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message sub-vocally; and still with a smile she looked at Bleys. It almost
never happened in real life that anything happened at the exact dramatic
mo-ment which would be ideal from the standpoint of stage management. Bleys
had in fact stage-managed a few such happenings for his own purposes in the
past; but this time it had happened of its own accord.
"He just got here," said Toni. "He's waiting for you, next lounge."
"Right on time!" Bleys glanced at the chronometer on his own wristpad. Dahno
laughed.
'That's the military mind for you," he said, still chuck-ling. "It would never
happen in politics."
"I'll leave you temporarily and talk to him," said Bleys. "We'll finish off
this conference after he's gone; I won't be long. Why don't the rest of you
listen to our talk over the intercom? Toni would you have somebody send in
something in the way of refreshments for us?"
Toni nodded, lifting her wristpad to her lips again. Meanwhile, Bleys had
gotten to his feet. He stepped over to the door, which slid back before him,
and passed through. A middle-aged man in a black uniform, only slightly
different from that of a Militia officer but with the twin-worlds insignia of
a general officer, rose from one of
the padded floats in the room as the door closed behind Bleys.
"First Elder or should I address you as Great Teach-er?" he said.
"Either one," said Bleys, waving him back into his float and taking one
himself. "It makes no difference."
"In that case, First Elder," the officer said, "I'm hon-ored by your
invitation to visit you. I'm Marshal Cuslow Damar, by God's favor and
appointment of the War De-partments of Association and Harmony, in command of
our troops contracted here to New Earth."
It was a thoroughly formal self-introduction, but there was nothing stiff or
even formal about the man. He was somewhat under average height, slightly
thick-waisted, but if overweight, not by much; and he moved easily as if he
was still in good physical shape. His hair was straight and brownish-gray,
combed back and relatively short. His face was round, calm, pleasant and
unremarkable. About the only thing about him that would have made him stand
out in any crowd were his eyes. They were a pale blue not the ordinary pale
blue of eyes, nor yet the blue of any pre-cious stone, but the smooth,
water-polished flat blue of matched pebbles picked up from the streambed of a
shal-low, swift-running creek.
Those eyes were neither friendly nor unfriendly, neither commanding nor
yielding; and the man seemed completely at ease, completely in control of
himself and not at all bothered to be talking with a titular superior such as
a First Elder.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Marshal Cuslow Damar," said Bleys. "We ought to be
getting something to drink and nibble at in just a moment or two. I wanted to
thank you for the Guard of Honor. I was glad to see it and im-pressed by the
men and officers. They looked an unusually fit and ready body of soldiers."
"They were mainly cadre," said Cuslow. "I thought, since you suspected there
might be some disturbance be-tween the ship and your hotel here, it would be
best if
what met you were experienced troops. Troops that would know what to do if the
unusual occurred."
"Yes. I guessed as much; and I appreciate it " Bleys broke off as Toni brought
in a tray, with an assortment of small eatables and two tall wineglasses, with
bottles both of fruit juices and New Earth wines on them. She smiled at
Cuslow, as she set the tray down on a small table-float and pushed it through
the air to within reach of both of them. But she said nothing, turning
immediately and going back out of the room.
"I don't believe I know the citizen's name," said Cuslow, looking at the door
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that had closed behind her. His blue eyes came back to Bleys. "I'm right,
aren't I? She is from either Harmony or Association?"
"Association," said Bleys. "Her name's Antonia Lu."
"Yes." Cuslow nodded. "I remember that name now, from the information
furnished me about your party."
"Did you bring along a copy of the agreement under which our troops are here?
I wanted to have it with me."
"Here you are, First Elder." Cuslow produced a several-paged document from an
inside pocket of his uniform jacket and passed it over to Bleys. Bleys glanced
at it, nodded and put it aside on a float-table nearby that had nothing else
on it.
"I'm glad to have that," he said. "How many soldiers do you actually have on
New Earth right now?"
"I'm ashamed to say I can't give you the exact num-ber," said Cuslow. "In
excess of thirty-eight thousand. Ships should be landing in the next few days
with at least four or five thousand more. Was the exact number impor-tant to
you, First Elder?"
"Only in one way. You said you expected several thou-sand more in the next
week. How long before you have the full fifty thousand?"
"I'm afraid that getting the full complement is going to take some time yet a
matter of three or four months at the very least," said Cuslow. "You know how
the draft works. Both our worlds divide their occupied landmasses into areas,
and we draft from each area in turn. It's set up
so that, theoretically, by the time we reach the last area in turn, a new
generation of sixteen- to twenty-year-olds will have grown up. So, in theory,
we can keep drafting stead-ily, and there will always be a new generation
ready to tap for basic training. However, after those chosen for draft are
called for training, it takes roughly three months to train them before
they're ready to be shipped away on contract. If they aren't shipped in a
reasonable time, they need at least a four weeks' refresher course.
Ordinarily, the system works very well."
He paused and looked at Bleys.
"I can see it does," Bleys murmured.
"But in this case," Cuslow went on, "New Earth's sud-den need for fifty
thousand soldiers not necessarily expe-rienced, but trained has made for a
very large contract. Also one including, on our side, a number of demands that
usually only the Dorsai make and can get an employer's agreement on. We
assumed, of course, that New Earth's need was both urgent and severe. But, a
call for so many troops exhausted our pool of trained and quickly refresh-able
soldiers, as well as those about to finish their training. We're now at the
point where we're going to have to wait at least a couple of months for
further additions to our strength here on New Earth."
"I understand," said Bleys. "But do you think, with the strength you've
already got here, you could handle most situations that might come up?"
"No doubt of it," Cuslow said. "I'd be surprised if they've got even [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]