Tulan Read online

  Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  TULAN

  By C. C. MacAPP

  _To disobey the orders of the Council of Four was unthinkable to a Space Admiral of the old school. But the trouble was, the school system had changed. A man, a fighter, an Admiral had to think for himself now, if his people were to live._

  While facing the Council of Four his restraint had not slipped; butafterward, shaking with fury, the Admiral of the Fleets of Sennechslammed halfway down the long flight of stone steps before he realizedsomeone was at his elbow. He slowed. "Forgive me, Jezef. They made me somad I forgot you were waiting."

  Jezef (adjutant through most of Tulan's career, and for some yearsbrother-in-law as well) was shorter and less harshly carved than hissuperior. "So they wouldn't listen to you. Not even Grefen?"

  "Even Grefen." That vote had stabbed deepest of all.

  Jezef took it with the detachment that still irritated Tulan. "The endof a hundred years of dreams; and we go back under the yoke. Well,they've always been soft masters."

  They reached the ground cars. Before getting into his own Tulan saidcoldly, "Since you're so philosophical about it, you'll be a good one tobear the sight of men saying good-bye to their families. We're to takefull crews to Coar and surrender them with the ships. Requisition whathelp you need and get everybody aboard by noon tomorrow."

  Jezef saluted with a hint of amused irony, and left.

  * * * * *

  Whipping through the dark icy streets, Tulan smiled sourly, thinking howSennech's scientists had reversed themselves on the theory of hyperspacenow that Coar had demonstrated its existence. Maybe the Council wasright in mistrusting their current notions. As for himself, he saw onlytwo things to consider: that with Coar swinging behind the sun, theaccuracy of her new weapon had gone to pot; and that before she wasclear again he could pound her into surrender.

  His swift campaigns had already smashed her flabby fleets and driven theremnants from space, but the Council, faced with the destruction andcasualties from just a few days of the weird surprise bombardment, wascowed.

  He'd spent the previous night at home, but wasn't going back now, havingdecided to make his farewell by visiphone. It was the thing he dreadedmost, or most immediately, so as soon as he reached the flagship he wentto his quarters to get it over with.

  Anatu's eyes--the same eyes as Jezef's--looked at him out of the screen,filling him with the familiar awkward worship. "You've heard?" he askedfinally.

  "Yes. You won't be home before you go?"

  "No; I ..." He abandoned the lie he'd prepared. "I just didn't feel upto it."

  She accepted that. "I'll wake the boys."

  "No! It's--" Something happened to his throat.

  She watched him for a moment. "You won't be back from Coar. You've _got_to speak to them."

  He nodded. This wasn't going according to plan; he'd intended it to bebrief and controlled. Damn it, he told himself, I'm Admiral of theFleets; I've no right to feelings like this. He straightened, and knewhe looked right when the two sleepy stares occupied the screen.

  Their hair was stiff and stubborn like his own, so that they wore itcropped in the same military cut. It could have stood a brush right now.They were quiet, knowing enough of what was wrong to be frightened.

  He spoke carefully. "I'm going to Coar to talk to them about stoppingthe war. I want you to look after things while I'm away. All right?"

  "All right, Dad." The older one was putting on a brave front for thebenefit of the younger and his mother, but the tears showed.

  As Tulan cut the connection he saw that Anatu's eyes were moist too, andrealized with surprise that he'd never before, in all the years, seenher cry. He watched the last faint images fade from the screen.

  * * * * *

  Sometime near dawn he gave up trying to sleep, dressed, and begancomposing orders. Presently Jezef came in with cups of steaming amberliquid. They sipped in silence for a while, then Jezef asked "You'veheard about Grefen?"

  Tulan felt something knot inside him. He shook his head, dreading whathe knew was coming.

  "He killed himself last night," Jezef said.

  Tulan remembered the agony in the old Minister of War's eyes when he'dvoted for surrender. Grefen had been Admiral in his day; the prototypeof integrity and a swift sledgehammer in a fight; and Tulan's firstcombat had been under him. A symbol of the Fleet, Tulan reflected; andhis death, yes, that too was a symbol--what was there but shame insurrender, for a man or a fleet or a world?

  His hand clenched, crumpling the paper it was resting on. He smoothedthe paper and re-read the order he'd been writing. He visualized theproud ranks of his crewmen, reduced to ragged lines shuffling towardprison or execution.

  It seemed impossible, against the laws of nature, that men should strivemightily and win, then be awarded the loser's prize. His anger began toreturn. "I've a mind to defy the Government and only take skeletoncrews," he said. "Leave the married men, at least."

  Jezef shrugged. "They'd only be bundled into transports and sent afterus."

  "Yes. Damn it, I won't be a party to it! All they did was carry outtheir orders, and superbly, at that!"

  Jezef watched him with something like curiosity. "You'd disobey theCouncil? You?"

  Tulan felt himself flush. "I've told you before, discipline's anecessity to me, not a religion!" Nevertheless, Jezef's question wasn'tunfair; up to now it really hadn't occurred to him that he mightdisobey.

  His inward struggle was brief. He grabbed the whole pad of orders andripped them across. "What's the Council, with Grefen gone, but threetrembling old men? Get some guns manned, in case they get suspicious andtry to interfere."

  Blood began to surge faster in his veins; he felt a vast relief. Howcould he have ever seen it differently? He jabbed at a button. "Allships' Duty Officers; scramble communication circuits. This is theAdmiral. Top Secret Orders...."

  * * * * *

  Shortly before noon the four-hundred-odd ships lifted out of Sennech'sfrosty atmosphere, still ignoring the furious demands from the radio.Fully armed, they couldn't be stopped.

  Tulan's viewer gave a vivid picture of the receding fifth planet. Thewhite mantle of ice and snow was a backdrop for blue artificial lakesand the dark green of forest-strips (hardy conifers from Teyr)alternated with the lighter shades of surface farms. The ice had beenalmost unbroken until men came, bringing more heat than Sennech had everreceived from a far-off sun.

  That had been before the First Solar War, when Teyr (the race of Aum hadoriginated there) ruled. That awful struggle had bludgeoned the homeplanet back to savagery, and left Coar and Sennech little better off.

  With recovery, Coar had taken over and prospered immensely. Teyr stayedwild except for small colonies planted there by the other two planets,and Sennech lagged for a while.

  Within Tulan's lifetime his world had found itself ready to rise againstthe lax but profit-taking rule of Coar, and that rebellion had growninto the present situation.

  Sennech's wounds were plainly visible in the viewscreen; great man-madecraters spewing incandescent destruction blindly over farm, city, orvirgin ice. The planet was in three-quarters phase from here, and Tulancould see the flecks of fire in the darkness beyond the twilight zone.Near the edge of that darkness he made out the dimmer, diffused glow ofCapitol City, where Anatu would be giving two small boys their supper.

  He checked altitude, found they were free of the atmosphere, and orderedan acceleration that would take them halfway to the sun in fifty hours.It was uncomfortable now, with Sennech's gravity added, but that wouldfall off fast.


  Jezef hauled himself in and dropped to a pad. "I wish I had your build,"he said. "Do you really think we can pull this off?"

  Tulan, in a good mood, grinned at him. "Have I ever led you into defeatyet, pessimist?"

  "No; and more than once I'd have bet ten to one against us. That's whythe Fleet fights so well for you; we have the feeling we're following ahalf-god. Gods, however, achieve defeats as terrible as theirvictories."

  Tulan laughed and sat down beside Jezef with some charts. "I think I'llappoint you Fleet Poet. Here's the plan. No one knows what I intend; wecould be on our way around the sun to overtake Coar and either fight orsurrender, or we might be diving into the sun in a