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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/30728-h.zip b/30728-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de4c624 --- /dev/null +++ b/30728-h.zip diff --git a/30728-h/30728-h.htm b/30728-h/30728-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63f1840 --- /dev/null +++ b/30728-h/30728-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1277 @@ +<!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" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Oneness, by James H. Schmitz + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 35%; + margin-right: 20%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* Images */ + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oneness, by James H. Schmitz + +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: Oneness + +Author: James H. Schmitz + +Illustrator: Leo Summers + +Release Date: December 21, 2009 [EBook #30728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONENESS *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction May 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + + +<h1>ONENESS</h1> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>At that, you know the power to enforce<br /> the Golden Rule would +make a terrible weapon!</p></div> +<p> </p> +<h2>by JAMES H. SCHMITZ</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SUMMERS</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="28" height="50" /></div> +<p>enesee felt excitement surge like a living tide about him as he came +with the other directors into the vast Tribunal Hall. Sixty years ago, +inexcusable carelessness had deprived Earth of its first chance to +obtain a true interstellar drive. Now, within a few hours, Earth, or +more specifically, the upper echelons of that great political +organization called the Machine which had controlled the affairs of +Earth for the past century and a half, should learn enough of the +secrets of the drive to insure that it would soon be in their +possession.</p> + +<p>Menesee entered his box between those of Directors Cornelius and +Ojeda, immediately to the right of the Spokesman's Platform and with +an excellent view of the prisoner. When Administrator Bradshaw and +Spokesman Dorn had taken their places on the platform, Menesee seated +himself, drawing the transcript of the day's proceedings towards him. +However, instead of glancing over it at once, he spent some seconds in +a study of the prisoner.</p> + +<p>The fellow appeared to be still young. He was a magnificent physical +specimen, tall and strongly muscled, easily surpassing in this respect +any of the hard-trained directors present. His face showed alert +intelligence, giving no indication of the fact that for two of the +three days since his capture he had been drugged and subject to +constant hypnotic suggestion. He had given his name as Rainbolt, +acknowledged freely that he was a member of the group of malcontent +deserters known in the records of the Machine as the Mars Convicts, +but described himself as being a "missionary of Oneness" whose purpose +was to bring the benefits of some of the principles of "Oneness" to +Earth. He had refused to state whether he had any understanding of the +stardrive by the use of which the Mars Convicts had made their mass +escape from the penal settlements of the Fourth Planet sixty years +before, though the drive obviously had been employed in bringing him +out of the depths of interstellar space to the Solar System and Earth. +At the moment, while the significance of the bank of torture +instruments on his right could hardly have escaped him, his expression +was serious but not detectably concerned.</p> + +<p>"Here is an interesting point!" Director Ojeda's voice said on +Menesee's right.</p> + +<p>Menesee glanced over at him. Ojeda was tapping the transcript with a +finger.</p> + +<p>"This Rainbolt," he said, "hasn't slept since he was captured! He +states, furthermore, that he has never slept since he became an +adult—"</p> + +<p>Menesee frowned slightly, failing to see any great significance in the +fact. That the fellow belonged to some curious cult which had +developed among the Mars Convicts following their flight from the +Solar System was already known. Earth's science had methods of +inducing permanent sleeplessness but knew, too, that in most instances +the condition eventually gave rise to very serious side effects which +more than offset any advantages to be gained from it.</p> + +<p>He picked up his transcript, indicating that he did not wish to be +drawn into conversation. His eyes scanned quickly over the pages. Most +of it was information he already had. Rainbolt's ship had been +detected four days earlier, probing the outermost of the multiple +globes of force screens which had enclosed Earth for fifty years as a +defense both against faster-than-light missiles and Mars Convict +spies. The ship was alone. A procedure had been planned for such an +event, and it was now followed. The ship was permitted to penetrate +the first two screens which were closed again behind it.</p> + +<p>Rainbolt's ship, for all its incredible speed, was then a prisoner. +Unhurriedly, it was worked closer to Earth until it came within range +of giant scanners. For an instant, a large section of its interior was +visible to the instruments of the watchers on Earth; then the picture +blurred and vanished again. Presumably automatic anti-scanning devices +had gone into action.</p> + +<p>The photographed view was disappointing in that it revealed no details +of the engines or their instruments. It did show, however, that the +ship had been designed for the use of one man, and that it was neither +armored or armed. Its hull was therefore bathed with paralytics, which +in theory should have left the pilot helpless, and ships of the +Machine were then sent up to tow the interstellar captive down to +Earth.</p> + +<p>At that point, the procedure collapsed. The ship was in atmosphere +when an escape capsule was suddenly ejected from it, which later was +found to contain Rainbolt, alert and obviously not affected by the +paralysis beams. A moment later, the ship itself became a cloud of +swiftly dissipating hot gas.</p> + +<p>The partial failure of the capture might have been unavoidable in any +case. But the manner in which it occurred still reflected very poorly, +Menesee thought, on the thoroughness with which the plans had been +prepared. The directors who had been in charge of the operation would +not be dealt with lightly—</p> + +<p>He became aware suddenly that the proceedings of the day had begun and +hastily put down the transcript.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn, the Machine's executive officer, sitting beside +Administrator Bradshaw at a transparent desk on the raised platform to +Menesee's left, had enclosed the area about the prisoner with a sound +block and was giving a brief verbal resume of the background of the +situation. Few of the directors in the Tribunal Hall would have needed +such information; but the matter was being carried on the Grand +Assembly Circuit, and in hundreds of auditoriums on Earth the first +and second echelons of the officials of the Machine had gathered to +witness the interrogation of the Mars Convict spy.</p> + +<p>The penal settlements on Mars had been established almost a century +earlier, for the dual purpose of mining the mineral riches of the +Fourth Planet and of utilizing the talents of political dissidents +with a scientific background too valuable to be wasted in research and +experimental work considered either too dangerous to be conducted on +Earth or requiring more space than could easily be made available +there. One of these projects had been precisely the development of +more efficient spacedrives to do away with the costly and tedious +manoeuverings required for travel even among the inner planets.</p> + +<p>Work of such importance, of course, was supposed to be carried out +only under close guard and under the direct supervision of reliable +upper-echelon scientists of the Machine. Even allowing for criminal +negligence, the fact that the Mars Convicts were able to develop and +test their stardrive under such circumstances without being detected +suggested that it could not be a complicated device. They did, at any +rate, develop it, armed themselves and the miners of the other penal +settlements and overwhelmed their guards in surprise attack. When the +next ship arrived from Earth, two giant ore carriers and a number of +smaller guard ships had been outfitted with the drive, and the Mars +Convicts had disappeared in them. Their speed was such that only the +faintest and briefest of disturbances had been registered on the +tracking screens of space stations near Mars, the cause of which +remained unsuspected until the news came out.</p> + +<p>Anything which could have thrown any light on the nature of the drive +naturally had been destroyed by the deserters before they left; and +the few Machine scientists who had survived the fighting were unable +to provide information though they were questioned intensively for +several years before being executed. What it added up to was that some +eighteen thousand sworn enemies of the Machine had disappeared into +space, equipped with an instrument of unknown type which plainly could +be turned into one of the deadliest of all known weapons.</p> + +<p>The superb organization of the Machine swung into action instantly to +meet the threat, though the situation became complicated by the fact +that rumors of the manner in which the Mars Convicts had disappeared +filtered out to the politically dissatisfied on Earth and set off an +unprecedented series of local uprisings which took over a decade to +quell. In spite of such difficulties, the planet's economy was geared +over to the new task; and presently defenses were devised and being +constructed which would stop missiles arriving at speeds greater than +that of light. Simultaneously, the greatest research project in +history had begun to investigate the possibilities of either +duplicating the fantastic drive some scientific minds on Mars had come +upon—chiefly, it was concluded, by an improbable stroke of good +luck—or of matching its effects through a different approach. Since +it had been demonstrated that it could be done, there was no question +that in time the trained men of the Machine would achieve their goal. +Then the armed might of the Machine would move into space to take +control of any colony established by the Mars Convicts and their +descendants.</p> + +<p>That was the basic plan. The task of developing a stardrive remained a +huge one because of the complete lack of information about the +direction organized research should take. That difficulty would be +overcome easily only by a second unpredictable twist of +fortune—unless one of the Mars Convicts' FTL ships ventured close +enough to Earth to be captured.</p> + +<p>The last had now happened. The ship had been destroyed before it could +be investigated, so that advantage was again lost. The ship's pilot, +however, remained in their hands. The fact that he disclaimed having +information pertinent to the drive meant nothing. So far as he knew, +he might very well be speaking the truth. But he had piloted a ship +that employed the stardrive, was familiar with instruments which +controlled it, had been schooled in their use. A detailed +investigation of his memories could not fail to provide literally +hundreds of meaningful clues. And the Machine's scientists, in their +superficially still fruitless search for the nature of the drive, had, +in fact, covered basic possibilities with such comprehensive +thoroughness that a few indisputably valid clues would show them now +what it <i>must</i> be.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The prisoner, still demonstrating an extraordinary degree of +obliviousness to what lay in store for him, appeared to welcome the +opportunity to be heard by the directors of the Machine. Menesee, +leaning back in his chair, studied the man thoughtfully, giving only +partial attention to what was said. This was the standard opening +stage of a Tribunal interrogation, an underplayed exchange of +questions and answers. Innocuous as it seemed, it was part of a +procedure which had become refined almost to an unvarying ritual—a +ritual of beautiful and terrible precision which never failed to +achieve its goals. Every man watching and listening in the Machine's +auditoriums across the world was familiar with the swift processes by +which a normal human being was transformed into a babbling puppet, his +every significant thought becoming available for the upper echelons to +regard and evaluate.</p> + +<p>They would, of course, use torture. It was part of the interlocking +mechanisms of interrogation, no more to be omitted than the +preliminary conditioning by drug and hypnosis. Menesee was not unduly +squeamish, but he felt some relief that it would not be the crude +instruments ranked beside the prisoner which would be used. They were +reserved as a rule for offending members of the organization, +providing a salutary warning for any others who might be tempted to +act against the interests of the Machine or fail culpably in their +duties. This prisoner, as an individual, meant nothing to the Machine. +He was simply a source of valuable information. Therefore, only direct +nerve stimulation would be employed, in the manipulation of which +Spokesman Dorn was a master.</p> + +<p>So far the Spokesman had restricted himself to asking the prisoner +questions, his voice and manner gravely courteous. To Menesee's +surprised interest, he had just inquired whether two men of the last +Earth ship to visit Mars, who had disappeared there, might not have +been captured by Mars Convicts operating secretly within the Solar +System.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Rainbolt replied readily, "they were. I'm happy to say +that they're still alive and well."</p> + +<p>Menesee recalled the incident now. After the mass escape of the Mars +Convicts, the penal settlements had been closed down and the mining +operations abandoned. To guard the desert planet against FTL raiders +as Earth was guarded was technically infeasible. But twice each decade +a patrol ship went there to look for signs that the Mars Convicts had +returned. The last of these patrols had been conducted two years +before. The missing men were believed to have been inspecting a +deserted settlement in a ground vehicle when they vanished, but no +trace of them or the vehicle could be discovered.</p> + +<p>Administrator Bradshaw, seated to the spokesman's left, leaned forward +as if to speak, but then sat back again. Menesee thought that +Rainbolt's blunt admission had angered him. Bradshaw, white-haired and +huge in build, had been for many years the nominal head of the +Machine; but in practice the powers of the administrator were less +than those of the spokesman, and it would have been a breach of +protocol for Bradshaw to intervene in the interrogation.</p> + +<p>Dorn appeared to have noticed nothing. He went on. "What was the +reason for capturing these men?" "It was necessary," Rainbolt +explained, "to find out what the conditions on Earth were like at +present. At the time we didn't want to risk discovery by coming too +close to Earth itself. And your two men were able to tell us all we +needed to know."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" the spokesman said.</p> + +<p>Rainbolt was silent a moment, then said, "You see, sir, most of the +past sixty years have been spent in finding new worlds on which human +beings can live without encountering too many difficulties. But +then—"</p> + +<p>Dorn interrupted quietly, "You found such worlds?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, we did," Rainbolt said. "We're established, in about equal +numbers, on planets of three star systems. Of course, I'm not allowed +to give you more precise information on that at present."</p> + +<p>"Quite understandable," the spokesman agreed dryly.</p> + +<p>Menesee was conscious of a stir of intense interest among the +listening directors in the hall. This was news, indeed! Mingled with +the interest was surprised amusement at the prisoner's artless +assumption that he had any choice about what he would or would not +tell.</p> + +<p>"But now that we're established," Rainbolt went on, apparently unaware +of the sensation he had created, "our next immediate concern is to +resume contact with Earth. Naturally, we can't do that freely while +your Machine remains in political control of the planet. We found out +from the two captured men that it still is in control. We'd hoped that +after sixty years government in such a form would have become obselete +here."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Menesee heard an astonished murmuring from the director boxes on his +right, and felt himself that the fellow's impudent last remark might +well have been answered by a pulse of nerve stimulation. Spokesman +Dorn, however, replied calmly that the Machine happened to be +indispensable to Earth. A planetary economy, and one on the verge of +becoming an interplanetary and even interstellar economy, was simply +too intricate and precariously balanced a structure to maintain +without the assistance of a very tightly organized governing class.</p> + +<p>"If the Machine were to vanish today," he explained, "Earth would +approach a state of complete chaos before the month was out. In a +year, a billion human beings would be starving to death. There would +be fighting ... wars—" He shrugged, "You name it. No, my friend, the +Machine is here to stay. And the Mars Convicts may as well resign +themselves to the fact."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt replied earnestly that he was not too well informed in +economics, that not being his field. However, he had been told and +believed that while the situation described by the spokesman would be +true today, it should not take many years to train the populations of +Earth to run their affairs quite as efficiently as the Machine had +done, and without loss of personal and political liberties.</p> + +<p>At any rate, the Mars Convicts and their descendants did not intend +to give up the independence they had acquired. On the other hand, they +had two vital reasons for wanting to come to an agreement with Earth. +One was that they might waste centuries in attempting to accomplish by +themselves what they could now do immediately if Earth's vast +resources were made available to them. And the other, of course, was +the obvious fact that Earth would not remain indefinitely without a +stardrive of its own. If an unfriendly government was in control when +it obtained one, the Mars Convicts would be forced either to abandon +their newly settled planets and retreat farther into the galaxy or +submit to Earth's superior strength.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, however, they had developed the principles of Oneness. +Oneness was in essence a philosophy, but it had many practical +applications; and it was in such practical applications that he, +Rainbolt, was a trained specialist. He had, therefore, been dispatched +to Earth to introduce the principles, which would in time bring about +the orderly disintegration of the system of the Machine, to be +followed by the establishment of an Earth government with which the +Mars Convicts could deal without detriment to themselves.</p> + +<p>Menesee had listened with a sense of growing angry incredulity. The +fellow couldn't be as much of a fool as he seemed! Therefore, he had +devised this hoax after he realised he would be captured, to cover up +his real purpose which could only be that of a spy. Menesee saw that +Administrator Bradshaw was saying something in a low voice to the +spokesman, his face stony. Dorn glanced over at him, then looked back +at the prisoner and said impassively, "So the goal of your missionary +work here is the disintegration of the Machine?"</p> + +<p>Rainbolt nodded, with an air almost of eagerness. "Yes, sir, it is! +And if I will now be permitted to—"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you will be permitted to do nothing," Spokesman Dorn said +dryly, "except, of course, to answer the number of questions we intend +to ask you."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt checked himself, looking startled. The spokesman's hand had +moved very slightly on the desk before him and Rainbolt had just had +his first experience with direct nerve stimulation. He stood kneading +his right hand with his left, staring up at the spokesman, mouth half +open.</p> + +<p>Menesee smiled in grim amusement. It would have been a low-level +pulse, of course; but even a low-level pulse, arriving unexpectedly, +was a very unpleasant surprise. He had foreseen the spokesman's +action, had, in fact, felt a sympathetic imaginary twinge in his own +right hand as the pulse reached the prisoner.</p> + +<p>Rainbolt swallowed, said in a changed voice, "Sir, we heard from the +two captured men that the Machine has retained its practice of torture +during interrogations. It isn't necessary to convince me that you are +serious about this. Do the questions you referred to have to do with +the stardrive?"</p> + +<p>The spokesman nodded. "Of course."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt said stubbornly, "Then, sir, it can do you no good at all to +torture me. I simply don't have such information. We do plan to make +the stardrive freely available to Earth. But not while Earth is ruled +by the organization of the Machine."</p> + +<p>This time, Menesee did not observe the motion of the spokesman's hand. +Instead he saw Rainbolt jerk violently to the right. At the same +moment, a blast of intense, fiery, almost unbearable pain shot up his +own arm. As he grasped his arm, sweat spurting out on his face, he +heard screams from the box on his left and realized it was Director +Cornelius who screamed.</p> + +<p>There were answering screams from around the hall.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="300" height="539" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Then the pain suddenly subsided.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>Menesee started about, breathing raggedly. The pain-reaction had been +severe enough to affect his vision; the great hall looked momentarily +darker than it should have been. And although the actual pain had +ended, the muscles of his arm and shoulder were still trying to cramp +into knots.</p> + +<p>There was no more screaming. From the right came Director Ojeda's +gasping voice. "What happened? Did something go wrong with the +stimulating devices? We might all have been killed—!"</p> + +<p>Menesee didn't reply. Wherever he looked, he saw faces whitened with +shock. Apparently everyone in the Tribunal Hall, from the +administrator and Spokesman Dorn on down to the directors' attendants +and the two guards flanking the prisoner's area, had felt the same +thing. Here and there, men who had collapsed were struggling awkwardly +back to their feet. He heard a hoarse whisper behind him. "Sir, +Director Cornelius appears to have fainted!"</p> + +<p>Menesee glanced around, saw Cornelius' attendant behind the box, then +Cornelius himself, slumped forward, face down and motionless, +sprawling half across his table. "Let him lie there and keep quiet, +fool!" Menesee ordered the man sharply. He returned his attention to +the center of the hall as Spokesman Dorn announced in a voice which +held more of an edge than was normal but had lost none of its strength +and steadiness, "Before any moves are suggested, I shall tell you what +has been done.</p> + +<p>"The Tribunal Hall has been sealed and further events in it will be +monitored from without. No one will be able to leave until the matter +with which we are now concerned here has been settled to the +satisfaction of the Machine.</p> + +<p>"Next, any of you who believe that an instrument failure was involved +in the experience we shared can disabuse themselves. The same effect +was reported immediately from two other auditoriums on the Great +Circuit, and it is quite possible that it was repeated in all of +them."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt, grimacing and massaging his right arm vigorously, nodded. +"It was repeated in all of them, sir!"</p> + +<p>The spokesman ignored him, went on. "The Tribunal Hall has, therefore, +been cut out of the Grand Assembly Circuit. How circuit energies could +have been employed to transmit such physical sensations is not clear. +But they will not be used in that manner again."</p> + +<p>Menesee felt a flash of admiration. His own thoughts had been turning +in the same direction, but he couldn't have approached Spokesman +Dorn's decisive speed of action.</p> + +<p>Dorn turned his attention now to Rainbolt. "What happened," he said, +"apparently was caused by yourself."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt nodded. "Yes, sir. It was. It was an application of Oneness. +At present, I'm acting as a focal point of Oneness. Until that +condition is changed, whatever I experience here will be +simultaneously experienced by yourselves."</p> + +<p>Menesee thought that the effects of the Machine's discipline became +splendidly apparent at that point. No one stirred in the great hall +though it must have been obvious to every man present that Rainbolt's +words might have doomed them along with himself.</p> + +<p>Rainbolt went on, addressing Spokesman Dorn.</p> + +<p>"There is only one mistake in your reasoning, sir. The demonstrated +effect of Oneness is not carried by the energies of the Grand Assembly +Circuit, though I made use of those energies in establishing an +initial connection with the other auditoriums and the people in them.</p> + +<p>"You see, sir, we learned from the two men captured on Mars about your +practice of having the two highest echelons of your organization +attend significant hearings in the Tribunal Hall through the Assembly +Circuit. Our plan was based on that. We knew that if anything was to +be accomplished with the Oneness principles on Earth, it would have to +be through a situation in which they could be applied simultaneously +to the entire leadership of the Machine. That has now been done, and +the fact that you had the Tribunal Hall taken out of the Assembly +Circuit did not change the Oneness contact. It remains in full +effect."</p> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn stared at him for an instant, said, "We can test the +truth of that statement immediately, of course; and we shall!" His +hand moved on the desk.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Menesee felt pain surge through his left arm. It was not nearly as +acute a sensation as the previous pulse had been, but it lasted +longer—a good ten seconds. Menesee let his breath out carefully as it +again ebbed away.</p> + +<p>He heard the spokesman saying, "Rainbolt's claim appears to be +verified. I've received a report that the pulse was being experienced +in one of the auditoriums ... and, yes ... now in several."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt nodded. "It was a valid claim, believe me, sir!" he said +earnestly. "The applications of our principles have been very +thoroughly explored, and the effects are invariable. Naturally, our +strategem would have been useless if I'd been able to maintain contact +only long enough to provide you with a demonstration of Oneness. Such +a contact can be broken again, of course. But until I act deliberately +to break it, it maintains itself automatically.</p> + +<p>"To make that clear, I should explain that distance, direction and +intervening shielding materials do not change the strength of the +contact. Distance at least does not until it is extended to +approximately fifty thousand miles."</p> + +<p>"And what happens then?" the spokesman asked, watching him.</p> + +<p>"At that point," Rainbolt acknowledged, "Oneness contacts do become +tenuous and begin to dissolve." He added, almost apologetically, +"However, that offers you no practical solution to your problem."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Dorn asked. He smiled faintly. "Why shouldn't we simply +lock you into a spaceship and direct the ship through the defense +fields and out into the solar system on automatic control?"</p> + +<p>"I sincerely hope you don't try it, sir! Experiments in dissolving +contacts in that manner have been invariably fatal to all connected +individuals."</p> + +<p>The spokesman hesitated. "You and every member of the Machine with +whom you are now in contact would die together if that were done?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. That is certain what the results of those experiments +show."</p> + +<p>Administrator Bradshaw, who had been staring coldly at Rainbolt, asked +in a hard, flat voice, "If you do nothing to break the contact, how +long will this situation continue?"</p> + +<p>Rainbolt looked at him. "Indefinitely, sir," he said. "There is +nothing I need to do about it. It is a static condition."</p> + +<p>"In that case," Bradshaw said icily, "<i>this</i> should serve to break the +contact through you!"</p> + +<p>As his hand came up, leveling a gun, Menesee was half out of his +chair, hands raised in alarmed protest. "Stop him!" Menesee shouted.</p> + +<p>But Administrator Bradshaw already was sagging sideways over the +armrest of this chair, head lolling backwards. The gun slid from his +hand, dropped to the platform.</p> + +<p>"Director Menesee," Dorn said coolly from beside Bradshaw, "I thank +you for your intended warning! Since the administrator and the +spokesman are the only persons permitted to bear arms in the Tribunal +Hall, I was naturally prepared to paralyze Administrator Bradshaw if +he showed intentions of resorting to thoughtless action." He looked +down at Rainbolt. "Are Director Menesee and I correct in assuming that +if you died violently the persons with whom you are in contact would +again suffer the same experience?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Rainbolt said. "That is implicit in the principles of +Oneness." He shrugged. "Under most circumstances, it is a very +undesirable effect. But here we have made use of it—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"The situation," Spokesman Dorn told the directors in the Tribunal +Hall some minutes later, "is then this. There has been nothing +haphazard about the Mars Convicts' plan to coerce us into accepting +their terms. Considering the probable quality of the type of minds +which developed both the stardrive and the extraordinary 'philosophy' +we have encountered today, that could be taken for granted from the +start. We cannot kill their emissary here, or subject him to serious +pain or injury, since we would pay a completely disproportionate +penalty in doing it.</p> + +<p>"However, that doesn't mean that we should surrender to the Mars +Convicts. In fact, for all their cleverness, they appear to be acting +out of something very close to desperation. They have gained no +essential advantage through their trick, and we must assume they made +the mistake of underestimating us. This gentleman they sent to Earth +has been given thorough physical examinations. They show him to be in +excellent health. He is also younger by many years than most of us.</p> + +<p>"So he will be confined to quarters where he will be comfortable and +provided with whatever he wishes ... but where he will not be provided +with any way of doing harm to himself. And then, I believe, we can +simply forget about him. He will receive the best of attention, +including medical care. Under such circumstances, we can expect his +natural life span to exceed our own.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, we shall continue our program of developing our own +spacedrive. As the Mars Convicts themselves foresee, we'll gain it +eventually and will then be more than a match for them. Until then the +defense fields around Earth will remain closed. No ship will leave +Earth and no ship will be admitted to it. And in the long run we will +win."</p> + +<p>The spokesman paused, added, "If there are no other suggestions, this +man will now be conducted to the hospital of the Machine where he is +to be detained for the remainder of his days."</p> + +<p>Across the hall from Menesee, a figure arose deliberately in one of +the boxes. A heavy voice said, "Spokesman Dorn, I very definitely do +have a suggestion."</p> + +<p>Dorn looked over, nodded warily. "Go ahead, Director Squires!"</p> + +<p>Menesee grimaced in distaste. He had no liking for Squires, a harsh, +arrogant man, notorious for his relentless persecution of any director +or officer who, in Squires' opinion, had become slack in his duties to +the Machine. But he had a large following in the upper echelons, and +his words carried weight.</p> + +<p>Squires folded his arms, said unhurriedly as if savoring each word, +"As you pointed out, Spokesman Dorn, we cannot hurt the person of this +prisoner. His immediate accomplices also remain beyond our reach at +present. However, our hands are not—as you seem to imply—so +completely tied that we cannot strike back at these rascals at once. +There are camps on Earth filled with people of the same political +stripe—potential supporters of the Mars Convicts who would be in +fullest sympathy with their goals if they learned of them.</p> + +<p>"I suggest that these people serve now as an object lesson to show the +Mars Convicts the full measure of our determination to submit to no +threats of force! Let this prisoner and the other convicts who +doubtless are lurking in nearby space beyond Earth's defense fields +know that <i>for every day</i> their obscene threat against the high +officers of the Machine continues hundreds of malcontents who would +welcome them on Earth will be painfully executed! Let them—"</p> + +<p>Pain doubled Menesee abruptly over the table before him. A savage, +compressing pain, very different from the fiery touch of the nerve +stimulators, which held him immobile, unable to cry out or draw +breath.</p> + +<p>It relaxed almost as instantaneously as it had come on. Menesee +slumped back in his chair, shaken and choking, fighting down bitter +nausea. His eyes refocused painfully on Rainbolt, gray-faced but on +his feet, in the prisoner's area.</p> + +<p>"You will find," Rainbolt was saying, "that Director Squires is dead. +And so, I'm very much afraid, is every other member of the upper +echelons whose heart was in no better condition than his. This was a +demonstration I had not intended to give you. But since it has been +given, it should serve as a reminder that while it is true we could +not force you directly to do as we wish, there are things we are +resolved not to tolerate."</p> + +<p>Ojeda was whispering shakily near Menesee, "He controls his body to +the extent that he was able to bring on a heart attack in himself and +project it to all of us! He counted on his own superb physical +condition to pull him through it unharmed. <i>That</i> is why he didn't +seem frightened when the administrator threatened him with a gun. Even +if the spokesman hadn't acted, that gun never would have been fired.</p> + +<p>"Menesee, no precautions we could take will stop that monster from +killing us all whenever he finally chooses—simply by committing +suicide through an act of will!"</p> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn's voice seemed to answer Ojeda.</p> + +<p>"Director Squires," Dorn's voice said, still thinned by pain but oddly +triumphant, "became a victim of his own pointless vindictiveness. It +was a mistake which, I am certain, no member of the Machine will care +to repeat.</p> + +<p>"Otherwise, this incident has merely served to confirm that the Mars +Convicts operate under definite limitations. They <i>could</i> kill us but +can't afford to do it. If they are to thrive in space, they need +Earth, and Earth's resources. They are aware that if the Machine's +leadership dies, Earth will lapse into utter anarchy and turn its +tremendous weapons upon itself.</p> + +<p>"The Mars Convicts could gain nothing from a ruined and depopulated +planet. Therefore, the situation as it stands remains a draw. We shall +devote every effort to turn it into a victory for us. The agreement we +come to eventually with the Mars Convicts will be on our terms—and +there is essentially nothing they or this man, with all his powers, +can do to prevent it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The Missionary of Oneness swung his bronzed, well-muscled legs over +the side of the hammock and sat up. With an expression of great +interest, he watched Spokesman Dorn coming across the sun room towards +him from the entrance corridor of his hospital suite. It was the first +visit he'd had from any member of the organization of the Machine in +the two years he had been confined here.</p> + +<p>For Spokesman Dorn it had been, to judge by his appearance, a +strenuous two years. He had lost weight and there were dark smudges of +fatigue under his eyes. At the moment, however, his face appeared +relaxed. It might have been the relaxation a man feels who has been +emptied out by a hard stint of work, but knows he has accomplished +everything that could possibly have been done.</p> + +<p>Dorn came to a stop a dozen feet from the hammock. For some seconds, +the two men regarded each other without speaking.</p> + +<p>"On my way here," Dorn remarked then, "I was wondering whether you +mightn't already know what I've come to tell you."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No," he said. "I think I could guess what it is—I pick up +generalized impressions from outside—but I don't really know."</p> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn considered that a moment, chewing his lower lip +reflectively. Then he shrugged.</p> + +<p>"So actual mind-reading doesn't happen to be one of your talents," he +said. "I was rather sure of that, though others had a different +opinion. Of course, considering what you are able to do, it wouldn't +really make much difference.</p> + +<p>"Well ... this morning we sent out a general call by space radio to +any Mars Convict ships which might be in the Solar System to come in. +The call was answered. Earth's defense fields have been shut down, and +the first FTL ships will land within an hour."</p> + +<p>"For what purpose?" Rainbolt said curiously.</p> + +<p>"There's a strong popular feeling," Spokesman Dorn said, "that your +colleagues should take part in deciding what pattern Earth's permanent +form of government will take. In recent months we've handled things in +a rather provisional and haphazard manner, but the situation is +straightened out well enough now to permit giving attention to such +legalistic details. Incidentally, you will naturally be free to leave +when I do. Transportation is available for you if you wish to welcome +your friends at the spaceport."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Rainbolt. "I believe I will."</p> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn shrugged. "What could we do?" he said, almost +disinterestedly. "You never slept. In the beginning you were drugged a +number of times, as you probably know, but we soon discovered that +drugging you seemed to make no difference at all."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't," Rainbolt agreed.</p> + +<p>"Day after day," Dorn went on, "we'd find thoughts and inclinations +coming into our minds we'd never wanted there. It was an eerie +experience—though personally I found it even more disconcerting to +awaken in the morning and discover that my attitudes had changed in +some particular or other, and as a rule changed irrevocably."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt said, "In a sense, those weren't really your attitudes, you +know. They were results of the conditioning of the Machine. It was +the conditioning I was undermining."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was that," Dorn said. "It seems to make very little +difference now." He paused, frowned. "When the first talk of +initiating change began in the councils, there were numerous +executions. I know now that we were badly frightened men. Then those +of us who had ordered the executions found themselves wanting similar +changes. Presently we had a majority, and the changes began to be +brought about. Reforms, you would call them—and reforms I suppose +they actually were. There was considerable general disturbance, of +course, but we retained the organization to keep that within +reasonable bounds."</p> + +<p>"We expected that you would," Rainbolt said.</p> + +<p>"It hasn't really been too bad," Spokesman Dorn said reflectively. "It +was simply an extraordinary amount of work to change the structure of +things that had been imposed on Earth by the Machine for the past +century and a half. And the curious part of it is, you know, that now +it's done we don't even feel resentment! We actually wouldn't want to +go back to what we had before. You've obtained an incredible hold on +our minds—and frankly I expect that when at last you do relinquish +your control, we'll commit suicide or go mad."</p> + +<p>Rainbolt shook his head. "There's been just one mistake in what you've +said," he remarked.</p> + +<p>Spokesman Dorn looked at him with tired eyes. "What's that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I said I was undermining the conditioning of the Machine. I did—and +after that I did nothing. You people simply have been doing what most +of you always would have preferred to do, Spokesman. I relinquished +control of the last of you over six months ago."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oneness, by James H. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/30728-h/images/image_001.jpg b/30728-h/images/image_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1231f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/30728-h/images/image_001.jpg diff --git a/30728-h/images/image_m.jpg b/30728-h/images/image_m.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5641186 --- /dev/null +++ b/30728-h/images/image_m.jpg diff --git a/30728.txt b/30728.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28b1480 --- /dev/null +++ b/30728.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1183 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oneness, by James H. Schmitz + +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: Oneness + +Author: James H. Schmitz + +Illustrator: Leo Summers + +Release Date: December 21, 2009 [EBook #30728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONENESS *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction May 1963. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + ONENESS + + + At that, you know the power to enforce + the Golden Rule would make a terrible weapon! + + + by JAMES H. SCHMITZ + + + ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SUMMERS + + * * * * * + + + + +Menesee felt excitement surge like a living tide about him as he came +with the other directors into the vast Tribunal Hall. Sixty years ago, +inexcusable carelessness had deprived Earth of its first chance to +obtain a true interstellar drive. Now, within a few hours, Earth, or +more specifically, the upper echelons of that great political +organization called the Machine which had controlled the affairs of +Earth for the past century and a half, should learn enough of the +secrets of the drive to insure that it would soon be in their +possession. + +Menesee entered his box between those of Directors Cornelius and +Ojeda, immediately to the right of the Spokesman's Platform and with +an excellent view of the prisoner. When Administrator Bradshaw and +Spokesman Dorn had taken their places on the platform, Menesee seated +himself, drawing the transcript of the day's proceedings towards him. +However, instead of glancing over it at once, he spent some seconds in +a study of the prisoner. + +The fellow appeared to be still young. He was a magnificent physical +specimen, tall and strongly muscled, easily surpassing in this respect +any of the hard-trained directors present. His face showed alert +intelligence, giving no indication of the fact that for two of the +three days since his capture he had been drugged and subject to +constant hypnotic suggestion. He had given his name as Rainbolt, +acknowledged freely that he was a member of the group of malcontent +deserters known in the records of the Machine as the Mars Convicts, +but described himself as being a "missionary of Oneness" whose purpose +was to bring the benefits of some of the principles of "Oneness" to +Earth. He had refused to state whether he had any understanding of the +stardrive by the use of which the Mars Convicts had made their mass +escape from the penal settlements of the Fourth Planet sixty years +before, though the drive obviously had been employed in bringing him +out of the depths of interstellar space to the Solar System and Earth. +At the moment, while the significance of the bank of torture +instruments on his right could hardly have escaped him, his expression +was serious but not detectably concerned. + +"Here is an interesting point!" Director Ojeda's voice said on +Menesee's right. + +Menesee glanced over at him. Ojeda was tapping the transcript with a +finger. + +"This Rainbolt," he said, "hasn't slept since he was captured! He +states, furthermore, that he has never slept since he became an +adult--" + +Menesee frowned slightly, failing to see any great significance in the +fact. That the fellow belonged to some curious cult which had +developed among the Mars Convicts following their flight from the +Solar System was already known. Earth's science had methods of +inducing permanent sleeplessness but knew, too, that in most instances +the condition eventually gave rise to very serious side effects which +more than offset any advantages to be gained from it. + +He picked up his transcript, indicating that he did not wish to be +drawn into conversation. His eyes scanned quickly over the pages. Most +of it was information he already had. Rainbolt's ship had been +detected four days earlier, probing the outermost of the multiple +globes of force screens which had enclosed Earth for fifty years as a +defense both against faster-than-light missiles and Mars Convict +spies. The ship was alone. A procedure had been planned for such an +event, and it was now followed. The ship was permitted to penetrate +the first two screens which were closed again behind it. + +Rainbolt's ship, for all its incredible speed, was then a prisoner. +Unhurriedly, it was worked closer to Earth until it came within range +of giant scanners. For an instant, a large section of its interior was +visible to the instruments of the watchers on Earth; then the picture +blurred and vanished again. Presumably automatic anti-scanning devices +had gone into action. + +The photographed view was disappointing in that it revealed no details +of the engines or their instruments. It did show, however, that the +ship had been designed for the use of one man, and that it was neither +armored or armed. Its hull was therefore bathed with paralytics, which +in theory should have left the pilot helpless, and ships of the +Machine were then sent up to tow the interstellar captive down to +Earth. + +At that point, the procedure collapsed. The ship was in atmosphere +when an escape capsule was suddenly ejected from it, which later was +found to contain Rainbolt, alert and obviously not affected by the +paralysis beams. A moment later, the ship itself became a cloud of +swiftly dissipating hot gas. + +The partial failure of the capture might have been unavoidable in any +case. But the manner in which it occurred still reflected very poorly, +Menesee thought, on the thoroughness with which the plans had been +prepared. The directors who had been in charge of the operation would +not be dealt with lightly-- + +He became aware suddenly that the proceedings of the day had begun and +hastily put down the transcript. + + * * * * * + +Spokesman Dorn, the Machine's executive officer, sitting beside +Administrator Bradshaw at a transparent desk on the raised platform to +Menesee's left, had enclosed the area about the prisoner with a sound +block and was giving a brief verbal resume of the background of the +situation. Few of the directors in the Tribunal Hall would have needed +such information; but the matter was being carried on the Grand +Assembly Circuit, and in hundreds of auditoriums on Earth the first +and second echelons of the officials of the Machine had gathered to +witness the interrogation of the Mars Convict spy. + +The penal settlements on Mars had been established almost a century +earlier, for the dual purpose of mining the mineral riches of the +Fourth Planet and of utilizing the talents of political dissidents +with a scientific background too valuable to be wasted in research and +experimental work considered either too dangerous to be conducted on +Earth or requiring more space than could easily be made available +there. One of these projects had been precisely the development of +more efficient spacedrives to do away with the costly and tedious +manoeuverings required for travel even among the inner planets. + +Work of such importance, of course, was supposed to be carried out +only under close guard and under the direct supervision of reliable +upper-echelon scientists of the Machine. Even allowing for criminal +negligence, the fact that the Mars Convicts were able to develop and +test their stardrive under such circumstances without being detected +suggested that it could not be a complicated device. They did, at any +rate, develop it, armed themselves and the miners of the other penal +settlements and overwhelmed their guards in surprise attack. When the +next ship arrived from Earth, two giant ore carriers and a number of +smaller guard ships had been outfitted with the drive, and the Mars +Convicts had disappeared in them. Their speed was such that only the +faintest and briefest of disturbances had been registered on the +tracking screens of space stations near Mars, the cause of which +remained unsuspected until the news came out. + +Anything which could have thrown any light on the nature of the drive +naturally had been destroyed by the deserters before they left; and +the few Machine scientists who had survived the fighting were unable +to provide information though they were questioned intensively for +several years before being executed. What it added up to was that some +eighteen thousand sworn enemies of the Machine had disappeared into +space, equipped with an instrument of unknown type which plainly could +be turned into one of the deadliest of all known weapons. + +The superb organization of the Machine swung into action instantly to +meet the threat, though the situation became complicated by the fact +that rumors of the manner in which the Mars Convicts had disappeared +filtered out to the politically dissatisfied on Earth and set off an +unprecedented series of local uprisings which took over a decade to +quell. In spite of such difficulties, the planet's economy was geared +over to the new task; and presently defenses were devised and being +constructed which would stop missiles arriving at speeds greater than +that of light. Simultaneously, the greatest research project in +history had begun to investigate the possibilities of either +duplicating the fantastic drive some scientific minds on Mars had come +upon--chiefly, it was concluded, by an improbable stroke of good +luck--or of matching its effects through a different approach. Since +it had been demonstrated that it could be done, there was no question +that in time the trained men of the Machine would achieve their goal. +Then the armed might of the Machine would move into space to take +control of any colony established by the Mars Convicts and their +descendants. + +That was the basic plan. The task of developing a stardrive remained a +huge one because of the complete lack of information about the +direction organized research should take. That difficulty would be +overcome easily only by a second unpredictable twist of +fortune--unless one of the Mars Convicts' FTL ships ventured close +enough to Earth to be captured. + +The last had now happened. The ship had been destroyed before it could +be investigated, so that advantage was again lost. The ship's pilot, +however, remained in their hands. The fact that he disclaimed having +information pertinent to the drive meant nothing. So far as he knew, +he might very well be speaking the truth. But he had piloted a ship +that employed the stardrive, was familiar with instruments which +controlled it, had been schooled in their use. A detailed +investigation of his memories could not fail to provide literally +hundreds of meaningful clues. And the Machine's scientists, in their +superficially still fruitless search for the nature of the drive, had, +in fact, covered basic possibilities with such comprehensive +thoroughness that a few indisputably valid clues would show them now +what it _must_ be. + + * * * * * + +The prisoner, still demonstrating an extraordinary degree of +obliviousness to what lay in store for him, appeared to welcome the +opportunity to be heard by the directors of the Machine. Menesee, +leaning back in his chair, studied the man thoughtfully, giving only +partial attention to what was said. This was the standard opening +stage of a Tribunal interrogation, an underplayed exchange of +questions and answers. Innocuous as it seemed, it was part of a +procedure which had become refined almost to an unvarying ritual--a +ritual of beautiful and terrible precision which never failed to +achieve its goals. Every man watching and listening in the Machine's +auditoriums across the world was familiar with the swift processes by +which a normal human being was transformed into a babbling puppet, his +every significant thought becoming available for the upper echelons to +regard and evaluate. + +They would, of course, use torture. It was part of the interlocking +mechanisms of interrogation, no more to be omitted than the +preliminary conditioning by drug and hypnosis. Menesee was not unduly +squeamish, but he felt some relief that it would not be the crude +instruments ranked beside the prisoner which would be used. They were +reserved as a rule for offending members of the organization, +providing a salutary warning for any others who might be tempted to +act against the interests of the Machine or fail culpably in their +duties. This prisoner, as an individual, meant nothing to the Machine. +He was simply a source of valuable information. Therefore, only direct +nerve stimulation would be employed, in the manipulation of which +Spokesman Dorn was a master. + +So far the Spokesman had restricted himself to asking the prisoner +questions, his voice and manner gravely courteous. To Menesee's +surprised interest, he had just inquired whether two men of the last +Earth ship to visit Mars, who had disappeared there, might not have +been captured by Mars Convicts operating secretly within the Solar +System. + +"Yes, sir," Rainbolt replied readily, "they were. I'm happy to say +that they're still alive and well." + +Menesee recalled the incident now. After the mass escape of the Mars +Convicts, the penal settlements had been closed down and the mining +operations abandoned. To guard the desert planet against FTL raiders +as Earth was guarded was technically infeasible. But twice each decade +a patrol ship went there to look for signs that the Mars Convicts had +returned. The last of these patrols had been conducted two years +before. The missing men were believed to have been inspecting a +deserted settlement in a ground vehicle when they vanished, but no +trace of them or the vehicle could be discovered. + +Administrator Bradshaw, seated to the spokesman's left, leaned forward +as if to speak, but then sat back again. Menesee thought that +Rainbolt's blunt admission had angered him. Bradshaw, white-haired and +huge in build, had been for many years the nominal head of the +Machine; but in practice the powers of the administrator were less +than those of the spokesman, and it would have been a breach of +protocol for Bradshaw to intervene in the interrogation. + +Dorn appeared to have noticed nothing. He went on. "What was the +reason for capturing these men?" "It was necessary," Rainbolt +explained, "to find out what the conditions on Earth were like at +present. At the time we didn't want to risk discovery by coming too +close to Earth itself. And your two men were able to tell us all we +needed to know." + +"What was that?" the spokesman said. + +Rainbolt was silent a moment, then said, "You see, sir, most of the +past sixty years have been spent in finding new worlds on which human +beings can live without encountering too many difficulties. But +then--" + +Dorn interrupted quietly, "You found such worlds?" + +"Yes, sir, we did," Rainbolt said. "We're established, in about equal +numbers, on planets of three star systems. Of course, I'm not allowed +to give you more precise information on that at present." + +"Quite understandable," the spokesman agreed dryly. + +Menesee was conscious of a stir of intense interest among the +listening directors in the hall. This was news, indeed! Mingled with +the interest was surprised amusement at the prisoner's artless +assumption that he had any choice about what he would or would not +tell. + +"But now that we're established," Rainbolt went on, apparently unaware +of the sensation he had created, "our next immediate concern is to +resume contact with Earth. Naturally, we can't do that freely while +your Machine remains in political control of the planet. We found out +from the two captured men that it still is in control. We'd hoped that +after sixty years government in such a form would have become obselete +here." + + * * * * * + +Menesee heard an astonished murmuring from the director boxes on his +right, and felt himself that the fellow's impudent last remark might +well have been answered by a pulse of nerve stimulation. Spokesman +Dorn, however, replied calmly that the Machine happened to be +indispensable to Earth. A planetary economy, and one on the verge of +becoming an interplanetary and even interstellar economy, was simply +too intricate and precariously balanced a structure to maintain +without the assistance of a very tightly organized governing class. + +"If the Machine were to vanish today," he explained, "Earth would +approach a state of complete chaos before the month was out. In a +year, a billion human beings would be starving to death. There would +be fighting ... wars--" He shrugged, "You name it. No, my friend, the +Machine is here to stay. And the Mars Convicts may as well resign +themselves to the fact." + +Rainbolt replied earnestly that he was not too well informed in +economics, that not being his field. However, he had been told and +believed that while the situation described by the spokesman would be +true today, it should not take many years to train the populations of +Earth to run their affairs quite as efficiently as the Machine had +done, and without loss of personal and political liberties. + +At any rate, the Mars Convicts and their descendants did not intend +to give up the independence they had acquired. On the other hand, they +had two vital reasons for wanting to come to an agreement with Earth. +One was that they might waste centuries in attempting to accomplish by +themselves what they could now do immediately if Earth's vast +resources were made available to them. And the other, of course, was +the obvious fact that Earth would not remain indefinitely without a +stardrive of its own. If an unfriendly government was in control when +it obtained one, the Mars Convicts would be forced either to abandon +their newly settled planets and retreat farther into the galaxy or +submit to Earth's superior strength. + +Meanwhile, however, they had developed the principles of Oneness. +Oneness was in essence a philosophy, but it had many practical +applications; and it was in such practical applications that he, +Rainbolt, was a trained specialist. He had, therefore, been dispatched +to Earth to introduce the principles, which would in time bring about +the orderly disintegration of the system of the Machine, to be +followed by the establishment of an Earth government with which the +Mars Convicts could deal without detriment to themselves. + +Menesee had listened with a sense of growing angry incredulity. The +fellow couldn't be as much of a fool as he seemed! Therefore, he had +devised this hoax after he realised he would be captured, to cover up +his real purpose which could only be that of a spy. Menesee saw that +Administrator Bradshaw was saying something in a low voice to the +spokesman, his face stony. Dorn glanced over at him, then looked back +at the prisoner and said impassively, "So the goal of your missionary +work here is the disintegration of the Machine?" + +Rainbolt nodded, with an air almost of eagerness. "Yes, sir, it is! +And if I will now be permitted to--" + +"I am afraid you will be permitted to do nothing," Spokesman Dorn said +dryly, "except, of course, to answer the number of questions we intend +to ask you." + +Rainbolt checked himself, looking startled. The spokesman's hand had +moved very slightly on the desk before him and Rainbolt had just had +his first experience with direct nerve stimulation. He stood kneading +his right hand with his left, staring up at the spokesman, mouth half +open. + +Menesee smiled in grim amusement. It would have been a low-level +pulse, of course; but even a low-level pulse, arriving unexpectedly, +was a very unpleasant surprise. He had foreseen the spokesman's +action, had, in fact, felt a sympathetic imaginary twinge in his own +right hand as the pulse reached the prisoner. + +Rainbolt swallowed, said in a changed voice, "Sir, we heard from the +two captured men that the Machine has retained its practice of torture +during interrogations. It isn't necessary to convince me that you are +serious about this. Do the questions you referred to have to do with +the stardrive?" + +The spokesman nodded. "Of course." + +Rainbolt said stubbornly, "Then, sir, it can do you no good at all to +torture me. I simply don't have such information. We do plan to make +the stardrive freely available to Earth. But not while Earth is ruled +by the organization of the Machine." + +This time, Menesee did not observe the motion of the spokesman's hand. +Instead he saw Rainbolt jerk violently to the right. At the same +moment, a blast of intense, fiery, almost unbearable pain shot up his +own arm. As he grasped his arm, sweat spurting out on his face, he +heard screams from the box on his left and realized it was Director +Cornelius who screamed. + +There were answering screams from around the hall. + +[Illustration] + +Then the pain suddenly subsided. + + * * * * * + +Menesee started about, breathing raggedly. The pain-reaction had been +severe enough to affect his vision; the great hall looked momentarily +darker than it should have been. And although the actual pain had +ended, the muscles of his arm and shoulder were still trying to cramp +into knots. + +There was no more screaming. From the right came Director Ojeda's +gasping voice. "What happened? Did something go wrong with the +stimulating devices? We might all have been killed--!" + +Menesee didn't reply. Wherever he looked, he saw faces whitened with +shock. Apparently everyone in the Tribunal Hall, from the +administrator and Spokesman Dorn on down to the directors' attendants +and the two guards flanking the prisoner's area, had felt the same +thing. Here and there, men who had collapsed were struggling awkwardly +back to their feet. He heard a hoarse whisper behind him. "Sir, +Director Cornelius appears to have fainted!" + +Menesee glanced around, saw Cornelius' attendant behind the box, then +Cornelius himself, slumped forward, face down and motionless, +sprawling half across his table. "Let him lie there and keep quiet, +fool!" Menesee ordered the man sharply. He returned his attention to +the center of the hall as Spokesman Dorn announced in a voice which +held more of an edge than was normal but had lost none of its strength +and steadiness, "Before any moves are suggested, I shall tell you what +has been done. + +"The Tribunal Hall has been sealed and further events in it will be +monitored from without. No one will be able to leave until the matter +with which we are now concerned here has been settled to the +satisfaction of the Machine. + +"Next, any of you who believe that an instrument failure was involved +in the experience we shared can disabuse themselves. The same effect +was reported immediately from two other auditoriums on the Great +Circuit, and it is quite possible that it was repeated in all of +them." + +Rainbolt, grimacing and massaging his right arm vigorously, nodded. +"It was repeated in all of them, sir!" + +The spokesman ignored him, went on. "The Tribunal Hall has, therefore, +been cut out of the Grand Assembly Circuit. How circuit energies could +have been employed to transmit such physical sensations is not clear. +But they will not be used in that manner again." + +Menesee felt a flash of admiration. His own thoughts had been turning +in the same direction, but he couldn't have approached Spokesman +Dorn's decisive speed of action. + +Dorn turned his attention now to Rainbolt. "What happened," he said, +"apparently was caused by yourself." + +Rainbolt nodded. "Yes, sir. It was. It was an application of Oneness. +At present, I'm acting as a focal point of Oneness. Until that +condition is changed, whatever I experience here will be +simultaneously experienced by yourselves." + +Menesee thought that the effects of the Machine's discipline became +splendidly apparent at that point. No one stirred in the great hall +though it must have been obvious to every man present that Rainbolt's +words might have doomed them along with himself. + +Rainbolt went on, addressing Spokesman Dorn. + +"There is only one mistake in your reasoning, sir. The demonstrated +effect of Oneness is not carried by the energies of the Grand Assembly +Circuit, though I made use of those energies in establishing an +initial connection with the other auditoriums and the people in them. + +"You see, sir, we learned from the two men captured on Mars about your +practice of having the two highest echelons of your organization +attend significant hearings in the Tribunal Hall through the Assembly +Circuit. Our plan was based on that. We knew that if anything was to +be accomplished with the Oneness principles on Earth, it would have to +be through a situation in which they could be applied simultaneously +to the entire leadership of the Machine. That has now been done, and +the fact that you had the Tribunal Hall taken out of the Assembly +Circuit did not change the Oneness contact. It remains in full +effect." + +Spokesman Dorn stared at him for an instant, said, "We can test the +truth of that statement immediately, of course; and we shall!" His +hand moved on the desk. + + * * * * * + +Menesee felt pain surge through his left arm. It was not nearly as +acute a sensation as the previous pulse had been, but it lasted +longer--a good ten seconds. Menesee let his breath out carefully as it +again ebbed away. + +He heard the spokesman saying, "Rainbolt's claim appears to be +verified. I've received a report that the pulse was being experienced +in one of the auditoriums ... and, yes ... now in several." + +Rainbolt nodded. "It was a valid claim, believe me, sir!" he said +earnestly. "The applications of our principles have been very +thoroughly explored, and the effects are invariable. Naturally, our +strategem would have been useless if I'd been able to maintain contact +only long enough to provide you with a demonstration of Oneness. Such +a contact can be broken again, of course. But until I act deliberately +to break it, it maintains itself automatically. + +"To make that clear, I should explain that distance, direction and +intervening shielding materials do not change the strength of the +contact. Distance at least does not until it is extended to +approximately fifty thousand miles." + +"And what happens then?" the spokesman asked, watching him. + +"At that point," Rainbolt acknowledged, "Oneness contacts do become +tenuous and begin to dissolve." He added, almost apologetically, +"However, that offers you no practical solution to your problem." + +"Why not?" Dorn asked. He smiled faintly. "Why shouldn't we simply +lock you into a spaceship and direct the ship through the defense +fields and out into the solar system on automatic control?" + +"I sincerely hope you don't try it, sir! Experiments in dissolving +contacts in that manner have been invariably fatal to all connected +individuals." + +The spokesman hesitated. "You and every member of the Machine with +whom you are now in contact would die together if that were done?" + +"Yes, sir. That is certain what the results of those experiments +show." + +Administrator Bradshaw, who had been staring coldly at Rainbolt, asked +in a hard, flat voice, "If you do nothing to break the contact, how +long will this situation continue?" + +Rainbolt looked at him. "Indefinitely, sir," he said. "There is +nothing I need to do about it. It is a static condition." + +"In that case," Bradshaw said icily, "_this_ should serve to break the +contact through you!" + +As his hand came up, leveling a gun, Menesee was half out of his +chair, hands raised in alarmed protest. "Stop him!" Menesee shouted. + +But Administrator Bradshaw already was sagging sideways over the +armrest of this chair, head lolling backwards. The gun slid from his +hand, dropped to the platform. + +"Director Menesee," Dorn said coolly from beside Bradshaw, "I thank +you for your intended warning! Since the administrator and the +spokesman are the only persons permitted to bear arms in the Tribunal +Hall, I was naturally prepared to paralyze Administrator Bradshaw if +he showed intentions of resorting to thoughtless action." He looked +down at Rainbolt. "Are Director Menesee and I correct in assuming that +if you died violently the persons with whom you are in contact would +again suffer the same experience?" + +"Yes, sir," Rainbolt said. "That is implicit in the principles of +Oneness." He shrugged. "Under most circumstances, it is a very +undesirable effect. But here we have made use of it--" + + * * * * * + +"The situation," Spokesman Dorn told the directors in the Tribunal +Hall some minutes later, "is then this. There has been nothing +haphazard about the Mars Convicts' plan to coerce us into accepting +their terms. Considering the probable quality of the type of minds +which developed both the stardrive and the extraordinary 'philosophy' +we have encountered today, that could be taken for granted from the +start. We cannot kill their emissary here, or subject him to serious +pain or injury, since we would pay a completely disproportionate +penalty in doing it. + +"However, that doesn't mean that we should surrender to the Mars +Convicts. In fact, for all their cleverness, they appear to be acting +out of something very close to desperation. They have gained no +essential advantage through their trick, and we must assume they made +the mistake of underestimating us. This gentleman they sent to Earth +has been given thorough physical examinations. They show him to be in +excellent health. He is also younger by many years than most of us. + +"So he will be confined to quarters where he will be comfortable and +provided with whatever he wishes ... but where he will not be provided +with any way of doing harm to himself. And then, I believe, we can +simply forget about him. He will receive the best of attention, +including medical care. Under such circumstances, we can expect his +natural life span to exceed our own. + +"Meanwhile, we shall continue our program of developing our own +spacedrive. As the Mars Convicts themselves foresee, we'll gain it +eventually and will then be more than a match for them. Until then the +defense fields around Earth will remain closed. No ship will leave +Earth and no ship will be admitted to it. And in the long run we will +win." + +The spokesman paused, added, "If there are no other suggestions, this +man will now be conducted to the hospital of the Machine where he is +to be detained for the remainder of his days." + +Across the hall from Menesee, a figure arose deliberately in one of +the boxes. A heavy voice said, "Spokesman Dorn, I very definitely do +have a suggestion." + +Dorn looked over, nodded warily. "Go ahead, Director Squires!" + +Menesee grimaced in distaste. He had no liking for Squires, a harsh, +arrogant man, notorious for his relentless persecution of any director +or officer who, in Squires' opinion, had become slack in his duties to +the Machine. But he had a large following in the upper echelons, and +his words carried weight. + +Squires folded his arms, said unhurriedly as if savoring each word, +"As you pointed out, Spokesman Dorn, we cannot hurt the person of this +prisoner. His immediate accomplices also remain beyond our reach at +present. However, our hands are not--as you seem to imply--so +completely tied that we cannot strike back at these rascals at once. +There are camps on Earth filled with people of the same political +stripe--potential supporters of the Mars Convicts who would be in +fullest sympathy with their goals if they learned of them. + +"I suggest that these people serve now as an object lesson to show the +Mars Convicts the full measure of our determination to submit to no +threats of force! Let this prisoner and the other convicts who +doubtless are lurking in nearby space beyond Earth's defense fields +know that _for every day_ their obscene threat against the high +officers of the Machine continues hundreds of malcontents who would +welcome them on Earth will be painfully executed! Let them--" + +Pain doubled Menesee abruptly over the table before him. A savage, +compressing pain, very different from the fiery touch of the nerve +stimulators, which held him immobile, unable to cry out or draw +breath. + +It relaxed almost as instantaneously as it had come on. Menesee +slumped back in his chair, shaken and choking, fighting down bitter +nausea. His eyes refocused painfully on Rainbolt, gray-faced but on +his feet, in the prisoner's area. + +"You will find," Rainbolt was saying, "that Director Squires is dead. +And so, I'm very much afraid, is every other member of the upper +echelons whose heart was in no better condition than his. This was a +demonstration I had not intended to give you. But since it has been +given, it should serve as a reminder that while it is true we could +not force you directly to do as we wish, there are things we are +resolved not to tolerate." + +Ojeda was whispering shakily near Menesee, "He controls his body to +the extent that he was able to bring on a heart attack in himself and +project it to all of us! He counted on his own superb physical +condition to pull him through it unharmed. _That_ is why he didn't +seem frightened when the administrator threatened him with a gun. Even +if the spokesman hadn't acted, that gun never would have been fired. + +"Menesee, no precautions we could take will stop that monster from +killing us all whenever he finally chooses--simply by committing +suicide through an act of will!" + +Spokesman Dorn's voice seemed to answer Ojeda. + +"Director Squires," Dorn's voice said, still thinned by pain but oddly +triumphant, "became a victim of his own pointless vindictiveness. It +was a mistake which, I am certain, no member of the Machine will care +to repeat. + +"Otherwise, this incident has merely served to confirm that the Mars +Convicts operate under definite limitations. They _could_ kill us but +can't afford to do it. If they are to thrive in space, they need +Earth, and Earth's resources. They are aware that if the Machine's +leadership dies, Earth will lapse into utter anarchy and turn its +tremendous weapons upon itself. + +"The Mars Convicts could gain nothing from a ruined and depopulated +planet. Therefore, the situation as it stands remains a draw. We shall +devote every effort to turn it into a victory for us. The agreement we +come to eventually with the Mars Convicts will be on our terms--and +there is essentially nothing they or this man, with all his powers, +can do to prevent it." + + * * * * * + +The Missionary of Oneness swung his bronzed, well-muscled legs over +the side of the hammock and sat up. With an expression of great +interest, he watched Spokesman Dorn coming across the sun room towards +him from the entrance corridor of his hospital suite. It was the first +visit he'd had from any member of the organization of the Machine in +the two years he had been confined here. + +For Spokesman Dorn it had been, to judge by his appearance, a +strenuous two years. He had lost weight and there were dark smudges of +fatigue under his eyes. At the moment, however, his face appeared +relaxed. It might have been the relaxation a man feels who has been +emptied out by a hard stint of work, but knows he has accomplished +everything that could possibly have been done. + +Dorn came to a stop a dozen feet from the hammock. For some seconds, +the two men regarded each other without speaking. + +"On my way here," Dorn remarked then, "I was wondering whether you +mightn't already know what I've come to tell you." + +Rainbolt shook his head. + +"No," he said. "I think I could guess what it is--I pick up +generalized impressions from outside--but I don't really know." + +Spokesman Dorn considered that a moment, chewing his lower lip +reflectively. Then he shrugged. + +"So actual mind-reading doesn't happen to be one of your talents," he +said. "I was rather sure of that, though others had a different +opinion. Of course, considering what you are able to do, it wouldn't +really make much difference. + +"Well ... this morning we sent out a general call by space radio to +any Mars Convict ships which might be in the Solar System to come in. +The call was answered. Earth's defense fields have been shut down, and +the first FTL ships will land within an hour." + +"For what purpose?" Rainbolt said curiously. + +"There's a strong popular feeling," Spokesman Dorn said, "that your +colleagues should take part in deciding what pattern Earth's permanent +form of government will take. In recent months we've handled things in +a rather provisional and haphazard manner, but the situation is +straightened out well enough now to permit giving attention to such +legalistic details. Incidentally, you will naturally be free to leave +when I do. Transportation is available for you if you wish to welcome +your friends at the spaceport." + +"Thank you," said Rainbolt. "I believe I will." + +Spokesman Dorn shrugged. "What could we do?" he said, almost +disinterestedly. "You never slept. In the beginning you were drugged a +number of times, as you probably know, but we soon discovered that +drugging you seemed to make no difference at all." + +"It doesn't," Rainbolt agreed. + +"Day after day," Dorn went on, "we'd find thoughts and inclinations +coming into our minds we'd never wanted there. It was an eerie +experience--though personally I found it even more disconcerting to +awaken in the morning and discover that my attitudes had changed in +some particular or other, and as a rule changed irrevocably." + +Rainbolt said, "In a sense, those weren't really your attitudes, you +know. They were results of the conditioning of the Machine. It was +the conditioning I was undermining." + +"Perhaps it was that," Dorn said. "It seems to make very little +difference now." He paused, frowned. "When the first talk of +initiating change began in the councils, there were numerous +executions. I know now that we were badly frightened men. Then those +of us who had ordered the executions found themselves wanting similar +changes. Presently we had a majority, and the changes began to be +brought about. Reforms, you would call them--and reforms I suppose +they actually were. There was considerable general disturbance, of +course, but we retained the organization to keep that within +reasonable bounds." + +"We expected that you would," Rainbolt said. + +"It hasn't really been too bad," Spokesman Dorn said reflectively. "It +was simply an extraordinary amount of work to change the structure of +things that had been imposed on Earth by the Machine for the past +century and a half. And the curious part of it is, you know, that now +it's done we don't even feel resentment! We actually wouldn't want to +go back to what we had before. You've obtained an incredible hold on +our minds--and frankly I expect that when at last you do relinquish +your control, we'll commit suicide or go mad." + +Rainbolt shook his head. "There's been just one mistake in what you've +said," he remarked. + +Spokesman Dorn looked at him with tired eyes. "What's that?" he asked. + +"I said I was undermining the conditioning of the Machine. I did--and +after that I did nothing. You people simply have been doing what most +of you always would have preferred to do, Spokesman. I relinquished +control of the last of you over six months ago." + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oneness, by James H. Schmitz + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONENESS *** + +***** This file should be named 30728.txt or 30728.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/2/30728/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, 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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