The, tall, stone wall of the embassy was visible, now, beyond the monument to the first settlers of Walden. He leaped to the ground and ran. Stun-pistol bolts, a little beyond their effective range, stung like fire. They spurred him on.
The gate of the embassy was closed. He bolted around the corner and scrambled up the conveniently rugged stones of the wall. He was well aloft before the cops spotted him. Then they fired at him industriously and the charges crackled all around him.
But he’d reached the top and had both arms over the parapet before a charge hit his legs and paralyzed them. He hung fast, swearing at his bad luck.
Then hands grasped his wrists. A white-haired man appeared on the other side of the parapet. He took a good, solid grip, and heaved. He drew Hoddan over the top of the wall and helped him down to the walkway.
“A near thing, that!” said the white-haired man pleasantly. “I was taking a walk in the garden when I heard the excitement. I got to the wall just in time.” He paused, and added, “I do hope you’re not just a common murderer, we can’t offer asylum to such. But if you’re a political offender…”
Hoddan began to try to rub sensation and usefulness back into his legs. Feeling came back, and was not pleasant.
“I’m the Interstellar Ambassador,” said the white-haired man politely.
“My name,” said Hoddan bitterly,” is Bron Hoddan and I’m guilty of trying to save the Power Board millions of credits a year!” Then he said more bitterly, “If you want to know, I ran away from Zan to try to be a civilized man and live a civilized life. It was a mistake! Now I’m to be permanently jailed for using my brains!”
The ambassador cocked his head thoughtfully to one side.
“Zan?” he said. “The name Hoddan fits with that somehow… Oh, yes! Space-piracy! They say the people of Zan capture and loot a dozen or so ships a year, only there’s no way to prove it on them. And there’s a man named Hoddan who’s supposed to head a particularly ruffianly gang.”
“My grandfather,” said Hoddan defiantly. “What are you going to do about it? I’m outlawed! I’ve defied the planetary government! I’m disreputable by descent, and worst of all I’ve tried to use my brains!”
“Deplorable!” said the ambassador mildly. “I don’t mean outlawry is deplorable, you understand, or defiance of the government, or being disreputable. But trying to use one’s brains is bad business! A serious offense! Are your legs all right now? Then come on down with me and I’ll have you given some dinner and some fresh clothing. Offhand,” he added amiably, “it would seem that using one’s brains would be classed as a political offense rather than a criminal one on Walden. We’ll see.”
Hoddan gaped up at him.
“You mean there’s a possibility that—”
“Of course!” said the ambassador in surprise. “You haven’t phrased it that way, but you’re actually a rebel. A revolutionist. You defy authority and tradition and governments and such things. Naturally the Interstellar Diplomatic Service is inclined to be on your side! What do you think it’s for?”
CHAPTER II
In something under two hours Hoddan was ushered into the ambassador’s office. He’d been refreshed, his torn clothing replaced by more respectable garments, and the places where stun-pistols had stung him, soothed by ointments. But, more important, he’d worked out and firmly adopted a new point of view.
He’d been a misfit at home on Zan. He was not contented with the humdrum and monotonous life as a member of a space-pirate community. Piracy was a matter of dangerous take-offs in cranky rocket ships, to be followed by weeks or months of tedious and uncomfortable boredom in highly unhealthy re-breathed air. No voyage ever contained more than ten seconds of satisfactory action. All fighting took place just out of the atmosphere of the embattled planet. Regardless of the result of the fight, the pirates had to get away fast when it was over, lest overwhelming forces swarm up from the nearby world. It was intolerably devoid of anything an ambitious young man would want.
Even when one had made a good prize—with the lifeboats of the foreign ship darting frantically for ground—and even after one got back to Zan with the captured ship, even then there was little satisfaction to a pirate’s career. Zan had not a large population. Piracy couldn’t support a large number of people. Zan couldn’t attempt to defend itself against even single, heavily armed ships that sometimes came in passionate resolve to avenge the disappearance of a rich freighter or a fast, new liner. So the people of Zan, to avoid being hanged, had to play innocent. They had to be convincingly simple, harmless folk who cultivated their fields and lived quiet, blameless lives. They might loot, but they couldn’t use their loot where investigators could find it. They had to build their own houses and make their own furniture and grow their own food. So life on Zan was dull. Piracy was not profitable in the sense that one could live well by it. It simply wasn’t a trade for anybody like Hoddan.
So he’d abandoned all that. He’d studied electronics in books looted from passenger-ship libraries. Within months after his arrival on a law-abiding planet, he was able to earn a living at electronics as an honest trade.
And that was unsatisfactory, too. Law-abiding communities were no more thrilling or rewarding than piratical ones. A payday now and then did not make up for the tedium of earning. Even when one had money there was not much to do with it. On Walden, to be sure, the level of civilization was so high that most people took to psychiatric treatments so they could stand it, and the neurotics vastly outnumbered the more normal folk. But on Walden, electronics was only a way to make a living, like piracy, and there was no more fun to be had out of being civilized.
What Hoddan craved, of course, was a sense of achievement. Technically, there were opportunities all about him. He’d developed one, and it would save millions of credits a year if it were adopted. But it did not happen to be anything that anybody wanted. He’d tried to force its use and he was in trouble. Now he saw clearly that a law-abiding world was no more satisfactory than a piratical one.
The ambassador received him with a cordial wave of the hand.
“Things move fast,” he said cheerfully. “You weren’t here half an hour before there was a police captain at the gate. He explained that an excessively dangerous criminal had escaped jail and been seen climbing the embassy wall. He very generously offered to bring some men in and capture you and take you away—with my permission, of course. He was shocked when I declined.”
“I can understand that,” said Hoddan.
“By the way,” said the ambassador. “Young men like yourself… Ah…is there a girl involved in this?”
Hoddan considered.
“A girl’s father,” he acknowledged, “is the real complainant against me.”
“Does he complain,” asked the ambassador, “because you want to marry her, or because you don’t?”
“Neither,” Hoddan told him. “She hasn’t quite decided that I’m worth defying her rich father for.”
“Good!” said the ambassador. “It can’t be too bad a mess while a woman is being really practical. I’ve checked your story. Allowing for differences of viewpoint, it agrees with the official version. I’ve ruled that you are a political refugee, and so entitled to sanctuary in the embassy. And that’s that.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Hoddan.
“There’s no question about the crime,” observed the ambassador, “or that it is primarily political. You proposed to improve