Imperial Stars 1-The Stars at War (19 page)

Then
Lapis Lazuli
took them into the city's streets, showed them the hurrying crowds, the streams of traffic, the double-decked busses, tube stations, lorries.

"It was a mighty city in its day," she said. "I wonder how this one will compare."

The cars had come for them, and Captain Harrion was waiting as they filed out. These were nothing like most of the cars that filled the streets of ancient London. They were tall, majestic, built with no thought for such frivolities as wind-resistance. They might have been the lineal descendants of old Queen Mary's Daimlers. They had four wheels, pneumatic tires, but no hood that might conceal a motor. The driver's compartment, where two liveried servants sat, was separated from the passengers' by a pane of glass, as in any 20th Century limousine; and inside, as they approached, Molane saw comfortable seats for five or six, three or four facing forward, two facing aft. Servants held the doors open, and Harrion showed Molane and Lahaisa to the second car.

"You will ride with Lord and Lady Erris," he informed them, "Your parents and your son will ride with me in the first car. The others in your company will be with my own wife in the third. That is as protocol requires it."

Greeted by Lord Erris, Molane and Lahaisa got in, and Molane was not surprised to see fresh flowers in crystal vases at their elbows.

"Ordinarily," Lord Erris said, "we do not ride in these seats, facing backward. But His Majesty asked us to on this occasion, so we could better show the city to you."

"We are honored," said Molane gravely.

The cars moved out. They were completely soundless, odorless, vibrationless, and the traffic on the streets moved like a stately pageant. Nobody seemed to hurry, and here again Molane observed the lust for color characteristic of these new Londoners, not only in their clothing, but in a multitude of flags and banners, and even in such things as roofs and window frames, and building bricks in hues no brick ever had on Earth. These did much to counteract the overwhelming grayness of the great stone edifices that dominated everywhere.

During the entire afternoon, they toured the city and its environs while Lord and Lady Erris pointed out places of historic interest and importance: Trafalgar Square with its Nelson Column, the Bank of England and the British Museum, the Houses of Parliament. As their car ghosted through the streets and avenues and great squares, he told his guests how Gurat Singh had planned their progress.

"Our ancestors," he said, "were blessed with a world which, for all its perils and rigors, was far more bountiful than Old Earth in their time. Neither its minerals nor its forests had been depleted, neither its vegetation nor its wildlife had been destroyed by slaughter, by erosion, by senseless pollution; and Gurat Singh—blessed be his Name!—was determined that they would never be. From the very first, he ordained that education and research would have absolute priority, and he laid out a general plan for each, with The Book as its foundation, his Testament and the Books of Memories our ancestors compiled as its building stones. One law he laid down which we shall always keep; it forbids any technology that could result in highly concentrated energy sources, such as those that brought the Eater. Another was that we must never again allow ourselves to become dependent on machines to do our thinking and remember for us. That is why electronics was the last of our technologies to be developed, and why we have never attempted to build new Gilpin ships—and never will."

Molane thought of
Lapis Lazuli
, of how her kind had been evolved, and how she was regarded in their new animism, but he did not comment.

Erris went on to tell them of the gradual rebirth of the sciences; how the first three centuries passed in bridging the gap between what The Book contained and what their ancestors remembered in bits and pieces and half-understood terminologies.

"By that time," he said, "we had developed steam power to a degree never achieved on Old Earth. We have entire genera of plants here, growing like weeds, that produce abundant fuel alcohols, so abundant that we use them to run almost everything, our vehicles, our aircraft, our electric generators. We now have wind power and water power and solar power, but still most of us prefer to rely on our individual power-plants—in many areas every household has one."

They drove through residential districts crowded with houses and apartments, and through business districts with an unusual number of small shops and minor industries. The signs, always small and restrained, told them that here there was a tremendous reliance on fine handwork: gun and violin making, tailoring and cabinet-making, gem-cutting and book-binding and bootmaking. The marquées announced plays, operas, concerts—all live performances, and Molane commented on this.

"Do you have holovision?" he asked.

"We do
not
," Lady Erris answered. "No, nor television. We want our children to grow up in a
real
world. We want them to learn to
do
, instead of watching. We simply have no spectator sports here, unless we count horse-racing, because of the betting, and of course the wars. This isn't a safe world. We do not want it to be, and we don't pretend it is. There are enough dangers on the continents, where almost all our young people spend a few years at least, to satisfy anyone's desire for excitement."

"Do you mean," Lahaisa asked, "that people are allowed to go and watch the fighting? People who take no part?"

"Indeed yes. At their own risk, of course, and with proper permits. Our wars, even controlled as they are by our Council of Emperors, still show them how things were on Old Earth, and how fortunate they are to be here. If you wish, Captain Harrion can arrange for you to view the one now in progress on the Asiatic Continent."

They stopped occasionally. They entered shops and workshops, and invariably they were amazed at the courtesy that prevailed, with no servility on the one side, no arrogance on the other. They were shown libraries and colleges, hospitals and factories. They were driven to a district Lord Erris referred to as Soho, where everything and everyone looked alien: East Indian, Southern European, Chinese. It, more than any other area, had the look of having been contrived.

They dined at Erris House, sumptuously, then were taken to see a recreation of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar
. It was an eerie experience, for Molane especially because he had the original practically by heart. Costumes, dialogue, everything would at one moment seem totally unreal, at the next almost too real, as
deja vu
usually is.

They returned to
Lapis Lazuli
with the promise that their escorts would come again next morning; and after they went to bed, Lahaisa said thoughtfully, "Molane, think what happened on both planets. Consider all these people have accomplished. Whatever could that Book have been?"

"A Book that provided the basis for rebuilding everything they lost? I can't imagine. But much they have is now on a par with ours, their medicine, their plant and animal genetics, their careful conversation of their new environment."

She was silent for a moment. "Yes," she finally said, "but they're so
strange
."

"Their society progresses, dear, but still in some ways it is completely static, more so than the Roman Empire, far more so than the British, more so even than the Chinese—which is perhaps why Gurat Singh chose those as his models. The Eater apparently convinced them that the rest of the Universe is off-limits to them. At any rate, they're civilized compared to most cultures, even if they do fight wars—there seems to be no poverty, and consider their emphasis on all the arts, on beauty, on good manners. Lahaisa, they march to a different drum, one which we—mercifully—have not heard for centuries, and now would never listen to."

"Well, they have been kind and courteous to us, their unwanted guests, but still—" She paused, frowning. "Still, I am uneasy."

Next morning, ceremoniously, Lord and Lady Erris and the captain and his lady were received aboard the ship, and somewhat against their will they allowed themselves to be shown the wardroom and the control tower. As they shifted into Gilpin's Space, Lady Erris surreptitiously crossed herself, but they rigid-controlled any amazement they may have felt at the swiftness of the ship or the uncanniness of the reality perceived from the control tower's ports. When explanations were offered them, they took pains to display neither curiosity nor interest.

Their first stop, after a flight over the ocean, over fanged continental mountain ranges that towered in frozen silence over jungles and forests unbelievably enormous, was a great island Lord Erris announced as China, and a huge city named Peking. Here again they made their landing outside a palace—or more properly a complex of palaces behind a frowning wall—and in a flowering courtyard beside a lake on which multi-colored swan-like birds were sailing. Here again, too, stood a pavilion, with an Emperor and an Empress on lacquered thrones, surrounded by dignitaries uniformed and costumed very much as their counterparts had been the day before, except that the clergy were robed in saffron faced with black and wore white scarves, and their heads were shaven. The majority of those present looked definitely Asian, but only vaguely so; on Old Earth, in Saul Gilpin's day, one would have been hard put to classify them more definitely. As for the architecture, Lahaisa's father, Jerlan, who knew more about the subject than any of them, at once decided that it was based on data much more tenuous than that of the new England.

He thought the thought "aloud," and their answers echoed their agreement.

Here, again, the Emperor stood and strode toward them. He and his Empress alone were robed, in yellow silks embroidered with great dragons. He and she alone wore jeweled headdresses.

He strode forward and greeted Molane in English, and again there was the long eye-searching which yesterday had preceded their interview with the King and Queen. After that, everything followed almost exactly the same pattern, with the same attitude toward Old Earth, the same guarded less-then-friendliness, and virtually the same hospitality. Only the food was different. Whether it was indeed Chinese, they did not know.

An hour, and it was over. They were dismissed, and at their next stop, Vienna on the island named Austro-Italy, they followed a similar routine. Here the palace was rococo, ornate and enormous, surrounded by pools and fountains and endless statuary. Here the Emperor, fiercely moustached, was a Caucasian, as were his Empress and their entourage, most of them slightly darker than Lord Erris' countrymen. And here, once again, the pattern was followed in every detail, the eye-searching, the conversation, the introduction of important personages, beginning with cardinals in red-and saffron robes, and continuing with ministers of state and ranking officers. There was one difference only: only wines and liqueurs were served, doubtless because every visit had been carefully orchestrated.

Everyone had spoken English, and there had been little or no difference in their accents. Now, as they went again into Gilpin's Space, Molane asked Lord Erris if other languages had indeed survived.

"Oh, they've been preserved—" Lord Erris smiled, "—by scholars in the universities and to some extent in the churches—Latin and that sort of thing. We are Anglicans; the Holy Roman Empire is Roman Catholic; the Chinese are Buddhists. The old languages add something to them. But all religions are embraced within the teachings of our
sant
—blessed be his Name! When you meet the Successor, you may understand."

They hovered for a short time over Rome, built on a site carefully chosen for its seven hills, and Erris pointed out the Vatican. Then they headed halfway round the planet to a somewhat smaller island, far more tropical, which they were told was India.

They landed at New Delhi, a European city with overtones of a remembered East, echoing Benares, perhaps Amritsar, perhaps the Taj Mahal. Lord Erris guided them to an empty quadrangle in which a domed building stood, all white and gold, but much smaller than they would have expected. No one was there to greet them.

"The Successor," said Erris, "does not come to visitors. We must go to him."

They walked a hundred yards to the building's steps. Everything was white marble, beautifully proportioned, owing nothing to any discernible tradition on Old Earth. Two huge doors stood open. They entered, followed a wide corridor. They emerged into a hall. There were no attendants, no servitors, but on a marble dais stood a single golden chair.

In it, the Successor sat, all white except for his brown face, his bare brown feet: white robe, white turban, white beard, all pure white.

Arilé caught her breath.
He—he's beautiful!
she thought.

And instantly the thought came back to her,
Thank you, my child.

She made no effort to hide astonishment, and caught his unvoiced chuckle.

Then Lord Erris presented them, and the Successor acknowledged each with an inclination of his head, a smile. His voice, when finally he spoke, was soft and very powerful.

"I know why you have come," he said, "and my Emperors tell me you are without guile, without intent to change us. They have also told you that our destiny was decreed when the Eater came. So you are being shown our world and what we have accomplished. You will see one of the wars we still fight. You will even be allowed to see The Book that shaped us. Go with my blessing. Perhaps someday in the future our destiny will bring us to you." Again he inclined his head. "Farewell," he said.

Bowing, they said goodbye. Then, once more aboard
Lapis Lazuli
, where they could converse mind to mind, Arilé said,
I sang him seven bars of mind-music when we left, and he was pleased.

He's a full telepath,
Lahaisa answered.
The Emperors are partially telepathic, and probably many others are, too. Perhaps that's how they keep everything so—well, so stable.

It would help,
Molane said.
I'm sure the Successor has a goal in mind, one that unites them all. But does even he know what it is?