The Empire of Isher

by A. E. van Vogt

  This time, having rationalized it, Hedrock offered no resistance to the re-merging of their separate identities. He expected to finish reading Gil’s letter. But instead the letter blurred. Hedrock-Neelan blinked, and then he started violently as fine, hot sand laced against his face.

  He saw that he was no longer in the weapon shop, and there was no sign of the phantom city. He twisted in a spasm of muscular reaction and realized that he was lying on a flat red desert under an enormous bulging sun. Far to his left, through a thick haze of dust, was another sun. It seemed to be farther away and was smaller, but it looked almost the color of blood in that world of powdered sand.

  Men lay nearby on the sand. One of them turned weakly; he was a big, fine looking fellow, and his lips moved. There was no sound, but in a curious fashion his turning the way he did brought into Neelan-Hedrock’s line of vision boxes, crates and metal structures. Hedrock recognized a water-making machine, a food case and a telestat. His observation was interrupted.

  “Gil!” he shrieked. Or rather, it was Neelan’s reaction. “Gil, Gil, GIL!”

  “Dan!” It seemed to come from far away. It was more a wisp of thought in his mind than a sound. It was a tired sigh that bridged the great night. It began again, faint, far-away but clear, and directed at Neelan,

  “Dan, you poor mug, where are you? Dan, how are you doing this? I don’t feel that you’re close ...Dan, I’m a sick man, dying. We’re on a freak planet that’s going to pass close to one of the Centauri suns.

  The storms will grow worse, the air hotter. We—oh, God!”

  The break was so sharp, it hurt like fire. It was like an overstretched elastic—giving. Countless light years rushed in to fill the gap. Hedrock realized that “they” had not actually been at the scene. It had been a sensory connection between the two brothers, and the picture of that nightmarish world had come through the eyes of Gil Neelan.

  Whoever was doing this had achieved a fantastic control and understanding of human beings. It took a long moment to realize that Neelan was still in the Weapon Shop, and still clutching the letter. There were tears in his eyes, but presently it was possible to see the letter again, and to finish reading it:

  ... We will probably be completely separated for the—first time since we were born. It’s going to feel very empty and lonely.

  I know you’re envying me, Dan, as you read this. When I think how long man has dreamed of going to the stars, and how it had been proved time and again that it can’t be done, I know exactly how you feel.

  Particularly you who were the adventurer of our family. Wish me luck, Dan, and watch your tongue.

  Your other half, Gil.

  Just when the transformation occurred, or by what stages, Hedrock wasn’t sure. His first awareness of change was that he was no longer in the Weapon Shop. That was not immediately important to him. His mind was caught up in thought of Gil Neelan and of the miracle that had been wrought. Somehow, these mighty captors of his had intensified the flimsy bonds between the two brothers, and made a thought connection across light-centuries, an incredible, instantaneous connection.

  And, casually, he had been taken along on that fantastic journey.

  Odd, how dark it was. Since he was not in the Weapon Shop, he should logically be back in the “city”, or somewhere on the ship of the beings who had captured him. Hedrock lifted himself, and by that action realized that he had been lying face downward, As he moved, his hands and feet tangled in a network of intertwined ropes. He had to grab at the individual strands of rope to balance himself .He swayed there in pitch darkness.

  He had been holding himself calm, fighting with all his strength to comprehend each separate experience.

  But this one was too much. Panic struck him like a physical blow. Instead of a floor there was a mesh of ropes like the rigging in the ships that sailed the seas of Earth in olden days, or like the web of some nightmare-sized spider. His thought paused, and a chill spread down his spine. Like a spider’s web.

  A vague bluefish light began to grow around him, and he saw that the city was indeed gone. In its place was an unearthly dark-blue world, and webs, miles and miles of webs. They reared up toward the remote ceiling and vanished into the distance of the dimness. They spread out in all directions, fading into the semi-night like things of some nether world. And, mercifully, they did not appear to be inhabited at first.

  Hedrock had time to brace his brain for the most terrible shock its highly trained structure would ever have to face. He had time to grasp that this was the interior of the ship, and that there must be inhabitants.

  Far above him, there was suddenly a flicker of movement. Spiders. He saw them plainly, huge things with many legs, and grew tense with the bitterness of his realization. So a tribe of spider-like beings were Nature’s prize package, the supreme intelligence of the ages, rulers of the universe. The thought seemed to be in his mind a very long time, before a faint light focused on him from a hidden source. Abruptly, a very thunderbolt of mind vibrations rocked his brain:

  “—examination negative ...— . There is no physical connection between these beings ... energy only—”

  “But the tensions were augmentable by energy. The connection was contrived across—xxx?!! distance .”

  “—my finding is that there is no physical connection—” Coldly.

  “I was merely expressing amazement, mighty xx—!! (meaningless name). Here is undoubtedly a phenomenon closely related to the behavior of this race. Let us ask him—”

  “MAN!”

  Hedrock’s brain, already strained under the weight of those enormous thoughts, cringed before that direct wave. “Yes?” he managed finally. He spoke aloud. His voice made a feeble sound against the blue-dark vastness, and was swallowed instantly by the silence.

  “MAN, WHY DID ONE BROTHER MAKE A LONG JOURNEY TO FIND OUT WHAT HAD

  HAPPENED TO THE OTHER BROTHER?”

  For a moment the question puzzled Hedrock. It seemed to refer to the fact that Dan Neelan had come from a remote meteor to the earth to find out why the sensory connection with his brother Gil had been broken. It seemed a fairly meaningless question, because the answer was so obvious. They were brothers, they had been brought up together, they had a very special intimate relationship. Before Hedrock could explain the simple elements of human nature involved, the titanic thunder raged down again at his mind:

  “MAN, WHY DID YOU RISK YOUR LIFE SO THAT OTHER HUMAN BEINGS CAN GO TO

  THE STARS? AND WHY DO YOU WANT TO GIVE THE SECRET OF IMMORTALITY TO

  OTHERS?”

  In spite of the tattered state of Hedrock’s thoughts understanding began to streak through. These spider beings were trying to comprehend man’s emotional nature without having themselves a capacity for emotion. Here were blind things asking to have color explained to them, stone-deaf creatures being given a definition of sound. The principle was the same.

  What they had done was explained now. The apparently meaningless re-enactment of the scene between himself and the Empress had been designed so that his emotions could be observed while he was risking his life for an altruistic purpose. In the same way and for a similar reason, the sensory connection had been established between the Neelans and himself. They wanted to measure and assess emotions in action.

  Once more a clamor of outside thought interrupted him: “IT IS REGRETTABLE THAT ONE OF THE

  BROTHERS DIED, BREAKING THE CONNECTION—”

  “THAT NEED BE NO DETERRENT. NOR IS THE BROTHER ON EARTH NEEDED, NOW

  THAT WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR PRISONER

  AND THE DEAD ONE. A MAJOR EXPERIMENT IS IN ORDER—”

  “X-XX? !XPROCEED AT ONCE.”

  “WHAT IS TO BE DONE FIRST?”

  “GIVE HIM FREEDOM, OF COURSE.”

  There was a prolonged pause, then a blur. Hedrock grew taut, and involuntarily closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw that he was in one of his secret laboratories on earth, the one i
n which the giant rat had nearly killed him.

  Twelve

  HE SEEMED TO BE BACK ON THE EARTH. Hedrock climbed gingerly to his feet, and examined himself. He was still wearing the insulation suit, which Greer had given him, and in which he had dressed himself before leaving the lifeboat to wander around in the earth-like “city” the spider beings had created for him. He looked around the room slowly, searching for tiny discrepancies that would indicate that this was another illusion.

  He couldn’t be sure. And yet he felt different than when they had been manipulating him. Then there had been an over-all atmosphere of unreality. He had been like a man in a dream. He no longer felt that way.

  He stood frowning, remembering the last thoughts he had received from them. One of the beings had definitely indicated that he was to be given his freedom for the next phase of their experiment. Hedrock was not sure what they meant by freedom, because it was clear that they were still studying human emotional behavior. But he had been in danger so often in his life that, in the final issue, he did not allow personal fear to alter his purpose. He did however want to test die reality of his surroundings.’

  He walked to the general ’stat in one of the study rooms, and tuned into a news channel. It was a drab account to which he listened then. The commentator was concerned with some new laws which were under discussion by the Imperial Parliament. There was no mention of the interstellar drive. If there had been any excitement at the time of his escape from Kershaw’s ship it had apparently died down.

  Whatever effort had been made to force the Empress to give up the secret seemed to have been abandoned.

  He shut off the ’stat, and changed into a “business” suit. Carefully, he selected four more ring weapons, and then, arrayed for battle, he stepped through a transmitter into one of his apartments in Imperial City .

  He began to feel a lot better. In the back of his mind he had plans for experiments he was going to conduct if the spider beings tried to take control of him again, but he was still anxious about the exact nature of the “freedom” he had been given. He hurried to the great window that overlooked the city looking south. For more than a minute Hedrock gazed at the familiar scene of the tremendous metropolis; and then, turning slowly, he walked over to the apartment ’stat, and .called Public News Service.

  The news organization was associated with the Weapon Shops, and provided free information and news. The girl who talked to Hedrock answered all his questions without asking his identity. From her he learned definitely that the Empress had publicly and repeatedly denied all knowledge of an interstellar drive, and that the Weapon Shops after two weeks of intense propaganda against her had dropped their campaign abruptly.

  Hedrock broke the connection grimly. So Innelda had gotten away with it. He could understand why the Weapon Shops had ceased putting pressure on her. Theirs would be an increasingly unpopular cause, for they had no evidence to offer; and they were too logical to pursue openly a matter which might turn people against them. It could be taken for granted that ninety per cent of the population would long ago have lost interest in the affair. Of those who remained, the majority wouldn’t know what to do, even if they believed that the drive existed. How did one force the hereditary ruler of the solar system to give up a secret?

  Hedrock, who had his own ideas of how it would have to be done, became grimmer. He moved across to the library, and studied the century clock. He had several problems. It would take a little while to organize his campaign, and his time of action must be postponed until a Rest Day.

  As for the spider beings, they were an unknown factor, whose movements he could not control. He’d have to act as if they did not exist.

  “Let’s see now,” he muttered half to himself, “today is October 1st, and tomorrow is— Rest Day! ”

  That shocked him. It meant that he had one afternoon to prepare for the most sustained physical effort in his career. What disturbed him was that the preliminary would not be at all simple. Imagine facing men like Nensen, Deely and Triner when he was in a hurry. But there was no time to waste in regret that the situation wasn’t different.

  He returned to his underground laboratory and began a detailed study of a very large ’stat which occupied one corner of his transport room. The ’stat was lined with row on row of glow points, slightly more than fifteen hundred. It took a while to punch out the score of individual numbers that he wanted.

  Seventeen of them turned a rich green. The other three flashed red, which meant that the three men at the other end were not in their offices. Seventeen out of twenty was better than he had expected. Hedrock straightened from his job of selection, and faced the ’stat as it started to glow.

  “Take a good look at me,” he said. “You will probably be seeing me today.”

  He paused, considering his next words. It would be foolish to indicate that he was talking to more than one individual. Undoubtedly, some of the shrewd men listening in probably knew that other firms were in the same position as their own, but it would be gratuitous folly to confirm their suspicion.

  Satisfied, Hedrock went on, “Your firm will remain open until tomorrow morning. Provide sleeping quarters, entertainment and food for the staffs. Continue with normal business until the usual hour , or until further notice. Employees must be paid a twenty percent bonus for this week. For your private information, a great emergency has arisen, but if you do not hear further by seven a.m. tomorrow, consider the matter closed. Meanwhile, read Article 7 of your incorporation papers. That is all.”

  He clicked off the ’stat and grimaced at the lateness of the hour. At least thirty minutes must lapse between his verbal and his first physical call. There was no other way. It was impossible that he appear in person a minute after his ’stat message. The message would have caused a big enough sensation as it was, without the added complication of his immediate arrival.

  Besides, he still had to rig up a magnifier control, and swallow the magnifier. He stood finally with narrowed eyes, considering the potentialities of the interviews that he had to make. Some of the executives out there would be extremely hard to dominate quickly. He had been intending to take action against several of them for a long time. They’d been big bosses too long. His policy of letting a family operate for generations, merely paying into a central fund, but otherwise without control, had progressively weakened his authority. It couldn’t be helped. Control of so many was a practical impossibility.

  The half-hour up, Hedrock plugged in a transmitter, examined the gleaming corridor that showed beyond. He stepped through. The door he finally came to had a sign on it:

  STAR REALITY CO.

  TRILLION CREDITS IN PROPERTIES

  Office of the President

  J. T. TRINER

  Trespassers Forbidden

  With his ring, Hedrock actuated the secret mechanism of the door. He walked in, straight past the pretty girl at the great reception desk, who tried to stop him. The rays of his ring automatically unlocked the second door. He stepped inside to find himself in a large and imposing office. A big pale-faced, pale-eyed man rose from behind a curving monster of a desk, and stared at him.

  Hedrock paid no attention. One of the other rings that he had put on his finger was tingling violently. He turned his hand slowly. When the tingling stopped, the ring stone was pointing directly at the wall behind the desk. It was a good job of camouflage, Hedrock decided admiringly. The wall design was unbroken, the enormous blaster behind it perfectly hidden. Without his finder ring, he would never have spotted it.

  Abruptly, he felt grimmer. He allowed himself the icy and swift thought that his discovery only confirmed his opinion of the man. A veritable cannon hidden in his office—what damnable stuff! His private case history of Triner showed that he wasn’t merely self-centered and ruthless, common traits in an age of gigantic administration trusts. Nor was he simply amoral; hundreds of thousands of Isher citizens had committed as many murders as Triner, but the difference in motive was like
the difference between right and wrong. Triner was a prurient wretch, a lecherous skunk, a very hound of evil.

  The man was coming forward, holding out his hand, a hearty smile on his pale face, a hearty tone to his voice, as he said, “I don’t know whether to believe in you or not, but at least I’m willing to listen.”

  Hedrock strode toward the outstretched hand as if to shake it. At the last instant, he stepped past the man and in a moment had seated himself in the big chair behind the curving desk. He faced the startled executive, thinking savagely: So Triner was willing to talk, was he? That was nice. But first he’d get some psychological bludgeoning and a lesson in straightforward ruthlessness with emphatic punctuation of the fact that there were tougher men in the world than J. T. Triner. Keep pushing him; keep him off balance. Hedrock said curtly:

  “Before you sit down in that chair, Mr. Triner, before we talk, I want you to start your staff on the job you’re going to do for me—are you listening?”

  There was no doubt about it. Triner was not only listening, he was shocked and angry and bewildered.

  Not that he looked cowed. Hedrock knew better than to expect fear. Triner’s expression simply grew cautious, with a mixture of curiosity thrown in. He said, “What is k you want done?”

  That was too important for ruthlessness of manner. Hedrock drew a folded paper from his pocket.

  “There,” he said earnestly, “are the names of fifty cities. I want all my business properties in those cities listed according to avenues and streets. Never mind who’s in them. Just get the street numbers, two, four, six, eight and so on. And only in cases where there are many in a row, such as a whole block, at least a dozen altogether. Do you follow that?”

  “Yes, but—” Triner looked dazed. Hedrock cut him off:

  “Give the order.” He studied the man from narrowed eyes, then he leaned forward.

  “I—hope—Triner—that you have been living up to Article 7 of your constitution.”