She hesitated. “If you don’t put it off too long, it will be. I’ll wait beside the buzzer.” She left the room with Wyl, and the door slid shut.
Rion Gilennic sighed and sat down at the stand. His brain felt packed—that was perhaps the best way to describe it. Two sets of memories that weren’t his own had been fed in there in the time span of fifty seconds. He gathered that the emotional effects they contained were damped out as far as possible; but they remained extraordinarily vivid memories as experienced by two different sensory patterns and recorded by two different and very keen minds. For the next several hours, a part of him would be in effect Dr. Ticos Cay, able to recall everything that had occurred from his first realization of a search party of alien beings closing in stealthily on the floatwood hideout to the moment consciousness drained from him in the incubator pod. And another part would be Dr. Nile Etland, scanning at will over the period between her discussion with the Sotira sledmen and her return to the mainland with Danrich Parrol, Dr. Cay, and a pair of mutant otters.
By now Gilennic’s mind seemed able to recognize these implants for what they were and to keep them distinct from his personal memories. But for a while there’d been confusion and he’d found himself running colorful floatwood nightmares in a wide-awake condition, blanked out momentarily on the fact that he was not whichever of the two had experienced that particular sequence. He’d really been much less upset about it than the two transcriber technicians who evidently blamed themselves for the side-effects. A recall digest, in any case, was the fastest and most dependable method known to get all pertinent information on a given set of events from a person who’d lived through them; and a few hours from now the direct impressions would fade from his mind again. No problem there, he decided. . . .
He flicked through the reports Wyl had left. Among them was one from the surgeon’s office on the condition of Dr. Ticos Cay—a favorable prognosis. In spite of his age Dr. Cay’s recuperative ability remained abnormally high. He’d been near total exhaustion but should recover in a few weeks of treatment. Gilennic was glad to see the memo; he’d been worried about the old man.
The latest report on military developments had nothing of significance. Most of the fighting had been concluded five hours ago, almost before the Etland party reached the mainland. Space pursuit continued; but the number of targets was down to twelve. Gilennic considered. Call Tatlaw and tell him to let a few more get away? No, two shiploads were enough to carry the bad word to Porad Anz. Too many lucky escapees would look suspicious—the Parahuans had learned the hard way that Fed ships could run them down. Some eight hundred Oganoon, holed up in a floatwood island, had been taken alive. The Palachs with them were dead by suicide. No value to that catch—
The other reports weren’t important. The Psychology Service was doctoring newscast sources on Nandy-Cline. He’d hear more about that in the conference.
Gilennic sat a moment reflecting, smiled briefly. Not a bad setup, he thought. Not bad at all!
“Ship’s comm section to Deputy Gilennic,” said the screen speaker.
“Go ahead,” he told it.
“Transmission carrier now hot and steady, sir! Orado is about to come in. When I switch off, the transmission room will be security-shielded.”
“Double check the shielding,” Gilennic said and pushed down the screen’s ON button.
“What decided you to give the order to allow two Parahuan warships to escape?” Federation Councilman Mavig asked.
Gilennic looked at the two men in the screen. With Mavig was Tolm Sindhis, a Psychology Service director—publicity angles already were very much a part of the situation, as he’d expected. The discussion wasn’t limited to the three of them; Mavig had said others were attending on various extensions on the Orado side. He hadn’t given their names and didn’t need to. Top department heads were judging the Federation Council Deputy’s actions at Nandy-Cline. Very well. . . .
Gilennic said, “Section Admiral Tatlaw’s fleet detachment was still approaching the system when we picked up a garbled report from Nandy-Cline indicating the fighting had started there. Tatlaw went in at speed. By the time the main body of the detachment arrived, Parahuan ships were boiling out into space by twos and threes. Our ships split up and began picking them off.
“It was clear that something drastic had happened to the enemy on the planet. The colonial forces were in action, but that couldn’t begin to account for it. The enemy wasn’t in orderly retreat—he was breaking from the planet in absolute panic. Whatever the disaster was, I felt it was likely to be to our advantage if Porad Anz were permitted to receive a first-hand account of it by informed survivors.
“The flagship had engaged the two largest Parahuan ships reported so far, approximately in our cruiser class. It was reasonable to assume they had high-ranking Parahuans on board. We know now that except for the headquarters ship, which was destroyed before it could escape from the planet’s atmosphere, they were in fact the two largest ships of the invasion. There was no time to check with Orado, even if it had been possible in the infernal communication conditions of the system. We were in a running fight, and Tatlaw would have cut the enemy apart in minutes. I was the leading representative of the civilian government with the detachment. Therefore I gave the order.”
Mavig pursed his lips. “The Admiral didn’t entirely approve of the move?”
“Naturally not,” said Gilennic. “From a tactical point of view it made no sense. There were some moments afterward when I was inclined to doubt the wisdom of the move myself.”
“I assume,” Mavig said, “your doubts were resolved after you absorbed the digest of Dr. Etland’s recall report.”
“Yes. Entirely so.”
Mavig grunted.
“Well, we know now what happened to the invasion force,” he remarked. “Its command echelons were subjected to a concentrated dose of psychological warfare, in singularly appalling form. Your action is approved, Deputy. What brought Dr. Etland and her companions to your attention?”
“I went down to the planet at the first opportunity,” Gilennic said. “There was still a great deal of confusion and I could get no immediate explanation for the Parahuan retreat. But I learned that a warning sent out by a Dr. Etland from one of the floatwood islands had set off the action. She reached the mainland at about that time, and I found her at the hospital to which she’d taken Dr. Cay. She told me in brief what had occurred, and I persuaded her to accompany me to the flagship with Dr. Cay. She agreed, on condition that Dr. Cay would remain under constant medical attention. She took him back to a mainland hospital a short while ago.”
Mavig said, “The people who know about this—”
“Dr. Etland, Dr. Cay, Danrich Parrol,” said Gilennic. “The two recall transcriber technicians know enough to start thinking. So does my secretary.”
“The personnel will be no problem. The other three will maintain secrecy?”
“They’ve agreed to it. I think we can depend on them. Their story will be that Dr. Etland and Dr. Cay discovered and spied on Parahuans from hiding but were not seen by them and had no contact with them. There’ll be no mention made of the Tuvela Theory or of anything else that could be of significance here.”
Mavig glanced at the Psychology Service director. Sindhis nodded, said, “Judging by the personality types revealed in the recall digests, I believe that’s safe. I suggest we give those three people enough additional information to make it clear why secrecy is essential from the Federation’s point of view.”
“Very well,” Mavig agreed. “It’s been established by now that the four other water worlds which might have been infiltrated simultaneously by Parahuans are clear. The rumored enemy action was concentrated solely on Nandy-Cline. We’re proceeding on that basis.” He looked at Tolm Sindhis. “I understand your people have begun with the publicity cover work there?”
“Yes,” Sindhis said. “It should be simple in this case. We’re developing a popular local line.”
“Which is?”
“That the civilian and military colonial forces beat the fight out of the invaders before they ever got back to space. It’s already more than half accepted.”
Gilennic said thoughtfully, “If it hadn’t been for Dr. Etland’s preparatory work, I’m inclined to believe that’s what would have occurred. Not, of course, without very heavy human casualties. The counterattack certainly was executed with something like total enthusiasm.”
“It’s been a long time between wars,” Mavig said. “That’s part of our problem. How about the overall Hub reaction, Director?”
“We’ll let it be a three day sensation,” said Sindhis. “Then we’ll release a series of canned sensations which should pretty well crowd the Nandy-Cline affair out of the newscasts and keep it out. I foresee no difficulties.”