I
–
The story is of a lost treasure guarded by curious monsters, and of
captivity in a wilderness, and of a chase through reefs and shoals that
could wreck a ship. There is a beautiful girl in it, a magician, a spy
or two, and the rivalry of empires. So of course–Flandry was later
tempted to say–it begins with a coincidence.
However, the likelihood that he would meet Tachwyr the Dark was not
fantastically low. They were in the same profession, which had them
moving through a number of the same places; and they also shared the
adventurous-ness of youth. To be sure, once imperialism is practiced on
an interstellar scale, navies grow in size until the odds are huge
against any given pair of their members happening on each other.
Nevertheless, many such encounters were taking place, as was inevitable
on one of the rare occasions when a Merseian warship visited a Terran
planet. A life which included no improbable events would be the real
statistical impossibility.
The planet was Irumclaw, some 200 light-years from Sol in that march of
the human realm which faced Betelgeuse. Lieutenant (j.g.) Dominic
Flandry had been posted there not long before, with much wailing and
gnashing of teeth until he learned that even so dismal a clod had its
compensations. The Merseian vessel was the cruiser Brythioch, on a swing
through the buffer region of unclaimed, mostly unknown suns between the
spaces ruled in the names of Emperor and Roidhun. Neither government
would have allowed any craft belonging to its rival, capable of spouting
nuclear fire, any appreciable distance into its territory. But border
authorities could, at discretion, accept a “goodwill visit.” It broke
the monotony and gave a slight hope of observing the kind of trivia
which, fitted together, now and then revealed a fact the opposition
would have preferred to keep secret.
In this case Merseia profited, at least initially.
Official hospitality was exchanged. Besides protocol, the humans were
motivated, whether they knew it or not, to enjoy the delicate frisson
that came from holding converse with those who–beneath every diplomatic
phrase–were the enemy. Flandry did know it; he had seen more of life
than the average twenty-one-year-old. He was sure the liberty parties
down in Old Town were being offered quite a few drinks, and other
amenities in certain cases.
Well, why not? They had been long in the deeps between the stars. If
they were straight back from here, they must travel a good 140
light-years–about ten standard days at top hyperspeed, but still an
abyss whose immensity and strangeness wore down the hardiest
spirit–before they could raise the outermost of the worlds they called
their own. They needed a few hours of small-scale living, be their hosts
never so hostile.
Which we aren’t anyway, Flandry thought. We should be, but we aren’t,
most of us. He grinned. Including me. Though he would have liked to join
the fun; he couldn’t. The junior officers of Irumclaw Base must hold the
customary reception for their opposite numbers from the ship. (Their
seniors gave another in a separate building. The Merseians, variously
bemused or amused by the rigid Terran concept of rank, conformed. They
set more store by ceremony and tradition, even that of aliens, than
latter-day humans did.) While some of the visitors spoke Anglic, it
turned out that Flandry was the only man on this planet who knew Eriau.
The mess hall had no connection to the linguistic computer and there was
no time to jury-rig one. His translations would be needed more than his
physical presence.
Not that the latter was any disgrace, he reflected rather smugly. He was
tall and lithe and wore his dress uniform with panache and had become a
favorite among the girls downhill. Despite this, he remained well liked
by the younger men, if not always by his superiors.
He entered at the appointed evening hour. Under Commander Abdullah’s
fishy eye, he saluted the Emperor’s portrait not with his usual vague
wave but with a snap that well-nigh dislocated his shoulder. And a heel
click to boot, he reminded himself. Several persons being in line ahead
of him, he had a minute for taking stock. Its tables removed except for