To Save the Sun

Chapter One

The Emperor of the Hundred Worlds stood at the head of the conference chamber, tall, gray, grim-faced. Although there were forty other men and women seated in the chamber, the Emperor knew he was alone.

“Then it is certain?” he asked, his voice grave but strong despite the news they had given him. “Earth’s Sun will explode?”

The scientists had come from all ends of the Empire to reveal their findings to the Emperor. They shifted uneasily in their sculptured couches under his steady gaze. A few of them, the oldest and best-trusted, were actually on Corinth, the Imperial planet itself, only an ocean away from the palace. Most of the others had been brought to the Imperial solar system from their homeworlds, and were housed on the three other planets of the system.

Although the holographic projections made them look as solid and real as Emperor Nicholas himself, there was always a slight lag in their responses to him. The delay was an indication of their rank within the scientific order, and they had even arranged their seating in the conference chamber the same way: the farther away from the Emperor, the lower in the hierarchy.

Some things cannot be conquered, the Emperor thought to himself as one of the men in the third rank of couches, a roundish, balding, slightly pompous little man, got to his feet. Time still reigns supreme. Distance we can conquer, but not time. Not death.

“Properly speaking, Sire, the Sun will not explode. It will not become a nova. Its mass is too low for that. But the eruptions that it will suffer will be of sufficient severity to heat Earth’s atmosphere to incandescence. It will destroy all life on the surface. And, of course, the oceans will be drastically damaged; the food chain of the oceans will be totally disrupted.”

Good-bye to Earth, then, thought the Emperor.

But aloud he asked, “The power satellites, and the shielding we have provided the planet—they will not protect it?”

The scientist stood dumb, patiently waiting for his Emperor’s response to span the light-minutes between them. How drab he looks, the Emperor noted. And how soft. He pulled his own white robe closer around his iron-hard body. He was older than most of them in the conference chamber, but they were accustomed to sitting at desks and lecturing to students. He was accustomed to standing before multitudes and commanding.

“The shielding,” the bald man said at last, “will not be sufficient. There is nothing we can do. For several centuries neutrino counts have consistently shown that the core of Earth’s Sun has become stagnant. Sometime over the next three to five hundred years, the Sun will erupt and destroy all life on Earth and the inner planets of its system. The data are conclusive.”

The Emperor inclined his head to the man, curtly, a gesture that meant both “Thank you” and “Be seated.” The scientist waited mutely for the gesture to reach him.

The data are conclusive. The integrator woven into the molecules of his cerebral cortex linked the Emperor’s mind with the continent-spanning computer complex that was the Imperial memory.

Within milliseconds he reviewed the equations and found no flaw in them. Even as he did so, the other hemisphere of his brain was picturing Earth’s daystar seething, writhing in a fury of pent-up nuclear agony, then erupting into giant flares. The Sun calmed afterward and smiled benignly once again on a blackened, barren, smoking rock called Earth.

A younger man was on his feet, back in the last row of couches. The Emperor realized that he had already asked for permission to speak. Now they both waited for the photons to complete the journey between them. From his position in the chamber and the distance between them, he was either an upstart or a very junior researcher.

“Sire,” he said at last, his face suddenly flushed in embarrassed self-consciousness or, perhaps, the heat of conviction, “the data may be conclusive, true enough. But it is not true that we must accept this catastrophe with folded hands.”

The Emperor began to say, “Explain yourself,” but the intense young man never hesitated to wait for an Imperial response. He was taking no chance of being commanded into silence before he had finished.

“Earth’s Sun will erupt only if we do nothing to prevent it. A colleague of mine believes that we have the means to prevent the eruptions. I would like to present her ideas on the subject. She could not attend this meeting herself.” The young man’s face grew taut, angry. “Her application to attend was rejected by the Coordinating Committee.”

The Emperor smiled inwardly as the young man’s words reached the other scientists around him. He could see a shock wave of disbelief and indignation spread through the assembly. The hoary old men in the front row, who chose the members of the Coordinating Committee, went stiff with anger.

Even Prince Javas, the Emperor’s last remaining son, roused from his idle daydreaming where he sat at the Emperor’s side and seemed to take an interest in the meeting for the first time.

“You may present your colleague’s proposal,” the Emperor said. That is what an Emperor is for, he added silently, looking at his youngest son, seeking some understanding on his handsome untroubled face. To be magnanimous in the face of disaster.

The young man took a pen-sized data stick from his sleeve pocket and inserted it into the computer input slot in the arm of his couch. The scientists in the front ranks of the chamber glowered and muttered to each other.

The Emperor stood lean and straight, stroking his graying beard absently as he waited for the information to reach him. When it did, he saw in his mind a young dark-haired woman whose face might have been charming were she not so intensely serious about her subject. She was speaking, trying to keep her voice dispassionate, but was almost literally quivering with excitement. Equations appeared, charts, graphs, lists of materials and costs; yet her intent, dark-eyed face dominated it all.

Beyond her, the Emperor saw a vague, star-shimmering image of vast ships ferrying megatons of equipment and thousands upon thousands of technical specialists from all parts of the Hundred Worlds toward Earth and its troubled Sun.

Then, as the equations faded and the starry picture went dim and even the woman’s face began to pale, the Emperor saw the Earth, green and safe, smelled the grass and heard birds singing, saw the Sun shining gently over a range of softly rolling, ancient wooded hills.

He closed his eyes. You go too far, woman. But how was she to know that his eldest son had died in hills exactly like these, killed on Earth, killed by Earth, so many years ago?

Chapter Two

He sat now. The Emperor of the Hundred Worlds spent little time on his feet anymore. One by one the vanities are surrendered. He sat in a powered chair that held him in a soft yet firm embrace. It was mobile and almost alive: part personal vehicle, part medical monitor, part communications system that could link him with any place in the Empire.

His son stood. Prince Javas stood by the marble balustrade that girdled the high terrace where his father had received him. He wore the gray-blue uniform of a fleet commander, although he had never bothered to accept command of even one ship. His wife, the Princess Rihana, was at her husband’s side.

They were a well-matched pair physically. Gold and fire. The Prince had his father’s lean sinewy grace, golden hair and star-flecked eyes. Rihana was fiery, with the beauty and ruthlessness of a tigress in her face. Her hair was a cascade of molten copper tumbling past her shoulders, her gown a metallic glitter.

“It was a wasted trip,” Javas said to his father, with his usual sardonic smile. “Earth is… well,” he shrugged, “nothing but Earth. It hasn’t changed in the slightest.”

“Thirty wasted years,” Rihana said.

The Emperor looked past them, beyond the terrace to the lovingly landscaped forest that his engineers could never make quite the right shade of terrestrial green.

“Not entirely wasted, daughter-in-law,” he said at last. “In cryosleep, you’ve aged hardly at all…”

“We are thirty years out of date with the affairs of the Empire,” she snapped. The smoldering expression on her face made it clear that she believed her father-in-law deliberately plotted to keep her as far from the throne as possible.

“You can easily catch up,” the Emperor said, ignoring her anger. “In the meantime, you have kept your youthful appearance.”

“I shall always keep it! You are the one who denies himself rejuvenation treatments, not me.”

“And so will Javas, when he becomes Emperor.”

“Will he?” Her eyes were suddenly mocking.

“He will,” said the Emperor, with the weight of a hundred worlds behind his voice.

Rihana looked away from him. “Well, even so, I shan’t. I see no reason why I should age and wither when even the foulest shopkeeper can live for centuries.”

“Your husband will age.”

She said nothing. And as he ages, the Emperor knew, you will find younger lovers. But of course, you have already done that, haven’t you? He turned toward his son, who was still standing by the balustrade.

“Kyle Arman is dead,” Javas blurted.

For a moment, the Emperor failed to comprehend. “Dead?” he asked, his voice sounding old and weak even to himself.

Javas nodded. “In his sleep. A heart seizure.”

“But he is too young…”

“He was your age, Father.”

“And he refused rejuvenation treatments,” Rihana said, sounding positively happy. “As if he were royalty! The pretentious fool. A servant… a menial…”

“He was a friend of this House,” the Emperor said.

“He killed my brother,” said Javas.

“Your brother failed the test. He was a coward. Unfit to rule.” But Kyle passed you, the Emperor thought. You were found fit to rule… or was Kyle still ashamed of what he had done to my firstborn ?

“And you accepted his story.” For once, Javas’ bemused smile was gone. There was iron in his voice. “The word of a backwoods Earthman.”

“A pretentious fool,” Rihana gloated.

“A proud and faithful man,” the Emperor corrected. “A man who put honor and duty above personal safety or comfort.”

His eyes locked with Javas’. After a long moment in silence, the Prince shrugged and turned away.

“Regardless,” Rihana said, “we surveyed the situation on Earth, as you requested us to.”

Commanded, the Emperor thought. Not requested.

“The people there are all primitives. Hardly a city on the entire planet! It’s all trees and huge oceans.”

“I know,” he said drily, “I was born there.”

Javas said, “There are only a few millions living on Earth. They can be evacuated easily and resettled on a few of the frontier planets. After all, they are primitives.”

“Those ‘primitives’ are the baseline for our race. They are the pool of original genetic material, against which our scientists constantly measure the rest of humanity throughout the Hundred Worlds.”

Rihana said, “Well, they’re going to have to find another primitive world to live on.”

“Unless we prevent their Sun from exploding.”

Javas looked amused. “You’re not seriously considering that?”

“I am… considering it. Perhaps not very seriously.”

“It makes no difference,” Rihana said. “The plan to save the Sun—to save your precious Earth—will take hundreds of years to implement. You will be dead long before even the earliest steps can be brought to a conclusion. The next Emperor can cancel the entire plan the day he takes the throne.”

The Emperor turned his chair slightly to face his son, but Javas looked away, out toward the darkening forest.

“I know,” the Emperor whispered, more to himself than to her. “I know that full well.”

He could not sleep. The Emperor lay on the wide expanse of warmth, floating a single molecular layer above the gently soothing waters. Always before, when sleep would not come readily, a woman had solved the problem for him. But lately not even lovemaking helped.

The body grows weary but the mind refuses sleep. Is this what old age brings?

Now he lay alone, the ceiling of his tower bedroom depolarized so that he could see the blazing glory of the night sky of Corinth, capital planet of the Hundred Worlds.

Not the pale tranquil sky of Earth, with its bloated Moon smiling inanely at you, he thought. This was truly an Imperial sky, brazen with shimmering lights that glittered and sparkled like a thick sprinkling of gleaming gemstones. But they were not true stars, the Emperor knew. The inner reaches of the Procyon system were strewn with rubble, asteroids, the makings of planets that never coalesced because of the star’s massive gravity field. Debris, thought the Emperor. Still, they shine beautifully. No moon rode in the sky; none was needed. There was never true darkness on Corinth.

A few true stars shone feebly through the glittering haze. One particularly bright one: diamond-hard, brilliant. Procyon’s dwarf-star companion. A star that was halfway toward death.

That is what the Sun will look like one day, the Emperor realized. Once that companion had been a normal star, fully as large and bright as Procyon itself. When it collapsed it spewed out lethal waves of heat and radiation that scrubbed all life from the surface of Corinth. When the first explorers from Earth had found the planet, it was blackened and barren, its atmosphere just beginning to stabilize after its terrible ordeal.

That is why Corinth was made the capital of the Empire. It was useless for any other purpose. No one wanted it, so the Imperial Court was free to build on it without hindrance.

And yet Earth’s sky seemed so much friendlier. You could pick out old companions there: the two Bears, the Lion, the Twins, the Hunter, the Winged Horse.

Already I think of Earth in the past tense. Like Kyle. Like my son.

He thought of the Earth’s warming Sun. How could it turn traitor? How could it… begin to die? In his mind’s eye he hovered above the Sun, bathed in its fiery glow, watching its bubbling, seething surface. He plunged deeper into the roiling plasma, saw filaments and streamers arching a thousand Earthspans into space, heard the pulsing throb of the star’s energy, the roar of its power, blinding bright, overpowering, ceaseless merciless heat, throbbing, roaring, pounding…

He was gasping for breath and the pounding he heard was his own heartbeat throbbing in his ears. Soaked with sweat, he tried to sit up. The bed enfolded him protectively, supporting his body.

“Hear me,” he commanded the computer. His voice cracked.

“Sire?” answered a softly female voice in his mind.

He forced himself to relax. Forced the pain from his body. The dryness in his throat eased. His breathing slowed. The pounding of his heart diminished.

“Get me the woman scientist who reported at the conference on the Sun’s explosion, thirty years ago. She was not present at the conference; her report was presented by a colleague.”

The computer needed more than a second to reply, but finally: “Sire, there were four such reports by female scientists at that conference.”

“This was the only one to deal with a plan to save the Earth’s Sun.”

Chapter Three

Medical monitors were implanted in his body now. Although the Imperial physicians insisted that it was impossible, the Emperor could feel the microscopic implants on the wall of his heart, in his aorta, alongside his carotid artery. The Imperial psychotechs called it a psychosomatic reaction. But since his mind was linked to the computers that handled all the information on the planet, the Emperor knew what his monitors were reporting before the doctors did.

They had reduced the gravity in his working and living sections of the palace to one-third normal, and forbade him from leaving these areas, except for the rare occasions of state when he was needed in the Great Assembly Hall or another public area. He acquiesced in this: The lighter gravity felt better and allowed him to be on his feet once again, free of the powerchair’s clutches.

This day he was walking slowly, calmly, through a green forest of Earth. He strolled along a parklike path, admiring the lofty maples and birches, listening to the birds and small forest animals’ songs of life. He inhaled scents of pine and grass and sweet clean air. He felt the warm sun on his face and the faintest cool breeze. For a moment he considered how the trees would look in their autumnal reds and golds. But he shook his head.

No. There is enough autumn in my life. I’d rather be in springtime.

In the rooms next to the corridor he walked through, tense knots of technicians worked at the holographic systems that produced the illusion of the forest, while other groups of white-suited meditechs studied the readouts from the Emperor’s implants. Even though the machinery was so highly automated as to be virtually sentient, Imperial tradition—and bureaucratic insistence—kept triply redundant teams of humans on duty constantly.

Two men joined the Emperor on the forest path: Academician Bomeer, head of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and Supreme Commander Fain, chief of staff of the Imperial Military Forces. Both were old friends and advisors, close enough to the Emperor to be housed within the palace itself when allowed to visit their master.

Bomeer looked young, almost sprightly, in a stylish robe of green and tan. He was slightly built, had a lean, almost ascetic face spoiled by a large mop of unruly brown hair.

Commander Fain was iron gray, square-faced, a perfect picture of a military leader. His black and silver uniform fit his muscular frame like a second skin. His gray eyes seemed eternally troubled.

Emperor Nicholas greeted them and allowed Bomeer to spend a few minutes admiring the forest simulation. The scientist called out the correct names for each type of tree they walked past and identified several species of birds and squirrels. Finally the Emperor asked him about the young woman who had arrived on the Imperial planet the previous month.

“I have discussed her plan thoroughly with her,” Bomeer said, his face going serious. “I must say that she is dedicated, energetic, close to brilliant. But rather naive and overly sanguine about her own ideas.”

“Could her plan work?” asked the Emperor.

“Could it work?” the scientist echoed. He had tenaciously held on to his post at the top of the scientific hierarchy for nearly a century. His body had been rejuvenated more than once, the Emperor knew. But not his mind.

“Sire, there is no way to tell if it could work! Such an operation has never been done before. There are no valid data. Mathematics, yes, but even so, there is no more than theory. And the costs! The time it would take! The technical manpower!” He shook his head. “Staggering.”

The Emperor stopped walking. Fifty meters away, behind the hologram screens, a dozen meditechs suddenly hunched over their readout screens intently.

But the Emperor had stopped merely to repeat to Bomeer, “Could her plan work?”

Bomeer ran a hand through his boyish mop, glanced at Commander Fain for support and found none, then faced his Emperor again. “I… there is no firm answer, Sire. Statistically I would say that the chances are vanishingly small.”

“Statistics!” The Emperor made a disgusted gesture. “A refuge for scoundrels and sociotechs. Is there anything scientifically impossible in what she proposes?”

“Nnn… not theoretically impossible, Sire.” Bomeer said slowly. “A star’s life span can be increased; it has been known for centuries that some stars rejuvenate naturally. Massive stellar collisions at the centers of the globular clusters have been known to transform dying red giants into young blue stragglers, although the process is obviously highly destructive in itself. But her theories involve something entirely different, and in the practical world of reality… it… it’s the magnitude of the project. The costs. Why, it would take half of Supreme Commander Fain’s fleet to transport even the most basic equipment and material needed for such a venture.”

Fain seized his opportunity to speak. “And the Imperial fleet, Sire, is spread much too thin for safety as it is.”

“We are at peace, Commander,” said the Emperor.

“For how long, Sire? The frontier worlds grow more restless every day. And the aliens beyond our borders—”

“Are weaker than we are. I have reviewed the intelligence assessments, Commander.”

“Sire, the relevant factor in those reports is that the aliens are growing stronger and we are not.”

With a nod, the Emperor resumed walking. The scientist and the Commander followed him, arguing their points unceasingly.

Finally they reached the end of the long corridor, where the holographic simulation showed them Earth’s Sun setting beyond the edge of an ocean, turning the restless sea into an impossible glitter of opalescence.

“Your recommendations, then, gentlemen?” he asked wearily. Even in the one-third gravity his legs felt tired, his back ached.

Bomeer spoke first, his voice hard and sure. “This naive dream of saving the Earth’s Sun is doomed to fail. The plan must be rejected.”

Fain added, “The fleet can detach enough squadrons from its noncombat units to initiate the evacuation of Earth whenever you order it, Sire.”

“Evacuate them to an unsettled planet?” the Emperor asked.

“Or resettle them on the existing frontier worlds. The Earth residents are rather frontier-like themselves; they have purposely been kept primitive. They would get along well with some of the frontier populations. They might even serve to calm down some of the unrest on the frontier worlds.”

The Emperor looked at Fain and almost smiled. “Or they might fan that unrest into outright rebellion. They are a cantankerous lot, you know.”

“We can deal with rebellion,” said Fain.

“Can you?” the Emperor asked. “You can kill people, of course. You can level cities and even render whole planets uninhabitable. But does that end it? Or do the neighboring worlds become fearful and turn against us?”

Fain stood as unmoved as a statue. His lips barely parted as he asked, “Sire, if I may speak frankly?”

“Certainly, Commander.”

Like a soldier standing at attention as he delivers an unpleasant report to his superior officer, Fain drew himself up and monotoned, “Sire, the main reason for unrest among the frontier words is the lack of Imperial firmness in dealing with them. In my opinion, a strong hand is desperately needed. The neighboring worlds will respect their Emperor if—and only if—he acts decisively. The people value strength, Sire, not meekness.”

The Emperor reached out and put a hand on the Commander’s shoulder. Fain was still rock-hard under his uniform.

“You have sworn an oath to protect and defend this realm,” the Emperor said. “If necessary, to die for it.”

“And to protect and defend you, Sire.” The man stood straighter and firmer than the trees around them.

“But this Empire, my dear Commander, is more than blood and steel. It is more than any one man. It is an idea.”

Fain looked back at him steadily, but with no real understanding in his eyes. Bomeer stood uncertainly off to one side.

Impatiently the Emperor turned his face toward the ceiling hologram and called, “Map!”

Instantly the forest scene disappeared and they were in limitless space. Stars glowed around them, overhead, on all sides, underfoot. The pale gleam of the galaxy’s spiral arms wafted off and away into unutterable distance.

Bomeer’s knees buckled. Even the Commander’s rigid self-discipline was shaken.

The Emperor smiled. He was accustomed to walking godlike on the face of the Deep.

“This is the Empire, gentlemen,” he lectured in the darkness. “A handful of stars, a pitiful scattering of worlds set apart by distances that take years to traverse. All populated by human beings, the descendants of Earth.”

He could hear Bomeer breathing heavily. Fain was a ramrod outline against the glow of the Milky Way, but his hands were outstretched, as if seeking balance.

“What links these scattered dust motes? What preserves their ancient heritage, guards their civilization, protects their hard-won knowledge and arts and sciences? The Empire, gentlemen. We are the mind of the Hundred Worlds, their memory, the yardstick against which they can measure their own humanity. We are their friend, their father, their teacher and helper.”

The Emperor searched the black starry void for the tiny yellow speck of Earth’s Sun, while saying:

“But if the Hundred Worlds decide that the Empire is no longer their friend, if they want to leave their father, if they feel that their teacher and helper has become an oppressor… what then happens to the human race? It will shatter into a hundred fragments, and all the civilization that we have built and nurtured and protected over all these centuries will be destroyed.”

Bomeer’s whispered voice floated through the darkness. “They would never—”

“Yes. They would never turn against the Empire because they know that they have more to gain by remaining with us than by leaving us.”

“But the frontier worlds,” Fain said.

“The frontier worlds are restless, as frontier communities always are. If we use military might to force them to bow to our will, then other worlds will begin to wonder where their own best interests lie.”

“But they could never hope to fight against the Empire!”

The Emperor snapped his fingers and instantly the three of them were standing again in the forest at sunset.

“They could never hope to win against the Empire,” the Emperor corrected. “But they could destroy the Empire and themselves. I have played out the scenarios with the computers. Widespread rebellion is possible, once the majority of the Hundred Worlds becomes convinced that the Empire is interfering with their freedoms.”

“But the rebels could never win,” the Commander said. “I have run the same war games myself, many times.”

“Civil war,” said the Emperor. “Who wins a civil war? And once we begin to slaughter ourselves, what will your aliens do, my dear Fain? Eh?”

His two advisors fell silent. The forest simulation was now deep in twilight shadow. The three men began to walk back along the path, which was softly illuminated by bioluminescent flowers and fireflies flickering through the dark.

Bomeer clasped his hands behind his back as he walked. “Now that I have seen some of your other problems, Sire, I must take a stronger stand and insist—yes, Sire, insist—that this young woman’s plan to save the Earth is even more foolhardy than I had at first thought it to be. The cost is too high, and the chance of success is much too slim. The frontier worlds would react violently against such an extravagance. And,” with a nod to Fain, “it would hamstring the fleet.”

For several moments the Emperor walked down the simulated forest path without saying a word. Then, slowly, “I suppose you are right. It is an old man’s sentimental dream.”

“I’m afraid that’s the truth of it, Sire,” said Fain.

Bomeer nodded sagaciously.

“I will tell her. She will be disappointed. Bitterly.”

Bomeer gasped. “She’s here?”

The Emperor said, “Yes. I had her brought here to the palace. She has crossed the Empire, given up more than two decades of her life to make the trip, lost half a century of her career over this wild scheme of hers… just to hear that I will refuse her.”

“In the palace?” Fain echoed. “Sire, you’re not going to see her in person? The security—”

“Yes, in person. I owe her that much.” The Emperor could see the shock on their faces. Bomeer, who had never stood in the same building with the Emperor until he had become Chairman of the Academy, was trying to suppress his fury with poor success. Fain, sworn to guard the Emperor as well as the Empire, looked worried.

“But Sire,” the Commander said, “no one has personally seen the Emperor, privately, outside of his family and closest advisors”—Bomeer bristled visibly—“in years… decades!”

The Emperor nodded but insisted, “She is going to see me. I owe her that much. An ancient ruler on Earth once said, ‘When you are going to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite about it.’ She is not a man, of course, but I fear that our decision will kill her soul.”

They looked unconvinced.

Very well, then, the Emperor said to them silently. Put it down as the whim of an old man … a man who is feeling all his years … a man who will never recapture his youth.

She is only a child.

The Emperor studied Adela de Montgarde as the young astrophysicist made her way through the guards and secretaries and halls and antechambers toward his own private chambers. He had prepared to meet her in his reception room, changed his mind and moved the meeting to his office, then changed it again and now waited for her in his study. She knew nothing of his indecision; she merely followed the directions given her by the computer-informed staff of the palace.

The study was a warm old room, lined with shelves of private tapes and ancient paper tomes that the Emperor had collected over the years. A stone fireplace big enough to walk into spanned one wall; its flames soaked the Emperor in life-giving warmth. The opposite wall was a single broad window that looked out on the real forest beyond the palace walls. The window could also serve as a hologram frame; the Emperor could have any scene he wanted projected from it.

Best to have reality this evening, he told himself. There is too little reality in my life these days. So he eased back in his powerchair and watched his approaching visitor on the viewscreen above the fireplace of the richly carpeted, comfortably paneled old room.

He had carefully absorbed all the computer’s information about Adela de Montgarde: born of a noble family on Gris, a frontier world whose settlers were slowly, painfully transforming a ball of mineral-rich rock into a viable habitat for human life. He knew her face, her life history, her scientific accomplishments and rank. But now, as he watched her approaching on the viewscreen built into the stone fireplace, he realized how little knowledge had accompanied the computer’s detailed information.

The door to the study swung open automatically, and she stood uncertainly, framed in the doorway.

The Emperor swiveled his powerchair around to face her. The viewscreen immediately faded and became indistinguishable from the other stones.

“Come in, come in, Dr. Montgarde.”

She was tiny, the smallest woman the Emperor remembered seeing. Her face was almost elfin, with large curious eyes that looked as if they had known laughter. She wore a metallic tunic buttoned to the throat, and a brief skirt. Her figure was childlike.

The Emperor smiled to himself. She certainly won’t tempt me with her body.

As she stepped hesitantly into the study, her eyes darting all around the room, he said:

“I am sure that my aides have filled your head with all sorts of nonsense about protocol—when to stand, when to bow, what forms of address to use. Forget all of it. This is an informal meeting, common politeness will suffice. If you need a form of address for me, call me Sire. I shall call you Adela, if you don’t mind.”

With a slow nod of her head she answered, “Thank you, Sire. That will be fine.” Her voice was so soft that he could barely hear it. He thought he detected a slight waver in it.

She’s not going to make this easy for me, he said to himself. Then he noticed the little stone that she wore on a slim silver chain about her neck.

“Agate,” he said.

She fingered the stone reflexively. “Yes… it’s from my homeworld… Gris. Our planet is rich in minerals.”

“And poor in cultivable land.”

“We are converting more land every year, Sire.”

“Please sit down,” the Emperor said. “I’m afraid it’s been so long since my old legs have tried to stand in full gravity that I’m forced to remain in this powerchair… or lower the gravitational field in this room. But the computer files said that you are not accustomed to low g fields.”

She glanced around the warm, richly furnished room.

“Any seat you like. My chair rides like a magic carpet.”

Adela picked the biggest couch in the room and tucked herself into a corner of it. The Emperor glided his chair over to her.

“It’s very kind of you to keep the gravity up for me,” she said.

He shrugged. “It costs nothing to be polite… But tell me, of all the minerals for which Gris is famous, why did you choose to wear agate?”

She blushed.

The Emperor laughed. “Come, come, my dear. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s well known that agate is a magical stone that protects the wearer from scorpions and snakes. An ancient superstition, of course, but it could possibly be significant, eh?”

“No… it’s not that!”

“Then what is it?”

“It… agate also makes the wearer… eloquent in speech.”

“And a favorite of Princes,” added the Emperor.

Her blush had gone. She sat straighter and almost smiled. “And it gives one victory over her enemies.”

“You perceive me as your enemy?”

“Oh no!” She reached out toward him, her small, childlike hand almost touching his.

“Who, then?”

“The hierarchy… the old men who pretend to be young and refuse to admit any new ideas into the scientific community.”

“I am an old man,” the Emperor said.

“Yes…” She stared frankly at his aged face. “I was surprised when I saw you a few moments ago. I have seen holographic pictures, of course… but you… you’ve aged.”

“Indeed.”

“Why can’t you be rejuvenated? It seems like a useless old superstition to keep the Emperor from using modern biomedical techniques.”

“No, no, my child. It is a very wise tradition. You complain of the inflexible old men at the top of the scientific hierarchy. Suppose you had an inflexible old man in the Emperor’s throne? A man who would live not merely seven or eight score of years, but many centuries? What would happen to the Empire then?”

“Ohh. I see.” And there was real understanding and sympathy in her eyes.

“So the King must die, to make room for new blood, new ideas, new vigor.”

“It’s sad,” she said. “You are known everywhere as a good Emperor. The people love you.”

He felt his eyebrows rise. “Even on the frontier worlds?”

“Yes. Most of them know that Fain and his troops would be standing on our necks if it weren’t for the Emperor. We are not without our sources of information.”

He smiled. “Interesting.”

“But that is not why you called me here to see you,” Adela said.

She grows bolder. “True. You want to save Earth’s Sun. Bomeer and all my advisors tell me that it is either impossible or foolish. I fear that they have powerful arguments on their side.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “But I have the facts.”

“I have seen your presentation. I understand the scientific basis of your plan.”

“We can do it!” Adela said, her hands suddenly animated. “We can! The critical mass is really minuscule compared to—”

“Megatons are minuscule?”

“Compared to the effect it will produce. Yes.”

And then she was on her feet, pacing the room, ticking off points on her fingers, lecturing, pleading, cajoling. The Emperor’s powerchair swung back and forth, following her intense, wiry form as she paced.

“Of course it will take vast resources! And time—more than a century before we know to a first-order approximation that the initial steps are working. I’ll have to give myself up to cryosleep for decades at a time. But we have the resources! And we have the time… just barely. We can do it, if we want to.”

The Emperor said, “How can you expect me to divert half the resources of the Empire to save Earth’s Sun?”

“Because Earth is important,” she argued back, a tiny fighter standing alone in the middle of the Emperor’s study. “It’s the baseline for all the other worlds of the Empire. On Gris we send biogenetic teams to Earth every twenty years to check our own mutation rate. The cost is enormous for us, but we do it. We have to.”

“We can move Earth’s population to another G-type star. There are plenty of them.”

“It won’t be the same.”

“Adela, my dear, believe me, I would like to help. I know how important Earth is. But we simply cannot afford to try your scheme now. Perhaps in another hundred years or so—”

“That will be too late.”

“But new scientific advances—”

“Under Bomeer and his ilk? Hah!”

The Emperor wanted to frown at her, but somehow his face would not compose itself properly. “You are a fierce, uncompromising woman,” he said.

She came to him and dropped to her knees at his feet. “No, Sire. I’m not. I’m foolish and vain and utterly self-centered. I want to save Earth because I know I can do it. I can’t stand the thought of living the rest of my life knowing that I could have done it, but never having had the chance to try.”

Now we’re getting at the truth, the Emperor thought.

“And someday, maybe a million years from now, maybe a billion… Gris’ sun will become unstable. I want to be able to save Gris, too. And any other world whose star threatens it. I want all the Empire to know that Adela de Montgarde discovered the way to do it!”

The Emperor felt his breath rush out of him.

“Sire,” she want on, “I’m sorry if I’m speaking impolitely or stupidly. It’s just that I know we can do this thing, do it successfully, and you’re the only one who can make it happen.”

But he was barely listening. “Come with me,” he said, reaching out to grasp her slim wrists and raising her to her feet. “It’s time for the evening meal. I want you to meet my son.”

Javas put on his usual amused smile when the Emperor introduced Adela. Will nothing ever reach under his everlasting façade of polite boredom? Rihana, at least, was properly furious. He could see the anger in her face. A virtual barbarian from some frontier planet. Daughter of a petty noble. Practically a commoner. Dining with them!

“Such a young child to have such grandiose schemes,” the Princess said when she realized who Adela was.

“Surely,” said the Emperor, “you had grandiose schemes of your own when you were young, Rihana. Of course, they involved lineages and marriages rather than astrophysics, didn’t they?”

None of them smiled.

Emperor Nicholas had ordered dinner out on the terrace, under Corinth’s glowing night sky. Rihana, who was responsible for household affairs, always had sumptuous meals spread for them: the best meats and fowl and fruits of a dozen prime worlds. Adela looked bewildered by the array placed in front of her by the servants. Such riches were obviously new to her. The Emperor ate sparingly and watched them all.

Inevitably the conversation returned to Adela’s plan to save Earth’s Sun. And Adela, subdued and timid at first, slowly turned lioness once again. She met Rihana’s scorn with coldly furious logic. She countered Javas’ skepticism with:

“Of course, since it will take more than a century before the theories behind the project can be proven, you will probably be the Emperor who is remembered by all the human race as the one who saved the Earth.”

Javas’ eyes widened slightly. It hit home, the Emperor noticed. For once something affected the boy. This young woman should be kept at the palace.

But Rihana snapped, “Why should the Crown Prince care about saving Earth? His brother was murdered by an Earthman.”

The Emperor felt his blood turn to ice.

Adela looked panic-stricken. She turned to the Emperor, wide-eyed, open-mouthed.

“My eldest son died on Earth. My second son was killed putting down a rebellion on a frontier world, many years ago. My third son died of a viral infection that some have attempted to convince me”—he stared at Rihana—“was assassination. Death is a constant companion in every royal house.”

“Three sons…” Adela seemed ready to burst into tears.

“I have not punished Earth, nor that frontier world, nor sought to find a possible assassin,” the Emperor went on icily. “My only hope is that my last remaining son will make a good Emperor, despite his… handicaps.”

Javas turned very deliberately in his chair to stare out at the dark forest. He seemed irked by the antagonism between his wife and his father. Rihana glowered like molten steel.

The dinner ended in dismal, bitter silence. The Emperor sent them all away to their rooms while he remained on the terrace and stared hard at the gleaming lights in the heavens that crowded out the darkness.

He closed his eyes and summoned a computer-assisted image of Earth’s Sun. He saw it coalesce from a hazy cloud of cold gas and dust, saw it turn into a star and spawn planets. Saw it beaming out energy that allowed life to grow and flourish on one of those planets. And then saw it age, blemish, erupt, swell and finally collapse into a dark cinder.

Just as I will, thought the Emperor. The Sun and I have both reached the age where a bit of rejuvenation is needed. Otherwise… death.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his veined, fleshless, knobby hands. How different from hers! How young and vital she is.

With a touch on one of the control studs set into the arm of his powerchair, he headed for his bedroom.

I cannot be rejuvenated. It is wrong even to desire it. But the Sun? Would it be wrong to try? Is it proper for puny men to tamper with the destinies of the stars themselves?

Once in his tower-top bedroom he called for her. Adela came to him quickly, without delay or question. She wore a simple knee-length gown tied loosely at the waist. It hung limply over her childlike figure.

“You sent for me, Sire.” It was not a question but a statement. The Emperor knew her meaning: I will do what you ask, but in return I expect you to give me what I desire.

He was already reclining in the soft embrace of his bed. The texture of the monolayer surface felt soft and protective. The warmth of the water beneath it eased his tired body.

“Come here, child. Come and talk to me. I hardly ever sleep anymore; it gives my doctors something to worry about. Come and sit beside me and tell me all about yourself… the parts of your life story that are not on file in the computers.”

She sat on the edge of the huge bed, and its nearly living surface barley dimpled under her spare body.

“What would you like to know?” she asked.

“I have never had a daughter,” the Emperor said. “What was your childhood like? How did you become the woman you are?”

She began to tell him. Living underground in the mining settlements on Gris. Seeing sunlight only when the planet was far enough from its too-bright star to let humans walk the surface safely. Playing in the tunnels. Sent by her parents to other worlds for schooling. The realization that her beauty was not physical. The few lovers she had known. The astronomer who had championed her cause to the Emperor at that meeting nearly fifty years ago. Their brief marriage. Its breakup when he realized that being married to her kept him from advancing in the hierarchy.

“You have known pain, too,” the Emperor said.

“It’s not an Imperial prerogative,” she answered softly. “Everyone who lives knows pain.”

By now the sky was milky white with the approach of dawn. The Emperor smiled at her.

“Before breakfast everyone in the palace will know that you spent the night with me. I’m afraid I have ruined your reputation.”

She smiled back. “Or perhaps made it.”

He reached out and took her by the shoulders. Holding her at arm’s length, he searched her face with a long, sad, almost fatherly look.

“It would not be a kindness to grant your request. If I allow you to pursue this dream of yours, have you any idea of the enemies it would make for you? Your life would be so cruel, so filled with envy and hatred.”

“I know that,” Adela said evenly. “I’ve known that from the beginning.”

“And you are not afraid?”

“Of course I’m afraid! But I won’t turn away from what I must do. Not because of fear. Not because of envy or hatred or any other reason.”

“Not even for love?”

He felt her body stiffen. “No,” she said. “Not even for love.”

The Emperor let his hands drop away from her and called out to the computer, “Connect me with Prince Javas, Academician Bomeer and Commander Fain.”

“At once, Sire.”

Their holographic images quickly appeared on separate segments of the farthest wall of the bedroom. Bomeer, halfway around the planet in late afternoon, was at his ornate desk. Fain appeared to be on the bridge of a warship in orbit around the planet. Javas, of course, was still in bed. It was not Rihana who lay next to him.

The Emperor’s first impulse was disapproval, but then he wondered where Rihana was sleeping.

“I am sorry to intrude on you so abruptly,” he said to all three of the men, while they were still staring at the slight young woman sitting on the bed with their Emperor. “I have made my decision on the question of trying to save the Earth’s Sun.”

Bomeer folded his hands on the desktop. Fain, on his feet, shifted uneasily. Javas arched an eyebrow and looked more curious than anything else.

“I have listened to all your arguments and find that there is much merit in them. I have also listened carefully to Dr. Montgarde’s arguments, and find much merit in them, as well.”

Adela sat rigidly beside him. The expression on her face was frozen: She feared nothing and expected nothing. She neither hoped nor despaired. She waited.

“We will move the Imperial throne and all the Court to Earth’s only moon,” said the Emperor.

They gasped. All of them.

“Since this project to save the Sun will take many human generations, we will want the seat of the Empire close enough to the project so that the Emperor may take a direct view of the progress.”

“But you can’t move the entire capital!” Fain protested. “And to Earth! It’s a backwater—”

“Supreme Commander Fain,” the Emperor said sternly. “Yesterday you were prepared to move Earth’s millions. I ask now that the fleet move the Court’s thousands. And Earth will no longer be a backwater when the Empire is centered once again at the original home of the human race.”

Bomeer sputtered, “But… but what if her plan fails? The sun will explode… and…”

“That is a decision to be made in the future.”

He glanced at Adela. Her expression had not changed, but she was breathing rapidly now. The excitement had hit her body, it hadn’t yet penetrated her emotional defenses.

“Father,” Javas said, “may I point out that it takes fifteen years in realtime to reach the Earth from here? The Empire cannot be governed without an Emperor for that long.”

“Quite true, my son. You will go to Earth before me. Once there, you will become acting Emperor while I make the trip.”

Javas’ mouth dropped open. “The acting Emperor? For fifteen years?”

“With luck,” the Emperor said, grinning slightly, “old age will catch up with me before I reach Earth, and you will be the full-fledged Emperor for the rest of your life.”

“But I don’t want…”

“I know, Javas. But you will be Emperor someday. It is a responsibility you cannot avoid. Fifteen years of training will stand you in good stead.”

The Prince sat up straighter in his bed, his face serious, his eyes meeting his father’s steadily.

“And son,” the Emperor went on, “to be an Emperor—even for fifteen years—you must be master of your own house.”

Javas nodded. “I know, Father. I understand. And I will be.”

“Good.”

Then the Prince’s impish smile flitted across his face once again. “But tell me… suppose, while you are in transit toward Earth, I decide to move the Imperial capital elsewhere? What then?”

His father smiled back at him. “I believe I will just have to trust you not to do that.”

“You would trust me?” Javas asked.

“I always have.”

Javas’ smile took on a new pleasure. “Thank you, Father. I will be waiting for you on Earth’s Moon. And for the lovely Dr. Montgarde as well.”

Bomeer was still livid. “All this uprooting of everything… the costs… the manpower… over an unproven theory!”

“Why is the theory unproven, my friend?” the Emperor asked.

Bomeer’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s, but no words came out.

“It is unproven,” said the Emperor, “because our scientists have never gone so far before. In fact, the sciences of the Hundred Worlds have not made much progress at all in several generations. Isn’t that true, Bomeer?”

“We… Sire, we have reached a natural plateau in our understanding of the physical universe. It has happened before. Our era is one of consolidation and practical application of already-acquired knowledge, not new basic breakthroughs.”

“Well, this project will force some new thinking and new breakthroughs, I warrant. Certainly we will be forced to recruit new scientists and engineers by the shipload. Perhaps that will be impetus enough to start the climb upward again, eh, Bomeer? I never did like plateaus.”

The academician lapsed into silence.

“And I see you, Fain,” the Emperor said, “trying to calculate in your head how much of your fleet’s strength is going to be wasted on this old man’s dream.”

“Sire, I had no—”

The Emperor waved him into silence. “No matter. Moving the capital won’t put much of a strain on the fleet, will it?”

“No, Sire. But this project to save Earth—”

“We will have to construct new ships for that, Fain. And we will have to turn to the frontier worlds for them.” He glanced at Adela. “I believe that the frontier worlds will gladly join the effort to save Earth’s Sun. And their treasuries will be enriched by our purchase of thousands of new ships.”

“While the Imperial treasury is depleted.”

“It’s a rich Empire, Fain. It’s time we shared some of our wealth with the frontier worlds. A large shipbuilding program will do more to reconcile them with the Empire than anything else we can imagine.”

“Sire,” said Fain bluntly, “I still think it’s madness.”

“Yes, I know. Perhaps it is. I only hope that I live long enough to find out, one way or the other.”

“Sire,” Adela said breathlessly, “you will be reuniting all the worlds of the Empire into a closely knit human community such as we haven’t seen in centuries!”

“Perhaps. It would be pleasant to believe so. But for the moment, all I have done is to implement a decision to try to save Earth’s Sun. It may succeed; it may fail. But we are sons and daughters of planet Earth, and we will not allow our original homeworld to be destroyed without struggling to our uttermost to save it.”

He looked at their faces again. They were all waiting for him to continue. You grow pompous, old man.

“Very well. You each have several lifetimes of work to accomplish. Get busy, all of you.”

Bomeer’s and Fain’s images winked off immediately. Javas’ remained.

“Yes, my son? What is it?”

Javas’ ever-present smile was gone. He looked serious, even troubled. “Father… I am not going to bring Rihana with me to Earth. She wouldn’t want to come, I know—at least, not until all the comforts of the Court were established there for her.”

The Emperor nodded.

“If I’m to be master of my own house,” Javas went on, “it’s time we ended this farce of a marriage.”

“Very well, son. That is your decision to make. But, for what it’s worth, I agree with you.”

“Thank you, Father.” Javas’ image disappeared.

For a long moment the Emperor sat gazing thoughtfully at the wall where the holographic images had appeared.

“I believe that I will send you to Earth on Javas’ ship. I think he likes you, and it is important that the two of you get along well together.”

Adela looked almost shocked. “What do you mean by ‘get along well together’?”

The Emperor grinned at her. “That’s for the two of you to decide.”

“You’re scandalous!” she said, but she was smiling, too.

He shrugged. “Call it part of the price of victory. You’ll like Javas; he’s a good man. And I doubt that he’s ever met a woman quite like you.”

“I don’t know what to say…”

“You’ll need Javas’ protection and support, you know. You have defeated my closest advisors, and that means that they may become your enemies. Powerful enemies. That is also part of the price of your triumph.”

“Triumph? I don’t feel very triumphant.”

“I know,” the Emperor said. “Perhaps that’s what triumph really is: not so much glorying in the defeat of your enemies as weariness that they couldn’t see what seemed so obvious to you.”

Abruptly, Adela moved to him and put her lips to his cheek. “Thank you, Sire.”

“Why, thank you, child.”

For a moment she stood there, holding his old hands in her tiny young ones.

Then, “I… I have lots of work to do.”

“Of course. We may never see each other again. Go and do your work. Do it well.”

“I will,” she said. “And you?”

He leaned back into the bed and smiled wryly. “I have to hold this old Empire together long enough to see that you will succeed.”