Chapter 2 DREAM

Our approach to Saturn was not direct. Saturn is not a single political entity; like Jupiter, it has several major and minor nations. We were going to the Union of Saturnine Republics, which occupied virtually all of the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere was dominated by the People’s Republic of the Middle Kingdom, and the rings and moons were all under other control. Thus we avoided these and went to the USR’s major artificial ring station, where Spirit and I had been once before, when I was Governor of the Jupiter state of Sunshine. From there we transferred to a ferry to the great port city of Vostok, and thence to a flight to the capital, Scow. Or rather, in the native rendition, Skva; no need to Saxonize it here.

I’m sure that Chairman Khukov was a busy man, but he made time for us. Within an hour of our arrival we found ourselves in his private suite, seated in comfort. He had aged visibly, with what hair remaining to him turning off-gray, and he had put on weight-but what does one expect of my generation? His appearance was not the basis of his office. We conversed in English, for Spirit did not speak Russian and Khukov’s knowledge of Spanish was never advertised. His talent was like mine: He read people, and therefore could manage them. This was what had brought each of us to power. We trusted each other because each of us understood the other in a way no other person could. Differences of language or culture or politics became insignificant in the face of this fundamental understanding.

“The pirate attack,” Khukov said, coming right to the point. His mind evidently remained sharp. I had first met him when I was the Jupiter ambassador to Ganymede and he was the military liaison there; we had taught each other our native languages. “I’m sure you know it was no doing of mine.”

“The personnel had Middle Kingdom identification,” I said.

“So my personnel inform me. But though relations between the USR and the Middle Kingdom are not perfect, those folk are not that clumsy. They would not carry such identification.”

“So we assumed,” I agreed. “But who, then? I presume you did not advertise our presence aboard the ship.”

“It was what you would term an inside job. I have lost the services of a trusted secretary.”

“I know how that can be,” I murmured, thinking of Shelia, my woman of the wheelchair who had sacrificed her life for me. Her death had tipped me into a siege of madness leading in due course to my ouster as Tyrant.

“No one was to know of your presence,” Khukov said. “We used our fastest small ship, though the gees were restricted in deference to your age. To all others it was a routine courier voyage. The crew itself-“

“Was unprepared for combat,” I finished. “I preempted control on an emergency basis; no onus should attach to the captain.”

“None does; I recognized your touch the moment the news reached me. He will not suffer. But the episode is an embarrassment to me, and heads have rolled.”

“You know the origin and motivation of the attack?”

“The nomenklatura.”

Spirit and I looked blank.

Khukov smiled. “Brace yourselves for a small lecture on Saturnine internal politics, for this is relevant to your interest. You know that we are theoretically a classless society, unlike you of the decadent capitalistic planets. But we have classes, and of these the most privileged is the nomenklatura, the bureaucratic stratum of the Party. Those in all the key positions of the Party, the military, and the secret police belong to this hereditary class. / belong. They pass themselves off as mere civil servants, but they are the true rulers. Our society is stultified, because the nomenklatura wants no change; it wants only perpetuation of its own power. This is your enemy-and mine.”

“But you said you belonged to it,” I reminded him. “To belong physically is not necessarily to agree with its precepts,” he said. “I could not have achieved my present position without the support of the nomenklatura. But once I gained the position, my horizon expanded, and then that of the nomenklatura became too narrow for me. I sought to reform our system, to eradicate corruption, to make of Saturn a truly superior power.” He shook his head. “The task was more difficult than I had suspected.”

“Infinitely,” I agreed ruefully.

“But I believe I could have done it-indeed, could do it yet-if it were not for the entrenched opposition of the nomenklatura. But I cannot do with it what I could with rebellious peasants. I would be removed from power if I tried.”

“I understand,” I said with a smile. As he knew, I had just been removed from power myself.

“I could not even demilitarize space, as I promised you I would,” he said. “I intended to, but when I tried. . .”

That sobered me. As Tyrant, I had steadily reduced the Jupiter military initiative, using the monetary savings to bolster other aspects of the society. I had done this with the assurance that Khukov was doing likewise. Of course no early reductions had been apparent in either budget, because existing commitments had had to be met, but no new initiatives had been sought.

“Have no retroactive concern,” Khukov told me. “We did not seek to attack Jupiter. I had no desire for war. and the nomenklatura desires victory, not combat. In that we are in accord. But the waste of resources for weapons which do not work, that profit only those who construct them ...” He shook his head.

“Yet how could this lead to an attempt to assassinate a deposed foreign leader?” Spirit asked.

“Two possibilities,” Khukov said. “One I hope is the true one; the other I hope is not. The first is that it is not to the nomenklatura’s interest to have too much peace in the System. With a pacifist in power at Jupiter, and the Middle Kingdom minding its own business, what need is there for new weapons contracts? So if some animosity could be stirred up by the assassination of a not-too-important personage of the one by the other, the USR would certainly have to keep alert and strong, and military graft would not be questioned.”

“The secrecy of the mission was such that news of the assassination might never be released,” I said.

“Indeed. The second possibility is that the nomenklatura sees the Tyrant of Jupiter as a direct threat to its interests, so acted to eliminate that threat immediately.”

This perplexed me. “How could I be a threat? My power is gone.”

“Your power may be restored.”

I shook my head. “It is my wife who has deposed me. I will not oppose her.”

“Restored here,” he said. “It is in my mind to make you my hatchet man, as your idiom puts it.”

“I have had enough of the exercise of power,” I demurred.

“I think not. No man ever has enough of that. But I am not suggesting the abuse of it. I am suggesting that you can do one necessary thing for me that I cannot do for myself. Because you are the Tyrant, known to my people and to the rest of the Solar System as the great benefactor of your planet, they would support you in a way they would not me.”

“I am not going to try to usurp your power!” I protested.

“That is why I can use you for this. I know that you are the one person who could challenge me, who won’t. I cannot trust any member of the nomenklatura similarly. Thus you become the ideal person to implement the Dream.”

“You want me to eradicate the nomenklatura for you?” I asked, dismayed.

“That is merely the first step. We cannot accomplish anything until that power is broken. But what use to break it, if it is only replaced by new corruption, and the festering animosities of the System continue to be aggravated? It is the whole of mankind that needs renovation, not just one little part of it.”

I knew by my reading of him that Khukov was getting into something of supreme importance to him. I had had experience with a dream before, and it had taken me to prominence in the Jupiter Navy, and thence to the Tyrancy itself. “What is your dream?”

“The unification of the species in harmony,” he said.

“An excellent dream,” I agreed wryly. “But difficult to implement.”

He waggled a finger at me. “A dream without substance is worthless. I have a mechanism, if it can be implemented. Do you remember how the society of ancient Earth was ready to explode, to destroy itself by internecine warfare, until the onset of the gee-shield?”

“That gave man the Solar System,” I agreed. “The pent-up energies were released positively by the expansion into the new frontier, rather than turning destructively upon themselves.”

“And now that frontier has been conquered, and the energies are turning destructive again, exactly as before,” he continued. “But with a new frontier-“

“To divert man’s destructive energies-“ I said, beginning to visualize the dream.

“And provide man a common challenge,” Spirit added. “But what could that frontier be?”

Khukov made an expansive gesture. “What else? The galaxy.”

“But the gee-shield can hardly do that,” I said. “Gravity is not much of a problem in interstellar space, so shielding it doesn’t make much difference. For that kind of travel, we need sustained thrust that could take us up toward light speed, and even CT drive isn’t enough. Even so, it would take a decade or so just to reach the nearest star-where there might not be anything worthwhile for colonization anyway. It’s not enough just to get there; there have to be resources to exploit. Just the problem of growing new bubbles to house increasing population-that requires planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The answer always comes out the same: There is no solution in interstellar space.”

“Ah, but there is,” he insisted. “If we can find those suitable stars for energy, and suitable planets for material resources, and get to them. Five, six new systems to start, more when required. We know they exist; our problem is locating them. Reaching them.”

“Confirming them,” Spirit said. “To make the enormous investment and risk of decades-long travel to them worthwhile.”

“But a light-speed drive would make this feasible,” he said, “Go, explore, return, report-within our lifetimes, late as our lives are getting. Discovering the galaxy.”

“A light-speed drive is a fantasy,” I said. “A relativistic impossibility. Only radiation does it.”

“Just suppose, Tyrant, that there were a breakthrough of this nature. A mechanism to convert a physical object to the equivalent of light, without destroying it. And to restore it to solidity on demand. What then?”

I toyed with the notion, intrigued. “Convert atoms to photons? Surely these would travel light-fashion, instantly outward, a complex wave. Virtually massless- what happens to the mass of the original?”

“It converts to energy, the energy of light-speed travel. And back to mass at the other end.”

“If a spaceship could be changed to light, travel as a beam, then be solidified at the far reflector-but are we conjecturing living creatures too, or merely inanimate shipment?”

“Living things. Human beings, Complete city-bubbles, perhaps. Largely self-contained units.”

“Even so, four years to Alpha Centauri, and more to others-a city would not be self-supporting that long.”

“But if the city becomes light, time within it becomes infinite, and for the passengers, nonexistent. They could travel four years, and to them it would be not even a moment, no time at all. It would feel like instant matter-transmission. No supplies used, no energy expended, merely a new star beyond.”

“Suspended animation,” I said. “That might make it feasible, indeed.” I sighed. “But since there is no such device ...”

Khukov smiled. “Ah, but there may be. I had a report three years ago, which I disbelieved, but I was intrigued, so I examined it. Now tests are commencing, and we shall shortly know whether this is a drug dream or reality. If reality-“

“Then it would be worthwhile to seek the political breakthrough,” I finished. “To get our entire species organized for the great new frontier. For it would have to be done on a System-wide basis, as it was done on an Earth-wide basis before. The new diaspora of mankind.”

“The new diaspora,” he echoed. “That is the dream.”

“But to unify mankind for an effort like this-that would be as great a political challenge as a scientific one,” I said. “Each planet would want to dominate it, and there would be war to establish proprietary rights to the best prospects for colonization.”

“There was not such war before,” he reminded me.

“When Earth colonized the Solar System,” I agreed. “But then the need was desperate and the leadership inspired. No nation gave up its share of the pie. Thus the political and economic and military situation of Earth was reestablished in the System-with all its problems. We have been flirting with the same disaster as before, on a larger scale.”

“But the same solution offers,” he persisted. “Except that the galaxy is vast beyond the aspiration of man to fill. It would take a hundred thousand years merely to cross it, and much longer to colonize it. I think we would not soon again see a crisis of confinement.”

“The colonization of the galaxy,” I repeated, feeling Khukov’s Dream take hold. “You really believe the challenges can be met?”

“I am prepared to supervise the scientific challenge,” he said. “I believe it can be met, if there is cooperation by the other planets. First we must develop a large-scale demonstration project, to prove that it works, and to establish its feasibility in a fashion that all men will believe. That will cost some hundreds of billions of rubles, and I think Saturn could not do it alone. That places it in the camp of the political challenge. If we can unify the planets-“

“Who could do that?” I asked, realizing his thrust.

“Who but the Tyrant of Space?”

“But I have lost my base of power!” I protested.

“Have you? If you snapped your fingers, would the Jupiter Navy not hasten to do your bidding?”

Because Admiral Emerald Mondy, my former military wife, owed her position to me, and in the past decade had consolidated it quite thoroughly. “But I would not ask-“

“And the Jupiter industrial base-would it not support you too?” he persisted. “And the common folk of the planet?”

He was of course correct. All the basic elements of Jupiter power were mine to call on. But I had accepted the termination of the Tyrancy because my current wife, Megan Hubris, required it. I trusted her judgment more than I trusted my own, and preferred to see to the orderly transition of power during my life rather than risk the chaos that might follow my death as Tyrant. “Still-”

“And your wife-would she not support the Dream?” I knew she would. “Yet-“

“With agreement and support from Jupiter and Saturn, proper management should bring the other planets in line,” he said. “It is an opportunity that exists only now-because only while I am in power here will Saturn support a thrust it does not dominate, and only while the Tyrant lives will Jupiter do the same. Now is the time politically as well as scientifically, and if we do not act at this juncture, our species may destroy itself before such a chance again occurs.”

“But the nomenklatura will oppose this,” I said, returning to his earlier consideration. “So you propose to use me to eliminate their power, for the sake of the dream.”

“Exactly. I cannot oppose them directly-indeed, they would have eliminated me by now if I did not control the Spetsnaz and the secret police-but I cannot commit sufficient resources to the Dream while their power remains. But you may be able to accomplish this.”

Those were dread units indeed that he mentioned. Spetsnaz was the USR’s ruthless terrorist strike force, an army in itself, whose mission was to paralyze a potential enemy through selective assassinations and bombings before overt hostilities commenced. Had it seemed that I, as Tyrant, intended to make war against the USR, the first thing I would have had to do was to guard against a Spetsnaz mission. As for the secret police-indeed, the man who controlled that had the very nerve center of power on this planet. But these were Khukov’s mainstays, not mine. “How? I cannot simply go into the Saturn society and start firing personnel!”

“I will put you in charge of our farm program,” he said. “You will be directed to quadruple the harvest in two years.”

“Two years! That would be a revolution!”

He smiled. “Yes, I suspect it would require heroic measures-such as the prompt elimination of anyone who interfered with it in any way. We know who will interfere.”

I nodded. Khukov and I both knew well the applications of power. I would be a hatchet man indeed. But with my sister to organize it, I could certainly make progress.

I looked at Spirit. She nodded; she was ready for this.

I extended my hand to Khukov.

Another thing occurred at this time, a minor episode really, but it touched me. It was a letter from my daughter, Hopie Megan Hubris. She was now in her mid-twenties, but to me she was always my little girl of nine or ten, or of fifteen. She was with the Department of Education of Jupiter, and from time to time she published papers on this subject, yet I always perceived a little-girl quality in what she wrote to me.

Dear Daddy,

I was so concerned when we got the news about your ship being attacked in space, though the excitement was all over by the time I knew. Don’t scare me like that! You aren’t a Navy officer anymore, you know.

Megan is setting up the new government here. You know, most of the people you put in are remaining, at least until senators and representatives can be elected There was a lot of grumbling about things when you were in power, but already there’s grumbling about how much better things were in the “old days” of the Tyrancy. I just thought you’d like to know.

Take care of yourself, Daddy. I miss you already.

And I missed her! I showed the letter to Spirit, and she nodded. A daughter’s a daughter, for all of her life,” she murmured. How true!            ‘