Chapter Thirty
Conditioning took over and flung the fighting Barrents backward throughsubjective time, to those stress points in the past where death had beennear, where the temporal life fabric had been weakened, where apredisposition toward death had already been established. Conditioningforced Barrent-2 to re-experience those moments. But this time, thedanger was augmented by the full force of the malignant half of hispersonality--by the murderous informer, Barrent-1.
* * * * *
Barrent-2 stood under glaring lights on the blood-stained sands of theArena, a sword in his hand. It was the time of the Omegan Games. Comingat him was the Saunus, a heavily armored reptile with the leering faceof Barrent-1. Barrent-2 severed the creature's tail, and it changedinto three trichomotreds, rat-sized, Barrent-faced, with thedispositions of rabid wolverines. He killed two, and the third grinnedand bit his left hand to the bone. He killed it, and watchedBarrent-1's blood leak into the soggy sand....
* * * * *
Three ragged men sat laughing on a bench, and a girl handed him a smallgun. "Luck," she said. "I hope you know how to use this." Barrent noddedhis thanks before he noticed that the girl was not Moera; she was theskrenning mutant who had predicted his death. Still, he moved into thestreet and faced the three Hadjis.
Two of the men were mild-faced strangers. The third, Barrent-1,stepped forward and quickly brought his gun into firing position.Barrent-2 flung himself to the ground and pressed the trigger of hisunfamiliar weapon. He felt it vibrate in his hand and saw HadjiBarrent's head and shoulders turn black and begin to crumble. Before hecould take aim again, his gun was wrenched violently from his hand.Barrent-1's dying shot had creased the end of the muzzle.
Desperately he dived for the weapon, and as he rolled toward it he sawthe second man, now wearing the Barrent-1 face, take careful aim.Barrent-2 felt pain flash through his arm, already torn by thetrichomotred's teeth. He managed to shoot this Barrent-1, and througha haze of pain faced the third man, now also Barrent-1. His arm wasstiffening rapidly, but he forced himself to press the trigger....
* * * * *
_You're playing their game_, Barrent-2 told himself. Thedeath-conditioning will wear you down, will kill you. _You must seethrough it, get past it. It isn't really happening, it's in yourmind_....
But there was no time to think. He was in a large, circular,high-ceilinged room of stone in the cellars of the Department ofJustice. It was the Trial by Ordeal. Rolling across the floor toward himwas a glistening black machine shaped like a half-sphere, standingalmost four feet high. It came at him, and in the pattern of red, green,and amber lights he could see the hated face of Barrent-1.
Now his enemy was in its ultimate form: the invariant robotconsciousness, as false and stylized as the conditioned dreams of Earth.The Barrent-1 machine extruded a single slender tentacle with a whitelight winking at the end of it. As it approached, the tentacle withdrew,and in its place appeared a jointed metal arm ending in a knife-edge.Barrent-2 dodged, and heard the knife scrape against the stone.
_It isn't what you think it is_, Barrent-2 told himself. _It isn't amachine, and you are not back on Omega. This is only half of yourselfyou are fighting, this is nothing but a deadly illusion._
But he couldn't believe it. The Barrent machine was coming at him again,its metal hide glistening with a foul green substance which Barrent-2recognized immediately as Contact Poison. He broke into a sprint, tryingto stay away from the fatal touch.
_It isn't fatal_, he told himself.
Neutralizer washed over the metal surface, clearing away the poison. Themachine tried to ram him. Barrent tried half-heartedly to push it aside.It crashed into him with stunning force, and he could feel ribssplintering.
_It isn't real! You're letting a conditioned reflex talk you to death!You aren't on Omega! You're on Earth, in your own home, staring into amirror!_
But the pain was real, and the clubbed metal arm felt real as it crashedagainst his shoulder. Barrent staggered away.
He felt horror, not at dying, but at dying too soon, before he couldwarn the Omegans of this ultimate danger planted deep in their ownminds. There was no one else to warn of the catastrophe that wouldstrike each man as he recovered his own specific memories of Earth. Tohis best knowledge, no one had experienced this and lived. If _he_ couldlive through it, countermeasures could be taken, counterconditioningcould be set up.
He pulled himself to his feet. Coached since childhood in socialresponsibility, he thought of it now. He couldn't allow himself to diewhen his knowledge was vital to Omega.
_This is not a real machine._
He repeated it to himself as the Barrent machine revved up, picked upspeed, and hurtled toward him from the far side of the room. He forcedhimself to see beyond the machine, to see the patient droning lessons ofthe classroom which had created this monster in his mind.
_This is not a real machine._
He believed it....
And swung his fist into the hated face reflected in the metal.
There was a moment of dazzling pain, and then he lost consciousness.When he came to, he was alone in his own home on Earth. His arm andshoulder ached, and several of his ribs seemed to be broken. On his lefthand he bore the stigmata of the trichomotred's bite.
But with his cut and bleeding right hand he had smashed the mirror. Hehad shattered it and Barrent-1 utterly and forever.
OMEGA
RELIGION: THE WORSHIP OF EVIL
PLEASURES: THE THRILL OF THE HUNT, WITH HUMAN PREY
STATUS: ATTAINED ONE CORPSE AT A TIME
LIFE EXPECTANCY: THREE EARTH YEARS
"ALL OF YOU ARE CRIMINALS THEREFORE MANKIND HAS REJECTED YOU, AND YOU HAVE BEEN SENT TO A WORLD WHERE YOUR OWN SORT IS KING. HERE YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN RULES, AND DIE BY THEM ..."
THE STATUS CIVILIZATION
Transcriber's List of Corrections
Chapter One Page 1, "futher" changed to "further." (He awoke, rubbed his eyes, and waited for further memories to come.) Page 9, "ot think" changed to "to think." (All he wanted to do was lie down, to sleep, to have a chance to think about his situation.)
Chapter Two Page 14, "theif" changed to "thief." (I'm ashamed to admit that I can't remember what a credit thief is.)
Chapter Five Page 36, "wtih" changed to "with." (She appeared to be dissatisfied with her husband; and divorce was forbidden on Omega.)
Chapter Nine Page 65, "murder" changed to "murderer." (Before his visit to the Dream Shop he had never felt himself a murderer, no matter what the Earth authorities had accused him of.)
Chapter Sixteen Page 107, "undected" changed to "undetected." (By noon, Barrent was still undetected.) Page 114, "were were" changed to "were." (If he were able to get by the city gate, he would have to watch for the hunting patrols.)
Chapter Eighteen Page 125, "Barren" changed to "Barrent." (Barrent ducked out of a corner in which the creeping vines were trapping him.)
Chapter Twenty-Three Page 151, "coud" changed to "could." (Barrent backed away, wondering if a needlebeam could stop it.)
Chapter Twenty-Four Page 159, Added a missing end-quote. (The full facilities of this park are waiting for all lovers of the great outdoors.") Page 159, "Presumbaly" changed to "Presumably." (Presumably they liked this sort of thing.)
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