Alfred van Vogt - The Players of Null-A

The pressure on his mind ended instantly.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw that Leej was standing stiffly, a distorted expression on her face. In front of him Captain Free sat rigid, his fingers contracted like marble claws less than an inch from the lever that would take them back to Gela.

Above him, the roboperator transmitted: ‘Unit Cr…bbzzzz…incapacitated. All personnel aboard but one seized—concentrate on the recalcitrant '

With one flick of his finger, Gosseyn pushed the lever which was set to break near the base a thousand light-years away.

There was blackness.

The destroyer Y-381907 poised in space, safe, slightly more than eight hundred light-years from Venus. In the control chair Captain Free began to lose that abnormal rigidity.

Gosseyn whirled, and raced for Leej. He reached her just in time. The stiffness that had held her on her feet let go. He caught her as she fell, limply.

As he carried her to the lounge in front of the transparent dome, he visualized the happenings elsewhere on the ship. Men by the hundreds must be falling or had already fallen to the floor. Or if they had been lying down throughout the crisis, then now they were sagging, loose muscled, as if every tension in their bodies had suddenly let go.

Leej's heart was beating. She had hung so lax in his arms that for a moment the thought had come that she was dead. As Gosseyn straightened, her eyelids flickered and tried to open. But it was nearly three minutes before she was able to sit up and say, wanly, 'Surely, you're not going back?'

'Just a minute,' said Gosseyn.

Captain Free was stirring, and Gosseyn had a vision of the commander convulsively tugging at switches, levers and dials in a frantic belief that the ship was still in danger. Hurriedly, he lifted him out of the control chair.

His mind was busy as he carried the man to the lounge beside Leej, thinking about what she had said. Now, he asked, 'You see us returning?'

She nodded reluctantly. 'But that's all. It's outside my range.'

Gosseyn nodded, and sat staring at her. His sense of elation was dimming. The Venusian method of defense was so unique, so calculated to catch only people not Null-A trained, that, once they engaged, only his presence had saved the ship.

Briefly, it had seemed as if the Venusians had an invincible defense.

But if he hadn't been aboard, then there would have been no blur to confuse Leej. She would have foreseen the attack in ample time for the ship to escape.

In the same way, Enro's fleet, with its Predictors, would escape the first onslaught. Or perhaps the predictions could be so accurate that the fleet could keep on breaking toward Venus.

It was possible that the entire Venusian defense, marvelous though it was, was worthless. In building their robots, the Venusians had failed to take the Predictors into their calculations.

The fact was not surprising. Even Crang had not known about them. It might be, of course, that there'd be no Predictors on the fleet Enro was sending. But that surely could not be counted on.

His mind reached that far, and then circled back to what Leej had said. He nodded, visualizing the situation. Then he said:

'We'll have to try again, because we've got to get through those defenses. It's as important as ever.'

In a way it was more important. Already there was in his mind a picture of robot defense forces like this opposing Enro's titanic fleet in the Sixth Decant. And if a method could be found to make them react a little faster, so that the attack came in one second and not in fifty-four, then even the prevision of the Predictors might be too slow.

Gosseyn considered several possibilities, then carefully explained the nature of the cortical-thalamic pause to Leej and the captain. They went through the routine several times, a mere brushing on the edge of the subject, but it was all there was time for.

The precautions might not work, but they were worth trying.

The preliminaries completed, he seated himself in the control chair, and looked around. 'Ready?' he asked.

Leej said in a querulous tone, 'I don't think I like being out in space.' That was her only comment.

Captain Free said nothing.

Gosseyn said, 'All right, this time we're going through as far as we can.'

He pushed the lever.

The attack came thirty-eight seconds by the clock after the blackness ended. Gosseyn watched the nuances of its development, instantly nullified the assault on his own mind. But this time he took a further step.

He tried to superimpose a message upon the complex force. 'Order attack to end!' He repeated that several times.

He waited for the command to be echoed by the roboperator, but it continued to transmit messages between the robotic brains outside the ship. He sent a second message. 'Break all contacts!' he ordered firmly.

The ship’s robovoice said something about all but one of the units being incapacitated, and, without a single reference to his command, added, 'Concentrate on the recalcitrant '

Gosseyn pressed the similarity lever, and broke after five light-minute's.

In sixteen seconds, the attack resumed. He sent a quick glance at Leej and the commander. They were both sagging in their seats. Their brief Null-A training hadn't proved very effective.

He forgot them, and watched the viewplates, waiting for a blaster attack. When nothing happened, he jumped a light-day nearer Sol. A glance at the distance gauges showed that Venus was still slightly more than four light-days away.

This time the attack resumed after eight seconds.

It was still not fast enough. But it helped to fill out the picture that was forming in his mind. The Venusians were trying to capture ships and not destroy them. The devices they had developed for that purpose would have been marvelous in a galaxy of normal human beings. And they were wonderful in their ability to distinguish between friend and foe. But against extra brains or Predictors they had a limited value. Gosseyn suspected that they had been rushed through the assembly lines in the belief that time was short.

Since that was truer every minute, he tried one more test. He sent a message to the unit that was still trying with a blind, mechanical obstinacy to capture him: 'Consider me and everyone aboard captured.'

Again, there was no response to show that anybody had heard. Once more Gosseyn pushed the similarity lever, the needle controls of which had been set so accurately by Leej. Now , he thought, we'll see .

When the momentary blackness ended, the distance indicators showed ninety-four light-minutes from Venus. In three seconds the attack came, and this time it was on a different level entirely.

The ship shuddered in every plate. On the view plate the defensive screen was a bright orange in color. The robo-radar spoke for the first time, a whining howl: 'Atomic bombs approaching!'

With the flip of his finger, Gosseyn moved the similarity lever back, and jumped nine hundred and eleven light-years towards Gela.

The second attempt to penetrate the Venusian defenses had failed.

Gosseyn, his mind already intent on the details of the third attempt, revived Leej. She came to consciousness, and shook her head.

'It's out of the question,' she said. 'I'm too tired.'

He started to say something, but instead he studied her face. The lines of weariness in it were unmistakable. Her body drooped noticeably.

I don't know what those robots did to me,' she said, 'but I need a rest before I can do what you want. Besides,' she went on, 'you haven't got the energy either.'

Her words reminded him of his own weariness. He rejected the obstacle, and parted his lips to speak. Leej shook her head.

'Please don't argue with me,' she said in a tired voice. I can tell you right now that there's slightly more than a six-hour pause to the next blur, and that we spend the time in much-needed sleep.'