They drove to the palace and parked before the main entry and Ronny slipped a syrette into his arm. Within moments, the world seemingly stopped. All movement stopped. Munching energypills as fast as he could, he dashed for the underground living quarters of the Baron. He found the Baron, stock-still as was everybody else, in conference with some of his military leaders, and, after difficulties, found the chart and dashed back with it, still desperately bolting energy pills which were having less and less effect on him.
They started back for town, the Baron’s security guards close behind, and knew that they wouldn’t make it. Luck intervened and on the way they met Rita Daniels and abducted her as a hostage, since she was the Baron’s favorite relative.
Knowing that the Baron would undoubtedly immediately head for the Dawnworlds, before the United Planets Space Fleet could intervene, Ronny and Birdman, under Metaxa’s orders, summoned a space cruiser and, still holding Rita Daniels as a hostage, set off for the nearest Dawnworld themselves.
Captain Gary Volos and his three officers of the Space Cruiser Pisa had at first given them trouble, thinking they were challenging Articles One and Two of the Charter, in abducting the niece of a head of state, but when the Dawnman planet was reached they had come around. They had soon detected Baron Wyler’s space yacht and Ronny landed to reconnoiter.
The planet was one large garden with nothing resembling a city to be seen. However, Ronny had soon stumbled upon a group of the Dawnmen, obviously having a picnic. They completely ignored him, as though he simply wasn’t there. With them, they had several coffee-grinder-looking devices which were, on the face of it, matter converters. They could pour even sand in the top and come up with fruit, wine, or whatever else they wanted.
Ronny had been tempted to steal one of them but some instinct prevented him and he refrained. He received a call from the Pisa and found that the Baron had got in touch with them and was requesting help.
He returned to the space cruiser and they landed next to the Baron’s yacht. Ronny went over and found that only Baron Wyler and Count Fitzjames occupied the spaceship.
The Baron, a broken man, revealed that all of his crew had been sent out with orders to obtain a matter converter, and anything else that seemed desirable. They had been captured and taken to the top of a pyramid-like ancient building, placed on an altar and one by one had their hearts cut from their chests in a religious ceremony similar to that of the Aztecs.
Count Fitzjames thought he had figured it out. Using the Indian caste system again, as an example, he contended that the Dawnmen had evolved a very high industrial level, bee-hive type culture. They’re a happy people, he said. Everybody is happy—or he’s a genetic defective and disposed of, because he is a genetic defective, or he’d be happy.
They were evidently not aggressive, but were insect-like in their manner of defense of their territories and their way of doing things. They weren’t aggressive since they were one hundred percent ritualistic and had no ritual for aggression. At first, he and the Baron had been amazed when they landed that the Dawnmen ignored them. But they couldn’t have done anything else since they had no rituals that applied to strangers. But they did have rituals that applied to stealing, and the Baron’s men had fallen victim to them. Undoubtedly the same thing had happened to the monkey-like aliens. The Dawnmen had ruthlessly destroyed their whole three star systems as a result.
A telepathic message had at that point entered the minds of the three of them. The Baron was informed that Phrygia had been destroyed. But Ronny was informed that he committed no wrong and was instructed to return to Earth and warn others away. They had scanned his body and found the result of his having gone into pseudo-time and thus shortened his life. However, so that he could spread the warning they had made rectifications on him so that he will live some two and a half centuries.
The voice-in-their-brains went on to explain that it represents the equivalent of the Brahmins on the Dawnworlds. It wound up saying, “We have no designs against you. So long as you have none against us, our cultures need never conflict. Farewell… ”
Upon return to Earth, Metaxa rejected the idea of warning all human planets to stay away. He pointed out that more than one of the United Planets might react hysterically and want to go to war. Others would have elements among them that would want to steal, as the Baron had, the advanced technology. There would possibly even be religious cranks who’d want to send missionaries.
Instead, the Baron, Rita Daniels, and both crews of the space cruisers were brainwashed, so that they’d forget all they knew about the Dawnworlds. Ronny and Birdman alone were deemed safe to have the information. And Ronny, in reward for his services, was raised to supervisor rank.
Chapter Twelve
Now Ronny was saying, “Where and what did you hear about the Dawnman Worlds?”
Fredric said, “You mentioned that the others who landed with you had been brainwashed. I don’t believe I know that term. What do you mean?”
“Memory wiped,” Ronny told him flatly. “All their memories about the Dawnworlds were erased.”
“What an intrusion!” Mattie protested.
Ronny looked over at her. “Yes,” he said. “But a necessary one. The human race is at stake.”
Fredric said, “But you are trusted with the secret of the existence of the Dawnworlds, and with their location?”
“Yes. The Commissioner of Section G decided that we should have someone knowledgeable about them.”
“And Phil Birdman?”
“Phil Birdman was killed not long ago on an assignment.”
“And the Supreme Commandant of Phrygia?”
“Suicided shortly after our return from the Dawnworlds. I am the only person alive who knows their location. I burned the star chart showing it. The galaxy being as large as it is, it could take a millenium to locate them without my assistance.”
His eyes narrowed. “But, once again, how do you know about these things, the names of Birdman and the Supreme Commandant?”
Max said softly, “You left out one survivor of your adventure, Ronny Bronston. Academician Count Felix Fitzjames. After the destruction of Phrygia he did not commit suicide, as did his late commandant. He eluded your agents and came here to Einstein and requested asylum. It was granted him, in view of the fact that he was an outstanding authority in the field of anthropology.”
Dorn Horsten said coldly, “Where is he now?”
Fredric took over again. “The Academician was an aged man. He is dead.”
Ronny said, “And he revealed to you the location of the Dawnworlds?”
“He couldn’t. He didn’t know. He was an academician, not a navigator. But he told us the story of them and your activities there. We would like to know more. The story is fascinating.”
“That, it is,” Ronny said flatly. “It is also the most restricted story in United Planets. Not even my superiors know the location of those worlds. They don’t want to. It must never get out and each additional person who knows a secret makes it that much more difficult to keep it.”
Barbara, frowning slightly, said, “You of Section G seem to make an awfully big issue of this. Why?”
“Because we’re afraid to death that some crackpot element will find out where they’re located and go there and, as a result, doom the whole human race.” He looked from one of them to the other, slowly, deliberately. “So I am not about to reveal the location of the Dawnworlds, even to citizens of the planet Einstein, no matter what their Intelligence Quotient. Someone, a long time ago, pointed out that high intelligence is no guarantee of high integrity. Some of the most intelligent people who ever lived were also ambitious. The Medicis and Borgias of the Renaissance were admittedly brilliant. So was Napoleon, or he wouldn’t have been the military genius he proved himself to be. No, intelligence is no guarantee of integrity, nor even a guarantee of correct decision. According to our racial legends, an omniscient God created man. A mistake if I ever heard of one.”