The Spirit of Dorsai

  "If you'll have a seat here," said the sergeant who brought her in.

  She sat and waited for some ten or twelve minutes. At the end of that time a major came in, carrying a folder of record films, which he slipped into the desk viewer, punching up the first one.

  "Amanda Morgan?" he said, looking over the top of the viewer, which was slanted toward him, hiding the film on display from her.

  "That's right," said Amanda. "And you're Major—"

  He hesitated.

  "Major Suel," he said, after a second. "Now, about the situation here in town and in the district-"

  "Just a second, Major," said Amanda. "I came in to talk to your general."

  "He's busy. You can talk to me. Now, about the situation—"

  He broke off. Amanda was already on her feet.

  "You can tell the general for me, I don't have time to waste. Next time he can come and find me." Amanda turned toward the door.

  "Just a minute—" There was the sound of the major's chair being pushed back "Just a minute!"

  "No minute," said Amanda. "I was asked to come in to talk to General Amorine. If he's not available, I've got my hands too full to wait around."

  She reached for the door. It did not open for her.

  "Major," she said, looking back over her shoulder. "Open this door."

  "Come back and sit down," he said, standing behind his desk "You can leave after we've talked. This is a military base—"

  He broke off again. Amanda had come back to the desk and walked around it to face the desk viewer. She reached out to press his phone button and the document on the viewer vanished to show the face of the sergeant who had let her in here.

  "Sir—" the sergeant broke off in confusion, seeing Amanda.

  "Sergeant," said Amanda, "connect me with Dow deCastries up at Foralie Homestead, right away."

  "Cancel that!" said the major. "Sergeant—cancel that."

  He punched off the phone and walked to the door.

  "Wait!" he threw back at Amanda and went out.

  Amanda followed him to the door, but found it once more locked to her touch. She went back and sat down. Less than five minutes later, the major returned with the skin taut over the bones of his face. He avoided looking directly at her.

  "This way, if you will," he said, holding the door open.

  "Thank you, Major."

  He brought her to a much larger and more comfortable office, with a tall window against which the rain was now gusting. There was a desk in the corner, but the rest of the furniture consisted of padded armchairs, with the single exception of a single armless straight-backed chair facing the desk It was to this chair that Amanda was taken.

  General Amorine, who had been standing by the window, walked over to seat himself behind the desk

  "I've been trying to get you for two days," he said.

  Amanda, who had not been invited to sit, did so anyway.

  "And I've been busy doing what I promised Dow deCastries I'd do," she said. "I still am busy at it; and this trip in to see you is delaying it."

  He looked at her, stiff-faced. A cough took him by the throat.

  "Mayor," he said, when the coughing was done, 'you're in no position to push."

  "General, I'm not pushing. You are."

  "I'm the commanding officer of the occupying force here," he said. "It's my job to push when things don't work"

  He checked, as if he would cough again, but did not. A gust of rain rattled loudly against the office window in the brief moment of silence between them. Amanda waited.

  "I say," he repeated. "It's my job to push when things don't work"

  "I heard you," said Amanda.

  "They aren't working now," Armorine said. "They aren't working to my satisfaction. We want a census of this district and all pertinent data—and we want it without delay."

  "There hasn't been any delay."

  "I think there has."

  Amanda sat, looking at him.

  "I know there has," Amorine said.

  "For example?"

  He looked at her for several seconds without saying anything.

  "How long," he said, "has it been since you were on Earth?"

  "Seventy years, or so," said Amanda.

  "I thought so," he said. "I thought it had been something like that long. Out here on the new worlds, you've forgotten just what Earth is like. Here, on wild planets with lots of space and only handfuls of people even in your largest population centers, you tend to forget."

  "The mess and the overcrowding?"

  "The people and the power!" he said, harshly— and broke off to cough again. He wiped his mouth. "When you think in terms of people out here, you think in terms of thousands—millions, at the most, when your thinking is planet-wide. But on Earth those same figures are billions. You think in terms of a few hundred thousand square meters of floor space given over to manufactory on a whole world. On Earth that space is measured in trillions of square meters. You talk about using a few million kilowatt-hours of energy. Do you know how kilowatt-hours of used energy are counted on Earth?"

  "So?" said Amanda.

  "So-" he coughed. "So, you forget the differences. Out here for seventy years, you forget what Earth really is, in terms of wealth and strength; and you begin to think that you can stand up against her. The greatest power the human race has ever known looms over you like a giant, and you let yourself dream that you can fight that power."

  "Come into our backyard, and we can fight you," said Amanda. "You're a long way from your millions and your trillions now, general."

  "No," said Amorine, and he said it without coughing or heat. "That's your self-delusion, only. Earth's got the power to wipe clean every other humanly-seeded world whenever she wants to. When

  Earth moves, when she decides to move, you'll vanish. And you people here are indeed going to vanish. I want you to believe that—for your own sake. You'll save yourself and all the people you love a great deal of pain if you can wake yourself up to an understanding of what the facts are."

  He looked at her. She looked back

  "You are all, all of you, already gone," he said. "For the moment you've still got your town, and your homes, and your own name, but all those things are going to go. You, yourself, in your old age, are going to be moved to another place, a place you don't know, to die among strangers—all this because you've been foolish enough to forget what Earth is."

  He paused. She still sat, not speaking.

  "There's no reprieve, no choice," he said. "What I'm telling you is for your own information only. Our politicians haven't announced it yet—but the Dorsai is already a forgotten world; and everyone on it will soon be scattered individually through all the other inhabited planets. For you—for you, only— I've got an offer, that for you, only, will make things easier."

  He waited, but still she gave him no assistance.

  "You're being non-cooperative with our occupation, here," he said. "I don't care what Mr. deCastries' opinion of you is. I know. I know non-cooperation when I run into it. I'd be a failure in my job if I didn't. Bear in mind, we don't have to have your cooperation, but it'd help. It'd save paperwork, effort, and explanations. So, what I'm offering you is, cooperate and I'll promise this much for you: I'll ensure that whatever few years you have left can be lived here, on your own world. You'll have to watch everyone else being shipped off; but you, at least, won't have to end your days among strangers."

  He paused.

  "But you'll have to take me up on this, now," he said, "or you'll lose the chance, for good. Say yes now, and follow through, or the chance is gone. Well?"

  "General," said Amanda. "I've listened to you. Now, you listen to me. You're the one who's dreaming. It's not us who are already dead and gone—it's you and your men. You're already defeated. You just don't know it."

  "Mrs. Morgan,'* said Amorine, heavily, "you're a fool. There's no way you can defeat Earth."

  "Yes," said Amanda, bleakly. Another gust of
rain came and rattled against the window, like the tapping of the fingers of dead children. "Believe me, there is."

  He stood up.

  "All right," he said. "I tried. We'll do it our own way from now on. You can go."

  Amanda also stood up.

  "One thing, however," she said. "I want to see Cletus when he lands."

  "Cletus? Cletus Grahame, you mean?" Amorine stared at her. "What makes you think he's going to land?"

  "Don't talk nonsense, General," Amanda said. "You know as well as I do, he's due in by early after-noon."

  "Who told you that?"

  "Everyone knows it." He stared at her.

  "Damn!" he said, softly. "No, you cannot see Grahame—now or in the future."

  "I've got to be able to report to the local people that he's well and agreeable to being in your custody," Amanda said. "Or do you want the district to rise in arms spontaneously?"

  He stared at her balefully. Staring, he began to cough again. When the fit was over, he nodded.

  "Hell be down in a little over an hour. Shall we find you a place to wait?"

  "If it's an hour, I'll go into town and get some things done. Will you leave word at the airpad, so I can get past your soldiers?"

  He nodded.

  "Ask for Lieutenant Estrange," he said.

  She went out.

  Back in town she found Ekram's skimmer still parked behind the house of Marie Bureaux. She parked her own skimmer beside his and let herself in the back door, into the kitchen.

  Ekram was there, washing his hands at the sink He looked back over his shoulder at her at the sound of her entrance.

  "Marie?" Amanda said.

  "Marie's dead." He turned his head back to the sink

  "And you're still in town here."

  He finished washing and turned to face her, wiping his hands on a dishtowel.

  "Berthe Haugsrud's dead," he said. "Bhaktabahadur Rais is dead. Fifteen more are dying. Young Marte Haugsrud's sick There's five dead soldiers in the cantonments, thirty more dying and most of the rest sick."

  "So you leave," she said.

  "Leave? How can I leave? Their medical officer knows something's going on. There's just nothing he can do about it. He'd be an absolute, incompetent idiot not to know that something's going on, particularly since they've been getting word from other occupation units—not from many, but even a few's enough— where the same thing's happening. All that's kept them blind this long is the fact it started hitting our people first. If I run, now—"

  He broke off His face was lean with weariness, stubbled with beard.

  "You go," Amanda said. "That's an order."

  "To hell with orders!"

  "Cletus is due to land in an hour. You've had three hours in town here during daylight hours. In three more hours we're going to have open war. Get out of here, get up in those hills and get ready to handle casualties."

  "The kids…" he swayed a little on his feet. "Kids, kids and guns…"

  "Will you go?"

  "Yes." His voice was dull. He walked stiffjointedly past her and out the back door. Following him, she saw him climb, still with the awkwardness of exhaustion, on to his skimmer, lift it, and head it out of town.

  Amanda went back inside to see whether there was anything she could do for the remains of Marie. But there was nothing. She left and went to the Haugsrud house to see if Marte could be brought to leave town with her, now that Berthe was dead. But the doors were locked and Marte refused to answer, though Amanda could see her through a window, sitting on the living room couch. Amanda tried several ways to force her way in, but time began to grow short. She turned away at last and headed toward the airpad.

  She was almost late getting there. By the time she had made contact with Lieutenant Estrange and been allowed to the airpad itself, a shuttleboat, bearing the inlaid sunburst emblem of the Exotics, was landed; and Cletus was stepping out on to the pad. A line of vehicles and an armed escort was already waiting for him.

  He was wearing a sidearm, which was taken from him, and led toward the second of the waiting staff cars.

  "I've got to speak to him!" said Amanda fiercely to Estrange. "Weren't you given orders I was to be able to speak to him?"

  "Yes. Please—wait a minute. Wait here."

  The lieutenant went forward and spoke to the colonel in charge of operation. After some little discussion, Estrange came back and got Amanda.

  "If you'll come with me?" He brought her to Cletus, who was already seated in the staff car.

  "Amanda!" Cletus looked out over the edge of the open window of the staff car. "Is everyone all right?"

  "Fine," said Amanda. "I've taken over the post of Mayor from Piers."

  "Good," said Cletus, urgently. His cheerful, lean face was a little thinner than when she had seen it last, marked a little more deeply by lines of tension. "I'm glad it's you. Will you tell everyone they must keep calm about all this? I don't want anyone getting excited and trying to do things. These occupying soldiers have behaved themselves, haven't they?"

  "Oh, yes," said Amanda.

  "Good. I thought they would. I'll leave matters in your hands, then. They're taking me up to Grahame

  House—to Foralie, I mean. Apparently Dow de-Castries is already there, and I'm sure once I've had a talk with him we can straighten this all out. So all anyone needs to do is just sit tight for a day or two, and everything will be all right. Will you see the district understands that?"

  Out of the corners of her eyes, Amanda could see the almost-wondering contempt growing on the faces of the Coalition officers and men within hearing.

  "Ill take care of it, Cletus."

  "I know you will. Oil-how's Betta?"

  "You'll see her when you get to Foralie," said Amanda. "She's due to have her baby any time now."

  "Good. Good. Tell her I saw her brother David just a few days ago, and he's fine. No—wait. I'll tell her myself, since I'll be seeing her first. Talk to you shortly, Amanda."

  "Yes, Cletus," said Amanda, stepping back from the staff car. The convoy got underway and moved out.

  "And that's this military genius of theirs?" she heard one of the enlisted men muttering to another, as she turned away with Estrange.

  Five minutes later she was on her way past the cordon of sentries enclosing the town and twelve minutes after that, having stopped only to pickup her handgun, she stood beside Ramon, on his skimmer, looking down from cover on the more slowly-moving convoy as it headed in the direction of Foralie.

  "We'll want all the available teams in position around Foralie before they get there," she said. "But when they show up, let them through. We'll want them together with Dew's escort before we hit them."

  "Most of the men in that convoy are sick," said

  Ramon.

  "Yes," said Amanda, half to herself. "But the ones who've been up there with Dow all this time are going to be perfectly healthy. And they're front line troops. If we don't get them in the first few minutes, it's going to cost us—"

  "Maybe not," said Ramon. She looked at him.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, not all of them up at Foralie may be healthy. I haven't had a chance to tell you, but a patrol came up to there early today and stayed for about two hours. They could have switched personnel."

  "Not likely." Amanda frowned. "Dew's their prize package. Why would they take the healthy troops they have protecting him; and replace them with cripples, just to get more of their able-bodied down at town?"

  "They might have some reason we don't know about."

  Amanda shook her head.

  "I don't believe it," she said. "In fact, until I hear positively there's been a change of personnel at Foralie, I won't believe it. We'll continue on the assumption that they're all healthy troops there, and the only advantage we've got is surprise. Cletus, bless him, helped us with that, as much as he could. He did everything possible to put their suspicions to sleep, down in town."

  "He did?" Ramo
n stared at her. "What did he do?"

  Amanda told him what Cletus had said from the staff car in the hearing of the convoy soldiery.

  Ramon's face lengthened.

  "But maybe he really means we shouldn't do anything until…"

  His voice failed at the look on Amanda's face.

  "If a rooster came up to you and quacked," said Amanda, sharply, "would you ignore everything else about it and decide it'd turned into a drake?"

  She looked down her nose at him.

  "Even if Cletus actually had taken leave of his senses, that wouldn't alter the situation for the rest of us," she went on. "We've still got to move in, rescue him, and take deCastries when he reaches Foralie. It's the one chance we've got. But don't concern yourself. Cletus understands the situation here."

  She nodded at his skimmer.

  "You go get the teams into position. I'll meet you at Foralie before they get there."

  "Where will you be?" Ramon's face was a little pale.

  "I'll be rounding up any adults capable of using a weapon—except the women with young children— from the near households. We'll need anyone we can get."

  "What about the other patrols?"

  "Once we've got deCastries, we shouldn't have much opposition from anyone else who's been in Foralie Town. A good half of them are going to be dead in a week, and the most of the rest won't be able to fight."

  "They may fight even if they're not able."

  "How can they—" she broke off, suddenly seeing the white look in Ramon's eyes. "What's the matter with you? You ought to know that."

  "I didn't want to know," he said. "I didn't listen when they told us."

  "Didn't you?" said Amanda. "Well, you'd better listen now, then. Carbon monoxide passed over finely divided nickel gives you a liquid—nickel carbonyl, a volatile liquid that melts at twenty-five degrees Centrigrade, boils at forty-three degrees and evaporates at normal temperatures in the open. One part in a million of the vapors can be enough to cause allergic dermatitis and edema of the lungs—irreversible."

  His face was stark His mouth was open as if he gasped for breath.

  "I don't mind the fighting," he said thickly. "It's just the thought of the casualties among the soldiers. If this war could only be stopped now, before it starts-"