Sam Hedin led him onto the inland road, shortly afterward to a dirt track which angled off southerly through broken ground where starkwood bush and sword trava grew sparse. Dust puffed from the plop-plop of triple pads. Six legs gave a lulling rhythm. Before long the steading was lost to sight, the men rode by themselves under heaven. Afar, a catavale yowled.
Ivar cleared his throat. “Ah-um! Where’re we bound, Yeoman Hedin?”
Vapor smoked from breath slot. “Best hidin’ place for you I could think of quick, Firstlin’. Maybe none too good.”
Fear jabbed. “What’s happened?”
“Vid word went around this day, garth to garth,” Hedin said. He was a stout man in his later middle years. “Impies out everywhere in Hesperia, ransackin’ after you. Reward offered; and anybody who looks as if he or she might know somethin’ gets quick narcoquiz. At rate they’re workin’, they’ll reach my place before noon.” He paused. “That’s why I kept you tucked away, so nobody except me would know you were there. But not much use against biodetectors. I invented business which’ll keep me from home several days, rode off with remount—plausible, considerin’ power shortage—and slipped back after dark to fetch you.” Another pause. “They have aircars aprowl, too. Motor vehicle could easily get spotted and overtaken.
That’s reason why we use stathas, and no heatin’ units for our clothes.”
Ivar glanced aloft, as if to see a metal teardrop pounce. An ula flapped by. Pride struggled with panic: “They want me mighty badly, huh?”
“Well, you’re Firstlin’ of Ilion.”
Honesty awoke. Ivar bit his lip. “I … I’m no serious menace. I bungled my leadership. No doubt I was idiot to try.”
“I don’t know enough to gauge,” Hedin replied judiciously. “Just that Feo Astaff asked if I could coalsack you from Terrans, because you and friends had had fight with marines. Since, you and I’ve gotten no proper chance to talk. I could just sneak you your rations at night, not dare linger. Nor have newscasts said more than there was unsuccessful assault on patrol. Never mentioned your name, though I suppose after this search they’ll have to.”
The mask muffled his features, but not the eyes he turned to his companion. “Want to tell me now?” he asked.
“W-well, I—”
“No secrets, mind. I’m pretty sure I’ve covered our spoor and won’t be suspected, interrogated. Still, what can we rely on altogether?”
Ivar slumped. “I’ve nothin’ important to hide, except foolishness. Yes, I’d like to tell you, Yeoman.”
The story stumbled forth, for Hedin to join to what he already knew about his companion.
Edward Frederiksen had long been engaged in zoological research on Dido when he married Lisbet Borglund. She was of old University stock like him; they met when he came back to deliver a series of lectures. She followed him to the neighbor world. But even in Port Frederiksen, the heat and wetness of the thick air were too much for her.
She recovered when they returned to Aeneas, and bore her husband Ivar and Gerda. They lived in a modest home outside Nova Roma; both taught, and he found adequate if unspectacular subjects for original study. His son often came along on field trips. The boy’s ambitions presently focused on planetology. Belike the austere comeliness of desert, steppe, hills, and dry ocean floors brought that about—besides the hope of exploring among those stars which glittered through their nights.
Hugh McCormac being their uncle by his second marriage, the children spent frequent vacations at Windhome. When the Fleet Admiral was on hand, it became like visiting a hero of the early days, an affable one, say Brian McCormac who cast out the nonhuman invaders and whose statue stood ever afterward on a high pillar near the main campus of the University.
Aeneas had circled Virgil eight times since Ivar’s birth, when Aaron Snelund became Governor of Sector Alpha Crucis. It circled twice more—three and a half Terran years—before the eruption. At first the developed worlds felt nothing worse than heightened taxes, for which they got semi-plausible explanations. (Given the size of the Empire, its ministers must necessarily have broad powers.) Then they got the venal appointees. Then they began to hear what had been going on among societies less able to resist and complain. Then they realized that their own petitions were being shunted aside. Then the arrests and confiscations for “treason” started. Then the secret police were everywhere, while mercenaries and officials freely committed outrages upon individuals. Then it became plain that Snelund was not an ordinary corrupt administrator, skimming off some cream for himself, but a favorite of the Emperor, laying grandiose political foundations.