Smith, E E 'Doc' - D'Alembert 10 - Revolt of the Galaxy

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E. E. 'DOC' SMITH
With STEPHEN GOLDIN
Revolt of the Galaxy
Volume 10 in The Family d'Alembert Series
CHAPTER 1
A Stranger to DesPlaines
The heavy-gravity world of DesPlaines ranked reasonably high in galactic commerce. Sometimes
called the "slagheap of the Universe," the planet was rich in heavy metals and precious stones,
and did a creditable export business in those resources. The Circus of the Galaxy, owned and
operated by the noble d'Alembert family, toured throughout the Empire and brought a sizeable
amount of income into DesPlaines' coffers. Even the citizens themselves were a valuable commodity.
With their lightning reflexes and above-normal strength, DesPlainians were always in demand as
Marines, bodyguards, or criminals. By taking advantage of its geological and human resources,
DesPlaines had turned a hellish environment into a prosperous and comfortable place for its
natives to live.
One industry that was not big on DesPlaines, how ever, was tourism. People from worlds with more
standard gravities - which included all but a tiny percentage of the settled galaxy - dared not
visit DesPlaines with out being surrounded by specialized equipment. The constant three-gee pull
could easily provoke heart attacks and breathing difficulties even in people in superb physical
condition if that weren't bad enough, a simple fall - at three times the speed it would happen
elsewhere - could prove fatal.
People from offworld usually dealt with DesPlainians via subetheric communications. If more
personal contact was required, the DesPlainian often would visit the offworlder; sometimes a
compromise would be reached and the offworlder would rendezvous with his DesPlainian contact on
one of DesPlaines's three moons, where gravity was only one-fifth gee and everyone could relax.
Only the most desperate circumstances could compel someone from a normal-grav world to visit the
surface of DesPlaines itself.
There were other high-grav worlds, of course, the most well-known being Purity and Newforest, but
their citizens seldom traveled. The Puritans shunned the spiritual contamination they felt would
be inevitable if they had much intercourse with people less wholesome than themselves. The
Newforesters were a clannish group who preferred their own sometimes backward ways, and who had
until recently kept apart from the mainstream of galactic society.
Thus the major spaceports on DesPlaines were designed primarily with cargo in mind. There were
some passengers, of course; with DesPlainians in such demand throughout the Empire there were
always some departing for or returning from other worlds. But DesPlainian spaceports tended to be
large, open, barn-like buildings with plain walls and few of the amenities to be found in more
well-traveled ports. The walls were not hung with colorful displays of DesPlainian night spots or
scenic wonders; the few chairs scattered about the floor were institutional and uncomfortable. The
faded tile on the floors was clean but badly scuffed; there was little point in improving it when
so few people ever saw it in the first place. The harsh lighting cast sharp shadows on the walls
and floors, and the air perpetually smelled of perfumed disinfectants.
Today, though, the freighter Anatolia brought with it a paying passenger whose destination was
indeed DesPlaines. She was a young woman, perhaps twenty years old, with long black hair and a
deep olive complexion. She had enormous brown eyes and thick, sensuous lips that highlighted her
attractive face, and she wore a bright-colored blouse and a skirt with a wild, multi-colored
pattern.
Even under normal circumstances she'd have attracted every masculine eye in the spaceport, but her
bearing showed nervousness and not a little apprehension. Something was not quite right with her,
and that made her stand out even more.
Her nervousness brought her to the attention of the SOTE clerk checking identification. One of the
many duties of the Service of the Empire was to keep records of the comings and goings of the
Empire's citizens, and to serve as customs agents to prevent the transport of contraband
materials. Spaceport clerks were trained to spot suspicious behavior - and this traveler was
definitely exhibiting some.
Courtesy was ever the watchword of the Service of the Empire - when more drastic measures were not
called for. "Good afternoon, gospozha," the clerk said politely. "May I see your ID card, please?"
The woman fumbled awkwardly - in the compartmented leather belt she wore and eventually produced
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the card. The officer took it and inserted it in the scanner, which immediately read the encoded
information and informed him that the card was issued to "Beti Bavol," that she held the title
"lady," and that her physical description matched that of the woman standing before him. She was
from the planet Newforest and consequently could be expected to have the typical high grav
physique: short, well-balanced body with thick bones and toughened muscles. That much, at least,
checked out.
"May I ask Your Ladyship to look in the retinascope for a positive ID scan?" the clerk continued.
The fact that Gospozha Bavol was of the nobility meant that even more courtesy was called for, but
he was still suspicious.
Beti Bavol peered into the scope, and a quick comparison with the patterns on her ID card
confirmed that she was indeed who she claimed to be. At the same time, the clerk surreptitiously
had the desk's built-in scanner go over her luggage and clothing to see whether she was carrying
anything illegal. The scanner showed she had a small knife tucked under her clothing next to her
hip, but nothing more serious than that. There was nothing illegal about carrying a hidden knife -
many women did it for protection - but it was one more factor to be considered.
"Thank you," the officer said as Beti Bavol pulled her eyes away from the scope. "Are you visiting
Des Plaines for business or pleasure?"
"I ... I'm not sure. That is, I'm looking for some one, my brother. I think he may be here. I
guess you'd call that pleasure."
The clerk did not respond; he was busy trying to make a decision. He had the full authority to
arrest this newcomer just on the basis of his feeling that something was wrong, but authority that
powerful could not be wielded casually - especially not against a member of the nobility - and he
had no hard evidence to back up his suspicions. At the same time, he didn't feel completely right
about letting her go off unsupervised.
In the end, he made a compromise decision. He entered her card number into his computer with the
order to keep a check on her activities and look for anything further out of order. Whenever her
ladyship took a hotel room, rented transportation, ordered a meal, or made any major purchase, the
fact would be reported to SOTE. The Service could then decide on the basis of more information
what action should be taken.
Ejecting the ID card from the machine, the officer handed it back to the young woman from
Newforest. "Thank you for your cooperation, Your Ladyship," he said politely. "Enjoy your stay on
DesPlaines. Good luck in finding your brother."
---
Because there were so few tourists, there were no hotels near the spaceport; Beti Bavol had to
take a cab into the center of Nouveau Calais to find one. The price was reasonable, and she
quickly settled into her comfortable but compact room. She unpacked her one small suitcase and
then faced the challenge of what to do next.
It was imperative that she find her brother Pias as quickly as possible - but where could she
begin? She didn't have enough money with her to hire a detective, and she'd never done any tracing
on her own, so she hadn't the faintest idea how to go about it. She had very few facts to go on.
Her brother had been exiled from Newforest four years ago in disgrace and she wasn't even sure
he'd come to DesPlaines. All she knew was that he'd become engaged to a DesPlainian woman named
Yvette Dupres. They could just as easily have married and settled on some other planet - or
perhaps they'd broken their engagement and each gone their separate ways. It was a very slender
thread that brought Beti Bavol to DesPlaines - and if it broke, she wasn't sure where she'd go
from here.
She tried calling the police first, but they were less than helpful. Unless her brother was
officially listed as a missing person or was wanted in connection with some crime, they couldn't
spare the manpower to help her. Since Pias's case didn't fall within the "missing persons"
category, the police refused even to listen to her.
She next tried calling the SOTE office, figuring that they would have records of everyone who came
to DesPlaines. The clerk she spoke to told her that they might indeed have such records, but they
were all confidential; regulations regarding personal privacy for bade SOTE to release such
information to the public without a court order. Beti Bavol had hit another stone wall.
She checked the public vidicom directory; if Pias had a vidicom set, he'd more than likely be
listed. But there was no listing for anyone with the name Bavol. There were plenty of Dupres',
including seven Yvettes; in desperation Beti called them all. Three of them weren't in; the rest
were obviously not the woman she'd met as Pias's fiancée.
Wracking her brain, Beti tried asking information from the Bureau of Public Records. If Pias and
his Yvette had gotten married, there should be a certificate on file somewhere. A very kindly lady
checked the entire file for her, but could find no marriage certificate issued to Pias Bavol. If
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Beti's brother had gotten married, the ceremony had taken place somewhere other than DesPlaines.
By the time she'd received this negative information it was suppertime and most government offices
had closed for the day; there would be nothing Beti could do until they opened again tomorrow.
Feeling miserable and de pressed, she went to dinner at the small restaurant adjacent to the
hotel. There, as she picked apathetically at her food, she tried to think of some other strategy
for finding Pias.
Perhaps she could check with the transportation department and find out whether Pias had ever
applied for a license to drive or fly a vehicle on DesPlaines. Perhaps she could check to see
whether any business licenses had been granted in his name. And - though the thought horrified her
- she supposed she should check the newsroll obituaries over the last few years to see whether he
might have died here.
She considered taking out a personal ad in the local newsrolls, but discarded that thought as
impractical. She couldn't even be certain he was on this planet - and even if he was, the odds
were greatly against his seeing the ad. Her funds were running very low after paying for passage
on the Anatolia; she dared not waste her money on anything that offered such small chance of
success.
She returned to her room and tried to get involved with the programs on the trivision and
sensable, but she simply couldn't concentrate. She'd pinned so many of her hopes on locating Pias
quickly, and now she was feeling lost and helpless on a strange world, without friends or family
to give her the support and encouragement she needed to carry on. She stared listlessly at the
images in the trivision cabinet, then switched it off in frustration. Donning the nightgown she'd
brought with her, she went to bed and, after tossing and turning for over an hour, finally fell
asleep.
If she hadn't been so nervous, her story might have ended there. But, edgy as she was, she awoke
in the middle of the night to the strong feeling of danger and the certain knowledge that
something was horribly wrong. Her heart fluttered in an irregular rhythm as she tried to bring her
mind fully awake so she could focus on the problem.
The room was almost pitch black; the heavy curtains cut out all but a fraction of the street
lights outside the hotel. There was no smell of smoke, so it wasn't the threat of a fire that had
awakened her. She strained her eyes against the darkness and, at the same time, held her breath so
she wouldn't miss the slightest sound that might alert her to the trouble.
There it was, a faint scratching noise at the door. Someone was working quietly on the lock,
trying to break into her room. With that realization came the certain knowledge that this was not
some ordinary hotel sneak thief. This could only be someone hired by her brother Tas to bring her
back to Newforest before she could talk to Pias - or to kill her.
Her first impulse was to grab the com unit beside the bed and call hotel security, but then she
heard the faint click of the lock opening. She could be very, very dead before security managed to
send someone up here.
She reached under her pillow and grabbed the hilt of her knife, kept there for just such
emergencies. Then, pushing the bedcovers aside, she slid silently across the room to take up a
position behind the opening door. The intruder was moving slowly and carefully, trying not to make
any sound that would alarm his victim.
This gave Beti time to brace herself for the action that was to come.
The few seconds that she stood there in the dark stretched out immeasurably, and her heart was
pounding so violently in her chest she was sure it would alert the intruder to her presence. Her
hand trembled slightly. She held the knife point upward as she'd been trained to do, and was
grateful that it was considered necessary for everyone in the Gypsy culture of Newforest to learn
how to fight with a knife, even female members of the nobility.
As the door opened slowly, a ribbon of light streamed in from the hall outside. At first Beti
could see nothing from her position, but she heard the unmistakable hum of a stun-gun and supposed
her would-be attacker had fired at the tangle of covers on the bed, thinking she was asleep there.
Then, perhaps feeling a little more confident, the intruder opened the door wider and stepped in
side the room.
Beti forced herself to wait until she had a clear view of him before she acted. Then, taking two
quick steps for ward, she brought her knife up hard under the man's ribs. For all her practice at
knife fighting, this was the first time she had actually stabbed anyone, and it was a jolt to feel
the impact of her knife digging through living flesh. She had no time, though, to be shocked by
what she'd done. Her only thought was to kill, or at least incapacitate, this man who'd meant to
do her harm.
The man gave a gasp of surprise and pain as the blow hit, and turned awkwardly to look at his
assailant. He tried to shift position and shoot her but the shock of the stab wound was too much.
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The gun dropped from his hand and he crumpled to the floor, nearly taking Beti's knife with him.
Only her nervously tight grip on the handle enabled her to pull the blade out as the man fell.
A hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, and Beti realized with horror that the intruder had not
been alone. She whirled and slashed the man who'd grabbed her. A line of blood appeared across his
forehead and he yelled with pain, letting go of her. But Beti could see the silhouette of a third
man behind him, and her heart fell as she realized she would have a very difficult time escaping
from this trap.
She pushed hard at her second attacker, knocking him against the doorframe. Sidestepping him and
crossing the threshold, she approached the third man and swung her knife at him. The blade didn't
come near him, but he backed away, seeing what she'd done to his companions. His small retreat
gave her enough of an opening to run past him and down the hallway. Beti raced down the carpeted
corridor, yelling for help at the top of her lungs. She didn't really expect anyone to open their
doors, but maybe someone in one of the rooms would call security - if only to complain about the
shrieking madwoman who was ruining their sleep.
The third man must have been the most heavily armed, because a blaster bolt sizzled the air and
missed the fleeing woman by just a few centimeters. The second man hissed, "Not in here, you
fool," and the blasterfire stopped, but that one shot had lent great speed to Beti's feet. As the
two men started in pursuit, Beti turned a corner in the hallway and started looking for a way out.
At the end of this hallway was a door marked as a fire exit. On high-grav worlds like DesPlaines,
buildings were seldom more than two Stories tall and this hotel was no exception. Beti's room was
on the second floor, with a series of stairs serving as an emergency route to the ground. Beti
practically flew through the door, but went down the stairs cautiously. Natives of a high-grav
planet learned to deal carefully with any changes in elevation; even a short fall could mean
broken bones at the least, possibly even death. Beti did not want to let her assailants accomplish
their mission by default.
The would-be killers came through the second-floor door just as Beti reached ground level. The one
with the blaster shot again. His beam burned into the exit door just as Beti was reaching for it.
She barely hesitated. Yanking the door open, she raced outside into the cool night air.
Beti found herself in a darkened alley that ran alongside the hotel. The ground was cold and damp
against her bare feet. She paused for an instant to get her bearings. The main street lay to her
left, about thirty meters away. Taking a deep breath, she ran toward the street and bumped into a
stack of boxes that was standing in the darkness at the side of the alley. She cursed at the pain
as she bruised herself, then began running once more for the street. Her feet made a light padding
sound as she ran, a counterpoint to her harsh gasps for breath.
The two men were still chasing her. Apparently unwilling to risk blasterfire in public, they
probably hoped to wear her down and catch her before she could reach some place of safety.
At this hour of the night there was no one else on the street, and little motorized traffic. Even
the front door to the hotel was security-locked by now; Beti would have to stop at the door and
identify herself to the clerk on duty before she'd be let in, and she dared not pause that long
for fear her pursuers would catch up with her.
Beti was running short of breath; her gasps grew louder and longer. Sensing this, the two men
behind her quickened their pace. They were stronger and faster than she was and were not running
in bare feet; they were confident they could catch her before much longer.
A car zoomed by on the darkened street. Beti stood in front of it waving her arms, trying to flag
it down, but the driver refused to stop. Beti had to jump out of his way to avoid being run down,
and then resumed her flight. She could tell her pursuers were gaining on her, but she couldn't
move any faster. Newforest's gravity was two-and-a-half gees; DesPlaines' measured closer to
three. The difference was slight, but under such trying circumstances it was significant. With
each step she took, Beti wore herself down further as she fought the slightly higher gravity.
Beti ducked into another alleyway, hoping to escape through it onto some other street or at least
find someplace to hide. She ran down the darkened alley. Each breath was a fresh stabbing pain in
her lungs.
Too late she realized she'd come to a dead end. She found herself facing a brick wall, with no way
to climb over it. She looked from side to side for an open doorway, but there was none. It was too
late to go back the way she'd come. She was trapped. Even as her spirits were sinking, she turned
back to face her pursuers, knife at the ready. If her life was to end in some dead-end alley on a
planet far from home, at least she would end it with a fight.
The two men chasing her had slowed their pace, realizing they had her trapped. The man with the
blaster was still reluctant to use it, but they approached slowly out of respect for her talents
with the knife. Beti stood in a fighting crouch, waiting for them to come within range so she
could at least kill one before the other over powered her.
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Suddenly bright lights appeared at the front of the alley and a loudspeaker blared, "This is the
police. Drop your weapons immediately and put your hands in the air."
The two men whirled around at this unexpected development, and the one with the blaster pointed it
at the lights. He never had the chance to fire as the buzz of a stunner charged the air and he
collapsed in a heap on the ground. His partner, realizing they'd lost, surrendered to the
inevitable and put up his hands.
Beti flushed with sudden relief and she staggered, then leaned against the wall for support. She
let the knife drop to the ground. She wouldn't need it. Her ordeal was over for the moment - and
maybe now she could convince the police to help her look for her brother.
CHAPTER 2
A Family Reunion
Felicité, the mansion of DesPlaines' Duke Etienne d'Alembert, was a sprawling one-story complex
surrounded by sturdy stone walls. The maze of hallways connecting the thirty major rooms and the
hundred and ten bedrooms had been known to confuse even the sharpest minds - so much so that small
computer terminals were located at intervals to calculate and pin point the shortest route from
wherever one was at the moment to wherever one wanted to go.
This enormous edifice was usually barely occupied, as Duke Etienne and the majority of the
d'Alembert clan toured the Empire in the Circus of the Galaxy for no less than ten months Out of
the year. In those months the estate was inhabited by Duke Etienne's eldest son Robert, Marquis of
DesPlaines, Robert's wife Gabrielle, their three children, and the host of servants and
administrators it took to run both the household and the planet. Only when the Circus was on
vacation was Felicité crowded to capacity, and then even the barracks behind the main mansion
would be filled with d'Alemberts practicing new tricks and upgrading their acts.
The Circus was currently on tour, but nonetheless there were a few extra residents at Felicité.
Yvonne d'Alembert and Pias Bavol were between assignments for the Service of the Empire and had
nothing more crucial to do than tend their children, Maurice d'Alembert and Kari Bavol.
The d'Alembert family tradition was a rigorous one, and already the children were being taught the
skills they'd use in later life. At one year of age, Maurice was learning the art of tumbling and
how to fall properly - important lessons for anyone from a three-gee world, and particularly
important for someone who would probably end up in the Galaxy's foremost circus troupe. Yvonne
also took her son for swings on a trapeze to help him overcome the fear of heights instinctive to
every high-grav native. Yvonne d'Alembert had married into the circus clan and was not a performer
herself, but she was a skilled athlete and could follow the strict Circus regimen for child
training.
Kari Bavol, six months old, was still a bit young for such vigorous activities, but her father
took her into the swimming pool every day and taught her enough swimming to "drownproof" her while
she learned not to be afraid of the water. Pias, though in superb shape, was neither a performer
nor an athlete, and while he loved his daughter, he looked forward to the day when he could hand
her over to some of the Circus's more skilled teachers, who'd give her a more complete education
than he could ever hope to impart. In the meantime he did the best he could, and any skills he
lacked as an instructor were more than compensated for by fatherly affection.
The days were spent quietly in childrearing, reading, and casual conversation, but the peace was
deceptive. While Pias and Yvonne projected an image of cool serenity, both were torn with worry
over the fate of their spouses. Yvonne's husband Jules and Pias's wife Yvette were currently on
assignment for SOTE - an assignment that could be the most dangerous of their careers as secret
agents. Jules and Yvette had gone to the planet Omicron in company with the Galaxy's most
nefarious traitor, Lady A, to investigate the possibility that the Empire was under attack from a
hostile alien force. Pias and Yvonne had been unable to accompany their mates, and could only stay
home and worry about what might be happening to them. Both knew they would have trouble sleeping
until they knew the fate of their beloved partners.
Several days after Jules and Yvette had left for Omicron, Felicité received a midmorning vidicom
call from Baron Ebert Roumenier of Nouveau Calais, Vonnie's father. After inquiring about the
health of his daughter and his precious grandson, the baron got down to business. "Actually," he
told Vonnie, "I'm calling to speak to your brother-in-law Pias. Does he have a sister named Beti?"
When Pias was brought to the vidiphone and the question was asked, he sat upright and his body
tensed. "What's happened?" he asked. "Is she there? Is everything smooth?"
"She had a bit. of a fright last night, but she's recovered," Ebert said, and went on to recount
the police version of what had happened. "She refused to say why the men tried to kill her, and
the men only know they were hired to do a job. Lady Bavol said she refused to discuss the matter
with anyone except her lost brother Pias, whom she thought might be on DesPlaines. Since she's a
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member of the nobility the police brought the matter to my attenion, and I've invited her to stay
here as my guest until the business is settled. I thought I'd contact you so we could figure out
what to do."
"Thank you," Pias said. "I'll be over there as fast as I can. Tell her I'm coming, but don't give
her any details about ... well, about my business or the family I've married into."
The baron nodded. His family was also involved with the Service, and he knew the value of keeping
secrets.
Yvonne offered to come with Pias, since she hadn't visited her father in several weeks. The two
agents and their children climbed into the personal copter and started the ninety-minute flight to
Nouveau Calais.
Not much was said during the trip. As Vonnie looked across at Pias she could see conflicting
emotions playing across his features. In all the years Vonnie had known him, she'd never heard
Pias say a single word about his family - but she'd gotten enough of the story from Yvette to
understand some of the pain behind his silence.
When Pias and Yvette were engaged, Pias took his fiancée to Newforest to meet his family. There he
learned that his father had contracted an incurable disease and that his younger brother was
plotting against him. Because of the secret nature of his job, Pias couldn't tell his family the
real reason why he couldn't stay on Newforest, and his brother used that as a weapon against him.
Accusing Pias of abandoning his family and the traditional Gypsy lifestyle, the brother had a
council of elders - with Pias's father, the Duke of Newforest, sitting in judgment - declare Pias
a nonperson. He was cast out of the family and no one on the planet would have anything to do with
him. Pias Bavol, who should have had the title of marquis and should have become Duke of Newforest
at his father's death, had been wiped from his people's minds as though he'd never existed.
More than once during the last few years, when the planet Newforest was mentioned, Vonnie had seen
Pias go cold and quiet. She'd tried to imagine what it would be like to have her entire family and
every childhood acquaintance suddenly ignore her very existence, to have shopkeepers turn away
from her when she tried to order something, to suddenly become a phantom in the world of the
living. The pain would be more than she could bear, and she'd always marveled at Pias's strength
to shoulder such a weighty burden in order to stay with the woman he loved.
Somehow, with the love and support of his new family and his job as a secret agent of the Service,
he'd built a new life for himself that hardly ever touched on the old one he'd lost. And now,
without warning, into that new life came a painful reminder of all he'd left behind: a sister,
obviously in some kind of trouble, needing his help after scorning him all these years. That had
to be a nasty shock - yet, knowing Pias as she did, Yvonne was sure he wouldn't turn his back on
such a plea.
Vonnie tried hard to recall what Yvette had told her about Pias's family, and particularly about
his sister Beti. There wasn't much, just that Beti had been a teenager when Yvette met her and
seemed pleasant enough at their one encounter, before Pias was ostracized. It was not enough
material on which to form an opinion; Vonnie would have to wait until they arrived at her father's
house and the situation was more fully explained.
The Roumenier baronial estate was in the middle of a small park in the northeast quarter of
Nouveau Calais. Pias landed their copter on the heliport roof and Vonnie led him and the children
down the familiar stairs into the home where she'd grown up. A servant told them the baron and his
guest were awaiting them in the. drawing room.
Beti Bavol looked up the instant they walked into the room, and an electric current passed through
the air between brother and sister. Vonnie noticed that Beti was a very pretty girl, and the
resemblance to Pias was unmistakable.
The silence seemed to drag on forever, until Pias finally broke it. "Hello, Beti," he said.. His
voice was quiet, subdued, as though he were speaking from a great distance.
"Pias, I ..." Beti hesitated, then rethought what she'd been about to say. "You're looking well,."
she said formally.
"You look so different I'd hardly recognize you," Pias told her. "So grown up. Of course, it's
been years. ..." He realized he was touching on a delicate subject and his voice trailed off
indecisively. Trying to fill the conversational gap, he added, "This is my sister-in-law, Yvonne,
and her son Maurice. And ... and look, Yvette and I have produced a niece for you, little Kari."
Beti's eyes went wide, and for the first time the tension in her face began to ease. "Oh Pias,
she's darling. Come, let me hold her."
As Pias brought the child over to his sister, Beti continued, "Where is Yvette? Is she well? Are
you and she still together?"
"She's away on business right now," Pias said care fully. "I'm sure she'd be glad to see you again
if she were here."
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Baron Ebert Roumenier cleared his throat. He was shrewd enough to know when his presence was not
required. "Yvonne, why don't you and I take Maurice for a walk through the garden? Really, you
don't bring him over for a visit nearly often enough." Father, daughter, and grandson departed
tactfully, leaving the room to the Bavols.
Silence descended on the room again. Beti Bavol held her little niece on her lap and refused to
meet her brother's gaze. It was left to Pias to break the silence once more.
"They tell me you're in some kind of trouble," he said as he sat down next to her on the couch,
"that there are some people trying to kill you. What's the matter? What's wrong?"
Beti looked suddenly into his face, and there were tears in the corners of her eyes. "Oh Pias,
I've done you such a terrible wrong. We all have. There's no way I can ever say I'm sorry for all
the hurt. I didn't want to do it; I always liked you. But I was only a girl, I couldn't fight
them, I didn't know how to try. It was safer just to go along with the rest, to pretend you
weren't there. I've thought about you a lot in the past years, wondering where you were and what
you were doing. But I could never say anything out loud. ..." Her sobbing became too great for her
to continue. Throwing her arms around her brother's shoulders, she wept, unashamed.
Pias held her gently and didn't try to speak. He had his own eyes closed, trying to purge himself
of the bitterness and pain he felt. Beti wasn't to blame for what had happened to him; as she'd
said; she was only a teenager when the kriss voted to oust him from Newforest society. A young
girl could do nothing against such overwhelming social pressure. His true complaint, he knew, was
against other people, older and more in control of worldly affairs. A large part of him wanted to
tell Beti to go away and not reopen an old wound that had almost healed by now - but a larger part
of his heart and conscience told him he could not turn her away when she was in so much trouble.
When her sobbing finally subsided, Pias asked her, "Has the kriss revoked its decree?"
Beti shook her head sadly. "Not with Tas running it. They wouldn't dare."
"Poppa's still duke, isn't he?" Despite his avowed disinterest, Pias kept watching the newsrolls
for items about Newforest. He'd seen no mention of his father's death - but he was often away on
assignment, and Newforest was a rather unimportant planet. A change in administrations would not
be major news elsewhere in the Galaxy.
"He's hanging on," Beti said, sniffing back the last traces of tears. Though mottle fever was
incurable, it was a lingering disease that could drag on for many years before killing its victim.
"You. know how tough he is."
"But Tas is running the kriss," Pias reiterated.
"Tas is running everything," Beti said. "According to the edict, he's now the oldest child, due to
become duke when Poppa ... goes. Poppa gets weaker and weaker, and it's all he can do to stay
alive. He doesn't have the strength to fight Tas, too. Tas acts like he's already duke - almost
like he's emperor. If you think I'm hard to recognize, you ought to see him. He's a dictator,
telling everyone what to do and think. Anyone who stands up to him gets beaten, sometimes even
killed."
"Has a report been filed with the Service of the Empire? I know the Empress takes a dim view of
subordinates who get too far out of line. She wouldn't tolerate such behavior if she knew about
it."
Beti shook her head. "Nobody dares file a report. Tas seems to know everything that's going on
everywhere on the planet. I don't know how he does it, he can't have that many spies, but he just
knows - and he makes things very rough for people who oppose him."
Pulling her head back slightly she gazed straight into Pias's eyes. "What went wrong with him? I
don't understand. You and he were always my big brothers, people I could run to when I was hurt.
Tas was always full of life, always wanting to play new games with me. He was never like this,
never cruel. It's as though some thing in him, whatever it was that made him human, just turned
off suddenly."
"I know he was always jealous of me because I was the oldest son and Poppa favored me," Pias
mused. "Jealousy can twist even the most decent people into monsters. Perhaps he felt so insecure
that he had to get me out of the way, and when that didn't make him feel any better he got nastier
and more cruel, hoping that more and more power would fill the vacuum in his soul. But no amount
of power can do that; a soul has to be healed from the inside, not from the outside."
Pias sighed. "Oh hell, I'm no psychologist. I don't know if that's what's wrong with him or not.
There's something dreadfully sick within him, I saw that the last time I was home - but what
caused it, when it began, and what can be done about it... I just don't know."
"He has to be stopped," Beti said with gritty determination. "That's why I came to find you.
You've always been able to stand up to him, all the time I was growing up. You're the only person
he's really afraid of, you're the only one who could take control away from him. Legally, as
oldest son...."
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"Legally I'm not the oldest son," Pias said bitterly.
"Legally, according to the kriss, I'm nobody. I don't exist. Nobody on Newforest will have
anything to do with me."
"A lot of people are beginning to realize they made a mistake," Beti said. "They want you to come
back and put Tas in his place. They want you as the next duke. They're even making up songs about
you, about the wandering son who'll come back one day and save Newforest from tyranny."
Pias turned his face away. "It's not that easy, Beti. I've made a new life for myself here. The
reasons I had for leaving Newforest, the things I couldn't explain to the kriss, are still there
and even now I can't tell you about them. I have responsibilities to something far greater than
the welfare of a single world. I don't know if I'll ever be able to return. I don't know if I'll
want to. I had to turn off so much of myself to keep it from hurting. To bring it back now...." He
shivered at the thought.
"I understand," Beti said, her voice like a little girl's. "We turned our backs on you and cast
you out. We have no right to ask you for favors now."
She sighed. "I guess I'm in the same boat now. I'll have to change my name and find somewhere safe
to live."
This jolted Pias out of his own unhappy thoughts. "Huh? Why?" He turned to face her again.
"I can't go back home, not after this. You were my one hope, and now that's gone."
Something inside Pias went cold and brittle. "You mean it was Tas who tried to kill you? His own
sister?"
"He keeps the whole family under lock and key; he's afraid we'll challenge him and get people to
back us. We're not in chains, but we've got some of his 'escorts' wherever we go to make sure we
don't do anything wrong. Old Yuri helped me escape in a wagonload of mulaska melons. I had barely
enough money to book passage on a couple of ships, first to Belange, then to Wallach, and finally
I caught the freighter coming here, hoping to find you. I don't know how he tracked me down, but
those must have been some of his men who ... who ....
She broke into fresh tears, and Pias held her tightly once more. But as his hands tenderly
caressed her shoulders his fact hardened into an expression of grim determination. As Beti's
sobbing subsided once more, he whispered, "I can't let him get away with that. I can't let him do
it - not to you, not to them, though God knows they've deserved it."
He pushed Beti away slightly so he could look into her face. "I have the Empire on one side and
you and the family and Newforest on the other. But I can't sit by and let my family be murdered by
my power-mad brother. That's not in anyone's interest, not even the Empress's."
He sighed.
Then he moved apart from her, and his tone was all business. "Tell me what's happened since I
left. Tell me everything, every detail no matter how small. If I'm going to be of any help, I have
to know what I'm facing."
---
After hearing his sister's story and assuring her she'd be safe with Baron Ebert, Pias took Yvonne
with him to police headquarters where the would-be assassins were being held. With the word of the
baron backing them up, they gained quick admittance to the killers.
Even under detrazine, though, it was clear that Beti's attackers could give them little additional
information. They were low - level blasterbats, local criminals hired by an anonymous voice over
the vidiphone - with the visual circuits blanked out - to perform the specific task of killing
Beti Bavol. They were told precisely where she was staying and that they should perform their task
as quickly as possible. They didn't know who had hired them or whether there was any connection
with the planet Newforest.
Disappointed, the two SOTE agents flew back to Felicité, discussing the problem along the way.
"From what Beti told me," Pias said, "Tas has revolutionized the planet singlehanded. It was
always a rather backward, easygoing place; now he's brought in computerized equipment, he's spying
on his citizens, he's even building factories. That's much too institutionalized for good old
Newforest. If it were just the factories and the computers, I could excuse it as an attempt to
bring 'progress' to the planet - but the ruthless way he's going about it makes it different
somehow. Something's happening there, something ... well, I hate to say 'evil,' it sounds so
melodramatic, but that's the feeling I get. Something evil has gripped Newforest and won't let go.
What I don't understand is why the local SOTE office hasn't reported anything about this."
"Maybe they have," Vonnie said. "The Empress gives local nobility a great deal of leeway - it's
the only way an empire of this scale can survive. Her father tried to avoid meddling in local
matters as much as possible, and Edna seems to be following that same policy. She and the Head may
be waiting to see just how far this will go before they step in."
"When it goes as far as murder, that's too far."
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"I agree, and something will have to be done. The thing I don't understand is how your brother was
able to track Beti down so quickly. Within hours of her arrival the killers knew exactly where to
find her. That would be understandable on Newforest, where he probably has lots of spies, but on a
distant planet it's much harder to trace someone. He must have some organization behind him."
The implications of her statement remained floating in the air between them, but neither agent
voiced them aloud. Instead they flew the rest of the way back to the d'Alembert estate in brooding
silence.
As soon as they reached Felicité, Pias put through a subcom call to the Head's private number on
Earth. Grand Duke Zander von Wilmenhorst, the chief of the Service of the Empire, was unavailable
at the moment, but Pias spoke to his daughter and prime lieutenant, Helena. He asked for a leave
of absence to settle some family matters, and described to her in some detail what he'd learned of
events on Newforest. Helena listened somberly as she considered the situation.
"I don't recall any strongly negative reports, from Newforest," she said when Pias was done, "and
I see virtually all the reports that come in. I see so many reports it makes my eyes ache."
She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. "As far as I can recall, the only thing that's come
in about Newforest was that they were making a big push toward modernization. Nothing wrong with
that, so we haven't paid much attention. If what your sister says is true, someone is lying to us
somewhere down the line - possibly someone in the Service office itself. I don't like that one
bit."
She paused and looked straight at Pias. "What you're describing doesn't sound to me like a leave
of absence at all. It sounds like a full-blown assignment, to investigate illegal and treasonous
activities on Newforest and to take steps to correct the situation. You don't have to ask
permission to do that."
"There are personal matters involved," Pias said, "and I didn't want to just disappear on you if
you had any other assignments for me."
"I understand the personal matters very well," Helena said, her expression softening suddenly.
"Newforest is your home, and should have been your inheritance. I know the depth of your concern.
You know, though, that the d'Alembert teams have a standing assignment to investigate anything
that looks suspicious to them - unless they're given something specific to do instead. Right now,
everything's quiet - everyone's holding their breath to see what turns out in the Omicron
situation. You're free to pursue any investigations that strike your fancy. I appreciate knowing
where you'll be, in case of trouble. I'll notify the local office there to stand by to give you
any assistance...."
"That might not be such a wise idea," Vonnie said, in view of the fact that someone there might be
falsifying the reports."
Helena winced. "You're right, of course. It makes me shudder just to think there might be traitors
in the Service; it was bad enough when we had to weed out so many during the Banion mess. Find out
what you can, and if it calls for official action we can bring in help from the outside.
"If things are as bad as your sister claims, you won't have to go into much detail; just give us a
preliminary report. You're a good investigator and troubleshooter, but we've got specialists in
planetary administration who can handle the mop-up once you've pointed them in the right
direction. There's no need to risk yourself unnecessarily on a minor housekeeping matter like
this; the Service needs your talents too much for major projects."
But to Pias Bavol this was far more than "a minor housekeeping matter." This was his family, and
Newforest was the planet he'd once hoped to inherit. Unimportant though it might be in the scheme
of galactic history, this was his home and his people - and even though he was sorely tempted to
let the friends and family who'd betrayed him suffer the consequences of their actions, he vowed
to put into this case every bit of energy it took to set the situation right again.
CHAPTER 3
Return to Newforest
Pias had a major battle on his hands even before he left DesPlaines. Yvonne d'Alembert - impatient
at her enforced idleness and nervous about the fate of her spouse - demanded to accompany him on
his trip to Newforest. It would at least give her something to do to take her mind off Jules's
dangerous assignment on Omicron.
Pias at first protested that the children would be left unattended, to which Vonnie replied that
there were plenty of servants on the vast ducal estate, as well as the Marchioness Gabrielle - and
if they got tired of watching the children, Vonnie's father was always eager to see them. "I
refuse to be thought of as the weak link in this family," she insisted. "I'm always the one who
has to stay behind, and it just isn't fair. I can pull my weight with the rest of you."
Pias agreed that was so, but voiced a new objection. "This is a job that calls for a great deal of
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subtlety," he said, "and I'm afraid you'd stand out too much."
"Thanks a lot!" Vonnie grimaced. "I'm as good at undercover work as anyone in this family. I was
taking classes before you ever thought to leave Newforest, and I got a 989 on the Thousand Point
Test. That's not exactly spaceslime, tovarishch."
Pias shook his head as he tried to soothe his Sister-in-law's temper. "I didn't mean to imply you
weren't any good, but Newforest is a special case. We stayed isolated from the rest of the Empire
until two generations ago. We've got a language of our own and a very distinct culture. Outsiders
are viewed with great suspicion and distrust, and it would take you weeks, maybe even months, to
learn everything you'd need to be able to pass for a native. I just can't afford the delay. If Tas
would try to kill Beti, who knows what he'll do to the rest of the family - or to the rest of
Newforest. I've got to stop him quickly."
The argument continued, but in the end Pias was victorious. He would travel to Newforest alone and
investigate his brother's activities. He did promise that if any action were to be taken he would
notify Yvonne as well as SOTE Headquarters on Earth, giving his sister-in-law a chance to get in
on the adventure.
Pias left for Newforest a few hours later in one of the small private ships the d'Alembert family
kept at Felicité's spacefield. It was a long trip from DesPlaines to Newforest, and Pias had
plenty of time to consider the strategy he would use in his investigation.
The first thing he would have to do was disguise him self. As a young marquis and heir to the
planet, he had always been a popular figure and his appearance was well known to most of the
populace. By the edict of the kriss, the council of elders, he was a nonperson and anyone who saw
him was supposed to treat him as though he didn't exist. That would make it hard to obtain any
information from the people about what was really happening on Newforest. Even worse, Pias was
afraid that someone recognizing him would inform Tas, and then he'd be in trouble.
To avoid that problem he dyed his sandy brown hair a deep black, changed his hairline with
plucking and growth inhibitors, used skin pigments to darken his complexion, and applied a thick
mustache to his normally bare upper lip. He inserted contact lenses to change his eye color from
blue to brown. For hours he practiced speaking in a voice that was higher and more nasal than his
usual tones, and he gave himself a trace of a country accent that would label him as coming from
well outside the capital city of Garridan where the Bavol family made its home.
Landing on Newforest would be awkward. Because of its high gravity, no one went there casually -
and because it had little heavy industry or interstellar trade, the planet attracted even fewer
visitors than DesPlaines did. Anyone landing at the spaceport was an immediate object of suspicion
- and particularly so if he arrived in a personal spaceship. Very few Newforesters could afford
their own private ships; landing at Garridan Space port would attract undue attention - something
an undercover agent preferred to avoid.
Pias would have to land somewhere unofficially. There was a range of hills about thirty kilometers
south of the town where he thought he might come down unseen. He hated the thought of walking so
far into town, but he could think of no alternative. Meanwhile, in preparation, he went through
the ship as thoroughly as he could, removing anything that might identify it. If someone spotted
it while he was gone, he didn't want to leave any clues pointing to himself or, worse, to the
d'Alemberts of DesPlaines. He'd also brought along some cases of expensive perfume and some mildly
pornographic sensable tapes; if planetary officials examined the ship, they'd think he was a
smuggler, not a spy.
He'd thought a secret landing would be easily arranged. Garridan was not a busy port and its
detection equipment was largely unsophisticated. Since there was no naval base there either, there
should have been no detectors capable of spotting his small craft - or, if they did spot him,
there would be no resources for tracking him down and following him to his landing site. He would
be at most a momentary enigma that would fade from their memories almost as fast as he faded from
their sensor screens.
His ship emerged from subspace about twenty million kilometers out from Newforest and quickly
began spiraling in. His troubles began just before he reached the uppermost levels of the planet's
atmosphere. An official radio announcement demanded that he identify himself immediately or face
legal action. Pias ignored the warning and concentrated on plotting a course to land at his chosen
hiding site.
The warning came a second time, and Pias suddenly noticed two ships on his sensor screen coming up
to intercept him. Newforest had never had a big problem with smugglers, and no one ever wanted to
land here illegally, so the government had never bothered to challenge ships before. He cursed
himself for not expecting a fight after everything Beti had told him about Tas's security
crackdown, but it was still hard for him to think of his home world as anything but easygoing. In
the back of his mind, Pias knew that such measures meant there was something on Newforest that
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