Alfred Van Vogt: Null–A Three

After all, human history on earth had numerous records of boys becoming heirs to thrones, and of grownups dealing skilfully with all the consequent problems.

This was different.

And, since he didn’t know exactly what the difference was, Gosseyn initiated the extra-brain mechanism for total awareness of the boy emperor’s body. It was a complete mental photograph of every molecule, atom, electron and particle.

The boy was speaking. “We’re going to get your secrets out of you. Every bit of information. How you did this to our ship. So start talking. And just so you know that I mean business I’ll burn you a little bit.”

Even afterwards, Gosseyn could not be quite sure what happened then. A fleeting awareness was there—later—that energy was building up in a metal rod in throne chair above the boy’s head, and that the energy came from the boy.

It was too fast for analysis. And his response, having been pre-set, was at a speed too great for visual, or auditory, or analytical awareness.

In that split instant his extra-brain similarized the body of the boy emperor onto the couch of the capsule on which, earlier, his own body had lain.

It was one of the two areas of the ship that he had “photographed” for future similarization escape purposes. And he chose it for the boy because it was a cushion, or mattress. And it would be more comfortable to arrive there than on the floor.

During the next few moments, inside the throne room, there took place a series of events.

The energized rod on the throne chair actually lit up, and a small flame leaped from it. The flame hit the ceiling with a sputtering sound.

Beside Gosseyn, Four made a startled sound. And to his left, and behind, there was a collective gasp that could only have come from the courtiers.

In front of all of them, the throne chair was visibly unoccupied. The boy emperor had disappeared.

At least a dozen seconds went by.

It was a distinct period of time. Each passing instant seemed almost palpable because there was, almost literally, no sound or movement. Yet he knew, of course, that there were other people in the room. And, although the term had no meaning in any extended sense, the feeling Gosseyn deduced as existing inside the skins of the young emperor’s retainers and followers, correlated with some variation of… dreadful pause!

Silence ended abruptly. Several people gasped.

For Gosseyn it had been a valuable few seconds. During that pause he had time to realize that he had better decide how he could guide these people to an awareness of what had happened—without being blamed.

It was purpose, but without a single thought, yet, of what his explanation might be.

At the moment, all he had was a limited recollection of what had happened. Standing there, he took the time to try to recall the details.

His extra-brain had detected a particle flow in those fractional instants when the flow began… before it gained the full force it would have a few millionths of a second later. Unexpected, definitely. But fortunately he had pre-set a 20-decimal similarity, as he realized how dangerous the imperial boy was.

All of those particles were diverted to the energy rod behind the boy. And the resultant momentary energy shine had actually made a crackling, hissing sound.

The unexpected, incredible reality was that here, in the boy, was something on the same order of magnitude as the Gilbert Gosseyn extra-brain. The young emperor had an equivalent equipment inside his head of an additional portion of brain matter. A special mass of cells that was not possessed by normal human beings.

Unfortunately, it was not merely a defensive mechanism. It operated by direct control of energy, which could be guided to a target. The boy’s stated intent had been to “burn” Gosseyn “a little bit.” The limitation implied some kind of moral consideration. Which further suggested that there had been an attempt somewhere in the boy’s early training to install restraint.

Clearly, this child did not automatically kill those who offended. He merely damaged them, and thus frightened them. It was all-powerful in its way; but not as totally mad as it had seemed, to begin with.

The implication: something could still be done.

It was high speed evaluation… that completed as Gosseyn grew aware that others were recovering from their shock—

Beside him, Four was straightening, turning. And Gosseyn, relieved, turned with him. In time to see Four bow in the direction of the courtiers, some of whom—Gosseyn now, belatedly, observed—were in uniform.

“Draydart Duart,” said Four, “will you take charge?”

There was a pause. And, evidently, everyone but Gosseyn knew who was being addressed. For, when movement came, it was one of the uniformed men who stepped out of the group, and walked towards where Four and Gosseyn waited. The other courtiers remained where they had been at the moment of Gosseyn’s entrance, and since.

The man who came forward wore a reddish uniform. The upper part of the uniform sparkled with glinting metal shapes that, on earth, Gosseyn would have taken for granted were decorations. On that same earth, the man who wore the uniform would have been taken for age forty or so.

And, since Four was deferring to him, he evidently represented high position, indeed.

Gosseyn vaguely expected that the officer and Four would have a discussion. But, as he came up, it was Gosseyn that the military man addressed. His voice held an unexpected beseeching note in it, as he said, “He’s still alive?”

Being addressed directly; being held responsible—automatically—made it an opportunity to present the self-protective thought Gosseyn had had.

Gosseyn said, “This seems to be a special area of space for which you people have a strong affinity. I had a fleeting impression as the emperor disappeared that something inside the capsule, where I was found, was somehow triggered by the emperor’s special brain control of energy.

“So now,” he continued his lie, as he began to expand his explanation, “we may have our first clue as to how you got here from where you were originally. Is it possible that his majesty was engaged in some penalizing act at the instant before the Great Transition took place?”

He concluded, “I think you’d better send a guard of honor to the laboratory where you have the space capsule. My guess is that the boy… uh… his majesty is inside it.”

“B-b-but,” sputtered the officer, “we thought it might be dangerous to keep aboard. So—” his face was gray—“ We launched it the moment that you left the laboratory.”

It was the second big moment of shock.

How fast can people react? Twice? Observation by way of General Semantics established that a thalamic response could be virtually instantaneous… The muscles twist away from a threat. The body jerks and pulses. The voice may even utter sounds, or words—

How sensible were such responses? That, of course, depended on how much cortical activity was incorporated into those early responses.

As far as Gosseyn could determine, very little of the cortex was involved in what he observed during those first moments after the military man said his fateful words. A dozen voices yelled almost simultaneously. There were sounds of people milling about. Several persons actually ran past where Gosseyn stood. If their direction showed purpose, then they seemed to be heading toward the throne chair. But, in fact, those particular movements ceased before the movers got to the throne. They stopped running, and did additional milling.

It had the total thalamic look. But another possibility had occurred to Gosseyn. These were experienced toadies. Here were men so accustomed to being two-faced that, obviously, they would only feel relief if the imperial boy was completely and forever out of the way. Yet—