Null-A Three

by A. E. van Vogt

  As that thought completed, Enin spoke again: “Things happen around you,” he said, “and you’re not a sissy. Just imagine—you let yourself be tied up back there, and you got rid of those gun carriers . . .” Pause. The boy’s eyes grew wider. “Hey, I forgot to ask. Where did you put those guys?”

  Gosseyn smiled. Grimly. “On that ice world, where we were.”

  “Boy!” Another pause. “You don’t think they’ll freeze?”

  Gosseyn said, “They had on pretty regular clothes, and there’s only about a mile to go to that building; so I’m not worried.”

  He thought for a moment. Then: “It’s the price I’m charging them for not being aware of the assumptions by which they operate.”

  He concluded: “You remember, I gave them all a chance to think about it, and none of them bothered.” There was, if it were possible for a boy of twelve to have such an expression, a pensive look in Enin’s face. “Yeah,” he said then, “yeah.” He added, “It’s hard to picture us just sitting here while they re-build this place. Is there anything else coming up?”

  It was a good question. The feeling inside Gosseyn of something probing at him, was stronger. And it was definitely time to determine what, if anything, was causing such a strange sensation in his head.

  The phone rang again, instants after that purpose was born.

  Enin’s voice came from off to one side: “Looks like another company w ants the job.”

  Gosseyn, who was heading toward the phone, made no verbal reply. But he did have the thought-answer that, on this high government level, there would probably be no bidding for specific construction projects.

  Any call having to do with rebuilding would have to be about another aspect of the task. And, of course, the truth was there would be many aspects.

  However, moments later, as he spoke the same question—as before—into the receiver, there was a far more significant difference in the reply. The man’s voice at the other end of the line had a harsh quality, as it said, “Let me just make it very clear: if you don’t get off those premises by the end of this day, you’ll get hurt. That institute of stupidity is not going to be rebuilt!”

  Gosseyn, who had automatically noted that the message, and the voice, were being recorded—automatically—by the cabinet machine, was able to recover from the unexpected threat in time to say, “Be sure to dress warmly from this moment on!”

  There was actually a pause at the other end of the line. And then the same voice but with a baffled instead of a threatening tone, said, “What kind of nonsense is that?”

  Bang! Down went the receiver at the other end.

  “. . . On that call,” Gosseyn analyzed moments later, “I am inclined to deduce that it is the result of our caretaker advising someone who is willing to pay him for the information.”

  Enin frowned. “I don’t get the assumption,” he said.

  Gosseyn could not restrain a smile at the use of the General Semantics term—which was not entirely applicable. But all he said was, “My reasoning is that groups, or individuals, against re-educating the public would have a very inexpensive source of information about any projected activity on these premises, if they bribed the caretaker.”

  “Yeah!” The boy spoke his agreement almost absently. He stood there with his lips drawn tight, as if in deep thought. Then he nodded. And said, “Now, what do we do?”

  It was not a question that Gosseyn was able to answer immediately. His head was, figuratively, whirling.

  There was accordingly no question. The most important event in his life at the moment was that sensation of something probing at his entire nervous system.

  CHAPTER

  18

  When, moments later, he was able to get the attention of his alter ego, Gosseyn Two said mentally across those vast distances: “I’ve been aware of your sensations, and they’re similar to what we get from that alien ship when our defenses are momentarily penetrated. Your problem is you’re out there, unprotected.”

  Because of the enormous interstellar barrier between him and the enemy, it was a startling analysis. But it was surely the most likely possibility. The alien ship’s efforts at mental control could not reach through the electronic defenses of the Dzan vessel or of Enro’s warships.

  But, somehow, those incredibly accurate instruments had retained contact with Gosseyn Three. And, though they were probably not aware of it, he was, for them, the most important human being: the individual who, inadvertently, was responsible for their entire ship, with all its personnel, being transmitted from their own galaxy to this one.

  But they suspected something. Because, though he was multi-light-years distant from them, they were electronically aware of him, and, with their refined instruments, were somehow trying to grab him.

  The instant thought in his mind, now that he was considering it, was: why not let them succeed?

  He asked the question of Gosseyn Two: “. . . What would I do, if I went aboard their ship?”

  “Well—” the distant thought of Gosseyn Two was accompanied by a grim smile—“one thing that would, at very least, be delayed would be the re-building of the Institute of General Semantics on earth.”

  There was at least one answer for that. Gosseyn stated it mentally: “When Dan Lyttle gets off duty from his hotel job at midnight, he’s coming over here to sleep.” He concluded that message, “I think I can safely leave him in charge if I go aboard the alien ship—which I really think I should do, provided I first get rid of a potential trouble maker here on earth.”

  The answer seemed to be a resigned acceptance: “You’re a braver man than I am. What about the boy?” Gosseyn had been intent. Now, he glanced around. And was slightly startled to realize that Enin had disappeared . . . That strange look in his face; he’s up to something—

  Mentally, he said, “I think I can leave him here with Dan temporarily. I doubt if he should go back aboard at this time.” He smiled. “His General Semantics reeducation is not yet completed. And right now I’d better sign off, and see where he went . . .”

  —A big man in his shirt sleeves. That was the source of the threatening voice.

  —Gosseyn’s swift search for Enin had taken him down the long, grubby hallway to the caretaker’s quarters. And there was that unworthy on the floor, babbling information to a boy who had—it developed—“burned” him several times before the reality penetrated that only a confession would save him from the special ability of this demon kid . . .

  The name that finally came from him—Gorrold—turned out to be an individual of Blayney’s list of top two hundred cursing back room supporters.

  And Gosseyn, who had thereupon gone straight to the man’s office, now stood slightly baffled, gazing at the chunky Gorrold body and insolent face. Because it would be wrong to twenty-decimal a person., so flimsily dressed, to that frozen world . . . back there.

  As he thought of other possibilities, Gosseyn spoke glibly, “President Blayney asked me to talk to you. Perhaps, we could go somewhere, and have lunch, or a drink?”

  At very least, going out—for anything—would require Gorrold to put on a coat.

  But the smoldering gray eyes merely stared at him from a grim, heavy face. “I have drinks right here.” However, the man made no move to get the “drinks.” Simply sat there behind his gleaming desk in his shirt sleeves, smiling sarcastically. It was an expensive looking shirt, but not warm enough for icy weather.

  “I’m going to deduce,” Gosseyn continued, “that you will understand when I say that it’s to be a private conversation; not to be held in someone’s office where we might be overheard.”

  “If,” replied Gorrold, “the president wants to give me special instructions, he can just pick up the phone, as he’s done a hundred times; and when I recognize his voice, I’ll say, ‘Yes, Mr. President, consider the job done.’ ”

  With that, the face lost any semblance of a smile. “So I don’t get this private message, with the messenger being someone I�
�ve never seen before.”

  Gosseyn’s seeking gaze had suddenly spied the man’s coat—at least it had the same cloth color as the trousers he wore. The coat lay across what he guessed was the private bar table of this office in the far corner.

  With that discovery made, he felt better, and stood up. “Evidently, you don’t appreciate what I’ve just said: that conversations might be overheard. So I’ll simply report back to the president that you would rather not hear his private communication, and he can take it from there. All right?”

  Gorrold accompanied him to the door, opened it, and called to his secretary, “Miss Drees, let this gentleman out.”

  The way Gosseyn passed him to go through required Gorrold to step back partly out of sight behind the door. At that exact instant Gosseyn transmitted him to the ice world.

  Gosseyn grasped the door knob firmly, and said as if speaking to Gorrold: “See you again, sir.” Almost simultaneously, his gaze flicked over to the coat lying on the bar. With his extra-brain he made his special mental photographic copy. And moments later transmitted it also to the location on that distant world of ice.

  Whereupon, he closed the door gently behind him. And, moments later, walked past the secretary to and through the partly open outer door.

  As he headed for the distant exit, he was unwarily thinking something to which he should not have given a moment’s attention: it was a vague hope that Mr. Gorrold had his help so well trained that there would be no chance of Miss Drees entering her boss’ office without being called.

  His vague feeling was that it would be better for the re-building of the Institute of General Semantics if there was never any connection suspected between the visit of Gilbert Gosseyn and the disappearance of Gorrold.

  Unwary moment. At that exact instant the sensation in his head became a whirling blackness.

  CHAPTER

  19

  Gosseyn opened his eyes in pitch darkness.

  Remembering what had happened—the whirling sensation—he lay still. And it actually took at least a dozen seconds before the thought came that . . . Could it be, was it possible?—

  His sudden startled realization was that this was exactly the way the Gosseyn Three body had awakened after the space capsule had been taken aboard the Dzan battleship.

  . . . I’m lying here naked (that was the feeling), covered by a thin sheet—

  He moved his hands and arms slightly. And there was no question: it was a sheet, and it was cloth-like and not heavy; and, except for it, he seemed not to be wearing any clothes. His fingers touched warm skin.

  Slowly; carefully, he pulled at the sheet; drew it down, and away from, the upper part of his body. Then, equally slowly, he raised his hands upward, probing.

  He touched a flat surface. Less than a dozen inches above his chest, he estimated. And when he braced himself, and pushed against it, it turned out to be a smooth, solid substance with no give in it.

  . . . Exactly as when he had come to in the capsule . . . only a couple of days ago in terms of how long he had been conscious since then.

  He sank back to a relaxed position, and wondered:

  . . . are my actions being observed here, also?—

  . . . Or am I cut off from the outside?—

  With that sudden feeling of uncertainty, it was definitely time for a test.

  “Alter!—” It was a directed mental call—“do you have any idea what happened to me? Was that—he hesitated, shaken by the possibility—“another death in our group?”

  There was a pause. A sense of emptiness . . . out there. And then, abruptly, contact, almost as if a door had been opened. “All these seconds,” came the thought of Gosseyn Two, “I’ve been only vaguely aware of you. Even your thought just now was dim. So it could be that someone is letting this communication happen. Everything is suddenly clearer.”

  It did not seem to be the moment for analyzing who that someone might be. And in his next “words the alter ego seemed to have had the same thought; it was an answer to Three’s question:

  “I don’t think—” said that faraway mental voice—“that you, Gosseyn Three, were killed. So this is not another Gosseyn body awakening.”

  The statement had its relieving aspect, but there was also a chilling quality. Because what had happened and was happening implied that the someone who was performing these remarkable technological miracles knew about the earlier awakening.

  Because it was a similar type of capsule he was in. Which triggered a sudden additional thought: That first time—all those connectors?

  He could feel none of the physical sensations of rubber tubing or penetrating needles, of which he had so swiftly become aware on his first awakening. And, as he now probed cautiously with his fingers and hands, and with arms reaching all the way down to his lower extremities, there was only the bare skin.

  He called out mentally to Gosseyn Two: “It looks as if you got it right. This is not Gosseyn Four coming to consciousness. As you, apparently correctly, analyzed, it has the look of a captured Gosseyn Three.”

  For some reason, he felt relieved. And many moments went by, then, before the realization came that proof that here was, in fact, a captured Gosseyn body, was not exactly a reason for he who was the captured one, feeling better.

  Suddenly unhappy again, he resumed his thought communication with the safe Gosseyn . . . out there: “It would seem these aliens were able to reach across tens of thousands of light-years, grab me, and take me somewhere.”

  “Wel-l-l-ll!” There was reluctance in the reply from the faraway alter ego, with overtones of unhappiness rather than rejection—“remember, they got some sort of hold on you, electronically before you left the Dzan ship. And evidently they finally worked out the problem of distance control, and took action.”

  Lying there in the darkness, Gosseyn Three agreed that it was very evident indeed.

  “After all,” Gosseyn Two concluded, “we have to remember that the Gosseyn extra-brain has proved that at some level of reality, distance has no meaning.”

  It was true. But it was not a happy thing to realize that somebody else had now used a similar method to capture a Gosseyn body. Since the alien-controlled ship had not hesitated to attack the Dzan battlecraft, the question was: why hadn’t they simply killed Gosseyn Three?

  Gosseyn Two’s answering thought came through at that point in an odd, matter-of-fact fashion:

  “I think we can finally analyze the situation. They’re probably studying you. They’d like to reconstruct what happened to them. Here they are in another galaxy; and they have now got the villain responsible for causing the disaster. So any minute be prepared to go on trial for the crime of illegal alien transportation.”

  It was, somehow, not a reassuring comment.

  The recollection came to Gosseyn Three that, while I still on earth, he had actually expressed the wish that he go aboard the alien-manned ship, and confront the semi-humans.

  Presumably, such a confrontation would now take place under circumstances somewhat less favorable: then I knew where he was, but he didn’t know for certain where either they, or he, was.

  What bothered him—he realized as he continued to lie there—was that, perhaps, he should be on his way And never mind waiting here in the hope of finding out what anyone else might want to do with him.

  . . . The private thought, with its implied purpose, must again have transmitted to Gosseyn Two; for the alter ego mind was suddenly manifesting relevant thoughts:

  “—Whatever you do should be very carefully considered. As I said, your captors may be studying you, and that means studying the Gosseyn extra-brain potentialities. And since, as you just recalled, you were trying to figure out how you could get aboard, don’t dismiss the potentialities of that too rapidly.”

  “You’re presuming that I am aboard the alien ship.”

  “It’s not the only possibility, but, considering what has happened so far, the most likely one.”

  “True,” Goss
eyn Three acknowledged from his darkness. “So what is your recommendation?”

  “Wait!”

  . . . The waiting grew long.

  His feeling finally was: perhaps, those who were observing him were wondering what he would do next. It occurred to him that one of those nexts should be the Dzan battleship.

  Going there would place him again within the frame of the big ship’s protective screens. So it would be important to determine if his captors were prepared to let him escape to a location where they could no longer control him.

  As he reached that point in his analysis, he realized that the other Gosseyn was mentally shaking his head.

  “It’s okay to come here,” telepathed Gosseyn Two, “provided you first transfer Enin back to his mother’s and his apartment. The lady thinks the boy is with you; and so, you’d better not come here by yourself.”

  “Okay. That tells me where I should go first.”

  It could have been the moment of decision. Gosseyn could feel himself bracing; his extra-brain doing that special focussing necessary for the 20-decimal similarity transmission to work, when—

  At that moment, a voice said: “Get him out, and the . . . (meaningless word) will talk to him!”

  A pause; then, from the faraway Gosseyn Two came an admonishment: “Watch it, Three! They obviously let you hear that intentionally. And so, although the whole notion of a talk would normally be reassuring, after their instant attack when they arrived, as a reminder that they’re not friendly, I advise you to be ready to jump if that’s merely a ploy.”

  Under his body he suddenly felt a movement. As on that first occasion two long days ago, the movement I was in the direction towards which his head pointed. Gosseyn sighed inwardly. But, after moments only, he noticed it was not a feeling of relief that he had so automatically—thalamically—expressed. It was tension. Which intensified as that steady motion brought him closer to—what?