Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus: The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

by Barrington J. Bayley

  ‘And its speed?’

  ‘Nearly forty miles per hour!’ announced Erled triumphantly. ‘At least, that is what we gained on the test rig,’ he added hastily. ‘The ship has not yet been tested in a true rock environment, naturally.’

  Ergurur listened to these details in fascination. Erkarn, alert in his Proctorship of Emptiness Utilisation, broke in with a voice like ice.

  ‘You boast that the despatch of your solidity ship will not deprive the Cavity of emptiness,’ he said. ‘Nevertheless it must carry some emptiness with it, and if for any reason you failed to return then that emptiness would be lost for ever. Just what is the vacuity volume of your solidity ship?’

  ‘Much thought has been given to this question,’ Erled answered. ‘We even thought of cutting down the vacuity volume to near-zero by immersing the crew members in a liquid and allowing them to breathe through flexible tubes directly from the recycling plant. However, we decided that such an existence would prove intolerable during a long voyage, and so we have merely economised as much as possible. The vacuity volume of the ship is only a hundred cubic feet.’

  ‘Pah! And if you had your way you would despatch a hundred such ships into the rock, which if they failed to return would deprive mankind of ten thousand cubic feet!’ Erkarn leaned back, smugly satisfied with this damning calculation.

  ‘Quite so,’ murmured Ergrad. ‘Erled, I fear your solidity ship must be confiscated and destroyed.’

  ‘Could it not be placed in the Machine Museum?’ suggested Ergurur regretfully.

  At this moment Fasusun spoke, giving Erled a look of sorrowful annoyance. ‘What compelled you to think up this wicked scheme, Erled?’ the Proctress said. ‘I fear your soul is bound for Hell, but I shall pray for you.’

  ‘Not wicked, Proctress,’ Erled replied evenly. ‘It is merely the natural scientific desire to explore and discover.’

  ‘But of course it is wicked! You are defying nature, defying God, trying to upset society! Were you not taught as a child that God intended us to remain where He put us? That He created the Cavity specially for us, and therefore could not possibly have created another? Think again, Erled! Try to lead a better life! Spend more time in the temple and study the scriptures!’

  Erled kept silence, unable to devise a suitable reply. My God, he thought, why do they have to allow women on the Council? For bigotry and narrowness these two, Fasusun and Fatelka, had even old Erpiort beat. They spent their time attempting to produce a population trained in doctrinaire placidity, being particularly active in the nurseries.

  In addition they were almost certainly fundamentalists, taking literally every word of the scriptures. Believing, for instance, that God created the Cavity in the twinkling of an eye, complete with sustenance, machines and atomic energy, and a small tribe from which mankind grew – that was before the Cavity had by artificial means been moved several hundred thousand miles, of course. Even Erpiort had too much intelligence to swallow that one, Erled thought. Doubtless the Proctor of Worship held, with some reservations, to the scientific, evolutionary theory that Erled himself accepted – that first the Cavity had appeared, possibly by act of God or in some unknown manner, and that life had then developed by an evolutionary process. First, by spontaneous generation, there had appeared sustenance, the edible yeast-like growth that could recycle body wastes and air. Then there had appeared tiny animalcules to feed on the sustenance. Rapidly these had evolved through various stages into present mankind. It was also necessary to suppose that far before present mankind had appeared, the primeval pre-human ancestors had been endowed with an instinctive knowledge of machines and of how to release atomic energy.

  Finally the silence was broken by Erkarn. ‘Well, you can see how it is, Erled. The decision of the Council was unanimous except for one abstaining vote.’ He glanced disapprovingly at Ergurur. ‘You are to forget these mad dreams and that’s a command.’

  ‘You’re stifling something that can’t be stifled for ever,’ Erled muttered peevishly.

  ‘You will mend your ways and forget the whole matter,’ Erkarn said sternly. ‘There is still the business of the illegal drilling hanging over you. We are willing to suspend the charges if it is seen that you show contrition – do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Erled sullenly.

  ‘Very well, then. The disposal of the solidity ship will be considered later. Much emptiness to you.’

  ‘Much emptiness,’ muttered Erled, and turned away.

  Erled’s resentment did not abate during the next few hours, but he had no thought of defying the Council. He was powerless against the Proctors, and he did not relish the thought of the criminal charges, with which he was being frankly blackmailed, being laid against him.

  It would have to be left to some future generation, he told himself, to carry out the great task of exploring the universe.

  He did not immediately convey the news to his colleagues in the project. Instead he felt in need of some different kind of comfort, and when the relaxation period arrived he made his way to the dwelling of Ergrad’s family, to call on his betrothed, Fanaleen.

  The thought of facing his future father-in-law so soon after his humiliation partly at his hands caused Erled a slight degree of trepidation, but he reassured himself that on such visits Ergrad usually put in only a brief appearance or none at all. However, as he approached Ergrad’s well-appointed dwelling through a low-ceilinged passage, the tall, hooded figure of the Proctor Enforcer suddenly appeared from nowhere and barred his way.

  This section of the passageway was dimly lit. Erled felt menaced by the looming form. Dark black eyes flashed at him from beneath the cowl.

  ‘Proctor Ergrad,’ he stuttered. ‘I have come to see Fanaleen –’

  ‘Turn round, Erled, and go home. You’re not welcome here.’

  Erled was astounded. ‘But – Proctor –’

  Ergrad clenched his fist in exasperation. ‘Can you be so thick-headed?’ he growled. ‘Didn’t you see what went on in the Chamber today? You’re finished, Erled, you’ll be a nobody for the rest of your life. Not the sort of man I’ll allow to marry into my family. You’ll never see Fanaleen again.’

  Abruptly the Proctor turned and strode towards his dwelling. For nearly a minute Erled stared after his retreating back, the finality of what had happened slowly seeping into him.

  Never see Fanaleen again.

  There could be no revision of that sentence. It was a strict law that the union between a couple must be agreeable to the parents. And the word of a Proctor was inviolate.

  Dazed, Erled allowed his feet to carry him to the only place where he was likely to find understanding: the Inn of Vacuous Happiness, the haunt of his friends and colleagues in the solidity ship project. As he anticipated, they were all busy drinking there, and Ereton, with whom he shared co-leadership of the project, greeted him eagerly. So, in their favourite room where the ceiling beams touched one’s head if one stood erect, he explained the double disaster.

  Ereton squeezed his shoulder consolingly. ‘It appears that we chose the wrong time,’ he said sombrely.

  ‘There’ll never be a right time in this generation,’ Erled exclaimed heatedly. ‘And we’ll never get a chance to search for other worlds. What right have the Proctors to dictate to our consciences like this? It’s tyranny!’

  The others agreed fervidly, after which Erled retired to a corner and brooded. His resentment was building up like a burning fire, and as with so many men before him, the tragedy of thwarted love turned his mind to lofty sentiments, so that he began to think again about his lifelong dream: the existence of other cavities. As if hypnotised, he returned to the cosmological questions that at various times had haunted him. Was the rock really infinite? It had to be – for, if at some extreme it ended, what lay beyond that end? An infinity of emptiness, as Ereton, in a fit of brilliant extravagance, had once suggested? Erled soon pushed the idea aside. Baffling though the concept of infinity itself was, an empt
y infinity was something the mind simply could not grasp, and besides the notion was needlessly artificial.

  He had expected to get drunk, but two hours later he found that he was still completely sober, having drunk but little. Ereton, too, did not seem to be in a mood for drinking. All seven others, however, drank heavily, and as their intoxication increased so did their indignation at the Proctors’ decision. Erled found himself aggravated by the noise and he was about to suggest to Ereton that they leave when there was the sound of a disturbance and the flimsy screen door burst open.

  Ergrad, at the head of four or five other enforcers, entered the inn and stood surveying the room, his head slightly bent beneath the big black beams.

  ‘Looks like the whole pack is here, eh?’ he barked. ‘All right, Erled, the Council has just now ordered that your solidity ship be destroyed, so lead us to it so that we may get on with the good work.’

  ‘Do you need us for that?’ Erled retorted. ‘Do the job yourselves.’

  Ergrad looked at him thoughtfully. ‘Don’t try to be obstructive, Erled, or it will go all the worse for you. It seems that you’ve managed to keep the site of your workshop to yourselves, at any rate Erkarn found himself unable to locate it for some reason or other, which looks damned peculiar to me. Well, anyway, we knew you people came here for relaxation and I’ll thank you for the information.’

  A chain of thoughts flashed through Erled’s mind. For a workshop, or any other site for that matter, to be unlocated by the Proctor of Emptiness Utilisation was not only peculiar, it was downright incredible. Only one explanation came to Erled. Since the machines and workspace had originally been allocated by Ergurur, who was sympathetic to them, then somehow he must have concealed this legally obligatory information from Erkarn! An ecstatic hope accelerated Erled’s heart. Even in the Council there was dissension! Ergurur was trying to help them!

  Around him the others were crying ‘Shame!’ and protesting to the law enforcers. Ergrad rounded on them, his face livid.

  ‘To your homes, all of you, or you’ll learn what it means to cross the law!’

  Threateningly, he brandished his truncheon and his followers produced theirs. There was a moment’s pause.

  Then a heavy glass came sailing through the air and struck Ergrad on the temple. He staggered, while the glass fell to the floor and shattered. With a howl of rage Ergrad ordered his men to attack and in seconds the inn was the scene of an unsightly brawl.

  Erled and Ereton, already made nervous by the tense situation, had backed to the far end of the room. They looked on the brawl appalled. Then a cry floated through to them, from Ervane, Erled believed.

  That cry prompted Erled into action. Surreptitiously he eased open the rear exit and beckoned to Ereton. Together they slipped away. Minutes later they were headed for the perimeter, having changed direction several times on the public conveyor system to elude pursuit.

  ‘This is terrible!’ Ereton said, although he had obeyed Erled as if he had no will of his own. ‘Do you think we should go back, Erled, and apologise to Proctor Ergrad? Otherwise everyone will be punished severely.’

  ‘Our friends would never have dared to attack the enforcers if they hadn’t been both drunk and angry,’ Erled admitted. ‘Perhaps that will count in their favour when they come to trial. As for us, a wild intention has entered my mind of which I think the others would approve, Ereton.’

  They spoke no more during the rest of the journey, aware that anyone sitting near them on the transporter chairs might be eavesdropping on their conversation. Before long they came to the workshop on the edge of the Cavity where the solidity ship was housed.

  The area was deserted, no residences being nearby and this being the rest period. Erled opened the gate and they crept inside. Before them the solidity ship stood on a short ramp, its snout facing the bare rock of infinity but a few yards away.

  The ship had the form of a fluted cylinder, either end being squarely blunt and intricated with drive machinery. ‘To destroy this ship would be a crime,’ Erled said. His mouth curled in disgust. ‘They talk of faith. But isn’t our effort a matter of faith? – faith that the universe contains more than just our one cavity? That there are other worlds if only we will look?’

  ‘You want us to take the ship and go illegally into solidity,’ Ereton said tonelessly.

  ‘Yes, why not? What else is left to us? It’s either that or abandon all our dreams and live useless, frustrated lives. We’ve got this one chance, so let’s take it!’

  In his heart Ereton had known that this was why they had come here, but the thought of such a step made him go deathly pale. ‘Do you realise what it means? It will be the death sentence when we return!’

  ‘Not if we return with news of other emptiness in the rock!’ Erled replied triumphantly. ‘We have friends even in the Council, you know!’ One friend, anyway, he told himself privately.

  Ereton opened his hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘And suppose we find no new emptiness? How long did the ancients search?’ He shook his head. ‘We’re both mad.’

  ‘Both of us, eh?’ Erled grinned. ‘I knew you were with me! Don’t prevaricate, we may only have minutes in which to make our get-away!’

  Smiling wryly, Ereton patted him on the shoulders. ‘Of course I’m with you, old friend. As you say, what else is there to do at a juncture like this?’

  Hastily they scrambled aboard the solidity ship and made a rapid check of all the equipment. The newly completed craft slid along its ramp until reaching the further wall, when the rock touched by its snout seemed to collapse and to flow like fine oil. The ship lurched suddenly forward, and seconds later it had merged and disappeared into the bare, blank rock.

  ‘Incredible,’ murmured Erled.

  Ereton joined him from aft and peered over his shoulder at the flickering bank of instruments. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I think we’re being followed.’

  They had been en voyage for just over two weeks. In the cramped space, Ereton leaned closer. Pretty soon there was no doubt of it: the image plates of both sonicscope and tremorscope sharpened to reveal that a second solidity ship was following them. And it was close.

  While they stared in amazement they heard a ping and a light came on over the rockvid receiver. Erled flicked a switch. Across the plate streamed recurrent ripples that slowly built up a crude, low-definition picture carried by sonicwaves from the following ship.

  The hooded face of Ergrad stared at them from the plate, distorted somewhat by the incessant ripples.

  ‘I never dreamed they’d go this far!’ Erled breathed.

  The Proctors, presumably, were so furious at their escape that they had sent Ergrad in hot pursuit! The second ship must have been put together in a hurry by modifying a surveyor vessel. At that, Erled thought, the enforcer had done very well indeed to catch up with them so quickly. He must have strained the engines to the utmost, at considerable danger to himself.

  Ergrad spoke, the words coming blurred through the speaker.

  ‘Erled, Ereton! Halt and turn your ship round at once! I am here to escort you back to the Cavity, where you will stand trial for your crimes!’

  Erled and Ereton looked at one another quizzically.

  ‘No return!’ Erled said fiercely. ‘We keep going!’

  Nodding, Ereton spoke into the transmitter microphone. ‘Sorry, Proctor, we can’t turn back now.’

  ‘Be warned that we are armed with quake beams and will not hesitate to use them! Obey or be destroyed!’ Ergrad glowered, and his voice was like iron.

  ‘What shall we do?’ Ereton hissed, switching off the microphone. ‘Those beams can shake us to pieces!’

  ‘Perhaps we can dodge them.’

  Ereton crouched down behind Erled as the latter took over the controls. The solidity ship surged forward at top speed and began to weave about through the rock. Shortly afterwards there was a screeching, rumbling sound and the ship shook as though it were a bell struck by a giant hamm
er. Erled gasped as the vibrations caught hold of him and made him feel that he was being turned inside out.

  Although they had been struck only a glancing blow, Erled had been counting on the fact that quake beams travelled fairly slowly through their rock medium and therefore were difficult to aim at a fast-moving object. Unfortunately, Ergrad – or whoever was operating the weapon – seemed to be skilled in its use.

  Finding the controls unaffected by the strike, Erled put the ship through a dizzying series of turns. He knew that he had to avoid another hit and at the same time to put distance between himself and the pursuer, because their only hope lay in the probability that Ergrad’s vessel was limited in its range and therefore he would soon have to turn back.

  He peered at the sonicscope and tremorscope plates, trying to judge precisely where the pursuing ship lay and where it might strike next. But suddenly both plates erupted into an unreadable, screaming flurry as the quake beam went into action again. All around them the tortured rock quaked and imploded and the metal of the ship shrieked as if demented. Erled and Ereton immediately lost consciousness, but the injured solidity ship, its engines still working at full blast, plunged blindly on at top speed through the eternal rock.

  Erled did not know how much later it was that he came to himself again. His first impression was of a grating noise jarring on his ears, telling him that all was not well. He saw that Ereton too was stirring, and then he climbed back to his bucket seat and scaled down the accelerator.

  ‘Are you hurt?’ he asked Ereton.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ groaned the other, and he hauled himself to his knees in the confined space. ‘What in God’s name is that noise?’

  ‘We’ve sustained some damage, I think. Something amiss in the traction motor by the sound of it.’

  He glanced at the ’scope plates. They were both working normally but showed no hint of anything unusual in the vicinity. ‘No sign of Ergrad,’ he announced.

  ‘Eh?’ Ereton stared at the plates in delight. ‘What can have happened to him? He should be able to track us down easily enough.’