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“I would, emphatically, Your Majesty.”

“I think we’ve done enough here, gentlemen.” He turned to Count Tammsan. “This is, jointly, the affair of Education and Security. I would suggest that you and Prince Travann join in a formal and public inquiry, and until all the facts have been established and recorded and action decided upon, the dismissal of Professor Faress be reversed and he be restored to his position on the faculty.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Tammsan agreed. “And I think it would be a good idea for Chancellor Khane to take a vacation till then, too.”

“I would further suggest that, as this microposito experiment is crucial to the whole question, it should be repeated. Under the personal direction of Professor Faress.”

“I agree with that, Your Majesty,” Prince Travann said. “If it’s as important as I think it is, Professor Dandrik is greatly to be censured for ordering it stopped and for failing to report this anticipation effect.”

“We’ll consult about the inquiry, including the experiment, tomorrow, Your Highness,” Tammsan told Travann.

Paul rose, and everybody rose with him. “That being the case, you gentlemen are all excused. The students’ procession ought to be arriving, now, and I want to tell them what’s going to be done. Prince Travann, Count Tammsan; do you care to accompany me?”

* * * * *

Going up to the central terrace in front of the Octagon Tower, he turned to Count Tammsan.

“I notice you laughed at that remark of mine about Aditya,” he said. “Have you met the First Citizen?”

“Only on screen, sir. He was at me for about an hour, this morning. It seems that they are reforming the educational system on Aditya. On Aditya, everything gets reformed every ten years, whether it needs it or not. He came here to find somebody to take charge of the reformation.”

He stopped short, bringing the others to a halt beside him, and laughed heartily.

“Well, we’ll send First Citizen Yaggo away happy; we’ll make him a present of the most distinguished educator on Odin.”

“Khane?” Tammsan asked.

“Khane. Isn’t it wonderful; if you have a few problems, you have trouble, but if you have a whole lot of problems, they start solving each other. We get a chance to get rid of Khane and create a vacancy that can be filled by somebody big enough to fill it; the Ministry of Education gets out from under a nasty situation; First Citizen Yaggo gets what he thinks he wants—-“

“And if I know Khane and if I know the People’s Commonwealth of Aditya, it won’t be a year before Yaggo has Khane shot or stuffs him into jail, and then the Space Navy will have an excuse to visit Aditya, and Aditya’ll never be the same afterward,” Prince Travann added.

The students massed on the front lawns were still cheering as they went down after addressing them. The Security Guards were conspicuously absent and it was a detail of red-kilted Thoran riflemen who met them as they entered the hall to the Session Chamber. Prince Ganzay approached, attended by two Household Guard officers, a human and a Thoran. Count Tammsan looked from one to the other of his companions, bewildered. The bewildering thing was that everything was as it should be.

“Well, gentlemen,” Paul said, “I’m sure that both of you will want to confer for a moment with your colleagues in the Rotunda before the Session. Please don’t feel obliged to attend me further.”

Prince Ganzay approached as they went down the hall. “Your Majesty, what is going on here?” he demanded querulously. “Just who is in control of the Palace–you or Prince Travann? And where is His Imperial Highness, and where is General Dorflay?”

“I sent Dorflay to join Prince Rodrik’s picnic party. If you’re upset about this, you can imagine what he might have done here.”