Revolt of the galaxy, p.7
Revolt of the Galaxy, page 7
With Vonnie aboard, Pias lifted his ship off Newforest and set a course back to DesPlaines. Once they were safely in subspace, he and Yvonne had their first real chance for a conversation without having to censor everything they said for security purposes. "Just how did you manage to be in the right place at the right time?" Pias wondered.
His sister-in-law smiled. "Thinking over what you said back on DesPlaines, I realized you were probably right--I'd stick out horribly as an outsider in Newforest society. So I decided to go there and be an official outsider--I booked passage on commercial spaceliners and arrived as a tourist. It gave me more freedom than you had. I was able to smuggle some weapons and explosives in my luggage, and I wasn't given a citizen's card so I never got hassled. Apparently they wanted to be careful about playing games like that on outsiders who might go home and talk about it to the wrong people. As a plain old tourist from DesPlaines I could walk around undisturbed and do things a citizen would never be allowed to do.
"I got here, I think, about three days after you did. Garridan's such a small town that it wasn't hard for me to find you and keep an eye on you. After a while I noticed the police watching you, too. It was very subtle; with that citizen's card to keep track of your movements they didn't need heavy surveillance. 1 barely noticed it myself, so I'm not surprised you didn't see it. I saw you steal that guard's uniform and go into the computer complex. A couple of minutes later a whole platoon of guards went in after you, so I decided it was time for me to step in. I threw a few grenades to distract the guards at the gate long enough for me to get inside and I tried to keep the chaos going to help you if you needed it--which you did."
Pias smiled. "I can't exactly say I'm glad you ignored my advice, but I am pleased with the results. I'm just glad I'm not Jules. Eve is headstrong enough for me to deal with; I'll let him try to argue you down in the future."
---
A pleasant surprise awaited them as their ship landed at Felicitè's private spacefield. Yvette had caught a fast ship in from Earth and was there to provide them with a hero's welcome. Pias spotted her the instant he left the airlock, and he raced down the boarding ramp and across the field to take her in his arms. They'd been apart the last few weeks, with Yvette on an assignment so dangerous there'd been a good chance she'd never return. Even though he'd heard from Vonnie that the mission was successful, this was the first opportunity he'd had to let out the tensions he'd felt. Now he grabbed Yvette, kissed her, and held her so tightly that if she were any less strong a woman she'd have snapped in two.
"I was so worried about you," he told her when he finally stopped kissing her long enough to speak. "It was hell to have you so far away and in so much danger, and not be able to do anything to help you. I hope we never have to go through that again."
"I do, too," Yvette said, and there were tears of happiness in her eyes. "And Helena told me a little bit of what you were up to on Newforest. I'm so happy for you, to be back in with your family again; I know how much it would hurt if my family turned against me. I love you, Pias, and I'm glad your family can show their love again.
Pias nodded. "It's no fun having a traitor for a brother, and some of the rest of them are rather forgettable--but yes, I'm glad I've got them, too."
He and Yvette finally separated from their embrace and noticed, as though for the first time, that Vonnie was standing patiently beside them with a small smile on her face. Yvette returned the smile and reached out to take her sister-in-law's hand. "Hello, Vonnie," she said. "I'm sorry Jules isn't here for you. He had to go back to Nereid to pick up the Comet; can't just leave it sitting around some strange spaceport when we might need it at any moment. He promised to come straight back after he picked it up."
Vonnie squeezed Yvette's hand reassuringly and said, "That's smooth. As long as I know he survived I'm not worried."
Yvette hesitated, then decided to let Jules tell her about the severity of his injury. While there was no doubt at all that Jules would recover, he would never again have quite the same agility or lightning responses that had made him one of the handful of people ever to get a perfect score on the Service's Thousand Point Test. His mind was undiminished and his body would still put normal men to shame--but his days as SOTE's top agent were definitely numbered.
The trio drove back to Felicitè and Pias quickly made a call to the Roumenier manor where his sister was staying, telling her she'd be receiving an imperial commendation for her bravery in bringing the Newforest problem to official attention. Her greatest delight was that Pias's name had been restored and he was officially a member of her family again. "I never wanted to lose you, Pias," she said. "You were everything a big brother should be, and I'm glad to have you back again."
When Pias told her she was free to go home whenever she wanted, however, she hesitated. Puzzled, Pias pressed her and finally got the admission that she'd been seeing a lot of Vonnie's brother, Jacques Roumenier, and was quite taken with him. They'd been doing a lot of sightseeing around DesPlaines, and Beti wasn't sure she wanted to go home just yet. Pias admitted she couldn't be compelled to go back to Newforest, and wished her happy hunting. He was smiling broadly as he blew her a kiss goodbye and broke the vidiphone connection.
Just before dinnertime a subcom call came in from Helena von Wilmenhorst to let them know how the situation stood at Headquarters. Since Vonnie's last report from Newforest, a systematic investigation of SOTE's files had been conducted and the reports from Captain Lafleur were found. Somehow, in a way no one could understand, those reports had all been misclassified and misfiled so that the information they contained had never reached the proper people. This gave the false impression that everything had been smooth on Newforest when in fact the situation was quite different.
"There's a pattern to this that Father doesn't like at all," Helena said. "As he points out, once can be an accident. twice is a coincidence, and three or more times is enemy action. Three years' worth of reports don't get misfiled by mistake. Someone made a deliberate effort to close our eyes to a deteriorating situation--which is exactly what happened to us on the Banion case. It makes us wonder exactly how many other reports have been similarly misrouted, falsified, or destroyed. We're going to have to conduct a thorough survey of everything we've got--and try to do it quietly so we don't alarm the conspiracy.
"I don't mind telling you that Father and I are just plain scared. If this sort of thing is widespread, it could make the Banion affair look like a tea party. We're going to do some more preliminary work before we turn you loose on the case, and we'll keep you informed as soon as we find anything. Keep your fingers crossed, and keep hoping that Newforest was an anomaly, an isolated incident. But be ready to move at any second."
Yvette felt a chill go down her spine. Pias had not been involved in the Banion matter and Vonnie had only been in it peripherally, but it had been one of the most horrifying chapters in SOTE's long history. Banion the Bastard had managed to infiltrate his people into every level of the Service, and weeding them out had been an excruciatingly painful process. Now, despite the most rigorous loyalty tests anyone could have devised, it looked as though that process would have to be repeated.
Helena closed the call on a more upbeat note, informing Pias and Vonnie of what Yvette already knew: that Helena had become engaged to Captain Paul Fortier of Naval Intelligence. Vonnie had never met him and Pias had met only his treacherous robot double, but both had heard stories of the man's exploits. He'd saved Yvette's life on the pirate base just before the Coronation Day Incursion, and he'd helped Helena and the Circus track down the identity of Lady A. He had just returned from the dangerous mission to Omicron with Jules and Yvette, and was an outstanding security agent. Pias and Vonnie congratulated Helena on her good fortune and wished her every success in the future.
Helena's report cast a slight pall over the dinner that evening as the import of what it could mean for all of them began to sink in. However, as Yvette began relating her adventures working with Lady A against the "alien invaders" of Omicron, everyone's spirits picked up; a rousing adventure yarn with a happy ending always made them feel better. Vonnie and Pias, as others had done before them, puzzled over the meaning of Lady A's defiant final words that the conspiracy was the Empire and that SOTE would have to destroy the Empire in order to save it. They could not solve the riddle there at the dinner table, however, so instead Pias and Vonnie told Yvette about their own adventures on Newforest.
"In a way, Newforest just fought off its own alien invasion," Pias observed to his wife. "All that computerized equipment and jackboot efficiency are totally foreign to the Newforest way of doing things. We've always prided ourselves on being an easygoing people with a great disdain for rules and regulations imposed on us from the outside. No wonder Tas ended up being so thoroughly hated by everyone on the planet."
"That's the way the conspiracy's always been," Vonnie said. "Ruthless, cold, and efficient. Look at its leader, Aimèe Amorat--a heartless woman to begin with, put into a mechanical body with all the soul of a polished brass doorknob. You were there when she cold-bloodedly killed her own granddaughter in an effort to get at you. The conspiracy treats people no better than machines. Even if I didn't like Edna I'd still rather see her on the throne than anyone the conspiracy would put there."
The glimmer of an idea flashed through Yvette's mind, and then was gone again before she could identify it. She tried to reach in and recover it, but it remained tantalizingly out of her grasp and eventually she gave up the effort. She returned her attention to the dinner table conversation, which had strayed onto the subject of Helena's engagement to Captain Fortier.
That night, Yvette had a dream. She and Pias were on Newforest facing Tas Bavol, who was now a giant towering above their heads and threatening to squash them with his boot. They ran into a forest of shiny aluminium trees as Tas's laughter followed them--only now it wasn't Tas, but the even more dangerous Lady A, her coldly beautiful features staring down at them from an enormous computer screen suspended above their heads. The trees slowly merged into towering cones of computer banks, and an army of faceless robots moved in from all sides, firing blasters at the two SOTE agents. No matter where they ran, that face on the computer screen stared down at them, watching....
Yvette sat bolt upright in bed, her body clammy with sweat. Her eyes were wide open, staring into the darkness of the room before her, focusing on nothing and yet seeing something far greater than she'd ever seen before.
"Mon Dieu!" she whispered, and her whole body began to tremble with the enormity of her vision.
Beside her in the bed, Pias came instantly awake. Her reaction was so severe that at first he looked around for some physical threat--but all was quiet in Felicitè. But something was definitely wrong; Yvette was a woman without fear, and Pias had never seen her act this way before.
"Eve? What's the matter?" he asked, sitting up beside her and putting his arms around her naked shoulders. Her skin felt as cold as a corpse.
"Mon Dieu!" Yvette repeated through her shivers.
"Tell me what the matter is," Pias insisted.
Yvette blinked and looked around, as though realizing for the first time where she was. She turned her head fearfully, as though expecting to see goblins in every corner. "I can't," she said softly. "I don't know where they are. They could be anywhere, listening, watching. They'll kill me, they'll kill you if they knew I know. They can do it, Pias, more easily than you can swat a buzzfly." Her trembling increased.
This behavior was totally uncharacteristic of the woman he knew and loved, but Pias was determined to solve the mystery. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked.
"Hold me. Tightly."
That, at least, was an easy and pleasant task. He held her body tightly against his own, while Yvette went through a shivering fit that rocked the entire bed. "This is bigger and deeper than anyone ever suspected," she whispered in her husband's ear. "She was right, it will destroy the whole Empire. But we can't let it succeed, no matter what the cost. We have to stop it."
The shivering fit stopped abruptly as Yvette worked through her moment of panic. Her muscles relaxed and she became abnormally calm; her respiration returned to its usual rate and her hands were steady. Pias had seen this mood overtake her before, a cold, detached fury, and he pitied anything on which Yvette turned that anger.
"I'm smooth now," she said calmly as she pulled herself away from him. "Thank you for holding me. I needed it. I know what we have to do now."
"Well, would you mind telling me?"
Yvette rolled casually off the bed and strode to the closet. She knew instinctively where everything was, and began assembling her wardrobe in the dark. "We are going to get dressed this minute--you, me, and Vonnie if she can pack fast enough--and we're going down to the spacefield. We're picking the fastest ship available, and you're going to fly us at top speed to Earth. Once we're in subspace I can tell you what I'm thinking, and maybe then you'll tell me I'm crazy and have me committed to an institution for the terminally confused. But if you agree with me...." She stopped and closed her eyes, not wanting to face the possibility.
Pias got out of bed, turned on the light, and began to get dressed himself. Yvette had one of the most brilliantly intuitive minds he'd ever known; she would not become this frightened for no reason. "Anything else?" he asked as he dressed.
"Yes. We're going to pray harder than we've ever prayed in our lives. We're going to pray for two things. First, we're going to pray that I'm totally, completely, dead wrong. Second, if I'm not, we're going to pray that we're not too late to save at least some tatters of the Empire before it all collapses in a heap around us!"
Chapter 7
A Somber Picnic
Being Head of the Service of the Empire was never an easy task, and it seemed to be getting harder these days. The hours were always long, the work went largely unrecognized, and if the job was done properly no one would realize you'd ever done anything. When the Service was working at peak efficiency, there never appeared to be a need for its services.
These days, though, the job seemed tougher than usual. The Service had barely had time to rejoice over its triumph at saving the Navy from a disastrous ambush in the "Gastaadi War" a disaster averted by only the slimmest of margins--when it was faced with the discovery, based on the Newforest situation, that its intelligence evaluation system had been sabotaged. How many other planetary files had been concealed or altered, leading SOTE to think the situation within the Empire was smoother than it really was? Were there planets in worse shape than Newforest, securely under the enemy's domination while the Empire did nothing? Who was committing this sabotage? How was it accomplished? And; above all, how could it be combatted?
Grand Duke Zander von Wilmenhorst and his daughter Helena puzzled over these problems for days. It was an ironic twist of fate that the very urgency of these matters compelled them to move slowly. They'd known for years that the conspiracy was aware of nearly every move they made, but they'd never been able to seal the leak. If they suddenly began a massive search through the files, it would tip off the enemy that the Service knew something was amiss. That, in turn, might lead the conspiracy to take some precipitate action, and no one knew in what direction the currently wounded enemy would jump.
The Head agonized for some time over how to disguise what he was doing, and eventually hit upon a plan. He would announce an efficiency incentive drive within the Service; those officers and branches with the best records would receive bonuses and promotions. Naturally, to evaluate performance accurately, all past records had to be checked and files had to be reread. A handful of his most trusted aides were given the task of sorting through all the records, and only they were told what they were really looking for--files that had been deliberately misplaced or falsified to give the impression that conditions were better than they really were. With more than thirteen hundred planets in the Empire, the task was laborious and time-consuming--but it was utterly essential if a true picture of the state of the Empire was to emerge.
This effort was just beginning, and the Head was trying to make everything appear perfectly normal, when he suddenly got a call from Yvette Bavol on his personal comline. The fact that the call didn't come over the subcom meant that Yvette was back here on Earth, which surprised him; normally she would have told him she was coming first. That put him instantly on the alert.
"Well, sir, I'm back, just as you requested," Yvette smiled at him over the vidicom screen.
He had requested no such thing, and they both knew it. "Yes, thank you for being so prompt." He had no idea what the matter was, but he would play the game by her rules until he found out. He knew enough to trust the d'Alembert instincts.
"Is today a good day for that picnic at the beach you and Helena promised me? I remember you telling me about that one deserted stretch where nobody ever goes."
"It may be difficult for us to get away from the office today...."
"I realize you're a busy man and other things may take priority, but I can think of ten good reasons why you should come on this picnic."
"Ten?" he asked.
"At least," Yvette said solemnly. "Maybe even more."
The Head was stunned. A Priority Ten situation, to which Yvette was obviously alluding, referred to an imminent invasion or armed rebellion. It was the highest priority rating an emergency could have--yet Yvette was saying this one could rank even higher.
What made things even worse was the method Yvette was using to report this to him. She was not going through the proper channels; she was not using a scrambler; she was not using any of SOTE's official codes. To the Head, that could only mean one thing:
