Gosseyn Two seemed to be having a similar struggle; and he actually took several small steps toward Three before he, abruptly, braced himself. A tiny, grim smile relaxed the strong, even features of his face. He had the appearance of a man in control, as he said:
“Looks like it’s going to be all right, and that we will be able to collaborate at close quarters, or otherwise.” As he spoke the words, his thoughts seemed to be coming through, also, and his body movements. To Gosseyn Three came the realization that he had a strong impulse to stand up, and that his face held the same tiny smile. He found himself wondering if Two was fighting with impulse to sit down.
And, though he did not speak that aloud, the other man said, “Yes, I’m resisting the impulse; and I can deduce that if, for any reason, we ever have to stay together for a long period of time, we’ll have to work out a system.”
It was a long speech, and Gosseyn Three was slightly resigned to realize that, although he made no sound, his lips were moving and somehow saying the same words, but under his breath.
He thought: “… It really has been a case of duplicate memories—”
… The same thought, the same feeling about that thought, the same experience. The complete recollection of having walked along a street, or on a planet’s surface… the muscular sensation recalled by both minds—exactly.
It could even be that, all those years while the mental images of Gosseyn One and Two were being recorded in the sleeping brain of Gosseyn Three, that all neural responses and muscles mechanisms had operated in unison in some limited way; perhaps a twitching.
Thus it was, at that long later moment as the eyes of the third Gosseyn blinked open, the impression of being the second Gosseyn had been that of a sleeper awakening the morning after, with the automatic acceptance that it was I, who had all those experiences, who was waking up after a night of restful sleep.
CHAPTER 31
At Dr. Kair’s request, Gosseyn had sat down again in the special chair with all the equipment attached. This time there were no straps; he merely agreed to maintain the correct motionless state at the key moment. Sitting there, he was aware of the viewing device being adjusted slightly behind and to one side of his head.
He did not move, or acknowledge, as the dark-haired Leej walked past him, and took up the position whereby she could lean forward and peer through the viewing device at the damaged nerve inside his head.
Off to Gosseyn Three’s right Enro sat in an upholstered chair, and stared at the wall across the room. Presumably, he was ready to contribute his special distance seeing ability.
Gosseyn Two sat at Dr. Kair’s desk. His task: he had all of Gosseyn Three’s memorized areas carefully catalogued in his extra-brain, ready to do his part.
It was Gosseyn Two who broke the silence. He said in a soft voice: “What we did that time, when all this kicked back on us, and did the reversal whereby the Dzan ship was transmitted here from another galaxy: Leej actually predicted a location in that other galaxy.
And so. now, as she gazes into the viewing device, she’s going to predict again where the location is, and what it’s like.
“Enro,” Gosseyn Two continued in that same soft voice, “will use his special ability to perceive the predicted location. When he has done so, I will do for my brother what we have agreed will be the safest method for him to handle the situation.
“I have to admit,” he concluded, “that what will happen here in this room at the moment Enro perceives Leej s predicted area in that other galaxy is not obvious to me.”
As he completed his summation, Enro raised one of those strong hands of his, and wiggled his fingers for attention.
“Perhaps, I should report,” he said, “that what happens when I have my distance perception, is that I seem to see it as on a screen in front of me, or, if it is an individual, I see him standing on the floor.”
He concluded, “Until the key moment I’ve never thought of that method as being anything but an illusion, which is actually taking place inside my head. But if there is any reality to it, in this very unique circumstance, I suggest that no one walk anywhere between me and that floor and wall area I’m looking at.”
Gosseyn Three realized that the last moment explanation seemed to evoke a feeling of relief; as if something that had been vague, and lacking concrete reality, had suddenly come into focus.
… Interesting that the otherwise grim Enro, who normally kept his own counsel, had been motivated by the mounting tension to reveal a hitherto unsuspected aspect of his special ability.
The voice of Gosseyn Two came again: “Any other comments, or information?” he asked.
Silence.
“Then,” Gosseyn Two said, “Leej, do your best.”
Silence. And then a faint hissing sound.
And a brightness. It was on the floor near the wall at which Enro was gazing. As Gosseyn Three continued to hold himself still, he saw that the bright area was neither quite oval, or quite round, or square; but a mix of all three. His extra-brain was reacting to it; and his instant evaluation was: Something… connected… this five foot uneven shape with an equivalent space and object across the immense distance between two galaxies. Connected it in a manner that fell infinitesimally short of similarity.
The voice of Gosseyn Two intruded on those thoughts: “Three, it’s your turn.” He evidently leaned forward, and spoke into a microphone. His words were: “And Yona, of the Troogs, do your part!”
… He was lying on his back in darkness.
In spite of knowing that this time he had come purposefully, and, with the help of the Troogs, had arrived in exactly the right position, Gosseyn was aware of a small thalamic reaction.
As he lay there, and after he had recovered from his momentary anxiety, he made the same checks that, on the first awakening… had been so puzzling—and on the second, when the capsule was aboard the Troog battleship, had evoked bafflement.
This time his purpose was to make sure that he was, in fact, inside the capsule. It seemed to be so. Because, when he put his hands up, there was the expected hard, steely ceiling about twelve inches above him; and he appeared to be lying on the same type of padded material that he remembered.
There were several differences, of course, between those other occasions and now: this time he was warmly dressed, and not naked; and this time nothing at all was connected to him. There were no soft wires attached to his head, and no rubber-like tubings poking into his body.
Having verified his condition as well as possible, he permitted one more flow of thoughts; permitted it, and them, because they should be out of the way, and not intruding at the key moment:
… Here he lay, the man who could make the jump for them all. Here, in Gilbert Gosseyn Three, was the decisive ability that, it was hoped, would resolve a puzzle two million years old.
Across the endless miles human beings had escaped from a doomed galaxy. But, because of the nature of the doom, they had planned to return if they ever discovered how to reverse that doom: one point here, and one there. One predictor and one extra brain, one person who could “see” into distant places; one logic system to keep them from destroying each other. Perhaps, there were other such groupings scattered over a thousand planets, blindly seeking to come together; and then, when each fulfilled his function, the whole was a unit capable of acting.
Lying there, Gosseyn Three thought:
The basic reality was, nothingness should reassert.