23 RE-SETTING OF THE PREMIER
As the Skylark of Valeron approached Galaxy DW-427LU, Dorothy said, “Dick, I
suppose it’s occurred to you more than once that I’m not much of a woman.”
“You aren’t? I’d say’ you’d do until the real thing showed up.” Seaton, who had been
thinking of the problem of synchronization instead of his wife, changed voice instantly
when he really looked at her and saw what a black mood she was in. “You’re the
universe’s best, is all, ace. I knew you were feeling a little low in your mind, but not . . .
listen, sweetheart. What could possiby make you think you aren’t the absolute top?”
She did not answer the question. Instead, “What do you think you’re going to get into
this time?”
“Nothing much, I’m sure. Prenk’s probabiv running out of ammunition. We can make
more in five minutes than he can in five years.”
“I’m sure that isn’t it. You’re going into personal danger again and I’ll be expected to sit
up here in the Skylark eating my heart out wondering if you’re alive or dead. You don’t
see Sitar going through that with Dunark.”
“Wait up, sweetheart. Mores and customs, remember?”
“Mores and customs be damned! Do you remember exactly what Sitar said and exactly
how she said it? Did it sound like mores and customs to you? Was there any element
whatever of suttee in it?”
“But listen, Dottie-” He took her gently in his arms.
“You listen!” she rushed on. “If he dies she doesn’t want to keep on living and she
won’t. And she doesn’t care who knows it. Maybe it started that way-society’s sanction
but that was her personal profession of faith. And I feel the same way. If you die I don’t
want to keep on living and won’t. So next time I’m going with you.”
Being an American male, he could not accept that without an argument. “But there’s
Dickie,” he said.
“There are also her three children oil Osnome. I learned something from her about what
the basic, rock-bottom attitude of a woman toward her man ought to be. Even from little
Lotus. She’s no bigger than a minute and a half, but what did she do? So while we’re
having this moment of truth let’s be rock-bottom honest with each other for the first time
in our lives instead of mouthing the platitudes of our society. I’m not a story-book
mother, Dick. If it ever comes right down to a choice, you know how I’ll decide and how
long it will take!”
Seaton could not get in touch with Ree-Toe Prenk, of course, until the Valeron was
actually inside Galaxy DW427-LU; but as soon as communication could be established
Kay-Lee Barlo asked eagerly, “You did get our thought, then, Ky-El? Mother’s and
mine? We didn’t feel that we were quite reaching you.”
“Not exactly,” Seaton replied. “I didn’t get any real thought at all; just a feeling that I
ought to be going somewhere that bothered me no end until I headed this way. But
since it was you people calling, I’m mighty glad I got what little I did.”
The Skylark went into orbit around Ray-See-Nee and the Skylarkers climbed into a
landing-craft that Seaton had designed and built specifically for the occasion. It was a
miniature battleship-one of the deadliest fighting ships of its size and heft ever built.
And this time the whole party was heavily armed. Dunark and Sitar were in full
Osnomian panoply of war. Dorothy wore a pair of her long-barrelled .38 target pistols in
leg-holsters under her bouffant skirt. Even little Lotus wore two .25 automatics. “I don’t
know whether I can hit anybody with one of these or not,” she had said while Dorothy
was rigging her. “I’d much rather work hand to hand. But if they’re too far away to get at
I can at least make a lot of noise and look like I’m doing something.”
They were met at the spaceport by two platoons of the Premier’s Guard, led by
Captain-General Sy-By Takeel himself. They were guarded like visiting royalty from the
spaceport to the Capitol Building and up into the Room of State, where they were
greeted with informal cordiality by Prenk and by Kay-Lee, who was now an Exalted of
the Thirty-Fifth, besides being First Deputy Premier.
Prenk seated his guests, not on stools in front of and below his throne-like desk, but at
a long conference table with Seaton as its head. The two lieutenants posted guards
outside the two immense doors at the far end of the vast room and stationed the rest of
their men in position to cover both entrances. Takeel, with velvet slippers over his field-
boots, stood on Prenk’s desk, commanding the entire room, with a machine-gun-like
weapon cradled expertly and accustomedly in the crook of his left arm.
“Are things this bad?” Seaton asked. “I knew it was tough when you told us to come
loaded for bear-but this?”
“They’re exactly this bad. These two-” Prenk jerked a thumb at Kay-Lee and at Takeel-
“are the only two people on this whole world that I know I can trust. Until quite recently I
was sure I held the city-but now I’m not at all sure of holding even this building. I can
only hope that you’re not too late. I’ll tell you what the situation is; then you will tell me,
please, if there is anything you can do. about it.”
He talked for twelve minutes. Then:
“P-s-s-s-st!” Kay-Lee hissed. “Danger! Coming-nearing us-fast! I can feel it-taste it-
smell it! Get ready quick!” She sprang to her feet, drew her pistol, and arranged a
dozen clips of cartridges meticulously on the table in front of her.
The Osnomians’ chairs crashed backward, their heavy coats flew off, and they stood
tensely ready, machine pistols in all four hands. And, seconds later, the other
Skylarkers were on their feet and ready too. The Captain-General had not heard the
low-voiced warning, but he had seen the action and that was enough. Trigger-nerved
Dunark’s chair had no sooner struck the floor on its first bounce than Takeel was going
into his shooting stance, with his weapon flipping around into firing position as though it
were sliding in a greased groove; the while glaring ferociously at his senior lieutenant-
who thereupon began to have an acute attack of the jitters.
It was the commander’s savage motion, actually, that ruined the attackers’ split-second
schedule. For, at a certain second, the two lieutenants were to shoot their captain; then
to shoot Prenk and Kay-Lee Barlo; and then, as the attack proper was launched, they
were to kill as many of their own men as they could. Thus, knowing what a savage
performer the Captain-General was with his atrocious weapon, their hands were forced;
they had to act a couple of seconds too soon. They tried-but with two short bursts so
close together as to be practically one, Takeel cut them down. Cut them both almost
literally in two.
Thus, when the two great doors were blasted simultaneously down and the attackers
stormed in with guns ablaze, they did not find a half-dead and completely demoralized
Guard and a group of surprised visitors. Instead:
The mercenaries were neither dead nor demoralized. They knew exactly what to do and
were doing it. Dunark and Sitar had the fire-power of half a company of trained troops
and were using it to the fullest full. The Captain general, from his coign of vantage atop
the desk, was spraying both entrances with bullets like a gardener watering two flower-
beds with a hose. Kay-Lee was throwing lead almost as fast as Takeel was; changing
magazines with such fluent speed and precision as to miss scarcely a shot. Dorothy,
nostrils flaring and violet eyes blazing, was shooting as steadily and as accurately as
though she were out on the range marking up another possible. Even tiny Lotus, with
one of her .25’s clutched in both hands, was shooting as fast as she could pull the
trigger.
It was Seaton, however, who ended the battle. He waited long enough to be absolutely
sure of what was going on, then fired twice with his left-hand magnum-through the
doorways, high over the heads of the attackers, far down the corridors.
There were two terrific explosions; followed by one long rumbling crash as that whole
section of the building either went somewhere else or collapsed into rubble. Falling and
flying masonry and steel and razor-edged shards of structural glass killed almost
everyone outside the heavily reenforced wall of the Room of State. The shock-waves of
the blasts, raging through the doorways, killed half of the enemy massed there and
blew the others half the length of the room. And, continuing on with rapidly decreasing
force, knocked most of the Skylarkers flat and blew the Captain general off of. the desk
and clear back against the wall.
“Sangram’s head!” that worthy yelled, scrambling to his feet with machine-gun again-or