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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18861-h.zip b/18861-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9b3b95 --- /dev/null +++ b/18861-h.zip diff --git a/18861-h/18861-h.htm b/18861-h/18861-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb3bb29 --- /dev/null +++ b/18861-h/18861-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1818 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Temple Trouble, by H. Beam Piper + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; } + + + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; } + + .center {text-align: center;} + .tr { text-align: center; + margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: + 0.5em; margin-right: 0.5em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Temple Trouble, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Temple Trouble + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Illustrator: Rogers + +Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18861] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEMPLE TROUBLE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="tr"> + Transcriber's Note:<br /> +<br /> + + + This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction,<br /> + + April, 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any<br /> + + evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + +</p> + + + + + + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="600" height="275" /></p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>TEMPLE TROUBLE</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>BY H. BEAM PIPER</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"> <b>Miracles</b> to order was a fine way for the paratimers to<br /> get mining concessions—but Nature can sometimes pull<br />counter-miracles. And so can men, for that matter....</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><b>Illustrated by Rogers</b></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Through a haze of incense and altar smoke, Yat-Zar looked down from +his golden throne at the end of the dusky, many-pillared temple. +Yat-Zar was an idol, of gigantic size and extraordinarily good +workmanship; he had three eyes, made of turquoises as big as +doorknobs, and six arms. In his three right hands, from top to bottom, +he held a sword with a flame-shaped blade, a jeweled object of vaguely +phallic appearance, and, by the ears, a rabbit. In his left hands were +a bronze torch with burnished copper flames, a big goblet, and a pair +of scales with an egg in one pan balanced against a skull in the +other. He had a long bifurcate beard made of gold wire, feet like a +bird's, and other rather startling anatomical features. His throne was +set upon a stone plinth about twenty feet high, into the front of +which a doorway opened; behind him was a wooden screen, elaborately +gilded and painted.</p> + +<p>Directly in front of the idol, Ghullam the high priest knelt on a big +blue and gold cushion. He wore a gold-fringed robe of dark blue, and a +tall conical gold miter, and a bright blue false beard, forked like +the idol's golden one: he was intoning a prayer, and holding up, in +both hands, for divine inspection and approval, a long curved knife. +Behind him, about thirty feel away, stood a square stone altar, around +which four of the lesser priests, in light blue robes with less gold +fringe and dark-blue false beards, were busy with the preliminaries to +the sacrifice. At considerable distance, about halfway down the length +of the temple, some two hundred worshipers—a few substantial citizens +in gold-fringed tunics, artisans in tunics without gold fringe, +soldiers in mail hauberks and plain steel caps, one officer in +ornately gilded armor, a number of peasants in nondescript smocks, and +women of all classes—were beginning to prostrate themselves on the +stone floor.</p> + +<p>Ghullam rose to his feet, bowing deeply to Yat-Zar and holding the +knife extended in front of him, and backed away toward the altar. As +he did, one of the lesser priests reached into a fringed and +embroidered sack and pulled out a live rabbit, a big one, obviously of +domestic breed, holding it by the ears while one of his fellows took +it by the hind legs. A third priest caught up a silver pitcher, while +the fourth fanned the altar fire with a sheet-silver fan. As they +began chanting antiphonally, Ghullam turned and quickly whipped the +edge of his knife across the rabbit's throat. The priest with the +pitcher stepped in to catch the blood, and when the rabbit was bled, +it was laid on the fire. Ghullam and his four assistants all shouted +together, and the congregation shouted in response.</p> + +<p>The high priest waited as long as was decently necessary and then, +holding the knife in front of him, stepped around the prayer-cushion +and went through the door under the idol into the Holy of Holies. A +boy in novice's white robes met him and took the knife, carrying it +reverently to a fountain for washing. Eight or ten under-priests, +sitting at a long table, rose and bowed, then sat down again and +resumed their eating and drinking. At another table, a half-dozen +upper priests nodded to him in casual greeting.</p> + +<p>Crossing the room, Ghullam went to the Triple Veil in front of the +House of Yat-Zar, where only the highest of the priesthood might go, +and parted the curtains, passing through, until he came to the great +gilded door. Here he fumbled under his robe and produced a small +object like a mechanical pencil, inserting the pointed end in a tiny +hole in the door and pressing on the other end. The door opened, then +swung shut behind him, and as it locked itself, the lights came on +within. Ghullam removed his miter and his false beard, tossing them +aside on a table, then undid his sash and peeled out of his robe. His +regalia discarded, he stood for a moment in loose trousers and a soft +white shirt, with a pistollike weapon in a shoulder holster under his +left arm—no longer Ghullam the high priest of Yat-Zar, but now +Stranor Sleth, resident agent on this time-line of the Fourth Level +Proto-Aryan Sector for the Transtemporal Mining Corporation. Then he +opened a door at the other side of the anteroom and went to the +antigrav shaft, stepping over the edge and floating downward.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were temples of Yat-Zar on every time-line of the Proto-Aryan +Sector, for the worship of Yat-Zar was ancient among the Hulgun people +of that area of paratime, but there were only a few which had such +installations as this, and all of them were owned and operated by +Transtemporal Mining, which had the fissionable ores franchise for +this sector. During the ten elapsed centuries since Transtemporal had +begun operations on this sector, the process had become standardized. +A few First Level paratimers would transpose to a selected time-line +and abduct an upper-priest of Yat-Zar, preferably the high priest of +the temple at Yoldav or Zurb. He would be drugged and transposed to +the First Level, where he would receive hypnotic indoctrination and, +while unconscious, have an operation performed on his ears which would +enable him to hear sounds well above the normal audible range. He +would be able to hear the shrill sonar-cries of bats, for instance, +and, more important, he would be able to hear voices when the speaker +used a First Level audio-frequency step-up phone. He would also +receive a memory-obliteration from the moment of his abduction, and a +set of pseudo-memories of a visit to the Heaven of Yat-Zar, on the +other side of the sky. Then he would be returned to his own time-line +and left on a mountain top far from his temple, where an unknown +peasant, leading a donkey, would always find him, return him to the +temple, and then vanish inexplicably.</p> + +<p>Then the priest would begin hearing voices, usually while serving at +the altar. They would warn of future events, which would always come +to pass exactly as foretold. Or they might bring tidings of things +happening at a distance, the news of which would not arrive by normal +means for days or even weeks. Before long, the holy man who had been +carried alive to the Heaven of Yat-Zar would acquire a most awesome +reputation as a prophet, and would speedily rise to the very top of +the priestly hierarchy.</p> + +<p>Then he would receive two commandments from Yat-Zar. The first would +ordain that all lower priests must travel about from temple to temple, +never staying longer than a year at any one place. This would insure a +steady influx of newcomers personally unknown to the local +upper-priests, and many of them would be First Level paratimers. Then, +there would be a second commandment: A house must be built for +Yat-Zar, against the rear wall of each temple. Its dimensions were +minutely stipulated; its walls were to be of stone, without windows, +and there was to be a single door, opening into the Holy of Holies, +and before the walls were finished, the door was to be barred from +within. A triple veil of brocaded fabric was to be hung in front of +this door. Sometimes such innovations met with opposition from the +more conservative members of the hierarchy: when they did, the +principal objector would be seized with a sudden and violent illness; +he would recover if and when he withdrew his objections.</p> + +<p>Very shortly after the House of Yat-Zar would be completed, strange +noises would be heard from behind the thick walls. Then, after a +while, one of the younger priests would announce that he had been +commanded in a vision to go behind the veil and knock upon the door. +Going behind the curtains, he would use his door-activator to let +himself in, and return by paratime-conveyer to the First Level to +enjoy a well-earned vacation. When the high priest would follow him +behind the veil, after a few hours, and find that he had vanished, it +would be announced as a miracle. A week later, an even greater miracle +would be announced. The young priest would return from behind the +Triple Veil, clad in such raiment as no man had ever seen, and bearing +in his hands a strange box. He would announce that Yat-Zar had +commanded him to build a new temple in the mountains, at a place to be +made known by the voice of the god speaking out of the box.</p> + +<p>This time, there would be no doubts and no objections. A procession +would set out, headed by the new revelator bearing the box, and when +the clicking voice of the god spoke rapidly out of it, the site would +be marked and work would begin. No local labor would ever be employed +on such temples; the masons and woodworkers would be strangers, come +from afar and speaking a strange tongue, and when the temple was +completed, they would never be seen to leave it. Men would say that +they had been put to death by the priest and buried under the altar to +preserve the secrets of the god. And there would always be an idol to +preserve the secrets of the god. And there would always be an idol of +Yat-Zar, obviously of heavenly origin, since its workmanship was +beyond the powers of any local craftsman. The priests of such a temple +would be exempt, by divine decree, from the rule of yearly travel.</p> + +<p>Nobody, of course, would have the least idea that there was a uranium +mine in operation under it, shipping ore to another time-line. The +Hulgun people knew nothing about uranium, and neither did they as much +as dream that there were other time-lines. The secret of paratime +transposition belonged exclusively to the First Level civilization +which had discovered it, and it was a secret that was guarded well.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Stranor Sleth, dropping to the bottom of the antigrav shaft, cast a +hasty and instinctive glance to the right, where the freight conveyers +were. One was gone, taking its cargo over hundreds of thousands of +para-years to the First Level. Another had just returned, empty, and a +third was receiving its cargo from the robot mining machines far back +under the mountain. Two young men and a girl, in First Level costumes, +sat at a bank of instruments and visor-screens, handling the whole +operation, and six or seven armed guards, having inspected the +newly-arrived conveyer and finding that it had picked up nothing +inimical en route, were relaxing and lighting cigarettes. Three of +them, Stranor Sleth noticed, wore the green uniforms of the Paratime +Police.</p> + +<p>"When did those fellows get in?" he asked the people at the control +desk, nodding toward the green-clad newcomers.</p> + +<p>"About ten minutes ago, on the passenger conveyer," the girl told him. +"The Big Boy's here. Brannad Klav. And a Paratime Police officer. +They're in your office."</p> + +<p>"Uh huh; I was expecting that," Stranor Sleth nodded. Then he turned +down the corridor to the left.</p> + +<p>Two men were waiting for him, in his office. One was short and stocky, +with an angry, impatient face—Brannad Klav, Transtemporal's vice +president in charge of operations. The other was tall and slender with +handsome and entirely expressionless features; he wore a Paratime +Police officer's uniform, with the blue badge of hereditary nobility +on his breast, and carried a sigma-ray needler in a belt holster.</p> + +<p>"Were you waiting long, gentlemen?" Stranor Sleth asked. "I was +holding Sunset Sacrifice up in the temple."</p> + +<p>"No, we just got here," Brannad Klav said. "This is Verkan Vall, +Mavrad of Nerros, special assistant to Chief Tortha of the Paratime +Police, Stranor Sleth, our resident agent here."</p> + +<p>Stranor Sleth touched hands with Verkan Vall.</p> + +<p>"I've heard a lot about you, sir," he said. "Everybody working in +paratime has, of course. I'm sorry we have a situation here that calls +for your presence, but since we have, I'm glad you're here in person. +You know what our trouble is, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"In a general way," Verkan Vall replied. "Chief Tortha, and Brannad +Klav, have given me the main outline, but I'd like to have you fill in +the details."</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/image_02.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="300" height="873" /></div> + +<p>"Well, I told you everything," Brannad Klav interrupted impatiently. +"It's just that Stranor's let this blasted local king, Kurchuk, get +out of control. If I—" He stopped short, catching sight of the +shoulder holster under Stranor Sleth's left arm. "Were you wearing +that needler up in the temple?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"You're blasted right I was!" Stranor Sleth retorted. "And any time I +can't arm myself for my own protection on this time-line, you can have +my resignation. I'm not getting into the same jam as those people at +Zurb."</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind about that," Verkan Vall intervened. "Of course +Stranor Sleth has a right to arm himself; I wouldn't think of being +caught without a weapon on this time-line, myself. Now, Stranor, +suppose you tell me what's been happening, here, from the beginning of +this trouble."</p> + +<p>"It started, really, about five years ago, when Kurchuk, the King of +Zurb, married this Chuldun princess, Darith, from the country over +beyond the Black Sea, and made her his queen, over the heads of about +a dozen daughters of the local nobility, whom he'd married previously. +Then he brought in this Chuldun scribe, Labdurg, and made him Overseer +of the Kingdom—roughly, prime minister. There was a lot of +dissatisfaction about that, and for a while it looked as though he was +going to have a revolution on his hands, but he brought in about five +thousand Chuldun mercenaries, all archers—these Hulguns can't shoot a +bow worth beans—so the dissatisfaction died down, and so did most of +the leaders of the disaffected group. The story I get is that this +Labdurg arranged the marriage, in the first place. It looks to me as +though the Chuldun emperor is intending to take over the Hulgun +kingdoms, starting with Zurb.</p> + + + +<p>"Well, these Chulduns all worship a god called Muz-Azin. Muz-Azin is a +crocodile with wings like a bat and a lot of knife blades in his tail. +He makes this Yat-Zar look downright beautiful. So do his habits. +Muz-Azin fancies human sacrifices. The victims are strung up by the +ankles on a triangular frame and lashed to death with iron-barbed +whips. Nasty sort of a deity, but this is a nasty time-line. The +people here get a big kick out of watching these sacrifices. Much +better show than our bunny-killing. The victims are usually criminals, +or overage or incorrigible slaves, or prisoners of war.</p> + +<p>"Of course, when the Chulduns began infiltrating the palace, they +brought in their crocodile-god, too, and a flock of priests, and King +Kurchuk let them set up a temple in the palace. Naturally, we preached +against this heathen idolatry in our temples, but religious bigotry +isn't one of the numerous imperfections of this sector. Everybody's +deity is as good as anybody else's—indifferentism, I believe, is the +theological term. Anyhow, on that basis things went along fairly well, +till two years ago, when we had this run of bad luck."</p> + +<p>"Bad luck!" Brannad Klav snorted. "That's the standing excuse of every +incompetent!"</p> + +<p>"Go on, Stranor; what sort of bad luck?" Verkan Vall asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, first we had a drought, beginning in early summer, that burned +up most of the grain crop. Then, when that broke, we got heavy rains +and hailstorms and floods, and that destroyed what got through the dry +spell. When they harvested what little was left, it was obvious +there'd be a famine, so we brought in a lot of grain by conveyer and +distributed it from the temples—miraculous gift of Yat-Zar, of +course. Then the main office on First Level got scared about flooding +this time-line with a lot of unaccountable grain and were afraid we'd +make the people suspicious, and ordered it stopped.</p> + +<p>"Then Kurchuk, and I might add that the kingdom of Zurb was the +hardest hit by the famine, ordered his army mobilized and started an +invasion of the Jumdun country, south of the Carpathians, to get +grain. He got his army chopped up, and only about a quarter of them +got back, with no grain. You ask me, I'd say that Labdurg framed it to +happen that way. He advised Kurchuk to invade, in the first place, and +I mentioned my suspicion that Chombrog, the Chuldun Emperor, is +planning to move in on the Hulgun kingdoms. Well, what would be +smarter than to get Kurchuk's army smashed in advance?"</p> + +<p>"How did the defeat occur?" Verkan Vall asked. "Any suspicion of +treachery?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing you could put your finger on, except that the Jumduns seemed +to have pretty good intelligence about Kurchuk's invasion route and +battle plans. It could have been nothing worse than stupid tactics on +Kurchuk's part. See, these Hulguns, and particularly the Zurb +Hulguns, are spearmen. They fight in a fairly thin line, with +heavy-armed infantry in front and light infantry with throwing-spears +behind. The nobles fight in light chariots, usually at the center of +the line, and that's where they were at this Battle of Jorm. Kurchuk +himself was at the center, with his Chuldun archers massed around him.</p> + +<p>"The Jumduns use a lot of cavalry, with long swords and lances, and a +lot of big chariots with two javelin men and a driver. Well, instead +of ramming into Kurchuk's center, where he had his archers, they hit +the extreme left and folded it up, and then swung around behind and +hit the right from the rear. All the Chuldun archers did was stand +fast around the king and shoot anybody who came close to them: they +were left pretty much alone. But the Hulgun spearmen were cut to +pieces. The battle ended with Kurchuk and his nobles and his archers +making a fighting retreat, while the Jumdun cavalry were chasing the +spearmen every which way and cutting them down or lancing them as they +ran.</p> + +<p>"Well, whether it was Labdurg's treachery or Kurchuk's stupidity, in +either case, it was natural for the archers to come off easiest and +the Hulgun spearmen to pay the butcher's bill. But try and tell these +knuckle-heads anything like that! Muz-Azin protected the Chulduns, and +Yat-Zar let the Hulguns down, and that was all there was to it. The +Zurb temple started losing worshipers, particularly the families of +the men who didn't make it back from Jorm.</p> + +<p>"If that had been all there'd been to it, though, it still wouldn't +have hurt the mining operations, and we could have got by. But what +really tore it was when the rabbits started to die." Stranor Sleth +picked up a cigar from his desk and bit the end, spitting it out +disgustedly. "Tularemia, of course," he said, touching his lighter to +the tip. "When that hit, they started going over to Muz-Azin in +droves, not only at Zurb but all over the Six Kingdoms. You ought to +have seen the house we had for Sunset Sacrifice, this evening! About +two hundred, and we used to get two thousand. It used to be all two +men could do to lift the offering box at the door, afterward, and all +the money we took in tonight I could put in one pocket!" The high +priest used language that would have been considered unclerical even +among the Hulguns.</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall nodded. Even without the quickie hypno-mech he had taken +for this sector, he knew that the rabbit was domesticated among the +Proto-Aryan Hulguns and was their chief meat animal. Hulgun rabbits +were even a minor import on the First Level, and could be had at all +the better restaurants in cities like Dhergabar. He mentioned that.</p> + +<p>"That's not the worst of it," Stranor Sleth told him. "See, the +rabbit's sacred to Yat-Zar. Not taboo; just sacred. They have to use +a specially consecrated knife to kill them—consecrating rabbit knives +has always been an item of temple revenue—and they must say a special +prayer before eating them. We could have got around the rest of it, +even the Battle of Jorm—punishment by Yat-Zar for the sin of +apostasy—but Yat-Zar just wouldn't make rabbits sick. Yat-Zar thinks +too well of rabbits to do that, and it'd not been any use claiming he +would. So there you are."</p> + +<p>"Well, I take the attitude that this situation is the result of your +incompetence," Brannad Klav began, in a bullyragging tone. "You're not +only the high priest of this temple, you're the acknowledged head of +the religion in all the Hulgun kingdoms. You should have had more hold +on the people than to allow anything like this to happen."</p> + +<p>"Hold on the people!" Stranor Sleth fairly howled, appealing to Verkan +Vall. "What does he think a religion is, on this sector, anyhow? You +think these savages dreamed up that six-armed monstrosity, up there, +to express their yearning for higher things, or to symbolize their +moral ethos, or as a philosophical escape-hatch from the dilemma of +causation? They never even heard of such matters. On this sector, gods +are strictly utilitarian. As long as they take care of their +worshipers, they get their sacrifices: when they can't put out, they +have to get out. How do you suppose these Chulduns, living in the +Caucasus Mountains, got the idea of a god like a crocodile, anyhow? +Why, they got it from Homran traders, people from down in the Nile +Valley. They had a god, once, something basically like a billy goat, +but he let them get licked in a couple of battles, so out he went. +Why, all the deities on this sector have hyphenated names, because +they're combinations of several deities, worshiped in one person. Do +you know anything about the history of this sector?" he asked the +Paratime Police officer.</p> + +<p>"Well, it develops from an alternate probability of what we call the +Nilo-Mesopotamian Basic sector-group," Verkan Vall said. "On most +Nilo-Mesopotamian sectors, like the Macedonian Empire Sector, or the +Alexandrian-Roman or Alexandrian-Punic or Indo-Turanian or +Europo-American, there was an Aryan invasion of Eastern Europe and +Asia Minor about four thousand elapsed years ago. On this sector, the +ancestors of the Aryans came in about fifteen centuries earlier, as +neolithic savages, about the time that the Sumerian and Egyptian +civilizations were first developing, and overran all southeast Europe, +Asia Minor and the Nile Valley. They developed to the bronze-age +culture of the civilizations they overthrew, and then, more slowly, to +an iron-age culture. About two thousand years ago, they were using +hardened steel and building large stone cities, just as they do now. +At that time, they reached cultural stasis. But as for their religious +beliefs, you've described them quite accurately. A god is only +worshiped as long as the people think him powerful enough to aid and +protect them; when they lose that confidence, he is discarded and the +god of some neighboring people is adopted instead." He turned to +Brannad Klav. "Didn't Stranor report this situation to you when it +first developed?" he asked. "I know he did; he speaks of receiving +shipments of grain by conveyer for temple distribution. Then why +didn't you report it to Paratime Police? That's what we have a +Paratime Police Force for."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, of course, but I had enough confidence in Stranor Sleth to +think that he could handle the situation himself. I didn't know he'd +gone slack—"</p> + +<p>"Look, I can't make weather, even if my parishioners think I can," +Stranor Sleth defended himself. "And I can't make a great military +genius out of a blockhead like Kurchuk. And I can't immunize all the +rabbits on this time-line against tularemia, even if I'd had any +reason to expect a tularemia epidemic, which I hadn't because the +disease is unknown on this sector; this is the only outbreak of it +anybody's ever heard of on any Proto-Aryan time-line."</p> + +<p>"No, but I'll tell you what you could have done," Verkan Vall told +him. "When this Kurchuk started to apostatize, you could have gone to +him at the head of a procession of priests, all paratimers and all +armed with energy-weapons, and pointed out his spiritual duty to him, +and if he gave you any back talk, you could have pulled out that +needler and rayed him down and then cried, 'Behold the vengeance of +Yat-Zar upon the wicked king!' I'll bet any sum at any odds that his +successor would have thought twice about going over to Muz-Azin, and +none of these other kings would have even thought once about it."</p> + +<p>"Ha, that's what I wanted to do!" Stranor Sleth exclaimed. "And who +stopped me? I'll give you just one guess."</p> + +<p>"Well, it seems there was slackness here, but it wasn't Stranor Sleth +who was slack," Verkan Vall commented.</p> + +<p>"Well! I must say; I never thought I'd hear an officer of the Paratime +Police criticizing me for trying to operate inside the Paratime +Transposition Code!" Brannad Klav exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall, sitting on the edge of Stranor Sleth's desk, aimed his +cigarette at Brannad Klav like a blaster.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="300" height="874" /></div> + +<p>"Now, look," he began. "There is one, and only one, inflexible law +regarding outtime activities. The secret of paratime transposition +must be kept inviolate, and any activity tending to endanger it is +prohibited. That's why we don't allow the transposition of any object +of extraterrestrial origin to any time-line on which space travel has +not been developed. Such an object may be preserved, and then, after +the local population begin exploring the planet from whence it came, +there will be dangerous speculations and theories as to how it +arrived on Terra at such an early date. I came within inches, +literally, of getting myself killed, not long ago, cleaning up the +result of a violation of that regulation. For the same reason, we +don't allow the export, to outtime natives, of manufactured goods too +far in advance of their local culture. That's why, for instance, you +people have to hand-finish all those big Yat-Zar idols, to remove +traces of machine work. One of those things may be around, a few +thousand years from now, when these people develop a mechanical +civilization. But as far as raying down this Kurchuk is concerned, +these Hulguns are completely nonscientific. They wouldn't have the +least idea what happened. They'd believe that Yat-Zar struck him dead, +as gods on this plane of culture are supposed to do, and if any of +them noticed the needler at all, they'd think it was just a holy +amulet of some kind."</p> + + + +<p>"But the law is the law—" Brannad Klav began.</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall shook his head. "Brannad, as I understand, you were +promoted to your present position on the retirement of Salvan Marth, +about ten years ago; up to that time, you were in your company's +financial department. You were accustomed to working subject to the +First Level Commercial Regulation Code. Now, any law binding upon our +people at home, on the First Level, is inflexible. It has to be. We +found out, over fifty centuries ago, that laws have to be rigid and +without discretionary powers in administration in order that people +may be able to predict their effect and plan their activities +accordingly. Naturally, you became conditioned to operating in such a +climate of legal inflexibility.</p> + +<p>"But in paratime, the situation is entirely different. There exist, +within the range of the Ghaldron-Hesthor paratemporal-field generator, +a number of time-lines of the order of ten to the hundred-thousandth +power. In effect, that many different worlds. In the past ten thousand +years, we have visited only the tiniest fraction of these, but we have +found everything from time-lines inhabited only by subhuman ape-men to +Second Level civilizations which are our own equal in every respect +but knowledge of paratemporal transposition. We even know of one +Second Level civilization which is approaching the discovery of an +interstellar hyperspatial drive, something we've never even come close +to. And in between are every degree of savagery, barbarism and +civilization. Now, it's just not possible to frame any single code of +laws applicable to conditions on all of these. The best we can do is +prohibit certain flagrantly immoral types of activity, such as +slave-trading, introduction of new types of narcotic drugs, or +out-and-out piracy and brigandage. If you're in doubt as to the +legality of anything you want to do outtime, go to the Judicial +Section of the Paratime Commission and get an opinion on it. That's +where you made your whole mistake. You didn't find out just how far it +was allowable for you to go."</p> + +<p>He turned to Stranor Sleth again. "Well, that's the background, then. +Now tell me about what happened yesterday at Zurb."</p> + +<p>"Well, a week ago, Kurchuk came out with this decree closing our +temple at Zurb and ordering his subjects to perform worship and make +money offerings to Muz-Azin. The Zurb temple isn't a mask for a mine: +Zurb's too far south for the uranium deposits. It's just a center for +propaganda and that sort of thing. But they have a House of Yat-Zar, +and a conveyer, and most of the upper-priests are paratimers. Well, +our man there, Tammand Drav, alias Khoram, defied the king's order, so +Kurchuk sent a company of Chuldun archers to close the temple and +arrest the priests. Tammand Drav got all his people who were in the +temple at the time into the House of Yat-Zar and transposed them back +to the First Level. He had orders"—Stranor Sleth looked meaningly at +Brannad Klav—"not to resist with energy-weapons or even ultrasonic +paralyzers. And while we're on the subject of letting the local yokels +see too much, about fifteen of the under-priests he took to the First +Level were Hulgun natives."</p> + +<p>"Nothing wrong about that: they'll get memory-obliteration and +pseudo-memory treatment," Verkan Vall said. "But he should have been +allowed to needle about a dozen of those Chulduns. Teach the beggars +to respect Yat-Zar in the future. Now, how about the six priests who +were outside the temple at the time? All but one were paratimers. +We'll have to find out about them, and get them out of Zurb."</p> + +<p>"That'll take some doing," Stranor Sleth said. "And it'll have to be +done before sunset tomorrow. They are all in the dungeon of the palace +citadel, and Kurchuk is going to give them to the priests of Muz-Azin +to be sacrificed tomorrow evening."</p> + +<p>"How'd you learn that?" Verkan Vall asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we have a man in Zurb, not connected with the temple," Stranor +Sleth said. "Name's Crannar Jurth; calls himself Kranjur, locally. He +has a swordmaker's shop, employs about a dozen native journeymen and +apprentices who hammer out the common blades he sells in the open +market. Then, he imports a few high-class alloy-steel blades from the +First Level, that'll cut through this local low-carbon armor like +cheese. Fits them with locally-made hilts and sells them at +unbelievable prices to the nobility. He's Swordsmith to the King; +picks up all the inside palace dope. Of course, he was among the first +to accept the New Gospel and go over to Muz-Azin. He has a secret room +under his shop, with his conveyer and a radio.</p> + +<p>"What happened was this: These six priests were at a consecration +ceremony at a rabbit-ranch outside the city, and they didn't know +about the raid on the temple. On their way back, they were surrounded +by Chuldun archers and taken prisoner. They had no weapons but their +sacrificial knives." He threw another dirty look at Brannad Klav. "So +they're due to go up on the triangles at sunset tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to get them out before then," Verkan Vall stated. "They're +our people, and we can't let them down; even the native is under our +protection, whether he knows it or not. And in the second place, if +those priests are sacrificed to Muz-Azin," he told Brannad Klav, "you +can shut down everything on this time-line, pull out or disintegrate +your installations, and fill in your mine-tunnels. Yat-Zar will be +through on this time-line, and you'll be through along with him. And +considering that your fissionables franchise for this sector comes up +for renewal next year, your company will be through in this paratime +area."</p> + +<p>"You believe that would happen?" Brannad Klav asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I know it will, because I'll put through a recommendation to that +effect, if those six men are tortured to death tomorrow," Verkan Vall +replied. "And in the fifty years that I've been in the Police +Department, I've only heard of five such recommendations being ignored +by the commission. You know, Fourth Level Mineral Products Syndicate +is after your franchise. Ordinarily, they wouldn't have a chance of +getting it, but with this, maybe they will, even without my +recommendation. This was all your fault, for ignoring Stranor Sleth's +proposal and for denying those men the right to carry energy weapons."</p> + +<p>"Well, we were only trying to stay inside the Paratime Code," Brannad +Klav pleaded. "If it isn't too late, now, you can count on me for +every co-operation." He fiddled with some papers on the desk. "What do +you want me to do to help?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you that in a minute." Verkan Vall walked to the wall and +looked at the map, then returned to Stranor Sleth's desk. "How about +these dungeons?" he asked. "How are they located, and how can we get +in to them?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid we can't," Stranor Sleth told him. "Not without fighting +our way in. They're under the palace citadel, a hundred feet below +ground. They're spatially co-existent with the heavy water barriers +around one of our company's plutonium piles on the First Level, and +below surface on any unoccupied time-line I know of, so we can't +transpose in to them. This palace is really a walled city inside a +city. Here, I'll show you."</p> + +<p>Going around the desk, he sat down and, after looking in the +index-screen, punched a combination on the keyboard. A picture, +projected from the microfilm-bank, appeared on the view-screen. It was +an air-view of the city of Zurb—taken, the high priest explained, by +infrared light from an airboat over the city at night. It showed a +city of an entirely pre-mechanical civilization, with narrow streets, +lined on either side by low one and two story buildings. Although +there would be considerable snow in winter, the roofs were usually +flat, probably massive stone slabs supported by pillars within. Even +in the poorer sections, this was true except for the very meanest +houses and out-buildings, which were thatched. Here and there, some +huge pile of masonry would rear itself above its lower neighbors, and, +where the streets were wider, occasional groups of large buildings +would be surrounded by battlemented walls. Stranor Sleth indicated one +of the larger of these.</p> + +<p>"Here's the palace," he said. "And here's the temple of Yat-Zar, about +half a mile away." He touched a large building, occupying an entire +block; between it and the palace was a block-wide park, with lawns and +trees on either side of a wide roadway connecting the two.</p> + +<p>"Now, here's a detailed view of the palace." He punched another +combination; the view of the City was replaced by one, taken from +directly overhead, of the walled palace area. "Here's the main gate, +in front, at the end of the road from the temple," he pointed out. +"Over here, on the left, are the slaves' quarters and the stables and +workshops and store houses and so on. Over here, on the other side, +are the nobles' quarters. And this,"—he indicated a towering +structure at the rear of the walled enclosure—"is the citadel and the +royal dwelling. Audience hall on this side; harem over here on this +side. A wide stone platform, about fifteen feet high, runs completely +across the front of the citadel, from the audience hall to the harem. +Since this picture was taken, the new temple of Muz-Azin was built +right about here." He indicated that it extended out from the audience +hall into the central courtyard. "And out here on the platform, +they've put up about a dozen of these triangles, about twelve feet +high, on which the sacrificial victims are whipped to death."</p> + +<p>"Yes. About the only way we could get down to the dungeons would be to +make an airdrop onto the citadel roof and fight our way down with +needlers and blasters, and I'm not willing to do that as long as +there's any other way," Verkan Vall said. "We'd lose men, even with +needlers against bows, and there's a chance that some of our equipment +might be lost in the melee and fall into outtime hands. You say this +sacrifice comes off tomorrow at sunset?"</p> + +<p>"That would be about actual sunset plus or minus an hour; these people +aren't astronomers, they don't even have good sundials, and it might +be a cloudy day," Stranor Sleth said. "There will be a big idol of +Muz-Azin on a cart, set about here." He pointed. "After the sacrifice, +it is to be dragged down this road, outside, to the temple of Yat-Zar, +and set up there. The temple is now occupied by about twenty Chuldun +mercenaries and five or six priests of Muz-Azin. They haven't, of +course, got into the House of Yat-Zar; the door's of impervium steel, +about six inches thick, with a plating of collapsed nickel under the +gilding. It would take a couple of hours to cut through it with our +best atomic torch; there isn't a tool on this time-line that could +even scratch it. And the insides of the walls are lined with the same +thing."</p> + +<p>"Do you think our people have been tortured, yet?" Verkan Vall asked.</p> + +<p>"No." Stranor Sleth was positive. "They'll be fairly well treated, +until the sacrifice. The idea's to make them last as long as possible +on the triangles; Muz-Azin likes to see a slow killing, and so does +the mob of spectators."</p> + +<p>"That's good. Now, here's my plan. We won't try to rescue them from +the dungeons. Instead, we'll transpose back to the Zurb temple from +the First Level, in considerable force—say a hundred or so men—and +march on the palace, to force their release. You're in constant radio +communication with all the other temples on this time-line, I +suppose?"</p> +<div class="figright"><img src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="300" height="698" /></div> +<p>"Yes, certainly."</p> + +<p>"All right. Pass this out to everybody, authority Paratime Police, in +my name, acting for Tortha Karf. I want all paratimers who can +possibly be spared to transpose to First Level immediately and +rendezvous at the First Level terminal of the Zurb temple conveyer as +soon as possible. Close down all mining operations, and turn over +temple routine to the native under-priests. You can tell them that the +upper-priests are retiring to their respective Houses of Yat-Zar to +pray for the deliverance of the priests in the hands of King Kurchuk. +And everybody is to bring back his priestly regalia to the First +Level; that will be needed." He turned to Brannad Klav. "I suppose you +keep spare regalia in stock on the First Level?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course; we keep plenty of everything in stock. Robes, miters, +false beards of different shades, everything."</p> + +<p>"And these big Yat-Zar idols: they're mass-produced on the First +Level? You have one available now? Good. I'll want some alterations +made on one. For one thing, I'll want it plated heavily, all over, +with collapsed nickel. For another, I'll want it fitted with antigrav +units and some sort of propulsion-units, and a loud-speaker, and +remote control.</p> + + + +<p>"And, Stranor, you get in touch with this swordmaker, Crannar Jurth, +and alert him to co-operate with us. Tell him to start calling Zurb +temple on his radio about noon tomorrow, and keep it up till he gets +an answer. Or, better, tell him to run his conveyer to his First Level +terminal, and bring with him an extra suit of clothes appropriate to +the role of journeyman-mechanic. I'll want to talk to him, and furnish +him with special equipment. Got all that? Well, carry on with it, and +bring your own paratimers, priests and mining operators, back with you +as soon as you've taken care of everything. Brannad, you come with me, +now. We're returning to First Level immediately. We have a lot of +work to do, so let's get started."</p> + +<p>"Anything I can do to help, just call on me for it," Brannad Klav +promised earnestly. "And, Stranor, I want to apologize. I'll admit, +now, that I ought to have followed your recommendations, when this +situation first developed."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>By noon of the next day, Verkan Vall had at least a hundred men +gathered in the big room at the First Level fissionables refinery at +Jarnabar, spatially co-existent with the Fourth Level temple of +Yat-Zar at Zurb. He was having a little trouble distinguishing between +them, for every man wore the fringed blue robe and golden miter of an +upper-priest, and had his face masked behind a blue false beard. It +was, he admitted to himself, a most ludicrous-looking assemblage; one +of the most ludicrous things about it was the fact that it would have +inspired only pious awe in a Hulgun of the Fourth Level Proto-Aryan +Sector. About half of them were priests from the Transtemporal Mining +Corporation's temples; the other half were members of the Paratime +Police. All of them wore, in addition to their temple knives, +holstered sigma-ray needlers. Most of them carried ultrasonic +paralyzers, eighteen-inch batonlike things with bulbous ends. Most of +the Paratime Police and a few of the priests also carried either +heat-ray pistols or neutron-disruption blasters; Verkan Vall wore one +of the latter in a left-hand belt holster.</p> + +<p>The Paratime Police were lined up separately for inspection, and +Stranor Sleth, Tammand Drav of the Zurb temple, and several other high +priests were checking the authenticity of their disguises. A little +apart from the others, a Paratime Policeman, in high priest's robes +and beard, had a square box slung in front of him; he was fiddling +with knobs and buttons on it, practicing. A big idol of Yat-Zar, on +antigravity, was floating slowly about the room in obedience to its +remote controls, rising and lowering, turning about and pirouetting +gracefully.</p> + +<p>"Hey, Vall!" he called to his superior. "How's this?"</p> + +<p>The idol rose about five feet, turned slowly in a half-circle, moved +to the right a little, and then settled slowly toward the floor.</p> + +<p>"Fine, fine, Horv," Verkan Vall told him, "but don't set it down on +anything, or turn off the antigravity. There's enough collapsed +nickel-plating on that thing to sink it a yard in soft ground."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what the idea of that was," Brannad Klav, standing +beside him, said. "Understand, I'm not criticizing. I haven't any +right to, under the circumstances. But it seems to me that armoring +that thing in collapsed nickel was an unnecessary precaution."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it was," Verkan Vall agreed. "I sincerely hope so. But we can't +take any chances. This operation has to be absolutely right. Ready, +Tammand? All right; first detail into the conveyer."</p> + +<p>He turned and strode toward a big dome of fine metallic mesh, thirty +feet high and sixty in diameter, at the other end of the room. Tammand +Drav, and his ten paratimer priests, and Brannad Klav, and ten +Paratime Police, followed him in. One of the latter slid shut the door +and locked it; Verkan Vall went to the control desk, at the center of +the dome, and picked up a two-foot globe of the same fine metallic +mesh, opening it and making some adjustments inside, then attaching an +electric cord and closing it. He laid the globe on the floor near the +desk and picked up the hand battery at the other end of the attached +cord.</p> + +<p>"Not taking any chances at all, are you?" Brannad Klav asked, watching +this operation with interest.</p> + +<p>"I never do, unnecessarily. There are too many necessary chances that +have to be taken, in this work." Verkan Vall pressed the button on the +hand battery. The globe on the floor flashed and vanished. "Yesterday, +five paratimers were arrested. Any or all of them could have had +door-activators with them. Stranor Sleth says they were not tortured, +but that is a purely inferential statement. They may have been, and +the use of the activator may have been extorted from one of them. So I +want a look at the inside of that conveyer-chamber before we transpose +into it."</p> + +<p>He laid the hand battery, with the loose-dangling wire that had been +left behind, on the desk, then lit a cigarette. The others gathered +around, smoking and watching, careful to avoid the place from which +the globe had vanished. Thirty minutes passed, and then, in a queer +iridescence, the globe reappeared. Verkan Vall counted ten seconds and +picked it up, taking it to the desk and opening it to remove a small +square box. This he slid into a space under the desk and flipped a +switch. Instantly, a view-screen lit up and a three-dimensional +picture appeared—the interior of a big room a hundred feet square and +some seventy in height. There was a big desk and a radio; tables, +couches, chairs and an arms-rack full of weapons, and at one end, a +remarkably clean sixty-foot circle on the concrete floor, outlined in +faintly luminous red.</p> + +<p>"How about it?" Verkan Vall asked Tammand Drav. "Anything wrong?"</p> + +<p>The Zurb high priest shook his head. "Just as we left it," he said. +"Nobody's been inside since we left."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One of the policemen took Verkan Vall's place at the control desk and +threw the master switch, after checking the instruments. Immediately, +the paratemporal-transposition field went on with a humming sound that +mounted to a high scream, then settled to a steady drone. The mesh +dome flickered with a cold iridescence and vanished, and they were +looking into the interior of a great fissionables refinery plant, +operated by paratimers on another First Level time-line. The +structural details altered, from time-line to time-line, as they +watched. Buildings appeared and vanished. Once, for a few seconds, +they were inside a cool, insulated bubble in the midst of molten lead. +Tammand Drav jerked a thumb at it, before it vanished.</p> + +<p>"That always bothers me," he said. "Bad place for the field to go +weak. I'm fussy as an old hen about inspection of the conveyer, on +account of that."</p> + +<p>"Don't blame you," Verkan Vall agreed. "Probably the cooling system of +a breeder-pile."</p> + +<p>They passed more swiftly, now, across the Second Level and the Third. +Once they were in the midst of a huge land battle, with great tanklike +vehicles spouting flame at one another. Another moment was spent in an +air bombardment. On any time-line, this section of East Europe was a +natural battleground. Once a great procession marched toward them, +carrying red banners and huge pictures of a coarse-faced man with a +black mustache—Verkan Vall recognized the environment as Fourth Level +Europo-American Sector. Finally, as the transposition-rate slowed, +they saw a clutter of miserable thatched huts, in the rear of a +granite wall of a Fourth Level Hulgun temple of Yat-Zar—a temple not +yet infiltrated by Transtemporal Mining Corporation agents. Finally, +they were at their destination. The dome around them became visible, +and an overhead green light flashed slowly on and off.</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall opened the door and stepped outside, his needler drawn. +The House of Yat-Zar was just as he had seen it in the picture +photographed by the automatic reconnaissance-conveyer. The others +crowded outside after him. One of the regular priests pulled off his +miter and beard and went to the radio, putting on a headset. Verkan +Vall and Tammand Drav snapped on the visiscreen, getting a view of the +Holy of Holies outside.</p> + +<p>There were six men there, seated at the upper-priests' banquet table, +drinking from golden goblets. Five of them wore the black robes with +green facings which marked them as priests of Muz-Azin; the sixth was +an officer of the Chuldun archers, in gilded mail and helmet.</p> + +<p>"Why, those are the sacred vessels of the temple!" Tammand Drav cried, +scandalized. Then he laughed in self-ridicule. "I'm beginning to take +this stuff seriously, myself; time I put in for a long vacation. I was +actually shocked at the sacrilege!"</p> + +<p>"Well, let's overtake the infidels in their sins," Verkan Vall said. +"Paralyzers will be good enough."</p> + +<p>He picked up one of the bulb-headed weapons, and unlocked the door. +Tammand Drav and another of the priests of the Zurb temple following +and the others crowding behind, they passed out through the veils, and +burst into the Holy of Holies. Verkan Vall pointed the bulb of his +paralyzer at the six seated men and pressed the button; other +paralyzers came into action, and the whole sextet were knocked +senseless. The officer rolled from his chair and fell to the floor in +a clatter of armor. Two of the priests slumped forward on the table. +The others merely sank back in their chairs, dropping their goblets.</p> + +<p>"Give each one of them another dose, to make sure," Verkan Vall +directed a couple of his own men. "Now, Tammand; any other way into +the main temple beside that door?"</p> + +<p>"Up those steps," Tammand Drav pointed. "There's a gallery along the +side; we can cover the whole room from there."</p> + +<p>"Take your men and go up there. I'll take a few through the door. +There'll be about twenty archers out there, and we don't want any of +them loosing any arrows before we can knock them out. Three minutes be +time enough?"</p> + +<p>"Easily. Make it two," Tammand Drav said.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He took his priests up the stairway and vanished into the gallery of +the temple. Verkan Vall waited until one minute had passed and then, +followed by Brannad Klav and a couple of Paratime Policemen, he went +under the plinth and peered out into the temple. Five or six archers, +in steel caps and sleeveless leather jackets sewn with steel rings, +were gathered around the altar, cooking something in a pot on the +fire. Most of the others, like veteran soldiers, were sprawled on the +floor, trying to catch a short nap, except half a dozen, who crouched +in a circle, playing some game with dice—another almost universal +military practice.</p> + +<p>The two minutes were up. He aimed his paralyzer at the men around the +altar and squeezed the button, swinging it from one to another and +knocking them down with a bludgeon of inaudible sound. At the same +time, Tammand Drav and his detail were stunning the gamblers. Stepping +forward and to one side, Verkan Vall, Brannad Klav and the others took +care of the sleepers on the floor. In less than thirty seconds, every +Chuldun in the temple was incapacitated.</p> + +<p>"All right, make sure none of them come out of it prematurely," Verkan +Vall directed. "Get their weapons, and be sure nobody has a knife or +anything hidden on him. Who has the syringe and the sleep-drug +ampoules?"</p> + +<p>Somebody had, it developed, who was still on the First Level, to come +up with the second conveyer load. Verkan Vall swore. Something like +this always happened, on any operation involving more than half a +dozen men.</p> + +<p>"Well, some of you stay here: patrol around, and use your paralyzers +on anybody who even twitches a muscle." Ultrasonics were nice, +effective, humane police weapons, but they were unreliable. The same +dose that would keep one man out for an hour would paralyze another +for no more than ten or fifteen minutes. "And be sure none of them are +playing 'possum."</p> + +<p>He went back through the door under the plinth, glancing up at the +decorated wooden screen and wondering how much work it would take to +move the new Yat-Zar in from the conveyers. The five priests and the +archer-captain were still unconscious; one of the policemen was +searching them.</p> + +<p>"Here's the sort of weapons these priests carry," he said, holding up +a short iron mace with a spiked head. "Carry them on their belts." He +tossed it on the table, and began searching another knocked-out +hierophant. "Like this—<i>Hey!</i> Look at this, will you!"</p> + +<p>He drew his hand from under the left side of the senseless man's robe +and held up a sigma-ray needler. Verkan Vall looked at it and nodded +grimly.</p> + +<p>"Had it in a regular shoulder holster," the policeman said, handing +the weapon across the table. "What do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Find anything else funny on him?"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute." The policeman pulled open the robe and began +stripping the priest of Muz-Azin; Verkan Vall came around the table to +help. There was nothing else of a suspicious nature.</p> + +<p>"Could have got it from one of the prisoners, but I don't like the +familiar way he's wearing that holster," Verkan Vall said. "Has the +conveyer gone back, yet?" When the policeman nodded, he continued: +"When it returns, take him to the First Level. I hope they bring up +the sleep-drug with the next load. When you get him back, take him to +Dhergabar by strato-rocket immediately, and make sure he gets back +alive. I want him questioned under narco-hypnosis by a regular +Paratime Commission psycho-technician, in the presence of Chief Tortha +Karf and some responsible Commission official. This is going to be hot +stuff."</p> + +<p>Within an hour, the whole force was assembled in the temple. The +wooden screen had presented no problem—it slid easily to one +side—and the big idol floated on antigravity in the middle of the +temple. Verkan Vall was looking anxiously at his watch.</p> + +<p>"It's about two hours to sunset," he said, to Stranor Sleth. "But as +you pointed out, these Hulguns aren't astronomers, and it's a bit +cloudy. I wish Crannar Jurth would call in with something definite."</p> + +<p>Another twenty minutes passed. Then the man at the radio came out into +the temple.</p> + +<p>"O. K.!" he called. "The man at Crannar Jurth's called in. Crannar +Jurth contacted him with a midget radio he has up his sleeve; he's in +the palace courtyard now. They haven't brought out the victims, yet, +but Kurchuk has just been carried out on his throne to that platform +in front of the citadel. Big crowd gathering in the inner courtyard; +more in the streets outside. Palace gates are wide open."</p> + +<p>"That's it!" Verkan Vall cried. "Form up; the parade's starting. +Brannad, you and Tammand and Stranor and I in front; about ten men +with paralyzers a little behind us. Then Yat-Zar, about ten feet off +the ground, and then the others. Forward—<i>ho-o!</i>"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They emerged from the temple and started down the broad roadway toward +the palace. There was not much of a crowd, at first. Most of Zurb had +flocked to the palace earlier; the lucky ones in the courtyard and the +late comers outside. Those whom they did meet stared at them in +open-mouthed amazement, and then some, remembering their doubts and +blasphemies, began howling for forgiveness. Others—a substantial +majority—realizing that it would be upon King Kurchuk that the real +weight of Yat-Zar's six hands would fall, took to their heels, trying +to put as much distance as possible between them and the palace before +the blow fell.</p> + +<p>As the procession approached the palace gates, the crowds were +thicker, made up of those who had been unable to squeeze themselves +inside. The panic was worse, here, too. A good many were trampled and +hurt in the rush to escape, and it became necessary to use paralyzers +to clear a way. That made it worse: everybody was sure that Yat-Zar +was striking sinners dead left and right.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the gates were high enough to let the god through without +losing altitude appreciably. Inside, the mob surged back, clearing a +way across the courtyard. It was only necessary to paralyze a few +here, and the levitated idol and its priestly attendants advanced +toward the stone platform, where the king sat on his throne, flanked +by court functionaries and black-robed priests of Muz-Azin. In front +of this, a rank of Chuldun archers had been drawn up.</p> + +<p>"Horv; move Yat-Zar forward about a hundred feet and up about fifty," +Verkan Vall directed. "Quickly!"</p> + +<p>As the six-armed anthropomorphic idol rose and moved closer toward its +saurian rival, Verkan Vall drew his needler, scanning the assemblage +around the throne anxiously.</p> + +<p>"<i>Where is the wicked King?</i>" a voice thundered—the voice of Stranor +Sleth, speaking into a midget radio tuned to the loud-speaker inside +the idol. "<i>Where is the blasphemer and desecrator, Kurchuk?</i>"</p> + +<p>"There's Labdurg, in the red tunic, beside the throne," Tammand Drav +whispered. "And that's Ghromdur, the Muz-Azin high priest, beside +him."</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall nodded, keeping his eyes on the group on the platform. +Ghromdur, the high priest of Muz-Azin, was edging backward and +reaching under his robe. At the same time, an officer shouted an +order, and the Chuldun archers drew arrows from their quivers and +fitted them to their bowstrings. Immediately, the ultrasonic +paralyzers of the advancing paratimers went into action, and the +mercenaries began dropping.</p> + +<p>"<i>Lay down your weapons, fools!</i>" the amplified voice boomed at them. +"<i>Lay down your weapons or you shall surely die! Who are you, +miserable wretches, to draw bows against Me?</i>"</p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/image_05.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="600" height="483" /></div> + +<p>At first a few, then all of them, the Chulduns lowered or dropped +their weapons and began edging away to the sides. At the center, in +front of the throne, most of them had been knocked out. Verkan Vall +was still watching the Muz-Azin high priest intently; as Ghromdur +raised his arm, there was a flash and a puff of smoke from the front +of Yat-Zar—the paint over the collapsed nickel was burned off, but +otherwise the idol was undamaged. Verkan Vall swung up his needler and +rayed Ghromdur dead; as the man in the green-faced black robes fell, a +blaster clattered on the stone platform.</p> + +<p>"<i>Is that your puny best, Muz-Azin?</i>" the booming voice demanded. +"<i>Where is your high priest now?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Horv; face Yat-Zar toward Muz-Azin," Verkan Vall said over his +shoulder, drawing his blaster with his left hand. Like all First Level +people, he was ambidextrous, although, like all paratimers, he +habitually concealed the fact while outtime. As the levitated idol +swung slowly to look down upon its enemy on the built-up cart, Verkan +Vall aimed the blaster and squeezed.</p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/image_06.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="600" height="463" /></div> + +<p>In a spot less than a millimeter in diameter on the crocodile idol's +side, a certain number of neutrons in the atomic structure of the +stone from which it was carved broke apart, becoming, in effect, atoms +of hydrogen. With a flash and a bang, the idol burst and vanished. +Yat-Zar gave a dirty laugh and turned his back on the cart, which was +now burning fiercely facing King Kurchuk again.</p> + +<p>"Get your hands up, all of you!" Verkan Vall shouted, in the First +Level language, swinging the stubby muzzle of the blaster and the +knob-tipped twin tubes of the needler to cover the group around the +throne, "Come forward, before I start blasting!"</p> + +<p>Labdurg raised his hands and stepped forward. So did two of the +priests of Yat-Zar. They were quickly seized by Paratime Policemen who +swarmed up onto the platform and disarmed. All three were carrying +sigma-ray needlers, and Labdurg had a blaster as well.</p> + +<p>King Kurchuk was clinging to the arms of his throne, a badly +frightened monarch trying desperately not to show it. He was a big +man, heavy-shouldered, black-bearded; under ordinary circumstances he +would probably have cut an imposing figure, in his gold-washed mail +and his golden crown. Now his face was a dirty gray, and he was biting +nervously at his lower lip. The others on the platform were in even +worse state. The Hulgun nobles were grouped together, trying to +disassociate themselves from both the king and the priests of +Muz-Azin. The latter were staring in a daze at the blazing cart from +which their idol had just been blasted. And the dozen men who were to +have done the actual work of the torture-sacrifice had all dropped +their whips and were fairly gibbering in fear.</p> + +<p>Yat-Zar, manipulated by the robed paratimer, had taken a position +directly above the throne and was lowering slowly. Kurchuk stared up +at the massive idol descending toward him, his knuckles white as he +clung to the arms of his throne. He managed to hold out until he could +feel the weight of the idol pressing on his head. Then, with a scream, +he hurled himself from the throne and rolled forward almost to the +edge of the platform. Yat-Zar moved to one side, swung slightly and +knocked the throne toppling, and then settled down on the platform. To +Kurchuk, who was rising cautiously on his hands and knees, the big +idol seemed to be looking at him in contempt.</p> + +<p>"<i>Where are my holy priests, Kurchuk?</i>" Stranor Sleth demanded in to +his sleeve-hidden radio. "<i>Let them be brought before me, alive and +unharmed, or it shall be better for you had you never been born!</i>"</p> + +<p>The six priests of Yat-Zar, it seemed, were already being brought onto +the platform by one of Kurchuk's nobles. This noble, whose name was +Yorzuk, knew a miracle when he saw one, and believed in being on the +side of the god with the heaviest artillery. As soon as he had seen +Yat-Zar coming through the gate without visible means of support, he +had hastened to the dungeons with half a dozen of his personal +retainers and ordered the release of the six captives. He was now +escorting them onto the platform, assuring them that he had always +been a faithful servant of Yat-Zar and had been deeply grieved at his +sovereign's apostasy.</p> + +<p>"<i>Hear my word, Kurchuk</i>," Stranor Sleth continued through the +loud-speaker in the idol. "<i>You have sinned most vilely against me, +and were I a cruel god, your fate would be such as no man has ever +before suffered. But I am a merciful god; behold, you may gain +forgiveness in my sight. For thirty days, you shall neither eat meat +nor drink wine, nor shall you wear gold nor fine raiment, and each day +shall you go to my temple and beseech me for my forgiveness. And on +the thirty-first day, you shall set out, barefoot and clad in the garb +of a slave, and journey to my temple that is in the mountains over +above Yoldav, and there will I forgive you, after you have made +sacrifice to me. I, Yat-Zar, have spoken!</i>"</p> + +<p>The king started to rise, babbling thanks.</p> + +<p>"<i>Rise not before me until I have forgiven you!</i>" Yat-Zar thundered. +"<i>Creep out of my sight upon your belly, wretch!</i>"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The procession back to the temple was made quietly and sedately along +an empty roadway. Yat-Zar seemed to be in a kindly humor; the people +of Zurb had no intention of giving him any reason to change his mood. +The priests of Muz-Azin and their torturers had been flung into the +dungeon. Yorzuk, appointed regent for the duration of Kurchuk's +penance, had taken control and was employing Hulgun spearmen and +hastily-converted Chuldun archers to restore order and, incidentally, +purge a few of his personal enemies and political rivals. The priests, +with the three prisoners who had been found carrying First Level +weapons among them and Yat-Zar floating triumphantly in front, entered +the temple. A few of the devout, who sought admission after them, were +told that elaborate and secret rites were being held to cleanse the +profaned altar, and sent away.</p> + +<p>Verkan Vall and Brannad Klav and Stranor Sleth were in the conveyer +chamber, with the Paratime Policemen and the extra priests; along with +them were the three prisoners. Verkan Vall pulled off his false beard +and turned to face these. He could see that they all recognized him.</p> + +<p>"Now," he began, "you people are in a bad jam. You've violated the +Paratime Transposition Code, the Commercial Regulation Code, and the +First Level Criminal Code, all together. If you know what's good for +you, you'll start talking."</p> + +<p>"I'm not saying anything till I have legal advice," the man who had +been using the local alias of Labdurg replied. "And if you're through +searching me, I'd like to have my cigarettes and lighter back."</p> + +<p>"Smoke one of mine, for a change," Verkan Vall told him. "I don't know +what's in yours beside tobacco." He offered his case and held a light +for the prisoner before lighting his own cigarette. "I'm going to be +sure you get back to the First Level alive."</p> + +<p>The former Overseer of the Kingdom of Zurb shrugged. "I'm still not +talking," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, we can get it all out of you by narco-hypnosis, anyhow," Verkan +Vall told him. "Besides, we got that man of yours who was here at the +temple when we came in. He's being given a full treatment, as a +presumed outtime native found in possession of First Level weapons. If +you talk now it'll go easier with you."</p> + +<p>The prisoner dropped the cigarette on the floor and tramped it out.</p> + +<p>"Anything you cops get out of me, you'll have to get the hard way," he +said. "I have friends on the First Level who'll take care of me."</p> + +<p>"I doubt that. They'll have their hands full taking care of +themselves, after this gets out." Verkan Vall turned to the two in +the black robes. "Either of you want to say anything?" When they shook +their heads, he nodded to a group of his policemen; they were hustled +into the conveyer. "Take them to the First Level terminal and hold +them till I come in. I'll be along with the next conveyer load."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The conveyer flashed and vanished. Brannad Klav stared for a moment at +the circle of concrete floor from whence it had disappeared. Then he +turned to Verkan Vall.</p> + +<p>"I still can't believe it," he said. "Why, those fellows were First +Level paratimers. So was that priest, Ghromdur: the one you rayed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. They worked for your rivals, the Fourth Level Mineral +Products Syndicate; the outfit that was trying to get your Proto-Aryan +Sector fissionables franchise away from you. They operate on this sector +already; have the petroleum franchise for the Chuldun country, east of +the Caspian Sea. They export to some of these internal-combustion-engine +sectors, like Europo-American. You know, most of the wars they've been +fighting, lately, on the Europo-American Sector have been, at least in +part, motivated by rivalry for oil fields. But now that the +Europo-Americans have begun to release nuclear energy, fissionables have +become more important than oil. In less than a century, it's predicted +that atomic energy will replace all other forms of power. Mineral +Products Syndicate wanted to get a good source of supply for uranium, +and your Proto-Aryan Sector franchise was worth grabbing.</p> + +<p>"I had considered something like this as a possibility when Stranor, +here, mentioned that tularemia was normally unknown in Eurasia on this +sector. That epidemic must have been started by imported germs. And I +knew that Mineral Products has agents at the court of the Chuldun +emperor, Chombrog: they have to, to protect their oil wells on his +eastern frontiers. I spent most of last night checking up on some +stuff by video-transcription from the Paratime Commission's microfilm +library at Dhergabar. I found out, for one thing, that while there is +a King Kurchuk of Zurb on every time-line for a hundred para-years on +either side of this one, this is the only time-line on which he +married a Princess Darith of Chuldun, and it's the only time-line on +which there is any trace of a Chuldun scribe named Labdurg.</p> + +<p>"That's why I went to all the trouble of having that Yat-Zar plated +with collapsed nickel. If there were disguised paratimers among the +Muz-Azin party at Kurchuk's court, I expected one of them to try to +blast our idol when we brought it into the palace. I was watching +Ghromdur and Labdurg in particular; as soon as Ghromdur used his +blaster, I needled him. After that, it was easy."</p> + +<p>"Was that why you insisted on sending that automatic viewer on +ahead?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. There was a chance that they might have planted a bomb in the +House of Yat-Zar, here. I knew they'd either do that or let the place +entirely alone. I suppose they were so confident of getting away with +this that they didn't want to damage the conveyer or the conveyer +chamber. They expected to use them, themselves, after they took over +your company's franchise."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's going to be done about it by the Commission?" Brannad +Klav wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Plenty. The syndicate will probably lose their paratime license; any +of its officials who had guilty knowledge of this will be dealt with +according to law. You know, this was a pretty nasty business."</p> + +<p>"You're telling me!" Stranor Sleth exclaimed. "Did you get a look at +those whips they were going to use on our people? Pointed iron barbs a +quarter-inch long braided into them, all over the lash-ends!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Any punitive action you're thinking about taking on these +priests of Muz-Azin—the natives, I mean—will be ignored on the First +Level. And that reminds me: you'd better work out a line of policy, +pretty soon."</p> + +<p>"Well, as for the priests and the torturers, I think I'll tell Yorzuk +to have them sold to the Bhunguns, to the east. They're always in the +market for galley slaves," Stranor Sleth said. He turned to Brannad +Klav. "And I'll want six gold crowns made up, as soon as possible. +Strictly Hulgun design, with Yat-Zar religious symbolism, very rich +and ornate, all slightly different. When I give Kurchuk absolution, +I'll crown him at the altar in the name of Yat-Zar. Then I'll invite +in the other five Hulgun kings, lecture them on their religious +duties, make them confess their secret doubts, forgive them, and crown +them, too. From then on, they can all style themselves as ruling by +the will of Yat-Zar."</p> + +<p>"And from then on, you'll have all of them eating out of your hand," +Verkan Vall concluded. "You know, this will probably go down in Hulgun +history as the Reformation of Ghullam the Holy. I've always wondered +whether the theory of the divine right of kings was invented by the +kings, to establish their authority over the people, or by the +priests, to establish <i>their</i> authority over the kings. It works about +as well one way as the other."</p> + +<p>"What I can't understand is this," Brannad Klav said. "It was entirely +because of my respect for the Paratime Code that I kept Stranor Sleth +from using Fourth Level weapons and other techniques to control these +people with a show of apparent miraculous powers. But this Fourth +Level Mineral Products Syndicate was operating in violation of the +Paratime Code by invading our franchise area. Why didn't they fake up +a supernatural reign of terror to intimidate these natives?"</p> + +<p>"Ha, exactly because they <i>were</i> operating illegally," Verkan Vall +replied. "Suppose they had started using needlers and blasters and +antigravity and nuclear-energy around here. The natives would have +thought it was the power of Muz-Azin, of course, but what would you +have thought? You'd have known, as soon as they tried it, that First +Level paratimers were working against you, and you'd have laid the +facts before the Commission, and this time-line would have been +flooded with Paratime Police. They had to conceal their operations not +only from the natives, as you do, but also from us. So they didn't +dare make public use of First Level techniques.</p> + +<p>"Of course, when we came marching into the palace with that idol on +antigravity, they knew, at once, what was happening. I have an idea +that they only tried to blast that idol to create a diversion which +would permit them to escape—if they could have got out of the palace, +they'd have made their way, in disguise, to the nearest Mineral +Products Syndicate conveyer and transposed out of here. I realized +that they could best delay us by blasting our idol, and that's why I +had it plated with collapsed nickel. I think that where they made +their mistake was in allowing Kurchuk to have those priests arrested, +and insisting on sacrificing them to Muz-Azin. If it hadn't been for +that, the Paratime Police wouldn't have been brought into this, at +all.</p> + +<p>"Well, Stranor, you'll want to get back to your temple, and Brannad +and I want to get back to the First Level. I'm supposed to take my +wife to a banquet in Dhergabar, tonight, and with the fastest +strato-rocket, I'll just barely make it."</p> + + +<div class="center"><img src="images/image_07.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="600" height="216" /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Temple Trouble, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEMPLE TROUBLE *** + +***** This file should be named 18861-h.htm or 18861-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/6/18861/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Temple Trouble + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Illustrator: Rogers + +Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18861] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEMPLE TROUBLE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction, + April, 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any + evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration] + + + TEMPLE TROUBLE + + + + BY H. BEAM PIPER + + * * * * * + + + Miracles to order was a fine way for the paratimers to + get mining concessions--but Nature can sometimes pull + counter-miracles. And so can men, for that matter.... + + + + Illustrated by Rogers + + +Through a haze of incense and altar smoke, Yat-Zar looked down from +his golden throne at the end of the dusky, many-pillared temple. +Yat-Zar was an idol, of gigantic size and extraordinarily good +workmanship; he had three eyes, made of turquoises as big as +doorknobs, and six arms. In his three right hands, from top to bottom, +he held a sword with a flame-shaped blade, a jeweled object of vaguely +phallic appearance, and, by the ears, a rabbit. In his left hands were +a bronze torch with burnished copper flames, a big goblet, and a pair +of scales with an egg in one pan balanced against a skull in the +other. He had a long bifurcate beard made of gold wire, feet like a +bird's, and other rather startling anatomical features. His throne was +set upon a stone plinth about twenty feet high, into the front of +which a doorway opened; behind him was a wooden screen, elaborately +gilded and painted. + +Directly in front of the idol, Ghullam the high priest knelt on a big +blue and gold cushion. He wore a gold-fringed robe of dark blue, and a +tall conical gold miter, and a bright blue false beard, forked like +the idol's golden one: he was intoning a prayer, and holding up, in +both hands, for divine inspection and approval, a long curved knife. +Behind him, about thirty feel away, stood a square stone altar, around +which four of the lesser priests, in light blue robes with less gold +fringe and dark-blue false beards, were busy with the preliminaries to +the sacrifice. At considerable distance, about halfway down the length +of the temple, some two hundred worshipers--a few substantial citizens +in gold-fringed tunics, artisans in tunics without gold fringe, +soldiers in mail hauberks and plain steel caps, one officer in +ornately gilded armor, a number of peasants in nondescript smocks, and +women of all classes--were beginning to prostrate themselves on the +stone floor. + +Ghullam rose to his feet, bowing deeply to Yat-Zar and holding the +knife extended in front of him, and backed away toward the altar. As +he did, one of the lesser priests reached into a fringed and +embroidered sack and pulled out a live rabbit, a big one, obviously of +domestic breed, holding it by the ears while one of his fellows took +it by the hind legs. A third priest caught up a silver pitcher, while +the fourth fanned the altar fire with a sheet-silver fan. As they +began chanting antiphonally, Ghullam turned and quickly whipped the +edge of his knife across the rabbit's throat. The priest with the +pitcher stepped in to catch the blood, and when the rabbit was bled, +it was laid on the fire. Ghullam and his four assistants all shouted +together, and the congregation shouted in response. + +The high priest waited as long as was decently necessary and then, +holding the knife in front of him, stepped around the prayer-cushion +and went through the door under the idol into the Holy of Holies. A +boy in novice's white robes met him and took the knife, carrying it +reverently to a fountain for washing. Eight or ten under-priests, +sitting at a long table, rose and bowed, then sat down again and +resumed their eating and drinking. At another table, a half-dozen +upper priests nodded to him in casual greeting. + +Crossing the room, Ghullam went to the Triple Veil in front of the +House of Yat-Zar, where only the highest of the priesthood might go, +and parted the curtains, passing through, until he came to the great +gilded door. Here he fumbled under his robe and produced a small +object like a mechanical pencil, inserting the pointed end in a tiny +hole in the door and pressing on the other end. The door opened, then +swung shut behind him, and as it locked itself, the lights came on +within. Ghullam removed his miter and his false beard, tossing them +aside on a table, then undid his sash and peeled out of his robe. His +regalia discarded, he stood for a moment in loose trousers and a soft +white shirt, with a pistollike weapon in a shoulder holster under his +left arm--no longer Ghullam the high priest of Yat-Zar, but now +Stranor Sleth, resident agent on this time-line of the Fourth Level +Proto-Aryan Sector for the Transtemporal Mining Corporation. Then he +opened a door at the other side of the anteroom and went to the +antigrav shaft, stepping over the edge and floating downward. + + * * * * * + +There were temples of Yat-Zar on every time-line of the Proto-Aryan +Sector, for the worship of Yat-Zar was ancient among the Hulgun people +of that area of paratime, but there were only a few which had such +installations as this, and all of them were owned and operated by +Transtemporal Mining, which had the fissionable ores franchise for +this sector. During the ten elapsed centuries since Transtemporal had +begun operations on this sector, the process had become standardized. +A few First Level paratimers would transpose to a selected time-line +and abduct an upper-priest of Yat-Zar, preferably the high priest of +the temple at Yoldav or Zurb. He would be drugged and transposed to +the First Level, where he would receive hypnotic indoctrination and, +while unconscious, have an operation performed on his ears which would +enable him to hear sounds well above the normal audible range. He +would be able to hear the shrill sonar-cries of bats, for instance, +and, more important, he would be able to hear voices when the speaker +used a First Level audio-frequency step-up phone. He would also +receive a memory-obliteration from the moment of his abduction, and a +set of pseudo-memories of a visit to the Heaven of Yat-Zar, on the +other side of the sky. Then he would be returned to his own time-line +and left on a mountain top far from his temple, where an unknown +peasant, leading a donkey, would always find him, return him to the +temple, and then vanish inexplicably. + +Then the priest would begin hearing voices, usually while serving at +the altar. They would warn of future events, which would always come +to pass exactly as foretold. Or they might bring tidings of things +happening at a distance, the news of which would not arrive by normal +means for days or even weeks. Before long, the holy man who had been +carried alive to the Heaven of Yat-Zar would acquire a most awesome +reputation as a prophet, and would speedily rise to the very top of +the priestly hierarchy. + +Then he would receive two commandments from Yat-Zar. The first would +ordain that all lower priests must travel about from temple to temple, +never staying longer than a year at any one place. This would insure a +steady influx of newcomers personally unknown to the local +upper-priests, and many of them would be First Level paratimers. Then, +there would be a second commandment: A house must be built for +Yat-Zar, against the rear wall of each temple. Its dimensions were +minutely stipulated; its walls were to be of stone, without windows, +and there was to be a single door, opening into the Holy of Holies, +and before the walls were finished, the door was to be barred from +within. A triple veil of brocaded fabric was to be hung in front of +this door. Sometimes such innovations met with opposition from the +more conservative members of the hierarchy: when they did, the +principal objector would be seized with a sudden and violent illness; +he would recover if and when he withdrew his objections. + +Very shortly after the House of Yat-Zar would be completed, strange +noises would be heard from behind the thick walls. Then, after a +while, one of the younger priests would announce that he had been +commanded in a vision to go behind the veil and knock upon the door. +Going behind the curtains, he would use his door-activator to let +himself in, and return by paratime-conveyer to the First Level to +enjoy a well-earned vacation. When the high priest would follow him +behind the veil, after a few hours, and find that he had vanished, it +would be announced as a miracle. A week later, an even greater miracle +would be announced. The young priest would return from behind the +Triple Veil, clad in such raiment as no man had ever seen, and bearing +in his hands a strange box. He would announce that Yat-Zar had +commanded him to build a new temple in the mountains, at a place to be +made known by the voice of the god speaking out of the box. + +This time, there would be no doubts and no objections. A procession +would set out, headed by the new revelator bearing the box, and when +the clicking voice of the god spoke rapidly out of it, the site would +be marked and work would begin. No local labor would ever be employed +on such temples; the masons and woodworkers would be strangers, come +from afar and speaking a strange tongue, and when the temple was +completed, they would never be seen to leave it. Men would say that +they had been put to death by the priest and buried under the altar to +preserve the secrets of the god. And there would always be an idol to +preserve the secrets of the god. And there would always be an idol of +Yat-Zar, obviously of heavenly origin, since its workmanship was +beyond the powers of any local craftsman. The priests of such a temple +would be exempt, by divine decree, from the rule of yearly travel. + +Nobody, of course, would have the least idea that there was a uranium +mine in operation under it, shipping ore to another time-line. The +Hulgun people knew nothing about uranium, and neither did they as much +as dream that there were other time-lines. The secret of paratime +transposition belonged exclusively to the First Level civilization +which had discovered it, and it was a secret that was guarded well. + + * * * * * + +Stranor Sleth, dropping to the bottom of the antigrav shaft, cast a +hasty and instinctive glance to the right, where the freight conveyers +were. One was gone, taking its cargo over hundreds of thousands of +para-years to the First Level. Another had just returned, empty, and a +third was receiving its cargo from the robot mining machines far back +under the mountain. Two young men and a girl, in First Level costumes, +sat at a bank of instruments and visor-screens, handling the whole +operation, and six or seven armed guards, having inspected the +newly-arrived conveyer and finding that it had picked up nothing +inimical en route, were relaxing and lighting cigarettes. Three of +them, Stranor Sleth noticed, wore the green uniforms of the Paratime +Police. + +"When did those fellows get in?" he asked the people at the control +desk, nodding toward the green-clad newcomers. + +"About ten minutes ago, on the passenger conveyer," the girl told him. +"The Big Boy's here. Brannad Klav. And a Paratime Police officer. +They're in your office." + +"Uh huh; I was expecting that," Stranor Sleth nodded. Then he turned +down the corridor to the left. + +Two men were waiting for him, in his office. One was short and stocky, +with an angry, impatient face--Brannad Klav, Transtemporal's vice +president in charge of operations. The other was tall and slender with +handsome and entirely expressionless features; he wore a Paratime +Police officer's uniform, with the blue badge of hereditary nobility +on his breast, and carried a sigma-ray needler in a belt holster. + +"Were you waiting long, gentlemen?" Stranor Sleth asked. "I was +holding Sunset Sacrifice up in the temple." + +"No, we just got here," Brannad Klav said. "This is Verkan Vall, +Mavrad of Nerros, special assistant to Chief Tortha of the Paratime +Police, Stranor Sleth, our resident agent here." + +Stranor Sleth touched hands with Verkan Vall. + +"I've heard a lot about you, sir," he said. "Everybody working in +paratime has, of course. I'm sorry we have a situation here that calls +for your presence, but since we have, I'm glad you're here in person. +You know what our trouble is, I suppose?" + +"In a general way," Verkan Vall replied. "Chief Tortha, and Brannad +Klav, have given me the main outline, but I'd like to have you fill in +the details." + +"Well, I told you everything," Brannad Klav interrupted impatiently. +"It's just that Stranor's let this blasted local king, Kurchuk, get +out of control. If I--" He stopped short, catching sight of the +shoulder holster under Stranor Sleth's left arm. "Were you wearing +that needler up in the temple?" he demanded. + +"You're blasted right I was!" Stranor Sleth retorted. "And any time I +can't arm myself for my own protection on this time-line, you can have +my resignation. I'm not getting into the same jam as those people at +Zurb." + +"Well, never mind about that," Verkan Vall intervened. "Of course +Stranor Sleth has a right to arm himself; I wouldn't think of being +caught without a weapon on this time-line, myself. Now, Stranor, +suppose you tell me what's been happening, here, from the beginning of +this trouble." + +"It started, really, about five years ago, when Kurchuk, the King of +Zurb, married this Chuldun princess, Darith, from the country over +beyond the Black Sea, and made her his queen, over the heads of about +a dozen daughters of the local nobility, whom he'd married previously. +Then he brought in this Chuldun scribe, Labdurg, and made him Overseer +of the Kingdom--roughly, prime minister. There was a lot of +dissatisfaction about that, and for a while it looked as though he was +going to have a revolution on his hands, but he brought in about five +thousand Chuldun mercenaries, all archers--these Hulguns can't shoot a +bow worth beans--so the dissatisfaction died down, and so did most of +the leaders of the disaffected group. The story I get is that this +Labdurg arranged the marriage, in the first place. It looks to me as +though the Chuldun emperor is intending to take over the Hulgun +kingdoms, starting with Zurb. + +[Illustration:] + +"Well, these Chulduns all worship a god called Muz-Azin. Muz-Azin is a +crocodile with wings like a bat and a lot of knife blades in his tail. +He makes this Yat-Zar look downright beautiful. So do his habits. +Muz-Azin fancies human sacrifices. The victims are strung up by the +ankles on a triangular frame and lashed to death with iron-barbed +whips. Nasty sort of a deity, but this is a nasty time-line. The +people here get a big kick out of watching these sacrifices. Much +better show than our bunny-killing. The victims are usually criminals, +or overage or incorrigible slaves, or prisoners of war. + +"Of course, when the Chulduns began infiltrating the palace, they +brought in their crocodile-god, too, and a flock of priests, and King +Kurchuk let them set up a temple in the palace. Naturally, we preached +against this heathen idolatry in our temples, but religious bigotry +isn't one of the numerous imperfections of this sector. Everybody's +deity is as good as anybody else's--indifferentism, I believe, is the +theological term. Anyhow, on that basis things went along fairly well, +till two years ago, when we had this run of bad luck." + +"Bad luck!" Brannad Klav snorted. "That's the standing excuse of every +incompetent!" + +"Go on, Stranor; what sort of bad luck?" Verkan Vall asked. + +"Well, first we had a drought, beginning in early summer, that burned +up most of the grain crop. Then, when that broke, we got heavy rains +and hailstorms and floods, and that destroyed what got through the dry +spell. When they harvested what little was left, it was obvious +there'd be a famine, so we brought in a lot of grain by conveyer and +distributed it from the temples--miraculous gift of Yat-Zar, of +course. Then the main office on First Level got scared about flooding +this time-line with a lot of unaccountable grain and were afraid we'd +make the people suspicious, and ordered it stopped. + +"Then Kurchuk, and I might add that the kingdom of Zurb was the +hardest hit by the famine, ordered his army mobilized and started an +invasion of the Jumdun country, south of the Carpathians, to get +grain. He got his army chopped up, and only about a quarter of them +got back, with no grain. You ask me, I'd say that Labdurg framed it to +happen that way. He advised Kurchuk to invade, in the first place, and +I mentioned my suspicion that Chombrog, the Chuldun Emperor, is +planning to move in on the Hulgun kingdoms. Well, what would be +smarter than to get Kurchuk's army smashed in advance?" + +"How did the defeat occur?" Verkan Vall asked. "Any suspicion of +treachery?" + +"Nothing you could put your finger on, except that the Jumduns seemed +to have pretty good intelligence about Kurchuk's invasion route and +battle plans. It could have been nothing worse than stupid tactics on +Kurchuk's part. See, these Hulguns, and particularly the Zurb +Hulguns, are spearmen. They fight in a fairly thin line, with +heavy-armed infantry in front and light infantry with throwing-spears +behind. The nobles fight in light chariots, usually at the center of +the line, and that's where they were at this Battle of Jorm. Kurchuk +himself was at the center, with his Chuldun archers massed around him. + +"The Jumduns use a lot of cavalry, with long swords and lances, and a +lot of big chariots with two javelin men and a driver. Well, instead +of ramming into Kurchuk's center, where he had his archers, they hit +the extreme left and folded it up, and then swung around behind and +hit the right from the rear. All the Chuldun archers did was stand +fast around the king and shoot anybody who came close to them: they +were left pretty much alone. But the Hulgun spearmen were cut to +pieces. The battle ended with Kurchuk and his nobles and his archers +making a fighting retreat, while the Jumdun cavalry were chasing the +spearmen every which way and cutting them down or lancing them as they +ran. + +"Well, whether it was Labdurg's treachery or Kurchuk's stupidity, in +either case, it was natural for the archers to come off easiest and +the Hulgun spearmen to pay the butcher's bill. But try and tell these +knuckle-heads anything like that! Muz-Azin protected the Chulduns, and +Yat-Zar let the Hulguns down, and that was all there was to it. The +Zurb temple started losing worshipers, particularly the families of +the men who didn't make it back from Jorm. + +"If that had been all there'd been to it, though, it still wouldn't +have hurt the mining operations, and we could have got by. But what +really tore it was when the rabbits started to die." Stranor Sleth +picked up a cigar from his desk and bit the end, spitting it out +disgustedly. "Tularemia, of course," he said, touching his lighter to +the tip. "When that hit, they started going over to Muz-Azin in +droves, not only at Zurb but all over the Six Kingdoms. You ought to +have seen the house we had for Sunset Sacrifice, this evening! About +two hundred, and we used to get two thousand. It used to be all two +men could do to lift the offering box at the door, afterward, and all +the money we took in tonight I could put in one pocket!" The high +priest used language that would have been considered unclerical even +among the Hulguns. + +Verkan Vall nodded. Even without the quickie hypno-mech he had taken +for this sector, he knew that the rabbit was domesticated among the +Proto-Aryan Hulguns and was their chief meat animal. Hulgun rabbits +were even a minor import on the First Level, and could be had at all +the better restaurants in cities like Dhergabar. He mentioned that. + +"That's not the worst of it," Stranor Sleth told him. "See, the +rabbit's sacred to Yat-Zar. Not taboo; just sacred. They have to use +a specially consecrated knife to kill them--consecrating rabbit knives +has always been an item of temple revenue--and they must say a special +prayer before eating them. We could have got around the rest of it, +even the Battle of Jorm--punishment by Yat-Zar for the sin of +apostasy--but Yat-Zar just wouldn't make rabbits sick. Yat-Zar thinks +too well of rabbits to do that, and it'd not been any use claiming he +would. So there you are." + +"Well, I take the attitude that this situation is the result of your +incompetence," Brannad Klav began, in a bullyragging tone. "You're not +only the high priest of this temple, you're the acknowledged head of +the religion in all the Hulgun kingdoms. You should have had more hold +on the people than to allow anything like this to happen." + +"Hold on the people!" Stranor Sleth fairly howled, appealing to Verkan +Vall. "What does he think a religion is, on this sector, anyhow? You +think these savages dreamed up that six-armed monstrosity, up there, +to express their yearning for higher things, or to symbolize their +moral ethos, or as a philosophical escape-hatch from the dilemma of +causation? They never even heard of such matters. On this sector, gods +are strictly utilitarian. As long as they take care of their +worshipers, they get their sacrifices: when they can't put out, they +have to get out. How do you suppose these Chulduns, living in the +Caucasus Mountains, got the idea of a god like a crocodile, anyhow? +Why, they got it from Homran traders, people from down in the Nile +Valley. They had a god, once, something basically like a billy goat, +but he let them get licked in a couple of battles, so out he went. +Why, all the deities on this sector have hyphenated names, because +they're combinations of several deities, worshiped in one person. Do +you know anything about the history of this sector?" he asked the +Paratime Police officer. + +"Well, it develops from an alternate probability of what we call the +Nilo-Mesopotamian Basic sector-group," Verkan Vall said. "On most +Nilo-Mesopotamian sectors, like the Macedonian Empire Sector, or the +Alexandrian-Roman or Alexandrian-Punic or Indo-Turanian or +Europo-American, there was an Aryan invasion of Eastern Europe and +Asia Minor about four thousand elapsed years ago. On this sector, the +ancestors of the Aryans came in about fifteen centuries earlier, as +neolithic savages, about the time that the Sumerian and Egyptian +civilizations were first developing, and overran all southeast Europe, +Asia Minor and the Nile Valley. They developed to the bronze-age +culture of the civilizations they overthrew, and then, more slowly, to +an iron-age culture. About two thousand years ago, they were using +hardened steel and building large stone cities, just as they do now. +At that time, they reached cultural stasis. But as for their religious +beliefs, you've described them quite accurately. A god is only +worshiped as long as the people think him powerful enough to aid and +protect them; when they lose that confidence, he is discarded and the +god of some neighboring people is adopted instead." He turned to +Brannad Klav. "Didn't Stranor report this situation to you when it +first developed?" he asked. "I know he did; he speaks of receiving +shipments of grain by conveyer for temple distribution. Then why +didn't you report it to Paratime Police? That's what we have a +Paratime Police Force for." + +"Well, yes, of course, but I had enough confidence in Stranor Sleth to +think that he could handle the situation himself. I didn't know he'd +gone slack--" + +"Look, I can't make weather, even if my parishioners think I can," +Stranor Sleth defended himself. "And I can't make a great military +genius out of a blockhead like Kurchuk. And I can't immunize all the +rabbits on this time-line against tularemia, even if I'd had any +reason to expect a tularemia epidemic, which I hadn't because the +disease is unknown on this sector; this is the only outbreak of it +anybody's ever heard of on any Proto-Aryan time-line." + +"No, but I'll tell you what you could have done," Verkan Vall told +him. "When this Kurchuk started to apostatize, you could have gone to +him at the head of a procession of priests, all paratimers and all +armed with energy-weapons, and pointed out his spiritual duty to him, +and if he gave you any back talk, you could have pulled out that +needler and rayed him down and then cried, 'Behold the vengeance of +Yat-Zar upon the wicked king!' I'll bet any sum at any odds that his +successor would have thought twice about going over to Muz-Azin, and +none of these other kings would have even thought once about it." + +"Ha, that's what I wanted to do!" Stranor Sleth exclaimed. "And who +stopped me? I'll give you just one guess." + +"Well, it seems there was slackness here, but it wasn't Stranor Sleth +who was slack," Verkan Vall commented. + +"Well! I must say; I never thought I'd hear an officer of the Paratime +Police criticizing me for trying to operate inside the Paratime +Transposition Code!" Brannad Klav exclaimed. + +Verkan Vall, sitting on the edge of Stranor Sleth's desk, aimed his +cigarette at Brannad Klav like a blaster. + +"Now, look," he began. "There is one, and only one, inflexible law +regarding outtime activities. The secret of paratime transposition +must be kept inviolate, and any activity tending to endanger it is +prohibited. That's why we don't allow the transposition of any object +of extraterrestrial origin to any time-line on which space travel has +not been developed. Such an object may be preserved, and then, after +the local population begin exploring the planet from whence it came, +there will be dangerous speculations and theories as to how it +arrived on Terra at such an early date. I came within inches, +literally, of getting myself killed, not long ago, cleaning up the +result of a violation of that regulation. For the same reason, we +don't allow the export, to outtime natives, of manufactured goods too +far in advance of their local culture. That's why, for instance, you +people have to hand-finish all those big Yat-Zar idols, to remove +traces of machine work. One of those things may be around, a few +thousand years from now, when these people develop a mechanical +civilization. But as far as raying down this Kurchuk is concerned, +these Hulguns are completely nonscientific. They wouldn't have the +least idea what happened. They'd believe that Yat-Zar struck him dead, +as gods on this plane of culture are supposed to do, and if any of +them noticed the needler at all, they'd think it was just a holy +amulet of some kind." + +[Illustration:] + +"But the law is the law--" Brannad Klav began. + +Verkan Vall shook his head. "Brannad, as I understand, you were +promoted to your present position on the retirement of Salvan Marth, +about ten years ago; up to that time, you were in your company's +financial department. You were accustomed to working subject to the +First Level Commercial Regulation Code. Now, any law binding upon our +people at home, on the First Level, is inflexible. It has to be. We +found out, over fifty centuries ago, that laws have to be rigid and +without discretionary powers in administration in order that people +may be able to predict their effect and plan their activities +accordingly. Naturally, you became conditioned to operating in such a +climate of legal inflexibility. + +"But in paratime, the situation is entirely different. There exist, +within the range of the Ghaldron-Hesthor paratemporal-field generator, +a number of time-lines of the order of ten to the hundred-thousandth +power. In effect, that many different worlds. In the past ten thousand +years, we have visited only the tiniest fraction of these, but we have +found everything from time-lines inhabited only by subhuman ape-men to +Second Level civilizations which are our own equal in every respect +but knowledge of paratemporal transposition. We even know of one +Second Level civilization which is approaching the discovery of an +interstellar hyperspatial drive, something we've never even come close +to. And in between are every degree of savagery, barbarism and +civilization. Now, it's just not possible to frame any single code of +laws applicable to conditions on all of these. The best we can do is +prohibit certain flagrantly immoral types of activity, such as +slave-trading, introduction of new types of narcotic drugs, or +out-and-out piracy and brigandage. If you're in doubt as to the +legality of anything you want to do outtime, go to the Judicial +Section of the Paratime Commission and get an opinion on it. That's +where you made your whole mistake. You didn't find out just how far it +was allowable for you to go." + +He turned to Stranor Sleth again. "Well, that's the background, then. +Now tell me about what happened yesterday at Zurb." + +"Well, a week ago, Kurchuk came out with this decree closing our +temple at Zurb and ordering his subjects to perform worship and make +money offerings to Muz-Azin. The Zurb temple isn't a mask for a mine: +Zurb's too far south for the uranium deposits. It's just a center for +propaganda and that sort of thing. But they have a House of Yat-Zar, +and a conveyer, and most of the upper-priests are paratimers. Well, +our man there, Tammand Drav, alias Khoram, defied the king's order, so +Kurchuk sent a company of Chuldun archers to close the temple and +arrest the priests. Tammand Drav got all his people who were in the +temple at the time into the House of Yat-Zar and transposed them back +to the First Level. He had orders"--Stranor Sleth looked meaningly at +Brannad Klav--"not to resist with energy-weapons or even ultrasonic +paralyzers. And while we're on the subject of letting the local yokels +see too much, about fifteen of the under-priests he took to the First +Level were Hulgun natives." + +"Nothing wrong about that: they'll get memory-obliteration and +pseudo-memory treatment," Verkan Vall said. "But he should have been +allowed to needle about a dozen of those Chulduns. Teach the beggars +to respect Yat-Zar in the future. Now, how about the six priests who +were outside the temple at the time? All but one were paratimers. +We'll have to find out about them, and get them out of Zurb." + +"That'll take some doing," Stranor Sleth said. "And it'll have to be +done before sunset tomorrow. They are all in the dungeon of the palace +citadel, and Kurchuk is going to give them to the priests of Muz-Azin +to be sacrificed tomorrow evening." + +"How'd you learn that?" Verkan Vall asked. + +"Oh, we have a man in Zurb, not connected with the temple," Stranor +Sleth said. "Name's Crannar Jurth; calls himself Kranjur, locally. He +has a swordmaker's shop, employs about a dozen native journeymen and +apprentices who hammer out the common blades he sells in the open +market. Then, he imports a few high-class alloy-steel blades from the +First Level, that'll cut through this local low-carbon armor like +cheese. Fits them with locally-made hilts and sells them at +unbelievable prices to the nobility. He's Swordsmith to the King; +picks up all the inside palace dope. Of course, he was among the first +to accept the New Gospel and go over to Muz-Azin. He has a secret room +under his shop, with his conveyer and a radio. + +"What happened was this: These six priests were at a consecration +ceremony at a rabbit-ranch outside the city, and they didn't know +about the raid on the temple. On their way back, they were surrounded +by Chuldun archers and taken prisoner. They had no weapons but their +sacrificial knives." He threw another dirty look at Brannad Klav. "So +they're due to go up on the triangles at sunset tomorrow." + +"We'll have to get them out before then," Verkan Vall stated. "They're +our people, and we can't let them down; even the native is under our +protection, whether he knows it or not. And in the second place, if +those priests are sacrificed to Muz-Azin," he told Brannad Klav, "you +can shut down everything on this time-line, pull out or disintegrate +your installations, and fill in your mine-tunnels. Yat-Zar will be +through on this time-line, and you'll be through along with him. And +considering that your fissionables franchise for this sector comes up +for renewal next year, your company will be through in this paratime +area." + +"You believe that would happen?" Brannad Klav asked anxiously. + +"I know it will, because I'll put through a recommendation to that +effect, if those six men are tortured to death tomorrow," Verkan Vall +replied. "And in the fifty years that I've been in the Police +Department, I've only heard of five such recommendations being ignored +by the commission. You know, Fourth Level Mineral Products Syndicate +is after your franchise. Ordinarily, they wouldn't have a chance of +getting it, but with this, maybe they will, even without my +recommendation. This was all your fault, for ignoring Stranor Sleth's +proposal and for denying those men the right to carry energy weapons." + +"Well, we were only trying to stay inside the Paratime Code," Brannad +Klav pleaded. "If it isn't too late, now, you can count on me for +every co-operation." He fiddled with some papers on the desk. "What do +you want me to do to help?" + +"I'll tell you that in a minute." Verkan Vall walked to the wall and +looked at the map, then returned to Stranor Sleth's desk. "How about +these dungeons?" he asked. "How are they located, and how can we get +in to them?" + +"I'm afraid we can't," Stranor Sleth told him. "Not without fighting +our way in. They're under the palace citadel, a hundred feet below +ground. They're spatially co-existent with the heavy water barriers +around one of our company's plutonium piles on the First Level, and +below surface on any unoccupied time-line I know of, so we can't +transpose in to them. This palace is really a walled city inside a +city. Here, I'll show you." + +Going around the desk, he sat down and, after looking in the +index-screen, punched a combination on the keyboard. A picture, +projected from the microfilm-bank, appeared on the view-screen. It was +an air-view of the city of Zurb--taken, the high priest explained, by +infrared light from an airboat over the city at night. It showed a +city of an entirely pre-mechanical civilization, with narrow streets, +lined on either side by low one and two story buildings. Although +there would be considerable snow in winter, the roofs were usually +flat, probably massive stone slabs supported by pillars within. Even +in the poorer sections, this was true except for the very meanest +houses and out-buildings, which were thatched. Here and there, some +huge pile of masonry would rear itself above its lower neighbors, and, +where the streets were wider, occasional groups of large buildings +would be surrounded by battlemented walls. Stranor Sleth indicated one +of the larger of these. + +"Here's the palace," he said. "And here's the temple of Yat-Zar, about +half a mile away." He touched a large building, occupying an entire +block; between it and the palace was a block-wide park, with lawns and +trees on either side of a wide roadway connecting the two. + +"Now, here's a detailed view of the palace." He punched another +combination; the view of the City was replaced by one, taken from +directly overhead, of the walled palace area. "Here's the main gate, +in front, at the end of the road from the temple," he pointed out. +"Over here, on the left, are the slaves' quarters and the stables and +workshops and store houses and so on. Over here, on the other side, +are the nobles' quarters. And this,"--he indicated a towering +structure at the rear of the walled enclosure--"is the citadel and the +royal dwelling. Audience hall on this side; harem over here on this +side. A wide stone platform, about fifteen feet high, runs completely +across the front of the citadel, from the audience hall to the harem. +Since this picture was taken, the new temple of Muz-Azin was built +right about here." He indicated that it extended out from the audience +hall into the central courtyard. "And out here on the platform, +they've put up about a dozen of these triangles, about twelve feet +high, on which the sacrificial victims are whipped to death." + +"Yes. About the only way we could get down to the dungeons would be to +make an airdrop onto the citadel roof and fight our way down with +needlers and blasters, and I'm not willing to do that as long as +there's any other way," Verkan Vall said. "We'd lose men, even with +needlers against bows, and there's a chance that some of our equipment +might be lost in the melee and fall into outtime hands. You say this +sacrifice comes off tomorrow at sunset?" + +"That would be about actual sunset plus or minus an hour; these people +aren't astronomers, they don't even have good sundials, and it might +be a cloudy day," Stranor Sleth said. "There will be a big idol of +Muz-Azin on a cart, set about here." He pointed. "After the sacrifice, +it is to be dragged down this road, outside, to the temple of Yat-Zar, +and set up there. The temple is now occupied by about twenty Chuldun +mercenaries and five or six priests of Muz-Azin. They haven't, of +course, got into the House of Yat-Zar; the door's of impervium steel, +about six inches thick, with a plating of collapsed nickel under the +gilding. It would take a couple of hours to cut through it with our +best atomic torch; there isn't a tool on this time-line that could +even scratch it. And the insides of the walls are lined with the same +thing." + +"Do you think our people have been tortured, yet?" Verkan Vall asked. + +"No." Stranor Sleth was positive. "They'll be fairly well treated, +until the sacrifice. The idea's to make them last as long as possible +on the triangles; Muz-Azin likes to see a slow killing, and so does +the mob of spectators." + +"That's good. Now, here's my plan. We won't try to rescue them from +the dungeons. Instead, we'll transpose back to the Zurb temple from +the First Level, in considerable force--say a hundred or so men--and +march on the palace, to force their release. You're in constant radio +communication with all the other temples on this time-line, I +suppose?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"All right. Pass this out to everybody, authority Paratime Police, in +my name, acting for Tortha Karf. I want all paratimers who can +possibly be spared to transpose to First Level immediately and +rendezvous at the First Level terminal of the Zurb temple conveyer as +soon as possible. Close down all mining operations, and turn over +temple routine to the native under-priests. You can tell them that the +upper-priests are retiring to their respective Houses of Yat-Zar to +pray for the deliverance of the priests in the hands of King Kurchuk. +And everybody is to bring back his priestly regalia to the First +Level; that will be needed." He turned to Brannad Klav. "I suppose you +keep spare regalia in stock on the First Level?" + +"Yes, of course; we keep plenty of everything in stock. Robes, miters, +false beards of different shades, everything." + +"And these big Yat-Zar idols: they're mass-produced on the First +Level? You have one available now? Good. I'll want some alterations +made on one. For one thing, I'll want it plated heavily, all over, +with collapsed nickel. For another, I'll want it fitted with antigrav +units and some sort of propulsion-units, and a loud-speaker, and +remote control. + +[Illustration:] + +"And, Stranor, you get in touch with this swordmaker, Crannar Jurth, +and alert him to co-operate with us. Tell him to start calling Zurb +temple on his radio about noon tomorrow, and keep it up till he gets +an answer. Or, better, tell him to run his conveyer to his First Level +terminal, and bring with him an extra suit of clothes appropriate to +the role of journeyman-mechanic. I'll want to talk to him, and furnish +him with special equipment. Got all that? Well, carry on with it, and +bring your own paratimers, priests and mining operators, back with you +as soon as you've taken care of everything. Brannad, you come with me, +now. We're returning to First Level immediately. We have a lot of +work to do, so let's get started." + +"Anything I can do to help, just call on me for it," Brannad Klav +promised earnestly. "And, Stranor, I want to apologize. I'll admit, +now, that I ought to have followed your recommendations, when this +situation first developed." + + * * * * * + +By noon of the next day, Verkan Vall had at least a hundred men +gathered in the big room at the First Level fissionables refinery at +Jarnabar, spatially co-existent with the Fourth Level temple of +Yat-Zar at Zurb. He was having a little trouble distinguishing between +them, for every man wore the fringed blue robe and golden miter of an +upper-priest, and had his face masked behind a blue false beard. It +was, he admitted to himself, a most ludicrous-looking assemblage; one +of the most ludicrous things about it was the fact that it would have +inspired only pious awe in a Hulgun of the Fourth Level Proto-Aryan +Sector. About half of them were priests from the Transtemporal Mining +Corporation's temples; the other half were members of the Paratime +Police. All of them wore, in addition to their temple knives, +holstered sigma-ray needlers. Most of them carried ultrasonic +paralyzers, eighteen-inch batonlike things with bulbous ends. Most of +the Paratime Police and a few of the priests also carried either +heat-ray pistols or neutron-disruption blasters; Verkan Vall wore one +of the latter in a left-hand belt holster. + +The Paratime Police were lined up separately for inspection, and +Stranor Sleth, Tammand Drav of the Zurb temple, and several other high +priests were checking the authenticity of their disguises. A little +apart from the others, a Paratime Policeman, in high priest's robes +and beard, had a square box slung in front of him; he was fiddling +with knobs and buttons on it, practicing. A big idol of Yat-Zar, on +antigravity, was floating slowly about the room in obedience to its +remote controls, rising and lowering, turning about and pirouetting +gracefully. + +"Hey, Vall!" he called to his superior. "How's this?" + +The idol rose about five feet, turned slowly in a half-circle, moved +to the right a little, and then settled slowly toward the floor. + +"Fine, fine, Horv," Verkan Vall told him, "but don't set it down on +anything, or turn off the antigravity. There's enough collapsed +nickel-plating on that thing to sink it a yard in soft ground." + +"I don't know what the idea of that was," Brannad Klav, standing +beside him, said. "Understand, I'm not criticizing. I haven't any +right to, under the circumstances. But it seems to me that armoring +that thing in collapsed nickel was an unnecessary precaution." + +"Maybe it was," Verkan Vall agreed. "I sincerely hope so. But we can't +take any chances. This operation has to be absolutely right. Ready, +Tammand? All right; first detail into the conveyer." + +He turned and strode toward a big dome of fine metallic mesh, thirty +feet high and sixty in diameter, at the other end of the room. Tammand +Drav, and his ten paratimer priests, and Brannad Klav, and ten +Paratime Police, followed him in. One of the latter slid shut the door +and locked it; Verkan Vall went to the control desk, at the center of +the dome, and picked up a two-foot globe of the same fine metallic +mesh, opening it and making some adjustments inside, then attaching an +electric cord and closing it. He laid the globe on the floor near the +desk and picked up the hand battery at the other end of the attached +cord. + +"Not taking any chances at all, are you?" Brannad Klav asked, watching +this operation with interest. + +"I never do, unnecessarily. There are too many necessary chances that +have to be taken, in this work." Verkan Vall pressed the button on the +hand battery. The globe on the floor flashed and vanished. "Yesterday, +five paratimers were arrested. Any or all of them could have had +door-activators with them. Stranor Sleth says they were not tortured, +but that is a purely inferential statement. They may have been, and +the use of the activator may have been extorted from one of them. So I +want a look at the inside of that conveyer-chamber before we transpose +into it." + +He laid the hand battery, with the loose-dangling wire that had been +left behind, on the desk, then lit a cigarette. The others gathered +around, smoking and watching, careful to avoid the place from which +the globe had vanished. Thirty minutes passed, and then, in a queer +iridescence, the globe reappeared. Verkan Vall counted ten seconds and +picked it up, taking it to the desk and opening it to remove a small +square box. This he slid into a space under the desk and flipped a +switch. Instantly, a view-screen lit up and a three-dimensional +picture appeared--the interior of a big room a hundred feet square and +some seventy in height. There was a big desk and a radio; tables, +couches, chairs and an arms-rack full of weapons, and at one end, a +remarkably clean sixty-foot circle on the concrete floor, outlined in +faintly luminous red. + +"How about it?" Verkan Vall asked Tammand Drav. "Anything wrong?" + +The Zurb high priest shook his head. "Just as we left it," he said. +"Nobody's been inside since we left." + + * * * * * + +One of the policemen took Verkan Vall's place at the control desk and +threw the master switch, after checking the instruments. Immediately, +the paratemporal-transposition field went on with a humming sound that +mounted to a high scream, then settled to a steady drone. The mesh +dome flickered with a cold iridescence and vanished, and they were +looking into the interior of a great fissionables refinery plant, +operated by paratimers on another First Level time-line. The +structural details altered, from time-line to time-line, as they +watched. Buildings appeared and vanished. Once, for a few seconds, +they were inside a cool, insulated bubble in the midst of molten lead. +Tammand Drav jerked a thumb at it, before it vanished. + +"That always bothers me," he said. "Bad place for the field to go +weak. I'm fussy as an old hen about inspection of the conveyer, on +account of that." + +"Don't blame you," Verkan Vall agreed. "Probably the cooling system of +a breeder-pile." + +They passed more swiftly, now, across the Second Level and the Third. +Once they were in the midst of a huge land battle, with great tanklike +vehicles spouting flame at one another. Another moment was spent in an +air bombardment. On any time-line, this section of East Europe was a +natural battleground. Once a great procession marched toward them, +carrying red banners and huge pictures of a coarse-faced man with a +black mustache--Verkan Vall recognized the environment as Fourth Level +Europo-American Sector. Finally, as the transposition-rate slowed, +they saw a clutter of miserable thatched huts, in the rear of a +granite wall of a Fourth Level Hulgun temple of Yat-Zar--a temple not +yet infiltrated by Transtemporal Mining Corporation agents. Finally, +they were at their destination. The dome around them became visible, +and an overhead green light flashed slowly on and off. + +Verkan Vall opened the door and stepped outside, his needler drawn. +The House of Yat-Zar was just as he had seen it in the picture +photographed by the automatic reconnaissance-conveyer. The others +crowded outside after him. One of the regular priests pulled off his +miter and beard and went to the radio, putting on a headset. Verkan +Vall and Tammand Drav snapped on the visiscreen, getting a view of the +Holy of Holies outside. + +There were six men there, seated at the upper-priests' banquet table, +drinking from golden goblets. Five of them wore the black robes with +green facings which marked them as priests of Muz-Azin; the sixth was +an officer of the Chuldun archers, in gilded mail and helmet. + +"Why, those are the sacred vessels of the temple!" Tammand Drav cried, +scandalized. Then he laughed in self-ridicule. "I'm beginning to take +this stuff seriously, myself; time I put in for a long vacation. I was +actually shocked at the sacrilege!" + +"Well, let's overtake the infidels in their sins," Verkan Vall said. +"Paralyzers will be good enough." + +He picked up one of the bulb-headed weapons, and unlocked the door. +Tammand Drav and another of the priests of the Zurb temple following +and the others crowding behind, they passed out through the veils, and +burst into the Holy of Holies. Verkan Vall pointed the bulb of his +paralyzer at the six seated men and pressed the button; other +paralyzers came into action, and the whole sextet were knocked +senseless. The officer rolled from his chair and fell to the floor in +a clatter of armor. Two of the priests slumped forward on the table. +The others merely sank back in their chairs, dropping their goblets. + +"Give each one of them another dose, to make sure," Verkan Vall +directed a couple of his own men. "Now, Tammand; any other way into +the main temple beside that door?" + +"Up those steps," Tammand Drav pointed. "There's a gallery along the +side; we can cover the whole room from there." + +"Take your men and go up there. I'll take a few through the door. +There'll be about twenty archers out there, and we don't want any of +them loosing any arrows before we can knock them out. Three minutes be +time enough?" + +"Easily. Make it two," Tammand Drav said. + + * * * * * + +He took his priests up the stairway and vanished into the gallery of +the temple. Verkan Vall waited until one minute had passed and then, +followed by Brannad Klav and a couple of Paratime Policemen, he went +under the plinth and peered out into the temple. Five or six archers, +in steel caps and sleeveless leather jackets sewn with steel rings, +were gathered around the altar, cooking something in a pot on the +fire. Most of the others, like veteran soldiers, were sprawled on the +floor, trying to catch a short nap, except half a dozen, who crouched +in a circle, playing some game with dice--another almost universal +military practice. + +The two minutes were up. He aimed his paralyzer at the men around the +altar and squeezed the button, swinging it from one to another and +knocking them down with a bludgeon of inaudible sound. At the same +time, Tammand Drav and his detail were stunning the gamblers. Stepping +forward and to one side, Verkan Vall, Brannad Klav and the others took +care of the sleepers on the floor. In less than thirty seconds, every +Chuldun in the temple was incapacitated. + +"All right, make sure none of them come out of it prematurely," Verkan +Vall directed. "Get their weapons, and be sure nobody has a knife or +anything hidden on him. Who has the syringe and the sleep-drug +ampoules?" + +Somebody had, it developed, who was still on the First Level, to come +up with the second conveyer load. Verkan Vall swore. Something like +this always happened, on any operation involving more than half a +dozen men. + +"Well, some of you stay here: patrol around, and use your paralyzers +on anybody who even twitches a muscle." Ultrasonics were nice, +effective, humane police weapons, but they were unreliable. The same +dose that would keep one man out for an hour would paralyze another +for no more than ten or fifteen minutes. "And be sure none of them are +playing 'possum." + +He went back through the door under the plinth, glancing up at the +decorated wooden screen and wondering how much work it would take to +move the new Yat-Zar in from the conveyers. The five priests and the +archer-captain were still unconscious; one of the policemen was +searching them. + +"Here's the sort of weapons these priests carry," he said, holding up +a short iron mace with a spiked head. "Carry them on their belts." He +tossed it on the table, and began searching another knocked-out +hierophant. "Like this--_Hey!_ Look at this, will you!" + +He drew his hand from under the left side of the senseless man's robe +and held up a sigma-ray needler. Verkan Vall looked at it and nodded +grimly. + +"Had it in a regular shoulder holster," the policeman said, handing +the weapon across the table. "What do you think?" + +"Find anything else funny on him?" + +"Wait a minute." The policeman pulled open the robe and began +stripping the priest of Muz-Azin; Verkan Vall came around the table to +help. There was nothing else of a suspicious nature. + +"Could have got it from one of the prisoners, but I don't like the +familiar way he's wearing that holster," Verkan Vall said. "Has the +conveyer gone back, yet?" When the policeman nodded, he continued: +"When it returns, take him to the First Level. I hope they bring up +the sleep-drug with the next load. When you get him back, take him to +Dhergabar by strato-rocket immediately, and make sure he gets back +alive. I want him questioned under narco-hypnosis by a regular +Paratime Commission psycho-technician, in the presence of Chief Tortha +Karf and some responsible Commission official. This is going to be hot +stuff." + +Within an hour, the whole force was assembled in the temple. The +wooden screen had presented no problem--it slid easily to one +side--and the big idol floated on antigravity in the middle of the +temple. Verkan Vall was looking anxiously at his watch. + +"It's about two hours to sunset," he said, to Stranor Sleth. "But as +you pointed out, these Hulguns aren't astronomers, and it's a bit +cloudy. I wish Crannar Jurth would call in with something definite." + +Another twenty minutes passed. Then the man at the radio came out into +the temple. + +"O. K.!" he called. "The man at Crannar Jurth's called in. Crannar +Jurth contacted him with a midget radio he has up his sleeve; he's in +the palace courtyard now. They haven't brought out the victims, yet, +but Kurchuk has just been carried out on his throne to that platform +in front of the citadel. Big crowd gathering in the inner courtyard; +more in the streets outside. Palace gates are wide open." + +"That's it!" Verkan Vall cried. "Form up; the parade's starting. +Brannad, you and Tammand and Stranor and I in front; about ten men +with paralyzers a little behind us. Then Yat-Zar, about ten feet off +the ground, and then the others. Forward--_ho-o!_" + + * * * * * + +They emerged from the temple and started down the broad roadway toward +the palace. There was not much of a crowd, at first. Most of Zurb had +flocked to the palace earlier; the lucky ones in the courtyard and the +late comers outside. Those whom they did meet stared at them in +open-mouthed amazement, and then some, remembering their doubts and +blasphemies, began howling for forgiveness. Others--a substantial +majority--realizing that it would be upon King Kurchuk that the real +weight of Yat-Zar's six hands would fall, took to their heels, trying +to put as much distance as possible between them and the palace before +the blow fell. + +As the procession approached the palace gates, the crowds were +thicker, made up of those who had been unable to squeeze themselves +inside. The panic was worse, here, too. A good many were trampled and +hurt in the rush to escape, and it became necessary to use paralyzers +to clear a way. That made it worse: everybody was sure that Yat-Zar +was striking sinners dead left and right. + +Fortunately, the gates were high enough to let the god through without +losing altitude appreciably. Inside, the mob surged back, clearing a +way across the courtyard. It was only necessary to paralyze a few +here, and the levitated idol and its priestly attendants advanced +toward the stone platform, where the king sat on his throne, flanked +by court functionaries and black-robed priests of Muz-Azin. In front +of this, a rank of Chuldun archers had been drawn up. + +"Horv; move Yat-Zar forward about a hundred feet and up about fifty," +Verkan Vall directed. "Quickly!" + +As the six-armed anthropomorphic idol rose and moved closer toward its +saurian rival, Verkan Vall drew his needler, scanning the assemblage +around the throne anxiously. + +"_Where is the wicked King?_" a voice thundered--the voice of Stranor +Sleth, speaking into a midget radio tuned to the loud-speaker inside +the idol. "_Where is the blasphemer and desecrator, Kurchuk?_" + +"There's Labdurg, in the red tunic, beside the throne," Tammand Drav +whispered. "And that's Ghromdur, the Muz-Azin high priest, beside +him." + +Verkan Vall nodded, keeping his eyes on the group on the platform. +Ghromdur, the high priest of Muz-Azin, was edging backward and +reaching under his robe. At the same time, an officer shouted an +order, and the Chuldun archers drew arrows from their quivers and +fitted them to their bowstrings. Immediately, the ultrasonic +paralyzers of the advancing paratimers went into action, and the +mercenaries began dropping. + +"_Lay down your weapons, fools!_" the amplified voice boomed at them. +"_Lay down your weapons or you shall surely die! Who are you, +miserable wretches, to draw bows against Me?_" + +[Illustration:] + +At first a few, then all of them, the Chulduns lowered or dropped +their weapons and began edging away to the sides. At the center, in +front of the throne, most of them had been knocked out. Verkan Vall +was still watching the Muz-Azin high priest intently; as Ghromdur +raised his arm, there was a flash and a puff of smoke from the front +of Yat-Zar--the paint over the collapsed nickel was burned off, but +otherwise the idol was undamaged. Verkan Vall swung up his needler and +rayed Ghromdur dead; as the man in the green-faced black robes fell, a +blaster clattered on the stone platform. + +"_Is that your puny best, Muz-Azin?_" the booming voice demanded. +"_Where is your high priest now?_" + +"Horv; face Yat-Zar toward Muz-Azin," Verkan Vall said over his +shoulder, drawing his blaster with his left hand. Like all First Level +people, he was ambidextrous, although, like all paratimers, he +habitually concealed the fact while outtime. As the levitated idol +swung slowly to look down upon its enemy on the built-up cart, Verkan +Vall aimed the blaster and squeezed. + +[Illustration:] + +In a spot less than a millimeter in diameter on the crocodile idol's +side, a certain number of neutrons in the atomic structure of the +stone from which it was carved broke apart, becoming, in effect, atoms +of hydrogen. With a flash and a bang, the idol burst and vanished. +Yat-Zar gave a dirty laugh and turned his back on the cart, which was +now burning fiercely facing King Kurchuk again. + +"Get your hands up, all of you!" Verkan Vall shouted, in the First +Level language, swinging the stubby muzzle of the blaster and the +knob-tipped twin tubes of the needler to cover the group around the +throne, "Come forward, before I start blasting!" + +Labdurg raised his hands and stepped forward. So did two of the +priests of Yat-Zar. They were quickly seized by Paratime Policemen who +swarmed up onto the platform and disarmed. All three were carrying +sigma-ray needlers, and Labdurg had a blaster as well. + +King Kurchuk was clinging to the arms of his throne, a badly +frightened monarch trying desperately not to show it. He was a big +man, heavy-shouldered, black-bearded; under ordinary circumstances he +would probably have cut an imposing figure, in his gold-washed mail +and his golden crown. Now his face was a dirty gray, and he was biting +nervously at his lower lip. The others on the platform were in even +worse state. The Hulgun nobles were grouped together, trying to +disassociate themselves from both the king and the priests of +Muz-Azin. The latter were staring in a daze at the blazing cart from +which their idol had just been blasted. And the dozen men who were to +have done the actual work of the torture-sacrifice had all dropped +their whips and were fairly gibbering in fear. + +Yat-Zar, manipulated by the robed paratimer, had taken a position +directly above the throne and was lowering slowly. Kurchuk stared up +at the massive idol descending toward him, his knuckles white as he +clung to the arms of his throne. He managed to hold out until he could +feel the weight of the idol pressing on his head. Then, with a scream, +he hurled himself from the throne and rolled forward almost to the +edge of the platform. Yat-Zar moved to one side, swung slightly and +knocked the throne toppling, and then settled down on the platform. To +Kurchuk, who was rising cautiously on his hands and knees, the big +idol seemed to be looking at him in contempt. + +"_Where are my holy priests, Kurchuk?_" Stranor Sleth demanded in to +his sleeve-hidden radio. "_Let them be brought before me, alive and +unharmed, or it shall be better for you had you never been born!_" + +The six priests of Yat-Zar, it seemed, were already being brought onto +the platform by one of Kurchuk's nobles. This noble, whose name was +Yorzuk, knew a miracle when he saw one, and believed in being on the +side of the god with the heaviest artillery. As soon as he had seen +Yat-Zar coming through the gate without visible means of support, he +had hastened to the dungeons with half a dozen of his personal +retainers and ordered the release of the six captives. He was now +escorting them onto the platform, assuring them that he had always +been a faithful servant of Yat-Zar and had been deeply grieved at his +sovereign's apostasy. + +"_Hear my word, Kurchuk_," Stranor Sleth continued through the +loud-speaker in the idol. "_You have sinned most vilely against me, +and were I a cruel god, your fate would be such as no man has ever +before suffered. But I am a merciful god; behold, you may gain +forgiveness in my sight. For thirty days, you shall neither eat meat +nor drink wine, nor shall you wear gold nor fine raiment, and each day +shall you go to my temple and beseech me for my forgiveness. And on +the thirty-first day, you shall set out, barefoot and clad in the garb +of a slave, and journey to my temple that is in the mountains over +above Yoldav, and there will I forgive you, after you have made +sacrifice to me. I, Yat-Zar, have spoken!_" + +The king started to rise, babbling thanks. + +"_Rise not before me until I have forgiven you!_" Yat-Zar thundered. +"_Creep out of my sight upon your belly, wretch!_" + + * * * * * + +The procession back to the temple was made quietly and sedately along +an empty roadway. Yat-Zar seemed to be in a kindly humor; the people +of Zurb had no intention of giving him any reason to change his mood. +The priests of Muz-Azin and their torturers had been flung into the +dungeon. Yorzuk, appointed regent for the duration of Kurchuk's +penance, had taken control and was employing Hulgun spearmen and +hastily-converted Chuldun archers to restore order and, incidentally, +purge a few of his personal enemies and political rivals. The priests, +with the three prisoners who had been found carrying First Level +weapons among them and Yat-Zar floating triumphantly in front, entered +the temple. A few of the devout, who sought admission after them, were +told that elaborate and secret rites were being held to cleanse the +profaned altar, and sent away. + +Verkan Vall and Brannad Klav and Stranor Sleth were in the conveyer +chamber, with the Paratime Policemen and the extra priests; along with +them were the three prisoners. Verkan Vall pulled off his false beard +and turned to face these. He could see that they all recognized him. + +"Now," he began, "you people are in a bad jam. You've violated the +Paratime Transposition Code, the Commercial Regulation Code, and the +First Level Criminal Code, all together. If you know what's good for +you, you'll start talking." + +"I'm not saying anything till I have legal advice," the man who had +been using the local alias of Labdurg replied. "And if you're through +searching me, I'd like to have my cigarettes and lighter back." + +"Smoke one of mine, for a change," Verkan Vall told him. "I don't know +what's in yours beside tobacco." He offered his case and held a light +for the prisoner before lighting his own cigarette. "I'm going to be +sure you get back to the First Level alive." + +The former Overseer of the Kingdom of Zurb shrugged. "I'm still not +talking," he said. + +"Well, we can get it all out of you by narco-hypnosis, anyhow," Verkan +Vall told him. "Besides, we got that man of yours who was here at the +temple when we came in. He's being given a full treatment, as a +presumed outtime native found in possession of First Level weapons. If +you talk now it'll go easier with you." + +The prisoner dropped the cigarette on the floor and tramped it out. + +"Anything you cops get out of me, you'll have to get the hard way," he +said. "I have friends on the First Level who'll take care of me." + +"I doubt that. They'll have their hands full taking care of +themselves, after this gets out." Verkan Vall turned to the two in +the black robes. "Either of you want to say anything?" When they shook +their heads, he nodded to a group of his policemen; they were hustled +into the conveyer. "Take them to the First Level terminal and hold +them till I come in. I'll be along with the next conveyer load." + + * * * * * + +The conveyer flashed and vanished. Brannad Klav stared for a moment at +the circle of concrete floor from whence it had disappeared. Then he +turned to Verkan Vall. + +"I still can't believe it," he said. "Why, those fellows were First +Level paratimers. So was that priest, Ghromdur: the one you rayed." + +"Yes, of course. They worked for your rivals, the Fourth Level Mineral +Products Syndicate; the outfit that was trying to get your Proto-Aryan +Sector fissionables franchise away from you. They operate on this sector +already; have the petroleum franchise for the Chuldun country, east of +the Caspian Sea. They export to some of these internal-combustion-engine +sectors, like Europo-American. You know, most of the wars they've been +fighting, lately, on the Europo-American Sector have been, at least in +part, motivated by rivalry for oil fields. But now that the +Europo-Americans have begun to release nuclear energy, fissionables have +become more important than oil. In less than a century, it's predicted +that atomic energy will replace all other forms of power. Mineral +Products Syndicate wanted to get a good source of supply for uranium, +and your Proto-Aryan Sector franchise was worth grabbing. + +"I had considered something like this as a possibility when Stranor, +here, mentioned that tularemia was normally unknown in Eurasia on this +sector. That epidemic must have been started by imported germs. And I +knew that Mineral Products has agents at the court of the Chuldun +emperor, Chombrog: they have to, to protect their oil wells on his +eastern frontiers. I spent most of last night checking up on some +stuff by video-transcription from the Paratime Commission's microfilm +library at Dhergabar. I found out, for one thing, that while there is +a King Kurchuk of Zurb on every time-line for a hundred para-years on +either side of this one, this is the only time-line on which he +married a Princess Darith of Chuldun, and it's the only time-line on +which there is any trace of a Chuldun scribe named Labdurg. + +"That's why I went to all the trouble of having that Yat-Zar plated +with collapsed nickel. If there were disguised paratimers among the +Muz-Azin party at Kurchuk's court, I expected one of them to try to +blast our idol when we brought it into the palace. I was watching +Ghromdur and Labdurg in particular; as soon as Ghromdur used his +blaster, I needled him. After that, it was easy." + +"Was that why you insisted on sending that automatic viewer on +ahead?" + +"Yes. There was a chance that they might have planted a bomb in the +House of Yat-Zar, here. I knew they'd either do that or let the place +entirely alone. I suppose they were so confident of getting away with +this that they didn't want to damage the conveyer or the conveyer +chamber. They expected to use them, themselves, after they took over +your company's franchise." + +"Well, what's going to be done about it by the Commission?" Brannad +Klav wanted to know. + +"Plenty. The syndicate will probably lose their paratime license; any +of its officials who had guilty knowledge of this will be dealt with +according to law. You know, this was a pretty nasty business." + +"You're telling me!" Stranor Sleth exclaimed. "Did you get a look at +those whips they were going to use on our people? Pointed iron barbs a +quarter-inch long braided into them, all over the lash-ends!" + +"Yes. Any punitive action you're thinking about taking on these +priests of Muz-Azin--the natives, I mean--will be ignored on the First +Level. And that reminds me: you'd better work out a line of policy, +pretty soon." + +"Well, as for the priests and the torturers, I think I'll tell Yorzuk +to have them sold to the Bhunguns, to the east. They're always in the +market for galley slaves," Stranor Sleth said. He turned to Brannad +Klav. "And I'll want six gold crowns made up, as soon as possible. +Strictly Hulgun design, with Yat-Zar religious symbolism, very rich +and ornate, all slightly different. When I give Kurchuk absolution, +I'll crown him at the altar in the name of Yat-Zar. Then I'll invite +in the other five Hulgun kings, lecture them on their religious +duties, make them confess their secret doubts, forgive them, and crown +them, too. From then on, they can all style themselves as ruling by +the will of Yat-Zar." + +"And from then on, you'll have all of them eating out of your hand," +Verkan Vall concluded. "You know, this will probably go down in Hulgun +history as the Reformation of Ghullam the Holy. I've always wondered +whether the theory of the divine right of kings was invented by the +kings, to establish their authority over the people, or by the +priests, to establish _their_ authority over the kings. It works about +as well one way as the other." + +"What I can't understand is this," Brannad Klav said. "It was entirely +because of my respect for the Paratime Code that I kept Stranor Sleth +from using Fourth Level weapons and other techniques to control these +people with a show of apparent miraculous powers. But this Fourth +Level Mineral Products Syndicate was operating in violation of the +Paratime Code by invading our franchise area. Why didn't they fake up +a supernatural reign of terror to intimidate these natives?" + +"Ha, exactly because they _were_ operating illegally," Verkan Vall +replied. "Suppose they had started using needlers and blasters and +antigravity and nuclear-energy around here. The natives would have +thought it was the power of Muz-Azin, of course, but what would you +have thought? You'd have known, as soon as they tried it, that First +Level paratimers were working against you, and you'd have laid the +facts before the Commission, and this time-line would have been +flooded with Paratime Police. They had to conceal their operations not +only from the natives, as you do, but also from us. So they didn't +dare make public use of First Level techniques. + +"Of course, when we came marching into the palace with that idol on +antigravity, they knew, at once, what was happening. I have an idea +that they only tried to blast that idol to create a diversion which +would permit them to escape--if they could have got out of the palace, +they'd have made their way, in disguise, to the nearest Mineral +Products Syndicate conveyer and transposed out of here. I realized +that they could best delay us by blasting our idol, and that's why I +had it plated with collapsed nickel. I think that where they made +their mistake was in allowing Kurchuk to have those priests arrested, +and insisting on sacrificing them to Muz-Azin. If it hadn't been for +that, the Paratime Police wouldn't have been brought into this, at +all. + +"Well, Stranor, you'll want to get back to your temple, and Brannad +and I want to get back to the First Level. I'm supposed to take my +wife to a banquet in Dhergabar, tonight, and with the fastest +strato-rocket, I'll just barely make it." + +[Illustration: ] + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Temple Trouble, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEMPLE TROUBLE *** + +***** This file should be named 18861.txt or 18861.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/6/18861/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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