This meant that most of the gamblers on the planet never had a chance to bet on him, and the odds were fairly high, often a dozen to one. They were that low because the small In Crowd was now in a position to bet fabulous sums. The money rolled in, and Kren gouged his bookie twice more during the year, forcing her to buy more stock that never paid any dividends.
* * *
By winter, the exploratory tunnel had been finished, the corrosive gasses had been released to give the tunnel an ancient-looking patina, and enough time had passed for these deadly gasses to react with the tunnel walls and be safe.
When the tired group of small tunneler workers finally came home, Kren made a point of being there to greet them and the sergeant who drove them their supplies.
Dol, along with Bronki, who of course had figured out what they were up to, encouraged Kren to kill these soldier-workers for security reasons, but Kren had decided that one of his major long-term goals was to increase the planetary population. Unnecessary killing was therefore to be avoided.
Also, the duke was very attached to his soldiers, and Kren thought that killing some of them might offend His Grace.
Kren told the workers, “I wanted to personally thank you for the long and arduous job that you have done for my corporation. I have your pay envelopes here, three times what it would normally be, and in cash money, so that you won’t have trouble with the income tax goons. We carefully examined the dirt you sent out, and since you are interested, yes, you did find some very valuable mineral deposits. However, these deposits are such that the corporation won’t be in a position to exploit them for many years. It is therefore vitally important that word of this does not get out, ever! Some have suggested that the most expedient course would be to kill all of you immediately, but you know that I am a soldier myself. Know that I know of the honor and the integrity of Duke Dennon’s warriors! However, you all have doubtless heard of my prowess as a warrior, and I promise you that if any word of what we have done does leak out, I will find all of you, and I will kill you.”
The soldiers looked at each other apprehensively.
Kren continued, “That’s the down side. There’s an up side, and it too is a secret. I have a bonus for you. This coming Saturday, I will win at the pole-vaulting competition at the University of Dren, even though I’m not presently listed as being entered in it. If you bet on me, you will make a lot of money.”
“This is a sweet deal,” the old sergeant said. “Triple pay and a tip on a bet that will make us at least a dozen times more than that! You guys ain’t been watching the news lately, but Kren’s wins really has been paying that much! And all we got to do is keep our stupid mouths shut!”
“Yes sir,” the senior corporal said. “But what if he loses?”
“Soldier, if I lose, I will personally reimburse all of your losses three fold,” Kren said.
“Then we are your silent but obedient servants, sir!” the corporal said.
* * *
Without Kren’s knowledge, Bronki and Dol had visited the duke two days before. They had told him very privately about Kren’s intentions of releasing the tunnelers, and that they both felt that it was an unnecessary breach of security.
Duke Dennon thanked them, and said that he would think on it, but warned them that they should remain silent on this matter. He secretly considered killing both of them for the very same breach of security.
A few minutes after Kren left the tunneling team, a lieutenant with six soldiers behind him stopped the workers. The officer told them that the duke was granting them an extended leave, with full pay, but that he wanted to talk with them before they left to enjoy it.
The lieutenant and his troops escorted the workers back to the duke’s palace and waited with them in a certain small room as he had been instructed. The duke was to call when he was ready.
The door locked after they went in, and could not be opened. The same corrosive gas that had been used to give the secret tunnel an ancient patina was released inside of the “waiting room.” The old sergeant, six tunneler workers, the young lieutenant, and his guards all died quickly, and then the room was permanently sealed.
A palace repairman had secretly fixed the room’s door lock for the duke, released the gas, and then plastered over the door.
This repairman died in an unfortunate accident the next morning.
It turned out that the amount of gas used was sufficient to kill the soldiers in the room, but not enough to kill the eggs that the Mitchegai always spread about them. And one of them was a male. The resulting grubs soon ate the dead bodies of their parents, and then each other, when that food supply ran out. Eventually, nothing was left but a single mummified pollywog who was never able to get to water, along with some scattered weapons, and seven well-filled pouches of currency.
Duke Dennon would have been happier if he could have killed Kren, Bronki, and Dol along with his own troops, but on consideration he decided that he had entirely too big an investment in the Superior Food Corporation to let it collapse without its management team. But he would keep an eye on them. Perhaps forcing Bronki and Dol to accompany Kren to the battle would increase their commitment. . . .
And anyway, the duke said to himself, Kren is entirely too softhearted to worry about.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The Tellefontu
New Yugoslavia, 2215 a.d.
The last of the lost planets, New Gambia, had been found. In this case, Earth’s forces had won early and easily. They were running the place as a fairly benevolent dictatorship until our ship arrived and told them that despite everything, they had lost the war. It took months before our diplomats, and Earth’s, could convince them to just go home. Even then, many of the occupying troops decided to stay where they were, especially those who had married local girls.
* * *
The Tellefontu were extremely reticent to talk about themselves, their customs, and their history. Still, over the years, a great deal was learned about them from casual remarks that they made privately, in conversations, in formal interviews, and on talk shows.
They were an ancient race, far older than even the Mitchegai. Their recorded history went back more than thirty-five million years, and their legends went back even farther.
They had a wide variety of art forms, including music, dance, the graphic arts, drama, literature, poetry, architecture, and at least nine others that were completely incomprehensible to humans.
They were capable of redesigning their own bodies, and indeed their own equivalent of DNA, to make themselves into whatever they wanted to be. They did this without the use of external machinery. Yet such was the extreme conservative streak in their nature that they were not at all interested in looking like anything else than what they were.
“Well, yes, of course,” one of their representatives said to a talk show hostess. “I could, with considerable time and effort, make myself look like a human being. Even a very attractive human being like yourself. But, why would I want to do that? I am contented to be myself. Also, ask yourself, Would you want to make yourself look like me? I am, you know, a very attractive member of my own species. At least my spouses have always said so. I think that it is best if humans remain looking like humans, and Tellefontu remain looking like Tellefontu.”
While by no means immortal, they did not have a definite life span. They could rebuild their bodies as necessary, and they had conquered all possible diseases. Many of them were thousands of years old. Death, when it came, was normally by accident, or other misadventure.
They were hermaphrodites, with each individual being simultaneously male and female. During mating, both partners were impregnated. The partners produced a single clutch of typically twenty eggs, one half of which was produced by each of them.
They then alternated, taking turns caring for the children and making a living. Once the children were raised and educated, a process that took several hundred years, the parents departed in a friendly fashion, and rarely saw either their former spouses or their children again.
As one of them put it, “After three hundred years, you get very much sick of them.”
They did remain close to their siblings, however, and said that when the Mitchegai invasion finally came, they would fight in small platoons made up of siblings.