Commander Krogson leaned back in his chair, his eyes veiled in deep thought. “Schninkle,” he said finally, thinking out loud, “I’ve got a hunch that maybe we’ve stumbled on something big. Maybe the Lord Protector is right about there being a plot to knock him over, but maybe he’s wrong about who’s trying to do it. What if all these centuries since the Empire collapsed a group of Imperials have been hiding out waiting for their chance?”
Schninkle digested the idea for a moment. “It could be,” he said slowly. “If there is such a group, they couldn’t pick a better time than now to strike; the Protectorate is so wobbly that it wouldn’t take much of a shove to topple it over.”
The more he thought about it, the more sense the idea made to Krogson. Once he felt a fleeting temptation to hush up the whole thing. If there were Imperials and they did take over, maybe they would put an end to the frenzied rat race that was slowly ruining the galaxy—a race that sooner or later entangled every competent man in the great web of intrigue and power politics that stretched through the Protectorate and forced him in self-defense to keep clawing his way toward the top of the heap.
Regretfully he dismissed the idea. This was a matter of his own neck, here and now!
“It’s a big IF, Schninkle,” he said, “but if Fve guessed right, we’ve bailed ourselves out. Get hold of that scout and find out his position.”
Schninkle scooted out of the door. A few minutes later he dashed back in. “I’ve just contacted the scout!” he said excitedly. “He’s closed in on the power source and it isn’t a ship after all. It’s a man in space armor! The drive unit is cut off, and it’s heading out of the system at fifteen hundred per. The pilot is standing by for instructions.”
“Tell him to intercept and capture!” Schninkle started out of the office. “Wait a second; what’s the scout’s position?”
Schninkle’s face fell. “He doesn’t quite know, sir.”
“He what?’* demanded the commander.
“He doesn’t quite know,” repeated the little man. “His astrocomputer went haywire six hours out of base.”