when they kicked him out and he wound up his life there on St. Helena. And his team? They didn’t do so well, either. Some turned traitor on him, when the bets were down. Some were shot. Of them all, Bernadotte, who became king of Sweden, was about the only one who came out ahead of the game.
“And Hitler …”
“Oh, he’s the best lesson of all.” Phil laughed. “That’s the fella who taught me to believe in strongmen.”
Rita Daniels was flushing, and on her it looked remarkably good, Ronny Bronston decided. However, something came to him and he brought himself up. As a man in his early thirties, he could consider a girl of Rita’s age and weigh her in the balance as a potential life companion. But as a man past fifty, as he would be, all too soon, it wasn’t in the cards. If Ronny Bronston were ever to consider marriage, he’d better steel himself to the fact that he had better begin looking at widows in their middle-forties, not freckle-nosed girls in their twenties—no matter how provocative their pony tail hairdos.
Rita said snappishly, “The end of the strongman isn’t always disaster. Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane founded dynasties. And though Alexander died a young man, and didn’t leave one, still, it was through his efforts that Hellenism emerged and the Greek culture was spread from the Mediterranean to India. And Napoleon. When he stepped onto the scene, Europe was almost entirely feudalistic. When he left it, there was a new and more progressive socio-economic system.”
Ronny continued to needle her. “Whether or not Hellenism was an advance over the Persian culture can be debated, my dear. The Greeks wrote the history books, since they won the war, but there are some doubts about just how progressive they were. If Hitler had won his war, you can be sure that the villains who came down to us would have been Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin—not Adolph the Aryan, who would have been properly deified, as was Alexander before him.”
Phil Birdman snorted and went over to check the control screens. “This waxes too intellectual for me,” he complained. “I’m simple at heart. I just don’t like guys in a position above me to make arbitrary decisions. Sometimes it hurts—me.”
“Sometimes we need men with the ability to make quick, arbitrary decisions,” Rita snapped.
“Yeah,” Phil agreed over his shoulder. “But I like to be in a position to help decide who it’s going to be. Any of these stutes with big ambitions will tell you they’ve got super abilities and you ought to let them make the decisions. But if those abilities of theirs aren’t really so super, then I’m the cloddy who winds up crisp.”
Ronny added mildly, “Our friend Hitler was a good example. He let the German people know he was the superman to end all. And they believed him.”
“Oh, you’re both flats!” Rita flared.
Ronny said, “Well, your Uncle Max is evidently making his play. I hope we’re alive to see whether or not he succeeds.”
Rita said scornfully, “If he makes it, my friend, I doubt if you’ll survive long enough to enjoy the advantages of his guided political system.” But even as she said it, her facial expression changed, and she looked at Ronny anxiously.
Phil, from the controls, laughed. “Touche. She’s got you there, Ronny.” He looked into a zoom-screen. “Hey, I think our Space Forces cruiser is coming in.”
They considered, briefly, releasing the girl and allowing her to return to Phrygia in the small spacecraft they had taken over from the UP, which had been their home for the past week.
In fact, they called the UP Building with the intention of discussing her release, in return for leniency toward the United Planets personnel.
The only response was from a uniformed Phrygia security police colonel, who informed them coldly that there were no longer any UP personnel in the building and that he was not free to discuss the situation. He inquired after the health of their prisoner, but showed no emotion when he was told that it was excellent.
Phil Birdman looked at his colleague. “We’d better take her.”
Ronny didn’t like it, but he had no valid argument against continuing to keep an obviously valuable hostage. Whatever force the Baron had taken to the Dawnworld’s with him, always assuming that their guess was correct and he actually was on his way, was most certainly more than this tiny space Cruiser with its crew of four.
He said unhappily, “There’ll be six of us in that small ship as it is… She’d make it seven. Besides, who knows what trouble she might kick up? She’s fanatically for her Uncle Max and might try to blow us all up, just on the off chance that it might help him.”
Phil Birdman looked at him questioningly.
Ronny said, “We’d have to have her under guard for the whole trip.”
Phil said reasonably, “Why not put her into cold for the duration? We can arouse her as soon as we want her awake. It won’t hurt her.”
Ronny said grudgingly, “I suppose we could do that.”
The skipper and the three junior Space Forces officers of the little cruiser were taken aback by the fact that they were to have a feminine fellow passenger, and a pretty one. And not to speak of the fact that she was the kidnapped member of the royal family of Phrygia.
This particular vessel, the Space Cruiser
Rita Daniels didn’t help matters any.
At the first opportunity, and before Ronny could hardly more than begin his explanations to the Space Forces skipper, she had yelped, “I am being detained illegally. I am the Countess Rita Daniels Wyler, niece of the Supreme Commandant of the member planet Phrygia of the United Planets, and these criminals are violating Article One of the United Planets Charter. I demand to be returned to my uncle’s palace on Phrygia immediately.”
Captain Volos was shocked. His eyes went from her to the two Section G agents in disbelief.
“Some squaw,” Birdman muttered.
Only then did it come to Ronny Bronston that he had been concentrating so long on the present emergency that he had forgotten that not one person in a billion, in the overall population of the United Planets, knew that the emergency existed. The average member of the human race had no knowledge of the existence of the original little intelligent alien life form, not to speak of the Dawnworlds and the Dawnmen.
He rapped, “Captain, your orders are to place your ship and yourself and men under the command of Agent Birdman and myself. We’ll hold you to that.”
Volos, staring, retorted, “My superiors made no mention of my condoning the breaking of the United Planets Charter. Do you deny this citizeness’ words?”
Ronny shook his head wearily. “Substantially, she is telling the truth. However, the circumstances are drastic.”
“Drastic!” one of the junior officers retorted. “How can anything be so drastic that the UP Charter be violated? Why, that’s the reason for the existence of the Space Forces. That’s why I joined it. To preserve the United Planets Charter—with my life, if necessary.”
“Oh fine,” Phil muttered. “A flag waver. Just what we need.”
“You’re going to have your chance to die for United Planets,” Ronny snapped back, impatiently. “This young lady’s uncle is attempting to subvert it. Right now, he’s on his way to some newly discovered planets with a type of man far in advance of the… well, the human race. He hopes to get ultra weapons and techniques that will enable him to take over complete control of every planet, United Planets members and otherwise, which our species has colonized. That’s why you were sent out here: To help us stop him.”
The four spacemen were staring at him as though he had gone completely around the bend.
Rita saw her opportunity. “See?” she demanded. “He’s out of his mind.”
“Obviously,” the flag waver said, his eyes wide.
“Knock it, Richardson,” his captain ordered. “I’ll take care of this.” He turned back to the two Section G agents. “I don’t know what’s doing on here, but I’m going to land and check with the local delegation of United Planets.”
“That’ll be a neat trick, as Sid Jakes would say,” Birdman muttered. “The local delegation of UP has either
