Nobody had any use for the Glamis system. There was a sun of variability. There were two planets, of which the one out might have been useful for that it was to of as its sun or dimly. The nearer was so close to its that it had long to rotate. One hemisphere, in sunshine, in a low, red heat. Its night hemisphere, in darkness, had away its until there were of above what should have been a surface. It was a of record that a hundred years before, a ship had there and oxygen-containing snow, which its air was able to so the breathe while they some repairs and go on to more worlds.
The farther-out was sometimes a place of green and seas, and sometimes of with most of its to a cloud-bank of thickness. Also, sometimes, it was waste from to pole. The of that had been with interest, but the world itself was of no use to anybody. Even the sun of the Glamis was with suspicion.
The of Kandar at the galactic-north of the second planet. On the and into orbit. The smaller on a mission, that there was no new planted, that there was no man-made in the system, that there was no of the fleet's presence—or for that its existence—becoming to not of its ship-crews.
The scout-ships came back, all clear. The great ships close to one another and small space-boats and forth, taking and captains and vice-admirals to the ship, which, by convention, was by King Humphrey VIII of Kandar.
Captain Bors got to the late. There were some about the room, but there were also some were and satisfied. As he entered the room the king was speaking.
"I don't that it was a victory, but I'm saying that our victory was a catastrophe! To with, we to the Mekinese when it was and disorganized. That was great good fortune—if we'd wanted a victory. The enemy was over light-minutes of space. His ships not act as a massed, force. They were a of ships who had to as against our formation."
"Yes, Majesty," said the vice-admiral, "but when we formation—"
"Again," said the king, more still, "I do not that the ability of our ships was by the new way of using missiles. What I do say is that if we'd come upon the Mekinese in of dispersed; if we'd them when they were for us, it would be that we'd have been so successful! Say that the new gave each of our ships fire-power as as two or three or five of the enemy. The enemy was ten to one! If we hadn't them when they were in confusion, we'd have been out. And if we'd their anyhow, we'd be dead. We did not the main fleet. We a of it, a small part. We are still to the Mekinese fleet."
Bors took a seat at the of the room.
A rear-admiral said somberly, "We we it, Majesty. There's no report of any ship in overdrive. But if any did escape, its report would lead to an of the exact in our missiles. I am saying, Majesty, that if one enemy ship that battle, we can look for all the enemy ships to be with like ours."
Bors his voice. "May I speak?"
"Ah," said the king. "Bors. By all means."
"I make two points," said Bors with reserve. "One is that the Mekinese are as likely to think our theirs as that they were uncomputable. Missile have been trying for years to create which enemy missiles. The Mekinese may decide we've something they've failed at, but they're not likely to think we've something they of!"
Voices babbled. A voice said that nobody would be so absurd. Several others said urgently that it was very likely. All defense had in progress, on the of enemy missiles. If it were accomplished, ships be as a of routine.
Bors waited until the king on the table for silence.
"The second thing I have to say, Majesty, is that there can be no plans until we know what we have to do. And that on what Mekin thinks has happened. Maybe no enemy ship got home. Maybe some ships took reports. It would be very for them to report the truth. Maybe they said we had some new and which no resist. In that case, we are in a very position."
The king said gloomily, "You think of things, Captain. But I am we've been too clever. If Mekin its entire to us, they can do it, new missile-system or no new missile-system! We have somehow to keep them from to do just that!"
"Which," said Bors, "may negotiation. But there's no point in unless you know what your enemy thinks you've got. We have Mekin scared!"
There was a murmur, which not be said to be either agreement or disagreement. The king looked about him.
"We cannot continue to fight!" he said sternly, "not unless we can Kandar—which we can't as against the Mekinese main fleet. We were prepared to our to earn respect for our world, and to a us. We must still be prepared to our vanity."
The vice-admiral said, "But one sacrifices, Majesty, to achieve. Do you that Mekin will any one second after it to be to Mekin?"
"That," said the king, "has to be about. But Bors is right on one point. We should come to no final without information—"
"Majesty," Bors interrupted. His came slowly, as if an idea were as he spoke. "The enemy may have no news at all. They may know they've been defeated, but they'd our from loss. Why couldn't a single Kandarian ship turn up at some port where its would surely be reported to Mekin? It as the of our fleet, which would that the of us were out in the battle. If we had all been out, there'd be no point in their fusion-bombing Kandar. Certainly they us to be destroyed. One ship can prove that we have been!"
The king's brightened.
"Ah! And we can go and ourselves—"
There was a growl. The voice said, "We would time, Majesty. Our is that Mekin may it must a defeat. But if one ship to be the of our fleet, it a Mekinese victory. That is a thing!"
The king nodded.
"Yes-s-s.... We were to the battle. We can our unwisdom. Captain Bors, I will give you orders presently. As of now, I will accept reports on battle-damage and received." As Bors and to the door, the king added, "I will be with the Pretender presently."
It was an order and Bors it. He to his uncle. He the in the king's of this, the largest ship of the fleet. The Pretender Bors unhappily.
"A very business," he observed.
"Bad," Bors. "But for the two of us, a for Mekin is not news."
"For us and Tralee," the old man said reprovingly, "there is some pleasure. But it is still bad. Every ship we must be replaced. Like every other planet, Tralee will be to build—how many ships? Ten? Twenty? We have the Mekin on Tralee. And worse—much worse—"
"There's such a thing," Bors, "as using a on troubles! We did something we wanted to! If we can keep it up—"
The Pretender said, "How is the food-supply on your ship? How long can you your without from some base?"
Bors swore. The question had the impact of a blow. His Isis, like the of the fleet, had taken off from Kandar to and be destroyed. There were on board, of course. But the food-storage hadn't been filled. The did not to go on living, so it did not prepare to go on eating. It would have been to stores for months when they to live only hours. It hadn't to anyone to for a long operation away from base.
"That's what the king is about," said the Pretender. "We've some thousands of men who will be presently. If we that we the battle, Mekin's will to think. They might hope—which Mekin would have to stop immediately. If we do not that we still exist, what can be done about ship-crews? It is a business. It would have been much if the had been destroyed, as we expected, in a of pure over its own helplessness."
Bors said sardonically, "We can all suicide, of course!"
The Pretender did not answer. His nephew into a chair and at the wall. The was to all the by the race. To act and with is somehow to a man and with the nature of the universe, so that and may prosper. But events it. Men who were to die for their only them by the attempt. And now the which would approve upon them to the of and villainy.
A long time passed. Bors sat with hands. It was the of Mekin upon that was at fault, of course. But this everywhere, as it has all history. There are, really, three of people in every community, as there have always been. There are the barbarians, and there are the tribesmen, and there are the civilized. This was true when men on only one planet, and was true when the village was built. There were men then. If there was progress, they it about. And in every village there were, and are, tribesmen, men who accept the into which they are born, and who wish no at all. And and at all times there are barbarians. They personal triumphs. They on high victories. And at no time will either men or alone. They over them and each other, and they create everywhere, until they are crushed.
Bors said evenly, "If the king's to the to Mekin as for Kandar, it won't work."
"He's it," said his uncle. "It will be a way of them the victory we them of, though we didn't to win."
"It won't work," Bors. "It won't do a of good. They'll want to Kandar it wasn't beaten. They on and brutality. They're barbarians. The economic of history doesn't apply here! The Mekinese who want to be evil. They will be until they're crushed."
"Crushed?" asked the Pretender bitterly. "Is there a of that?"
Bors gravely. Then he said, "I think so."
The door opened and the king came in. Bors rose and the king nodded. He spoke to the Pretender.
"Somebody the question of food," he said. "There isn't any to speak of, of course. You'd think men would facts! There's not a man to accept what is, and work from that! Lunatics!"
He himself into a chair.
"Suggested," he continued, "that a part of the go to Norden to food and it back. Of Mekin wouldn't about it, wouldn't at the of the food was in such quantities! Suggested, that a part of the go to some and meat. Try to success in that venture! Suggested, that we travel a long distance, out a small world, land and its and and ourselves to bomb Mekin to extinction. And do it in a attack! Suggested—"
The king his angrily. He did not look royal. He did not look confident. He looked and helpless. But he still looked like a very man trying to make up for his deficiencies.
"Majesty," said Bors.
The king his eyes.
"You're going to send me off for news," said Bors. "I that my ship to be the of the fleet. I now that the ship add the wild and that since there's no longer a world which will it, it's pirate. It will take on its own. It the might of Mekin and it the Mekinese to do something about it."
"Why?" asked the king.
"Pirates," Bors answered, his enthusiasm, "have to be down. It takes many ships to a pirate. I should be able to keep a good-sized slice of the Mekinese in wait for me here and there."
"And?"
"There are tribute-ships which food from the worlds to Mekin. Hating Mekin as the of this fleet, Majesty, it would be natural for me to such ships, if I do nothing with them than send them out to space to be wasted. They wouldn't be wasted, naturally. They'd come here."
The king said, "But you couldn't supply the indefinitely!"
Bors agreement. But he waited.
"You may try," said the king querulously. "Have you something else up your sleeve?"
Bors in his turn.
"Don't tell me what it is," said the king. "So long as the some food and its isn't known.... If I what you're up to, I might I had to object."
"I think not, Majesty," Bors said, a smile. "I'll need some men. If I do food-ships, they'll be useful."
"I can't that anything would be useful," said the king bitterly. "Tell the to give them to you."
Bors and left the room. He directly to the who in was second in only while the king was aboard. He his mission and some of his intentions. The stonily.
"I'll give you fifty men," he said. "I think you'll be killed, of course. But if you live long to them that the fleet's been destroyed, you'll be of service."
"What," Bors asked, with a of humor, "can possibly be done about the that we out a Mekinese of it us?"
"The matter," the answered seriously, "is under consideration."
Bors and to his own ship, the Isis. He was uncomfortable. He'd said to his uncle, and to the king, that he had some plan in mind. He did, but it him to know that he on assistance; that, in theory, he not possibly it alone. It was to that he Gwenlyn and her father to turn up, with their Talents, when nobody of the possibly where the had gone. On Kandar it must be assumed, by now, that it was dead.
His ship's into position in the blister. The closed on it. A moment later there was a murmur, and the boat's vision-ports over and then cleared. He out into the ship's atmosphere. His second-in-command him in the control-room.
"I was trying to you at the flagship, sir," he said. "The Sylva is a miles off. Her owner has news reports to the flagship. He that you him when you can, sir."
Bors's of was real. He wasn't surprised. But he was with himself for something so as the Sylva the through an of days to a most like Glamis.
"Tell him to come aboard," he commanded.
He to talk to the officer, that he would ask the Morgans how the Sylva had where to come, and they'd tell him, and it would be unlikely, and he would accept the explanation. The mess-officer looked at the news of fifty additional to be fed.
"Principles of and common sense," said Bors, "don't apply any more. We'll them somehow."
He to the control-room. When Morgan appeared, expansively, Bors was again to see Gwenlyn with him. Logan, the Mathematics Talent, in their wake, looking about him.
"We out the for Kandar," Bors observed. "I don't that's news, to you?"
Morgan his head.
"And we're in more trouble than before. Is that news?"
"No," Morgan. "It's for you to be."
"Then, damnit, I'm going off on a pirating-news-gathering-food-raiding alone," said Bors. "Is that news?"
"We Logan," said Morgan, "to go with you. He'll be useful. That's Talents—"
"—Incorporated and I can on it," said Bors dourly. "In plain common the are high against my anything, such as back."
Morgan looked at his daughter. He grinned.
"We from him the other day a space-battle, didn't we?" He to Bors. "Look, Captain. Our Talents don't prophesy. Precognition says that when there are so many thousand an event in the can happen, then, in one of those thousand ways, it will. Precognition doesn't say which way. It doesn't say how. Especially, it doesn't say why. But we have a very by a very Talent that you'll be alive and doing something very a year from now. So we assume you won't be killed in the meantime."
"But anything else can happen?"
"More or less," Morgan.
"What will happen?"
"We don't know!" said Morgan again. "Someday I may take you and the of and other as I them. I'm wrong. But I do know than to try to of from my Talents. Right now—"
"I'm going to try to a, what you might call a tribute-ship, with food for Mekin."
"Tralee," said Morgan with finality. "You'll try there."
"Will I a food-ship there?" asked Bors.
"How the would I know?" Morgan snapped.
"You asked the question," said Gwenlyn cheerfully. "If you asked if there's a cargo-ship on Tralee, for Mekin, there can be an answer to that."
"Is there?"
"At the moment, yes," Morgan answered. "So the Talent says."
"Then I'll go there," said Bors.
"I you might," said Morgan. He looked at his daughter.
"May I come along?" asked Gwenlyn. "With an of Talents? My father's going to have long with the king. He'll need some Talents here to work out things. But I go along on your ship with a of the others. We help a lot."
"No!" said Bors grimly.
"I not," said Morgan. "Very well. Logan, you'll help Captain Bors, I'm sure."
The Talent said offhandedly;
"Any calculations he needs, of course."
He looked about him with a confident, air.
Bors walked with Morgan and his to the airlock. He to Gwenlyn. "I don't to be ungallant, to let you risks."
"I'm but annoyed," Gwenlyn answered. "It means I'll have to take measures. Luck!"
She and her father into the Sylva's space-boat. The doors closed. Bors to the room. He to set up the for from the sun of Glamis to the sun of Tralee. He the of the Isis's airlock. Presently, his second-in-command reported fifty additional hands aboard. They astrogators, drive-engineers and specialists.
After with the flagship, the little with at Tralee's sun, making for its proper motion, Glamis's proper motion, the length of time the light he by had been on its way, the distance, and the Isis's travel-rate in overdrive.
Presently Bors said, "Overdrive coming!" and down. After "one" he pressed a button. There was the of going into overdrive. Then the small ship was alone in its of and space. Until it came out again, there was no possible way by which any message it or its be or proved. Theory said, in fact, that the and a ship in would be of the so long as it in overdrive.
But Bors's light came out where the sun of Tralee was a of brilliance, and all the in every direction looked as usual.
