Phil looked at him, said evenly, “We’d do whatever was necessary. It wouldn’t be very agreeable, but my neck’s out just as far as yours.”
Celia laughed. “That’s the reason we can all feel pretty safe,” she observed. “Every last one of us is completely selfish—and there’s no more dependable kind of person than that.”
Jackson flushed a little, glanced at Phil, smiled. Phil shrugged. Major Wayne Jackson, native son, Fort Roye’s second in command, was scheduled for the number one spot and a string of promotions via the transfer of the current commander, Colonel Thayer. Their Earthside associates would arrange for that as soon as the decision to turn Fort Roye into a Class A military base was reached. Phil himself could get by with the guaranteed retention of the CLU presidency, and a membership moving up year by year to the half million mark and beyond—he could get by very, very comfortably, in fact. While Celia Adams would develop a discreetly firm hold on every upcoming minor racket, facilitated by iron-clad protection and an enforced lack of all competitors.
“We’re all thinking of Roye’s future, Celia,” Phil said amiably, “each in his own way. And the future looks pretty bright. In fact, the only possible stumbling block I can still see is right here on Roye, and it’s Honest Silas Thayer. If our colonel covers up the Geest gun find tomorrow—”
Jackson grinned, shook his head. “Leave that to me, my boy—and to our very distinguished visitors from Earth. Commissioner Sanford has arranged to be in Thayer’s company on Territorial Office business all day tomorrow. Science Officer Vaughn is dizzy with delight because Ronald Black and most of the newsgathering troop will inspect his diggings in the ruins in the morning, with the promise of giving his theories about the vanished natives of Roye a nice spread on Earth. Black will happen to ask me to accompany the party. Between Black and Sanford—and myself—Colonel Silas Thayer won’t have a chance to suppress the discovery of a Geest gun on Roye until the military has had a chance to look into it fully. And the only one he can possibly blame for that will be Science Officer Norm Vaughn—for whom, I’ll admit, I feel just a little bit sorry!”
* * *
First Lieutenant Norman Vaughn was an intense and frustrated young man whose unusually thick contact lenses and wide mouth gave him some resemblance to a melancholy frog. He suspected, correctly, that a good Science Officer would not have been transferred from Earth to Roye which was a planet deficient in scientific problems of any magnitude, and where requisitions for research purposes were infrequently and grudgingly granted.
The great spiraled ruin on the peninsula of Fort Roye had been Vaughn’s one solace. Several similar deserted structures were known to be on the planet, but this was by far in the best condition and no doubt the most recently built. To him, if to no one else, it became clear that the construction had been carried out with conscious plan and purpose, and he gradually amassed great piles of notes to back up his theory that the vanished builders were of near-human intelligence. Unfortunately, their bodies appeared to have lacked hard and durable parts, since nothing that could be construed as their remains was found; and what Lieutenant Vaughn regarded as undeniable artifacts, on the level of very early Man’s work, looked to others like chance shards and lumps of the tough, shell-like material of which the ruins were composed.
Therefore, while Vaughn was—as Jackson had pointed out—really dizzy with delight when Ronald Black, that giant of Earth’s news media, first indicated an interest in the ruins and his theories about them, this feeling soon became mixed with acute anxiety. For such a chance surely would not come again if the visitors remained unconvinced by what he showed them, and what—actually—did he have to show? In the morning, when the party set out, Vaughn was in a noticeably nervous frame of mind.
Two hours later, he burst into the anteroom of the base commander’s office in Fort Roye, where the warrant on duty almost failed to recognize him. Lieutenant Vaughn’s eyes glittered through their thick lenses; his face was red and he was grinning from ear to ear. He pounded past the startled warrant, pulled open the door to the inner office where Colonel Thayer sat with the visiting Territorial Commissioner, and plunged inside.
“Sir,” the warrant heard him quaver breathlessly, “I have the proof—the undeniable proof! They were intelligent beings. They did not die of disease. They were exterminated in war! They were . . . but see for yourself!” There was a thud as he dropped something on the polished table top between the commissioner and Colonel Thayer. “That was dug up just now—among their own artifacts!”
Silas Thayer was on his feet, sucking in his breath for the blast that would hurl his blundering Science Officer back out of the office. What halted him was an odd, choked exclamation from Commissioner Sanford. The colonel’s gaze flicked over to the visitor, then followed Sanford’s stare to the object on the table.
For an instant, Colonel Thayer froze.
Vaughn was bubbling on. “And, sir, I . . .”
“Shut up!” Thayer snapped. He continued immediately, “You say this was found in the diggings in the ruins?”
“Yes, sir—just now! It’s . . .”
Lieutenant Vaughn checked himself under the colonel’s stare, some dawning comprehension of the enormous irregularities he’d committed showing in his flushed face. He licked his lips uncertainly.
“You will excuse me for a moment, sir,” Thayer said to Commissioner Sanford. He picked the Geest gun up gingerly by its unmistakably curved shaft, took it over to the office safe, laid it inside and relocked the safe. He then left the office.
* * *
In an adjoining room, Thayer rapped out Major Wayne Jackson’s code number on a communicator. He heard a faint click as Jackson’s wrist speaker switched on, and said quickly, “Wayne, are you in a position to speak?”
“I am at the moment,” Jackson’s voice replied cautiously.
Colonel Thayer said, “Norm Vaughn just crashed in here with something he claims was found in the diggings. Sanford saw it, and obviously recognized it. We might be able to keep him quiet. But now some questions. Was that item actually dug up just now?”
“Apparently it was,” Jackson said. “I didn’t see it happen—I was talking to Black at the moment. But there are over a dozen witnesses who claim they did see it happen, including five or six of the new agency men.”
“And they knew what it was?”
“Enough of them did.”
Thayer cursed softly. “No chance that one of them pitched the thing into the diggings for an Earthside sensation?”
“I’m afraid not,” Jackson said. “It was lying in the sifter after most of the sand and dust had been blown away.”
“Why didn’t you call me at once?”
“I’ve been holding down something like a mutiny here, Silas. Vaughn got away before I could stop him, but I grounded the other aircars till you could decide what to do. Our visitors don’t like that. Neither do they like the fact that I’ve put a guard over the section where the find was made, and haven’t let them talk to Norm’s work crew.
“Ronald Black and his staff have been fairly reasonable, but there’s been considerable mention of military highhandedness made by the others. This is the first moment I’ve been free.”
“You did the right thing,” Thayer said, “but I doubt it will help much now. Can you get hold of Ronald Black?”
“Yes, he’s over there. . . .”
“Colonel Thayer?” another voice inquired pleasantly a few seconds later.
“Mr. Black,” the colonel said carefully, “what occurred in the diggings a short while ago may turn out to be matter of great importance.”
“That’s quite obvious, sir.”
“And that being the case,” the colonel went on, “do you believe it would be possible to obtain a gentleman’s agreement from all witnesses to make no mention of this apparent discovery until the information is released through the proper channels? I’m asking for your opinion.”
“Colonel Thayer,” Ronald Black’s voice said, still pleasantly, “my opinion is that the only way you could keep the matter quiet is to arrest every civilian present, including myself, and hold us incommunicado. You have your duty, and we have ours. Ours does not include withholding information from the public which may signal the greatest shift in the conduct of the Geest War in the past two decades.”
“I understand,” Thayer said. He was silent for some seconds, and perhaps he, too, was gazing during that time at a Fort Roye of the future—a Class A military base under his command, with Earth’s great war vessels lined up along the length of the peninsula.
“Mr. Black,” he said, “please be so good as to give your colleagues this word from me. I shall make the most thorough possible investigation of what has occurred and forward a prompt report, along with any material evidence obtained, to my superiors on Earth. None of you will receive any other statement from me or from anyone under my command. An attempt to obtain such a statement will, in fact, result in the arrest of the person or persons involved. Is that clear?”