"The decision," said King Humphrey the Eighth, stubbornly, "is what I have said. In full it has been that the fleet, through a new use of missiles, is a than before. This was in the late and no one questions it. But it is also that we outnumbered. We are in a position where we cannot fight! For us to have would have been if we had been out in the battle—preferably with only to the Mekinese. We offered that. Unfortunately, we the that was to have Kandar. In we have had to that we were along with them. And if we are to be alive, and if we offer to fight, Kandar will be as a world, to us and as a to of the Mekinese."
"Yes, Majesty," Bors said through tight lips. "But may I point out—"
"I know what you want to point out," the king in irritably. "With the help of these Talents, Incorporated people, you've out a new you want to put into practice. You've it to the War Council. The War Council has that it is too risky. We cannot the of the people on Kandar. We have not the right to them to Mekinese vengeance!"
"I agree, Majesty," said Bors, "but at the same time—"
The king in his chair.
"I don't like it any than you do," he said peevishly. "I to killed in a space-battle—not very gloriously, but at least with self-respect. Unfortunately we had luck. We the fight. I do not like what we have to do in consequence, but we have to do it!"
Bors his lips. He liked and King Humphrey, as he had respect and for his uncle, the Pretender of Tralee. Both were and able men who'd been to learn the lesson that some are impossible. But Bors that King Humphrey had learned the lesson too well.
"You plan, Majesty," he said after a moment, "to send me out again to food-ships if I can."
"Obviously," said the king.
"The idea being," Bors on, "that if I can food for the so it can make a of hundreds of light-years—"
"It is necessary to go a long way," the king unhappily. "We need to take the to where Mekin is only a name and Kandar not that."
"Where you will the fleet—"
"Yes."
"And that Mekin will not take for the the has already put up."
The king said heavily, "It will be a very long time word that the of Kandar did not die in battle. It may come. If it does, it will come as a rumor, as an tale, as about a home may not be when the are told. There will be about a which the world it should have defended, and so that its did not to it. If the Mekin, it may not be believed. It may not be to Kandar. And if some day it is believed, by then Kandar will be long occupied. Perhaps it will be to its status. It will be a valuable world. Mekin will not it to scattered, men who will know that they have been punished."
"And you want me," Bors, "to the stores of food that will let the travel to—oblivion."
"Yes," said the king again. He looked very weary. "In a sense, of course, we will be doing what we set out to do—to away our lives. We to do that. We are doing no more now."
Bors said grimly, "I'm not sure. But I will orders, Majesty. Do you object if I pass out the of the new device among some junior officers? I speak of the way to speed and how to it. It help the to together, in overdrive."
The king shrugged. "That would be desirable. I do not object."
"I'll do it then, Majesty," said Bors. "I'll be a new ship. I'd like the same crew. I'll do my best, in a new part of the Mekinese empire, this time."
"Yes," said the king drearily. "Don't make a pattern of that would that you have a base. You understand, it is to use more than one ship...."
"Naturally," Bors. "One more suggestion, Majesty. A ship be sent to Kandar—not to land but to watch. If a single Mekinese ship there to ask questions, it be destroyed, perhaps. Which would us time."
"I will think about it," said the king doubtfully. "Maybe it has to someone else. I will see. Meantime you will go to the for a new ship. And then do what you can to for the fleet. It is not good for us to here waiting for nothing. Even action toward our own is preferable."
Bors saluted. He to the office of the admiral. The commander-in-chief of the Kandarian was making an inspection, to maintain tight in the of hope. A vice-admiral was on in the admiral's stead. He Bors with approval. He with attention, and with most of what Bors had to say.
"I'll push the idea of a over Kandar," he said confidentially. "I'll make it two ships or three and take command. I want to send some of my officers to the of that low-power overdrive. A very idea! It should be spread the fleet."
"It will help," Bors said with irony, "when we go so away that we'll be of any more."
"Eh?" The vice-admiral looked at him blankly. "Oh. Perhaps. You wouldn't be likely to up a cargo-ship with Mekinese missiles, would you? We them to our use."
"If I did," Bors answered, "I that somehow that ship would land itself on Mekin and up as it touched ground."
The vice-admiral his eyebrows. Bors and left.
Presently he was on the Sylva. His new would be with from other ships. Despite the action against the Mekinese, there was not yet a of such ammunition. When a not be and itself did not try to intercept, the economy of was great. In the of the gas-giant planet, the had no more than three or four for every enemy ship destroyed.
Morgan took Bors aside.
"I'm going to keep Logan here this trip. I'm on the commanders. I need him. And our Talent for Detecting Lies,—she was the one who you were in trouble, Gwenlyn tells me—is very necessary. I was by not having her while Gwenlyn was away. But she did a good job for you!"
Bors shrugged. He did not like upon Talents. He still wasn't toward of what he the occult. Now he said, "I'm grateful, but it's just as well. My mind doesn't work in a way to these Talents of yours. I admit everything, but I'm I don't accept anything."
"It's perfectly reasonable," Morgan. "The fit together! I'm no hand at out theories; I in facts. But the do make sense!"
Bors himself looking at the door of the family room, where Morgan had taken him. He that he was waiting for Gwenlyn to enter. He to Morgan.
"They don't make to me," he said dourly. "You have a precognizer, you say. He the future. I admit that he has. But the is uncertain. It can't be unless it's pre-ordained, and in that case we're only that we're free agents. But there would be no in such a of things!"
Morgan settled himself in a self-adjusting chair. He a cigar on Bors and up zestfully.
"I've been wanting to about that," he observed, "even if I'm no theoretician. Look here! What is true? What is truth? What's the a false and a true one?"
Bors's to the door again. He them back.
"One's so and the other isn't," he said.
"No," said Morgan. "Truth is an accordance—an agreement—between an idea and a fact. If I a coin, I can make two statements. I can say it will come up heads, or I can say that it will come up tails. One is true and one is false. A which is true. I don't, but he does."
"It's still prophecy," Bors.
"Oh, no!" Morgan. "A precognizer-talent doesn't prophesy! All he can do is that an idea he has now matches an event that will presently. He can't ideas from the future! He can only judge the truth or of ideas that to him. He has to think something he can know it is true. He not from the future! He can only know that the idea he has now matches something that will later. He can a matching—an agreement—perhaps it's a of some sort. But that's all!"
"I asked if I would a cargo-ship on Tralee—"
"And I said I didn't know! Of I said so! How know such a thing by pure accident? A might think of nine hundred and ninety-nine in which you might try to that ship. They all be wrong. He might say you wouldn't it. But you might try a thousandth way that he hadn't of! All he can know is that some idea he has matches—some stirs, and he it's true! That's why one man can dirty tricks. His mind that way! We've got a woman who knows, infallibly, who's going to whom! That's why the ship-arrival can say a ship's in. His mind on such things, and he has a besides!"
"There are limits, then."
"What is there that's and hasn't limits?" Morgan.
The door opened and Gwenlyn came in. Bors rose, looking pleased.
"I'm telling him the of life about precognition," Morgan told her. "I think he now."
"I don't agree," said Bors.
Gwenlyn said amusedly, "Two of our Talents want to talk to you, Captain. You might say that they want to measure you for rumors."
"They what?" Bors, startled.
"The Talent who dirty tricks," said Gwenlyn, "is going to work with the woman who daydreams. They'll be our Department of Propaganda."
Bors said uncertainly, "But there's no point in propaganda! It's determined."
"I know!" said Morgan complacently. "The high has a decision. A perfectly logical decision, too, once you their premises. But they assume that Talents, Incorporated, some co-operation, of course, the ability to the situation. In that they're mistaken."
"Father hopes," said Gwenlyn amiably, "to the so their will lead to a different conclusion. Apparently they're going to their minds!"
Bors objected. "But you can't know the future!"
"Our precognizer—our Precognizer for Special Events," said Gwenlyn, "got the that a year from now King Humphrey should open on Kandar, if is out. The a precognition. We don't know how it can come about, but it to a of plans somewhere!"
Bors himself skeptical. But he said, "Ah! That's the you mentioned on Kandar—that the wouldn't be out and killed."
"No-o-o," said Gwenlyn. "That was another one. I'd not tell you about it. It might be—unpleasant. I'll tell you later."
Bors shrugged.
"All right. You said I'm to be for rumors? Bring on your tape-measures!"
Morgan at him. Gwenlyn to the door and opened it. An woman came in, moving somehow in of her bulk. She gave Bors a he not fathom. It was sentimental, and and approving. He a which he in something close to panic. It couldn't be that he was fated—
Then the man with came in. He'd been as the Talent for Predicting Dirty Tricks. Bors that he had a personality, toward suspiciousness, and that he'd been in for that were later committed.
"Gwenlyn says propaganda," said Morgan, "but I to think of these two Talents as our Department for Disseminating Truthful Seditious Rumors. You've met Harms." The man his hand, his glittering. "But I didn't tell you about Madame Porvis. She has the of fantasy. It is rare. She can daydream, and others her as if they were spread by germs."
The woman bridled. She still Bors with a melting gaze. Again he unease.
"It's been a great trial to me," she said in a voice. "I had such trouble, I what it was!"
"Er—trial?" asked Bors apprehensively.
"When I was just an adolescent," she told him archly, "I about my school's best athlete. Presently I that my fellow-students were to each other that he'd as I daydreamed. Other girls wouldn't look at him they said he was in love with me."
The man with the a sound.
"He me," said Madame Porvis, ruefully, "because the him ridiculous, and it was only people up my daydreams!"
She looked at Morgan. He encouragement.
"Years later," she said to Bors, "I about an actor. He was not at all talented, but I that he was, and also and by millions. Soon to it was true! Because I it! He was contracts, and—then I to that he met and was by me! Immediately there was that it had happened! When he that he me,—and he didn't—and when he saw my picture and said he didn't want to, I was crushed. I about myself as away and of his cruelty,—and soon it was common that I had!" She sighed. "He was a villain, I of him that way. His career was ruined. I've had to be very about my since."
"Madame Porvis's talent," Morgan said proudly, "is all the more she herself that she had it. She lets ideas into her and presently they into other people's and you have first-class about. When her of truth, so do the rumors. You see?"
"It's most interesting," Bors. "But—"
"Now Harms," said Morgan, "reads news-reports. He's on those by Gwenlyn and by you. He at the news the news—and he when he's it. He'll tell Madame Porvis the facts, she'll them into a and they'll spread like wildfire. Of she can't plant new in people's minds. But who's of Mekin will up her about and in its government. Riots against Mekin, and so on. However, one wants not only to spread about villains, but also about—say—pirates who go about Mekin. Tell her about your men, if you like. Anything that's material for defiance-fantasies against Mekin."
Bors himself the idea. It might be that there was such a thing as in the Morgan had described. There might be such a thing as fantasy. But on the other hand—
"I give up," he said. "I won't it and I can't it. I'll go about my of piracy. But you, sir," he to Morgan, "you've got to keep Gwenlyn from taking risks!"
"True," said Morgan. "She have some very experiences. I'll be more with her."
Gwenlyn did not alarmed.
"One more thing," Bors added. "They say the of Mekin is superstitious, that he fortune-tellers. Suppose one of them is a Talent? Suppose he information?"
"I worry about that," Morgan. "But I know that I have Talents. There's no that he has."
"He might have a Talent is our Talents," Bors said with some sarcasm.
Morgan tolerantly.
"Talk to these two. We've got some that make look for Mekin."
He left the room. Gwenlyn remained, with when the began, and now and then saying something of no great importance. But her presence Bors from like a fool. Madame Porvis looked at him with languishing, eyes. Harms him accusingly.
Their questions were trivial. Bors told about the on Tralee and on Garen. The woman asked for that would help her picture of derring-do. Bors hesitated, and did not tell her about the on Tralee who the that their were booby-trapped. But he did the that the populations of were on the thin of revolt. The Talent asked very little. He listened, frowning.
When it was over and they'd gone—the woman again somehow a which only be called sinuous—Bors said abruptly, "What's this event you know of, a year ahead?"
"King Humphrey opening on Kandar," said Gwenlyn pleasantly.
"There's another," said Bors, "which that I'll still be alive."
"That?" said Gwenlyn. "That's another one. I won't talk about it. It that my father's going to retire from Talents, Incorporated."
Bors fumed.
"I don't like this business," he said. "It still to hint that we're not free agents. Tell me," he said apprehensively. "That about me, it doesn't Madame Porvis?"
Gwenlyn laughed. "No. Definitely no!"
Bors grunted. Then he managed to grin.
"In that case I'll go some so the will be prepared to do what you tell me it won't, but which it has to be prepared to do. I I'll be back?"
"I so," said Gwenlyn, smiling.
She gave him her hand. He left. He his as he his way to the Sylva's space-boat blister. He had it taken to his new ship. It was a light of the same class as the Isis. It would, of course, to be the same ship, and it had nearly the same aboard. No one of Morgan's Talents was this time, and Bors more than a little relieved. He and sure his drive-engineers were more than they'd been on the Isis. He meant to another low-power at once.
He for with the flagship. He was the ship toward his when a call came from the Sylva. He was asked for. He to a screen. He to see Gwenlyn when he talked to her. She was there.
"I've a for you," she said briskly. "There are cargo-ships on Cassis and Dover. There is a of patrol-squadron of on Meriden. Nothing on Avino. Are you this?"
"I won't it," he said.
"Then here's the on each of the worlds so as cargo-ships and ships are concerned. Our can tell about them. Remember, this doesn't apply to ships in overdrive! We can't anything about them unless we're at the they're for, and then only the time of arrival. And the dowser's is as of this moment."
Bors nodded. Her was matter-of-fact. Bors was almost convinced.
She read off a list of with clarity. She'd had the go over the list of twenty-two planets. Bors told himself that the events she reported were possibilities that might somehow be true.
"Most of the Mekinese fleet," she finished, "is on Mekin itself. It's there for and or some such ceremony. There's no way to tell. But it's there. And that's the latest Talents, Incorporated information. As my father says, you can on it."
"All right," said Bors. "Thanks." Then he added gruffly, "Take of yourself."
She at him and off. Bors was he couldn't that other be predicted.
The new ship, the Horus, away in overdrive, the in around the Glamis. Glamis was in a just now. It was a green almost from to pole, save where its a darker, muddy, bottom-color. It would look to colonists. But at any time its sun its and turn it into a cloud-covered world of jungle, or in a time turn it to a glacier-world. The on Glamis was remarkable. The planet, though, was of no use to it was unpredictable.
The Horus ran in for two days while a low-power unit was in its engine-room, to go in to the normal overdrive. But there was a double-throw in the line, now. Either the standard, light-speed be used, or the newer and slower one, but not together. The ship came out of in with no sun nearby. She was on every hand by stars. The new was in. It had a micro-timer in its design. Within its certain, limited timing-capacity, it or a the thousandth of a microsecond.
Bors tests, target-practice of a sort. He let out a metal-foil which itself, making a some in diameter. In the new low-speed he away from it for a limited number of microseconds. He the run. He other runs, again measuring. From ten thousand miles away he a return-hop to the target-balloon and came out a mile of it.
He up. This was accurate. He sent the ship into again. Twice more, however, he stopped and the of out of the new overdrive—in which his ship was undetectable—at a point. The of successful operation almost up for the involved.
But on the ship-day out from Glamis, the Horus came to space with a very, very star almost ahead. The that it was the sun of Meriden.
Bors the action alert. Gongs clanged. Compartment-doors shut.
"You know," said Bors into the all-speaker and in the which obtained, "you all know what we're at. A food-supply for the fleet. But we've got what looks like a very useful for purposes. We need to test it. There's a small on Meriden, ahead, so we'll take them on. It is necessary that we all of them, so they can't report anything to Mekin that Mekin doesn't already know. All hands for action!"
In twenty minutes by the ship's the Horus was a thirty thousand miles off the Meriden. The new drive perfectly for approach, at any rate. It more perfectly than the twenty-minute implied. It had been off Meriden for five minutes then.
Mekinese ships were up from the of Meriden and out to space to offer battle. They were ready, like hair-triggered weapons. Bors hadn't his challenge they were toward Meriden's sky. They couldn't have been more if, say, Meriden with about a ship in space, which it was their to fight.
According to the screens, there were not less than fifteen ships out to the Horus. Fifteen to one—interesting odds.
Bors sent the Horus ahead to meet them.
Part Four
