Short Fiction by Poul Anderson (free ebook novel .txt) 📕

condition are in range, you will activate the disintegrators and dissolve this whole vessel and all its contents to basic energy.

With a certain morbid fascination, Laird looked at that switch. An ordinary double-throw knife type⁠—Lord of space, could it be possible, was it logical that all history should depend on the angle it made with the control panel? He pulled his eyes away, stared out at the swarming ships and the greater host of the stars, lit a cigaret with shaking hands, paced and sweated and waited.

Joana came to him, a couple of crewmen marching solemnly behind. Her eyes shone and her cheeks were flushed and the turret light was like molten copper in her hair. No woman, thought Laird, had ever been so lovely, and he was going to destroy that to which she had given her life.

“Daryesh!” Laughter danced in her voice. “Daryesh, the high admiral wants to see us in his flagship. He’ll probably ask for a demonstration, and then I think the fleet will start for Sol at once with us in the van. Daryesh⁠—oh, Daryesh, the war is almost over!”

Now! blazed the thought of Laird, and his hand reached for the main switch. Now⁠—easily, causally, with a remark about letting the generators warm up⁠—and then go with her, overpower those guardsmen in their surprise and head for home!

And Daryesh’s mind reunited itself at that signal, and the hand froze.⁠ ⁠…

No!

What? But⁠—

The memory of the suppressed half of Daryesh’s mind was open to Laird, and the triumph of the whole of it, and Laird knew that his defeat was here.

So simple, so cruelly simple⁠—Daryesh could stop him, lock the body in a conflict of wills, and that would be enough. For while Laird slept, while Daryesh’s own major ego was unconscious, the trained subconscious of the Vwyrddan had taken over. It had written, in its self-created somnambulism, a letter to Joana explaining the whole truth, and had put it where it would easily be found once they started looking through his effects in search of an explanation for his paralysis. And the letter directed, among other things, that Daryesh’s body should be kept under restraint until certain specified methods known to Vwyrddan psychiatry⁠—drugs, electric waves, hypnosis⁠—had been applied to eradicate the Laird half of his mind.

Janyard victory was near.

“Daryesh!” Joana’s voice seemed to come from immensely far away; her face swam in a haze and a roar of fainting consciousness. “Daryesh, what’s the matter? Oh, my dear, what’s wrong?”

Grimly, the Vwyrddan thought: Give up, Laird. Surrender to me, and you can keep your ego. I’ll destroy that letter. See, my whole mind is open to you now⁠—you can see that I mean it honestly this time. I’d rather avoid treatment if possible, and I do owe you something. But surrender now, or be wiped out of your own brain.

Defeat and ruin⁠—and nothing but slow distorting death as reward for resistance. Laird’s will caved in, his mind too chaotic for clear thought. Only one dull impulse came: I give up. You win, Daryesh.

The collapsed body picked itself off the floor. Joana was bending anxiously over him. “Oh, what is it, what’s wrong?”

Daryesh collected himself and smiled shakily. “Excitement will do this to me, now and then. I haven’t fully mastered this alien nervous system yet. I’m all right now. Let’s go.”

Laird’s hand reached out and pulled the switch over.

Daryesh shouted, an animal roar from the throat, and tried to recover it, and the body toppled again in a stasis of locked wills.

It was like a deliverance from hell, and still it was but the inevitable logic of events, as Laird’s own self reunited. Half of him still shaking with defeat, half realizing its own victory, he thought savagely:

None of them noticed me do that. They were paying too much attention to my face. Or if they did, we’ve proved to them before that it’s only a harmless regulating switch. And⁠—the lethal radiations are already flooding us! If you don’t cooperate now, Daryesh, I’ll hold us here till we’re both dead!

So simple, so simple. Because, sharing Daryesh’s memory, Laird had shared his knowledge of self-deception techniques. He had anticipated, with the buried half of his mind, that the Vwyrddan might pull some such trick, and had installed a posthypnotic command of his own. In a situation like this, when everything looked hopeless, his conscious mind was to surrender, and then his subconscious would order that the switch be thrown.

Cooperate, Daryesh! You’re as fond of living as I. Cooperate, and let’s get the hell out of here!

Grudgingly, wryly: You win, Laird.

The body rose again, and leaned on Joana’s arm, and made its slow way toward the boat blisters. The undetectable rays of death poured through them, piling up their cumulative effects. In three minutes, a nervous system would be ruined.

Too slow, too slow. “Come on, Joana. Run!”

“Why⁠—” She stopped, and a hard suspicion came into the faces of the two men behind her. “Daryesh⁠—what do you mean? What’s come over you?”

“Ma’m.⁠ ⁠…” One of the crewmen stepped forward. “Ma’m, I wonder⁠ ⁠… I saw him pull down the main switch. And now he’s in a hurry to leave the ship. And none of us really know how all that machinery ticks.”

Laird pulled the gun out of Joana’s holster and shot him. The other gasped, reaching for his own side arm, and Laird’s weapon blazed again.

His fist leaped out, striking Joana on the angle of the jaw, and she sagged. He caught her up and started to run.

A pair of crewmen stood in the corridor leading to the boats. “What’s the matter, sir?” one asked.

“Collapsed⁠—radiation from the machines⁠—got to get her to a hospital ship,” gasped Daryesh.

They stood aside, wonderingly, and he spun the dogs of the blister valve and stepped into the gig. “Shall we come, sir?” asked one of the men.

“No!” Laird felt a little dizzy. The radiation was streaming through him, and death was coming with giant strides. “No⁠—” He smashed a fist into the insistent face, slammed the valve