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  A crowd of people had gathered in the center of the room and Lords Traaka and Wellum allowed Frank and Anna to lead the way. They approached the crowd and when they were four meters away they stopped. Frank stepped forward and held up his right hand while trying to make a circle with his fingers. Being unable to do so, he spread them as far apart as he could. The crowd he faced were garishly dressed Iskolians. They stared on as one of them stepped forward to greet him.

  "I am Duke Tolrhash, nephew of the mighty Emperor Deetknarl of Iskol. I welcome you. Have you been treated well?"

  "Very well, thank you," Frank answered, not knowing how the words 'thank you' would be translated.

  "Excellent. Please join me for a drink and hors d'oeuvres'. Let us speak to one another." The Duke gestured and immediately, doors opened and odd-looking aliens came bursting forth, carrying trays of food and drinks. Shortly, there was much talking going on, as Iskolian Lords and Ladies surrounded Frank and Anna. Frank noticed that the new aliens carrying food and drinks served them but averted their eyes to avoid direct visual contact.

  "Pardon me, your Excellency," Frank said, "some of your foods are poisonous to us, and we cannot eat or drink them."

  "Yes, Frank Jameson, that has long been a problem for all races within the galactic community, and many a war has been started over dead ambassadors who ate the wrong thing. But we solved many of those problems long ago. We've been monitoring what you've been eating and not eating, and we're fairly certain now, which foods are safe for you. You won't be offered anything dangerous to eat."

  "Yes, your Excellency." Frank had to trust the Duke and his skinsuit to keep deadly poisons from making their way into his body. Food and drink were offered to him and he accepted. As he ate and drank, he could feel the suit filtering everything through into his mouth, tickling his tongue as it did so.

  "Now we must speak openly," the Duke began, "we haven't seen your kind before in this part of the galaxy, and on most known worlds, we know which races exist. But you and your people must come from much further away. We have rarely encountered a species with advanced technology such as yours. We're also curious about how you arrived here unseen?"

  "Many of these things can be learned in time, your Excellency, but I must be straightforward in saying that I'm not an ambassador of my race. Please accept my deepest regrets also, that I cannot inform you of the location of my home world, for, in my own opinion, my people are not ready to meet yours."

  "Your apology is accepted, Frank Jameson. But what knowledge brings you to this conclusion?"

  "Knowledge of my own race, your Excellency. My people are a violent kind, and yours wouldn't fare well among us. But please have patience. There is great hope for my kind, and perhaps someday, we'll come to you as a more civilized and kindly race." Frank was aware that this was not entirely true, and knew now that mankind would have to be able to exercise some violence in order to survive in this universe. And he would, under no circumstances, reveal the location of Earth to these people.

  "Well spoken, Frank Jameson, but I'm uncertain why you're here if this is so? If your people represent such a threat to the galactic social structure, then why do you risk their having knowledge of this place?"

  "I don't. My people don't know of my trek here, and it's unlikely they'll know of it for a very long time."

  "But still, why are you here? Why have you chosen this world to show yourself, and how did you get this far without being detected?"

  "I'm an explorer. I've come to see the galaxy and visit places unknown to my kind and me. But I'm not certain what you mean when you say 'undetected'."

  "Few starships enter the central community of the inner galaxy without passing through the dust clouds that guard our presence. The trail left by an unknown starship doesn't go unnoticed. Why, Frank Jameson, do you remind me of a child from a farm, come to the city, to see what it's like?"

  "Perhaps, your Excellency, because I am," he replied with a grin.

  The duke expelled what Frank assumed was the Iskolian version of a good laugh. Up until now, Frank wondered if the Iskolians were able to laugh.

  "And now, Explorer Frank Jameson, what've you discovered? It's strange to me that an explorer on a scientific mission would come to us so well armed."

  "Had I not been so well armed, your Excellency, where would I be this moment?"

  The Duke burst out laughing as he said between guffaws, "In jail, of course! And point taken. Please join me for dinner Well-Armed Explorer Frank Jameson," he said, as his laughter died down.

  "I would be delighted, your Excellency."

  They seated themselves at the dinner table in a room adjoining the reception area. Frank and Anna looked over the table that had been laid out before them. There were no forks or spoons available, but there were similar accessories. Knives seemed to be a galactic norm, for there were plenty, and of many sizes and shapes. The same strange furry alien beasts that brought drinks and hors d’oeuvres’ brought in the food. Again, they averted their eyes to avoid direct visual contact, even as he attempted to force them to look at him.

  As promised, the food was not poisonous, and nothing he was offered was turned away by his skinsuit. Frank could tell whether his food was vegetable or fruit, and when it was meat. But either way, he found everything given him to his liking. Nor was he offered too much. The servant seemed able to sense when he had had his fill. After the meal, Frank quizzed the Duke about the servants.

  "They're not servants. They're slaves of the great house of the Emperor. These are special slaves—these are the brightest and strongest—bred for service under the Emperor himself—my uncle," the Duke responded.

  Frank was abhorrent about the entire situation. The Duke saw the grimace that crossed Frank’s face.

  "Does something bother you? Is it the food? I'll have the cooks flogged!"

  "No, no, nothing’s wrong. The food is fine."

  "Then what is it, Frank Jameson?"

  Frank paused for a moment, then said, "Nothing."

  The Duke eyed him closely, and could tell he was not being completely honest.

  "In your world, Frank Jameson, there are slaves?"

  "If there are, your Excellency, then I don't know of them. The people of our world abandoned and outlawed slavery only recently in our history."

  The Duke at once realized what had stuck in Frank's throat. "Yes," he said, "in the galactic community, there are races that frown on slavery—call it cruelty—and denounce it as savagery and barbarism. And occasionally, they even foster and support slave uprisings. There have been many wars over this very thing, but only rarely does one succeed. How do you feel about slavery, Frank Jameson?"

  Frank realized now that he was being asked to choose sides on the issue.

  "For my part, I won't be a participant, but I choose not to interfere in the affairs of other worlds. It isn't my business to set moral standards for others." Frank said this sincerely, but realized deep down inside, that he had just lied.

  "Again, well spoken." But the Duke eyed him closely. Frank was certain, by now, if the Duke thought he could get away with it, he would turn Frank and his ship into space dust this very moment.

  Six

  The party continued for several hours. Frank and Anna were both worn from the barrage of questions, many of which had to go unanswered. The Iskolians seemed to enjoy the talkative affair, while Frank was just happy that his skinsuit was keeping him company. He finally approached Lord Traaka on the subject of leaving the party.

  "Since you're the guests of honor, it is customary for you to remain until the last guest leaves," Lord Traaka replied.

  Frank looked around the room and saw thirty or so people still there. Lord Traaka seemed to understand the question in Frank's mind, because he answered it before Frank could ask it.

  "Only Lord Occoro's party remains, they'll leave shortly and you shall be relieved," he said.

  "Oh, thank you."

  The party busted up a little while late
r and Frank and Anna went back to their suite to rest. They found beds to sleep in, but were unable to sleep right way, so they talked for a while, and then settled down for a restless night. Trong and Kong stood vigil. Before sleeping, Frank contacted the ship to check on everything. Michelle was at the helm.

  "We're right where you left us, Frank. The patrol craft have moved around a little bit and been replaced once, but they won't even let us make orbit. We've been watching everything from up here. Don't let them coax you too far away from Trong and Kong. Be careful. We love you."

  "I'll be very careful, Michelle, give everyone my love. Got to get some sleep, bye."

  "Bye."

  When Frank awoke the next morning, he saw Anna, deeply immersed in some device, studying it carefully. The room was still dark, but not completely, as though the light in the room was subdued. She heard him stirring and turned to him.

  "Good morning, Frank. Windows, daylight," she ordered, and the darkness of the room faded away as daylight slowly flooded the room.

  "Neat windows," he said, as he realized he had slept through the morning.

  "Breakfast?" Anna asked. "I've been learning how to work these gadgets. I think I can get you some eggs and ham."

  "That would hit the spot. I'm starved." He got up feeling dizzy and light-headed, and then remembered he had been drinking the night before. He eased himself out of bed, and in a few minutes, Anna had set ham and eggs at his breakfast table.

  "This is incredible. How did you do this?"

  "That's a secret," she said, "I spoke with Suni this morning. She said she would try and arrange for vitamin and mineral supplements to be sent down. This food looks and tastes like our own, but it's missing a lot of things we need to stay alive."

  "Okay," Frank said, as he ate, "Hey, this tastes just like the real thing. My complements to the chef."

  "Thank you."

  "What about you, aren't you gonna eat?"

  "I've already eaten."

  Frank finished breakfast and later, while he and Anna were playing with more of the gadgets, Lord Traaka came to their suite. Frank suspected then that they'd been watched during the night, if for no other reason than to know when they would be prepared for the day's activities.

  "Greetings," he said, "Pardon my intrusion, but I've been instructed to inform you there'll be another formal reception tomorrow evening. Your presence is kindly requested. Many ambassadors and emissaries will be in attendance, and the emperor himself will be there."

  "We'll be happy to attend the reception," Frank said.

  "Very good. Meanwhile, I shall be your guide to Iskol. Do you wish to remain here, or would you prefer a tour of the city today?"

  Frank and Anna both opted for the guided tour. After breakfast and their morning rituals, a hover-car awaited them in the hall, as usual, and carried them to the outside world. There, another hover-car, this one closed-top, also awaited them. From there, they spent the day visiting farms, factories, zoos, administration buildings, suburbs, parks, and all manner of geological sites, and attended a session on the history of Iskol and the known galactic community.

  They listened intently as the historian proceeded through his lecture, "Recorded history in the galaxy only dates back fifteen million years, this being one of the side effects of war. Occasionally great wars break out in the galaxy, and sometimes, entire planets and even solar systems are wiped out, along with their histories, some of those histories being lost forever. But many have been saved, and this holds with the fact that even the oldest known races have recorded histories of less than a million years. Rarely does a race last much longer."

  Later that day, they attended another session on galactic politics. This lecturer explained how their own political system worked, "There are about sixteen thousand known star-faring races in the galaxy, but because so often, races are dropping in or out, there is no central governing agency or means for coming to a collective agreement on galactic law. But this is also due to the diversity of races and the time and distances involved. Basically, there is one law in the galaxy; take care of yourself. By far, the most common agreements between worlds are trade agreements with other local planets, typically not more than two or three years traveling distance away. This translates to a thousand light-years away at the most."

  The lecturer continued, "Unfortunately, worlds of people who have nothing to trade, no defenders, and are unable to defend themselves, often become slaves. It is typical for most races starting out near the center of the galaxy, its most populated area, to begin their place in the galactic community as slave worlds. Only in the outer reaches of the galaxy, where it is less populated, does a race have a chance to avoid slavery while its people evolve. There are advantages for a race to go through a slave period. We Iskolians were once a slave race ourselves, until we were freed about twenty thousand years ago. That race vanished six thousand years ago, but we now have many local allies, and have nothing to fear from other races."

  Frank and Anna were taking all this in, as were the crew aboard the Butterworth. Frank began to realize his place in the galaxy. His life on the galactic scale would be nothing more the flutter in the wind of a leaf in the forest. He also realized that within a hundred years or less, knowledge of humanity on his home world Earth, would be recorded at the center of the galaxy and suspected that humanity was sealing its doom as a slave race by sending out so much radio traffic.

  When the day was over, Frank and Anna returned to the Imperial Palace and were allowed to rest that evening. They found entertainment in the form of holographic television shows and movies, complete with news and commercials. Frank sat back during the show and acknowledged to himself that this day had probably been the greatest learning experience of his life. He wondered why the Iskolians had such a great interest in him. They obviously knew that he had come from a great distance—much further than they could easily reach. So as a trader, he had little to offer them. But he had successfully defied them when ordered to do something he had not wanted to do, and that single act had changed his status from common criminal to guest of the emperor. In a rush, it became perfectly clear exactly what they wanted from him, his technology—his most grave secrets. As a person, or even as a representative of his race, he realized, they had no interest in him. They were more interested in survival in a dangerous universe.

  The next day, Frank and Anna were allowed to sleep in again, and the day started late. Frank checked in with Suni, and found everything in the ship fine. Lord Traaka came by in the afternoon and reminded them about the reception that evening, but did not stay long and did not suggest any more tours. They were both glad of this because they weren't sure they were up to running around all day, and then partying all night.

  That evening, as before, both Lords Traaka and Wellum arrived and escorted Frank and Anna to the reception. Trong and Kong were left at the door as expected. This reception room was the same height as the other one, but easily twice as large. There were also about three times as many people there. Most of the people were Iskolian, some of them were of the slave race Frank had seen earlier, but many, he did not recognize at all. These others were aliens of many different sizes, shapes, and colors, and wore even more garish clothing than the Iskolians. Some of them wore drab, almost colorless clothing. Lords Traaka and Wellum escorted Frank and Anna into the room and shortly afterwards, dissipated into the crowd.

  The Emperor of Iskol introduced himself to Frank and Anna, and asked many of the same questions the Duke had asked, and received the same answers. By the end of the evening, every alien in the room had spoken with or interviewed him. Some spoke about their home worlds. All had questions about him and his world. Most of the questions he answered, but some he had to turn away as far too sensitive for his liking. Frank also asked questions of the aliens and, for the most part, received direct answers. Frank ran through the gamut of political skills with the aliens. Some were very abrupt and forward while others were distinctively polite and unobtrusive. Th
e majority ranged somewhere in between.

  Dinner was uneventful, except for the fact that Frank was having prime rib. Anna had ordered up dinner for them prior to leaving the suite. Frank was amazed at how closely it matched the real thing. He might have even enjoyed eating it had he not been watching what the others were eating. From that day forward, Frank made it a rule to avoid eating with aliens whenever possible. But when it was unavoidable, never look at what they're eating.

  All in all, the evening was educational for him. He had learned that all the aliens present were ambassadors or emissaries from planets that had trade agreements with the Iskolians. Some were members of the local peace alliance, or war alliance when Frank figured it. Oddly enough, this was where he learned about the limitations of space travel for these races. He had been talking with the ambassador from Eldews, and put the question to him.

  "There is no secret about how to accomplish faster-then-light space travel," he said, "The hard part is to go much faster than that. There is a material called Vulaxium, which exhibits very odd properties that tend to distort space and time around it, to the extent that, when made into the hull of a spacecraft, allows the entire starship to 'slip' beyond the speed of light. And Vulaxium can be easily manufactured almost anywhere. The one drawback is that, once the velocity of light is exceeded, constant power is required to maintain velocity. And the faster a ship goes, the more power it requires to gain and keep that velocity."

  "We've seen your starships," Frank said, "and have measured their velocities to be about two or three hundred times the speed of light."

  "That is correct. There is no limit to how fast a starship may travel, other than its own propulsion system and fuel supply. The fastest starship ever built traveled three hundred and seventy-six times the speed of light. It's fuel supply lasted only a few moments, it had one passenger, and it wasted enough fuel to last a hundred years on a cargo vessel traveling half that velocity. It was a great feat… and a monumental failure."