behind. The first cuffed her till the world rocked. “All that fuss over
a xeno,” he complained, and booted Trohdwyr for a while. She couldn’t
tell whether the ychan felt the blows; but his body jerked like a
dropped puppet.}
{The office was cramped, its air stale. The commander of Intelligence
said, “Nothing slow and easy for you, Vymezal. Treason’s too urgent a
matter; and traitors deserve no careful handling.”
“I am not–”
“We’ll soon find out. Take her away, O’Brien. I want her prepared for
hypnoprobing.”}
{Downward whirl through shrieks, thunders, flashes, pain and pain, down
toward emptiness, but oh, she cannot reach blessed cool nothing;
eternity has her.
The Golden Face, the cinnabar eyes, an indigo plume above, a voice of
mercy: “Rest, Kossara. Sleep. Forget.” No more.}
{She was still dazed, numb, when the drumhead court-martial condemned
her to life enslavement.}
Flandry considered the papers in his hands. Her few dry words appeared
to have turned him as impersonal, for he said in the same tone,
expressionless, “Thank you. Not much left in your mind, is there? No
explanation of your hatred for the Empire.”
“What do you mean?” exploded from her. “After what I told!”
“Please,” he said. “You’re a bright, educated, reasonably objective
person. Taking your memories as correct–which they may not be; you
could be recalling pieces of delirium–you should be able to entertain
the possibility that you and your friends had the bad luck to meet fools
and brutes such as infest every outfit. You should consider using
established procedures to have them identified, traced, penalized.
Unless, of course, you’re so set in your attitude that this business
seems typical, mere confirmation of what you already knew.”
He glanced up. “Have you been told exactly what’s in this report on you?
The Intelligence report, that is.”
“No,” she got forth.
“I didn’t expect you would. It’s secret. Let me give you a summary.” His
vision skimmed the sheets he flipped through as he recited:
“Overtly, you and your attendant Trohdwyr arrived at Thursday Landing
for a duly approved xenological research project on behalf of your, um,
Shkola, among the Diomedeans of the Sea of Achan area. The declared
motivation was that Dennitzans have lately opened trade with a
comparable species near home, and want an idea of what to expect from
continued impact of high-technology civilization on them. Quite normal.
The Imperial resident provided you the customary assistance. He and his
household depose that you were a charming guest who gave them no hint of
bad intentions. However, you were soon off for the field. They never saw
you again.
“Meanwhile, Naval Intelligence was busy throughout that part of space.
There was reason to suspect some kind of hostile operation, taking
advantage of widespread disorganization caused by the war and not yet
amended. Diomedes was certainly a trouble spot, secessionism steadily
gaining strength in a principal society of the planet. Those
revolutionaries seemed to hope for Ythrian support.
“But other, more reliable sources indicated Ythri had nothing to do with
this. Then who were the humans known, from loyal native witnesses, to be
active on Diomedes? If not Avalonians, working for the Domain they live
in, who?
“With the help of informers, Intelligence agents tracked down a group of
these subversives to a mountain hideout. Seeing what they took for a
Merseian, they leaped to conclusions … not unjustified, it turned out.
The gang resisted arrest and, except for you, perished in the fire
fight. Blasters in an enclosed space like a cave–the marines were
wearing combat armor and your companions were not. The fact that the
suspects fought, under those circumstances, seems to prove they were as
fanatical as your psychograph says you are.
“Hypnoprobed, you revealed you were the deputy of your uncle the
Gospodar, come to check on the progress. His idea was that Dennitzans
posing as Avalonians could incite an uprising on Diomedes. This by
itself would draw Imperial attention there. The apparent likelihood of
Ythri being behind it would decoy considerable of our armed strength,
too. Then at the right moment–you quoted your uncle simply as speaking
of a ‘lever’ to use on the Imperium, for getting concessions. But you