Doomstar

'Primitive people,' Kettrick was muttering. 'People with no science, with a lot of superstition, and no knowledge of anything in the whole wide universe outside their own villages. It would be easy to use them, easy to frighten them and make them feel important at the same time. They're all human, they're all greedy little thieves, every one of them with something in his mind he'd like to have without really going to any trouble to get it. Seri promises to give them what they want, threatens to destroy them if they don't help and promises them safety if they do…'The Doomstar will never shine for us,' Nillaine said…and all they have to do is keep a small thing safe for him until he wants it.'

'Pride,' said Glevan. 'That is the great sin. They feel that they are godlike with the power to destroy.'

'Very likely,' said Hurth sourly. 'I take more pleasure in creating, and better for them if they did too, but that's all by the way. The thing is now, what are we going to do about it?'

A silence fell, accentuated by the drone-whine-clack of the ship. They looked at each other, their eyes oddly glistening in the sickly light.

'I mean,' said Hurth, 'like you said, Johnny, he's going somewhere with that thing, and there could be only one reason. They're going to use…'

'Whoever they are,' said Boker.

'Well, we know one of them, Seri Otku, and he's going to use it. So what do we do? Mix in or stay out? Me, I'm scared. Who knows, we could come out of jump by Thwayn and find it's already poisoned.'

'You could go anywhere and find that,' said Boker. He paced up and down the cramped floor, runnels of sweat creeping down his chest and back. 'Maybe we ought to go back to Tananaru. What do you think, Johnny? We could tell somebody there about it and let them do the worrying.'

Kettrick had been wrestling with the same problem. It was not possible just to send a message from where they were to, say, Sekma. There was no communication at all in jump, and out of jump it took too long, even at the speed of light. By the time the message got there it would be out of date by several years. Communication between the Cluster systems was carried on by fast ships which moved in a constant stream between the worlds that had use for them. A world like Gurra or Thwayn, on the other hand, which had few or no messages to send, depended on traders to carry what mail they had. There had not been any other traders at Gurra; they had radiochecked with the still primitive but growing spaceport in the western hemisphere, because Kettrick had had some idea of trying to get a message back.

So it might be better to return to Tananaru, find Sekma or someone else in authority…

Then he shook his head. 'It would take too long. There wouldn't be any chance then of stopping Seri. Even with fast I–C ships, he'd have had too big a start, and anyway we don't know where he's going, for sure. I think we've got to try and keep track…'

'Thwayn, Kirnanoc, Trace. It could be any of those systems,' Boker said, and shuddered. 'God. All those planets.'

'It wouldn't have to be any of them,' Kettrick said. 'We only know where he said he was going when he posted his i-t.'

Hurth said, 'But he has to follow it! Or the I–C will damn well want to know why.'

'The I–C?' said Kettrick. ' 'After it's over,' there won't be any I–C.'

'That's right,' muttered Hurth, more shaken than he had been at the thought of any other change. And Glevan observed that they were armed with a mighty power.

'We have one advantage, maybe,' Kettrick said. 'Seri doesn't know we're following him…assuming that we are, of course. He doesn't even know I'm alive. And no wonder he didn't want me meddling around! If the I–C had caught on to me and started investigating him…' Kettrick groaned. 'Oh, lord, if they only had! Well…'

Boker had stopped his pacing. They were all looking at him curiously. Suddenly he began to laugh.

'Sekma,' he said. 'What a bargain he made! Straight as an arrow to the mark I fly, without even trying, and he doesn't know it, and I can't tell him.'

Boker said politely, 'Sekma, Johnny? I think I lost you somewhere.'

'No you didn't. It's just a side issue, that didn't seem important until now.'

He told them about Sekma, being now sure that they had nothing to do with the Doomstar. As though he had ever believed they might have, but who would have thought it of Whellan or Nillaine?

They listened. When he was all through, Boker said, 'Sekma knew you were back in the Cluster, he sent you back himself, and you still intended to go to the White Sun?'

'I did? That's one reason why I wasn't too unhappy about dropping out of sight there, after the explosion. I didn't report to Sekma. He doesn't know I'm alive either.'

It was Kettrick's turn now to pace. He could feel them watching him, feel the temperature rising.

'You've got a right to be sore,' he said. 'And I am in a mood to heap dust on my own head. I didn't believe in the Doomstar. I thought I could use Sekma while he was using me, get back to the Cluster, get my license reinstated, and pick off that million credits at the White Sun, all at the same time. And I could have done it. I could still do it. Except…'

He turned to face them. 'Except the damned thing's real. And I'm scared, and I'd just as soon run back to Tananaru and take the first ship out of there for Earth. Only trouble with that is, I can't.'

'Why not, Johnny?' asked Boker.

'Two reasons. Seri and the White Sun. In that order. I can't make you go on with me, I can't even ask you to. But I'll make a deal with you to take me on to Kirnanoc. I can get another ship there…'

'Seri,' repeated Boker. 'And the White Sun?'

'Why not?'

'But Seri first.'

'Naturally. If I don't stop him it'll be because I'm dead, in which case I won't have any use for a million credits.' Kettrick found suddenly that he was shouting in a most melodramatic and undignified fashion. 'He made a jackass out of me! A complete jackass. He murdered Khitu. He tried to murder me and Chai. Now he's on his way to murder a solar system, using my friends to help him, using my name to ruin, poison…' He was running out of breath. 'Anyway, after I'm through with Seri, I might as well go out and see the Krinn. Why not?'

'You're an optimist, Johnny,' Boker said. 'Or maybe just a jackass. You talk about stopping Seri, as though that's an end to it. That's like saying you'll just take one little step out the airlock door. Seri's only a piece of it. You don't know how big the whole thing is, how many people, how much force. You think you can handle all that? You think we can handle all that?'

Kettrick did not answer. It was Hurth who said, very unhappily, 'It looks like we're stuck to try.'

Boker looked at him. Then he looked at Glevan.

'It will be a worthy battle,' Glevan said, and grinned, a grimace of frightening solemnity. 'We'll lose, of course. But proudly. That's the thing.'

'Sure,' said Boker, and shook a drop of sweat off the end of his broad nose. 'Sure, that's the thing. Well, and so. How do you see this, Johnny? How will it go?'

Kettrick swore. 'I don't know any more than you do. All I know is that Seri has a piece of the thing and is taking it somewhere. Maybe he'll pick up more pieces along the way. Maybe if we could just catch up with Seri we could stop the whole thing by taking, or destroying, the pieces he has, assuming that each piece is vital to the operation of the whole.' He started to pace again, restless with thinking, and Chai watched him from the corner where she sprawled and panted, her large eyes dark and troubled. 'If we could catch up with him… Starbird's faster than Grellah, but miracles do happen…'

'Aye,' said Glevan, 'to some. Not to old, rusty, battered ships. They do not turn into space hawks.'

He rose and left the bridgeroom.

'At Kirnanoc,' said Kettrick, 'there's an I–C office. We could get help there. We certainly could get help there.'

Boker brightened. So did Hurth. 'Yes.' they said. 'Of course.'

'Well, then,' said Kettrick. He sat down. Then he sprang up again. 'What the devil's going on?'

The whine-drone-clack had changed pitch slightly. An unpleasant small quiver ran through the fabric of the ship. Boker sprang to his feet and roared into the intercom.

'Glevan! If you blow that unit, I'll hunt you down through all the halls of hell…!'