 Part 6 of The Highest Treason I don't understand it, said General Polon-Talus wordly. Where are they coming from? How are they doing it? What's happened? But Main and the four Karothai officers were sitting in the small dining room that doubled as a recreation room between meals. The nervous strain of the past few months was beginning to tell on all of them. Six months ago, Talus continued jerkily, we had them beaten. One planet after another was reduced in turn. Then out of nowhere comes a fleet of ships we didn't even know existed and they've smashed us at every turn. If they are ships, said Lupot, the youngest officer of the Shudo staff, whoever heard of a battleship that was undetectable at a distance of less than half a million miles, it's impossible. Then we're being torn to pieces by the impossible, Hoketan snapped, before we even know they are anywhere around. They are blasting us with everything they've got. Not even the strategic genius of General McMain can help us if we have no time to plot strategy. The Karothai had been avoiding McMain's eyes, but now at the mention of his name they all looked at him as if their collective gaze had been drawn to him by some unknown attractive force. It's like fighting ghosts, McMain said in a hushed voice. For the first time he felt a feeling of awe that was almost akin to fear. What had he done? In another sense that same question was in the mind of the Karothai. Have you any notion at all what they are doing or how they are doing it, asked Talus gently? None, McMain answered truthfully. None at all, I swear to you. They don't even behave like Earthmen, said the fourth Karothai, a thick-necked officer named Asif. They not only out-fight us, they out-think us at every turn. Is it possible, General McMain, that the Earthmen have allies of another race, a race of intelligent beings that we don't know of? He left unsaid the added implication and that you have neglected to tell us about? Again, said McMain, I swear to you that I know nothing of any third intelligent race in the galaxy. If there were such allies, Talus said, isn't it odd that they should wait so long to aid their friends? No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop super weapons that we cannot understand much less fight against, Hoketan said with a touch of anger. Not super weapons, McMain corrected almost absently. All they have is a method of making their biggest ships undetectable until they're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on our detectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same type as they've always used, I believe. All right then, Hoketan said, his voice showing more anger. One weapon, or whatever you want to call it, practical invisibility. But that's enough. An invisible man with a knife is more deadly than a dozen ordinary men with modern armament. Are you sure you know nothing of this, General McMain? Before McMain could answer, Talus said, don't be ridiculous, Hoketan. If he had known that such a weapon existed, would he have been fool enough to leave his people? With that secret, they stand a good chance of beating us in less than half the time it took us to wipe out their fleet, or rather to wipe out as much of it as we did. They got a new fleet somewhere, said Young Lupot, almost to himself. Talus ignored him. If McMain deserted his former allegiance, knowing that they had a method of rendering the action of a space drive indetectable, then he was and is a blithering idiot, and we know he isn't. All right, all right. I concede that, snapped Hoketan. He knows nothing. I don't say that I fully trust him even now, but I'll admit that I cannot see how he is to blame for the reversals of the past few months. If the Earthman had somehow been informed of our activities, or if we had invented a superweapon, and they found out about it, I would be inclined to put the blame squarely on McMain. But how would he get such information out, Talus cut in sharply? He has been watched every minute of every day. We know he couldn't send any information to Earth. How could he? Telepathy for all I know, Hoketan retorted, but that's beside the point. I don't trust him any farther than I can see him, and not completely even then. But I concede that there is no possible connection between this new menace and anything McMain might have done. This is no time to worry about that sort of thing. We've got to find some way of getting our hands on one of those ghost ships. I do suggest put in the thick-necked osef that we keep a closer watch on General McMain. Now that the Earth animals are making a comeback, he might decide to turn his coat now, even if he has been innocent of any acts against Keros so far. Hoketan's laugh was a short, hard bark. Oh, we'll watch him all right, osef. But as Talus has pointed out, McMain is not a fool, and he would certainly be a fool to return to Earth if he's leaving. It was a genuine act of desertion. The last planet we captured before this invisibility thing came up to stop us was plastered all over with notices that the Earth Fleet was concentrating on the capture of the arch trader McMain. The price on his head as a corpse is enough to allow an Earthman to retire in luxury for life. The man who brings him back alive gets ten times that amount. Of course, it's possible that the whole thing is a put-up job, a smokescreen for our benefit. That's why we must and will keep a closer watch. But only a few of the Earth's higher-up would know that it was a smokescreen. The rest believe it whether it is true or not. McMain would have to be very careful not to let the wrong people get their hands on him if he returned. It's no smokescreen, McMain said, in a matter of fact tone. I assure you that I have no intention of returning to Earth. If Karoth loses this war, then I will die, either fighting for the Karothai or by execution at the hands of Earthmen if I am captured. Or, he added musingly, perhaps even at the hands of the Karothai if someone decides that a scapegoat is needed to atone for the loss of the war. If you are guilty of treason, Hokutombart, you will die as a trader. If you are not, there is no need for your death. The Karothai do not need scapegoats. Talk, talk, talk, Tala said with a sudden bellow. We have agreed that McMain has done nothing that could even remotely be regarded as suspicious. He has fought hard and loyally. He has been more ruthless than any of us in destroying the enemy. Very well, we will guard him more closely. We can put him in our errands if that's necessary. But let's quit yapping and start thinking. We've been acting like frightened children, not knowing what it is we fear, inventing our fear caused anger on the most handy target. Let's act like men, not like children. After a moment, Hokuton said, I agree. His voice was firm, but calm. Our job will be to get our hands on one of those new earth ships. Anyone have any suggestions? They had all kinds of suggestions, one after another. The detectors, however, worked because they detected the distortion of space, which was as necessary for the drive of a ship as the distortion of air was necessary for the movement of a propeller driven aircraft. None of them could see how a ship could avoid making that distortion. And none of them could figure out how to go about capturing a ship that no one could even detect until it was too late to set a trap. The discussion went on for days, and it was continued the next day, and the next, and the days dragged out into weeks. Communications with Keros broke down. The fleet to headquarters courierships, small in size without armament and practically solidly packed with drive mechanism could presumably outrun anything but another unarmed courier. An armship of the same size would have to use some of the space for her weapons, which meant that the drive would have to be smaller. If the drive remained the same size, then the armament would make the ship larger. In either case, the speed would be cut down. A smaller ship might outrun a standard courier, but if they got much smaller there wouldn't be room inside for the pilot. Nonetheless, courier after courier never arrived at its destination. And the Karothai fleet was being decimated by the hit and run tactics of the Earth Ghost ships. And Earth never lost a ship. By the time the Karothai ships knew their enemy was in the vicinity, the enemy had hit and vanished again. The Karothai never had a chance to ready their weapons. In the long run, they never had a chance at all. McMaine waited with almost fatalistic complacence for the inevitable to happen. When it did happen, he was ready for it. The Shidos, tiny flagship of what had once been a mighty armada and was now only a tattered remnant, was floating in orbit along with the other remaining ships of the fleet around a bloated red giant sun. With their drives off, there was no way of detecting them at any distance, and the chance of their being found by accident was microscopically small. But they could not wait forever. Water could be recirculated, and energy could be tapped from the nearby sun, but food was gone once it was eaten. Hukatan's decision was inevitable, and under the circumstances the only possible one. He simply told them what they had already known, that he was a headquarters staff officer. We haven't heard from headquarters in weeks, he said at last. The Earth Fleet may already be well inside our periphery. We'll have to go home. He produced a document which he had obviously been holding in reserve for another purpose and handed it to Tallis. Headquarters staff orders Tallis. It empowers me to take command of the fleet in the event of an emergency, and the decision as to what constitutes an emergency was left up to my discretion. I must admit that this is not the emergency any of us at headquarters anticipated. Tallis read through the document. I see that it isn't, he said dryly. According to this, McMaine and I are to be placed under immediate arrest as soon as you find it necessary to act. Yes, said Hukatan bitterly, so you can both consider yourselves under arrest. Don't bother to lock yourselves up. There's no point in it. General McMaine, I see no reason to inform the rest of the fleet of this, so we will go on as usual. The orders I have to give are simple. The fleet will head for home by the most direct possible geodesic. Since we cannot fight, we will simply ignore attacks and keep going as long as we last. We can do nothing else. He paused thoughtfully. And General McMaine, in case we do not live through this, I would like to extend my apologies. I do not like you. I don't think I could ever learn to like an anima- to like a non-Kuro-Thai, but I know when to admit an error in judgment. You have fought bravely and well. Better I know than I could have done myself. You have shown yourself to be loyal to your adopted planet. You are a Kuro-Thai in every sense of the word except the physical. My apologies for having wronged you. He extended his hands and McMaine took them. A choking sensation constricted the earthman's throat for a moment. Then he got the words out, the words he had to say. Believe me, General Hoketan, there is no need for an apology. No need whatever. Thank you, said Hoketan. Then he turned and left the room. All right, Tullis. McMaine said hurriedly. Let's get moving. The orders were given to the remnants of the fleet and they cut in their drives to head homeward. In the instant they did, there was chaos. Earth's fleet of ghost ships have been patrolling the area for weeks, knowing that the Kuro-Thai fleet had last been detected somewhere in the vicinity. As soon as the spatial distortions of the Kuro-Thai drives flashed on the earth's ship's detectors, the earth fleet, widely scattered over the whole circumambient volume of space, coalesced toward the center of the spatial disturbance like a cloud of bees all heading for the same flower. Where there had been only the dull red light of the giant star, there suddenly appeared the blinding blue-white brilliance of disintegrating matter, blossoming like cruel, deadly beautiful flowers in the midst of the Kuro-Thai ships, then fading slowly as each expanding cloud of plasma cooled. Sebastian McMaine might have died with the others, except that the Shudos, as the flagship, was to trail behind the fleet so her drive had not yet been activated. The Shudos was still in orbit, moving at only a few miles per second when the earth fleet struck. Her drive never did go on. A bomb, only a short distance away as the distance from atomic disintegration is measured, sent the Shudos spinning away end over end like a discarded cigar butt flipped toward a gutter, one side caved in near the rear as if it had been kicked in by a giant foot. There was still air in the ship, McMaine realized groggily as he awoke from the unconsciousness that had been thrust upon him. He tried to stand up, but he found himself staggering toward one crazily slanted wall. The stagger was partly due to his grogginess and partly due to the Coriolis forces acting within the spinning ship. The artificial gravity was gone, which meant that the interstellar drive engines had been smashed. He wondered if the emergency rocket drive was still working, not that it would take him anywhere worth going to in less than a few centuries. But then Sebastian McMaine had nowhere to go anyhow. Tallis lay against one wall, looking very limp. McMaine half staggered over to him and knelt down. Tallis was still alive. The centrifugal force caused by the spinning ship gave an effective pull of less than one earth gravity, but the weird twists caused by the Coriolis forces made motion and orientation difficult. Besides, the ship was spinning slightly on her long axis as well as turning end for end. McMaine stood there for a moment trying to think. He had expected to die. Death was something he had known was inevitable from the moment he made his decision to leave earth. He had not known how or when it would come, but he had known that it would come soon. He had known that he would never live to collect the reward he had demanded of the Corothi for faithful service. Trader he might be, but he was still honest enough with himself to know that he would never take payment for services he had not rendered. Now death was very near and Sebastian McMaine almost welcomed it. He had no desire to fight it. Tallis might want to stand and fight death to the end, but Tallis was not carrying the monstrous weight of guilt that would stay with Sebastian McMaine until his death no matter how much he tried to justify his actions. On the other hand, if he had to go, he might as well do a good job of it. Since he still had a short time left, he might as well wrap the whole thing up in a neat package. How? Again, his intuitive ability to see pattern gave him the answer long before he could have reasoned it out. They will know, he thought, but they will never be sure they know. I will be immortal, and my name will live forever, although no earthman will ever again use the surname McMaine nor the given name Sebastian. He shook his head to clear it. No use thinking like that now. There were things to be done. Tallis first. McMaine made his way over to one of the emergency medical kits that he knew were kept in every compartment of every ship. One of the doors of a wall locker hung open, and the blue-green medical symbol used by the Karothai showed darkly in the dim light that came from the three unshuttered glow plates in the ceiling. He opened the kit, hoping that it contained something equivalent to adhesive tape. He had never inspected a Karothai medical kit before. Fortunately he could read Karothai. If a military government was good for nothing else, at least it was capable of enforcing a simplified phonetic orthography so that words were pronounced as they were spelled, and he forced his wandering mind back to his work. The blow on the head, plus the crazy effect the spinning was having on his inner ears, plus the kakai gravitational orientation that made his eyes feel as though they were seeing things at two different angles, all combined to make for more than a little mental confusion. There was adhesive tape, all right. Wound on its little spool it looked almost homey. He spent several minutes winding the sticky plastic ribbon around Tallis' wrists and ankles. Then he took the gun from the Karothai general's sleeve holster. He had never been allowed one of his own, and holding it firmly in his right hand he went on a tour of the ship. It was hard to move around. The centrifugal force varied from point to point throughout the ship and the corridors were cluttered with debris that seemed to move with a life of its own as each piece shifted slowly under the effects of the various forces working on it. And as the various masses moved about the rate of spin of the ship changed as the law of conservation of angular momentum operated. The ship was full of sliding, clattering, jangling noises as the stuff tried to find a final resting place and bring the ship to equilibrium. He found the door to Asif's cabin open in the room empty. He found Asif in Lupot's cabin trying to get the younger officer to his feet. Asif saw McMahon at the door and said, You're alive! Good! Help me! Then he saw the gun in McMahon's hand and stopped. It was the last thing he saw before McMahon shot him neatly between the eyes. Lupot, only half conscious, never even knew he was in danger and the blast that drilled through his brain prevented him from ever knowing anything again in this life. Like a man in a dream, McMahon went on to Hokoton's cabin, his weapon at the ready. He was rather pleased to find that the HQ general was already quite dead, his neck broken as cleanly as if it had been done by a hangman. Hardly an hour before, McMahon would cheerfully have shot Hokoton where it would hurt the most and watch him die slowly. But the memory of Hokoton's honest apology made the earthmen very glad that he did not have to shoot the general at all. There remained only the five man crew, the NCO technician and his gang who actually ran the ship. They would be at the tail of the ship in the engine compartment. To get there he had to cross the center of spin of the ship in the change of gravity from one direction to another, decreasing toward zero, passing the null point and rising again on the other side made him nauseous. He felt better after his stomach had emptied itself. Cautiously he opened the door to the drive compartment and then slammed it hard in sudden fear when he saw what had happened. The shielding had been torn away from one of the energy converters and exposed the room to high energy radiation. The crewmen were quite dead. The fear went away as quickly as it had come. So maybe he dosed himself with a few hundred rankins. So what? A little radiation never hurt a dead man. But he knew now that there was no possibility of escape. The drive was wrecked and the only other means of escape, the one man courier boat that every blaster boat carried, had been sent out weeks ago and had never returned. If only the courier boat were still in its cradle. McMan shook his head. No. It was better this way. Much better. He turned and went back to the dining room where Tolas was trust up. This time passing the null g-point didn't bother him much at all. Tolas was moaning a little and his eyelids were fluttering by the time McMan got back. The earthmen opened the medical kit again and looked for some kind of stimulant. He had no knowledge of medical or chemical terms in Chorothic, but there was a box of glass ampules bearing instructions to crush and allow patient to inhale fumes. That sounded right. The stuff smelled like a mixture of spirits of ammonia and butylmer captain, but it did the job. Tolas coughed convulsively, turned his head away, coughed again, and opened his eyes. McMan tossed the stinking ampule out into the corridor as Tolas tried to focus his eyes. How do you feel? McMan asked. His voice sounded oddly thick in his own ears. All right. I'm all right. What happened? He looked wonderingly around. Near miss? Must be. Anyone hurt? They're all dead, but you and me, McMan said. Dead? Then we better. He tried to move and then realized that he was bound hand and foot. The sudden realization of his position seemed to clear his brain completely. Sebastian, what's going on here? Why am I tied up? I had to tie you, McMan explained carefully as though to a child. There are some things I have to do yet and I wouldn't want you to stop me. Maybe I should have just shot you while you were unconscious. That would have been kinder to both of us, I think, but Tolas, I had to tell somebody. Someone else has to know. Someone else has to judge. Or maybe I just want to unload it on someone else. Someone who will carry the burden with me for just a little while. I don't know. Sebastian, what are you talking about? The Karothai's face shown dolly orange in the dim light. His bright green eyes looked steadily at the earthman and his voice was oddly gentle. I'm talking about treason, said McMan. Do you want to listen? I don't have much choice, do I? Tolas said. Tell me one thing first. Are we going to die? You are Tolas, but I won't. I'm going to be immortal. Tolas looked at him for a long moment then. All right, Sebastian. I'm no psych man, but I know you're not well. I'll listen to whatever you have to say, but first untie my hands and feet. I can't do that, Tolas. Sorry. But if our positions were reversed, I know what I would do to you when I heard the story and I can't let you kill me because there's something more that has to be done. Tolas knew at that moment that he was looking at the face of death and he also knew that there was nothing, whatever, he could do about it except talk and listen. Very well, Sebastian, he said, lovely. Go ahead. Treason, you say. How? Against whom? I'm not quite sure, said Sebastian McMan. I thought maybe you could tell me. End of part six. Part seven of the highest treason. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Highest Treason by Randall Garrett. Part seven, The Reason. Let me ask you one thing, Tolas, like Maine said. Would you do anything in your power to save Carols from destruction? Anything. No matter how drastic, if you knew that it would save Carols in the long run. A foolish question. Of course I would give my life. Your life? A mere nothing. A piton's. Any man could give his life. Would you consent to live forever for Carols? Tolas shook his head as though he were puzzled. Live forever? That's twice or three times you said something about that. I don't understand you. Would you consent to live forever as a filthy curse on the lips of every Karothai old enough to speak? Would you consent to be a vile inhuman monster whose undead spirit would hang over your homeland like an evil miasma for centuries to come whose very name would touch a flame of hatred in the minds of all who heard it? That's a very melodramatic way of putting it, the Karothai said. But I believe I understand what you mean. Yes, I would consent to that if it would be the only salvation of Karoth. Would you slaughter helpless millions of your own people so that other billions might survive? Would you ruthlessly smash your system of government and your whole way of life if it were the only way to save the people themselves? I'm beginning to see what you're driving at, Tolas said slowly. And if it is what I think it is, I think I would like to kill you very slowly. I know, I know, but you haven't answered my question. Would you do those things to save your people? I would, said Tolas coldly. Don't misunderstand me. I do not love you for what you have done to your own people. I hate you for what you have done to mine. That's as it should be, said McMain. His head was clearing up more now. He realized that he had been talking a little wildly at first. Or was he really insane? Had he been insane from the beginning? No, he knew with absolute clarity that every step he had made had been cold, calculating, and ruthless, but utterly and absolutely sane. He suddenly wished that he had shot Tolas without wakening him. If his mind hadn't been in such a state of shock he would have, there was no need to torture the man like this. Go on, said Tolas, in a voice that had suddenly become devoid of all emotion. Tell it all. Earth was stagnating, McMain said, surprised at the sound of his own voice he hadn't intended to go on, but he couldn't stop now. You saw how it was. Every standard had become meaningless because no standard was held to be better than any other standard. There was no beauty because beauty was superior to ugliness, and we couldn't allow superiority or inferiority. There was no love, because in order to love someone or something you must feel that it is in some way superior to that which is not loved. I'm not even sure I know what those terms mean, because I'm not sure I ever thought anything was beautiful. I'm not sure I ever loved anything. I only read about such things in books, but I know I felt the emptiness inside me where those things should have been. There was no morality either. People did not reframe from stealing because it was wrong, but simply because it was pointless to steal what would be given to you if you asked for it. There was no right or wrong. We had a form of social contract that we called marriage, but it wasn't the same thing as marriage was in the old days. There was no love. There used to be a crime called adultery, but even the word had gone out of use on the earth I know. Instead, it was considered anti-social for a woman to refuse to give herself to other men. To do so might indicate that she thought herself superior, or thought her husband to be superior to other men. The same thing applied to men and their relationships with women other than their wives. Marriage was a social contract that could be made or broken at the whim of the individual. It served no purpose because it meant nothing. Neither party gained anything by the contract that they wouldn't have had without it. But a wedding was an excuse for a gala party at which the couple were the center of attention, so the contract was entered in too lightly for the sake of a gay time for a while, then broken again so that the game could be played with someone else, the game of musical bedrooms. He stopped and looked down at the helpless Karothai. That doesn't mean much to you, does it? In your society, women are chattel to be owned, bought, and sold. If you see a woman you want, you offer a price to her father, or brother, or husband, whoever the owner might be. Then she's yours until you sell her to another. Adultery is a very serious crime on Karoth, but only because it's an infringement of property rights. There's not much love lost there, either, is there? I wonder if either of us knows what love is, Tallis? I love my people, Tallis said grimly. MacMaine was startled for a moment. He never thought about it that way. You're right, Tallis, he said at last. You're right, we do know. And because I love the human race in spite of its stagnation and its spirit of total mediocrity, I did what I had to do. You will pardon me, Tallis said, with only the faintest bit of acid in his voice. If I do not understand exactly what it is that you did, then his voice grew softer. Wait, perhaps I do understand. Yes, of course. You think you understand, MacMaine looked at him narrowly. Yes, I said that I am not a psychometric, am I getting angry with you proves it. You fought hard and well for Carol's Sebastian, and in doing so you had to kill many of your own race. It is not easy for a man to do no matter how much your reason tells you it must be done. And now in the face of death remorse has come. I do not completely understand the workings of the earthman's mind, but that's just it. You don't, MacMaine interrupted. Thanks for trying to find an excuse for me, Tallis, but I'm afraid it isn't so. Listen. I had to find out what earth was up against. I had a pretty good idea already that the Karoth I would win would wipe us out or enslave us to the last man, and after I had seen Karoth I was certain of it. So I sent a message back to earth telling them what they were up against because up till then they hadn't known. As soon as they knew they reacted as they have always done when they are certain that they face danger, they fought, they unleashed the chained down intelligence of the few extraordinary earthmen and they released the fighting spirit of even the ordinary earthmen, and they won. Tallis shook his head. You sent no message, Sebastian. You were watched. You know that. You could not have sent a message. You saw me send it, MacMaine said. So did everyone else in the fleet. Hokaton helped me send it, made all the arrangements at my orders. But because you do not understand the workings of the earthmen's mind, you didn't even recognize it as a message. Tallis, what would your people have done of an invading force which had already proven that it could whip Karoth easily, did to one of your planets what we did on Houston's world? If the enemy showed us that they could easily beat us and then hang the whole population of a planet for resisting, why, we would be fools to resist. Unless of course we had a secret weapon in a hidden pocket the way earth had. No, Tallis. No. That's where you're making your mistake. Earth didn't have that weapon until after the massacre on Houston's world. Let me ask you another thing. Would any Karothai have ordered that massacre? I doubt it, Tallis said slowly. Killing that many potential slaves will be wasteful and expensive. We are fighters, not butchers. We kill only when it is necessary to win. The remainder of the enemy is taken care of as the rightful property of the conqueror. Exactly. Prisoners were part of the loot and it's foolish to destroy loot. I noticed that in your history books. I noticed too that in such cases the captives recognized the right of the conqueror to enslave them and made no trouble. So after earth forces get to Karoth I don't think we'll have any trouble with you. Not if they set us an example like Houston's world, Tallis said, and can prove that resistance is futile. But I don't understand the message. What was the message and how did you send it? The massacre on Houston's world was the message, Tallis. I even told the staff when I suggested it. I said that such an act would strike terror into the minds of earthmen. And it did, Tallis. It did. But that terror was just the goad they needed to make them fight. They had to sit up and take notice. If the Karothai had gone on the way they were going, taking one planet after another as they planned, the Karothai would have won. The people of each planet would think it can't happen here. And since they felt that nothing could be superior to anything else, they were complacently certain that they couldn't be beat. Of course maybe earth couldn't beat you either, but that was all right. It just proved that there was no such thing as superiority. But Houston's world jarred them badly. It had to. Hell does more than heaven can to wake the fear of God in man. They didn't recognize beauty, but I shoved ugliness down their throats. They didn't know love and friendship, so I gave them hatred and fear. The committing of atrocities has been the mistake of aggressors throughout earth's history. The battle cries of countless wars have called upon the people to remember an atrocity. Nothing else hits an earthman as hard as a vicious, brutal, unnecessary murder. So I gave them the incentive to fight, Tallis. That was my message. Tallis was staring at him wide-eyed. You are insane. No, it worked. In six months they found something that would enable them to blast the Devil Karothai from the skies. I don't know what the society of earth is like now, and I never will. But at least I know that men are allowed to think again, and I know they'll survive. He suddenly realized how much time had passed. Had it been too long? No, there would still be earth ships prowling the vicinity, waiting for any sign of a Karothai ship that had hidden in the vastness of space by not using its engines. I have some things I must do, Tallis, he said, standing up slowly. Is there anything else you want to know? No, Tallis found a little as though he were trying to think of something, but then he closed his eyes and relaxed. No, Sebastian, nothing, nothing. Do whatever it is you have to do. Tallis, McMain said. Tallis didn't open his eyes, and McMain was very glad of that. Tallis, I want you to know that in all my life you were the only friend I ever had. The bright green eyes remained closed. That may be so. Yes, Sebastian, I honestly think you believe that. I do, said McMain, and shot him carefully through the head. End of part seven. Part eight of The Highest Treason. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Highest Treason by Randall Garrett. Part eight. The End and Epilogue. Hold it! The voice bellowed thunderingly from the loud speakers of the six earth ships that have boxed in the derelict. Hold it! Don't bomb that ship. I'll personally have the head of any man who damages that ship. In five of the ships, the commander simply held off the bombardment that would have vaporized the derelict. In the sixth, Major Thornton, the group commander snapped off the microphone. His voice was shaky as he said. That was close. Another second and we'd have lost that ship forever. Captain Vorensky's oriental features had a half startled, half puzzled look. I don't get it. You grabbed that mic control as if you'd been bitten. I know that she's only a derelict. After that burst of 50G acceleration for 15 minutes, there couldn't be anyone left alive on her. But there must have been a reason for using atomic rockets instead of their anti-acceleration fields. What makes you think she's not dangerous? I didn't say she wasn't dangerous. The Major snapped. She may be. Probably is. But we're going to capture her if we can. Look! He pointed at the image of the ship in the screen. She wasn't spinning now, or looping end over end. After 15 minutes of high acceleration, her atomic rockets had cut out, and now she moved serenely at constant velocity, looking as dead as a battered tin can. I don't see anything, Captain Vorensky said. The Karothic symbols on the side. Palatal unvoiced sibilant, rounded. I don't read Karothic major, said the Captain. I... Then he blinked and said, Shudos. That's it. The Shudos of Karoth. The flagship of the Karothi fleet. The look in the Major's eyes was the same look of hatred that had come into the Captain's. Even if its armament is still functioning, we have to take the chance, Major Thornton said. Even if they're all dead, we have to try to get the Butcher's body. He picked up the microphone again. Attention, Group. Listen carefully and don't get itchy trigger fingers. That ship is the Shudos. The Butcher's ship. It's a 10-man ship, and the most she could have aboard would be 30, even if they jammed her full to the hull. I don't know of any way that anyone could be alive on her after 15 minutes at 50 Gs of atomic drive, but remember that they don't have any idea of how our counteraction generators damp out spatial distortion, either. Remember what Dr. Pendrick said. No man is superior to any other in all ways. Every man is superior to every other in some way. We may have the counteraction generator, but they may have something else that we don't know about, so stay alert. I am going to take a landing party aboard. There's a reward out for the Butcher, and that reward will be split proportionately among us. It's big enough for us all to enjoy it, and we'll probably get citations if we bring them in. I want 10 men from each ship. I'm not asking for volunteers. I want each ship commander to pick the 10 men he thinks will be least likely to lose their heads in an emergency. I don't want anyone to panic and shoot when he should be thinking. I don't want anyone who had any relatives on Houston's world. Sorry, but I can't allow vengeance yet. We're a thousand miles from the chuteau snow. Close in slowly until we're within 100 yards. The boarding parties will don armor and prepare to board while we're closing in. At 100 yards, we stop, and the boarding parties will land on the hull. I'll give further orders then. One more thing. I don't think our AA generators could possibly be functioning judging from that dent in our hull, but we can't be sure. If she tries to go into AA drive, she is to be bombed, no matter who is aboard. It is better that 60 men die than that the Butcher escape. All right, let's go. Move in. Half an hour later, Major Thornton stood on the hull of the chuteau surrounded by the 60 men of the boarding party. Anybody see anything through those windows, he asked. Several of the men had peered through the direct vision ports, playing spotlight beams through them. Nothing alive, said a sergeant, a remark which was followed by a chorus of agreement. Pretty much of a mess in there, said another sergeant. That 50 G's mashed everything to the floor. What, anyone want to use acceleration like that? Let's go in and find out, said Major Thornton. The outer door to the airlock was closed, but not locked. It swung open easily to disclose the room between the outer and inner doors. Ten men went in with the Major. The others stayed outside with orders to cut through the hull if anything went wrong. If he's still alive, the Major said, we don't want to kill him by blowing the air. Sergeant, start the airlock cycle. There was barely room for ten men in the airlock. It had been built big enough for the full crew to use it at one time, but it was only just big enough. When the inner door opened, they went in cautiously. They spread out and searched cautiously. The caution was unnecessary as it turned out. There wasn't a living thing aboard. Three officers shot through the head, sir, said the sergeant. One of them looks like he died of a broken neck, but it's hard to tell after that 50 G's. After that, 50 G's mashed him. Crewmen in the engine room, five of them, mashed up, but I'd say they died of radiation since the shielding on one of the generators was ruptured by the blast that made that day in the hull. Nine bodies, the Major said musingly, all Karothai, and all of them probably dead before the 50 G acceleration. Keep looking, Sergeant. We've got to find that tenth man. Another 20-minute search gave them all the information they were ever to get. No earth food aboard, said the Major. One spacesuit missing. Hand weapons missing. Two emergency survival kits and two medical kits missing. And, most important of all, the courier boat is missing. He bit at his lower lip for a moment, then went on. Outer airlock door left unlocked. Three Karothai shot after the explosion that ruined the AA drive and before the 50 G acceleration. He looked at the Sergeant. What do you think happened? He got away, the tough-looking non-com, said grimly, took the courier boat and scooted away from here. Why did he set the timer on the drive, then? What was the purpose of that 50 G blast? To distract us, I'd say, sir. While we were chasing this thing, he high-tailed it out. He might have at that, the Major said musingly. A one-man courier could have gotten away. Our new detection equipment isn't perfect yet. But, at that moment, one of the troopers pushed himself down the corridor toward them. Look, sir, I found this in the pocket of the carrot skin who was taped up in there. He was holding a piece of paper. The Major took it, read it, then read it aloud. Greetings, fellow Earthmen. When you read this, I will be safe from any power you may think you have to arrest or punish me. But don't think you are safe from me. There are other intelligent races in the galaxy, and I'll be around for a long time to come. You haven't heard the last of me. With love, Sebastian McMain. The silence that followed was almost deadly. He did get away, snarled the Sergeant at last. Maybe, said the Major. But it doesn't make sense. He sounded agitated. Look, in the first place, how do we know the courier but was even aboard? They've been trying frantically to get word back to Carols. Does it make sense that they'd saved this boat? And why all the fanfare? Suppose he did have a boat. Why would he attract our attention with that 50G flare? Just so he could leave us a note? What do you think happened, sir? The Sergeant asked. I don't think he had a boat. If he did, he'd want us to think he was dead, not the other way around. I think he set the drive-timer on this ship, went outside with his supplies, crawled up a drive-tube, and waited until that atomic rocket blast blew him into plasma. He was probably badly wounded and didn't want us to know that we'd won. That way we'd never find him. There was no belief on the faces of the men around him. Why did he want to do that, sir? Asked the Sergeant. Because as long as we don't know, he'll haunt us. He'll be like Hitler or Jack the Ripper. He'll be an immortal menace instead of a dead villain who could be forgotten. Maybe so, sir, said the Sergeant, but there was an utter lack of conviction in his voice. But we'd still better comb this area and keep our detectors hot. We'll know what he was up to when we catch him. But if we don't find him, the Major said softly, we'll never know. That's the beauty of it, Sergeant. If we don't find him, then he's won. In his own fiendish, twisted way, he's won. If we don't find him, said the Sergeant stolidly, I think we'd better keep a sharp eye out for the next intelligent race we meet. He might find him first. Maybe, said the Major, very softly. That's just what he wanted. I wish I knew why. The End. The End of the Highest Treason by Randall Garrett