Ben Bova: The Dueling Machine

Mountains were chiseled away to become statues of Kanus the Conqueror, Kanus the All-Powerful. Throughout the galaxy men knelt in worship before him.

They feared him. Yet more, they loved him. He was their Leader, and they loved him because he was all-powerful. His word was the law of nature. He could suspend gravity, eclipse stars, bestow life or take it.

He stood before the kneeling multitudes, smiling at some, frowning at those who displeased him. They curled and writhed like leaves in flame. But there was one who was not kneeling. One tall, silver-haired man, straight and slim, walking purposively toward him.

“You must give yourself up,” said Romis gravely.

“Die!” Kanus shouted.

But Romis kept advancing toward him. “Your guards have surrendered. You’ve been in the dueling machine for two hours now. Most of the army has refused to obey you. The Kerak Worlds have repudiated you. Kor has committed suicide. There is some fighting going on, however. You can end it by surrendering to me.”

“I am the master of the universe! No one can stand before me!”

“You are sick,” Romis said stiffly. “You need help.”

“I’ll kill you!”

“You cannot kill me. You are helpless…”

Everything began to fade, shrink away, dim into darkness. There was nothing now but grayness, and Romis’ grave, uncompromising figure standing before him.

“You need help. We will help you.”

Kanus could feel tears filling his eyes. “I am alone,” he whimpered. “Alone… and afraid.”

His face a mixture of distaste and pity, Romis extended his hand. “We will help you. Come with me.”

Professor Leoh squinted at his wrist screen and saw that it was four minutes before lift-off. The bright red sun of Acquatainia was near zenith. A warm breeze wafted across the spaceport.

“I hope he can get here before we leave,” Geri was saying to Hector. “We owe him .… well, something.”

Hector started to nod, then noticed a trim little air car circling overhead. It banked smartly against the cloud-puffed sky and glided to a landing not far from the gleaming shuttle craft that stood before them. Down from its cockpit clambered the lithe figure of Odal.

Hector trotted out to meet him. The two men shook hands, both of them smiling.

“I never realized before,” Leoh said to the girl, “how much they resemble each other. They look almost like brothers.”

Odal was wearing his light-blue uniform again; Hector was in civilian tunic and shorts.

“I’m sorry to be so late,” Odal said to Geri as he came toward her. “I wanted to bring you a wedding present, and had to hunt all over Kerak for one of these…”

He handed Geri a small plastic box filled with earth. A single, thin bluish leaf had pushed up above the ground.

“It’s an eon tree,” Odal explained to them. “They’ve become very rare. It will take a century to reach maturity, but once grown it will be taller than any other tree known.”

Geri smiled at him and took the present.

“I wanted to give you a new life,” Odal went on, “in exchange for the new life you’ve given me.”

Hector said, “We wanted to give you something, too. But with the wedding and everything we just haven’t had the time to breathe, practically. But we’ll send you something from Mars.”

They chatted for a few more minutes, then the loudspeaker summoned Hector and Geri to the ship.

Standing beside Leoh, watching the two of them walk arm in arm toward the ship, Odal asked, “You’re going to return to Carinae?”

“Yes.” Leoh nodded. “Hector will join me there in a few months, he and Geri. We’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of us. It’s a shame you can’t work with us. Now that we know interstellar teleportation is possible, we’ve got to find out how it works and why. We’re going to open up the stars to real colonization, at last.”

Looking wistfully at Geri as she rode the lift up to the shuttle’s hatch, Odal said, “I think it would be best for me to stay away from them. Besides, I have my own duties in Kerak. Romis is teaching me the arts of government…peaceful, law-abiding government, just as you have in the Commonwealth.”

“That’s a big job,” Leoh admitted, “cleaning up after the mess Kanus made.”

“You’d be interested to know that Kanus is being treated psychonically, in the dueling machine. Your invention is being turned into a therapeutic device.”

“So I’ve heard,” the old man said. “Its use as a dueling machine is only one possible application for the machine. Look what it did to you and Hector. I never realized that two men could be so dramatically drawn together.”

It was Odal’s turn to smile. “I learned a lot in that moment with Hector in the machine.”

“So did he. And yet,” Leoh’s voice took on a hint of regret, “I almost wish he were the old Hector again. He’s so… so mature now. No more scatterbrain. He doesn’t even whistle any more. He’ll be a great man in a few years. Perhaps a Star Watch commander someday. He’s completely changed.”

As they watched, Hector and Geri waved from the hatch of the shuttle craft. The hatch slid shut, but somehow Hector’s hand got caught still outside. A crewman had to reopen the hatch, glaring at the red-faced Watchman.

Leoh began laughing. “Well, perhaps not completely changed after all,” he said with some relief.