Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11

by Gordon R Dickson; David W Wixon

  "That's not the only weapon we can create," he went on. "We can add fear to the mix ... fear that the peoples they already hate will come and take what little they already have."

  "You mean you think we can convince the peoples of nine worlds that the Exotics and the Dorsai are planning to attack them?"

  "We can make it look even worse than that, just by adding Old Earth to the mix," Bleys said.

  "But a lot of people on the Younger Worlds look up to Old Earth," Dahno said.

  "True," Bleys said. "But 'looking up' to the mother planet doesn't necessarily equate to loving her; and people on pedestals make the best targets. In any case, we don't have to convince everyone on the Younger Worlds ... only enough to be a substantial—but loud— minority. In practice, a loud minority usually controls a society, because when they yell loud enough, it stampedes others, or at least makes them pause before going into open opposition . . . that's how it always works."

  Dahno shook his head, as if denying he had even heard Bleys' words.

  "There are other things we need to do, too," Bleys added before his brother could speak.

  "After all, a shooting war may yet develop—not necessarily against the Dorsai—and it'd be a good idea to be prepared. So we need to take control of those Younger Worlds we don't yet have, as quickly as possible, while consolidating our positions on the five we've already got. If you think about it, the resources of nine worlds, when properly mobilized, will give us a large and powerful military force, which I suspect the Dorsai would rather not face."

  He paused for a moment.

  "Old Earth herself probably couldn't resist that. With nine worlds under our control, and the Exotics and the Dorsai neutralized, the mother planet would be alone and friendless."

  "Old Earth?" Dahno said. "What are you saying?"

  "Just thinking ahead," Bleys said. He looked about. "I'm hungry."

  CHAPTER 22

  "I think we can get the rest of the Younger Worlds into our camp fairly quickly," Bleys said later; he was dressed now, and working his way through an omelet and a stack of toast, even though it was mid-afternoon. He had asked Toni to prepare the meal, rather than having it sent up from the kitchens lower in the building; she had a way with breakfasts.

  "Our people," he went on, "have been working to gain influence with the power brokers on those planets for years—something those societies are particularly vulnerable to, since they're all decaying societies with a lot of internal conflicts. That's the kind of situation in which we can work internally without appearing to be nosing into local affairs; any major conflict that breaks out will seem to be totally a local phenomenon, and won't raise any alarm bells in other places."

  He paused to take another forkful, following it with a bite of toast; and chewed while thinking. No one interrupted him.

  "It's all there in history," he went on. "Whenever a society begins to deteriorate, its most powerful people always decide they need to take control. Usually they start by telling themselves it's necessary to take action not just for their own protection, but to protect the society itself; because they always believe that their society's only working if it's reflecting their own beliefs and desires."

  "Don't I remember some old philosopher saying that the rich always seem to believe they got that way because they were morally better than the poor?" Toni said. "Of course, once they get to that attitude, it's only a small step to deciding they have a moral right to control everyone else."

  "We never did get rid of slavery," Dahno said. The venom in his voice was not directed at his brother, and his gaze seemed to be focused inward. While Bleys had dressed, Dahno had refused Toni's offer of food, but had accepted a drink, and then another; he had seemed calmer, until this subject came up.

  "We just got better at disguising it," he finished.

  "We've never been fully civilized," Bleys said. "That's one of the reasons I've been telling you the race needs to grow up."

  Dahno subsided, almost sulking, but nodding his head a little. Toni smiled quietly, and Bleys smiled back at her over his brother's head.

  "You were talking about the power-holders—I guess you'd call them that," she said.

  "So I was," Bleys said. "In fact, I was about to say that they're usually smart enough to realize they can't sell a program like the one I just spoke of to the masses." He put his fork down absently. "So they work in secret, using their money and power to buy the people already in positions of influence, while using propaganda to portray the positions they favor in a positive light."

  "Which of course is exactly what we've been doing," Dahno said, a sour look again on his face.

  "That's what I've been saying," Bleys said. "We'll use our persuasive powers to get control of those same influence brokers on each planet—the systems and the secrecy are already in place, and we only have to insert ourselves into the picture ... the beauty of it is, the details of our control can be kept secret, because the lack of openness is already accepted in those systems.

  "It's ideal for us! We can be philosophers and philanthropists for public consumption, which adds to our political clout—and the less attractive things we have to do can remain out of sight."

  "All right," Dahno said, sounding rather grumpy, "you make it sound like just more of what we've been doing. But the devil is in the details—none of those planets is going to just fall into our hands overnight."

  "No," Bleys said, "but we've got more leverage than we've ever had, now that a large portion of Ceta's power is aligned with us." "Ceta?" Dahno said. "What do you mean?"

  "I'm sorry, brother," Bleys said, "I forgot we haven't spoken since you left Ceta."

  "Something happened after I left?"

  "Yes," Bleys said. "A lot happened." He went on to outline how he had located the unknown force on Ceta whose existence he had deduced.

  "So I bargained with them," he continued. "They only want one thing, and I promised our help in getting their revenge on the Exotics and the Dorsai."

  "It still seems impossible that they could have been so powerful."

  "Oh, it is," Bleys said. "But they got lucky, too: what they wanted just happened to move in the same direction as the forces of history. Do you remember that huge storm we saw while we were hiding on that mountain on New Earth?"

  "Oh, I remember," Dahno said. "What does that have to do with this?"

  "I think you understand no single thing can create a storm like that," Bleys said. "They result when a large number of factors all fall out in the exact way needed ... and that's what I'm talking about: over the last sixty years, the positions of the Exotics and the Dorsai got weaker while the rest of the Younger Worlds became more competitive—and at the same time the whole system became more corrupt."

  "You still haven't said what we're getting back for helping these Families," Dahno said.

  "Entry," Bleys said. "They're using their influence on Ceta, and a few other planets, both to help our people get access to more of the power brokers, and to facilitate our efforts to gain control of other elements on Ceta."

  "I suppose they think if we get control of people not already under their power, that will help them,'" Dahno said. "Are they really that blind?"

  "They're really that obsessed," Bleys said. "Their parents and grandparents raised them on the belief that they had been unjustly deprived of their rightful place; it warped them. They're so strongly focused on revenge they don't worry about what it costs—"

  "They've never had to worry about the cost of anything at all, in their entire lives," Toni interrupted.

  "Right," Bleys said. "They've come to believe they're invincible ... it's a little like an economic version of how the Elect among the Friendlies feel about themselves."

  "We've never been able to make any headway with the religious fanatics," Dahno warned.

  "True," Bleys said. "But we've managed to work with some of them, just by giving them what they want in return for getting what we want."

  "If true, t
hat makes them good candidates for our people to work on," Dahno said, grudgingly.

  "It's even better than that," Bleys said. "This situation is made to order, because when we get quick results—and we will—the Families will become even more open to listening to us—"

  "—And before long they'll be completely in our hands," Dahno finished, his grouchiness apparently forgotten. He looked interestedly at his brother.

  "You've already got something in mind to give them those 'quick results,' haven't you?"

  "I told them that if they get us access to top power holders not already in their camp, we can persuade them to help our program of taking business away from the Exotics. They liked that idea: our persuasion doesn't cost them as much as the money they've been spending on bribes."

  "Well, even if it all works," Dahno said, "how docs that help us get the remaining Younger Worlds into our camp?"

  "I think our people are more efficient than the Families, and more organized. We'll soon have results, using just the tools the Families are giving us access to—results that will make it even more obvious that the Exotics are getting less of a share of Ceta's trade. Any Cetan groups not already on our side will see there's something to gain in going along with our program, and in turn, with their support, we can guarantee that Exotic ships get even fewer cargoes, and even fewer Exotic experts are hired."

  "How can you guarantee something like that?" Dahno asked.

  "With the help of the worlds we've already got in our pockets,"

  Bleys said. "Any faction on Ceta not initially willing to go along with us will likely jump at the chance to get a larger share of trade with, say, Newton. In fact, we can probably encourage the growth of a planetary' government on Ceta—which would make our control less complicated—by using whole-planet most-favored-nation sorts of incentives."

  Dahno looked unconvinced. "What you're saying," he said, "is going to cost a lot of money, because most of those actions will be running a deficit."

  "What kind of deficit?" Toni asked.

  "Those kinds of trade manipulations have always been carried out only by governments seeking political gains," Dahno said. "Which is of course exactly what we'd be doing, too. But that kind of manipulation almost always runs counter to the normal workings of trade, and results in making everything more expensive for everybody. What Bleys is suggesting is that we draw on the resources of the planets we control to artificially deprive the Exotics and the Dorsai of wealth, a kind of economic warfare."

  "I think what you're saying," Toni said thoughtfully, "is that we'd be using the capital built up on the worlds under our control to change the normal ebb and flow of trade—as if we were building a breakwater along a beach—"

  "A breakwater made of bales of old-fashioned money," Dahno said.

  "Well, I can see how that will take trade away from the Exotics and the Dorsai, and hurt them," Toni said. "But how does that help put those other planets into our camp?"

  "On every planet there are always people who instantly understand that a program like that means the goods are being made to go elsewhere only because government money is pushing them about, and they'll want a piece of that money," Dahno replied. He seemed to have forgotten his earlier skepticism, and to be wrapped up in contemplation of the strategy he was exploring.

  "They'd sell their souls for opportunities like that," he went on, "and turning their planets over to us, to get those opportunities, won't worry them until later, if at all."

  "We can afford it if the Younger Worlds we control begin to run big deficits," Bleys said, "if in the short run it helps us get the uncontrolled worlds under our thumbs—because in the long run it won't matter."

  "It ultimately comes out of the pockets of the people," Dahno said. "In the mid-term, that might be very unpopular."

  "There will be ways to handle that, once we're firmly in control," Bleys said. "And we can alleviate those effects a bit by forcing the Exotics—and the Dorsai, too—to pay even more ruinous prices for the things they need to import. That will recover some of our losses, while impoverishing them ... for them, it will seem as if a depression has set in."

  "We'll have to be very, very adroit to carry out a complicated scheme like that," Dahno said, shaking his head. "You're essentially buying the support of some elements on each planet by surreptitiously robbing other elements on those, and other, planets, as well as the Exotics and the Dorsai. It's a bit of a house of cards, don't you think?"

  "If we were only engaging in the financial manipulations, it might well be prone to fall apart," Bleys said. "But that would be only one of our tactics, and not the major one, either. And they're all worth it if they help us further consolidate our control on the five worlds we have, and gain the other four worlds. The same trade considerations I suggested for Ceta will pull Freiland into our camp, too—they won't want to be the odd man out when it looks like the other planets are getting good deals."

  "What other tactics can we use?" Dahno asked.

  "Big lies," Bleys said. "All the planets have some tinge of jealousy and hatred for the Dorsai, the Exotics and Old Earth herself, and I've already laid the groundwork, in my talks and recorded lectures over the last few years, to get people to dwell on such things. There's a well of emotion ready under the surface of many of those people, that we can open up with a whispering campaign, saying that those three groups have been secretly working together to try to take control of the rest of the planets.

  "We'll also tell them that Old Earth, using the facilities of the Final Encyclopedia, has been secretly working to develop super-weapons to be used in its campaign to take back control of the colonies it once lost."

  "Won't that bring Old Earth in against us?" Dahno asked, his voice challenging.

  "Not for a long time, if at all," Bleys replied. "That planet is totally splintered, and it's an enormous and time-consuming task to bring those people into any sort of alignment... but probably that question won't even arise, because most Earthmen won't notice what we're saying about them—the mother planet tends not to pay too much attention to the Younger Worlds, after all."

  Bleys stood up, his napkin, forgotten like the rest of his meal, falling to the floor as he turned his back on the table and strode over to the gigantic map.

  "All of this," he said, waving an arm before the map, "should be powerful enough to at least give our people on the uncontrolled planets a start. If we can fan the conflicts properly, we can only gain politically. If civil wars break out, we can send in peacekeepers, voluntarily provided, out of fellow feeling, by the planets we already control." He turned to look back at Toni and Dahno.

  "Coby won't be a big problem," he said, pointing without looking over his shoulder; "it's the greatest source of metals in the Younger Worlds, and once we control it, a lot of the planets will tend to go along with us just because they need metals so much."

  "But Coby doesn't even have a government we can take over," Dahno said. "It's owned by a consortium of commercial enterprises that won't be susceptible to our normal tactics." He walked over to join Bleys at the map. "The consortium's control has always been totalitarian, and the people there have no power."

  "Even easier for us," Bleys said; "we won't have to try to raise popular support there. We'll simply give the owners and managers of those companies a quiet word that if they don't cooperate, we'll make all sorts of trouble that will cut into their profits." He turned back to the map, and reached up to point to the Procyon system.

  "The Exotics, living in the same system, of course have always owned a large slice of the shares in Coby. But they can be outvoted by the other owners." He turned back from the map.

  "Both the people on Coby and the companies that control every aspect of their lives have essentially cut their ties with or citizenship in any other world. The people are the only ones who're willing to work there: the outcasts of the other worlds. They're virtually slaves already; they won't even notice when we take over. And the owners?" He shrugged.
>
  "The owners long ago learned their profits increased if they cut their ties with their native planets; they didn't have to pay taxes, and no other planet has ever been willing to interfere with how they treated their people—it would threaten their access to Coby's metals—allowing the owners to pay low wages to workers with no political voice at all. They may regret that strategy when they find they have no off-world friends to rescue them from us—all we have to do is threaten to take everything if they don't give us control."

  "Which we could make palatable by leaving them large and secure incomes," Dahno nodded. "For the moment, anyway."

  "What... ? What did you just say?" Bleys asked, late that night. "I'm sorry; I was thinking. ... I guess I was far away."

  "Do you want to talk?" Toni repeated. She was lying on her side facing him, her head propped up by one arm.

  He looked at her for a moment. She did not usually probe at him like this.

  "What's on your mind?" he said.

  "Tell me about Hal Mayne," she said.

  "Hal Mayne? I've talked about him before."

  "You have, yes," she said. "But mostly you're talking to Dahno about how dangerous Hal Mayne is, and I only happen to be in the room."

  "I guess that's so," he said. "I'm sorry; I don't mean to be leaving you out."

  "I know you don't," she said. "And you're not, really. It's not so much that you're not telling me—something—about Hal Mayne, as that I can see there's something about your reaction to him—or maybe your feelings for him—that I can see the edges of, but you never talk about."