Barrington Bayley - The Zen Gun

“Something can stop you, animal.”

They turned on hearing the softly spoken words. A figure in a loose white garment was framed in the entrance to the chamber. The newcomer gazed on the scene as though not really seeing it, as though staring over their heads as something in the distance. Hesper recognised that look from her previous acquaintance with him. She knew he was observing them all keenly.

“Why, it’s the kosho ,” Gruwert squealed in surprise. “I thought the pirates had killed you, kosho , or else the rent had taken you. Together with your master, the excellent Pout. What did happen to him?”

“He is safe,” Ikematsu said blandly. “He is on this ship somewhere. I saw him briefly, but he ran away from me. Yes, the rent took us. But we have returned. Everyone has returned.”

Gruwert’s eyes narrowed. He had been looking for Pout ever since taking command.

He switched his communicator to subvocal mode and spoke to his adjutant. “That man-ape, Pout. He’s on the ship, probably near where I am—I’m in the Ship Management Office. Have him found and brought to me.”

“You speak to someone,” Ikematsu said knowingly. He stepped into the room and beckoned behind him. Through the door came Sinbiane, leading Trixa by the hand and murmuring encouragement to him. The Diademian boy did not seem to know where he was. His eyes were glazed. His shoulders slumped.

Placing his hand on Sinbiane’s shoulder, Ikematsu addressed the pig. “I hear I should congratulate you on a new appointment. No doubt you are now even more anxious to have the chimera under your control. You suspected him of being the weapon that could destroy the Empire. How nearly right you were, pig. But the weapon is neither a new leader or a social idea, as you thought. That was a clever deduction, but the truth is simpler. Remember what the oracle said: ‘ It has been disregarded because it is small .’ The ultimate weapon is in fact that little gun that Pout carries.”

“That toy? ” Gruwert exploded. “What nonsense is this?”

The kosho , his bearing erect and with the odd stylised quality Hesper had often noticed, stepped away from the boys and swivelled to speak to all the three others present. The pig stiffened, his snout following him suspiciously.

“That electric pistol incorporates the most complete understanding of the laws of nature ever attained,” Ikematsu said. “It was made by a master of my order centuries ago, for a single reason: to render centrally governed empires impossible.

“The weapon was to accomplish this in a manner quite easy to understand. The zen gun, as it is called, is a sun-destroying handgun. To one qualified in its use the procedure is as follows. First, the gunman must get within three light years of the sun to be attacked. He then lines up the barrel with the target, and adjusts the beam so that it will spread to encompass the whole star. He then squeezes the trigger stud.

“The target star is disrupted by electrical means. As you know, positive and negative electricity differs only in the direction of the pseudo-spin of which electric force is composed. The zen gun, delving into the Simplex, inverts the pseudospin of all positive charges within the star, switching them to negative. A negligible amount of energy is involved in this simple but remarkable process. You may easily reason out the results. Since both electrons and protons now possess negative charge, there is repulsion both between the nuclei and electron shells of atoms, and between the nuclei of atoms. The star explodes. The electrons, with smaller mass, acquire the higher velocity. An expanding electron cloud totalling one four-thousandth of the mass of the whole star sweeps through the planetary system, ripping off atmospheres and destroying all life.

“The charge inversion lasts only seconds: the imbalance in the constituted universe cannot be maintained for longer than that. Anti-protons become protons again. But it is too late, the separation between charges has been accomplished. Some of the expanding electron cloud is attracted back to the main mass, but not enough to cancel the net positive charge on the more slowly exploding mass of atomic nuclei. In hours the positive cloud, the whole remaining mass of the star, has engulfed and disintegrated every planet of the system. It is millions of years before it attracts enough negative charge to become electrically neutral again. By that time it is too dispersed to coalesce. It never again becomes a star.

“So if you see that happening to a star within your territory, pig, you will know that you have received a warning and that the next sun to go will be the one illuminating your seat of government. The explosion is easily distinguishable from a nova or supernova. First there is a brilliant flash as the trapped protons ricocheting within the star are released. After that the star goes out, because as its stripped atomic nuclei recede from one another nuclear fusion ceases.”

Gruwert had been listening to the kosho ’s story with intent concentration. Now he snorted, his little eyes glittering.

“This is not new. There already are ways to destroy stars.”

“With a handgun? No, only by moving titanic pieces of apparatus and colossal power sources close to the star—what enemy stands by and allows you to do that? Until now it has never been possible to destroy suns as an act of war. What makes the zen gun invincible is that it is small. One man can carry it unseen, it cannot be kept track of or detected. It is the equaliser between the individual and all the rest of the civilised universe. With just a sidearm, one man can now defeat an empire.”

The pig trembled slightly. Head lowered, he glared directly at Ikematsu. He looked as if he were about to charge at him. He had done a wise thing. Gruwert told himself, in bringing his bodyguard along. The stoat was stationed within call just up the corridor.

“ Kosho , you speak treason, and shortly I shall have you arrested. Are you telling me you have this gun?”

“No, I do not have it. I had it, but I lost it.”

Gruwert snorted disdainfully. “This tale is preposterous. 1 do not believe a word of it. The man-ape’s toy is only a piece of wood.”

“Your disbelief will hasten the triumph of right,” Ikematsu responded blandly. “Before the chimera arrives, let me tell you something of the gun’s recent history. It may convince you.

“One gun is all that was ever made. Shortly after its manufacture my order was destroyed, in its original form, by political events. The weapon was lost, irrevocably, it was thought.

“Then, a few years ago, a kosho by the name of Orohisho Smith succeeded in finding it. Smith was not advanced enough spiritually to decode the gun fully, however, I do not think he was even interested in its ultimate use, only to exploit some of the secondary capabilities its mode of operation entails. Specifically, he wished to explore other facets of the Simplex. As a result of his meddling, the gun opened up the rent in space.

“Smith was never to know what he had done in his ignorance. He was tricked and made prisoner by one Torth Nascimento, who wished to keep him as a human specimen in a museum. To rob this man of his satisfaction, Smith took the course of self-destruction. Meantime his weapons, including the zen gun, had been placed in the museum’s weapons section, from where it was stolen by your friend Pout the chimera.

“It was then that I attached myself to Pout. My interest has been to see the gun fall into worthy hands, but 1 was honour-bound not to take it from him by force. Surprisingly, the gun responded to Pout a little. He was able to employ it as an anti-personnel weapon, and to give him personal power over others. He never guessed at its real secrets, of course. But he used to play with its settings. By doing this he unknowingly broke the gravitational bond between the planet Earth and its large satellite.”