King David's Spaceship

“That’s the simplest part of the plan, Colonel. The Imperials have already offered to take us there.” He smiled at Nathan’s startled look. “They’re not all Navy and Military, you know. Some Imperial citizens are Traders. There’s one batch of them right now negotiating with King David over the rights to grua. They think our brandy will be worth a fortune on their capital.

“They want platinum and iridium, too; those metals seem to be very useful to them and in short supply. But there isn’t much they can give us in return, because the Navy won’t let them sell us what we really want — technology. The Navy rule is, you can’t trade anything more technologically advanced than what your customer already has without special permission from the Imperial Council. We offered to buy those little devices they all carry around like notebooks. ‘Pocket computers,’ the Navy men call them. They seem to be machines. They can’t sell those.”

“What can they sell?”

“Not much, it appears. But they have offered the king transportation to a world less advanced than ours, someplace where we can try out luck at selling. They suggested a planet at the star we call the Eye of the Needle as the closest, and we are already discussing an expedition to go there and try to organize trade …”

“The Navy will permit this?” MacKi

“Under conditions. Stringent conditions, I might add. We can’t take anything more advanced than the natives already have. The Navy inspects our trade mission and goods before we go to the planet. But they will let us go. It appears that the Imperial Traders Association has a good-sized block of votes in the Imperial Council. I don’t pretend to understand capital politics, but the ITA seems very influential. They can force the Navy to let us trade with that planet, Makassar, it’s called.”

“Won’t they be watching to see that we don’t get near the library?” MacKi

“They have never mentioned the library,” Dougal said. “Until that young lieutenant babbled about it in the Blue Bottle, I never knew it existed. I think the library’s an anomaly in their records, hot listed as an advanced artifact because it’s so old and the people on Makassar don’t know how to use it. That’s only a guess. I do know they’ve been willing to let us go there.”

Dougal paused and again looked intently at MacKi

CHAPTER FOUR

TRADER

MacKi

He raised himself on one elbow. To his left a closet stood open, revealing racks of rich clothing. His own kilt and jacket, freshly cleaned and pressed, hung neatly on the door, and with them hung his service pistol. MacKi

Now that he was up, he decided he might as well stay up. He took his time in the rest room, using luxurious shaving equipment and treating himself to a double dash of the most expensive lotions and powders he had ever seen. If all guests of King David’s secret police fared as well as he, there would be long lines of people hoping to be arrested for high treason, but he suspected there were more dungeons in the building than guest suites.

As he finished shaving, Stark knocked at the door, then waited for MacKi

“What have we got ourselves into, Colonel?” Stark asked. As he spoke he made tiny signals with his hands, indicating the walls, then his ears.

MacKi

“Many as you want, Colonel. How many do you think we need?”

“All of them, but I don’t think the Imperial Navy will let us take a regiment to Makassar.”

“We’ll get as many as you want. Going to be fu

“Yes. Well, I suppose we might as well get on with it. We wouldn’t want to keep Dougal and Inspector Solon waiting.”

“Yes, sir. Begging your pardon, sir, I hope he won’t go with us to that crazy place. Going up high like that, off the world even, that’s enough without that walking corpse to give me the creeps.”

“He won’t be coming along. Nervous, Hal?”

“No, sir, not if you say not to be. But I am having a little trouble getting used to the idea.”

“That’s two of us. All right, Hal, tell them we’re ready for breakfast.”

“Yes, sir.” Stark found the speaking tube in a small recess under the dim light, uncapped it, and whistled. After a second there was an answering note. “Our respects, and the colonel and I are ready for breakfast.” Stark listened for a few moments, then returned to MacKi

Four guards were visible when the door opened. At least two of them were from the party which had captured MacKi

They were ushered into the big office MacKi

“Good morning, Trader,” Dougal said. He stood, waited for MacKi