'Never mind,' she said, 'your facts are reasonably accurate. I'll vouch for them. Because I gave the order to the officer who succeeded Thorson. He had no recourse but to obey the sister of his ruler. He sits here beside me as my husband.'
'His price was high,' sneered Enro.
He turned to the military men. 'Gentlemen, I have known for several days the identity of Eldred Crang. I am unable to act against him as a traitor because here on Gorgzid my sister's authority is very similar to my own, and I am bound by my religious faith to uphold her rights. I am trying to persuade the lord guardian to . . . uh . . . grant her a divorce, and he has taken the request under advisement'
The words were earnestly spoken. It was hard to believe that behind the apparent logic and integrity of them was Enro's determination to use that religion to compel his sister to follow the ancient Gorgzid custom of brother-sister marriage. And that all the rest was fabrication.
Patricia was speaking again, earnestly. 'The people of the solar system have developed an educational system of the highest order, a culture which I should like to see modeled throughout the galaxy.'
She turned to look down at her brother. 'Enro,' she said, 'there can be no point in destroying a system which had devoted itself to education. If at any time it should be necessary to take over those planets, it could probably be done without bloodshed.'
Enro laughed. ‘An educational system, eh?' He shrugged cynically. 'Secoh will be only too happy to tell you the plans the Temples have for subjugated planets.'
He turned to the marshals and there was a savage note in his voice as he said: 'Gentlemen, I must apologize for my sister's ill-tempered rudeness. She has a tendency to forget that her rule as Gorgzin does not extend beyond the planetary system where she and I are joint heirs. In ordering Lieutenant General Crang to withdraw our forces from Venus, she forgot that the Greatest Empire is a private achievement of my own. In marrying him, and permitting him and'—he hesitated, and glared for an instant at Gosseyn-Ashargin—'other upstarts to plan against me under her protection, she forfeited any right which she might have had to appeal to the softer side of my nature.'
His teeth snapped decisively. He said grimly: 'You may be sure that I do not appoint Boards of Inquiry, and then ignore their recommendations. And, as a precaution, to insure that the Gorgzin does not place herself in jeopardy by going to Venus, I shall immediately issue an order that no galactic Distorters can be used by her until after the destruction of the population of the solar system has been carried out as recommended. Thank you, gentlemen. You have my best wishes.'
Gosseyn noticed that the negating order did not extend to Prince Ashargin. He said nothing, but immediately the meal was over, he headed for the public Distorter system of the palace. He didn't know if it was possible to go to Venus in a Distorter cage; by ship, yes, but he couldn't get hold of a ship —and so his only recourse was to make the attempt.
He took the torn segments of the Venusian report from his pocket and quickly pieced them together. He still had to admire the way Crang had removed them from Patricia's plate, studied them briefly, and then casually passed them on to Ashargin.
The galactic co-ordinates of the position in space of Sol were printed right across the top of page one. He read, Decant Eight, r36,400 theta 272º Z1800—-
Thirty-six thousand, four hundred light-years from the galactic axis, at an angle of 272° from the standard line —which was based on some remote galaxy—and eighteen hundred light-years on the minus side of the galactic plane. And his very first task must be to get to Decant Eight.
As he pulled the lever in the cage, Gosseyn felt the change. Felt himself return to his own body—free of Ashargin.
He wakened in the swift fashion of the change, sat up abruptly, and then lay back with a groan as every stiff muscle in his body shrieked in protest against the sharp movement.
There was a feminine exclamation from near the bed, Leej came into the line of vision of his smarting eyes.
'You're awake,' she said, and her voice was little more than a whisper. 'I thought something was going to happen, but I couldn't be sure.'
Tears came into her eyes. 'I've got to tell you,' she said. 'We're cut off. Something has happened to the Distorter system. The ship is marooned. Captain Free says it will take us five hundred years to get to the nearest base.'
The mystery of the lost destroyer, Y-381907, was explained.
XV
NULL-ABSTRACTS
A few of the operational principles of general semantics are as follows: (1) Human nervous systems are structurally similar one to the other, but are never exactly the same. (2) Any human nervous system is affected by events —verbal or nonverbal. (3) An event—that is a happening— affects the body-and-mind as a whole.
Gosseyn did not try to move again immediately. His eyes were watering from the sudden flood of light, but his vision was better. His body ached. Every joint and muscle seemed to be protesting the one attempt he had made to sit up. He recognized what had happened. Allowing for the passage of time during the Distorter transport, he had been away from the destroyer for about a month. During the whole time his body had been lying unconscious.
Compared to the attention the Gosseyn bodies must receive from their automatic 'incubators,' the care he had been given during the month just past, however well meaning, had probably been on a level only slightly higher than primitive.
He grew aware again of Leej. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him with eyes that glowed emotionally. But she said nothing, and so, favoring his stiff muscles, he looked around the room.
It was a rather nicely furnished bedroom with twin beds. The other bed had been slept in, and he surmised that it had been occupied by Leej. He passed instantly on to the thought that they were probably imprisoned together.
That was an assumption that he intended to check on as soon as possible.
His gaze came back to her, and this time she spoke. 'How are you feeling? The pictures I have are not clear on that point.'
He managed a reassuring smile for her. He was just beginning to realize what a disastrous month it must have been for a woman of her position. In spite of what the Follower had tried to do to her, she was not really accustomed to danger or reverses.
'I think I'm all right,' he said slowly. And his jaw ached from the effort of speaking.
Her delicate face showed concern. 'Just a moment,' she said. 'I'll get some ointment.'
She disappeared into the bathroom, and emerged almost immediately with a small plastic tube. Before he could realize her intention, she drew the bedclothes from him. For the first time he realized that he was completely undressed. She squeezed a fine slick of oil onto her palm, and began to rub it vigorously into his skin.
'I've been doing this all month,' she smiled. 'Just imagine.'
Oddly enough, he knew what she meant. Imagine Leej, a free Predictor, who had servants for every purpose, actually performing such menial labor herself. Her amazement at herself made the intimacy of the act subtly right and normal. He was no Enro, requiring the soft feel of women's hands to make him happy, but he settled back and waited while she rubbed the ache out of his legs, arms and back. She stepped away finally and watched his hesitant attempts to sit up.
To Gosseyn, his helplessness was a startling condition. Not really unexpected, but a reality which somehow he would have to take into account in the future. While he experimented with exercising his muscles, Leej brought his clothes out of a drawer.
'I had everything cleaned,' she said, 'in the ship's cleaning plant, and I bathed you about two hours ago, so you just have to get dressed.'
The fact that she had managed to secure the services of the laundry department interested Gosseyn, but he did not comment on that mundane level. 'You knew I was going to wake up?'
'Naturally.'
She must have seen the questioning expression of his face, for she said quickly:
'Don't worry, the blurs start soon enoug
h, now that you're awake.'
'When?' He was tense at the thought of action.
'In about fifteen minutes.'
Gosseyn began to dress more swiftly.
He spent five of the fifteen minutes slowly walking around the room. Then he rested for a minute, and for two minutes walked faster, swinging his arms with a free rhythm. He paused finally and looked down at Leej where she had sat down in a chair.
'What's all this about being lost in space?' he asked.
The eagerness went out of her eyes. 'We're cut off,' she said somberly. 'Somebody set up a relay that destroyed the Distorter Matrix for the nearest base. That happened at the moment when you became unconscious, after the matrix had been used once.'
The technical words sounded strange coming from her lips, but presently only the meaning remained. In that first moment after his awakening, when his alertness had been subnormal, he had only partially grasped the implications of what she had said. It wasn't that he hadn't understood. He had. But his mind had leaped to the related but comparatively unimportant idea that this explained why the destroyer had for so long failed to answer videophone calls.
Now, he felt a chill.
Cut off, Leej had said. Cut off four hundred light-years from the nearest base. If the ship's Distorter transport system had really been put out of commission, then they would be dependent on atomic drive with all the speed limitations of ordinary space-time travel.
He parted his lips to speak. Leej knew virtually nothing of science. The words she used must have been picked up during the past month, and they probably meant very little to her.
He had better find out as quickly as possible from more authoritative quarters the full extent of the catastrophe.
He turned and looked at the door, annoyed at the idea of being imprisoned. These people couldn't possibly suspect what he could do with this extra brain. And, therefore, locked doors were childish barriers, irritating when there were so many things to do. He turned to question Leej.
She said quickly, 'It's not locked. We're not prisoners.'
Her words anticipated his question. It made him feel good to be back again where such things were possible. He walked to the door; it opened effortlessly. He hesitated, and then stepped across the threshold and out into the corridor. It was silent and deserted.
He took a photograph of the floor just outside the door, and because he was intent, a second passed before he realized that he must have used his extra brain automatically at just about the time predicted by Leej.
He returned into the room, and stood looking at her. 'Was that it?' he said. 'Was that the moment?'
She had climbed to her feet to watch him. Now, with a sigh, she sank back into her chair. 'What did you do?'
Gosseyn had no objection to telling her—except for one thing. 'If ever you should be captured,' he explained, 'a lie detector might obtain information from you that would be dangerous for us all.'
He shook his head at her, smiling. From the expression on her face, he knew that she knew what he was going to say. But he said it anyway. 'How did you do it?'
'I snatched your blaster.'
'You had a vision of the month ahead?'
She shook her head. 'Oh, no. The blur that started then continued throughout the month. But it was I who saw you slump to the floor.' She stood up. 'It was all very easy, I assure you.'
Gosseyn nodded. He could see what she meant. Captain Free and Oreldon would have stood blank for a second, not realizing what was happening.
They offered no resistance,' said Leej. 'And I had them carry you to our room. But just a moment now. I have some soup for you.'
Our room, thought Gosseyn. It was a point which he had intended bringing up as gently as possible. He watched her as she walked swiftly out of the room. She came back a moment later, carrying a tray on which was a steaming bowl of soup. She was so friendly, so helpful; she took their relationship so completely for granted, that he changed his mind about speaking to her just then.
He ate the soup, and felt much better. But when he gave her back the tray, his thoughts were already turning back to their deadly situation.
'I'd better go and see Captain Free,' he said.
As he walked along the empty corridor, Venus and all the mighty events of the galaxy seemed very far away.
Captain Free opened the door of his room, and Gosseyn's first impression was that he was ill. The stocky commander's face was very pale, and there was a feverish look in his brown eyes. He stared at Gosseyn as if he were seeing a ghost. The color rushed abruptly into his cheeks.
'Gosseyn,' he said, and his voice was a croak, 'what's been the matter with you? We're lost.'
Gosseyn stared at him, wondering if this exhibition of the emotion of fear explained the inefficiency which had enabled him to capture the destroyer. He said finally, quietly, 'We've got work to do. Let's do it.'
They walked side by side along the silent corridors of the ship to the control room. In an hour he had the picture. Extra circuits had been built into the matrixes that were in the three similarity slots of the control board. They were so interconnected that if any one of them was used once on a 'break,' the pattern in all three would be disorganized.
The break had occurred during the similarization which had also resulted in his becoming unconscious a month before. The disarranged matrixes had been tuned to the patterns of the three nearest bases. Since they no longer worked, it was impossible to get to base by similarity means.
Gosseyn saw that Captain Free believed every word of his explanation of the operation of the system, and that was enough for him. He believed it, also, but in a more qualified fashion.
Somebody, he told himself, set up those circuits. Who?
The problem was more subtle than it might at first appear. It was reasonable to assume that the Follower was responsible. And yet the shadow-thing had admitted to Janasen when the two of them were on Venus that he was not mechanically minded.
The statement was not necessarily fact. But, still, people who used the products of the machine age did not automatically know how to set up relays to interfere with the operation of intricate machines.
Gosseyn walked over to the captain's desk and sat down. He was more tired than he cared to think about. But he dared not slacken his effort. In far-off space a fateful order had been given. Destroy Venus! Or rather, destroy the people of the solar system.
Commands like that probably took time to carry out. But the time was running short.
After two minutes rest, he climbed to his feet. There was only one quick, logical method of solving their immediate problem. It seemed to him that he was ready to make it.
He memorized a number of key points aboard the ship as well as several power sources. And then he pressed the button that opened one of the sliding doors to the lower section of the ship. He motioned Captain Free to go ahead of him.
Wordlessly, they headed down the stairway.
It was a different world they came to. Here was the laughter of men, the shouts and the sounds of many movements. For Gosseyn it meant a confusion of perception of neural flow.
The dormitory doors were open, and men stood along the corridors. They stiffened to attention as Captain Free came up, but relaxed after he had passed. Gosseyn said:
'Do the men know the truth?'
The commander shook his head. 'They think they're making a trip between two planets. I've been in daily touch with the noncommissioned officers in charge, and everything is fine.'
They didn't even worry about the connecting doors being locked for a month?' Sharply.
'They only go upstairs when ordered, and that usually means work. So I don't think they'll be worried.'
Gosseyn made no comment on that. His theory was that somebody had gone up without orders, and worked hard indeed. He could possibly have located the guilty man by questioning four hundred and eighty separate individuals with a lie detector. But while he did so, laboriously, Enro's fleet would arrive in the s
olar system, radioactive isotopes would be sprayed down upon the misty skies of Venus and Earth, and three billion people would die horribly without having received a single advance warning.
The prevision was without benefit of Predictors, but it was nightmarishly realistic none the less. Gosseyn shuddered, and swiftly put his attention back to the job at hand. At his suggestion, Captain Free ordered a general return to dormitories.
'Shall I have the doors locked?' he asked.
Gosseyn shook his head.
There are several exits to this place,' the commander persisted. 'I presume you're down here for a purpose. Shall I have guards posted at the doors?'
'No,' said Gosseyn.
The captain stared at him uneasily. 'I'm worried,' he said. There's no one up there who's free except the Predictor woman. It'd be unpleasant if someone slipped up the stairway and closed the connecting doors between the two sections.'
Gosseyn smiled grimly. The other wasn't even close in his estimate of the situation. That wasn't the danger. 'It's a point I've considered,' was all he said.
They went into each dormitory in turn. While the noncommissioned officers and Captain Free made a roll call, Gosseyn talked to individuals. He made a pattern out of the task. 'What's your name? How are you feeling? Worried about anything?' With each question he watched not only the man's facial responses but the neural flow that came from him like an aura.
He made a fast job of it, particularly as the crew members began to answer. 'Feeling all right, Doc.' 'Yes, Doc.' Gosseyn did not discourage the assumption that he was a psychiatrist.
He was in the third dormitory when a relay closed in his extra brain. Somebody was climbing the stairway that led to the upper section of the ship. He turned to speak to Captain Free, but the commander was not in sight. A noncommissioned officer stepped forward smartly.
'The captain went to the washroom. He'll be right back.'
Gosseyn waited. It would take, he estimated, one and a half minutes for the Follower's agent to go from the stairway to the control room from which the Predictors had been sent to their assigned stations. Since all such subsidiary Distorters operated through the main matrix, the control room must be first.
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