"I know I can trust you," she said.
"There's one other thing. There's a golden door.A priest told me that it was for adepts only, that Iwas barred."
"Not worth consideration," she said. "It's justthe shrine to the admiral who was in command of the colonization ship. There's a statue of him. The priests worship him, keep his uniform clean andreplace it as it decays, because he was the one who began the priesthood. He figured out the theocracywhich has kept these poor creatures docile for so long." She laughed. "It's one of those arcane littlesecrets that religious people love. Since all of theoriginal priests were sworn to secrecy as to the purpose of the theocracy, they've extended thatsecrecy to silly length." She leaned close, whispering. "The name of the fleet admiral is so sacred, so secret, that only the priesthood knows it, and it can only be pronounced within the confinesof the shrine."
"Well, I guess I can live without seeing theshrine," he said. "When will you be finished withyour work?"
"Give me at least three hours, darling. Thencome to me and we'll dine together." She stood ontiptoe to kiss him again. "Are you going to try topuzzle out all the secrets of the weapon by consulting your library?"
"Well, I'm curious, of course."
"When I have the time I'll tell you all about it,"she said. "Those old Zedeians were ingenious men.Isn't it delightful that we're going to beat themwith their own weapon?" Her face went grim. "And,oh, how I do yearn to see the faces of those menwho treated me as if I were a child, ordering meabout, forcing me to act in vehicles which I hated."
"Three hours, then," he said.
"I'll miss you," she said, starting to close thedoor.
"By the way, I think I've got the general idea ofall of it now, except for one thing. Why do youhave to depend on the Dorchlunters to fire theweapons?"
She cast an impatient glance at her timepiece,then looked into his eyes. "That's the only flaw leftin the weapon," she said. "It can be quite dangerous, turning on itself and the ship which carries it, if an attempt is made to release the energy prematurely or if one waits too long. Given time, wecould computerize the controls, but we don't have time. The Zedeians were getting extremely bothersome and suspicious. My brother knew that wecould not risk waiting any longer. But there's no need to be concerned. These people have lived fora thousand years under rigid discipline. The youngmen are taught from childhood to feel the momentof proper charge. It's not magic, it's simply a matter of day-after-day, year-after-year training to develop the awareness of the field which forms arounda disrupter. There has never been an accident witha charged weapon."
"That's good to know," he said, and then shewas gone.
It felt good to be back aboardSkimmer. He drewcoffee, seated himself at the computer console."How
have you been, old man?" he asked.
"Please repeat the instruction," the computersaid.
The old man was having trouble with his hearing again.
"Now don't sulk just because I've left you alone,"Pat said. "I want material regarding the molecular bonding energy of copper."
"Please repeat the instruction," the computersaid. Pat typed it in instead of repeating it orally.The computer gave the equivalent of a sigh, along, purring sound, and began to search its entirememory bank. Pat stopped it, gave more specificinstructions. After ten minutes he realized that theold man was in a bad way, that the ionization inhis memory chambers was worse. He checked afew individual references under atomic theory, molecular energy, just about every heading he couldthink of, and drew only blanks.
He remembered, then, that he had the Artuneemanuscript in both original and translated formin the library. He soon had it on the screen, and ittook only a few minutes to locate the referencesand cross-references to the material included inthe story of a dead alien race. He found what hewanted in a thesis written by one Alaxender ofTrojan.
"It is a fundamental law that an electron at rest,in copper, exerts a force on every other electron atrest, repelling its fellows in inverse proportion to thesquare of the distance between them. This force is measurable, being 8.038 X 10-26pounds."
The force, minute in regard to a single electron,is balanced by a counterforce, respresented by aproton. If the repulsion of the protons were notexactly balanced by that of the electrons, energywould be released. Alaxender of Trojan had calculated the force represented by the binding energiesin two tenth-of-an-inch cubes of copper placed oneinch from each other at over six hundred billiontons. If, somehow, the balance could be destroyed,releasing that energy in a controlled stream, as itwas apparently released by the disrupter—
Not much work had been done in the field sincethe flurry of interest following the translation ofthe Artunee manuscript. The blink drive, the ultimate power source, fulfilled all needs. Man did notneed the power of Bertt, the Artunee. Nor did heneed another weapon of destruction, so interesthad lagged.
It was odd, and it was shaping up to be tragic,that some forgotten Zedeian scientist, possibly onenamed Sargoff, a name mentioned by young Gorben, had discovered Bertt's force quite independently, and centuries before the Cygnus expedition.
The disrupter worked. And he'd seen the speedand accuracy with which the young men of Dorchlunt manned the weapons. A UP fleet, massed forfirepower, could be swept with half a dozen of the disrupters within seconds and each ship wouldthen be dead in space, with all the men inside asdead as the ship's systems.
There was no questioning the real danger to allof UP civilization. By chance, a young scholar had rediscovered a thousand-year-old Zedeian secret.By chance, he'd found the colonization ship andthe descendants of the original scientists. And bychance, a small man with a big body, an engaging laugh, and savage, unrelenting purpose was in a position to become ruler of the entire populatedgalaxy.
"Hey, Pat," a boisterous voice said fromSkimmer'scommunicator. "You there, boy?" "I'm here, sir," Pat answered. For a while hewouldsay sir to a dictator.
"You might wanta see this," the Brenden said."I've got all my young studs assembling on theparade ground. Gonna give 'em one big pep talk."
"I'll be there, sir," Pat said.
The young men of Dorchlunt were marching incompany-size units on a flat, hard-packed area tothe north of the temple. The Brenden had comedown in a launch and was seated under a sunshade on a wooden platform. Pat joined him there.
The ranks of young men marched in perfect unison, the troops arranged by height to give perfect symmetry to each file. Pat recognized one of theofficers bellowing out orders as his friend Gorben.
With over two thousand young men standing atrigid attention, the Brenden used a hailer, in order to be heard, and spoke to them of duty, honor, and a return to their rightful glory. When he was finished a mighty cheer went up. The dictator baskedin it, smiled, laughed, waved his hands, and thenstood at attention and saluted as the men marchedoff the parade ground.
"Magnificent," the Brenden said. "God, boy, whatan army. Makes me almost wish that I'd lived inhistoric times when men fought each other toe totoe and tooth to tooth, right, boy?"
"I'm more the lover type," Pat said, and that gota huge laugh.
Brenden waved the others, all uniformed, off theplatform. "Pat," he said, "I guess by this timeyou've got it all figured out, and I'll bet you caneven give me a layman's explanation of the disrupter."
"I have a very general idea," Pat said. "Has todo, somehow, with unbalancing the forces thatbind molecules in copper."
"Hell, that's all I understand aboutit,"Brendensaid. "You've got the idea. What I need to know,Pat, is just how you feel about the whole deal." Hepinned Pat with that green-eyed gaze, so like Corinne's, and waited.
Pat measured his words for a moment. "Corinnewants to take over the galaxy to feed the hungry. Idon't think that's your motivation."
Brenden roared. "She always was a bleedingheart. Hell, Pat, I'm taking over because Ican.Because I got kicked around as a kid. Iwas hungry a couple of times, not for long, because I damnedwell went out and stole enough to eat. I'm takingover because I had the guts to claw my way upand take over one planet and if you can take overone you can take over as many as there are. I'mtaking over because I want to make a few Zedebastards crawl, and because I think that I'm just alittle smarter than some and can straighten out a few things that have always bothered me." Hegrinned at Pat. "And because I just don't like beingforced to play second fiddle toany man."
"Good reasons," Pat said. "You want to know ifI'm with you?"
"Cory's got her heart set on you, boy."
"I know. That's why I'm here. I'll have to admit,sir—"
"Hell, boy, you're gonna be my brother-in-law,just call me Brenden."
"Thanks. I'll have to admit, Brenden, that I'mnot wild about killing. I don't get all excited aboutblasting poor guys in UP ships."
"Neither do I, neither do I. We're gonna startslow. We'll kill only enough to make believers ofthe others, and of the UP politicians. Hell, Pat, I ain't no murderer, but sometimes events are bigger than individual men, you know that."
No. Pat didn't know that. He knew that the underlying philosophy of the more enlightened people in the UP confederation was just the opposite,that the rights of the individual were more important than any event, or any theory, or any belief,or any government, and the UP had been workingtoward total individual freedom, under a few necessary laws, for the last few thousand years.
But he nodded in agreement to Brenden's statement.
"You love my sister, don't you?"
"Yes," he said truthfully, for in spite of everything he went soft inside when he thought ofCorinne.
"Well, then?"