Kenniston was on his feet. Jon Arnol clung to him, holding him back. Varn Allan leaned over the table, telling
him in a desperate undertone, Don't Kenniston! Keep your temper!
The Spokesman asked of Lund, What is your recommendation to the Board of Governors?
Lund cried, Show these people that they cannot flout peaceful authority with a threat of war! Remove them,
as quickly as possible, to some isolated world on the frontiers of the galaxy a world so remote that they
cannot infect the main thought currents of the Federation with their brute psychology!
Kenniston broke away from Arnol's grasp. He strode up to Lund and took him by the front of his jacket and
bent over him a face so white with anger that Lund quailed before it.
Who are you, snarled Kenniston, to sit in judgment upon us?
The words choked in his throat. He thrust Lund from him, flung him away so that he went sprawling to his
knees, and turned to face the Governors.
Yes, we fought our wars! We fought because we had to, so that thought and progress and freedom could live
in our world. You owe us for that! You owe us for the men that died so that there could one day be a
Federation of Stars. You owe us for atomic power, too. We may have misused it but it's the force that built
your civilization, and we gave it to you!
Think of those things, you men of the future! From Earth you came, and your whole civilization is rooted in
our blood. You live in peace, because we died in war. Remember that, when you sit in judgment upon the
Chapter 17 judgment of the stars 88
The City at World's End
past!
He stood silent then, trembling, and Varn Allan came to bring him back to his chair.
Lund had got to his feet. He said, I will let Kenniston's own actions stand as my final argument. He sat
down. The Spokesman brought his gavel down. Kenniston was hardly aware of the taking of the vote. He
wrestled with a dark turmoil of doubt and anger and fear, dreading to hear the words of judgment that he knew
were coming. It is the final decision of the Board of Governors that the population of Sol Three shall be
evacuated in accordance with the official order already outstanding.
No experiments with the Arnol process on a planetary scale can be considered safe at this time.
It is the wish of the Governors that the people of Sol Three be peaceably assimilated into the Federation. It is
hoped that their attitude in the future will be such as to make this possible. If it is not, then they must be
shown the futility of armed resistance.
The hearing is concluded.
Kenniston realized that Arnol was telling him to get up. He rose and went out of the amphitheatre with the
others. He heard Varn Allan's voice speaking in bitter anger to Norden Lund.
Nothing was very clear to him after that until he was back in his own quarters and Gorr Holl was putting a
glass in his hand. Magro and Lal'lor had waited there for the verdict. Varn Allan was still with him, and
Arnol.
I'm sorry, Kenniston, said Varn, and he knew she meant it. He shook his head.
It was my fault. If I hadn't lost my temper...
Don't blame yourself, Kenniston. Forgive me, but Lund had just enough truth on his side to carry the day.
Why didn't you or your people tell us that you had been engaged in war, back in your own time?
He shook his head. Because we weren't in any war. Don't you see, the bomb that hurled us out of our own
time came in peacetime! Whatever followed we never knew about, because we weren't there!
She paced the room, frowning, and then said, I'm going to try to get this evacuation order lengthened out as
long as possible. It may soften the blow a little for your people. I used to have some influence with the
Coordinators Now I don't know. Lund has undermined me pretty badly.
It dawned on Kenniston then that this day had been a defeat for her, too, and an unjust one. He had been too
wrapped up in his own despair to think about it.
It was his turn to say, I'm sorry.
She smiled a little and turned to go, pausing to lay her hand briefly on Kenniston's shoulder. Don't take this
too hard, she said. Nobody could have done a better job than you did.
She went out. They looked at each other with faces sick, angry, sullen the two men and the three humanoids.
Well, said Gorr Holl, It was a damned good try. I vote we have a drink.
Chapter 17 judgment of the stars 89
The City at World's End
Magro said, It'll be bitter news for our people, Gorr. They were beginning to hope.
The Capellan rumbled, I know that. Shut up.
He took a glass to Jon Arnol, who was sitting staring at the wall. Cheer up, he said. Your process is bound
to win out some day.
Arnol said, Maybe. But that's not doing your people any good all the humanoid peoples who backed and
financed my work and put their hopes in it. I've let you down.
The hell you have, said Gorr.
Kenniston was thinking sickly of the people back there on Earth, waiting anxiously for his return. He was
thinking of Carol, and he said slowly, I can't go back. I can't face them, and tell them I've failed.
They'll get over it, said Gorr Holl, in a heavy attempt to be reassuring. After all, going to a strange world
isn't half as much of a shock as being hurled forward in time. They stood that.
It happened before they knew it, said Kenniston, That makes a difference. And they were still in a place [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]