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“And they are technically proficient,” Atvar said discontentedly. “They are the ones with a spacecraft in the asteroid belt. They are the ones sending representatives to meet with the Big Ugly our researcher has raised as if she were a female of the Race.”
“I have been keeping track of that, yes,” Kirel said. “Truly a worthwhile project on the researcher’s part. Do you think some of the wild Big Uglies are beginning to become acculturated? Video of one of the wild ones meeting with our specimen suggests he is one of that sort.”
“The wild ones? My judgment is that acculturation is still superficial,” Atvar said. “If they do begin to reverence the spirits of Emperors past, that would be a more significant turn toward the Empire’s way of life than removing their hair and wearing body paint in place of their cloth wrappings.”
“Indeed. I completely agree,” Kirel said. “But the American Big Uglies, as you have pointed out, are not fools, even if they are barbarians. They too must realize the likely result of permitting such reverence, and yet they do so. Why?”
“Again, analysis is incomplete. We really do need to study the Americans more,” Atvar said, and scribbled a note to that effect for himself. “Their ideology seems to be almost evolutionary in nature: they let individuals compete in snoutcounting contests, and they let ideas compete through ‘freedom of reverence’ and ‘freedom of discussion.’ Their assumption seems to be that the best will prevail as a result of this untrammeled competition.”
“Now that is interesting, Exalted Fleetlord,” Kirel said. “I had not seen their ideology expressed in quite those terms before.” His mouth fell open in a laugh. “They certainly are optimists, are they not?”
“I think so. Every male of the Race I know thinks so. By all I can tell, most other Big Uglies think so, too,” Atvar said. “And yet the Americans continue to do well. They continue to steal and adapt and build on our technology even more aggressively than the Reich or the SSSR. Puzzling, is it not?”
“Very much so,” Kirel answered. “And their relations with us are less shrill and warlike than are those of the other two leading independent not-empires. They might almost be civilized.”
“Almost,” Atvar said. But then he realized the shiplord had a point. “We do seem to make more allowances for them than for the other not-empires, do we not? I wonder if the American Big Uglies are devious enough to take advantage of that.”
“We have not suspected them of attacking the ships of the colonization fleet, at least not seriously suspected them,” Kirel said. “Do you believe we should begin a more intensive investigation along those lines?”
After some thought, Atvar made the negative gesture. “We have no evidence that would lead us to suspect their guilt, and their behavior otherwise has been as near exemplary as Big Uglies come.”
“We have no evidence to lead us to the Reich or to the SSSR, either, though each has tried to implicate the other,” Kirel pointed out.
Before the fleetlord could respond to that, Pshing hurried into his office once more. Atvar saw his agitation even before he spoke: “Exalted Fleetlord!”
“By the Emperor, what now?” Atvar asked, casting down his eyes in respect for the sovereign so many light-years away.
“Exalted Fleetlord, I have just received a written communication from the ambassador of the Nipponese Empire.”
“What now?” Atvar repeated in some irritation. Like Britain, Nippon had retained its independence when the fighting stopped. The Nipponese thought that entitled them to equality of status with the USA, the SSSR, and the Reich. The Race didn’t, for the simple reason that Nippon, being without explosive-metal weapons, could not do them nearly so much harm as the three more prominent Tosevite powers.
Pshing said, “Exalted Fleetlord, the ambassador reports that Nippon has detonated an explosive-metal weapon of its own manufacture on an isolated island called”-he looked down at the paper he held-“Bikini, that is the name.”
Atvar let out a furious hiss and turned to the computer monitor. When he chose a reconnaissance and intelligence channel, he saw the explosion was just being reported. “The Nipponese must have timed the delivery of that note most precisely,” he said, and then, dreading the answer, “Is there more?”
“There is, Exalted Fleetlord,” Pshing said unhappily. “The note goes on to demand all privileges previously accorded only to Tosevite powers with explosive-metal weapons. It warns that Nippon has submersible craft of its own, and knows how to use them to its own best advantage.”
“Even for Big Uglies, the Nipponese are arrogant,” Kirel said.
“And now they have some good reason for arrogance.” Atvar knew he sounded even more unhappy than his adjutant, but he had cause to sound that way. He turned an eye turret toward Pshing. “Do the Nipponese demand that we evacuate all territory that they occupied when the conquest fleet arrived?”
“Not in this note, no, Exalted Fleetlord,” Pshing said. “What they may do in the future, however, is anyone’s guess.”
“That is a truth.” Kirel’s voice was mournful, too.
After calling up a map of Tosevite political conditions at the time of the conquest fleet’s arrival, Atvar examined it. “There are occasions when I would be tempted to return to the Nipponese the
subregion known as China. Considering the difficulties its inhabitants have given us, some other Big Uglies might as well have the dubious privilege of trying to rule them.”
“You cannot mean that, Exalted Fleetlord!” Now Kirel sounded horrified.
And Atvar realized his chief subordinate was right. “No,” he said with a sigh, “I suppose I cannot. All the Tosevite not-empires would take it for a sign of weakness, and they leap on weakness the way befflem leap on meat.”
“What will you tell the Nipponese, then?” Pshing asked.
Atvar sighed once more. “Unfortunately, they have demonstrated strength. And they may be arrogant-or shortsighted-enough to use their new weapons without fear of punishment. Here, Pshing, tell them this: tell them we shall grant them all the diplomatic privileges they request. But tell them also that with privileges comes responsibility. Tell them we are now constrained to observe them more closely than ever before. Tell them we shall take a much more serious view of any potentially aggressive action they may prepare. Tell them they still are not powerful enough to seek any real test of strength against us, and that any attack on us will be crushed without mercy.”
“Very good, Exalted Fleetlord!” his adjutant said, and used an emphatic cough. “It shall be done, in every particular.”
“I thank you, Pshing. Oh-and one thing more,” Atvar said. Pshing and Kirel both looked curious. The fleetlord explained: “Now we hope they listen.”
As Liu Han paced through the prisoners’ camp, she kept shaking her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. It can’t possibly be true.”
Nieh Ho-T’ing gave her an amused look. “It can’t possibly be true because you don’t want to believe it? What kind of logic goes into a statement like that?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “And I don’t care, either. What do you think of that? Tell me where you heard that the eastern dwarfs used an explosive-metal bomb. Did the little scaly devils tell you? I doubt it.” To show how much she doubted it, she used one of the little devils’ emphatic coughs.
