“Then let me tell you,” Ben said. “In the first place, you are wrong about those outside. You have a fleet armed and ready to launch an attack on Earth itself in hopes of breaking this siege. In the absence of countermanding orders from you, they will move in toward Earth in a matter of hours.” The commander leaped up and gripped Ben’s arm. “Is this true?” he cried. “They have enough ships, enough arms? They have leadership?”
Ben nodded. “They are well organized, and Tommy Whisk is in command.”
“Ah, Tommy! Good, good! But what are they waiting for?”
“They’ve given me time to reach you and bring word out to them,” Ben said. “And if you allow them to launch that attack, we will have lost everything worth fighting for. They must not be allowed to go.” The commander stared at him. “But why not?”
“Because there is a way to peace,” Ben said. “That is what we have come to tell you, if only you will listen.”
“You mean another way to beat them and break the siege?”
“I mean an end to the war for Earthman and Spacer alike. Whether it can come about or not depends upon you and upon the commander of the blockading fleet. But most of all, it depends upon a mauki.” The woman was tall and straight, with flowing dark hair and eyes that seemed able to see things that the average human eyes failed to see. At Ben Trefon’s insistence she had been summoned from her post at a radar station on the surface of the asteroid city; now she greeted Ben with a questioning smile, and gravely acknowledged the two Earthlings without a word.
“They say they have something to tell us,” the commander said angrily, pacing the room for control.
“They say it can end the war, and that somehow it involves you. Perhaps you can convince them that words will not break this blockade, nor suddenly change the hearts of the ones who attack us.” The mauki said nothing. She merely looked from Ben to the Barrons and back, and waited. She was not young, Ben thought, but her face was very beautiful; now it held no expression, as if she had suddenly drawn a veil to conceal her thoughts. It was a strange face, not exactly hostile, yet not sympathetic either. For some reason he could not fathom, it made Ben Trefon uneasy to look at her, and he turned away to avoid meeting her eyes.
He had never met the woman before, but he knew her history, and he knew the regard with which she was held among all Spacers. She had long been a leader here, with a place of honor on the Council, and her wisdom had served the Spacers well, even if it sometimes seemed remote from the problems at hand.
Perhaps it was that very remoteness that had always made Spacers stop and listen when she sang.
Her story was well known. Years before she had joined the ranks of the Spacers and borne her husband a son. When the child was five, the father was killed in a mining accident in the Rings, and the woman and her son had gone out alone to the place the accident had happened. On the way their ship was halted by an Earth pirate, and the child had been killed. Yet when a Spacer ship made contact with the pirate and rescued her, the mauki would not permit the Earth ship to be destroyed.
Exactly why she took such a stand no one ever really knew. Some said that she had lost her reason when the child was destroyed. Others insisted that the ship’s drive had been damaged beyond repair during the rescue, and the mauki wanted the Earth crew to suffer a lingering death adrift in space in a ship without power. But most often it was said that she had enchanted the entire crew with her singing, forced them to listen in spite of themselves, and then sent them home with a burden of guilt so overwhelming that they could speak of nothing else as long as they lived.
Whatever the truth, Ben Trefon knew one thing: that this woman could sing. There was not a Spacer alive who had not heard her at one time or another, and her singing carried a power that was beyond words to describe. That was the reason he wanted her here.
And now, with the help of Joyce and Tom Barron, he told her the entire story of the things that had happened since he had left his father on Mars on the eve of the raid. No detail was too small to include, for he knew that somehow the woman had to be made to understand. He told her of the aftermath of the raid, of the heartbreaking landing on Mars, of the ruin of his father’s house and the legacy he found waiting for him in the vault. He told her of the black web belt and the ancient tape recording, and then of the strange succession of events that had led to contact with the small gray people with the smoky-blue eyes.
The mauki listened without comment, and the commander, almost in spite of himself, listened too. Ben described the visit to the Searchers’ ship, and the seemingly miraculous translation of the tape with the help of the Searchers themselves. Finally, he told them of the message on the tape, and concluded with the Searchers’ final warning, and their plea that Earthmen and Spacers somehow find a way to cease their hostilities before the point of no return had been reached, and work together to reach out toward the stars.
When he finished, there was utter silence in the room. Then the commander let out a sigh and turned to Ben. “Do you really mean me to believe that this fantastic story is true?”
“It’s true, you can be sure of that.”
“And you expect me to believe that these Earth snakes would ever dream of putting aside their hatred and allowing us to return from exile as free men?”
Ben looked at Tom and Joyce. “It would have to be that way.” The commander was groping angrily for words when the mauki spoke for the first time. “There is a more important question to ask,” she said softly. She looked up at Ben. “Where do you stand? You are the son Ivan Trefon. You carry the name of one of the greatest houses in Spacer history. You know we are at war with the people of Earth; where do you stand now? With us?” Her eyes swept across to Tom Barron and his sister. “Or with them?”
“With them,” Ben Trefon said without hesitation.
“And where do you stand?” she asked the Barrons. “With your people on Earth? Or with Ben?”
“With Ben,” Tom and Joyce Barron said firmly.
“Then what do the three of you want of me?” the mauki asked.
“You’ve heard why the war must be stopped,” Ben said. “We want you to tell the story, to Earthmen and Spacers alike. We know you can make them believe, if you will.”
“I see.” The woman fell silent, searching each of their faces in turn. Finally her eyes rested on Joyce.
“And you were to be a mauki,” she said, half smiling. “Would you now?” Joyce nodded. “If Spacers and Earthmen could both be free.”
“And this story you have told me is true?”
“It’s true,” Joyce Barron said.
“You realize that falsehood and treachery now could destroy your people as well as mine?”
“I know that,” Joyce said. “But there is no falsehood and no treachery in this room.” For a long time the mauki stared at her. Then she smiled and turned to the commander. “They’re telling the truth,” she said. “There is no question of that. The events they speak of happened, and their decision to come to us this way was sound.”