“Come here,” John Star ordered.
He waited, getting his breath, and trying to control the nervous tremor of his weapon, while his famous kinsman walked slowly back, with sharp annoyance on that narrow, weak, and handsome face.
“Well, John.”
Eric Ulnar gave him a tolerant, superior smile.
“You’re exceeding your duty again.
I’m afraid you’re too zealous to make a successful Legionnaire.
My uncle will be sorry to hear of your failure.”
“Eric,” said John Star, surprised a little at his own deadly calm, “I’m going to ask you some questions.
If I don’t like the answers, I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you.”
White fury mounted to Eric Ulnar’s girlish, passionate face.
“John, you’ll be court-martialed for this!”
“Probably I shall.
But now I want to know where this ship came from. And why you are slipping out here.”
“How should I know where it’s from?
Nothing like it was ever seen in the System before.
Simple curiosity was enough, John, to bring me out here.”
Eric Ulnar tossed his bare, golden head, and smiled mockingly.
“I’m afraid, Eric, that you are planning treason to the Green Hall,” said John Star quietly.
“I think you know why this flier came, and why Captain Otan was killed.
Unless you can convince me that I am wrong, I’m going to kill you, release the three men I locked up, and defend the girl.
What have you to say?”
Eric Ulnar looked up at the great black vane above them, and smiled again, insolently bold.
“Well, John,” he said deliberately, “I am a traitor.”
“Eric!”
John Star was dazed with shock and anger.
“You admit it!”
“Of course, John.
I’ve never planned to be anything else—if you call it treason to take what is mine by right. I suppose you don’t know you have imperial blood in your veins, John—your education seems to have been neglected.
But you have.
“I am the rightful Emperor of the Sun, John.
In a very short time I shall take possession of my throne.
As a prince of the blood, I had hoped that you might claim a high place under me.
But I doubt, John, that you will live to enjoy the rewards of the revolution.
You are too independent.”
“Just what have you done?” demanded John Star.
“And where did this flier come from?”
He kept his eyes, and his menacing weapon, fixed on the other.
“That ship came from the planet of Barnard’s Star, John.
You’ve heard, I suppose, of the dying men we brought back from the expedition?
Heard what they babble of?
They aren’t as insane as men think they are, John.
Most of the things they talk about are real.
Those things are going to help me crush the Green Hall, John.”
“You brought back—allies?”
Eric Ulnar smiled mockingly at the horror in his tone.
“I did, John.
You see, the masters of the planet we found—they are as intelligent as men, though not at all human—the things we found need iron.
It doesn’t occur on their world—and it’s priceless to them—for magnetic instruments, electrical equipment, alloys, a thousand things.
“So I made an alliance with them, John…
“They sent this ship, with some of their weapons—they have fighting machines that would surprise you, John; their scientific achievements are really remarkable.