The eyes of bolsk, p.10
The Eyes of Bolsk, page 10
"If you know so much, why do you need me?" Kane said.
Chez Ebec answered. "You will help us determine which moon of Trovo is your moon—which is today Uin Two. We have no way of recognizing it, since today it is covered with artificial formations. In your time it had not yet become a junkyard covered with spaceshot wreckages."
The Chairman stepped forward. "I still don't see the necessity of all this. All we have to do to ensure—"
His voice stopped. No one was listening. All eyes were turned toward the screen. The night sky of Trovo displayed its two moons for the inspection of all.
"Which?" demanded Chez Ebec.
Which? Kane stepped closer to the screen. He visualized himself on Earth, where he had never paid that much attention to the lunar sphere that hung overhead on clear nights. Clear nights were not the best working nights for a man in the service. Which?
The moons were as Kane remembered seeing them on Trovo. Long ago on Trovo. One was full, the other about three-quarters full. He looked at each. There was no clue. None. Unless…
The man in the moon.
When he was a kid, people used to talk of the man in the moon.
A face.
If you looked hard enough you were supposed to see a face. But now…
"Are both in clear focus?" he asked.
For an answer the moons became sharper in detail, though no larger on the screen. One of them, the one in three-quarter phase, the moon to the left on the screen, seemed to…
Wink?
The other stared coldly down. Still…
"I can't be sure. There's not that much difference."
The words echoed in his brain. There wasn't any difference.
None at all, really. Not in the historical sense.
If only one moon were blasted, one would be left. In Trovo time—before man reached upward for the moon—it would make no difference which moon was left. In Kane's time, spacemen would aim toward the moon, whichever moon existed of the original two. It was simple.
Then why didn't everybody see how simple it was?
"You must try," Chez Ebec said impatiently. Kane now noticed the needle gun in the dwarf's hand. "Is it not that you know your moon is the moon on the right? Answer, man from Earth."
Kane shrugged. "It's as you say." After all, of the two, the one on the left looked more familiar. If he'd had to pick one out for them to blast, it would have been the one on the right. But Chez Ebec knew that. Or did he?
"Focus for slaying," the Weaponer ordered. He stepped behind the huge needle on the tripod, holstering his hand weapon. "With the Honored Chairman's permission, I shall do the honors myself."
Incony Venytys nodded absently as the moon on the right of the screen traveled to its center.
Kane watched intently as Chez Ebec turned a dial on the side of the force beam case. Then, hooking his fingers around two switches on the top of the needle's rear, Chez Ebec pulled both. There was a soft hum. And Chez Ebec relaxed.
"It will take a little time," he said, stepping away from the device.
Kane had seen no flash of light, nothing, in fact, to indicate that the weapon had been fired. Only a little hum that was over almost before it began. He was still looking at the weapon when the screen lit up with a brilliant, eye blinding glare.
"A hit!" cried Chez Ebec. "I've done it!"
The glare vanished immediately, and when the screen cleared, all that was visible was the black sky of Trovo with a few star windows shining through.
"Yes, it has been done." Incony Venytys said soberly. "We have destroyed a piece of the universe, and now we must take another part from it. Already we have meddled with history, but we must meddle again. Even if we have destroyed the particular moon which in fact became Uin Two, the other would serve as a substitute. To the first explorers any moon would be moon enough."
"No," Chez Ebec said roughly.
No? Kane thought. The Chairman was right. What was wrong with Ebec's thinking?
The dwarf smiled. "It is enough that we have slain one of the moons. In the annals of time it must have been ordained that we do so. We have done so. But now that I know, now that I can be sure of the forces that can be combined with the power of the eyes, why should I destroy a substantial part of my kingdom? Why should I diminish my own possessions?"
"Your kingdom? Your possessions?" Incony Venytys looked questioningly into Chez Ebec's defiant face. It was the last thing he ever saw.
"Goodbye, my lord," Chez Ebec said. The blast from his hand weapon hit the Chairman full force in the belly. Stepping across the old man's body, the dwarf smiled more broadly. He leveled his weapon at Kane's chest.
"The war is effectively concluded, Jared Kane. As our late and beloved Chairman realized, it mattered little which moon we destroyed. I, of course, had to be sure I could destroy Uin Two if I so willed. But I doubt I shall have to. A simple demonstration of my powers to one of the captured saboteurs will be enough. Naturally, we'll release him to tell his story back home. After which surrender will be immediate."
"Your kingdom," Kane said disinterestedly.
"The start of it, really. You see, once I realized the warp was one of time and not space, I formulated my plans. Probability would dictate that there are other warp spots. I shall find them. Our geological staffs have located two already, I think. They, of course, have no idea of the significance of their findings. To them they've simply turned up sonic evidence of underground disturbances similar to those which led to our discovery of this warp. These will be further explored and exploited. I'll rule this world here until I can marshal the forces necessary to transmit as well as receive humans through the warps. As you've just now seen, some things we can already transmit—such as the force that destroyed Trovo's extra moon. By deputies I'll rule one world, then another, until I get control of the one I'm after."
"The time in which the spacemen came," Kane said.
Chez Ebec smiled again. "You have a good memory. Which is excellent, since you shall be our key to your own time. In the beginning, at least, we shall have to rely on already proven methods. The eyes of Bolsk are a primitive key to the world of Trovo, but until we can devise something better, they will do. Your world shall be entered through the eyes of Kane."
Kane looked at the figure that was now Bolsk and shivered. "You haven't mentioned how you'll get the eyes of Kane to be all seeing, let alone how you'll get them back to my century."
"Details, just details, Jared Kane. The oil of life will not be hard to synthesize. We are an age of science. As for getting you back to your own time, that will be easy. We shall learn the method from you. You did not come to Trovo by accident, of that I am sure. The correct method and amount of torture should get this secret from you. You shall be allowed to live until that time."
Aylan had been right, Kane thought. "The crisis threatens the balance of universal existence."
The Weaponer shook in evil delight as he turned to Randil. "And you, my darling. You too shall be allowed to exist. To help me rule."
"My darling?" Rai repeated.
Randil smiled coyly at the Philosopher. "After all, my love of late, you were a mighty man in Trovo but that, may I remind you, was thousands and thousands of years ago. There is a new king now. Chez, darling, do we really need this gold headed ape around any more?"
Chez Ebec chuckled. "Not at all, my dear." The needle gun moved toward Rai. "I have no belief in prophecy, wizard, but it does look as if your Oracle told the truth. You are indeed to die by a strange man in a strange world by a strange weapon. I have only to add that it has been most unpleasant knowing you as a person."
"No—you can't," Rai whimpered. "Please send me back to Trovo. I know the people there. I'll rule on your behalf. I'll serve as your deputy—please."
Kane enjoyed seeing the big man grovel. Chez Ebec seemed to enjoy it too. "Possibly," he considered. "You do, as you say, know conditions there. You might make a very suitable deputy."
Randil laughed coarsely. "He'd make a very unsuitable deputy. They hate him throughout all of Trovo. You'd be plagued by revolts."
"You bitch!" Rai bellowed.
"But no doubt correct, Philosopher," said Chez Ebec. "Very well, my dear, we'll dispose of him."
But before he could activate the hand weapon the door from the anteroom banged open and Doyak stormed across the threshold.
Almost.
What happened was, he stormed right into the force field, which hit him shoulder high.
Then all hell broke loose.
"Now or never!" came a shout from behind Doyak, and Gron dived head first into the room, careful to enter below the level of the force field. He hit the floor just as Kane flung himself toward the gun raised in the hand of Chez Ebec.
Randil screamed as Doyak staggered against her. "Let me go!" she wailed. "There—there's the one you want. Your father! There is the hateful Bolsk!"
Doyak followed her pointing finger and scrambled after the sitting figure, which had not moved during the entire proceedings.
"No!"
The cry came from Chez Ebec. "Bolsk must not be harmed. I need him!" With the strength of ten men and the determination of more, he flung Kane from his throat as if he were no heavier than a damp dishrag and cut down Doyak with a deadly spurt from his handgun.
Before he could swing the weapon back again, Kane had closed the space between them. Grasping the dwarfs gun hand high, he twisted the wrist in a swift semicircle. The rest of Chez Ebec followed the movement and crashed to the floor in a thud. There was a flash at the moment of impact, and a hole the size of a half dollar was centered in the ex-Weaponer's blood soaked forehead.
"Stop! I command you to stop!" The voice was Rai's. Kane turned to face him, then stopped.
The Philosopher stood behind the controls of the huge force cannon. The needle was aimed directly at Kane. Between them Randil lay sprawled on the floor where Doyak had flung her. Gron stood frozen at the computer console, the broken bodies of the man and woman operators twisted at his feet. Bolsk sat as before, unmoving, his dead son crumpled before him.
Rai laughed. "The tables are turned, Jared Kane. The Philosopher is once again supreme in his kingdom and ruler of the eyes once more. Death from the Oracle's pronouncement has once more been stayed. You, however, will all die here."
"All?" Randil asked. "But you are my hero now. The runty Chez Ebec—you do not for a moment believe that I should have… He made me become his lover, oh most desired Rai. It's always been you whom I've really wanted in my heart, in my dreams, in my bed."
Her eyes and face were at their emotion stirring best at the very moment Rai pulled the dual triggers. There was a flash, and she was gone. She and the wall and a good six feet of metal and rock behind it simply no longer existed.
"And now for you, Jared Kane." Rai's lips curled into a satisfied smile. He was watching for some sign of distress on Kane's part.
Kane fingered the amulet hanging from his neck. Maybe. The Imparter had said he could get back only when his mission was complete. But maybe—maybe during the fight the computers or the screen or something had been damaged. If so, Rai never would be able to fix it…
Maybe Kane's mission was complete.
In any event, it was a chance. If it didn't return him to the power generating station, he'd lose nothing by trying. The station—where a bullet was waiting for him. A bullet.
Far better than what faced him now.
"Have nothing to say?" Rai asked.
"Just goodbye," was Kane's answer. He squatted low to avoid the station guard's bullet and pressed the amulet. As he did so, he sprang—ready to plunge into a man who had long ago shot a revolver at him.
The spring stopped short. He was not in the generating station. He was still in the screen room. But no one stood at the force cannon before him.
Rai was gone!
Kane exploded with a great laugh. Then, "All right, business now. Gron, move away from the screen and get ready to join your ring partner!" Locking his thumbs into position, he turned the cannon on its tripod toward the screen. An explosion sounded from outside the room.
"The saboteurs!" Gron cried. "Hurry!"
"Now!" Kane shouted. As he pulled the triggers, Gron crouched low, swinging his meaty right fist back to an angle that when released would no doubt flatten forever his surprised ring opponent. He disappeared at the precise moment the brightness crashed into the screen.
The last thing Kane saw before he again pressed his amulet was the bullet-headed figure of Bolsk, rising and walking purposefully into the softly humming needle point.
ELEVEN
« ^
Time Travel. This is another inaccurate notion which your own culture may have embodied in its beliefs. From what we have said above, you can see clearly that movement within time alone without some movement in space is impossible. However, though the actualities of the matter are grossly misunderstood, "time travel" is not difficult to achieve. Your own culture may be one in which the simple mechanics have been discovered and applied successfully.
—from Employee handbook
"A Reorientation to the Cosmos"
The following Restrictions of movement apply to movement lengthwise along continua. They have no application to movement in depth. Therefore, should one of the species or area members listed below discover the means, through its own efforts, to enable individuals or groups to travel "in time," their doing so does not constitute an action counter to these Restrictions.
—from the introduction to
"Restrictions, Class III—on Movement"
The guard didn't know what hit him. He stood transfixed by the golden caped figure sprawled out on the power station floor. He'd never seen a man with such black skin before. And as for the cropped hair of gold—impossible. Yet the guard had just shot such a man, though he would have sworn that seconds ago the man had been shorter, Caucasian and dressed in black clothes. Funny what the eyes will do sometimes, the guard was thinking, just before Kane smashed him in the neck from behind.
He picked up the guard's revolver from the floor. He had only minutes to get clear, he knew. He wondered if the margin was great enough. Then he stopped wondering and started running.
The shots spat at him from everywhere, it seemed. There was no sense in trying to keep hidden, no sense even in firing back. Any second now—
In the shock wave that hit him he seemed to float over and above and through the debris that moments before had been generating electricity for miles around.
It was dark when he awoke. He lay in a clump of bushes off to one side of a road that led, he knew, to the station at the top of the hill. It was still night, but much time had passed. Too much time. He'd missed his rendezvous with the agent whose job it was to get him out of the country. But hell, he was alive.
Now he was alive. But hours from now, what then? He'd be sure to be picked up, questioned. And then…
But he was alive.
And that was a miracle. He was alive and had not so much as a broken bone for all the abuse his body had taken. Had Aylan…
No, he said they never intervened unless… But maybe they felt they owed Kane something.
Maybe. But he was alive.
Alive in a world that didn't believe in miracles. Like Uin, his Earth didn't believe in them. Yet the Oracle had been right, at least about Rai's death. In Trovo, when the earth was young…
Atlantis? Who knew? Who really cared?
Trovo. And suddenly he longed for the companionship of Aufcash. And Nomi. He would like to be with the tavern girl right now.
Or just a tavern.
Foolish. What would he do in a place like Trovo? Well, he was a spy, a pretty good one. But would Trovo need spies? If not, he'd have to learn to be an ex-spy.
But here he was on Earth. Lying in a clump of scrubby bushes, his clothes torn, his body bruised and beaten, the only souvenir of his troubles hanging around his neck.
The amulet…
No, the Committee, whoever they were, wouldn't have allowed him to have it now if…
But…
Why not? It didn't look damaged. There was no reason to believe that since it had worked once, it wouldn't work again. Was there?
He closed his eyes and pressed the bubble.
He didn't open his eyes right away. He felt the ground under him and around him. Scrubby bushes were all he felt. His insides began to sink.
And then, from a distance, he heard the music. It sounded like tavern music. It was the sound of accordions.
Jared Kane grinned.
In another place time, a grin was growing on another pair of far differently shaped lips. Area subsection staff member Abr-Dorrek turned off his tridi viewer. Reaching to his interoffice communicator, he vigorously punched out the combination of symbols that would connect him with the office of his Spidran supervisor.
Supervisor right now, at least, he was thinking.
^
Robert Lory, The Eyes of Bolsk
