The next week was an enervatingly slow one for Leoh, evenly divided
between tedious checking of each component of the dueling machine, and
shameless ruses to keep Hector as far away from the machine as
possible.
The Star Watchman certainly wanted to help, and he actually _was_
little short of brilliant in doing intricate mathematics completely
in his head. But he was, Leoh found, a clumsy, chattering, whistling,
scatterbrained, inexperienced bundle of noise and nerves. It was
impossible to do constructive work with him nearby.
_Perhaps you’re judging him too harshly_, Leoh warned himself. _You
just might be letting your frustrations with the dueling machine get
the better of your sense of balance._
The professor was sitting in the office that the Acquatainians had
given him in one end of the former lecture hall that held the dueling
machine. Leoh could see its impassive metal hulk through the open
office door.
The room he was sitting in had been one of a suite of offices used by
the permanent staff of the machine. But they had moved out of the
building completely, in deference to Leoh, and the Acquatainian
government had turned the other cubbyhole offices into sleeping rooms
for the professor and the Star Watchman, and an auto-kitchen. A
combination cook-valet-handyman appeared twice each day—morning and
evening—to handle any special chores that the cleaning machines and
auto-kitchen might miss.
Leoh slouched back in his desk chair and cast a weary eye on the stack
of papers that recorded the latest performances of the machine.
Earlier that day he had taken the electroencephalographic records of
clinical cases of catatonia and run them through the machine’s input
unit. The machine immediately rejected them, refused to process them
through the amplification units and association circuits.
In other words, the machine had recognized the EEG traces as something
harmful to a human being.
_Then how did it happen to Dulaq?_ Leoh asked himself for the
thousandth time. It couldn’t have been the machine’s fault; it must
have been something in Odal’s mind that simply overpowered Dulaq’s.
_“Overpowered?” That’s a terribly unscientific term_, Leoh argued
against himself.
Before he could carry the debate any further, he heard the main door
of the big chamber slide open and then bang shut, and Hector’s off-key
whistle shrilled and echoed through the high-vaulted room.
Leoh sighed and put his self-contained argument off to the back of his
mind. 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 on
the office’s couch.
“Everything going well, sir?”
Leoh shrugged. “Not very well, I’m afraid. I can’t find anything wrong
with 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’s
boundless, 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 guess
that’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 her
way back to the communications booth at the space station. She said to
tell you she enjoyed her visit very much.”
“Good. It was, eh, very good of you to escort her about the campus. It
kept 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 no
scientist ... 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—” He
started 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 that
this Odal and Kanus have been doing, it’s basically a political
problem, and not a scientific one. The professional staff of the
machine 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 problem
more than a scientific one. I’m tired and frustrated and I’m feeling
my years. I want to return to Carinae and spend the next few months
considering beautifully abstract problems about instantaneous
transportation devices. Let Massan and the Star Watch worry about
Kanus.”
“Oh! That’s what I came to tell you. Massan has been challenged to a
duel by Odal!”
“What?”
“This afternoon, Odal went to the Council building. Picked an argument
with 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 a
few minutes and a few levels of secretaries and assistants, but
finally Massan’s dark, bearded face appeared on the screen above the
desk.
“You have accepted Odal’s challenge?” Leoh asked, without
preliminaries.
“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 or
someone else from Kerak is tampering with the dueling machine.”
Massan shook his head sadly. “My dear learned sir, you still do not
comprehend the political situation. The Government of the Acquataine
Cluster is much closer to dissolution than I dare to admit openly. The
coalition of star groups that Dulaq had constructed to keep the Kerak
Worlds neutralized has broken apart completely. This morning, Kanus
announced that he would annex Szarno. This afternoon, Odal challenges
me.”
“I think I see—”
“Of course. The Acquatainian Government is paralyzed now, until the
outcome of the duel is known. We cannot effectively intervene in the
Szarno crisis until we know who will be heading the Government next
week. And, frankly, more than a few members of our Council are now
openly favoring Kanus and urging that we establish friendly relations
with him before it is too late.”
“But, that’s all the more reason for refusing the duel,” Leoh
insisted.
“And be accused of cowardice in my own Council meetings?” Massan smiled
grimly. “In politics, my dear sir, the _appearance_ of a man means much
more than his substance. As a coward, I would soon be out of office.
But, perhaps, as the winner of a duel against the invincible Odal ...
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 that
time you might discover Odal’s secret. I dare not postpone the duel
any longer; as it is, the political situation may collapse about our
heads at any moment.”
“I’ll take this machine apart and rebuild it again, molecule by
molecule,” Leoh promised.
As Massan’s image faded from the screen, Leoh turned to Hector. “We
have 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 of
off-key tunes, and finally blurted, “How can you take apart the
dueling machine?”
“Hm-m-m?” Leoh snapped out of his reverie.
“How can you take apart the dueling machine?” Hector repeated. “Looks
like 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 ... that
is, my mechanical aptitude scores at the Academy—”
Leoh smiled at him. “No need for mechanical aptitude, my boy. You were
trained to fight, weren’t you? We can do the job mentally.”