sections +under Economics, and Count Tammsan +will take over the science part +under Education. The proposal is +going to be introduced at this Session +by Count Guilfred, the Minister of +Health and Sanity. He hopes to get +some of the bio-and psycho-science +sections for his own Ministry."</p> + +<p>"That's right. Duklass gets the +hide, Tammsan gets the head and +horns, and everybody who hunts with +them gets a cut of the meat. That's +good sound law of the chase. I'm not +in favor of it, myself. Prince Ganzay, +at this session, I wish you'd get +Captain-General Dorflay nominated +for the Bench. I feel that it is about +time to honor him with elevation."</p> + +<p>"General Dorflay? But why, Your +Majesty?"</p> + +<p>"Great galaxy, do you have to ask? +Why, because the man's a raving +lunatic. He oughtn't even to be trusted +with a sidearm, let alone five +companies of armed soldiers. Do you +know what he told me this morning?"</p> + +<p>"That somebody is training a Nidhog +swamp-crawler to crawl up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +Octagon Tower and bite you at breakfast, +I suppose. But hasn't that been +going on for quite a while, sir?"</p> + +<p>"It was a gimmick in one of the +cooking robots, but that's aside from +the question. He's finally named the +master mind behind all these nightmares +of his, and who do you think +it is? Yorn Travann!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Prime Minister's face grew +graver than usual. Well, it was something +to look grave about; some of +these days——</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, I couldn't possibly +agree more about the general's mental +condition, but I really should say +that, crazy or not, he is not alone in +his suspicions of Prince Travann. If +sharing them makes me a lunatic, too, +so be it, but share them I do."</p> + +<p>Paul felt his eyebrows lift in surprise. +"That's quite too much and +too little, Prince Ganzay," he said.</p> + +<p>"With your permission, I'll elaborate. +Don't think that I suspect Prince +Travann of any childish pranks with +elevators or viewscreens or cooking-robots," +the Prime Minister hastened +to disclaim, "but I definitely do suspect +him of treasonous ambitions. I +suppose Your Majesty knows that he +is the first Minister of Security in +centuries who has assumed personal +control of both the planetary and +municipal police, instead of delegating +his <i>ex officio</i> powers.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty may not know, +however, of some of the peculiar uses +he has been making of those authorities. +Does Your Majesty know that he +has recruited the Security Guard up to +at least ten times the strength needed +to meet any conceivable peace-maintenance +problem on this planet, and +that he has been piling up huge +quantities of heavy combat equipment—guns +up to 200-millimeter, heavy +contragravity, even gun-cutters and +bomb-and-rocket boats? And does +Your Majesty know that most of this +armament is massed within fifteen +minutes' flight-time of this Palace? +Or that Prince Travann has at his +disposal from two and a half to three +times, in men and firepower, the +combined strength of the Planetary +Militia and the Imperial Army on +this planet?"</p> + +<p>"I know. It has my approval. He's +trying to salvage some of the young +nonworkers through exposing them +to military discipline. A good many +of them, I believe, have gone off-planet +on their discharge from the +SG and hired as mercenaries, which +is a far better profession than vote +selling."</p> + +<p>"Quite a plausible explanation: +Prince Travann is nothing if not +plausible," the Prime Minister agreed. +"And does Your Majesty know that, +because of repeated demands for support +from the Ministry of Security, +the Imperial Navy has been scattered +all over the Empire, and that there +is not a naval craft bigger than a +scout-boat within fifteen hundred +light-years of Odin?"</p> + +<p>That was absolutely true. Paul +could only nod agreement. Prince +Ganzay continued:</p> + +<p>"He has been doing some peculiar +things as Police Chief of Asgard, too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +For instance, there are two powerful +nonworkers' voting-bloc bosses, Big +Moogie Blisko and Zikko the Nose—I +assure Your Majesty that I am not +inventing these names; that's what +the persons are actually called—who +have been enjoying the favor and +support of Prince Travann. On a +number of occasions, their smaller +rivals, leaders of less important +gangs, have been arrested, often on +trumped-up charges, and held incommunicado +until either Moogie or +Zikko could move into their territories +and annex their nonworker +followers. These two bloc-bosses are +subsidized, respectively, by the Steel +and Shipbuilding Cartels and by the +Reaction Products and Chemical Cartels, +but actually, they are controlled +by Prince Travann. They, in turn, +control between them about seventy +per cent of the nonworkers in Asgard."</p> + +<p>"And you think this adds up to a +plot against the Throne?"</p> + +<p>"A plot to seize the Throne, Your +Majesty."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come, Prince Ganzay! You're +talking like Dorflay!"</p> + +<p>"Hear me out, Your Majesty. His +Imperial Highness is fourteen years +old; it will be eleven years before he +will be legally able to assume the +powers of emperor. In the dreadful +event of your immediate death, it +would mean a regency for that long. +Of course, your Ministers and Counselors +would be the ones to name the +Regent, but I know how they would +vote with Security Guard bayonets at +their throats. And regency might not +be the limit of Prince Travann's ambitions."</p> + +<p>"In your own words, quite plausible, +Prince Ganzay. It rests, however, +on a very questionable foundation. +The assumption that Prince Travann +is stupid enough to want the Throne."</p> + +<p>He had to terminate the conversation +himself and blank the screen. +Viktor Ganzay was still staring at him +in shocked incredulity when his +image vanished. Viktor Ganzay could +not imagine anybody not wanting the +Throne, not even the man who had +to sit on it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He sat, for a while, looking at the +darkened screen, a little worried. +Viktor Ganzay had a much better +intelligence service than he had believed. +He wondered how much Ganzay +had found out that he hadn't +mentioned. Then he went back to the +reports. He had gotten down to the +Ministry of Fine Arts when the communications +screen began calling <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'attion'">attention</ins> +to itself again.</p> + +<p>When he flipped the switch, a +woman smiled out of it at him. Her +blond hair was rumpled, and she +wore a dressing gown; her smile +brightened as his face appeared in +her screen.</p> + +<p>"Hi!" she greeted him.</p> + +<p>"Hi, yourself. You just get up?"</p> + +<p>She raised a hand to cover a yawn. +"I'll bet you've been up reigning for +hours. Were Rod and Snooks in to +see you yet?"</p> + +<p>He nodded. "They just left. Rod's +going on a picnic with Olva in the +mountains." How long had it been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +since he and Marris had been on a +picnic—a real picnic, with less than +fifty guards and as many courtiers +along? "Do you have much reigning +to do, this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>She grimaced. "Flower Festivals. I +have to make personal tri-di appearances, +live, with messages for the +loving subjects. Three minutes on, +and a two-minute break between. I +have forty for this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Ugh! Well, have a good time, +sweetheart. All I have is lunch with +the Bench, and then this Plenary Session." +He told her about Ganzay's +fear of outright controversy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, fun! Maybe somebody'll pull +somebody's whiskers, or something. +I'm in on that, too."</p> + +<p>The call-indicator in front of him +began glowing with the code-symbol +of the Minister of Security.</p> + +<p>"We can always hope, can't we? +Well, Yorn Travann's trying to get +me, now."</p> + +<p>"Don't keep him waiting. Maybe +I can see you before the Session." She +made a kissing motion with her lips +at him, and blanked the screen.</p> + +<p>He flipped the switch again, and +Prince Travann was on the screen. +The Security Minister didn't waste +time being sorry to bother him.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, a report's just +come in that there's a serious riot at +the University; between five and +ten thousand students are attacking +the Administration Center, lobbing +stench bombs into it, and threatening +to hang Chancellor Khane. They have +already overwhelmed and disarmed +the campus police, and I've sent two +companies of the Gendarme riot brigade, +under an officer I can trust to +handle things firmly but intelligently. +We don't want any indiscriminate +stunning or tear-gassing or shooting; +all sorts of people can have sons and +daughters mixed up in a student +riot."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I seem to recall student riots +in which the sons of his late Highness +Prince Travann and his late +Majesty Rodrik XXI were involved." +He deliberated the point for a moment, +and added: "This scarcely +sounds like a frat-fight or a panty-raid, +though. What seems to have triggered +it?"</p> + +<p>"The story I got—a rather hysterical +call for help from Khane himself—is +that they're protesting an action +of his in dismissing a faculty member. +I have a couple of undercovers +at the University, and I'm trying to +contact them. I sent more undercovers, +who could pass for students, ahead +of the Gendarmes to get the student +side of it and the names of the ring-leaders." +He glanced down at the +indicator in front of him, which had +begun to glow. "If you'll pardon me, +sir, Count Tammsan's trying to get +me. He may have particulars. I'll call +Your Majesty back when I learn anything +more."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There hadn't been anything like +that at the University within the +memory of the oldest old grad. +Chancellor Khane, he knew, was a +stupid and arrogant old windbag with +a swollen sense of his own importance. +He made a small bet with himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +that the whole thing was Khane's +fault, but he wondered what lay +behind it, and what would come out +of it. Great plagues from little microbes +start. Great and frightening +changes——</p> + +<p>The screen got itself into an uproar, +and he flipped the switch. It +was Viktor Ganzay again. He looked +as though his permanent toothache +had deserted him for the moment.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but +it's all fixed up," he reported. "First +Citizen Yaggo agreed to alternate in +precedence with King Ranulf, and +Lord Koreff has withdrawn all his +objections. As far as I can see, at +present, there should be no trouble."</p> + +<p>"Fine. I suppose you heard about +the excitement at the University?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Your Majesty. Disgraceful +affair!"</p> + +<p>"Simply shocking. What seems to +have started it, have you heard?" he +asked. "All I know is that the students +were protesting the dismissal +of a faculty member. He must have +been exceptionally popular, or else he +got a more than ordinary raw deal +from Khane."</p> + +<p>"Well, as to that, sir, I can't say. +All I learned was that it was the result +of some faculty squabble in one +of the science departments; the +grounds for the dismissal were insubordination +and contempt for authority."</p> + +<p>"I always thought that when +authority began inspiring contempt, +it had stopped being authority. Did +you say science? This isn't going to +help Duklass and Tammsan any."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty." +Ganzay didn't look particularly regretful. +"The News Cartel's gotten +hold of it and are using it; it'll be all +over the Empire."</p> + +<p>He said that as though it meant +something. Well, maybe it did; a lot +of Ministers and almost all the Counselors +spent most of their time +worrying about what people on planets +like Chermosh and Zarathustra +and Deirdre and Quetzalcoatl might +think, in ignorance of the fact that +interest in Empire politics varied inversely +as the square of the distance +to Odin and the level of corruption +and inefficiency of the local government.</p> + +<p>"I notice you'll be at the Bench +luncheon. Do you think you could +invite our guests, too? We could have +an informal presentation before it +starts. Can do? Good. I'll be seeing +you there."</p> + +<p>When the screen was blanked, he +returned to the reports, ran them off +hastily to make sure that nothing had +been red-starred, and called a robot +to clear the projector. After a while, +Prince Travann called again.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but +I have most of the facts on the riot, +now. What happened was that +Chancellor Khane sacked a professor, +physics department, under circumstances +which aroused resentment +among the science students. Some of +them walked out of class and went to +the stadium to hold a protest meeting, +and the thing snowballed until half +the students were in it. Khane lost +his head and ordered the campus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +police to clear the stadium; the students +rushed them and swamped +them. I hope, for their sakes, that +none of my men ever let anything +like that happen. The man I sent, a +Colonel Handrosan, managed to talk +the students into going back to the +stadium and continuing the meeting +under Gendarme protection."</p> + +<p>"Sounds like a good man."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Your Majesty. Especially +in handling disturbances. I have +complete confidence in him. He's also +investigating the background of the +affair. I'll give Your Majesty what +he's learned, to date. It seems that +the head of the physics department, a +Professor Nelse Dandrik, had been +conducting an experiment, assisted by +a Professor Klenn Faress, to establish +more accurately the velocity of subnucleonic +particles, beta micropositos, +I believe. Dandrik's story, as relayed +to Handrosan by Khane, is that he +reached a limit and the apparatus began +giving erratic results."</p> + +<p>Prince Travann stopped to light a +cigarette. "At this point, Professor +Dandrik ordered the experiment +stopped, and Professor Faress insisted +on continuing. When Dandrik ordered +the apparatus dismantled, Faress +became rather emotional about it—obscenely +abusive and threatening, +according to Dandrik. Dandrik complained +to Khane, Khane ordered +Faress to apologize, Faress refused, +and Khane dismissed Faress. Immediately, +the students went on strike. +Faress confirmed the whole story, and +he added one small detail that Dandrik +hadn't seen fit to mention. According +to him, when these micropositos +were accelerated beyond sixteen +and a fraction times light-speed, +they began registering at the target +before the source registered the emission."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I—<i>What did you say</i>?"</p> + +<p>Prince Travann repeated it slowly, +distinctly and tonelessly.</p> + +<p>"That was what I thought you said. +Well, I'm going to insist on a complete +investigation, including a repetition +of the experiment. Under +direction of Professor Faress."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Your Majesty. And when +that happens, I mean to be on hand +personally. If somebody is just before +discovering time-travel, I think Security +has a very substantial interest +in it."</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister called back to +confirm that First Citizen Yaggo and +King Ranulf would be at the luncheon. +The Chamberlain, Count Gadvan, +called with a long and dreary +problem about the protocol for the +banquet. Finally, at noon, he flashed +a signal for General Dorflay, waited +five minutes, and then left his desk +and went out, to find the mad general +and his wirehaired soldiers drawn up +in the hall.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were more Thorans on the +South Upper Terrace, and after a +flurry of porting and presenting and +ordering arms and hand-saluting, the +Prime Minister advanced and escorted +him to where the Bench of Counselors, +all thirty of them, total age close +to twenty-eight hundred years, were +drawn up in a rough crescent behind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +the three distinguished guests. The +King of Durendal wore a cloth-of-silver +leotard and pink tights, and a +belt of gold links on which he carried +a jeweled dagger only slightly +thicker than a knitting needle. He +was slender and willowy, and he had +large and soulful eyes, and the royal +beautician must have worked on him +for a couple of hours. Wait till Marris +sees this; oh, brother!</p> + +<p>Koreff, the Lord Marshal, wore +what was probably the standard costume +of Durendal, a fairly long jerkin +with short sleeves, and knee-boots, +and his dress dagger looked as though +it had been designed for use. Lord +Koreff looked as though he would +be quite willing and able to use it; +he was fleshy and full-faced, with +hard muscles under the flesh.</p> + +<p>First Citizen Yaggo, People's +Manager-in-Chief of and for the +Planetary Commonwealth of Aditya, +wore a one-piece white garment like +a mechanic's coveralls, with the emblem +of his government and the +numeral 1 on his breast. He carried +no dagger; if he had worn a dress +weapon, it would probably have been +a slide rule. His head was completely +shaven, and he had small, pale eyes +and a rat-trap mouth. He was regarding +the Durendalians with a distaste +that was all too evidently reciprocated.</p> + +<p>King Ranulf appeared to have won +the toss for first presentation. He +squeezed the Imperial hand in both +of his and looked up adoringly as he +professed his deep honor and pleasure. +Yaggo merely clasped both his +hands in front of the emblem on his +chest and raised them quickly to the +level of his chin, saying: "At the +service of the Imperial State," and +adding, as though it hurt him, "Your +Imperial Majesty." Not being a chief +of state, Lord Koreff came third; he +merely shook hands and said, "A +great honor, Your Imperial Majesty, +and the thanks, both of myself and +my royal master, for a most gracious +reception." The attempt to grab first +place having failed, he was more +than willing to forget the whole subject. +There was a chance that finding +a way to dispose of the grain surplus +might make the difference between +his staying in power at home or not.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the three guests had +already met the Bench of Counselors. +Immediately after the presentation of +Lord Koreff, they all started the two +hundred yards march to the luncheon +pavilion, the King of Durendal +clinging to his left arm and First +Citizen Yaggo stumping dourly on +his right, with Prince Ganzay beyond +him and Lord Koreff on <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's Note: Original reads 'Ranuf'">Ranulf</ins>'s left.</p> + +<p>"Do you plan to stay long on +Odin?" he asked the king.</p> + +<p>"Oh. I'd <i>love</i> to stay for simply +<i>months</i>! Everything is so <i>wonderful</i>, +here in Asgard; it makes our little +capital of Roncevaux seem so <i>utterly</i> +provincial. I'm going to tell Your +Imperial Majesty a secret. I'm going +to see if I can lure some of your +<i>wonderful</i> ballet dancers back to +Durendal with me. Aren't I <i>naughty</i>, +raiding Your Imperial Majesty's +theaters?"</p> + +<p>"In keeping with the traditions of +your people," he replied gravely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +"You Sword-Worlders used to raid +everywhere you went."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid those bad old days are +long past, Your Imperial Majesty," +Lord Koreff said. "But we Sword-Worlders +got around the galaxy, for +a while. In fact, I seem to remember +reading that some of our brethren +from Morglay or Flamberge even occupied +Aditya for a couple of centuries. +Not that you'd guess it to look +at Aditya now."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was First Citizen Yaggo's turn +to take precedence—the seat on the +right of the throne chair. Lord Koreff +sat on Ranulf's left, and, to balance +him, Prince Ganzay sat beyond Yaggo +and dutifully began inquiring of +the People's Manager-in-Chief about +the structure of his government, +launching him on a monologue that +promised to last at least half the +luncheon. That left the King of +Durendal to Paul; for a start, he +dropped a compliment on the cloth-of-silver +leotard.</p> + +<p>King Ranulf laughed dulcetly, +brushed the garment with his fingertips, +and said that it was just a simple +thing patterned after the Durendalian +peasant costume.</p> + +<p>"You have peasants on Durendal?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>dear</i>, yes! Such quaint, +<i>charming</i> people. Of course, they're +all poor, and they wear such <i>funny</i> +ragged clothes, and travel about in +rackety old aircars, it's a wonder +they don't fall apart in the air. But +they're so <i>wonderfully</i> happy and +carefree. I often wish I were one of +them, instead of king."</p> + +<p>"Nonworking class, Your Imperial +Majesty," Lord Koreff explained.</p> + +<p>"On Aditya," First Citizen Yaggo +declared, "there are no classes, and +on Aditya everybody works. 'From +each according to his ability; to each +according to his need.'"</p> + +<p>"On Aditya," an elderly Counselor +four places to the right of him said +loudly to his neighbor, "they don't +call them classes, they call them +sociological categories, and they have +nineteen of them. And on Aditya, +they don't call them nonworkers, +they call them occupational reservists, +and they have more of them than +we do."</p> + +<p>"But of course, I was born a king," +Ranulf said sadly and nobly. "I have +a duty to my people."</p> + +<p>"No, they don't vote at all," Lord +Koreff was telling the Counselor on +his left. "On Durendal, you have to +pay taxes before you can vote."</p> + +<p>"On Aditya the crime of taxation +does not exist," the First Citizen told +the Prime Minister.</p> + +<p>"On Aditya," the Counselor four +places down said to his neighbor, +"there's nothing to tax. The state +owns all the property, and if the +Imperial Constitution and the Space +Navy let them, the State would own +all the people, too. Don't tell me +about Aditya. First big-ship command +I had was the old <i>Invictus</i>, 374, and +she was based on Aditya for four +years, and I'd sooner have spent that +time in orbit around Niffelheim."</p> + +<p>Now Paul remembered who he +was; old Admiral—now Prince-Counselor—Gaklar. +He and Prince-Counselor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +Dorflay would get along +famously. The Lord Marshal of +Durendal was replying to some objection +somebody had made:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-021.png" width="500" height="398" alt="" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<p>"No, nothing of the sort. We hold +the view that every civil or political +right implies a civil or political obligation. +The citizen has a right to +protection from the Realm, for instance; +he therefore has the obligation +to defend the Realm. And his right +to participate in the government of +the Realm includes his obligation to +support the Realm financially. Well, +we tax only property; if a nonworker +acquires taxable property, he has to +go to work to earn the taxes. I might +add that our nonworkers are very +careful to avoid acquiring taxable +property."</p> + +<p>"But if they don't have votes to +sell, what do they live on?" a Counselor +asked in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"The nobility supports them; the +landowners, the trading barons, the +industrial lords. The more nonworking +adherents they have, the greater +their prestige." And the more rifles +they could muster when they quarreled +with their fellow nobles, of course. +"Beside, if we didn't do that, they'd +turn brigand, and it costs less to support +them than to have to hunt them +out of the brush and hang them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>"On Aditya, brigandage does not +exist."</p> + +<p>"On Aditya, all the brigands belong +to the Secret Police, only on +Aditya they don't call them Secret +Police, they call them Servants of the +People, Ninth Category."</p> + +<p>A shadow passed quickly over the +pavilion, and then another. He glanced +up quickly, to see two long black +troop carriers, emblazoned with the +Sun and Cogwheel and armored fist +of Security, pass back of the Octagon +Tower and let down on the north +landing stage. A third followed. He +rose quickly.</p> + +<p>"Please remain seated, gentlemen, +and continue with the luncheon. If +you will excuse me for a moment, I'll +be back directly." I hope, he added +mentally.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Captain-General Dorflay, surrounded +by a dozen officers, Thoran and +human, had arrived on the lower +terrace at the base of the Octagon +Tower. They had a full Thoran rifle +company with them. As he went +down to them, Dorflay hurried forward.</p> + +<p>"It has come, Your Majesty!" he +said, as soon as he could make himself +heard without raising his voice. +"We are all ready to die with Your +Majesty!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I doubt it'll come quite to +that, Harv," he said. "But just to be +on the safe side, take that company +and the gentlemen who are with you +and get up to the mountains and join +the Crown Prince and his party. +Here." He took a notepad from his +belt pouch and wrote rapidly, sealing +the note and giving it to Dorflay. +"Give this to His Highness, and place +yourself under his orders. I know; +he's just a boy, but he has a good +head. Obey him exactly in everything, +but under no circumstances return to +the Palace or allow him to return +until I call you."</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty is ordering me +away?" The old soldier was aghast.</p> + +<p>"An emperor who has a son can +be spared. An emperor's son who is +too young to marry can't. You know +that."</p> + +<p>Harv Dorflay was only mad on one +subject, and even within the frame +of his madness he was intensely logical. +He nodded. "Yes, Your Imperial +Majesty. We both serve the Empire +as best we can. And I will guard the +little Princess Olva, too." He grasped +Paul's hand, said, "Farewell, Your +Majesty!" and dashed away, gathering +his staff and the company of +Thorans as he went. In an instant, +they had vanished down the nearest +rampway.</p> + +<p>The emperor watched their departure, +and, at the same time, saw a +big black aircar, bearing the three-mooned +planet, argent on sable, of +Travann, let down onto the south +landing stage, and another troop +carrier let down after it. Four men +left the aircar—Yorn, Prince Travann, +and three officers in the black +of the Security Guard. Prince Ganzay +had also left the table: he came from +one direction as Prince Travann advanced +from the other. They converged +on the emperor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's happening here, Prince +Travann?" Prince Ganzay demanded. +"Why are you bringing all these +troops to the Palace?"</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty," Prince Travann +said smoothly, "I trust that you will +pardon this disturbance. I'm sure +nothing serious will happen, but I +didn't dare take chances. The students +from the University are marching on +the Palace—perfectly peaceful and +loyal procession; they're bringing a +petition for Your Majesty—but on +the way, while passing through a +nonworkers' district, they were attacked +by a gang of hooligans connected +with a voting-bloc boss called +Nutchy the Knife. None of the students +were hurt, and Colonel +Handrosan got the procession out of +the district promptly, and then dropped +some of his men, who have since +been re-enforced, to deal with the +hooligans. That's still going on, and +these riots are like forest fires; you +never know when they'll shift and +get out of control. I hope the men +I brought won't be needed here. +Really, they're a reserve for the riot +work; I won't commit them, though, +until I'm sure the Palace is safe."</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Prince Travann, how +soon do you estimate that the student +procession will arrive here?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"They're coming on foot, Your +Majesty. I'd give them an hour, at +least."</p> + +<p>"Well, Prince Travann, will you +have one of your officers see that the +public-address screen in front is +ready; I'll want to talk to them when +they arrive. And meanwhile, I'll want +to talk to Chancellor Khane, Professor +Dandrik, Professor Faress and +Colonel Handrosan, together. And +Count Tammsan, too; Prince Ganzay, +will you please screen him and invite +him here immediately?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Your Majesty?" At first, +the Prime Minister was trying to suppress +a look of incredulity; then he +was trying to keep from showing +comprehension. "Yes, Your Majesty; +at once." He frowned slightly when +he saw two of the Security Guard +officers salute Prince Travann instead +of the emperor before going away. +Then he turned and hurried toward +the Octagon Tower.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The officer who had gone to the +aircar to use the radio returned and +reported that Colonel Handrosan was +bringing the Chancellor and both professors +from the University in his +command-car, having anticipated that +they would be wanted. Paul nodded +in pleasure.</p> + +<p>"You have a good man there, +Prince," he said. "Keep an eye on +him."</p> + +<p>"I know it, Your Majesty. To tell +the truth, it was he who organized +this march. Thought they'd be better +employed coming here to petition you +than milling around the University +getting into further mischief."</p> + +<p>The other officer also returned, +bringing a portable viewscreen with +him on a contragravity-lifter. By this +time, the Bench of Counselors and the +three off-planet guests had become +anxious and left the luncheon pavilion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +in a body. The Counselors were looking +about uneasily, noticing the black +uniformed Security Guards who had +left the troop carrier and were taking +position by squads all around the +emperor. First Citizen Yaggo, and +King Ranulf and Lord Koreff, also +seemed uneasy. They were avoiding +the proximity of Paul as though he +had the green death.</p> + +<p>The viewscreen came on, and in +it the city, as seen from an aircar +at two thousand feet, spread out with +the Palace visible in the distance, the +golden pile of the Octagon Tower +jutting up from it. The car carrying +the pickup was behind the procession, +which was moving toward the Palace +along one of the broad skyways, with +Gendarmes and Security Guards leading, +following and flanking. There +were a few Imperial and planetary +and school flags, but none of the +quantity-made banners and placards +which always betray a planned demonstration.</p> + +<p>Prince Ganzay had been gone for +some time, now. When he returned, +he drew Paul aside.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty," he whispered +softly, "I tried to summon Army +troops, but it'll be hours before any +can get here. And the Militia can't +be mobilized in anything less than +a day. There are only five thousand +Army Regulars on Odin, now, anyhow."</p> + +<p>And half of them officers and +noncoms of skeleton regiments. Like +the Navy, the Army had been scattered +all over the Empire—on Behemoth +and Amida and Xipetotec and +Astarte and Jotunnheim—in response +to calls for support from Security.</p> + +<p>"Let's have a look at this rioting, +Prince Travann," one of the less +decrepit Counselors, a retired general, +said. "I want to see how your people +are handling it."</p> + +<p>The officers who had come with +Prince Travann consulted briefly, and +then got another pickup on the screen. +This must have been a regular public +pickup, on the front of a tall building. +It was a couple of miles farther away; +the Palace was visible only as a tiny +glint from the Octagon Tower, on +the skyline. Half a dozen Security +aircars were darting about, two of +them chasing a battered civilian +vehicle and firing at it. On rooftops +and terraces and skyways, little +clumps of Security Guards were skirmishing, +dodging from cover to +cover, and sometimes individuals or +groups in civilian clothes fired back at +them. There was a surprising absence +of casualties.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty!" the old general +hissed in a scandalized whisper. +"That's nothing but a big fake! Look, +they're all firing blanks! The rifles +hardly kick at all, and there's too +much smoke for propellant-powder."</p> + +<p>"I noticed that." This riot must +have been carefully prepared, long in +advance. Yet the student riot seemed +to have been entirely spontaneous. +That puzzled him; he wished he knew +just what Yorn Travann was up to. +"Just keep quiet about it," he advised.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>More aircars were arriving, big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +and luxurious, emblazoned with the +arms of some of the most distinguished +families in Asgard. One of the +first to let down bore the device of +Duklass, and from it the Minister of +Economics, the Minister of Education, +and a couple of other Ministers, +alighted. Count Duklass went at once +to Prince Travann, drawing him away +from King Ranulf and Lord Koreff +and talking to him rapidly and earnestly. +Count Tammsan approached +at a swift half-run.</p> + +<p>"Save Your Majesty!" he greeted, +breathlessly. "What's going on, sir? +We heard something about some petty +brawl at the University, that Prince +Ganzay had become alarmed about, +but now there seems to be fighting +all over the city. I never saw anything +like it; on the way here we had to go +up to ten thousand feet to get over +a battle, and there's a vast crowd on +the Avenue of the Arts, and——" He +took in the Security Guards. "Your +Majesty, just what <i>is</i> going on?"</p> + +<p>"Great and frightening changes." +Count Tammsan started; he must +have been to a psi-medium, too. "But +I think the Empire is going to survive +them. There may even be a few +improvements, before things are +done."</p> + +<p>A blue-uniformed Gendarme officer +approached Prince Travann, drawing +him away from Count Duklass +and speaking briefly to him. The +Minister of Security nodded, then +turned back to the Minister of +Economics. They talked for a few +moments longer, then clasped hands, +and Travann left Duklass with his +face wreathed in smiles. The Gendarme +officer accompanied him as he +approached.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, this is Colonel +Handrosan, the officer who handled +the affair at the University."</p> + +<p>"And a very good piece of work, +colonel." He shook hands with him. +"Don't be surprised if it's remembered +next Honors Day. Did you +bring Khane and the two professors?"</p> + +<p>"They're down on the lower landing-stage, +Your Majesty. We're delaying +the students, to give Your Majesty +time to talk to them."</p> + +<p>"We'll see them now. My study +will do." The officer saluted and +went away. He turned to Count +Tammsan. "That's why I asked Prince +Ganzay to invite you here. This +thing's become too public to be ignored; +some sort of action will have +to be taken. I'm going to talk to the +students; I want to find out just what +happened before I commit myself +to anything. Well, gentlemen, let's +go to my study."</p> + +<p>Count <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Tammsen'">Tammsan</ins> looked around, bewildered. +"But I don't understand——" +He fell into step with Paul and the +Minister of Security; a squad of Security +Guards fell in behind them. +"I don't understand what's happening," +he complained.</p> + +<p>An emperor about to have his +throne yanked out from under him, +and a minister about to stage a <i>coup +d'etat</i>, taking time out to settle a +trifling academic squabble. One thing +he did understand, though, was that +the Ministry of Education was getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +some very bad publicity at a time +when it could be least afforded. Prince +Travann was telling him about the +hooligans' attack on the marching +students, and that worried him even +more. Nonworking hooligans acted +as voting-bloc bosses ordered; voting-bloc +bosses acted on orders from the +political manipulators of Cartels and +pressure-groups, and action downward +through the nonworkers was +usually accompanied by action upward +through influences to which +ministers were sensitive.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were a dozen Security +Guards in black tunics, and as many +Household Thorans in red kilts, in +the hall outside the study, fraternizing +amicably. They hurried apart and +formed two ranks, and the Thoran +officer with them saluted.</p> + +<p>Going into the study, he went to +his desk; Count Tammsan lit a cigarette +and puffed nervously, and sat +down as though he were afraid the +chair would collapse under him. +Prince Travann sank into another +chair and relaxed, closing his eyes. +There was a bit of wafer on the floor +by Paul's chair, dropped by the little +dog that morning. He stooped and +picked it up, laying it on his desk, +and sat looking at it until the door +screen flashed and buzzed. Then he +pressed the release button.</p> + +<p>Colonel Handrosan ushered the +three University men in ahead of +him—Khane, with a florid, arrogant +face that showed worry under the +arrogance; Dandrik, gray-haired and +stoop-shouldered, looking irritated; +Faress, young, with a scrubby red +mustache, looking bellicose. He greeted +them collectively and invited them +to sit, and there was a brief uncomfortable +silence which everybody expected +him to break.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen," he said, "we +want to get the facts about this affair +in some kind of order. I wish you'd +tell me, as briefly and as completely +as possible, what you know about it."</p> + +<p>"There's the man who started it!" +Khane declared, pointing at Faress.</p> + +<p>"Professor Faress had nothing to +do with it," Colonel Handrosan +stated flatly. "He and his wife were +in their apartment, packing to move +out, when it started. Somebody called +him and told him about the fighting +at the stadium, and he went there at +once to talk his students into dispersing. +By that time, the situation +was completely out of hand; he could +do nothing with the students.</p> + +<p>"Well, I think we ought to find +out, first of all, why Professor Faress +was dismissed," Prince Travann said. +"It will take a good deal to convince +me that any teacher able to inspire +such loyalty in his students is a bad +teacher, or deserves dismissal."</p> + +<p>"As I understand," Paul said, "the +dismissal was the result of a disagreement +between Professor Faress and +Professor Dandrik about an experiment +on which they were working. +I believe, an experiment to fix +more exactly the velocity of accelerated +subnucleonic particles. Beta +micropositos, wasn't it, Chancellor +Khane?"</p> + +<p>Khane looked at him in surprise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +"Your Majesty, I know nothing about +that. Professor Dandrik is head of +the physics department; he came to +me, about six months ago, and told +me that in his opinion this experiment +was desirable. I simply deferred +to his judgment and authorized +it."</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty has just stated the +purpose of the experiment," Dandrik +said. "For centuries, there have been +inaccuracies in mathematical descriptions +of subnucleonic events, and this +experiment was undertaken in the +hope of eliminating these inaccuracies." +He went into a lengthy +mathematical explanation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand that, professor. +But just what was the actual experiment, +in terms of physical operations?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dandrik looked helpless for a moment. +Faress, who had been choking +back a laugh, interrupted:</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, we were using the +big turbo-linear accelerator to project +fast micropositos down an evacuated +tube one kilometer in length, and +clocking them with light, the velocity +of which has been established almost +absolutely. I will say that with respect +to the light, there were no observable +inaccuracies at any time, and until +the micropositos were accelerated to +16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, +they registered much as expected. +Beyond that velocity, however, the +target for the micropositos began +registering impacts before the source +registered emission, although the light +target was still registering normally. +I notified Professor Dandrik about +this, and——"</p> + +<p>"You notified him. Wasn't he +present at the time?"</p> + +<p>"No, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, I am head of the +physics department of the University. +I have too much administrative work +to waste time on the technical aspects +of experiments like this," Dandrik +interjected.</p> + +<p>"I understand. Professor Faress +was actually performing the experiment. +You told Professor Dandrik +what had happened. What then?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Your Majesty, he simply +declared that the limit of accuracy +had been reached, and ordered the +experiment dropped. He then reported +the highest reading before this +anticipation effect was observed as +the newly established limit of accuracy +in measuring the velocity of +accelerated micropositos, and said +nothing whatever in his report about +the anticipation effect."</p> + +<p>"I read a summary of the report. +Why, Professor Dandrik, did you +omit mentioning this slightly unusual +effect?"</p> + +<p>"Why, because the whole thing +was utterly preposterous, that's why!" +Dandrik barked; and then hastily +added, "Your Imperial Majesty." He +turned and glared at Faress; professors +do not glare at galactic emperors. +"Your Majesty, the limit of accuracy +had been reached. After that, it was +only to be expected that the apparatus +would give erratic reports."</p> + +<p>"It might have been expected that +the apparatus would stop registering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +increased velocity relative to the light-speed +standard, or that it would begin +registering disproportionately," +Faress said. "But, Your Majesty, I'll +submit that it was not to be expected +that it would register impacts before +emissions. And I'll add this. After +registering this slight apparent jump +into the future, there was no proportionate +increase in anticipation +with further increase of acceleration. +I wanted to find out why. But when +Professor Dandrik saw what was happening, +he became almost hysterical, +and ordered the accelerator shut down +as though he were afraid it would +blow up in his face."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"I think it has blown up in his +face," Prince Travann said quietly. +"Professor, have you any theory, or +supposition, or even any wild guess, +as to how this anticipation effect occurs?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect +that the apparent anticipation is simply +an observational illusion, similar +to the illusion of time-reversal experienced +when it was first observed, +though not realized, that positrons +sometimes exceeded light-speed."</p> + +<p>"Why, that's what I've been saying +all along!" Dandrik broke in. +"The whole thing is an illusion, +due——"</p> + +<p>"To having reached the limit of +observational accuracy; I understand, +Professor Dandrik. Go on, Professor +Faress."</p> + +<p>"I think that beyond 16.067543333-1/3 +times light-speed, the micropositos +ceased to have any velocity +at all, velocity being defined as rate +of motion in four-dimensional space-time. +I believe they moved through +the three spatial dimensions without +moving at all in the fourth, temporal, +dimension. They made that kilometer +from source to target, literally, in +nothing flat. Instantaneity."</p> + +<p>That must have been the first time +he had actually come out and said +it. Dandrik jumped to his feet with +a cry that was just short of being a +shriek.</p> + +<p>"He's crazy! Your Majesty, you +mustn't ... that is, well, I mean—Please, +Your Majesty, don't listen to +him. He doesn't know what he's saying. +He's raving!"</p> + +<p>"He knows perfectly well what he's +saying, and it probably scares him +more than it does you. The difference +is that he's willing to face it and you +aren't."</p> + +<p>The difference was that Faress was +a scientist and Dandrik was a science +teacher. To Faress, a new door had +opened, the first new door in eight +hundred years. To Dandrik, it threatened +invalidation of everything he +had taught since the morning he had +opened his first class. He could no +longer say to his pupils, "You are +here to learn from me." He would +have to say, more humbly, "<i>We</i> are +here to learn from the Universe."</p> + +<p>It had happened so many times +before, too. The comfortable and +established Universe had fitted all the +known facts—and then new facts had +been learned that wouldn't fit it. The +third planet of the Sol system had +once been the center of the Universe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +and then Terra, and Sol, and even +the galaxy, had been forced to abdicate +centricity. The atom had been +indivisible—until somebody divided +it. There had been intangible substance +that had permeated the Universe, +because it had been necessary +for the transmission of light—until +it was demonstrated to be unnecessary +and nonexistent. And the speed +of light had been the ultimate velocity, +once, and could be exceeded no +more than the atom could be divided. +And light-speed had been constant, +regardless of distance from source, +and the Universe, to explain certain +observed phenomena, had been believed +to be expanding simultaneously +in all directions. And the things that +had happened in psychology, when +psi-phenomena had become too obvious +to be shrugged away.</p> + +<p>"And then, when Dr. Dandrik +ordered you to drop this experiment, +just when it was becoming interesting, +you refused?"</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty, I couldn't stop, +not then. But Dr. Dandrik ordered +the apparatus dismantled and scrapped, +and I'm afraid I lost my head. +Told him I'd punch his silly old face +in, for one thing."</p> + +<p>"You admit that?" Chancellor +Khane cried.</p> + +<p>"I think you showed admirable +self-restraint in not doing it. Did you +explain to Chancellor Khane the importance +of this experiment?"</p> + +<p>"I tried to, Your Majesty, but he +simply wouldn't listen."</p> + +<p>"But, Your Majesty!" Khane expostulated. +"Professor Dandrik is +head of the department, and one of +the foremost physicists of the Empire, +and this young man is only one of +the junior assistant-professors. Isn't +even a full professor, and he got his +degree from some school away off-planet. +University of Brannerton on +Gimli."</p> + +<p>"Were you a pupil of Professor +Vann Evaratt?" Prince Travann asked +sharply.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, sir. I——"</p> + +<p>"Ha, no wonder!" Dandrik crowed. +"Your Majesty, that man's an +out-and-out charlatan! He was kicked +out of the University here ten years +ago, and I'm surprised he could even +get on the faculty of a school like +Brannerton, on a planet like +Gimli."</p> + +<p>"Why, you stupid old fool!" Faress +yelled at him. "You aren't enough +of a physicist to oil robots in Vann +Evaratt's lab!"</p> + +<p>"There, Your Majesty," Khane +said. "You see how much respect for +authority this hooligan has!"</p> + +<p>On Aditya, such would be unthinkable; +on Aditya, everybody respects +authority. Whether it's <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'rerespectable'">respectable</ins> +or not.</p> + +<p>Count Tammsan laughed, and he +realized that he must have spoken +aloud. Nobody else seemed to have +gotten the joke.</p> + +<p>"Well, how about the riot, now?" +he asked. "Who started that?"</p> + +<p>"Colonel Handrosan made an investigation +on the spot," Prince Travann +said. "May I suggest that we +hear his report?"</p> + +<p>"Yes indeed. Colonel?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>Handrosan rose and stood with his +hands behind his back, looking fixedly +at the wall behind the desk.</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-030.png" width="500" height="493" alt="" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<p>"Your Majesty, the students of +Professor Faress' advanced subnuclear +physics class, postgraduate students, +all of them, were told of Professor +Faress' dismissal by a faculty +member who had taken over the class +this morning. They all got up and +walked out in a body, and gathered +outdoors on the campus to discuss +the matter. At the next class break, +they were joined by other science +students, and they went into the stadium, +where they were joined, half +an hour later, by more students who +had learned of the dismissal in the +meantime. At no time was the gathering +disorderly. The stadium is covered +by a viewscreen pickup which is +fitted with a recording device; there +is a complete audio-visual of the +whole thing, including the attack on +them by the campus police.</p> + +<p>"This attack was ordered by Chancellor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +Khane, at about 1100; the chief +of the campus police was told to clear +the stadium, and when he asked if +he was to use force, Chancellor Khane +told him to use anything he wanted +to."</p> + +<p>"I did not! I told him to get the +students out of the stadium, but——"</p> + +<p>"The chief of campus police carries +a personal wire recorder," Handrosan +said, in his flat monotone. "He +has a recording of the order, in +Chancellor Khane's own voice. I +heard it myself. The police," he continued, +"first tried to use gas, but +the wind was against them. They +then tried to use sono-stunners, but +the students rushed them and overwhelmed +them. If Your Majesty will +permit a personal opinion, while I do +not sympathize with their subsequent +attack on the Administration Center, +they were entirely within their rights +in defending themselves in the stadium, +and it's hard enough to stop +trained and disciplined troops when +they are winning. After defeating the +police, they simply went on by what +might be called the momentum of +victory."</p> + +<p>"Then you'd say that it's positively +established that the students were behaving +in a peacable and orderly manner +in the stadium when they were +attacked, and that Chancellor Khane +ordered the attack personally?"</p> + +<p>"I would, emphatically, Your +Majesty."</p> + +<p>"I think we've done enough here, +gentlemen." He turned to Count +Tammsan. "This is, jointly, the affair +of Education and Security. I +would suggest that you and Prince +Travann join in a formal and public +inquiry, and until all the facts have +been established and recorded and +action decided upon, the dismissal of +Professor Faress be reversed and he +be restored to his position on the +faculty."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Your Majesty," Tammsan +agreed. "And I think it would be a +good idea for Chancellor Khane to +take a vacation till then, too."</p> + +<p>"I would further suggest that, as +this microposito experiment is crucial +to the whole question, it should +be repeated. Under the personal direction +of Professor Faress."</p> + +<p>"I agree with that, Your Majesty," +Prince Travann said. "If it's as important +as I think it is, Professor +Dandrik is greatly to be censured for +ordering it stopped and for failing +to report this anticipation effect."</p> + +<p>"We'll consult about the inquiry, +including the experiment, tomorrow, +Your Highness," Tammsan told Travann.</p> + +<p>Paul rose, and everybody rose with +him. "That being the case, you gentlemen +are all excused. The students' +procession ought to be arriving, now, +and I want to tell them what's going +to be done. Prince Travann, Count +Tammsan; do you care to accompany +me?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Going up to the central terrace +in front of the Octagon Tower, he +turned to Count Tammsan.</p> + +<p>"I notice you laughed at that remark +of mine about Aditya," he said. +"Have you met the First Citizen?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Only on screen, sir. He was at +me for about an hour, this morning. +It seems that they are reforming the +educational system on Aditya. On +Aditya, everything gets reformed +every ten years, whether it needs it +or not. He came here to find somebody +to take charge of the reformation."</p> + +<p>He stopped short, bringing the +others to a halt beside him, and laughed +heartily.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll send First Citizen +Yaggo away happy; we'll make him +a present of the most distinguished +educator on Odin."</p> + +<p>"Khane?" Tammsan asked.</p> + +<p>"Khane. Isn't it wonderful; if you +have a few problems, you have +trouble, but if you have a whole lot +of problems, they start solving each +other. We get a chance to get rid of +Khane and create a vacancy that can +be filled by somebody big enough to +fill it; the Ministry of Education gets +out from under a nasty situation; +First Citizen Yaggo gets what he +thinks he wants——"</p> + +<p>"And if I know Khane and if I +know the People's Commonwealth of +Aditya, it won't be a year before +Yaggo has Khane shot or stuffs him +into jail, and then the Space Navy +will have an excuse to visit Aditya, +and Aditya'll never be the same afterward," +Prince Travann added.</p> + +<p>The students massed on the front +lawns were still cheering as they went +down after addressing them. The +Security Guards were conspicuously +absent and it was a detail of red-kilted +Thoran riflemen who met them +as they entered the hall to the Session +Chamber. Prince Ganzay approached, +attended by two Household Guard +officers, a human and a Thoran. +Count Tammsan looked from one to +the other of his companions, bewildered. +The bewildering thing was +that everything was as it should be.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen," Paul said, "I'm +sure that both of you will want to +confer for a moment with your colleagues +in the Rotunda before the +Session. Please don't feel obliged to +attend me further."</p> + +<p>Prince Ganzay approached as they +went down the hall. "Your Majesty, +what <i>is</i> going on here?" he demanded +querulously. "Just who is in control +of the Palace—you or Prince Travann? +And where is His Imperial +Highness, and where is General Dorflay?"</p> + +<p>"I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik's +picnic party. If you're upset +about this, you can imagine what he +might have done here."</p> + +<p>Prince Ganzay looked at him curiously +for a moment. "I thought I +understood what was happening," he +said. "Now I—— This business about +the students, sir; how did it come +out?"</p> + +<p>Paul told him. They talked for a +while, and then the Prime Minister +looked at his watch, and suggested +that the Session ought to be getting +started. Paul nodded, and they went +down the hall and into the Rotunda.</p> + +<p>The big semicircular lobby was +empty, now, except for a platoon of +Household Guards, and the Empress +Marris and her ladies-in-waiting. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +advanced as quickly as her sheath +gown would permit, and took his +arm; the ladies-in-waiting fell in behind +her, and Prince Ganzay went +ahead, crying: "My Lords, Your +Venerable Highnesses, gentlemen; +His Imperial Majesty!"</p> + +<p>Marris tightened her grip on his +arm as they started forward. "Paul!" +she hissed into his ear. "What is this +silly story about Yorn Travann trying +to seize the Throne?"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it? Yorn's been too close the +Throne for too long not to know +what sort of a seat it is. He'd commit +any crime up to and including genocide +to keep off it."</p> + +<p>She gave a quick skip to get into +step with him. "Then why's he filled +the Palace with these blackcoats? Is +Rod all right?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly all right; he's somewhere +out in the mountains, keeping +Harv Dorflay out of mischief."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They crossed the Session Hall and +took their seats on the double throne; +everybody sat down, and the Prime +Minister, after some formalities, declared +the Plenary Session in being. +Almost at once, one of the Prince-Counselors +was on his feet begging +His Majesty's leave to interrogate the +Government.</p> + +<p>"I wish to ask His Highness the +Minister of Security the meaning of +all this unprecedented disturbance, +both here in the Palace and in the +city," he said.</p> + +<p>Prince Travann rose at once. "Your +Majesty, in reply to the question of +His Venerable Highness," he began, +and then launched himself into an +account of the student riot, the march +to petition the emperor, and the clash +with the nonworking class hooligans. +"As to the affair at the University, I +hesitate to speak on what is really the +concern of His Lordship the Minister +of Education, but as to the fighting +in the city, if it is still going on, I +can assure His Venerable Highness +that the Gendarmes and Security +Guards have it well in hand; the persons +responsible are being rounded +up, and, if the Minister of Justice +concurs, an inquiry will be started +tomorrow."</p> + +<p>The Minister of Justice assured the +Minister of Security that his Ministry +would be quite ready to co-operate in +the inquiry. Count Tammsan then got +up and began talking about the riot +at the University.</p> + +<p>"What did happen, Paul?" Marris +whispered.</p> + +<p>"Chancellor Khane sacked a science +professor for being too interested in +science. The <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original had an apostrophe.">students</ins> didn't like it. +I think Khane's successor will rectify +that. Have a good time at the Flower +Festivals?"</p> + +<p>She raised her fan to hide a grimace. +"I made my schedule," she +said. "Tomorrow, I have fifty more +booked."</p> + +<p>"Your Imperial Majesty!" The +Counselor who had risen paused, to +make sure that he had the Imperial +attention, before continuing: "Inasmuch +as this question also seems to +involve a scientific experiment, I +would suggest that the Ministry of +Science and Technology is also interested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +and since there is at present +no Minister holding that portfolio, I +would suggest that the discussion be +continued after a Minister has been +elected."</p> + +<p>The Minister of Health and Sanity +jumped to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me +to concur with the proposal of His +Venerable Highness, and to extend +it with the subproposal that the Ministry +of Science and Technology be +abolished, and its functions and personnel +divided among the other Ministries, +specifically those of Education +and of Economics."</p> + +<p>The Minister of Fine Arts was up +before he was fully seated.</p> + +<p>"Your Imperial Majesty; permit +me to concur with the proposal of +Count Guilfred, and to extend it +further with the proposal that the +Ministry of Defense, now also vacant, +be likewise abolished, and its +functions and personnel added to the +Ministry of Security under His Highness +Prince Travann."</p> + +<p>So that was it! Marris, beside him, +said, "Well!" He had long ago discovered +that she could pack more +meaning into that monosyllable than +the average counselor could into a +half-hour's speech. Prince Ganzay +was thunderstruck, and from the +Bench of Counselors six or eight +voices were babbling loudly at once. +Four Ministers were on their feet +clamoring for recognition; Count +Duklass of Economics was yelling the +loudest, so he got it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Your Imperial Majesty; it would +have been most unseemly in me to +have spoken in favor of the proposal +of Count Guilfred, being an interested +party, but I feel no such hesitation +in concurring with the proposal of +Baron Garatt, the Minister of Fine +Arts. Indeed, I consider it a most +excellent proposal——"</p> + +<p>"And I consider it the most diabolically +dangerous proposal to be made +in this Hall in the last six centuries!" +old Admiral <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's Note: Original reads 'Geklar'">Gaklar</ins> shouted. "This is +a proposal to concentrate all the armed +force of the Empire in the hands +of one man. Who can say what unscrupulous +use might be made of +such power?"</p> + +<p>"Are you intimating, Prince-Counselor, +that Prince Travann is contemplating +some <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'tyranical'">tyrannical</ins> or subversive +use of such power?" Count +Tammsan, of all people, demanded.</p> + +<p>There was a concerted gasp at that; +about half the Plenary Session were +absolutely sure that he was. Admiral +Geklar backed quickly away from the +question.</p> + +<p>"Prince Travann will not be the +last Minister of Security," he said.</p> + +<p>"What I was about to say, Your +Majesty, is that as matters stand, +Security has a virtual monopoly on +armed power on this planet. When +these disorders in the city—which +Prince Travann's men are now bringing +under control—broke out, there +was, I am informed, an order sent +out to bring Regular Army and +Planetary Militia into Asgard. It will +be hours before any of the former +can arrive, and at least a day before +the latter can even be mobilized. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +the time any of them get here, there +will be nothing for them to do. Is that +not correct, Prince Ganzay?"</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister looked at him +angrily, stung by the realization that +somebody else had a personal intelligence +service as good as his own, +then swallowed his anger and assented.</p> + +<p>"Furthermore," Count Duklass +continued, "the Ministry of Defense, +itself, is an anachronism, which no +doubt accounts for the condition in +which we now find it. The Empire +has no external enemies whatever; all +our defense problems are problems of +internal security. Let us therefore turn +the facilities over to the Ministry responsible +for the tasks."</p> + +<p>The debate went on and on; he +paid less and less attention to it, and +it became increasingly obvious that +opposition to the proposition was +dwindling. Cries of, "Vote! Vote!" +began to be heard from its supporters. +Prince Ganzay rose from his desk and +came to the throne.</p> + +<p>"Your Imperial Majesty," he said +softly. "I am opposed to this proposition, +but I am convinced that enough +favor it to pass it, even over Your +Majesty's veto. Before the vote is +called, does Your Majesty wish my +resignation?"</p> + +<p>He rose and stepped down beside +the Prime Minister, putting an arm +over Prince Ganzay's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Far from it, old friend," he said, +in a distinctly audible voice. "I will +have too much need for you. But, as +for the proposal, I don't oppose it. I +think it an excellent one; it has my +approval." He lowered his voice. "As +soon as it's passed, place General +Dorflay's name in nomination."</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister looked at him +sadly for a moment, then nodded, +returning to his desk, where he rapped +for order and called for the vote.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you can't lick them, join +them," Marris said as he sat down +beside her. "And if they start chasing +you, just yell, 'There he goes; follow +me!'"</p> + +<p>The proposal carried, almost unanimously. +Prince Ganzay then presented +the name of Captain-General Dorflay +for elevation to the Bench of Counselors, +and the emperor decreed it. +As soon as the Session was adjourned +and he could do so, he slipped out +the little door behind the throne, into +an elevator.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the room at the top of the +Octagon Tower, he laid aside his belt +and dress dagger and unfastened his +tunic, than sat down in his deep chair +and called a serving robot. It was the +one which had brought him his +breakfast, and he greeted it as a +friend; it lit a cigarette for him, and +poured a drink of brandy. For a long +time he sat, smoking and sipping +and looking out the wide window to +the west, where the orange sun was +firing the clouds behind the mountains, +and he realized that he was +abominably tired. Well, no wonder; +more Empire history had been made +today than in the years since he had +come to the Throne.</p> + +<p>Then something behind him clicked. +He turned his head, to see Yorn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +Travann emerge from the concealed +elevator. He grinned and lifted his +drink in greeting.</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd be a little late," +he said. "Everybody trying to climb +onto the bandwagon?"</p> + +<p>Yorn Travann came forward, unbuckling +his belt and laying it with +Paul's; he sank into the chair opposite, +and the robot poured him a drink.</p> + +<p>"Well, do you blame them? What +would it have looked like to you, in +their place?"</p> + +<p>"A <i>coup d'etat</i>. For that matter, +wasn't that what it was? Why didn't +you tell me you were springing it?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't spring it; it was sprung +on me. I didn't know a thing about +it till Max Duklass buttonholed me +down by the landing stage. I'd intended +fighting this proposal to partition +Science and Technology, but +this riot blew up and scared Duklass +and Tammsan and Guilfred and the +rest of them. They weren't too sure +of their majority—that's why they +had the election postponed a couple +of times—but they were sure that the +riot would turn some of the undecided +Counselors against them. So they +offered to back me to take over Defense +in exchange for my supporting +their proposal. It looked too good to +pass up."</p> + +<p>"Even at the price of wrecking +Science and Technology?"</p> + +<p>"It was wrecked, or left to rust +into uselessness, long ago. The main +function of Technology has been to +suppress anything that might threaten +this state of economic <i>rigor mortis</i> +that <ins class="corr" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Duklas'">Duklass</ins> calls stability, and the +function of Science has been to let +muttonheads like Khane and Dandrik +dominate the teaching of science. +Well, Defense has its own scientific +and technical sections, and when we +come to carving the bird, Duklass and +Tammsan are going to see a lot of +slices going onto my plate."</p> + +<p>"And when it's all cut up, it will +be discovered that there is no provision +for original research. So it will +please My Majesty to institute an +Imperial Office of Scientific Research, +independent of any Ministry, and +guess who'll be named to head it."</p> + +<p>"Faress. And, by the way, we're all +set on Khane, too. First Citizen Yaggo +is as delighted to have him as we +are to get rid of him. Why don't we +get Vann Evaratt back, and give him +the job?"</p> + +<p>"Good. If he takes charge there at +the opening of the next academic +year, in ten years we'll have a thousand +young men, maybe ten times +that many, who won't be afraid of +new things and new ideas. But the +main thing is that now you have +Defense, and now the plan can really +start firing all jets."</p> + +<p>"Yes." Yorn Travann got out his +cigarettes and lit one. Paul glanced at +the robot, hoping that its feelings +hadn't been hurt. "All these native +uprisings I've been blowing up out +of inter-tribal knife fights, and all +these civil wars my people have been +manufacturing; there'll be more of +them, and I'll start yelling my head +off for an adequate Space Navy, and +after we get it, these local troubles +will all stop, and then what'll we be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +expected to do? Scrap the ships?"</p> + +<p>They both knew what would be +done with some of them. It would +have to be done stealthily, while nobody +was looking, but some of those +ships would go far beyond the boundaries +of the Empire, and new things +would happen. New worlds, new +problems. Great and frightening +changes.</p> + +<p>"Paul, we agreed upon this long +ago, when we were still boys at the +University. The Empire stopped +growing, and when things stop growing, +they start dying, the death of +petrifaction. And when petrifaction is +complete, the cracking and the +crumbling starts, and there's no way +of stopping it. But if we can get +people out onto new planets, the Empire +won't die; it'll start growing +again."</p> + +<p>"You didn't start that thing at the +University, this morning, yourself, +did you?"</p> + +<p>"Not the student riot, no. But the +hooligan attack, yes. That was some +of my own men. The real hooligans +began looting after Handrosan had +gotten the students out of the district. +We collared all of them, including +their boss, Nutchy the Knife, right +away, and as soon as we did that, Big +Moogie and Zikko the Nose tried to +move in. We're cleaning them up +now. By tomorrow morning there +won't be one of these nonworkers' +voting blocks left in Asgard, and by +the end of the week they'll be cleaned +up all over Odin. I have discovered +a plot, and they're all involved in it."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment." Paul got to his +feet. "That reminds me; Harv Dorflay's +hiding Rod and Olva out in +the mountains. I wanted him out of +here while things were happening. +I'll have to call him and tell him it's +safe to come in, now."</p> + +<p>"Well, zip up your tunic and put +your dagger on; you look as though +you'd been arrested, disarmed and +searched."</p> + +<p>"That's right." He hastily repaired +his appearance and went to the screen +across the room, punching out the +combination of the screen with Rodrik's +picnic party.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A young lieutenant of the Household +Troops appeared in it, and had +to be reassured. He got General +Dorflay.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty! You are all right?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly all right, general, and +it's quite safe to bring His Imperial +Highness in. The conspiracy against +the Throne has been crushed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince +Travann a prisoner?"</p> + +<p>"Quite the contrary, general. It +was our loyal and devoted subject, +Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy."</p> + +<p>"But—But, Your Majesty——!"</p> + +<p>"You aren't to be blamed for suspecting +him, general. His agents +were working in the very innermost +councils of the conspirators. Every +one of the people whom you suspected—with +excellent reason—was actually +working to defeat the plot. +Think back, general; the scheme to +put the gun in the viewscreen, the +scheme to sabotage the elevator, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +scheme to introduce assassins into the +orchestra with guns built into their +trumpets—every one came to your +notice because of what seemed to be +some indiscretion of the plotters, +didn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Why ... why, yes, Your Majesty!" +By this time tomorrow, he would +have a complete set of memories for +each one of them. "You mean, the +indiscretions were deliberate?"</p> + +<p>"Your vigilance and loyalty made +it necessary for them to resort to +these fantastic expedients, and your +vigilance defeated them as fast as +they came to your notice. Well, today, +Prince Travann and I struck back. I +may tell you, in confidence, that every +one of the conspirators is dead. Killed +in this afternoon's rioting—which +was incited for that purpose by Prince +Travann."</p> + +<p>"Then—— Then there will be no +more plots against your life?" There +was a note of regret in the old man's +voice.</p> + +<p>"No more, Your Venerable Highness."</p> + +<p>"But—— What did Your Majesty +call me?" he asked incredulously.</p> + +<p>"I took the honor of being the first +to address you by your new title, +Prince-Counselor Dorflay."</p> + +<p>He left the old man overcome, and +blubbering happily on the shoulder +of the Crown Prince, who winked +at his father out of the screen. Prince +Travann had gotten a couple of fresh +drinks from the robot and handed +one to him when he returned to his +chair.</p> + +<p>"He'll be finding the Bench of +Counselors riddled with treason inside +a week," Travann said. "You +handled that just right, though. Another +case of making problems solve +each other."</p> + +<p>"You were telling me about a plot +you'd discovered."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay's +best efforts. All the voting-bloc +bosses on Odin are in a conspiracy +to start a civil war to give them a +chance to loot the planet. There isn't +a word of truth in it, of course, but +it'll do to arrest and hold them for +a few days, and by that time some of +my undercovers will be in control of +every nonworker vote on the planet. +After all, the Cartels put an end to +competition in every other business; +why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, +whenever there's an election, we just +advertise for bids."</p> + +<p>"Why, that would mean absolute +control——"</p> + +<p>"Of the nonworking vote, yes. And +I'll guarantee, personally, that in five +years the politics of Odin will have +become so unbearably corrupt and +abusive that the intellectuals, the +technicians, the business people, even +the nobility, will be flocking to the +polls to vote, and if only half of +them turn out, they'll snow the nonworkers +under. And that'll mean, +eventually, an end to vote-selling, and +the nonworkers'll have to find work. +We'll find it for them."</p> + +<p>"Great and frightening changes." +Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized +the phrase. Probably started it himself. +Paul lifted his glass. "To the +Minister of Disturbance!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your Majesty!" They drank to +each other, and then Yorn Travann +said, "We had a lot of wild dreams, +when we were boys; it looks as +though we're starting to make some +of them come true. You know, when +we were in the University, the students +would never have done what +they did today. They didn't even do +it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt +was dismissed."</p> + +<p>"And Van Evaratt's pupil came +back to Odin and touched this whole +thing off." He thought for a moment. +"I wonder what Faress has, in +that anticipation effect."</p> + +<p>"I think I can see what can come +out of it. If he can propagate a wave +that behaves like those micropositos, +we may not have to depend on ships +for communication. We may be +able, some day, to screen Baldur or +Vishnu or Aton or Thor as easily as +you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains." +He thought silently for a moment. +"I don't know whether that +would be good or bad. But it would +be new, and that's what matters. +That's the only thing that matters."</p> + +<p>"Flower Festivals," Paul said, and, +when Yorn Travann wanted to know +what he meant, he told him. "When +Princess Olva's Empress, she's going +to curse the name of Klenn Faress. +Flower Festivals, all around the galaxy, +without end."</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr /> + +<div class="bbox"> +<h4>Transcriber's Note & Errata</h4> + +<p>The original page numbers from the magazine were retained.</p> + +<p>There were 2 instances of 'cooking-robot' and one of 'cooking robot'.</p> + +<p>There was one instance of 'patriarchial' on page 11, which was not corrected.</p> + +<p>The following typographical errors were corrected:</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr style="font-weight:bold"><td align='left'>Page</td><td align='left'>Error</td><td align='left'>Correction</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>22</td><td align='left'>attion</td><td align='left'>attention</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>26</td><td align='left'>Ranuf's</td><td align='left'>Ranulf's</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>32</td><td align='left'>Tammsen</td><td align='left'>Tammsan</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>36</td><td align='left'>rerespectable</td><td align='left'>respectable</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>student's</td><td align='left'>students</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>41</td><td align='left'>Geklar</td><td align='left'>Gaklar</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>41</td><td align='left'>tyranical</td><td align='left'>tyrannical</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>43</td><td align='left'>Duklas</td><td align='left'>Duklass</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ministry of Disturbance, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 20659-h.htm or 20659-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20659/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ministry of Disturbance + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20659] +Last updated: January 19, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +MINISTRY ... OF DISTURBANCE + + +BY H. BEAM PIPER + + +Illustrated by van Dongen + + ++----------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's Note | +| | +| This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction | +| December 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence | +| that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. | ++----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + _Sometimes getting a job is harder than the job after you get + it--and sometimes getting out of a job is harder than either!_ + + +[Illustration] + +The symphony was ending, the final triumphant paean soaring up and up, +beyond the limit of audibility. For a moment, after the last notes had +gone away, Paul sat motionless, as though some part of him had followed. +Then he roused himself and finished his coffee and cigarette, looking +out the wide window across the city below--treetops and towers, roofs +and domes and arching skyways, busy swarms of aircars glinting in the +early sunlight. Not many people cared for Joao Coelho's music, now, and +least of all for the Eighth Symphony. It was the music of another time, +a thousand years ago, when the Empire was blazing into being out of the +long night and hammering back the Neobarbarians from world after world. +Today people found it perturbing. + +He smiled faintly at the vacant chair opposite him, and lit another +cigarette before putting the breakfast dishes on the serving-robot's +tray, and, after a while, realized that the robot was still beside his +chair, waiting for dismissal. He gave it an instruction to summon the +cleaning robots and sent it away. He could as easily have summoned them +himself, or let the guards who would be in checking the room do it for +him, but maybe it made a robot feel trusted and important to relay +orders to other robots. + +Then he smiled again, this time in self-derision. A robot couldn't feel +important, or anything else. A robot was nothing but steel and plastic +and magnetized tape and photo-micro-positronic circuits, whereas a +man--His Imperial Majesty Paul XXII, for instance--was nothing but +tissues and cells and colloids and electro-neuronic circuits. There was +a difference; anybody knew that. The trouble was that he had never met +anybody--which included physicists, biologists, psychologists, +psionicists, philosophers and theologians--who could define the +difference in satisfactorily exact terms. He watched the robot pivot on +its treads and glide away, trailing steam from its coffee pot. It might +be silly to treat robots like people, but that wasn't as bad as treating +people like robots, an attitude which was becoming entirely too +prevalent. If only so many people didn't act like robots! + +He crossed to the elevator and stood in front of it until a tiny +electroencephalograph inside recognized his distinctive brain-wave +pattern. Across the room, another door was popping open in response to +the robot's distinctive wave pattern. He stepped inside and flipped a +switch--there were still a few things around that had to be manually +operated--and the door closed behind him and the elevator gave him an +instant's weightlessness as it started to drop forty floors. + +When it opened, Captain-General Dorflay of the Household Guard was +waiting for him, with a captain and ten privates. General Dorflay was +human. The captain and his ten soldiers weren't. They wore helmets, +emblazoned with the golden sun and superimposed black cogwheel of the +Empire, and red kilts and black ankle boots and weapons belts, and the +captain had a narrow gold-laced cape over his shoulders, but for the +rest, their bodies were covered with a stiff mat of black hair, and +their faces were slightly like terriers'. (For all his humanity, +Captain-General Dorflay's face was more like a bulldog's.) They were +hillmen from the southern hemisphere of Thor, and as a people they made +excellent mercenaries. They were crack shots, brave and crafty fighters, +totally uninterested in politics off their own planet, and, because they +had grown up in a patriarchial-clan society, they were fanatically loyal +to anybody whom they accepted as their chieftain. Paul stepped out and +gave them an inclusive nod. + + * * * * * + +"Good morning, gentlemen." + +"Good morning, Your Imperial Majesty," General Dorflay said, bowing the +couple of inches consistent with military dignity. The Thoran captain +saluted by touching his forehead, his heart, which was on the right +side, and the butt of his pistol. Paul complimented him on the smart +appearance of his detail, and the captain asked how it could be +otherwise, with the example and inspiration of his imperial majesty. +Compliment and response could have been a playback from every morning of +the ten years of his reign. So could Dorflay's question: "Your Majesty +will proceed to his study?" + +He wanted to say, "No, to Niffelheim with it; let's get an aircar and +fly a million miles somewhere," and watch the look of shocked +incomprehension on the captain-general's face. He couldn't do that, +though; poor old Harv Dorflay might have a heart attack. He nodded +slowly. + +"If you please, general." + +Dorflay nodded to the Thoran captain, who nodded to his men. Four of +them took two paces forward; the rest, unslinging weapons, went +scurrying up the corridor, some posting themselves along the way and the +rest continuing to the main hallway. The captain and two of his men +started forward slowly; after they had gone twenty feet, Paul and +General Dorflay fell in behind them, and the other two brought up the +rear. + +"Your Majesty," Dorflay said, in a low voice, "let me beg you to be most +cautious. I have just discovered that there exists a treasonous plot +against your life." + +Paul nodded. Dorflay was more than due to discover another treasonous +plot; it had been ten days since the last one. + +"I believe you mentioned it, general. Something about planting loose +strontium-90 in the upholstery of the Audience Throne, wasn't it?" + +And before that, somebody had been trying to smuggle a fission bomb into +the Palace in a wine cask, and before that, it was a booby trap in the +elevator, and before that, somebody was planning to build a submachine +gun into the viewscreen in the study, and-- + +"Oh, no, Your Majesty; that was--Well, the persons involved in that plot +became alarmed and fled the planet before I could arrest them. This is +something different, Your Majesty. I have learned that unauthorized +alterations have been made on one of the cooking-robots in your private +kitchen, and I am positive that the object is to poison Your Majesty." + +They were turning into the main hallway, between the rows of portraits +of past emperors, Paul and Rodrik, Paul and Rodrik, alternating over and +over on both walls. He felt a smile growing on his face, and banished +it. + +"The robot for the meat sauces, wasn't it?" he asked. + +"Why--! Yes, Your Majesty." + +"I'm sorry, general. I should have warned you. Those alterations were +made by roboticists from the Ministry of Security; they were installing +an adaptation of a device used in the criminalistics-labs, to insure +more uniform measurements. They'd done that already for Prince Travann, +the Minister, and he'd recommended it to me." + +That was a shame, spoiling poor Harv Dorflay's murder plot. It had been +such a nice little plot, too; he must have had a lot of fun inventing +it. But a line had to be drawn somewhere. Let him turn the Palace upside +down hunting for bombs; harass ladies-in-waiting whose lovers he +suspected of being hired assassins; hound musicians into whose +instruments he imagined firearms had been built; the emperor's private +kitchen would have to be off limits. + +Dorflay, who should have been looking crestfallen but relieved, stopped +short--shocking breach of Court etiquette--and was staring in horror. + +"Your Majesty! Prince Travann did that openly and with your consent? +But, Your Majesty, I am convinced that it is Prince Travann himself who +is the instigator of every one of these diabolical schemes. In the case +of the elevator, I became suspicious of a man named Samml Ganner, one of +Prince Travann's secret police agents. In the case of the gun in the +viewscreen, it was a technician whose sister is a member of the +household of Countess Yirzy, Prince Travann's mistress. In the case of +the fission bomb----" + +The two Thorans and their captain had kept on for some distance before +they had discovered that they were no longer being followed, and were +returning. He put his hand on General Dorflay's shoulder and urged him +forward. + +"Have you mentioned this to anybody?" + +"Not a word, Your Majesty. This Court is so full of treachery that I can +trust no one, and we must never warn the villain that he is suspected--" + +"Good. Say nothing to anybody." They had reached the door of the study, +now. "I think I'll be here until noon. If I leave earlier, I'll flash +you a signal." + + * * * * * + +He entered the big oval room, lighted from overhead by the great +star-map in the ceiling, and crossed to his desk, with the viewscreens +and reading screens and communications screens around it, and as he sat +down, he cursed angrily, first at Harv Dorflay and then, after a +moment's reflection, at himself. He was the one to blame; he'd known +Dorflay's paranoid condition for years. Have to do something about it. +Any psycho-medic would certify him; be no problem at all to have him put +away. But be blasted if he'd do that. That was no way to repay loyalty, +even insane loyalty. Well, he'd find a way. + +He lit a cigarette and leaned back, looking up at the glowing swirl of +billions of billions of tiny lights in the ceiling. At least, there were +supposed to be billions of billions of them; he'd never counted them, +and neither had any of the seventeen Rodriks and sixteen Pauls before +him who had sat under them. His hand moved to a control button on his +chair arm, and a red patch, roughly the shape of a pork chop, appeared +on the western side. + +That was the Empire. Every one of the thousand three hundred and +sixty-five inhabited worlds, a trillion and a half intelligent beings, +fourteen races--fifteen if you counted the Zarathustran Fuzzies, who +were almost able to qualify under the talk-and-build-a-fire rule. And +that had been the Empire when Rodrik VI had seen the map completed, and +when Paul II had built the Palace, and when Stevan IV, the grandfather +of Paul I, had proclaimed Odin the Imperial planet and Asgard the +capital city. There had been some excuse for staying inside that patch +of stars then; a newly won Empire must be consolidated within before it +can safely be expanded. But that had been over eight centuries ago. + +He looked at the Daily Schedule, beautifully embossed and neatly slipped +under his desk glass. Luncheon on the South Upper Terrace, with the +Prime Minister and the Bench of Imperial Counselors. Yes, it was time +for that again; that happened as inevitably and regularly as Harv +Dorflay's murder plots. And in the afternoon, a Plenary Session, Cabinet +and Counselors. Was he going to have to endure the Bench of Counselors +twice in the same day? Then the vexation was washed out of his face by a +spreading grin. Bench of Counselors; that was the answer! Elevate Harv +Dorflay to the Bench. That was what the Bench was for, a gold-plated +dustbin for the disposal of superannuated dignitaries. He'd do no harm +there, and a touch of outright lunacy might enliven and even improve the +Bench. + +And in the evening, a banquet, and a reception and ball, in honor of His +Majesty Ranulf XIV, Planetary King of Durendal, and First Citizen Zhorzh +Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the Planetary Commonwealth +of Aditya. Bargain day; two planetary chiefs of state in one big +combination deal. He wondered what sort of prizes he had drawn this +time, and closed his eyes, trying to remember. Durendal, of course, was +one of the Sword-Worlds, settled by refugees from the losing side of the +System States War in the time of the old Terran Federation, who had +reappeared in Galactic history a few centuries later as the Space +Vikings. They all had monarchial and rather picturesque governments; +Durendal, he seemed to recall, was a sort of quasi-feudalism. About +Aditya he was less sure. Something unpleasant, he thought; the titles of +the government and its head were suggestive. + +He lit another cigarette and snapped on the reading screen to see what +they had piled onto him this morning, and then swore when a graph chart, +with jiggling red and blue and green lines, appeared. Chart day, too. +Everything happens at once. + + * * * * * + +It was the interstellar trade situation chart from Economics. Red line +for production, green line for exports, blue for imports, sectioned +vertically for the ten Viceroyalties and sub-sectioned for the +Prefectures, and with the magnification and focus controls he could even +get data for individual planets. He didn't bother with that, and +wondered why he bothered with the charts at all. The stuff was all at +least twenty days behind date, and not uniformly so, which accounted for +much of the jiggling. It had been transmitted from Planetary +Proconsulate to Prefecture, and from Prefecture to Viceroyalty, and from +there to Odin, all by ship. A ship on hyperdrive could log light-years +an hour, but radio waves still had to travel 186,000 mps. The +supplementary chart for the past five centuries told the real +story--three perfectly level and perfectly parallel lines. + +It was the same on all the other charts. Population fluctuating slightly +at the moment, completely static for the past five centuries. A slight +decrease in agriculture, matched by an increase in synthetic food +production. A slight population movement toward the more urban planets +and the more densely populated centers. A trend downward in +employment--nonworking population increasing by about .0001 per cent +annually. Not that they were building better robots; they were just +building them faster than they wore out. They all told the same story--a +stable economy, a static population, a peaceful and undisturbed Empire; +eight centuries, five at least, of historyless tranquility. Well, that +was what everybody wanted, wasn't it? + +He flipped through the rest of the charts, and began getting summarized +Ministry reports. Economics had denied a request from the Mining Cartel +to authorize operations on a couple of uninhabited planets; danger of +local market gluts and overstimulation of manufacturing. Permission +granted to Robotics Cartel to---- Request from planetary government of +Durendal for increase of cereal export quotas under consideration--they +wouldn't want to turn that down while King Ranulf was here. Impulsively, +he punched out a combination on the communication screen and got Count +Duklass, Minister of Economics. + +Count Duklass had thinning red hair and a plump, agreeable, extrovert's +face. He smiled and waited to be addressed. + +"Sorry to bother Your Lordship," Paul greeted him. "What's the story on +this export quota request from Durendal? We have their king here, now. +Think he's come to lobby for it?" + +Count Duklass chuckled. "He's not doing anything about it, himself. Have +you met him yet, sir?" + +"Not yet. He's to be presented this evening." + +"Well, when you see him--I think the masculine pronoun is +permissible--you'll see what I mean, sir. It's this Lord Koreff, the +Marshal. He came here on business, and had to bring the king along, for +fear somebody else would grab him while he was gone. The whole object of +Durendalian politics, as I understand, is to get possession of the +person of the king. Koreff was on my screen for half an hour; I just got +rid of him. Planet's pretty heavily agricultural, they had a couple of +very good crop years in a row, and now they have grain running out their +ears, and they want to export it and cash in." + +"Well?" + +"Can't let them do it, Your Majesty. They're not suffering any hardship; +they're just not making as much money as they think they ought to. If +they start dumping their surplus into interstellar trade, they'll cause +all kinds of dislocations on other agricultural planets. At least, +that's what our computers all say." + +And that, of course, was gospel. He nodded. + +"Why don't they turn their surplus into whisky? Age it five or six years +and it'd be on the luxury goods schedule and they could sell it +anywhere." + +Count Duklass' eyes widened. "I never thought of that, Your Majesty. +Just a microsec; I want to make a note of that. Pass it down to somebody +who could deal with it. That's a wonderful idea, Your Majesty!" + + * * * * * + +He finally got the conversation to an end, and went back to the reports. +Security, as usual, had a few items above the dead level of bureaucratic +procedure. The planetary king of Excalibur had been assassinated by his +brother and two nephews, all three of whom were now fighting among +themselves. As nobody had anything to fight with except small arms and a +few light cannon, there would be no intervention. There had been +intervention on Behemoth, however, where a whole continent had tried to +secede from the planetary republic and the Imperial Navy had been +requested to send a task force. That was all right, in both cases. No +interference with anything that passed for a planetary government, but +only one sovereignty on any planet with nuclear weapons, and only one +supreme sovereignty in a galaxy with hyperdrive ships. + +And there was rioting on Amaterasu, because of public indignation over a +fraudulent election. He looked at that in incredulous delight. Why, here +on Odin there hadn't been an election in the past six centuries that +hadn't been utterly fraudulent. Nobody voted except the nonworkers, +whose votes were bought and sold wholesale, by gangster bosses to +pressure groups, and no decent person would be caught within a hundred +yards of a polling place on an election day. He called the Minister of +Security. + +Prince Travann was a man of his own age--they had been classmates at the +University--but he looked older. His thin face was lined, and his hair +was almost completely white. He was at his desk, with the Sun and +Cogwheel of the Empire on the wall behind him, but on the breast of his +black tunic he wore the badge of his family, a silver planet with three +silver moons. Unlike Count Duklass, he didn't wait to be spoken to. + +"Good morning, Your Majesty." + +"Good morning, Your Highness; sorry to bother you. I just caught an +interesting item in your report. This business on Amaterasu. What sort +of a planet is it, politically? I don't seem to recall." + +"Why, they have a republican government, sir; a very complicated setup. +Really, it's a junk heap. When anything goes badly, they always build +something new into the government, but they never abolish anything. They +have a president, a premier, and an executive cabinet, and a tricameral +legislature, and two complete and distinct judiciaries. The premier is +always the presidential candidate getting the next highest number of +votes. In the present instance, the president, who controls the +planetary militia, is accusing the premier, who controls the police, of +fraud in the election of the middle house of the legislature. Each is +supported by the judiciary he controls. Practically every citizen +belongs either to the militia or the police auxiliaries. I am looking +forward to further reports from Amaterasu," he added dryly. + +"I daresay they'll be interesting. Send them to me in full, and red-star +them, if you please, Prince Travann." + +He went back to the reports. The Ministry of Science and Technology had +sent up a lengthy one. The only trouble with it was that everything +reported was duplication of work that had been done centuries before. +Well, no. A Dr. Dandrik, of the physics department of the Imperial +University here in Asgard announced that a definite limit of accuracy in +measuring the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles had been +established--16.067543333--times light-speed. That seemed to be typical; +the frontiers of science, now, were all decimal points. The Ministry of +Education had a little to offer; historical scholarship was still +active, at least. He was reading about a new trove of source-material +that had come to light on Uller, from the Sixth Century Atomic Era, when +the door screen buzzed and flashed. + + * * * * * + +He lit it, and his son Rodrik appeared in it, with Snooks, the little +red hound, squirming excitedly in the Crown Prince's arms. The dog began +barking at once, and the boy called through the phone: + +"Good morning, father; are you busy?" + +"Oh, not at all." He pressed the release button. "Come on in." + +Immediately, the little hound leaped out of the princely arms and came +dashing into the study and around the desk, jumping onto his lap. The +boy followed more slowly, sitting down in the deskside chair and drawing +his foot up under him. Paul greeted Snooks first--people can wait, but +for little dogs everything has to be right now--and rummaged in a drawer +until he found some wafers, holding one for Snooks to nibble. Then he +became aware that his son was wearing leather shorts and tall buskins. + +"Going out somewhere?" he asked, a trifle enviously. + +"Up in the mountains, for a picnic. Olva's going along." + +And his tutor, and his esquire, and Olva's companion-lady, and a dozen +Thoran riflemen, of course, and they'd be in continuous screen-contact +with the Palace. + +"That ought to be a lot of fun. Did you get all your lessons done?" + +"Physics and math and galactiography," Rodrik told him. "And Professor +Guilsan's going to give me and Olva our history after lunch." + +They talked about lessons, and about the picnic. Of course, Snooks was +going on the picnic, too. It was evident, though, that Rodrik had +something else on his mind. After a while, he came out with it. + +"Father, you know I've been a little afraid, lately," he said. + +"Well, tell me about it, son. It isn't anything about you and Olva, is +it?" + +Rod was fourteen; the little Princess Olva thirteen. They would be +marriageable in six years. As far as anybody could tell, they were both +quite happy about the marriage which had been arranged for them years +ago. + +"Oh, no; nothing like that. But Olva's sister and a couple others of +mother's ladies-in-waiting were to a psi-medium, and the medium told +them that there were going to be changes. Great and frightening changes +was what she said." + +"She didn't specify?" + +"No. Just that: great and frightening changes. But the only change of +that kind I can think of would be ... well, something happening to you." + +Snooks, having eaten three wafers, was trying to lick his ear. He pushed +the little dog back into his lap and pummeled him gently with his left +hand. + +"You mustn't let mediums' gabble worry you, son. These psi-mediums have +real powers, but they can't turn them off and on like a water tap. When +they don't get anything, they don't like to admit it, and they invent +things. Always generalities like that; never anything specific." + +"I know all that." The boy seemed offended, as though somebody were +explaining that his mother hadn't really found him out in the rose +garden. "But they talked about it to some of their friends, and it seems +that other mediums are saying the same thing. Father, do you remember +when the Haval Valley reactor blew up? All over Odin, the mediums had +been talking about a terrible accident, for a month before that +happened." + +"I remember that." Harv Dorflay believed that somebody had been falsely +informed that the emperor would visit the plant that day. "These great +and frightening changes will probably turn out to be a new fad in +abstract sculpture. Any change frightens most people." + +They talked more about mediums, and then about aircars and aircar +racing, and about the Emperor's Cup race that was to be flown in a +month. The communications screen began flashing and buzzing, and after +he had silenced it with the busy-button for the third time, Rodrik said +that it was time for him to go, came around to gather up Snooks, and +went out, saying that he'd be home in time for the banquet. The screen +began to flash again as he went out. + + * * * * * + +It was Prince Ganzay, the Prime Minister. He looked as though he had a +persistent low-level toothache, but that was his ordinary expression. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty. It's about these chiefs-of-state. Count +Gadvan, the Chamberlain, appealed to me, and I feel I should ask your +advice. It's the matter of precedence." + +"Well, we have a fixed rule on that. Which one arrived first?" + +"Why, the Adityan, but it seems King Ranulf insists that he's entitled +to precedence, or, rather, his Lord Marshal does. This Lord Koreff +insists that his king is not going to yield precedence to a commoner." + +[Illustration] + +"Then he can go home to Durendal!" He felt himself growing angry--all +the little angers of the morning were focusing on one spot. He forced +the harshness out of his voice. "At a court function, somebody has to go +first, and our rule is order of arrival at the Palace. That rule was +established to avoid violating the principle of equality to all +civilized peoples and all planetary governments. We're not going to set +it aside for the King of Durendal, or anybody else." + +Prince Ganzay nodded. Some of the toothache expression had gone out of +his face, now that he had been relieved of the decision. + +"Of course, Your Majesty." He brightened a little. "Do you think we +might compromise? Alternate the precedence, I mean?" + +"Only if this First Citizen Yaggo consents. If he does, it would be a +good idea." + +"I'll talk to him, sir." The toothache expression came back. "Another +thing, Your Majesty. They've both been invited to attend the Plenary +Session, this afternoon." + +"Well, no trouble there; they can enter by different doors and sit in +visitors' boxes at opposite ends of the hall." + +"Well, sir, I wasn't thinking of precedence. But this is to be an +Elective Session--new Ministers to replace Prince Havaly, of Defense, +deceased, and Count Frask, of Science and Technology, elevated to the +Bench. There seems to be some difference of opinion among some of the +Ministers and Counselors. It's very possible that the Session may +degenerate into an outright controversy." + +"Horrible," Paul said seriously. "I think, though, that our +distinguished guests will see that the Empire can survive difference of +opinion, and even outright controversy. But if you think it might have a +bad effect, why not postpone the election?" + +"Well--It's been postponed three times, already, sir." + +"Postpone it permanently. Advertise for bids on two robot Ministers, +Defense, and Science and Technology. If they're a success, we can set up +a project to design a robot emperor." + +The Prime Minister's face actually twitched and blanched at the +blasphemy. "Your Majesty is joking," he said, as though he wanted to be +reassured on the point. + +"Unfortunately, I am. If my job could be robotized, maybe I could take +my wife and my son and our little dog and go fishing for a while." + +But, of course, he couldn't. There were only two alternatives: the +Empire or Galactic anarchy. The galaxy was too big to hold general +elections, and there had to be a supreme ruler, and a positive and +automatic--which meant hereditary--means of succession. + +"Whose opinion seems to differ from whose, and about what?" he asked. + +"Well, Count Duklass and Count Tammsan want to have the Ministry of +Science and Technology abolished, and its functions and personnel +distributed. Count Duklass means to take over the technological sections +under Economics, and Count Tammsan will take over the science part under +Education. The proposal is going to be introduced at this Session by +Count Guilfred, the Minister of Health and Sanity. He hopes to get some +of the bio-and psycho-science sections for his own Ministry." + +"That's right. Duklass gets the hide, Tammsan gets the head and horns, +and everybody who hunts with them gets a cut of the meat. That's good +sound law of the chase. I'm not in favor of it, myself. Prince Ganzay, +at this session, I wish you'd get Captain-General Dorflay nominated for +the Bench. I feel that it is about time to honor him with elevation." + +"General Dorflay? But why, Your Majesty?" + +"Great galaxy, do you have to ask? Why, because the man's a raving +lunatic. He oughtn't even to be trusted with a sidearm, let alone five +companies of armed soldiers. Do you know what he told me this morning?" + +"That somebody is training a Nidhog swamp-crawler to crawl up the +Octagon Tower and bite you at breakfast, I suppose. But hasn't that been +going on for quite a while, sir?" + +"It was a gimmick in one of the cooking robots, but that's aside from +the question. He's finally named the master mind behind all these +nightmares of his, and who do you think it is? Yorn Travann!" + + * * * * * + +The Prime Minister's face grew graver than usual. Well, it was something +to look grave about; some of these days---- + +"Your Majesty, I couldn't possibly agree more about the general's mental +condition, but I really should say that, crazy or not, he is not alone +in his suspicions of Prince Travann. If sharing them makes me a lunatic, +too, so be it, but share them I do." + +Paul felt his eyebrows lift in surprise. "That's quite too much and too +little, Prince Ganzay," he said. + +"With your permission, I'll elaborate. Don't think that I suspect Prince +Travann of any childish pranks with elevators or viewscreens or +cooking-robots," the Prime Minister hastened to disclaim, "but I +definitely do suspect him of treasonous ambitions. I suppose Your +Majesty knows that he is the first Minister of Security in centuries who +has assumed personal control of both the planetary and municipal police, +instead of delegating his _ex officio_ powers. + +"Your Majesty may not know, however, of some of the peculiar uses he has +been making of those authorities. Does Your Majesty know that he has +recruited the Security Guard up to at least ten times the strength +needed to meet any conceivable peace-maintenance problem on this planet, +and that he has been piling up huge quantities of heavy combat +equipment--guns up to 200-millimeter, heavy contragravity, even +gun-cutters and bomb-and-rocket boats? And does Your Majesty know that +most of this armament is massed within fifteen minutes' flight-time of +this Palace? Or that Prince Travann has at his disposal from two and a +half to three times, in men and firepower, the combined strength of the +Planetary Militia and the Imperial Army on this planet?" + +"I know. It has my approval. He's trying to salvage some of the young +nonworkers through exposing them to military discipline. A good many of +them, I believe, have gone off-planet on their discharge from the SG and +hired as mercenaries, which is a far better profession than vote +selling." + +"Quite a plausible explanation: Prince Travann is nothing if not +plausible," the Prime Minister agreed. "And does Your Majesty know that, +because of repeated demands for support from the Ministry of Security, +the Imperial Navy has been scattered all over the Empire, and that there +is not a naval craft bigger than a scout-boat within fifteen hundred +light-years of Odin?" + +That was absolutely true. Paul could only nod agreement. Prince Ganzay +continued: + +"He has been doing some peculiar things as Police Chief of Asgard, too. +For instance, there are two powerful nonworkers' voting-bloc bosses, Big +Moogie Blisko and Zikko the Nose--I assure Your Majesty that I am not +inventing these names; that's what the persons are actually called--who +have been enjoying the favor and support of Prince Travann. On a number +of occasions, their smaller rivals, leaders of less important gangs, +have been arrested, often on trumped-up charges, and held incommunicado +until either Moogie or Zikko could move into their territories and annex +their nonworker followers. These two bloc-bosses are subsidized, +respectively, by the Steel and Shipbuilding Cartels and by the Reaction +Products and Chemical Cartels, but actually, they are controlled by +Prince Travann. They, in turn, control between them about seventy per +cent of the nonworkers in Asgard." + +"And you think this adds up to a plot against the Throne?" + +"A plot to seize the Throne, Your Majesty." + +"Oh, come, Prince Ganzay! You're talking like Dorflay!" + +"Hear me out, Your Majesty. His Imperial Highness is fourteen years old; +it will be eleven years before he will be legally able to assume the +powers of emperor. In the dreadful event of your immediate death, it +would mean a regency for that long. Of course, your Ministers and +Counselors would be the ones to name the Regent, but I know how they +would vote with Security Guard bayonets at their throats. And regency +might not be the limit of Prince Travann's ambitions." + +"In your own words, quite plausible, Prince Ganzay. It rests, however, +on a very questionable foundation. The assumption that Prince Travann is +stupid enough to want the Throne." + +He had to terminate the conversation himself and blank the screen. +Viktor Ganzay was still staring at him in shocked incredulity when his +image vanished. Viktor Ganzay could not imagine anybody not wanting the +Throne, not even the man who had to sit on it. + + * * * * * + +He sat, for a while, looking at the darkened screen, a little worried. +Viktor Ganzay had a much better intelligence service than he had +believed. He wondered how much Ganzay had found out that he hadn't +mentioned. Then he went back to the reports. He had gotten down to the +Ministry of Fine Arts when the communications screen began calling +attention to itself again. + +When he flipped the switch, a woman smiled out of it at him. Her blond +hair was rumpled, and she wore a dressing gown; her smile brightened as +his face appeared in her screen. + +"Hi!" she greeted him. + +"Hi, yourself. You just get up?" + +She raised a hand to cover a yawn. "I'll bet you've been up reigning for +hours. Were Rod and Snooks in to see you yet?" + +He nodded. "They just left. Rod's going on a picnic with Olva in the +mountains." How long had it been since he and Marris had been on a +picnic--a real picnic, with less than fifty guards and as many courtiers +along? "Do you have much reigning to do, this afternoon?" + +She grimaced. "Flower Festivals. I have to make personal tri-di +appearances, live, with messages for the loving subjects. Three minutes +on, and a two-minute break between. I have forty for this afternoon." + +"Ugh! Well, have a good time, sweetheart. All I have is lunch with the +Bench, and then this Plenary Session." He told her about Ganzay's fear +of outright controversy. + +"Oh, fun! Maybe somebody'll pull somebody's whiskers, or something. I'm +in on that, too." + +The call-indicator in front of him began glowing with the code-symbol of +the Minister of Security. + +"We can always hope, can't we? Well, Yorn Travann's trying to get me, +now." + +"Don't keep him waiting. Maybe I can see you before the Session." She +made a kissing motion with her lips at him, and blanked the screen. + +He flipped the switch again, and Prince Travann was on the screen. The +Security Minister didn't waste time being sorry to bother him. + +"Your Majesty, a report's just come in that there's a serious riot at +the University; between five and ten thousand students are attacking the +Administration Center, lobbing stench bombs into it, and threatening to +hang Chancellor Khane. They have already overwhelmed and disarmed the +campus police, and I've sent two companies of the Gendarme riot brigade, +under an officer I can trust to handle things firmly but intelligently. +We don't want any indiscriminate stunning or tear-gassing or shooting; +all sorts of people can have sons and daughters mixed up in a student +riot." + +"Yes. I seem to recall student riots in which the sons of his late +Highness Prince Travann and his late Majesty Rodrik XXI were involved." +He deliberated the point for a moment, and added: "This scarcely sounds +like a frat-fight or a panty-raid, though. What seems to have triggered +it?" + +"The story I got--a rather hysterical call for help from Khane +himself--is that they're protesting an action of his in dismissing a +faculty member. I have a couple of undercovers at the University, and +I'm trying to contact them. I sent more undercovers, who could pass for +students, ahead of the Gendarmes to get the student side of it and the +names of the ring-leaders." He glanced down at the indicator in front of +him, which had begun to glow. "If you'll pardon me, sir, Count Tammsan's +trying to get me. He may have particulars. I'll call Your Majesty back +when I learn anything more." + + * * * * * + +There hadn't been anything like that at the University within the memory +of the oldest old grad. Chancellor Khane, he knew, was a stupid and +arrogant old windbag with a swollen sense of his own importance. He made +a small bet with himself that the whole thing was Khane's fault, but he +wondered what lay behind it, and what would come out of it. Great +plagues from little microbes start. Great and frightening changes---- + +The screen got itself into an uproar, and he flipped the switch. It was +Viktor Ganzay again. He looked as though his permanent toothache had +deserted him for the moment. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but it's all fixed up," he reported. +"First Citizen Yaggo agreed to alternate in precedence with King Ranulf, +and Lord Koreff has withdrawn all his objections. As far as I can see, +at present, there should be no trouble." + +"Fine. I suppose you heard about the excitement at the University?" + +"Oh, yes, Your Majesty. Disgraceful affair!" + +"Simply shocking. What seems to have started it, have you heard?" he +asked. "All I know is that the students were protesting the dismissal of +a faculty member. He must have been exceptionally popular, or else he +got a more than ordinary raw deal from Khane." + +"Well, as to that, sir, I can't say. All I learned was that it was the +result of some faculty squabble in one of the science departments; the +grounds for the dismissal were insubordination and contempt for +authority." + +"I always thought that when authority began inspiring contempt, it had +stopped being authority. Did you say science? This isn't going to help +Duklass and Tammsan any." + +"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty." Ganzay didn't look particularly +regretful. "The News Cartel's gotten hold of it and are using it; it'll +be all over the Empire." + +He said that as though it meant something. Well, maybe it did; a lot of +Ministers and almost all the Counselors spent most of their time +worrying about what people on planets like Chermosh and Zarathustra and +Deirdre and Quetzalcoatl might think, in ignorance of the fact that +interest in Empire politics varied inversely as the square of the +distance to Odin and the level of corruption and inefficiency of the +local government. + +"I notice you'll be at the Bench luncheon. Do you think you could invite +our guests, too? We could have an informal presentation before it +starts. Can do? Good. I'll be seeing you there." + +When the screen was blanked, he returned to the reports, ran them off +hastily to make sure that nothing had been red-starred, and called a +robot to clear the projector. After a while, Prince Travann called +again. + +"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but I have most of the facts on the riot, +now. What happened was that Chancellor Khane sacked a professor, physics +department, under circumstances which aroused resentment among the +science students. Some of them walked out of class and went to the +stadium to hold a protest meeting, and the thing snowballed until half +the students were in it. Khane lost his head and ordered the campus +police to clear the stadium; the students rushed them and swamped them. +I hope, for their sakes, that none of my men ever let anything like that +happen. The man I sent, a Colonel Handrosan, managed to talk the +students into going back to the stadium and continuing the meeting under +Gendarme protection." + +"Sounds like a good man." + +"Very good, Your Majesty. Especially in handling disturbances. I have +complete confidence in him. He's also investigating the background of +the affair. I'll give Your Majesty what he's learned, to date. It seems +that the head of the physics department, a Professor Nelse Dandrik, had +been conducting an experiment, assisted by a Professor Klenn Faress, to +establish more accurately the velocity of subnucleonic particles, beta +micropositos, I believe. Dandrik's story, as relayed to Handrosan by +Khane, is that he reached a limit and the apparatus began giving erratic +results." + +Prince Travann stopped to light a cigarette. "At this point, Professor +Dandrik ordered the experiment stopped, and Professor Faress insisted on +continuing. When Dandrik ordered the apparatus dismantled, Faress became +rather emotional about it--obscenely abusive and threatening, according +to Dandrik. Dandrik complained to Khane, Khane ordered Faress to +apologize, Faress refused, and Khane dismissed Faress. Immediately, the +students went on strike. Faress confirmed the whole story, and he added +one small detail that Dandrik hadn't seen fit to mention. According to +him, when these micropositos were accelerated beyond sixteen and a +fraction times light-speed, they began registering at the target before +the source registered the emission." + +"Yes, I--_What did you say_?" + +Prince Travann repeated it slowly, distinctly and tonelessly. + +"That was what I thought you said. Well, I'm going to insist on a +complete investigation, including a repetition of the experiment. Under +direction of Professor Faress." + +"Yes, Your Majesty. And when that happens, I mean to be on hand +personally. If somebody is just before discovering time-travel, I think +Security has a very substantial interest in it." + +The Prime Minister called back to confirm that First Citizen Yaggo and +King Ranulf would be at the luncheon. The Chamberlain, Count Gadvan, +called with a long and dreary problem about the protocol for the +banquet. Finally, at noon, he flashed a signal for General Dorflay, +waited five minutes, and then left his desk and went out, to find the +mad general and his wirehaired soldiers drawn up in the hall. + + * * * * * + +There were more Thorans on the South Upper Terrace, and after a flurry +of porting and presenting and ordering arms and hand-saluting, the Prime +Minister advanced and escorted him to where the Bench of Counselors, all +thirty of them, total age close to twenty-eight hundred years, were +drawn up in a rough crescent behind the three distinguished guests. The +King of Durendal wore a cloth-of-silver leotard and pink tights, and a +belt of gold links on which he carried a jeweled dagger only slightly +thicker than a knitting needle. He was slender and willowy, and he had +large and soulful eyes, and the royal beautician must have worked on him +for a couple of hours. Wait till Marris sees this; oh, brother! + +Koreff, the Lord Marshal, wore what was probably the standard costume of +Durendal, a fairly long jerkin with short sleeves, and knee-boots, and +his dress dagger looked as though it had been designed for use. Lord +Koreff looked as though he would be quite willing and able to use it; he +was fleshy and full-faced, with hard muscles under the flesh. + +First Citizen Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the Planetary +Commonwealth of Aditya, wore a one-piece white garment like a mechanic's +coveralls, with the emblem of his government and the numeral 1 on his +breast. He carried no dagger; if he had worn a dress weapon, it would +probably have been a slide rule. His head was completely shaven, and he +had small, pale eyes and a rat-trap mouth. He was regarding the +Durendalians with a distaste that was all too evidently reciprocated. + +King Ranulf appeared to have won the toss for first presentation. He +squeezed the Imperial hand in both of his and looked up adoringly as he +professed his deep honor and pleasure. Yaggo merely clasped both his +hands in front of the emblem on his chest and raised them quickly to the +level of his chin, saying: "At the service of the Imperial State," and +adding, as though it hurt him, "Your Imperial Majesty." Not being a +chief of state, Lord Koreff came third; he merely shook hands and said, +"A great honor, Your Imperial Majesty, and the thanks, both of myself +and my royal master, for a most gracious reception." The attempt to grab +first place having failed, he was more than willing to forget the whole +subject. There was a chance that finding a way to dispose of the grain +surplus might make the difference between his staying in power at home +or not. + +Fortunately, the three guests had already met the Bench of Counselors. +Immediately after the presentation of Lord Koreff, they all started the +two hundred yards march to the luncheon pavilion, the King of Durendal +clinging to his left arm and First Citizen Yaggo stumping dourly on his +right, with Prince Ganzay beyond him and Lord Koreff on Ranulf's left. + +"Do you plan to stay long on Odin?" he asked the king. + +"Oh. I'd _love_ to stay for simply _months_! Everything is so +_wonderful_, here in Asgard; it makes our little capital of Roncevaux +seem so _utterly_ provincial. I'm going to tell Your Imperial Majesty a +secret. I'm going to see if I can lure some of your _wonderful_ ballet +dancers back to Durendal with me. Aren't I _naughty_, raiding Your +Imperial Majesty's theaters?" + +"In keeping with the traditions of your people," he replied gravely. +"You Sword-Worlders used to raid everywhere you went." + +"I'm afraid those bad old days are long past, Your Imperial Majesty," +Lord Koreff said. "But we Sword-Worlders got around the galaxy, for a +while. In fact, I seem to remember reading that some of our brethren +from Morglay or Flamberge even occupied Aditya for a couple of +centuries. Not that you'd guess it to look at Aditya now." + + * * * * * + +It was First Citizen Yaggo's turn to take precedence--the seat on the +right of the throne chair. Lord Koreff sat on Ranulf's left, and, to +balance him, Prince Ganzay sat beyond Yaggo and dutifully began +inquiring of the People's Manager-in-Chief about the structure of his +government, launching him on a monologue that promised to last at least +half the luncheon. That left the King of Durendal to Paul; for a start, +he dropped a compliment on the cloth-of-silver leotard. + +King Ranulf laughed dulcetly, brushed the garment with his fingertips, +and said that it was just a simple thing patterned after the Durendalian +peasant costume. + +"You have peasants on Durendal?" + +"Oh, _dear_, yes! Such quaint, _charming_ people. Of course, they're all +poor, and they wear such _funny_ ragged clothes, and travel about in +rackety old aircars, it's a wonder they don't fall apart in the air. But +they're so _wonderfully_ happy and carefree. I often wish I were one of +them, instead of king." + +"Nonworking class, Your Imperial Majesty," Lord Koreff explained. + +"On Aditya," First Citizen Yaggo declared, "there are no classes, and on +Aditya everybody works. 'From each according to his ability; to each +according to his need.'" + +"On Aditya," an elderly Counselor four places to the right of him said +loudly to his neighbor, "they don't call them classes, they call them +sociological categories, and they have nineteen of them. And on Aditya, +they don't call them nonworkers, they call them occupational reservists, +and they have more of them than we do." + +"But of course, I was born a king," Ranulf said sadly and nobly. "I have +a duty to my people." + +"No, they don't vote at all," Lord Koreff was telling the Counselor on +his left. "On Durendal, you have to pay taxes before you can vote." + +"On Aditya the crime of taxation does not exist," the First Citizen told +the Prime Minister. + +"On Aditya," the Counselor four places down said to his neighbor, +"there's nothing to tax. The state owns all the property, and if the +Imperial Constitution and the Space Navy let them, the State would own +all the people, too. Don't tell me about Aditya. First big-ship command +I had was the old _Invictus_, 374, and she was based on Aditya for four +years, and I'd sooner have spent that time in orbit around Niffelheim." + +Now Paul remembered who he was; old Admiral--now +Prince-Counselor--Gaklar. He and Prince-Counselor Dorflay would get +along famously. The Lord Marshal of Durendal was replying to some +objection somebody had made: + +[Illustration] + +"No, nothing of the sort. We hold the view that every civil or political +right implies a civil or political obligation. The citizen has a right +to protection from the Realm, for instance; he therefore has the +obligation to defend the Realm. And his right to participate in the +government of the Realm includes his obligation to support the Realm +financially. Well, we tax only property; if a nonworker acquires taxable +property, he has to go to work to earn the taxes. I might add that our +nonworkers are very careful to avoid acquiring taxable property." + +"But if they don't have votes to sell, what do they live on?" a +Counselor asked in bewilderment. + +"The nobility supports them; the landowners, the trading barons, the +industrial lords. The more nonworking adherents they have, the greater +their prestige." And the more rifles they could muster when they +quarreled with their fellow nobles, of course. "Beside, if we didn't do +that, they'd turn brigand, and it costs less to support them than to +have to hunt them out of the brush and hang them." + +"On Aditya, brigandage does not exist." + +"On Aditya, all the brigands belong to the Secret Police, only on Aditya +they don't call them Secret Police, they call them Servants of the +People, Ninth Category." + +A shadow passed quickly over the pavilion, and then another. He glanced +up quickly, to see two long black troop carriers, emblazoned with the +Sun and Cogwheel and armored fist of Security, pass back of the Octagon +Tower and let down on the north landing stage. A third followed. He rose +quickly. + +"Please remain seated, gentlemen, and continue with the luncheon. If you +will excuse me for a moment, I'll be back directly." I hope, he added +mentally. + + * * * * * + +Captain-General Dorflay, surrounded by a dozen officers, Thoran and +human, had arrived on the lower terrace at the base of the Octagon +Tower. They had a full Thoran rifle company with them. As he went down +to them, Dorflay hurried forward. + +"It has come, Your Majesty!" he said, as soon as he could make himself +heard without raising his voice. "We are all ready to die with Your +Majesty!" + +"Oh, I doubt it'll come quite to that, Harv," he said. "But just to be +on the safe side, take that company and the gentlemen who are with you +and get up to the mountains and join the Crown Prince and his party. +Here." He took a notepad from his belt pouch and wrote rapidly, sealing +the note and giving it to Dorflay. "Give this to His Highness, and place +yourself under his orders. I know; he's just a boy, but he has a good +head. Obey him exactly in everything, but under no circumstances return +to the Palace or allow him to return until I call you." + +"Your Majesty is ordering me away?" The old soldier was aghast. + +"An emperor who has a son can be spared. An emperor's son who is too +young to marry can't. You know that." + +Harv Dorflay was only mad on one subject, and even within the frame of +his madness he was intensely logical. He nodded. "Yes, Your Imperial +Majesty. We both serve the Empire as best we can. And I will guard the +little Princess Olva, too." He grasped Paul's hand, said, "Farewell, +Your Majesty!" and dashed away, gathering his staff and the company of +Thorans as he went. In an instant, they had vanished down the nearest +rampway. + +The emperor watched their departure, and, at the same time, saw a big +black aircar, bearing the three-mooned planet, argent on sable, of +Travann, let down onto the south landing stage, and another troop +carrier let down after it. Four men left the aircar--Yorn, Prince +Travann, and three officers in the black of the Security Guard. Prince +Ganzay had also left the table: he came from one direction as Prince +Travann advanced from the other. They converged on the emperor. + +"What's happening here, Prince Travann?" Prince Ganzay demanded. "Why +are you bringing all these troops to the Palace?" + +"Your Majesty," Prince Travann said smoothly, "I trust that you will +pardon this disturbance. I'm sure nothing serious will happen, but I +didn't dare take chances. The students from the University are marching +on the Palace--perfectly peaceful and loyal procession; they're bringing +a petition for Your Majesty--but on the way, while passing through a +nonworkers' district, they were attacked by a gang of hooligans +connected with a voting-bloc boss called Nutchy the Knife. None of the +students were hurt, and Colonel Handrosan got the procession out of the +district promptly, and then dropped some of his men, who have since been +re-enforced, to deal with the hooligans. That's still going on, and +these riots are like forest fires; you never know when they'll shift and +get out of control. I hope the men I brought won't be needed here. +Really, they're a reserve for the riot work; I won't commit them, +though, until I'm sure the Palace is safe." + +He nodded. "Prince Travann, how soon do you estimate that the student +procession will arrive here?" he asked. + +"They're coming on foot, Your Majesty. I'd give them an hour, at least." + +"Well, Prince Travann, will you have one of your officers see that the +public-address screen in front is ready; I'll want to talk to them when +they arrive. And meanwhile, I'll want to talk to Chancellor Khane, +Professor Dandrik, Professor Faress and Colonel Handrosan, together. And +Count Tammsan, too; Prince Ganzay, will you please screen him and invite +him here immediately?" + +"Now, Your Majesty?" At first, the Prime Minister was trying to suppress +a look of incredulity; then he was trying to keep from showing +comprehension. "Yes, Your Majesty; at once." He frowned slightly when he +saw two of the Security Guard officers salute Prince Travann instead of +the emperor before going away. Then he turned and hurried toward the +Octagon Tower. + + * * * * * + +The officer who had gone to the aircar to use the radio returned and +reported that Colonel Handrosan was bringing the Chancellor and both +professors from the University in his command-car, having anticipated +that they would be wanted. Paul nodded in pleasure. + +"You have a good man there, Prince," he said. "Keep an eye on him." + +"I know it, Your Majesty. To tell the truth, it was he who organized +this march. Thought they'd be better employed coming here to petition +you than milling around the University getting into further mischief." + +The other officer also returned, bringing a portable viewscreen with him +on a contragravity-lifter. By this time, the Bench of Counselors and the +three off-planet guests had become anxious and left the luncheon +pavilion in a body. The Counselors were looking about uneasily, +noticing the black uniformed Security Guards who had left the troop +carrier and were taking position by squads all around the emperor. First +Citizen Yaggo, and King Ranulf and Lord Koreff, also seemed uneasy. They +were avoiding the proximity of Paul as though he had the green death. + +The viewscreen came on, and in it the city, as seen from an aircar at +two thousand feet, spread out with the Palace visible in the distance, +the golden pile of the Octagon Tower jutting up from it. The car +carrying the pickup was behind the procession, which was moving toward +the Palace along one of the broad skyways, with Gendarmes and Security +Guards leading, following and flanking. There were a few Imperial and +planetary and school flags, but none of the quantity-made banners and +placards which always betray a planned demonstration. + +Prince Ganzay had been gone for some time, now. When he returned, he +drew Paul aside. + +"Your Majesty," he whispered softly, "I tried to summon Army troops, but +it'll be hours before any can get here. And the Militia can't be +mobilized in anything less than a day. There are only five thousand Army +Regulars on Odin, now, anyhow." + +And half of them officers and noncoms of skeleton regiments. Like the +Navy, the Army had been scattered all over the Empire--on Behemoth and +Amida and Xipetotec and Astarte and Jotunnheim--in response to calls for +support from Security. + +"Let's have a look at this rioting, Prince Travann," one of the less +decrepit Counselors, a retired general, said. "I want to see how your +people are handling it." + +The officers who had come with Prince Travann consulted briefly, and +then got another pickup on the screen. This must have been a regular +public pickup, on the front of a tall building. It was a couple of miles +farther away; the Palace was visible only as a tiny glint from the +Octagon Tower, on the skyline. Half a dozen Security aircars were +darting about, two of them chasing a battered civilian vehicle and +firing at it. On rooftops and terraces and skyways, little clumps of +Security Guards were skirmishing, dodging from cover to cover, and +sometimes individuals or groups in civilian clothes fired back at them. +There was a surprising absence of casualties. + +"Your Majesty!" the old general hissed in a scandalized whisper. "That's +nothing but a big fake! Look, they're all firing blanks! The rifles +hardly kick at all, and there's too much smoke for propellant-powder." + +"I noticed that." This riot must have been carefully prepared, long in +advance. Yet the student riot seemed to have been entirely spontaneous. +That puzzled him; he wished he knew just what Yorn Travann was up to. +"Just keep quiet about it," he advised. + + * * * * * + +More aircars were arriving, big and luxurious, emblazoned with the arms +of some of the most distinguished families in Asgard. One of the first +to let down bore the device of Duklass, and from it the Minister of +Economics, the Minister of Education, and a couple of other Ministers, +alighted. Count Duklass went at once to Prince Travann, drawing him away +from King Ranulf and Lord Koreff and talking to him rapidly and +earnestly. Count Tammsan approached at a swift half-run. + +"Save Your Majesty!" he greeted, breathlessly. "What's going on, sir? We +heard something about some petty brawl at the University, that Prince +Ganzay had become alarmed about, but now there seems to be fighting all +over the city. I never saw anything like it; on the way here we had to +go up to ten thousand feet to get over a battle, and there's a vast +crowd on the Avenue of the Arts, and----" He took in the Security +Guards. "Your Majesty, just what _is_ going on?" + +"Great and frightening changes." Count Tammsan started; he must have +been to a psi-medium, too. "But I think the Empire is going to survive +them. There may even be a few improvements, before things are done." + +A blue-uniformed Gendarme officer approached Prince Travann, drawing him +away from Count Duklass and speaking briefly to him. The Minister of +Security nodded, then turned back to the Minister of Economics. They +talked for a few moments longer, then clasped hands, and Travann left +Duklass with his face wreathed in smiles. The Gendarme officer +accompanied him as he approached. + +"Your Majesty, this is Colonel Handrosan, the officer who handled the +affair at the University." + +"And a very good piece of work, colonel." He shook hands with him. +"Don't be surprised if it's remembered next Honors Day. Did you bring +Khane and the two professors?" + +"They're down on the lower landing-stage, Your Majesty. We're delaying +the students, to give Your Majesty time to talk to them." + +"We'll see them now. My study will do." The officer saluted and went +away. He turned to Count Tammsan. "That's why I asked Prince Ganzay to +invite you here. This thing's become too public to be ignored; some sort +of action will have to be taken. I'm going to talk to the students; I +want to find out just what happened before I commit myself to anything. +Well, gentlemen, let's go to my study." + +Count Tammsan looked around, bewildered. "But I don't understand----" He +fell into step with Paul and the Minister of Security; a squad of +Security Guards fell in behind them. "I don't understand what's +happening," he complained. + +An emperor about to have his throne yanked out from under him, and a +minister about to stage a _coup d'etat_, taking time out to settle a +trifling academic squabble. One thing he did understand, though, was +that the Ministry of Education was getting some very bad publicity at a +time when it could be least afforded. Prince Travann was telling him +about the hooligans' attack on the marching students, and that worried +him even more. Nonworking hooligans acted as voting-bloc bosses ordered; +voting-bloc bosses acted on orders from the political manipulators of +Cartels and pressure-groups, and action downward through the nonworkers +was usually accompanied by action upward through influences to which +ministers were sensitive. + + * * * * * + +There were a dozen Security Guards in black tunics, and as many +Household Thorans in red kilts, in the hall outside the study, +fraternizing amicably. They hurried apart and formed two ranks, and the +Thoran officer with them saluted. + +Going into the study, he went to his desk; Count Tammsan lit a cigarette +and puffed nervously, and sat down as though he were afraid the chair +would collapse under him. Prince Travann sank into another chair and +relaxed, closing his eyes. There was a bit of wafer on the floor by +Paul's chair, dropped by the little dog that morning. He stooped and +picked it up, laying it on his desk, and sat looking at it until the +door screen flashed and buzzed. Then he pressed the release button. + +Colonel Handrosan ushered the three University men in ahead of +him--Khane, with a florid, arrogant face that showed worry under the +arrogance; Dandrik, gray-haired and stoop-shouldered, looking irritated; +Faress, young, with a scrubby red mustache, looking bellicose. He +greeted them collectively and invited them to sit, and there was a brief +uncomfortable silence which everybody expected him to break. + +"Well, gentlemen," he said, "we want to get the facts about this affair +in some kind of order. I wish you'd tell me, as briefly and as +completely as possible, what you know about it." + +"There's the man who started it!" Khane declared, pointing at Faress. + +"Professor Faress had nothing to do with it," Colonel Handrosan stated +flatly. "He and his wife were in their apartment, packing to move out, +when it started. Somebody called him and told him about the fighting at +the stadium, and he went there at once to talk his students into +dispersing. By that time, the situation was completely out of hand; he +could do nothing with the students. + +"Well, I think we ought to find out, first of all, why Professor Faress +was dismissed," Prince Travann said. "It will take a good deal to +convince me that any teacher able to inspire such loyalty in his +students is a bad teacher, or deserves dismissal." + +"As I understand," Paul said, "the dismissal was the result of a +disagreement between Professor Faress and Professor Dandrik about an +experiment on which they were working. I believe, an experiment to fix +more exactly the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles. Beta +micropositos, wasn't it, Chancellor Khane?" + +Khane looked at him in surprise. "Your Majesty, I know nothing about +that. Professor Dandrik is head of the physics department; he came to +me, about six months ago, and told me that in his opinion this +experiment was desirable. I simply deferred to his judgment and +authorized it." + +"Your Majesty has just stated the purpose of the experiment," Dandrik +said. "For centuries, there have been inaccuracies in mathematical +descriptions of subnucleonic events, and this experiment was undertaken +in the hope of eliminating these inaccuracies." He went into a lengthy +mathematical explanation. + +"Yes, I understand that, professor. But just what was the actual +experiment, in terms of physical operations?" + + * * * * * + +Dandrik looked helpless for a moment. Faress, who had been choking back +a laugh, interrupted: + +"Your Majesty, we were using the big turbo-linear accelerator to project +fast micropositos down an evacuated tube one kilometer in length, and +clocking them with light, the velocity of which has been established +almost absolutely. I will say that with respect to the light, there were +no observable inaccuracies at any time, and until the micropositos were +accelerated to 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, they registered much +as expected. Beyond that velocity, however, the target for the +micropositos began registering impacts before the source registered +emission, although the light target was still registering normally. I +notified Professor Dandrik about this, and----" + +"You notified him. Wasn't he present at the time?" + +"No, Your Majesty." + +"Your Majesty, I am head of the physics department of the University. I +have too much administrative work to waste time on the technical aspects +of experiments like this," Dandrik interjected. + +"I understand. Professor Faress was actually performing the experiment. +You told Professor Dandrik what had happened. What then?" + +"Why, Your Majesty, he simply declared that the limit of accuracy had +been reached, and ordered the experiment dropped. He then reported the +highest reading before this anticipation effect was observed as the +newly established limit of accuracy in measuring the velocity of +accelerated micropositos, and said nothing whatever in his report about +the anticipation effect." + +"I read a summary of the report. Why, Professor Dandrik, did you omit +mentioning this slightly unusual effect?" + +"Why, because the whole thing was utterly preposterous, that's why!" +Dandrik barked; and then hastily added, "Your Imperial Majesty." He +turned and glared at Faress; professors do not glare at galactic +emperors. "Your Majesty, the limit of accuracy had been reached. After +that, it was only to be expected that the apparatus would give erratic +reports." + +"It might have been expected that the apparatus would stop registering +increased velocity relative to the light-speed standard, or that it +would begin registering disproportionately," Faress said. "But, Your +Majesty, I'll submit that it was not to be expected that it would +register impacts before emissions. And I'll add this. After registering +this slight apparent jump into the future, there was no proportionate +increase in anticipation with further increase of acceleration. I wanted +to find out why. But when Professor Dandrik saw what was happening, he +became almost hysterical, and ordered the accelerator shut down as +though he were afraid it would blow up in his face." + + * * * * * + +"I think it has blown up in his face," Prince Travann said quietly. +"Professor, have you any theory, or supposition, or even any wild guess, +as to how this anticipation effect occurs?" + +"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect that the apparent anticipation is simply +an observational illusion, similar to the illusion of time-reversal +experienced when it was first observed, though not realized, that +positrons sometimes exceeded light-speed." + +"Why, that's what I've been saying all along!" Dandrik broke in. "The +whole thing is an illusion, due----" + +"To having reached the limit of observational accuracy; I understand, +Professor Dandrik. Go on, Professor Faress." + +"I think that beyond 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, the +micropositos ceased to have any velocity at all, velocity being defined +as rate of motion in four-dimensional space-time. I believe they moved +through the three spatial dimensions without moving at all in the +fourth, temporal, dimension. They made that kilometer from source to +target, literally, in nothing flat. Instantaneity." + +That must have been the first time he had actually come out and said it. +Dandrik jumped to his feet with a cry that was just short of being a +shriek. + +"He's crazy! Your Majesty, you mustn't ... that is, well, I +mean--Please, Your Majesty, don't listen to him. He doesn't know what +he's saying. He's raving!" + +"He knows perfectly well what he's saying, and it probably scares him +more than it does you. The difference is that he's willing to face it +and you aren't." + +The difference was that Faress was a scientist and Dandrik was a science +teacher. To Faress, a new door had opened, the first new door in eight +hundred years. To Dandrik, it threatened invalidation of everything he +had taught since the morning he had opened his first class. He could no +longer say to his pupils, "You are here to learn from me." He would have +to say, more humbly, "_We_ are here to learn from the Universe." + +It had happened so many times before, too. The comfortable and +established Universe had fitted all the known facts--and then new facts +had been learned that wouldn't fit it. The third planet of the Sol +system had once been the center of the Universe, and then Terra, and +Sol, and even the galaxy, had been forced to abdicate centricity. The +atom had been indivisible--until somebody divided it. There had been +intangible substance that had permeated the Universe, because it had +been necessary for the transmission of light--until it was demonstrated +to be unnecessary and nonexistent. And the speed of light had been the +ultimate velocity, once, and could be exceeded no more than the atom +could be divided. And light-speed had been constant, regardless of +distance from source, and the Universe, to explain certain observed +phenomena, had been believed to be expanding simultaneously in all +directions. And the things that had happened in psychology, when +psi-phenomena had become too obvious to be shrugged away. + +"And then, when Dr. Dandrik ordered you to drop this experiment, just +when it was becoming interesting, you refused?" + +"Your Majesty, I couldn't stop, not then. But Dr. Dandrik ordered the +apparatus dismantled and scrapped, and I'm afraid I lost my head. Told +him I'd punch his silly old face in, for one thing." + +"You admit that?" Chancellor Khane cried. + +"I think you showed admirable self-restraint in not doing it. Did you +explain to Chancellor Khane the importance of this experiment?" + +"I tried to, Your Majesty, but he simply wouldn't listen." + +"But, Your Majesty!" Khane expostulated. "Professor Dandrik is head of +the department, and one of the foremost physicists of the Empire, and +this young man is only one of the junior assistant-professors. Isn't +even a full professor, and he got his degree from some school away +off-planet. University of Brannerton on Gimli." + +"Were you a pupil of Professor Vann Evaratt?" Prince Travann asked +sharply. + +"Why, yes, sir. I----" + +"Ha, no wonder!" Dandrik crowed. "Your Majesty, that man's an +out-and-out charlatan! He was kicked out of the University here ten +years ago, and I'm surprised he could even get on the faculty of a +school like Brannerton, on a planet like Gimli." + +"Why, you stupid old fool!" Faress yelled at him. "You aren't enough of +a physicist to oil robots in Vann Evaratt's lab!" + +"There, Your Majesty," Khane said. "You see how much respect for +authority this hooligan has!" + +On Aditya, such would be unthinkable; on Aditya, everybody respects +authority. Whether it's respectable or not. + +Count Tammsan laughed, and he realized that he must have spoken aloud. +Nobody else seemed to have gotten the joke. + +"Well, how about the riot, now?" he asked. "Who started that?" + +"Colonel Handrosan made an investigation on the spot," Prince Travann +said. "May I suggest that we hear his report?" + +"Yes indeed. Colonel?" + +Handrosan rose and stood with his hands behind his back, looking fixedly +at the wall behind the desk. + +[Illustration] + +"Your Majesty, the students of Professor Faress' advanced subnuclear +physics class, postgraduate students, all of them, were told of +Professor Faress' dismissal by a faculty member who had taken over the +class this morning. They all got up and walked out in a body, and +gathered outdoors on the campus to discuss the matter. At the next class +break, they were joined by other science students, and they went into +the stadium, where they were joined, half an hour later, by more +students who had learned of the dismissal in the meantime. At no time +was the gathering disorderly. The stadium is covered by a viewscreen +pickup which is fitted with a recording device; there is a complete +audio-visual of the whole thing, including the attack on them by the +campus police. + +"This attack was ordered by Chancellor Khane, at about 1100; the chief +of the campus police was told to clear the stadium, and when he asked if +he was to use force, Chancellor Khane told him to use anything he wanted +to." + +"I did not! I told him to get the students out of the stadium, but----" + +"The chief of campus police carries a personal wire recorder," Handrosan +said, in his flat monotone. "He has a recording of the order, in +Chancellor Khane's own voice. I heard it myself. The police," he +continued, "first tried to use gas, but the wind was against them. They +then tried to use sono-stunners, but the students rushed them and +overwhelmed them. If Your Majesty will permit a personal opinion, while +I do not sympathize with their subsequent attack on the Administration +Center, they were entirely within their rights in defending themselves +in the stadium, and it's hard enough to stop trained and disciplined +troops when they are winning. After defeating the police, they simply +went on by what might be called the momentum of victory." + +"Then you'd say that it's positively established that the students were +behaving in a peacable and orderly manner in the stadium when they were +attacked, and that Chancellor Khane ordered the attack personally?" + +"I would, emphatically, Your Majesty." + +"I think we've done enough here, gentlemen." He turned to Count Tammsan. +"This is, jointly, the affair of Education and Security. I would suggest +that you and Prince Travann join in a formal and public inquiry, and +until all the facts have been established and recorded and action +decided upon, the dismissal of Professor Faress be reversed and he be +restored to his position on the faculty." + +"Yes, Your Majesty," Tammsan agreed. "And I think it would be a good +idea for Chancellor Khane to take a vacation till then, too." + +"I would further suggest that, as this microposito experiment is crucial +to the whole question, it should be repeated. Under the personal +direction of Professor Faress." + +"I agree with that, Your Majesty," Prince Travann said. "If it's as +important as I think it is, Professor Dandrik is greatly to be censured +for ordering it stopped and for failing to report this anticipation +effect." + +"We'll consult about the inquiry, including the experiment, tomorrow, +Your Highness," Tammsan told Travann. + +Paul rose, and everybody rose with him. "That being the case, you +gentlemen are all excused. The students' procession ought to be +arriving, now, and I want to tell them what's going to be done. Prince +Travann, Count Tammsan; do you care to accompany me?" + + * * * * * + +Going up to the central terrace in front of the Octagon Tower, he turned +to Count Tammsan. + +"I notice you laughed at that remark of mine about Aditya," he said. +"Have you met the First Citizen?" + +"Only on screen, sir. He was at me for about an hour, this morning. It +seems that they are reforming the educational system on Aditya. On +Aditya, everything gets reformed every ten years, whether it needs it or +not. He came here to find somebody to take charge of the reformation." + +He stopped short, bringing the others to a halt beside him, and laughed +heartily. + +"Well, we'll send First Citizen Yaggo away happy; we'll make him a +present of the most distinguished educator on Odin." + +"Khane?" Tammsan asked. + +"Khane. Isn't it wonderful; if you have a few problems, you have +trouble, but if you have a whole lot of problems, they start solving +each other. We get a chance to get rid of Khane and create a vacancy +that can be filled by somebody big enough to fill it; the Ministry of +Education gets out from under a nasty situation; First Citizen Yaggo +gets what he thinks he wants----" + +"And if I know Khane and if I know the People's Commonwealth of Aditya, +it won't be a year before Yaggo has Khane shot or stuffs him into jail, +and then the Space Navy will have an excuse to visit Aditya, and +Aditya'll never be the same afterward," Prince Travann added. + +The students massed on the front lawns were still cheering as they went +down after addressing them. The Security Guards were conspicuously +absent and it was a detail of red-kilted Thoran riflemen who met them as +they entered the hall to the Session Chamber. Prince Ganzay approached, +attended by two Household Guard officers, a human and a Thoran. Count +Tammsan looked from one to the other of his companions, bewildered. The +bewildering thing was that everything was as it should be. + +"Well, gentlemen," Paul said, "I'm sure that both of you will want to +confer for a moment with your colleagues in the Rotunda before the +Session. Please don't feel obliged to attend me further." + +Prince Ganzay approached as they went down the hall. "Your Majesty, what +_is_ going on here?" he demanded querulously. "Just who is in control of +the Palace--you or Prince Travann? And where is His Imperial Highness, +and where is General Dorflay?" + +"I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik's picnic party. If you're upset +about this, you can imagine what he might have done here." + +Prince Ganzay looked at him curiously for a moment. "I thought I +understood what was happening," he said. "Now I---- This business about +the students, sir; how did it come out?" + +Paul told him. They talked for a while, and then the Prime Minister +looked at his watch, and suggested that the Session ought to be getting +started. Paul nodded, and they went down the hall and into the Rotunda. + +The big semicircular lobby was empty, now, except for a platoon of +Household Guards, and the Empress Marris and her ladies-in-waiting. She +advanced as quickly as her sheath gown would permit, and took his arm; +the ladies-in-waiting fell in behind her, and Prince Ganzay went ahead, +crying: "My Lords, Your Venerable Highnesses, gentlemen; His Imperial +Majesty!" + +Marris tightened her grip on his arm as they started forward. "Paul!" +she hissed into his ear. "What is this silly story about Yorn Travann +trying to seize the Throne?" + +"Isn't it? Yorn's been too close the Throne for too long not to know +what sort of a seat it is. He'd commit any crime up to and including +genocide to keep off it." + +She gave a quick skip to get into step with him. "Then why's he filled +the Palace with these blackcoats? Is Rod all right?" + +"Perfectly all right; he's somewhere out in the mountains, keeping Harv +Dorflay out of mischief." + + * * * * * + +They crossed the Session Hall and took their seats on the double throne; +everybody sat down, and the Prime Minister, after some formalities, +declared the Plenary Session in being. Almost at once, one of the +Prince-Counselors was on his feet begging His Majesty's leave to +interrogate the Government. + +"I wish to ask His Highness the Minister of Security the meaning of all +this unprecedented disturbance, both here in the Palace and in the +city," he said. + +Prince Travann rose at once. "Your Majesty, in reply to the question of +His Venerable Highness," he began, and then launched himself into an +account of the student riot, the march to petition the emperor, and the +clash with the nonworking class hooligans. "As to the affair at the +University, I hesitate to speak on what is really the concern of His +Lordship the Minister of Education, but as to the fighting in the city, +if it is still going on, I can assure His Venerable Highness that the +Gendarmes and Security Guards have it well in hand; the persons +responsible are being rounded up, and, if the Minister of Justice +concurs, an inquiry will be started tomorrow." + +The Minister of Justice assured the Minister of Security that his +Ministry would be quite ready to co-operate in the inquiry. Count +Tammsan then got up and began talking about the riot at the University. + +"What did happen, Paul?" Marris whispered. + +"Chancellor Khane sacked a science professor for being too interested in +science. The students didn't like it. I think Khane's successor will +rectify that. Have a good time at the Flower Festivals?" + +She raised her fan to hide a grimace. "I made my schedule," she said. +"Tomorrow, I have fifty more booked." + +"Your Imperial Majesty!" The Counselor who had risen paused, to make +sure that he had the Imperial attention, before continuing: "Inasmuch as +this question also seems to involve a scientific experiment, I would +suggest that the Ministry of Science and Technology is also interested +and since there is at present no Minister holding that portfolio, I +would suggest that the discussion be continued after a Minister has been +elected." + +The Minister of Health and Sanity jumped to his feet. + +"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of His +Venerable Highness, and to extend it with the subproposal that the +Ministry of Science and Technology be abolished, and its functions and +personnel divided among the other Ministries, specifically those of +Education and of Economics." + +The Minister of Fine Arts was up before he was fully seated. + +"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of Count +Guilfred, and to extend it further with the proposal that the Ministry +of Defense, now also vacant, be likewise abolished, and its functions +and personnel added to the Ministry of Security under His Highness +Prince Travann." + +So that was it! Marris, beside him, said, "Well!" He had long ago +discovered that she could pack more meaning into that monosyllable than +the average counselor could into a half-hour's speech. Prince Ganzay was +thunderstruck, and from the Bench of Counselors six or eight voices were +babbling loudly at once. Four Ministers were on their feet clamoring for +recognition; Count Duklass of Economics was yelling the loudest, so he +got it. + + * * * * * + +"Your Imperial Majesty; it would have been most unseemly in me to have +spoken in favor of the proposal of Count Guilfred, being an interested +party, but I feel no such hesitation in concurring with the proposal of +Baron Garatt, the Minister of Fine Arts. Indeed, I consider it a most +excellent proposal----" + +"And I consider it the most diabolically dangerous proposal to be made +in this Hall in the last six centuries!" old Admiral Gaklar shouted. +"This is a proposal to concentrate all the armed force of the Empire in +the hands of one man. Who can say what unscrupulous use might be made of +such power?" + +"Are you intimating, Prince-Counselor, that Prince Travann is +contemplating some tyrannical or subversive use of such power?" Count +Tammsan, of all people, demanded. + +There was a concerted gasp at that; about half the Plenary Session were +absolutely sure that he was. Admiral Geklar backed quickly away from the +question. + +"Prince Travann will not be the last Minister of Security," he said. + +"What I was about to say, Your Majesty, is that as matters stand, +Security has a virtual monopoly on armed power on this planet. When +these disorders in the city--which Prince Travann's men are now bringing +under control--broke out, there was, I am informed, an order sent out to +bring Regular Army and Planetary Militia into Asgard. It will be hours +before any of the former can arrive, and at least a day before the +latter can even be mobilized. By the time any of them get here, there +will be nothing for them to do. Is that not correct, Prince Ganzay?" + +The Prime Minister looked at him angrily, stung by the realization that +somebody else had a personal intelligence service as good as his own, +then swallowed his anger and assented. + +"Furthermore," Count Duklass continued, "the Ministry of Defense, +itself, is an anachronism, which no doubt accounts for the condition in +which we now find it. The Empire has no external enemies whatever; all +our defense problems are problems of internal security. Let us therefore +turn the facilities over to the Ministry responsible for the tasks." + +The debate went on and on; he paid less and less attention to it, and it +became increasingly obvious that opposition to the proposition was +dwindling. Cries of, "Vote! Vote!" began to be heard from its +supporters. Prince Ganzay rose from his desk and came to the throne. + +"Your Imperial Majesty," he said softly. "I am opposed to this +proposition, but I am convinced that enough favor it to pass it, even +over Your Majesty's veto. Before the vote is called, does Your Majesty +wish my resignation?" + +He rose and stepped down beside the Prime Minister, putting an arm over +Prince Ganzay's shoulder. + +"Far from it, old friend," he said, in a distinctly audible voice. "I +will have too much need for you. But, as for the proposal, I don't +oppose it. I think it an excellent one; it has my approval." He lowered +his voice. "As soon as it's passed, place General Dorflay's name in +nomination." + +The Prime Minister looked at him sadly for a moment, then nodded, +returning to his desk, where he rapped for order and called for the +vote. + +"Well, if you can't lick them, join them," Marris said as he sat down +beside her. "And if they start chasing you, just yell, 'There he goes; +follow me!'" + +The proposal carried, almost unanimously. Prince Ganzay then presented +the name of Captain-General Dorflay for elevation to the Bench of +Counselors, and the emperor decreed it. As soon as the Session was +adjourned and he could do so, he slipped out the little door behind the +throne, into an elevator. + + * * * * * + +In the room at the top of the Octagon Tower, he laid aside his belt and +dress dagger and unfastened his tunic, than sat down in his deep chair +and called a serving robot. It was the one which had brought him his +breakfast, and he greeted it as a friend; it lit a cigarette for him, +and poured a drink of brandy. For a long time he sat, smoking and +sipping and looking out the wide window to the west, where the orange +sun was firing the clouds behind the mountains, and he realized that he +was abominably tired. Well, no wonder; more Empire history had been made +today than in the years since he had come to the Throne. + +Then something behind him clicked. He turned his head, to see Yorn +Travann emerge from the concealed elevator. He grinned and lifted his +drink in greeting. + +"I thought you'd be a little late," he said. "Everybody trying to climb +onto the bandwagon?" + +Yorn Travann came forward, unbuckling his belt and laying it with +Paul's; he sank into the chair opposite, and the robot poured him a +drink. + +"Well, do you blame them? What would it have looked like to you, in +their place?" + +"A _coup d'etat_. For that matter, wasn't that what it was? Why didn't +you tell me you were springing it?" + +"I didn't spring it; it was sprung on me. I didn't know a thing about it +till Max Duklass buttonholed me down by the landing stage. I'd intended +fighting this proposal to partition Science and Technology, but this +riot blew up and scared Duklass and Tammsan and Guilfred and the rest of +them. They weren't too sure of their majority--that's why they had the +election postponed a couple of times--but they were sure that the riot +would turn some of the undecided Counselors against them. So they +offered to back me to take over Defense in exchange for my supporting +their proposal. It looked too good to pass up." + +"Even at the price of wrecking Science and Technology?" + +"It was wrecked, or left to rust into uselessness, long ago. The main +function of Technology has been to suppress anything that might threaten +this state of economic _rigor mortis_ that Duklass calls stability, and +the function of Science has been to let muttonheads like Khane and +Dandrik dominate the teaching of science. Well, Defense has its own +scientific and technical sections, and when we come to carving the bird, +Duklass and Tammsan are going to see a lot of slices going onto my +plate." + +"And when it's all cut up, it will be discovered that there is no +provision for original research. So it will please My Majesty to +institute an Imperial Office of Scientific Research, independent of any +Ministry, and guess who'll be named to head it." + +"Faress. And, by the way, we're all set on Khane, too. First Citizen +Yaggo is as delighted to have him as we are to get rid of him. Why don't +we get Vann Evaratt back, and give him the job?" + +"Good. If he takes charge there at the opening of the next academic +year, in ten years we'll have a thousand young men, maybe ten times that +many, who won't be afraid of new things and new ideas. But the main +thing is that now you have Defense, and now the plan can really start +firing all jets." + +"Yes." Yorn Travann got out his cigarettes and lit one. Paul glanced at +the robot, hoping that its feelings hadn't been hurt. "All these native +uprisings I've been blowing up out of inter-tribal knife fights, and all +these civil wars my people have been manufacturing; there'll be more of +them, and I'll start yelling my head off for an adequate Space Navy, and +after we get it, these local troubles will all stop, and then what'll we +be expected to do? Scrap the ships?" + +They both knew what would be done with some of them. It would have to be +done stealthily, while nobody was looking, but some of those ships would +go far beyond the boundaries of the Empire, and new things would happen. +New worlds, new problems. Great and frightening changes. + +"Paul, we agreed upon this long ago, when we were still boys at the +University. The Empire stopped growing, and when things stop growing, +they start dying, the death of petrifaction. And when petrifaction is +complete, the cracking and the crumbling starts, and there's no way of +stopping it. But if we can get people out onto new planets, the Empire +won't die; it'll start growing again." + +"You didn't start that thing at the University, this morning, yourself, +did you?" + +"Not the student riot, no. But the hooligan attack, yes. That was some +of my own men. The real hooligans began looting after Handrosan had +gotten the students out of the district. We collared all of them, +including their boss, Nutchy the Knife, right away, and as soon as we +did that, Big Moogie and Zikko the Nose tried to move in. We're cleaning +them up now. By tomorrow morning there won't be one of these nonworkers' +voting blocks left in Asgard, and by the end of the week they'll be +cleaned up all over Odin. I have discovered a plot, and they're all +involved in it." + +"Wait a moment." Paul got to his feet. "That reminds me; Harv Dorflay's +hiding Rod and Olva out in the mountains. I wanted him out of here while +things were happening. I'll have to call him and tell him it's safe to +come in, now." + +"Well, zip up your tunic and put your dagger on; you look as though +you'd been arrested, disarmed and searched." + +"That's right." He hastily repaired his appearance and went to the +screen across the room, punching out the combination of the screen with +Rodrik's picnic party. + + * * * * * + +A young lieutenant of the Household Troops appeared in it, and had to be +reassured. He got General Dorflay. + +"Your Majesty! You are all right?" + +"Perfectly all right, general, and it's quite safe to bring His Imperial +Highness in. The conspiracy against the Throne has been crushed." + +"Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince Travann a prisoner?" + +"Quite the contrary, general. It was our loyal and devoted subject, +Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy." + +"But--But, Your Majesty----!" + +"You aren't to be blamed for suspecting him, general. His agents were +working in the very innermost councils of the conspirators. Every one of +the people whom you suspected--with excellent reason--was actually +working to defeat the plot. Think back, general; the scheme to put the +gun in the viewscreen, the scheme to sabotage the elevator, the scheme +to introduce assassins into the orchestra with guns built into their +trumpets--every one came to your notice because of what seemed to be +some indiscretion of the plotters, didn't it?" + +"Why ... why, yes, Your Majesty!" By this time tomorrow, he would have a +complete set of memories for each one of them. "You mean, the +indiscretions were deliberate?" + +"Your vigilance and loyalty made it necessary for them to resort to +these fantastic expedients, and your vigilance defeated them as fast as +they came to your notice. Well, today, Prince Travann and I struck back. +I may tell you, in confidence, that every one of the conspirators is +dead. Killed in this afternoon's rioting--which was incited for that +purpose by Prince Travann." + +"Then---- Then there will be no more plots against your life?" There was +a note of regret in the old man's voice. + +"No more, Your Venerable Highness." + +"But---- What did Your Majesty call me?" he asked incredulously. + +"I took the honor of being the first to address you by your new title, +Prince-Counselor Dorflay." + +He left the old man overcome, and blubbering happily on the shoulder of +the Crown Prince, who winked at his father out of the screen. Prince +Travann had gotten a couple of fresh drinks from the robot and handed +one to him when he returned to his chair. + +"He'll be finding the Bench of Counselors riddled with treason inside a +week," Travann said. "You handled that just right, though. Another case +of making problems solve each other." + +"You were telling me about a plot you'd discovered." + +"Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay's best efforts. All the voting-bloc +bosses on Odin are in a conspiracy to start a civil war to give them a +chance to loot the planet. There isn't a word of truth in it, of course, +but it'll do to arrest and hold them for a few days, and by that time +some of my undercovers will be in control of every nonworker vote on the +planet. After all, the Cartels put an end to competition in every other +business; why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, whenever there's an +election, we just advertise for bids." + +"Why, that would mean absolute control----" + +"Of the nonworking vote, yes. And I'll guarantee, personally, that in +five years the politics of Odin will have become so unbearably corrupt +and abusive that the intellectuals, the technicians, the business +people, even the nobility, will be flocking to the polls to vote, and if +only half of them turn out, they'll snow the nonworkers under. And +that'll mean, eventually, an end to vote-selling, and the nonworkers'll +have to find work. We'll find it for them." + +"Great and frightening changes." Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized the +phrase. Probably started it himself. Paul lifted his glass. "To the +Minister of Disturbance!" + +"Your Majesty!" They drank to each other, and then Yorn Travann said, +"We had a lot of wild dreams, when we were boys; it looks as though +we're starting to make some of them come true. You know, when we were in +the University, the students would never have done what they did today. +They didn't even do it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt was dismissed." + +"And Van Evaratt's pupil came back to Odin and touched this whole thing +off." He thought for a moment. "I wonder what Faress has, in that +anticipation effect." + +"I think I can see what can come out of it. If he can propagate a wave +that behaves like those micropositos, we may not have to depend on ships +for communication. We may be able, some day, to screen Baldur or Vishnu +or Aton or Thor as easily as you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains." +He thought silently for a moment. "I don't know whether that would be +good or bad. But it would be new, and that's what matters. That's the +only thing that matters." + +"Flower Festivals," Paul said, and, when Yorn Travann wanted to know +what he meant, he told him. "When Princess Olva's Empress, she's going +to curse the name of Klenn Faress. Flower Festivals, all around the +galaxy, without end." + + +THE END + + ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's Note & Errata | +| | +| There were 2 instances of 'cooking-robot' and one of | +| 'cooking robot' | +| | +| There was one instance of 'patriarchial' which was not | +| corrected. | +| | +| The following typographical errors were corrected: | +| | +| Page Error Correction | +| | +| 15 attion attention | +| 19 Ranuf's Ranulf's | +| 25 Tammsen Tammsan | +| 29 rerespectable respectable | +| 33 student's students | +| 34 Geklar Gaklar | +| 34 tyranical tyrannical | +| 36 Duklas Duklass | ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ministry of Disturbance, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINISTRY OF DISTURBANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 20659.txt or 20659.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20659/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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