Short Fiction by Poul Anderson (free ebook novel .txt) 📕

“Well, yes. Can’t help finding their pamphlets. All over the place. And⁠—” Lancaster closed his mouth. No, damned if he was going to admit that he knew three co-workers who listened to rebel propaganda broadcasts. Those were silly, harmless kids⁠—why get them in trouble, maybe get them sent to camp?

“You probably don’t appreciate the hold that kind of argument has on all too many intellectuals⁠—and a lot of the common herd, too,” said Berg. “Naturally you wouldn’t⁠—if your attitude has always been unsympathetic, these people aren’t going to confide their thoughts to you. And then there are bought men, and spies smuggled in, and⁠—oh, I needn’t elaborate. It’s enough to say that we’ve been thoroughly infiltrated, and that most of their agents have absolutely impeccable dossiers. We can’t give neoscop to everybody, you know⁠—Security has to rely on spot checks and the testing of key personnel. Only when organizations get as big as they are today, there’s apt to be no real key man, and a few spies strategically placed in the lower echelons can pickup a hell of a lot of information. Then there are the colonists out on the planets⁠—our hold on them has always necessarily been loose, because of transportation and communication difficulties if nothing else. And, as I say, foreign powers. A little country like Switzerland or Denmark or Venezuela can’t do much by itself, but an undercover international pooling of resources.⁠ ⁠… Anyway, we have reason to believe in the existence of a large, well financed, well organized underground, with trained fighting men, big secret weapons dumps, and saboteurs ready for the word ‘go’⁠—to say nothing of a restless population and any number of covert sympathizers who’d follow if the initial uprising had good results.”

“Or bad, depending on whose viewpoint you take,” grinned the one-armed man.

Lancaster put his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead on shaking hands. “What has all this got to do with me?” he protested. “I’m not the hero of some cloak-and-dagger spy story. I’m no good at undercover stuff⁠—what do you want of me?”

“It’s very simple,” Berg replied quietly. “The balance of power is still with the government, because it does have more of the really heavy weapons than any other group can possibly muster. Alphabet bombs, artillery, rockets, armor, spaceships and space missiles. You see? Only research has lately suggested that a new era in warfare is developing⁠—a new weapon as decisive as the Macedonian phalanx, gunpowder, and aircraft were in their day.” As Lancaster raised his eyes, he met an almost febrile glitter in Berg’s gaze. “And this weapon may reverse the trend. It may be the cheap and simple arm that anyone can make and use⁠—the equalizer! So we’ve got to develop it before the rebels do. They have laboratories of their own, and their skill at stealing our secrets makes it impossible for us to trust the research to a Project in the usual manner. The fewer who knew of this weapon, the better⁠—because in the wrong hands it could mean⁠—Armageddon!”

The run from Earth was short, for the space laboratory wasn’t far away at the moment as interplanetary distances go. Lancaster wasn’t told anything about its orbit, but guessed that it had a path a million miles or so sunward from Earth and highly tilted with respect to the ecliptic. That made for almost perfect concealment, for what spaceship would normally go much north or south of the region containing the planets?

He was too preoccupied during the journey to estimate orbital figures, anyway. He had seen enough pictures of open space, and some of them had been excellent. But the reality towered unbelievably over all representations. There simply is no way of describing that naked grandeur, and when you have once experienced it you don’t want to try. His companions⁠—Berg and the one-armed Jessup, who piloted the spaceboat⁠—respected his need for silence.

The station had been painted nonreflecting black, which complicated temperature control but made accidental observation of its existence almost impossible. It loomed against the cold glory of stars like a pit of ultimate darkness, and Jessup had to guide the boat in with radar. When the last lock had clanged shut behind him and he stood in a narrow metal corridor, shut away from the sky, Lancaster felt a sense of unendurable loss.

It faded, and he grew aware of others watching him. There were half a dozen people, a motley group dressed in any shabby garment they happened to fancy, with no sign of the semi-military discipline of a Project crew. A Martian hovered in the background, and Lancaster didn’t notice him at first. Berg introduced the humans casually. There was a stocky gray-haired man named Friedrichs, a lanky space-tanned young chap called Isaacson, a middle-aged woman and her husband by the name of Dufrere, a quiet Oriental who answered to Hwang, and a red-haired woman presented as Karen Marek. These, Berg explained, were the technicians who would be helping Lancaster. This end of the space station was devoted to the labs and factories; for security reasons, Lancaster couldn’t be permitted to go elsewhere, but it was hoped he would be comfortable here.

“Ummm⁠—pardon me, aren’t you a rather mixed group?” asked the physicist.

“Yes, very,” said Berg cheerfully. “The Dufreres are French, Hwang is Chinese, and Karen here is Norwegian though her husband was Czech. Not to mention.⁠ ⁠… There you are, I didn’t see you before! Dr. Lancaster, I’d like you to meet Rakkan of Thyle, Mars, a very accomplished labman.”

Lancaster gulped, shifting his feet and looking awkwardly at the small gray-feathered body and the beaked owl-face. Rakkan bowed politely, sparing Lancaster the decision of whether or not to shake the clawlike hand. He assumed Rakkan was somebody’s slave⁠—but since when did slaves act as social equals?

“But you said this project was top secret!” he blurted.

“Oh, it is,” smiled Karen Marek. She had a husky, pleasant voice, and while she was a little too thin to be really good-looking, she was cast in