Zach Hughes - Closed System

Corinne nodded. "You've seen this world. It doesnot have the capacity to support a normal popula­tion, and the Zedeian scientists had few resources. It takes numbers, large numbers, to build a tech­nological civilization. The planet would not sup­port such numbers, so the scientists set up a systemwhich has lasted for a thousand years. They limitedpopulation growth by birth control, at first, andthen—and believe me, Pat, this is none of ourdoing—they had to resort to euthanasia of the old."

"Justifying it as sending the individual to hishard-earned reward, heaven on Zede. How did the priests, or the scientists, get such a hold on them?"

"All of the ship's information, all data, books,tapes, everything, was destroyed in the explosionand fire. There was left only one set of books,books on the superstitions and religions of OldEarth. There are twelve volumes, and even the present-day priests believe them to be the originalvolumes brought out from Old Earth. We've datedthe material, however, and it's obvious that thebooks have been reproduced several times, becausethe existing ones are less than two thousand years old. However, the material seems to be authentic. My brother was ecstatic. He said they were, to his knowledge, the only surviving bit of printed material from Old Earth."

"If that's true, the scholars of the galaxy deserveto be able to study them," Pat said.

"Soon," she said. "Very soon."

"Tell me about the books."

"They were written in the language spoken by the people of Dorchlunt. There are dates. They're meaningless to us, even when we compare themwith the oral records of the mutated Earthlings.The books were first published in a year measuredby predestruction Earth calendars as 1896."

"We know from our efforts on Old Earth thatseveral calendars were used before the destruction."

"Yes, but the books are predestruction, very old,and very interesting. The author, a—I'll have tospell this—Klaus von Forster—" "Funforster," Pat said.

"Yes. The author tells of hundreds of deities. It seems that every small segment of the human raceon Old Earth had its own gods. Funforster madeno judgments. He, apparently, believed in no god.He simply recorded the works and the word andthe sacred writings of the various gods. The scien­tists used the books to create a code of laws andbehavior. The books gave them sacred authority,for why else had

they been saved from burning onthe ship?"

"May I see the books?"

"Yes, of course. Later. There is much more totell."

"Before you begin, I'd like to know the source ofthis power." He indicated the lights.

"It comes from a nuclear reactor," she said.

Pat's eyes narrowed. "My God," he said.

"Didn't you know that the excuse the UP usedfor destroying planets was that the Zedeians wereusing

nuclear weapons?" "I've probably read it, yes." A thought came tohim. "Your brother—did he also discover direc­tions on

how to make nuclear weapons? And hassomeone tested nuclear weapons within the past decade or so?"

"We have no need of nuclear weapons," she said."The Zedeian weapon is far more final in results."

"So is a planet reducer."

"A planet reducer will be useless against ourweapon."

Pat whistled. "Tell me about the weapon."

"Not just yet," she said. "You asked about the power source here. The colonization ship had anuclear reactor aboard, a very advanced one whichcreated more fuel than it burned. They had not, inthose days, perfected the techniques of drawingship's power from the blink generator."

"But not all ships had nuclear reactors. Theyused solar power."

"The reactor was more efficient, and had theadvantage of being transferable to a planet, if a planet was found."

"You're telling me that the Zedeians built a re­actor which would last a thousand years?"

"Yes, with alterations and repairs, of course.The scientists, upon landing here, began immedi­ately to transcribe the scientific knowledge neces­sary to keep the reactor in operation, and tocontinue work on the weapon. With all other knowl­edge lost, or irrelevant to the main mission, andwith resources scant, all aspects of life except tech­nical skills were allowed to revert to a mode whichsuited the environment. You have a curious mix­ture in the average Dorchlunt man. All those strongyoung men in the villages know how to chop woodand plant crops and harvest them by hand, butput a set of test instruments and tools in theirhands and they become superb technicians. Quitea few of them can recite the most complex

func­tions of physical law by heart, yet they can't write."

"Who is furnishing them with modern food sup­plements and preventive-medicine tablets?"

"That's a new thing. It's merely a precaution.When my brother found this planet, they were ashealthy and sturdy as they are now. But just incase we had brought a few disease organismswith us, we began to distribute what they call theprayer tablets."

"So your brother found the ship and the planet?"

"He had trouble organizing the expedition. We weren't rich. In fact, we were poor. Our father wasa hard-scrabble miner—"

"On Taratwo?"

"Yes. It was my brother's scholastic accomplish­ments which finally convinced the government thatthere was great potential gain in finding that old Zedeian ship."

"I can't resist anticipating what happened," Patsaid.

She smiled and held up one hand, asking forpatience. "I'm almost finished."

"Go on, then," Pat said.

"When my brother arrived here the prieststhought that he was from Zede, and that he'dcome to deliver them from their long exile. He wastreated as a god, and he immediately saw thepotential of his status. He was shown the weapon,and saw that it was powerful, but that it hadweaknesses. The triggering mechanism for the mo­lecular reaction inside the weapon had come fromthe resonance of excited carbon molecules. The sci­entists here had used a form of pressed carbon,and it took a huge mass of it to do the job. Thatmade the mass of the weapon too large to bemounted on anything smaller than a battlecruiser. My brother grasped the theory and realized thatthe weapon could be made small and, moreover,more effective, by using—"

"A diamond, set to resonating by, maybe, a la­ser," Pat said. "Murphy's Stone."

"A diamond," Corinne said, "but my brotherhad no way of smuggling out enough diamonds of the proper size to provide one exciter per weapon. A bit of experimentation proved that the larger thediamond, the greater the forces generated, andthat the excitation impulses could be broadcastfrom a central point. Murphy's Stone happened to be just the right size to be used on my brother's flagship to provide the triggering impulse for the entire fleet."

"So the Zede worlds," Pat said, "have never forgotten the lost war, are going to conquer thegalaxy with a weapon better than a planet reducer?"

"No," she said, shaking her head, "not the ZedeWorlds."

"Who, then?"

"The Brendens. Taratwo."

He didn't catch that use of the name Brenden inthe plural at that moment. He was stunned by the ambition of the Man, of that tinpot dictator of apissant world far out in the periphery of the galaxy.

"But why all the cloak-and-dagger to get the bigdiamond off Taratwo?" he asked.

"The agents of Zede are everywhere on our planet," she said. "We have identified many ofthem, and allow them to continue to spy on us,being very careful not to allow them to learn any­thing important. It has been necessary for us tocooperate with the Zedeians in order to obtaincredit for the fleet we need. We had to hint atmany things to get their interest—a new and all-powerful weapon, for example. That secret wassafe, being known only here on this world. A spy,however, somehow learned that a sizable diamondhad been found on Taratwo. The Zedeians de­manded it as part payment on our debt, and, as you recall, we just barely escaped with it."