Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

The prince,' said Gosseyn, 'is being used for a private purpose of Enro. You don't think Enro will leave him alive after he's through with him.'

She was suddenly very pale. 'You dare to talk like that,' she breathed, 'knowing that he might be listening.'

The prince,' said Gosseyn, 'has nothing to lose.'

Her gray eyes were curious—and more. 'You speak of him —as if he is someone else.'

'It's a way of thinking objectively.' He broke off. 'But I had two purposes in coming to see you. The first is a question, which I hope you will answer. I have a theory that no man can subjugate a galactic empire in eleven years,

and that four million hostages held here in Gorgzid indicate tremendous unrest throughout the Greatest Empire. Am I right about that?’

'Why, of course.' Nirene shrugged. 'Enro is quite candid about it. He is playing a game against time, and the game interests him as much as the result itself.'

'It would. But now, question two.' Quickly, he explained Ashargin's position in the palace, and finished, 'Has he yet been assigned an apartment?'

Nirene's eyes were wide and wondering. 'Do you mean to tell me,' she said, 'that you don't really know what has happened?'

Gosseyn did not answer. He was busy relaxing Ashargin, who had suddenly become tense. The young woman stood up, and he saw that she was regarding him in a less unfriendly manner. She pursed her lips, and then looked back with a searching, puzzled gaze.

'Come with me,' she said. She walked swiftly to a door that opened on to another corridor. She passed through a second door at the far end, and stepped aside for him to enter. Gosseyn saw that it was a bedroom.

'Our room,' she said. Once again the tone was in her voice, and her eyes watched him questioningly. She shook her head finally. 'You really don't know, do you? Very well, I'll tell you.'

She paused, and tensed a little, as if putting the fact into words gave it a sharper reality, then: 'You and I were married this morning under a special decree issued by Secoh. I was officially notified a few minutes ago.'

Having spoken the words, she slipped past him, and was gone along the corridor.

Gosseyn closed the door after her and locked it. How much time he had he didn't know, but if the Ashargin body was ever to be reorientated, then moments like this must be utilized.

His plan was very simple. He would remain in the room until Enro ordered him to do some specific thing. Then he would disobey the order.

He could feel Ashargin quivering at the deadliness of such an idea. But Gosseyn held out against the weakness, and thought consciously for the benefit of the other's nervous system, Prince, every time you take a positive action on the basis of a high-level consideration, you establish certainties of courage, self-assurance and skills.

All that was oversimplified, of course, but a necessary preliminary to higher level Null-A training.

Gosseyn's first act was to go into the bathroom and turn on the hot water. He set the thermostat, and then, before undressing, went out to the bedroom to look for a mechanical device that would give off a rhythmic sound. He failed to find one.

That was disappointing, but still there were makeshifts that would do. He undressed and, when the tub was full, turned off the faucet, but allowed a steady leak, not too fast and not too slow. He had to force himself to climb into the water. For Ashargin's thin body, it seemed hot to the point of scalding.

At first he breathed gaspingly, but gradually he grew accustomed to the heat, and he settled back and listened to the rhythmic sound of the leak.

Drip, drip, drip, went the faucet. He kept his eyes unblinkingly open, and watched a bright spot on the wall at a point higher than eye level. Drip, drip, drip. Steady sound, like the beat of his heart. Beat, beat, beat—hot, hot, hot, he transposed the meaning. So hot, every muscle was relaxing. Drip —drip—drip. Re-lax, re-lax, re-lax.

There was a time in the history of man on Earth when a drop of water falling rhythmically on a man's forehead had been used to drive him mad. This, of course, was not the head; the position under the faucet would have been uncomfortable. But the principle was the same.

Drip—drip—drip. The Chinese torturers who used that method didn't know that behind it was a great secret, and that the man who went mad did so because he thought he would, because he had been told he would, because he had absolute faith that the system would produce madness.

If his faith had been that it would produce sanity, the effect was just as great in that direction. If his faith had been that it would make a thin, gangling body strong, the rhythm worked equally well in that direction. Drip, drip, drip. Relax, relax, so easy to relax. In hospitals on Earth, when men were brought in taut from emotional or physical ills, the warm bath was the first step in relaxation. But unless other steps were taken, the tension soon returned. Conviction was the vital ingredient, a flexible, empirical sort of conviction which could be readily altered to fit the dynamic world of reality, yet which was essentially indestructible. Gosseyn had it.

Ashargin did not. There were too many unbalanced developments in his weak body. Years of fear had kept his muscles flabby, drained his energy and stunted his growth.

The slow minutes dragged rhythmically by. He felt himself dozing. It was so comfortable, so cozy, to lie in the warm water, in the womb of warm water from which all life had come. Back in the hot seas of the beginning of things, in the bosom of the Great Mother—and drift to the slow, pulsing rhythm of a heartbeat that still quivered with the thrill of new existence.

A knock on the outer door of the bedroom brought him lazily back to awareness of his surroundings. 'Yes?' he called.

'Enro,' came the strained voice of Nirene, 'has just called. He wants you to report to him immediately.'

Gosseyn felt the pang go through Ashargin's body. 'All right,' he said.

'Prince,' said Nirene, and her tone was urgent, 'he was very blunt about it.'

Gosseyn nodded to himself. He felt stimulated, and he could not completely fight off Ashargin's uneasiness. But there was no doubt in his mind as he climbed out of the bathtub.

The moment for him to defy Enro had arrived.

He dressed, nevertheless, without haste, and then left the bedroom. Nirene was waiting in the living room. Gosseyn hesitated at sight of her. He was acutely conscious of Enro's special power of hearing and seeing through solid walls. There was a question he wanted to ask, but not directly.

The solution occurred to him after a moment. 'Have you a palace directory?'

She walked silently to the videophone in one corner, and brought a glowing flexible plate, which she handed him with the explanation: 'Just pull that slide down. Each time it clicks it shows the floor of the person you want, and where his apartment is. There's a list of names on the back. It's automatically kept up to date.'

Gosseyn didn't need the list. He knew what names he wanted. With a quick movement of his hand he slid the lever to Reesha, covering the action as much as possible.

Presumably, Enro could 'see' through a hand as readily as through walls, but there must be some limitation to his gift. Gosseyn decided to depend on speed.

One glance he took, had his information, and then he shifted the lever to the name of Secoh. That, also, required only an instant. He moved the lever casually but swiftly to zero position, and handed the plate back to Nirene.

He felt wonderfully calm and at ease. The Ashargin body was quiescent, accepting the violent positivities that were being forced upon it with an equanimity that promised well for the future.

'Good luck,' he said to Nirene.