The Players of Null-A

XVII NULL-ABSTRACTS

For the sake of sanity, be aware of SELF-REFLEXIVENESS. A statement can be about reality or it can be about a statement about a statement about reality.

Gosseyn took five quick steps toward the control board, and stood behind Captain Free, tense and alert. He shifted his gaze steadily from one to the other of the rear, side and front video plates. The roboperator spoke again in its 'emergency' voice.

'Voices in space,' it roared. 'Robots sending messages to each other.'

'Give us the messages,' Captain Free commanded loudly. He glanced around and up at Gosseyn. 'Do you think Enro's fleet is here already?'

Gosseyn wanted more evidence. I was released, he thought, from Ashargin's brain within a few minutes after Enro gave the order. It probably took about forty hours for me to get back to the destroyer, two hours more to get the ship moving, less than an hour at the base, and then just under eighty hours to get here to Venus—about a hundred and twenty-two hours, only three of which could be considered wasted.

Five days! The assigned fleet, of course, could have been detached from a base much nearer to Venus, in fact, probably had been. That was one trouble with his expectations. Similarity videophone communications involved the movement of electrons in a comparatively simple pattern. Electrons were naturally identical to eighteen decimal places, and so the 'margin of error' in transmission was only fourteen seconds for every four thousand light-years—as compared to ten hours for material objects for the same distance

Enro's fleet could be here ahead of them on the basis of time saved by the use of telephone orders. But attacks on planetary bases involved more than that. It would take time to load the equipment for the type of atomic destruction that was to be rained down on Earth and Venus.

And there was another point, even more important. Enro had plans of his own. Even now, he could be delaying his orders to destroy the people of the solar system in the hope that the threat of such an attack would force his sister to marry him.

The roboperator was bellowing again. ‘I am now,’ it shouted, ‘transmitting the robot message.’ Its tone grew quieter, more even. ‘A ship at CR-04-687-12…bzzz…similarize aboard…bzzz…zero 54 seconds…Capture ——— ’

Gosseyn spoke in a hushed voice:

'Why, we're being attacked by robot defenses.'

The relief that came had in it excitement and pride as well as caution. Scarcely more than two and a half months had passed since the death of Thorson. Yet here already were defenses against interstellar attacks.

The Null-A's must have sized up the situation, recognized that they were at the mercy of a neurotic dictator, and concentrated the productive resources of the system on defense. It could be titanic.

Gosseyn saw that Captain Free's fingers were quivering on the lever that would take them back to the star Gela, the base a thousand light-years behind them.

'Wait!' he said.

The commander was tense. 'You're not going to stay here?’

'I want to see this,' said Gosseyn, 'for just one moment.'

For the first time, Gosseyn glanced at Leej. 'What do you think?'

He saw that her face was tense. She said, ‘I can picture the attack, but I can’t see its nature. There’s a blur a moment after it starts. I think ——— '

She was interrupted. Every radar machine in the control room stammered into sound and light. There were so many pictures on the viewplates that Gosseyn could not even glance at them all.

Because, simultaneously, something tried to seize his mind.

His extra brain registered a massively complex energy network, and recorded that it was trying to short circuit the impulses that flowed to and from the motor centers of his brain. Trying? Succeeding.

He had a swift comprehension of the nature and limitations of this phase of the attack. Abruptly, he made the cortical-thalamic pause.

The pressure on his mind ended instantly.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw that Leej was standing stiffly, a distorted expression on her face. In front of him Captain Free sat rigid, his fingers contracted like marble claws less than an inch from the lever that would take them back to Gela.

Above him, the roboperator transmitted: ‘Unit Cr…bbzzzz…incapacitated. All personnel aboard but one seized—concentrate on the recalcitrant '

With one flick of his finger, Gosseyn pushed the lever which was set to break near the base a thousand light-years away.

There was blackness.

The destroyer Y-381907 poised in space, safe, slightly more than eight hundred light-years from Venus. In the control chair Captain Free began to lose that abnormal rigidity.

Gosseyn whirled, and raced for Leej. He reached her just in time. The stiffness that had held her on her feet let go. He caught her as she fell, limply.

As he carried her to the lounge in front of the transparent dome, he visualized the happenings elsewhere on the ship. Men by the hundreds must be falling or had already fallen to the floor. Or if they had been lying down throughout the crisis, then now they were sagging, loose muscled, as if every tension in their bodies had suddenly let go.

Leej's heart was beating. She had hung so lax in his arms that for a moment the thought had come that she was dead. As Gosseyn straightened, her eyelids flickered and tried to open. But it was nearly three minutes before she was able to sit up and say, wanly, 'Surely, you're not going back?'

'Just a minute,' said Gosseyn.

Captain Free was stirring, and Gosseyn had a vision of the commander convulsively tugging at switches, levers and dials in a frantic belief that the ship was still in danger. Hurriedly, he lifted him out of the control chair.

His mind was busy as he carried the man to the lounge beside Leej, thinking about what she had said. Now, he asked, 'You see us returning?'

She nodded reluctantly. 'But that's all. It's outside my range.'

Gosseyn nodded, and sat staring at her. His sense of elation was dimming. The Venusian method of defense was so unique, so calculated to catch only people not Null-A trained, that, once they engaged, only his presence had saved the ship.

Briefly, it had seemed as if the Venusians had an invincible defense.

But if he hadn't been aboard, then there would have been no blur to confuse Leej. She would have foreseen the attack in ample time for the ship to escape.

In the same way, Enro's fleet, with its Predictors, would escape the first onslaught. Or perhaps the predictions could be so accurate that the fleet could keep on breaking toward Venus.

It was possible that the entire Venusian defense, marvelous though it was, was worthless. In building their robots, the Venusians had failed to take the Predictors into their calculations.

The fact was not surprising. Even Crang had not known about them. It might be, of course, that there'd be no Predictors on the fleet Enro was sending. But that surely could not be counted on.

His mind reached that far, and then circled back to what Leej had said. He nodded, visualizing the situation. Then he said:

'We'll have to try again, because we've got to get through those defenses. It's as important as ever.'

In a way it was more important. Already there was in his mind a picture of robot defense forces like this opposing Enro's titanic fleet in the Sixth Decant. And if a method could be found to make them react a little faster, so that the attack came in one second and not in fifty-four, then even the prevision of the Predictors might be too slow.

Gosseyn considered several possibilities, then carefully explained the nature of the cortical-thalamic pause to Leej and the captain. They went through the routine several times, a mere brushing on the edge of the subject, but it was all there was time for.

The precautions might not work, but they were worth trying.

The preliminaries completed, he seated himself in the control chair, and looked around. 'Ready?' he asked.

Leej said in a querulous tone, 'I don't think I like being out in space.' That was her only comment.

Captain Free said nothing.

Gosseyn said, 'All right, this time we're going through as far as we can.'

He pushed the lever.

The attack came thirty-eight seconds by the clock after the blackness ended. Gosseyn watched the nuances of its development, instantly nullified the assault on his own mind. But this time he took a further step.

He tried to superimpose a message upon the complex force. 'Order attack to end!' He repeated that several times.

He waited for the command to be echoed by the roboperator, but it continued to transmit messages between the robotic brains outside the ship. He sent a second message. 'Break all contacts!' he ordered firmly.

The ship’s robovoice said something about all but one of the units being incapacitated, and, without a single reference to his command, added, 'Concentrate on the recalcitrant '

Gosseyn pressed the similarity lever, and broke after five light-minute's.

In sixteen seconds, the attack resumed. He sent a quick glance at Leej and the commander. They were both sagging in their seats. Their brief Null-A training hadn't proved very effective.

He forgot them, and watched the viewplates, waiting for a blaster attack. When nothing happened, he jumped a light-day nearer Sol. A glance at the distance gauges showed that Venus was still slightly more than four light-days away.

This time the attack resumed after eight seconds.

It was still not fast enough. But it helped to fill out the picture that was forming in his mind. The Venusians were trying to capture ships and not destroy them. The devices they had developed for that purpose would have been marvelous in a galaxy of normal human beings. And they were wonderful in their ability to distinguish between friend and foe. But against extra brains or Predictors they had a limited value. Gosseyn suspected that they had been rushed through the assembly lines in the belief that time was short.

Since that was truer every minute, he tried one more test. He sent a message to the unit that was still trying with a blind, mechanical obstinacy to capture him: 'Consider me and everyone aboard captured.'

Again, there was no response to show that anybody had heard. Once more Gosseyn pushed the similarity lever, the needle controls of which had been set so accurately by Leej. Now, he thought, we'll see.

When the momentary blackness ended, the distance indicators showed ninety-four light-minutes from Venus. In three seconds the attack came, and this time it was on a different level entirely.

The ship shuddered in every plate. On the view plate the defensive screen was a bright orange in color. The robo-radar spoke for the first time, a whining howl: 'Atomic bombs approaching!'

With the flip of his finger, Gosseyn moved the similarity lever back, and jumped nine hundred and eleven light-years towards Gela.

The second attempt to penetrate the Venusian defenses had failed.

Gosseyn, his mind already intent on the details of the third attempt, revived Leej. She came to consciousness, and shook her head.

'It's out of the question,' she said. 'I'm too tired.'

He started to say something, but instead he studied her face. The lines of weariness in it were unmistakable. Her body drooped noticeably.

I don't know what those robots did to me,' she said, 'but I need a rest before I can do what you want. Besides,' she went on, 'you haven't got the energy either.'

Her words reminded him of his own weariness. He rejected the obstacle, and parted his lips to speak. Leej shook her head.

'Please don't argue with me,' she said in a tired voice. I can tell you right now that there's slightly more than a six-hour pause to the next blur, and that we spend the time in much-needed sleep.'

'You mean, we just sit out here in space?'

'Sleep,' she corrected. 'And stop worrying about those Venusians. Whoever attacks them will withdraw and look the situation over, as we did.'

He supposed she was right. The logic behind her remark was Aristotelian, and without evidence to support it. But her general argument was more plausible. Physical weariness. Slow reflexes. An imperative need to recuperate from the friction of battle.

The human element had entered the list of combatants.

'This blur,' he said finally, 'what's it about?'

'We wake up,' said Leej, 'and there it is.'

Gosseyn stared at her. 'No advance warning?'

'Not a word '

Gosseyn woke up in darkness, and thought, 'I've really got to investigate the phenomenon of my extra brain.' He felt immediately puzzled that he should have had such a thought during the sleep hour.

After all, his idea—a sound one—had been to leave the problem until he reached Venus.

There was a stirring in the next bed. Leej turned on the light. 'I have a sense of continuous blur,' she said. 'What's the matter?'

He felt the activity then, within himself. His extra brain working as it had when an automatic process was reacting to a cue. It was a sensation only, stronger than his awareness of the beating of his heart or the expansion and contraction of his lungs, but as steady. But this time there was no cue.

'When did the blur start?' he asked.

, 'Just now.' Her tone was serious. 'I told you there'd be one at this time, but I expected it to be the usual kind, a momentary block.'

Gosseyn nodded. He had decided to sleep up to the moment of the blur. And here it was. He lay back, closed his eyes, and deliberately relaxed the muscles of the blood vessels of his brain, a simple suggestive process. It seemed the most normal method of breaking the flow.

Presently, he began to feel helpless. How did a person stop the life of his heart or lungs—or the interneuronic flow that had suddenly and without warning started up in his extra brain?

He sat up and looked at Leej, and parted his lips to confess his failure. And then he saw a strange thing. He saw her appear to get up from her bed, and go to the door fully dressed. And then she was sitting at a table where Gilbert Gosseyn also sat, and Captain Free. Her face flickered. He saw her again, farther away this time. Her face was vaguer, her eyes wide and staring, and she was saying something he didn't catch.

With a start he was back in the bedroom, and Leej was still there, sitting on the edge of the bed gazing at him in amazement. 'What's the matter?' she said. 'It's continuing. The blur is continuous.'

Gosseyn climbed to his feet and began to dress. 'Don't ask me anything just now,' he said. 'I may be leaving the ship, but I'll be back.'

It took a moment, then, to bring back into his mind one of the areas he had 'memorized' on Venus two and a half months before.

He could feel the faint, pulsing flow from his extra brain. Deliberately, he relaxed as he had on the bed. He felt the change in the memory; it altered visibly. He was aware of his brain following the ever changing pattern. There were little jumps and gaps. But each time the photographic image in his mind would come clear and sharp, though changed.

He closed his eyes. It made no difference; the change continued. He knew that three weeks had passed, a month, then the full elapsed time since his departure from Venus. And still his memory of the area remained on a twenty decimal level.

He opened his eyes, shook himself with a shuddering muscular movement, and consciously forced himself to become aware again of his surroundings. ' It was easier the second time. And still easier the third time. At the eighth attempt the jumps and gaps were still there, but when he returned his attention to the bedroom, he realized that the uncontrolled phase of his discovery was over.

He no longer had the sensation of flow inside his extra brain.

Leej said, The blur has stopped!' She hesitated, then: 'But there's another one due almost immediately.'

Gosseyn nodded. 'I'm leaving now,' he said.

Without the slightest hesitation, he thought the old cue word for that memorized area.

Instantly, he was on Venus.

He found himself, as he had expected, behind the pillar he had used as a point of concealment on the day he arrived on Venus from Earth aboard the President Hardie.

Slowly, casually, he turned around to see if perhaps his arrival had been observed. There were two men in sight. One of them was walking slowly toward a partly visible exit. The other one looked directly at him.

Gosseyn walked toward him, and simultaneously the other man started forward, also. They met at a halfway mark, and the Venusian had a faint frown on his face.

'I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to remain here,' he said, 'until I can call a detective. I was watching the spot where you'—he hesitated—'materialized.'

Gosseyn said, 'I've often wondered what it would seem like to an observer.' He made no effort to conceal what had happened. 'Take me to your military experts at once.'

The man looked at him thoughtfully. 'You're a Null-A?'

'I'm a Null-A.'

'Gosseyn?'

'Gilbert Gosseyn.'

‘My name is Armstrong,’ said the man, and he held out his hand with a smile. ‘We’ve been wondering what had happened to you ——— ’ He broke off. 'But let's hurry.’

He did not head for the door, as Gosseyn had expected. Gosseyn slowed, and commented. Armstrong explained, 'I beg your pardon,' he said, 'but if you want fast contact you'd better come along. Does the word Distorter mean anything to you?'

It did indeed. 'Just a few as yet,' Armstrong amplified. 'We've been building vast numbers, but for other purposes.'

1 know,' said Gosseyn. The ship I was on ran into some of the result of your labors.'

Armstrong stopped as they came to the Distorter. His gaze was intent, and his face slowly whitened. 'You mean,' he said, that our defenses are no good?'

Gosseyn hesitated. 'I don't know yet for certain,' he said, 'but I'm afraid they're not.'

They went through the Distorter blackness in silence. When Armstrong opened the cage door, they were at the end of a corridor. They walked rapidly, Gosseyn slightly behind, to where several men were sitting at desks poring over piles

of documents. Gosseyn was not particularly surprised to discover that Armstrong was unacquainted with any of the men. Null-A Venusians were responsible individuals, and could go at will into factories where the most secret work was carried on.

Armstrong identified himself to the Venusian nearest the door, and then he introduced Gosseyn.

The man who had been sitting down stood up and held out his hand. 'Elliott is my name,' he said. He turned toward a nearby desk, and raised his voice. 'Hey, Don, call Dr. Kair. Gilbert Gosseyn is here.'

Gosseyn did not wait for Dr. Kair to arrive. What he had to say was too urgent for any delays. Swiftly he explained about the attack that Enro had ordered. That caused a sensation, but of a different kind than he expected.

Elliott said, 'So Crang succeeded. Good man.'

Gosseyn, on the point of continuing his account, stopped and stared at him. The light of understanding that broke over his mind then was dazzling for a moment. ‘You mean,’ he said, ‘that Crang went to Gorgzid for the purpose of

some how persuading Enro to launch an attack on Venus ——— ' He stopped, thinking of the still-born plot to assassinate

Enro. Explained now. It had never been intended to succeed.

His brief exhilaration faded. Soberly, he told the group of Venusians about the Predictors. He finished with the utmost earnestness:

I haven't actually tested my idea that Predictors can get through your cordons, but it seems logical to me that they can.'

There was a brief discussion, and then he was taken over to a videophone where a man had been pressing buttons and talking in a low tone to a roboperator. He looked up now.

'This is a hook-up,' he said. 'Tell your story again.'

This time Gosseyn went into greater detail. He described the Predictors, their culture, the predominantly thalamic natures of individuals he had met, and he went on to give a picture of the Follower and his estimate of what the Shadow-shape was. He described Enro, the court situation of Gorgzid, and the position of Eldred Crang.

'I have just now discovered,' he went on, 'that Crang went out into space for the purpose of tricking Enro into sending the fleet to destroy Venus. I can tell you that he has accomplished this mission, but unfortunately he didn't know that Predictors existed. And so, the attack which is now about due, will be fought by the enemy under more favorable conditions than anyone could have imagined who knew the nature of the defense forces which have been developed here on Venus and Earth.'

He finished quietly, 'I leave these thoughts with you.'

Elliott sat down in the chair he had vacated. He said earnestly, 'Send in your comments to Robot Receiver in the usual manner.'

Gosseyn learned upon inquiry that the usual method was for small groups of individuals to discuss the matter and come forth with as many reasonable suggestions as they could think of. Then one of their number joined in a similar discussion with other delegates like himself. The recommendations moved from level to level as each group of delegates in turn appointed delegates to still more broadly based groups. Thirty-seven minutes after Elliott asked for comments, Robot Receiver called him, and gave him four principle suggestions, in the order of priority:

(1) Draw a line on the star Gela, the base from which ships from the central mass of the galaxy would come, and concentrate all defenses along this line, so that the robot reaction to the appearance of warships would take place within two or three seconds.

Since the alternative was complete destruction, their hope must be that such a line defense, catching the enemy by surprise, would be able to capture the entire first fleet, Predictors or no.

Have Leej bring in the destroyer, and see what a Predictor could do knowing the nature of the defense. Abandon the plan to operate secretly against Enro in favor of the League, and offer the League all available weapons in the full knowledge that the information might be misused and that a vindictive League peace would be hard to distinguish from an unconditional victory by Enro. In return, require the acceptance of Venusian emigrants. Abandon Venus.

Gosseyn returned to the destroyer, and the arrangements for the third attempt to break through the defenses were made. He would have liked to remain aboard, but Leej herself rejected his presence.

'One blur, and we'd be lost. Can you guarantee there won't be any?'

Gosseyn couldn't. He had control to some extent of his new ability to predict the future in so far as blurs were concerned.

'But suppose there's a blur while I'm on the ground?' he asked. 'It's in your range.'

'But you're not concerned,' Leej pointed out. 'All these things have their limitations, as I've told you.'

Her ability didn't look limited when at one minute to two the Y-381907 materialized three miles above the galactic base on Venus, and plunged off at an angle through the atmosphere. It was followed a moment later by a line of torpedoes. It darted like a shooting star in and out of the atmosphere of the planet, out of sight most of the time except for the videoplate picture they had of its spasmodic flight.

A dozen times atomic torpedoes exploded where it had been an instant before, but each time it was gone beyond the farthest reach of the explosion. At the end of an hour of fruitless chase, Central Robot Control ordered all robot units to discontinue the chase.

Gosseyn similarized himself aboard the destroyer, took the controls away from a weary Leej, and brought the ship down in the yards of the Military Industrial Branch.

He made no comment to any of the Venusians. The ship's break-through spoke for itself.

Predictors could get through robotic mind control defenses.

It was more than three hours later when they were having dinner that Leej suddenly stiffened. 'Ships!' she said.

For seconds she sat rigid, then slowly relaxed, 'It's all right,' she said, 'they're captured.'

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Robot Control confirmed that a hundred and eight warships, including two battleships and ten cruisers had been seized by a concentrated force of fifteen million mind-controlling robots.

Gosseyn accompanied a large boarding party that investigated one of the battleships. As swiftly as possible the officers and crew were removed. Meanwhile Null-A scientists studied the controls of the ship. In that department Gosseyn proved helpful. He lectured to a large group of prospective officers on the information he had gained as to the operation of the destroyer.

Afterwards, he made several attempts to utilize his new ability to foresee events, but the pictures jumped too much. Whatever relaxation he had achieved must still be incomplete. And he was too busy to more than discuss the problem with Dr. Kair, briefly.

'I think you're on the right track,' the psychiatrist said, 'but well have to go into that thoroughly When we have more time.'

Time became a watchword during the days that followed. It was discovered on the basis of interviews—Leej foresaw the discovery by twenty-four hours—that there were no Predictors with the fleet.

It made no difference to the Venusian plan. A survey of Venusian opinion indicated the general belief that there could be a second fleet within a few weeks, that it would have Predictors aboard, and that it might be captured despite the presence of the prescient men and women from Yalerta.

It made no difference. Venus would still have to be abandoned. Action groups of scientists worked in relays on a twenty-four-hour basis, setting up auxiliary Distorters in each of the captured ships, similar to those which had been used to send the Predictors from Yalerta to the fleet in the Sixth Decant.

The capture of the warships of the Greatest Empire made it possible to set up a chain of ships stretching to within eight hundred light-years of the nearest League base, which was just over nine thousand light-years distant. From that near point videophonic communication was established.

The arrangement with the League proved surprisingly easy. A planetary system that would shortly be attaining a daily peak production of twelve million robotic defense units of a new type made a surprising amount of sense to the rigid-minded Madrisol.

A fleet of twelve hundred League ships used the chain of captured warships to break toward Gela. The four planets of that sun were overwhelmed in four hours, and so further attacks by future Enro forces were cut off until he could recapture his base.

It made no difference. To the Venusians, the League members were almost as dangerous as Enro. So long as the Null-As were on one planet, they were at the mercy of people who might become afraid of them because they were different, people who would shortly be justifying the execution of millions of other neurotics like themselves, and who would also presently discover that the new weapons which they were being offered were not invincible.

The reaction to such a discovery could not be guessed. It might not mean anything. And then again, all the benefits derived from the defense units might be dismissed as unimportant if they failed to achieve that absolute perfection so dear to the hearts of the unintegrated.

The Null-As did not bring up the possible weaknesses of their offerings during the conferences which decided that two hundred to two hundred thousand individuals would be allotted immediately to each of some ten thousand League planets.

Even as the details were discussed, the movement of families got under way.

Gosseyn watched the migration with mixed emotions. He did not doubt the necessity of it, but having made the concession, logic ended and feeling began.

Venus abandoned. It was hard to believe that two hundred million people would be scattered to the far distances of the galaxy. He did not doubt that in scattering there would be collective safety. Individuals might meet with disaster as still more planets were destroyed in the war of wars. It was possible, though only vaguely so, that some would be

harmed on planets here and there. But that would be the exception and not the rule. They were too few to be considered dangerous, and each Null-A would swiftly size up the local situation and act accordingly.

Everywhere now there would be Null-A men and women at the full height of their integrated strength, never again to be cut off in one group on an isolated star system. Gosseyn selected several groups going to comparatively nearby planets, and went with them through the Distorters, and saw them safely to their destinations.

In each case the planets where they arrived were democratically governed. They were absorbed into the population masses that, for the most part, didn't even know they existed.

Gosseyn could only follow groups at random. More than a hundred thousand planets were receiving these very special refugees, and it would have taken a thousand lifetimes to follow them all. A world was being evacuated except for a small core of one million who would remain behind. The role of those who stayed was to act as a nucleus for the billions on Earth who knew nothing of what had happened. For them the Null-A training system would carry on as if there had been no migration.

The rivers of Null-A travelers flowing toward the Distorter transmitters became a stream, then a trickle. Before the last of the migrants were finally gone, Gosseyn went to New Chicago where a captured battleship, renamed the Venus, was being fitted out to take him, Leej, Captain Free and a crew of Null-A technical experts into space.

He entered a virtually deserted city. Only the factories, which were not visible, and the Military Center were flamboyantly active. Elliott accompanied Gosseyn into the ship, and gave him the latest available information.

'We haven't heard anything from the battle, but then our units are probably just going into action.' He smiled, and shook his head. 'I doubt if anybody will bother to give us the details of what happens. Our influence is waning steadily. The attitude toward us is a mixture of tolerance and impatience. From one hand we get a pat on the shoulder for having invented weapons which, for the most part, are regarded as decisive, though they aren't. From the other hand we get a shove and an admonition to remember that we are now just a tiny, unimportant people, and that we must leave the details in the hands of those who are the experts in galactic affairs.'

He paused, amused but grave.

'Whether they know it or not,' he said, 'almost every Null-A will try to affect the ending of the war. Naturally, the direction we want events to take are peaceful rather than warlike. It may not show immediately, but we don't want the galaxy divided into two groups that violently hate each other.'

Gosseyn nodded. The galactic leaders had yet to discover —though actually they might never do so; the process would be so subtle—that what one Null-A like Eldred Crang had done, would shortly be multiplied by two hundred million. Thought of Eldred Crang reminded Gosseyn of a question he had been intending to ask for many days.

'Who developed your new robot devices?'

'The Institute of General Semantics, under the direction of the late Lavoisseur.'

'I see.' Gosseyn was silent for a moment, thinking out his next question. He said finally, 'Who directed your attention to the particular development that you've used so successfully?'

'Crang,' said Elliott. 'Lavoisseur and he were very good friends.'

Gosseyn had his answer. He changed the subject. 'When do we leave?' he asked.

‘Tomorrow morning.' 'Good.'

The news brought a sense of positive excitement. For weeks he had been almost too busy to think, and yet he had never quite forgotten that such individuals as the Follower and Enro were still forces to be reckoned with.

And there was the even greater problem of the being who had similarized his mind into the nervous system of Ashargin.

Many vital things remained to be done.