It was as depressing a sight as Meredith had ever seen. Even after thousands of years the huge icecaps that must have formed after the saturation bombing still covered nearly a quarter of the planet. Elsewhere, a few patches of green and yellow could be seen through the clouds, but most of the land seemed to be desert hues of brown and gray-red. Nothing but solar noise existed on any band the radio could pick up; nowhere were any lights visible. By the fifth orbit Meredith called it quits. "Whoever they were, they were apparently very thorough," he said grimly. "If any of the Spinners had survived, they should have been able to recover at least some of their technology by now."
"That could be us someday," Carmen said with a shudder.
"Maybe we've got a chance to avoid it now," Perez said. "At least total extermination … " He looked at Meredith. "Have we seen enough? It seems to me we ought to be getting back." Meredith nodded, doing a rapid calculation. Four Spinner days each way, another one in orbit at Spinnerhome—eleven Earth days total. Plenty of time for Msuya to have made the necessary arrangements with Saleh and made it back to Astra. "Yes," he nodded. "Let's go home."
The return trip was uneventful but subdued. Meredith spent a great deal of time with the lifeboat's operating manual, taking advantage of the rare leisure time to learn as much as he could about the craft and the Spinner language generally. The others, too, seemed to keep to themselves, as if each needed to sort out privately the revelations of the past few days. At times Meredith found himself staring out a side viewport at the Spinner's grand failure, wondering if his own plans would crumble as theirs had, and wishing he could discuss them with someone. But he resisted the temptation. It was too late to change anything now, and there was no point in everyone else losing sleep as well.
And at last the twin black holes appeared on their screen; and when the nausea of the jump had passed and the viewports cleared again, they were indeed home.
Astra, marginally closer to the jump point than when they'd left, was a bright spot with an almost discernible disk. Surrounding it were smaller flecks of light that resolved in the telescope as spaceships.
A lot of spaceships.
"Wonder what's happening," Carmen said uneasily as Perez sat at the telescope counting the ships for a third time.
Meredith, in the seat beside her, adjusted the radio to what he hoped was the right frequency. "If I've read Msuya right," he said, "what we're seeing is a UN military attack."
"What!" Carmen gasped. "But—"
"The security code," Hafner said abruptly. "The other spies—he's got the code to make new supervisors, doesn't he?" He snapped his fingers. "That's why you wanted to take this trip right away, isn't it? To get the lifeboat out of his reach."
"You mean you deliberately left Astra open to that—" Perez began.
Holding up his hand for silence, Meredith mentally crossed his fingers and flipped the Send switch. "This is Colonel Meredith," he said into his mike. "Please patch me through to Major Barner."
Chapter 34
Secretary-General Saleh was seated alone at the far end of the conference room table when Meredith and Carmen entered. Passing up his usual seat at the table's head, the colonel moved down to sit directly across from their visitor. The usual unspoken conventions of position and relative power could be ignored in such an informal meeting. "Good day, Mr. Saleh," he nodded as Carmen sat down beside him. "May I present Miss Carmen Olivero, head of the Astran Council."
Saleh nodded with tight-lipped courtesy and looked back at Meredith. "Before we go any farther, Colonel, I must officially insist that the bodies of the UN
commando squad be returned to us."
"You're not in much of a bargaining position, but we have every intention of sending the bodies back. Whether or not the Rooshrike will let you leave the system is, of course, another matter entirely."
"Indeed. Their spokesman informs me that decision is up to you."
"Ah," Meredith nodded. He'd already heard that from Beaeki nul Dies na, but he'd wanted to make sure Saleh knew it, too. "Well, you can't blame them for being touchy. As our supply partners and sort-of sales agents, they have a vested interest in making sure the Spinneret stays in Astran hands. You, on the other hand, are seen as allies of the Ctencri, whom they have no special affection for."
"You need not spell out all the details," Saleh said coldly. "I'm quite aware Msuya's attempted raid has stirred up a great deal of antagonism toward Earth."
Msuya's raid, Meredith thought. The phrase was as subtle as a public hand washing—and almost certainly proclaimed Msuya's political demise. Goal one; check. "All right, then. The races that provide the wonderful gadgets on which your power is based are mad at you. How would you like it if I broke your stranglehold on Earth for good?"
Saleh's face remained impassive. "How would you do that?"
"By opening up direct trade with individual nations, of course. After this fiasco the Ctencri couldn't lift a finger to protect their monopoly with you, and with our cable income we could undercut any price you or they could offer. In no time you'd be back to being the overgrown debating society you were a couple of years ago. I presume you would find that distasteful?"
"Of course—as would you," Saleh said. "Surely you recognize from history that Earth has a better chance for international peace under the sort of economic empire the UN now represents." He waved a hand. "You didn't ask me down here simply to gloat over my impending destruction, Colonel; you're not the sort of man who does. I conclude you wish to make a deal. May we get down to it?"
"Pine. Basically, we want to open up Astra for immediate immigration "
"I see. And the prospective settlers will come predominantly from North America, I expect."
"You expect wrong. We want mostly poor and dispossessed from the Third World countries."
For just a second Saleh's impassive expression cracked with surprise before settling into place again. "The people you speak of are mostly farmers," he pointed out. "What would they do here?"
"Work their butts off, for starters. Don't misunderstand me— I don't want Bangladesh or whoever dumping its street bums and criminals on us. We want people who haven't got much chance where they are but still have the ambition and hope to grab a new opportunity when it presents itself." He leveled a finger at Saleh. "That'll be your job: to make sure this offer gets to those people and to provide information to us for screening purposes. Miss Olivero has a file with all the details."
Beside him, Carmen pulled a cassette from her shoulder pouch and handed it over.
Saleh hesitated a fraction of a second before taking it. He fingered it for a moment, frowning as if he suspected it might explode. "I … appreciate what I believe you're trying to do," he said at last, looking up at Meredith. "But do you think you can truly give vast numbers of people a better life here?"
"No—but most of them won't actually be here for long. Once their education and training are completed they'll be sent out to the neighboring empires to monitor the installation and use of Spinneret cables."
Saleh frowned. "They'll what?"
"Don't look so surprised. One of the major worries we've had all along has been the ease with which the cables can be applied to warfare. I don't want the stuff used that way, and neither do any of the races I've talked to—or at least that's what they say. So okay; from now on each cable is going to be accompanied by a small group of monitors, who'll go with it to the installation site and certify it winds up doing what it was supposed to. Other teams will routinely look at old installations, both to make sure the cable hasn't been moved and to perform long-term studies of strength degradation and such. Sure, there won't be all that much to do for now, but it'll take a while to train the monitors anyway. And we do plan to sell lots of cables."