The Star Kings

13: Master of the Cloud

Shorr Kan lounged back in his chair before he answered. "Zarth Arn, that depends to some extent on whether or not you're willing to cooperate with me."

Lianna spoke scornfully. "By 'cooperate' you mean, betray the Empire."

The League commander was not ruffled. "That's one way of putting it. I'd prefer to define it as simply to become realistic."

He leaned forward and his strong, mobile face was in deep earnest as he continued.

"I'll put my cards on the table, Zarth. The League of Dark Worlds has secretly built up its fleet here stronger than the Empire navy. We have every weapon of war you have, and a brand new weapon that will play the devil with your fleet when we use it."

"What kind of a weapon? Sounds like a bluff to me," commented Gordon.

Shorr Kan grinned. "You can't fish information out of me. But I will tell you that it's a weapon that can strike down enemy warships from inside them."

He added, "With that new weapon, with our powerful fleet, and above all with your Commander Corbulo secretly in our pay, your Empire fleet won't have a chance when we attack! We'd have attacked before now if it hadn't been for one thing. And that's the Disruptor.

"Corbulo couldn't tell us about the Disruptor, since only the royal house of the Empire are allowed to know about it. And while the traditions of its awful power may be exaggerated, we know that they are not baseless. For your ancestor Brenn Bir did with the Disruptor somehow completely annihilate the alien Magellanians who invaded the galaxy two thousand years ago."

Shorr Kan's face tightened. "You know the secret of that mysterious weapon or power, Zarth. And I want it from you!"

John Gordon had expected no less. But he continued to fence. "I suppose," he said ironically, "that you're going to offer me a star-kingdom if I give you the secret of the Disruptor?"

"More than that," Shorr Kan said levelly. "I'm offering you the sovereignty of the whole galaxy!"

Gordon was astonished by the audacity of this man. There was something breathtaking about him.

"We agreed to talk intelligently," Gordon snapped. "Do you suppose me stupid enough to believe that after you conquered the Empire and power over the whole galaxy, you'd give it to me?"

Shorr Kan smiled. "I said nothing about giving you the power. I spoke of giving you rule. They are different things."

He explained rapidly. "Once the Disruptor secret is mine, I can shatter the Empire and dominate the galaxy. But half the galaxy would still hate me as a usurper, an alien. There would be endless revolts and unrest.

"So, once I've got my hand on everything, I'd put forward Zarth Arn, legitimate son of the late Arn Abbas, as new sovereign of the galaxy! I, Shorr Kan, would merely be your trusted advisor. It would be a peaceful federation of the whole galaxy, I'd announce."

He grinned again. "See how much simpler it would make things for me? A legitimate emperor, no revolts, no unrest. You and Lianna would be the rulers, and enjoy every luxury and respect. I don't care for the pomp and outward show of power, and would be quite content to wield the real power from behind the throne."

"And if I decided to use my position as nominal ruler to turn the tables on you?" Gordon asked curiously.

Shorr Kan laughed. "You wouldn't, Zarth. The core of the armed forces would be loyal Cloud-men I could trust."

He stood up "What do you say? Remember that right now you're a fugitive from the Empire, sought for the murder of your own father. All that can be cleared up, the charge can be disproved, and you can live the greatest sovereign in history. Isn't it intelligent to do so?"

Gordon shrugged. "Your proposal is certainly clever. But I'm afraid you've wasted your time. The stumbling-block is that under no circumstances will you get the Disruptor secret from me."

He expected a burst of rage from the League ruler. But Shorr Kan merely looked disappointed.

"I was hoping you'd be clearheaded enough to discount all this nonsense about patriotism and loyalties, and use a little sense."

Lianna flashed, "Of course you cannot understand loyalty and honor, when you have none yourself!"

Shorr Kan looked at her frowningly, though still apparently without anger.

"No, I don't have any," he agreed. "What, after all, are loyalty, honor, patriotism, all those admirable qualities? Just ideas that people happen to think are praiseworthy, and therefore will die for. I'm a realist. I refuse to injure myself for any mere idea."

He turned again to Gordon. "Let's not talk any more about it right now. You're tired, your nerves are taut, you're in no shape to make a decision. Get a good night's rest, and think it over tomorrow-and use your brains, not your emotions. You'll surely see that I'm right."

He added, more slowly, "I could tell you that if you persist in refusing to cooperate, there's a highly unpleasant alternative. But I don't want to threaten you, Zarth! I want you to come in with me, not from any love of me or the League, but simply because you're smart enough to recognize your own interests."

Gordon for the first time glimpsed the steel within the velvet glove, as he saw the glint in Shorr Kan's black eyes.

The League commander had pressed a signal-button as he spoke. The door opened and Durk Undis entered.

"Give Prince Zarth and his fiancée the best possible quarters," Shorr Kan told the younger Cloud-man. "They must be strictly guarded, but let the guard be unobtrusive. Any disrespect to them will be severely punished."

Durk Undis bowed and stood waiting. Gordon took Lianna's arm and silently left the room.

All the way through the corridors and ramps of the gloomy building, Gordon felt that unsettling sense of having met a man who was far stronger than he in shrewdness and cunning, and who might be able to handle him like putty.

This huge citadel of the League of Dark Worlds was a dreary place, by night. The lights that glowed at intervals along its corridors could not dispel the insidious haze that wrapped this world.

The apartment to which they were conducted was far from luxurious. The square, white-walled rooms were strictly utilitarian in design and furniture, with transparent sections of wall looking out over the somber city Thallarna.

Durk Undis bowed stiffly to them. "You will find nutrition-dispensers and all else needful. Let me warn you not to try venturing out of these rooms. Every exit is strictly guarded."

When the League officer had gone, John Gordon turned and looked at Lianna, who stood by the window.

Something in the brave erectness of her little figure choked him with tenderness. He went to her side.

"Lianna, if I could assure your safety by giving up the secret of the Disruptor, I would," he said huskily.

She turned quickly. "You must not give it up! Without it, Shorr Kan still hesitates to move. And while he hesitates, there is a chance that Corbulo's treachery may be discovered."

"There's little chance of our exposing him, I'm afraid," Gordon said. "There's no possibility of escape from here."

Lianna's slim shoulders sagged a little. "No, I realize that," she murmured. "Even if by some miracle we could escape this building and seize a ship, we could never find our way out through the mazes of the Cloud."

The Cloud! It was the sky here, dark, heavy and menacing, showing no star as its ebon folds enwrapped this grim city.

That dark sky gave Gordon a feeling of claustrophobia, a sense of all the trillions of miles of shadowy gloom that encompassed him and shut him from the star-bright spaces of the galaxy outside.

Thallarna was not sleeping. Out there in the severely straight streets streamed many heavy vehicles. Fliers came and went in swarms. Thunderous reverberations droned dimly to them from the distant docks where squadrons of heavy warships were constantly coming and going.

Gordon took the couch in the living-room of their austere apartment, without expectation of being able to sleep. But his tired body relaxed in almost drugged slumber in a short time.

Dawn awoke him-a sickly, shadowy dawn that only slowly revealed the outlines of the room. He found Lianna sitting on the edge of his couch, looking down at him with curious intentness.

She flushed slightly. "I wondered if you were awake. I have our breakfast ready. It is not bad, the nutritional fluid. Though it's likely to become monotonous."

"I doubt if we will be here long enough to grow tired of it," Gordon said grimly.

She looked at him. "You think that Shorr Kan will insist on your giving him the Disrupter secret today?"

"I'm afraid so," he said. "If that secret is all that is holding back his attack, he'll want it as soon as possible."

Through the hours of the gloomy day, as the red sun swept with somber slowness across the shadowy sky, they expected Shorr Kan's summons.

But it was not until night had returned that Durk Undis and four armed soldiers entered the apartment.

The young fanatic Cloud-man again bowed stiffly. "The commander will see you now, Prince Zarth. Alone," he added quickly, as Lianna stepped forward with Gordon.

Lianna's eyes flashed. "I go where Zarth goes!"

"I regret that I must carry out my orders," said Durk Undis coldly. "Will you come now, Prince Zarth?"

Lianna apparently realized the hopelessness of further resistance. She stood back.

Gordon hesitated, then let impulse sweep him and strode back to her. He took her face between his hands and kissed her.

"Don't worry, Lianna," he said, and turned away.

His heart beat painfully as he followed Durk Undis through the corridors. He was certain that he had seen Lianna for the last time.

Maybe better this way! he thought. Maybe better to forget her in death than to go back to his own time and be forever haunted by memory of love irrevocably lost.

Gordon's desperate thoughts received a check when he followed his guards into a room. It was not the austere study of the previous day.

This was a laboratory. There was a table, above which hung a massive metal cone connected by cables to a complicated apparatus of banked, vacuum tubes and moving tapes. Here were two thin, nervous-looking Cloud-men-and Shorr Kan.

Shorr Kan dismissed Durk Undis and the guards, and quickly greeted Gordon.

"You've slept, rested? That's good. Now tell me what you've decided."

Gordon shrugged. "There was no decision to make. I can't give you the secret of the Disruptor."

Shorr Kan's strong face changed slightly in expression, and he spoke after a pause.

"I see. I might have expected it. Old mental habits, old traditions-even intelligence can't conquer them, sometimes."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Now listen, Zarth. I told you yesterday that there was an unpleasant alternative if you refused. I didn't go into details because I wanted to gain your willing cooperation.

"But now you force me to be explicit. So let me assure you first of one thing. I am going to have the Disruptor secret from you, whether you give it willingly or not."

"Torture, then?" sneered Gordon. "That is what I expected."

Shorr Kan made a disgusted gesture. "Faugh, I don't use torture. It's clumsy and undependable, and alienates even your own followers. No, I have quite another method in mind."

He gestured to the older of the two nervous-looking men nearby. "Land Allar, there, is one of our finest psycho-scientists. Some years ago he devised a certain apparatus which I've been forced to utilize several times."

"It's a brain-scanner. It literally reads the brain, by scanning the neurons, plotting the synaptic connections, and translating that physical set-up into the knowledge, memories and information possessed by that particular brain. With it, before this night is over, I can have the Disruptor secret right out of your brain."

"That," said John Gordon steadily, "is a rather unclever bluff,"

Shorr Kan shook his dark head "I assure you it is not. I can prove it to you if you want me to Otherwise, you must take my word that the scanner will take everything from your brain."

He went on, "The trouble is that the impact of the scanning ray on the brain for hour after hour in time breaks down the synaptic connections it scans. The subject emerges from the process a mindless idiot. That is what will happen to you if we use it on you."

The hair bristled on Gordon's neck. He had not a doubt now that Shorr Kan was speaking the truth. If nothing else, the pale, sick faces of the two scientists proved his assertion.

Weird, fantastic, nightmarishly horrible-yet wholly possible to this latter day science! An instrument that mechanically read the mind, and in reading wrecked it!

"I don't want to use it on you, I repeat," Shorr Kan was saying earnestly. "For as I told you, you'd be extremely valuable to me as a puppet emperor after the galaxy is conquered. But if you persist in refusing to tell that secret, I simply have no choice."

John Gordon felt an insane desire to laugh. This was all too ironic.

"You've got everything so nicely calculated," he told Shorr Kan. "But again, you find yourself defeated by pure chance."

"Just what do you mean?" asked the League ruler, with dangerous softness.

"I mean that I can't tell you the secret of the Disruptor because I don't know it!"

Shorr Kan looked impatient. "That is a rather childish evasion. Everyone knows that as son of the emperor you would be told all about the Disruptor."

Gordon nodded. "Quite true. But I happen not to be the emperor's son. I'm a different man entirely."

Shorr Kan shrugged. "We are gaining nothing by all this. Go ahead."

The last words were addressed to the two scientists. At that moment Gordon savagely leaped for Shorr Kan's throat!

He never reached it. One of the scientists had a glass paralyzer ready, and swiftly jabbed it at the back of his neck.

Gordon sank, shocked and stunned. Only dimly, he felt them lifting him onto the metal table. Through his dimming vision, Shorr Kan's hard face and cool black eyes looked down.

"Your last chance, Zarth! Make but a signal and you can still avoid this fate."

Gordon felt the hopelessness of it all, even as his raging anger made him glare up at the League commander.

The paralyzer touched him again. This shock was like a physical blow. He just sensed the two scientists busy with the massive metal cone above his head, and then darkness claimed him.