The Neutral Stars Read online

  Elk an Niebohr, a larger than life, twenty-five carat bastard, head of the Excelsior Colonisation Corporation, was intent upon accomplishing, via very private enterprise, what his Government had reluctantly admitted they could not do, i.e., finance research which would lead to a warp-drive. For this, he planned to use Orphelin, one of the planets he owned, and its neighboring asteroid.

  Needless to say, Niebohr, already a lot richer than the Government, did not have any philanthropic objective in mind. While normally untouched by any considerations of decency (one of his strongest assets) under conditions of stress, as when pursuing a mercantile end, Niebohr became actively ruthless. Since there was nothing small about the man—indeed, he was accustomed to wheel and deal with whole worlds rather than mere corporations—his activities were the concern not only of United Earth Government, but of its law-enforcement and defense agency, the Space Corps, and in particular, of Commander Bruce of the Venturer Twelve.

  Whose unhappy—and very dangerous—job it was to discover what in hell Niebohr was really doing on Orphelin . . .

  Also by Dan Morgan and John Kippax

  A THUNDER OF STARS

  SEED OF STARS

  Available from Ballantine Books

  THE NEUTRAL STARS

  Dan Morgan and John Kippax

  BALLANTINE BOOKS NEW YORK

  An lntext Publisher

  Copyright © 1973 by Dan Morgan and John Kippax

  All rights reserved.

  SBN 345-03086-9-125

  First Printing: February, 1973

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover art by Dean Ellis

  BALLANTINE BOOKS, INC

  101 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003

  an ebookman scan

  The Neutral Stars

  Chapter One

  There is a certain cowardice, a certain weakness, rather, among respectable folk. Only brigands are convinced—of what?—that they must succeed. And so they do succeed.

  BAUDELAIRE

  Gould was fully two minutes into his carefully prepared speech before he allowed himself to glance to his left. Elkan Niebohr sat unmoving, a monolithic figure of indeterminate age, clothed in a dark grey business suit of natural silk. The great dome of his totally bald head was poised slightly to one side in a listening attitude, but the sandstone-textured face beneath, with its heavy eyebrows and strong, hooked nose, had the blank repose of a death mask. Only the hooded eyes were alive, looking straight at Gould, watchful, calculating, waiting...

  Despite the fact that at least five other members of the Excelsior Colonization Corporation board seated around the huge circular table knew and approved of what he was about to do, Gould felt a sudden chill of loneliness. All the covert whisperings about Niebohr's increasing age, the carefully hoarded scraps of evidence that the old man was losing his grip, the assurances of future loyalty and support—none of these held any meaning compared with the reality of the moment of truth that was rushing towards Gould. Intrigue in bug-proofed private rooms was one thing, but he had declared himself here in the arena, and now he must stand or fall by the power of his own words, words that by all logic must force commitment upon those members of the board who had, until now, remained on the fence. Their reticence so far had been due to fear of Niebohr, but once the first blood was drawn their hatred would overcome that fear. They would turn and rend him for the manner in which he had heaped indignity on them by the autocracy of his methods.

  Only last month in a television interview he had said: "The Excelsior Corporation is me!" Such arrogance must be a sign of crumbling intellect. In the old days, when profits had been colossal and taxation low, eccentricity had been forgivable. But times were changing; the brigand image was no longer desirable. The colonization corporations of the future would be led by men with the minds of accountants—men like Harold Gould.

  Having reminded himself of his destiny, Gould disengaged himself from Niebohr s gaze and plunged on: "In short, I and those who agree with me feel that the whole matter has been handled ineptly. If the campaign had been rightly pursued, the Senate should already be at least at the stage of debating concrete proposals about the arming of corporation ships. It is obvious that even within the present perimeter of colonized space the Corps is quite incapable of providing security. The Kepler incident [see Seed of Stars] should be ample proof of the inadequacy of the Corps. But, apparently, no attempt has been made to capitalize on this or the other disasters involving the activities of the so-called Kilroys.

  Roth, the company secretary, intervened in his dry, precise, English-accented voice. "I should point out, Mr. Gould, that there is in existence a presidential directive to all media which requests that reference to such incidents should be minimal."

  "Thank you, Mr. Roth." Gould nodded in the direction of the hunched figure of the company secretary. Roth was a Niebohr man right through to his cash register of a heart, but his interruption could not fail to reinforce the power of the arguments Gould had already planned. "I know about the directive, as no doubt do all the other members of the board, but thank you for the reminder. President Fong's directive indicates clearly his doubts about the ability of the Corps to handle the Kilroy menace.-In plain words, he fears the panic that could be unleashed both here and in the colonies if the true situation were made clear.

  "Yet he continues to deny colonization corporations the right to arm their ships at their own expense. The President has very strong ties with the Space Corps, but he is also an astute man. Have the facts of the matter not been put to him with sufficient clarity? I require a direct answer from the man who has for the last eighteen months been temporizing with excuses like: 'Leave it to me; this is my territory. I will handle it.' Just what steps, if any, have been taken to press our case in this matter?"

  Gould sat down, smoothing his damp palms on the thighs of his trousers, suddenly nervous now that his part in the proceedings was temporarily over. His arguments, as far as he had been able to frame them, were just and logical, but he was afraid. The board sat, the silence in the room thickening, damping even the background hum of the air-conditioning. All eyes turned towards Niebohr, waiting.

  The old man's hooded eyes scanned the circular table slowly, a slight movement of a muscle at one corner of the thin mouth lending a hint of contempt to the gesture. Finally the eyes came to rest again on Gould, and without moving from his seat Niebohr spoke at last.

  "Thank you, Mr. Gould," said the deep, careful voice. "We are all indebted to you for your oratory. Unfortunately your eloquence is exceeded only by your ignorance ..

  Not far away to his right Gould heard a sharp intake of breath and guessed that Falangetti was panicking already. For himself he had expected nothing less. Niebohr was running true to form. Surely, if any further proof of the man's megalomania were needed. . .

  "... If a long and somewhat eventful life has taught me anything, it is that there are certain situations where even the proudest man does well to admit his limitations and seek the opinion of an expert," continued Niebohr. "Perhaps these are the beginnings of a new—and, some might say, overdue—humility."

  There was a slight movement around the table, even the hint of a dry chuckle from one of Niebohr's more sycophantic supporters.

  "Mr. Gould has been stupid enough to demand answers from me when he doesn't even know the corresponding questions. I think it is time we listened to

  someone who is qualified to assess the situation. I speak, of course, of my son-in-law Robert Prince, who as you all know pursued a distinguished career in the Space Corps for some years before resigning his commission and taking over command of the Excelsior Corporation fleet"

  A tall, slimly-built man with thinning blon
d hair and blue eyes that were several shades lighter than his impeccable uniform, rose to his feet and nodded deferentially to Niebohr. "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To begin with, it appears to be the general opinion that all that is needed to turn one of our ships—whether it be a freighter or a passenger vessel—into a dreadnought comparable with Venturer Twelve, is the installation of a few heavy-duty laser guns and a battery of launching tubes. Nothing could be further from the truth, I assure you. Our ships are purpose-built for the jobs they are doing at the moment. Apart from being costly, the physical modifications involved in providing them with an effective degree of fire-power would have serious side-effects.

  "One of these would certainly be a lowering of the efficiency of these ships as far as their original purpose was concerned. In most cases this would mean that their operation was no longer economically sound."

  Although there had obviously been an element of nepotism in Prince's initial appointment, any doubts about the ex-Corpsman's ability had been quickly dispelled by the manner in which he had reorganized the running of the Excelsior fleet. Gould knew that most of the other members of the board, like himself, had been forced to recognize that in Robert Prince they were faced by that comparative novelty, an honest man. Prince mainly held his own counsel, but

  when asked for his opinions on any subject he gave them without reserve. Despite his grudging respect for the man, Gould could not allow such a blanket assertion to go unchallenged.

  I'm sure that none of us here doubt your abilities, Commander Prince," Gould said carefully. "But are you saying that the ships of our fleet could not be modified?"

  Prince turned to face Gould, his tanned face suddenly appearing at least ten years younger as his light blue eyes twinkled in an open smile. "Not if they are to continue to make a profit. And that, I understand, is the object of the exercise. As you so rightly point out, I am no accountant. As far as the financial side is concerned, I'm quite incapable of quoting figures and I shall not attempt to do so. If you have any such questions after I have given the technical explanations relating to my particular field, I would appreciate your directing them at Mr. Roth. We have talked, and I understand that he has prepared a detailed report on the cost-effectiveness of the possible modifications."

  "Thank you, Commander," said Gould. He looked again at the silent, brooding figure of Niebohr, aware that the old man must have anticipated him at every point of his argument, might even welcome the challenge. He had no doubt that Prince's technical explanations would be unimpeachable, and Roth's figures correct beyond question. Gould savored the bitterness of defeat, made even more galling by the awareness that he had exposed, perhaps ruined, himself to no purpose.

  "During my Corps service I had the pleasure, if that is the word, of serving for some months under Admiral Carter," continued Prince. "He was at that time supervising the construction of Venturer Ten. Vee Ten was a comparatively lightly armed vessel built mainly for speed, but even so, the generators and control equipment needed to make that armament function would have been sufficient to account for more than twenty-two percent of the payload of one of our Elian-class freighters. I should also remind you of the maintenance and . operational demands of such equipment. The crew strength of a ship so modified would need to be doubled at the very least, and the crew concerned would have to be trained in techniques and skills quite different from those at present demanded of the normal merchant spacer. Such highly trained personnel do not in fact exist outside the ranks of the Corps itself. To summarize, then, even if we were to obtain permission from the government to arm our ships, we would do so at the cost of losing a minimum of twenty percent in effective payload, plus at least a hundred percent increase in crew remuneration . .. plus the capital cost of the equipment itself. But more important than any of these aspects is the fact that we might well be undertaking such a ruinous burden to no purpose."

  Prince paused, as if to assess the effect of his sudden paradox. Gould looked around the faces at the table. Only Niebohr and Roth remained outwardly unmoved. All the others registered shock to some degree, and there was considerable murmuring. He managed to catch Falangetti's eye at last, and as if responding to a certain guilt that he had sat silent while Gould had exposed himself earlier, the stocky Italian asked the obvious question.

  "Commander Prince, would you please explain further?"

  "With pleasure, Mr. Falangetti." Once again Prince treated the members of the board to his boyish smile. "Perhaps you, sir, can tell me the supposed purpose of installing armament on corporation ships?"

  Falangetti's fleshy face twitched nervously as if he sensed some kind of trap, and he glanced across the table at Gould, his dark eyes pleading for assistance. Gould felt a twinge of rage that he could ever have looked upon such a weak sister as a useful ally. Falangetti was voluble in private, capable of manufacturing a fine quality in verbal ammunition, but he was no damned good,on the firing line.

  "Commander Prince, let's not play guessing games," Gould said irascibly. "Everyone knows that the purpose of arming corporation ships is to enable them to defend themselves and our colonies against attack by the Kilroys—a task in which the Corps has been consistently unsuccessful."

  "I'm afraid I must agree with you on that last point," said Prince, inclining his handsome, blond head. "We have stumbled on evidence of Kilroy activities a number of times, and in each case this evidence has left us with the impression of a race so alien, so utterly ruthless and inhuman, as to be quite beyond our comprehension. We do not know what they look like, where they come from, or what their purposes are. But we can say with some certainty on the basis of past experience that they have no regard whatsoever for the sanctity of human life. To call them enemies, in the sense that I understand the word, would be to credit them with anthropomorphic feelings which they may not possess. Perhaps it would be more correct to suggest that towards the human race they possess what would best be expressed as a deadly indifference. Wherever our people cross their path they are crushed and swept aside like insects, obliterated by superior weapons, or used as laboratory animals in experiments whose purpose we can only begin to guess.[see Thunder of Stars] I speak of indifference because there is little doubt in my mind, or the minds of any of the Corps experts with whom I have discussed the subject, that should the Kilroys decide to destroy our solar system, the heart of United Earth itself, there would be very little we could do to defend ourselves under the present circumstances."

  "Commander, are you seriously suggesting that the entire human race owes its survival to the fact that these aliens cannot be bothered to destroy us?" said Gould.

  "Mr. Gould," said Prince calmly, "I have had the opportunity of studying the reports of the only definitely recorded encounter between a Corps ship and the Kilroys, also of talking at length with Commander Bruce himself on the subject. He assured me that, despite the fact that he was commanding the Corps' most modern fighting ship, he found himself quite incapable of preventing the destruction of Kepler III or of pursuing anything that could be defined as a meaningful attack against the alien ship. No weapon in his considerable arsenal was capable of piercing the Kilroy screens, and before he was able to make closer contact the alien ship disappeared. It did so, furthermore, without even bothering to make any reply to Vee Twelve's attack. Here again is the indifference I mentioned earlier. The purpose of the alien ship was the destruction of the Kepler planet, and once that was completed, whoever or whatever was in command saw no point in becoming involved in a conflict with Vee Twelve."

  "You mean that, in effect, the Kilroys turned tail and ran, don't you, Commander?" suggested Gould.

  "I only wish I could agree with you on that, " said Prince. "I would find it easier to sleep nights. Commander Bruce's conclusion was that having completed its mission the alien ship returned to base as a matter of routine. At the most, if the Kilroys did regard the presence of Vee Twelve of any importance at all, Bruce considers that they may have allowed the ship to escape so th
at the story of the destruction of Kepler could be brought back to Earth as a warning. "

  Another member of the board, Rogers, who was sitting several places along on Niebohr's right, intervened.

  "Commander Prince, is there no defense against these aliens?" His pale features were stricken with alarm.

  "Under the present circumstances I would say that just about sums it up," replied Prince.

  "The present circumstances?"

  Prince nodded. "I'm surprised nobody has picked me up on my reference to the alien ship having disappeared. That seems to me to be a key factor. If Bruce had been able to move in closer, and at the same time to avoid being knocked out by the devastating power of the weapons which boiled the entire surface off Kepler III, he might have stood a greater chance of testing the alien's vulnerability to his own armament. However, before he could do just that—and I would remind you that Bruce has a reputation for swiftness in attack second to none—the Kilroy ship, in his words, 'shimmered into transparency and disappeared.' I have seen tapes of that particular episode, and I can assure you that it must have been an awe-inspiring experience. Those tapes have never been made 'public, of course; a presidential directive made sure of that. But as you can well imagine, they, and the accounts of eye-witnesses, have been the subject of exhaustive investigation in Corps circles. The general consensus of opinion is that the alien ships are powered by some land of sub-space drive which enables them to cover immense distances almost instantaneously. In effect, the 'Space Warp' drive, which has for so long been the dream of theorists, now appears to be a reality. And it is this reality that makes even more believable the terrible possibility that the Kilroys could, if they wish, strike at the heart of United Earth and destroy it just as they destroyed Kepler III. They could perform such an act of genocide and disappear into sub-space again before any effective retaliation could be mounted against them."