William Forstchen - Into the Sea of Stars

"And over my vaporized body, you'll move into the National Bureau of Education," Ian muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing, your Excellency, nothing."

"Then you'll still refuse to take responsibility for this grant and will refuse the position of project manager?"

Ian didn't answer.

"You'll be the coward just because of a little physical discomfort and a very slight risk of danger?"

Ian could only nod his head.

"All right then, if that's the way you want it." The Chancellor suddenly turned and started for the door.

Ian slumped back into his chair and breathed an audible sigh of relief. He knew a terrible revenge would be exacted for his refusal, but anything was better than going "out there."

The Chancellor started to open the door and then turned, giving Ian a cold-blooded look of appraisal. "By the way, Dr. Lacklin. Have you ever heard of a young coed named Makena LaFay?"

Panic seized lan's face. Cushman knew he had hit the right lever.

"Well, have you?"

"Yes." The answer was barely a whisper.

"She's the daughter of the provincial Governor, you know. I've met Jeremiah LaFay any number of times. His support of the Reform Puritanical Movement is well known.

"I'd never want to cross him myself-his ability to have opponents and personal enemies arrested for, how shall I say, 'alleged violations of public morals' is well known."

Ian appeared to be on the edge of cardiac arrest.

"Of course, I know dear Makena was an aggressive young lady," the Chancellor continued with a cold, ma licious grin, "who perhaps did not live up to her father's personal code of morality. In fact, one of my informants in the women's living quarters stated that when Makena was a student last semester she openly boasted, 'I twisted an A out of that fat little fool with only one night in the sack.' Do you know who that fat little fool is, Dr. Lacklin?"

A groan escaped from Ian. He couldn't help what had happened. She had been waiting for him at his apartment in a state of extreme undress, giving full exposure to her ample charms. He had tried valiantly to show her the door, but in the end, simple human nature won out. After all, it had been several years since…

"But I only gave her a B."

"Ah, only a B. Only a B! So, you don't deny it!"

Ian shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, my good man, I know about this little B. In fact, half the females on this campus know about that little B. And with a single phone call I can arrange for our good friend the Governor to know about that little B! And then we'll all get to see 'Only a B' Lacklin get his butt end hauled off by some of LaFay's gorillas, who would love to smash you to a pulp for violating the innocence of our good Governor's virginal daughter."

"Virginal! She attacked me, your Excellency, I didn't stand a chance."

"Ah, so you admit it, then. Frankly, Ian, I find that impossible to accept. In the eyes of our good God-fearing Governor, his Little Precious is purer than arctic snow. It would break my heart to have to tell him that she had been brutally violated by one of my staff, who, of course, has just been fired."

The Chancellor started to smile again. "But never fear, good friend. Of course I could never do that to the hero of Kutzburg Provincial. Of course not. I think this little matter can be forgotten for someone with your stature. Now, my friend, I do believe we understand each other."

Ian nodded dumbly. There was a seventy-five percent chance of a quick death in space. But he knew there would be a hundred percent chance of a couple of broken arms, and God knows what else, if he stayed.

"Fine, then, just fine, and let me be the first to offer you my congratulations. I'll send the necessary paper work down this afternoon and the school physician will be by within the hour to start processing your twenty- three-forty-four. If I might be so bold, I'll help you out with assigning your medical person and sociologist, and you can have the liberty of appointing your administrative assistant. Have a pleasant day, Dr. Lacklin. And I'll ex pect you in my office at nine sharp Monday morning."

The Chancellor closed the door behind him and started off for the Academic Records Office. There was a little question of a grade change up to an A that had to be looked into. After all, he had promised her he would take care of it. And just to make sure there wasn't an embarrassing change of heart, he would push Ian off-planet within the week, along with the other embarrassing clowns on his staff. He could already picture his new office in the National Bureau. He smiled in anticipation.

Ian tried to control the wild panic and for a moment he contemplated suicide. But that required a little more courage than he could muster, and he pushed the thought aside; the reams of work facing him that weekend would require some help. He'd better give Shelley a call.

Shelley! He leaped out of his chair and pulled open the door. And there she was. As if waiting for him.

"Dr. Lacklin, ah, yeah. Ah, I thought I, ah, left my books here…"

Once a week Shelley took him a pile of paperwork. It got so that he never even bothered to ask what the in dividual items where, and he merely signed each docu ment or memo and affixed his personal seal to it. The damn woman had written the grant and sneaked it in with the other paperwork, since only a fully accredited instruc tor could make grant applications to the Ministry.

"Get in here!" Ian shouted, suddenly finding a way at last to vent his frustration.

"Ah, well, you see, Doctor. I, ah, got this book I want to read. Couldn't I, ah-"

"If you value your life, you better get your butt in here right now!"

Brazil's tropical heat was finally locked out by the silent closing of the liftcar's door. Ian gratefully sank into the first available seat and Shelley eased in alongside. Mopping his face with a soaked handkerchief, Ian breathed a sigh of relief as the frigid air washed over him. The air- conditioning in the Brasilia Skyhook Station was again down for "routine inspection," meaning that the incom petent ground staff would take two weeks to find out what was wrong. The result had been an agonizing eight hours of 100-degree heat while waiting for the next liftcar. Now that his fear of dying from the heat was removed, Ian Lacklin again had time to curse the fates in general and Chancellor Cushman in particular.

After the initial shock of the Chancellor's news had worn off, Ian had thought that, bureaucrats being what they are, it would take a year at the very least before the mission was cleared for launch. Given that much time, he had naively reasoned there would be ample opportu nities to gum up the paperwork into such a tangle that the mission would just keep getting delayed, postponing for ever the dreaded jump into deep space.

But he now realized that the Chancellor had been half a dozen moves ahead of him from the beginning. lan's battle plan collapsed in a paper blizzard as the Chancellor outclassed and outmaneuvered him in every bureaucratic strategem possible.

In the final act of a "team spirit send-off," the Chancellor had personally driven Ian and Shelley to the New Bostem airstrip for their connecting flight to the Brasilia Skyhook Station. Shelley and the Chancellor had even managed to have a fairly civil conversation about the pros pects before them. As a final gesture he gave them a send- off bouquet of flowers, which made Ian sneeze.

Ian turned in his seat and gave Shelley an appraising glance. Why he had requested her was beyond him. Per haps it was revenge for her getting him into the mess. He knew he wasn't attracted to her in any physical way; she was all adolescent angles, even though she was already in her early twenties. She had the air typical of a studious female, one who would forever be bound to a book, wear the most uncomplimentary of heavy wools, and never be cured of near-terminal acne.