The Corps as it existed today could not be confused with the Corps of a thousand or even a hundred years ago. When Marson evoked such concepts as dignity, civilization and judgment, he was speaking more to men long since dead than to those gathered in this room. Tedric understood that what had happened could largely be blamed upon the war. If there was one thing he had learned during his two years at the Academy, it was the stunning effect upon mankind of its defeat at the hands of the alien Wykzl.

  Marson continued to recite. "So I charge you finally with these parting words: do right, do good, be bold, be strong. And, if you follow these simple precepts, you must in the end succeed, and with your success, the Empire of Man will continue to thrive as a civilized institution, much as it has since man's first hesitant steps beyond the realm of his ancient home."

  There was a scattering of applause, which Tedric joined, but most of the handclapping stopped as

  soon as it became apparent that Matthew Carey intended to sit with his hands folded.

  Phillip Nolan, seated in the row behind Tedric, continued to applaud long after everyone else had stopped. Commandant Marson seemed embarrassed by this mixed reception.

  Hastily, he went on: "I will now read in order the names of those selected by our emperor, Kane IV, as officers in the Imperial Corps. Those of you designated for immediate active duty will be informed of your assignments at this time. When your name is called, please step forward and receive vour commission. Matthew Carey."

  Marson spoke this name with unconcealed distaste.

  Carey, moving languidly, left his seat and went forward. He accepted his commission, bowed to the assembly, cocked a hand over his eye, and grinned.

  Commandant Marson called the next name: "Tedric."

  Tedric went forward. As he did, he felt the eyes of his fellow cadets watching intently and knew what they must be thinking. Who is this man? they wondered. How did he manage to finish second, higher than in the class standings?

  Tedric accepted the yellow parchment from Commandant Marson and also received a folded sheet of white paper-his assignment orders. He shook Marson's hand, then turned deliberately a-round and faced the rows of seats. "None of you know me," he said, choosing his words carefully and speaking with crisp authority, "and few of you ever will. You don't know who I am, where I've come from, or what I'm doing here. I just want to make you a promise. Even though I'm a stranger,

  this commission means something to me." He held up the yellow parchment and let it flutter in the dead air. "I won't disgrace it or what it stands for. That's a promise from me to you. And when I make a promise, I'm in the habit of making sure it sticks."

  Amid surprised silence, Tedric went back to his seat. As soon as he dropped down, Matthew Carey leaned over and whispered softly, "I couldn't have put it any better myself." There was no trace of embarrassment or mockery in his tone.

  "Then why didn't yout' Tedric didn't think he and Carey had ever exchanged a word before. Even during their fight, both men had remained silent. "I'm not one for making speeches," Carey said. He held out his hand. "Mind if I take a look at your assignment orders?'

  Tedric shrugged and handed Carey the sheet of folded paper he had received.

  Meanwhile, Cornmandant Marson continued to call the roll of graduating cadets.

  Carey laughed pleasantly and handed back the paper. "Take a look at it yourself," he suggested. "It's what I knew it had to be. The Eagleseye, the biggest cruiser in the entire imperial navy. That's where I'm headed, too."

  "You're entering active duty?" Tedric said, unable to conceal his surprise.

  . "Sure," Carey said. "Why not? I'm nobody special. I'm not somebody's fat son who buys a commission in the Corps just so he can hang it on a wall."

  "I never meant to imply that you were."

  "Sure you didn't." Carey leaned closer, and his voice took on an almost conspiratorial tone.

  "What do you know about the Eagleseye?"

  Tedric shook his head. Phillip Nolan had re ceived his commission and returned to his seat. Tedric could sense him trying to eavesdrop. "All I know is what you just told me."

  "My father had it built," Carey said. "That's why it's called what it is. The eagle is an extinct bird that once lived on old Earth. It's our family crest-our private symbol." Carey suddenly winked. "But do you know where it's headed? The Eagleseye, I mean."

  Tedric glanced at his orders and shook his head "It doesn't seem to say here."

  "It can't. The matter is very much a secret. But I can tell you. There's a planet called Evron Eleven. -The slaves there are attempting to rebel against legal authority. My father-the Emperor, too-they want me to head a party to go out and take care of the matter. It was my decision to let a few of my classmates go along. I think it ought to be an interesting way to start our careers."

  "But there are no slaves in the Empire of Man. Carey chuckled. "Call them workers, then." He drew away, pretending to listen to the Cornmandant's roll call. Tedric knew enough about Carey to realize that he wasn't the type of person who engaged in idle talk. What was all this about? he wondered. What was really happening on Evron Eleven?

  Since there was no immediate way of answering these questions, Tedric decided to ignore them. He too pretended to listen as the names of the last of the one hundred fourteen graduating cadets were called.

  When the last man had stepped forward and re-

  ceived his commission, Commandant Marson made no sign of dismissal. Instead, he shuffled his papers into a neat pile, then suddenly cleared his throat. When he spoke,'there was a different tone to his voice, something tougher than anything Tedric had heard before.

  "Men," said Marson, "you're all finished now. When you return to your quarters, you'll find a new silver uniform awaiting each of you. Put it on. Wear it proudly. Other than that, I can say only one thing. If you fail, if you disgrace that uniform, whether you go out on assignment or sit at home and never move, I promise you'll pay. Maybe not now.

  Maybe not in my lifetime or even in yoursbut the time will come, I guarantee it. And the reason I can be so sure is that your uniform means a great deal more than most of you ever hope to un-derstand." As he spoke, Marson's gaze shifted until it seemed to fix upon Matthew Carey. "I don't mean to advise you or caution you. To be frank, I'm warning you. Watch what you do-watch or, damn it, you'll pay." He lowered his voice and murmured, "Dismissed."

  Tedric overheard Matthew Carey mutter, "The silly old fool," but anything further was lost beneath the noise of eagerly shuffling feet. Tedric tried to hurry out of the hall himself, but Phillip Nolan intercepted him at the door.

  "I overheard you having a chat with Matthew Carey," Nolan said.

  "He wanted to compare assignments. What do You think of what Commandant Marson said there at the end?"

  Nolan shook his head. "I think it took a lot more nerve than I knew the old guy possessed."

  "Because of Carey?"

  "That's who he was talking to."

  "Carey thought so, too. I heard him call Marson an old fool."

  "And he may not be too far off at that. The poor sap. This'll mean the end of it for him."

  "Marson will be removed?"

  "More than likely. You see, that's the whole point of what he was saying. The Corps has been about the last great imperial institution to hold out against the Careys. Matthew, I imagine, is supposed to change that. I'm sure it's why he's going on active duty. In ten years, maybe less, he intends to be running the whole show."

  "And will he?"

  Nolan shrugged. "I've never heard of anyone making money betting against the Careys so far."

  "Then it's that bad."

  "That bad-or worse. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. See this?" Nolan held up a sheet of paper. "It's my assignment."

  After what Matthew Carey had told him, Tedric did not have to read what was written there. "The Eagleseye," he said.

  "That's your assignment?" Nolan said. "Mine and yours."

  Nolan grinned. "Well, how about that? I guess we will be seeing a lot of each other from now on."

  Tedric winked. "I told you so, didn't I?" "You and your Scientists. Maybe I ought to think again about all you told me the other night."

  "Maybe you should at that." Tedric gave a quick salute, then turned away toward his room.

  CHAPTER 3

  Eagleseye

  Tedric, the blond swordsman of'Lomarr, pauses briefli, in his pursuit of the black wizard, Sarpediuni, to meet with another wizard, Corlock the Sly. Corlock, who is more than three thousand years old, lives i .n an underground cave at the edge of'the blasted land where the castle of Sarpediuni stands. The old wizard greets Tedricfamiliarly at the entrance to his home and asks that he sheath his sword before going inside.

  The weapon will do you no good here, " says Corlock, "for my magic is capable of vanquishing any mortal weapon.

  Tedric does not believe this assertion, for his sword has been forged from the new iron metal, but he abides ky the wizard's request.

  The two men sit beside the tall green flames of a fire that burns without wood. "So you are the mortal who was once an ironinaster and now intends to rid the world of magic and wizardry. "

  "My quarrel is with black magic and evil wizards only," says Tedric, who nonetheless reaches surreptitiously down and clutches the hilt of his sword. "If Sarpedium falls before you, J fall, too. "He is your eternal enemy."

  "Mine, not yours. It is the same as the snake and the mongoose. Ij'there were no snakes, the mongoose would die.

  ., The world is better rid of all wizards," Tedric says defiantly. "Magic cheats those who do not know its secrets.

  "But with what will you replace it?"

  "With science. With knowledge. With truth."

  Corlock laughs an old man's laugh. "You are a bold man, Tedric, but you are also a fool."

  "Time will tell the truth of that," says Tedric, standing.

  Shaking his head in awe, Tedric turned away from the glorious porthole view of the massive silver ship spinning through space like an angel in heaven. "it is an impressive thing," he told Phillip Nolan, who had joined him at the porthole. "I wasn't aware even fleet cruisers were built that large."

  Nolan seemed more irritated than impressed. "They weren't. And still shouldn't be. The Eagleseye is a Carey family pretension. It's huge and fantastic, but it's also wasteful and impractical. For war, it's nearly useless."

  "But the Empire is no longer at war."

  "Officially, no."

  "The Wykzl have not penetrated your boundaries for a hundred years."

  "There are more things in the Galaxy than the Wykzl alone."

  "Are you speaking of some matter I am not aware of?"

  Nolan shook his head and tried a smile. "No, not really.I guess what I mean is, for the past hundred years we've become too complacent, too easiIe ly satisfied. It's as if, having lost a war and arned something of our limitations as a species, there's no

  longer any reason to worry about what might lie beyond. But I can't believe that. I don't think it's over. There's more to come, more to learn. It's the sight of things like that ship that bothers me."

  "I've never heard you speak so seriously before, Phillip. Does the Eagleseye really disturb you so deeply?"

  "It's a luxury. What's worse, it's a needless luxury. I don't expect to enjoy serving on board."

  "Especially with Matthew Carey as our operations officer."

  Nolan frowned at the mention of the name. "You haven't seen him today, have you?"

  "No, and like you, I'm beginning to wonder."

  "No one's seen him since just after we first came on board."

  "You don't think he could have left, do you?" Nolan shook his head. "Where Car,ey's concerned, I try not to wonder about anything."

  Tedric reached out and turned Nolan gently toward the open door behind them.

  "Come, Phillip, it must be nearly time to depart."

  Nolan nodded slowly. "I suppose there's really no way out."

  The subspace shuttle craft that carried Nolan and Tedric had been sent directly to Nexus in order to pick them up. It was now overcrowded to the point of bursting, and for that reason alone Tedric was glad that they had finally reached their destination, the orbiting hull of the Eagleseye. Every senior cadet assigned to active duty had received orders to board the Eagleseye, and once Nolan had learned of that, his skepticism concerning Tedric's tory of the Scientists had returned. Still, Tedric refused to let that -

  disturb him and when Nolan,

  surprisingly, had suggested that the two men share a cabin aboard the shuttle, he had quickly agreed. The Scientists had directed him only to confide in Nolan; they had said nothing about making him believe the truth. Tedric knew from his two lonely years at the Academy how important it could be having a friend. Nolan, apparently, was more than willing to fill this bill.

  The two men moved with practiced ease through the tight, narrow corridors of the shuttle. Even this brief voyage had given them time to acquire steady spacelegs prior to boarding the Eaglesei)e. It was largely a matter of gravity, Tedric believed. The centrifugal spin of even so large a ship as the Eagieseve never quite managed to equal the effect of native planetary gravity. When walking, it was necessary to learn the correct way of dipping the entire body, relaxing the spine and flexing theknees and thighs.

  Most of the other cadets had already gathered around the enclosed area of the locks even before Nolan and Tedric arrived. As Nolan moved away to chat with old friends, Tedric hung back, uncertain as always whether he ought to intrude. He quickly scanned the faces present and confirmed that Matthew Carey had still not put in an appearance. Most of the men seemed excited. Nolan' had pointed out earlier that nearly all the cadets choosing active duty were younger sons. For them, this was a real adventure, something their more respectable older siblings would never have a chance to know.

  The cadets, of course, were no longer that-they were true officers of the Corps now, lieutenants.

  Each wore the traditional silver suit of a corpsman, emblazened on each shoulder with large gold bars. At his waist, each man wore a bolstered heatgun on the right hip and a sheathed sword on the left. The use of swords had surprised Tedric, but he had soon learned the reason for carrying such an antique weapon. The explosive nature of a heatgun made it impractical for use during close-quarter fighting aboard a ship. The beam could cut through even the hardest metal, and more than one corpsman had killed himself and all his men by using a heatgun without thinking of the possible results. A sword was not only safe, it was discriminating, and fencing was a staple element in the Academy curriculum.

  The impact, when it came, caught Tedric totally by surprise. His knees buckled and he had to throw out a hand and grab the edge of the open doorway behind to keep from falling. Those cadets-or lieutenants-who also managed to keep their feet set off an immediate cheer. It took Tedric a moment to realize what had happened. The shuttle had banged into the hull of the Eagleseye and had locked. In a moment, the doors would cycle open and they would be boarding the big cruiser.

  Tedric turned to find Phillip Nolan standing at his shoulder. "Carey's still not here," he said. "Perhaps he intends to board later. Surely there will be time."

  But Nolan shook his head. "I wonder," he said, frowning.

  The massive bulk of the fleet cruiser Eagleseye seemed to dwindle as soon as the corpsmen stepped

  on board. The inner corridors proved to be even tinier than those of the shuttle-Tedric had to dip his head even to pass through them-while the staterooms were barely large enough for one man to turn around it, to say nothing of two.

  Nolan glared at the sailor who had escorted them to their room. "Are you sure you haven't brought us to the wrong place?" he asked.

  The sailor shook his head. "No, sir. If you think this is bad, you ought to see what they give us enlisted men. The rooms are hardly much bigger than this one, and there might be fifty or sixty of us crammed inside." The sailor, like most menial workers in the Empire, was a subman, a species originally created centuries ago from ancient Earth's more intelligent animal breeds. In this one's case, the bulk of his animal heritage was apparently some sort of cat. He had tan fur, eyes that were yellow slits, and a voice that seemed to hiss and purr simultaneously.

  "It's hard to believe anything could be worse than this," said Tedric. The room contained two beds chained to the wall, a narrow strip of bare floor, and a tiny viewscreen in one corner. Tedric shoved his meager belongings underneath the hottom bed and considered whether it was safe to attempt to sit. "The Eagleseye seems so huge when you first see it. Do you mean the crew is so large that this is all the room you can spare for guests?" "That has nothing to do with it, sir," the sailor said. "It's not the regular crew, it's the N-space drive. The way I understand it, the ship's so big it needs an engine ten times the normal sizejust to get up to N-velocities. At least three-quarters of our mass is made up by the engine. After that, there

  isn't a lot of room for human beings like us."

  "Now do you understand what I meant?" Nolan told Tedric. "This is the Carey's private little boondoggle."

  "It won't be a comfortable trip," Tedric agreed. Before Nolan could go on, the viewscreen on the wall suddenly came to life. A pattern of bright lights flashed, then a voice said, "All incoming Corps personnel are instructed to report at once to the captain's lounge for a pre-voyage briefing. All boarding Corps personnel are instructed to report..."

  Nolan reached out and slapped the screen and the voice immediately fell silent. "So soon?" he asked Tedric, "You'd think they'd give us time for a relaxing run through the vast expanses of our rooms."

  The sailor intervened. "I can show you the way to the lounge, sirs."

  "Then lead on," said Nolan, "whoever you are."

  "Keller, sir. Assistant Steward Third-Class Keller."

  "Then lead on, Mister Third-Class Keller."

  The captain's lounge lay at the end of a maddening maze of rising, twisting, dipping corridors. Tedric had begun to despair of ever learning to find his way around the ship without assistance when Keller suddenly threw open a door, stuck his head inside, and announced, "Presenting the lieutenants Nolan and Tedric."

 

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