The Dueling Machine Read online

was a powerful tool, muchtoo powerful to allow it to be used indiscriminately. Therefore Leohsafeguarded his invention by forming a private company--Psychonics,Inc.--and securing an exclusive license from the Terran Commonwealthto manufacture, sell, install and maintain the machines. His customerswere government health and legal agencies; his responsibilities were:legally, to the Commonwealth; morally, to all mankind; and finally, tohis own restless conscience.

  The dueling machines succeeded. They worked as well, and often better,than Leoh had anticipated. But he knew that they were only a stopgap,only a temporarily shoring of a constantly-eroding dam. What wasneeded, really needed, was some method of exploding the status quo,some means of convincing people to reach out for those unoccupied,unexplored stars that filled the galaxy, some way of convincing menthat they should leave the comforts of civilization for the excitementof colonization.

  Leoh had been searching for that method when the news of Dulaq's duelagainst Odal reached him.

  Now he was speeding across parsecs of space, praying to himself thatthe dueling machine had not failed.

  The two-week flight ended. The starship took up a parking orbit aroundthe capital planet of Acquataine Cluster. The passengers transhippedto the surface.

  Dr. Leoh was met at the landing disk by an official delegation, headedby Massan, the acting prime minister. They exchanged formal greetingsthere at the base of the ship, while the other passengers hurried by.

  As Leoh and Massan, surrounded by the other members of the delegation,rode the slideway to the port's administration building, Leohcommented:

  "As you probably know, I have checked through your dueling machinequite thoroughly via tri-di for the past two weeks. I can find nothingwrong with it."

  Massan shrugged. "Perhaps you should have checked then, the machine onSzarno."

  "The Szarno Confederation? Their dueling machine?"

  "Yes. This morning Kanus' hired assassin killed a man in it."

  "He won another duel," Leoh said.

  "You do not understand," Massan said grimly, "Major Odal'sopponent--an industrialist who had spoken out against Kanus--wasactually killed in the dueling machine. The man is dead!"

  V

  One of the advantages of being Commander-in-Chief of the Star Watch,the old man thought to himself, is that you can visit any planet isthe Commonwealth.

  He stood at the top of the hill and looked out over the green tableland of Kenya. This was the land of his birth, Earth was hishomeworld. The Star Watch's official headquarters may be in the heartof a globular cluster of stars near the center of the galaxy, butEarth was the place the commander wanted most to see as he grew olderand wearier.

  An aide, who had been following the commander at a respectfuldistance, suddenly intruded himself in the old man's reverie.

  "Sir, a message for you."

  The commander scowled at the young officer. "I gave orders that I wasnot to be disturbed."

  The officer, slim and stiff in his black-and-silver uniform, replied."Your chief of staff has passed the message on to you, sir. It's fromDr. Leoh, of Carinae University. Personal and urgent, sir."

  The old man grumbled to himself, but nodded. The aide placed a smallcrystalline sphere on the grass before him. The air above the spherestarted to vibrate and glow.

  "Sir Harold Spencer here," the commander said.

  The bubbling air seemed to draw in on itself and take solid form. Dr.Leoh sat at a desk chair and looked up at the standing commander.

  "Harold, it's a pleasure to see you once again."

  Spencer's stern eyes softened, and his beefy face broke into awell-creased smile. "Albert, you ancient scoundrel. What do you meanby interrupting my first visit home in fifteen years?"

  "It won't be a long interruption," Leoh said.

  "You told my chief of staff that it was urgent," Sir Harold groused.

  "It is. But it's not the sort of problem that requires much action onyour part. Yet. You are familiar with recent political developments onthe Kerak Worlds?"

  Spencer snorted. "I know that a barbarian named Kanus has establishedhimself as a dictator. He's a troublemaker. I've been talking to theCommonwealth Council about the advisability of quashing him before hecauses grief, but you know the Council ... first wait until the flameshave sprung up, then thrash about and demand that the Star Watch dosomething!"

  Leoh grinned. "You're as irascible as ever."

  "My personality is not the subject of this rather expensivediscussion. What about Kanus? And what are you doing, getting yourselfinvolved in politics? About to change your profession again?"

  "No, not at all," Leoh answered, laughing. Then, more seriously. "Itseems as though Kanus has discovered some method of using the duelingmachines to achieve political advantages over his neighbors."

  "What?"

  Leoh explained the circumstances of Odal's duels with the Acquatainianprime minister and Szarno Industrialist.

  "Dulaq is completely incapacitated and the other poor fellow is dead?"Spencer's face darkened into a thundercloud. "You were right to callme. This is a situation that could easily become intolerable."

  "I agree," Leoh said. "But evidently Kanus has not broken any laws orinterstellar agreements. All that meets the eye is a disturbing pairof accidents, both of them accruing to Kanus' benefit."

  "Do you believe that they were accidents?"

  "Certainly not. The dueling machine cannot cause physical or mentalharm ... unless someone has tampered with it in some way."

  "That is my thought, too." Spencer was silent for a moment, weighingthe matter in his mind. "Very well. The Star Watch cannot actofficially, but there is nothing to prevent me from dispatching anofficer to the Acquataine Cluster, on detached duty, to serve asliaison between us."

  "Good. I think that will be the most effective method of handling thesituation, at present."

  "It will be done." Sir Harold pronounced. His aide made a mental noteof it.

  "Thank you very much," Leoh said. "Now, go back to enjoying yourvacation."

  "Vacation? This is no vacation," Spencer rumbled. "I happen to becelebrating my birthday."

  "So? Well, congratulations. I try not to remember mine," Leoh said.

  "Then you must be older than I," Spencer replied, allowing only thefaintest hint of a smile to appear.

  "I suppose it's possible."

  "But not very likely, eh?"

  They laughed together and said good-by. The Star Watch commandertramped through the hills until sunset, enjoying the sight of thegrasslands and distant purple mountains he had known in his childhood.As dusk closed in, he told his aide he was ready to leave.

  The aide pressed a stud on his belt and a two-place aircar skimmedsilently from the far side of the hills and hovered beside them.Spencer climbed in laboriously while the aide remained discreetly athis side. While the commander settled his bulk into his seat the aidehurried around the car and hopped into his place. The car glided offtoward Spencer's personal planetship, waiting for him at a nearbyfield.

  "Don't forget to assign an officer to Dr. Leoh," the commandermuttered to his aide. Then he turned and watched the unmatchablebeauty of an Earthly sunset.

  * * * * *

  The aide did not forget the assignment. That night, as Sir Harold'sship spiraled out to a rendezvous with a starship, the aide dictatedthe necessary order into a autodispatcher that immediately beamed itto the Star Watch's nearest communications center, on Mars.

  The order was scanned and routed automatically and finally beamed tothe Star Watch unit commandant in charge of the area closest to theAcquataine Cluster, on the sixth planet circling the star PerseusAlpha. Here again, the order was processed automatically and routedthrough the local headquarters to the personnel files. The automatedfiles selected three microcard dossiers that matched the requirementsof the order.

  The three microcards and the order itself appeared simultaneously onthe desktop viewer of the Star Watch personnel officer. He look
ed atthe order, then read the dossiers. He flicked a button that gave himan updated status report on each of the three men in question. One wasdue for leave after an extensive period of duty. The second was theson of a personal friend of the local commandant. The third had justarrived a few weeks ago, fresh from the Star Watch Academy on Mars.

  The personnel officer selected the third man, routed his dossier andSir Harold's order back into the automatic processing system, andreturned to the film of primitive dancing girls he had been watchingbefore this matter of decision had arrived at his desk.

  VI

  The space station orbiting around Acquatainia--the capital planet ofthe Acquataine Cluster--served simultaneously as a transfer point fromstarships