Chapter Seven: Ophiuchius Prime

Cleolanthe had known that Earth's government would not simply accept Professor Newton's defection. They would send someone to investigate, and thanks to Marcus Griffin's forewarning, Ophiuchius had been prepared for the arrival of Earth's investigative team.

Now that the Orbit Jet had entered the 70 Ophiuchi system, it was time to ensure that Rocky Jones and his team would find what Cleolanthe wanted them to find: Professor Newton and the boy declaring their loyalty and devotion to Ophiuchius. The true feelings of Newton and the boy were irrelevant, for the advanced science of the Old Ophiuchians had given their human heirs the power to shape the mental habits of whomever they chose.

After the plan to abduct Professor Newton had been formulated and approved, Cleolanthe had had a room constructed that resembled her Receiving Room, but with a special . . . modification. It had amused her to have the Influencer installed within the replica of the 70 Ophiuchi system that hung above her desk.

Except for his weekly visits to Professor Newton in the Gray Observatory, Bobby Matthews spent his time in a suite of rooms in the Government Headquarters building. There he lived the life of an upper-caste Ophiuchian youth, tutored in the usual subjects and participating in the standard physical exercises. His tutors reported that he had a high degree of knowledge of scientific subjects, no great surprise for the ward of Dominic Newton. He also showed a marked aptitude for spaceship piloting and navigation; no doubt the result of his well-known desire to serve in the Space Rangers.

When her technicians reported that the Influencer was ready for use, Cleolanthe went to the boy's rooms, escorted by Marshal Darganto and her usual team of guards. She waited outside while Darganto entered the suite. It wasn't long before he emerged with the boy in tow. As usual, he was wearing a replica of the Space Rangers' shipboard uniform. Every time she saw the boy, Cleolanthe found herself irritated by it all over again.

"Follow me, Bobby," she ordered him. Silently, he did so, and she led him up to the Influencer Room. Opening the door, she ushered him inside, then followed. The Marshal remained outside, but Cleolanthe knew that he would be watching.

"Sit down, Bobby," she invited the boy as she crossed the room to the desk.

"Please, Cleolanthe, I'd rather stand," the boy replied, in contravention of Ophiuchian custom. When the Suzerain told you to sit, you sat. He then compounded his impertinence by asking, "Why'd you send for me?" When you were in the presence of the Suzerain, you did not ask questions, you answered them.

"I said, sit down," she growled. He did so, and she took her seat at the desk.

This session wasn't going quite the way she had planned it. The Influencer worked best when the subject was relaxed, and her irritation with the boy had put them both on edge. She would have to bring the meeting's emotional level back down to something more pleasant. Forcing herself to smile, she asked, "Are you enjoying your visit on Ophiuchius?"

"It's not a visit," the boy answered, committing another breach of custom by openly contradicting the Suzerain. "You're keeping us by force. You'll never let us leave."

Again, Cleolanthe forced down her irritation. Soon, the boy's attitude would be corrected. For now, she would have to endure his rudeness and maintain a facade of friendliness. "Professor Newton is very valuable to our cause," she explain. "And you can be too, Bobby, if you study and prepare yourself . . . and cooperate."

"I don't like what you teach," the boy said defiantly. "And if you think you'll ever lick Earth, and the United Worlds of the Solar System, you've got another think coming."

Rage threatened to overwhelm Cleolanthe's self-control. Abruptly, she gave up hope of putting the boy into a relaxed frame of mind. If this interview went on for much longer, she would be shouting for the guards to drag Matthews away to the nursery factory. Saying, "You may change your mind, Bobby," Cleolanthe activated the Influencer. Above her desk, she knew, the two suns at the center of the 70 Ophiuchi model had begun flashing in a complex rhythm. She studied the boy's face, noting his dilated pupils and steady breathing. The Influencer would begin its program, altering the boy's emotional responses and attitudes. It would take at least three weeks for the Orbit Jet to reach Ophiuchius Prime. By then, the boy would be thoroughly conditioned.

Rising from the desk, Cleolanthe left the Influencer Room and joined Darganto at a monitor, where the boy could be seen staring raptly at the Influencer.

"Perfect," she said. "He's under our influence. From now on, little Bobby will be cooperative. Now, Professor Newton is next."

Her good mood was immediately soured when Darganto objected. "Cleolanthe, the professor has just pledged his complete cooperation. The work can't continue with the distortion of thoughts. We don't dare risk confusing his brain."

This seemed to be her day to be contradicted. From Darganto, at least, she didn't have to put up with it. "That will be my decision, Darganto. Right now, the report Rocky Jones will send back to Earth is more important." She dismissed the Marshal with a nod of the head, and he left.

* * *

For six more days the Orbit Jet skipped its way across the space that separated Guardian Station Blue from the worlds of the 70 Ophiuchi system, escorted the whole way by three ships of the Ophiuchian Grand Fleet. Where before it had been Rocky Jones who had set the pace, now that task was in the hands of the Ophiuchians. From the lead ship of the trio, the gruff voice of an Ophiuchian spaceman counted down the seconds before each superluminal jump, and the four ships made each jump simultaneously.

After each jump, the Ophiuchian ships were always in the same relative positions, each one only fifty thousand miles from the Orbit Jet.

"Sweet Saturn, Rocky," Winky DelPonte had exclaimed, "have you ever seen anything like it?"

"There's no denying it, Winky," Rocky Jones had answered. "The Ophiuchians know how to handle ships. There's probably nobody better at it anywhere in space."

Vena Ray had been surprised to hear such praise for the Ophiuchians coming from Jones. "You almost sound like you admire them, Rocky."

"There's no point in denying the Ophiuchians' accomplishments, Vena," Jones answered. "The worst thing we could do is underestimate their abilities. We may not like the social system they've adopted, and I certainly intend to do my best to make sure that they don't succeed in imposing it on us by force, but they've been able to accomplish great things with it. The way for us to keep our own freedom is not to pretend that their ways don't work, but to show them that our own ways work just as well, and to match their accomplishments with our own." It was probably the longest speech Ray had ever heard Jones make, and she prized the insight it gave her into the usually laconic Space Ranger. There were, she realized, hidden depths to Rocky Jones.

Finally, the day came when the Orbit Jet and its three escorts found themselves entering the gravity well of the 70 Ophiuchi system. Between them, the two stars of the 70 Ophiuchi system had 1.6 times the mass of Earth's sun, and the system's gravity well was correspondingly deeper. With her starboard engine artfully sabotaged by DelPonte, it took the Orbit Jet sixteen days to make her way from the edge of the gravity well to Ophiuchius Prime. The three members of her crew spent much of the time examining the various worlds that made up the 70 Ophiuchi system through the ship's viseograph.

Seen from the edge of the system, the stars A and B looked like two orange eyes staring at them from the depths of space. The larger of the two, 70 Ophiuchi A, had about nine tenths the mass of Earth's sun, while the smaller, 70 Ophiuchi B, had about seven tenths. Ray found the smaller star to be distinctly redder than the larger one. When she asked DelPonte whether she was imagining it, he assured her that she wasn't.

"That's basic astrophysics," he told her. "Generally, the less massive a star is, the redder it is, because it's not putting out as much high energy radiation. Just like when you heat up a piece of metal, at first it glows red, but as it gets hotter it turns orange, then yellow, then white."

There had been an astrophysicist on the Montevideo, Professor Samarapala, but he had spent most of the trip in his cabin, and Ray had never had a chance to talk to him about the 70 Ophiuchi system. DelPonte was much more forthcoming, and he soon had Ray up to speed on all the system's major bodies.

According to DelPonte, the two stars, A and B, orbited a common center of gravity once every 83 Earth years. Since the orbit was a pretty eccentric one, the two stars came as close as 11.4 astronomical units, a little more than the distance from the Sun to Saturn, and as far as 34.8 astronomical units, farther than the distance from the Sun to Neptune.

Ophiuchius Prime was the second planet out from star A, about 63 million miles away, and it had two small moons, each the site of an Ophiuchian military base. The innermost planet was a small, airless rock, and two more planets out beyond Ophiuchius Prime were gas giants with several moons each. Star B had two planets of its own, both of them cold planets with thin atmospheres. The inner planet was called Ophiuchius Secunda, and DelPonte had heard that that was the planet where the Old Ophiuchians had originally come from.

"That's true," Ray told him. "It's been well-established that the Old Ophiuchians originally evolved on Ophiuchius Secunda, and spread out from there to the rest of the system. That was over two hundred thousand years ago. They built up a great interplanetary civilization that lasted for a thousand years, and then, all of a sudden, they died out."

"Now, that's something I've never been able to get a straight answer about," said DelPonte. "How did they die out? What happened to them?"

"Nobody knows," Ray said simply. "It was two hundred thousand years ago. After all that time, it's a wonder that anything at all has survived from their civilization. Most of what we know about them comes from relics that were discovered on airless worlds, like the two moons of Ophiuchius Prime. Apart from some underground ruins, they never found anything on Ophiuchius Prime itself or Ophiuchius Secunda. It's all been weathered away over time."

As the days passed, Ophiuchius Prime appeared as a dot of light, then as a tiny crescent, then finally as they made their elliptical orbit it opened out before them, a blue-white world that looked remarkably similar to Earth, except for the orange tinge of the planet's clouds caused by the light of the 70 Ophiuchi stars.

"Right now," DelPonte explained, "star B is over on the other side of star A, and almost thirty astronomical units away, so Ophiuchius Prime only has one side lit up, the same way the planets in the Solar System always are."

With the Orbit Jet and its three Ophiuchian escorts settled into a stable orbit, Rocky Jones sent an astrophone message to the surface. "This is the XV-2 awaiting further landing instructions." The message repeated for half an hour before an answer finally came back.

"This is Cleolanthe, the Suzerain of Ophiuchius. Come in, XV-2, and identify." Ray traded looks with DelPonte. The Suzerain of Ophiuchius seemed determined to take personal charge of their arrival on Ophiuchius Prime. Ray still couldn't decide whether that was a good sign or a bad one.

Jones cut off the repeating message and answered the Suzerain. "This is Rocky Jones in the XV-2, we have elipsed your planet, now request landing instructions."

"Set controls for free fall," came the voice of Cleolanthe over the astrophone. "We will bring you in. When you land, I shall personally extend a welcome to Ophiuchius. Ventendo untol."

"Ventendo untol," Jones answered, and switched off the astrophone.

"Set for free fall?" exclaimed DelPonte. "What a system!" He didn't seem pleased.

"Winky, what does that mean?" Ray asked him.

"It means they aren't going to let us land under our own power," he answered. "They're going to set a force beam on us and use it to bring us down to the surface."

"Well, we are supposed to be crippled," Ray pointed out. "Maybe they just want to save us the trouble of landing ourselves."

DelPonte was still indignant. "It's polite to ask someone's permission first before you use a force beam on them. These jokers just say 'Set for free fall, we will bring you in,' like they're telling a dog to heel. Say, maybe we got our word officious from their name Ophiuchius, huh?"

"I'm afraid you're right, Winky," commented Jones. Ray presumed he was agreeing with DelPonte's opinion about the Ophiuchians' high-handedness, rather than his fanciful suggestion about the etymology of 'officious.'

With a sigh, DelPonte shut down the Orbit Jet's engines. "Engine activity zero," he reported. "We are now falling freely."

"XV-2 calling Ophiuchius," Jones astrophoned. "We are set to free fall."

"Acknowledged, XV-2," Cleolanthe answered. "Force beam will engage in thirty seconds. I'll see you when you land. Ventendo untol."

"Ventendo untol," Jones responded, switching the astrophone off.

DelPonte counted down the seconds until the force beam was engaged. When he reached zero . . . there was no change. Nevertheless, staring at his instruments, he reported, "Ophiuchian force beam has been engaged. They've got us, Rocky."

"I didn't notice any change," Vena Ray said.

"That's because our artificial gravity's still on," DelPonte replied. "If it wasn't, believe me, you'd be able to tell. It's pretty unsettling." Reading his instruments, he added, "At the rate they're pulling at us, we ought to be down in about an hour." Then he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "From now on, we're all just passengers. The Ophiuchians are in the pilot's chair."

"Well, let's take a look before we land," said Jones. He activated the viseograph, and focused it on the planet below them. At first, there was little to see, since they were passing over one of Ophiuchius Prime's oceans. As they crossed over to land, Vena Ray could make out hills and rivers, but from this altitude she knew that signs of civilization would be too small to make out.

Then the Orbit Jet passed the planet's terminator, and suddenly there were pinpoints of light in the darkness below them. They passed over a city: a perfect circle of light in the darkness, with threads of light marking the highways running from it. Ray followed one of the threads as they passed over it, until it ran into another city, also a perfect circle.

"Are all the cities on Ophiuchius Prime circles?" DelPonte wondered.

Ray nodded. "That's the way the Old Ophiuchians did it, so that's the way the human Ophiuchians do it now. Of course, the Old Ophiuchians did it that way because their society naturally lent itself to circular population centers. The human Ophiuchians are just trying to copy them."

DelPonte shook his head in wonder.

Another half hour brought them back to the planet's dayside. Now they were close enough to distinguish individual buildings. Jones focused the viseograph on their destination.

At the center of eight broad avenues arriving from the points of the compass, a vast complex of interconnected buildings sat in the midst of a broad plaza. The Serpens River passed completely underneath the plaza and emerged on the other side.

"Wow," DelPonte exclaimed, "if that's not the biggest building yet, I'll scramble Scorpio."

"What is it, Vena?" Jones asked.

"Analka Vainda Govornox," she answered in the harsh syllables of Ophiuchian.

"What's that in English?" DelPonte asked.

"It means 'Government Headquarters.' We'll be taken there." With a shudder, she added, "I hope we'll come back out. People have been known not to."

"You'd better go strap yourself in, Vena," Jones told her. "They'll be swinging the Orbit Jet into a vertical orientation for the landing, and we'll have to switch off the artificial gravity."

Leaving Jones and DelPonte in the pilot room, Ray entered the navigation room and belted herself into her chair. The speaker on the wall came to life, and she heard Jones say, "Artificial gravity will be going off in five seconds." She counted down in her mind, then felt the dropping-elevator sensation of the artificial gravity diminishing to nothing. For the first time since their takeoff from Earth, her blast chair pivoted until the hatch leading to the pilot room was above her, and the hatch leading down to the engine room was below her.

There was a sudden jar, and Vena Ray felt her weight return. The Ophiuchians must have switched on their force beam, so that the Orbit Jet was now suspended in mid-air above Analka Vainda Govornox. Ray suddenly understood why DelPonte had objected to it -- it left them completely at the mercy of the Ophiuchians. If the force beam were suddenly cut off, could Rocky Jones fire up the ship's rockets in time to land them safely? Ray was suddenly certain that Jones was poised at the controls of the Orbit Jet's rockets, ready to switch them on instantly if the force beam failed them.

Ray followed on her instruments as the Orbit Jet was carried down to the surface by the force beam. She sighed with relief as she felt the shock of landing. After nearly two months in space, she was back on the surface of a planet.

Although the controls of her navigation board were now awkwardly placed, Vena was able to go through the shutdown procedure. They wouldn't be needing them for the next week. Up above in the pilot room, she knew, Jones and DelPonte were doing the same with their own control boards.

After a minute, the hatch above her opened, and Jones and DelPonte descended the ladder than ran down the floor. "Navigation station is shut down," she reported.

Jones nodded an acknowledgement and said, "Ready to meet the Ophiuchians again, Vena?"

She said, "Yes, sir," and, unbelting herself from the blast chair, followed the two men down the ladder.

At the bottom of the engine room, DelPonte undogged the inner airlock hatch, and the three of them crossed through the airlock to the outer hatch. It opened to reveal an Ophiuchian boarding platform making its slow but steady way across the white granite of the Government Headquarters Landing Field. It was close enough for Ray to make out half a dozen figures in Ophiuchian military uniforms standing within it. Beyond the boarding platform, Ray could see the massive concrete walls of the Government Headquarters complex itself. She noticed several military vehicles scattered around the landing field, at least one of which had a weapon trained on them.

The Montevideo had docked with a space station in orbit around Ophiuchius Prime, and she and the scientists had boarded a shuttle that brought them down to Ophiuchius City's commercial spaceport. From there, they had been transported to the grounds of the Academy of Sciences, where they had stayed during their unexpectedly brief time on the planet.

Now, though, she was in the heart of the Ophiuchian government, with its deservedly sinister reputation. Once they entered that concrete warren, would they be allowed to leave?

Her disturbing thoughts were interrupted by DelPonte. "Say, Rocky, I just thought of something. The Ophiuchians are bound to recognize Vena from the scientific exchange, and then they'll know that we've got our own Ophiuchian language expert with us."

Jones frowned at this sudden hitch in his plans, but Ray was quick to reassure him. "I don't think we'll have to worry about that, Winky. They probably won't connect me with the translator from the scientific exchange. Among the Ophiuchians, everyone specializes in a single occupation. They won't be expecting someone who works as a translator to also be a spaceship navigator, especially since navigator is a much more prestigious occupation."

"But won't they notice that your name is the same as the translator who was here before?" asked Jones.

Ray smiled. "That's the advantage of having a Ray along on the trip, Rocky. There are so many of us that the Ophiuchians can't keep track. They'll assume I must be a cousin of the Vena Ray who was here before."

"You're sure about that, Vena?"

Ray spoke confidently. "I'm sure."

The boarding platform came to a halt against the Orbit Jet, and the three of them crossed over. The six Ophiuchians turned out to be five soldiers led by an underofficer, all of them wearing the white sashes that indicated they were part of the Government Headquarters guard detail. All were armed, though their weapons remained holstered. The underofficer saluted Jones and said, "I am here to escort you to the Suzerain. I am Captain Tarlax."

Jones returned the salute, and introduced himself and his party. "Lead the way, Captain," he finished.

Captain Tarlax did just that, as he and his men escorted the three Space Rangers to the boarding platform's elevator. It was big enough to allow the nine of them ample elbow room.

At the base of the boarding platform were two ground vehicles bearing the insignia of the Government Headquarters. Tarlax entered one with the three from the Orbit Jet, while his men entered the other. The underofficer did not initiate a conversation with them during the trip across the landing field, and Ray got the impression he would not have welcomed an attempt by them to do so.

The two ground vehicles came to a stop by an imposing set of double doors flanked by a pair of guards. One of the occupants of the other vehicle walked over and opened a door to theirs, and Ray and the others followed Tarlax out.

Moving in unison, the two guards flanking the double doors opened them, and two people emerged. Ray recognized both. On the left was the Suzerain Cleolanthe, and on the right was her chief aide, Marshal Darganto. Cleolanthe was wearing the regalia of the Suzerain of Ophiuchius: an ankle-length black gown, a black arm band on her right arm, and a gem-studded tiara that resembled the telepathic induction organs that crowned the heads of the Old Ophiuchians. Marshal Darganto wore the black uniform of his rank, to which had been added an elaborate sash and various important military decorations. Cleolanthe spoke to Darganto in Ophiuchian, and DelPonte quietly asked Ray for a translation.

"She said, 'I'm anxious to meet this fabulous Rocky Jones. This will be an unexpected pleasure, in more ways than one.' "

DelPonte chuckled. "Sounds like Rocky has piqued Queen Cleolanthe's interest."

"That's not necessarily a good thing, Winky. It's a lot like piquing the interest of a black widow spider."