A. E. Van Vogt - The Players of Nul-Al , Null-A Book 1

For the sake of sanity, use QUOTATIONS: For instance, conscious and unconscious mind are useful descriptive terms, but it has yet to be proved that the terms themselves accurately reflect the process level of events. They are maps of a territory about which we can possibly never have exact information. Since Null-A training is for the individuals, the important thing is to be conscious of the multiordinalthat is the many valuedmeaning of the words one hears or speaks.

It was late afternoon when Gosseyn returned to Nirenes apartment. The young woman was sitting at the table writing a letter. She laid down her pen when he entered, climbed to her feet, and went over to a big chair. From its depths she gazed at him, her gray eyes steady.

So weve all got about two months to live, she said at last.

Gosseyn-Ashargin pretended to be surprised. That long? he said.

He made no further comment. Just what she had heard about the luncheon incident or where she had heard it didnt matter. He felt sorry for her, but her destiny was not yet actually in his hands. When a ruler could order a woman to become the mistress or wife of a stranger because she had paused for half a minute to speak to him, that was a fact that defied normal expectations. She had made the mistake of being born a member of the old nobility, and she existed beside the abyss of Enros suspicions.

It was Nirene who once more broke the silence. What are you going to do now?

Gosseyn had been asking himself the question, aware that it was greatly complicated by the possibility that at any moment he might be back in his own body.

But suppose he wasnt? Suppose he remained here for several days longer. What then? Was there anything he could do that would be of value now or later to either Ashargin or Gosseyn?

There was Venus. Were any Venusians out in space yet? Did they even know what was going on?

And he really ought to have a look at the Sleeping God. That involved obtaining permission from Secoh.

His mind paused as he came to item number three on his list. Train Ashargin. He looked at Nirene.

Ive been driving the prince rather hard, he said, and I think Id better let him have a rest for about an hour.

Ill call you when the time is up, said Nirene, and her voice was so gentle that Gosseyn glanced at her, startled.

In the bedroom Gosseyn rigged up a wall recorder to repeat a three-minute relaxation pattern. Then he lay down. During the hour that followed he never quite went to sleep. There was always the voice in the background, the monotone of Ashargins voice repeating the few phrases over and over.

Lying there, he allowed his mind to idle around the harsher memories of Ashargins prison years. Each time he came to an incident that had made a profound impression, he talked silently to the younger Ashargin. He made it as real as that, as if the fifteen, sixteen or twenty year old Ashargin heir was in each case a living entity inside him. The older Ashargin talked to the younger at a moment when the latter was undergoing a traumatic experience.

From his greater height of understanding, he assured the younger individual that the affective incident must be looked at from a different angle than that of a frightened youth. Assured him that fear of pain and fear of death were emotions that could be overcome, and that in short the shock incident which had once affected him so profoundly no longer had any meaning for him. More than that, in future he would have better understanding of such moments, and he would never again be affected in an adverse fashion.

It was one more Null-A training make-shift, as had been all the others. But it was a system of self-therapy that was scientifically sound, and which would bring definite benefits.

Relax, the voice soothed on. And because of what he was doing, every word meant, Relax the tensions of a life time. Let all those past fears and doubts and uncertainties be discharged from the nervous system.

The effect did not depend on any belief that something would happen, though conviction made it more powerful. But it would take time. There were many suppressed memories that would have to be skillfully brought out in the open, before the therapy could be used on them. Prince Ashargin was not going to be relaxed in one day.

Nevertheless, by the time Nirene knocked softly on the door, he had had not only the equivalent of an hours sleep, but a psychoanalytic reorientation that under the circumstances he could have secured in no other way. He stood up refreshed, feeling himself ready for the evening and the night.

The days stepped by, and the question was, how was he going to find out about Venus? He had several possibilities. All of them required a hint as to what he wanted to know. Enro might be as quick at seeing the meaning in such a hint as the person to whom it was directed. That was a risk he could not take until he had exhausted every other means.

At the end of four days, Gosseyn was a badly worried man. He saw himself isolated here in the body of the Ashargin heir, in spite of his so-called freedom of action, prevented from doing the only things that mattered.

Venusian Null-As alone could stop Enro and the Predictors. That was his assumption, based on his observations and his knowledge of things as they were. But as far as he knew, they were cut off, unable to act. They could be easily destroyed by a dictator who had already ordered hundreds of planets pulverized.

Each day he hoped to be returned to his own body. He tried to help. He used Distorter elevators whenever possible to move from one building to another. Four times in four days he took trips to distant planets and back. But his mind remained in the body of Prince Ashargin.

He waited for a call informing him that the Y-381907 had been contacted. No call came.

What could be happening?

On the fourth day he went personally to the Interplanetary Communications Department. It occupied a building ninety stories high and ten blocks wide. The building information section had one hundred roboperators redirecting calls to the proper sector centers. He identified himself to one of them.

Oh, yes, it said. Prince Ashargin. We have received instructions about you.

Gosseyn made his inquiry, turned away and then came back. He was curious about small things. What kind of instructions? he asked.

The answer had the frankness of Enro behind it. The roboperator said, You can call anywhere but transcriptions of every conversation must be sent to the Intelligence Center.

Gosseyn nodded. He could expect no more than that. He took a Distorter cage to the sector center he wanted, and seated himself at the videophone. Presently, he was saying, I want to speak to Captain Free, or anyone aboard the Y-381907.

He could have made the call from Nirenes apartment, but here he could see the Distorter that carried the message. He could watch the contact attempt being made, as the roboperator dialed the pattern which, according to the foot-thick transparent plate that listed destroyers, belonged to the Y-381907.

All this he could see with his own eyes. If it was possible for him to prevent interference in the attempt to contact the destroyer, then this was one of the methods. Another was to call from a planet visited at random. He had done that twice, without result.

Now, a minute passed. Then two minutes. Still there was no answer. After about four minutes the roboperator said, One moment, please. At the end of ten minutes, the operators voice came again. The following situation exists. When Similarity was raised to the known mechanical limit of twenty-three decimal places, a faint response was achieved. This was, however, an automatic process. It is evident that the pattern at the other end is still partly similarized, but that deterioration is continuous. Clearly, no attempt is being made by those on the ship to hold to the pattern.