The Game of Stars and Comets

  "When the sonic failed, an Overman and some of his hunters were killed by kwitu," the High-Lord-Pac continued in flat exposition. "And after his death several of the collared ones fled to the mountains, his control over them being destroyed."

  "The truth is as the great one says."

  "The starwalker who was with these hunters, he swears to this?"

  "He stands before the great one now. Let the asking be made so that he may reply with his own mouth."

  That lizard's snout descended a fraction of an inch. Kade could not be certain whether the eyes behind those gem-bordered slits saw him even now.

  "Let him speak concerning this happening."

  Kade, striving to keep his voice as precise and cold as the Commander's, retold his story—his edited story. Faced only by the array of masks he had no hint as to whether or not they believed him. And when he had done, the comment upon his version of the disaster came obliquely.

  "Let this be done," intoned the noble on the dais, "that all sonics be checked before they are issued for use. Also let the master-tech answer to Pac concerning this matter. The audience is finished."

  The chair arose, moved straight ahead as the honor guard hurriedly snapped to right and left offering free passage. Kade had barely time to dodge aside as the Styor ruler passed. Was this all? Would they have no further meeting and a chance to offer the High-Lord-Pac more off-world curiosities?

  An Overman guided the Terrans to a room not far above street level, close to the slave quarters. Kade waited for enlightenment as his superior officer crossed the chamber, dropped his jumpbag on a seat which was no more than a hard bench jutting out of the wall. A roll of woven mats piled at one end suggested that this also must serve as a bed when the need arose.

  "What now?" Kade finally asked.

  "We wait. Sometime the High-Lord-Pac will be in the mood for amusement or enlightenment. Then we shall be summoned. Since we do not exist except to supply his whims, such a time may come within the hour, tomorrow or next week."

  Certainly not a very promising forecast, Kade decided. He opened the tri-dee holder and, kneeling on the floor, he set its contents out upon the bench, sorting the beautifully colored small slides. They were so lifelike that one longed to reach into the microscosm and touch the frozen figures into life and movement.

  Here were the smaller, long domesticated animals, cats, dogs, exotic fowl, a curved-horned goat, a bovine family of bull, cow and calf. Then came the wild ones—or the species which had once been wild—felines, represented by lion, tiger, black leopard; a white wolf, deer. Kade discarded a bear slide, and eliminated the elephants and the rest of the larger wild kind which could not be shipped this far out into space. Then he took out the last slide of all, balanced it on his palm, examining it avidly. To his eyes it was irresistible. But how would the High-Lord-Pac see it.

  Abu had no present interest in the display of trade goods and his continued silence finally drew his companion's attention. The Terran Team Commander got up from the bench, stood now by the door through which they had entered. There were no windows here. A subdued light, dim to their off-world senses, came from a thin rod running completely around the room where ceiling joined wall. But that light was not so dim as to disguise Abu's attitude. He was waiting, or listening, or expecting—

  Kade arose, still holding his choice of tri-dees. They were without weapons in the heart of the undeclared enemy's territory. And Abu's stance brought that fact home to the younger man. When the Commander spoke he hardly more than shaped the words with his lips, using the tongue of their own world rather than Trade talk.

  "Someone is coming. Walking."

  Not a Styor visitor then, unless a guard on duty. A second later the eyepatch in the door panel glowed. Abu waited for a moment, and then acknowledged with a slap from his open palm directly below the small screen. The light flashed off, they viewed a foreshortened snap of an Overman. Abu slapped a second time, granting admittance.

  "Hakam Toph," the stranger announced himself. "First Keeper of off-world animals."

  Abu made the same formal introduction in return, naming himself and then Kade.

  Toph showed more interest in Kade.

  "It is the one who cares for beasts?"

  Abu sat down on the bench, leaving the answering to Kade.

  "It is," he replied shortly. The Overman was using the speech of an Ikkinni driver, and that in itself was an insult to the Traders.

  "This one would know the habits of the new beast."

  "A record tape was sent," Kade pointed out. He held up his hand at eye level, apparently more absorbed in the tri-dee he had selected from his samples, than in a sale already made.

  And the Overman, catching sight of the array of plates on the shelf, came on into the room eagerly, drawn to the strange exhibits to be seen. Kade, nursing that last tri-dee stepped aside, allowing Toph to finger the small vivid scenes of beasts in their natural setting. The Overman was plainly excited at such a wealth. But at last he began to glance at the plate Kade still held, while firing a series of questions concerning the rest. When the Terran did not put his plate down or mention it, Toph came directly to the point.

  "That is also an off-world beast?"

  "That is so." But still Kade did not offer him the plate.

  "That is one which is rare?"

  "One," replied Kade deliberately, "which on our world is and has long been prized highly. It belongs to warriors who ride, by our customs, not borne on the shoulders of men or in chairs of state but on the backs of these beasts. Even into battle do they so ride. And among us the warriors who so ride are held in honor."

  "Ride on the back of a beast!" Toph looked prepared to challenge such an outrageous statement. "It would see!" He held out his hand in demand and Kade allowed him to take his plate.

  "So." Toph expelled breath in a hiss which might have signified either admiration or contempt. "And warriors ride upon this beast for honor?"

  "That is so."

  "You have seen them?"

  Kade plunged. "On my world I am of a warrior people. I have ridden so behind those who are my overlords."

  Toph glanced from the Terran back to the tri-dee plate.

  "These beasts could live on Klor?"

  "On Klor, yes; in Cor, no." Kade proceeded with the caution of a scout on the war trail, fearing to push too much or too fast.

  "Why so?"

  "Because they graze the grasses of the plains just as the kwitu. They could not live confined in a wall garden of a city tower."

  "But at the holdings they could? One could ride them where now only the sky ships pass overhead?"

  Toph was certainly getting the point fast, perhaps almost too fast. But the off-worlder replied with the truth.

  "That is so. A lord or the guardsman of a lord could ride across the country without slave bearers or a sky ship. My own world is plains and for hundreds of years have we so ridden—to war, to the hunt, to visit with kin, to see far places."

  Toph looked down at the plate once again. "This is a new thing. The High One may be amused. I take." His thick fingers closed about the tri-dee with a grip of possession Kade did not try to dispute. The Terran had taken his first step in his plan, and by all signs Toph was snared. Surely the head animal keeper of the Pac would have some influence with the Lord of Cor, and the acquisitiveness of a zoo keeper faced with a new animal of promising prestige would be a lever in the Terran's favor.

  When the Overman left without any further demands for information about the newly arrived bear, his hand still grasping the tri-dee, the Team Commander, who had taken no part in the exchange, smiled faintly.

  "Why horses?" he asked.

  "This is natural horse country. The plains will support them."

  "You will have to have proof of that, an analytical report, before the Service will ship them."

  Before he thought, Kade replied, "Steel had that made."

  "Interesting," Abu commented. "You found that in his tape,
of course. Horses—" he repeated thoughtfully. "They'd come high on import price."

  "Too high?"

  "For the High-Lord-Pac of a planet to indulge a whim? With all the resources of Klor to draw on? No, I think he can afford them if he wishes to. You might get a reprimand from the ecology boys however."

  Kade had not foreseen that angle. To introduce to any alien world a plant, animal, or bird without natural enemies and with a welcoming terrain was a risky thing at best. To Kade the plains of Klor seemed a natural setting for horse herds. They would share those vast expanses with the kwitu, with the deer species, and with the large flightless birds. Natural enemies—well, beside mankind, or Styor and Ikkinni, who should consider horses prized possessions and not prey, there were several carnivores. But none in quantity. Yet that was what he had hoped to see; a horse population exploding as it had on the plains of his own home, unleashing wealth and war mobility for the natives. However, if he had to untangle red tape within his own Service—

  Kade was startled by a sound from his superior which was suspiciously like a chuckle.

  "A little too soon, Whitehawk. Don't ride your rockets up full blast until you are sure of your orbit! Horses for the Styor. I wonder how the Ikkinni will welcome them. The currents of air keep their lords' ships out of the mountains. On horseback their slavers could range more widely. And I wonder about that, young man. You did not join this Team recommended as a Styor lover. Horses—" He studied Kade as a man might inspect an intricate piece of machinery which he did not understand, but must be able to set working with smooth ease.

  "You said to tempt the High-Lord-Pac with something new," Kade said, on the defensive. He had been so full of his idea that he had underrated the Commander, a mistake he could see might be a disastrous error.

  "So I did, so I did. And Steel, asking for an analysis, put all this into your mind?"

  That was partly true and Kade was glad he could admit it. But he knew that Abu was not wholly satisfied. For the moment he was saved by the return of Toph with an order for them both to attend the High-Lord-Pac.

  When they entered the antechamber of the garden where they had earlier deposited the bear, they found the ruler of Klor, his carrying-chair grounded, viewing the tri-dee which a guard held at eye level for his master's convenience.

  "Tell of these." The order was passed to Kade.

  Using the Trade tongue, the Terran enlarged upon equine virtues, giving what he hoped were vivid and entrancing descriptions of appearance, action, the advantages of horses to be bred and raised on Klor. There was no answering enthusiasm visible in the Styor, though it was plain the waiting Toph was already a convert.

  "But in Cor they could not be?" The Styor interrupted.

  "That is so. They must have open land."

  "And the great ones of your world ride upon their backs with ease?"

  "That is the truth." He launched into a description of saddles and riding gear, of the development of cavalry, both as fighting units and as striking and colorful guards for ceremonial occasions.

  "These shall be bought," the Styor made his decision in his usual expressionless way. "Also there shall be sent to Cor reports concerning these creatures, other representations of them such as this, or larger." He gave the faintest inclination of head to the plate before him. "All this shall be done as speedily as possible."

  Abu bowed. "The will of Pac is the law of the land and sky," he replied with the formal speech. "As the wish, so is the action. Have we now leave to depart from Cor, since we must carry out the will of Pac?"

  "Depart and serve."

  It was so quickly decided that Kade almost distrusted his success. On the way back to the Styor ship Abu asked some questions of his own.

  "Where are you going to get horses in a hurry? When Pac says he wants a thing speedily, he means just that. Horses brought from Terra will be months on the way, and in quarantine and transhipment as well."

  "There are horses, for generations toughened by space hopping, to be had on Qwang-Khan." Not his horses, the blooded breed of the Terran plains, but another stock, tough, wiry, inured to new worlds, developed from ponies which had once carried Tartar horseman not only into battle, but on treks to challenge the rule of a quarter of the world.

  "You've already done your research on the subject, I see." Abu again came uncomfortably close to the truth. But to Kade's relief, he pried no deeper.

  Chapter 7

  Kade awoke with that same feeling of present danger which had instantly aroused him into full awareness in the mountains. Yet behind him was the wall of his room at the post, beneath him the easi-foam of his bunk. He lay, schooling his breath to the even lightness of sleep trying to catch sound or movement.

  The window slit giving on the corridor was a lighter oblong against the dark wall. He heard the feather-light scuttle of a hunting "eight-legs" crossing the surface. Then he caught a small sigh of breath released.

  Another scurry from the "eight-legs," followed by the faintest of tiny squeaks as the Klorian creature captured one of the furry night moth-things. Then, from the courtyard, the sound of boots; sharp taps, rapping on the door of his senses.

  A figure slid along the wall and the brush of passing was clearly audible. Whoever shared his room was almost within reach. He caught a trace of odor and knew that an Ikkinni crouched there, perhaps torn between the peril of the supposedly sleeping Terran by his side and the patroller in the courtyard.

  Kade sighed as might a disturbed sleeper, rolled over so as to bring his forearms under him, ready to impel him off the bunk. Again he heard that catch of breath, felt rather than saw ruddy eyes fast on him. He had no idea of how keen Ikkinni night sight was, and he could take no chances. Though the post natives were supposedly unarmed, there were objects within this very room which could be improvised into deadly weapons.

  With one hand the Terran drew his stunner from the night pocket of the bunk and threw himself floorward, rolling over, to come up with his back against the opposite wall, the weapon ready. And he heard a flurry of movement from his invisible visitor, movement checked as the other laid hand on the door panel. For outside those parading boots still tapped a message of danger.

  Then Kade had his answer to the amount of night sight possessed by an Ikkinni. Before he could move another body crashed against his and a hairy shoulder dug into his middle, driving the air from the Terran's lungs, smashing him back against the wall with a force which half dazed him so that he was helpless against a second attack. A blow on the side of the head crumpled him to the floor, barely conscious, and a second brought with it complete darkness.

  "Whitehawk!"

  Pain was a red band behind his blinking eyes, a light adding to it. His head rolled loosely as someone tried to pull him up, and he tasted the flat sweetness of blood. Then, somehow, fighting the swift stab of hurt in his head, he focused his sight on Che'in. For once the other Trader was not smiling; in fact a very unusual grimness tightened the corners of his lips, brought into line the jaw structure which lay beneath the soft flesh of his round chin.

  Kade's hand went uncertainly to his head and he winced when his fingers touched raw, scraped skin above a welt. They came away sticky red.

  "What happened?" he asked huskily.

  Che'in's arm slipped behind his shoulder, supported him so that he looked about a room which had been ripped apart. Every cupboard panel was open, forced where they had been thumb sealed. The foam of the bedding frothed through numerous rents in its outer skin, and a trail of record tapes crossed the top of the desk, ending in a confused pile on the floor. The evidence was that of a mad search, a search where the fury of the searcher had mounted with his inability to locate what he sought.

  That could mean only one thing—or perhaps two!

  Kade fought waves of dizziness as he tried to raise his head higher to survey more closely the debris on the floor about him. His boots were still standing at attention at the foot of the bunk. And noting they were undisturbed h
e knew that one secret had been safely kept.

  "Stunner!" He cried. "Where is my stunner?"

  If his assailant was Dokital and the native had his weapon—Why, an attack on Buk using the stunner might well mean death for half the Ikkinni slaves at the post. And whether that sacrifice was willing or not, Kade must prevent it by telling someone the full story.

  Che'in pulled a familiar object from under Kade's leg. And the younger man snatched at it with a second wave of pure relief blanketing out the pounding in his skull for a welcome instant or two.