"No surprise to see you, Scheer," Jan said. "Are they going to be nice and let you turn the handle on the machine?"
Jan could tell by the man"s sudden pallor and silence that his guess had been right. "But maybe I"ll kill you first," he said and raised his fist.
Scheer lurched back, scrambling for his gun, a coward. Jan did not smile at the spectacle. He was tired of them, tired of them all, tired of this stupid peasant world, almost ready to welcome oblivion.
Nineteen.
It was the same platform that had been used for the trial; the same public address system still set up.
Nothing was wasted; everything was carefully planned. But the chairs and tables placed there for the trial had been removed and a single item put in their place. The high-backed chair of the garrote. Carefully made, Jan noticed in a cold and distant way, not done in a day. All well prepared. Re bad stopped, unconsciously, at the sight of it, his guard of Proctors stopping too.
This was a moment suspended in time, as though no one was sure just what to do next. The five judges, mute witnesses to their decision, stood on the platform. The crowd watched. Men, women, children, every inhabitant of the planet well enough to walk must have stood there, jammed in the Central Way.
Silent as death its~lf, waiting for death. Ihe perpetually overcast sky pressed down ~ike a mourning blanket against the silence.
Broken suddenly by Chun Taekeng, never patient, always angry, immune to the emotions that gripped the others.
"Bring him over, don"t just stand there. Let us get on with this."
The momentary spell ended. The Proctors pushed Jan forward suddenly so that he stumbled against the lowest step and almost fell. It angered him; he did not want to be thought a coward at this moment. Re pushed back hard against them, shrugging their hands from his arms. Free for the instant, he started up the steps by himself so that they had to hurry after him. The crowd saw this and responded with a gentle murmur, almost a sigh.
"Come forward. Sit there," Chun Taekeng ordered. "Don"t I get to speak any last words?"
"What? Of course not! It is not ordered that way. Sit!" Jan strode toward the chair of the garrote, arms firmly gripped again by the Proctors. He saw only Chun Taekeng, The Hradil, the other judges, and an immense loathing welled up within him, forcing out the words.
"Row I hate you all, with your stupid little criminal minds. How you destroy people"s lives, waste them, subju-gate them. You should be dying, not me....
"Kill him!" The Hradil ordered, raw hatred in her face for the first time. "Kill him now, I want to see him die."
The Proctors pulled at Jan, forcing him toward the garrote, while he pulled back, trying to get to the judges, to somehow break free and wreak vengeance upon them. Every eye was upon this silent struggle.
No one noticed the man in the dark uniform who pushed through the crowd. They made way for him, closed ranks behind him, staring at the platform. He struggled through the jammed front ranks and climbed the steps, until he was standing on the platform itself.
"Release that man," he said. "This affair is now concluded."
He walked slowly across the platform and took the microphone from Chun Taekeng"s limp fingers and re-peated the words so that everyone could hear them.
No one moved. There was absolute silence.
The man was a stranger. They had never seen him before.
The fact was an impossibility. On a planet where no one arrived, where no one left, every person was known by sight, if not by name. There could be no strangers. Yet this man was a stranger.
Whether he meant to fire or not, Proctor Captain Scheer started to raise his gun. The newcomer saw the motion and turned towar& him, a small and sinister weap-on ready in his hand.
"If you don"t drop that gun I will kill you instantly," he said. There was cold resolve in his voice and Scheer"s fingers opened and the gun dropped. "You others as well. Put your weapons down." They did as ordered. Only when the guns were safely out of their reach did he raise the microphone and speak into it again.
"You other Proctors out there. I want you to know that there are men on all sides aiming weapons at you. If you attempt to resist you will be killed at once. Turn and see.
They did, everyone in the crowd, as well as the Proctors, noticing for the first time the armed men who silently appeared on the tops of the buildings along the Central Way. They held long and deadly weapons equipped with telescopic sights, aimed downward. There was no doubt that they would use them efficiently and quickly.
"Proctors, bring your weapons up here," the echoing voice ordered.
Jan stepped forward and looked at the man, at the two other armed strangers who joined him on the plat-form, and felt an immense relief surge through him. Just for an instant. His execution might only have been postponed.
"You"re from the ships," he said.
The stranger put the microphone down and turned toward him, a grayhaired man with dark skin and burning blue eyes.
"Yes, we"re from the ships. My name is Debhu. Re-lease Kulozik at once," he snapped at the Proctors who hurried to obey. "We landed out on the Road about twenty hours ago. I"m sorry we had to wait until now to show up but we wanted everyone in one place at the same time. You would have been killed if they knew we were coming. There could have been fighting, more deaths. I"m sorry you had to go through this, with the death sentence hanging over you.
"You"re with the ship~but you"re not Earth Com-monwealth men!"
The words were torn from Jan in an explosion of hope. Something tremendous, incredible had happened. Debhu nodded slow agreement.
"You are correct. There have been... changes....
"What are you doing here? Clear this platform!" Chun Taekeng"s anger cut through the paralysis that had gripped them all. "Give me that microphone and leave! This is not to be tolerated-"
"Guards. Move the judges back. Watch them closely." Burly men with ready guns moved swiftly at Debhu"s order, pushing the shocked Elders into a group, facing them with weapons ready. Debhu nodded approval and spoke through the microphone again.
"People of Halvmo.rk, I would like your attention. The ships are late because of a change in a number of planetary governments. We will tell you more about this later. For now it is enough to know that the absolute power of the Earth authorities known as the Earth Com-monwealth has been broken. You are free people. What that means will be explained to you. For now it is enough to know that a war is still being fought and there has been much starvation. Every grain of corn you have grown is needed and we are grateful for it. Now go to your homes and wait to be informed. Thank you."
Their voices rose in a loud babble as they turned, walking away, calling out to each other. Some men tried to stay, technicians, friends of Jan"s, but were moved on their way by the men with guns, more and more of them appearing down the Central Way. Jan waited in silence; he had to know more before he spoke.
"You knew about my trial and the verdict?" Jan said. Debhu nodded. "How?"
"There is an agent on this planet."
"I know. Ritters.p.a.ch. But he"s dead now."
"Ritters.p.a.ch was only a tool. He just took orders. No, the real agent is well-trained and has been working here for years. Reporting on the Security network scramble frequency. We seized some of their equipment and heard the messages when we came out ofjumps.p.a.ce. That"s why we didn"t announce our arrival."
Jan was still sturfned by the rush of events and found it difficult t9 a.s.similate all the new information so quickly. "An active agent here? But who...?" Even as he phrased the question the answer was obvious.
He turned about and stabbed his finger at the judges. "There"s your undercover agent, right there!"
"Yes, that"s the one," Debhu agreed.
The Hradil screamed shrilly and lurched forward at him, her hands raised, her nails like animals" claws ready to scratch and rend. Jan waited for her, stepping fotward to receive her, seizing her wrists and prisoning them, staring into her hate-torn face just inches from his own.
"Of course. My enemy. The shrewdest and most vi-cious person on this planet. Too intelligent to be from the low stock of the others. A creature of Earth. Willing to live a life in exile on this miserable planet in exchange for the power, the absolute power to rule as she wished, destroy whom she wished. Who reported secretly to the ships when they arrived so her masters on Earth would know how well she was doing here. Who would see that anyone died who stood in her way "No problems until you arrived," she shrieked, spittle flying. "They warned me you were a suspected Disrupter, I was to watch you closely. Get evidence."
She swayed as he shook her, slowly and carefully in order not to hurt her ancient bones. His voice was low and triumphant.
"They lied to you, don"t you realize that? They know all about me, convicted me and sent me here. It was a death sentence for me~r this prison world. You were just my keeper, sending reports to them. But no more. Do you hear that, agent? We"ve won and you have lost. Doesn"t that make you feel good?"
Jan felt terrible. The touch of her revolted him. He released her, pushed her away to the guards who caught her before she could fall. Turned his back on her, sickened by the corpse-touch of her skin.
"Not quite won everywhere," Debhu said. "But at least we can win here. When we leave I"m taking this woman with me. And that Proctor, the one who murdered your friend. This kind of rule by violence has to end. We are going to have trials, public trials that will be broadcast on every occupied planet. Justice will be done-unlike the sideshow this creature arranged. We hope that the trials, with punishment where due for those found guilty, will bring peace. Get rid of the old hatreds. There are going to be a lot of pieces to-pick up when this thing is over. But the end is in sight. We"re winning on all fronts except one.
The planets are ours, that was the easiest part. No one ever enjoyed being ruled from Earth. The s.p.a.ce fleet was spread thin and could be attacked on a planet-by-planet basis. Our surprise was sudden.
Deprived of their bases and support the Earth fleet could only withdraw-but they were relatively unharmed in the battles. Hurt but not destroyed. Now they have returned to Earth, to guard the home world Too tough a nut for us to crack."
"Yet they in turn can"t attack the planets-no s.p.a.cer can hope to succeed in capturing a well-defended plane-tary base."
"Agreed-but we have the same problem as Earth. So right now we have a stalemate. Earth had reserves of food and minerals, but in the long run their economy, as it stands now, cannot exist without the planets."
"Nor can we exist without them as well."
"Quite true. Their material reserves are high-but not their food supplies. I doubt if they can produce enough food for their population, even with synthetics. The future is still in doubt. We"ve won the first battles but not the war. And our need for food is even more desper-ate than Earth"s. We have no reserves. That was Earth policy. Starvation is very close-which is why we need the corn. At once. The cargo ships are in landing orbit now; they started down as soon as I sent the signal that the position was secure. We thank you for getting the corn here despite all the problems. We"ll start loading at once.
"No," Jan said grimly. "That"s not the way it is going to be at all. The corn will not be loaded until I say so."
Debhu stepped back, startled, his gun swinging up by reflex.
"Kill me if you like. Kill us all. But the corn is ours.
Twenty.
Debhu"s eyes were angry slits in his dark face. "What are you getting at, Kulozik? We"re fighting a war and we need that food-we must have that food. No one is going to stand in our way. I can take your life as easily as I saved it."
"Don"t threaten me~or brag about your war. We have been fighting a war too, against this alien world.
And we brought this corn for you. It didn"t get here by accident. If we had left it behind it would be ashes by now. These people are poor enough, but they lost what little they had for your sake. Their clothing, furniture, personal possessions, all left behind to make room for the corn you want to grab as though you had a right to it. It is oum~o you understand that? Good men died when we went back on the second trip, and I don"t want to find out that they died in vain. You"ll get the corn all right, but we have certain conditions attached to it. You are going to listen to our terms or you are going to have to shoot us. You"ll get the corn all right, but it will be the last. The decision is up to you."
Debhu stared at Jan closely, at the tight muscles and half-closed fists. For a long moment they stood that way, facing each other in silence. Until the anger faded from Debhu"s face to be replaced by a half smile.
He grunted and the gun slipped from sight.
"You"re a hard man, Kulozik, I can see that," he said. "I"ll just have to talk to you. You have a point. It"s been a busy morning. I guess you have as much of a right to the fruits of the rebellion as anyone. Not that we have very much. Let"s go find your wife, who will probably want to see you, and have something to drink and talk it over."
"Agreed!"
Alzbeta was beyond words, still not believing what had happened. She buried her face in his shoulder, holding him to her, crying and not realizing why.
"It"s all right," Jan said. "All over. Things are not going to be the way they used to be-they are going to be far better. Now make some tea for our guest and I"ll tell you why."
He dug out a bottle of his alcohol distillate and poured some into the cups, hoping the tea would amelio-rate the taste. Debhu"s eyes widened when he sipped some.
"It takes getting used to," Jan said. "Shall we drink then? To sanity and a peaceful future."
"Yes, I"ll drink to that. But I would also like to know what your rebellion means."
"No rebellion," Jan said, draining his cup and setting it down. "Just give and take. Equality. The people here are now no longer economic slaves and that will have to end. They will have to work for their freedom-and they have started already. They"ll keep supplying all the food you need. But they want something in return."
"We haven"t much to give. There has been a lot of destruction, more than I wanted to admit in public.
Chaos. We"ll be centuries rebuilding."
"All we need is simple equality and what goes with it. The Elders" rule will have to be ended. Not at once; it is the only system they know and nothing would work with-out it. But it will break down of its own accord. We want full contact with the rest of the Commonwealth-the rest of the planets. I want these people to see democracy at work and compare it to economic slavery. I want the children educated offworld. Not all of them, just the best. They"ll bring back intelligence and ideas, then everything will have to change for the better. The Elders will not be able to resist forever."
"You"re asking a lot "I"m asking very little. But it must begin at once. Just a few children to be g in with, this trip. We"ll probably have to tear them away from their parents. But they"ll learn, like it or not, and will eventually understand why this had to be done. It will be hard for them, for all of us, because I am sure that education and information is as restricted on the outer planets as it is on Earth. But the facts are there.
They will just have to be uncovered and understood. All of us must have free access to the heritage of Earth from which we have been deprived. On this world it will eventu-ally mean the end of a stultifying culture that has been forced upon these people. The food we have been supplying has economic power, so we should have some return for our labors. The future must be different. The people here have played their lives out like puppets. Real enough to them perhaps, but just things on strings to the puppet-masters on Earth. The Hradil was the tool they used to make sure that there was no deviation from the empty roles everyone had been selected to play. We were nothing to them, less than machines, unimportant and replaceable parts of a great organic machine built to supply cheap and tasteless food for poor men"s dinners. But no more. We"ll supply the food, but we want human status in return."
Debhu sipped at his fortified tea, then nodded.
"Well why not. You"re not asking for much in the material way now, and that is what counts. Since we have very little to offer. But we"ll take the children, find schools for them "No. I"ll take care of that. I"m going with you."
"You can"t!" Alzbeta shouted, a cry of pain. He took her hands.
"It will only be for a little while. I"ll return, I promise you. But out there now, in the turmoil, no one really cares about us. I"ll have to fight for everything we receive. I know what this planet needs and I"ll get it.
Though I"m sure not one person out of a hundred here will appreciate it. I"ll take their children away for education, introduce change, supply treasonous thoughts, and they are not going to love me for it."
"You"ll go away and never come back," she said, so quietly he could barely hear her.
"Don"t believe that for a second," Jan said. "My life is here with you. On this strange twilight-and-fire world. Earth is part of my past. I love you, and I have my friends here, and~with some changes life could be most enjoy-able. I"m only going now because there is no one else for the job. I"ll try to be back before our son is born. But I can"t promise that. But I will be back before the trains leave again, because I"ll be bringing the supplies and replacements that will make that possible." He looked over at Debhu. "I don"t imagine you brought pile rods or anything else we have to have?"
"Not really. There was chaos, you know. And the need for food was desperate. Most of the things on the mani-fests for this planet are of Earth manufacture."
"See what I mean, Alzbeta? We are going to have to take care of ourselves now and I am going to have to start it all by myself. But it will work. People will always have to eat."
There was a rising rumble of braking jets from above.
The ships had arrived. Alzbeta stood and put the teapot on the tray.
"I"ll make some more tea. I"m sorry if I doubted you, acted foolishly. I know that you will come back.
You always wanted things to change here, everything. And maybe they will. No, I"m sure they will. But after the changes-will we be happy?"
"Very," he said, and her smile answered his.
The teacups rattled in their saucers as the roaring rose and rose until conversation was impossible.