The Players of Null-A

XX NULL-ABSTRACTS

For the sake of sanity, each individual should break down the blockages in his own nervous system. A blockage is a semantic disturbance in which adequate response is inhibited. Blockages can often be eliminated by the proper use of the thalamo-cortical 'delayed reaction,' by self-analysis, or by heteroanalysis.

Almost, he was overwhelmed before he could think. The feel of the complex force was so much stronger than when he had felt it in his own brain, its effect so swiftly paralyzing that he stopped involuntarily.

It was possible that that was what saved him then. He had to stand there, and he thought back to the old, simple version of establishing the famous cortical-thalamic pause, the method used to condition trainees:

'I am now relaxing,' he told himself, 'and all stimuli are making the full circuit of my nervous system, along my spinal cord, to the thalamus, through the thalamus and up to the cortex, and through the cortex, and then, and only then, back through the thalamus and down into the nervous system.

'Always, I am consciously aware of the stimulus moving up to and through the cortex.'

That was the key. That was the difference between the Null-A superman and the animal man of the galaxy. The thalamus—the seat of emotions—and the cortex—the seat of discrimination—integrated, balanced in a warm and wonderful relationship. Emotions, not done away with, but made richer and more relaxed by the association with that part of the mind—the cortex—that could savor unnumbered subtle differences in the flow of feeling.

All through the palace, men would be struggling in a developing panic against the powerful force that had struck at them. Once that panic began it would not stop short of hysteria. And instant by instant it would grow. The stimulus flashing down from the fearful thalamus, quickening the heartbeat, speeding up the breathing process, tensing the muscles, stimulating the glands to more violent production —and each overexcited organ in its turn sending a new stimulus to the thalamus. Quickly, the cycle gained in speed and intensity.

Yet all that the individual had to do was to stop for an instant, and think: The stimulus is now going through my cortex. I'm thinking and feeling, not just feeling.

And so he achieved for Ashargin a full cortical-thalamic pause.

The complex force continued to struggle against him, and he realized that he would have to be alert to make sure that Ashargin was not overwhelmed by a surprise emotional shock.

He ran without hindrance to the apartment, and headed for the bedroom. He knew in what condition he'd find Nirene. He let the thought of it come consciously into his mind, so that Ashargin would know, also,. and not be surprised. As he expected, Nirene was in bed rigid and unconscious. She had apparently wakened at the moment of attack, for there was a twisted look of amazed horror on her face.

It was her expression that sent a shock through Ashargin. Anxiety, alarm, fear; like lightning the emotion ran its gamut. Like lightning, the complex force pressed in and seized his mind.

In a desperate effort Gosseyn threw himself across the bed, so that he would be able to relax. It did no good. His muscles stiffened. He lay tautly sprawled at the foot of the bed.

He had wondered what it would be like, what a controlled person thought and felt. And it really wasn't very complicated at all. He slept.

And he dreamed a strange dream.

He dreamed that the body of Gosseyn in the crypt was now receptive as it had never been before, and that only in that unconscious position, and inside the memory crypt was it possible in its comparatively untrained state to achieve the tremendous rapport that had at last been established.

The thought came not from Gosseyn but through him.

'I am the memory of the past.' The thought reached to his mind through the unconscious body of Gosseyn. 'In me, the machine beneath the crypt, is the only memory of the Migration that has survived, and my memory is the result of an accident.

'All the machines were damaged to some extent in passing through great clouds of matter, the nature of whose basic energy was not suspected. As a result the memories of most of them were lost. What saved mine was that a key circuit was burned out before the greater damage could be done.

'In spite of their injuries, most of the machines that succeeded in making the journey were able to revive the bodies they carried, for that is a simple mechanical function. I could also revive the one body still in my care, but unfortunately he would not be able to survive. And I am not allowed willfully to destroy a body until it is dead. Those who have tended me in recent years have forgotten that their ancestors came to this planet in the same way as the human being they worshipped, and still worship, as the Sleeping God.

'The ancestors arrived memoryless, and quickly forgot the manner of their arrival. The struggle for existence was fierce and demanding. The ships in which they came lie buried and forgotten in the soil drift of the ages. I arrived late, so my ship has not yet been covered.

'Everywhere their descendants have built up false pictures of their evolution on the basis of studying the fauna of their new homes. They do not yet realize that all life seeks movement, and that macrocosmic movement is limited to certain forms, and that the struggle to stand erect is part of the will to movement of particular species.

‘The Great Migration was undertaken on the basis of an assumption not necessarily true, but true as fas as was and is know. The assumption that the human nervous system with its cortical and higher developments is unique in time-space. It has never been imitated, and, when considered in all its intricate aspect, probably never will be ——— '

Two bodies, two nervous systems interacting, the greater to the lesser in the similarity fashion. The first picture came then, of men watching a brief point as it moved nearer the edge of a shadowed substance.

What that substance was neither the man in the crypt nor the machine whose vibrations were suffusing him knew.

A bright point that moved sedately, and men thoughtfully watching it. Men who had lived and died many million years before. The bright point hovered at the edge of the shadowed substance, poised for a moment, and then slipped over the edge.

It was gone instantly.

The pattern of surrounding space altered slightly. There was a sudden strain, a tension that brought a break in a basic rhythm. Matter began to change.

An entire galaxy shifted its time balance, but long before the physical crisis the decisive moment came for the inhabitants. The alternatives were bleak. To remain and die, or go to another galaxy.

They knew that the time required for such a journey would be vast beyond all the powers of mechanical and human ingenuity. As the years passed, even electronic patterns would alter radically, and would in many instances become meaningless.

More than ten thousand million ships started out, each with its crypt, each with its intricate machine designed to control the life cycles of two men and two women for a million or more years. Those ships were wonderfully made. Through the darkness they sped at three quarters the speed of light. For this was no Distorter-swift journey. There were no set matrixes where they were going, no memorized areas to which men and their machines could flash with the speed of thought. All that must yet be laboriously built up.

Once more, the dream changed. It grew more relaxed, more personal, though the thoughts that came were still not particularly directed at either Ashargin or Gosseyn.

'I similarized the mind of Gosseyn into the body of Ashargin. Gosseyn possesses the only extra brain in the galaxy, besides that of the Sleeping God—which does not count. The "god" could probably be awakened now, but certain mechanical possesses necessary to his development have long been out of operation, so he could not remain alive more than a few minutes.'

'Why did I choose Ashargin? Because he was a weakling. From experience, I know that a stronger personality could have fought Gosseyn's control consciously. His being nearby was also a factor.

'After the first time, after the channel had been established, it didn't matter of course where he was.

'But there was another more important reason why Ashargin was the logical person. Because of the intricate Imperial plans of Enro, the prince could be in a position to do more than any other individual to bring Gosseyn to the crypt. And, naturally, it was reasonable to believe that he would also be valuable to Gosseyn himself.

'How tremendous this achievement is you may guess from the fact that I have now for the first time been able to tell the story of the Migration to a direct survivor of the expedition. Many times I have tried to maneuver a Lavoisseur-Gosseyn body into the crypt in the way that Gosseyn is there now. But I succeeded only in making successive generations of the Gosseyn body wary of me. The attempt previous to this one had extremely dangerous repercussions.

'I succeeded in similarizing the mind of old Lavoisseur into the body of the work priest whose duty it was to sweep out this inner chamber. My purpose was to give Lavoisseur an opportunity to repair the damage that had been done to the vital elements in my structure. The plan proved impossible, for two reasons. First, the priest was not in a position to obtain the necessary equipment. And, secondly, he resisted being possessed.

'At first the resistance was not too great, and so some work was done, and some investigation made by Lavoisseur into the nature of the machinery of the crypt. As it turned out, it was unfortunate that even this brief opportunity existed. For Lavoisseur repaired a device over which I have no control, an instrument for initiating the matter change which caused the destruction of the other galaxy. The device was sent along in one of every ten thousand ships for study purposes only, and it interested Lavoisseur because there was nothing like it on the ship in which he had come.

'Although Lavoisseur did not know it, this device automatically attuned itself to the body of the priest, a result of precaution taken by the builders to insure that the instrument would always be under the control of a human being.

'Naturally, they intended the human being to be one of themselves.

The priest need now merely think himself out of phase in time, and the change, fortunately limited, occurs. By using Distorter transport, he can direct the nebular substance to any point in the galaxy where he has a Distorter.

'When the priest's resistance to Lavoisseur's control grew too strong, it was necessary to break the contact. What followed was something I admit I did not foresee. After the priest recovered from his fright at what had happened, he came to believe that he had been possessed by the Sleeping God.

'His ability to assume the shadow shape seemed to confirm this analysis, and in a sense, of course, it is true that he gains his power from the Sleeping God. But only in the same way that I am the Player who has been manipulating your mind. The real gods and the real Players have been dead nearly two million years.

'But now, you are about to waken. Your position is a difficult one, but you have one duty. You must kill the priest who possesses this power. How you can do this once he is in his shadow shape I do not know.

'Yet kill him you must.

'And now, there is not much left to tell. Ashargin need merely transmit himself through a Distorter, and I will free him from Gosseyn's control, and Gosseyn will immediately awaken. Or Ashargin could be killed, and Gosseyn's mind would automatically return to his own body. Those are the only two methods.

'Eldred Crang was a confidante of Lavoisseur, and some years ago as a result of information he secured from Lavoisseur he came here and did some work on my damaged structure. At that time he was unsuccessful in making adequate repairs. More recently, he succeeded in setting up a relay by which I could send him warnings with sound and light signals —the kind of warning by which I called him here when Ashargin was hiding the Gosseyn body.

‘One last warning. The attack which has captured the palace only seems to be a League attack. Actually, the priest chose that method to strike for power in order to discredit Enro—-’

The 'dream' began to fade. He tried to pull it back, but it retreated even further. Then he grew aware that he was being physically shaken.

Gosseyn-Ashargin opened his eyes, and stared up at Nirene. Her face was white, but she was calm.

'Darling, Secoh is here to see you. Please get up.'

There was a sound at the bedroom door. Nirene drew back slowly, and Gosseyn had a clear view of the bedroom doorway.

Secoh, the Lord Guardian of the Sleeping God, stood just inside the bedroom, staring at him with unsmiling eyes. Secoh, Gosseyn was thinking, the work priest who had once been sweeper in the inner chamber of the temple.

Secoh—the Follower.