“The charge inversion lasts only seconds: the imbalance in the constituted universe cannot be maintained for longer than that. Anti-protons become protons again. But it is too late, the separation between charges has been accomplished. Some of the expanding electron cloud is attracted back to the main mass, but not enough to cancel the net positive charge on the more slowly exploding mass of atomic nuclei. In hours the positive cloud, the whole remaining mass of the star, has engulfed and disintegrated every planet of the system. It is millions of years before it attracts enough negative charge to become electrically neutral again. By that time it is too dispersed to coalesce. It never again becomes a star.
“So if you see that happening to a star within your territory, pig, you will know that you have received a warning and that the next sun to go will be the one illuminating your seat of government. The explosion is easily distinguishable from a nova or supernova. First there is a brilliant flash as the trapped protons ricocheting within the star are released. After that the star goes out, because as its stripped atomic nuclei recede from one another nuclear fusion ceases.”
Gruwert had been listening to the kosho’s story with intent concentration. Now he snorted, his little eyes glittering.
“This is not new. There already are ways to destroy stars.”
“With a handgun? No, only by moving titanic pieces of apparatus and colossal power sources close to the star—what enemy stands by and allows you to do that? Until now it has never been possible to destroy suns as an act of war. What makes the zen gun invincible is that it is small. One man can carry it unseen, it cannot be kept track of or detected. It is the equaliser between the individual and all the rest of the civilised universe. With just a sidearm, one man can now defeat an empire.”
The pig trembled slightly. Head lowered, he glared directly at Ikematsu. He looked as if he were about to charge at him. He had done a wise thing. Gruwert told himself, in bringing his bodyguard along. The stoat was stationed within call just up the corridor.
“Kosho, you speak treason, and shortly I shall have you arrested. Are you telling me you have this gun?”
“No, I do not have it. I had it, but I lost it.”
Gruwert snorted disdainfully. “This tale is preposterous. 1 do not believe a word of it. The man-ape’s toy is only a piece of wood.”
“Your disbelief will hasten the triumph of right,” Ikematsu responded blandly. “Before the chimera arrives, let me tell you something of the gun’s recent history. It may convince you.
“One gun is all that was ever made. Shortly after its manufacture my order was destroyed, in its original form, by political events. The weapon was lost, irrevocably, it was thought.
“Then, a few years ago, a kosho by the name of Orohisho Smith succeeded in finding it. Smith was not advanced enough spiritually to decode the gun fully, however, I do not think he was even interested in its ultimate use, only to exploit some of the secondary capabilities its mode of operation entails. Specifically, he wished to explore other facets of the Simplex. As a result of his meddling, the gun opened up the rent in space.
“Smith was never to know what he had done in his ignorance. He was tricked and made prisoner by one Torth Nascimento, who wished to keep him as a human specimen in a museum. To rob this man of his satisfaction, Smith took the course of self-destruction. Meantime his weapons, including the zen gun, had been placed in the museum’s weapons section, from where it was stolen by your friend Pout the chimera.
“It was then that I attached myself to Pout. My interest has been to see the gun fall into worthy hands, but 1 was honour-bound not to take it from him by force. Surprisingly, the gun responded to Pout a little. He was able to employ it as an anti-personnel weapon, and to give him personal power over others. He never guessed at its real secrets, of course. But he used to play with its settings. By doing this he unknowingly broke the gravitational bond between the planet Earth and its large satellite.”
Hesper, who with Archier had been listening in silence, gasped. “Is that what happened?”
“I don’t understand this,” Archier said. “There is no actual bond between gravitating bodies.”
“Strictly speaking you are right: gravitation is a screening effect. So I speak loosely. What the gun really did was to render Earth and the moon gravitationally transparent to one another.”
The kosho resumed his story. “You will recall that after the fleet entered the region effected by the rent a number of persons vanished. Among them were myself, Pout and these two boys. We were instantaneously transported to the surface of a planet, the same, I think, that the fleet was headed for. I will not dwell on what took place there. Suffice to say that at last I procured the zen gun from Pout, and I was able to remedy the damage done by my fellow kosho. I used the gun to close up the rent.”
“So if you’re telling the truth we don’t have that to worry about anymore.” Gruwert growled. “Good.”
“You never did. The rent would have closed up by itself, after a while. Another problem was inadvertently solved, however. As the rent closed, the entities that had come through it withdrew. But first they restored everything to the condition in which they found it. Everything they had dismembered they put together, everything they had moved they put back, in the twinkling of an eye. Those of us from this ship were put back on this ship, mended in body if not in mind.”
“The fleet has moved light years since you were taken,” Hesper said in puzzlement. “If you were put back where you were before, it would be into the void.”
Ikematsu gave his faint smile. “Evidently you have scant knowledge of physics. ‘Place’ as a physical reality applies only to material objects, not to empty space. This flagship is the ‘place’ from which we were taken, and it does not matter how it has altered its relationship with other places in the interim. Star Force’s intermat system,” he added casually, “works on the same principle.”
“Then where is the zen gun now?” Archier asked.
Ikematsu’s head turned. He was looking to the door. Pout had suddenly appeared there. He walked with a tired slouch, head down, arms hanging, as the ape in him had taken over completely. Blinking, he stumbled into the room, swayed, then leaned against a wall.
With him was a boy of about eight who seemed to have been pushing Pout ahead of him. On seeing Gruwert, the boy saluted self-consciously. “The chimera you ordered brought here, Admiral. We found him trying to hide in a clothes store. I, er, don’t think he’s very well.”
Feeling uneasy, Archier said. “That’s all. Go now. At once.”
As the boy left, Ikematsu answered Archier’s question. “The gun was not on me when I reappeared aboard the flagship. I reason that it, too, must have returned to its point of departure. I surmise that Pout has it.”
“SMO Archier!” Gruwert roared. “Get that gun!”