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support you!" he shouted. "Do you want to know why? Because he is dead!"
Now I was shaken. "What?"
"Check with your staff," he said gloatingly. "Chairman Khukov was assassinated this morning. The
news is leaking out."
Rue switched her phone to the Premier of Ganymede. He looked drawn. "It is true, señor," he said. "We
learned of it an hour ago, but did not wish to undercut your effort."
But Tocsin had known. How was that? I read the answer in his bearing: he had known because he had
arranged it. While I was setting up for my second address, he had not been idle; he had implemented an
assassination plot he must have had ready for some time. I realized too late: all he would have had to do
was make a deal with the nomenklatura of Saturn, and they would have done the job for him. The deal
would not have any benefits for the people of Jupiter or Saturn, just for the henchmen. Even threatened
as they were with extinction as a class, the nomenklatura would not have dared do such a thing on their
own; but with Tocsin ready to take the credit, they had surely been happy to act. They had known that
they could not get rid of me while Khukov remained in power.
Khukov had sent me out to organize the Triton Project and establish System support for it, because my
safety could not be guaranteed on Saturn. What a fool I had been not to realize that he himself remained
as vulnerable! Suddenly, at one foul stroke, Tocsin had nullified everything. For without Khukov, my
position lacked the support of Saturn; the nomenklatura would resume power there exactly as Tocsin
and his minions had done on Jupiter, and they were not my friends. The Triton Project would be scuttled
or perverted, and the riches of the galaxy would go, not to solve the problems of the System, but to
enrich the illicit powerholders of the major planets.
Tocsin watched me in silence, a cruel smile playing about his homely face. He was savoring this
moment of victory over the man who had deposed him once and threatened to do so again. All Jupiter
was watching.
What could I do? It was true that without Khukov I could not direct the Saturn fleet, and without that
fleet I could not take over Jupiter. The Jupiter fleet had been neutralized, not converted; now its admirals
would reassert themselves, rallying to Tocsin.
"Damn it, sir, you know what to do!" Roulette snapped.
I turned to her. Today she was more decorously garbed, with only some deep cleavage, her trademark,
showing in front. "I do?" For I was genuinely at a loss. I wished my sister were here; she would have
had some course of emergency action.
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"Take over!" she said.
"But without the Saturn fleet "
Tocsin, listening in, smirked. The time-delay seemed not to register; it was as though he were
responding to my last words, instead of to my prior stunned silence. "I will accept your surrender," he
said. "For the justice of Jupiter."
"Not Jupiter," Rue said, "Saturn!"
I don't claim to be fast on the uptake when caught by surprise; I'm sure I was better in my youth. "But I
have no "
"Saturn is without a true leader," she said. "Their people will trust you before they trust Tocsin. Strike
now! It's yours to take! Like a willing woman!"
That last analogy may have seemed unkind or irrelevant, but it scored with me. Perhaps it was my recent
discovery of Rue herself, unveiled after her masquerade. The people of Saturn did generally support the
Tyrant, whose policies had revolutionized their agriculture and industry, and whose Triton Project
promised them the Dream. Suddenly I understood.
"Saturn fleet!" I rapped. "Chairman Khukov is dead. He supported me; I still support him. I am doing
what he wanted to be done. I am assuming direct command of the fleet. You will answer to me exactly
as you have been doing." I did not ask the commanders of that fleet, I simply told them, not giving them
the chance to think about it. That was the way it had to be done: swiftly, before contrary orders could
arrive from Saturn.
"Jupiter Navy," I said next. "I am similarly assuming command over you. I hereby depose your present
admirals, and elevate those of my choosing. Specifically, Admiral Lundgren is retired as of this instant,
and Admiral Emerald Mondy restored to that command."
"You can't do that!" Tocsin protested. "You have no base! No authority!"
I ignored him. I continued to name particular admirals for retirement and restoration, drawing on the
names we had reviewed. When I had covered them, I said: "You will cooperate with the Saturn Navy to
safeguard the planet of Jupiter from attack. My aide, Roulette Phist, will provide the details of the
transition and assignment." For Rue was conversant in a way Forta would not have been with the
protocols of the military; she had been a ranking Navy wife for thirty years, and part of the Tyrancy as
well.
"Countermand!" Tocsin exclaimed, realizing what I was doing. "There is no legal basis for this action!"
He was correct, technically. But too late. "I am not basing this on legality, but on power," I said. "The
officers of the Jupiter Navy know what is best for the Navy, and the people of Jupiter know what is best
for Jupiter. Participation in the Triton Project is best."
Then I launched into the major aspect of my presentation. "As many of you already know, Chairman
Khukov of Saturn had a Dream," I said. "He shared it with me, and I am sharing it with you. It is the
Dream of peace and prosperity for all men. It is the abolition of oppression, restriction, and hunger. One
thing has prevented all men from possessing most of the things they desire, and that thing now threatens
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to eradicate man entirely. That thing is war. We squander our resources in the effort to make weapons
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