The Gripping Hand Read Online Free PDF Page A

laughed. "The Navy can't spare me any ships," he said. "So I can't go bring New Utah into the Empire by force—"
     
     

    "You can't even get there," Mrs. Muller giggled.
     
     

    "Well, we can, but I agree, it's not easy. Two jumps past wretched red dwarfs, and then across a big bright E-class system with only one planet and that a rock ball. There was an expedition a few years before I got here." Jackson looked thoughtful. "The Navy has records showing it wasn't always so hard."
     
     

    "I believe I heard that as well," Bury said.
     
     

    "Anyway, as long as I don't have Navy ships, the trade embargo is the only weapon I've got to bring New Utah in. All they have to do is join and they can have all the trade they want."
     
     

    "The gripping hand is they don't want to," Renner said.
     
     

    Jackson laughed. "Maybe. They've had time enough to change their minds. It's all academic because the direct Jump point disappeared a hundred and thirty years ago, during the Secession Wars. I sent them an ambassador twelve years ago, with a trade ship . . . one of yours, Mister Bury. No luck."
     
     

    Stars wander, Bury thought. Jump points depend upon the luminosities within a pattern of stars. They come and go . . . why did that thought suddenly have the fringe of hair around his neck trying to stand up? Tiny six-limbed shadows flailed behind his eyes. . . .
     
     

    Across the table he heard Renner murmur, "Jackson and Weiss ?"
     
     

    Governor Jackson said, "There was some traffic, I think, up until the Navy came back forty years ago. New Utah would have paid high for fertilizer. But with what ? And the trip is just too long—"
     
     

    Renner's belly laugh cut through all conversation. Into the silence Renner said, "I was trying to remember where I met you."
     
     

    The Governor was laughing, too, with his head thrown back. His wife giggled.
     
     

    "Governor? Sir? I watched your hands," Renner said. "Like this?" He pushed back his chair and stood; never mind that they were in the middle of dessert. Right hand up, closing: "On the one hand, high price for fertilizer." Right hand dropped to near the hip, closed again. Bury nodded. "On the other hand, they don't seem to have anything to pay with," Renner said. Left hand out, fingers closed in pairs, like a hand with three thick fingers. "Gripping hand, it's too far anyway. Did I get that right?"
     
     

    "Why, yes, Sir Kevin. My wife's tried to break me of the habit—"
     
     

    "But the whole planet's doing it. Did you learn it here, or on Mote Prime?"
     
     

    Bury's vision swam. He pulled the diagnostic sleeve out of his chair arm and inserted his arm, hoping nobody would notice. Orange dots blinked, and he felt the coolness of a tranquilizer injection.
     
     

    The Governor said, "I was sure you wouldn't recognize me. Couldn't remember where you'd met me, hey? . . . Bury? Are you all right?"
     
     

    "Yes, but I don't understand."
     
     

    "You were an honored passenger, and Sir Kevin was the Sailing Master, and Weiss and me, we were only Able Spacers. I was sure you wouldn't know me. But we went down to Mote Prime, and we stayed till Captain Blaine decided we weren't needed and sent us back. Weiss, he picked up that habit from the aliens, the Moties. One hand, other hand, gripping hand, and they shrug with their arms because their shoulders don't move. I learned it from him. We were on the holoscans a lot when we were fighting the Outies, and I've been on since Sparta made me Governor, and I guess . . . The whole planet, eh?"
     
     

    Renner said, "All of Pitchfork River, at least. Top to bottom, hill to spill, they've taken up that three-sided Aristotelian logic. You're not just the governor, you're a holo star too."
     
     

    The Governor seemed embarrassed, but pleased. "That's the way it is in the outlying worlds. Sir Kevin, Excellency, I was purely delighted to meet you again after so long." As equals, he didn't say.
     
     
    *