Mavig nodded. “The follow-up then. I rather like that term `gromgorru.’ We can borrow it as the key word here.”
“Gromgorru and Tuvela-Guardians,” said Tolm Sindhis.
“Yes. The two escaped cruisers reach Porad Anz. The sole survivors of the invasion present their story. The top echelons of the Everliving have a week or two to let new Tuvela-fear soak through their marrows. There is no word of a significant reaction in the Federation. What happens then? Deputy, you’ve shown commendable imagination. How would you suggest concluding the matter?”
“How would Tuvela-Guardians conclude it?” said Gilennic. “Dr. Etland set the pattern for us, I think. The attitude is not quite contempt, but not far from it. We’ve taken over a thousand low-grade prisoners for whom we have no use. Guardians don’t kill purposelessly. In a week or two the prisoners should be transported to Porad Anz.”
“By a fleet detachment?” Mavig asked.
Gilennic shook his head.
“One ship, Councilman. An impressive ship—I’d suggest a Giant Scout. But only one. The Guardian Etland came alone to the floatwood. By choice, as far as the Parahuans know. The Guardians would not send a fleet to Porad Anz. Or more than one Guardian.”
“Yes—quite right. And then?”
“From what Dr. Cay was told,” Gilennic said, “there are no surviving human captives on Porad Anz. But we’d make sure of that, and we’d let them know we’re making sure of it. Half dead or insane, we don’t leave our kind in enemy hands.”
Tolm Sindhis said, “The Service will supply a dozen xenotelepaths to the expedition. They’ll make sure of it.”
Mavig nodded. “What else, Deputy?”
“Men were murdered on Nandy-Cline,” said Gilennic. “The actual murderers are almost certainly dead. But the authorities on Porad Anz need a lesson—for that, and simply for the trouble they’ve made. They’re territory-greedy. How about territorial restrictions?”
Mavig said, “Xeno intelligence indicates they’ve occupied between eighteen and twenty water planets. They can be told to evacuate two of those planets permanently—say the two closest to the Federation—and given a limited time in which to carry out the order. We’ll be back presently to see it’s been done. Would that sum it up?”
“I think,” said Gilennic, “a Guardian would say so.” He hesitated, added, “I believe the terms Tuvela or Guardian should not be used in this connection by us, or in fact used by us at all. The Everliving of Porad Anz can form their own conclusions about who it is that issues them orders in the name of the Federation. As far as we’re concerned, the superhumans can fade back now into mystery and gromgorru. They’ll be more effective there.”
Mavig nodded, glanced aside. “I see,” he remarked, “that meanwhile the selection of the person who is to issue the Council’s orders to Porad Anz has been made.” He pressed a button on the stand before him. “Your transmission duplicator, Deputy—”
Rion Gilennic slid a receptacle from the stand duplicator, took a card from it, saw, without too much surprise, that the name on the card was his own. “I’m honored by the assignment,” he said soberly.
“You can start preparing for it.” Mavig shifted his gaze to Tolm Sindhis. “We should expect that some weeks from now there’ll be individuals on Nandy-Cline taking a discreet interest in the backgrounds of Dr. Etland and Dr. Cay. It might be worth seeing what leads can be developed from them.”
The director shrugged. “We’ll watch for investigators, of course. My opinion is, however, that if the leads take us anywhere, they’ll show us nothing new. . . . ”
Conclusions of the Evaluating Committee
of the Lords of the Sessegur,
Chiefs of the Dark Ships
Subject: The Human-parahuan
Engagement of Nandy-cline
The committee met in the Purple Hall of the Lord Ildaan. Present besides the Lord Ildaan and the permanent members of the Committee were a Wirrollan delegation led by its Envoy Plenipotentiary. The Lord Ildaan introduced the Envoy and the members of the delegation to the Committee and referred to the frequently voiced demands of Wirrolla and its associated species that the Alliance of the Lords of the Sessegur should agree to coordinate and spearhead a unified attack on the Federation of the Hub. He explained that the conclusions to be expressed by the Committee might serve as a reply to such demands. He then requested the Lord Toshin, High Ambassador of the Alliance to the Federation of the Hub, to sum up intelligence reports compiled in the Federation following the Parahuan defeat.
The Lord Toshin: The overall impression left in the Federation by the attempted Parahuan conquest of the world of Nandy-Cline is that it was an event of almost no significance. In the relatively short period before I left Orado to confer in person with other members of this Committee, it appeared that the average Federation citizen had nearly forgotten such an attempt had been made and certainly would have found it difficult to recall much more than the fact. We must understand, of course, that this same average citizen in all likelihood never before had heard of the planet of Nandy-Cline. The sheer number of Federation worlds blurs their individual significance.
On Nandy-Cline itself the conflict with the Parahuans naturally has remained a topic of prime interest. While we may suspect that the bulk of the Parahuan force was destroyed in space by Federation military, the continental population takes most of the credit for its defeat. No opinions have been obtained from the sizable pelagic population known as sledmen, who appear to be secretive by habit and treat Federation news personnel and other investigators with such scant civility that few attempt to question them twice.
There has been no slightest public mention in the Federation of the Parahuan Tuvela Theory. The person referred to in the reports of Parahuan survivors to Porad Anz as “the Guardian Etland” and believed by them to be a member of a special class of humans known as Tuvelas, does exist. Her name is Dr. Nile Etland and she is a native of Nandy-Cline. My office had a circumspect but very thorough investigation made of her activities and background. Most of you are familiar with the result. It indicates that Dr. Etland is very capable and highly intelligent, but in a normally human manner. She is a biochemist by training and profession, and there is nothing to suggest overtly that she might be one of a group of perhaps mutated humans who have made themselves the secret rulers and protectors of the Federation. A simultaneous investigation made of her associate, Dr. Ticos Cay, believed by the Parahuans to be possibly another Tuvela, had similar results. We have no reason to think that Dr. Cay is more or other than he appears to be.
Of particular interest is the fact that there is no public knowledge in the Federation of the role ascribed to these individuals by Parahuan survivors in bringing about the evidently panic-stricken retreat from Nandy-Cline. On the planet Dr. Etland and Dr. Cay are generally credited with having given the first warning of the presence of alien intruders, but it is assumed that this is all they did.
Under the circumstances, I felt it would be unwise to attempt to have Dr. Etland questioned directly. It would have been impossible in any case to question Dr. Cay. After a period of hospitalization, he appears to have returned to his research on one of the many floating jungles of that world; and it is believed that only Dr. Etland is aware of his current whereabouts.
The Lord Ildaan: The Lord Mingolm, recently the Alliance’s Ambassador to Porad Anz, will comment on discrepancies between the Federation’s publicized version of the Parahuan defeat and the account given by Parahuan survivors.
The Lord Mingolm: As the Committee knows, only two of the Parahuan invasion ships escaped destruction and eventually returned to Porad Anz. Aboard those ships were eighty-two Palachs and Great Palachs, twenty-eight of whom had been direct witnesses of the encounter between the Everliving and the female human referred to as the Guardian Etland.
All of these twenty-eight were members of the political faction known as the Voice of Action and under sentence of death for their complicity in the disastrous revolt of the faction on Nandy-Cline. All were questioned repeatedly, frequently under severe torture. I attended a number of the interrogations and on several occasions was permitted to question the subjects directly.
Their stories agreed on every significant point. Both Dr. Cay and Dr. Etland had stated openly that Dr. Etland was a Guardian of the Federation and that the designation of Tuvela applied to her. Such statements would not have convinced the Voice of Action, which had argued vehemently against the implications of the Tuvela Theory in the past, and particularly against the claim that Tuvelas appeared to have supernormal powers. However, the chain of events which began with the arrival of Dr. Etland in the area where they were holding Dr. Cay did convince them. There seemed to be nothing they could do to check her. She came and went as she chose, whether in the sea or in the dense floating forests, and was traceless as a ghost. Moreover, those who had the misfortune of encountering her did not report the fact. They simply disappeared. The list of the missing included an advanced Great Palach, renowned as a deadly fighter and the leader of the Voice of Action, and two battle-trained tarms, which are most efficiently destructive giant beasts. When a majority of the Everliving voted to parley with the Guardian, she came voluntarily into their forest stronghold, spoke to them and ordered them off the planet. The Voice of Action realized the nerve of their colleagues had broken and that the order would be obeyed. In frenzy and despair they struck out at the yielding majority and gained control of the invasion forces.