Ben Bova - The Dueling Machine

Leoh raised a hand for silence. “Come in, my boy, and sit down. Tell me, have you seen the tri-di newscasts this morning?”

Taking a chair next to the Professor, Hector said, “No, sir. I, uh, got in kind of late last night and sort of late getting up this morning.… Got some water in my left ear… it gurgles every time I move my head…”

With an effort, Leoh stayed on the subject. “The newscasts showed Odal landing at the main spaceport. He’s returned.”

Hector jerked as though someone had stuck him with a pin. “He… he’s back?”

“Now don’t get rattled,” Leoh said as calmly as he could. “No one’s going to come in here with pistols blazing to assassinate me.”

“Maybe… but, well, I mean… there’s a chance that Odal—or somebody—will try something.”

“Nonsense,” Leoh grumbled.

Hector didn’t reply. He seemed to be lost in an inner debate; his face was flashing through a series of expressions: worried, puzzled, determined.

“What’s the matter?” Leoh asked.

“Huh? Oh, nothing… just thinking.”

“This news about Odal has upset you more than I thought it would.”

“No, no… I’m not upset… just, uh, thinking.” Hector shook his head, as if trying to clear his mind. Leoh thought he could hear the gurgling of water.

“It’s my duty,” Hector said, “to, uh, protect you. So I’ll have to stay, well, very close to you at all times. I think I should move into your apartment and stay with you wherever you go.”

Now Leoh found himself upset more than he thought he would be. But he knew that if he didn’t let the Watchman stay close to him openly, Hector would try to do it secretly, which would merely be more agonizing for both of them.

“All right, my boy, If you insist; although I think you’re being overly dramatic about this.”

Hector said, “No, I’ve got to be there when Odal shows up.… And anyway, I think the Terran ambassador was getting a little tired of having me around the embassy. He, uh, he seemed to be avoiding me as much as he could.”

Leoh barely suppressed a smile. “Very well. Get your things together and you can move in with me today,”

“Good,” Hector said. And to himself he added, I won’t leave him for a minute. Then when Odal shows up I can protect him… and do what Geri wants me to.

There was no escaping Hector. He moved into Leoh’s apartment and stood within ten meters of the old scientist, day and night. When Leoh awoke, Hector was already whistling shrilly in the autokitchen, punching buttons, and somehow managing to make the automatic equipment burn at least one part of breakfast. Hector drove him wherever he wanted to go, and stayed with him when he got there. Leoh went to sleep with Hector’s cheerful jabbering still in his ears.

Increasingly, they ate dinner at Geri Dulaq’s sumptuous home on the outskirts of the city. Hector waggled like an overanxious puppy whenever Geri was in sight. And Leoh saw that she was coolly able to keep him at arm’s length. There was something that she wanted Hector to do for her, the old man quickly realized, something Hector wouldn’t talk about. Which—for Hector—was completely unusual.

About a week after the news of Odal’s return, the Kerak major still hadn’t been seen outside of his embassy’s building. But an enterprising newsman, expecting new duels, asked for an interview with Leoh. The Professor met him at the dueling machine. Hector was at his side.

The newsman turned out to be Hector’s age and Leoh’s girth, florid in complexion, sloppy in dress, and slightly obnoxious in attitude.

“I know all about the basic principles of its operation,” he told Leoh airily when the Professor began to explain how the dueling machine worked.

“Oh? Have you had courses in psychonics?”

The newsman laughed. “No, but I understand all about this dream-machine business.”

Pacing slowly by the empty control desk and peering up at the dueling machine’s bulky consoles and power conditioners, he asked, “How can you be sure that people can’t be killed in this rig again? Major Odal actually killed people.…”

“I understand the question,” Leoh said. “I’ve added three new circuits to the machine. The first psychonically isolates the duelists inside the machine; it’s now impossible for Odal or anyone else to contact the outside world while the machine is in operation.”

The newsman turned up the volume control on his wrist recorder. “Go on.”

“The second circuit,” Leoh continued, “monitors the entire duel. If either side requests, the dueling machine’s chief meditech can review the tape and determine if any rules were broken. Thus, even if there is foul play of some sort, we can at least catch it”

“After the fact,” the newsman pointed out.

“Yes.”

“That wouldn’t have helped Dulaq or Massan, or the others that were killed.”

Leoh could feel irritation growing inside him. “After one duel, we could have found out what Odal was doing and stopped him.”

The newsman said nothing.

“Finally, we have added an automatic override to the medical monitoring equipment, so that if one of the duelists shows the slightest sign of actual medical danger, the duel is automatically stopped,”

The newsman thought it over for half a second. “Suppose a man gets a sudden heart attack? He might be dead before you can get the door to his booth open, even though you’ve stopped the duel immediately.”

Leoh fumed. “And if there’s an earthquake, both duelists and much of the city may be destroyed. Young man, there is no way to make the world absolutely safe.”

“Maybe not.” But his round, puffed face showed he didn’t believe it absolutely.

They talked for a quarter-hour more. Leoh showed him the equipment involved in the three new safety circuits and tried to explain how they worked. The newsman looked professionally skeptical and unimpressed. Leoh’s exasperation mounted.

“Frankly, Professor, all you’ve told me is a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo. There’s no guarantee that the machine won’t kill people again.”

Reddening, Leoh snapped back, “The machine didn’t kill anyone! A man murdered his opponents, deliberately.”

“In the machine.”

“Yes, but it can’t happen again!”

Shrugging, the newsman said, “All I’ve got to go on is your word.”

“My reputation as a scientist means something, I should think.”

Hector interrupted. “If the Acquatainian government is satisfied that the dueling machine’s safe.…”

The newsman laughed. “Both the government and the Professor claimed the machine was absolutely safe when it was first installed here. Two men died in this gadget, and who knows how many others have been killed in Szarno and other places?”

“But that…”

Turning back to Leoh, he asked, “How many people have been killed in dueling machines in the Commonwealth?”

“None!”

“You sure? I can check, you know.”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

“Look, it boils down to this: you told us the machine was safe, and two very important men were killed. Now you’re saying it’s safe again.…” He let the implication dangle.

“Out!” Leoh snapped. “Get out of here, or by all the ancient gods, old as I am…”

The newsman backed off a step. Then, “Suppose I am doubting you. Not your veracity, but your optimism about the machine’s being safe. Suppose I said you don’t really know that it’s safe, you’re just hoping that it is.”

Hector stepped between them. “Now wait… if you can’t.…”

“Suppose,” the newsman went on, ducking past Hector, “suppose I challenged you to a duel.”