“The Hives have suffered,” admitted the ambassador. “The Wersgorix limit our space fleet and extraplanetary possessions; they exact a heavy tribute of rare metals. However, our home world is useless to them, so we have no fear of ultimate conquest like Boda and Ashenk. Why, should we provoke their wrath?”
“I suppose these creatures have no idea of honor,” the baron grumbled to me, “so tell him he’ll be free of those restrictions and tribute, once Wersgorixan is overthrown.”
“Obviously,” was the cold reply. “Yet the gain is too small, in comparison with the risk that our planet and its colonies may be bombarded.”
“That risk will be much lessened, if all Wersgorixan’s foes act together. The enemy’ll be kept too busy to take offensive action.”
“But no such alliance exists.”
“I’ve reason to believe the Ashenkoghli lord here on Boda plans to join us. Then many other clans of theirs are sure to do likewise, if only to keep him from gaining too much power.”
“Sire,” I protested in English, “you know that he of Ashenk is less than ready to stake his fleet on this gamble.”
“Tell the monster here what I said, anyhow.”
“My lord, it isn’t true!”
“Ah, but we’ll make it come true; so ’tis no lie after all.”
I choked on the casuistry but rendered it as required of me. Ethelbert shot back: “What makes you think so? He of Ashenk is known to be a cautious one.”
“Certes.” It was a shame that the blandness of Sir Roger’s tone was wasted on those nonhuman ears. “Therefore he’s not about to announce his intention openly. But his staff… some of ’em blab, or can’t resist dropping a hint—”
“This must be investigated!” said Ethelbert. I could all but read his thoughts. He would set his own spies, hireling Jairs, to work.
We hied ourselves elsewhere and resumed some talks Sir Roger had been having with a young Ashenkogh. This fiery centaur was himself eager for a war in which he might win fame and wealth. He explained the details of organization, record-keeping, communication, which Sir Roger needed to know. Then the baron instructed him what documents to forge and leave for Ethelbert’s agents to find, what words to let fall in drunkenness, what clumsy attempts to make at bribing Jair officials… Erelong everyone but the Ashenkoghli ambassador himself knew that he was planning to join us.
So Ethelbert sent a recommendation of war to Pr?°t. It went secretly, of course, but Sir Roger bribed the Jair inspector who passed diplomatic messages out in special boxes to the mailships. The inspector was promised an entire archipelago on Tharixan. That was a shrewd investment of my lord’s, for it won him the right to show the Ashenkoghli chief that dispatch ere it continued on its way. Since Ethelbert had so much confidence in our cause, the chief sent for his own fleet and wrote letters inviting the lords of allied clans to do likewise.
By now, the military intelligence of Boda knew what was going on. They could certainly not allow Pr?°t and Ashenk to reap so rich a harvest while their planet remained insignificant. Accordingly, they recommended that the Jairs also join the alliance. Thus urged, the parliament declared war on Wersgorixan.
Sir Roger grinned all over his face. “’Twas easy to do,” he said when his captains praised him. “I needed but to inquire the way in which things are done hereabouts, which was never secret. Then the star-folk tumbled into snares which would not have fooled a half-witted prince of Germans.”
“But how could that be, sire?” asked Sir Owain. “They’re older and stronger and wiser than we.”
“The first two, granted,” nodded the baron. His humor was so good that he addressed even this knight with frank fellowship. “But the third, no. Where it comes to intrigue, I’m no master of it myself, no Italian. But the starfolk are like children.
“And why? Well, on Earth there’ve been many nations and lords for many centuries, all at odds with each other, under a feudal system nigh too complicated to remember. Why’ve we fought so many wars in France? Because the Duke of Anjou was on the one hand the sovereign king of England and on the other hand a Frenchman! Think you what that led to; and yet ’tis really a minor example. On our Earth, we’ve perforce learned all the knavery there is to know.
“But up here, for centuries, the Wersgorix have been the only real power. They conquered by only one method, crude obliteration of races which had not weapons to fight back. By sheer force — the accident that they had the largest domain — they imposed their will on the three other nations which possessed such military arts. These, being impotent, never even tried to plot against Wersgorixan. None of this has called for more statecraft or generalship than a snowball fight. It took no skill for me to play on simplicity, greed, dawning fear, and mutual rivalry.”
’You are too modest, sire.” Sir Owain smiled.
“Argh!” The baron’s pleasure vanished. “Satan take such matters. The only important thing now is: here we sit, stewing, until the fleet is raised. And meanwhile the enemy is on his way!”
Indeed, that was a nightmare time. We could not leave Boda to join our women and children in the fortress, for the alliance was still unstable. A hundred times Sir Roger must patch it up, often using means that would cost him dearly in the next life. The rest of us spent our time studying history, languages, geography (or should I say astrolo~’?), and the witchlike mechanic arts. This latter must be done on pretext of comparing local engines with those of our home, to the detriment of the former. Luckily, though not unnaturally — Sir Roger had extracted the information from officers and documents, ere we left Tharixan — certain of the arms we captured there were secret. Thus we could demonstrate an especially effective handgun or explosive ball and claim it was English, taking care that none of our allies got too close a look at it.
The night the Jair liaison ship returned from Thanxan, with word that the enemy armada had arrived. Sir Roger went alone into his bedchamber. I do not know what happened, but next morning his sword needed sharpening and all the furniture lay in splinters.
God granted, though, that we had not much longer to wait. The Bodavant fleet was already gathered in orbit. Now several dozen lean battlecraft from Ashenk arrived, and soon thereafter the boxlike vessels of Pr?°t lumbered in from their poisonous home world. We embarked and roared off to war.
Our first glimpse of Darova, after we had fought past outlying Wersgor ships and into Tharixan’s atmosphere, made me doubt that aught was left to rescue. For hundreds of miles around the land lay black, ripped, and desolated. Rock bubbled molten wherever a shell had newly struck. That subtle death which can only be sensed with instruments had lain waste this entire continent, and would linger for years.
But Darova was built to withstand such forces, and Lady Catherine had provisioned it well. I glimpsed a Wersgor flotilla as it screamed low above her forcefield. Their missiles burst close, causing the near-solid stone of the aboveground structures to flow on the outside — but leaving the interiors unharmed. The seared earth opened; bombards thrust out like viper tongues, spat lightning, and retracted ere fresh explosives could smite. Three Wersgor ships tumbled in ruin. Their wrecks were added to the carnage which was left from an attempt to storm this place on the ground.
Then I saw no more smoke-veiled Darova. For the Wersgorix were upon us in force, and the combat moved up again into space.
Strange was that battle. It was fought at unimaginable distances with fire-beams, cannon shells, unmanned missiles. Ships maneuvered under direction from artificial brains, so fast that only the weight-making fields prevented their crews from being smeared across the bulkheads. Hulls were blown open by near-misses, yet could not sink in airless space: the wounded portions sealed themselves off, and the remainder continued to shoot.