Return to the Stars

He had noted the curious gaze that the throng below had directed against himself. They were wondering, he knew, why an untitled Earthman should accompany an emperor.

He said now, 'I feel I should have stayed with Korkhann. He was pretty badly shaken.'

'My own guards are watching over him,' said Jhal Arn. 'He'll be here soon for the meeting. And there's someone else I've sent for, whom I think you'll remember, Gordon.'

Presently a man entered the chambers. He wore the uniform of a captain in the imperial space-fleet, and he was a big, burly man with bristling black hair and a craggy, copper-colored face. At sight of him, Gordon leaped to his feet.

'Hull Burrel!'

The big officer looked at him puzzledly 'I can't remember that we've met...'

Gordon sank back into his chair. Of course Hull didn't recognize him. To both his best friend and the woman he loved he was a stranger. He felt bitterness at the impossible situation he had put himself in when he came to this age in his own physical body.

'Captain Burrel,' said Jhal Arn. 'Do you remember that when the League of the Dark Worlds attacked the empire, and attempted assassination had already stricken me down, so that my brother acted as ruling regent in that crisis?'

A glow came onto Hull Burrel battered coppery face. 'Am I likely to forget it, Highness? It was Prince Zarth Arn we followed when we smashed the League, in that last battle of Deneb!'

Jhal Arn went on. 'When Shorr Kan sent the armadas of the League to attack us, he broadcast a galaxy-wide propaganda message. I want you to see a tape of part of that.'

As Zarth Arn touched a button beside his chair, against an opposite wall appeared a sterovision picture of lifelike vividness. The picture was of a man speaking. Gordon tensed in his chair. The man was tall and broad- shouldered, his black hair clipped short, his eyes keen and flashing. His voice cut like a sword blade, and the whole impact of that ruthless, amoral, mocking personality came through even in this reproduction.

'Shorr Kan,' whispered Gordon.

He was not likely to forget the dictator of the League, the utterly cynical, utterly capable leader with whom Gordon had struggled for the fact of kingdoms.

'Listen.' said Jhal Arn.

And Gordon heard it again and seemed transported back to that terrible moment. Shorr Kan was saying, 'The Empire's regent, Zarth Arn, is not really Zarth Arn at all... he is an impostor masquerading as Zarth Arn. Star-kings and barons, do not follow this imposter to defeat and doom!'

The sterovision scene vanished. Hull Burrel turned, looking puzzled, and said, 'I remember that, Highness. His accusation was so ridiculous that no one paid any attention to it.'

'The accusation was true.' Jhal Arn said flatly.

Hull Burrel stared at his sovereign with incredulity written large on his face. He started to speak, then thought better of it. He looked at Zarth Arn.

Zarth Arn smiled. 'Yes. Shorr Kan spoke the truth. Few know it, but in past years I used scientific means to exchange minds with men of other worlds and times. One such experiment was with the man beside you... John Gordon of Earth. It was Gordon, in my body, who was regent of the Empire at the moment of crisis. And Shorr Kan had found it out.'

He touched a control again and said, 'You'll remember that after the League fleet was smashed, the men of the Dark Worlds admitted defeat and asked for truce. This was their telestero message of surrender, which you've seen before.'

Another scene flashed into existence against the wall, one that was etched forever in Gordon's memory. In a room of Shorr Kan's palace appeared a group of wild-looking men, and one of them spoke hoarsely.

'The Dark Worlds agree to surrender on your terms, Prince Zarth! Shorr Kan's tyranny is overthrown. When he refused to surrender, we rose in rebellion against him. I can prove that by letting you see him. He is dying.'

The scene switched abruptly to another room of the palace. Behind a desk sat Shorr Kan. Men around him had their weapons trained on him, and his face was marble-white as he clutched at a blackened wound in his side. His dulled eyes cleared for a moment and he grinned weakly.

'You win,' he said. 'Devil of a way to end up, isn't it? But I'm not complaining. I had one life and used it to the limit. You're the same way, at bottom.' His voice trailed to a whisper. 'Maybe I'm a throwback to your world, Gordon? Born out of my time? Maybe...'

And he sprawled forward across his desk and lay still, and one of the grim-faced men bent to examine him and then said, 'He's dead. Better for the Dark Worlds if he'd never been born.'

The reproduced scene snapped out. After a moment of stunned silence, Hull Burrel spoke in a voice that echoed his stupefaction.

'I remember that. I couldn't understand what he meant by addressing Prince Zarth as 'Gordon.' None of us could.' He swung around until his dazed eyes stared into Gordon's face. 'Then you were the one who was with me in that struggle? You... the one who defeated Shorr Kan?'

Zarth Arn nodded. 'It is so.'

Gordon drew a long breath, and then he held out his hand and said, 'Hello, Hull.'

The Antarian... for Hull Burrel was a native of a world of Antares... continued to stare dumbly, then seized Gordon's hand and began to babble excitedly. He was cut short by the entrance of Korkhann.

To a question from Jhal Arn, Korkhann answered, 'Yes, Highness, I am quite recovered.'

Gordon doubted that. The yellow eyes were haunted, and there was a fear in the beaked face he had not seen there before.

'The palace has been searched and no trace of this mysterious attacker has been found,' Jhal Arn was saying. 'Tell us exactly what happened.'

Korkhann's voice dropped to a whisper. 'There's little I can tell. It was the same sensation of overwhelming mental impact I felt at Teyn, but stronger, more irresistible. I could not fight it this time, not even for a second. I knew nothing, then, until Gordon's shouting and shaking of me brought me back to consciousness. But... I believe that while I was held in that grip, my mind was being examined, all my memories and knowledge ransacked, by a telepath compared to whom I am as a child.'

Jhal Arn leaned forward. 'Tell me, when this power seized you, was there a sensation as of mental cold?'

Korkhann looked astonished. 'How could you guess that, Highness?'

Jhal Arn did not answer, but between him and his brother flashed a look that was grim and somber.

A chamberlain entered the room, announcing dignitaries whom Jhal Arn greeted with formal protocol. Gordon, hearing the names of some and recognizing others, felt a sharp wonder.

No fewer than three star-kings had come to this secret meeting... young Sath Shamar of Polaris, the aging long-regent of Cassiopeia, and the dark, crafty-looking sovereign of the Kingdom of Cepheus. There were chancellors of two other kingdoms present, and also one of the mightiest of the powerful Hercules Barons, Jon Ollen. His domain stretched so far from the Cluster to the edge of the Marches that it was actually bigger than some of the smaller kingdoms.

He now looked like a worried man, his cadaverous face gloomy in expression. Gordon remembered his galactography well enough to realize that every realm represented here lay near the Marches of Outer Space.

Jhal Arn began without preamble. 'You've all heard the rumors that certain of the counts of the Marches are preparing some mysterious and dangerous aggression. It threatens all of you but first it threatens Fomalhaut, which is why Korkhann and my friend John Gordon have come here.'

Jhal Arn emphasized the word 'friend,' and the men who had ignored Gordon until this moment, glanced at him sharply.

Jhal Arn went on, 'Tell them what happened at Teyn, Korkhann.'

Korkhann told them. When he finished, there was a silence. Then young Sath Shamar said troubledly, 'Of mysterious cowled strangers we have heard nothing. But lately the counts of the Marches have become highhanded with us at Polaris, and have threatened us with powers they say could destroy us.'

The tight-faced ruler of Cepheus added nothing, but the old regent of Cassiopeia nodded confirmation. 'There is something in the Marches... never have the counts been so insolent with us.'

Korkhann looked at the baron and said softly, 'You have something more than this, Jon Ollen? It seems to me