His mind was busy as he carried the man to the lounge beside Leej, thinking about what she had said. Now, he asked, 'You see us returning?'
She nodded reluctantly. 'But that's all. It's outside my range.'
Gosseyn nodded, and sat staring at her. His sense of elation was dimming. The Venusian method of defense was so unique, so calculated to catch only people not Null-A trained, that, once they engaged, only his presence had saved the ship.
Briefly, it had seemed as if the Venusians had an invincible defense.
But if he hadn't been aboard, then there would have been no blur to confuse Leej. She would have foreseen the attack in ample time for the ship to escape.
In the same way, Enro's fleet, with its Predictors, would escape the first onslaught. Or perhaps the predictions could be so accurate that the fleet could keep on breaking toward Venus.
It was possible that the entire Venusian defense, marvelous though it was, was worthless. In building their robots, the Venusians had failed to take the Predictors into their calculations.
The fact was not surprising. Even Crang had not known about them. It might be, of course, that there'd be no Predictors on the fleet Enro was sending. But that surely could not be counted on.
His mind reached that far, and then circled back to what Leej had said. He nodded, visualizing the situation. Then he said:
'We'll have to try again, because we've got to get through those defenses. It's as important as ever.'
In a way it was more important. Already there was in his mind a picture of robot defense forces like this opposing Enro's titanic fleet in the Sixth Decant. And if a method could be found to make them react a little faster, so that the attack came in one second and not in fifty-four, then even the prevision of the Predictors might be too slow.
Gosseyn considered several possibilities, then carefully explained the nature of the cortical-thalamic pause to Leej and the captain. They went through the routine several times, a mere brushing on the edge of the subject, but it was all there was time for.
The precautions might not work, but they were worth trying.
The preliminaries completed, he seated himself in the control chair, and looked around. 'Ready?' he asked.
Leej said in a querulous tone, 'I don't think I like being out in space.' That was her only comment.
Captain Free said nothing.
Gosseyn said, 'All right, this time we're going through as far as we can.'
He pushed the lever.
The attack came thirty-eight seconds by the clock after the blackness ended. Gosseyn watched the nuances of its development, instantly nullified the assault on his own mind. But this time he took a further step.
He tried to superimpose a message upon the complex force. 'Order attack to end!' He repeated that several times.
He waited for the command to be echoed by the roboperator, but it continued to transmit messages between the robotic brains outside the ship. He sent a second message. 'Break all contacts!' he ordered firmly.
The ship’s robovoice said something about all but one of the units being incapacitated, and, without a single reference to his command, added, 'Concentrate on the recalcitrant '
Gosseyn pressed the similarity lever, and broke after five light-minute's.
In sixteen seconds, the attack resumed. He sent a quick glance at Leej and the commander. They were both sagging in their seats. Their brief Null-A training hadn't proved very effective.
He forgot them, and watched the viewplates, waiting for a blaster attack. When nothing happened, he jumped a light-day nearer Sol. A glance at the distance gauges showed that Venus was still slightly more than four light-days away.
This time the attack resumed after eight seconds.
It was still not fast enough. But it helped to fill out the picture that was forming in his mind. The Venusians were trying to capture ships and not destroy them. The devices they had developed for that purpose would have been marvelous in a galaxy of normal human beings. And they were wonderful in their ability to distinguish between friend and foe. But against extra brains or Predictors they had a limited value. Gosseyn suspected that they had been rushed through the assembly lines in the belief that time was short.
Since that was truer every minute, he tried one more test. He sent a message to the unit that was still trying with a blind, mechanical obstinacy to capture him: 'Consider me and everyone aboard captured.'
Again, there was no response to show that anybody had heard. Once more Gosseyn pushed the similarity lever, the needle controls of which had been set so accurately by Leej. Now, he thought, we'll see.
When the momentary blackness ended, the distance indicators showed ninety-four light-minutes from Venus. In three seconds the attack came, and this time it was on a different level entirely.
The ship shuddered in every plate. On the view plate the defensive screen was a bright orange in color. The robo-radar spoke for the first time, a whining howl: 'Atomic bombs approaching!'
With the flip of his finger, Gosseyn moved the similarity lever back, and jumped nine hundred and eleven light-years towards Gela.
The second attempt to penetrate the Venusian defenses had failed.
Gosseyn, his mind already intent on the details of the third attempt, revived Leej. She came to consciousness, and shook her head.
'It's out of the question,' she said. 'I'm too tired.'
He started to say something, but instead he studied her face. The lines of weariness in it were unmistakable. Her body drooped noticeably.
I don't know what those robots did to me,' she said, 'but I need a rest before I can do what you want. Besides,' she went on, 'you haven't got the energy either.'
Her words reminded him of his own weariness. He rejected the obstacle, and parted his lips to speak. Leej shook her head.
'Please don't argue with me,' she said in a tired voice. I can tell you right now that there's slightly more than a six-hour pause to the next blur, and that we spend the time in much-needed sleep.'
'You mean, we just sit out here in space?'
'Sleep,' she corrected. 'And stop worrying about those Venusians. Whoever attacks them will withdraw and look the situation over, as we did.'
He supposed she was right. The logic behind her remark was Aristotelian, and without evidence to support it. But her general argument was more plausible. Physical weariness. Slow reflexes. An imperative need to recuperate from the friction of battle.
The human element had entered the list of combatants.
'This blur,' he said finally, 'what's it about?'
'We wake up,' said Leej, 'and there it is.'
Gosseyn stared at her. 'No advance warning?'
'Not a word '
Gosseyn woke up in darkness, and thought, 'I've really got to investigate the phenomenon of my extra brain.' He felt immediately puzzled that he should have had such a thought during the sleep hour.
After all, his idea—a sound one—had been to leave the problem until he reached Venus.
There was a stirring in the next bed. Leej turned on the light. 'I have a sense of continuous blur,' she said. 'What's the matter?'
He felt the activity then, within himself. His extra brain working as it had when an automatic process was reacting to a cue. It was a sensation only, stronger than his awareness of the beating of his heart or the expansion and contraction of his lungs, but as steady. But this time there was no cue.
'When did the blur start?' he asked.
, 'Just now.' Her tone was serious. 'I told you there'd be one at this time, but I expected it to be the usual kind, a momentary block.'
Gosseyn nodded. He had decided to sleep up to the moment of the blur. And here it was. He lay back, closed his eyes, and deliberately relaxed the muscles of the blood vessels of his brain, a simple suggestive process. It seemed the most normal method of breaking the flow.
Presently, he began to feel helpless. How did a person stop the life of his heart or lungs—or the interneuron
ic flow that had suddenly and without warning started up in his extra brain?
He sat up and looked at Leej, and parted his lips to confess his failure. And then he saw a strange thing. He saw her appear to get up from her bed, and go to the door fully dressed. And then she was sitting at a table where Gilbert Gosseyn also sat, and Captain Free. Her face flickered. He saw her again, farther away this time. Her face was vaguer, her eyes wide and staring, and she was saying something he didn't catch.
With a start he was back in the bedroom, and Leej was still there, sitting on the edge of the bed gazing at him in amazement. 'What's the matter?' she said. 'It's continuing. The blur is continuous.'
Gosseyn climbed to his feet and began to dress. 'Don't ask me anything just now,' he said. 'I may be leaving the ship, but I'll be back.'
It took a moment, then, to bring back into his mind one of the areas he had 'memorized' on Venus two and a half months before.
He could feel the faint, pulsing flow from his extra brain. Deliberately, he relaxed as he had on the bed. He felt the change in the memory; it altered visibly. He was aware of his brain following the ever changing pattern. There were little jumps and gaps. But each time the photographic image in his mind would come clear and sharp, though changed.
He closed his eyes. It made no difference; the change continued. He knew that three weeks had passed, a month, then the full elapsed time since his departure from Venus. And still his memory of the area remained on a twenty decimal level.
He opened his eyes, shook himself with a shuddering muscular movement, and consciously forced himself to become aware again of his surroundings. ' It was easier the second time. And still easier the third time. At the eighth attempt the jumps and gaps were still there, but when he returned his attention to the bedroom, he realized that the uncontrolled phase of his discovery was over.
He no longer had the sensation of flow inside his extra brain.
Leej said, The blur has stopped!' She hesitated, then: 'But there's another one due almost immediately.'
Gosseyn nodded. 'I'm leaving now,' he said.
Without the slightest hesitation, he thought the old cue word for that memorized area.
Instantly, he was on Venus.
He found himself, as he had expected, behind the pillar he had used as a point of concealment on the day he arrived on Venus from Earth aboard the President Hardie.
Slowly, casually, he turned around to see if perhaps his arrival had been observed. There were two men in sight. One of them was walking slowly toward a partly visible exit. The other one looked directly at him.
Gosseyn walked toward him, and simultaneously the other man started forward, also. They met at a halfway mark, and the Venusian had a faint frown on his face.
'I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to remain here,' he said, 'until I can call a detective. I was watching the spot where you'—he hesitated—'materialized.'
Gosseyn said, 'I've often wondered what it would seem like to an observer.' He made no effort to conceal what had happened. 'Take me to your military experts at once.'
The man looked at him thoughtfully. 'You're a Null-A?'
'I'm a Null-A.'
'Gosseyn?'
'Gilbert Gosseyn.'
‘My name is Armstrong,’ said the man, and he held out his hand with a smile. ‘We’ve been wondering what had happened to you ——— ’ He broke off. 'But let's hurry.’
He did not head for the door, as Gosseyn had expected. Gosseyn slowed, and commented. Armstrong explained, 'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'but if you want fast contact you'd better come along. Does the word Distorter mean anything to you?'
It did indeed. 'Just a few as yet,' Armstrong amplified. 'We've been building vast numbers, but for other purposes.'
1 know,' said Gosseyn. The ship I was on ran into some of the result of your labors.'
Armstrong stopped as they came to the Distorter. His gaze was intent, and his face slowly whitened. 'You mean,' he said, that our defenses are no good?'
Gosseyn hesitated. 'I don't know yet for certain,' he said, 'but I'm afraid they're not.'
They went through the Distorter blackness in silence. When Armstrong opened the cage door, they were at the end of a corridor. They walked rapidly, Gosseyn slightly behind, to where several men were sitting at desks poring over piles
of documents. Gosseyn was not particularly surprised to discover that Armstrong was unacquainted with any of the men. Null-A Venusians were responsible individuals, and could go at will into factories where the most secret work was carried on.
Armstrong identified himself to the Venusian nearest the door, and then he introduced Gosseyn.
The man who had been sitting down stood up and held out his hand. 'Elliott is my name,' he said. He turned toward a nearby desk, and raised his voice. 'Hey, Don, call Dr. Kair. Gilbert Gosseyn is here.'
Gosseyn did not wait for Dr. Kair to arrive. What he had to say was too urgent for any delays. Swiftly he explained about the attack that Enro had ordered. That caused a sensation, but of a different kind than he expected.
Elliott said, 'So Crang succeeded. Good man.'
Gosseyn, on the point of continuing his account, stopped and stared at him. The light of understanding that broke over his mind then was dazzling for a moment. ‘You mean,’ he said, ‘that Crang went to Gorgzid for the purpose of
some how persuading Enro to launch an attack on Venus ——— ' He stopped, thinking of the still-born plot to assassinate
Enro. Explained now. It had never been intended to succeed.
His brief exhilaration faded. Soberly, he told the group of Venusians about the Predictors. He finished with the utmost earnestness:
I haven't actually tested my idea that Predictors can get through your cordons, but it seems logical to me that they can.'
There was a brief discussion, and then he was taken over to a videophone where a man had been pressing buttons and talking in a low tone to a roboperator. He looked up now.
'This is a hook-up,' he said. 'Tell your story again.'
This time Gosseyn went into greater detail. He described the Predictors, their culture, the predominantly thalamic natures of individuals he had met, and he went on to give a picture of the Follower and his estimate of what the Shadow-shape was. He described Enro, the court situation of Gorgzid, and the position of Eldred Crang.
'I have just now discovered,' he went on, 'that Crang went out into space for the purpose of tricking Enro into sending the fleet to destroy Venus. I can tell you that he has accomplished this mission, but unfortunately he didn't know that Predictors existed. And so, the attack which is now about due, will be fought by the enemy under more favorable conditions than anyone could have imagined who knew the nature of the defense forces which have been developed here on Venus and Earth.'
He finished quietly, 'I leave these thoughts with you.'
Elliott sat down in the chair he had vacated. He said earnestly, 'Send in your comments to Robot Receiver in the usual manner.'
Gosseyn learned upon inquiry that the usual method was for small groups of individuals to discuss the matter and come forth with as many reasonable suggestions as they could think of. Then one of their number joined in a similar discussion with other delegates like himself. The recommendations moved from level to level as each group of delegates in turn appointed delegates to still more broadly based groups. Thirty-seven minutes after Elliott asked for comments, Robot Receiver called him, and gave him four principle suggestions, in the order of priority:
(1) Draw a line on the star Gela, the base from which ships from the central mass of the galaxy would come, and concentrate all defenses along this line, so that the robot reaction to the appearance of warships would take place within two or three seconds.
Since the alternative was complete destruction, their hope must be that such a line defense, catching the enemy by surprise, would be able to capture the entire first fleet, Predictors or no.
Have Leej bring in the de
stroyer, and see what a Predictor could do knowing the nature of the defense. Abandon the plan to operate secretly against Enro in favor of the League, and offer the League all available weapons in the full knowledge that the information might be misused and that a vindictive League peace would be hard to distinguish from an unconditional victory by Enro. In return, require the acceptance of Venusian emigrants. Abandon Venus.
Gosseyn returned to the destroyer, and the arrangements for the third attempt to break through the defenses were made. He would have liked to remain aboard, but Leej herself rejected his presence.
'One blur, and we'd be lost. Can you guarantee there won't be any?'
Gosseyn couldn't. He had control to some extent of his new ability to predict the future in so far as blurs were concerned.
'But suppose there's a blur while I'm on the ground?' he asked. 'It's in your range.'
'But you're not concerned,' Leej pointed out. 'All these things have their limitations, as I've told you.'
Her ability didn't look limited when at one minute to two the Y-381907 materialized three miles above the galactic base on Venus, and plunged off at an angle through the atmosphere. It was followed a moment later by a line of torpedoes. It darted like a shooting star in and out of the atmosphere of the planet, out of sight most of the time except for the videoplate picture they had of its spasmodic flight.
A dozen times atomic torpedoes exploded where it had been an instant before, but each time it was gone beyond the farthest reach of the explosion. At the end of an hour of fruitless chase, Central Robot Control ordered all robot units to discontinue the chase.
Gosseyn similarized himself aboard the destroyer, took the controls away from a weary Leej, and brought the ship down in the yards of the Military Industrial Branch.
He made no comment to any of the Venusians. The ship's break-through spoke for itself.
Predictors could get through robotic mind control defenses.
It was more than three hours later when they were having dinner that Leej suddenly stiffened. 'Ships!' she said.
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