Zach Hughes - Closed System

"Sir, the magic bullets which make up the atom are caught and held, ever accelerating, in a closed system—" He paused, and his brow wrinkled inconcentration. "As if going around in circles, un­able to escape until released by the discharge ofthe Devil Destroyer—" He paused again. He knewhis lessons well, but to put them into nonscientificlanguage was beyond his ability.

"How is it possible to have both the power andthe space to accelerate subatomic particles in so confined

an area?" Pat asked.

"Ah, Honored One, that is the magic of the godSargoff, who first tapped the binding energy of the

copper molecule."

Ah, now he was getting somewhere. Ever sinceX&A's one risky venture into intergalactic space had resulted in the discovery of the dead Artuneecivilization and the one relic, a book in the Artuneelanguage, UP scientists had been wrestling unsuc­cessfully with a theory of a new power source of such potential destructiveness that it made a planetreducer look like a child's toy. The Artunee, or sothe book said, had discovered how to release the binding energy of the copper molecule.

He obviously needed more information. If theZede scientists had actually solved the Artuneesecret a few hundred years before X&A evenbrought back the manuscript from the collidinggalaxies in Cygnus, he'd need to get a warning, somehow, back to a UP planet.

Further questioning of Gorben produced no moreresults. The boy simply had no way of expressing himself outside the rote of his schooling. However,Pat did learn one tidbit of doubtful utility. Grasping at straws, Pat had asked, "But why are themen of Dorchlunt the only operators of the Devil Destroyers?"

Gorben beamed proudly. "It is our schooling,sir. We are schooled on the Devil Destroyers from childhood, as were our fathers and their fathersbefore them. Only we have the necessary skills,sir."

"What skills are required?" Pat asked.

Gorben searched for words. "It is difficult to explain, sir. Only we can smell the exact momentof full potential."

Pat was at a loss. "You smell with your nosewhen the weapon is ready to be fired?"

"Not with the nose, sir, with all the senses. Wesmell it with our hands, our bellies, our—"

"Do you feel something, some charge, some indi­cation of power?"

"You can say that, sir. Yes, we smell, feel, sense,I can't explain."

"And why is this important?"

Gorben's face was serious. "Should the closedsystem be allowed to accelerate beyond capacity,sir, the

results would be disastrous."

"Explosion?"

"The Devil Destroyer would overflow and re­lease its purity in the immediate area of the Devil Destroyer

itself, and we would feel its purity in­stead of the satans."

Pat had more questions, but two priests camewalking casually toward them, looking at Gorben questioningly.

"Honored One," Gorben said, "I am supposed toleave the temple immediately upon the comple­tion of my schooling."

"Go, then," Pat said. "Keep up the good work."

Pat wished for a good book on theoretical phys­ics, or the use of Skimmer's library for an hour. Onthe surface of it, the weapon Gorben called theDevil Destroyer was just another beam weapon.Perhaps it was more powerful, but it didn't makesense that any beam weapon would be overwhelm­ing enough to justify Corinne's sincere belief thatthe Brenden's small fleet could take on and de­stroy the UP.

He started back toward Corinne's private apart­ment, took a corridor that he had not walked be­fore, discovered a golden door. The door was locked.As he tried to open it a priest came around the corner of the corridor and nodded, then halted.

"Sir," the priest said, "that is the private sanc­tuary of the adepts. Respectfully, sir, I must tellyou that no one other than those who have takenthe sacred oath are allowed inside."

"Thank you," Pat said.

"I was seeking you, sir," the priest said. "Thegoddess requires your presence in the rear garden."

The priest led Pat to an exit at the rear of the temple. The Skimmer, grand old squatting, squar­ish space tug that she was, sat in an open areapast the flowering garden. Corinne stood beside it,waiting.

"I thought you'd be more comfortable on your own ship," she said.

"Where are we going?"

"There is a test I think you should witness," shesaid.

Once aboard, she gave him coordinates for ashort blink, which he executed after taking theship up a few thousand feet on thrusters.

Brenden's fleet, two thousand ships strong, layin close formation in open space, Dorchlunt's sunon the left flank of the formation. Corinne estab­lished contact, spoke softly into the communica­tor, then directed Pat to put Skimmer below andsunward of the fleet.

"The old cruiser, there at the front of the forma­tion, is unmanned," Corinne said. "There are onlytest animals aboard."

As she spoke, the cruiser's flux engines came tolife, sending a glow from the thrusters. The ship accelerated quickly away from the vanguard of thefleet.

"Only the flagship will fire," Corinne said. Theflagship, on the point, was a sleek new dreadnaught.

The target ship was getting almost beyond visi­bility and nothing had happened, and then, forone brief moment, the old cruiser seemed to glow.The glow disappeared and nothing was changed.The cruiser sped on, detectable now only by ship'sinstruments.

"Cory," said a voice on Skimmer's communica­tor, "let's see if that man of yours can fly. Go latchon to that cruiser and stop it and wait until I get there."

"Will do," Corinne said. She nodded to Pat. Heput Skimmer into motion. She hadn't done a tugjob in a long time, but the program was still therein the computer. It didn't take long to catch up with the cruiser, utilizing one quick blink, andthen the old man eased the Skimmer alongside the ship until the hulls were almost touching, enclosed the cruiser in Skimmer's powerful field, and decel­erated. The flagship emerged quite close, using the mass of the two ships as a target for a close blink,and two men in space gear emerged from a lock.

Pat stayed on the bridge, keeping an eye onthings, using the time to scan the cruiser. The shipgave no more indication of life, or of activatedmachinery, than had the long-abandoned colonyship which swam its eternal orbit around Dorchlunt.

A mountain of a man with hair the same color as Corinne's came onto the bridge first, havingshed his space gear. He was resplendent in a uni­form which was very similar to that of an X&AAdmiral. Another man in uniform followed him.

The red-haired giant studied Pat for a moment."By God, Cory," he said, "you found yourself ahandsome one, but is he a fighter?"

"He handled those two renegade cruisers," Co­rinnesaid.

Pat felt as if someone were talking about him in his absence. But then Corinne looked at him andwinked. "Pat, this is my very big brother, the Brenden."

Do you shake hands with a dictator? Pat won­dered. Brenden solved the problem, lumbering for­ward, hand outthrust, and there was no childishsqueezing contest, just firm contact, with Brenden'sgreen eyes boring into his.

"Pat, is it?" Pat nodded. "I hope you soon bedthis wench, Pat. It'll damn well take some of thesharp edges off her tongue."

"Brenden," Corinne said, blushing.

"By God," Brenden roared, laughing, "if sheweren't my sister and I didn't know her I wouldn'tbelieve she's been living on Zede all these years,movie star and all, and virginity still intact. But Ido know her, and I remember how even when shewas a little girl she was always saying that shewas never going to love a man until she found theright one, if you know what I mean."

"He knows what you mean, loudmouth," Co­rinne said.

Brenden laughed, then sobered. "Well, Pat, I un­derstand you're with us. You've had fleet expe­rience?"