VIII.
Authority of Governor-General von Schlichten
There was fresh intelligence from Konkrook, by the time he returned tothe telecast station. Mutiny had broken out there among the laborersand native troops, who outnumbered the Terrans and their Kraganmercenaries on Gongonk Island by five thousand to five hundred andfifteen hundred respectively. The attempt to relieve Jaikark's palacehad been called off before the relief-force could be sent; there washeavy and confused fighting all over the island, and most of thecombat contragravity and about half the Kragan Rifles had had to becommitted to defend the Company farms across the Channel, on themainland, south of the city. There had also been an urgent call forhelp from Colonel Rodolfo MacKinnon, in command of Company troops atthe Keegark Residency, and another from the Residency at Kwurk, one ofthe Free Cities on the eastern shore of Takkad Sea.
He called Keegark; a girl, apparently one of the civilian telecasttechnicians, answered.
"We must have help, General von Schlichten," she told him. "The nativetroops, all but two hundred Kragans, have mutinied. They haveeverything here except Company House--docks, airport, everything.We're trying to hold out, but there are thousands of them. Our TakkadNative Infantry, soldiers of King Orgzild's army, and townspeople.They all seem to have firearms...."
"What happened to Eric Blount and your Resident-Agent, Mr. Lemoyne?"
"We don't know. They were at the Palace, talking to King Orgzild.We've tried to call the Palace, but we can't get through, general, wemust have help...."
A call came in, a few minutes later, from Krink, five hundred miles tothe northeast across the mountains; the Resident-Agent there, oneFrancis Xavier Shapiro, reported rioting in the city and an attemptedpalace-revolution against King Jonkvank, and that the Residency wasunder attack. By way of variety, it was the army of King Jonkvank thathad mutinied; the Sixth North Uller Native Infantry and the twocompanies of Zirk cavalry at Krink were still loyal, along with theKragans.
There was a pattern to all this. Von Schlichten stood staring at thebig map, on the wall, showing the Takkad Sea area at the EquatorialZone, and the country north of it to the pole, the area of Ulleroccupied by the Company. He was almost beginning to discern theunderlying logic of the past half-hour's events when Keaveney, theSkilk Resident, blundered into him in a half-daze.
"Sorry, general, didn't see you." His face was ashen, and his jowlssagged. Von Schlichten wondered if there could be another spectacle sowoe-begone as a back-slapping extrovert with the bottom knocked out ofhim. "My God, it's happening all over Uller! Not just here at Skilk;everywhere where we have a residency or a trading-station. Why, it'sthe end of all of us!"
"It's not quite that bad, Mr. Keaveney." He looked at his watch. Itwas now nearly an hour since the native troops here at Skilk hadmutinied. Insurrections like this usually succeeded or failed in thefirst hour. It was a little early to be certain, but he was beginningto suspect that this one hadn't succeeded. "If we all do our part,we'll come out of it all right," he told Keaveney, more cheerfullythan he felt, then turned to ask Brigadier-General Mordkovitz how thefighting was going at the native-troops barracks.
"Not badly, general. Colonel Jarman's got some contragravity up andworking. They blew out all four of the Tenth N.U.N.I.'s barracks; theTenth and the Zirks are trying to defend the cavalry barracks. Some ofour Kragans managed to slip around behind the cavalry stables. They'releading out hipposaurs, and sniping at the rear of the cavalrybarracks."
"That'll give us some cavalry of our own; a lot of these Kragans aregood riders.... How about the repair-shops and maintenance-yard andlorry-hangars? I don't want these geeks getting hold of that equipmentand using it against us."
"Kormork's outfit are trying to take back the lorry-hangars. Jarman'sgot a couple of airjeeps and a combat-car helping them."
"... won't be one of us left by this time tomorrow," Keaveney waswailing, to Paula Quinton and another woman. "And the Company isfinished!"
"We'd better get him a drink, or a cup of coffee, general," Mordkovitzsuggested. "With a knockout-drop in it."
Colonel Cheng-Li, the Intelligence officer, seemed to have somewhatthe same idea. He approached Keaveney and tried to quiet him. At thesame time, a woman in black slacks and an orange sweater--the onewhose pursuers had been overrun by the Kragans at the beginning ofthe fighting--approached von Schlichten.
"General, King Kankad's calling," she said. "He's on the screen inbooth four."
"Right." To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, he slipped hisgeek-speaker into his mouth before entering the booth. Kankad's facewas looking out of the screen at him, with Phil Yamazaki, the telecastoperator at Kankad's Town, standing behind him.
"Von!" The Kragan spoke almost as though in physical pain. "What can Ido to help? I have twenty thousand of my people here who are capableof bearing arms, all with firearms, but I have transport for only fivehundred. Where shall I send them?"
Von Schlichten thought quickly. Keegark was finished; the Residencystood in the middle of the city, surrounded by two hundred thousand ofKing Orgzild's troops and subjects. Since Ullerans were bisexual, thetotal population, less the senile, crippled, and very young, was themilitary potential. Sending Kankad's five hundred warriors and hismeager contragravity there would be the same as shoveling them into afurnace. The people at Keegark would have to be written off, like thetwenty Kragans at Jaikark's palace.
"Send them to Konkrook," he decided. "Them M'zangwe's in command,there; he'll need help to hold the Company farms. Maybe he can findadditional transport for you. I'll call him."
"I'll send off what force I can, at once," Kankad promised. "How doesit go with you at Skilk?"
"We're holding, so far," he replied. "Paula is with me, here; shesends her friendship."
Captain Inez Malavez, the woman officer in charge of the station, puther head into the booth.
"General! Immediate-urgency message from Colonel O'Leary," she said."Native laborers from the mine-labor camp are pouring into themine-equipment park. Colonel O'Leary's used all his rockets andMG-ammunition trying to stop them."
"Call you back, later," von Schlichten told Kankad. "I'll see whatThem M'zangwe can do about transport; get what force you can startedfor Konkrook at once."
He left the booth, removing his geek-speaker. "Barney!" he called."General Mordkovitz! Who's the ranking officer in direct contact withthe Eighteenth Rifles? Major Falkenberg?"
"That's right."
"Well, tell him to get as many of his Kragans as he can spare down tothe equipment-park." He turned to Inez Malavez. "You call Jarman; tellhim what O'Leary reported, and tell him to get cracking on it. Tellhim not to let those geeks get any of that equipment ontocontragravity; knock it down as fast as they try to lift out with it.And tell him to see what he can do in the way of troop-carriers orlorries, to get Falkenberg's Rifles to the equipment-park.... How'sbusiness at the lorry-hangars and maintenance-yard?"
"Kormork's still working on that," the girl captain told him. "Nothingdefinite, yet."
In one corner of the big room, somebody had thumbtacked aten-foot-square map of the Company area to the floor. Paula Quintonand Mrs. Jules Keaveney were on their knees beside it, pushing outhandfuls of little pink and white pills that somebody had brought intwo bottles from the dispensary across the road, each using abilliard-bridge. The girl in the orange sweater had a handful ofscribbled notes, and was telling them where to push the pills. Therewere other objects on the map, too--pistol-cartridges, and cigarettes,and foil-wrapped food-concentrate wafers. Paula, seeing him,straightened.
"The pink are ours, general," she said. "The white are the geeks." VonSchlichten suppressed a grin; that was the second time he'd heard heruse that word, this evening. "The cigarettes are airjeeps, thecartridges are combat-cars, and the wafers are lorries ortroop-carriers."
"Not exactly regulation map-markers, but I've seen stranger thingsused.... Captain Malavez!"
"Yes, sir?" The girl captain, rushing past, her
hands full ofteleprint-sheets, stopped in mid-stride.
"What we need," he told her, "is a big TV-screen, and a pickup mountedon some sort of a contragravity vehicle at about two to five thousandfeet directly overhead, to give us an image of the whole area. Cando?"
"Can try, sir. We have an eight-foot circular screen that ought to doall right for two thousand feet. I'll implement that at once."
Going into a temporarily idle telecast booth, he called Konkrook.First he spoke to a civilian who chewed a dead cigar, and then he gotThemistocles M'zangwe on the screen.
"How is it, now?" he asked.
"Getting a little better," the Graeco-African replied. "Half an hourago, we were shooting geeks out the windows, here; now we have themcontained between the spaceport and the native-troops and laborbarracks, and down the east side of the island to the farms. We havethe wire around the farms on the island electrified, and we're usingalmost all our combat contragravity to keep the farms on the mainlandclear." He hesitated for a moment. "Did you hear about Eric andLemoyne?"
Von Schlichten shook his head.
"We just got a call from Rodolfo MacKinnon. He took a couple ofprisoners and made them talk. The whole party that were at Orgzild'spalace were massacred. Some of them were lucky enough to get killedfighting. The geeks took Eric and Hendrik alive; rolled them in apuddle of thermoconcentrate fuel and set fire to them. When we canspare the contragravity, we're going to drop something on the Kee-geekembassy, over in town."
"Well, that was what I wanted to call you about--contragravity." Hetold M'zangwe about King Kankad's offer. "His crowd ought to be comingin in a couple of hours. What can you scrape up to send to Kankad'sTown to airlift Kragans in?"
"Well, we have three hundred-and-fifty-foot gun-cutters, one 90-mm gunapiece. The _Elmoran_, the _Gaucho_, and the _Bushranger_. But they'renot much as transports, and we need them here pretty badly. Then, wehave five fertilizer and charcoal scows, and a lot of heavy transportlorries, and two one-eighty-foot pickup boats."
"How about the _Piet Joubert_?" von Schlichten asked. "She was due inKonkrook from the east about 1300 today, wasn't she?"
M'zangwe swore. "She got in, all right. But the geeks boarded her atthe dock, within twenty minutes after things started. They tried tolift out with her, and the Channel Battery shot her down into KonkrookChannel, off the Fifty Sixth Street docks."
"Well, you couldn't let the geeks have her, to use against us. What doyou hear from the other ships?"
"_Procyon_'s at Grank; we haven't had any reports of any kind fromthere, which doesn't look so good. The _Northern Lights_ is at Grank,too. The _Oom Paul Kruger_ should have been at Bwork, in the east,when the gun went off. And the _Jan Smuts_ and the _Christiaan DeWett_ were both at Keegark; we can assume Orgzild has both of them."
"All right. I'm sending _Aldebaran_ to Kankad's, to pick up morereenforcements for you."
"We can use them! And with _Aldebaran_, we ought to be able to takethe offensive against the city by this time tomorrow. Anything else?"
"Not at the moment. I'll see about getting _Aldebaran_ sent off, now."
Leaving the booth, he heard, above the clatter ofcommunications-machines and hubbub of voices, Jules Keaveney arguingcontentiously. Evidently Colonel Cheng-Li's efforts to drag theResident out of his despondency had been an excessive success.
"But it's crazy! Not just here; everywhere on Uller!" Keaveney wassaying. "How did they do it? They have no telecast equipment."
"You have me stopped, Jules," Mordkovitz was replying. "I know a lotof rich geeks have receiving sets, but no sending sets."
The pattern that had been tantalizing von Schlichten took visibleshape in his mind. For a moment, he shelved the matter of the_Aldebaran_.
"They didn't need sending equipment, Barney," he said. "They usedours."
"What do you mean?" Keaveney challenged.
"Look what happened. Sid Harrington was poisoned in Konkrook. Thenews, of course, was sent out at once, as the geeks knew it would be,to every residency and trading-station on Uller, and that was thesignal they'd agreed upon, probably months in advance. All they had todo was have that geek servant put poison in Harrington's whiskey, andwe did the rest."
"Well, what was our intelligence doing--sleeping?" Keaveney demandedangrily.
"No, they were writing reports for your civil administration blokes tostuff in the wastebasket, and being called mailed-fist-and-rattling-saberalarmists for their pains." He turned away from Keaveney. "Barney, where'sDirk Prinsloo?"
"Aboard his ship. He hitched a ride to the airport with Jarman, whenhe was here picking up air-crews."
"Call him. Tell him to take the _Aldebaran_ to Kankad's Town, at once;as soon as he arrives there, which ought to be about 1100, he's topick up all the Kragans he can pack aboard and take them to Konkrook.From then on, he'll be under Them M'zangwe's orders."
"To Konkrook?" Keaveney fairly howled. "Are you nuts? Don't you thinkwe need reenforcements here, too?"
"Yes, I do. I'm going to try to get them," von Schlichten told him."Now pipe down and get out of people's way."
He crossed the room, to where two Kragans, a male sergeant, and theubiquitous girl in the orange sweater were struggling to get a bigcircular TV-screen up, then turned to look at the situation-map. Agirl tech-sergeant was keeping Paula Quinton and Mrs. Jules Keaveneyinformed.
"Start pushing geeks out of the Fifth Zirk Cavalry barracks," thesergeant was saying. "The one at the north end, and the one next toit; they're both on fire, now." She tossed a slip into the wastebasketbeside her and glanced at the next slip. "And more pink pills back ofthe barracks and stables, and move them a little to the northwest;Kragans as skirmishers, to intercept geeks trying to slip away fromthe cavalry barracks."
"Though why we want to do that, I don't know," Mrs. Keaveney said,pushing out a handful of pink pills with her billiard-bridge. "Letthem go, and good riddance!"
"I never did like this bridge-of-silver-for-a-fleeing-enemy idea,"Paula Quinton said, evicting token-mutineers from the two northernbarracks. "There's usually two-way traffic on bridges. Kill them hereand we won't have to worry about keeping them out."
Of course, it was easy to be bloodthirsty about pink pills and whitepills. Once, on a three-months' reaction-drive voyage from Yggdrasillto Loki, he had taught a couple of professors of extraterrestrialzoology to play _kriegspiel_, and before the end of the trip, he wasbeing horrified by the callous disregard they showed for casualties.But little Paula had the right idea; dead enemies don't hit back.
A young Kragan with his lower left arm in a sling and a daub ofantiseptic plaster over the back of his head came up and gave him aradioprint slip. Guido Karamessinis, the Resident-Agent at Grank, hadreported, at last. The city, he said, was quiet, but King Yoorkerk'stroops had seized the Company airport and docks, taken the _Procyon_and the _Northern Lights_ and put guards aboard them, and weresurrounding the Residency. He wanted to know what to do.
Von Schlichten managed to get him on the screen, after a while.
"It looks as though Yoorkerk's trying to play both sides at once," hetold the Grank Resident. "If the rebellion's put down, he'll comeforward as your friend and protector; if we're wiped out elsewhere,he'll yell '_Znidd suddabit!_' and swamp you. Don't antagonize him; wecan't afford to fight this war on any more fronts than we are now.We'll try to do something to get you unfrozen, before long."
He called Krink again. A girl with red-gold hair and a dusting offreckles across her nose answered.
"How are you making out?" he asked.
"So far, fine, general. We're in complete control of the Company area,and all our native troops, not just the Kragans, are with us.Jonkvank's pushed the mutineers out of his palace, and we're keepingopen a couple of streets between there and here. We air-lifted all ourKragans and half the Sixth N.U.N.I. to the Palace, and we have theZirks patrolling the streets on 'saurback. Now, we have our lorriesand troop-carriers out picking up elements of Jonkvank's loyal troopsoutside town.
"
"Who's doing the rioting, then?"
She named three of Jonkvank's regiments. "And the city hoodlums, andpriests from the temples of one sect that followed Rakkeed, andSkilkan fifth columnists. Mr. Shapiro can give you the details. ShallI call him?"
"Never mind. He's probably busy, he's not as easy on the eyes as youare, and you're doing all right.... How long do you think it'd take,with the equipment you have, to airlift all of Jonkvank's loyal troopsinto the city?"
"Not before this time tomorrow."
"All right. Are you in radio communication with Jonkvank now?"
"Full telecast, audio-visual," the girl replied. "Just a minute,general."
He put in his geek-speaker. The screen exploded into multi-coloredlight, then cleared. Within a few minutes, a saurian Ulleran face waslooking out of it at him--a harsh-lined, elderly face, with an oldscar, quartz-crusted, along one side.
"Your Majesty," von Schlichten greeted him.
Jonkvank pronounced something intended to correspond to vonSchlichten's name. "We have image-met under sad circumstances,general," he said.
"Sad for both of us, King Jonkvank; we must help one another. I amtold that your soldiers in Krink have risen against you, and that yourloyal troops are far from the city."
"Yes. That was the work of my War Minister, Hurkkurk, who was in thepay of King Firkked of Skilk, may Jeels devour him alive! I haveHurkkurk's head here somewhere, if you want to see it, but that willnot bring my loyal soldiers to Krink any sooner."
"Dead traitors' heads do not interest me, King Jonkvank," vonSchlichten replied, in what he estimated that the Krinkan king wouldinterpret as a tone of cold-blooded cruelty. "There are too manytraitors' heads still on traitors' shoulders.... What regiments areloyal to you, and where are they now?"
Jonkvank began naming regiments and locating them, all at minorprovincial towns at least a hundred miles from Krink.
"Hurkkurk did his work well; I'm afraid you killed him toomercifully," von Schlichten said. "Well, I'm sending the _NorthernStar_ to Krink. She can only bring in one regiment at a trip, the waythey're scattered; which one do you want first?"
Jonkvank's mouth, until now compressed grimly, parted in a gleamingsmile. He made an exclamation of pleasure which sounded rather like aboy running along a picket fence with a stick.
"Good, general! Good!" he cried. "The first should be the regimentMurderers, at Furnk; they all have rifles like your soldiers. Havethem brought to the Great Square, at the Palace here. And then, theregiment Fear-Makers, at Jeelznidd, and the regiment Corpse-Reapers,at...."
"Let that go until the Murderers are in," von Schlichten advised."They're at Furnk, you say? I'll send the _Northern Star_ there,directly."
"Oh, good, general! I will not soon forget this! And as soon as thework is finished here, I will send soldiers to help you at Skilk.There shall be a great pile of the heads of those who had part in thiswickedness, both here and there!"
"Good. Now, if you will pardon me, I'll go to give the necessaryorders...."
As he left the booth, he saw Hideyoshi O'Leary in front of thesituation-map, and hailed him.
"Harry and Hassan are getting the car re-ammoed; they dropped me offhere. Want to come up with us and see the show?"
"No, I want you to go to Krink, as soon as Harry brings the car hereagain." He told O'Leary what he intended doing. "You'll probably haveto go around ahead of the _Star_ and alert these regiments. And assoon as things stabilize at Krink, prod Jonkvank into airliftingtroops here. You're authorized, in my name, to promise Jonkvank thathe can assume political control at Skilk, after we've stuffedFirkked's head in the dustbin."
Jules Keaveney, who always seemed to be where he wasn't wanted, heardthat and fairly screamed.
"General von Schlichten! That is a political decision! You have noauthority to make promises like that; that is a matter for theGovernor-General, at least!"
"Well, as of now, and until a successor to Sid Harrington can be senthere from Terra, I'm Governor-General," von Schlichten told him,mentally thanking Keaveney for reminding him of the necessity for sucha step. "Captain Malavez! You will send out an all-station telecast,immediately: Military Commander-in-Chief Carlos von Schlichten, beinginformed of the deaths of both Governor-General Harrington andLieutenant-Governor Blount, assumes the duties of Governor-General, asof 0001 today." He turned to Keaveney. "Does that satisfy you?" heasked.
"No, it doesn't. You have no authority to assume a civil position ofany sort, let alone the very highest position...."
Von Schlichten unbuttoned his holster and took out his authority,letting Keaveney look into the muzzle of it.
"Here it is," he said. "If you're wise, don't make me appeal to it."
Keaveney shrugged. "I can't argue with that," he said. "But I don'tfancy the Uller Company is going to be impressed by it."
"The Uller Company," von Schlichten replied, "is six and a halfparsecs away. It takes a ship six months to get from here to Terra,and another six months to get back. A radio message takes a littleover twenty-one years, each way." He holstered the pistol again. "Youwere bitching about how we needed reenforcements, a while ago. Well,here's where we have to reverse Clausewitz and use politics as anextension by other means of war."
"That brings up another question, general," one of Keaveney'ssubordinates said. "Can we hold out long enough for help to get herefrom Terra?"
"By the time help could reach us from Terra," von Schlichten replied,"we'll either have this revolt crushed, or there won't be a liveTerran left on Uller." He felt a brief sadistic pleasure as he watchedKeaveney's face sag in horror. "What do you think we'll live on, for ayear?" he asked. "On this planet, there's not more than a threemonths' supply of any sort of food a human can eat. And the shipsthat'll be coming in until word of our plight can get to Terra won'tbring enough to keep us going. We need the farms and livestock and theanimal-tissue culture plant at Konkrook, and the farms at Krink and onthe plateau back of Skilk, and we need peace and native labor to workthem."
Nobody seemed to have anything to say after that, for a while. ThenKeaveney suggested that the next ship was due in from Niflheim inthree months, and that it could be used to evacuate all the Terrans onUller.
"And I'll personally shoot any able-bodied Terran who tries to boardthat ship," von Schlichten promised. "Get this through your heads, allof you. We are going to break this rebellion, and we are going to holdUller for the Company and the Terran Federation." He looked aroundhim. "Now, get back to work, all of you," he told the group that hadformed around him and Keaveney. "Miss Quinton, you just heard me ordermy adjutant, Colonel O'Leary, on detached duty to Krink. I want you totake over for him. You'll have rank and authority as colonel for theduration of this war."
She was thunderstruck. "But I know absolutely nothing about militarymatters. There must be a hundred people here who are better qualifiedthan I am...."
"There are, and they all have jobs, and I'd have to find replacementsfor them, and replacements for the replacements. You won't leave anyvacancy to be filled. And you'll learn, fast enough." He went over tothe situation-map again, and looked at the arrangement of pink andwhite pills. "First of all, I want you to call Jarman, at the militaryairport, and have an airjeep and driver sent around here for me. I'mgoing up and have a look around. Barney, keep the show going while I'mout, and tell Colonel Quinton what it's all about."