Crown of Slaves

Victor started moving things around again. 'Actually, now that it's available, let me use this big empty roll basket instead to represent the Solarian League. Okay, now we'll use the pepper shaker-'

He positioned it not far away from the salt shaker which marked Erewhon.

'-to indicate the location of Congo. And now-'

Quickly, he positioned his knife and fork, and the knife he borrowed from Thandi's side of the table.

'-we can see the whole thing. Through hyper-space, Congo's not more than three days travel from Erewhon. And now it's been discovered that Congo's system has a wormhole junction with no fewer than three termini. Since the wormhole was first found by Mesan interests only a short while ago, the presumption is that at least one of them connects to the Solarian League. But nobody really knows where its termini lead to, except the Mesans.' He wiggled one of the knives to indicate that its actual line of connection was uncertain.

Thandi studied the arrangement. 'And your point is?' Before Victor could answer, she added: 'I'm not being sarcastic. Astrography is not my strong suit. I'm a foot soldier, remember?'

'My point is that since the junction was discovered, Congo has been simultaneously a giant headache and a giant opportunity for Erewhon. A headache, because so long as it's controlled by Mesan interests, the system acts as a potential attack route.'

'Who'd want to attack Erewhon?'

Victor shrugged. 'Who knows? At the moment, Erewhon's allied with Manticore, and the only official enemy they have is us. The Republic of Haven. But we're not a threat-not through Congo, anyway-because we're located'-he balled up his napkin and planted it toward the edge of the table-'way over here. I suppose it's possible that one of those termini leads to Havenite space, but if it does the Republic certainly doesn't know about it. I admit, the Erewhonese would have to take our word for that, but it does happen to be true.'

He studied the arrangement for a moment. Then, softly: 'The Erewhonese are big believers in cold-blooded politics, Lieutenant Palane. What's sometimes called by the old name of 'Realpolitik.' No different, in that respect, from the Andermani. So the question of 'who' really doesn't matter to them. What matters to them is that Congo will always pose a potential danger, so long as it's in unfriendly hands.'

'In what sense is Mesa 'unfriendly hands'? Yeah, sure, they're stinking rotten scum. But they're a pack of commercial combines, not a star nation.'

Victor cocked one eyebrow quizzically, and she shrugged irritably.

'All right, so Mesa is an independent star nation, but you know what I mean. Since we're being so blunt and frank here, let's both go ahead and admit that for all its independence, the system is encysted right in the middle of the Solarian League. Sure, officially it enjoys sovereignty and the right to pursue its own diplomatic and military policy, but do you really think even League bureaucrats would put up with a loose warhead in the middle of their own territory? Puh-leeze!' She rolled her eyes. 'The one thing no bureaucrat will ever tolerate is anything that threatens to destabilize her personal patch of turf.'

'True,' Victor agreed mildly. 'But as you just pointed out, Mesa is at least technically independent and also perhaps the galaxy's most shining example of just how nasty pure unbridled capitalism can be when coupled to total amorality.'

'So? There still wouldn't be any point I can think of in their attacking Erewhon. The League sure as hell wouldn't thank them for it, so why should Erewhon be worried about… ?'

The question trailed off, as Thandi realized the answer herself.

Victor put it in words. 'Exactly. You're right that Mesa itself probably would never attack Erewhon. But they'd sell the attack route in a heartbeat, to anyone who came up with the price, especially if they can distance themselves from the entire operation. 'Oh, we didn't have anything to do with those nasty pirates raiding Erewhon space. No, not us! All we did was open our junction to legitimate merchantmen. Surely you don't think any of them were pirates, do you?' '

He snorted, and the two of them exchanged bitter, cynical smiles. Then he shrugged and continued.

'It's not quite like having the combination to your back door in the hands of a thief. It's more like having it in the hands of the neighborhood's biggest fence. Comforting, eh? In some ways it's even worse, because a big fence knows a lot of thieves, and is always happy to drum up new business.'

'All right, point taken,' Thandi agreed, and it was her turn to shrug. 'Hell, I can even see a few scenarios under which our hypothetical League bureaucrat would actually encourage an operation like that. After all, one way to whack an uppity minor power-especially a commercial one-would be to permit plausibly deniable pirates to do the dirty deed for you. So now that we've agreed on the potential negatives for Erewhon, where's this 'big opportunity'? The Erewhonese already have a wormhole junction connecting it to the Solarian League. Why do they need more?'

'The 'Solarian League' covers a huge chunk of the galactic neighborhood, Lieutenant. I'm afraid my little jury- rigged setup-'

'Call me Thandi.'

She said it very abruptly. Almost harshly. As if-which was probably true-she wanted to force Victor Cachat as much as herself toward a personal involvement. In that direction, at least.

Cachat hesitated, while he took a deep breath. Then, to her surprise, murmured: 'It's always hard for people like us, isn't it? Never been sure if that's a curse or a blessing.'

For a long moment, their eyes met. Now that she was seeing them straight on, in good light, Thandi was surprised. She'd thought Cachat's eyes had been very dark brown, almost black. But, they weren't. More like the color of a wood on Ndebele derived from teak; a color, she knew, which varied a lot depending on the grain of the time or the mood of the moment. Sometimes, a brown which was astonishingly light and warm.

This was such a time. She felt a certain smile spreading across her face, in response. That smile. The involuntary one that sometimes came upon her, and made men forget her metabolism.

Cachat took another deep breath, and looked away. 'I wish…'

He shook his head. 'Lieutenant-Thandi-this little setup of mine doesn't begin to capture the reality. The Solarian League is enormous. Even compared to the Republic of Haven, much less star nations like Manticore or Erewhon. Having more wormhole termini connecting to different parts of the League- assuming that's where at least one of them leads-would be a blessing for Erewhon's trade. But it hardly matters. If there's one clear and consistent pattern in history since the advent of star travel, it's that a discovery of a new wormhole junction always leads to economic expansion. All of which-looking at it from an Erewhonese viewpoint-means both expanded business possibilities as well as expanded threats. Either way, Erewhon wants to make sure that Congo is… what's the right way to put it? Let's just say 'locked up.' Secure, if you will.'

Thandi examined the arrangement on the table, trying to visualize the actual three-dimensional reality it represented.

'Okay. So why don't the Erewhonese just grab it themselves? They're a star nation, with a real fleet. Even got state-of-the-art ships of the wall.'

'Well… Let me put it this way. The Erewhonese, like the Andermani, believe in Realpolitik. But there's a subtle difference. Gustav Anderman founded the Empire, and he thought like a military man. So the Andermani version of Realpolitik has a definite militarist flavor to it. The Andermani probably would just grab Congo in a shooting war. But Erewhon was founded by a consortium of successful gangsters. And the thing about gangsters-this much hasn't changed on Erewhon, for sure-is that they're basically a cautious and conservative lot. Cold-blooded business people, really. Getting too rough is more likely to bring down the police on your head, or other gangsters, and that's especially true when the potential troublemaker is someone like Mesa. So they tend naturally to think in terms of 'arrangements.' Rather than try to act like a cop, they'll prefer simply to put the cop on their payroll.'

He smiled suddenly, the expression wry. 'I sometimes think that's one reason they haven't been as fanatical about building up their navy-even in the middle of a war-as the Graysons. Because one thing Graysons don't think in terms of is 'arrangements.' '

'That might work with a local cop,' Thandi agreed. 'But it strikes me as a risky proposition dealing with a star nation. What's the old saying? 'An honest cop is one who stays bribed'? How do you make sure a star nation stays bribed? What's the secret?'