Forta did not actually enter the bath; she remained clothed, politely aloof. But Tasha did, and her body was spectacular in the bathing suit. This of course set my private passions spinning. I had placed such hope on the arrival of Forta, but talented and useful as she surely was, she was a disappointment romantically. I had not wanted a woman who could emulate the aspects of other women I had known; I had wanted a creature in her own right. Something young and soft and sexy and not too intelligent, if the truth be known. Forta was none of these; Tasha was most of them.
But her mole-conditioning remained, and I dared not touch her, willing as she might be. Forta was the one I was supposed to touch, little as the prospect appealed. I grimaced as I sat at the rim and dangled my feet in the water.
Tasha swam up. "I will purchase handcuffs," she murmured.
"Thank you, but I do not care to be cuffed," I said.
"For me," she said. "For my hands and feet, and you will have the key."
Oh. The prospect was illicitly tempting. But I demurred. "I am supposed to be through with you," I said. "I have another woman now."
"That is why I must have you soon," she said. "Once you go with her, you will never again go with me." She turned her face to me, and I saw that it was wet in a fashion that I doubted could be attributed entirely to the water of the pool. "Oh, please Tyrant—I want you so much! Bind me, rape me, anything—only take me one more time."
I considered. The truth is, I have been known to have this effect on women, and it pleased me to know that my advancing age had not nullified this aspect of my personality. I did desire her, dangerous as she was to desire. So I did what I knew I should not have done. "Buy the cuffs," I said.
"Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed, flouncing out of the water to embrace me.
Smilo jumped up, growling, and stalked toward us. Tasha quickly disengaged, splashing back into the water. Smilo did not have the fear of water that some cats did; he could swim, but generally preferred not to get his fur wet without reason. Since Tasha was no longer bothering me, by his definition, he did not find it worthwhile to pursue her in the pool. But he settled down beside me watchfully.
I reached out to pat his lovely hide. "I'm afraid we shall have to put you in the cage, for the occasion," I said. "I trust you understand." For obviously it would be very difficult to get close enough to Tasha to make love while the tiger was on guard.
On the following day we were granted the interview with the Shogun, or principal dignitary of the planet. For showcase visits, foreigners were generally routed to the Mikado, whose duties were purely ceremonial, but the Shogun had genuine power of decision.
Of course the interview was by holo; the Shogun was too important to risk in direct personal encounters, and the mechanism of translation suffered. This way, his image appeared real, as did mine to him, and his words were automatically translated from Japanese to Spanish, so that except for some unavoidable misalignments we seemed to be speaking each other's languages.
"So good to meet you, Tyrant," he said, lifting his hand in the greeting that was accepted as equivalent to a handshake on such occasions. "I have long admired your management of Jupiter."
"Thank you, Shogun," I replied. "I tried in vain to eliminate Jupiter's balance-of-trade deficit with Titan."
"But you did give us a run for our money," he said, smiling. He glanced to the side. "What a beautiful Smilodon! Have you any of those for export?"
I hadn't thought of that. "I would give you this one, Shogun, as a gesture of amity between Saturn and Titan. But he is wild, responding only to me. However, I am sure there will be tamer ones available in due course."
"I would not put Saturn to such difficulty," he said.
I was reading him. He really did admire the tiger! "Perhaps a matched pair," I said. "Breeders."
"Breeders," he echoed, and now the longing was manifest. Titan had a long history of martial arts, now stifled by the terms of the treaty, and admired superior fighting animals.
I signaled Tasha. She nodded and went to our interplanetary phone. It was possible that we would be able to confirm the assignment of a pair of Smilodons before this interview was concluded. I knew that Saturn would not want to let them go, but would do so at my behest. We desperately needed the good graces of the Shogun.
The Shogun had been coolly formal. Now he warmed noticeably. "It seems strange to encounter you as the representative of Saturn, rather than of Jupiter," he remarked.
"I prefer to think of myself as representing the human species," I said.
He was genuinely interested. "If it is not impolite to inquire, how would that be?"
"Chairman Khukov and I share a dream. You are of course aware of the manner that increasing population and diminishing reserves of natural resources are putting pressure on our civilization."
He smiled marginally. "I am aware," he agreed, with phenomenal understatement. Titan suffered as much as any planet from these very maladies, and had done as much to accommodate them as any.
"Our dream is to alleviate these conditions by opening the final frontier to man: that of the colonization of the galaxy."
"I am interested." Indeed, I could tell that he was—and also that this news was not a surprise to him. Evidently he had arranged a relatively prompt interview with me because his informational network (it's not polite to call it spying) had notified him of the project. Now he would have the news directly and openly, and that, by the conventions of his culture, was important.
"We propose to construct a station to transmit entire spaceships, in the form of light beams, to the planets of neighboring stars," I said. "We believe the principle is sound, and are now developing the technology to make a demonstration model. But there are certain complications."
He had known, but still I saw the Dream reach out and encompass him. "A second diaspora," he breathed. "Like the one to the Solar System, but greater. To each culture, a full stellar system."
"Or complex of systems," I agreed. "Without apparent limit, for even when the galaxy is filled, there are other galaxies."
"Therefore no further need for war." As the proprietor of the only planet to have suffered the detonation of the so-called planetbuster missiles in war, he had a deep understanding of the consequences of such activity.
"No need of war," I agreed. "Saturn has no greater liking for it than does Rising Sun, and if the truth be known, Jupiter is not particularly partial to it either. The human resources squandered in war represent an abomination. How much better it would be to use those resources in the effort to colonize all space. Each planet could devote whatever share of its economy it chose to its own program of colonization, interfering with no others."
"But would not the best systems go to the first comers?" he asked. "That could cause friction."
"Chairman Khukov is handling the technical details," I said. "I am working on the social aspect. It is my hope to establish a cooperative plan of colonization similar to that which enabled the nations of Earth to spread to the System without dissension as to the manner of it."
"Carrying the ancient enmities with them," he remarked.
"The galaxy is so much larger, perhaps the ancient enmities can at last be allowed to fade."
"But the details of the galaxy are not known," he protested. "How can a fair apportioning be arranged?"
"This is one of the complications I mentioned," I said. "It is indeed a challenge to make an equitable distribution of territory without information. My preliminary notion is to assign regions as segments of a sphere centered on Earth, extending the historic geographic territories outward to space. Thus the map of historic Earth would become the map of the galaxy, with each nation entitled to whatever it finds within the cone of space defined by its outline."
"But Earth turns," he objected alertly. "The cones would be continuously fudged."
"For this purpose, the map would have to be fixed in place," I said. "Perhaps a particular time could be set—"
"And there co
uld be war over the setting of that time," he said. "Each nation wishing to fix it at the point most advantageous for itself."
I nodded ruefully. "It seems I had not thought it out properly."
"By no means, Tyrant," he said generously. "You have the right notion, merely a problem in implementation. The stellar geography already exists; we have but to invoke it."
"It exists?" I asked blankly.
"The constellations," he said. "Occidental mythoi differ from ours, but I daresay there could be some accommodation there, as the basic map of the sky as seen from Earth or any other planet in the System is similar. Saturn would naturally be assigned what you call Ursa Major, or—"
"The Great Bear!" I exclaimed, perceiving it like a revelation. "A huge constellation, as befits a large local geography."
"And Jupiter would of course take Aquila—"
"The Eagle!" I concluded. "But hardly the size of the Bear—"
"But the Eagle is in the plane of the Milky Way, which is the body of the galaxy," he pointed out. "A cone of territory projected beyond that would include far more stars, ultimately, than that projecting beyond the Bear, which is not in the galactic plane. Thus the immediate advantage of Saturn would be offset by the long-term advantage of Jupiter. I suspect your governments could recognize the fundamental fairness of that."
"And Draco, the Dragon, for the Middle Kingdom," I continued. "Adjacent to the Great Bear, of course."
"Or for Rising Sun," he said. "The serpentine configuration aligns with that of historical Japan, which is also near the Bear."
I realized that I had committed a gaffe. "Rising Sun, of course," I agreed hastily.
He smiled. "It shall be worked out in due course; there may be many duplications of representations."
"But the system as a whole is certainly superior to my notion," I said. "I believe you have provided the necessary key to the peaceable apportioning of space."
"You are too kind." He was pleased. "If I may inquire, what are the other complications of this project?"
"Resources," I said. "Saturn has raw resources, but lacks proper industrial capacity to exploit them efficiently. This project will be phenomenally expensive, even in the pilot stage."
"But with potentially astronomic rewards," the Shogun said.
"True. But at the moment, it is a strain on Saturn's resources. That is why we hope to enlist the participation of others."
"Such as Rising Sun," he said, "that just happen to have a highly developed industrial base."
"This is true."
"In fact, you seek investors."
"That might be another way of putting it."
"What might Saturn offer, in return for such investment?" The Shogun was of course nobody's patsy.
"Raw iron," I said.
He nodded. "I believe it could be possible to deal."
Of course it was possible! There was hardly anything Titan needed more than iron, in quantity. This could solve its problem. "If Rising Sun were to be kind enough to consider providing advanced equipment, and the technicians to operate it—"
"I am not certain it would be expedient to ship such things to Saturn. Without in any way implying that Saturn would do so, I must say that there may be those who would be concerned about the borrowing of proprietary information for purposes other than intended, such as advanced computer chips—"
Saturn had a bad record in that regard, of course. Technology had been stolen similarly from Jupiter, to our great annoyance. But I had an answer. "Do you by chance remember the compromise I arranged with Ganymede, when I was ambassador there?"
"Tanamo," he said immediately.
"If Saturn should construct a base for the development of the launching site of the demonstration program on the planet of Titan, employing personnel of Rising Sun, coded similarly—"
"That is an interesting proposition," he said. The compromise of Tanamo had assigned the base to Ganymede, for its use as a port, but the personnel controlling access to the base had remained Jupiter citizens. In this manner, each party had been assured that the base would not be misused. I was suggesting that Rising Sun retain possession of the base, while Saturn contracted the access and used it for the space exploration project. This would give Rising Sun intimate participation, and her equipment and personnel would not leave the planet. It would also provide Saturn a vital base for the project, for Saturn's access to space was severely limited.
"Perhaps the matter could be presented to your governing council," I said. "I merely present Saturn's interest."
"That presentation shall be made," he said. "But I regret to say that a certain distrust that has existed historically may not be abated immediately."
He was understanding the case. The antagonism between Saturn and Titan had been long and bitter. "If there is any way to facilitate understanding and acceptance—" I said.
"Saturn may be distrusted, but our relations with Jupiter have been more amicable in recent years. If Jupiter had an interest in this—"
"I hope in due course to enlist Jupiter's participation," I said. "But at the moment I am not in good repute there."
"The Tyrant remains in excellent repute here," he said. "I confess that contact with Saturn might not have been as amicable if a conventional representative had been sent."
"Such as one of the nomenklatura?"
He smiled knowingly. "However, there is one whose continued presence would serve to abate skepticism here." He glanced meaningfully at me.
I was taken aback. "I had it in mind to meet with you, then return—"
"To the hospitality of the nomenklatura?"
He had a point. Titan was certainly safer for me, and there was indeed a job I could do here, facilitating the organization of the new base. I no longer represented Jupiter, but it seemed that to the folk of this planet I remained a useful symbol. Symbols are important to all human cultures, but perhaps more so to those of the Orient.
"I would be very pleased to accept your hospitality, if Saturn concurs," I said. "In the interest of forwarding the Dream."
"This may be a dream we shall be pleased to share," he said.
We raised our hands in the gesture of understanding.
Chapter 8 — LADY OR TIGER
The limited treaty between the USR and Rising Sun was considered a diplomatic coup, though all I had done was present a proposal of mutual benefit. It was as though I had gone from Tyrant to Rising Politician, in a sense a retreat, but a comfortable one. Shipments of iron ore (that is, unprocessed material sifted from the nether regions of accessible Saturn atmosphere that was rich in iron) moved to Titan, and a base was constructed on that planet at a near-record pace, while technicians studied the details of the breakthrough process. I interviewed the Rising Sun personnel, weeding out the unfit in my fashion; Saturn retained veto power in this respect, and I was serving Saturn's interest. It was a type of thing I was good at, but since I did not speak Japanese I required Forta's assistance. She translated, using her special equipment, while I judged the technicians' reactions, and it worked well enough. Thus I was making myself useful while also serving the broader purpose of reassuring the Rising Sun public by my presence.
But the work was neither arduous nor dangerous; consequently I began to feel out of sorts. My eye turned again on Tasha, who remained as attractive as ever. I knew I shouldn't touch her, under any conditions, but that only made the temptation stronger.
One afternoon when Spirit and Forta were at the base, seeing to a complexity of its operation, Tasha forced the issue. She produced four sets of handcuffs: the old-fashioned kind, with a mechanical key. She didn't have to say a word; the moment I saw them, I knew I was going to do it.
I went to the bedroom, where Smilo was catnapping in his chamber under my bed. "Sorry, friend," I said. "I need to confine you for a while." And I dropped the cage door to the floor, snapping it in place. He was accustomed to this; it meant that he was off duty for the duration, and could drift into a sound sleep. Animals do
not necessarily mind confinement, when they trust the confiner.
Then I followed Tasha into her bedroom, which was adjacent to mine. We represented a small Saturn enclave in the Titan city nearest the developing base; no one and nothing approached it without authorization, making it safe from assassins. We were really very comfortable here, with a benign confinement similar to that I was practicing on Smilo.
Tasha stripped and stood before me. Oh, she was lovely! She stretched, and I watched her breasts lift and her abdomen thin with the motion. I couldn't help myself; I stepped in and hugged her.
"Not yet," she murmured. "Fasten me down."
She spread herself on her bed, and I locked the handcuffs on her two wrists and two ankles, and to the available anchorages at the corners of the bed. She was secure.
I was eager with the pent-up desire of weeks, but I made myself go slowly. I suppose I hoped that if I worked her up properly, she would not change to the mole. Perhaps I was merely trying to delay that change, as it was Tasha I really wanted. So I kissed her, and ran my hands across her body, and tickled her and tousled her hair and tongued her breasts, and she responded in the appropriate ways.
There was a growl from the other bedroom. Smilo had realized that something was going on, and that I was touching Tasha, and he didn't like it. I do not think it was jealousy of the attention that motivated him, as I could touch the others without bothering him; I believe he sensed the mole in Tasha, like a lurking demon, and knew her to be a threat to me. He meant well, not understanding that I was aware of this threat and had acted to nullify it. So I understood his growl but had to ignore it.
Tasha was writhing, not with pain but with pleasure. She was on the point of climax, and I had not yet proceeded to the essence. "Please..." she whispered.
Naturally I obliged. This had already been a longer period with the real Tasha, in this mode, than I had enjoyed before; perhaps, knowing the futility of it, the mole would not manifest this time. I embraced her and entered her.