Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

He shook his head at her, smiling. From the expression on her face, he knew that she knew what he was going to say. But he said it anyway. 'How did you do it?'

'I snatched your blaster.'

'You had a vision of the month ahead?'

She shook her head. 'Oh, no. The blur that started then continued throughout the month. But it was I who saw you slump to the floor.' She stood up. 'It was all very easy, I assure you.'

Gosseyn nodded. He could see what she meant. Captain Free and Oreldon would have stood blank for a second, not realizing what was happening.

They offered no resistance,' said Leej. 'And I had them carry you to our room. But just a moment now. I have some soup for you.'

Our room , thought Gosseyn. It was a point which he had intended bringing up as gently as possible. He watched her as she walked swiftly out of the room. She came back a moment later, carrying a tray on which was a steaming bowl of soup. She was so friendly, so helpful; she took their relationship so completely for granted, that he changed his mind about speaking to her just then.

He ate the soup, and felt much better. But when he gave her back the tray, his thoughts were already turning back to their deadly situation.

'I'd better go and see Captain Free,' he said.

As he walked along the empty corridor, Venus and all the mighty events of the galaxy seemed very far away.

Captain Free opened the door of his room, and Gosseyn's first impression was that he was ill. The stocky commander's face was very pale, and there was a feverish look in his brown eyes. He stared at Gosseyn as if he were seeing a ghost. The color rushed abruptly into his cheeks.

'Gosseyn,' he said, and his voice was a croak, 'what's been the matter with you? We're lost.'

Gosseyn stared at him, wondering if this exhibition of the emotion of fear explained the inefficiency which had enabled him to capture the destroyer. He said finally, quietly, 'We've got work to do. Let's do it.'

They walked side by side along the silent corridors of the ship to the control room. In an hour he had the picture. Extra circuits had been built into the matrixes that were in the three similarity slots of the control board. They were so interconnected that if any one of them was used once on a 'break,' the pattern in all three would be disorganized.

The break had occurred during the similarization which had also resulted in his becoming unconscious a month before. The disarranged matrixes had been tuned to the patterns of the three nearest bases. Since they no longer worked, it was impossible to get to base by similarity means.

Gosseyn saw that Captain Free believed every word of his explanation of the operation of the system, and that was enough for him. He believed it, also, but in a more qualified fashion.

Somebody , he told himself, set up those circuits. Who?

The problem was more subtle than it might at first appear. It was reasonable to assume that the Follower was responsible. And yet the shadow-thing had admitted to Janasen when the two of them were on Venus that he was not mechanically minded.

The statement was not necessarily fact. But, still, people who used the products of the machine age did not automatically know how to set up relays to interfere with the operation of intricate machines.

Gosseyn walked over to the captain's desk and sat down. He was more tired than he cared to think about. But he dared not slacken his effort. In far-off space a fateful order had been given. Destroy Venus! Or rather, destroy the people of the solar system.

Commands like that probably took time to carry out. But the time was running short.

After two minutes rest, he climbed to his feet. There was only one quick, logical method of solving their immediate problem. It seemed to him that he was ready to make it.

He memorized a number of key points aboard the ship as well as several power sources. And then he pressed the button that opened one of the sliding doors to the lower section of the ship. He motioned Captain Free to go ahead of him.

Wordlessly, they headed down the stairway.

It was a different world they came to. Here was the laughter of men, the shouts and the sounds of many movements. For Gosseyn it meant a confusion of perception of neural flow.

The dormitory doors were open, and men stood along the corridors. They stiffened to attention as Captain Free came up, but relaxed after he had passed. Gosseyn said:

'Do the men know the truth?'

The commander shook his head. 'They think they're making a trip between two planets. I've been in daily touch with the noncommissioned officers in charge, and everything is fine.'

They didn't even worry about the connecting doors being locked for a month?' Sharply.

'They only go upstairs when ordered, and that usually means work. So I don't think they'll be worried.'

Gosseyn made no comment on that. His theory was that somebody had gone up without orders, and worked hard indeed. He could possibly have located the guilty man by questioning four hundred and eighty separate individuals with a lie detector. But while he did so, laboriously, Enro's fleet would arrive in the solar system, radioactive isotopes would be sprayed down upon the misty skies of Venus and Earth, and three billion people would die horribly without having received a single advance warning.

The prevision was without benefit of Predictors, but it was nightmarishly realistic none the less. Gosseyn shuddered, and swiftly put his attention back to the job at hand. At his suggestion, Captain Free ordered a general return to dormitories.

'Shall I have the doors locked?' he asked.

Gosseyn shook his head.

There are several exits to this place,' the commander persisted. 'I presume you're down here for a purpose. Shall I have guards posted at the doors?'

'No,' said Gosseyn.

The captain stared at him uneasily. 'I'm worried,' he said. There's no one up there who's free except the Predictor woman. It'd be unpleasant if someone slipped up the stairway and closed the connecting doors between the two sections.'

Gosseyn smiled grimly. The other wasn't even close in his estimate of the situation. That wasn't the danger. 'It's a point I've considered,' was all he said.

They went into each dormitory in turn. While the noncommissioned officers and Captain Free made a roll call, Gosseyn talked to individuals. He made a pattern out of the task. 'What's your name? How are you feeling? Worried about anything?' With each question he watched not only the man's facial responses but the neural flow that came from him like an aura.

He made a fast job of it, particularly as the crew members began to answer. 'Feeling all right, Doc.' 'Yes, Doc.' Gosseyn did not discourage the assumption that he was a psychiatrist.

He was in the third dormitory when a relay closed in his extra brain. Somebody was climbing the stairway that led to the upper section of the ship. He turned to speak to Captain Free, but the commander was not in sight. A noncommissioned officer stepped forward smartly.

'The captain went to the washroom. He'll be right back.'

Gosseyn waited. It would take, he estimated, one and a half minutes for the Follower's agent to go from the stairway to the control room from which the Predictors had been sent to their assigned stations. Since all such subsidiary Distorters operated through the main matrix, the control room must be first.

He would have liked to talk to Leej, but to bring her down by similarity would be too startling. And, besides, there wasn't time. He said something about being right back, stepped out into the corridor, crouched down, and in that position similarized himself behind the captain's desk in the control room.

Cautiously, he peered over the top of the desk, but for a while he made no effort to move, simply knelt there and watched. The man was removing the panel of the Distorter board directly over the similarity slots. He worked swiftly, and every little while looked over his shoulder toward one or the other of the two entrances. And yet Gosseyn had no impression of frantic haste. It was not surprising; traitors such as this always had some extra quality of nerve or boldness that set them apart from their fellows. Such a man would have to be handled very carefully.