Hardly! What I would have done had I known at the outset I did not know, but that had become academic. I had had much joy of this woman in emulation; now I could have the same joy of her in reality. It was, I thought, similar to my affair with Amber, the teenaged girl whom I had known intimately first in the helmet-feelies, then in the flesh. Rue was a masochist, but it was sexual expression it led to, not rejection.
"You deceived me!" I said, slapping her face, not hard. "Do you know the penalty for that?"
"My maidenhood!" she exclaimed, kissing me again. She dropped her skirt, and I dropped my trousers, and suddenly we were doing it where we stood. This position can be difficult and uncomfortable, and even impossible if the woman resists, but it can work if she cooperates and knows what she is doing. Rue knew. She leaned back against a wall so as not to have to be concerned with balance, and supported me as I thrust into her, and this time she was as ready as I. We kissed deeply, and just before I climaxed I nipped her on the tongue, and I felt her react below. She went crazy against me, and her body convulsed about my member, bringing me off within her. I cannot claim it was the best climax I have had, for the awkwardness of the position did detract, but it was highly satisfactory, and not only on the physical plane.
"Oh, lover, thank you!" she said, kissing me a final time. "I did so much want to have you, as me." Then she broke, for the vertical position does not allow a woman much time to clean up. She retreated to the bathroom while I got back into my trousers.
Then I became aware of Doppie. The calls had continued to come in during our intermission, for it was only the planetary broadcast that had been jammed, not the phone service. She had taken over the phone, fielding those calls as Spirit. I had made love to Rue in Doppie's presence.
That had been unkind, for Doppie was smitten by me too. She was as old as she seemed to be, and hardly foolish, but I did not need to read her to know that she would have traded places with Rue if she could. It is a mistake to assume that older women have no desires; they are merely more careful about showing them. In fact, the desire in age can be greater than that in youth, in women and perhaps in men, too.
I had never intended to take advantage of Doppie. Now I realized that I had done her wrong. "Doppie, I owe you," I said to the back of her head.
She did not turn, but I knew she heard and understood. Her hurt turned to joy. Then she contacted the local dialysis unit, and I went for my treatment.
The appearance of the Saturn ships had nullified Tocsin's siege of Ganymede; the Jupiter Navy was now outgunned in this region of space. Ploy and counterploy; it was not the first time this had occurred here. But now the Saturn ships were spreading out to menace Jupiter itself. That was the muscle behind my takeover of the planet: my words were merely the declaration of intent, while Saturn was the mechanism. I had of course cleared this with Khukov. He had hesitated to make an attempt on Jupiter, lest it provoke mutually destructive war, but Spirit and I had believed that the Tyrant could do it without that dread result, and that we had to do it. The Triton Project needed the resources of Jupiter, and Tocsin had made it plain that the present government would never join.
How had the Saturn ships been able to spread without molestation? That was where Spirit's advance work came in. Naturally Tocsin had ordered action, heedless of the consequence—but somehow the task forces ordered into action had gone astray. Orders had been confused, and foul-ups had occurred. Not one Jupiter ship had fired on a Saturn ship. That was part of what had kept Tocsin occupied during the interim; he had realized that the Jupiter Navy had been partially subverted.
Of course it could not be as simple as using projection to bring Saturn vessels of war within Jupiter's defensive perimeter. The true balance of terror lay not with the ships but with the subs. Largely invisible, the subs of each planet surrounded the other, ready to fire their missiles and lasers and blast the enemy cities out of atmosphere or space. The System had lived for centuries under that threat, and no one liked it, but there had been no way to escape it.
Until now. That was another reason that the Triton Project was so important. It was why this terrible risk was necessary.
My first broadcast had preempted the holo sets of Jupiter and Jupiter-space. Tocsin's forces had in due course zeroed in on it and jammed it out. But within a day we were ready for the next move: we had located the sources of the jamming, and could nullify it, temporarily. I was ready for my second broadcast.
I made it. "This is the Tyrant, again," I said. "As I explained yesterday, the government of Jupiter has been corrupted, with the same bloodsuckers feeding on public resources as were there before the Tyrancy existed. I do not blame my wife for this; she did what was right. I blame the corrupt leader who sidled back into place the moment he was able. That is Tocsin, who has twice brought to ruin the good that my wife has tried to do. I charge him with treason against the planet of Jupiter, and I require him to step down and turn himself in for justice. How say you, Tocsin?"
Of course the man was listening. This second broadcast had caught him as flat-footed as the first, because he thought he had nullified this sort of thing. He had reckoned without my sister's thorough preparation, and had not yet realized that it was the technical staff of the Jupiter Navy that was nullifying the jamming signals.
Tocsin, thus challenged, came on. But he seemed neither astonished nor dismayed. It was not an act; I read him, and found that he believed he had the upper hand. Why was that so?
"Tyrant, you think you have won," he rasped. "But you've lost. You think your friend on Saturn supports you, but he doesn't."
"He supports me," I asserted before Tocsin's words concluded, so as to minimize the delay. "At such time as he does not, he will let me know first. But I am merely borrowing the Saturn fleet for this purpose; I am acting as the representative of the Triton Project, and will govern Jupiter as a supporting planet, not as a conquest of Saturn. On this we have agreed; there will be no Saturnist interference in the affairs of Jupiter."
But before I was done, he was speaking again. "You fool, he doesn't support you because he can't support you!" he shouted. "Do you want to know why? Because he is dead!"
Now I was shaken. "What?"
"Check with your staff," he said gloatingly. "Chairman Khukov was assassinated this morning. The news is leaking out."
Rue switched her phone to the Premier of Ganymede. He looked drawn. "It is true, señor," he said. "We learned of it an hour ago, but did not wish to undercut your effort."
But Tocsin had known. How was that? I read the answer in his bearing: he had known because he had arranged it. While I was setting up for my second address, he had not been idle; he had implemented an assassination plot he must have had ready for some time. I realized too late: all he would have had to do was make a deal with the nomenklatura of Saturn, and they would have done the job for him. The deal would not have any benefits for the people of Jupiter or Saturn, just for the henchmen. Even threatened as they were with extinction as a class, the nomenklatura would not have dared do such a thing on their own; but with Tocsin ready to take the credit, they had surely been happy to act. They had known that they could not get rid of me while Khukov remained in power.
Khukov had sent me out to organize the Triton Project and establish System support for it, because my safety could not be guaranteed on Saturn. What a fool I had been not to realize that he himself remained as vulnerable! Suddenly, at one foul stroke, Tocsin had nullified everything. For without Khukov, my position lacked the support of Saturn; the nomenklatura would resume power there exactly as Tocsin and his minions had done on Jupiter, and they were not my friends. The Triton Project would be scuttled or perverted, and the riches of the galaxy would go, not to solve the problems of the System, but to enrich the illicit powerholders of the major planets.
Tocsin watched me in silence, a cruel smile playing about his homely face. He was savoring this moment of victory over the man who had deposed him once and threatened to do so again. All
Jupiter was watching.
What could I do? It was true that without Khukov I could not direct the Saturn fleet, and without that fleet I could not take over Jupiter. The Jupiter fleet had been neutralized, not converted; now its admirals would reassert themselves, rallying to Tocsin.
"Damn it, sir, you know what to do!" Roulette snapped.
I turned to her. Today she was more decorously garbed, with only some deep cleavage, her trademark, showing in front. "I do?" For I was genuinely at a loss. I wished my sister were here; she would have had some course of emergency action.
"Take over!" she said.
"But without the Saturn fleet—"
Tocsin, listening in, smirked. The time-delay seemed not to register; it was as though he were responding to my last words, instead of to my prior stunned silence. "I will accept your surrender," he said. "For the justice of Jupiter."
"Not Jupiter," Rue said, "Saturn!"
I don't claim to be fast on the uptake when caught by surprise; I'm sure I was better in my youth. "But I have no—"
"Saturn is without a true leader," she said. "Their people will trust you before they trust Tocsin. Strike now! It's yours to take! Like a willing woman!"
That last analogy may have seemed unkind or irrelevant, but it scored with me. Perhaps it was my recent discovery of Rue herself, unveiled after her masquerade. The people of Saturn did generally support the Tyrant, whose policies had revolutionized their agriculture and industry, and whose Triton Project promised them the Dream. Suddenly I understood.
"Saturn fleet!" I rapped. "Chairman Khukov is dead. He supported me; I still support him. I am doing what he wanted to be done. I am assuming direct command of the fleet. You will answer to me exactly as you have been doing." I did not ask the commanders of that fleet, I simply told them, not giving them the chance to think about it. That was the way it had to be done: swiftly, before contrary orders could arrive from Saturn.
"Jupiter Navy," I said next. "I am similarly assuming command over you. I hereby depose your present admirals, and elevate those of my choosing. Specifically, Admiral Lundgren is retired as of this instant, and Admiral Emerald Mondy restored to that command."
"You can't do that!" Tocsin protested. "You have no base! No authority!"
I ignored him. I continued to name particular admirals for retirement and restoration, drawing on the names we had reviewed. When I had covered them, I said: "You will cooperate with the Saturn Navy to safeguard the planet of Jupiter from attack. My aide, Roulette Phist, will provide the details of the transition and assignment." For Rue was conversant in a way Forta would not have been with the protocols of the military; she had been a ranking Navy wife for thirty years, and part of the Tyrancy as well.
"Countermand!" Tocsin exclaimed, realizing what I was doing. "There is no legal basis for this action!"
He was correct, technically. But too late. "I am not basing this on legality, but on power," I said. "The officers of the Jupiter Navy know what is best for the Navy, and the people of Jupiter know what is best for Jupiter. Participation in the Triton Project is best."
Then I launched into the major aspect of my presentation. "As many of you already know, Chairman Khukov of Saturn had a Dream," I said. "He shared it with me, and I am sharing it with you. It is the Dream of peace and prosperity for all men. It is the abolition of oppression, restriction, and hunger. One thing has prevented all men from possessing most of the things they desire, and that thing now threatens to eradicate man entirely. That thing is war. We squander our resources in the effort to make weapons with which to destroy each other. If those resources and that effort had gone to secure the good things for mankind instead of for war, we would all be better off than we are. Except for those who profit from the misery of others." I glanced at Tocsin. He was no longer on the holo, but my audience would understand.
"Earth was on the verge of self-destruction back in the twentieth century," I continued. "Only the onset of the gravity-shield, that enabled man to expand from Earth to the Solar System, enabled us to avoid that fate. The gee-shield made it possible to lift objects of any mass from the surface of any planet, and to approach the giant planets without being trapped or crushed by gravity, and to enhance the gee on moons locally to match Earth-norm. All else followed from that single breakthrough. The System was apportioned to the several nations of Earth according to their natures and the nature of the available territories, and the expansion of several centuries commenced. In that time the threat of war abated; the resources of each nation went to the development of its major colony. Only in the past century has our past returned to haunt us, as our cultures reenact the conflicts that threatened to destroy us before. We have filled the Solar System, and the pressures of increasing population and diminishing resources, coupled with the absolute folly of warfare, are threatening again to destroy us. We have to have a new direction for our energy, to avert forever the negative consequences of our nature. We have to look outward, not inward; to reach for new riches beyond our current knowledge, instead of competing and eventually warring for larger shares of a shrinking pie. When that very competition destroys the resources we seek."
I gazed into the holo of the planet of Jupiter, knowing that my eyes were fixing on every person watching. "This is the Dream that Chairman Khukov had, and that I share, and that the entire System must share. It is the Dream of the colonization of the galaxy itself. We have made the technological breakthrough; we can travel to the stars. By means of the light drive we can reach any other point in space at the speed of light—and no matter how far that is, how long it takes, we shall not age in the process. I have used this drive a number of times; it is like stepping directly planet to planet. I am confident that if we use this method to travel to the stars, and to the planets of those stars, it will be no different; it will be in effect instantaneous. Any one of us could board a ship today, and be in Sirius tomorrow, and return the day after, no older. Or anywhere else in the galaxy. The risk is minimal, because now we do not even need a receiver; our ships are to be self-receiving. This is how I came to Ganymede, despite the defenses of Jupiter. Our ships will set out fully equipped for colonization, as they did when they left Earth for Jupiter; they will expend virtually no fuel in transit, only some for the process of rematerializing at the destination. If no suitable bodies for colonization are found, new projection stations will be set up, and the ships will travel as readily elsewhere. It is true there will be challenges, and losses—but perhaps no more than there were in the colonization of the Solar System. The rewards are potentially much greater. War will be a thing of the past, for each nation can have an entire system to colonize, or a complex of systems. There will be no need for competition for resources or living space. Only for peaceful trade between systems. This is the Dream, and this is what I bring to Jupiter. The rest of the Solar System has embraced it; only Jupiter remains excluded—because of the selfish desire for continued power of a few leaders. I am here to remove those leaders and bring the Dream to Jupiter. Are you with me, people of Jupiter?"
Now we turned on the response feedback circuit. It hardly seemed to take six seconds; a roar of music came forth. There was no question: the people were with me. They wanted the Dream.
"It's a lie!" Tocsin shouted. "He's just making it up so as to seize power for himself!"
He was the one who was lying. But I was ready to counter this, regardless. "I need no further power for myself," I said. "My time is limited. I seek this power only as the means to the end of the salvation of the future of humanity. Before I die, I want to establish the Dream for everyone." Then, forestalling Tocsin's objection, I undid my belt and dropped my trousers, remaining on holo broadcast. "You see, I am no longer healthy," I said as I undressed. "I have lost my kidneys, and am sustained only by hemodialysis, because my system rejects all other mechanisms. Here are the scars on my legs where my blood has been tapped; here is the bandage that secures the loop that taps into my blood at present." I undid the bandage an
d showed the blood-filled tube. "The doctors will be able to verify the validity of this condition," I said, lifting my leg so that the tube showed clearly. "I have only a few years to live, because my sites are running out; when I can no longer be dialyzed, I shall die. I have no further use for power, other than to forward the Dream."
I had won my point; the feedback reaction showed that. The people of Jupiter were with me, and, perceiving that, the officers of the Jupiter Navy were stepping down and stepping up according to my listing. My bloodless coup was proceeding. I had been out of power here for five years, but I had been in power for ten years before that, and active elsewhere in the System in the interim, so the people knew me. They knew what kind of government I stood for, and it was clear that it was superior to what they had now. They also knew they could trust me to tell them the truth, and the truth I was telling them was the Dream. The victory was not yet complete, but it was clearly going to be mine. Rue had done what was needed when she told me to seize the initiative despite Khukov's death.
But Tocsin would not yield gracefully, if at all. He knew the people did not support him, and that the Jupiter Navy was no longer his instrument. But he had a ploy yet to make. "Tyrant, you know that the balance of terror is not in the conventional planetary navies, but in the fleets of subs," he said. "Jupiter subs surround Saturn, and Saturn subs surround Jupiter. Either fleet can destroy either planet. The Jupiter subs answer only to me—and the Saturn subs do not answer to you. I can destroy Saturn, and you cannot prevent it."
"Saturn subs," I said into the holo. "I know you are receiving me but will not answer. The man you answer to is dead, assassinated by parties as yet unknown. But I swear to you that I, as the representative of the Dream that Chairman Khukov made, will in due course root out the assassins and destroy them. To do this I must govern Saturn for a time, and this I will do, until a successor can be named who is guiltless in the assassination. Support me, and I will do this. The blood of the guilty will course through the streets of your cities. No other person can make this promise and keep it; you know that the nomenklatura are even now scrambling for new power, and if they did not engineer this crime, they surely support it. The same is true of President Tocsin here. In any event, you have heard him threaten to strike directly at Saturn. Accept my authority, and accept my order now: If any signal travels from the White Bubble toward Saturn, destroy the White Bubble instantly.