The Dueling Machine

lifted weights without touching them, and then even transported Geri from one booth to the other. But he could only move things inside the dueling machine.

“We may have an interstellar transport mechanism here,” Leoh said at the end of a week, tired but enormously happy. “There’d have to be a dueling machine, or something like it, at the other end, though.”

The pain was unbearable. Odal screamed soundlessly, in his mind, as a dozen lances of fire drilled through him. His body jerked spasmodically, arms and legs twitching uncontrolled, innards cramping and coiling, heart pounding dangerously fast. He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, could only taste blood in his mouth.

Romis! Where is Romis! Why doesn’t he come? He would have told his inquisitors everything, anything, just to make them stop. But they weren’t even asking him questions. They weren’t interested in his memories or his confession.

Jump!

Transport yourself to the next booth.

You are a trained telepath, you must have latent teleportation powers, as well.

We will not ease up on this pressure until you teleport to the next booth. Indeed, the pressure will be increased until you do as you are told.

JUMP!

Hector sat in the dueling machine in Acquatainia and concentrated on his job. A drawerful of papers, tapes, and holograms was in the other booth. Hector was going to transport it to a dueling machine on the other side of the planet. This would be the first long-distance jump.

It wasn’t easy to concentrate. Geri was waiting for him outside. Leoh had been working him all day. A stray thought of Odal crossed his mind:I wonder what he’s up to now? Is he working on teleportation too?

He felt a brief tingling sensation, like a mild electric shock.

“Funny,” he muttered.

Puzzled, he removed the neurocontacts from his head and body, got up, and opened the booth door.

The technicians at the control desk gaped at him. It took Hector a full five seconds to realize that they were wearing Kerak uniforms. A pair of guards, looking equally startled, reached for their side arms as soon as they recognized the Star Watch emblem on Hector’s coveralls.

He had time to say, “Oh-oh,” before the guards shot him down.

On Acquatainia, Leoh was shaking his head unhappily as he inspected the pile of materials that Hector was supposed to teleport.

“Nothing,” he muttered. “It didn’t work at all.” His puzzled musing was shattered by Geri’s scream. Looking up, he saw her cowering against the control desk, screaming in uncontrolled hysteria. Framed in the doorway of the farther booth stood the tall, lithe figure of Odal.

“This is absolutely fantastic,” said Sir Harold Spencer.

Leoh nodded agreement. The old scientist was at his desk in the office behind the dueling machine chamber. Spencer seemed to be on a star ship, from the looks of the austere, metal-walled cabin that was visible behind his tri-di image.

“He actually jumped from Kerak to Acquatainia?” Spencer still looked unconvinced.

“In something less than a second,” Leoh repeated. “Four hundred and fifty light years in less than a second.”

Spencer’s brow darkened. “Do you realize what you’ve done, Albert? The military potential of this… teleportation. And Kanus must know all about it, too.”

“Yes. And he’s holding Hector somewhere in Kerak. We’ve got to get him out… if he’s still alive”

“I know,” Spencer said, absolutely glowering now. “And what about this Kerak assassin? I suppose the Acquatainians have him safely filed away?”

Nodding again, Leoh answered, “They’re not quite sure what to do with him. Technically, he’s not charged with any crimes. Actually, the last thing in the world anyone wants is to send him back to Kerak.”

“Why did he leave? Why come back to Acquatainia?”

“Don’t know. Odal won’t tell us anything, except to claim asylum on Acquatainia. Most people here think it’s another sort of trick.”

Spencer drummed his fingers on his thigh impatiently. “So Odal is imprisoned in Acquatainia, Hector is presumably jailed in Kerak—or worse. And I have a survey fleet heading for the Acquataine-Kerak frontier on a mission that’s now obviously hopeless. Kanus needn’t fight his way into Acquatainia. He can pop into the midst of the Cluster, wherever there are dueling machines.”

“We could shut them down, or guard them,” Leoh suggested.

Frowning again, Spencer pointed out, “There’s nothing to prevent Kanus from building machines inside every Kerak embassy or consulate building in the Cluster… or in the Commonwealth, for that matter. Nothing short of war can stop him from doing that.”

“And war is exactly what we’re trying to prevent.” “We’ve got to prevent it,” Spencer rumbled, “if we want to keep the Commonwealth intact.”

Now Leoh was starting to feel as gloomy as Sir Harold.

“And Hector? What about him? We can’t abandon him… Kanus could kill him.”

“I know. I’ll call Romis, the Foreign Minister. Of that whole lot around Kanus, he’s the only one who seems capable of telling the truth.”

“What can you do it they refuse to return Hector?”

’They’ll probably offer to trade him for Odal.”

“But Odal doesn’t want to go,” Leoh said. “And the Acquatainians might not surrender him. If they hold Odal and Kanus keeps Hector, then the Commonwealth will be forced into…”

“Into threatening Kerak with armed force if they don’t release Hector. Good Lord, this lieutenant could trigger off the war we’re trying to avert!”

Spencer looked as appalled as Leoh felt.

6

Minister Romis left his country villa punctually at dawn for his usual morning ride. He proceeded along the bridle path, however, only until he was out of sight of the villa and any possible spies of Kor’s. Then he turned his mount off the path and into the thick woods. After a hard climb upslope, he came to a little clearing atop a knoll.

Standing in the clearing was a small shuttle craft, its hatch flanked by a pair of armed guards. Wordlessly, Romis dismounted and went into the craft. A man dressed identically, and about the same height and build as the Foreign Minister, came out and mounted the animal and continued the ride.

Within moments, the shuttle craft rose on muffled jets and hurtled up and out of Kerak’s atmosphere. Romis entered the control compartment and sat beside the pilot.

“This is a risky business, sir,” the pilot said. “We could be spotted front the ground.”

“The nearest tracking station is manned by friends of ours,” Romis said tiredly. “At least, they were friends the last time I talked with them. One must take some risks in an enterprise of this sort, and the chief risk seems to be friends who change sides.”

The pilot nodded unhappily. Twelve minutes after liftoff, the shuttle craft made rendezvous with an orbiting star ship that bore the insignia of the Kerak space fleet. A craggy-faced captain met Romis at the air lock and guided him down a narrow passageway to a small, guarded compartment. They stepped in. Lying on the bunk built into the compartment’s curving outer bulkhead was the inert form of Star Watch Lieutenant Hector. Nearby sat one of the guards and a meditech who had been at the dueling machine. They rose and stood at attention.

“None of Kor’s people know about him?” Romis’ voice was quiet, but urgent.