[Illustration]

MINISTRY . . . OF DISTURBANCE

BY H. BEAM PIPER

Illustrated by van Dongen

+----------------------------------------------------------------+| || Transcriber's Note || || This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction || December 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence || that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. |+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 _Sometimes getting a job is harder than the job after you get it--and sometimes getting out of a job is harder than either!_

[Illustration]

The symphony was ending, the final triumphant pæan soaring up and up, beyond the limit of audibility. For a moment, after the last notes hadgone away, Paul sat motionless, as though some part of him had followed. Then he roused himself and finished his coffee and cigarette, lookingout the wide window across the city below--treetops and towers, roofsand domes and arching skyways, busy swarms of aircars glinting in theearly sunlight. Not many people cared for João Coelho's music, now, andleast of all for the Eighth Symphony. It was the music of another time, a thousand years ago, when the Empire was blazing into being out of thelong night and hammering back the Neobarbarians from world after world. Today people found it perturbing. 

He smiled faintly at the vacant chair opposite him, and lit anothercigarette before putting the breakfast dishes on the serving-robot'stray, and, after a while, realized that the robot was still beside hischair, waiting for dismissal. He gave it an instruction to summon thecleaning robots and sent it away. He could as easily have summoned themhimself, or let the guards who would be in checking the room do it forhim, but maybe it made a robot feel trusted and important to relayorders to other robots. 

Then he smiled again, this time in self-derision. A robot couldn't feelimportant, or anything else. A robot was nothing but steel and plasticand magnetized tape and photo-micro-positronic circuits, whereas aman--His Imperial Majesty Paul XXII, for instance--was nothing buttissues and cells and colloids and electro-neuronic circuits. There wasa difference; anybody knew that. The trouble was that he had never metanybody--which included physicists, biologists, psychologists, psionicists, philosophers and theologians--who could define thedifference in satisfactorily exact terms. He watched the robot pivot onits treads and glide away, trailing steam from its coffee pot. It mightbe silly to treat robots like people, but that wasn't as bad as treatingpeople like robots, an attitude which was becoming entirely tooprevalent. If only so many people didn't act like robots!

He crossed to the elevator and stood in front of it until a tinyelectroencephalograph inside recognized his distinctive brain-wavepattern. Across the room, another door was popping open in response tothe robot's distinctive wave pattern. He stepped inside and flipped aswitch--there were still a few things around that had to be manuallyoperated--and the door closed behind him and the elevator gave him aninstant's weightlessness as it started to drop forty floors. 

When it opened, Captain-General Dorflay of the Household Guard waswaiting for him, with a captain and ten privates. General Dorflay washuman. The captain and his ten soldiers weren't. They wore helmets, emblazoned with the golden sun and superimposed black cogwheel of theEmpire, and red kilts and black ankle boots and weapons belts, and thecaptain had a narrow gold-laced cape over his shoulders, but for therest, their bodies were covered with a stiff mat of black hair, andtheir faces were slightly like terriers'. (For all his humanity, Captain-General Dorflay's face was more like a bulldog's. ) They werehillmen from the southern hemisphere of Thor, and as a people they madeexcellent mercenaries. They were crack shots, brave and crafty fighters, totally uninterested in politics off their own planet, and, because theyhad grown up in a patriarchial-clan society, they were fanatically loyalto anybody whom they accepted as their chieftain. Paul stepped out andgave them an inclusive nod. 

 * * * * *

"Good morning, gentlemen. "

"Good morning, Your Imperial Majesty, " General Dorflay said, bowing thecouple of inches consistent with military dignity. The Thoran captainsaluted by touching his forehead, his heart, which was on the rightside, and the butt of his pistol. Paul complimented him on the smartappearance of his detail, and the captain asked how it could beotherwise, with the example and inspiration of his imperial majesty. Compliment and response could have been a playback from every morning ofthe ten years of his reign. So could Dorflay's question: "Your Majestywill proceed to his study?"

He wanted to say, "No, to Niffelheim with it; let's get an aircar andfly a million miles somewhere, " and watch the look of shockedincomprehension on the captain-general's face. He couldn't do that, though; poor old Harv Dorflay might have a heart attack. He noddedslowly. 

"If you please, general. "

Dorflay nodded to the Thoran captain, who nodded to his men. Four ofthem took two paces forward; the rest, unslinging weapons, wentscurrying up the corridor, some posting themselves along the way and therest continuing to the main hallway. The captain and two of his menstarted forward slowly; after they had gone twenty feet, Paul andGeneral Dorflay fell in behind them, and the other two brought up therear. 

"Your Majesty, " Dorflay said, in a low voice, "let me beg you to be mostcautious. I have just discovered that there exists a treasonous plotagainst your life. "

Paul nodded. Dorflay was more than due to discover another treasonousplot; it had been ten days since the last one. 

"I believe you mentioned it, general. Something about planting loosestrontium-90 in the upholstery of the Audience Throne, wasn't it?"

And before that, somebody had been trying to smuggle a fission bomb intothe Palace in a wine cask, and before that, it was a booby trap in theelevator, and before that, somebody was planning to build a submachinegun into the viewscreen in the study, and--

"Oh, no, Your Majesty; that was--Well, the persons involved in that plotbecame alarmed and fled the planet before I could arrest them. This issomething different, Your Majesty. I have learned that unauthorizedalterations have been made on one of the cooking-robots in your privatekitchen, and I am positive that the object is to poison Your Majesty. "

They were turning into the main hallway, between the rows of portraitsof past emperors, Paul and Rodrik, Paul and Rodrik, alternating over andover on both walls. He felt a smile growing on his face, and banishedit. 

"The robot for the meat sauces, wasn't it?" he asked. 

"Why--! Yes, Your Majesty. "

"I'm sorry, general. I should have warned you. Those alterations weremade by roboticists from the Ministry of Security; they were installingan adaptation of a device used in the criminalistics-labs, to insuremore uniform measurements. They'd done that already for Prince Travann, the Minister, and he'd recommended it to me. "

That was a shame, spoiling poor Harv Dorflay's murder plot. It had beensuch a nice little plot, too; he must have had a lot of fun inventingit. But a line had to be drawn somewhere. Let him turn the Palace upsidedown hunting for bombs; harass ladies-in-waiting whose lovers hesuspected of being hired assassins; hound musicians into whoseinstruments he imagined firearms had been built; the emperor's privatekitchen would have to be off limits. 

Dorflay, who should have been looking crestfallen but relieved, stoppedshort--shocking breach of Court etiquette--and was staring in horror. 

"Your Majesty! Prince Travann did that openly and with your consent?But, Your Majesty, I am convinced that it is Prince Travann himself whois the instigator of every one of these diabolical schemes. In the caseof the elevator, I became suspicious of a man named Samml Ganner, one ofPrince Travann's secret police agents. In the case of the gun in theviewscreen, it was a technician whose sister is a member of thehousehold of Countess Yirzy, Prince Travann's mistress. In the case ofthe fission bomb----"

The two Thorans and their captain had kept on for some distance beforethey had discovered that they were no longer being followed, and werereturning. He put his hand on General Dorflay's shoulder and urged himforward. 

"Have you mentioned this to anybody?"

"Not a word, Your Majesty. This Court is so full of treachery that I cantrust no one, and we must never warn the villain that he is suspected--"

"Good. Say nothing to anybody. " They had reached the door of the study, now. "I think I'll be here until noon. If I leave earlier, I'll flashyou a signal. "

 * * * * *

He entered the big oval room, lighted from overhead by the greatstar-map in the ceiling, and crossed to his desk, with the viewscreensand reading screens and communications screens around it, and as he satdown, he cursed angrily, first at Harv Dorflay and then, after amoment's reflection, at himself. He was the one to blame; he'd knownDorflay's paranoid condition for years. Have to do something about it. Any psycho-medic would certify him; be no problem at all to have him putaway. But be blasted if he'd do that. That was no way to repay loyalty, even insane loyalty. Well, he'd find a way. 

He lit a cigarette and leaned back, looking up at the glowing swirl ofbillions of billions of tiny lights in the ceiling. At least, there weresupposed to be billions of billions of them; he'd never counted them, and neither had any of the seventeen Rodriks and sixteen Pauls beforehim who had sat under them. His hand moved to a control button on hischair arm, and a red patch, roughly the shape of a pork chop, appearedon the western side. 

That was the Empire. Every one of the thousand three hundred andsixty-five inhabited worlds, a trillion and a half intelligent beings, fourteen races--fifteen if you counted the Zarathustran Fuzzies, whowere almost able to qualify under the talk-and-build-a-fire rule. Andthat had been the Empire when Rodrik VI had seen the map completed, andwhen Paul II had built the Palace, and when Stevan IV, the grandfatherof Paul I, had proclaimed Odin the Imperial planet and Asgard thecapital city. There had been some excuse for staying inside that patchof stars then; a newly won Empire must be consolidated within before itcan safely be expanded. But that had been over eight centuries ago. 

He looked at the Daily Schedule, beautifully embossed and neatly slippedunder his desk glass. Luncheon on the South Upper Terrace, with thePrime Minister and the Bench of Imperial Counselors. Yes, it was timefor that again; that happened as inevitably and regularly as HarvDorflay's murder plots. And in the afternoon, a Plenary Session, Cabinetand Counselors. Was he going to have to endure the Bench of Counselorstwice in the same day? Then the vexation was washed out of his face by aspreading grin. Bench of Counselors; that was the answer! Elevate HarvDorflay to the Bench. That was what the Bench was for, a gold-plateddustbin for the disposal of superannuated dignitaries. He'd do no harmthere, and a touch of outright lunacy might enliven and even improve theBench. 

And in the evening, a banquet, and a reception and ball, in honor of HisMajesty Ranulf XIV, Planetary King of Durendal, and First Citizen ZhorzhYaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the Planetary Commonwealthof Aditya. Bargain day; two planetary chiefs of state in one bigcombination deal. He wondered what sort of prizes he had drawn thistime, and closed his eyes, trying to remember. Durendal, of course, wasone of the Sword-Worlds, settled by refugees from the losing side of theSystem States War in the time of the old Terran Federation, who hadreappeared in Galactic history a few centuries later as the SpaceVikings. They all had monarchial and rather picturesque governments;Durendal, he seemed to recall, was a sort of quasi-feudalism. AboutAditya he was less sure. Something unpleasant, he thought; the titles ofthe government and its head were suggestive. 

He lit another cigarette and snapped on the reading screen to see whatthey had piled onto him this morning, and then swore when a graph chart, with jiggling red and blue and green lines, appeared. Chart day, too. Everything happens at once. 

 * * * * *

It was the interstellar trade situation chart from Economics. Red linefor production, green line for exports, blue for imports, sectionedvertically for the ten Viceroyalties and sub-sectioned for thePrefectures, and with the magnification and focus controls he could evenget data for individual planets. He didn't bother with that, andwondered why he bothered with the charts at all. The stuff was all atleast twenty days behind date, and not uniformly so, which accounted formuch of the jiggling. It had been transmitted from PlanetaryProconsulate to Prefecture, and from Prefecture to Viceroyalty, and fromthere to Odin, all by ship. A ship on hyperdrive could log light-yearsan hour, but radio waves still had to travel 186, 000 mps. Thesupplementary chart for the past five centuries told the realstory--three perfectly level and perfectly parallel lines. 

It was the same on all the other charts. Population fluctuating slightlyat the moment, completely static for the past five centuries. A slightdecrease in agriculture, matched by an increase in synthetic foodproduction. A slight population movement toward the more urban planetsand the more densely populated centers. A trend downward inemployment--nonworking population increasing by about . 0001 per centannually. Not that they were building better robots; they were justbuilding them faster than they wore out. They all told the same story--astable economy, a static population, a peaceful and undisturbed Empire;eight centuries, five at least, of historyless tranquility. Well, thatwas what everybody wanted, wasn't it?

He flipped through the rest of the charts, and began getting summarizedMinistry reports. Economics had denied a request from the Mining Cartelto authorize operations on a couple of uninhabited planets; danger oflocal market gluts and overstimulation of manufacturing. Permissiongranted to Robotics Cartel to---- Request from planetary government ofDurendal for increase of cereal export quotas under consideration--theywouldn't want to turn that down while King Ranulf was here. Impulsively, he punched out a combination on the communication screen and got CountDuklass, Minister of Economics. 

Count Duklass had thinning red hair and a plump, agreeable, extrovert'sface. He smiled and waited to be addressed. 

"Sorry to bother Your Lordship, " Paul greeted him. "What's the story onthis export quota request from Durendal? We have their king here, now. Think he's come to lobby for it?"

Count Duklass chuckled. "He's not doing anything about it, himself. Haveyou met him yet, sir?"

"Not yet. He's to be presented this evening. "

"Well, when you see him--I think the masculine pronoun ispermissible--you'll see what I mean, sir. It's this Lord Koreff, theMarshal. He came here on business, and had to bring the king along, forfear somebody else would grab him while he was gone. The whole object ofDurendalian politics, as I understand, is to get possession of theperson of the king. Koreff was on my screen for half an hour; I just gotrid of him. Planet's pretty heavily agricultural, they had a couple ofvery good crop years in a row, and now they have grain running out theirears, and they want to export it and cash in. "

"Well?"

"Can't let them do it, Your Majesty. They're not suffering any hardship;they're just not making as much money as they think they ought to. Ifthey start dumping their surplus into interstellar trade, they'll causeall kinds of dislocations on other agricultural planets. At least, that's what our computers all say. "

And that, of course, was gospel. He nodded. 

"Why don't they turn their surplus into whisky? Age it five or six yearsand it'd be on the luxury goods schedule and they could sell itanywhere. "

Count Duklass' eyes widened. "I never thought of that, Your Majesty. Just a microsec; I want to make a note of that. Pass it down to somebodywho could deal with it. That's a wonderful idea, Your Majesty!"

 * * * * *

He finally got the conversation to an end, and went back to the reports. Security, as usual, had a few items above the dead level of bureaucraticprocedure. The planetary king of Excalibur had been assassinated by hisbrother and two nephews, all three of whom were now fighting amongthemselves. As nobody had anything to fight with except small arms and afew light cannon, there would be no intervention. There had beenintervention on Behemoth, however, where a whole continent had tried tosecede from the planetary republic and the Imperial Navy had beenrequested to send a task force. That was all right, in both cases. Nointerference with anything that passed for a planetary government, butonly one sovereignty on any planet with nuclear weapons, and only onesupreme sovereignty in a galaxy with hyperdrive ships. 

And there was rioting on Amaterasu, because of public indignation over afraudulent election. He looked at that in incredulous delight. Why, hereon Odin there hadn't been an election in the past six centuries thathadn't been utterly fraudulent. Nobody voted except the nonworkers, whose votes were bought and sold wholesale, by gangster bosses topressure groups, and no decent person would be caught within a hundredyards of a polling place on an election day. He called the Minister ofSecurity. 

Prince Travann was a man of his own age--they had been classmates at theUniversity--but he looked older. His thin face was lined, and his hairwas almost completely white. He was at his desk, with the Sun andCogwheel of the Empire on the wall behind him, but on the breast of hisblack tunic he wore the badge of his family, a silver planet with threesilver moons. Unlike Count Duklass, he didn't wait to be spoken to. 

"Good morning, Your Majesty. "

"Good morning, Your Highness; sorry to bother you. I just caught aninteresting item in your report. This business on Amaterasu. What sortof a planet is it, politically? I don't seem to recall. "

"Why, they have a republican government, sir; a very complicated setup. Really, it's a junk heap. When anything goes badly, they always buildsomething new into the government, but they never abolish anything. Theyhave a president, a premier, and an executive cabinet, and a tricamerallegislature, and two complete and distinct judiciaries. The premier isalways the presidential candidate getting the next highest number ofvotes. In the present instance, the president, who controls theplanetary militia, is accusing the premier, who controls the police, offraud in the election of the middle house of the legislature. Each issupported by the judiciary he controls. Practically every citizenbelongs either to the militia or the police auxiliaries. I am lookingforward to further reports from Amaterasu, " he added dryly. 

"I daresay they'll be interesting. Send them to me in full, and red-starthem, if you please, Prince Travann. "

He went back to the reports. The Ministry of Science and Technology hadsent up a lengthy one. The only trouble with it was that everythingreported was duplication of work that had been done centuries before. Well, no. A Dr. Dandrik, of the physics department of the ImperialUniversity here in Asgard announced that a definite limit of accuracy inmeasuring the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles had beenestablished--16. 067543333--times light-speed. That seemed to be typical;the frontiers of science, now, were all decimal points. The Ministry ofEducation had a little to offer; historical scholarship was stillactive, at least. He was reading about a new trove of source-materialthat had come to light on Uller, from the Sixth Century Atomic Era, whenthe door screen buzzed and flashed. 

 * * * * *

He lit it, and his son Rodrik appeared in it, with Snooks, the littlered hound, squirming excitedly in the Crown Prince's arms. The dog beganbarking at once, and the boy called through the phone:

"Good morning, father; are you busy?"

"Oh, not at all. " He pressed the release button. "Come on in. "

Immediately, the little hound leaped out of the princely arms and camedashing into the study and around the desk, jumping onto his lap. Theboy followed more slowly, sitting down in the deskside chair and drawinghis foot up under him. Paul greeted Snooks first--people can wait, butfor little dogs everything has to be right now--and rummaged in a draweruntil he found some wafers, holding one for Snooks to nibble. Then hebecame aware that his son was wearing leather shorts and tall buskins. 

"Going out somewhere?" he asked, a trifle enviously. 

"Up in the mountains, for a picnic. Olva's going along. "

And his tutor, and his esquire, and Olva's companion-lady, and a dozenThoran riflemen, of course, and they'd be in continuous screen-contactwith the Palace. 

"That ought to be a lot of fun. Did you get all your lessons done?"

"Physics and math and galactiography, " Rodrik told him. "And ProfessorGuilsan's going to give me and Olva our history after lunch. "

They talked about lessons, and about the picnic. Of course, Snooks wasgoing on the picnic, too. It was evident, though, that Rodrik hadsomething else on his mind. After a while, he came out with it. 

"Father, you know I've been a little afraid, lately, " he said. 

"Well, tell me about it, son. It isn't anything about you and Olva, isit?"

Rod was fourteen; the little Princess Olva thirteen. They would bemarriageable in six years. As far as anybody could tell, they were bothquite happy about the marriage which had been arranged for them yearsago. 

"Oh, no; nothing like that. But Olva's sister and a couple others ofmother's ladies-in-waiting were to a psi-medium, and the medium toldthem that there were going to be changes. Great and frightening changeswas what she said. "

"She didn't specify?"

"No. Just that: great and frightening changes. But the only change ofthat kind I can think of would be . . . Well, something happening to you. "

Snooks, having eaten three wafers, was trying to lick his ear. He pushedthe little dog back into his lap and pummeled him gently with his lefthand. 

"You mustn't let mediums' gabble worry you, son. These psi-mediums havereal powers, but they can't turn them off and on like a water tap. Whenthey don't get anything, they don't like to admit it, and they inventthings. Always generalities like that; never anything specific. "

"I know all that. " The boy seemed offended, as though somebody wereexplaining that his mother hadn't really found him out in the rosegarden. "But they talked about it to some of their friends, and it seemsthat other mediums are saying the same thing. Father, do you rememberwhen the Haval Valley reactor blew up? All over Odin, the mediums hadbeen talking about a terrible accident, for a month before thathappened. "

"I remember that. " Harv Dorflay believed that somebody had been falselyinformed that the emperor would visit the plant that day. "These greatand frightening changes will probably turn out to be a new fad inabstract sculpture. Any change frightens most people. "

They talked more about mediums, and then about aircars and aircarracing, and about the Emperor's Cup race that was to be flown in amonth. The communications screen began flashing and buzzing, and afterhe had silenced it with the busy-button for the third time, Rodrik saidthat it was time for him to go, came around to gather up Snooks, andwent out, saying that he'd be home in time for the banquet. The screenbegan to flash again as he went out. 

 * * * * *

It was Prince Ganzay, the Prime Minister. He looked as though he had apersistent low-level toothache, but that was his ordinary expression. 

"Sorry to bother Your Majesty. It's about these chiefs-of-state. CountGadvan, the Chamberlain, appealed to me, and I feel I should ask youradvice. It's the matter of precedence. "

"Well, we have a fixed rule on that. Which one arrived first?"

"Why, the Adityan, but it seems King Ranulf insists that he's entitledto precedence, or, rather, his Lord Marshal does. This Lord Koreffinsists that his king is not going to yield precedence to a commoner. "

[Illustration]

"Then he can go home to Durendal!" He felt himself growing angry--allthe little angers of the morning were focusing on one spot. He forcedthe harshness out of his voice. "At a court function, somebody has to gofirst, and our rule is order of arrival at the Palace. That rule wasestablished to avoid violating the principle of equality to allcivilized peoples and all planetary governments. We're not going to setit aside for the King of Durendal, or anybody else. "

Prince Ganzay nodded. Some of the toothache expression had gone out ofhis face, now that he had been relieved of the decision. 

"Of course, Your Majesty. " He brightened a little. "Do you think wemight compromise? Alternate the precedence, I mean?"

"Only if this First Citizen Yaggo consents. If he does, it would be agood idea. "

"I'll talk to him, sir. " The toothache expression came back. "Anotherthing, Your Majesty. They've both been invited to attend the PlenarySession, this afternoon. "

"Well, no trouble there; they can enter by different doors and sit invisitors' boxes at opposite ends of the hall. "

"Well, sir, I wasn't thinking of precedence. But this is to be anElective Session--new Ministers to replace Prince Havaly, of Defense, deceased, and Count Frask, of Science and Technology, elevated to theBench. There seems to be some difference of opinion among some of theMinisters and Counselors. It's very possible that the Session maydegenerate into an outright controversy. "

"Horrible, " Paul said seriously. "I think, though, that ourdistinguished guests will see that the Empire can survive difference ofopinion, and even outright controversy. But if you think it might have abad effect, why not postpone the election?"

"Well--It's been postponed three times, already, sir. "

"Postpone it permanently. Advertise for bids on two robot Ministers, Defense, and Science and Technology. If they're a success, we can set upa project to design a robot emperor. "

The Prime Minister's face actually twitched and blanched at theblasphemy. "Your Majesty is joking, " he said, as though he wanted to bereassured on the point. 

"Unfortunately, I am. If my job could be robotized, maybe I could takemy wife and my son and our little dog and go fishing for a while. "

But, of course, he couldn't. There were only two alternatives: theEmpire or Galactic anarchy. The galaxy was too big to hold generalelections, and there had to be a supreme ruler, and a positive andautomatic--which meant hereditary--means of succession. 

"Whose opinion seems to differ from whose, and about what?" he asked. 

"Well, Count Duklass and Count Tammsan want to have the Ministry ofScience and Technology abolished, and its functions and personneldistributed. Count Duklass means to take over the technological sectionsunder Economics, and Count Tammsan will take over the science part underEducation. The proposal is going to be introduced at this Session byCount Guilfred, the Minister of Health and Sanity. He hopes to get someof the bio-and psycho-science sections for his own Ministry. "

"That's right. Duklass gets the hide, Tammsan gets the head and horns, and everybody who hunts with them gets a cut of the meat. That's goodsound law of the chase. I'm not in favor of it, myself. Prince Ganzay, at this session, I wish you'd get Captain-General Dorflay nominated forthe Bench. I feel that it is about time to honor him with elevation. "

"General Dorflay? But why, Your Majesty?"

"Great galaxy, do you have to ask? Why, because the man's a ravinglunatic. He oughtn't even to be trusted with a sidearm, let alone fivecompanies of armed soldiers. Do you know what he told me this morning?"

"That somebody is training a Nidhog swamp-crawler to crawl up theOctagon Tower and bite you at breakfast, I suppose. But hasn't that beengoing on for quite a while, sir?"

"It was a gimmick in one of the cooking robots, but that's aside fromthe question. He's finally named the master mind behind all thesenightmares of his, and who do you think it is? Yorn Travann!"

 * * * * *

The Prime Minister's face grew graver than usual. Well, it was somethingto look grave about; some of these days----

"Your Majesty, I couldn't possibly agree more about the general's mentalcondition, but I really should say that, crazy or not, he is not alonein his suspicions of Prince Travann. If sharing them makes me a lunatic, too, so be it, but share them I do. "

Paul felt his eyebrows lift in surprise. "That's quite too much and toolittle, Prince Ganzay, " he said. 

"With your permission, I'll elaborate. Don't think that I suspect PrinceTravann of any childish pranks with elevators or viewscreens orcooking-robots, " the Prime Minister hastened to disclaim, "but Idefinitely do suspect him of treasonous ambitions. I suppose YourMajesty knows that he is the first Minister of Security in centuries whohas assumed personal control of both the planetary and municipal police, instead of delegating his _ex officio_ powers. 

"Your Majesty may not know, however, of some of the peculiar uses he hasbeen making of those authorities. Does Your Majesty know that he hasrecruited the Security Guard up to at least ten times the strengthneeded to meet any conceivable peace-maintenance problem on this planet, and that he has been piling up huge quantities of heavy combatequipment--guns up to 200-millimeter, heavy contragravity, evengun-cutters and bomb-and-rocket boats? And does Your Majesty know thatmost of this armament is massed within fifteen minutes' flight-time ofthis Palace? Or that Prince Travann has at his disposal from two and ahalf to three times, in men and firepower, the combined strength of thePlanetary Militia and the Imperial Army on this planet?"

"I know. It has my approval. He's trying to salvage some of the youngnonworkers through exposing them to military discipline. A good many ofthem, I believe, have gone off-planet on their discharge from the SG andhired as mercenaries, which is a far better profession than voteselling. "

"Quite a plausible explanation: Prince Travann is nothing if notplausible, " the Prime Minister agreed. "And does Your Majesty know that, because of repeated demands for support from the Ministry of Security, the Imperial Navy has been scattered all over the Empire, and that thereis not a naval craft bigger than a scout-boat within fifteen hundredlight-years of Odin?"

That was absolutely true. Paul could only nod agreement. Prince Ganzaycontinued:

"He has been doing some peculiar things as Police Chief of Asgard, too. For instance, there are two powerful nonworkers' voting-bloc bosses, BigMoogie Blisko and Zikko the Nose--I assure Your Majesty that I am notinventing these names; that's what the persons are actually called--whohave been enjoying the favor and support of Prince Travann. On a numberof occasions, their smaller rivals, leaders of less important gangs, have been arrested, often on trumped-up charges, and held incommunicadountil either Moogie or Zikko could move into their territories and annextheir nonworker followers. These two bloc-bosses are subsidized, respectively, by the Steel and Shipbuilding Cartels and by the ReactionProducts and Chemical Cartels, but actually, they are controlled byPrince Travann. They, in turn, control between them about seventy percent of the nonworkers in Asgard. "

"And you think this adds up to a plot against the Throne?"

"A plot to seize the Throne, Your Majesty. "

"Oh, come, Prince Ganzay! You're talking like Dorflay!"

"Hear me out, Your Majesty. His Imperial Highness is fourteen years old;it will be eleven years before he will be legally able to assume thepowers of emperor. In the dreadful event of your immediate death, itwould mean a regency for that long. Of course, your Ministers andCounselors would be the ones to name the Regent, but I know how theywould vote with Security Guard bayonets at their throats. And regencymight not be the limit of Prince Travann's ambitions. "

"In your own words, quite plausible, Prince Ganzay. It rests, however, on a very questionable foundation. The assumption that Prince Travann isstupid enough to want the Throne. "

He had to terminate the conversation himself and blank the screen. Viktor Ganzay was still staring at him in shocked incredulity when hisimage vanished. Viktor Ganzay could not imagine anybody not wanting theThrone, not even the man who had to sit on it. 

 * * * * *

He sat, for a while, looking at the darkened screen, a little worried. Viktor Ganzay had a much better intelligence service than he hadbelieved. He wondered how much Ganzay had found out that he hadn'tmentioned. Then he went back to the reports. He had gotten down to theMinistry of Fine Arts when the communications screen began callingattention to itself again. 

When he flipped the switch, a woman smiled out of it at him. Her blondhair was rumpled, and she wore a dressing gown; her smile brightened ashis face appeared in her screen. 

"Hi!" she greeted him. 

"Hi, yourself. You just get up?"

She raised a hand to cover a yawn. "I'll bet you've been up reigning forhours. Were Rod and Snooks in to see you yet?"

He nodded. "They just left. Rod's going on a picnic with Olva in themountains. " How long had it been since he and Marris had been on apicnic--a real picnic, with less than fifty guards and as many courtiersalong? "Do you have much reigning to do, this afternoon?"

She grimaced. "Flower Festivals. I have to make personal tri-diappearances, live, with messages for the loving subjects. Three minuteson, and a two-minute break between. I have forty for this afternoon. "

"Ugh! Well, have a good time, sweetheart. All I have is lunch with theBench, and then this Plenary Session. " He told her about Ganzay's fearof outright controversy. 

"Oh, fun! Maybe somebody'll pull somebody's whiskers, or something. I'min on that, too. "

The call-indicator in front of him began glowing with the code-symbol ofthe Minister of Security. 

"We can always hope, can't we? Well, Yorn Travann's trying to get me, now. "

"Don't keep him waiting. Maybe I can see you before the Session. " Shemade a kissing motion with her lips at him, and blanked the screen. 

He flipped the switch again, and Prince Travann was on the screen. TheSecurity Minister didn't waste time being sorry to bother him. 

"Your Majesty, a report's just come in that there's a serious riot atthe University; between five and ten thousand students are attacking theAdministration Center, lobbing stench bombs into it, and threatening tohang Chancellor Khane. They have already overwhelmed and disarmed thecampus police, and I've sent two companies of the Gendarme riot brigade, under an officer I can trust to handle things firmly but intelligently. We don't want any indiscriminate stunning or tear-gassing or shooting;all sorts of people can have sons and daughters mixed up in a studentriot. "

"Yes. I seem to recall student riots in which the sons of his lateHighness Prince Travann and his late Majesty Rodrik XXI were involved. "He deliberated the point for a moment, and added: "This scarcely soundslike a frat-fight or a panty-raid, though. What seems to have triggeredit?"

"The story I got--a rather hysterical call for help from Khanehimself--is that they're protesting an action of his in dismissing afaculty member. I have a couple of undercovers at the University, andI'm trying to contact them. I sent more undercovers, who could pass forstudents, ahead of the Gendarmes to get the student side of it and thenames of the ring-leaders. " He glanced down at the indicator in front ofhim, which had begun to glow. "If you'll pardon me, sir, Count Tammsan'strying to get me. He may have particulars. I'll call Your Majesty backwhen I learn anything more. "

 * * * * *

There hadn't been anything like that at the University within the memoryof the oldest old grad. Chancellor Khane, he knew, was a stupid andarrogant old windbag with a swollen sense of his own importance. He madea small bet with himself that the whole thing was Khane's fault, but hewondered what lay behind it, and what would come out of it. Greatplagues from little microbes start. Great and frightening changes----

The screen got itself into an uproar, and he flipped the switch. It wasViktor Ganzay again. He looked as though his permanent toothache haddeserted him for the moment. 

"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but it's all fixed up, " he reported. "First Citizen Yaggo agreed to alternate in precedence with King Ranulf, and Lord Koreff has withdrawn all his objections. As far as I can see, at present, there should be no trouble. "

"Fine. I suppose you heard about the excitement at the University?"

"Oh, yes, Your Majesty. Disgraceful affair!"

"Simply shocking. What seems to have started it, have you heard?" heasked. "All I know is that the students were protesting the dismissal ofa faculty member. He must have been exceptionally popular, or else hegot a more than ordinary raw deal from Khane. "

"Well, as to that, sir, I can't say. All I learned was that it was theresult of some faculty squabble in one of the science departments; thegrounds for the dismissal were insubordination and contempt forauthority. "

"I always thought that when authority began inspiring contempt, it hadstopped being authority. Did you say science? This isn't going to helpDuklass and Tammsan any. "

"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. " Ganzay didn't look particularlyregretful. "The News Cartel's gotten hold of it and are using it; it'llbe all over the Empire. "

He said that as though it meant something. Well, maybe it did; a lot ofMinisters and almost all the Counselors spent most of their timeworrying about what people on planets like Chermosh and Zarathustra andDeirdre and Quetzalcoatl might think, in ignorance of the fact thatinterest in Empire politics varied inversely as the square of thedistance to Odin and the level of corruption and inefficiency of thelocal government. 

"I notice you'll be at the Bench luncheon. Do you think you could inviteour guests, too? We could have an informal presentation before itstarts. Can do? Good. I'll be seeing you there. "

When the screen was blanked, he returned to the reports, ran them offhastily to make sure that nothing had been red-starred, and called arobot to clear the projector. After a while, Prince Travann calledagain. 

"Sorry to bother Your Majesty, but I have most of the facts on the riot, now. What happened was that Chancellor Khane sacked a professor, physicsdepartment, under circumstances which aroused resentment among thescience students. Some of them walked out of class and went to thestadium to hold a protest meeting, and the thing snowballed until halfthe students were in it. Khane lost his head and ordered the campuspolice to clear the stadium; the students rushed them and swamped them. I hope, for their sakes, that none of my men ever let anything like thathappen. The man I sent, a Colonel Handrosan, managed to talk thestudents into going back to the stadium and continuing the meeting underGendarme protection. "

"Sounds like a good man. "

"Very good, Your Majesty. Especially in handling disturbances. I havecomplete confidence in him. He's also investigating the background ofthe affair. I'll give Your Majesty what he's learned, to date. It seemsthat the head of the physics department, a Professor Nelse Dandrik, hadbeen conducting an experiment, assisted by a Professor Klenn Faress, toestablish more accurately the velocity of subnucleonic particles, betamicropositos, I believe. Dandrik's story, as relayed to Handrosan byKhane, is that he reached a limit and the apparatus began giving erraticresults. "

Prince Travann stopped to light a cigarette. "At this point, ProfessorDandrik ordered the experiment stopped, and Professor Faress insisted oncontinuing. When Dandrik ordered the apparatus dismantled, Faress becamerather emotional about it--obscenely abusive and threatening, accordingto Dandrik. Dandrik complained to Khane, Khane ordered Faress toapologize, Faress refused, and Khane dismissed Faress. Immediately, thestudents went on strike. Faress confirmed the whole story, and he addedone small detail that Dandrik hadn't seen fit to mention. According tohim, when these micropositos were accelerated beyond sixteen and afraction times light-speed, they began registering at the target beforethe source registered the emission. "

"Yes, I--_What did you say_?"

Prince Travann repeated it slowly, distinctly and tonelessly. 

"That was what I thought you said. Well, I'm going to insist on acomplete investigation, including a repetition of the experiment. Underdirection of Professor Faress. "

"Yes, Your Majesty. And when that happens, I mean to be on handpersonally. If somebody is just before discovering time-travel, I thinkSecurity has a very substantial interest in it. "

The Prime Minister called back to confirm that First Citizen Yaggo andKing Ranulf would be at the luncheon. The Chamberlain, Count Gadvan, called with a long and dreary problem about the protocol for thebanquet. Finally, at noon, he flashed a signal for General Dorflay, waited five minutes, and then left his desk and went out, to find themad general and his wirehaired soldiers drawn up in the hall. 

 * * * * *

There were more Thorans on the South Upper Terrace, and after a flurryof porting and presenting and ordering arms and hand-saluting, the PrimeMinister advanced and escorted him to where the Bench of Counselors, allthirty of them, total age close to twenty-eight hundred years, weredrawn up in a rough crescent behind the three distinguished guests. TheKing of Durendal wore a cloth-of-silver leotard and pink tights, and abelt of gold links on which he carried a jeweled dagger only slightlythicker than a knitting needle. He was slender and willowy, and he hadlarge and soulful eyes, and the royal beautician must have worked on himfor a couple of hours. Wait till Marris sees this; oh, brother!

Koreff, the Lord Marshal, wore what was probably the standard costume ofDurendal, a fairly long jerkin with short sleeves, and knee-boots, andhis dress dagger looked as though it had been designed for use. LordKoreff looked as though he would be quite willing and able to use it; hewas fleshy and full-faced, with hard muscles under the flesh. 

First Citizen Yaggo, People's Manager-in-Chief of and for the PlanetaryCommonwealth of Aditya, wore a one-piece white garment like a mechanic'scoveralls, with the emblem of his government and the numeral 1 on hisbreast. He carried no dagger; if he had worn a dress weapon, it wouldprobably have been a slide rule. His head was completely shaven, and hehad small, pale eyes and a rat-trap mouth. He was regarding theDurendalians with a distaste that was all too evidently reciprocated. 

King Ranulf appeared to have won the toss for first presentation. Hesqueezed the Imperial hand in both of his and looked up adoringly as heprofessed his deep honor and pleasure. Yaggo merely clasped both hishands in front of the emblem on his chest and raised them quickly to thelevel of his chin, saying: "At the service of the Imperial State, " andadding, as though it hurt him, "Your Imperial Majesty. " Not being achief of state, Lord Koreff came third; he merely shook hands and said, "A great honor, Your Imperial Majesty, and the thanks, both of myselfand my royal master, for a most gracious reception. " The attempt to grabfirst place having failed, he was more than willing to forget the wholesubject. There was a chance that finding a way to dispose of the grainsurplus might make the difference between his staying in power at homeor not. 

Fortunately, the three guests had already met the Bench of Counselors. Immediately after the presentation of Lord Koreff, they all started thetwo hundred yards march to the luncheon pavilion, the King of Durendalclinging to his left arm and First Citizen Yaggo stumping dourly on hisright, with Prince Ganzay beyond him and Lord Koreff on Ranulf's left. 

"Do you plan to stay long on Odin?" he asked the king. 

"Oh. I'd _love_ to stay for simply _months_! Everything is so_wonderful_, here in Asgard; it makes our little capital of Roncevauxseem so _utterly_ provincial. I'm going to tell Your Imperial Majesty asecret. I'm going to see if I can lure some of your _wonderful_ balletdancers back to Durendal with me. Aren't I _naughty_, raiding YourImperial Majesty's theaters?"

"In keeping with the traditions of your people, " he replied gravely. "You Sword-Worlders used to raid everywhere you went. "

"I'm afraid those bad old days are long past, Your Imperial Majesty, "Lord Koreff said. "But we Sword-Worlders got around the galaxy, for awhile. In fact, I seem to remember reading that some of our brethrenfrom Morglay or Flamberge even occupied Aditya for a couple ofcenturies. Not that you'd guess it to look at Aditya now. "

 * * * * *

It was First Citizen Yaggo's turn to take precedence--the seat on theright of the throne chair. Lord Koreff sat on Ranulf's left, and, tobalance him, Prince Ganzay sat beyond Yaggo and dutifully beganinquiring of the People's Manager-in-Chief about the structure of hisgovernment, launching him on a monologue that promised to last at leasthalf the luncheon. That left the King of Durendal to Paul; for a start, he dropped a compliment on the cloth-of-silver leotard. 

King Ranulf laughed dulcetly, brushed the garment with his fingertips, and said that it was just a simple thing patterned after the Durendalianpeasant costume. 

"You have peasants on Durendal?"

"Oh, _dear_, yes! Such quaint, _charming_ people. Of course, they're allpoor, and they wear such _funny_ ragged clothes, and travel about inrackety old aircars, it's a wonder they don't fall apart in the air. Butthey're so _wonderfully_ happy and carefree. I often wish I were one ofthem, instead of king. "

"Nonworking class, Your Imperial Majesty, " Lord Koreff explained. 

"On Aditya, " First Citizen Yaggo declared, "there are no classes, and onAditya everybody works. 'From each according to his ability; to eachaccording to his need. '"

"On Aditya, " an elderly Counselor four places to the right of him saidloudly to his neighbor, "they don't call them classes, they call themsociological categories, and they have nineteen of them. And on Aditya, they don't call them nonworkers, they call them occupational reservists, and they have more of them than we do. "

"But of course, I was born a king, " Ranulf said sadly and nobly. "I havea duty to my people. "

"No, they don't vote at all, " Lord Koreff was telling the Counselor onhis left. "On Durendal, you have to pay taxes before you can vote. "

"On Aditya the crime of taxation does not exist, " the First Citizen toldthe Prime Minister. 

"On Aditya, " the Counselor four places down said to his neighbor, "there's nothing to tax. The state owns all the property, and if theImperial Constitution and the Space Navy let them, the State would ownall the people, too. Don't tell me about Aditya. First big-ship commandI had was the old _Invictus_, 374, and she was based on Aditya for fouryears, and I'd sooner have spent that time in orbit around Niffelheim. "

Now Paul remembered who he was; old Admiral--nowPrince-Counselor--Gaklar. He and Prince-Counselor Dorflay would getalong famously. The Lord Marshal of Durendal was replying to someobjection somebody had made:

[Illustration]

"No, nothing of the sort. We hold the view that every civil or politicalright implies a civil or political obligation. The citizen has a rightto protection from the Realm, for instance; he therefore has theobligation to defend the Realm. And his right to participate in thegovernment of the Realm includes his obligation to support the Realmfinancially. Well, we tax only property; if a nonworker acquires taxableproperty, he has to go to work to earn the taxes. I might add that ournonworkers are very careful to avoid acquiring taxable property. "

"But if they don't have votes to sell, what do they live on?" aCounselor asked in bewilderment. 

"The nobility supports them; the landowners, the trading barons, theindustrial lords. The more nonworking adherents they have, the greatertheir prestige. " And the more rifles they could muster when theyquarreled with their fellow nobles, of course. "Beside, if we didn't dothat, they'd turn brigand, and it costs less to support them than tohave to hunt them out of the brush and hang them. "

"On Aditya, brigandage does not exist. "

"On Aditya, all the brigands belong to the Secret Police, only on Adityathey don't call them Secret Police, they call them Servants of thePeople, Ninth Category. "

A shadow passed quickly over the pavilion, and then another. He glancedup quickly, to see two long black troop carriers, emblazoned with theSun and Cogwheel and armored fist of Security, pass back of the OctagonTower and let down on the north landing stage. A third followed. He rosequickly. 

"Please remain seated, gentlemen, and continue with the luncheon. If youwill excuse me for a moment, I'll be back directly. " I hope, he addedmentally. 

 * * * * *

Captain-General Dorflay, surrounded by a dozen officers, Thoran andhuman, had arrived on the lower terrace at the base of the OctagonTower. They had a full Thoran rifle company with them. As he went downto them, Dorflay hurried forward. 

"It has come, Your Majesty!" he said, as soon as he could make himselfheard without raising his voice. "We are all ready to die with YourMajesty!"

"Oh, I doubt it'll come quite to that, Harv, " he said. "But just to beon the safe side, take that company and the gentlemen who are with youand get up to the mountains and join the Crown Prince and his party. Here. " He took a notepad from his belt pouch and wrote rapidly, sealingthe note and giving it to Dorflay. "Give this to His Highness, and placeyourself under his orders. I know; he's just a boy, but he has a goodhead. Obey him exactly in everything, but under no circumstances returnto the Palace or allow him to return until I call you. "

"Your Majesty is ordering me away?" The old soldier was aghast. 

"An emperor who has a son can be spared. An emperor's son who is tooyoung to marry can't. You know that. "

Harv Dorflay was only mad on one subject, and even within the frame ofhis madness he was intensely logical. He nodded. "Yes, Your ImperialMajesty. We both serve the Empire as best we can. And I will guard thelittle Princess Olva, too. " He grasped Paul's hand, said, "Farewell, Your Majesty!" and dashed away, gathering his staff and the company ofThorans as he went. In an instant, they had vanished down the nearestrampway. 

The emperor watched their departure, and, at the same time, saw a bigblack aircar, bearing the three-mooned planet, argent on sable, ofTravann, let down onto the south landing stage, and another troopcarrier let down after it. Four men left the aircar--Yorn, PrinceTravann, and three officers in the black of the Security Guard. PrinceGanzay had also left the table: he came from one direction as PrinceTravann advanced from the other. They converged on the emperor. 

"What's happening here, Prince Travann?" Prince Ganzay demanded. "Whyare you bringing all these troops to the Palace?"

"Your Majesty, " Prince Travann said smoothly, "I trust that you willpardon this disturbance. I'm sure nothing serious will happen, but Ididn't dare take chances. The students from the University are marchingon the Palace--perfectly peaceful and loyal procession; they're bringinga petition for Your Majesty--but on the way, while passing through anonworkers' district, they were attacked by a gang of hooligansconnected with a voting-bloc boss called Nutchy the Knife. None of thestudents were hurt, and Colonel Handrosan got the procession out of thedistrict promptly, and then dropped some of his men, who have since beenre-enforced, to deal with the hooligans. That's still going on, andthese riots are like forest fires; you never know when they'll shift andget out of control. I hope the men I brought won't be needed here. Really, they're a reserve for the riot work; I won't commit them, though, until I'm sure the Palace is safe. "

He nodded. "Prince Travann, how soon do you estimate that the studentprocession will arrive here?" he asked. 

"They're coming on foot, Your Majesty. I'd give them an hour, at least. "

"Well, Prince Travann, will you have one of your officers see that thepublic-address screen in front is ready; I'll want to talk to them whenthey arrive. And meanwhile, I'll want to talk to Chancellor Khane, Professor Dandrik, Professor Faress and Colonel Handrosan, together. AndCount Tammsan, too; Prince Ganzay, will you please screen him and invitehim here immediately?"

"Now, Your Majesty?" At first, the Prime Minister was trying to suppressa look of incredulity; then he was trying to keep from showingcomprehension. "Yes, Your Majesty; at once. " He frowned slightly when hesaw two of the Security Guard officers salute Prince Travann instead ofthe emperor before going away. Then he turned and hurried toward theOctagon Tower. 

 * * * * *

The officer who had gone to the aircar to use the radio returned andreported that Colonel Handrosan was bringing the Chancellor and bothprofessors from the University in his command-car, having anticipatedthat they would be wanted. Paul nodded in pleasure. 

"You have a good man there, Prince, " he said. "Keep an eye on him. "

"I know it, Your Majesty. To tell the truth, it was he who organizedthis march. Thought they'd be better employed coming here to petitionyou than milling around the University getting into further mischief. "

The other officer also returned, bringing a portable viewscreen with himon a contragravity-lifter. By this time, the Bench of Counselors and thethree off-planet guests had become anxious and left the luncheonpavilion in a body. The Counselors were looking about uneasily, noticing the black uniformed Security Guards who had left the troopcarrier and were taking position by squads all around the emperor. FirstCitizen Yaggo, and King Ranulf and Lord Koreff, also seemed uneasy. Theywere avoiding the proximity of Paul as though he had the green death. 

The viewscreen came on, and in it the city, as seen from an aircar attwo thousand feet, spread out with the Palace visible in the distance, the golden pile of the Octagon Tower jutting up from it. The carcarrying the pickup was behind the procession, which was moving towardthe Palace along one of the broad skyways, with Gendarmes and SecurityGuards leading, following and flanking. There were a few Imperial andplanetary and school flags, but none of the quantity-made banners andplacards which always betray a planned demonstration. 

Prince Ganzay had been gone for some time, now. When he returned, hedrew Paul aside. 

"Your Majesty, " he whispered softly, "I tried to summon Army troops, butit'll be hours before any can get here. And the Militia can't bemobilized in anything less than a day. There are only five thousand ArmyRegulars on Odin, now, anyhow. "

And half of them officers and noncoms of skeleton regiments. Like theNavy, the Army had been scattered all over the Empire--on Behemoth andAmida and Xipetotec and Astarte and Jotunnheim--in response to calls forsupport from Security. 

"Let's have a look at this rioting, Prince Travann, " one of the lessdecrepit Counselors, a retired general, said. "I want to see how yourpeople are handling it. "

The officers who had come with Prince Travann consulted briefly, andthen got another pickup on the screen. This must have been a regularpublic pickup, on the front of a tall building. It was a couple of milesfarther away; the Palace was visible only as a tiny glint from theOctagon Tower, on the skyline. Half a dozen Security aircars weredarting about, two of them chasing a battered civilian vehicle andfiring at it. On rooftops and terraces and skyways, little clumps ofSecurity Guards were skirmishing, dodging from cover to cover, andsometimes individuals or groups in civilian clothes fired back at them. There was a surprising absence of casualties. 

"Your Majesty!" the old general hissed in a scandalized whisper. "That'snothing but a big fake! Look, they're all firing blanks! The rifleshardly kick at all, and there's too much smoke for propellant-powder. "

"I noticed that. " This riot must have been carefully prepared, long inadvance. Yet the student riot seemed to have been entirely spontaneous. That puzzled him; he wished he knew just what Yorn Travann was up to. "Just keep quiet about it, " he advised. 

 * * * * *

More aircars were arriving, big and luxurious, emblazoned with the armsof some of the most distinguished families in Asgard. One of the firstto let down bore the device of Duklass, and from it the Minister ofEconomics, the Minister of Education, and a couple of other Ministers, alighted. Count Duklass went at once to Prince Travann, drawing him awayfrom King Ranulf and Lord Koreff and talking to him rapidly andearnestly. Count Tammsan approached at a swift half-run. 

"Save Your Majesty!" he greeted, breathlessly. "What's going on, sir? Weheard something about some petty brawl at the University, that PrinceGanzay had become alarmed about, but now there seems to be fighting allover the city. I never saw anything like it; on the way here we had togo up to ten thousand feet to get over a battle, and there's a vastcrowd on the Avenue of the Arts, and----" He took in the SecurityGuards. "Your Majesty, just what _is_ going on?"

"Great and frightening changes. " Count Tammsan started; he must havebeen to a psi-medium, too. "But I think the Empire is going to survivethem. There may even be a few improvements, before things are done. "

A blue-uniformed Gendarme officer approached Prince Travann, drawing himaway from Count Duklass and speaking briefly to him. The Minister ofSecurity nodded, then turned back to the Minister of Economics. Theytalked for a few moments longer, then clasped hands, and Travann leftDuklass with his face wreathed in smiles. The Gendarme officeraccompanied him as he approached. 

"Your Majesty, this is Colonel Handrosan, the officer who handled theaffair at the University. "

"And a very good piece of work, colonel. " He shook hands with him. "Don't be surprised if it's remembered next Honors Day. Did you bringKhane and the two professors?"

"They're down on the lower landing-stage, Your Majesty. We're delayingthe students, to give Your Majesty time to talk to them. "

"We'll see them now. My study will do. " The officer saluted and wentaway. He turned to Count Tammsan. "That's why I asked Prince Ganzay toinvite you here. This thing's become too public to be ignored; some sortof action will have to be taken. I'm going to talk to the students; Iwant to find out just what happened before I commit myself to anything. Well, gentlemen, let's go to my study. "

Count Tammsan looked around, bewildered. "But I don't understand----" Hefell into step with Paul and the Minister of Security; a squad ofSecurity Guards fell in behind them. "I don't understand what'shappening, " he complained. 

An emperor about to have his throne yanked out from under him, and aminister about to stage a _coup d'etat_, taking time out to settle atrifling academic squabble. One thing he did understand, though, wasthat the Ministry of Education was getting some very bad publicity at atime when it could be least afforded. Prince Travann was telling himabout the hooligans' attack on the marching students, and that worriedhim even more. Nonworking hooligans acted as voting-bloc bosses ordered;voting-bloc bosses acted on orders from the political manipulators ofCartels and pressure-groups, and action downward through the nonworkerswas usually accompanied by action upward through influences to whichministers were sensitive. 

 * * * * *

There were a dozen Security Guards in black tunics, and as manyHousehold Thorans in red kilts, in the hall outside the study, fraternizing amicably. They hurried apart and formed two ranks, and theThoran officer with them saluted. 

Going into the study, he went to his desk; Count Tammsan lit a cigaretteand puffed nervously, and sat down as though he were afraid the chairwould collapse under him. Prince Travann sank into another chair andrelaxed, closing his eyes. There was a bit of wafer on the floor byPaul's chair, dropped by the little dog that morning. He stooped andpicked it up, laying it on his desk, and sat looking at it until thedoor screen flashed and buzzed. Then he pressed the release button. 

Colonel Handrosan ushered the three University men in ahead ofhim--Khane, with a florid, arrogant face that showed worry under thearrogance; Dandrik, gray-haired and stoop-shouldered, looking irritated;Faress, young, with a scrubby red mustache, looking bellicose. Hegreeted them collectively and invited them to sit, and there was a briefuncomfortable silence which everybody expected him to break. 

"Well, gentlemen, " he said, "we want to get the facts about this affairin some kind of order. I wish you'd tell me, as briefly and ascompletely as possible, what you know about it. "

"There's the man who started it!" Khane declared, pointing at Faress. 

"Professor Faress had nothing to do with it, " Colonel Handrosan statedflatly. "He and his wife were in their apartment, packing to move out, when it started. Somebody called him and told him about the fighting atthe stadium, and he went there at once to talk his students intodispersing. By that time, the situation was completely out of hand; hecould do nothing with the students. 

"Well, I think we ought to find out, first of all, why Professor Faresswas dismissed, " Prince Travann said. "It will take a good deal toconvince me that any teacher able to inspire such loyalty in hisstudents is a bad teacher, or deserves dismissal. "

"As I understand, " Paul said, "the dismissal was the result of adisagreement between Professor Faress and Professor Dandrik about anexperiment on which they were working. I believe, an experiment to fixmore exactly the velocity of accelerated subnucleonic particles. Betamicropositos, wasn't it, Chancellor Khane?"

Khane looked at him in surprise. "Your Majesty, I know nothing aboutthat. Professor Dandrik is head of the physics department; he came tome, about six months ago, and told me that in his opinion thisexperiment was desirable. I simply deferred to his judgment andauthorized it. "

"Your Majesty has just stated the purpose of the experiment, " Dandriksaid. "For centuries, there have been inaccuracies in mathematicaldescriptions of subnucleonic events, and this experiment was undertakenin the hope of eliminating these inaccuracies. " He went into a lengthymathematical explanation. 

"Yes, I understand that, professor. But just what was the actualexperiment, in terms of physical operations?"

 * * * * *

Dandrik looked helpless for a moment. Faress, who had been choking backa laugh, interrupted:

"Your Majesty, we were using the big turbo-linear accelerator to projectfast micropositos down an evacuated tube one kilometer in length, andclocking them with light, the velocity of which has been establishedalmost absolutely. I will say that with respect to the light, there wereno observable inaccuracies at any time, and until the micropositos wereaccelerated to 16. 067543333-1/3 times light-speed, they registered muchas expected. Beyond that velocity, however, the target for themicropositos began registering impacts before the source registeredemission, although the light target was still registering normally. Inotified Professor Dandrik about this, and----"

"You notified him. Wasn't he present at the time?"

"No, Your Majesty. "

"Your Majesty, I am head of the physics department of the University. Ihave too much administrative work to waste time on the technical aspectsof experiments like this, " Dandrik interjected. 

"I understand. Professor Faress was actually performing the experiment. You told Professor Dandrik what had happened. What then?"

"Why, Your Majesty, he simply declared that the limit of accuracy hadbeen reached, and ordered the experiment dropped. He then reported thehighest reading before this anticipation effect was observed as thenewly established limit of accuracy in measuring the velocity ofaccelerated micropositos, and said nothing whatever in his report aboutthe anticipation effect. "

"I read a summary of the report. Why, Professor Dandrik, did you omitmentioning this slightly unusual effect?"

"Why, because the whole thing was utterly preposterous, that's why!"Dandrik barked; and then hastily added, "Your Imperial Majesty. " Heturned and glared at Faress; professors do not glare at galacticemperors. "Your Majesty, the limit of accuracy had been reached. Afterthat, it was only to be expected that the apparatus would give erraticreports. "

"It might have been expected that the apparatus would stop registeringincreased velocity relative to the light-speed standard, or that itwould begin registering disproportionately, " Faress said. "But, YourMajesty, I'll submit that it was not to be expected that it wouldregister impacts before emissions. And I'll add this. After registeringthis slight apparent jump into the future, there was no proportionateincrease in anticipation with further increase of acceleration. I wantedto find out why. But when Professor Dandrik saw what was happening, hebecame almost hysterical, and ordered the accelerator shut down asthough he were afraid it would blow up in his face. "

 * * * * *

"I think it has blown up in his face, " Prince Travann said quietly. "Professor, have you any theory, or supposition, or even any wild guess, as to how this anticipation effect occurs?"

"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect that the apparent anticipation is simplyan observational illusion, similar to the illusion of time-reversalexperienced when it was first observed, though not realized, thatpositrons sometimes exceeded light-speed. "

"Why, that's what I've been saying all along!" Dandrik broke in. "Thewhole thing is an illusion, due----"

"To having reached the limit of observational accuracy; I understand, Professor Dandrik. Go on, Professor Faress. "

"I think that beyond 16. 067543333-1/3 times light-speed, themicropositos ceased to have any velocity at all, velocity being definedas rate of motion in four-dimensional space-time. I believe they movedthrough the three spatial dimensions without moving at all in thefourth, temporal, dimension. They made that kilometer from source totarget, literally, in nothing flat. Instantaneity. "

That must have been the first time he had actually come out and said it. Dandrik jumped to his feet with a cry that was just short of being ashriek. 

"He's crazy! Your Majesty, you mustn't . . . That is, well, Imean--Please, Your Majesty, don't listen to him. He doesn't know whathe's saying. He's raving!"

"He knows perfectly well what he's saying, and it probably scares himmore than it does you. The difference is that he's willing to face itand you aren't. "

The difference was that Faress was a scientist and Dandrik was a scienceteacher. To Faress, a new door had opened, the first new door in eighthundred years. To Dandrik, it threatened invalidation of everything hehad taught since the morning he had opened his first class. He could nolonger say to his pupils, "You are here to learn from me. " He would haveto say, more humbly, "_We_ are here to learn from the Universe. "

It had happened so many times before, too. The comfortable andestablished Universe had fitted all the known facts--and then new factshad been learned that wouldn't fit it. The third planet of the Solsystem had once been the center of the Universe, and then Terra, andSol, and even the galaxy, had been forced to abdicate centricity. Theatom had been indivisible--until somebody divided it. There had beenintangible substance that had permeated the Universe, because it hadbeen necessary for the transmission of light--until it was demonstratedto be unnecessary and nonexistent. And the speed of light had been theultimate velocity, once, and could be exceeded no more than the atomcould be divided. And light-speed had been constant, regardless ofdistance from source, and the Universe, to explain certain observedphenomena, had been believed to be expanding simultaneously in alldirections. And the things that had happened in psychology, whenpsi-phenomena had become too obvious to be shrugged away. 

"And then, when Dr. Dandrik ordered you to drop this experiment, justwhen it was becoming interesting, you refused?"

"Your Majesty, I couldn't stop, not then. But Dr. Dandrik ordered theapparatus dismantled and scrapped, and I'm afraid I lost my head. Toldhim I'd punch his silly old face in, for one thing. "

"You admit that?" Chancellor Khane cried. 

"I think you showed admirable self-restraint in not doing it. Did youexplain to Chancellor Khane the importance of this experiment?"

"I tried to, Your Majesty, but he simply wouldn't listen. "

"But, Your Majesty!" Khane expostulated. "Professor Dandrik is head ofthe department, and one of the foremost physicists of the Empire, andthis young man is only one of the junior assistant-professors. Isn'teven a full professor, and he got his degree from some school awayoff-planet. University of Brannerton on Gimli. "

"Were you a pupil of Professor Vann Evaratt?" Prince Travann askedsharply. 

"Why, yes, sir. I----"

"Ha, no wonder!" Dandrik crowed. "Your Majesty, that man's anout-and-out charlatan! He was kicked out of the University here tenyears ago, and I'm surprised he could even get on the faculty of aschool like Brannerton, on a planet like Gimli. "

"Why, you stupid old fool!" Faress yelled at him. "You aren't enough ofa physicist to oil robots in Vann Evaratt's lab!"

"There, Your Majesty, " Khane said. "You see how much respect forauthority this hooligan has!"

On Aditya, such would be unthinkable; on Aditya, everybody respectsauthority. Whether it's respectable or not. 

Count Tammsan laughed, and he realized that he must have spoken aloud. Nobody else seemed to have gotten the joke. 

"Well, how about the riot, now?" he asked. "Who started that?"

"Colonel Handrosan made an investigation on the spot, " Prince Travannsaid. "May I suggest that we hear his report?"

"Yes indeed. Colonel?"

Handrosan rose and stood with his hands behind his back, looking fixedlyat the wall behind the desk. 

[Illustration]

"Your Majesty, the students of Professor Faress' advanced subnuclearphysics class, postgraduate students, all of them, were told ofProfessor Faress' dismissal by a faculty member who had taken over theclass this morning. They all got up and walked out in a body, andgathered outdoors on the campus to discuss the matter. At the next classbreak, they were joined by other science students, and they went intothe stadium, where they were joined, half an hour later, by morestudents who had learned of the dismissal in the meantime. At no timewas the gathering disorderly. The stadium is covered by a viewscreenpickup which is fitted with a recording device; there is a completeaudio-visual of the whole thing, including the attack on them by thecampus police. 

"This attack was ordered by Chancellor Khane, at about 1100; the chiefof the campus police was told to clear the stadium, and when he asked ifhe was to use force, Chancellor Khane told him to use anything he wantedto. "

"I did not! I told him to get the students out of the stadium, but----"

"The chief of campus police carries a personal wire recorder, " Handrosansaid, in his flat monotone. "He has a recording of the order, inChancellor Khane's own voice. I heard it myself. The police, " hecontinued, "first tried to use gas, but the wind was against them. Theythen tried to use sono-stunners, but the students rushed them andoverwhelmed them. If Your Majesty will permit a personal opinion, whileI do not sympathize with their subsequent attack on the AdministrationCenter, they were entirely within their rights in defending themselvesin the stadium, and it's hard enough to stop trained and disciplinedtroops when they are winning. After defeating the police, they simplywent on by what might be called the momentum of victory. "

"Then you'd say that it's positively established that the students werebehaving in a peacable and orderly manner in the stadium when they wereattacked, and that Chancellor Khane ordered the attack personally?"

"I would, emphatically, Your Majesty. "

"I think we've done enough here, gentlemen. " He turned to Count Tammsan. "This is, jointly, the affair of Education and Security. I would suggestthat you and Prince Travann join in a formal and public inquiry, anduntil all the facts have been established and recorded and actiondecided upon, the dismissal of Professor Faress be reversed and he berestored to his position on the faculty. "

"Yes, Your Majesty, " Tammsan agreed. "And I think it would be a goodidea for Chancellor Khane to take a vacation till then, too. "

"I would further suggest that, as this microposito experiment is crucialto the whole question, it should be repeated. Under the personaldirection of Professor Faress. "

"I agree with that, Your Majesty, " Prince Travann said. "If it's asimportant as I think it is, Professor Dandrik is greatly to be censuredfor ordering it stopped and for failing to report this anticipationeffect. "

"We'll consult about the inquiry, including the experiment, tomorrow, Your Highness, " Tammsan told Travann. 

Paul rose, and everybody rose with him. "That being the case, yougentlemen are all excused. The students' procession ought to bearriving, now, and I want to tell them what's going to be done. PrinceTravann, Count Tammsan; do you care to accompany me?"

 * * * * *

Going up to the central terrace in front of the Octagon Tower, he turnedto Count Tammsan. 

"I notice you laughed at that remark of mine about Aditya, " he said. "Have you met the First Citizen?"

"Only on screen, sir. He was at me for about an hour, this morning. Itseems that they are reforming the educational system on Aditya. OnAditya, everything gets reformed every ten years, whether it needs it ornot. He came here to find somebody to take charge of the reformation. "

He stopped short, bringing the others to a halt beside him, and laughedheartily. 

"Well, we'll send First Citizen Yaggo away happy; we'll make him apresent of the most distinguished educator on Odin. "

"Khane?" Tammsan asked. 

"Khane. Isn't it wonderful; if you have a few problems, you havetrouble, but if you have a whole lot of problems, they start solvingeach other. We get a chance to get rid of Khane and create a vacancythat can be filled by somebody big enough to fill it; the Ministry ofEducation gets out from under a nasty situation; First Citizen Yaggogets what he thinks he wants----"

"And if I know Khane and if I know the People's Commonwealth of Aditya, it won't be a year before Yaggo has Khane shot or stuffs him into jail, and then the Space Navy will have an excuse to visit Aditya, andAditya'll never be the same afterward, " Prince Travann added. 

The students massed on the front lawns were still cheering as they wentdown after addressing them. The Security Guards were conspicuouslyabsent and it was a detail of red-kilted Thoran riflemen who met them asthey entered the hall to the Session Chamber. Prince Ganzay approached, attended by two Household Guard officers, a human and a Thoran. CountTammsan looked from one to the other of his companions, bewildered. Thebewildering thing was that everything was as it should be. 

"Well, gentlemen, " Paul said, "I'm sure that both of you will want toconfer for a moment with your colleagues in the Rotunda before theSession. Please don't feel obliged to attend me further. "

Prince Ganzay approached as they went down the hall. "Your Majesty, what_is_ going on here?" he demanded querulously. "Just who is in control ofthe Palace--you or Prince Travann? And where is His Imperial Highness, and where is General Dorflay?"

"I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik's picnic party. If you're upsetabout this, you can imagine what he might have done here. "

Prince Ganzay looked at him curiously for a moment. "I thought Iunderstood what was happening, " he said. "Now I---- This business aboutthe students, sir; how did it come out?"

Paul told him. They talked for a while, and then the Prime Ministerlooked at his watch, and suggested that the Session ought to be gettingstarted. Paul nodded, and they went down the hall and into the Rotunda. 

The big semicircular lobby was empty, now, except for a platoon ofHousehold Guards, and the Empress Marris and her ladies-in-waiting. Sheadvanced as quickly as her sheath gown would permit, and took his arm;the ladies-in-waiting fell in behind her, and Prince Ganzay went ahead, crying: "My Lords, Your Venerable Highnesses, gentlemen; His ImperialMajesty!"

Marris tightened her grip on his arm as they started forward. "Paul!"she hissed into his ear. "What is this silly story about Yorn Travanntrying to seize the Throne?"

"Isn't it? Yorn's been too close the Throne for too long not to knowwhat sort of a seat it is. He'd commit any crime up to and includinggenocide to keep off it. "

She gave a quick skip to get into step with him. "Then why's he filledthe Palace with these blackcoats? Is Rod all right?"

"Perfectly all right; he's somewhere out in the mountains, keeping HarvDorflay out of mischief. "

 * * * * *

They crossed the Session Hall and took their seats on the double throne;everybody sat down, and the Prime Minister, after some formalities, declared the Plenary Session in being. Almost at once, one of thePrince-Counselors was on his feet begging His Majesty's leave tointerrogate the Government. 

"I wish to ask His Highness the Minister of Security the meaning of allthis unprecedented disturbance, both here in the Palace and in thecity, " he said. 

Prince Travann rose at once. "Your Majesty, in reply to the question ofHis Venerable Highness, " he began, and then launched himself into anaccount of the student riot, the march to petition the emperor, and theclash with the nonworking class hooligans. "As to the affair at theUniversity, I hesitate to speak on what is really the concern of HisLordship the Minister of Education, but as to the fighting in the city, if it is still going on, I can assure His Venerable Highness that theGendarmes and Security Guards have it well in hand; the personsresponsible are being rounded up, and, if the Minister of Justiceconcurs, an inquiry will be started tomorrow. "

The Minister of Justice assured the Minister of Security that hisMinistry would be quite ready to co-operate in the inquiry. CountTammsan then got up and began talking about the riot at the University. 

"What did happen, Paul?" Marris whispered. 

"Chancellor Khane sacked a science professor for being too interested inscience. The students didn't like it. I think Khane's successor willrectify that. Have a good time at the Flower Festivals?"

She raised her fan to hide a grimace. "I made my schedule, " she said. "Tomorrow, I have fifty more booked. "

"Your Imperial Majesty!" The Counselor who had risen paused, to makesure that he had the Imperial attention, before continuing: "Inasmuch asthis question also seems to involve a scientific experiment, I wouldsuggest that the Ministry of Science and Technology is also interestedand since there is at present no Minister holding that portfolio, Iwould suggest that the discussion be continued after a Minister has beenelected. "

The Minister of Health and Sanity jumped to his feet. 

"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of HisVenerable Highness, and to extend it with the subproposal that theMinistry of Science and Technology be abolished, and its functions andpersonnel divided among the other Ministries, specifically those ofEducation and of Economics. "

The Minister of Fine Arts was up before he was fully seated. 

"Your Imperial Majesty; permit me to concur with the proposal of CountGuilfred, and to extend it further with the proposal that the Ministryof Defense, now also vacant, be likewise abolished, and its functionsand personnel added to the Ministry of Security under His HighnessPrince Travann. "

So that was it! Marris, beside him, said, "Well!" He had long agodiscovered that she could pack more meaning into that monosyllable thanthe average counselor could into a half-hour's speech. Prince Ganzay wasthunderstruck, and from the Bench of Counselors six or eight voices werebabbling loudly at once. Four Ministers were on their feet clamoring forrecognition; Count Duklass of Economics was yelling the loudest, so hegot it. 

 * * * * *

"Your Imperial Majesty; it would have been most unseemly in me to havespoken in favor of the proposal of Count Guilfred, being an interestedparty, but I feel no such hesitation in concurring with the proposal ofBaron Garatt, the Minister of Fine Arts. Indeed, I consider it a mostexcellent proposal----"

"And I consider it the most diabolically dangerous proposal to be madein this Hall in the last six centuries!" old Admiral Gaklar shouted. "This is a proposal to concentrate all the armed force of the Empire inthe hands of one man. Who can say what unscrupulous use might be made ofsuch power?"

"Are you intimating, Prince-Counselor, that Prince Travann iscontemplating some tyrannical or subversive use of such power?" CountTammsan, of all people, demanded. 

There was a concerted gasp at that; about half the Plenary Session wereabsolutely sure that he was. Admiral Geklar backed quickly away from thequestion. 

"Prince Travann will not be the last Minister of Security, " he said. 

"What I was about to say, Your Majesty, is that as matters stand, Security has a virtual monopoly on armed power on this planet. Whenthese disorders in the city--which Prince Travann's men are now bringingunder control--broke out, there was, I am informed, an order sent out tobring Regular Army and Planetary Militia into Asgard. It will be hoursbefore any of the former can arrive, and at least a day before thelatter can even be mobilized. By the time any of them get here, therewill be nothing for them to do. Is that not correct, Prince Ganzay?"

The Prime Minister looked at him angrily, stung by the realization thatsomebody else had a personal intelligence service as good as his own, then swallowed his anger and assented. 

"Furthermore, " Count Duklass continued, "the Ministry of Defense, itself, is an anachronism, which no doubt accounts for the condition inwhich we now find it. The Empire has no external enemies whatever; allour defense problems are problems of internal security. Let us thereforeturn the facilities over to the Ministry responsible for the tasks. "

The debate went on and on; he paid less and less attention to it, and itbecame increasingly obvious that opposition to the proposition wasdwindling. Cries of, "Vote! Vote!" began to be heard from itssupporters. Prince Ganzay rose from his desk and came to the throne. 

"Your Imperial Majesty, " he said softly. "I am opposed to thisproposition, but I am convinced that enough favor it to pass it, evenover Your Majesty's veto. Before the vote is called, does Your Majestywish my resignation?"

He rose and stepped down beside the Prime Minister, putting an arm overPrince Ganzay's shoulder. 

"Far from it, old friend, " he said, in a distinctly audible voice. "Iwill have too much need for you. But, as for the proposal, I don'toppose it. I think it an excellent one; it has my approval. " He loweredhis voice. "As soon as it's passed, place General Dorflay's name innomination. "

The Prime Minister looked at him sadly for a moment, then nodded, returning to his desk, where he rapped for order and called for thevote. 

"Well, if you can't lick them, join them, " Marris said as he sat downbeside her. "And if they start chasing you, just yell, 'There he goes;follow me!'"

The proposal carried, almost unanimously. Prince Ganzay then presentedthe name of Captain-General Dorflay for elevation to the Bench ofCounselors, and the emperor decreed it. As soon as the Session wasadjourned and he could do so, he slipped out the little door behind thethrone, into an elevator. 

 * * * * *

In the room at the top of the Octagon Tower, he laid aside his belt anddress dagger and unfastened his tunic, than sat down in his deep chairand called a serving robot. It was the one which had brought him hisbreakfast, and he greeted it as a friend; it lit a cigarette for him, and poured a drink of brandy. For a long time he sat, smoking andsipping and looking out the wide window to the west, where the orangesun was firing the clouds behind the mountains, and he realized that hewas abominably tired. Well, no wonder; more Empire history had been madetoday than in the years since he had come to the Throne. 

Then something behind him clicked. He turned his head, to see YornTravann emerge from the concealed elevator. He grinned and lifted hisdrink in greeting. 

"I thought you'd be a little late, " he said. "Everybody trying to climbonto the bandwagon?"

Yorn Travann came forward, unbuckling his belt and laying it withPaul's; he sank into the chair opposite, and the robot poured him adrink. 

"Well, do you blame them? What would it have looked like to you, intheir place?"

"A _coup d'etat_. For that matter, wasn't that what it was? Why didn'tyou tell me you were springing it?"

"I didn't spring it; it was sprung on me. I didn't know a thing about ittill Max Duklass buttonholed me down by the landing stage. I'd intendedfighting this proposal to partition Science and Technology, but thisriot blew up and scared Duklass and Tammsan and Guilfred and the rest ofthem. They weren't too sure of their majority--that's why they had theelection postponed a couple of times--but they were sure that the riotwould turn some of the undecided Counselors against them. So theyoffered to back me to take over Defense in exchange for my supportingtheir proposal. It looked too good to pass up. "

"Even at the price of wrecking Science and Technology?"

"It was wrecked, or left to rust into uselessness, long ago. The mainfunction of Technology has been to suppress anything that might threatenthis state of economic _rigor mortis_ that Duklass calls stability, andthe function of Science has been to let muttonheads like Khane andDandrik dominate the teaching of science. Well, Defense has its ownscientific and technical sections, and when we come to carving the bird, Duklass and Tammsan are going to see a lot of slices going onto myplate. "

"And when it's all cut up, it will be discovered that there is noprovision for original research. So it will please My Majesty toinstitute an Imperial Office of Scientific Research, independent of anyMinistry, and guess who'll be named to head it. "

"Faress. And, by the way, we're all set on Khane, too. First CitizenYaggo is as delighted to have him as we are to get rid of him. Why don'twe get Vann Evaratt back, and give him the job?"

"Good. If he takes charge there at the opening of the next academicyear, in ten years we'll have a thousand young men, maybe ten times thatmany, who won't be afraid of new things and new ideas. But the mainthing is that now you have Defense, and now the plan can really startfiring all jets. "

"Yes. " Yorn Travann got out his cigarettes and lit one. Paul glanced atthe robot, hoping that its feelings hadn't been hurt. "All these nativeuprisings I've been blowing up out of inter-tribal knife fights, and allthese civil wars my people have been manufacturing; there'll be more ofthem, and I'll start yelling my head off for an adequate Space Navy, andafter we get it, these local troubles will all stop, and then what'll webe expected to do? Scrap the ships?"

They both knew what would be done with some of them. It would have to bedone stealthily, while nobody was looking, but some of those ships wouldgo far beyond the boundaries of the Empire, and new things would happen. New worlds, new problems. Great and frightening changes. 

"Paul, we agreed upon this long ago, when we were still boys at theUniversity. The Empire stopped growing, and when things stop growing, they start dying, the death of petrifaction. And when petrifaction iscomplete, the cracking and the crumbling starts, and there's no way ofstopping it. But if we can get people out onto new planets, the Empirewon't die; it'll start growing again. "

"You didn't start that thing at the University, this morning, yourself, did you?"

"Not the student riot, no. But the hooligan attack, yes. That was someof my own men. The real hooligans began looting after Handrosan hadgotten the students out of the district. We collared all of them, including their boss, Nutchy the Knife, right away, and as soon as wedid that, Big Moogie and Zikko the Nose tried to move in. We're cleaningthem up now. By tomorrow morning there won't be one of these nonworkers'voting blocks left in Asgard, and by the end of the week they'll becleaned up all over Odin. I have discovered a plot, and they're allinvolved in it. "

"Wait a moment. " Paul got to his feet. "That reminds me; Harv Dorflay'shiding Rod and Olva out in the mountains. I wanted him out of here whilethings were happening. I'll have to call him and tell him it's safe tocome in, now. "

"Well, zip up your tunic and put your dagger on; you look as thoughyou'd been arrested, disarmed and searched. "

"That's right. " He hastily repaired his appearance and went to thescreen across the room, punching out the combination of the screen withRodrik's picnic party. 

 * * * * *

A young lieutenant of the Household Troops appeared in it, and had to bereassured. He got General Dorflay. 

"Your Majesty! You are all right?"

"Perfectly all right, general, and it's quite safe to bring His ImperialHighness in. The conspiracy against the Throne has been crushed. "

"Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince Travann a prisoner?"

"Quite the contrary, general. It was our loyal and devoted subject, Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy. "

"But--But, Your Majesty----!"

"You aren't to be blamed for suspecting him, general. His agents wereworking in the very innermost councils of the conspirators. Every one ofthe people whom you suspected--with excellent reason--was actuallyworking to defeat the plot. Think back, general; the scheme to put thegun in the viewscreen, the scheme to sabotage the elevator, the schemeto introduce assassins into the orchestra with guns built into theirtrumpets--every one came to your notice because of what seemed to besome indiscretion of the plotters, didn't it?"

"Why . . . Why, yes, Your Majesty!" By this time tomorrow, he would have acomplete set of memories for each one of them. "You mean, theindiscretions were deliberate?"

"Your vigilance and loyalty made it necessary for them to resort tothese fantastic expedients, and your vigilance defeated them as fast asthey came to your notice. Well, today, Prince Travann and I struck back. I may tell you, in confidence, that every one of the conspirators isdead. Killed in this afternoon's rioting--which was incited for thatpurpose by Prince Travann. "

"Then---- Then there will be no more plots against your life?" There wasa note of regret in the old man's voice. 

"No more, Your Venerable Highness. "

"But---- What did Your Majesty call me?" he asked incredulously. 

"I took the honor of being the first to address you by your new title, Prince-Counselor Dorflay. "

He left the old man overcome, and blubbering happily on the shoulder ofthe Crown Prince, who winked at his father out of the screen. PrinceTravann had gotten a couple of fresh drinks from the robot and handedone to him when he returned to his chair. 

"He'll be finding the Bench of Counselors riddled with treason inside aweek, " Travann said. "You handled that just right, though. Another caseof making problems solve each other. "

"You were telling me about a plot you'd discovered. "

"Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay's best efforts. All the voting-blocbosses on Odin are in a conspiracy to start a civil war to give them achance to loot the planet. There isn't a word of truth in it, of course, but it'll do to arrest and hold them for a few days, and by that timesome of my undercovers will be in control of every nonworker vote on theplanet. After all, the Cartels put an end to competition in every otherbusiness; why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, whenever there's anelection, we just advertise for bids. "

"Why, that would mean absolute control----"

"Of the nonworking vote, yes. And I'll guarantee, personally, that infive years the politics of Odin will have become so unbearably corruptand abusive that the intellectuals, the technicians, the businesspeople, even the nobility, will be flocking to the polls to vote, and ifonly half of them turn out, they'll snow the nonworkers under. Andthat'll mean, eventually, an end to vote-selling, and the nonworkers'llhave to find work. We'll find it for them. "

"Great and frightening changes. " Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized thephrase. Probably started it himself. Paul lifted his glass. "To theMinister of Disturbance!"

"Your Majesty!" They drank to each other, and then Yorn Travann said, "We had a lot of wild dreams, when we were boys; it looks as thoughwe're starting to make some of them come true. You know, when we were inthe University, the students would never have done what they did today. They didn't even do it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt was dismissed. "

"And Van Evaratt's pupil came back to Odin and touched this whole thingoff. " He thought for a moment. "I wonder what Faress has, in thatanticipation effect. "

"I think I can see what can come out of it. If he can propagate a wavethat behaves like those micropositos, we may not have to depend on shipsfor communication. We may be able, some day, to screen Baldur or Vishnuor Aton or Thor as easily as you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains. "He thought silently for a moment. "I don't know whether that would begood or bad. But it would be new, and that's what matters. That's theonly thing that matters. "

"Flower Festivals, " Paul said, and, when Yorn Travann wanted to knowwhat he meant, he told him. "When Princess Olva's Empress, she's goingto curse the name of Klenn Faress. Flower Festivals, all around thegalaxy, without end. "

THE END

+--------------------------------------------------------------+| || Transcriber's Note & Errata || || There were 2 instances of 'cooking-robot' and one of || 'cooking robot' || || There was one instance of 'patriarchial' which was not || corrected. || || The following typographical errors were corrected: || || Page Error Correction || || 15 attion attention || 19 Ranuf's Ranulf's || 25 Tammsen Tammsan || 29 rerespectable respectable || 33 student's students || 34 Geklar Gaklar || 34 tyranical tyrannical || 36 Duklas Duklass |+--------------------------------------------------------------+