The H. Beam Piper Megapack

by H. Beam Piper

  “I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik’s picnic party. If you’re upset about this, you can imagine what he might have done here.”

  Prince Ganzay looked at him curiously for a moment. “I thought I understood what was happening,” he said. “Now I—— This business about the students, sir; how did it come out?”

  Paul told him. They talked for a while, and then the Prime Minister looked at his watch, and suggested that the Session ought to be getting started. Paul nodded, and they went down the hall and into the Rotunda.

  The big semicircular lobby was empty, now, except for a platoon of Household Guards, and the Empress Marris and her ladies-in-waiting. She advanced as quickly as her sheath gown would permit, and took his arm; the ladies-in-waiting fell in behind her, and Prince Ganzay went ahead, crying: “My Lords, Your Venerable Highnesses, gentlemen; His Imperial Majesty!”

  Marris tightened her grip on his arm as they started forward. “Paul!” she hissed into his ear. “What is this silly story about Yorn Travann trying to seize the Throne?”

  “Isn’t it? Yorn’s been too close the Throne for too long not to know what sort of a seat it is. He’d commit any crime up to and including genocide to keep off it.”

  She gave a quick skip to get into step with him. “Then why’s he filled the Palace with these blackcoats? Is Rod all right?”

  “Perfectly all right; he’s somewhere out in the mountains, keeping Harv Dorflay out of mischief.”

  * * * *

  They crossed the Session Hall and took their seats on the double throne; everybody sat down, and the Prime Minister, after some formalities, declared the Plenary Session in being. Almost at once, one of the Prince-Counselors was on his feet begging His Majesty’s leave to interrogate the Government.

  “I wish to ask His Highness the Minister of Security the meaning of all this unprecedented disturbance, both here in the Palace and in the city,” he said.

  Prince Travann rose at once. “Your Majesty, in reply to the question of His Venerable Highness,” he began, and then launched himself into an account of the student riot, the march to petition the emperor, and the clash with the nonworking class hooligans. “As to the affair at the University, I hesitate to speak on what is really the concern of His Lordship the Minister of Education, but as to the fighting in the city, if it is still going on, I can assure His Venerable Highness that the Gendarmes and Security Guards have it well in hand; the persons responsible are being rounded up, and, if the Minister of Justice concurs, an inquiry will be started tomorrow.”

  The Minister of Justice assured the Minister of Security that his Ministry would be quite ready to co-operate in the inquiry. Count Tammsan then got up and began talking about the riot at the University.

  “What did happen, Paul?” Marris whispered.

  “Chancellor Khane sacked a science professor for being too interested in science. The students didn’t like it. I think Khane’s successor will rectify that. Have a good time at the Flower Festivals?”

  She raised her fan to hide a grimace. “I made my schedule,” she said. “Tomorrow, I have fifty more booked.”

  “Your Imperial Majesty!” The Counselor who had risen paused, to make sure that he had the Imperial attention, before continuing: “Inasmuch as this question also seems to involve a scientific experiment, I would suggest that the Ministry of Science and Technology is also interested and since there is at present no Minister holding that portfolio, I would suggest that the discussion be continued after a Minister has been elected.”

  The Minister of Health and Sanity jumped to his feet.

  “Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of His Venerable Highness, and to extend it with the subproposal that the Ministry of Science and Technology be abolished, and its functions and personnel divided among the other Ministries, specifically those of Education and of Economics.”

  The Minister of Fine Arts was up before he was fully seated.

  “Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of Count Guilfred, and to extend it further with the proposal that the Ministry of Defense, now also vacant, be likewise abolished, and its functions and personnel added to the Ministry of Security under His Highness Prince Travann.”

  So that was it! Marris, beside him, said, “Well!” He had long ago discovered that she could pack more meaning into that monosyllable than the average counselor could into a half-hour’s speech. Prince Ganzay was thunderstruck, and from the Bench of Counselors six or eight voices were babbling loudly at once. Four Ministers were on their feet clamoring for recognition; Count Duklass of Economics was yelling the loudest, so he got it.

  * * * *

  “Your Imperial Majesty; it would have been most unseemly in me to have spoken in favor of the proposal of Count Guilfred, being an interested party, but I feel no such hesitation in concurring with the proposal of Baron Garatt, the Minister of Fine Arts. Indeed, I consider it a most excellent proposal——”

  “And I consider it the most diabolically dangerous proposal to be made in this Hall in the last six centuries!” old Admiral Gaklar shouted. “This is a proposal to concentrate all the armed force of the Empire in the hands of one man. Who can say what unscrupulous use might be made of such power?”

  “Are you intimating, Prince-Counselor, that Prince Travann is contemplating some tyrannical or subversive use of such power?” Count Tammsan, of all people, demanded.

  There was a concerted gasp at that; about half the Plenary Session were absolutely sure that he was. Admiral Geklar backed quickly away from the question.

  “Prince Travann will not be the last Minister of Security,” he said.

  “What I was about to say, Your Majesty, is that as matters stand, Security has a virtual monopoly on armed power on this planet. When these disorders in the city—which Prince Travann’s men are now bringing under control—broke out, there was, I am informed, an order sent out to bring Regular Army and Planetary Militia into Asgard. It will be hours before any of the former can arrive, and at least a day before the latter can even be mobilized. By the time any of them get here, there will be nothing for them to do. Is that not correct, Prince Ganzay?”

  The Prime Minister looked at him angrily, stung by the realization that somebody else had a personal intelligence service as good as his own, then swallowed his anger and assented.

  “Furthermore,” Count Duklass continued, “the Ministry of Defense, itself, is an anachronism, which no doubt accounts for the condition in which we now find it. The Empire has no external enemies whatever; all our defense problems are problems of internal security. Let us therefore turn the facilities over to the Ministry responsible for the tasks.”

  The debate went on and on; he paid less and less attention to it, and it became increasingly obvious that opposition to the proposition was dwindling. Cries of, “Vote! Vote!” began to be heard from its supporters. Prince Ganzay rose from his desk and came to the throne.

  “Your Imperial Majesty,” he said softly. “I am opposed to this proposition, but I am convinced that enough favor it to pass it, even over Your Majesty’s veto. Before the vote is called, does Your Majesty wish my resignation?”

  He rose and stepped down beside the Prime Minister, putting an arm over Prince Ganzay’s shoulder.

  “Far from it, old friend,” he said, in a distinctly audible voice. “I will have too much need for you. But, as for the proposal, I don’t oppose it. I think it an excellent one; it has my approval.” He lowered his voice. “As soon as it’s passed, place General Dorflay’s name in nomination.”

  The Prime Minister looked at him sadly for a moment, then nodded, returning to his desk, where he rapped for order and called for the vote.

  “Well, if you can’t lick them, join them,” Marris said as he sat down beside her. “And if they start chasing you, just yell, ‘There he goes; follow me!’”

  The proposal carried, almost unanimously. Prince Ganzay then presented the name of Captain-General Dorfla
y for elevation to the Bench of Counselors, and the emperor decreed it. As soon as the Session was adjourned and he could do so, he slipped out the little door behind the throne, into an elevator.

  * * * *

  In the room at the top of the Octagon Tower, he laid aside his belt and dress dagger and unfastened his tunic, than sat down in his deep chair and called a serving robot. It was the one which had brought him his breakfast, and he greeted it as a friend; it lit a cigarette for him, and poured a drink of brandy. For a long time he sat, smoking and sipping and looking out the wide window to the west, where the orange sun was firing the clouds behind the mountains, and he realized that he was abominably tired. Well, no wonder; more Empire history had been made today than in the years since he had come to the Throne.

  Then something behind him clicked. He turned his head, to see Yorn Travann emerge from the concealed elevator. He grinned and lifted his drink in greeting.

  “I thought you’d be a little late,” he said. “Everybody trying to climb onto the bandwagon?”

  Yorn Travann came forward, unbuckling his belt and laying it with Paul’s; he sank into the chair opposite, and the robot poured him a drink.

  “Well, do you blame them? What would it have looked like to you, in their place?”

  “A coup d’etat. For that matter, wasn’t that what it was? Why didn’t you tell me you were springing it?”

  “I didn’t spring it; it was sprung on me. I didn’t know a thing about it till Max Duklass buttonholed me down by the landing stage. I’d intended fighting this proposal to partition Science and Technology, but this riot blew up and scared Duklass and Tammsan and Guilfred and the rest of them. They weren’t too sure of their majority—that’s why they had the election postponed a couple of times—but they were sure that the riot would turn some of the undecided Counselors against them. So they offered to back me to take over Defense in exchange for my supporting their proposal. It looked too good to pass up.”

  “Even at the price of wrecking Science and Technology?”

  “It was wrecked, or left to rust into uselessness, long ago. The main function of Technology has been to suppress anything that might threaten this state of economic rigor mortis that Duklass calls stability, and the function of Science has been to let muttonheads like Khane and Dandrik dominate the teaching of science. Well, Defense has its own scientific and technical sections, and when we come to carving the bird, Duklass and Tammsan are going to see a lot of slices going onto my plate.”

  “And when it’s all cut up, it will be discovered that there is no provision for original research. So it will please My Majesty to institute an Imperial Office of Scientific Research, independent of any Ministry, and guess who’ll be named to head it.”

  “Faress. And, by the way, we’re all set on Khane, too. First Citizen Yaggo is as delighted to have him as we are to get rid of him. Why don’t we get Vann Evaratt back, and give him the job?”

  “Good. If he takes charge there at the opening of the next academic year, in ten years we’ll have a thousand young men, maybe ten times that many, who won’t be afraid of new things and new ideas. But the main thing is that now you have Defense, and now the plan can really start firing all jets.”

  “Yes.” Yorn Travann got out his cigarettes and lit one. Paul glanced at the robot, hoping that its feelings hadn’t been hurt. “All these native uprisings I’ve been blowing up out of inter-tribal knife fights, and all these civil wars my people have been manufacturing; there’ll be more of them, and I’ll start yelling my head off for an adequate Space Navy, and after we get it, these local troubles will all stop, and then what’ll we be expected to do? Scrap the ships?”

  They both knew what would be done with some of them. It would have to be done stealthily, while nobody was looking, but some of those ships would go far beyond the boundaries of the Empire, and new things would happen. New worlds, new problems. Great and frightening changes.

  “Paul, we agreed upon this long ago, when we were still boys at the University. The Empire stopped growing, and when things stop growing, they start dying, the death of petrifaction. And when petrifaction is complete, the cracking and the crumbling starts, and there’s no way of stopping it. But if we can get people out onto new planets, the Empire won’t die; it’ll start growing again.”

  “You didn’t start that thing at the University, this morning, yourself, did you?”

  “Not the student riot, no. But the hooligan attack, yes. That was some of my own men. The real hooligans began looting after Handrosan had gotten the students out of the district. We collared all of them, including their boss, Nutchy the Knife, right away, and as soon as we did that, Big Moogie and Zikko the Nose tried to move in. We’re cleaning them up now. By tomorrow morning there won’t be one of these nonworkers’ voting blocks left in Asgard, and by the end of the week they’ll be cleaned up all over Odin. I have discovered a plot, and they’re all involved in it.”

  “Wait a moment.” Paul got to his feet. “That reminds me; Harv Dorflay’s hiding Rod and Olva out in the mountains. I wanted him out of here while things were happening. I’ll have to call him and tell him it’s safe to come in, now.”

  “Well, zip up your tunic and put your dagger on; you look as though you’d been arrested, disarmed and searched.”

  “That’s right.” He hastily repaired his appearance and went to the screen across the room, punching out the combination of the screen with Rodrik’s picnic party.

  * * * *

  A young lieutenant of the Household Troops appeared in it, and had to be reassured. He got General Dorflay.

  “Your Majesty! You are all right?”

  “Perfectly all right, general, and it’s quite safe to bring His Imperial Highness in. The conspiracy against the Throne has been crushed.”

  “Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince Travann a prisoner?”

  “Quite the contrary, general. It was our loyal and devoted subject, Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy.”

  “But—But, Your Majesty——!”

  “You aren’t to be blamed for suspecting him, general. His agents were working in the very innermost councils of the conspirators. Every one of the people whom you suspected—with excellent reason—was actually working to defeat the plot. Think back, general; the scheme to put the gun in the viewscreen, the scheme to sabotage the elevator, the scheme to introduce assassins into the orchestra with guns built into their trumpets—every one came to your notice because of what seemed to be some indiscretion of the plotters, didn’t it?”

  “Why…why, yes, Your Majesty!” By this time tomorrow, he would have a complete set of memories for each one of them. “You mean, the indiscretions were deliberate?”

  “Your vigilance and loyalty made it necessary for them to resort to these fantastic expedients, and your vigilance defeated them as fast as they came to your notice. Well, today, Prince Travann and I struck back. I may tell you, in confidence, that every one of the conspirators is dead. Killed in this afternoon’s rioting—which was incited for that purpose by Prince Travann.”

  “Then—— Then there will be no more plots against your life?” There was a note of regret in the old man’s voice.

  “No more, Your Venerable Highness.”

  “But—— What did Your Majesty call me?” he asked incredulously.

  “I took the honor of being the first to address you by your new title, Prince-Counselor Dorflay.”

  He left the old man overcome, and blubbering happily on the shoulder of the Crown Prince, who winked at his father out of the screen. Prince Travann had gotten a couple of fresh drinks from the robot and handed one to him when he returned to his chair.

  “He’ll be finding the Bench of Counselors riddled with treason inside a week,” Travann said. “You handled that just right, though. Another case of making problems solve each other.”

  “You were telling me about a plot you’d discovered.”

  “Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay’s best
efforts. All the voting-bloc bosses on Odin are in a conspiracy to start a civil war to give them a chance to loot the planet. There isn’t a word of truth in it, of course, but it’ll do to arrest and hold them for a few days, and by that time some of my undercovers will be in control of every nonworker vote on the planet. After all, the Cartels put an end to competition in every other business; why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, whenever there’s an election, we just advertise for bids.”

  “Why, that would mean absolute control——”

  “Of the nonworking vote, yes. And I’ll guarantee, personally, that in five years the politics of Odin will have become so unbearably corrupt and abusive that the intellectuals, the technicians, the business people, even the nobility, will be flocking to the polls to vote, and if only half of them turn out, they’ll snow the nonworkers under. And that’ll mean, eventually, an end to vote-selling, and the nonworkers’ll have to find work. We’ll find it for them.”

  “Great and frightening changes.” Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized the phrase. Probably started it himself. Paul lifted his glass. “To the Minister of Disturbance!”

  “Your Majesty!” They drank to each other, and then Yorn Travann said, “We had a lot of wild dreams, when we were boys; it looks as though we’re starting to make some of them come true. You know, when we were in the University, the students would never have done what they did today. They didn’t even do it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt was dismissed.”

  “And Van Evaratt’s pupil came back to Odin and touched this whole thing off.” He thought for a moment. “I wonder what Faress has, in that anticipation effect.”

  “I think I can see what can come out of it. If he can propagate a wave that behaves like those micropositos, we may not have to depend on ships for communication. We may be able, some day, to screen Baldur or Vishnu or Aton or Thor as easily as you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains.” He thought silently for a moment. “I don’t know whether that would be good or bad. But it would be new, and that’s what matters. That’s the only thing that matters.”