same thing with the officers and men of the Fifth. He didn't tell them everything he had in mind, he couldn't, but he expected their loyalty nevertheless and he got it, just as Ferdias got his.
Ferdias was saying, “There's a big celebration coming up on Earth soon. The two-hundredth anniversary of the first space-flight from Earth. It means a lot to them, and the UW council invited me to send an official delegation to represent Lyra Sector.'
'So?'
'So I'm sending you.'
'Birrel stared. “Me — to Earth? But what can I do if—'
Ferdias interrupted. “The Fifth Squadron will go with you, Jay. To take part in the commemoration, the flyover.'
Now Birrel began to understand. “Then if Solleremos tries anything, the Fifth will be there waiting for him?'
'Exactly.” Ferdias spoke the word like a wolf-snap. I know Solleremos’ intentions. I know about when he plans his grab for Earth. Earth can't stop him, not with the small UW forces. But if the Fifth Lyra happens to be on Earth right then, it won't be so easy for him.'
Birrel felt a little stunned. Fighting the hidden border wars of the rival governors was one thing. That went on under cover, and, if a ship didn't come back from the marches of little-known space, it was officially listed as lost by accident. But a full-fledged struggle between Sectors, if it erupted back there at Earth, was quite another thing. It could rock the civilized galaxy…
Ferdias was going on matter-of-factly. “You'll take off five days from now. You'll take full supply auxiliaries and transports.'
Birrel looked up sharply. Transports meant the families of all personnel would accompany the squadron, and that was a thing they never did unless the Fifth was making a rotational transfer to a completely different base.
Ferdias smiled. “It's got to look peaceful, Jay, a friendly, peaceful gesture to the commemoration. That's why the transports go.'
Birrel nodded, understanding now. If anyone claimed that the Fifth was going to Earth for military reasons, the fact that they were hampered with transports and dependents would argue eloquently the other way. It was a fine cover-up, shrewd planning. Yet the fact remained that they would be hampered, and he did not quite like the idea of Lyllin going into possible trouble.
He asked Ferdias, “When we get to Earth — besides taking part in that celebration, what? What, definitely, are my orders?'
Ferdias said, “Go and look up your ancestral home.'
'My what?'
'Ancestral home. Place where the Birrels came from, on Earth. I had it searched out, and it's still standing. It's in Orville, a place near the city New York. It's the most natural thing in the world that you should go and visit it while you're there.'
Birrel began to get it. “I'm to contact somebody there, for orders?'
Ferdias nodded. “Karsh.'
Instantly, hearing that name, Birrel revised his conception of the scale and importance of this thing. He had only met Karsh a very few times, but he knew how important the gray, colorless little man was to Ferdias in the secret struggle between the Sectors. Like Tauncer, he was a stormy petrel whose presence usually meant big trouble.
'Karsh is on Earth?'
'Yes, Jay. He's been there for months. He bought this old house I speak of and he'll be waiting there for you. His estimate of the situation will govern your orders.'
'But if Orion—'
'Don't worry,” Ferdias interrupted. “You'll get warning if Solleremos moves on Earth. But Jay, one more thing.'
'Yes?'
'The Fifth goes to Earth for an official courtesy visit. You're not to tell more than that to anyone. Anyone.'
He repeated the word without any emphasis at all, but when Ferdias repeated something, that was emphasis enough.
Birrel, as the flitter took him back across the city, hardly saw the brilliant capital flashing by beneath. He did not like this mission at all.
He wondered whether Ferdias had thought that the whole thing might be just another clever feint by Orion, and that, with the Fifth at faraway Earth, the strongest sword and shield of Lyra would be gone.
CHAPTER 5
The blue sun was touching the dark hills above the old part of the city, and the sky was flooded with a purple dusk when Birrel came home. His house was a fluently curved, white glimmer, behind which the flitter landed him. He went eagerly through the rooms, all cool and bare in the Vegan manner, but there was no one in them.
Lyllin had chosen to wait for him out on the terrace that looked across the soft lights of Vega City. She came toward him. She was all Vegan and looked it, her flesh showed pale as new gold, with the darker masses of her hair picking up the same tint and turning it to copper. She was dressed in the fashion of her own people, in a chiton so mistily transparent that her fine, slender body seemed to be draped in a bit of the deepening twilight itself.
He held her for a time before he told her his news. He was surprised that it did not seem to make her happy.
'To Earth?” she murmured. “Just for the space-flight anniversary? It's so strange—'
'But this time you'll be with me,” he said. “Not on the voyage — you'll ride transport, of course — but on Earth, all the time I'm there.'
'How long will that be, Jay?'
He did not know, and said so. He felt guilty not to be telling her the whole truth, but he knew Ferdias well enough to know that when he said “anyone” that included everyone.
Lyllin's face had shadowed subtly, but now she smiled brilliantly and said, “Can I get you a drink.'
He sat with her for a while on the terrace, watching the night come on. The lights of the city went far away and, in the distance, the great, black ranges shouldered against the stars. There was a buzz and drone of flitters in the sky. He liked this world, this place, best of all the places where he had based.
After a time he went in and called his Vice-Commander. Brescnik's face looked irritated, in the instrument.
'Yes, I got an order on it a little while ago. We'll have to work damned fast to have transports and all ready by that time. A real bright thing, making all this trouble for a celebration.'
'What's the matter with you?” Birrel asked. “Haven't yon got any reverence for the anniversary of star- flight?'
Brescnik answered that in some short and pungent monosyllables, and Birrel grinned.
'All right, you've made yourself clear. I didn't dream this thing up. Just make sure to get things started at the base right away. I'll be over tomorrow.'
He went back out to the terrace where Lyllin was still sitting looking up at the star-groups. She had been very quiet, but she had a way of silence, and he did not find that strange.
'Brescnik is burning,” he told her. “Let him sweat. What's the use of having rank if you can't use it to pass some of the dirty work off onto someone else?'
She looked up at him and said, “I shall hate it at Earth.'
Birrel was surprised and shocked. He had been married to her all these three years now and yet he had never got used to the way she would bring unexpected things out of her silence.
'Why in the world—” he started to say. Then he said impatiently, “Lyllin, that's ridiculous. You've never seen
