"Eric Frank Russell - Basic Right" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

"If they can summon up the nerve to drop any at all," said Zalumar, "you can bet your life they'll drop
them together. It's all or nothing so far as they're concerned. Probably they would do their best to wipe
us out if they thought for one moment that it would do them any good. They know it won't. They know it
would bring retaliation from the Raidan Imperial Forces. We would be avenged."
"Not yet we wouldn't," Lakin contradicted. "To date Raidan hasn't the faintest notion of where we
are or what we're doing. I have just asked Shaipin whether he had yet beamed our official report. He
hasn't. Until he does so, and receives Raidan's acknowledgment, we are just another task force lost in the
mist of stars."
Zalumar gave a grim smile. "My dear Worryguts Lakin, only we know that we're out of contact. The
Terrans don't know it. They're not going to take the risk of enticing a full-scale attack that will cremate
the lot of them. Like everything else, they have a natural desire to survive. They value their skins, see?"
"I asked Shaipin why he hasn't yet signaled our whereabouts;" Lakin persisted. "He said he'd not yet
received the order from you. Do you wish me to tell him to beam our report?"
"Certainly not." Turning his back upon him, Zalumar again absorbed the glorious vision of the city.
"Sire, regulations require us to report immediately we have overcome opposition and taken complete
command."
Swinging around, Zalumar spat at him. "Do you think I, the commander, am ignorant of regulations?
Shaipin will send the necessary signals when I say so, and not before. I am the sole judge of the proper
moment."
"Yes, sire," agreed Lakin, taken aback.
"And the proper moment is not yet."
He said it as though it might never come.
Zalumar was quite a prophet.
Shaipin still had not been given the order a month later. Nor three months later, nor six. It never
occurred to him to query the omission or, if it did, he preferred to keep his mouth shut. As for Lakin, he
had tactfully refrained from mentioning the matter again. To his mind, Zalumar had staked his claim to full
responsibility for everything done or not done—and he was welcome to stay stuck with it.
Through the many weeks events had shaped themselves beautifully. The Terrans cooperated one
hundred per cent, displaying no visible enthusiasm but functioning with quiet efficiency.
Whenever Zalumar felt like larruping the leadership he ordered the entire snollygoster to parade
before him and forty-two of them came on the run. His word was their command, his slightest whim had
the status of a law. He did not doubt that if he'd been capable of sinking to such childishness he could
have made them worship the ground on which he trod and kiss every footprint he left in the dirt. It was a
wonderful exhibition of what can be done when the choice is the simple one of obey or burn.
One result of all this was that he, Zalumar, had fled the confines of a warship for the first time in more
years than he'd care to count. He was no longer encased in metal, like a canned rashim. The tactic had
been the easiest ever, requiring not even the chore of waving a magic wand. All he'd had to do was ask
and it shall be given unto you. No, not ask, tell.
"You will confiscate and assign solely to me this world's most imposing palace. Whoever occupies it
at present will be thrown out. All necessary repairs will be tended to without delay. The palace will be
decorated and refurnished in sumptuous style suitable to my position as Planetary Governor. You will
provide a full quota of trained servants. I'll inspect the place immediately everything is ready—and for
your own good you'd better make sure that it meets with my approval!"
They made sure all right. Even on Raidan nobody had it half so magnificent or a third as luxurious. He
could think of many military, contemporaries who'd grind their teeth with envy to see Nordis Zalumar, a
mere ten-ship commander, making like a natural-born king. Nay, an emperor.
The palace was enormous. The center portion alone came close to being an international monument
in its own right, without considering the vast expanse of east and west wings. Even the servants' quarters
were about the size of a large hotel. The grounds around the palace numbered four thousand acres, all
carefully landscaped, complete with a lake filled with multi-colored fish and ornamental water-fowl.