The Dueling Machine Page 7

far away from the machine aspossible.

  The Star Watchman certainly wanted to help, and he actually was littleshort of brilliant in doing intricate mathematics completely in hishead. But he was, Leoh found, a clumsy, chattering, whistling,scatterbrained, inexperienced bundle of noise and nerves. It wasimpossible to do constructive work with him nearby.

  _Perhaps you're judging him too harshly_, Leoh warned himself. _Youjust might be letting your frustrations with the dueling machine getthe better of your sense of balance._

  The professor was sitting in the office that the Acquatainians hadgiven him in one end of the former lecture hall that held the duelingmachine. Leoh could see its impassive metal hulk through the openoffice door.

  The room he was sitting in had been one of a suite of offices used bythe permanent staff of the machine. But they had moved out of thebuilding completely, in deference to Leoh, and the Acquatainiangovernment had turned the other cubbyhole offices into sleeping roomsfor the professor and the Star Watchman, and an auto-kitchen. Acombination cook-valet-handyman appeared twice each day--morning andevening--to handle any special chores that the cleaning machines andauto-kitchen might miss.

  Leoh slouched back in his desk chair and cast a weary eye on the stackof papers that recorded the latest performances of the machine.Earlier that day he had taken the electroencephalographic records ofclinical cases of catatonia and run them through the machine's inputunit. The machine immediately rejected them, refused to process themthrough the amplification units and association circuits.

  In other words, the machine had recognized the EEG traces as somethingharmful to a human being.

  _Then how did it happen to Dulaq?_ Leoh asked himself for thethousandth time. It couldn't have been the machine's fault; it musthave been something in Odal's mind that simply overpowered Dulaq's.

  _"Overpowered?" That's a terribly unscientific term_, Leoh arguedagainst himself.

  Before he could carry the debate any further, he heard the main doorof the big chamber slide open and then bang shut, and Hector's off-keywhistle shrilled and echoed through the high-vaulted room.

  Leoh sighed and put his self-contained argument off to the back of hismind. Trying to think logically near Hector was a hopeless prospect.

  "Are you in, doctor?" Hector's voice rang out.

  "In here."

  Hector ducked in through the doorway and plopped his rangy frame onthe office's couch.

  "Everything going well, sir?"

  Leoh shrugged. "Not very well, I'm afraid. I can't find anything wrongwith the dueling machine. I can't even _force_ it to malfunction."

  "Well, that's good, isn't it?" Hector chirped happily.

  "In a sense," Leoh admitted, feeling slightly nettled at the youth'sboundless, pointless optimism. "But, you see, it means that Kanus'people can do things with the machine that I can't."

  Hector frowned, considering the problem. "Hm-m-m ... yes, I guessthat's right, too, isn't it?"

  "Did you see the girl back to her ship safely?" Leoh asked.

  "Yes, sir," Hector replied, bobbing his head vigorously. "She's on herway back to the communications booth at the space station. She said totell you she enjoyed her visit very much."

  "Good. It was, eh, very good of you to escort her about the campus. Itkept her out of my hair ... what's left of it, that is."

  Hector grinned. "Oh, I liked showing her around, and all that--And,well, it sort of kept me out of your hair, too, didn't it?"

  Leoh's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  Hector laughed. "Doctor, I may be clumsy, and I'm certainly noscientist ... but I'm not completely brainless."

  "I'm sorry if I gave you that impression--"

  "Oh no ... don't be sorry. I didn't mean that to sound so ... well,the way it sounded ... that is. I know I'm just in your way--" Hestarted to get up.

  * * * * *

  Leoh waved him back to the couch. "Relax, my boy, relax. You know,I've been sitting here all afternoon wondering what to do next.Somehow, just now, I came to a conclusion."

  "Yes?"

  "I'm going to leave the Acquataine Cluster and return to Carinae."

  "What? But you can't! I mean--"

  "Why not? I'm not accomplishing anything here. Whatever it is thatthis Odal and Kanus have been doing, it's basically a politicalproblem, and not a scientific one. The professional staff of themachine here will catch up to their tricks sooner or later."

  "But, sir, if you can't find the answer, how can they?"

  "Frankly, I don't know. But, as I said, this is a political problemmore than a scientific one. I'm tired and frustrated and I'm feelingmy years. I want to return to Carinae and spend the next few monthsconsidering beautifully abstract problems about instantaneoustransportation devices. Let Massan and the Star Watch worry aboutKanus."

  "Oh! That's what I came to tell you. Massan has been challenged to aduel by Odal!"

  "What?"

  "This afternoon, Odal went to the Council building. Picked an argumentwith Massan right in the main corridor and challenged him."

  "Massan accepted?" Leoh asked.

  Hector nodded.

  Leoh leaned across his desk and reached for the phone unit. It took afew minutes and a few levels of secretaries and assistants, butfinally Massan's dark, bearded face appeared on the screen above thedesk.

  "You have accepted Odal's challenge?" Leoh asked, withoutpreliminaries.

  "We meet next week," Massan replied gravely.

  "You should have refused."

  "On what pretext?"

  "No pretext. A flat refusal, based on the certainty that Odal orsomeone else from Kerak is tampering with the dueling machine."

  Massan shook his head sadly. "My dear learned sir, you still do notcomprehend the political situation. The Government of the AcquataineCluster is much closer to dissolution than I dare to admit openly. Thecoalition of star groups that Dulaq had constructed to keep the KerakWorlds neutralized has broken apart completely. This morning, Kanusannounced that he would annex Szarno. This afternoon, Odal challengesme."

  "I think I see--"

  "Of course. The Acquatainian Government is paralyzed now, until theoutcome of the duel is known. We cannot effectively intervene in theSzarno crisis until we know who will be heading the Government nextweek. And, frankly, more than a few members of our Council are nowopenly favouring Kanus and urging that we establish friendly relationswith him before it is too late."

  "But, that's all the more reason for refusing the duel," Leohinsisted.

  "And be accused of cowardice in my own Council meetings?" Massansmiled grimly. "In politics, my dear sir, the _appearance_ of a manmeans much more than his substance. As a coward, I would soon be outof office. But perhaps, as the winner of a duel against the invincibleOdal ... or even as a martyr ... I may accomplish something useful."

  Leoh said nothing.

  Massan continued, "I put off the duel for a week, hoping that in thattime you might discover Odal's secret. I dare not postpone the duelany longer; as it is, the political situation may collapse about ourheads at any moment."

  "I'll take this machine apart and rebuild it again, molecule bymolecule," Leoh promised.

  As Massan's image faded from the screen, Leoh turned to Hector. "Wehave one week to save his life."

  "And avert a war, maybe," Hector added.

  "Yes." Leoh leaned back in his chair and stared off into infinity.

  Hector shuffled his feet, rubbed his nose, whistled a few bars ofoff-key tunes, and finally blurted, "How can you take apart thedueling machine?"

  "Hm-m-m?" Leoh snapped out of his reverie.

  "How can you take apart the dueling machine?" Hector repeated. "Lookslike a big job to do in a week."

  "Yes, it is. But, my boy, perhaps we ... the two of us ... can do it."

  Hector scratched his head. "Well, uh, sir ... I'm not very ... thatis, my mechanical aptitude scores at the Academy--"

  Leoh smiled at him. "No need for m
echanical aptitude, my boy. You weretrained to fight, weren't you? We can do the job mentally."

  VIII

  It was the strangest week of their lives.

  Leoh's plan was straightforward: to test the dueling machine, push itto the limits of its performance, by actually operating it--byfighting duels.

  They started off easily enough, tentatively probing and flexing theirmental muscles. Leoh had used the dueling machine himself many timesin the past, but only in tests of the machines' routine performance.Never in actual combat against another human being. To Hector,