It was an anachronism, a revered Homeplace, a symbol of their past, untainted by the technocracy that was pursued elsewhere. This was the capital city, from which the heads of the government still ruled, perhaps for sentimental reasons, but it was not typical.
* * * My stay in Hearth was cut short when I descended from the tower and found Trobt waiting for me. As I might have expected, he showed no sign of anger with me for having fled into The City. His was the universal Veldian viewpoint. To them all life was the Game. With the difference that it was played on an infinitely larger board. Every man, and every woman, with whom the player had contact, direct or indirect, were pukts on the Board. The player made his decisions, and his plays, and how well he made them determined whether he won or lost. His every move, his every joining of strength with those who could help him, his every maneuver against those who would oppose him, was his choice to make, and he rose or fell on the wisdom of the choice. Game, in Velda, means Duel, means struggle and the test of man against the opponent, Life. I had made my escape as the best play as I saw it. Trobt had no recriminations.
The evening of the next day Trobt woke me. Something in his constrained manner brought me to my feet. "Not what you think," he said, "but we must question you again. We will try our own methods this time."
"Torture?"
"You will die under the torture, of course. But for the questioning it will not be necessary. You will talk."
The secret of their method was very simple. Silence. I was led to a room within a room within a room.
Each with very thick walls. And left alone. Here time meant nothing.
Gradually I pa.s.sed from boredom to restlessness, to anxiety, briefly through fear, to enervating frustration, and finally to stark apathy.
When Trobt and his three accompanying guardsmen led me into the blinding daylight I talked without
hesitation or consideration of consequences.
"Did you find any weakness in the Veldians?"
"Yes."
I noted then a strange thing. It was the annotator-the thing in my brain that was a part of me, and yet
apart from me-that had spoken. It was not concerned with matters of emotion; with sentiments of patriotism, loyalty, honor, and self-respect. It was interested only in my-and its own-survival. Its logic told it that unless I gave the answers my questioner wanted I would die. That, it intended to prevent.
I made one last desperate effort to stop that other part of my mind from a.s.suming control-and sank lower into my mental impotence.
"What is our weakness?"
"Your society is doomed." With the answer I realized that the annotator had arrived at another of its conclusions."Why?""There are many reasons.""Give one.""Your culture is based on a need for struggle, for combat. When there is no one to fight it must fall."Trobt was dealing with a familiar culture now. He knew the questions to ask."Explain that last statement.""Your culture is based on its impetuous need to battle . . . it is armed and set against dangers and the expectation of danger . . . fostering the pride of courage under stress. There is no danger now . . . nothing to fight, no place to spend your over-aggressiveness, except against each other in personal duels.
Already your decline is about to enter the b.l.o.o.d.y circus and religion stage, already crumbling in the heart while expanding at the outside. And this is your first civilization . . . like a boy"s first love . . . you have no experience of a fall in your history before to have recourse to-no cushioning of philosophy to accept it."
For a time Trobt maintained a puzzled silence. I wondered if he had the depth of understanding to accept the truth and significance of what he had heard. "Is there no solution?" he asked at last.
"Only a temporary one." Now it was coming.
"Explain."
"War with the Ten Thousand Worlds."
"Explain."
"Your willingness to hazard, and eagerness to battle is no weakness when you are armed with superior weapons, and are fighting against an opponent as disorganized, and as incapable of effective organization as the Ten Thousand Worlds, against your long-range weapons and subtle traps."
"Why do you say the solution is only temporary?"
"You cannot win the war. You will seem to win, but it will be an illusion. You will win the battles, kill billions, rape Worlds, take slaves, and destroy ships and weapons. But after that you will be forced to hold the subjection. Your numbers will not be expendable. You will be spread thin, exposed to other cultures that will influence you, change you. You will lose skirmishes, and in the end you will be forced back. Then will come a loss of old ethics, corruption and opportunism will replace your honor and you will know unspeakable shame and dishonor . . . your culture will soon be weltering back into a
barbarism and disorganization which in its corruption and despair will be nothing like the proud tribal primitive life of its first barbarism. You will be aware of the difference and unable to return."
I understood Trobt"s perplexity as I finished. He could not accept what I told him because to him
winning was only a matter of a military victory, a victory of strength; Velda had never experienced defeat as a weakness from within. My words made him uneasy, but he did not understand. He shrugged.
"Do we have any other weakness?" he asked.
"Your women."
"Explain."
"They are "set" for the period when they greatly outnumbered their men. Your compatible ratio is eight
women to one man. Yet now it is one to one. Further, you produce too few children. Your manpower must ever be in small supply. Worse, your shortage of women sponsors a covert despair and sadism in your young men . . . a hunger and starvation to follow instinct, to win women by courage and conquest and battle against danger . . . that only a war can restrain."
"The solution?"
"Beat the Federation. Be in a position to have free access to their women."
Came the final ignominy. "Do you have a means of reporting back to the Ten Thousand Worlds?"
"Yes. Buried somewhere inside me is a nerve-twitch tape. Flesh pockets of chemicals are stored there
also. When my body temperature drops fifteen degrees below normal the chemicals will be activated and will use the tissues of my body for fuel and generate sufficient energy to transmit the information on the tape back to the Ten Thousand Worlds."
That was enough.
* * * "Do you still intend to kill me?" I asked Trobt the next day as we walked in his garden. "Do not fear," he answered. "You will not be cheated of an honorable death. All Velda is as eager for it as you."
"Why?" I asked. "Do they see me as a madman?"
"They see you as you are. They cannot conceive of one man challenging a planet, except to win himself
a bright and gory death on a page of history, the first man to deliberately strike and die in the coming war-not an impersonal clash of battleships, but a man declaring personal battle against men. We would not deprive you of that death. Our admiration is too great. We want the symbolism of your blood now just as greatly as you want it yourself. Every citizen is waiting to watch you die-gloriously."
I realized now that all the while he had interpreted my presence here in this fantastic way. And I
suspected that I had no arguments to convince him differently.
Trobt had hinted that I would die under torture. I thought of the old histories of Earth that I had read. Of the warrior race of North American Indians. A captured enemy must die. But if he had been an honorable enemy he was given an honorable death. He was allowed to die under the stress most familiar to them. Their strongest ethic was a cover-up for the defeated, the universal expressionless suppressal of reaction in conquering or watching conquest, so as not to shame the defeated. Public torture-with the women, as well as warriors, watching-the chance to exhibit fort.i.tude, all the way to the breaking point, and beyond. That was considered the honorable death, while it was a shameful trick to quietly slit a man"s throat in his sleep without giving him a chance to fight-to show his scorn of flinching under the torture.
Here I was the Honorable Enemy who had exhibited courage. They would honor me, and satisfy their hunger for an Enemy, by giving me the breaking point test. But I had no intention of dying! * * * "You will not kill me," I addressed Trobt. "And there will be no war." He looked at me as though I had spoken gibberish. My next words, I knew, would shock him. "I"m going to recommend unconditional surrender," I said. Trobt"s head which he had turned away swiveled sharply back to me. His mouth opened and he made several motions to speak before succeeding. "Are you serious?"
"Very," I answered.
Trobt"s face grew gaunt and the skin pressed tight against his cheekbones-almost as though he were
making the surrender rather than I. "Is this decision dictated by your logic," he asked dryly, "or by faintness of heart?"
I did not honor the question enough to answer.
Neither did he apologize. "You understand that unconditional surrender is the only kind we will accept?"
I nodded wearily.
"Will they agree to your recommendation?"
"No," I answered. "Humans are not cowards, and they will fight-as long as there is any slightest hope of success. I will not be able to convince them that their defeat is inevitable. But I can prepare them for what is to come. I hope to shorten the conflict immeasurably."
"I can do nothing but accept," Trobt said after a moment of thought. "I will arrange transportation back to Earth for you tomorrow." He paused and regarded me with expressionless eyes. "You realize that an enemy who surrenders without a struggle is beneath contempt?"
The blood crept slowly into my cheeks. It was difficult to ignore his taunt. "Will you give me six months before you move against us?" I asked. "The Federation is large. I will need time to bring my message to all."
"You have your six months." Trobt was still not through with me, personally. "On the exact day that period ends I will expect your return to Velda. We will see if you have any honor left."
"I will be back," I said.
* * * During the next six months I spread my word throughout the Ten Thousand Worlds. I met disbelief everywhere. I had not expected otherwise. The last day I returned to Velda.
Two days later Velda"s Council acted. They were going to give the Humans no more time to organize counteraction. I went in the same s.p.a.ceship that carried Trobt. I intended to give him any advice he needed about the Worlds. I asked only that his first stop be at the Jason"s Fleece fringe.
Beside us sailed a mighty armada of warships, s.p.a.ced in a long line that would encompa.s.s the entire portion of the galaxy occupied by the Ten Thousand Worlds. For an hour we moved ponderously forward, then the stars about us winked out for an instant. The next moment a group of Worlds became visible on the ship"s vision screen. I recognized them as Jason"s Fleece.
One World expanded until it appeared the size of a baseball. "Quagman," Trobt said. Quagman, the trouble spot of the Ten Thousand Worlds. Dominated by an unscrupulous clique that ruled by vendetta, it had been the source of much trouble and vexation to the other Worlds. Its leaders were considered little better than brigands. They had received me with much apparent courtesy. In the end they had even agreed to surrender to the Veldians-when and if they appeared. I had accepted their easy concurrence with askance, but they were my main hope. Two Veldians left our ship in a scooter. We waited ten long, tense hours. When word finally came back it was from the Quagmans themselves. The Veldian envoys were being held captive. They would be released upon the delivery of two billion dollars-in the currency of any recognized World-and the promise of immunity.
The fools!
Trobt"s face remained impa.s.sive as he received the message.
We waited several more hours. Both Trobt and I watched the green mottled baseball on the vision
screen. It was Trobt who first pointed out a small, barely discernible, black spot on the upper lefthand