The Gripping Hand

"Is there anything you do not know?"

"Come on, it all fits once you get the key part about New Utah." Re

Slowly Mister Elder said, "How can we persuade you?"

"Easy. We'll clear that up in a couple of hours. I'll tell you then. Meanwhile, let's think about talking Bury out of whatever mischief he's pla

"And after that?"

"Then we talk to the Governor. Look, right now you haven't done anything to get you in that much trouble."

"Only enough to be hanged for high treason."

"Technically," Re

"This is madness." A voice with a whine in it. "Elders, brothers, this man knows everything. We can't just let him go."

"Better what I know than what Bury suspects," Re

"What's the Governor got against you? A little trading with Outies. Nothing serious. Jackson will be glad of a chance to convince the Church that the Empire's no real threat. He's been looking for someone to negotiate with. And look, if New Utah is dying for lack of fertilizer, they should be in the Empire. We'll make them another offer while the Jump point's still open."

The leading Elder stood. "This must be discussed. Is there anything else you need?"

"Yeah. There's some coffee in my backpack." Re

"Yes."

"Take me to it. Show me that ship, no arguments, no phone calls, take me there now. All of you."

"I didn't give them time to fool with the ship. They couldn't have done much anyway. They led me right to it. I saw everything, outside and in. There's nothing of Watchmaker manufacture. Horace, I know the Motie touch! There's no mistaking their hand. They make one widget do two or three jobs at once, they don't know from right angles, you remember."

Bury was silent, head bowed, eyes hooded in shadow.

"I found two variants on the Motie coffeepot. One takes the caffeine out of tea. The other must have been added in the last month, the joins are still new. It filters the hydrogen fuel. There's a layer of Motie superconductor under the reentry shield. All three carried the Imperial Autonetics logo."

Ruth Cohen was perched at the edge of her chair. "They took you there right away?"

"I damn well made them. Three different elevators, but I took the whole entourage with me. They cooperated. I'm as sure as can be that they didn't phone ahead. Mister Elder had to threaten the guards with damnation when we got there, and then they made calls while I inspected the outside, but I was inside within five minutes. Bury?"

Bury's head came up. ‘Yes?"

"Do I have your attention? I wasn't sure. Look, if you had access to Watchmakers and Engineers, and you-"

"I'd kill them. You know that." There was no force behind his words. He looked old, old.

"Assume, just assume that they're allies. Pretend you trust them. Wouldn't you set them loose on a ground-to-orbit ship? A little improvement in a space shuttle can double the cargo capacity! For a smuggler, that's golden! But it was an old ship, refurbished, and the engineering was entirely human and not very good at that.

"These people are not in contact with Moties, Mr. Bury."

Bury didn't move.

Ruth Cohen used the stylus to make notes on the face of her pocket computer. "Kevin, I believe you, but we still have to be sure."

"You'll take care of that," Re

"It will work," Ruth said. "Governor Jackson would look very good if he could persuade New Utah to come into the Empire without a fight, and this might just do it. Fertilizer! Well, they're not the first world to have a soil problem.

"All right. Between the regulations about Moties and your reputation, we won't have any trouble getting Captain Torgeson to send a scout ship out to the Jump point. One of the local Church people ought to go, so there won't be a fight."

"Ohran," Re

Only Horace Bury's sunken dark eyes moved. They burned. "They're not here now. They're still corked up behind the blockade for now. For a quarter of a century I have left it to the Navy to keep them that way. Kevin, I've remembered too much. I've always known how dangerous they are. I manage not to think about it unless I'm asleep. Kevin, we must visit the blockade fleet."

"What? At Murcheson's Eye?"

"Yes. I need to know that the Navy is on duty, else I will go mad."

Ruth Cohen spoke. "Your Excellency, your dossier indicates that your... that the Secret Service may take exception to your plans."

Bury gri

"Sparta." Ruth Cohen sighed. "I'd like to see Sparta someday."

"Come with us," Re

"What? Kevin, I'm assigned here."

"We can get those orders changed. I can requisition people at need."

"What need?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well..."

"I thought so."

"Actually there is a very good reason," Bury said. "Kevin, you propose to convince the Governor to condone high treason. I do not doubt your ability to justify that on Sparta, but it will do no harm to have another Navy officer confirm our story." Bury drained his coffee, "So. Commander, if you will see to the investigation of the ship at the Jump point, Nabil will make Sinbad ready for the voyage."

"That'll give me some time," Re

"Surely we have better wines and whiskeys here." Bury glanced significantly at Ruth Cohen. "And better companionship as well."

"Oh, easily. But that miserable wimp Boynton still has my snow ghost fur. I'm going down to the Maguey Worm and take it back."

PART 2 - SPARTA

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?

For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Sir John Harington

1 Capital

For forms of government let fools contest:

What're is best administered is best.

City

Alexander Pope, ‘Epistle III, Of the Nature and

State of Man with Respect to Society"

AD. 3046

Imperial University

The Imperial University was founded in CoDominium times as the University of Sparta and enjoyed close ties to several Earth institutions including the University of Chicago, Stanford University, Columbia, Westinghouse Institute, and the University of Cambridge. In exchange for the privilege of appointing a majority of the regents, the first kings of Sparta endowed the University of Sparta with extensive lands in the hill regions south and east of the capital. Much of that land was subsequently leased to commercial institutions, so that the University enjoys a large income not under political control. The name was changed to Imperial University during the early years of the First Empire,