Closed System

'You'll have to introduce me,' Pat said. 'I don'tknow any of those ladies.'

'That's not surprising,' Corinne said, as sheopened a door leading into an apartment whichwas well lit and furnished with modern items. 'Itwas strange to me, too, until I read the sacredbooks.'

'I'd like to read them.'

'Perhaps you'll have the chance.' She flowedtoward a bar, turned. 'I have only Taratwo wines.'

He grinned wryly. 'The last time you gave me adrink it hit me pretty hard.'

'Pat, I'm sorry. That was necessary.'

'I think I'd like you to start explaining now whyit was,' he said.

She sighed, poured two glasses of red wine,flowed to stand in front of him. 'I will explain,'she said. 'First let me say that I'm so happy to see you. Really.'

He wanted to believe. He took the glass. 'No funny Zedeian drugs this time?'

'No,' she said, with a sad little smile.

She was the only stimulant he needed. He didn'tneed the wine. He took one sip, reached out andtook her glass from her hand, put the glasses on a table. She made no resistance as he pulled her intohis arms. Her arms went around him and hismouth covered hers, and as the kiss deepened hefelt a small, insignificant sting at the base of hisneck. Her kiss deepened, but the joy of it was goneas a wave of shock and deep hurt killed his desirefor her. He jerked her hands down from around hisneck and forced her right hand open. The smallhand syringe was cupped there. The quarter-inch injection needle showed a small drop of clear fluidat its tip.

'Oh, damn,' Pat said, as weakness seemed toflow throughout his body.

'It will be all right,' she said, her face no longersmiling. 'Sit down, please.'

He made it to a large sofa before the darknesstook him.

Awareness came back to him with a rush. Hefelt fine. There was no fuzziness in his brain. Heopened his eyes and squinted, for he was looking into a bright light on the ceiling over his head. He tried to move and discovered that he was secured quite firmly by straps. He was in a half-recliningposition on a soft, comfortable couch. His shirthad been removed. There was a slight chill to the air which told him that, in addition to the electric lights, the room was climate-conditioned.

He jerked his head to the left. A man in a white smock stood beside him, looking down at him withhis

lips thrust out thoughtfully.

'Relax, Captain Howe,' the man said. 'No harm will come to you. We merely require some infor­mation.'

'Where is Corinne?' He needed to talk to her, totell her how disappointed he was by this new be­trayal. And yet he was not too chagrined. It didn't really matter, did it? He felt fine. There seemed tobe a glow of health and well-being in him.

The man in the white smock turned his back,walked away. Pat saw that under the smock theman wore a

long, dark robe like the priest whohad greeted him upon his arrival at the temple.

The man came back. 'You will feel no pain,' hesaid, as he pushed a mister against Pat's bare arm and injected something that burned only slightlythrough Pat's skin. The man then pulled a tallstool up beside the couch and perched there, look­ing down.

Ah, Pat was thinking, it was a beautiful world, and the couch was so comfortable, and how con­siderate of them to make him so comfortable.

'I am your friend,' the man said, smiling.

'Yes.'

'You are my friend. You want to help me. Youwant to tell me everything I want to know.'

'Sure, be glad to,' Pat said, filled with warmthfor the man, filled with peace, and happiness.

'And you will hold nothing back,' the man said,'because you want Corinne to know all, don't you?'

Such a burst of emotion in him as he thought ofher. 'Oh, yes,' he said. He laughed. He knew ev­erything. They were using a mind-domination drugon him, and that was so very, very illegal that it was funny.

'You are happy,' the man said. 'You are laugh­ing with happiness, and you want to help us.'

'I'd have done it without the illegal drug,' Patsaid, still laughing happily.

'I'm sure you would have,' the man said, with asmile. 'Now, let us begin. Tell me, Captain Howe, how you found us and tell me who knows that youare here.'

Pat chuckled happily and told all. He told howXanthos Central Control had detected Corinne's tampering with the trip tape, and how he'd wormedthe truth out of the old man, and how he'd beenable simply to follow the blink coordinates to Dorchlunt.

He was chortling so happily that he had to be primed to go on.

'And did you file a flight plan with XanthosCentral?'

'Heck, no,' Pat said. 'Couldn't, except in gen­eral. I gave them the known blink beacon, of course,and then I just said that I'd be exploring unchar­teredspace.'

'And the blink coordinates?' the man asked.'Did you file the blink coordinates for Dorchlunt?'

'No,' Pat said. He laughed. 'But they're on fileat X&A. They have copies of the old man's tapefrom his self-diagnosis chamber. All they'd have todo is dig out the coordinates from that tape and they'd come right here, no problem. Simple trip once you have the right coordinates.'

'In your opinion, how long will X&A wait, whenyou don't close your flight plan?'

'Oh, weeks and weeks, I'd say. Maybe months. Itold Jeanny that I might be gone for a while. Yousee, I guess that I believed, deep inside, that I'dfind Corinne, and that I might be staying withher.'

'And so you have found her,' the man said.'Now, let us begin again, Captain Howe.'

He went through it again, laughing merrily, hav­ing a wonderful time with his new friend. 'I imag­ine Jeanny might worry about me,' he said.'Because of the personal relationship there—but Idon't love Jeanny, I love Corinne —she might start a search for me in, oh, maybe two months. Thatwould be my guess. She wouldn't want to mount a search for me and have me show up on Xanthos inthe middle of it. So she'll wait. She knows I'mcapable of taking care of myself. I got here, didn'tI? I found Corinne, didn't I?' He laughed for the sheer joy of it.

'Now again,' the man said.

'Hey, this isn't much fun anymore,' Pat said,but he went through it again, beginning to feel tired, and as he talked there was no laughing asthe tiredness grew and became bone-weariness, aheavy exhaustion which made it an effort to breathe.As he said, once more, that Jeanny probablywouldn't begin to worry about him for a month or six weeks he gave up, surrendered to the exhaus­tion, slept.

The couch was no longer comfortable. It washard, and narrow. The lights had been dimmed.He ached in every bone, in every muscle. He liftedone arm, and the effort tired him, sent him backinto sleep. When next he awoke he lay quietly,forced his eyes open. He was in a stone-lined room,and the room was windowless. The light camefrom one fixture, dimly, the fixture sunken intothe rock of the ceiling. He heard someone breath­ing and, with a great effort, turned his head.

He lay on a narrow ledge, the stone cushionedonly by a rough homespun blanket. An old man inthe tunic and skirt which was Dorchlunt's cos­tume lay on another ledge across the small room.

'Ah, young man, you are awake?'

'I think so,' Pat said.

'Just in time. They will feed us soon.'

Food was the last thing on Pat's mind. He strug­gled and finally was able to push himself into asitting position, feet on the stone floor. 'What isthis place?'

'The waiting place,' the old man said. He, too,sat up, ran his fingers through his graying hair. Helooked at Pat with a little smile. 'You are tooyoung to be sent to Zede.'

'Zede?'

'I am not complaining, mind you,' the old mansaid, 'but there are laws. One must work andproduce the required number of years before earn­ing the reward.'

'So you are here, in the waiting place, havingearned your reward?' Pat asked.

'Yes.' The old man mused. 'Well, perhaps you did some great unusual service which merits early reward. Is that true?'

'Yes, it is true,' Pat said. He was feeling a bitbetter. He was no longer happy, however, and hefelt no friendliness at all toward the man who hadinjected him with an illegal mind-dominance drug.It was no consolation to him to know that he was not the first man to have been fooled and betrayedby a woman. And yet there was something insidehim which could not accept Corinne as evil, asbeing a willing participant in whatever the hell it was