Bors ordered a space-boat to come from the cargo-ship for the reports.
"_Would you like to come to dinner on the yacht?_" asked Gwenlyn.
"_You're all living on emergency rations. Nobody asked us to divide our
supplies with the fleet. I can give you a nice meal._"
"Better not," said Bors curtly, and mumbled thanks.
He ordered the cargo-ship to send as much of its stores as the
space-boat could conveniently carry.
"_Then how about some cigars?_" asked Gwenlyn. She seemed at once amused
and approving, because Bors would not indulge himself in a really
satisfying meal while his crew lived on far from appetizing emergency
foodstuffs.
"No," said Bors. "No cigars either. You said you had some news for me.
What is it?"
"_I brought along our ship-arrival Talent_," said Gwenlyn blandly. "_He
can only tell when a ship will arrive at the solar system where he is,
so he had to come here to precognize._"
Bors felt again that stubborn incredulity which Talents, Incorporated
would always rouse in a mind like his.
"_There'll be a ship arriving here in two days, four hours, sixteen
minutes from now_," said Gwenlyn matter-of-factly. "_He thinks it's a
fighting ship, though he can't be sure. It could be a cruiser or
something like that doing mail duty, coming to deliver orders and
receive reports. You can't run an empire without a regular news system,
and Mekin wouldn't depend on commercial ships for government business._"
"Good!" said Bors. "Thanks!"
There was a pause.
"_What will you do now?_"
"Try to raise the devil somewhere else," said Bors. "Try to pick up
another food-ship, probably. Maybe I ought to let this ship alone, to
carry news of the pirate ship _Isis_ back to Mekin, but-- No. They use
booby-traps as police devices!"
It was not reasonable, but Bors could not think of missing a Mekinese
warship. The idea of a government using booby-traps to enforce its
orders somehow put it beyond forgiveness, and with the government all
those who served it willingly.
"_You'll go to Garen then?_" asked Gwenlyn.
Bors felt a sharp sting of annoyance. He had carefully kept secret the
choice of Garen Three as the next planet to be invaded by the
pseudo-pirate ship. It was upsetting to find that Gwenlyn knew about it.
Blast Talents, Incorporated!
"_The dowsing Talent_," said Gwenlyn, "_says there's a battleship
aground there. There've been some riots. The people of Garen don't like
Mekin, either. Strange? The battleship is to overawe them._"
"How do you know that?" demanded Bors.
"_The Department for Predicting Dirty Tricks was reading old
news-reports_," she told him. "_We're leaving now. 'Bye._"
"Goodbye," said Bors, and sighed, not knowing whether he felt regret or
relief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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