A. van Vogt - The Empire of Isher

“Suppose I were to offer the interstellar drive?”

Her intensity seemed to astound the man. He drew back and stared at her. “Madam,” he said finally, “I can offer you no intuition one way or the other, nor any logical hope. I must admit that I am puzzled by the electronic shield, but I get nothing, no sense of what it could be, or why it should help him. Whatever he did when he was within it could not to my knowledge assist him to escape through the impregnable walls of a Weapon Shop battle cruiser, or out of the metal room where he was taken. All the science of the Weapon Makers and the Isher Empire is arrayed against him. Science moves in spurts, and we are in the dynamic middle of the latest one. A hundred years from now, when the lull has set in, an immortal man may begin to get his bearings, not before.”

“Suppose he tells them the truth?” It was Prince del Curtin who spoke.

“Never!” the woman flashed. “Why, that would be begging. No Isher would think of such a thing.”

Gonish said, “Her Majesty is right, but that is not the only reason. I will not explain. The possibility of a confession does not exist.”

She was only vaguely aware of his words. She whirled on her cousin. She held herself straight, her head high. She said in a thrillingly clear voice, “Keep trying to contact the Weapon Makers. Offer them Gonish, the interstellar drive, and legal recognition, including an arrangement whereby their courts and ours establish a liaison, all in exchange for Captain Hedrock. They would be mad to refuse.”

The passion sagged. She saw that the No-man was gazing at her gloomily. “Madam,” he said sadly, “you have obviously paid no attention to my earlier statement. The intention was to kill him within a maximum of one hour. In view of his previous escape from the Weapon Makers, that intention will not be deviated from. The greatest human story in history is over. And, Madam—”

The No-man stared at her steadily. “For your sake, it is just as well. You know as well as I do that you cannot have children.”

“What’s this?” said Prince del Curtin in a vast amazement. “Innelda—”

“Silence!” Her voice was harsh with mortified fury. “Prince, have this man returned to his cell. He has really become intolerable. And I forbid you to discuss your sovereign with him.”

The prince bowed. “Your Majesty commands,” he said coldly. He turned. “This way, Mr. Gonish.”

She had wondered if she could be hurt further; and here it was. She stood, after a moment, alone in her shattered world. Long minutes dragged before she realized that sleep at least would be kind.

It was not so much a room in which Hedrock found himself as a metal cavern. He stopped short in the doorway, beside Peter Cadron, a sardonic smile on his face. He saw that the councilor was watching him from narrowed eyes, and his lips curled.

Let them wonder and doubt. They had surprised him once by an unexpected arrest. This time it was different. This time he was ready for them. His gaze played boldly over the twenty-nine men who sat around the V table which the Weapon Maker Council used in their public hearings. He waited until Peter Cadron, the thirtieth of that high council, had walked over and seated himself; waited while the commander of the guards reported that the prisoner was stripped of all rings, that his clothes had been changed and his body subjected to a transparency and found to be normal, with nowhere a hidden weapon.

Having spoken, the commander and his guards withdrew, but still Hedrock waited. He smiled as Peter Cadron explained the reason for the precautions; and then, slowly, coolly, he walked forward and faced the open end of the V table. He saw that the men’s eyes were on him. Some looked curious, some expectant, some merely hostile. All seemed willing for him to speak,

“Gentlemen,” Hedrock said in his ringing voice, “I’m going to ask one question: Does anyone present know where I was when I stepped through that shield? If not, I would suggest that I be released at once because the mighty Weapon Makers’ Council is in for a devil of a shock.”

There was silence. The men looked at each other. “I would say,” said young Ancil Nare, “that the sooner the execution is carried out the better. At the present moment, his throat can be cut; he can be strangled; a bullet can smash his head; an energy gun disintegrate him. His body is without protection—if necessary we could even club him to death. We know that all this can be done this instant. We do not know, in view of his strange statements, that it can be done ten minutes from now.” In his earnestness, the youthful executive stood up as he finished, “Gentlemen, let us act now!”

Hedrock’s loud clapping broke the silence that followed. “Bravo,” he said, “bravo. Such well-spoken advice merits being acted upon. Go ahead and try to kill me in any fashion you please. Draw your guns and fire; pick up your chairs and bludgeon me; order knives and pin me against the wall. No matter what you do, gentlemen, you’re in for a shock.” His eyes were chilling. “And deservedly so.

“Wait!” His thunderous voice crowned the attempt of the solid-faced Deam Lealy to break into speech. “ I’ll do the talking. It is the Council that is on trial, not I. It can still win leniency for its criminal action in attacking the Imperial Palace by recognizing now, without further offence, that it has broken its own laws.”

“Really,” a councilor wedged in the words, “this is beyond toleration.”

“Let him talk,” Peter Cadron said. “We shall learn a great deal about his motives.”

Hedrock bowed gravely. “Indeed you shall, Mr. Cadron. My motives are concerned entirely with the action of this Council in ordering the attack on the palace.”

“I can understand,” said Cadron ironically, “your vexation that this Council did not respect a regulation more than three thousand years old when apparently you had counted upon it and upon our natural reluctance to make such an attack, and accordingly felt yourself safe to pursue your own ends, whatever they are.”

Hedrock said steadily, “I did not count upon the regulation or the reluctance. My colleagues and I”—it was just as well to suggest once more that he was not alone—“have noted with regret the developing arrogance of this Council, its growing belief that it was not accountable for its actions, and that therefore it could safely flout its own constitution.”

“Our constitution,” said Bayd Roberts, the senior councilor, with dignity, “demands that we take any action necessary to maintain our position. The proviso that this be done without an attack on the person or residence of the reigning Isher, her heirs or successors, has no meaning in an extreme emergency such as this. You will notice that we did secure the absence of Her Majesty during the attack.”

“I must interrupt.” It was the chairman of the Council. “Incredibly, the prisoner had succeeded in concentrating the conversation according to his own desires. I can understand that we all have a guilty feeling about the attack on the palace, but we are not required to defend our actions to the prisoner.” He spoke curtly into his chair-arm ’stat, “Commander, come in here and put a sack over the prisoner’s head.”

Hedrock was smiling gently as the guard of ten came in. He said, “We will now have the shock.”

He stood perfectly still as the men grabbed him. The sack came up and—

It happened.

When Hedrock, in the palace half an hour before, had stepped through the section of wall which he had brought up from the tombs, he found himself in a dim world. He stood for a long time letting his body adjust, hoping that no one would attempt to follow him through that electronic-force field. It was not a personal worry. The vibratory shield was tuned to his body and his alone and during all the years that it had been part of the wall in the underground palace storeroom, the only danger had been that someone might unknowingly wander into it, and suffer damage. Hedrock had often wondered what would happen to such an unlucky innocent. Several animals that he had tagged and put through an experimental model had been sent back from points as far away as ten thousand miles. Some had never been returned despite the high reward offer printed on the tag.