I sighed. It was obviously the best deal I was going to get, and I finally agreed.
When I returned to Valkyrie, I was amazed at the crew’s reaction to news of the attempted assassination. They were furious! People I barely remembered went out of their way to find an excuse to talk to me, to assure themselves that I was all right and express approval of the needler now slung from my waist.
Most amazing of all was Suli. Her anger was monumental. I suspected that the shooter was lucky to have been killed by the guards. If he’d fallen into her hands… I’d never have suspected her of such feeling for me. It almost made me hope…
At any rate, Jonas’ plan seemed to have backfired. Valkyrie ’s crew was more motivated than ever, and their grim determination to prevail over the man they were now calling “Backshooter Jonas” spread to everyone else.
Wil Tor came through immediately. Two days after our initial talk, he accosted me in Valkyrie’s galley.“Sir, I think we’re going to need secure communications,” he began.
I nodded. “So do I, but I doubt we can get them with the Fleet monitoring equipment available to Jonas.”
He shook his head. “No, sir, I think we can do it. We can use something called the radio spectrum for communication! See,” he continued excitedly, “They used the low radio frequencies a lot, pre-empire. I’m talking about only a few kilocycles per second. It’s just that better fidelity could be attained farther up the electromagnetic spectrum, so they stopped using the old radio frequencies over a thousand years ago. Moreover, of course, Ultra coms don’t use radio at all. I doubt if anyone but a few scientists even scan the radio spectrum any more. We might be able to communicate right under Jonas’ nose!”
I was starting to get excited, too. “You may be onto something. But, aren’t there limitations? I mean, there must be a reason we don’t use them anymore.”
He shrugged. “Well, I think they’re line-of-sight, for one thing. And they may need more powerful transmitters. Sheol, sir, I don't know; but I’ll bet you could find out!” He grinned maliciously.
I grimaced. “Have I ever told you how much I hate smartasses? All right, I’ll look into it. I hope you’re right. Secure communications would be a big help.”
I wasted no time checking with the experts — except that there were no experts on low-frequency radio as a communications medium. Most of the scientists dismissed the idea out of hand, but Cord found a ‘brilliant young man’ brilliant enough to admit that he didn’t know, but wanted to find out. Cord put him in charge of a team and gave him a week to find out if it were possible at all, and to design the transmitters and receivers if it were.
He was back in three days. He’d taken my suggestion that the low frequencies had been used for communication in the past, and done his homework before starting hands-on research. Of course, he’d had almost immediate results. Most of the three days, he claimed, were used in designing transmitting and receiving equipment. He called our new frequencies “Amplitude Modulated,” and it turned out that there were drawbacks to them. For one thing, the signal was strictly line-of-sight. For another, it degraded badly over distance. However, none of this was a serious enough handicap to change our plans to use them. He had designed combination receiver/signal amplifier/transmitters that we would strew all over Haven City and the surrounding areas. He assured Cord that the equipment could be manufactured in large numbers in a matter of two or three weeks.
He was as good as his word, and less than a month later, I was able to issue several hundred of the transceivers to Wil. Wil’s people even had receivers implanted in their heads, on the mastoid bone, so that only they could hear transmissions, and transmitters that clamped to their throats, so they could transmit subvocally. The tramps and boats were also equipped with more powerful versions. Every building in Haven City more than two stories tall now had small boxes containing the receiver/amplifier/transmitters mounted on them. Every tower within two hundred kilometers, no matter what its original purpose, became a communications transmission tower as well. We classified all of it top secret, of course.
Wil wasn’t done. The floodgates had been opened, and Wil seemed to want to make versions of every early weapon he’d ever read about. Finally, I foisted him off on Cord's ‘brilliant young man.’ He and Wil seemed to be kindred spirits, and within minutes they were buried in esoteric methods of slaughter. I hoped they’d come up with some useful gadgets before Jonas arrived.
I wasn’t surprised when Cord summoned me to his office. I’d been a frequent visitor. Cord began by asking me for a status report. When I finished summarizing our progress, he merely sat, thoughtful, for a moment. Then he dropped his bombshell.
“I think it’s time to make the announcement, Admiral. Nothing can be gained from further delay. I want you to make sure that all ships in orbit tune in, and broadcast the activities ship-wide. You will also make rim tramps available to deliver copies of the tapes to every other inhabited planet in the sector, together with my orders for planet-wide broadcast. That includes Thaeron! Do whatever it takes to smuggle a copy to the Thaeron system. Arrange for its broadcast there, if possible. If that’s not possible, try to arrange for mass copying and underground distribution. After the ceremonies, the Emperor recorded a personal message to the people of the rim worlds; I want to make sure that it is seen by every man, woman and child on the rim.”
Cord commandeered all the civilian channels for three hours. Repeated announcements asked all citizens of Haven to tune in.
Since I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen, I watched the proceedings in a local bar in Haven City. I divided my time between the broadcast and observation of my fellow customers.
The broadcast started with Cord simply sitting at an empty desk. “My fellow Rimworlders,” he began, “A few weeks ago, we were honored by a personal visit from His Imperial Majesty, Eron XXIV himself. This historic occasion was the first time in history that an Emperor has visited the Rim Sector.”
“Unfortunately, due to the unsettled conditions caused by the treasonous activities of some military personnel on Thaeron, His Imperial Highness was forced to visit in secret. However, despite dangers that prevented a state visit, His Majesty insisted on making a visit to his loyal subjects of the rim worlds. The rest of this broadcast will deal with the Emperor’s visit, and an important announcement by His Imperial Majesty that affects every man, woman and child on the rim worlds.”
The tapes opened with the welcoming ceremonies on Haven, and the presentation of the new yacht to the emperor. After a tour of the yacht escorted by vid cameras, the imperial party adjourned to the viceregal palace. The patrons of the bar were rapt with attention. At least six bystanders shushed a drunk who began to complain loudly.
The coverage resumed in the palace’s Receiving Room, with the Emperor enthroned on one end, resplendent in ceremonial robes. Obviously playing to the vid cameras, the Emperor unrolled a stiff parchment and began reading. Unsurprisingly, Cord had been telling the truth. Despite the florid, concealing language, by listening carefully I could understand the meaning of the proclamation. The rim would remain attached to the Empire in name only. Aside from a nominal fealty, the rim would have no responsibilities to the Empire, and the Empire would have no responsibility for the rim.
The Emperor spent several minutes reading the ornate parchment aloud. Finally, he laid it carefully aside. Then, looking directly into the cameras, the Emperor began removing his ceremonial robes. Beneath them, he wore a plain business suit. Laying aside the robes, he removed the huge crown of state, and donned a simple gold circlet.
This was unheard-of behavior for an Emperor in public. However, he wasn’t finished. Handing the crown to an aide, he stepped down from the dais, and stood behind a simple lectern.