Closed System

putSkimmer below andsunward of the fleet.

'The old cruiser, there at the front of the forma­tion, is unmanned,' Corinne said. 'There are onlytest animals aboard.'

As she spoke, the cruiser's flux engines came tolife, sending a glow from the thrusters. The ship accelerated quickly away from the vanguard of thefleet.

'Only the flagship will fire,' Corinne said. Theflagship, on the point, was a sleek new dreadnaught.

The target ship was getting almost beyond visi­bility and nothing had happened, and then, forone brief moment, the old cruiser seemed to glow.The glow disappeared and nothing was changed.The cruiser sped on, detectable now only by ship'sinstruments.

'Cory,' said a voice onSkimmer's communica­tor, 'let's see if that man of yours can fly. Go latchon to that cruiser and stop it and wait until I get there.'

'Will do,' Corinne said. She nodded to Pat. HeputSkimmer into motion. She hadn't done a tugjob in a long time, but the program was still therein the computer. It didn't take long to catch up with the cruiser, utilizing one quick blink, andthen the old man eased theSkimmer alongside the ship until the hulls were almost touching, enclosed the cruiser inSkimmer's powerful field, and decel­erated. The flagship emerged quite close, using the mass of the two ships as a target for a close blink,and two men in space gear emerged from a lock.

Pat stayed on the bridge, keeping an eye onthings, using the time to scan the cruiser. The shipgave no more indication of life, or of activatedmachinery, than had the long-abandoned colonyship which swam its eternal orbit around Dorchlunt.

A mountain of a man with hair the same color as Corinne's came onto the bridge first, havingshed his space gear. He was resplendent in a uni­form which was very similar to that of an X&AAdmiral. Another man in uniform followed him.

The red-haired giant studied Pat for a moment.'By God, Cory,' he said, 'you found yourself ahandsome one, but is he a fighter?'

'He handled those two renegade cruisers,' Co­rinnesaid.

Pat felt as if someone were talking about him in his absence. But then Corinne looked at him andwinked. 'Pat, this is my very big brother, the Brenden.'

Do you shake hands with a dictator? Pat won­dered. Brenden solved the problem, lumbering for­ward, hand outthrust, and there was no childishsqueezing contest, just firm contact, with Brenden'sgreen eyes boring into his.

'Pat, is it?' Pat nodded. 'I hope you soon bedthis wench, Pat. It'll damn well take some of thesharp edges off her tongue.'

'Brenden,' Corinne said, blushing.

'By God,' Brenden roared, laughing, 'if sheweren't my sister and I didn't know her I wouldn'tbelieve she's been living on Zede all these years,movie star and all, and virginity still intact. But Ido know her, and I remember how even when shewas a little girl she was always saying that shewas never going to love a man until she found theright one, if you know what I mean.'

'He knows what you mean, loudmouth,' Co­rinne said.

Brenden laughed, then sobered. 'Well, Pat, I un­derstand you're with us. You've had fleet expe­rience?'

'No,' Pat said. Do you say 'sir' to a dictatorwho has ambitions to rule the galaxy?

'Too bad,' Brenden said, 'but we'll find a place for you. You can fly, I saw that.' He grinned. 'AndI reckon you've already scanned the target ship?'

'She's dead in space,' Pat said.

'Yep. Let's suit up and go take a look,' Brendensaid, turning with an agility surprising in one solarge.

In the corridors of the cruiser there was an odd smell, a rank, hot smell. 'Pat,' Brenden said over his

shoulder, as he led the way, 'winning the bat­tle is just the beginning. I don't think we'll have tokill all of them. I think they'll see the light afterthe first two or three engagements, and then there'llbe just a few of us to run one helluva big empire.I'm gonna need good men. I trust Cory's judgment,because when I first started to claw my way upfrom that hard-scrabble mining claim in the boon­ieson Taratwo she was right there beside me,clawing and scratching right along with me. Onlyperson in the world who can hold her own withme in a fair fight, boy. Don't ever get her riled.She'll use all them ancient trick things on you and kick you in the balls, too.'

'I haven't seen that side of her,' Pat said, grin­ning at Corinne.

'See that you don't,' Brenden said. 'Yep, she'sa fighter. No fear at all, and willing to do what ittakes. Made no fuss at all when I said she'd be ofthe most service to us under a name other thanBrenden out there on that Zede planet snowingthe big dogs. Way I got it figured, Pat, Cory's mypartner, and half of everything I have is hers, andthat's a chunk, or will be very soon. You're herman—' He halted, turned. 'Cory, why in hell didn'tyou marry him down there on Dorchlunt? Godknows you had enough priests and a few hundredgods to swear to.' He roared with laughter.

Brenden was still chuckling when they reacheda squadroom. In cages lay dead animals, pigs, goats,a dog.

The other man in uniform, who had not spokena word, pulled testing instruments from his bagand opened the cage of the dog, did some check­ing, and then looked up. 'Dead,' he said.

'Not a mark on 'em,' Brenden said. 'The UPeggheads will have fun trying to figure out whathit 'em.'

There was a feeling of lifelessness about thecruiser. The air was beginning to stale, with thecirculators off, and that rank, heavy smell was everywhere. On the bridge all the little clicking,moving, purring things had been stilled.

Brenden ripped a panel off with his hands, jerk­ing screws loose, to expose a fused tangle of wir­ing. That seemed to be the source of the heavy smell. 'You'll find every piece of active wiringlooks the same as this, Pat,' Brenden said. 'Andthere'd be something almost as messy inside thenerve sheaths of the animals.'

'Heat?' Pat asked, very much impressed, im­pressed to the point of being sick to his stomach tothink of that weapon being aimed at a ship with afull crew of men.

'Naw,' Brenden said, 'fancier than that. I callit the disrupter. Dunno why. Ain't very scientific,that name.'

'Brenden, why must you try to sound like aboonie rat?' Corinne asked.

Brenden grinned. 'See what I mean by sharpedges on her tongue?' He made a mock bow to hissister. 'The name 'disrupter'isn't scientific, butit is descriptive. When the beam hits it stops theflow of electrons instantly in any electronic equip­ment. Then it sort of beats them together, and this is what happens. Since there's a minute electricalcurrent flowing in the human body, zap. The heart,the brain, all of it stops at once.'

Pat was silent. Corinne was looking at him mus­ingly. Brenden saw the look and misinterpreted it. 'By God,' he yelled, 'let's go down to the templeand have us a wedding.'

'The wedding will be on Taratwo,' Corinne said,with a soft smile, her eyes locked on Pat's 'and itwill be

after it's all over.'

'Well, it's your wedding,' Brenden said. He puthis hand on Corinne's shoulder. 'We're ready, lit­tle sister. It's time to get your blond supermen allpainted up in their warpaint and hold us one bigpractice drill and then go off to kick us a littlesand.'

TEN

Since the Brenden preferred the comfort of hisflagship, Pat and Corinne tookSkimmer back to Dorchlunt. Corinne was beaming. The test had gone beautifully. The man she'd chosen to love was with her. She was full of dreams, and she expounded on them during the short trip. They would choose oneof the more beautiful UP planets for their ownprivate kingdom. Pat would be her coregent.

'Our people will adore us,' she said. 'People dolove pomp and splendor.'

'I thought the idea was to bring freedom andequality to all,' Pat said, with a little smile.

'Oh, of course,' she said, 'but there must be anauthority figure. The masses must have a leader,or anarchy is the result.'

Beautiful as she was, she could not have heldher own in a freshman political discussion at the university. She paid lip service to the rights of the masses, and could weep tears for the hungry anddowntrodden that she imagined to be everywhere in the UP system, basing her opinion, obviously, on conditions under the Man's dictatorship onTaratwo, but underneath it was simple ambition.