The Gripping Hand

by Larry Niven

  "And now?" Blaine asked

  Bury shrugged. "The Empire has been successful. You do not like us. Socially we are second class, but legally we have the rights you promised. Our planets are self-governing, under people of our own religion. The threat is now from the Mote, not from Sparta. There is no more need for the Arab Liberation Organization, and for the past dozen years I have presided over its liquidation."

  "You're the Chairman, Horace?" Renner demanded.

  "Not in name."

  "Sure. You're not the formal president of the Imperial Traders Association, either. Holy catfish."

  "Kevin, we presided over the liquidation of Nassari's group. He would not give up his ambition. I caused-"

  "You made me dig up data on him and turn him in to the Imperials. Sure. You couldn't hardly tell them, ‘Nassari isn't taking my orders anymore,' now could you?"

  "I did what I had to do, Kevin." Bury turned to Blaine. "You see? We had a way to get unknown spacecraft for ourselves. New Chicago no longer has a place for such schemes, but another world might, or an asteroid belt, or an Oort cloud near an old supernova. If men want spacecraft, or if Moties want spacecraft of human manufacture, then-then you must have Horace Bury, the spy."

  Into an uncomfortable silence Earl Blaine asked, "Your Excellency, just what are your plans, specifically?"

  "Plans or ambitions?" Bury demanded. "I don't know enough to have specific plans. But already I have found out more about the Motie threat than Mercer knew. Or you, my Lord. I have abilities, I have money, and among Allah and my doctors and this chair I have energy. I propose to employ them all in the Imperial service."

  And he waited.

  "I'll withdraw my objections," Blaine said, ignoring a small sound of protest from Lady Blaine. "That's all I'll do, but I expect it will get you to the blockade fleet. God knows what you expect to accomplish there. Don't waste any more time than you have to."

  "Thank you, my Lord," Bury said.

  Sally waited for the door to close. Then she demanded, "Why?"

  "You heard it all."

  "But Rod, what's changed? The revolt on New Chicago, the bloodbath, the prison camps, he caused it all! He raped a world and he killed Dorothy!"

  "I might have done the same in the service of the Empire. I might have been in Lenin's crew when Kutuzov burned Istvan down to bedrock. Bury's not just an opportunistic bandit anymore. He was defending his homeland."

  "Levant."

  "Mmm? But it's his world. The key is loyalty. He was an enemy; now he's an ally. He's protecting the Empire to protect Levant. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. He sees the Empire as friends, the only hope against the Moties."

  "He could be turned again."

  "Hah! Yes. We set Renner to watch him, and Renner's been doing that for a quarter century. Maybe there's something that could turn Bury's loyalty. But not at the blockade. He won't accomplish anything there, barring a pep talk and some politics, but he won't do any damage. The blockade stands between Levant and the Moties."

  "If Bury could see Moties as we do... Rod? How do you see Moties?"

  Rod didn't answer

  "They destroyed your ship, and you'll never forget. I think you loved MacArthur more than you have ever loved me. But we've found the solution!"

  "Have we? It works on Mediators. We don't know about Masters. We don't know if Masters would accept it even if it does work. They'd call it a Crazy Eddie answer."

  "It will. It has to."

  "Sally, we depended on the blockade. A few years from now we might not have a blockade... or a hundred years, maybe, or one. And you know how long it will take Sparta to decide to do something. Renner and Bury-"

  She nodded slowly. "Action, not talk." She looked at the ceiling. "Fyunch(click)."

  "Ready"

  "General instructions, all department heads. List essential equipment and personnel for transfer of the Institute to New Caledonia."

  "Acknowledged."

  PART 3 - THE MOAT AROUND MURCHESON'S EYE

  To the question, what shall we do to be saved in this World? there is no other answer but this, Look to your Moat.

  George Sevile, Marquis of Halifax

  1 New Ireland

  The foolish will now ask and say:

  "What has made the faithful turn away from the qiblah toward which they used to pray?"

  Say: "To God belong the East and the West.

  He guides who so wills to the path that is straight."

  al-Qur'an

  Hyperspace links only specific points. The time required to travel from one Alderson point to another is immeasurably short; but once that Jump has been made, the ship must proceed through normal space to the next Alderson point. This can take weeks to months depending on the Alderson geometry, ship speed, and logistics.

  Sinbad was faster than most passenger liners, and Bury had arranged to be met by other ships of his fleet carrying supplies and fuel, so that Sinbad could go by the most direct route possible; and even so the trip lasted long enough to put everyone on edge. They remained polite; but everyone was glad that Sinbad's size allowed some privacy

  Yet Renner observed that the odd friendship between Bury and Buckman remained as strong as ever; and if the new Viceroy was tiring of being told stories of Imperial trade on the one hand, and the follies of Imperial science policy on the other, he showed no signs of it. Renner had long since taken to excusing himself quickly after the evening formal dinner

  He was glad to be able to announce the last Jump. "It'll be about midnight ship's time," he said. "Take your sleeping pills and you may sleep through it."

  "I wish I could," Ruth Cohen said. "And I don't think I'll ever get used to Jump shock."

  "You can sleep through it, but you won't get used to it," Renner said. "It's not something you can get used to. Anyway, this is the last for a while."

  "One of my ships should be waiting," Bury said,

  Renner nodded. "Yes, sir. They'll have been waiting awhile. We had a message saying it passed through three weeks ago."

  Bury grimaced. "A costly rendezvous. Ah, well. Thank you, Kevin."

  A thin, reedy voice rang through the ship, first in Arabic, then in Anglic. "Prayer is better than sleep! Come to prayer! I witness that the Lord our God is One God. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah. Come to prayer. God is great! Prayer is better than sleep!"

  Ruth Cohen sat bolt upright. "What in the world..."

  The ship was in free-fall. The Velcro covers had held her snugly in the bed, and she'd got so used to gravity changes in the past few weeks that taking the spin off the ship hadn't awakened her. Must have been done smoothly. She realized she was alone in the bed. And I really did sleep through the Jump, too.

  Kevin Renner floated in from the adjoining cabin as the thin singsong finally ceased.

  "Shh."

  "But-"

  "Horace has visitors. Partners, or relatives, both maybe, from Levant on the supply ship. Bury has Nabil play muezzin when he wants to look like a conventional Moslem. Sorry I couldn't warn you, we only found out when we docked ships, and I was busy then."

  "But-"

  Renner grinned. "They wouldn't appreciate that Sinbad's pilot sleeps with a concubine."

  "I am not-"

  "Well, I know that, and you know that, but they won't know that. Anyway, I take it back. They won't be shocked that I have a concubine. They might not be thrilled by your name."

  "Name."

  "You're from Dyan."

  "I'm not from Dyan, I'm from New Washington."

  "I know."

  "And I am a Navy officer, on assignment." She looked down at her translucent harem set and tried to grin. "Well, not on duty just at the moment-Kevin, this is not funny."

  "Well, maybe not. At least it wasn't hard to figure the direction."

  "Kevin-"

  "Point toward Earth and you're facing Jerusalem and Mecca both. No difference from here. Same qiblah."
<
br />   "What has this got to do with anything?"

  "I read up on it once," Renner said. "When Mohammed first went to Medina, he preached that the Jews and the Believers were one people, all descended from Abraham, and they'd all have one Messiah. Maybe himself, but that wasn't established. One God, Allah, who was the same as the Jewish Jehovah. Mohammed venerated the Torah. Prayed toward Jerusalem."

  "Jerusalem? Kevin, why are we discussing this?"

  "So you won't brood about being insulted."

  "I still don't like it.'

  "Of course not. Neither does Bury. You're a guest. If you insist on acting like one, Bury will cooperate. God knows what it would cost him, though."

  "Oh." Ruth pulled a sheet up to her chin and wriggled farther down into the covers holding her to the mattress. "All right. Tell me more. Are you making all this up?"

  Renner smiled. "Nope. I'm told that in Medina there's a famous mosque, called the mosque of the Two Qiblahs-"

  "Qiblah. Direction?'

  "Yeah, aspect. Direction the mosque faces. Mohammed sent letters to the Jewish leaders inviting them to join him. They wouldn't. They said you had to be a son of Jacob to inherit the kingdom and get all the benefits of the prophecies, and Arabs didn't qualify since they were only sons of Abraham."

  "And nobody cared about the daughters."

  "Not a bit. But for a couple of years they faced Jerusalem, not Mecca, to do their prayers. But when the Jews rejected his offer, Mohammed brooded about it. One morning, Mohammed was in the middle of his prayers, facing Jerusalem, and all of a sudden he swung round to face Mecca. Everybody else did, too, of course. And that's why Arabs and Jews fight."

  "I never heard that."

  "True, though." Renner looked thoughtful. "Good thing, too. Can you imagine what would have happened to Europe if the Jews and the Moslems had been on the same side? Anyway that's the story of the Two Qiblahs. Now for the fun part."

  "Fun part?"

  "For the next two weeks we have this ship pretty well to ourselves. The supply ship isn't the only one Bury had meet him here. He's got a hospital ship that would make the Navy's doctors drool kittens. In about three hours, Horace and the Viceroy and Buckman are going to board Mercy of Allah, and by the time we get to New Ireland they'll be new men."

  "Wow. Aren't you included?"

  Renner grinned. "What's the matter, don't like the old one?"

  "Well, my opinion's on record, but it doesn't seem hardly fair."

  "But who'd keep you company? Actually, I got rebuilt just before we went to the Purchase. Time enough for touch-ups when we're in orbit and I don't have piloting duties. But we'll be pretty much alone with the staff most of the way into New Ireland."

  "I suppose it's just as well. I'm not sure I want to be around a Kevin Renner with more energy than you've already got."

  NEW CALEDONIA: Star system behind the Coal Sack with P8 primary star cataloged as Murcheson A. The distant binary, Murcheson B, Is not pail of the New Caledonia system. Murcheson A has six planets in five orbits, with four inner planets, a relatively wide gap containing the debris of an unformed planet, and two outer planets in a Trojan relationship. The four inner planets are named Conchobar, New Ireland, New Scotland, and Fomor, in their order from the sun, which is known locally as Cal, or Old Cal, or the Sun. The two middle planets are inhabited, both terraformed by First Empire scientists after Jasper Murcheson, who was related to Alexander IV, persuaded the Council that the New Caledonian system would be the proper place to establish an Imperial university. It is now known that Murcheson was primarily interested in having an inhabited planet near the red supergiant known as Murcheson's Eye. and as he was not satisfied with the climate of New Ireland, he demanded the terraforming of New Scotland as well.

  Fomor is a relatively small planet with almost no atmosphere and few interesting features, It does, however, possess several fungi that are biologically related to other fungi found in the Trans-Coal Sack sector.

  The two outer planets occupy the same orbit and are named Dagda and Mider in keeping with the system's Celtic mythological nomenclature. Dagda is a gas giant, and the empire maintains fuel stations on the planet's two moons, Angus and Brigit. Merchant ships are cautioned that Brigit is a Navy base and may not be approached without permission.

  "Which we won't need to do, thanks to Bury's supply ship," Renner said, wiping the screen. "We're good all the way to New Ireland."

  NEW IRELAND: Second planet of the New Caledonia system. New Ireland was terraformed by First Empire scientists under the influence of Jasper Murcheson and was the original site of the Trans-Coal Sack branch of the Imperial University until the campus was moved to New Scotland.

  The inhabitable areas of New Ireland are comparatively small and confined to the temperate-zone areas adjacent to the single major sea. Climate in the inhabitable zone is warm and pleasant. The soil is fertile and there are few insects or other predators. Crop yields are high.

  New Ireland joined the Secessionists and continued the war long after both New Ireland and New Scotland had become isolated from their respective allies.

  Little industry has been rebuilt since the destruction sustained during the Secession Wars. This was originally due to opposition from New Scotland, but is now apparently the choice of the New Irish Parliament. Consequently New Ireland remains a backwater with tourism as the major source of hard currency

  New Ireland and particularly the region known as Deny, is fiercely sought by Imperial Navy crews as a place for shore leave,

  Sinbad's B lounge was an add-on pod the shape of a lima bean. Ruth Cohen had set the wall transparent. Andrew Mercer found her reading at a viewscreen, with stars blazing around her and the Coal Sack behind her. The blackness in the other direction was New Ireland's night side.

  He'd been watching the Coal Sack on and off ever since Sinbud arrived iii New Cal system. He preferred not to let himself know that the view made him uneasy. The vast black blot stretched across thirty degrees of sky, in the shape of a hooded man with one glowing red eye. Murcheson's Eye, the red supergiant, had a yellow fleck in it: the MOte. And Ruth was a child in the arms of the Hooded Man, her face eerily lit from underneath by the computer screen.

  Mercer moved around her to see over her shoulder.

  "Greetings, Your Highness." Ruth said.

  "Not for two more hours. I don't become Viceroy until we land."

  "But you've been in the New Cal system for three weeks. And know you've been reading reports and sending instructions."

  Mercer shrugged. "Two weeks of that was in the hands of Bury's djinni." He stretched. "Do I look different?"

  "As a matter of fact, yes. Not much, but I can tell. I wonder how long Bury will keep Mercy here?"

  "A while, I gather. He plans on some touch-ups. Thinking of taking a turn in the tank?"

  "I just might once we settle in. It's not an opportunity I'll get very often. So tomorrow's the big day. Why New Ireland instead of New Scotland?"

  "Actually, Sir Kevin suggested it. After I thought it over, it did seem a good idea to have the formal installation on New Ireland. Patch up the old wounds. Let the New Irish know they're accepted. Even if I can't begin work until we get to New Scotland."

  "Well, Trujillo got here first."

  Ruth scrolled back to the beginning of the news squib. Mercer read over her shoulder

  Dateline Montenth 32, 3047. Derry, New Ireland. Mel-Ling Trujillo. His Highness arrives tomorrow. Not only is this the first official visit of an Imperial Viceroy to New Ireland since the wars ended, but Arthur Calvin Mercer will be formally installed as Viceroy for His Majesty's Domains Beyond the Coal Sack in the New Ireland Parliament building.

  The Government clearly expects this to be a big deal and has gone all out to bring in official guests to witness the event. There will be three days of official holiday. The New Cal branch of the Imperial Traders Association has arranged for fireworks and is paying for an all-day banquet.

  There's no qu
estion that among the best people of New Ireland the installation will be the biggest show since INSS Terrible bombarded Derry and ended New Ireland's secession eighty years ago.

  At tomorrow's ceremony the Fleet will be represented by three ships, the largest a light cruiser, It seems none of the others in the New Scotland naval yards is spaceworthy. When His Highness has had enough pomp and ceremony and wants to get to work, he might start by looking into the Yardmaster's records.

  Meanwhile, for most of New Ireland it's business as usual, and an unusual business it is.

  For fifty-six years the province of Derry has been visited by the Navy on leave. They were not always welcome; but they have always been the source of money, and money heals many wounds. Today Derry is famous for its welcome.

  The scars from Terrible's visit have long disappeared. Elsewhere on the planet, much of Murcheson's careful terratorming has also disappeared, leaving vast desert regions. But from the top of Romance Crag. Derry still looks like farmland, miles of it in all directions. The town is not one clump; it stretches arms along the crests of the hills, with farmland below.

  In the streets it is quite different.

  The whores have a wholesome look, I questioned several, and I always had the feeling that they were laughing at me. Uncorrupted. Part of the answer is that I was never able to find one twice. "We come for a little day trip, and maybe we make some money. Then it's back to work with the pigs and the corn," Deirdre told me.

  She knows who her father is. Jaynisse doesn't, both thought it an odd question.

  If you walk the streets of Derry, you'll find there aren't any brothels, but there are whole blocks of hotels that will provide rooms by the night or by the hour. Most of them have splendid room service.

  It is estimated that the average Able Spacer will leave three months' pay on Derry. It you count in the petty officers, the average Navy man spends nearly eighteen hundred crowns here. It is, by the way, very much an average. The Navy people save for their visit here, but they also gamble heavily.