Yet the room was guarded, and as the hours passed, Arvardan finally lost his temper and cried, "But we've simply exchanged prisons."
The dull, meaningless routine of an army camp drifted about them, ignoring them. Schwartz was sleeping and Arvardan's eyes went to him. Shekt shook his head.
"We can't," he said. "It's humanly impossible. The man is exhausted. Let him sleep."
"But there are only thirty-nine hours left."
"I know-but wait."
A cool and faintly sardonic voice sounded. "Which of you claims to be a citizen of the Empire?"
Arvardan sprang forward. "I am. I-"
And his voice failed as he recognized the speaker. The latter smiled rigidly. His left arm he held a bit stiffly as a remaining memento of their last meeting.
Pola's voice was faint behind him. "Bel, it's the officer-the one of the department store."
"The one whose arm he broke," came the sharp addition. "My name is Lieutenant Claudy and yes, you are the same man. So you are a member of the Sirian worlds, are you? And yet you consort with these. Galaxy, the depths a man can sink to! And you've still got the girl with you." He waited and then said slowly and deliberately, "The Earthie-squaw!"
Arvardan bristled, then subsided. He couldn't-not yet
He forced humbleness into his voice. "May I see the colonel, Lieutenant?"
"The colonel, I am afraid, is not on duty now."
"You mean he's not in the city?"
"I didn't say that. He can be reached-if the matter is sufficiently urgent."
"It is…May I see the officer of the day?"
"At the moment I am the officer of the day."
"Then call the colonel."
And slowly the lieutenant shook his head. "I could scarcely do so without being convinced of the gravity of the situation.'.
Arvardan was shaking with impatience. "By the Galaxy, stop fencing with me! It's life and death."
"Really?" Lieutenant Claudy swung a little swagger stick with an air of affected dandyism. "You might crave an audience with me."
"All right…Well, I'm waiting…
"I said-you might crave one."
"May I have an audience, Lieutenant?"
But there was no smile on the lieutenant's face. "I said, crave one-before the girl. Humbly."
Arvardan swallowed and drew back. Pola's hand was on his sleeve. "Please, Bel. You mustn't get him angry."
The archaeologist growled huskily, "Bel Arvardan of Sirius humbly craves audience with the officer of the day."
Lieutenant Claudy said, "That depends. "
He took a step toward Arvardan and quickly and viciously brought the flat of his palm down hard upon the bandage that dressed Arvardan's open cheek.
Arvardan gasped and stifled a shriek.
The lieutenant said, "You resented that once. Don't you this time?"
Arvardan said nothing.
The lieutenant said, "Audience granted."
Four soldiers fell in before and behind Arvardan. Lieutenant Claudy led the way.
Shekt and Pola were alone with the sleeping Schwartz, and Shekt said, "I don't hear him any more, do you?"
Pola shook her head. "I haven't either, for quite a while. But, Father, do you suppose he'll do anything to Bel?"
"How can he?" said the old man gently. "You forget that he's not really one of us. He's a citizen of the Empire and cannot be easily molested…You are in love with him, I suppose?"
"Oh, terribly, Father. It's silly, I know…
"Of course it is." Shekt smiled bitterly. "He is honest. I do not say he isn't. But what can he do? Can he live here with us on this world? Can he take you home? Introduce an Earthgirl to his friends? His family?"
She was crying. "I know. But maybe there won't be any afterwards."
And Shekt was on his feet again, as though the last phrase had reminded him. He said again, "I don't hear him."
It was the Secretary he did not hear. Balkis had been placed in an adjoining room, where his caged-lion steps had been clearly and ominously audible. Except that now they weren't.
It was a little point, but in the single mind and body of the Secretary there had somehow become centered and symboled all the sinister force of disease and destruction that were being loosed on the giant network of living stars. Shekt jarred Schwartz gently. "Wake up," he said.
Schwartz stirred. "What is it?" He felt scarcely rested. His tiredness went in and in, so deep as to come out at the other side, projecting in jagged streaks.
"Where's Balkis?" urged Shekt.
"Oh-oh yes." Schwartz looked about wildly, then remembered that it was not with his eyes that he looked and saw most clearly. He sent out the tendrils of his mind and they circled, sensing tensely for the Mind they knew so well.
He found it, and avoided touching it. His long immersion in it had not increased his fondness for the clinging of its diseased wretchedness.
Schwartz muttered, "He's on another floor. He's talking to someone."
"To whom?"
"No one whose mind I've even Touched before. Wait-let me listen. Maybe the Secretary will-Yes, he calls him Colonel."
Shekt and Pola looked quickly at one another.
"It can't be treason, can it?" whispered Pola. "I mean, surely an officer of the Empire wouldn't deal with an Earthman against the Emperor, would he?"
"I don't know," said Shekt miserably. "I am ready to believe anything."
Lieutenant Claudy was smiling. He was behind a desk, with a blaster at his finger tips and the four soldiers behind him. He spoke with the authority that such a situation would lend one.
"I don't like Earthies," he said. "I never liked them. They're the scum of the Galaxy. They're diseased, superstitious, and lazy. They're degenerate and stupid. But, by the Stars, most of them know their place.
"In a way, I can understand them. That's the way they were born, and they can't help it. Of course I wouldn't endure what the Emperor endures from them-I mean their blasted customs and traditions-if 1 were the Emperor. But that's all right. Someday we'll learn-"
Arvardan exploded. "Now look here. I didn't come to listen-"
"You'll listen, because I'm not finished. I was about to say that what I can't understand is the workings of the mind of an Earthie-lover. When a man-a real man, supposedly-can get so low in filth as to crawl in among them and go nosing after their womenfolk, I have no respect for him. He's worse than they are-"
"Then to Space with you and your poor filthy excuse of a mind!" fiercely. "Do you know that there's treason against the Empire afoot? Do you know just how dangerous the situation is? Every minute you delay endangers everyone of the quadrillions in the Galaxy-"
"Oh, I don't know, Dr. Arvardan. It is Dr., isn't it? I mustn't forget your honors. You see, I've got a theory of my own. You're one of them. Maybe you were born in Sirius, but you've got a black Earthman's heart, and you're using your Galactic citizenship to advance their cause. You've kidnaped this official of theirs, this Ancient. (A good thing, by the way, in itself, and I wouldn't mind rattling his throat for him.) But the Earthmen are looking for him already. They've sent a message to the fort."
"They have? Already? Then why are we talking here? I must see the colonel if I have to-"
"You expect a riot, trouble of any sort? Perhaps you even planned one as the first step in an arranged revolt, eh?"
"Are you mad? Why would I want to do that?"
"Well, then, you wouldn't mind if we released the Ancient?"
"You cannot." Arvardan rose to his feet, and for a moment it looked as though he might hurl himself across the desk at the other.
But the blaster was in Lieutenant Claudy's hand. "Oh, can't we? Look here, now. I've gotten a little of my own back. I've slapped you and made you crawl before your Earthie pals. I've made you sit here while I told you to your face what a low worm you are. And now I would love an excuse to blast your arm off in exchange for what you did to mine. Now make another move."
Arvardan froze.
Lieutenant Claudy laughed and put his blaster away. "It's too bad I have to save you for the colonel He's to see you at five-fifteen."