Twenty-four
Basil Whalyk stared with a deeply furrowed brow at
Executor General Hague's retreating figure. A door opened to a side
chamber. Laitin Doen of Tasia stepped into the light.
"That tyrant cannot be allowed to succeed Khalin
Nome. The Overlord, however, must be replaced immediately. That old fool
will bring the wrath of the Alliance down upon us all."
"That old fool has enabled Covonia to thrive for many
centuries," Basil said mildly. He rose to his feet and paced his office
to work off nervous tension. "Recent events are not Khalin's fault that I
can see, although I don't trust Gorlon any more than you do to handle the
crisis with any grace or dignity. He's loyal to nothing but his own
perception of circumstance and the combat tactics of the Hive War. He
would, indeed, become the tyrant we all fear."
"Khalin should never have been allowed to appoint him
to a position of so much power."
Basil grinned wryly. "Khalin has always kept the
General on a short lease."
"He threatens to escape that restraint."
"He cannot."
"Treachery is not beneath the General."
Basil glanced at Doen with simmering anger. "If
treachery is ever substantiated, the General will pay with his life. Doen,
we are surrounded by tyrants and treachery, but we can only act when
they rear their ugly heads. The alternative is a thing called paranoia,
if you give the issue the thought it deserves."
"Threats of litigation do not mitigate the risk you
are taking."
Basil shook his head, wearily of the circular
argument. "Gorlon stays where he is. He's too good at his job. We have
no one to replace him, especially at this critical hour. I see no
evidence that Khalin has lost control of the situation."
Doen's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you mad? The
man is senile! His current priority is a child. At the risk of the lives
of the entire population of Bolphan, he’s obsessed with the rescue of a
hapless child!"
Basil had thought it all through during the course of
long and lonely nights. "Yes, and we dare not interfere until we know
why. Even Gorlon has nothing to say on the subject, evidence that our
mystery has deeper roots than we know, or perhaps want to know.
Regardless, Khalin knows the limits of his powers and does not exceed
them. I trust the man in that regard. He knows how far he can go. He
will step down when the time is right and pass on critical matters of
security to his predecessor."
"He is making a fool of Covonia in the eyes of the
Alliance!"
Basil chuckled. "All the less reason for the
Alliance to fear us." He stared down the panic in Laitin Doen's pallid face. "Khalin has always been a quiet man, but he thinks ahead.
He anticipates trouble. And he inserts his authority in powerful and
unexpected ways when the time is ripe."
"Khalin? Powerful?" Doen chortled in disbelief.
"How is Khalin powerful?"
Basil raised his clenched fist. Doen cringed and
shrank back at his sudden display of rage. "In this manner he shows it!
In the only way that has ever counted among the human species when men of
resolve cross swords! And even during these, his last years, I will trust
Khalin to do what is needed to protect Covonia and to step down when he is
no longer able to do so!"
Pale and shaken, Doen edged toward the exit. "Tasia
does not share your trust in that anachronism of a human being, Council
Prime Executive. I have been authorized to request the release of the
crypts of all citizens of Tasia from the Ark. They will be shipped
immediately to Tasia. We will branch."
Basil sighed in despair. He had feared this would
happen. He did not know how to prevent it without compromising the
security of the other nine cities of Covonia. "You realize the terrible
risk you are taking. The Ark is indestructible. Even the Hive cannot
penetrate its first generation quantum engines."
"If Bolphan is destroyed by the Hive, or the
Alliance, for Khalin's crimes, you will just as surely die in your
indestructible Ark, Basil, in due time!"
"Doen, you know the risk of branching. You would be
committing yourself to the void. In all probability, you would wind up in
a region of space that has never seen a ray of light."
"Those are only theories."
"Why in all the names of the gods would you disregard
the danger? Tasia would be lost without resources, forever. Your fifty
thousand will die deaths I could only envision in the worst of my
nightmares."
"We will take the risk if we see the certainty of an
Alliance writ of execution for the Covonian cities, or a wholesale attack
by the Hive. I don't know what manner of horrible creature they and those
alien ships are tracking, but Covonia is caught in the middle of this
fracas, and you allow Bolphan to stand so close to the danger that you
would die without seeing an attack coming. I would never take so great a
risk with Tasia."
Doen couldn't see so far ahead. The man couldn't
think clearly enough to know the extent of his ignorance and how dangerous
it was to base decisions upon guesswork. But his people had elected him
to power, and there was nothing Whalyk could do. "Your crypts will be
released and transferred to Tasia. May pleasant probabilities be with
you, Doen."
Doen bowed curtly. "And with you as well, Council
Prime Executive."
Doen left the office. Whalyk took his seat at his
desk and thought long and hard about his evaluation of his old ally,
Overlord Khalin Nome. Khalin had always kept far too many dangerous
secrets, but in the past, they had always proven valuable weapons that had
allowed Covonia to prosper in unexpected ways when so many other colonies
of the Alliance had floundered and languished. Khalin had always been a
brave man with the welfare of his people at the center of his heart, but
it was no secret that men of Khalin's age acquired terrible fears of their
coming demise. How badly would the universe around him quake in reaction
to the death throes of Covonia's dying Overlord?
