The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 01

by Anthology

  At least in the sense they pretended to be, the "Gods" were not gods at all. They were--something else.

  But what? Where did they come from?

  Were they actually the Gods of ancient Greece, as they claimed? Forrester wanted to throw that claim out with the rest, but when he thought things over he didn't see why he should. To an almost indestructible being, three thousand years may only be a long time.

  So the Gods actually were "Gods," at least as far as longevity went. But the decision didn't get him very far; there were still a lot of questions unanswered, and no way that he could see of answering them.

  Or, rather, there was one way, but it was hellishly dangerous. He had no business even thinking about. He was in enough hot water already.

  Nevertheless....

  What more harm could he do to his chances? After the Bacchanal fiasco, there was probably a sentence of death hanging over his head anyhow. And they couldn't do any more to him than kill him.

  It was ridiculous, he told himself, with a return of caution and sanity. But the notion came back, nagging at his mind, and at last it took a new form.

  The Gods had the rest of the information he needed. He had to go to one of them--but which one?

  His first thought was Venus. But, after a moment of thought, he ruled her regretfully out as a possibility. After all, there was Mars' mention of her "predecessor." If that meant anything, it meant that the current Venus wasn't the original one. She would have a lot less information than one of the original Gods.

  If there were any originals left....

  He tabled that thought hurriedly and went on. Vulcan had told him at least a part of the truth, and Vulcan looked like a good bet. Forrester didn't like the idea of bearding the artisan in his workshop; it made him feel uncomfortable, and after a while he put his finger on the reason. His little liaison with Venus made him feel guilty. There was, he knew, no real reason for it. In the first place, he hadn't known the girl was Venus, and in the second place she may not have been the same one who had been Vulcan's original wife, thirty and more centuries ago.

  But the guilt remained, and he tabled Vulcan for the time being and went on.

  Morpheus, Hera, and most of the others he passed by without a glance; there was no reason for them to dislike him, but there was no reason for comradeship, either. Mars popped into his mind, and popped right out again. That would be putting his head in the lion's mouth with a vengeance.

  No, there was only one left, the obvious choice, the one who had helped him throughout his training period--Diana. She genuinely seemed to like him. She was also a good kid. The thought alone was almost enough to make him smile fondly, and would have if he had not remembered the peril he was in.

  He turned away from the window to look at the color-swirled wall across the room. He had remained in his room ever since Mars and Venus had brought him back from New York, and he wasn't at all sure that he could leave it. In the normal sense of the word, the place had neither exits nor entrances. The only way of getting in or out of the place was via the Veils of Heaven--matter transmitters, not something supernatural, he realized now.

  As far as Forrester knew, they still worked. But the Gods could generate a Veil anywhere, at any time. Forrester, as a demi-God, could only will one into existence on sufferance; he could only work the matter-transmitting Veils if the Gods permitted him to do so. If they didn't, he was trapped.

  Well, he told himself, there was one way to find out.

  He walked over to the wall and stood a few feet away from it, concentrating in the way he had been taught. He was still slower at it than the Gods themselves, and hadn't developed the knack of forming a Veil as he walked toward the place where he wanted it to be, as they had.

  But he knew he could do it--if he was still allowed to.

  Minutes went by.

  Then, as the blue sheet of neural energy flickered into being, Forrester slumped in sudden relief. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  The Veil was there--but was it what he hoped, or a trick? Possibly he could focus the other terminal where he wanted it, but there was also the chance that the Gods had set the thing up so that, when he stepped through, he would be standing in the Court of the Gods facing a tribunal for which he was totally unprepared.

  It would be just like the Pantheon, he thought, to pull a lousy trick like that.

  But there was no point in dithering. If death was to be his fate, that would be that. He could do nothing at all by sitting in his room and waiting for them to come and get him.

  He focused the exit terminal in Diana's apartment. There was no way of knowing whether the focus worked or not until he stepped through.

  He opened his eyes and walked into the Veil.

  He felt almost disappointed when he looked around him. He had steeled himself to do great battle with the Gods--and, instead, he was where he had wanted to be, in Diana's apartment.

  She was standing with her back to him, and Forrester didn't make a sound, not wanting to startle the Goddess. She was totally unclad, her glorious body shining in the light of the room, her blue-black hair unbound and falling halfway down her gently curved back. But she must have heard him somehow, for she turned, and for half a second she stood facing him.

  Forrester did not move. He couldn't even breathe.

  Every magnificent curve was highlighted in a frozen tableau.

  Then there was a sudden flash of white, and she was clad in a clinging chiton which, Forrester saw, served only to remind one of what one had recently seen. It worked very well, although Forrester did not think he had any need for an aid to his memory.

  "My goodness!" Diana said. "You shouldn't surprise a girl like that! I mean, you really gave me a shock, kid!"

  Forrester took his first breath. "Well," he said, "I could be dishonest, not to mention ungallant, and tell you I was sorry."

  "But?" Diana said.

  "Being of sound mind and sound body, I'm a long way from being sorry."

  And Diana dropped her eyes and blushed.

  Forrester could barely believe it.

  But it did show a part of the Goddess's personality that was entirely new to him. He was sure that any of the Gods or Goddesses could sense when a Veil of Heaven was forming near them, and get prepared before it was well enough developed to allow for passage. But Diana--who was, after all, one of the traditionally virgin Goddesses, like Pallas Athena--had chosen to pretend surprise.

  Forrester had a further hunch, too. He thought she might have deliberately vanished her chiton only a second or so before he entered. And that put a different--and a very interesting--face on things.

  Not to mention, he thought, an entire figure.

  But he didn't say anything. That wasn't his main business in Diana's apartment. Instead, he watched her smile briskly and say: "Well, you're here, anyhow, kid, and I guess that's enough for me. Want a drink? I could whip up some nectar--and maybe an ambrosia sandwich?"

  "I'll take the drink," Forrester said. "I'm not really hungry, thanks."

  Diana held out her hands, fingers curved inward, and a crystal cup of clear, golden liquid appeared in each--matter transmission, of course, not magic. She handed one over to Forrester, who took it and looked the Goddess straight in the eyes.

  "Thanks," he said. "Diana, I've got some questions to ask you, and I hope I'll get the answers."

  She touched the rim of her cup to his. Her voice was very soft, but she didn't hesitate in the least. "I'll answer any questions I have to. Sit down."

  They found chairs along the walls of the room and sat facing one another. Forrester took a sip of his drink, settled back, and tried to think where to begin. Well, God or no God, Zeus had the key to that one. He had said it years ago, and it had passed almost into legend:

  "Begin at the beginning, go on until you reach the end, and then stop."

  Very well, Forrester thought. He cleared his throat. Diana looked at him inquiringly.

  "I don't know how
far into the noose I'm putting my head with this one, Diana," he said. "But I trust you--and I've got to ask somebody."

  "Go ahead," she said quietly.

  "First question. The original Dionysus is dead, isn't he?"

  She paused for a moment before answering. "Yes, he is."

  "And I was scheduled to take his place."

  "That's right."

  "As a full God," Forrester said.

  Diana nodded.

  There was a little silence.

  "Diana," Forrester said, "what are the Gods?"

  She got up and crossed to the window. Looking out, she said: "Before I answer that, I want you to tell me what you think we are."

  "Men and women," he said. "More or less human, like myself. Except you've somehow managed to get so far ahead of any kind of science Earth knows that, even today, your effects can only be explained as 'magic' or 'miracle.'"

  "How could we get that far ahead of you?"

  Forrester took a leap in the dark to the only conclusion he could see. "You're not from Earth," he said. "You're from another planet." The words sounded strange in his own ears--but Diana didn't even act surprised.

  "That's right," she said. "We're from another planet--or, rather, from several other planets."

  "Several?" Forrester exclaimed. "But--oh. I see. Pan, for instance--"

  Diana nodded. "Pan isn't even really humanoid. His home is a planet where his type of goatlike life evolved. Neither Pluto nor Neptune is humanoid, either; they're a little closer than Pan, but not really very close when you get a good look. The rest of the Gods are humanoid--but not human."

  "Wait a minute," Forrester said. "Venus is human. Or, anyhow, she's a replacement, just the way I was slated to be a replacement for Dionysus."

  Diana drained her cup and clapped her hands together on it. The cup vanished. Forrester did the same to his own. "Correct," she said. "Venus just--just disappeared once. They got an Etruscan girl to replace her. She's not the only replacement, either."

  Forrester stared. "Who else?"

  "You tell me."

  He thought the list of Gods over. "Zeus," he said.

  Diana smiled. "Yes, Zeus is a long way from the great hero of the legends, isn't he? Using the old calendar, Zeus died in about 1100 B.C., not too long after the close of the Trojan War. As far as anybody knows, Neptune did the actual killing, but it's pretty clear that the original idea wasn't his."

  "Hera's," Forrester guessed.

  "Of course," Diana said. "What she wanted was a figurehead she could control--and that's what she got. Though I'm not sure she's entirely happy with the change. If the original Zeus was a little harder to control, at least he seems to have had an original thought now and again."

  Forrester sat quietly for a time, waiting for the shock to pass. "What about Dionysus?"

  Diana shrugged. "He--well, as far as anybody's ever been able to tell, it was suicide. About three years ago, and it drove Hera pretty wild, trying to find a substitute in a hurry. I suspect he was bored with the wine, women and song. He'd had a long time of it. And, too, he'd had some little disagreements with Hera. As you may have gathered, she is not exactly a safe person to have as an enemy. He probably figured she'd get him sooner or later, so he might as well save her the trouble."

  "And Hera had to rush to get a replacement? Why couldn't there just have been some sort of explanation, while the rest of you ran things?"

  "Because the rest of us couldn't run things. Not for long, anyhow. It's all a question of power."

  "Power?" Forrester said.

  "Everything we have," Diana said, "is derived, directly or indirectly, from the workings of one machine. Though 'machine' is a long way from the right word for it--it bears about as much resemblance to what you think of as a machine as a television set does to a window. There just isn't a word for it in any language you know."

  "And all the Gods have to work the machine at once?"

  "Something like that." Diana came back from the window and sat down facing him again. "It operates through the nervous systems of the beings in circuit with it, each one of them in contact with one of the power nodes of the machine. And if one of the nodes is unoccupied, then the machine's out of balance. It will run for a while, but eventually it will simply wreck itself. Every one of the fifteen nodes has to be occupied. Otherwise--chaos."

  Forrester nodded. "So when Dionysus died--"

  "We had to find a replacement in a hurry. The machine's been running out of balance for about as long as it can stand right now."

  Forrester closed his eyes. "I'm not sure I get the picture."

  "Well, look at it this way: suppose you have a wheel."

  "All right," Forrester said obligingly. "I have a wheel."

  "And this wheel has fifteen weights on it. They're spaced equally around the rim, and the wheel's revolving at high speed."

  Forrester kept his eyes closed. When he had the wheel nicely spinning, he said: "Okay. Now what?"

  "Well," Diana said, "as long as the weights stay in place, the wheel spins evenly. But if you remove one of the weights, the wheel's out of balance. It starts to wobble."

  Forrester took one of the weights (Dionysus, a rather large, jolly weight) off the wheel in his mind. It wobbled. "Right," he said.

  "It can take the wobble for a little while. But unless the balance is restored in time, the wheel will eventually break."

  Hurriedly, Forrester put Dionysus back on the wheel. The wobble stopped. "Oh," he said. "I see."

  "Our power machine works in that sort of way. That is, it requires all fifteen occupants. Dionysus has been dead for three years now, and that's about the outside limit. Unless he's replaced soon, the machine will be ruined."

  Forrester opened his eyes. The wheel spun away and disappeared. "So you found me to replace Dionysus. I had to look like him, so the mortals wouldn't see any difference. And the psychological similarity--"

  "That's right," Diana said. "It's the same as the wheel again. If you remove a weight, you've got to put back a weight of the same magnitude. Otherwise, the wheel's still out of balance."

  "And since the power machine works through the nervous system--"

  "The governing factor is that similarity. You've got to be of the same magnitude as Dionysus. Of course, you don't have to be an identical copy. The machine can be adjusted for slight differences."

  "I see," Forrester said. "And the fifteen power nodes--" Another idea occurred to him. "Wait a minute. If there are only fifteen power nodes, then how come there were so many different Gods and Goddesses among the Greeks? There were a lot more than fifteen back then."

  "Of course there were," Diana said, "but they weren't real Gods. As a matter of fact, some of them didn't really exist."

  Forrester frowned. "How's that again?"

  "They were just disguises for one of the regular fifteen. Aesculapius, for instance, the old God of medicine, was Hermes/Mercury in disguise--he took the name in honor of a physician of the time. He would have raised the man to demi-Godhood, but Aesculapius died unexpectedly, and we thought taking his 'spirit' into the Pantheon was good public relations."

  "How about the others?" Forrester said. "They weren't all disguises, were they?"

  "Of course not. Some of them were demi-Gods, just like yourself. Their power was derived, like yours, from the Pantheon instead of directly through the machine. And then there were the satyrs and centaurs, and suchlike beings. That was public relations, too--mainly Zeus' idea, I understand. The original Zeus, of course."

  "Of course," Forrester said.

  "The satyrs and such were artificial life-forms, created, maintained and controlled by the machine itself. It's equipped with what you might call a cybernetic brain--although that's pretty inadequate as a description. Vulcan could do a better job of explaining."

  "Perfectly all right. I don't understand that kind of thing anyhow."

  "Well, in that case, let me put it this way. The machine controlled these artificial
forms, but they could be taken over by any one of the Gods or demi-Gods for special purposes. As I say, it was public relations--and a good way to keep the populace impressed--and under control."

  "The creatures aren't around nowadays," Forrester pointed out.

  "Nowadays we don't need them," Diana said. "There are other methods--better public relations, I suppose."

  Forrester didn't know he was going to ask his next question until he heard himself doing so. But it was the question he really wanted to ask; he knew that as soon as he knew he asked it.

  "Why?" he said.

  Diana looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Why? What do you mean?"

  "Why go on being Gods? Why dominate humanity?"

  "I suppose I could answer your question with another question--why not? But I won't. Instead, let me remind you of some things. Look what we've done during the last century. The great wars that wrecked Europe--you don't see any possibility of more of those, do you? And the threat of atomic war is gone, too, isn't it?"

  "Well, yes," Forrester said, "but--"

  "But we still have wars," Diana said. "Sure we do. The male animal just wouldn't be happy if he didn't have a chance to go out and get himself blown to bits once in a while. Don't ask me to explain that--I'm not a male."

  Forrester agreed silently. Diana was not a male. It was the most understated statement he had ever heard.

  "But anyhow," Diana said, "they want wars, so they have wars. Mars sees that the wars stay small and keep within the Martian Conventions, though, so any really widespread damage or destruction, or any wanton attacks on civilians, are a thing of the past. And it's not only wars, kid. It's everything."

  "What do you mean, everything?"

  "Man needs a god, a personal god. When he doesn't have one ready to hand, he makes one up--and look at the havoc that has caused. A god of vengeance, a god who cheers you on to kill your enemies.... You've studied history. Tell me about the gods of various nations. Tell me about Thor and Baal and the original bloodthirsty Yahweh. People need gods."