Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

'Good girl,' said Gosseyn.

But he frowned, and noted a point for future reference. There was in her words a veiled implication of previous collaboration with the Follower.

'Leej,' he said without looking at her, 'are there any blurs in the next few weeks?'

There is no picture at all,' was the answer. 'It's as if everything is cut off. The future is a blank.'

'Perhaps,' said the Follower softly but resonantly, 'that is because Gosseyn is about to die.'

He added quickly, 'My friend, you have five seconds to make up your mind.'

The five seconds passed in silence.

Gosseyn had expected, if an attack came, it would be one of three types. First, the Follower might try to utilize the magnetic power of Leej's ship against him. He'd quickly discover that that wouldn't work.

Second, and most likely, he'd use a source of power in the Retreat, since that was his base of operations. He'd quickly discover that that wouldn't work either. Third, he would use an outside source of power. If it was the latter, Gosseyn's hope was that it operated across space and not by mechanical similarity.

If it came by space, the tubes he had set up would detect it and his extra brain could then similarize electric energy onto the carrier beam of the tubes.

It turned out to be a combination. A Distorter and an electric power source in the Retreat. Gosseyn felt the abrupt redirection of the current from the forty thousand kilowatt dynamo. It was what he had been waiting for, was ready for. There were 'switches' in his extra brain which, once set to cues, operated faster than any electric switch.

The problem, with his special method of controlling matter and energy, was that in a comparative sense it took a long time to 'set' the initial pattern.

The cue was automatic.

All the power of the dynamo flowed, not as the Follower directed, into a blaster, but according to the extra brain pattern. At first Gosseyn let it churn harmlessly into the ground at one of his memorized areas on the island. He wanted the Follower to realize that the attack was not proceeding according to plan.

'One, two, three,' he counted deliberately, and then without further pause similarized it into the air directly in front of the shadow shape.

There was a flash of flame, brighter than the sun.

The shadowy stuff absorbed it, and held. It took every volt and watt, wavering as it did so, but it held.

Presently the Follower said, 'We seem to be at an impasse.'

It was a reality that had already struck home to Gosseyn. He was all too keenly aware of his own shortcomings. It was not apparent, but Gilbert Gosseyn was ridiculously vulnerable. A surprise blast from a source of power over which he had not previously established control, and he would be dead.

The fact that his memory would go on in the body of an eighteen year old, and that there would be an apparent life continuity did not alter the meaning of the defeat. No youth of eighteen would ever save a galaxy. And if such an individual, or even several such individuals interfered too much, they also could be removed from the scene by older and more powerful individuals like the Follower.

The perspiration stood out on his face. Just for a moment, there was a plan in his mind, to attempt something he had never tried before. But he rejected it almost instantly. Atomic energy was simply one more power that he could control with his extra mind. But to know that he could do it, and actually to do it, were entirely different aspects of the problem.

In this confined space, atomic radiation could be as deadly to the user as to the person it was used against.

'I think,' the Follower's voice cut across his thoughts, 'we'd better come to an agreement. I warn you I have not used all my resources.'

Gosseyn could well believe that. The Follower need merely turn to an outside source of power, and instantly he would be the victor in this tense and deadly battle. At best, Gilbert Gosseyn could retreat to the Follower's island. The possibility of an ignominious recapture was as close as that.

And still he dared not use the atomic energy from the pile in the Retreat.

He made the famous thalamo-cortical pause, and consciously said to himself, 'There is more to this situation than is apparent. No individual can take the output of a forty thousand kilowatt dynamo. Therefore, I am making an identification. There must be an explanation for the shadow shape which is beyond my own understanding of physics.'

But whose physics? The Follower had confessed that he knew little of such things. Whose vast knowledge was he using?

The mystery seemed as great as that posed by the existence of such a being as the Follower.

The shadow shape broke the silence. 'I admit,' he said, that you've caught me by surprise. Next time I'll operate on a different basis.' He broke off. Gosseyn, will you consider any kind of partnership?'

'Yes, but on my conditions.'

'What are they?' After a brief hesitation.

'First, that you turn the Predictors against Enro.'

'Impossible.' The Follower's voice was curt. 'The League must go down, civilization briefly lose its cohesion. I have a very special reason for requiring the makings of a universal state.'

Gosseyn remembered wryly where he had heard that before. He stiffened. 'At a cost of a hundred billion dead,' he said. 'No, thank you.'

'I suppose you're a Null-A.' Grimly.

There was no point in denying that. The Follower knew that Venus existed, knew where it was, and could presumably order its destruction at any time. 'I'm a Null-A,' Gosseyn admitted.

The Follower said: 'Suppose I told you I was prepared to have a Null-A universal state.'

'I'd hesitate to accept that as a fact.'

'And yet, I might consider it. I haven't had time to examine this non-Aristotelian philosophy in detail, but as I see it, it's a method of scientific thinking. Is that correct?'

'It's a way of thinking,' said Gosseyn cautiously.

The Follower's voice bad a musing tone when he spoke again. 'I've never yet,' he said, 'had reason to fear science in any of its branches. I don't think I need to begin now. Let me put it like this: Let us both give this matter further consideration. But next time we meet you must have made up your mind. Meanwhile, I shall try to prevent you from making any more use of power on this planet.'

Gosseyn said nothing, and this time the silence continued. Slowly, the shadow shape began to withdraw.

Even in that bright light it was difficult to decide when the last wisp of it faded out of sight.

There was a pause. And then the dynamo in the Follower's Retreat began to give off less power. In thirty seconds the power was off.

Another pause. And then the pile went dead. Almost at the same instant, the magnetic power in the Retreat faded off into nothingness.

The Follower had made a shrewd guess as to what had happened. Even if he didn't suspect the full truth, he had now taken action that had all the effect of a complete and accurate analysis.

Only the magnetic power of a small ship remained in the control of Gilbert Gosseyn.

For the sake of sanity, DATE: Do not say, 'Scientists believe. . . .' Say, 'Scientists believed in 1956 . . .' 'John Smith (1956) is an isolationist. . .' All things, including John Smith's political opinions, are subject to change and can therefore only be referred to in terms of the moment.

Slowly, Gosseyn let himself become aware again of his surroundings. He turned his head and glanced toward the dining room, where the servants had been so busy a short time before. They were not in sight. He could see the edge of the table, and all the dishes seemed to be on it, though no food was visible.