Return to the Stars

The softness left Lianna's eyes and little stormy lightenings gathered in them.

'Shorr Kan,' she said. 'The man who nearly destroyed us all... and yet you speak of him as though he were a friend!'

Patiently Gordon said, 'He is not a friend. He is an ambitious opportunist who thinks only of his own ends. But since his only opportunities now lie with us, he threw in with us. He's going to try to use us, and we are going to try to use him, and time will tell who uses whom.'

Liana answered nothing, but he saw the set of her small chin. He ignored it and asked, 'Is there some place here where we can make some galactographic computations?'

'The royal chart room,' she said. 'It's linked directly with all the screens in the Defense Ministry.'

'Will you take me there, Lianna? And will you have Hull and Shorr Kan brought there?'

The room was deep in the palace. It had screens on every wall, all of them dark now. An officer saluted Lianna when she entered with Gordon behind her.

Presently Hull Burrel and Shorr Kan came in, and the latter swept a deep bow to Lianna, wishing Her Highness a very good evening. She regarded him with lambent eyes and an arctic smile.

'Let me say at once, Shorr Kan,' she told him, 'that if I had my way you'd have been executed within five minutes after you landed here. I live in hope that you will yet do something to make that possible.'

Shorr Kan grinned crookedly. He looked at Gordon, and said, 'Women are realists, did you know that? If you hurt one or threaten to hurt one, she'll hate you forever. Only men can make a game of it.'

'Will you for God's sake quit talking about games,' said Gordon. 'The counts are not playing a game. Narath Teyn is not playing a game, and for certain the H'Harn are not playing a game. Or if they are, it's a game that nearly crushed the galaxy back in Brenn Bir's day.'

Shorr Kan shrugged. 'I'll admit that, but there's no evidence that the H'Harn are here yet in any strength.'

'Are you quite sure of that?' asked Gordon.

Shorr Kan's mocking air dropped from him like a cast-off garment. 'What do you mean?'

Gordon turned to Hull Burrel, who was frowning in puzzlement. 'Hull, you piloted that H'Harn ship.'

'You don't have to remind me,' said Hull irritably. 'I remember well enough.'

'All right. Now, can you remember whether or not, before we realized what was happening and began to fight the creature, you were flying at top acceleration?'

Hull frowned again. 'I don't see what...'

'Were you?'

'I don't know, damn it. Everything I did was put into my mind by the H'Harn, and I...'

'Yes?'

'Well, just wait a minute. I'm trying to think... I did seem to know that I must move a certain lever to the farthest notch. I did that, and from the way the ship responded, of course it had to be the main thrust control.' Hull's face cleared. He nodded, satisfied. 'Yes, we were at top acceleration.'

'And what would you guess that to be?'

Hull pondered a moment, then named a figure. The officer's mouth fell open, and Lianna said instantly, 'But that isn't possible!'

'I'm sorry, Highness... it is. The H'Harn ships are faster than anything of ours.' Hull shook his head regretfully. 'I'd have given a lot to bring that ship back so we could study it. Because if we do ever have to fight them in space...'

Gordon turned to Lianna. 'Can we see a detailed chart of the portion of the Marches that contains Aar?' In a belated remembrance of protocol, he added 'Highness?'

She spoke to the officer, who went to a bank of switches. Presently a great screen broke into light and life, with the bewildering complexity of star, planet, and drift markers showing in their various colors.

Gordon shrugged. 'It makes no sense to me, but you can tell me, Hull. How far did we go from Aar to that point where we became aware of the H'Harn presence, and changed course?'

'Oh, look, Gordon!' Hull said. 'We've got enough troubles ahead of us without rehashing the ones we've left behind.'

'Answer him,' said Shorr Kan, and it was the hard, cold voice of the one-time master of the Dark Worlds who spoke. His face was grim with foreboding, and Gordon thought again that he had never met anyone with the lightning awareness and comprehension of this man. Shorr Kan had already guessed what he was driving at.

Hull sweated over the chart like a sulky schoolboy, grumbling. Finally he named a distance. 'It's only a rough figure...' he began, but Gordon cut him off.

'Using that as an average, and with that approximate velocity, how long would it have taken us to reach the Lesser Magellanic?'

Hull looked a bit startled. 'So that's it. Why didn't you tell me?' He went over to the computer and started punching keys. Presently he came back with the answer.

'Between four and five months,' he said. 'That's Galactic Standard, of course.'

Gordon and Shorr Kan looked at each other, and Lianna said with regal impatience, 'Could we perhaps be told the object of this discussion?'

'Four or five months to reach the Magellanic, and as much again to return,' said Gordon slowly. 'Eight to ten months before the H'Harn fleet could reach this galaxy, utilizing the information they hoped to get from us... It's too long. We know the H'Harn are behind the counts in this move against Fomalhaut... they must have had a hand in timing it. Whatever their plans are for their own strike against the galaxy, I don't believe they would include that much of a delay. Especially...'

'Especially,' said Shorr Kan bluntly, 'when their logical time to strike would be at that exact moment when the galaxy is already engaged in a massive civil war.' He looked around the circle of faces. 'The H'Harn have gone to a deal of trouble to foment that war. I doubt if they plan to throw away the fruits thereof.'

There was a dead silence. When Gordon spoke again, he could hear his worlds dropping into it as stones drop into a cold still lake.

'I don't think the H'Harn was taking us to the Magellanic at all. I think it was taking us to somewhere a whole lot nearer. I think it was taking us to the H'Harn fleet, lying close outside our galaxy.'

The silence became even deeper, as though even breathing and heartbeat had been suspended. Then Hull said almost angrily, 'How could they be out there without the radar-sweeps of the Empire's warning system detecting them? Don't you realize how thoroughly we have monitored outer space ever since the time of Brenn Bir?'

'Yes,' said Gordon, 'but...'

Shorr Kan finished for him. 'You've met the H'Harn, you have some idea of their powers. And you know they must realize how thoroughly outer space is monitored. So the first prerequisite of any large-scale invasion plan would be some means of evading radar search.'

Hull Burrel thought about that, and he began to get a haunted look.

'Yes, I see that. But... but if they can evade radar, then the H'Harn fleet could be out there off the galaxy right now, waiting...'

'Waiting for the counts of the Marches to launch their attack,' said Gordon.

'Good God,' said Hull, and turned fiercely to the communications officer. 'Call Throon. The Empire must be warned.'

The officer looked at Lianna, who said quietly, 'Do as he asks.'

'Your pardon, Highness,' said Hull, and the stark look of horror on his face was apology enough. 'But when I think of those...'

'Yes,' said Lianna. 'Remember, I have had experience of them myself.' She waved Hull on, to where the communications officer was busy at one of the screens.

Presently it sprang to life, and an officer in Empire uniform spoke to Hull Burrel.

His name, rank, and reputation got him switched through to the palace in record time. The aquiline face of Zarth Arn, brother to the Emperor, looked out of the screen at them.

'Captain Burrel... Gordon... you're safe, then. We were concerned...'

He broke off sharply, looking beyond Gordon, with eyes that had suddenly become points of fire. He was looking at Shorr Kan.