Talents, Incorporated Page 11

  Chapter 11

  The news as Bors got it from the men of Deccan was remarkable for tworeasons: that so much of it was true, and that all of it was glamorizedand romanticized and garbled. It was astonishing to find any relation atall between such fabulously romantic tales and the facts, because therewas no way for news to travel between solar systems except on ships, andno ships had carried stories like these!

  Here on Deccan, the shining-eyed young men _knew_ that Bors had landedon Tralee and on Garen. They _knew_ that there was a fleet in beingwhich had fought and annihilated a Mekinese task-force many times itssize.

  To the Captain, their knowledge was undiluted catastrophe!

  They admired Bors because they believed he commanded that fleet, whichhe now had in hiding while he flashed splendidly about the subjugatedworlds, performing prodigious feats of valor and destruction, halfpirate and half hero. The story had it that he'd been driven from hisnative Tralee by the invaders, and that now he fought Mekin inmagnificent knight-errantry, and that it was _he_ who'd set alight theflame of rebellion on so many worlds.

  Bors listened, and was numbed. He heard references to the fight offMeriden, and the temporary escape of one of his enemies, and that he'dpursued it to the solar system of Mekin itself and there destroyed itwhile Mekin watched, helpless to interfere.

  The distortion of facts was astounding. But the mere existence of factsat this distance was impossible! Then Bors found himself thinking thatthese tales sounded like fantasies or daydreams, and he went white. Heknew what had happened.

  Just before he'd left the fleet, he'd talked to a fat woman and ascowling man who, together, made up the Talents, Incorporated brand newDepartment for Disseminating Truthful Seditious Rumors, so that rumorsof a high degree of detail got started, nobody knew how. If such rumorsspread, and everybody heard them, nobody would doubt them. It wasappallingly probable that the fighting on Cassis and Avino and Deccanhad no greater justification in reason than that an enormously fat womanromantically pictured such things as resulting from the derring-do ofone Captain Bors, of whom she thought sentimentally and glamorously andwithout much discrimination.

  But she'd daydreamed about the fleet, too! And that it had destroyed aMekinese squadron many times its size....

  He heard the leader of the young men from Deccan speaking humorously."Your revolt, sir," he told Bors, "is spreading everywhere! On Cela,sir, there are great space-ship yards, where they build craft for theMekinese navy. Not long ago they finished one and it went out to spacefor a trial run. It didn't come back. Sabotage. Everybody knew it. TheMekinese raged. A little while later they finished another ship. But theMekinese were smart! They sent it off for its trial run with only Celanson board. If there were sabotage this time, it wouldn't be Mekinese whodied in space! But that ship didn't come back either! It touched downhere, sir, three weeks ago, and we supplied it with food and missilesand some of us joined it. It went off to try to find you."

  "I'd better--go after it," said Bors, dry-throated. "It could blunderinto trouble. At best--"

  The youthful leader of Deccan's revolt grinned widely.

  "It's got plenty of missiles," he told Bors. "It can take care ofitself! And it has plenty of food. We even gave them target-balloons topractice launching missiles on. We've been storing up missiles to lay anambush for a Mekinese squadron if one comes by. A lot of us joined theship, though."

  "In any case," said Bors, with the feel of ashes in his throat, "I'lltrack it down so it can join the fleet."

  He could not bring himself to tell these confident and admiring youngmen that there was no hope and never had been; that the tales of hisachievements were only partly true and that they had popped intopeople's minds because a very fat woman far away indulged in daydreamsand fantasies.

  They wouldn't have understood. If they had, they wouldn't have believed.He found that he savagely resisted the conviction himself. But there wasno other way for such garbled tales with such a substratum of fact to bespread among the stars. And whoever spread them knew of events up to thelast news sent back by Bors, but nothing after that. Undoubtedly,Talents, Incorporated's Department for Disseminating Truthful SeditiousRumors had been at work on Mekin, but the damage done elsewhere was athousand times greater than any benefit done there.

  It was too late to repair the damage, here or anywhere else. This planetand all the rest were too far committed to rebellion ever to be forgivenby Mekin. Mekin would take revenge. It was not pleasant to think about.

  So the _Horus_ departed, and traveled in high-speed overdrive forship-days seemingly without end, toward Glamis. It knew nothing thathappened outside its own cocoon of overdrive field. It knew nothing ofany of the thousands of myriads of stars, whose planetary systemsoffered unlimited room for humanity to live in freedom and without fear.

  During the journey Bors only endured being alive. All this disaster wasultimately his fault. The fleet's survival was due to his work withTalents, Incorporated. The raids of a single ship--which now would havesuch disastrous results--were the fruits of his suggestion, theconsequence of his actions.

  Talents, Incorporated was involved, to be sure, but only because he'dallowed it to be. He should have realized that Madame Porvis would workhavoc if her talent was as described. No mere romantic daydreamer wouldfashion fantasies with military secrecy in mind and security as aprinciple. Everything was betrayed. Everything was ruined. And if he,Bors, had only been properly skeptical, the fleet would have beendestroyed and Kandar now occupied by the Mekinese--doomed to servitudebut not necessarily to annihilation--and other worlds would also besafely servile. They'd still be resentful and they'd bitterly hateMekin, but they would not have before them the monstrous vengeance nowin store.

  Bors, in fact, felt guilty because he was still alive.

  There was only one small thing he could still try to set aright. Hecould insist that Morgan take Gwenlyn far away from the dangerouspossibility that Mekin might somehow find her. He _had_ to make Morgansee the need for it. If necessary, he would convince King Humphrey thata royal order must be issued to send the _Sylva_ light-centuries away,before the Mekinese empire began to restore itself to devastatedcalm--if that process hadn't already begun.

  Mekin had its grand fleet assembled and ready. If convincing and,unfortunately, truthful rumors ran about Mekin, as elsewhere, concerningthe fleet and Bors's attempts to hide it, then their dictator need onlygive a single order and the grand fleet would lift off. When it foundKandar unoccupied it would leave Kandar dead. Then it would seek out thefleet, and destroy it, and then it would move from one to another ofits rebellious tributaries and take revenge upon them....

  And Bors could only hope to salvage the life of one girl from thewreckage of everything that human beings prefer to believe in. He couldonly hope to send Gwenlyn away--if he was not already too late.

  The _Horus_ broke out into normal space twelve days after leavingDeccan. The untrustworthy sun of Glamis still shone brightly. The innerplanet revolved about it with one side glowing low red heat and theother side piled high with frozen atmosphere. The useless outer planetremained a lush green, save for its seas. And the fleet still circled itfrom pole to pole.

  Bors had himself ferried to the flagship by space-boat, because what hehad to report was too disheartening to be spoken where all the fleetmight hear. Gwenlyn met him at the flagship's airlock. She looked veryglad, as if she'd been uneasy about him.

  "Call for a boat," Bors commanded her curtly, "to take you to the_Sylva_. Go on board with anybody else who belongs on it, your father,anybody. I'm going to ask the king to insist that the _Sylva_ get awayfrom here--fast! Before the Mekinese turn up."

  Gwenlyn shook her head, her eyes searching his face.

  "The _Sylva's_ not here. It's gone to Kandar as a sort ofdispatch-boat."

  Bors groaned.

  "Then I'll try to get another ship assigned to take you away," he saidformidably. "Maybe one of the captured cargo-ships I sent back."

  "No," s
aid Gwenlyn. "They're going to be released. They'll go to Mekin,and we _couldn't_ go there!"

  Bors groaned again. Then he said savagely, "Wait here for me. I'llarrange something as soon as I've seen the king."

  He strode down the corridor to King Humphrey's cabin. A sentry came toattention. Bors passed through a door. The king and half a dozen of thetop-ranking officers of the fleet were listening apathetically toMorgan, at once vexed and positive and uncertain.

  "But you can't ignore it!" protested Morgan. "I don't understand iteither, but you'll agree that since my precognizer said no ship butBors's is coming here--and he precognized every one of the prizes beforethey arrived--you'll concede that the Mekinese aren't coming here. Soyou're going out to meet them."

  He saw Bors, and breathed an audible sigh of relief.

  "Bors!" he said in a changed tone. "I'm glad you're back!"

  Bors said grimly, "Majesty, I've very bad news."

  King Humphrey shrugged. He spoke in a listless voice.

  "I doubt it differs from ours. You captured a passenger-liner off Mekin,you will remember. You sent it here. When it arrived we found that allits passengers knew that Kandar was not occupied and that the fleet sentto capture it had not reported back."

  "My news is worse," said Bors. "The continued existence of our fleet,and the fact that it defeated a Mekinese force, is common knowledge onat least five planets--all of them now in revolt against Mekin."

  The king's expression had reached the limit of reaction to disaster. Itdid not change. He looked almost apathetic.

  "Mekin," he said dully, "sent a second squadron to Kandar to investigatethe rumors of defeat. We have a very tiny force there--three ships. Ofcourse our ships won't attack the Mekinese, but they might as well.Knowing that we destroyed their first fleet and that we still live,Mekin will assuredly retaliate."

  "And not only on Kandar," said Bors. "On Tralee and Garen and Cassis andMeriden--"

  Morgan interrupted.

  "Majesty! All this is more reason to listen to me! I've been telling youthat all my Talents agree--"

  King Humphrey interrupted tonelessly, "We've made our finalarrangements, Bors. We are going to release the cargo-ships and thepassenger-ship you sent us. We will use them as messengers. We aregoing to send a message of surrender, to Mekin."

  Bors swallowed. His most dismal forebodings had produced nothing morehopeless than this moment.

  "Majesty--"

  "We have to sacrifice," said the king in a leaden voice, "not only ourlives but our self-respect, to try to gain something less than the totalannihilation of Kandar. We shall tell the Mekinese that we will returnto Kandar and form up in space. If they send a small force to accept oursurrender, they shall have it. If they prefer to destroy us, they can dothat also. But we submit ourselves to punishment for having resisted theoriginal fleet. We admit our guilt. And we beg Mekin not to avenge thatresistance upon our people, who are not guilty."

  Bors tried to speak, and could not. There was a sodden, utterlyunresilient stillness in the room, as if all the high officers of thefleet were corpses and the king himself, though he spoke, was not lessdead.

  Then Morgan moved decisively. He moved away from the spot where he hadbeen engaged in impassioned argument. He took Bors by the arm, andhustled him through the door.

  "Come along!" he said urgently. "Something's got to be done! You havethe knack of thinking of things to do! The king's intentions--"

  The door closed behind him and he broke off. He wiped sweat from hisforehead with one hand while he thrust Bors on with the other. They cameto a cabin evidently assigned to him. Gwenlyn waited there.

  "Craziness!" said Morgan bitterly. "Craziness! I get the finest group ofTalents that ever existed! I teach them to think! I instruct them! Andthey can't think of what is going to happen. And everything depends onit! Everything!"

  "When will the _Sylva_ be back?" demanded Bors.

  Morgan automatically looked at his watch. Gwenlyn opened her mouth tospeak. Morgan shook his head impatiently. Gwenlyn was silent.

  "My ship-arrival Talent's with the _Sylva_," said Morgan harassedly. "Wesent him to Kandar to find out if the Mekinese fleet's coming there, andwhen. It isn't coming here. He said so."

  "It'll go to Kandar," said Bors bitterly, "to destroy it. I imaginewe'll go there too, to be destroyed."

  "But it's insane!" protested Morgan. "Look! You captured apassenger-ship off Mekin. Right?"

  "Yes."

  "You sent it here with all its passengers. Right?"

  "Yes."

  "One of the passengers said he was a clairvoyant. Hah!" Morgan expressedthe ultimate of disgust. "He was a fortune-teller! He didn't know therewas anything better than that! A fortune-teller! But he's a Talent! He'sa born charlatan, but he's an authentic Talent, and he doesn't know whatthat is! He thinks predictions as Madame Porvis thinks scandals! Andthey're just as crazy! But he _is_ a Talent and they have to be right!"

  Bors said, "You're going to take Gwenlyn away from here,--and fast!"

  Morgan paid no attention. He was embittered, and agitated, and inparticular, he was frustrated.

  "It's all madness!" he protested almost hysterically. "Here we've got afirm precognition that King Humphrey's going to open parliament onKandar next year, and there's another one--"

  Gwenlyn said quickly, "Which you won't tell!"

  "Which I won't tell. But something's got to happen! Something's got tobe done! And this crazy Talent gives me a crazy precognition and looksproud because I can't make sense of it! What the hell can you make outof a precognition that Mekin will be defeated when an enemy fleetsubmits to destruction, lying still in space? There's no sense to it!_My_ Talents wouldn't think of anything idiotic like that! They've gotbetter sense! But when this lunatic said it, they could precognize ittoo! It's so! They couldn't think of it themselves, but when thisMekinese Talent does, they know it's true. But it can't be!"

  Bors said coldly, "The fleet's going to be destroyed, certainly. If thatwill defeat Mekin. But Gwenlyn is not to stay aboard to be destroyedwith it! How are you going to get her away?"

  "The king's waiting for the _Sylva_ to come back," Morgan saidindignantly, "so he'll know--my ship-arrival Talent went to find out--ifthe Mekin fleet's going to Kandar, and when. He insists that if theyknow the fleet exists, they know where it is and will come here lookingfor it. But Madame Porvis couldn't have told that in her daydreaming.She didn't _know_ what planet we're circling! She couldn't have spreadthat fact by contagion!"

  "She spread plenty more!" said Bors. "Her daydreams were too damnedtrue!"

  Gwenlyn said, "It's a contradiction in terms for a fleet to win a battleby letting itself be destroyed. Perhaps the Captain--"

  "It's also a contradiction in terms," said Bors bitterly, "for all ourtroubles to come because we won a victory. Now we regret that we weren'tall killed. But it's madness for the king to propose to get us allslaughtered in hope of rousing the Mekinese better nature!"

  "Maybe you can resolve it, Captain," said Gwenlyn thoughtfully. "Couldit be that it isn't a contradiction but only a paradox?"

  Bors spread his hands helplessly. Of all times and circumstances, thisparticular moment and situation seemed the least occasion for quibblingover words.

  Then he said, "Yes.... It could be a paradox. If this prediction by thatwild Talent is true, there is a way it could win a fight. I don'tbelieve it, but I'm going to put something in motion. Nothing can makematters worse!"

  He turned and strode back to the council room where King Humphrey andthe high commanders of his fleet sat like dead men, waiting for themoment to be killed, to no purpose.