“A lot more chance than I’d like to take,” Dirk agreed “After all, wanting to get well is one of the biggest assets in recovery. Well, I’ll catch them before they all go to bed.” He stepped out into the middle of the room and called, “Music, stop playing!”
He could have waited until the end of the dance, of course, but the computer stopped the music in mid-bar, and it drew the people’s attention to him more sharply than any amount of shouting could have done. They stepped apart from their partners with ill-concealed relief and turned to stare at the giant’s friend.
“I know you all want to start learning how to overthrow the Protector,” Dirk called out. “Well, even though Gar is still recuperating, we can start without him.”
A murmur went around the room, apprehension and excitement mixed. Dirk waited for it to calm, then went on. “The first part is learning to live by the same schedule the magistrates do, and the second part is to learn to fight, so you can tell your bailiffs how to command their watchmen—or your armies, if you rise to reeves. So everyone wakes at nine o’clock tomorrow, and we’ll work our way earlier and earlier until you’re up with the sun.”
A massed groan rose from the quondam aristocrats.
“I know, I know, but it’s necessary,” Dirk answered. “How many magistrates have you seen who slept in till noon? So up at nine tomorrow, and we’ll start the day with a light breakfast, then a few basic lessons in hand-to-hand combat.”
“But what shall, the ladies do?” Rijora called.
“Do?” Dirk said blankly. “Why, get out there with a quarterstaff, of course!”
A hum of shocked talk went up. Dirk waited a moment, then held up hands for calm. “Let’s make this clear for everyone—you’re not going out for a Sunday picnic. Everybody who’s in on this scheme is very likely to be attacked at some point, and you’d all better know how to defend yourselves. In some ways, it’s even more important for the ladies! So up at nine, now, and that means you ought to be getting to bed as quickly as you can!”
He didn’t need to add “alone”—even longtime lovers were shying away from one another now. They dispersed, and Dirk took Miles and Ciletha for a visit to Gar.
His suite was as grand as the rest, with, full computer support. Dirk stopped in the sitting room and said, “Wait here. I’ll call you if he’s up to talking.” They nodded, so he went to tap on the bedroom door.
“Come in,” Gar called.
Dirk stepped in as Gar called, “Lights, low,” and the lights glowed to life enough to show him lying in the four-poster bed, rising up on one elbow. “How are things, Dirk?”
“Tense.” Dirk started to sit down in the bedside chair he’d been using a lot lately, then hesitated. “Did you eat today?”
“I think so.” Gar rubbed his eyes. “I stumbled over to the dispenser and had some oatmeal the last time I woke—but the sun was shining then.”
“Yeah, that was this morning. Think you can stay awake long enough for some chicken soup?”
Gar nodded, so Dirk went to the dispenser and brought back a tray. As Gar sipped, Dirk said, “They’re full of nervous energy, so I figured I’d better channel it before they deliberately try to go mad again.”
“Wise.” Gar nodded. “What will you do?”
“Wake them up at nine, for starters. Then a few light calisthenics and some basic self-defense techniques—how to fall and roll, block a punch, that kind of thing. Might start with quarterstaves.”
“Enough to raise morale, at least. How fit is Miles to help you?”
“I’ve been giving him and Ciletha lessons in my spare time, which I seem to have a lot of lately. They’re both ready for their green belts, and Miles is an expert with the quarterstaff, so I won’t be out there alone.”
“Helpful.” Gar said. “Any luck with the Guardian?”
“Well, it didn’t say no.” Dirk had spent half an hour in front of the decorated wall, trying to get a definite answer from the computer. “Says it wants to talk to you personally, when you’re ready.”
“It didn’t order us out of the city, then?”
“Didn’t even try. From the odd comment here and there, I gather it thinks we’re the best thing to happen to these people since they started coming here. But it wants to make sure we’re both aiming in the same direction as it is, so it needs a conference.”
“It can probably manage that right here.” Gar looked up at the ceiling and called, “Can you hear us, O Guardian?”
“Yes,” the surrounding voice said instantly.
Dirk jumped half a foot and came down oozing adrenaline.
CHAPTER 14
You have not requested confidentiality,” the voice explained.
“So if I ask you to turn off your audio pickups, you will?”
“Correct,” the computer confirmed.
“I don’t think many of the inmates thought of that,” Dirk muttered. “Must have picked up a lot of interesting sounds.”
“I don’t think it’s possible to shock a machine,” Gar told him, then raised his voice again. “Shall we confer now?”
“The timbre of your voice, and the amount of time you spend sleeping, indicates that you are not yet in proper condition for such a meeting.”
Gar nodded. “Fair enough. But tell me this—can you provide teaching materials for all the people here?”
“Yes. They will be provided via the viewscreens in their suites.”
“May I compliment you on the quality of the frames you provide for them.”
“Thank you, but human designers deserve the credit, not I: What subjects will you be requesting?”
“History, both Terran and local; literary classics; military strategy and tactics; local laws and bureaucratic procedures…”
“I am quite out of date in that subject—by several centuries, in fact.”
“Yes, but you can teach them the basis from which the modern ones are derived. As to making the knowledge current, we’ll see what resources we can rustle up.”
Literally, Dirk thought.
“Oh, a whole host of subjects,” Gar said, suddenly sagging back on the pillow. Dirk suppressed the urge to jump to take his pulse.
“I see you are too tired for further talk,” the Guardian said. “Call me at need. For now, good night.”
“Good night,” Gar replied, his voice weakening.
“I’ll let you sleep in a minute,” Dirk said slowly, “but in the meantime, I was just wondering…”
“Yes?”
“Well, your exhaustion is part of the answer, but only part.”
“Glad to hear it. What’s the question?”
“If you can cure mental illness so easily…” Dirk began, then stopped and said, “Let me revise that. If you can cure mental illness so quickly, why don’t you do it more often?”
“In the first place,” Gar sighed, “I can’t. Most mentally ill people are far more complicated than these, with several disorders all twined together. In the second place, even if I could, I’d have no right. It’s a matter of invading somebody’s mind, you see, and sick or not, I have no right to do that without their permission.”
“No, you don’t,” Dirk said slowly. “What gave you the right this time?”
“Necessity,” Gar sighed, “which means that I really had no right—but it was that, or forget about these people gaining their freedom, and I didn’t have any right to do that, either.”
By the end of the week, all the recruits had learned how to fall without hurting themselves, and how to deliver and block a punch and a kick. The few who hadn’t learned to read, had made a good beginning from the lessons the Guardian supplied them, and Dirk had started teaching them the basic outline of the history of their planet.