Cristopher Stasheff - Escape Velocity

“And his sexuality, period! He reinforces that one, too—claims to be asexual. Says there’s no point in sex unless you’re in love.”

“What a medieval romantic,” Sam murmured dreamily.

Somehow, Dar didn’t think they were talking about Whitey.

They strode down the concourse toward the main terminal, laughing and chattering. Dar felt heady, almost drunk. He was on Terra! The Terra of his history books, of Cicero and Caeser and the Plantagenets and Lincoln! The Terra of fable and wonder! He walked on a thick red carpet, surrounded by wall-screens flashing displays of arrival and departure times between spates of advertising—just the way he’d pictured it from his books!

Suddenly the wall-screens cleared. A giant chime sounded, reverberating throughout the entire building. All around them, conversation slackened and died; all faces turned to the wall-screens.

“Citizens,” a resonant voice intoned, “the Honorable Kasi Pohyola, Chairman of the LORDS, and Majority Leader in the Assembly of Electors of the Interstellar Dominions.”

A stern but gentle face appeared, surmounted by wavy, snow-white hair, gazing directly at Dar. He almost jumped out of his skin.

“Citizens,” the face intoned in a deep, resonant voice, “a huge calamity has befallen us. An insidious danger stalks toward us across the stars—nay, has stalked us, has arrived, is even now in our midst! It may be the person beside you, or behind you—or even inside your head! For know, citizens, that there is no real guarding against this evil monstrosity, no wall that will seal it away, no shield that will stand against it—for it is a telepath ! Even now, he may be probing your mind, wrapping his thoughts about your heart, cozening your innermost secrets!

“But worse, citizens—he is not alone! Our agents have shadowed him from the outermost colony planets, in to Terra herself—always treading upon his shadow, but never able to pounce on the creature—for always, just as they were about to close their trap, he has disappeared, spirited away by his friends and sympathizers on a thousand planets!”

“Only ninety-three,” Whitey muttered, “as of last year’s census report.”

“Who could have assisted such a one?” Pohyola rumbled. “Who would give aid and solace to a being who could probe their innermost thoughts—save another telepath? That, citizens, is why we are sure there are many telepaths, spread throughout the Terran Sphere, on each and every one of its member planets—and including Terra herself!”

A horrified murmur and buzzing of oaths and curses spread through the concourse. It fairly made the hairs stand on Dar’s head. He glanced at his companions—they were all watching with set, pale faces, lips drawn tight.

Except Whitey. He just looked sad.

Pohyola stared into the camera, not speaking, just holding the viewers’ gazes with his own—apparently he’d been planning on the reaction. Just as it was quieting, he began to speak again. “Our vaunted I.D.E. Security Force has been impotent to stop them—these millions of highly trained warriors for whom we pay trillions of therms every year! Are they inept? No! Are they lazy or cowardly? No! They are brave, capable heroes, every one of them! Then, why have they not been able to seize this horror? Because, while he has been slipping into hiding, they have had to find a magistrate and present proof of need for a search warrant! Because they have had to waste time securing proof of his guilt in order to obtain that warrant—though they have known , all along, what he is! Because the courts will not allow these fine officers to monitor the communications between this monster and his minions!”

He glared down out of the screen in righteous wrath. “They are impeded at every turn, they are balked at every approach! And, while the courts dither and obstruct them, the telepath moves unimpeded onto our fair mother planet!” He shook his head slowly. “Citizens, this has gone too far! This obsession with legal pettifoggery has now imperiled your lives and mine, nay, even the fabric of our whole society! Who now can feel free to nurture secret hopes or longings, to dream of his beloved or reflect on his sins—knowing that, every moment, another’s mind may have wormed its way into his, cozening up to his dearest, most cherished secrets!

“Nay! The time has come to put a stop to the nonsense! To purge the technicalities and loopholes that let the criminal escape while the law-abiding citizen shuffles in chains! To exorcize the demons of law! Make no mistake, citizens—a vast conspiracy of telepaths has wrapped its coils around us, and is even now beginning to squeeze the life from our democracy!

“Will they triumph? Nay!” he thundered. “We will tear their coils apart, we will rip them asunder! The law will cease obstructing the champions of justice!”

Then, suddenly, his eyes were locked onto Dar’s again, burning. “But this cannot be done while Executive Secretary Louhi Kulervo dithers and vacillates! A man of decision must take the helm, a man of true strength, who does not waste expanses of time mewling about ‘sacred trusts’ and ‘constitutionality’!”

He took a deep breath, very obviously fighting down wrath, struggling for composure, then said more calmly:

“It is for these reasons, citizens, that I will, today, demand a vote of confidence in the Assembly, and a general election. We must succeed in forcing this referendum, my fellow citizens—or we will waken one morning to find ourselves enmeshed in chains of thought! Contact your Elector, now, this minute, and tell him to demand an election. We must have it, citizens—we must have a man of decision and action to lead us—or the light of democracy will flicker out, and die!”

The image on the screen flickered out, and died.

A roar of conversation burst out all around them.

Whitey glanced back at his adrenalized crew, looking a little nervous himself. “Ah … I think we should just start drifting toward the main terminal … and try to look surprised, folks.”

That wasn’t hard. Dar felt as though he’d just been knocked spinning by a shockwave. It wasn’t just that one fleeing little ship had been turned into a conspiracy—or that the coup was leaping out into the open. It was the idea that they might even be able to do it legally!

A very good chance, from what he was overhearing as they “drifted”:

“I thought they only had a couple of telepaths in the whole sphere!” an obese commercial-type was saying.

“So did I,” a slenderized companion answered, “but I guess those were just the ones they knew about—you know, legal ones.”

“They can really find out your most secret memories?” This from an old harridan who obviously had one hell of a past, but didn’t necessarily want it known.

“But … they could learn all my accounts, all the latest information I’ve gleaned about which stocks are due to rise!” The beefy, florid-faced individual in the conservatively expensive coverall glared in righteous indignation. “That’s a completely immoral competitive advantage!”

“ Have to be stopped,” his companion agreed. “ Have to be.”

“They could take over!” a sweet young thing shrilled, “and they might clamp down on the vice laws!”

“Telepaths certainly wouldn’t want people running around with their heads full of smut.” Her companion had the look of a questionable publisher. “I mean, what about civil rights?”

“But what about civil rights?” Snow-white hair, face full of authority, oozing confidence—maybe a judge?

“They’d be gone.” His companion was younger, but cut from the same cloth. “Make Pohyola Exec Sec’y, give him full emergency powers—and the first thing he’ll do is suspend the constitution. We’ll have a full-scale dictatorship in a year.”