The thought came not from Gosseyn but through him.
'I am the memory of the past.' The thought reached to his mind through the unconscious body of Gosseyn. 'In me, the machine beneath the crypt, is the only memory of the Migration that has survived, and my memory is the result of an accident.
'All the machines were damaged to some extent in passing through great clouds of matter, the nature of whose basic energy was not suspected. As a result the memories of most of them were lost. What saved mine was that a key circuit was burned out before the greater damage could be done.
'In spite of their injuries, most of the machines that succeeded in making the journey were able to revive the bodies they carried, for that is a simple mechanical function. I could also revive the one body still in my care, but unfortunately he would not be able to survive. And I am not allowed willfully to destroy a body until it is dead. Those who have tended me in recent years have forgotten that their ancestors came to this planet in the same way as the human being they worshipped, and still worship, as the Sleeping God.
'The ancestors arrived memoryless, and quickly forgot the manner of their arrival. The struggle for existence was fierce and demanding. The ships in which they came lie buried and forgotten in the soil drift of the ages. I arrived late, so my ship has not yet been covered.
'Everywhere their descendants have built up false pictures of their evolution on the basis of studying the fauna of their new homes. They do not yet realize that all life seeks movement, and that macrocosmic movement is limited to certain forms, and that the struggle to stand erect is part of the will to movement of particular species.
‘The Great Migration was undertaken on the basis of an assumption not necessarily true, but true as fas as was and is know. The assumption that the human nervous system with its cortical and higher developments is unique in time-space. It has never been imitated, and, when considered in all its intricate aspect, probably never will be ——— '
Two bodies, two nervous systems interacting, the greater to the lesser in the similarity fashion. The first picture came then, of men watching a brief point as it moved nearer the edge of a shadowed substance.
What that substance was neither the man in the crypt nor the machine whose vibrations were suffusing him knew.
A bright point that moved sedately, and men thoughtfully watching it. Men who had lived and died many million years before. The bright point hovered at the edge of the shadowed substance, poised for a moment, and then slipped over the edge.
It was gone instantly.
The pattern of surrounding space altered slightly. There was a sudden strain, a tension that brought a break in a basic rhythm. Matter began to change.
An entire galaxy shifted its time balance, but long before the physical crisis the decisive moment came for the inhabitants. The alternatives were bleak. To remain and die, or go to another galaxy.
They knew that the time required for such a journey would be vast beyond all the powers of mechanical and human ingenuity. As the years passed, even electronic patterns would alter radically, and would in many instances become meaningless.
More than ten thousand million ships started out, each with its crypt, each with its intricate machine designed to control the life cycles of two men and two women for a million or more years. Those ships were wonderfully made. Through the darkness they sped at three quarters the speed of light. For this was no Distorter-swift journey. There were no set matrixes where they were going, no memorized areas to which men and their machines could flash with the speed of thought. All that must yet be laboriously built up.
Once more, the dream changed. It grew more relaxed, more personal, though the thoughts that came were still not particularly directed at either Ashargin or Gosseyn.
'I similarized the mind of Gosseyn into the body of Ashargin. Gosseyn possesses the only extra brain in the galaxy, besides that of the Sleeping God—which does not count. The "god" could probably be awakened now, but certain mechanical possesses necessary to his development have long been out of operation, so he could not remain alive more than a few minutes.'
'Why did I choose Ashargin? Because he was a weakling. From experience, I know that a stronger personality could have fought Gosseyn's control consciously. His being nearby was also a factor.
'After the first time, after the channel had been established, it didn't matter of course where he was.
'But there was another more important reason why Ashargin was the logical person. Because of the intricate Imperial plans of Enro, the prince could be in a position to do more than any other individual to bring Gosseyn to the crypt. And, naturally, it was reasonable to believe that he would also be valuable to Gosseyn himself.
'How tremendous this achievement is you may guess from the fact that I have now for the first time been able to tell the story of the Migration to a direct survivor of the expedition. Many times I have tried to maneuver a Lavoisseur-Gosseyn body into the crypt in the way that Gosseyn is there now. But I succeeded only in making successive generations of the Gosseyn body wary of me. The attempt previous to this one had extremely dangerous repercussions.
'I succeeded in similarizing the mind of old Lavoisseur into the body of the work priest whose duty it was to sweep out this inner chamber. My purpose was to give Lavoisseur an opportunity to repair the damage that had been done to the vital elements in my structure. The plan proved impossible, for two reasons. First, the priest was not in a position to obtain the necessary equipment. And, secondly, he resisted being possessed.
'At first the resistance was not too great, and so some work was done, and some investigation made by Lavoisseur into the nature of the machinery of the crypt. As it turned out, it was unfortunate that even this brief opportunity existed. For Lavoisseur repaired a device over which I have no control, an instrument for initiating the matter change which caused the destruction of the other galaxy. The device was sent along in one of every ten thousand ships for study purposes only, and it interested Lavoisseur because there was nothing like it on the ship in which he had come.
'Although Lavoisseur did not know it, this device automatically attuned itself to the body of the priest, a result of precaution taken by the builders to insure that the instrument would always be under the control of a human being.
'Naturally, they intended the human being to be one of themselves.
The priest need now merely think himself out of phase in time, and the change, fortunately limited, occurs. By using Distorter transport, he can direct the nebular substance to any point in the galaxy where he has a Distorter.
'When the priest's resistance to Lavoisseur's control grew too strong, it was necessary to break the contact. What followed was something I admit I did not foresee. After the priest recovered from his fright at what had happened, he came to believe that he had been possessed by the Sleeping God.
'His ability to assume the shadow shape seemed to confirm this analysis, and in a sense, of course, it is true that he gains his power from the Sleeping God. But only in the same way that I am the Player who has been manipulating your mind. The real gods and the real Players have been dead nearly two million years.
'But now, you are about to waken. Your position is a difficult one, but you have one duty. You must kill the priest who possesses this power. How you can do this once he is in his shadow shape I do not know.
'Yet kill him you must.
'And now, there is not much left to tell. Ashargin need merely transmit himself through a Distorter, and I will free him from Gosseyn's control, and Gosseyn will immediately awaken. Or Ashargin could be killed, and Gosseyn's mind would automatically return to his own body. Those are the only two methods.
'Eldred Crang was a confidante of Lavoisseur, and some years ago as a result of information he secured from Lavoisseur he came here and did some work on my damaged structure. At that time he was unsuccessful in making adequate repairs. More recently, he succeeded in setting up a relay by which I could send him warnings with sound an
d light signals —the kind of warning by which I called him here when Ashargin was hiding the Gosseyn body.
‘One last warning. The attack which has captured the palace only seems to be a League attack. Actually, the priest chose that method to strike for power in order to discredit Enro—-’
The 'dream' began to fade. He tried to pull it back, but it retreated even further. Then he grew aware that he was being physically shaken.
Gosseyn-Ashargin opened his eyes, and stared up at Nirene. Her face was white, but she was calm.
'Darling, Secoh is here to see you. Please get up.'
There was a sound at the bedroom door. Nirene drew back slowly, and Gosseyn had a clear view of the bedroom doorway.
Secoh, the Lord Guardian of the Sleeping God, stood just inside the bedroom, staring at him with unsmiling eyes. Secoh, Gosseyn was thinking, the work priest who had once been sweeper in the inner chamber of the temple.
Secoh—the Follower.
XXI
NULL-ABSTRACTS
It is not enough to know about Null-A training techniques. They must be learned on the automatic, that is, the 'unconscious' level. The 'talking-about' stage must give way to the 'doing' stage. The goal is flexibility of approach below the verbal level to any event. General semantics is designed to give the individual a sense of direction, not a new set of inflexibilities.
He had a flash glimpse now of the whole picture. Entirely aside from the dream, so many things fitted. That mechanic on the destroyer killing himself rather than taking a chance on being questioned. What private emotional reason could have driven him to it? Religious, of course.
And who would be in a better position than Secoh for finding out when a new planet like Yalerta had been discovered? As a chief adviser of Enro, he would have the resources of an empire at his disposal.
Millions of bits of information would be catalogued, condensed and organized for him to pass on to Enro—if he chose. Scientific information of every kind would be submitted to him for submission to the dictator. And so, radically new and different Distorter instruments had come to the attention of a man who knew little or nothing about any of the sciences, and who needed just such a development to give galactic-wide scope to his private wanderings.
A man who called himself the Follower, a name with religious meaning.
The rest of the scene, the motivation for everything, could be a growth based on the religion itself. It seemed natural that the Lord Guardian of the Sleeping God should have spurred the ambitions of a planetary emperor like Enro, driving him to conquer the Greatest Empire, then consolidating the galaxy in order to spread the religion farther.
The picture was not complete in all its parts, but in that flash moment it seemed logical to Gosseyn that he adopt it as the assumption on which he must base his actions now.
Secoh was the Follower. Secoh was a sincere believer in the religion of the Sleeping God. Secoh was a fanatic, sharp and alert on almost every level of thought—except his religious belief. And even there his very conviction must give him a flexible way of looking at things.
But if there was a weakness in this man, that was it. Gosseyn-Ashargin sat up slowly as Secoh approached the bed and sat down facing him. The priest said in a rich tone:
'Prince, you are about to be given an opportunity to win back for your family a measure of your former position.'
Gosseyn guessed then what was coming. He was not mistaken. He listened to the offer, which was in effect a vice regency with, as Secoh carefully put it, 'Only the Sleeping God himself above you.'
Meaning himself. And yet he undoubtedly believed what he said.
There was no pretense that League forces had captured Gorgzid. The Lord Guardian was frank. 'It seemed to Crang it might be a good bargaining point if the League appeared to have captured the capital.'
He waved a hand, dismissing that aspect of the subject.
'I can tell you,' he said sincerely, 'that Enro was no longer satisfactory to the Sleeping God, and I need hardly say that the calls you have received from the Temple are an indication of where the God is trying to point my attention.'
He meant it. This man believed in his curious religion. His eyes glowed with honest purpose. Gosseyn studied him, and was only too conscious of how unsane the man was.
He wondered then: Was Enro dead? He asked the question.
Secoh hesitated, but only for a moment. 'He must have suspected something,' he confessed. 'I went to his apartment last night after his return to the palace, hoping to hold him in conversation until it was too late for him to get away. We had rather an explosive conversation.'
He scowled. ‘The sacrilegious scum! In the past he has dissembled his hatred of the Sleeping God, but last night he was in a state of anxiety, and so he forgot himself, and actually threatened to destroy the temple.
Then, just as the attack began, he similarized himself to Paleol's flagship.'
Secoh paused. Some of the fire went out of his eyes. He said thoughtfully, 'Enro is a very able man.'
It was a grudging admission, but the fact that Secoh could make such a statement was a measure of his own ability. His failure to capture Enro was clearly a major defeat, and yet he had already adjusted to it.
'Well,' said Secoh, 'are you with me or against me?'
It was a bald way of putting it, especially as there was no indication of what refusal might mean. Gosseyn decided against a direct question about that. He said instead:
'What would you have done with Enro if you had caught him?'
The Lord Guardian smiled. He stood up and walked over to the bedroom window. He beckoned Gosseyn-Ashargin, who came without hesitation.
Gosseyn stood beside the priest, and looked down on a courtyard that was changed. Gallows were going up. More than a dozen were already in position, and there were silent shapes hanging from nine of them. Gosseyn stared at the dead men thoughtfully. He was neither shocked nor impressed. Wherever men acted thalamically there usually would be found a full quota of hangmen. Beside him, Secoh said: . 'Enro managed to get away but I did seize a number of his uncompromising supporters. Some of them I am still trying to persuade.' He sighed. 'I am easy to please, but in the final issue I must have cooperation. Accordingly, such scenes as that'—he pointed downward—'are necessary concomitants to the elimination of evil forces.' He shook his head. 'One can have no mercy on recalcitrants.'
Gosseyn had his answer. This was what happened to people who were 'against' instead of 'for'.
He knew now what crisis he must try to arrange. But it would be staking a great deal—Ashargin's life, among other things—on the intensity of Secoh's beliefs.
It was surprisingly easy to say the nonsense words. It took a moment to realize why: Ashargin's nervous system would have established channels for false to fact verbalisms about the Sleeping God—a point he'd have to remember in his final plans for the prince, who was obviously not yet trained in general semantics.
But he spoke the necessary words about having received a summons from the Sleeping God to the effect that a great honor was planned for Secoh. He must come to the temple, bringing with him Ashargin and a Distorter circuit. Gosseyn watched tensely for the Lord Guardian's reaction to the inclusion of the Distorter, since that would be a deviation from long established rituals. But apparently Secoh accepted any direct command of his god, regardless of past formalisms.
And so the first and simplest step was accomplished.
XXII
NULL-ABSTRACTS
General semantics is a discipline, and not a philosophy. Any number of new Null-A oriented philosophies are possible, just as any number of geometrical systems can be developed. Possibly, the most important requirement of our civilization is the development of a Null-A oriented political economy. It can be stated categorically that no such system has yet been developed. The field is wide open for bold and imaginative men and women to create a system that will free mankind of war, poverty and tension. To do this it will be necessary to
take control of the world away from people who identify.
Secoh decided to make a pageant of it. In three hours, lines of planes, loaded with troops and priests from the capital, dotted the sky on the route over the mountain to the Temple of the Sleeping God.
Gosseyn-Ashargin had hoped that they would make the journey through the Distorter in Crang's and Patricia's apartment. But when that didn't happen, he requested that Crang be in the same machine as he himself.
They sat down together.
There were many things Gosseyn wanted to know. He assumed, however, that there might be listening devices. So he began gravely, 'I have only gradually realized the nature of the friendship between yourself and the Lord Guardian.'
Crang nodded, and said with equal wariness, 'I am honored by his confidence.'
To Gosseyn, the fascinating aspect of the relationship so suddenly revealed was that Crang had, four years before, unerringly chosen Secoh instead of Enro as the person to whom he should attach himself.
The conversation went on in that polite fashion, but gradually Gosseyn obtained the information he wanted. It was an amazing picture of a Null-A Venusian detective, who had secretly gone out to space from Venus to discover the nature of the threat against Null-A.
It was Secoh, as Enro's adviser, who had put Crang in charge of the secret Enro base on Venus. Why? So that the Gorgzin Reesha would be beyond the reach of her brother's determination to make her his wife.
At that point Gosseyn had a sudden memory of Enro accusing Secoh. 'You always were taken with her!' the dictator had said.
He had a vision then of a work priest aspiring to the hand of the highest lady on the planet. And because such emotions became set on the unconscious level, all his triumphs since then meant nothing beside the potent early love feeling.
Another phrase of Crang's brought him a vivid picture of how the marriage of Crang and Patricia had been presented to Secoh as not a true marriage, but as another protection for her. They were saving her for the day when the Follower could claim her for his own.
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