The Dueling Machine Read online

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  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction May 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  THE DUELING MACHINE

  The trouble with great ideas is that someone is sure to expend enormous effort and ingenuity figuring out how to louse them up.

  by BEN BOVA and MYRON R. LEWIS

  ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN SCHOENHERR

 

  * * * * *

  Dulaq rode the slide to the upper pedestrian level, stepped off andwalked over to the railing. The city stretched out all aroundhim--broad avenues thronged with busy people, pedestrian walks,vehicle thoroughfares, aircars gliding between the gleaming, toweringbuildings.

  And somewhere in this vast city was the man he must kill. The man whowould kill him, perhaps.

  It all seemed so real! The noise of the streets, the odors of theperfumed trees lining the walks, even the warmth of the reddish sun onhis back as he scanned the scene before him.

  _It is an illusion_, Dulaq reminded himself, _a clever man-madehallucination. A figment of my own imagination amplified by amachine._

  But it seemed so very real.

  Real or not, he had to find Odal before the sun set. Find him and killhim. Those were the terms of the duel. He fingered the stubbycylinderical stat-wind in his tunic pocket. That was the weapon he hadchosen, his weapon, his own invention. And this was the environment hehad picked: his city, busy, noisy, crowded, the metropolis Dulaq hadknown and loved since childhood.

  Dulaq turned and glanced at the sun. It was halfway down toward thehorizon, he judged. He had about three hours to find Odal. When hedid--kill or be killed.

  _Of course no one is actually hurt. That is the beauty of the machine.It allows one to settle a score, to work out aggressive feelings,without either mental or physical harm._

  Dulaq shrugged. He was a roundish figure, moon-faced, slightly stoopedshoulders. He had work to do. Unpleasant work for a civilized man, butthe future of the Acquataine Cluster and the entire alliance ofneighboring star systems could well depend on the outcome of thiselectronically synthesized dream.

  He turned and walked down the elevated avenue, marveling at the sharpsensation of hardness that met each footstep on the paving. Childrendashed by and rushed up to a toyshop window. Men of commerce strodealong purposefully, but without missing a chance to eye the girlssauntering by.

  _I must have a marvelous imagination_, Dulaq thought smiling tohimself.

  Then he thought of Odal, the blond, icy professional he was pittedagainst. Odal was an expert at all the weapons, a man of strength andcool precision, an emotionless tool in the hands of a ruthlesspolitician. But how expert could he be with a stat-wand, when thefirst time he saw one was the moment before the duel began? And howwell acquainted could he be with the metropolis, when he had spentmost of his life in the military camps on the dreary planets of Kerak,sixty light-years from Acquatainia?

  No, Odal would be lost and helpless in this situation. He wouldattempt to hide among the throngs of people. All Dulaq had to do wasto find him.

  The terms of the duel restricted both men to the pedestrian walks ofthe commercial quarter of the city. Dulaq knew the area intimately,and he began a methodical hunt through the crowds for the tall,fair-haired, blue-eyed Odal.

  And he saw him! After only a few minutes of walking down the majorthoroughfare, he spotted his opponent, strolling calmly along acrosswalk, at the level below.

  Dulaq hurried down the next ramp, worked his way through the crowd,and saw the man again. Tall and blond, unmistakable. Dulaq edged alongbehind him quietly, easily. No disturbance. No pushing. Plenty oftime. They walked along the street for a quarter hour while thedistance between them slowly shrank from fifty feet to five.

  Finally Dulaq was directly behind him, within arm's reach. He graspedthe stat-wand and pulled it from his tunic. With one quick motion hetouched it to the base of the man's skull and started to thumb thebutton that would release the killing bolt of energy ...

  The man turned suddenly. It wasn't Odal!

  Dulaq jerked back in surprise. It couldn't be. He had seen his face.It was Odal--and yet this man was definitely a stranger.

  He stared at Dulaq as the duelist backed away a few steps, then turnedand walked quickly from the place.

  _A mistake_, Dulaq told himself. _You were overanxious. A good thingthis is an hallucination, or else the auto-police would be taking youin by now._

  And yet ... he had been so certain that it was Odal. A chill shudderedthrough him. He looked up, and there was his antagonist, on thethoroughfare above, at the precise spot where he himself had been afew minutes earlier. Their eyes met, and Odal's lips parted in a coldsmile.

  Dulaq hurried up the ramp. Odal was gone by the time he reached theupper level. _He could not have gotten far_, Dulaq reasoned. Slowly,but very surely, Dulaq's hallucination turned into a nightmare. Hespotted Odal in the crowd, only to have him melt away. He saw himagain, lolling in a small park, but when he got closer, the man turnedout to be another stranger. He felt the chill of the duelist'sice-blue eyes on him again and again, but when he turned to find hisantagonist, no one was there but the impersonal crowd.

  Odal's face appeared again and again. Dulaq struggled through thethrongs to find his opponent, only to have him vanish. The crowdseemed to be filled with tall, blond men crisscrossing before Dulaq'sdismayed eyes.

  The shadows lengthened. The sun was setting. Dulaq could feel hisheart pounding within him and perspiration pouring from every squareinch of his skin.

  There he is! Definitely, positively him! Dulaq pushed through thehomeward-bound crowds toward the figure of a tall, blond man leaningagainst the safety railing of the city's main thoroughfare. It wasOdal, the damned smiling confident Odal.

  Dulaq pulled the wand from his tunic and battled across the surgingcrowd to the spot where Odal stood motionless, hands in pockets,watching him.

  Dulaq came within arm's reach ...

  "TIME, GENTLEMEN. TIME IS UP, THE DUEL IS ENDED."

  * * * * *

  High above the floor of the antiseptic-white chamber that housed thedueling machine was a narrow gallery. Before the machine had beeninstalled, the chamber had been a lecture hall in Acquatainia'slargest university. Now the rows of students' seats, the lecturer'sdais and rostrum were gone. The chamber held only the machine, thegrotesque collection of consoles, control desks, power units,association circuits, and booths where the two antagonists sat.

  In the gallery--empty during ordinary duels--sat a privileged handfulof newsmen.

  "Time limit is up," one of them said. "Dulaq didn't get him."

  "Yes, but he didn't get Dulaq, either."

  The first one shrugged. "The important thing is that now Dulaq has tofight Odal on his terms. Dulaq couldn't win with his own choice ofweapons and situation, so--"

  "Wait, they're coming out."

  Down on the floor below, Dulaq and his opponent emerged from theirenclosed booths.

  One of the newsmen whistled softly. "Look at Dulaq's face ... it'spositively gray."

  "I've never seen the Prime Minister so shaken."

  "And take a look at Kanus' hired assassin." The newsmen turned towardOdal, who stood before his booth, quietly chatting with his seconds.

  "Hm-m-m. There's a bucket of frozen ammonia for you."

  "He's enjoying this."

  One o
f the newsmen stood up. "I've got a deadline to meet. Save myseat."

  He made his way past the guarded door, down the rampway circling theouter walls of the building, to the portable tri-di transmitting unitthat the Acquatainian government had permitted for the newsmen on thecampus grounds outside the former lecture hall.

  The newsman huddled with his technicians for a few minutes, thenstepped before the transmitter.

  "Emile Dulaq, Prime Minister of the Acquataine Cluster andacknowledged leader of the coalition against Chancellor Kanus of theKerak Worlds, has failed in the first part of his psychonic duelagainst Major Par Odal of Kerak. The two antagonists are nowundergoing the routine medical and psychological checks beforerenewing their duel."

  By the time the newsman returned to his gallery seat, the duel wasalmost ready to begin again.

  Dulaq stood in the midst of a group of advisors before the loomingimpersonality of the machine.

  "You need not go through with the next phase of the