Imperial Stars 2-Republic and Empire by Jerry Pournelle Read Free Book Online Page B

am willing to take that chance."
    "Well . . . we could rig up a cubicle so that you could go into Deep Sleep any time it got to be too much for you—"
    "Why, he might complete his work, and still make it to Toehold!" cried Olivera.
    "He might," said Reed. "Of course, even then, we would still have the problem of dealing with ben Ezra—"
    "Oh, space, Peter!" yelled Olivera. "One thing at a time. This is it! This is the only way!"
    "I suppose you're right, Manny. Have your boys set up the necessary automatics. Let Dr. Ching get acquainted with our computer."
    "Thank you, captain," said Ching. "We will beat them, after all."
    "Perhaps," said Reed. Is your we the same as my we , he thought; is your them the same as my them?
    Olivera had ceased his pacing. He appeared lost in thought.
    "Manny," said the captain, reading his old friend's mood. "Manny, what is it?"
    "Dr. Ching," said Olivera, "what will we have when your work is finished, I mean, what end result?"
    "Why, I hope, an equation giving a principle upon which an Overdrive could be built," said Ching gravely.
    "A principle ," said Olivera slowly. "An equation . But not plans , not blueprints , not even a schematic diagram."
    "What do you expect of me?" said Ching plaintively. "I'm a mathematician, not an engineer. Such a thing would take a pragmatic scientist, working hand in hand with—"
    "Yes," said Manuel Olivera, "so it would."
    "Manny!" shouted the captain. "You wouldn't—"
    "I must, Peter, I must! Someone must. We've got to have more than an equation, when we run into ben Ezra. If we've got pragmatic plans, we can send out all six of our gigs to Toehold. It's an undeveloped planet, they'd never be able to do anything with an equation. But plans— And ben Ezra would have to destroy seven targets, instead of one. Someone would get through."
    "It would not be as bad for him, captain, as it will be for me," said Ching. "He could stay in Deep Sleep until I was ready for him. It would only be a few years for him."
    "All right, Manny," said Reed, "you win."
    But even as he gave the orders for setting up the automatics, something was nagging at the back of his mind.
    Disperse the plans indeed! Sacrifice the Outward Bound! There must be a better way. Perhaps, ben Ezra could be fooled—just this once. What if he got Ching? Might it not be possible to convince him that Ching had never talked? Perhaps, perhaps—
    Even as the nothingness of Deep Sleep overtook him, Peter Reed was still dreaming of the greatest commercial coup in history.
     
    Jacob ben Ezra was dissatisfied, and he didn't know why. His ship was already orbiting Toehold, the Outward Bound had been spotted, a week away, all was set, and within eight days, he would have Ching.
    But somehow, he felt dissatisfied.
    "David," he said. "I feel dirty ."
    "But, sir, why?"
    Ben Ezra lit a cigarette, the thirtieth of the twenty-four hour period. As far as he could remember, it was a record for him.
    "We're men of space, David," he said. "We're no more emotionally bound to Earth than Reed is. Homo Interstellarus , I think of us as. An Overdrive is something we should welcome, not suppress."
    The young commander was silent. To him, ben Ezra knew, orders were orders. He had been born aboard ship, the Fleet was all he knew or cared about. And the Fleet was an agent of Earth.
    "Don't you see, David? Of course you don't! Our duty as officers is clear—to obey orders. But we have a duty as men, as well. And, by space, that duty is to preserve the Overdrive!"
    "You would disobey direct orders, sir?"
    "No, dammit! I've been in this service all my adult life. Orders must be obeyed. If the Fleet decided to take the law into its own hands, we'd be no better than pirates. No, David, orders must be obeyed. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. It won't help me sleep any better, or enable me to smoke fewer of these infernal cigarettes."
    "No, sir."
    "I almost hope . . . I almost hope—"
    "What, sir?"
    Ben Ezra grinned