have known that all along. That is why generally we simply make an all-out comprehensive attack. It is far less costly to our side, yet comes down to the same thing.”
“But if you felt this way all along, why didn’t you do it here?” Luge responded sharply, thinking he had scored a point.
“If you were faced with this prospect, and there was but a five-percent chance this could all be avoided, would you not try?” the Altavar asked him. “We saw that one chance, and allowed ourselves to be convinced of it. It was a mistake, and many more will die because of that mistake, yet we are not sorry we made it. To have
“I’m sorry,” Senator Luge said, not sounding very sorry at all, “but we simply cannot accept your unsupported threats. If you can stop us from destroying one of the worlds, then do so. If you can not, then you better call all this off and accept our terms before we do.”
Morah, sounding very nervous, broke into the proceedings. “How long before you strike? The Altavar must have time to deliberate this matter and take it up in full.”
The Council could understand that. They would have had the same problems, and the Altavar probably had greater distances to figure in, and, perhaps, a slower communications system. “Beginning at 2400 this night, we will allow exactly seven standard days for deliberation,” Luge told them. “Then we will either have a settlement, or we will commence offensive operations—unless the Altavar can come up with a counteroffer we can accept in the meantime. This channel will be kept open, and our agent will remain on the scene, in case anything must get through to us.”
“Seven days!” Morah thundered, rising to his feet. “But we can not possibly evacuate a world in seven daysl Using the entire Warden fleet, with pressurized freight containers, we couldn’t hope to evacuate a tenth of the population of the smallest worldl”
Luge nodded. “This is a demonstration, not an intentional bloodbath. We have many grievances against the Four Lords, but have no wish to destroy the innocent. We are operating on contingency plans made up when the task force was dispatched, and thus, we have provided for some of this. Sixteen transports, capable of moving twenty thousand people each, with drives capable of making interplanetary trips in one to two hours, are available. If you move only the people, at the most rapid rate, you ought to be able to make four trips a day even with loading and unloading. All ships are automated and computer-driven, but will be commanded by anyone you designate to obey voice orders. The ships will be on station in orbit off Medusa within hours—if the Altavar defenses don’t shoot them down. If you start as soon as they arrive, and mobilize the rest of the Diamond fleet, and cram them in as best you can, you
Talant Ypsir was up and screaming as he heard the target. “You can’tl You bastards! You swine! You hellish spawn of animals! That is my world you are talking about!
Yatek Morah turned in the same instant, a laser pistol in his hand, and pointed it at Ypsir. “Oh, shut up, Talant,” he sighed wearily, and pulled the trigger. Ypsir collapsed instantly into unconsciousness and slid beneath the table. They all looked down at the crumpled heap and saw it slowly changing back to the familiar face they knew, the expression alone soon becoming the only measure of the hate that was inside him.
Kunser entered the room from the back dorm in an instant, but they all saw immediately that he was not threatening. “Let me get a couple of people in here and get him back upstairs,” he pleaded. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Morah nodded and bolstered the weapon. “We will move everyone we can to the southern continent of Charon at the start,” he told the Medusan assistant. “If time becomes short, we’ll start putting them down wherever we can on Lilith. Cerberus simply can’t handle any such loads. Tell Ypsir when he wakes up that he can settle scores in eight days. If he does anything else than exactly what this meeting decides, or in any way makes trouble before that point, he will meet the fate of his predecessor instantly. Remind him that we do not need to know where he is or what he is doing, that the Altavar can and will simply order his Wardens to consume him if
Everyone else in the room was just getting over their stunned and shocked feelings at the proceedings when Ypsir was finally carried out and away. Even Luge remained frozen on the screen, horrified and shocked by his first direct look at what the Warden organism could do.
Only Morah remained completely in control. “These proceedings are now in indefinite recess. All parties agree that commencing seven days from 2400 this night a state of war will exist between the Altavar on the one hand and the Confederacy on the other.”
Luge seemed to snap out of it. “Any move against us prior to that point will result in even more dire consequences,” he warned. “We are allowing this period not only in hopes of a diplomatic solution but also out of common decency and mercy. If any attempt is made during this period, or is perceived by us to be made, we will abandon our plans and instead all modules will be directed by the task force with the intent of inducing the sun to nova.”
The others on both sides looked particularly shocked by the threat, but the Altavar seemed to take it in stride. “That would be most interesting,” it noted coldly. “However, it would cause quite a lot more problems than we are currently prepared to handle. We will, therefore, uphold the waiting period. But make no mistake o’n this, Senators. Neither you nor the Confederacy will survive many hours after you know just what you have done.”
The agent who called himself Mr. Carroll frowned and looked nervously at the Altavar on the screen. What an odd way to put it, he couldn’t help thinking. What a
Talant Ypsir spent most of his time brooding on his palatial orbiting satellite, but he did not interfere with the evacuation nor prevent his aides and infrastructure from doing what had to be done. For himself, though, he spent almost all of his time in his pleasure garden accompanied only by Ass, emerging only briefly to make certain that the station itself would be moved from orbit by tug.
The transports, too, were built on the modular concept, so it was relatively easy for the great ships to break into small compartments and move down to various collection pouits on the surface. These were troop transports, designed to hold half of what they were being asked to hold; but in a war without troops they could be spared by the Confederacy, which was, according to Commander Rrega, still confident that the Altavar bluff would break at the last minute.
The Medusan population proved unusually easy to move. Virtually all of them had been born and raised to obey the orders of the monitors and their superiors, so while they grumbled and complained a lot they did pretty much as they were told. There was some panic in the big cities, among groups who simply would not believe that there was a threat. Others suddenly lost faith when their well-ordered society was proven incapable of protecting them, but these were quickly quelled by monitors with efficient brutality. It was also simply stated that those who did not want to go could remain—but their lives would probably be abnormally short.
Mr. Carroll was particularly concerned about the colonies of Wild Ones. They were too spread out for all of them to be contacted easily, and most disbelieved the news if they heard it and fled into the wild. Finally, he commandeered a shuttle craft and went down to a particular settlement he knew well.
The shuttle landed not in a cradle but on a flat, something it really wasn’t designed to do but could because the possibility of an emergency landing always existed. The door opened and he emerged, the only one aboard, dressed in a protective orange spacesuit with the helmet removed. Still, he wore goggles and a small respirator as he walked up to the rock cliff with the twin waterfalls, aware for the first time of just how hard this land really was on one not redesigned as a Medusan.
The courtyard was deserted, as he’d expected, but he didn’t hesitate a moment, walking up to the one ground-level cave and inside as far back as he could. The torches were still lit, which told him that people were in fact still here somewhere. He cursed himself for not bringing some additional light source. The last time he’d been
