Chapter 5

One of the advantages of being Commander-in-Chief of the Star Watch, the old man thought to himself, is that you can visit any planet is the Commonwealth.

He stood at the top of the hill and looked out over the green table land of Kenya. This was the land of his birth, Earth was his homeworld. The Star Watch’s official headquarters may be in the heart of a globular cluster of stars near the center of the galaxy, but Earth was the place the commander wanted most to see as he grew older and wearier.

An aide, who had been following the commander at a respectful distance, suddenly intruded himself in the old man’s reverie.

“Sir, a message for you.”

The commander scowled at the young officer. “I gave orders that I was not to be disturbed.”

The officer, slim and stiff in his black-and-silver uniform, replied. “Your chief of staff has passed the message on to you, sir. It’s from Dr. Leoh, of Carinae University. Personal and urgent, sir.”

The old man grumbled to himself, but nodded. The aide placed a small crystalline sphere on the grass before him. The air above the sphere started to vibrate and glow.

“Sir Harold Spencer here,” the commander said.

The bubbling air seemed to draw in on itself and take solid form. Dr. Leoh sat at a desk chair and looked up at the standing commander.

“Harold, it’s a pleasure to see you once again.”

Spencer’s stern eyes softened, and his beefy face broke into a well-creased smile. “Albert, you ancient scoundrel. What do you mean by interrupting my first visit home in fifteen years?”

“It won’t be a long interruption,” Leoh said.

“You told my chief of staff that it was urgent,” Sir Harold groused.

“It is. But it’s not the sort of problem that requires much action on your part. Yet. You are familiar with recent political developments on the Kerak Worlds?”

Spencer snorted. “I know that a barbarian named Kanus has established himself as a dictator. He’s a troublemaker. I’ve been talking to the Commonwealth Council about the advisability of quashing him before he causes grief, but you know the Council ... first wait until the flames have sprung up, then thrash about and demand that the Star Watch do something!”

Leoh grinned. “You’re as irascible as ever.”

“My personality is not the subject of this rather expensive discussion. What about Kanus? And what are you doing, getting yourself involved in politics? About to change your profession again?”

“No, not at all,” Leoh answered, laughing. Then, more seriously. “It seems as though Kanus has discovered some method of using the dueling machines to achieve political advantages over his neighbors.”

“What?”

Leoh explained the circumstances of Odal’s duels with the Acquatainian prime minister and Szarno Industrialist.

“Dulaq is completely incapacitated and the other poor fellow is dead?” Spencer’s face darkened into a thundercloud. “You were right to call me. This is a situation that could easily become intolerable.”

“I agree,” Leoh said. “But evidently Kanus has not broken any laws or interstellar agreements. All that meets the eye is a disturbing pair of accidents, both of them accruing to Kanus’ benefit.”

“Do you believe that they were accidents?”

“Certainly not. The dueling machine cannot cause physical or mental harm ... unless someone has tampered with it in some way.”