Striking the Balance
( Worldwar - 4 )
Harry Turtledove
At the bloody height of World War II, the deadliest enemies in all of human history were forced to put aside their hatreds and unite against an even fiercer foe: a seemingly invincible power bent on world domination. With awesome technology, the aggressors swept across the planet, sowing destruction as Tokyo, Berlin, and Washington, D.C., were A-bombed into submission. Russia, Nazi Germany, Japan, and the United States were not easily cowed, however. With cunning and incredible daring, they pressed every advantage against the invader's superior strength, and, led by Stalin, began to detonate their own atom bombs in retaliation. City after city explodes in radioactive firestorms, and fears grow as the worldwide resources disappear; will there be any world left for the invaders to conquer, or for the uneasy allies to defend? While Mao Tse-tung wages a desperate guerrilla war and Hitler drives his country toward self-destruction, U.S. forces frantically try to stop the enemy's push from coast to coast. Yet in this battle to stave off world domination, unless the once-great military powers take the risk of annihilating the human race, they'll risk losing the war.
Harry Turtledove
Striking the Balance
(Worldwar-4)
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
(Characters with names in CAPS are historical, others fictional)
HUMANS
ANIELEWICZ, MORDECHAI Jewish fighting leader, Lodz, Poland
Apfelbaum, Moisei Colonel Skriabin’s clerk,gulagnear Petrozavodsk, USSR
Auerbach, Rance U.S. Army cavalry captain, Lamar, Colorado
Avram Partisan near Hrubieszow, Poland
Bagnall, George Flight engineer, Pskov, USSR
Beck Wehrmacht captain, Riga, Latvia
BEGIN, MENACHEM Jewish guerrilla, Haifa, Palestine
Birkenfeld; Oskar Jewish Order Service policeman Lodz, Poland
Boleslaw Pole in Lodz, Poland
Borcke, Martin Wehrmacht captain, Pskov, USSR
BRADLEY,OMAR U.S. Army lieutenant general, outside Denver
BROCKDORFF-AHLEFELDT, WALTER VON Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Riga, Latvia
Casimir Partisan leader outside Hrubieszow, Poland
Chaim Jewish guard, Lodz, Poland
CHILL, KURT Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Pskov, USSR
Daniels, Peter (“Mutt”) U.S. Army second lieutenant, Chicago
Dolger, Hans Wehrmacht captain and adjutant, Pskov, USSR
DONOVAN, WILLIAM (“WILDBILL”) U.S. Army major general, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Donskoi, Yakov Soviet interpreter, Cairo
Drucker, Johannes Panzer driver north of Lodz, Poland
Easter British Army colonel, Haifa, Palestine
EDEN, ANTHONY British foreign secretary
Embry, Ken RAF pilot, Pskov, USSR
Fleishman, Bertha Jewish fighter, Lodz, Poland
Fritz Wehrmacht ammunition hauler north of Lodz, Poland
Fyodorov, Ivan Soviet prisoner in transit
GERMAN, ALEKSANDR Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR
GODDARD, ROBERT Rocket scientist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Goldfarb, David RAF radarman, Dover, England
Gorbunova, Ludmila Red Air Force senior lieutenant, Pskov, USSR
Grabowski U.S. Army corporal, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Grillparzer, Gunther Wehrmacht gunner outside Lodz, Poland
GROVES, LESLIE U.S. Army brigadier general, Metallurgical Laboratory, Denver
Gruver, Solomon Jewish fighter, Lodz, Poland
Hanrahan U.S. Army captain, outside Fordyce, Arkansas
Hawkins U.S. Army lieutenant, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hines, Rachel U.S. Army cavalry private, Lamar, Colorado
Hsia Shou-Tao Communist guerrilla leader, Peking
HULL, CORDELL President of the United States
Ignacy Partisan leader outside Warsaw
Irma Waitress, Lamar, Colorado
Jager, Heinrich Wehrmacht panzer colonel outside Lodz, Poland
Joachim Wehrmacht ammunition hauler north of Lodz, Poland
Jones, Jerome RAF radarman Pskov, USSR
Jordan, Constantine RAF flight lieutenant, Dover, England
Kagan, Max American nuclear physicist, north of Moscow
Kapellmeister Wehrmacht major Kristianstand, Norway
Kaplan, Naomi Barmaid, White Horse Inn, Dover, England
Karol Farmer north of Lodz, Poland
KURCHATOV, IGOR Nuclear physicist, north of Moscow
Kurowski U.S. Army private, Chicago
Lidov, Boris NKVD colonel, Moscow
Liu Han Ex-peasant woman; guerrilla, Peking
Liu Mei Liu Han’s daughter
Logan Radioman near Fall Creek, Illinois
Magruder, Bill U.S. Army cavalry lieutenant, Lamar, Colorado
MAOTSE-TUNG Communist Party leader, Peking
Marchenko NKVD captain,gulagoutside Petrozavodsk, USSR
MARSHALL, GEORGE U.S. Secretary of State
Mather, Donald Captain, SAS, Dover, England
Mavrogordato, Panagiotis Captain of the freighter Naxos
Maxi SS officer north of Lodz, Poland
McBride RAF flying officer, Dover, England
Mehier, Karl Panzer loader north of Lodz, Poland
Mendel Jewish guard, Lodz, Poland
Mieczyslaw Farmer north of Lodz, Poland
Mikhailov, Anton Zek ingulagnear Petrozavodsk, USSR
MOLOTOV, VYACHESLAV Foreign commissar, USSR
Mori Japanese Army major, west of Peking
Muldoon, Herman U.S. Army sergeant, Chicago
NIEHHO-T’ING Guerrilla leader, Peking
Nussboym, David Political prisoner in transit
Osborne, Andy Guide near Karval, Colorado
Palchinsky, Yuri Guard, GULag near Petrozavodsk, USSR
PATTON, GEORGE U.S. Army lieutenant general near Fall Creek, Illinois
Peterson, Richard T echnician, Metallurgical Laboratory, Denver
Pirogova, Tatiana Red Army sniper, Pskov, USSR
Rasmussen U.S. Army lieutenant, Chicago
RIBBENTROP, JOACHIM VON German foreign minister
Rita Madam, Elgin, Illinois
Roundbush, Basil RAF flight lieutenant, Dover, England
Rudzutak, Stepan Gang boss ingulagnear Petrozavodsk, USSR
Russie, Moishe Jewish leader, approaching Palestine
Russie, Reuven Moishe and Rivka Russie’s son
Russie, Rivka Moishe Russie’s wife
Saul Jewish guard, Lodz, Poland
Schultz, Georg German mechanic attached to Red Air Force, Pskov, USSR
Sholom Partisan outside Hrubieszow, Poland
SKORZENY, OTTO SS Standartenfuhrer, North of Lodz, Poland
Skriabin NKVD colonel, GULag outside Petrozavodsk, USSR
Smithson, Hayward U.S. Army major, Medical Corps, Karval, Colorado
STALIN, IOSEF General Secretary, Communist Party, USSR
Stefarnia Partisan outside Hrubieszow, Poland
STERN Jewish guerrilla leader, Jerusalem
Summers, Penny Refugee, Lamar, Colorado
Su Shun-Ch’in Muslim qadi, Peking
Suzie Whore, Elgin, Illinois
Sylvia Barmaid, White Horse Inn, Dover, England
Szymanski, Stan U.S. Army captain, Elgin, Illinois
Tadeusz Farmer outside of Lodz, Poland
TOGO, SHIGENORI Japanese foreign minister
VASILIEV, NIKOLAI Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR
Witold Blacksmith, Hrubieszow Poland
Wladeslaw Partisan near Hrubieszow, Poland
Yeager, Barbara Sam Yeager’s wife
Yeager, Jonathan Sam an
d Barbara Yeager’s son
Yeager, Sam U.S. Army sergeant, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Yitzkhak J ew in Lodz Poland
Zelkowitz, Leon Jewish fighter, Lodz, Poland
THE RACE
Aaatos Intelligence operative, Florida
Atvar Fleetlord, conquest fleet of the Race
Bunim Regional subadministrator, Lodz, Poland
Chook Small-unit group leader near Fall Creek, Illinois
Essaff Guard and interpreter, Peking
Fsseffel Headmale, Race Barracks One,gulagnear Petrozavodsk, USSR
Gazzim Prisoner and interpreter, Moscow
Kirel Shiplord,127th Emperor Hetto
Mzepps Prisoner, Dover, England
Nikeaa Infantry officer outside Pskov, USSR
Oyyag Prisoner,gulagnear Petrozavodsk, USSR
Ppevel Assistant administrator, eastern region, main continental mass, Peking
Pshing Atvar’s adjutant, Cairo
Ristin Prisoner, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Straha Tosevite propagandist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Strukss Tosevite liaison officer, Cairo
Teerts Killercraft flight leader, Florida
Tessrek Researcher in tosevite behavior
Ttomalss Researcher in tosevite behavior, Peking
Uotat Atvar’s interpreter, Cairo
Ullhass Prisoner, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Ummfac Aircraft armorer, Florida
Ussmak Mutineer outside Tomsk, USSR
Zolraag Negotiator with Jewish guerrillas, Jerusalem
I
In free fall, Atvar the fleetlord glided over to the hologram projector. He poked the stud at the base of the machine. The image that sprang into being above the projector was one the Race’s probe had sent back from Tosev 3 eight hundred local years earlier.
A Big Ugly warrior sat mounted on a beast. He wore leather boots, rusty chainmail, and a dented iron helmet; a thin coat woven from plant fibers and dyed blue with plant juices shielded his armor from the heat of the star the Race called Tosev. To Atvar, to any male of the Race, Tosev 3 was on the chilly side, but not to the natives.
A long, iron-pointed spear stood up from a boss on the contraption the warrior used to stay atop his animal. He carried a shield painted with a cross. On his belt hung a long, straight sword and a couple of knives.
All you could see of the Tosevite himself were his face and one hand. They were plenty to show he was almost as fuzzy as the beast he rode. Thick, wiry yellow fur covered his jaws and the area around his mouth; he had another stripe above each of his flat, immobile eyes. A thinner layer of hair grew on the back of the visible hand.
Atvar touched his own smooth, scaly skin. Just looking at all that fur made him wonder why the Big Uglies didn’t itch all the time. Leaving one eye turret aimed at the Tosevite warrior, he swung the other in the direction of Kirel, shiplord of the127th Emperor Hetto. “This is the foe we thought we were opposing,” he said bitterly.
“Truth, Exalted Fleetlord,” Kirel said. His body paint was almost as colorful and complex as Atvar’s. Since he commanded the bannership of the conquest fleet, only the fleetlord out-ranked him.
Atvar stabbed at the projector control with his left index claw. The Big Ugly warrior vanished. In his place appeared a perfect three-dimensional image of the nuclear explosion that had destroyed the Tosevite city of Rome: Atvar recognized the background terrain. But it could as easily have been the bomb that vaporized Chicago or Breslau or Miami or the spearhead of the Race’s assault force south of Moscow.
“As opposed to the foe we thought we faced, this is what we are actually dealing with,” Atvar said.
“Truth,” Kirel repeated, and, as mournful commentary, added an emphatic cough.
Atvar let out a long, hissing sigh. Stability and predictability were two of the pillars on which the Race and its Empire had flourished for a hundred thousand years and expanded to cover three solar systems. On Tosev 3, nothing seemed predictable, nothing seemed stable. No wonder the Race was having such troubles here. The Big Uglies did not play by any of the rules its savants thought they knew.
With another hiss, the fleetlord poked at the control stud once more. Now the threatening cloud from the nuclear blast vanished. In a way, the image that replaced it was even more menacing. It was a satellite photograph of a base the Race had established in the region of the SSSR known to the locals as Siberia, a place whose frigid climate even the Big Uglies found appalling.
“The mutineers still persist in their rebellion against duly constituted authority,” Atvar said heavily. “Worse, the commandants of the two nearest bases have urged against committing their males to suppress the rebels, for fear they would go over to them instead.”
“This is truly alarming,” Kirel said with another emphatic cough. “If we choose males from a distant air base to bomb the mutineers out of existence, then, will it truly solve the problem?”
“I don’t know,” Atvar said. “But what I really don’t know, by the Emperor”-he cast down his eyes for a moment at the mention of his sovereign-“is how the mutiny could have happened in the first place. Subordination and integration into the greater scheme of the Race as a whole are drilled into our males from hatchlinghood. How could they have overthrown them?”
Now Kirel sighed. “Fighting on this world corrodes males’ moral fiber as badly as its ocean water corrodes equipment. We are not fighting the war that was planned before we set out from Home, and that by itself is plenty to disorient a good many males.”
“This is also truth,” Atvar admitted. “The leader of the mutineers-a lowly landcruiser driver. If you can image such a thing-is shown to have lost at least three different sets of crewmales: two, including those with whom he served at this base, to Tosevite action, and the third grouping arrested and disciplined as ginger tasters.”
“By his wild pronouncements, this Ussmak sounds like a ginger taster himself,” Kirel said.
“Threatening to call in the Soviets to his aid if we attack him, you mean?” Atvar said. “We ought to take him up on that; if he thinks they would help him out of sheer benevolence, the Tosevite herb truly has addled his wits. If it weren’t for the equipment he could pass on to the SSSR, I would say we should welcome him to go over to that set of Big Uglies.”
“Given the situation as it actually is, Exalted Fleetlord, what course shall we pursue?” Kirel’s interrogative cough sounded vaguely accusing-or maybe Atvar’s conscience was twisting his hearing diaphragms.
“I don’t know yet,” the fleetlord said unhappily. When in doubt, his first instinct-typical for a male-was to do nothing. Letting the situation come nearer to hatching so you could understand it more fully worked well on Home, and also on Rabotev 2 and Halless 1, the other inhabited worlds the Race controlled.
But waiting, against the Tosevites, often proved even worse than proceeding on incomplete knowledge. The Big Ugliesdid things. They didn’t fret about long-term consequences. Take atomic weapons-those helped them in the short run. If they devastated Tosev 3 in the process-well, so what?
Atvar couldn’t leave it atso what. The colonization fleet was on the way from Home. He couldn’t very well present it with a world he’d rendered uninhabitable in the process of overcoming the Big Uglies. Yet he couldn’t fail to respond, either, and so found himself in the unpleasant position of reacting to what the Tosevites did instead of making them react to him.
The mutineers had no nuclear weapons, and weren’t Big Uglies. He could have afforded to wait them out… If they hadn’t threatened to yield their base to the SSSR. With the Tosevites involved, you couldn’t just sit and watch. The Big Uglies were never content to let things simmer. They threw them in a microwave oven and brought them to a boil as fast as they could.
When Atvar didn’t say anything more, Kirel tried to prod him: “Exalted Fleetlord, you can’t be contemplating genuine negotiations with these rebellio
us-and revolting-males? Their demands are impossible: not just amnesty and transfer to a warmer climate-those would be bad enough by themselves-but also ending the struggle against the Tosevites so no more males die ‘uselessly,’ to use their word.”
“No, we cannot allow mutineers to dictate terms to us,” Atvar agreed. “That would be intolerable.” His mouth fell open in a bitter laugh. “Then again, by all reasonable standards, the situation over vast stretches of Tosev 3 is intolerable, and our forces seem to lack the ability to improve it to any substantial extent. What does this suggest to you, Shiplord?”
One possible answer was,a new fleetlord. The assembled shiplords of the conquest fleet had tried to remove Atvar once, after the SSSR detonated the first Tosevite fission bomb, and had narrowly failed. If they tried again, Kirel was the logical male to succeed Atvar. The fleetlord waited for his subordinate’s reply, not so much for what he said as for how he said it.
Slowly, Kirel answered, “Were the Tosevites factions of the Race opposed to the general will-not that the Race would generate such vicious factions, of course, but speaking for the sake of the hypothesis-their strength, unlike that of the mutineers, might come close to making negotiations with them mandatory.”
Atvar contemplated that. Kirel was, generally speaking, a conservative male, and had couched his suggestion conservatively by equating the Big Uglies with analogous groupings within the Race, an equation that in itself made Atvar’s scales itch. But the suggestion, however couched, was more radical than any Straha, the shiplord who’d led the effort to oust Atvar, had ever put forward before deserting and fleeing to the Big Uglies.
“Shiplord,” Atvar demanded sharply, “are you making the same proposal as the mutineers: that we discuss with the Tosevites ways of ending our campaign short of complete conquest?”
“Exalted Fleetlord, did you yourself not say our males seem incapable of effecting a complete conquest of Tosev 3?” Kirel answered, still with perfect subordination but not abandoning his own ideas, either. “If that be so, should we not either destroy the planet to make sure the Tosevites can never threaten us, or else-” He stopped; unlike Straha, he had a sense of when he was going too far for Atvar to tolerate.