“Pay close attention,” Jason said, “because your lives depend upon it. Keep your backs to the wall and don’t attempt to come any closer to me than you are now. If you do, you will be shot instantly. If we were alone, any one of you could undoubtedly reach me before I threw this switch. But we’re not. You have Pyrran reflexes and muscles-but so do the bowmen. Don’t gamble. Because it won’t be a gamble. It will be suicide. I’m telling you this for your own protection. So we can talk peacefully without one of you losing his temper and suddenly getting shot. There is no way out of this. You are going to be forced to listen, to everything I say. You can’t escape or kill me. The war is over.”
“And we lost-and all because of you, you traitor!” Meta snarled.
‘Wrong on both counts,” Jason said blandly. “I’m not a traitor because I owe my allegiance to all men on this planet, both inside the perimeter and out. I never pretended differently. As to losing, why you haven’t lost anything. In fact you’ve won. Won your war against this planet, if you will only hear me out.” He turned to Plies, who was frowning in angry puzzlement. “Of course your people have won also, Plies. No more war with the city, you’ll get medicine, offplanet contact, everything you want.”
“Pardon me for being cynical,” Plies said. “But you’re promising the best of all possible worlds for everyone. That will be a little hard to deliver when our interests are opposed so.”
“You strike through to the heart of the matter,” Jason said. “Thank you. This mess will be settled by seeing that everyone’s interests are not opposed. Peace between the city and farms, with an end to the useless war you have been fighting. Peace between mankind and the Pyrran
life forms-because that particular war is at the bottom of all your troubles.”
“The man’s mad,” Kerk said.
“Perhaps. You’ll judge that after you hear me out. I’m going to tell you the history of this planet, because that is where both the trouble and the solution lie.
‘When the settlers landed on Pyrrus three hundred years ago, they missed the one important thing about this planet, the factor that makes
it different from any other planet in the galaxy. They can’t be blamed for the oversight, they had enough other things to worry about. The
gravity was about the only thing familiar to them, the rest of the environment was a shocking change from the climate-controlled industrial world they had left. Storms, vulcanism, floods, earthquakes-it was enough to drive them insane, and I’m sure many of them did go mad. The animal and insect life was a constant annoyance, nothing at all like the few harmless and protected species they had known. I’m sure they never realized that the Pyrran life was telepathic as well-”
“That again!” Brucco snapped. “True or not, it is of no importance. I was tempted to agree with your theory of psionic controlled attack on us, but the deadly fiasco you staged proved that theory wrong.”
“I agree,” Jason answered. “I was completely mistaken when I thought some outside agency directed the attack on the city with psionic control. It seemed a logical theory at the time and the evidence pointed that way. The expedition to the island was a deadly fiasco-only don’t forget that attack was the direct opposite of what I wanted to have done. If I had gone into the cave myself, none of the deaths would have been necessary. I think it would have been discovered that the plant creatures were nothing more than an advanced life form with unusual psi ability. They simply resonated strongly to the psionic attack on the city. I had the idea backward thinking they instigated the battle. We’ll never know the truth, though, because they are destroyed. But their deaths did do one thing. Showed us where to find the real culprits, the creatures who are leading, directing and inspiring the war against the city.”
“Who?” Kerk breathed the question, rather than spoke it.
“Why, you of course,” Jason told him. “Not you alone, but all of your people in the city. Perhaps you don’t like this war. However, you are responsible for it and keep it going.”