Null-A Three (2 page)

Kair and Gosseyn escape in a plane, after learning from Prescott that the Distorter is in the wall of Patricia Hardie’s bedroom. Kair plans to take Gosseyn to a lakeshore cabin which he owns, but after the psychologist falls asleep, Gosseyn realizes there is no time to waste.

So he carefully turns the plane around, and jumps in an anti-gravity parachute down onto the palace balcony that leads into Patricia Hardie’s apartment.

He is captured by Eldred Crang, Venusian detective—and turned loose. After what Prescott overheard Kair discover about Gosseyn’s brain, they no longer fear him. Indeed, the gang realizes they are expected to kill Gosseyn. They refuse.

Free, Gosseyn doesn’t know what to do about himself. He goes to the Games Machine. And it tells him that Crang was right. He has served his purpose. He was used, first to startle the gang leaders, then to show them that their secret hiding place in Venus was known. It was all part of an immense political maneuvering, and it is up to him now to make way for Gosseyn Three, whose extra-brain is already trained.

The Machine also tells him that Venus has been invaded and all its cities captured, and that therefore he must waste no time in killing himself. Gosseyn refuses to do so, but later after boldly entering the palace, and sending the Distorter to the Games Machine, he realizes that he has no alternative.

He rents a room in a hotel, drugs himself with Coue hypnotic drug, sets a phonograph to repeating endlessly that he must kill himself; and he is lying there half-unconscious when he hears heavy gunfire. He drags himself out of bed, turns on the radio, and hears the Game Machine tell him not to kill himself because the body of Gosseyn Three has been accidentally destroyed, and so it’s up to him to escape and train his extra-brain.

Vaguely, Gosseyn hears the announcer say finally that the Game Machine has been destroyed. He returns to the bed, and slowly forgets what he has been told by the Machine. There is only the whining voice of the record repeating, “Kill yourself, kill yourself!—” This time he is rescued by Dan Lyttle, hotel clerk.

In the final third of “World”, Gosseyn’s “double” brain is trained, but he discovers it controls energy flows on a 20-decimal level of refinement, thus transcending the time-space phenomenon.

The violent conspirators are confronted in the Semantics Institute on Earth, and suffer the fate they deserve.

In the final chapter Gosseyn, still seeking clues to his own identity, finds himself looking down at a newly dead body, the face of which is a duplicate of his own. As his own mind probes the few, still living cells of the duplicate brain, vague clues come through. But he realizes that he has arrived too late.

He has won the battle; but he still does not know who he is . . .

The 1940s were easily the busiest years of my writing career; so, after it became apparent that “World” had made a big hit with most of the readers of Astounding Stories (about this time called Astounding Science Fiction), I wrote an even longer sequel: “The Players of Null-A.”

“Players” was published in the October, November, December, 1948, and January, 1949, issues of Astounding; and it also had summaries of the earlier installments, beginning in the November issue.

“The Players of Null-A” opens with the introduction of a sinister new character, a shadowy being, called The Follower; and presently a stranger history of human beings in our Milky Way galaxy emerges, and it tells how they (we) got here.

Two million years ago, in another galaxy far away, the human race there discovers that a vast, deadly cloud of gas is enveloping all its planets. Not everybody can escape, but tens of thousands of small spaceships are sent out, with potential survivors aboard each little craft in a state of suspended animation. After the million-plus year voyage, the little ships reach our Milky Way galaxy, and begin to land at random on habitable planets thousands of light-years apart.

Gilbert Gosseyn, a clone descendant of one of the survivors, has finally (in “The World of Null-A”) discovered clues to his origin, and his special abilities. Here on earth of 2560
A.D.
he has received Null-A training, and is accordingly entitled to live on Null-A Venus. He is, at first, unaware that, as a result of his newly discovered self-knowledge, he has become the target of the machinations of The Follower, a shadow-like being, who comes to earth from a far-distant star system of the Greatest Empire—a vast interstellar civilization.

The Follower’s purpose is to prevent Gosseyn from leaving the solar system. Which means he wants to stop him, first of all, from going to Venus, where there is a hidden—hidden underground—interstellar space-time distorter system for transmitting huge spaceships across light-years of distance instantaneously. The principal reason for trying to delay Gosseyn is that, if he reached Venus in time, he might accompany the sister of Enro, head of the Greatest Empire; accompany her and her Null-A detective companion, Eldred Crang, to the Capital Planet of the Empire.

The delaying action is successfully achieved by The Follower’s human agent, Janasen. And, when Gosseyn later confronts Janasen, the latter produces an energized flat object, which has the appearance of being a glowing calling-card. When Gosseyn finally, deliberately, takes the card, he is instantaneously transported to a prison cell on the planet of the Predictors, a race of people who can predict the future. There, he meets, among others, a beautiful young woman, Leej, in whose presence—and with whose help—he has his first confrontation with The Followers.

Gosseyn has escaped from the prison cell by using his special abilities; and The Follower watched him escape with the intention of learning his methods.

As a result of this observation, the shadow being decides that Gosseyn is dangerous, and offers him a partnership arrangement—the purpose of which, apparently, is to take over the Greatest Empire from Enro and his sister, Reesha (on earth she used the name “Patricia”).

Gosseyn has the unhappy task of telling the schemer that Null-A people do not wish to conquer anyone except by reason. Whereupon, The Follower tries to destroy him. The resultant battle between the two tells us a great deal about the special abilities of both.

They seem to be equally matched; for both escape.

Gosseyn, with the help of Leej, thereupon makes it to the Capital Planet, where we discover that Reesha and Crang are trying to influence Enro toward peace; and

The Follower, who is revealed to be Enro’s chief advisor when in human form, is urging Enro to destroy Non-Aristotelian Venus.

Enro is alarmed by Gosseyn’s special abilities; and, after a confrontation, he lets The Follower influence him in the direction of destroying the solar system.

However, Gosseyn, with the help of Leej, Reesha and Crang, aided by the special Null-A defenses of Venus, defeats the vast fleets that are launched against Earth and Venus.

But Leej, and even villainous Enro—it turns out—are also descendants of the survivors of the distant galaxy; and
their
special abilities will be useful, as part of a team effort, that has the goal of returning to their galaxy of origin to find out what happened there.

“Players” ends with the destruction of The Follower.

And so, now that the reader has become aware of what went on in the previous “installments” (“The World of Null-A” and “The Players of Null-A”) the stage is set for “Null-A Three”.

Gilbert Gosseyn opened his eyes in pitch darkness.

. . . What, what, what—he thought. It was that quick. His instant feeling was that this was not where he should be.

During those swift moments there had, of course, been several awarenesses in him: He was lying on his back on something as comfortable as a bed. He was naked; but a very light cloth covered him. There were sensations all over his body, and his arms, and legs, as if at the point of each sensation, a suction device was attached there.

It was the over-all awareness of the numerous attachments that delayed the impulse to sit up. And so there was time for the Special Thought that only someone with his training could have:

. . . Well, I’ll be—This is it! This is the exact situation of life in relation to basic reality—

A human being was a head and body surrounded by—nobody knew for sure. Nobody had ever found out—for sure.

There were five principal perception systems that recorded the surroundings; and at least three of those

senses had already provided him with tiny bits of information. But even that was based on information, and memory, in his brain. He knew things on the basis of previous indoctrination.

Essentially, the self is forever in darkness; and messages come in primarily by way of sight, sound and touch, which, like the antennae of TV or radio, are programmed to record specific wave bands.

It was an old General Semantics concept. But it was sensationally parallel to his present situation.

What was baffling about the condition was that he had no recollection of having gone to bed the previous evening in such a physical environment. But, since he had no sense of threat, the lack of memory did not disturb him. Because—what a fantastic parallel it was.

. . . I, thought Gosseyn, as a self am in actual pitch darkness. Almost immediately, perception began. But it hasn’t told me anything yet that shows any direct connection with the universe—with whatever the reality is . . . out there.

It was a typically human, fleeting awareness. Because, even as he had those thoughts, another reasoning process inside him noticed again that his situation did not fit the normal reality of the awakening of a living, intelligent person.

It was more than simple, unconcerned curiosity. It was a need to know because of a feeling that something was wrong.

Mindful of the numerous suction devices that he had sensed as being attached to his body, Gosseyn slowly raised his arms. First, then, he maneuvered the thin sheet downward, away from the upper part of his body. It seemed to be what he had sensed it to be: a loose sheet. It moved easily; and so, after mere moments, his hands and arms were free for their next action.

Carefully, he felt the bed itself. And, at once, found himself touching rubbery tubes. Dozens of them. They were what were attached to the suction devices on his body.

Actually feeling them was startling. He froze into motionlessness. Because . . . this is ridiculous!

Because—still no memory of how something like this could be happening to him.

Consciously, he braced himself. Placed his arms and hands firmly on the cushiony surface underneath him. And with their help, sat up.

Or rather, tried to sit up. What happened: his head struck something cushiony inches above him.

He lay back, startled. But, presently, he was exploring the surface above him with his fingers. The “ceiling” of his long, narrow couch was made of a smooth, cloth-like material. And it was less than a foot above him. The walls on either side, and at the foot and head, were also cushiony, and also about twelve inches from him.

The situation was no longer merely ridiculous. Or puzzling. It was totally unrelated to anything that he had ever known.

Lying there, he realized that in some fashion he had, until this exact moment, taken it for granted that this was Gilbert Gosseyn awakening after a night’s sleep.

Lying there, he consciously made the cortical-thalamic pause of General Semantics.

The theory was that the reasoning—cortical—part of the brain could handle even a dangerous situation better than the automatic, feeling—thalamic—that simply reacted.

Okay, he thought wearily. Now what?

An additional realization came suddenly: . . . Of course! When I awakened, I knew who I was.

And that knowledge—that he was Gilbert Gosseyn—he had taken so for granted that it had faded from the forefront of his mind. But it was not a small realization.

To awaken and know who you are: it undoubtedly happened each morning to all human beings. Except, in this case it had happened to someone who was not just an ordinary human being. The individual who had awakened here was a human being with an extra-brain.

That was the acceptance of himself that he had awakened with. A casual memory of what he had done: the vast distances of the galaxy that he had traversed with his extra-brain’s special abilities. The colossal events he had participated in, including the destruction of the Follower, and, even more important, saving non-Aristotelian Venus from the interstellar forces of Enro the Red.

. . . Knowing people like Eldred and Patricia Crang, Leej the Predictor woman and—

Pause! Dismissal of those memories. Or rather, realization that there was no obvious connection between all those mighty happenings and this pitch darkness.

How did I get there?

It was not an anxious thought, but it was a valid question . . . Obviously, no need for anxiety or fear of any kind. After all, at any instant he could visualize one of his numerous memorized areas: the surface of a planet, or the floor of a room, or a location on a spaceship. And be gone from this small bed, and this small, confined place.

The problem was, if he left he might never know what he was doing here, and where here was.

So there was the purpose again, in another form: examine his absolutely ridiculous environment.