Free Retief-Ambassador to Space by Keith Laumer

narrow face of Counsellor Magnan
appeared at the door.
    "Come along, Retief. The Ambassador wants to say a
few words to the staff; everyone's to assemble in the commissary in five
minutes."
    "I take it he feels that darkness and solitude will
be conducive to creative thinking."
    "Don't disparage the efficacy of the Deep-think
technique. Why, I've already evolved half a dozen proposals for dealing with
the situation."
    "Will any of them work?"
    Magnan looked grave. "No—but they'll look quite
impressive in my personnel file during the hearings."
    "A telling point, Mr. Magnan. Well, save a seat for
me in a secluded corner. I'll be along as soon as I've run down a couple of
obscure facts."
    Retief employed the next quarter hour in leafing through
back files of classified despatch binders. As he finished, a Blort attired in
shapeless blues and a flak helmet thrust his organ cluster through the door.
    "Hello, Mr. Retief," he said listlessly.
"I'm back."
    "So you are, Kark," Retief greeted the lad.
"You're early. I didn't expect you until after breakfast."
    "I got shoved on the first convoy; as soon as we
landed I sneaked off to warn you. Things are going to be hot tonight."
    "So I hear, Kark—" A deafening explosion just
outside bathed the room in green light. "Is that a new medal you're
wearing?"
    "Yep." The youth fingered the turquoise ribbon
anchored to his third rib. "I got it for service above and beyond the call
of nature." He went to the table at the side of the room, opened the
drawer.
    "Just what I expected," he said. "That
Gloian creep didn't leave any cream for the coffee. I always leave a good
supply, but does he have the same consideration? Not him. Just like an
Oranger."
    "Kark, what do you know about the beginning of the
war?"
    "Eh?" The new clerk looked up from his coffee
preparations. "Oh, it has something to do with the founding fathers. Care
for a cup? Black, of course."
    "No thanks. How does it feel to be back on good old
Plushnik IT again?"
    "Good old? Oh, I see what you mean. OK, I guess. Kind
of hot and dry, though." The building trembled to a heavy shock. The snarl
of heavy armor passing in the street shook the pictures on the walls.
    "Well, I'd better be getting to work, sir. I think
I'll start with the Breakage Reports. We're three invasions behind."
    "Better skip the paperwork for now, Kark. See if you
can round up a few members of the sweeping staff and get some of this glass
cleaned up. We're expecting several varieties of VIP about daybreak, and we
wouldn't want them to get the impression we throw wild parties."
    "You're not going out, sir?" Kark looked
alarmed. "Better not try it; there's a lot of loose metal flying around
out there, and it's going to get worse!"
    "I thought I'd take a stroll over toward the Temple
of Higher Learning."
    "But—that's forbidden territory to any non-Plushnik
..." Kark looked worried, as evidenced by the rhythmic waving of his eyes.
    Retief nodded. "I suppose it's pretty well
guarded?"
    "Not during the battle. The Gloians have called up
everybody but the inmates of the amputees ward. They're planning another of
their half-baked counter-invasions. But Mr. Retief—if you're thinking what I
think you're thinking, I don't think—"
    "I wouldn't think of it, Kark." Retief gave the
Blortian a cheery wave and went out into the deserted hall.
     
3
    In the twilit street, Retief glanced up at the immense orb
of Plushnik I, barely a thousand miles distant, a celestial relief map
occluding half the visible sky. A slim crescent of the nearby world sparkled in
full sunlight; the remainder was a pattern of lighted cities gleaming in the
murk of the shadow cast as its twin transited between it and the primary. The
route of the Blortian invasion fleet was clearly visible as a line of tiny,
winking fires stretching in a loose catenary curve from the major staging areas
on the neighbor world across the not-quite-airless void. As Retief watched, the
giant disk sank visibly toward the