Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

In the rearview plate, the image of the spinning world of Yalerta showed as a saucer of light holding a vast, dark, misty ball. Gosseyn turned abruptly from the scene, and faced Oreldon. The officer turned pale when Gosseyn told him his plan.

'Don't let him guess I'm responsible,' he begged.

Gosseyn promised without hesitation. But it seemed to him that if a military board of the Greatest Empire should ever investigate the seizure of the Y-381907 the truth would be quickly discovered.

It was Oreldon who knocked on the captain's door, and presently emerged accompanied by a stocky, angry man. Gosseyn cut his violent language short.

'Captain Free, if it should ever be discovered that this ship was captured without the firing of a shot, you will probably pay with your life. You'd better listen to me.'

He explained that he wanted the use of the ship temporarily only, and Captain Free calmed enough to start discussing details. It appeared that Gosseyn's picture of how interstellar ships could operate was correct. Ships were set to go to a distant point, but the pattern could be broken before they got there.

'It's the only way we can stop at planets like Yalerta,' the captain explained. 'We similarize to a base more than a thousand light-years farther on, then make the break.'

Gosseyn nodded. 'I want to go to Gorgzid, and I want the pattern to break about a day's normal flight away.'

He was not surprised that the destination startled the other. 'Gorgzid!' the captain exclaimed. His eyes narrowed, and then he smiled grimly. They should be able to take care of you,' he said. 'Well, do you want to go now? It will take seven jumps.'

Gosseyn did not answer immediately. He was intent on the neural flow from the man. It was not quite normal, which actually was natural enough. There were uneven spurts, indicating emotional disturbances, but there was no purposeful pattern. It was convincing. The captain had no plans, no private schemes, no treachery in mind.

Once more he considered his position. He was attuned to the electric dynamo, and the atomic pile of the ship. He was in a position to kill every man aboard in a flash. His position was virtually impregnable.

His hesitation ended. Gosseyn drew a deep breath, and then:

'Now!' he said.

For the sake of sanity, use ET CETERA: When you say, 'Mary is a good girl!' be aware that Mary is much more than 'good.' Mary is 'good,' nice, kind, et cetera, meaning she also has other characteristics. It is worth remembering, also, that modern psychology—1956—does not consider the placidly 'good' individual a healthy personality.

He had held himself tense, half expecting that an attempt would be made to use the momentary blackout against him.

Now, he turned, and said, ‘That was certainly fast enough. We ——— ’

His voice faltered—because he was no longer in the control room of the destroyer.

Five hundred feet away was a control board on a vaster plane than the one which he had left only an instant before. The transparent dome that curved up from it was of such noble proportions that for a moment his brain refused to grasp the size.

With a sickening comprehension, he stared down at his hands and body: his hands were thin, bony; his body slim, and dressed in the uniform of a staff officer of the Greatest Empire.

Ashargin!

The recognition was so sharp that Gosseyn felt the body that he again occupied, tremble and start to cringe. With an effort he fought off the weakness, but there was despair in him as he thought of his own body far away in the control room of the Y-381907.

It must be lying unconscious on the floor. At this very minute, Oreldon and Captain Free would be overpowering Leej, preparatory to capturing the two interlopers. Or rather—-Gosseyn made the distinction bleakly—approximately eighteen thousand light-years away, several days before so far as the destroyer was concerned, Leej and Gilbert Gosseyn's body had been seized.

He must never forget that a time difference resulted from similarity transport.

He grew abruptly aware that his thoughts were too violent for the fragile Ashargin in whose body he was once more trapped. With blurred eyes he looked around him, and slowly he began to adjust. Slowly, because this was not his own highly trained nervous system which he was trying to control,

Nevertheless, presently, his brain cleared, and he stopped trembling. After a minute, though the waves of weakness made a rhythm inside him, he was able to realize what Ashargin had been doing at the moment that he was possessed.

He had been walking along with a group of fleet admirals. He saw them now ahead of him. Two had stopped, and were looking back at him where he stood. One of these said, 'Your excellency, you look ill.'

Before Gosseyn-Ashargin could reply, the other man, a tall, gaunt, old admiral, whose uniform sparkled with the jeweled medals and insignia that he wore, said sardonically, The prince has not been well since he arrived. We must commend him for his devotion to duty at such a time.'

As the second man finished speaking, Gosseyn recognized him as Grand Admiral Paleol. The identification brought him even further back to normalcy. For it was something only Ashargin would know.

Clearly, the two minds, his and Ashargin's, were starting to integrate on the unconscious level.

The realization stiffened him. Here he was. Once more he had been picked up by an unseen player, and the essence that was his mind similarized into a brain not his own. The quicker he adjusted, the better off he would be.

This time he had to try to dominate his situation. Not a trace of weakness must show. Ashargin would have to be driven to the limit of his physical capacity.

As he hurried forward, to join the other officers, all of whom had stopped now, the memory of Ashargin's last week was beginning to well up. Week? The realization that seven days had passed for Ashargin, while he had had less than a full day and night of conscious existence, briefly startled Gosseyn. But the pause it gave him was only momentary.

The picture of the previous week was surprisingly good. Ashargin had not fainted once. He had successfully bridged the initial introductions. He had even tried to put over the idea that he would be an observer until further notice. For a man who had collapsed twice in the presence of Enro, it was an achievement of the first order.

It was one more evidence that even so unintegrated a personality as Ashargin responded quickly, and that only a few hours of control by a Null-A trained mind could cause definite improvement.

'Ah,' said a staff officer just ahead of Gosseyn-Ashargin, 'here we are.'

Gosseyn looked up. They had come to the entrance of a small council room. It was evident—and Ashargin's memory backed him up—that a meeting of high officers was about to take place.

Here he would be able to make his new, determined personality of Ashargin felt.

There were officers already in the room. Others were bearing down from various points. As he watched, still others emerged from Distorter cages a hundred feet farther along the wall. Introductions came thick and fast.

Several of the officers looked at him sharply when his name was given. But Gosseyn was uniformly polite to the newcomers. His moment would come later.

Actually, his attention had been distracted.

He had suddenly realized that the great room behind him was the control room of a super-battleship. And more. It was the control room of a ship that was at this very moment engaged in the fantastic battle of the Sixth Decant.

The excitement of the thought was like a flame in his mind. During a lull in the introductions, he felt compelled to turn and look, this time with comprehending eyes. The dome towered a good five hundred feet above his head. It curved up and over him, limpidly transparent, and beyond were the jewel-bright stars of the central mass of the galaxy.