Ben Bova - The Dueling Machine

“Of course,” he went on, “at the speed we’re going now, if you should step onto a nonmagnetized section.…”

Ponte started doggedly across the turntable, heading for Leoh, his eyes on the colored flooring. Leoh stepped carefully away from him, keeping as much distance between them as possible. Ponte was moving faster now, trying to keep one eye on Leoh and one on his feet. He stopped abruptly, started to move directly toward Leoh, cutting in toward the center of the turntable.

“Be careful!”

Ponte’s feet slipped out from under him. He fell painfully on his back, skidded across the turntable out to the edge, and shot across the floor to slam feet first into a big metal block.

“My leg…” He groaned. “My leg is broken…”

Leoh stopped the turntable and stepped off. He walked over to the Acquatainian, whose face was twisted with pain.

“I could kill you fairly easily now,” he said softly. “But I really have no desire to. You’ve had enough, I think.”

The room began to fade out. Leoh found himself sitting in the dueling machine’s booth, blinking at the now dead screen in front of him.

The door popped open and Hector’s grinning face appeared. “You beat him!”

“Yes,” Leoh said, suddenly tired. “But I didn’t kill him. He can try again with his own choice of weapons, if he chooses to.”

Ponte was white-faced and trembling as they walked toward him. His followers were huddled around him, asking questions. The chief meditech was saying:

“You may continue, if you wish, or postpone the second half of the duel until tomorrow.”

Looking up at Leoh, Ponte shook his head. “No… no. I was defeated. I can’t… fight again.”

The chief meditech nodded. “The duel is concluded, then. Professor Leoh has won.”

Leoh extended his hand to the Acquatainian. Ponte’s grasp was soft and sweaty.

“I hope we can be friends now,” Leoh said.

Looking thoroughly miserable, Ponte mumbled, “Yes, of course. Thank you.”

Long after everyone else had left the dueling machine chamber, Leoh, Spencer, and Hector remained behind, pacing slowly across the tiled floor, speaking in low voices that echoed gloomily in the vast room.

“I must go now, Albert,” Spencer said. “My ship was scheduled to leave half an hour ago. My adjutant, outside, is probably eating tranquilizers by now. He’s a good man, but extremely nervous.”

“And there’s nothing you can do to convince Martine?” Leoh asked.

“Apparently not. But if you’re going to remain on the scene here, perhaps you can try.”

Leoh nodded. “I can speak to the scientists here at the university. Their voices should carry some weight with the government.”

Spencer looked skeptical. “What else will you be tinkering with? I know you won’t be content without some sort of research problem to puzzle over.”

“I’m trying to find a way of improving on the star ships. We’ve got to make interstellar travel easier.…”

“The star ships are highly efficient already.”

“I know. I mean a fundamental improvement. Perhaps a completely different way to travel through space… as different as the star ships are from the ancient rockets.”

Spencer held up a beefy hand. “Enough! In another minute you’ll start spouting metadimensional physics at me. Politics is hard enough for me to understand.”

Leoh chuckled.

Turning to Hector, Sir Harold said, “Lieutenant, keep a close eye on him as long as he’s in Acquatainia. Professor Leoh is a valuable man—and my friend. Understood?”

“Yessir.”

Odal stood rigidly at attention before Kor. The Intelligence Minister was leaning back in his padded desk chair, his hands playing over an ornate dagger that he used as a pointer.

“You don’t enjoy your duties here?” Kor was smiling coldly.

“I am an army officer,” Odal said carefully. “I find that interrogation work is… unpleasant.”

Kor tapped the dagger against his fingernails. “But you are one of the few men who can use the dueling machine for interrogation. And you are by far the best man we have for the purpose. The others are amateurs compared to you. You have talent!”

“It is difficult for me to interrogate fellow army officers.”

“I suppose so,” Kor admitted. “But you have done quite well. We now know exactly who in the army we can trust, and who is plotting against the Leader.”

“Then my work here is finished.”

“The plotting involves more than the army, Major. It goes far wider and deeper. The enemies of the Leader infest every part of our government. Marshal Lugal is involved, I’m sure.…”

“But there’s no evidence.…”

“I’m convinced he’s involved,” Kor snapped. “And Romis, too!”

Kanus wants control of the army, Odal knew, and you want to eliminate anyone who can compete with you for Kanus’ favor.

“Don’t look so sour, Major,” said Kor, his smile broader and somehow more chilling. “You have served your Leader—and me—very well in these weeks. Now then .… how would you like to return to Acquatainia?”

Odal felt a shock of surprise and strange elation.

“Spencer has left Acquatainia,” Kor explained, “and our plans are going well. But Leoh still remains there. He is still dangerous. You will destroy him.”

“And the Watchman too,” Odal said.

Kor jabbed the dagger toward Odal. “Not so fast. Leoh will be destroyed by his own dueling machine, but in a very special way. In fact, he has already taken the first step toward his own destruction, in a duel with a simple little man who thinks he will be Prime Minister of Acquatainia, once Kerak conquers the Cluster.”

Frowning, Odal said, “I don’t understand.”

“You will, Major. You probably won’t enjoy what you must do, any more than Lal Ponte did. But you will do your duty to Kerak and to the Leader, just as Ponte did what we told him to. You won’t become Prime Minister of Acquatainia, of course—but then, neither will Lal Ponte.”

Kor’s laugh was like a knife scraping on bone.

The night sky of Acquatainia was a blaze of stars twinkling, shimmering, dazzling so brightly that there was no real darkness in the city, only a silvery twilight brighter than full moonlight on Earth.

Hector sat at the controls of the skimmer and raced it down the river that cut through the city, heading toward the harbor and the open ocean. He could smell the salt air already. He glanced across the skimmer’s tiny cockpit at Geri, sitting in the swivel seat beside him and hunched slightly forward to keep the spray off her face. The sight of her almost made it impossible for him to concentrate on steering the high-speed skimmer.

He snaked the little vessel through the other pleasure boats on the river, trailing a plume of slightly luminous spray. Out in the harbor there were huge freighters anchored massively in the main channel. Hector ran the skimmer over to shallower water, between the channel and the docks, as Geri stared up at the vast ocean-going ships.

Finally they were out on the deep swells of the sea. Hector cut the engine and the skimmer slowed, dug its prow into an oncoming billow, and settled its hull in the water.

“The rocking isn’t going to… uh, bother you, is it?” he asked, turning to Geri.

Shaking her head, she said, “Oh no, I love it here on the sea.” Now that they were resting easily on the water, Geri reached up and unpinned her hair. It fell around her shoulders with a softness that made Hector quiver.

“The cooker should be finished by now,” she said. “Are you hungry?”

He nodded. They got up together, bumped slightly as they squeezed between the two swivel seats to get to the padded bench at the rear of the cockpit. Geri smiled at him and Hector plopped back in the pilot’s seat, content to savor her perfume and watch her. She sat on the bench and opened the cooker’s hatch. Out came steaming trays of food.