Island Worlds (18 page)

"I think that will be agreeable and I'll urge Dr. Sousa to include the single-military force clause immediately. After all, the last thing we need is a Wermacht-SS split in our forces. I'll recommend that Hjalmar's new force be disbanded as soon as you're ready to take over our defense." Thor made a note on his recorder.

"Don't disband them," Maas advised. "Form them into a civilian internal-security force. We shouldn't handle that and you'll need such a force for the duration. Just make sure that their charter is for police duties, not military action or external security. I'll appoint a liaison so that we can cooperate."

Thor was relieved that his first assignment involved people who not only were sympathetic to his cause, but who had thought out all the details years before. The next ones would be much harder nuts to crack.

"Now that we have that settled," Maas said, "let's have a drink." He touched a sensor plate and an antiquated robot rolled in with glasses of whiskey. Maas raised his. "To the Confederacy."

They drank and Maas refilled both glasses. "My sources on Earth inform me that the Earth forces are weeding out soldiers who have relatives out here. I'm afraid that they've arrested all of your relatives in the officer corps. We've been urging them to get out and come over to us, but some of them took too long to make up their minds."

An aide came in and saluted. "Sir, the men in Assault Force Five have uncovered a spy. New recruit named Albrecht. We got him away from them before they killed him, but he's in damaged condition."

"I want a full report. Keep me informed on the interrogation." The aide saluted again and left.

"Has this happened before?" Thor asked.

"This makes three. I hate it, it's bad for morale when every soldier is suspicious of his mates. It's hardest on the new recruits because they're the most likely suspects. We should have the last of them weeded out soon, then there won't be any more since emigration has been halted."

"Recent arrival isn't conclusive," Thor pointed out. "There's always the chance of sleepers."

"We're taking that into account. Now, speaking of divisive elements, I want to go on record about Martin Shaw. I recommend, the minute you've formed a legitimate government, that you have him arrested. He'll get us all killed."

"He's forming his own political party," Thor said. "That's perfectly legal by any democratic standards. If we start cracking down on opposition for being opposition, all the communities will turn against us. It's just the kind of thing we all came out here to escape."

"Opposition, hell!" Maas said. "He's a terrorist. Don't get me wrong, I admire Shaw a great deal. I wish he was one of our officers. With his brains and nerve he could be a top commander. But he's a political ideologue and he sees nothing wrong with terror attacks against Earth. There are always a few idiots who'll go along with that kind of thinking, especially the young idealists. It seems to promise quick results, it guarantees a lot of danger and excitement, and it doesn't burden them with too much thinking. We have a long, complicated war ahead of us and there'll be no quick fix."

"Not too long, I hope," Thor said, apprehensively.

Maas massaged his long nose. He had long, bony features with a high forehead emphasized by a receding hairline. "I'm afraid it's got to be long. You can only win a war quick by using overwhelming force, and we just don't have it. Unless, of course, you want to use Shaw's tactics. That'd be quick, all right."

"Hold it," Thor said. "Are you telling me that you can't win a war and Shaw can?"

"Sure you can win with his methods, if you don't mind hundreds of millions of deaths on your conscience and a name that'll stink for ten thousand years. We just can't win a short war on any other terms and we really can't win a long one. But, we can make them lose it."

Thor found himself wishing he'd paid more attention to history in school. "You mean you can win without victory?"

"Without any big victories. In fact, without winning any battles at all. It's how guerillas and small powers have always had to fight to prevail against major military powers. You don't think the United States won its independence by beating the whole British Empire, do you? They won in Parliament, not on the battlefield. The same in Southeast Asia and Africa and a hundred other places. You make the big powers quit in disgust without any decisive battles. If you can manage one big face-losing, propaganda defeat like Dienbienphu, all the better, but it's not essential. But you have to have the will to endure enormous suffering and loss."

"And what if there's a limit to how much you can bear?" Thor asked.

"Then you deserve to be a slave and you had no business rebelling in the first place," Maas said, pitilessly.

"The Earthies can't get along without our resources," the fat man said. "For decades, they've depended on us for rare minerals. This xenophobia is mere hysteria. It will pass and things will go back to normal before long, you'll see. They'll come around as soon as their stockpiles are exhausted and they start feeling the pinch." He leaned back and smiled complacently. He was Gunther Armanjac, Director of Delos.

Thor was bone-tired. This was his twentieth stop. All too many of them had been like this; self-deluding optimists unable to face their situation.

"You're wrong, Director," Thor insisted. "This is a policy that has very little to do with our value to Earth. We're a distraction, the object of a hate campaign. From now on, everything that goes wrong on Earth will be blamed on us. The hate won't stop. If you try to stick it out alone, they'll come and take over here and you'll be stuck with nothing if you're alive at all."

"And what will happen if we join your republic?" Armanjac said, eyebrows fluttering quizzically. "I'll tell you what: There will be taxes to pay for your war. If we acknowledge your government, we'll recognize their right to regulate our business. No, thank you, Mr. Taggart. We're doing nicely as it is."

"But, damn it, can't you see that the alternative is to lose everything! The Earthies aren't going to let you go on with business as usual."

Armanjac continued to smile. "It won't come to that. You and your Eos Party are just alarmists. Everything will be fine. Good day, Mr. Taggart."

"There is really no point in uniting for a common defense," the monk said. He wore a coverall of brown sack cloth with a hood. "What we need is more prayer and good works. Look around you." Patiently, Thor did so. Iona was a small rock, perhaps two kilometers along its longest side. It had been almost completely hollowed out fifty years before and the remaining rock wall was riddled into a honeycomb of tiny cells. In most cells, a monk drifted crosslegged, tethered by a cord and reciting prayers. In the center of the hollow space, a monk with a loudspeaker announced the beginning of each new prayer.

"After all," the monk continued, "the cosmos would have come to an end twenty-seven years ago had it not been for our prayers. We try to intercede with God to delay the end of the cosmos so that more souls may be saved by the time the end comes."

"But," Thor said craftily, "if the Earthies lob a nuke into your laps, your prayers will be ended and the cosmos with them."

"That," the monk said imperturbably, "shall be God's way of telling us to shut up and let him get on with his work. His will be done."

This was the fifty-seventh stop. Thor was sure he would be cracking up soon. "Between business and religion," he said, "I think I've taken on a hopeless task."

The monk laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "If you think we're difficult, Brother," he said, "wait 'til you deal with the ladies over on Lesbos."

"I wish you hadn't said that," he groaned.

"Yes! We will join you!" It was good to hear someone so enthusiastic for a change. Of course, there was something in the burning eyes of the turbaned man, something in the way he waved his sword, that said this community would be a problem. "Yes!," he continued, "we shall smite the unbelievers! We shall hew them asunder and bring them to godly ways! We shall show them the paths of righteousness and truth! Shall we not, my children?"

Throughout the immense temple, turbaned men shouted and whirled their swords and went into low-g spins, their robes fluttering and turning the temple into a field of white flowers. Behind screens of stone tracery, veiled women ululated like demented banshees.

"I am afraid," Thor said quietly, "that it may not be quite that kind of war."

"Ever since Guru Mahatma George Rajagopalachari led us here fifty years ago, we have prepared and purified ourselves for the holy war against decadent and impure Earth. We shall aid Lord Shiva in obliterating that sink of iniquity and establishing the rule of purity and truth!"

"Actually," Thor said, "what we'd like for you to do is join in our Confederacy. The war itself will be conducted by Sálamis under the direction of our Congress."

"Complete religious freedom?" said the guru, now all business. "And equal representation in your congress or parliament or whatever?"

"Absolutely. If we were a more homogenous people, the population of each state might be the determining factor. Since we are made up of such disparate and cantankerous people, representation has to be by republic. One island world with a few hundred colonists gets the same vote as a community of several asteroids with thousands of inhabitants."

"Taxation proportional to population, of course?" the guru prodded.

Thor shook his head. "It's a percentage based on each world's or community's income and reserves. The preliminary levy for the Confederacy's war chest will be a heavy one."

"That is unacceptable!" the guru said.

"Come off it," Thor insisted. "Everybody knows that the Golden Isle of Shiva is one of the richest of the island worlds and that you've been socking away a precious-minerals reserve for decades. The Earthies know it, too. They may try to nuke some of us and they may pass by some of the more insignificant colonies, but they'll come here in force. Make up your mind—give up a percentage of what you have to keep what's left or end up with a hundred percent of nothing." It was good to have some leverage for a change.

The guru thought for a while. "Our young men to serve in ships only with others of our own faith and under our own officers?"

"No deal," Thor said. "Once under military command, all service personnel will go where they're told and do what they're told. We already have assurances from Sálamis that nobody will have to participate in anybody else's religious services and that religious practices will be respected as long as they don't interfere with duties."

The guru pondered some more, then stuck out his hand. "Done." Thor took it. Then the guru turned back to his flock. "To the Holy war!" There was much more shouting and waving of swords.

Thor was looking drawn and haggard as he tendered his report. Everybody looked tired. It had been a grueling seven months and few of them had anticipated how difficult the founding of a state could be.

"Sálamis was a dream," Thor said. "They had all my work done before I got there. The high-tech scientific, research and manufacturing stations were fairly easy. They grasped the advantages of a Confederacy, both defensive and commercial, almost immediately. The merchant settlements were difficult. I convinced a few, but most of them can't see past their ledger books. A state means one thing to them: taxes. They won't face up to the danger from Earth and when they think about it at all, they're sure they can buy their way out."

"Most will come around," Saburo said. "There's nothing like an ocean of red ink to make a merchant see the light. What about the others?"

"The miners, freighters, refiners and such are not such a problem. They're cantankerous and hard to organize, but they know how to face danger and they're willing to unite, at least for the duration of the crisis. As for the religious communities," Thor raised his hands in despair, "I had no idea there were so many loonies out here. Some won't countenance violence at all, not even in self-defense. Others want to kill all unbelievers, including most of us. Many follow Earth-based religions and are decidedly cool to any movement that breaks their ties with Earth. " He buried his face in his hands. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid my mission wasn't much of a success."

"You did fine," Sousa said.

"Are you joking?" Thor said.

"Not at all. I wasn't expecting more than about twenty-five percent positive response this early and you've turned in almost thirty percent positive. There are about twenty percent who will never join us, mostly for religious reasons. The rest will come around, eventually, out of pure self-interest. Many just don't believe that Earth will attack. They are in for a rude awakening. If we can just hold steadfastly in the early days of conflict, most of the others will be attracted to our cause."

The other diplomatic missions reported as well. Their stories were much the same as Thor's. Reception had ranged from enthusiastic to lukewarm to hostile, with the latter two heavily weighted. Still, most of them had kept well within Sousa's twenty-five percent acceptance range. They had the nucleus of a republic.

"It bothers me," Thor said, "that many of those who have opted for us are those with the smallest populations. Some of the scientific stations are virtually automated."

"There is a great deal of hidden population out here," Sousa reminded him. "Some of the scientific stations and a great many mining colonies have substantial populations out on small rocks or on ships. Taken all together, the actual population is far greater than the apparent figure."

"Just what is our population?" Hjalmar asked.

"The Space Authority census gives a total off-Earth figure of some ten million, including Luna, Mars, the orbiting stations, the outer moons, everything. Their figures are probably accurate for everything but the Belt. People have been emigrating to the island worlds for over half a century now, a great bulk of that emigration has been clandestine, and we run to large families, most of which go unreported. Earth census estimates around two million in the Belt. The accurate figure is closer to ten million."