The news as Bors got it from the men of Deccan was for two reasons: that so much of it was true, and that all of it was and and garbled. It was to any relation at all such and the facts, there was no way for news to travel on ships, and no ships had like these!
Here on Deccan, the shining-eyed men that Bors had on Tralee and on Garen. They that there was a in being which had and a Mekinese task-force many times its size.
To the Captain, their knowledge was catastrophe!
They Bors they he that fleet, which he now had in while he about the worlds, of and destruction, and hero. The had it that he'd been from his native Tralee by the invaders, and that now he Mekin in knight-errantry, and that it was he who'd set the of on so many worlds.
Bors listened, and was numbed. He to the off Meriden, and the temporary of one of his enemies, and that he'd it to the of Mekin itself and there it while Mekin watched, to interfere.
The of was astounding. But the of at this was impossible! Then Bors himself that these like or daydreams, and he white. He what had happened.
Just he'd left the fleet, he'd talked to a woman and a man who, together, up the Talents, Incorporated new Department for Disseminating Truthful Seditious Rumors, so that of a high of detail got started, nobody how. If such spread, and them, nobody would them. It was that the on Cassis and Avino and Deccan had no in than that an woman pictured such as resulting from the derring-do of one Captain Bors, of she and and without much discrimination.
But she'd about the fleet, too! And that it had a Mekinese many times its size....
He the leader of the men from Deccan speaking humorously. "Your revolt, sir," he told Bors, "is everywhere! On Cela, sir, there are great space-ship yards, where they for the Mekinese navy. Not long ago they one and it out to space for a trial run. It didn't come back. Sabotage. Everybody it. The Mekinese raged. A little while later they another ship. But the Mekinese were smart! They sent it off for its trial with only Celans on board. If there were this time, it wouldn't be Mekinese who died in space! But that ship didn't come either! It touched here, sir, three ago, and we it with food and and some of us joined it. It off to try to you."
"I'd better—go after it," said Bors, dry-throated. "It into trouble. At best—"
The leader of Deccan's widely.
"It's got of missiles," he told Bors. "It can take of itself! And it has of food. We gave them target-balloons to on. We've been up to an for a Mekinese if one comes by. A of us joined the ship, though."
"In any case," said Bors, with the of in his throat, "I'll it so it can join the fleet."
He not himself to tell these and men that there was no and had been; that the of his were only true and that they had into people's minds a very woman away in and fantasies.
They wouldn't have understood. If they had, they wouldn't have believed. He that he the himself. But there was no other way for such with such a of to be spread among the stars. And spread them of events up to the last news sent by Bors, but nothing after that. Undoubtedly, Talents, Incorporated's Department for Disseminating Truthful Seditious Rumors had been at work on Mekin, but the done was a thousand times than any done there.
It was too late to repair the damage, here or else. This and all the were too to to be by Mekin. Mekin would take revenge. It was not to think about.
So the Horus departed, and in high-speed for ship-days without end, toward Glamis. It nothing that its own of field. It nothing of any of the thousands of of stars, offered unlimited room for to live in and without fear.
During the Bors only being alive. All this was his fault. The fleet's was to his work with Talents, Incorporated. The of a single ship—which now would have such results—were the fruits of his suggestion, the of his actions.
Talents, Incorporated was involved, to be sure, but only he'd allowed it to be. He should have that Madame Porvis would work if her was as described. No would fashion with in mind and security as a principle. Everything was betrayed. Everything was ruined. And if he, Bors, had only been properly skeptical, the would have been and Kandar now by the Mekinese—doomed to but not necessarily to annihilation—and other worlds would also be safely servile. They'd still be and they'd Mekin, but they would not have them the now in store.
Bors, in fact, he was still alive.
There was only one small thing he still try to set aright. He that Morgan take Gwenlyn away from the possibility that Mekin might somehow her. He had to make Morgan see the need for it. If necessary, he would King Humphrey that a order must be to send the Sylva light-centuries away, the Mekinese to itself to calm—if that hadn't already begun.
Mekin had its assembled and ready. If and, unfortunately, ran about Mekin, as elsewhere, the and Bors's to it, then their need only give a single order and the would off. When it Kandar it would Kandar dead. Then it would out the fleet, and it, and then it would move from one to another of its and take upon them....
And Bors only to the life of one girl from the of that beings to in. He only to send Gwenlyn away—if he was not already too late.
The Horus out into normal space twelve days after Deccan. The sun of Glamis still brightly. The about it with one low red and the other high with atmosphere. The a green, save for its seas. And the still it from to pole.
Bors had himself to the by space-boat, what he had to report was too to be spoken where all the might hear. Gwenlyn met him at the flagship's airlock. She looked very glad, as if she'd been about him.
"Call for a boat," Bors her curtly, "to take you to the Sylva. Go on with else who on it, your father, anybody. I'm going to ask the king to that the Sylva away from here—fast! Before the Mekinese turn up."
Gwenlyn her head, her his face.
"The Sylva's not here. It's gone to Kandar as a of dispatch-boat."
Bors groaned.
"Then I'll try to another ship to take you away," he said formidably. "Maybe one of the cargo-ships I sent back."
"No," said Gwenlyn. "They're going to be released. They'll go to Mekin, and we couldn't go there!"
Bors again. Then he said savagely, "Wait here for me. I'll something as soon as I've the king."
He the to King Humphrey's cabin. A came to attention. Bors passed through a door. The king and a dozen of the top-ranking officers of the were to Morgan, at once and positive and uncertain.
"But you can't it!" Morgan. "I don't it either, but you'll agree that since my said no ship but Bors's is here—and he every one of the they arrived—you'll that the Mekinese aren't here. So you're going out to meet them."
He saw Bors, and an of relief.
"Bors!" he said in a tone. "I'm you're back!"
Bors said grimly, "Majesty, I've very news."
King Humphrey shrugged. He spoke in a voice.
"I it from ours. You a passenger-liner off Mekin, you will remember. You sent it here. When it we that all its that Kandar was not and that the sent to it had not reported back."
"My news is worse," said Bors. "The of our fleet, and the that it a Mekinese force, is common knowledge on at least five planets—all of them now in against Mekin."
The king's had the limit of to disaster. It did not change. He looked almost apathetic.
"Mekin," he said dully, "sent a second to Kandar to the of defeat. We have a very there—three ships. Of our ships won't attack the Mekinese, but they might as well. Knowing that we their and that we still live, Mekin will retaliate."
"And not only on Kandar," said Bors. "On Tralee and Garen and Cassis and Meriden—"
Morgan interrupted.
"Majesty! All this is more to to me! I've been telling you that all my Talents agree—"
King Humphrey tonelessly, "We've our final arrangements, Bors. We are going to the cargo-ships and the passenger-ship you sent us. We will use them as messengers. We are going to send a message of surrender, to Mekin."
Bors swallowed. His most had produced nothing more than this moment.
"Majesty—"
"We have to sacrifice," said the king in a voice, "not only our but our self-respect, to try to something less than the total of Kandar. We shall tell the Mekinese that we will return to Kandar and up in space. If they send a small to accept our surrender, they shall have it. If they to us, they can do that also. But we submit ourselves to for having the original fleet. We admit our guilt. And we Mekin not to that upon our people, who are not guilty."
Bors to speak, and not. There was a sodden, in the room, as if all the high officers of the were and the king himself, though he spoke, was not less dead.
Then Morgan moved decisively. He moved away from the spot where he had been in argument. He took Bors by the arm, and him through the door.
"Come along!" he said urgently. "Something's got to be done! You have the of of to do! The king's intentions—"
The door closed him and he off. He from his with one hand while he Bors on with the other. They came to a to him. Gwenlyn waited there.
"Craziness!" said Morgan bitterly. "Craziness! I the group of Talents that existed! I teach them to think! I them! And they can't think of what is going to happen. And on it! Everything!"
"When will the Sylva be back?" Bors.
Morgan looked at his watch. Gwenlyn opened her mouth to speak. Morgan his impatiently. Gwenlyn was silent.
"My ship-arrival Talent's with the Sylva," said Morgan harassedly. "We sent him to Kandar to out if the Mekinese fleet's there, and when. It isn't here. He said so."
"It'll go to Kandar," said Bors bitterly, "to it. I we'll go there too, to be destroyed."
"But it's insane!" Morgan. "Look! You a passenger-ship off Mekin. Right?"
"Yes."
"You sent it here with all its passengers. Right?"
"Yes."
"One of the said he was a clairvoyant. Hah!" Morgan the of disgust. "He was a fortune-teller! He didn't know there was anything than that! A fortune-teller! But he's a Talent! He's a charlatan, but he's an Talent, and he doesn't know what that is! He thinks as Madame Porvis thinks scandals! And they're just as crazy! But he is a Talent and they have to be right!"
Bors said, "You're going to take Gwenlyn away from here,—and fast!"
Morgan paid no attention. He was embittered, and agitated, and in particular, he was frustrated.
"It's all madness!" he almost hysterically. "Here we've got a that King Humphrey's going to open on Kandar next year, and there's another one—"
Gwenlyn said quickly, "Which you won't tell!"
"Which I won't tell. But something's got to happen! Something's got to be done! And this Talent me a and looks proud I can't make of it! What the can you make out of a that Mekin will be when an enemy submits to destruction, still in space? There's no to it! My Talents wouldn't think of anything like that! They've got sense! But when this said it, they it too! It's so! They couldn't think of it themselves, but when this Mekinese Talent does, they know it's true. But it can't be!"
Bors said coldly, "The fleet's going to be destroyed, certainly. If that will Mekin. But Gwenlyn is not to to be with it! How are you going to her away?"
"The king's waiting for the Sylva to come back," Morgan said indignantly, "so he'll know—my ship-arrival Talent to out—if the Mekin fleet's going to Kandar, and when. He that if they know the exists, they know where it is and will come here looking for it. But Madame Porvis couldn't have told that in her daydreaming. She didn't know what we're circling! She couldn't have spread that by contagion!"
"She spread more!" said Bors. "Her were too true!"
Gwenlyn said, "It's a in terms for a to win a by itself be destroyed. Perhaps the Captain—"
"It's also a in terms," said Bors bitterly, "for all our to come we a victory. Now we that we weren't all killed. But it's for the king to to us all in of the Mekinese nature!"
"Maybe you can it, Captain," said Gwenlyn thoughtfully. "Could it be that it isn't a but only a paradox?"
Bors spread his hands helplessly. Of all times and circumstances, this particular moment and the least occasion for over words.
Then he said, "Yes.... It be a paradox. If this by that wild Talent is true, there is a way it win a fight. I don't it, but I'm going to put something in motion. Nothing can make worse!"
He and to the room where King Humphrey and the high of his sat like men, waiting for the moment to be killed, to no purpose.
