A Thousand Deaths (18 page)

**You must leave. Despite your promise, you cannot stay in the tect room. The woman is not in a position to hold it against you**

 

"I gave her my word."

 

**Your word is insignificant. The dictates of TECT in the name of the Representative take precedence**

 

Alohilani was provoked. "How can you say the arbitrary rules of a machine mean more than the dying wishes of a human being?"

 

**There are many wonders in the world, and the greatest of these is man. Man sails the depths of space and goes where he likes in the universe, through the faint, deadly stellar winds that whisper and burn. There is nothing beyond his power. His craft meets every challenge and he conquers every danger. For every threat, he has found a remedy. Except only death**

 

"Are you saying that because the machine doesn't die it's superior, its orders have more force?" asked Courane.

 

**COURANE, Sandor? Is that you? Are you in the tect room also? TECT in the name of the Representative thought you had better sense. You are not involved in this matter. Go away**

 

"I've noticed that TECT talks in a distinctly different voice to me than it does to you," said Courane. "I don't get such nice speeches."
 

 

**Go away now, both of you**

 

Alohilani didn't move from the console. "Your order wasn't based on compassion. I didn't think your command was strong enough to overrule the unwritten and unchangeable laws of friendship and mercy. You couldn't comprehend that. You are only a machine."

 

**You are only
a person, governed by your instincts and emotions at the expense of your rational sense. Here is a warning: Chance can lift a man to the heights, chance can throw him down. No one can foretell what will be by looking at what is**

 

"What does it mean?" asked Courane.

 

**It means that she will die, and soon**

 

"That is no surprise," said Alohilani. "But the machine might be advised that its foolish warning could apply to itself as well. TECT can't play with people's lives and happiness forever without paying."

 

**Continue to believe that if it comforts you**

 

Alohilani smiled at Courane. "It does," she said. Courane would remember her words and her sureness later, after TECT's prophecy came true.

 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
You will travel North America. You will become a writer of science fiction adventure tales. We have encouraged the continuing existence of science fiction for the amusement of the millions. You will produce one full-length science fiction novel each six-month service term. Your first novel will entitled SPACE SPY. It will be wry and ironic, yet containing seemingly important statements about the human condition. It will have no explicit sex and little violence. Other than that, the book will be entirely the product of imagination. Failure to comply with these directives will be considered Willful Contempt of TECTWish.
 

 

"Yes," said Courane wearily. That was how he learned of his first crime against the state. He went back to his room to pack, and to think about his new future as a novelist. He still wanted to be on the good side of TECT; he was deeply sorry that it was disappointed with him and his basketball playing. He promised himself that he would become a good and respected writer. He would copy the styles and techniques of the best science fiction writers in the business, whoever they were. His college friends in Pilessio never learned what happened to him. He went home to Greusching that day and left for New York the next. He got right down to work shortly after his arrival in North America.

Weeks passed and
Space Spy
slowly grew toward completion. In the process, Courane discovered satire, pathos, dramatic tension, plotting, the handling of dialogue, the development of characters, and other important tools of a working writer. He knew that these things existed, but he was not yet skillful in their application. Still, he did the best he could. That was all that anyone could ask of him, he believed. He was wrong again.

 

SPACE SPY

Chapter Sixteen: Home Again

Steve Wenrope stood on the jagged rocks and stared out across the landscape of the barren asteroid. It was bleak. The dull gray plain was drab. The dead black angular hills were lifeless. The sky, black and empty except for the silent spray of stars, it, too was bleak. Wenrope studied the scene silently, feeling bleak.

Finally, with a shrug, Wenrope turned away. The events of the last few days had drawn to their conclusion. Some of the people involved in the assignment were satisfied, others were disappointed. Two were dead. As for Wenrope, he had done what he had been hired to do. He had been paid. Still, there was an empty feeling inside him that he could not understand.

He began walking toward the protective dome of the Terran settlement. Beyond the nearby horizon, the perfectly round ball of the sun was edging into view. Wenrope darkened the faceplate of his pressure suit and carefully made his way down the treacherous rocks.

Later, inside the dome, Wenrope sat on a stool at the bar in Chellie's. With him was Suzy. She opened her purse. "Here," she said, laughing softly in that sensual way of hers, "this will get you off this Godforsaken asteroid."

He looked at the roll of bills in her hand, then up into her gorgeous eyes. His lip curled. "Keep it," he growled. He swallowed the last of the cheap liquor, stood up, and walked out of the bar. Outside, the interior of the dome was green and bleak. Wenrope was almost getting used to it.

 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
On the first of September, 5 YT, space spy was put into production. It was distributed to the worldwide chain of commercial fichestores. The sales figures for the three weeks during which your novel was permitted to be on sale are as follows:
 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
Print run: 250,000 copies (125,000 books, 125,000 fiche) Sales: 4,438 copies (249 books,
4,189 fiche) Returns: 245,562 copies
 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
These statistics are not impressive. They lead us to believe that a future in professional writing may not be right for you. Do not despair! To do so may be considered Contempt of TECTWish.
 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
You will travel to Tokyo, Asia, where an apartment with furnishings, an automobile, and clothing of local fashion will be provided for you. You will accept employment in the subassembly section of the Jennings Manufacturing Corporation. You will put together faceplates for voltmeters. This sort of occupation could easily be done by machines, but we have maintained the continuing existence of menial labor and drudgery as a pastime for the millions. Failure to comply with these directives will be considered Willful Contempt of TECTWish.
 

**COURANE, Sandor: 
Understanding of the above to be indicated.
 

**COURANE, Sandor:  
Affirm?**

 

"What do you think?" asked Courane angrily. He had already begun work on his second science fiction novel,
Time Spy.
 

 

**COURANE, Sandor:
 
 
?**

 

"Affirm, affirm," said Courane.

 

**MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
Who are these people who most resent the authority of TECT in the name of the Representative?**

 

"I don't want to get anyone in trouble," Arthur typed.

 

**MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
You volunteered to supply this information. TECT in the name of the Representative indicated that it is interested in learning these names. Now, if you refuse to cooperate, you will be demonstrating the most flagrant Contempt of TECTWish witnessed anywhere in the known universe since the Slidell Rebellion. You know what happened to Slidell. Are you eager to have the same thing happen to you?**

 

"No. There's a man named Koenraad, Daan, who has a secret ambition to see TECT overthrown, but I think he got the idea in the first place from Courane, Sandor."

 

**MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
Yes, COURANE, Sandor. His file is most interesting. He is a clown, of course, and can accomplish nothing by himself. Yet the peril lies in the possibility that he might communicate threatening ideas to more competent rebels**

 

"Besides them there is a black man named Bell, Fletcher, and a white woman named Hriniak, Klára."

 

**
MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
The unpleasant HRINIAK woman is no problem at all. TECT in the name of the Representative already knows exactly how to silence her. BELL, Fletcher, is another matter. He is the most dangerous colonist on Planet D. He is a reasoning man. He is also on Earth a popular poet. The combination may be disastrous**

 

"Fletcher? A thinking poet? He always struck me as more or less uneducated and wrapped up in himself. I don't think he's much of a problem."

 

**MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
You, too, are a clown. BELL, Fletcher, was responsible for a series of anti-TECT publications and a "People's Caucus" movement in North America. He portrayed himself as a persecuted poet and political thinker and is now considered a hero. Stories circulated about BELL, Fletcher, molesting preteenage boys and girls have had little success combating his martyr's image. Something even stronger will have to be tried. Perhaps if he murders a few people on Planet D, he may be returned to Earth shortly before his death to be discredited**

 

"Is that all you need from me?"

 

**MOSSBAUER, Arthur: 
Yes. Come back tomorrow evening and TECT in the name of the Representative will give you further instructions**

 

"Arthur, you slimy—"

Arthur jumped in surprise. He turned around. Behind him were Courane, Molly, and Nneka. He didn't know how long they had been there, but evidently they had followed enough of the communication to be thoroughly shocked.

Molly was irate. "You're an evil man, Arthur. I never would have believed this of you if I hadn't seen it myself."

"Believed what?" he asked. "I haven't done anything."
 

"Arthur," said Courane in a disappointed voice.
 

"Let me explain."

"You don't need to," said Molly. "We read it all in green and white."

Arthur dabbed at his damp brow with the back of a hand. "You're all getting angry for nothing, believe me. I wasn't doing anything harmful."

"Nothing harmful!" cried Molly. "You were just informing on us to TECT! Who knows what that machine will do now?"

Arthur smiled weakly. "But you don't understand. There won't be any trouble."

"Why not?" asked Nneka.

"Because there is no TECT. There's no such thing as TECT." Molly looked at Courane. Arthur's explanation was just a little too astounding for them to respond to. It was an excuse they hadn't been prepared for.

"What do you mean?" said Nneka.

"Listen," said Arthur, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm crazy or I'm making up wild lies to get myself out of trouble."

"Or both," said Molly.

"But I know something you don't. You all believe in a gigantic computer, a monstrous connection of units all over Earth. There's supposed to be a huge installation on Malta, and on Java, and in the Azores and the Shetland Islands, and at the Representatives' old hangout in the Virgin Islands. But there isn't. TECT doesn't exist, at least not the way we've been told to think of it."

"But what about all the information and—"

"The library exists," said Arthur. "All its references are indexed and a computer with a very big memory can give you all the information you want. That's no technical achievement. It's just the size of the memory that's impressive. But there's no computer that governs the world and makes vital decisions. There's no single mechanical mind that oversees everyone's life. There's no electronic guardian. That TECT is just a fantasy."

"Then what were you just talking to?" asked Nneka.

"Some person. A human being sitting at a terminal somewhere on Earth."

"A person?" said Courane dubiously. "You mean all of TECT's functions except its memory are handled by people typing back at us from Earth?"

"Yes," said Arthur. "There must be thousands of them, like telephone operators."

"Satan's first and greatest triumph in modern times," said Molly, "was persuading people that he didn't exist."

Courane was also skeptical. "Then who makes the real decisions? Who tells the operators how to act and what to say?
Who sent us here?"

Arthur's expression fell. "I don't know that. The Representatives are gone, but they must have been replaced. The world is in the hands of some secret group and they want everyone to think TECT is running the show. I don't know who or why."

Courane sighed. "Arthur," he said, "you're crazy or you're stupid. There isn't the tiniest bit of truth in that. I'll bet you don't even believe it yourself. Where did you ever get that idea?"

Arthur laughed. "TECT told me," he said.

"Go to hell, Arthur," said Molly. "I don't feel good. We want to use the doc box."

"Sure," said Arthur. He made room at the console for Courane.

"This business isn't finished, Arthur," said Courane. Arthur only nodded sadly.

 

Courane was discouraged, but Alohilani was patient. They sat in the tect room, watching over Iola's body. TECT had not addressed them further in more than two hours. "We're going to be punished for this," said Courane.

"Don't be afraid," said Alohilani.

"I don't know how you can stand up to TECT like that."

Alohilani smiled gently. "At home I had some good, strong people to set an example for me. My father and mother, and some others who lived near us."

Courane shrugged. "They may have been unusual people, Lani, but I have to confess that I'm not."