“We… did… not… plan… to… steal… anything.
“We… are… more… intelligent… than… they… are.
“We… planned… to… reason… them… into… freely… granting… us… the… discoveri es.”
“I can see you don’t know, or understand, the Dawnmen,” Ronny said with bitterness.
Dorn was looking at her contemplatively. He said, “Were all of the committee in on this?”
“No.”
“Who was in on it besides you?”
“Barbara… and… Marvin.”
“They are the committee members who arranged making you our guide and hostess?”
“Yes.”
Ronny looked at the big man and chuckled. “So. It wasn’t your overwhelming masculine charm that got Barbara into your bed. She wanted to distract you so that you wouldn’t be around.”
Dorn grunted at him. “Look who’s talking. You didn’t exactly sweep our girl, here, off her feet either. She was setting you up as a patsy.” He turned back to Rosemary and said, “Why did you wish to gain admission into the United Planets?”
“Because… as… a… member… planet… we… would… come… under… Articles… On e… and… Two… and… United… Planets… would… not… be… able… to… interfere… wit h… our… plans… on… the… Dawnworlds.
“Otherwise… your… Space… Forces… might… have… interfered.”
Ronny looked unbelieving. “But how did you expect to get away with kidnapping me? Obviously, when that came out, you’d have no chance of gaining entry to UP.”
“We… didn’t… plan… for… it… to… come… out.
“You… were… to… be… memory… washed… and… then… returned… here… to… me … in… bed.
“In… the… morning… when… we… both… awakened… you… would… not… remem ber… that… you… had… been… abducted… and… revealed… the… location… of… the… Dawnworlds.”
Ronny was scowling at her in puzzlement. “But how could you possibly know that of all the Section G agents, Ross Metaxa would send me to Einstein?”
“We… guessed… he… would… send… agents… who… ranked… highest… in… intelli gence.
“So… we… infiltrated… a… man… into… a… job… in… the… Interplanetary… Data… Banks… on… Earth… to… change… the… records… so… that… you… would… appear… t o… be… highest… or… second… highest.
“The… plan… worked… out.”
Dorn laughed and Ronny looked over at him in disgust. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re not as smart as you thought you were.”
Ronny turned and headed for the door, saying, “We’d better report to Metaxa. This is bad.”
Dorn said, “He’s in London at some conference, but Sid Jakes is on hand.” He looked down at the girl. “What about her?”
“What about her?” Ronny said disgustedly. “There’s nothing further we can do with her. The Scop’ll wear off in an hour or so. And we’d best let her do something about her chum-pals over at the other house. We don’t want a killing on our hands on Einstein and, if I know you, some of those characters you creamed probably have at least a concussion.”
He led the way out into the patio and headed toward the living room, Boy bringing up the rear. But at that point Fredric and Darlene came through the entry. On seeing the two Section G agents, both smiled and said good morning.
Ronny grunted his opinion of that and led the way to the living room.
Dorn went into the dining room for coffee while Ronny told the story to the two committee members.
When he was through, Fredric groaned and, seated now, put his head in his hands.
“You know nothing about this?” Ronny said, though he had already been told by Rosemary under Scop that none of the committee were involved save Marvin and Barbara.
Fredric shook his head. “It’s well known that there is an element on Einstein that wants to secure the secrets of the Dawnworlds, especially their method of prolonging life indefinitely. In fact, I wouldn’t mind knowing myself. Extending life for however long one would wish is a dream held by almost everyone.”
“Then why weren’t you in with them?”
Fredric looked up at him and said, “For the same reason that the majority of our people here on Einstein are not with them. We don’t think they have a feasible plan to get the Dawnmen to release their secrets. And we don’t want to see Einstein wake up one morning with a methane-ammonia-hydrogen atmosphere.”
Ronny said, “Well, now that they’ve been discovered, they can’t be allowed to go to the Dawnworlds. They’ve got to be stopped.”
Dorn came back with coffee and handed it around.
But Fredric and Darlene were staring at Ronny as though he had gone drivel-happy.
Darlene said very reasonably, “But there is no way of stopping them.”
Ronny scowled at her. “What do you mean? Fredric just said that the majority of the population of Einstein is against the attempt.”
Fredric put in, his voice equally reasonable, “But we have no means of coercion on Einstein.”
Ronny closed his eyes in momentary mute appeal to higher powers. He said to Dorn, “Holy Ultimate, get Sid Jakes on the communicator.”
He went over to the room’s desk and plunked himself down in despair.
Boy, who was stretched out on the floor, his muzzle on crossed paws, said, “Fouled up mess, eh Boss?”
“You have said it.” He looked down at the dog. “By the way, thanks for coming to the rescue.”
The Vizsla gave his stubby tail a quick couple of wags, but said, “All part of the job, Boss. I’d offer to bite Marvin for you when he comes in, but I’m conditioned not to bite anybody on this planet.”
Dorn brought his communicator over and propped it before Ronny. He said, his face unhappy, “You know Ronny, we could go back to that other house and knock those four funkers off.”
Fredric winced.
Ronny shook his head. “No, the word is spread by now. Besides, they’re probably not even still there. They will have summoned a car and taken off.”
Irene Kasansky’s face faded in on the screen and immediately took on an expression of relief. “Ronny!” she said. “You’re free!”
“Yeah,” he said glumly. “Put Sid on, will you, Irene? You can listen in, if you want, and get the whole sad story.”
“Will do.”
The face of the assistant to Ross Metaxa faded in, grinning as usual. “Free already, eh? That was a neat trick. What happened?”
Dorn Horsten and Boy found me—too late.”
“Who’s Boy?”
“The latest member of the Section G team.”
“Recruited a new potential agent, eh? Wizard. But what do you mean, too late?”
“They put me under Scop and dug the location of the Dawnworlds out of me.”
Sid Jakes hissed, his expression less happy now. “Holy Ultimate! But why’d they want it? As though I didn’t know.”
“They’re particularly interested in the prolongation of life. They wanted to get into UP so that Articles One and Two would apply to them and we wouldn’t be able to stand in the way. Sid, they’ll be heading for the Dawnworlds soonest, to get their business over before we can interfere.”
“Yeah.” Sid Jakes said, thinking about it. “It’d take a long time to get a Space Forces cruiser to you. Are there any spaceships available there?”
“There’re two space freighters on the field. They look like tramps.”
“Wizard. Hire one of them. Where would be a good planet to rendezvous with one of our cruisers? Some world partway there.”
“New Delos or Xanadu.”
“Just a minute.” Sid Jakes turned his head and said something into an order-box. In a short time he came back to Ronny and said, “We have a medium class space cruiser within two days of New Delos. Meet them there and they’ll take you to the Dawnw
orlds.”
Ronny said, “Just a minute, Sid. If I give the officers of that space cruiser the coordinates of the Dawnworlds, then they’ll know.”
“We’ll brainwash them later, like we did the men on the Pisa, who took you the first time.”
“Wizard, but that was a four man scout. You’re talking about a medium cruiser. And things worked out so that we could brainwash the Pisa crew. But suppose something falls apart on this expedition? The so-called Brahmins tolerated me on that first set-down on their planet, but they didn’t suggest that they wanted me back. Anything could happen.”
“I see what you mean,” Jakes chuckled. “All right, let’s do it this way. We’ll send Lee Chang in a small cruiser from here. She’ll get to New Delos as soon as you will. She’s a navigator. She’ll take over the navigating once you tell her where the Dawnworlds are, and the cruiser’s officers won’t know.”
Ronny said cautiously, “What happens to Lee Chang after the whole romp is over, assuming we pull it off satisfactorily? Then she’ll know where the Dawnworlds are.”
Sid Jakes grinned at him. “We’ll shoot her,” he said. “And maybe you too.”
Chapter Fifteen
Hiring the space freighter was no problem. As Ronny had suspected, one of them, the Space Freighter Cherokee, was a tramp and the skipper had no regular run. He would pick up a cargo on one planet, freight it to its destination and pick up a new load there for whatever spaceport it was designated for. He asked for an astronomical figure in interplanetary credits to take Ronny and Dorn to New Delos, his freighter going empty, since there was no cargo on Einstein for the world which had originally been settled by religious fanatics. Ronny shrugged that off. He was acting under orders. Let Sid Jakes worry about price.
However, the hop to New Delos was a lengthy one and the captain of the Cherokee found it necessary to take on additional fuel before getting under way.
The two Section G agents were climbing the walls with the need to get going, but there was nothing for it. The following morning was the soonest they could blast off. They returned to Rosemary’s house.
The balance of the committee had shown up but Rosemary herself had flown the coop, and no one knew where she had gone.
Ronny and Dorn had eyed Marvin and Barbara in disgust.
Ronny said, “After what Academician Felix Fitzjames told you about the dangers of the Deathworlds, you’re still foolish enough to make an attempt on them?”
Marvin said stubbornly, “We’re going to request that they release some of their technology to us, not try to seize it by force or steal it. We’ll offer to exchange some of ours for theirs.”
Ronny snorted and plunked down into a chair. “After a few megayears of their developing their science and technology, as compared to a couple of thousand years on the part of the human race, just what is it that you think that you’ve got that they’d want?”
Barbara said, “We don’t know. But we are sending four of the most intelligent persons on Einstein. It will be a matter of consulting with the Dawnmen. From what Academician Fitzjames said, there is no difficulty whatsoever in communicating with them.”
“No, there isn’t,” Ronny admitted. “They do it telepathically. Language makes no difference. But they do not like intruders.”
He turned to Fredric. “Isn’t there any possible way to stop them? Can’t you put it to a vote, or something?”
Marvin said, “It’s too late, anyway. They’re on their way, and in the speediest spacecraft on Einstein.” There was triumph in his voice.
“Holy Ultimate,” Dorn said in disgust. “And we’ve got to wait until morning even to start.” In the morning, Fredric came down to the spaceport to see them off. He had another Vizsla with him. A female.
Boy said to her, “Hi, Puppy.”
And she said scornfully, “The name is Plotz, as you very well know.”
The whole group was walking toward the Cherokee from where they had parked the overcar which had brought them to the spaceport.
“Plotz?” Ronny said to Fredric.
“I dabble in writing,” Fredric admitted ruefully. “What’s wrong with Plotz as a name for a writer’s dog? As she grows older, Plotz thickens.”
“Oh, no,” Dorn protested. “Don’t tell me that with all the upgrading of intelligence on the planet Einstein, you still have the pun.”
“She’s a beautiful dog,” Ronny made the mistake of saying, as they reached the space freighter’s gangplank.
“Thank you,” Plotz said, casting her eyes down demurely.
“She’s yours,” Fredric said immediately.
“Oh, now, see here… ”
“No, really. It’s better that you have a pair to take back with you to Earth. They breed true, you know. That is, the puppies, too, will talk and have superior intelligences.”
Boy let his tongue hang out from the side of his mouth and gave a double pant as he eyed Plotz.
“Huh,” she said.
Ronny looked at Fredric and said, “All right. Thanks. Earth will appreciate it. But listen, how do you people stand now on entry into United Planets? I know that Rosemary and her gang had ulterior motives for wishing to join, but how about the majority of you?”
“The majority of us still wish to join. Since we’ve found out about the presence of other intelligent life in the galaxy, we realize that man must stick together. It’s not a matter of upgrading a single world, such as Einstein; the job must be to upgrade the whole race. We are willing to contribute our efforts to the common cause.”
“Wizard,” Ronny said. “We’ll so report to our superiors. I don’t know how they’ll react, in view of this Dawnworlds foul-up, but I, personally, have no doubts about your own sincerity.”
Fredric shook hands with the two Section G agents and they ascended the gangplank, followed by the two dogs, Plotz going first, lady that she was.
As she climbed the stair, Boy gave her rear end a quick sniff and she looked over her shoulder at him and said nastily, “If you don’t look out you’re going to get a nip.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Boy said in defense, giving her a wag in reassurance.
Captain Joe Wald stood at the top of the gangplank awaiting his passengers. He looked down at the dogs for a long empty moment, then looked up accusingly at Ronny. “They talked,” he said.
“Yeah,” Ronny said. “Everything’s brainy on this world.”
When Boy came abreast the skipper, he stuck up his paw to be shaken and said, “Glad to be aboard, Captain. My name’s Boy.”
Wald, looking as blank as had Ronny and Dorn when they had first come in contact with the talking dog, first shook his head, then shook the paw.
The skipper led the way to their quarters, which were ample enough. In her day, before becoming a tramp, the Cherokee had been an interplanetary passenger-freighter with accommodations for twenty, in addition to the crew. She seldom carried passengers these days, being on the rundown side, but the cabins were still available.
The run to New Delos was uneventful and Ronny and Dorn killed most of the time either reading or playing battle chess. Spotted two tanks and a machine gun nest, Ronny sometimes even won.
Largely, they avoided discussing their mission. There was simply nothing more to say at this point.
An exception was one day, after they had wearied of playing, when out of a clear sky Ronny exploded.
“Those damn Einstein funkers,” he snarled.
Dorn looked over at him.
Ronny said, “The bastards supposedly have the best brains mankind has ever developed and look at what they’re doing. Risking the whole race.”
Dorn thought about it. “It was you,” he said mildly, “who pointed out that high intelligence doesn’t guarantee integrity.”
He pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and went on. “In developing a viable intelligent life form, you have three requirements, a brain, a hand with an opposed thumb, or its equivalent, and a voice box with its
necessary complement, the ear—or the equivalent, such as telepathy. Once given those basics, you can begin to develop all three. In a surprisingly short time, speaking in terms of evolution of species, the brain can be augmented. Bringing the hand up from the point where it can grasp and utilize a sharp rock to where it can thread a needle or assemble a micro-computer, is also possible. Evolving the voice box from the point where it can grunt, bark and whine to the level where it can render the Jewel Song from Faust, and evolving an ear that will appreciate the effort, is time-consuming, but it only takes time.
“But the evolution of a high ethic is still more time-consuming and man, certainly, is still at the task. The sands of our beaches are littered with those who have drowned in the attempt, from the Hebrew prophets, through the Buddah and Joshua of Nazareth to more recent examples, some too close to us for us to realize that this was what they were attempting to do. Our Voltaires, our Tom Paines, our Lincolns, our Ghandis, not to mention so many of our poets.”
Ronny said, “Wizard. I’ve never heard you wax so poetic, Dorn.”
Boy, who had been sprawled out on the floor next to Plotz, opened one eye and said, accusingly, “How’s a dog supposed to get any sleep around here?”
They ignored him and Dorn said, “Evidently, our friends from Einstein have yet to achieve a high ethic. We can only hope that the Dawnmen are more advanced in this respect.”
Ronny snorted deprecation at that. He said, “The planet Phrygia now has an atmosphere of methane, hydrogen and ammonia, as a result of the Dawnworlds’ attack. Does that sound like a high ethical code?”
“They were provoked,” Dorn said unhappily.
Ronny Bronston had been on New Delos once before. In fact, it had been the first planet, save Earth, he had ever set down upon. It had been his first assignment and Lee Chang Chu had been along to shepherd the fledging Section G agent. Theoretically, he had been in pursuit of the legendary Tommy Paine, an interplanetary revolutionist who had participated in the overthrow of a score of governments, socioeconomic systems and even religions. His latest escapade had been assisting the local revolutionists in the assassination, with a bomb, of the immortal god-king of New Delos. The planet was governed by a very restrictive theocracy, headed by this god-king, who supposedly never died. In actuality, approximately every twenty years, the ruling bishops of the church would get together and elect from their number a new head. Plastic surgery would then be used so that the new god-king would look exactly like the old to the people. Reactionary though the government was, there had seldom been revolt. It takes a brave man to rebel against both his kind and his god. However, Tommy Paine supposedly entered onto the scene and the god-king, while being televised all over the planet, was assassinated by the local revolutionists. The revolution then took place overnight, and was in full swing when Ronny and Lee Chang had arrived.
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