An orderly admitted them to the room. Jissek was sitting in an easy chair by a small table in the outer room of the suite, wrapped in a robe, with baggy hospital pants and fluffy house socks. ZORAC had mentioned ahead that he had expressed a reluctance to receive visitors in bed. He stared at Hunt in surprise. Hunt was the first human Jissek had seen since coming aboard. He had watched over his companion through the probe's trip back to the Shapieron, and lost consciousness as soon as the Ganymean medics took charge.
Showm began. ZORAC's translation came from a grille above the table. "The doctor tells us it would be comfortable for you to talk now." Jissek's eyes strayed back to Hunt. "My name is Frenua Showm. We are here just for a short time, from a world that is far away. This is Dr. Hunt, a scientist. We would like to ask you some questions."
"Is there news of Ensign Thorke? The one who was with me. I was told he was being operated on."
"It does not look good, I'm afraid," Showm told him. Typically Thurien, Hunt thought. Incapable of bending anything, even a little. Jissek nodded. He seemed to have been ready for it. Hunt sat down in the other chair at the table. Showm took the couch by one wall.
"You are the Giants, who inhabited Minerva long ago?" Jissek said. "The stories we've heard are true? You went to another star?"
"That is correct."
Jissek looked at Hunt in puzzlement again. "So… are you a Lunarian?"
Hunt clasped his hands together on the table, looking affable. "This could get complicated. We've probably all got lots of questions to ask. But you owe us…" He paused while ZORAC queried Jissek for a translation of the phrase. "So why don't you answer ours first?"
Jissek nodded. "I'll try."
Hunt looked toward Showm. She consulted some papers she was carrying and verified Jissek's name, that he was from Lambia, a naval officer, and other details that the doctor had already established. It was just to get a dialogue moving. Showm came to the subject of the war. "How long has it been going on now?" Jissek seemed unsure how to answer.
"Was there a formal declaration at some point?" Hunt asked. "A day when Lambia or Cerios announced that a state of war existed with the other?"
Jissek shook his head, as if such an idea were new to him. "It just… grew, year by year."
"How did it begin?"
"There was always a problem with the Cerians, for as long as I remember. They were driven by private greed and corruption, even at a time when the survival of all of us depended on working together as one race. We wanted to move everybody to Earth…"
"Yes, we know about that," Showm said. The Cerians they had talked to put a different interpretation on it, of course.
Jissek went on, "Our king had tried to reason with them, to make them see that what they were doing would destroy the chances for everybody. But they said they would make us do things their way, and they began manufacturing weapons. Lambia had to do the same, to defend itself. The Cerians sent planes over our country to spy on us. One of their spy ships came into our coastal waters. When Lambian naval craft went out to turn it back, it fired on them, and it was sunk in the engagement that followed. That happened before my time in the Navy. But it was probably when the actual fighting began."
"You're talking about the Cerian frigate Champion," Showm said, glancing at her notes.
Jissek's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Yes."
The Cerian version was that the Champion had been attacked in international waters.
"And that was how long ago?"
"Two to three years… Something like that."
"Does the name Xerasky mean anything?" Showm asked. Xerasky had been the Lambian dictator at the time of the final war.
"No."
So Xerasky hadn't succeeded Zargon yet.
Showm went on, "You mentioned your king. Do you still have a king in Lambia now?"
"Yes."
"King Perasmon?"
Jissek looked surprised again but this time shook his head. "No. He was killed. Freskel-Gar is king now."
Showm glanced at Hunt pointedly. This was interesting. Freskel-Gar had been the last of the kings before Lambia became a dictatorship under Zargon. "How about the name Zargon?" Hunt inquired.
Jissek nodded. "Oh yes. He's one of the king's generals. Very powerful. He commands the advanced weapons program. Highly secret. Cerian Intelligence has been trying to penetrate it-and with some success, due to Lambian traitors and double agents."
"What kind of weapons are we talking about?" Hunt asked curiously. When no immediate response was forthcoming, he prompted, "Nuclear fission, fusion? Particle and radiation beam? Advanced nucleonic?"
"I… don't know anything about such matters."
Hunt let it go at that. "How about this General Zargon? Can you describe him?"
"Yes, everybody has seen him in the news and on TV. Not all that tall but very broad." Jissek brought his hands up to indicate his chest and shoulders. "Darkish skin, like a heavy tan, and a black beard-short beard, trimmed and neat. Big chin, pugnacious teeth." Hunt leaned back in his chair and gave a satisfied nod. It sounded like Imares Broghuilio all right. He would have staked an arm on it.
"Tell us about Zargon's background," Showm said. "His career, his record. Which part of Lambia is he from?"
"Not a lot is known about that," Jissek replied. "He seemed to come out of nowhere, very suddenly."
"When would this have been?"
"Again, around three years ago. It was before the Champion incident, but not very long before it… Six months, maybe." Jissek hesitated, then added, "If you want my opinion, I think Zargon might not be from Lambia at all. I think he could be a Cerian."
That came as a surprise. "Why would you think that?" Hunt asked.
"He appeared on Freskel-Gar's staff with a group of followers who were very secretive. I don't know even today how many of them there were. But they brought new weapons technologies with them, and set up a program that involved all kinds of advanced scientific knowledge." Jissek made a gesture that asked what else could be made of it. "You see my point? It sounds as if it could have been Cerian armaments specialists from some other part of Minerva, who defected en masse. Just my theory."
"If they were Cerians, why would Cerios need to mount an espionage operation to find out what they were doing?" Hunt asked, smiling faintly.
Jissek had to think about it for a moment. "Maybe they were trying to get it back-if Zargon brought the whole program with him. It would explain all the secrecy, anyway." Hunt nodded that the answer was good enough.
Showm came back in. "Getting back to King Perasmon, you said he was killed. When was this?"
"Three years ago."
"Around the same time, then?"
"I suppose so."
"Had General Zargon actually appeared on Freskel-Gar's staff by this time? Was he around when it happened?"
"I'm… not sure."
"So how did it happen?"
"There was a time when many people thought the problems between us and the Cerians could be solved. I'm not sure of the details… Something about the differences between us not being so important after all. I don't think anyone wanted the war. In those days such things were difficult to imagine-the kind of thing you saw in horror movies. So there were hopes everywhere that it could be avoided. The Cerian president-his name was Harzin-came to Melthis to meet the king personally…" Melthis was the Lambian capital city.