Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

His gaze leaped to Leej, paused long enough for him to notice that she was climbing to her feet, and then flashed on to the door that led to the control room. From where he stood, the full length of the corridor and even a part of the dome window were visible, but there was no sign of Yanar.

The ship remained steady on its course.

Leej broke the silence between them. 'You've done it,' she whispered.

Gosseyn walked forward from the wall. He shook off her words, but he did not tell her that the Follower had just nullified whatever victory he had gained.

Leej came toward him now, her eyes glowing. 'Don't you realize,' she said, 'you've beaten the Follower?'

She touched his arm with a quick, tremulous caress of her fingers.

Gosseyn said, 'Come along.'

He headed toward the control room. When he entered, Yanar was bending expectantly over the magnetic radio receiver. For Gosseyn it was apparent at a glance what the man was doing—still waiting for instructions. Without a word he walked forward, reached past Yanar's shoulder and shut off the instrument.

The other started violently, then straightened, and turned with a sneer on his lips. Gosseyn said, 'Pack your bags if you have any. You're getting off at the first stop.'

The Predictor shrugged. Without a word he stalked from the room.

Gosseyn stared after him thoughtfully. The man's presence annoyed him. He was an irritation, a minor nuisance whose only importance in the galactic scheme of things was that he was a Predictor. That, in spite of his obstinate and petty character, made him interesting.

Unfortunately, he was but one man out of more than two million, neither typical nor atypical of his kind. It was possible to make certain cautious hypotheses about the Predictors from his observation of Yanar and Leej. But such conclusions must be subject to change without notice.

He dismissed Yanar from his mind, and turned to Leej. 'How long will it take us to get to Crest, where the warship is?'

The young woman walked over to a plate on the wall, which Gosseyn hadn't noticed before. She pressed a button. Instantly, a map sprang into sharp relief. It showed water and islands, and a tiny point of light.

She indicated the brightness. ‘That's us,' she said. She pointed at a land mass higher up. 'There's Crest.' Carefully, she counted finely ruled lines that crisscrossed the map.

'About three hours and twenty minutes,' she said. ‘Well have plenty of time to eat dinner.'

'Eat!' Gosseyn echoed. And then he smiled, and shook his head in a half apology to himself. He was tremendously hungry, but he had almost forgotten that such normal instincts existed.

It was going to be pleasant to relax.

Dinner.

Gosseyn watched as the young girl served him a cocktail glass that contained segments of what seemed to be fish. He waited alertly while Yanar was served by one of the older women, and then transposed the two glasses by similarization.

He tested his own cocktail. It was fish, sharply flavored. But, after the initial shock to his taste buds, delicious. He ate it all, then put down his fork, sat back and looked at Leej.

'What goes on in your mind when you foresee?'

The young woman was serious. 'It's automatic.'

'You mean, there's no pattern you follow?’

'Well '

'Do you pause? Do you think of an object? Do you have to see it?'

Leej smiled, and even Yanar seemed more relaxed, even slightly, if tolerantly, amused. The woman said, 'We just have it, that's all. It's not something that has to be thought about.'

So those were the kind of answers they gave themselves. They were different. They were special. Simple answers for simple people. Actually, the complication was of an unparalleled order. The Predictor processes occurred on a nonverbal level. The whole system of Null-A was an organized attempt to co-ordinate nonverbal realities with verbal projections. Even on Null-A Venus the gap between interpretation and event had never been more than partially bridged.

He waited while the empty glasses were removed, and they were each served a plate containing a brownish red meat, three vegetables and a thin sauce of greenish color. He exchanged his for Yanar's, tasted each of the vegetables in turn, and then cut off a piece of meat. Finally, he sat back.

Try to explain,' he said.

Leej closed her eyes. 'I've always thought of it as floating in the time stream. It's a spreading out. Memories are coming into my mind, but they aren't really memories. Very clear, very sharp. Visual pictures. What is it you want to know? Ask about something not connected with yourself. You blur everything.'

Gosseyn had laid down his fork. He would have liked a prediction about Venus, but that would require projection of his future. He said, ‘The girl who's serving me.'

'Vorn?' Leej shook her head and smiled at the girl, who was standing rigid and colorless. 'It's too hard on their nervous systems. I'll tell you her future privately later on, if you wish.' The girl sighed.

‘The galactic warship,' said Gosseyn, 'on Crest?'

'You must be connected with that because it's blurred.'

'Blurred now?' He was surprised. 'Before we actually get there?'

'Yes.' She shook her head. 'This is not answering your questions, is it?'

'Could we get through to another star system if somebody was going there?'

'It depends on the distance. There is a limitation.'

'How far?'

‘I don’t know. I haven’t had enough experience.’

‘Then how do you know about it?’

The galactic recruiting ship gives out bulletins.'

'Bulletins?'

She smiled. 'They're not depending entirely on the Follower's orders. They're trying to make it seem exciting.'

Gosseyn could imagine how that would work. The project was being made to sound fascinating for the benefit of minds that had many childlike qualities. And the publicists were smart enough to indicate that there were obstacles.

'These mental pictures,' he said. 'Can you follow the future-lines of some person you know who volunteered for warship service?

She sighed and shook her head. 'It's too far. The bulletin once mentioned about eighteen thousand light-years.'

Gosseyn remembered that Crang had indicated in his conversation with Patricia Hardie, or rather Reesha, sister of Enro, that the Distorter transport bases of galactic civilization could not be more than about a thousand light-years apart.

Theoretically, similarity transport was instantaneous, and theoretically spatial distance made no difference. In practice there seemed to be a margin of error. The instruments were not perfect. Twenty decimal similarity, the critical point where interaction occurred, was no total similarity.

Apparently, the Predictor gift was also imperfect, even when not impeded by the presence of Gilbert Gosseyn. Still, whatever the distance over which they could predict, it would be adequate for the purposes of a battle in space.

Gosseyn hesitated, then: 'About how many ships' movements could they take into account at the same time?’

Leej looked surprised. 'It really doesn't matter. All of them, of course, that had any connection with the event. It's very limited in that way,'

'Limited!' said Gosseyn.

He stood up, and without a word headed for the control room.

He had been undecided about the Predictors. Prepared to let the galactic ship go on recruiting them until he made up his mind just when he would try to seize it. Now, it seemed to him that might be a long way off. One man didn't capture a battleship without planning.

A preliminary move was necessary.

At the end of the living room, Gosseyn stopped and turned. 'Leej,' he called, 'I'll be needing you.'

She was already on her feet, and she joined him a minute later in the dome. 'That was a short dinner,' she said anxiously.