Equation of Doom

proto-man,whatever proto-man was....

  "The fog is lifting!" Vardin cried.

  The fog was not lifting.

  Then it was.

  Ramsey would never forget that. Vardin had spoken while the dense graymurk enveloped them completely.

  Then it began to grow tenuous.

  As if Vardin's words had made it so. Little Vardin, shy, frightenedVardin, suddenly, inexplicably, the strongest, surest one among them....

  The sky, white and dazzling, glistened. The gray murk glistened too, ahundred yards off in all directions, like a wall of polished glasssurrounding them.

  In the very middle of the bell-jar of visibility granted them all atonce, stood a black rectangular object.

  "The teleporter!" Margot cried. "The matter-transmitter! I know it is. I_know_ it is!"

  Ramsey stood waiting breathlessly.

  No, he realized abruptly, not breathlessly. You couldn't saybreathlessly.

  For Ramsey had not breathed, not once, since they left the _Enterprise_.

  You didn't breathe on a timeless world. You merely--somehow--existed.

  "It's opening!" Margot cried.

  The black rectangle, ominously coffin-shaped, was indeed opening.

  "The matter transmitter," Margot said a second time. "The secret ofproto-man, of our ancestors who colonized all the worlds of space withit, instantly, at the same cosmic moment. Think of what it means,Ramsey, can you? Instantaneous travel, anywhere, without the need forenergy since energy cannot be used here, without the passage of timesince time does not exist here." She stood transfixed, looking at theblack box. The lid had lifted at right angles to the rest of the box.

  * * * * *

  Margot said, in the whisper of an awed thought: "Who controls itcontrols the galaxy...."

  And she walked toward the box.

  At that moment Ramsey had a vision. He saw--or thought he saw--MargotDennison in the costume she had worn when they first met. She stood,eyes wide, fearful, expectant, before a chess-board. The pieces seemedto be spaceships. It was a perfectly clear vision, but it was the onlysuch vision Ramsey had ever been vouchsafed in his life. He was nomystic. He did not know what to make of it.

  Playing chess with Margot was--proto-man.

  Ramsey only saw his hand.

  A hand perhaps five million years old.

  He blinked. The vision persisted, superimposed over Margot's figure asshe walked toward the box.

  A game, he thought. Because we don't understand it. Not that kind ofpower. Not the power a matter-transmitter would give. A cosmic game ona chess-board which wasn't quite a chess-board, with a creature who hadnever lived as we know life and so could never die....

  With the future of the galaxy hanging in the balance. Life or death forman hanging on a slim thread, because man wasn't ready formatter-transmission, couldn't hope to use it wisely, would use itperhaps for war, transmitting lethal weapons, thermonuclear,world-destroying weapons, instantly through space, for deliveryanywhere, negating time....

  Death hovered.

  "Wait!" Ramsey called, and ran forward.

  Just then five new figures, space-suited, appeared under the gleamingdome.

  "Stop that woman!" a voice which Ramsey should not have been able tohear but which he somehow heard perfectly cried. "Stop her!"

  M.g. guns were raised, fired.

  Without effect.

  Three of the spacesuited figures ran after Margot as the voice repeated:"Stop her! The box is mine, mine!"

  It was Garr Symm's voice.

  Ramsey did not know if he should stop Margot himself, or fight Symm'smen. Although they couldn't use their weapons on this world, they couldstill hurt--possibly even kill--Margot. Ramsey turned and waited forthem.

  The strange, mystic vision was gone. He saw only three space-suitedfigures, saw Margot walking steadily toward the box. Either she wasmoving very slowly or the box retreated or it was further away than ithad looked at first. For she hadn't reached it yet.

  Ramsey met the space-suited figures head-on.

  There were three of them, but they were awkward in their suits,cumbersome, incapable of quick responses.

  Ramsey hit the first one in the belly and darted back. His fist feltcontact with the soft bulk of the insulined suit, then with the harderbulk of the man. He struck again, harder this time.

  * * * * *

  The scaly green face of the Irwadi within the space-suit grimaced withpain. He doubled over and fell, his helmet shattering against the groundat Ramsey's feet.

  Then an incredible thing happened. The Irwadi opened his mouth toscream. His face froze. He lost his air. His face bloated.

  And he died.

  Ramsey couldn't believe his eyes.

  It was not possible to die from lack of air or from cold on a worldwithout the time continuum. Ramsey, Vardin and Margot had proved that byventuring out without protection.

  But the Irwadi had died.

  Mental suggestion?

  Because he thought he would die?

  Because that was the only way you could perish on a world lacking in thetime dimension--by your own thoughts?

  The second space-suited figure closed with Ramsey awkwardly. Ramsey hithim. The man of Irwadi fell, his helmet cracked, he tried to scream--anddied.

  The third man fled.

  Ramsey ran after Margot. "Wait!" he cried. He couldn't talk to her abouthis fantastic vision. It was personal. She wouldn't understand. Mysticexperience always is like that. And yet, with the conviction that only amystic can have--although he certainly was no mystic--Ramsey knew thegalaxy would be in grave trouble if mankind were given the secret ofmatter-transmission.

  A voice said: "You are right."

  It was Vardin's voice, and Vardin went on:

  "Ramsey, stop her. I can't stop her. It is only granted that Iobserve--and convince, if I can. I am not a Vegan girl. I am--"

  Ramsey said it. "Proto-man!"

  "There aren't many of us left. We discovered matter-transmission. Weused it once, to people the worlds of the galaxy. It was our finalcreative effort. We merely observe now, unable to destroy our creation,trying to keep it out of mankind's hands. You see--"

  "Then back on Irwadi you knew all along we would come here!"

  "I was vouchsafed the vision, yes. Even as you--stop her, Ramsey. Youmust stop her!"

  * * * * *

  Ramsey sprinted forward. Margot was nearing the black coffin now.

  Ramsey ran at her, and tackled her.

  They went down together, the girl fighting like a tigress, tooth andnail, wildly, sobbing, striking out at Ramsey with small impotent fists,until he subdued her. Panting, they glared at each other.

  And could not stop Garr Symm from running past them, eyes rapt behindthe plastiglass of his helmet, and jumping into the black box.

  "To the end of the universe and back!" he cried. "Take me there andback. Instantly. Prove to me that you work! Now...." His voice trailedoff. He had addressed the black rectangle almost as if it were somethingalive.

  * * * * *

  Ramsey thought he heard a growl from the box. He stood before it,looking in. The hackles rose on his neck.

  "You see," Vardin said. "My ancestors and yours discovered the power ofa god--and did not understand it. We were incorporeal. We createdlife--your ancestors. We patterned it to fit the evolution of the threethousand worlds. Human life. Millions of them, colonists for the worldsof normal space. We were tampering in our tragic pride, Ramsey, withforces we would never comprehend.

  "We colonized the worlds, deciding that physical existence, along withthe mental prowess we had, was the ideal state. A few of us, likemyself, or my ancestors if you wish, although the purely mental livescontinuously--a few of us stayed behind and saw--the loss of a millionyears!"

  Ramsey's eyes still could not pierce the darkness inside the box.

  "What do you
mean?" he asked in an awed voice.

  "We sent out god-like men. We did not understand our discovery. Thegod-like men--but look at Garr Symm."

  The spacesuited figure got up slowly. It blinked at Ramsey. It growled.It had a recognizably green, scale-skinned face. But it was not the faceof Garr Symm. It was the face of Garr Symm's caveman ancestors, amillion years ago....

  "This is what happened to my people," Vardin said.

  She looked at Ramar Chind and Chind, responding, went to Garr Symm andled him quietly back toward the _Dog Star_. Chind never said a word.Garr Symm growled.

  "Take the Earthgirl and go," Vardin told Ramsey.

  "But I--you--aren't you coming?"

  "My work is finished," Vardin told him. "For now."

  "For now?"

  "I am a guardian. When I am needed again--" She shrugged her slim blueshoulders.

  "But Margot will never be content now," Ramsey