"I am awake," said Temple.
"We see that. You shouldn"t be."
"No?"
"No. There is one more dream."
Temple dozed restfully but was soon aware of a commotion. Strangely, he did not care. He was too tired to open his eyes, anyway. Let whatever was going to happen, happen. He wanted his sleep.
But the voice persisted.
"This is highly irregular. You came in here once and--"
"I did you a favor, didn"t I?" (That voice is familiar, Temple thought.)
"Well, yes. But what now?"
"Temple"s record is now one and one. In the second sequence he was the victor. The Soviet entry had to extract certain information from him and turn it over to her people. She extracted the information well enough but somehow Temple made her change her mind. The information never went anyplace. How Temple managed to play counterspy I don"t know, but he played it and won."
"That"s fine. But what do you want?"
"The final E.C.R. is critical." (The voice was Arkalion"s!) "How critical, I can"t tell you. Sufficient though, if you know that you lose no matter how Temple fares. If the Russian woman defeats Temple, you lose."
"Naturally."
"Let me finish. If Temple defeats the Russian woman, you also lose.
Either way, Earth is the loser. I haven"t time to explain what you wouldn"t understand anyway. Will you cooperate?"
"Umm-mm. You did save Temple"s life. Umm-mm, yes. All right."
"The third dream sequence is the wrong dream, the wrong contest with the wrong antagonist at the wrong time, when a far more important contest is brewing ... with the fate of Earth as a reward for the victor."
"What do you propose?"
"I will arrange Temple"s final dream. But if he disappears from this room, don"t be alarmed. It"s a dream of a different sort. Temple won"t know it until the dream progresses, you won"t know it until everything is concluded, but Temple will fight for a slave or a free Earth."
"Can"t you tell us more?"
"There is no time, except to say that along with the rest of the Galaxy, you"ve been duped. The Nowhere Journey is a grim, tragic farce.
"Awaken, Kit!"
Temple awoke into what he thought was the third and final dream.
Strange, because this time he knew where he was and why, knew also that he was dreaming, even remembered vividly the other two dreams.
"Stealth," said Arkalion, and led Temple through long, white-walled corridors. They finally came to a partially open door and paused there. Peering within, Temple saw a room much like the one he had left, with two white-gowned figures standing anxiously over a table.
And p.r.o.ne on the table was Sophia, whom Temple had loved short moments before, in his second dream. Moments? Years. (Never, except in a dream.)
"She"s lovely," Arkalion whispered.
"I know." Like himself, Sophia was garbed in a loose jumper and slacks.
"Stealth," said Arkalion again. "Haste." Arkalion disappeared.
"Well," Temple told himself. "What now? At least in the other dreams I was thrust so completely into things, I knew what to do." He rubbed his jaw grimly. "Not that it did much good the first time."
Temple poked the partially-ajar door with his foot, pushing it open.
The two white-smocked figures had their backs to him, leaned intently over the table and Sophia. Without knowing what motivated him, Temple leaped into the room, grasped the nearer figure"s arm, whirled him around. Startled confusion began to alter the man"s coa.r.s.e features, but his face went slack when Temple"s fist struck his jaw with terrible strength. The man collapsed.
The second man turned, mouthing a stream of what must have been Russian invective. He parried Temple"s quick blow with his left hand, crossing his own right fist to Temple"s face and almost ending the fight as quickly as it had started. Temple went down in a heap and was vaguely aware of the Russian"s booted foot hovering over his face. He reached out, grabbed the boot with both hands, twisted. The man screamed and fell and then they were rolling over and over, striking each other with fists, knees, elbows, gouging, b.u.t.ting, cursing.
Temple found the Russian"s throat, closed his hands around it, applied pressure. Fists pounded his face, nails raked him, but slowly he succeeded in throttling the Russian. When Temple got to his feet, trembling, the Russian stared blankly at the ceiling. He would go on staring that way until someone shut his eyes.
Not questioning the incomprehensible, Temple knew he had done what he must. Hardly seeking for the motive he could not find he lifted the unconscious Sophia off the table, slung her long form across his shoulder, plodded with her from the room. Arkalion had said haste. He would hurry.
He next was aware of a s.p.a.ceship. Remembering no time lag, he simply stood in the ship with Arkalion. And Sophia.
He knew it was a s.p.a.ceship because he had been in one before and although the sensation of weightlessness was not present, they were in deep s.p.a.ce. Stars you never see through an obscuring atmosphere hung suspended in the viewports. Cold-bright, not flickering against the plush blackness of deep s.p.a.ce, phalanxes and legions of stars without numbers, in such wild profusion that s.p.a.ce actually seemed three dimensional.
"This is a different sort of dream," said Sophia in English. "I remember. I remember everything. Kit--"
"h.e.l.lo." He felt strangely shy, became mildly angry when Arkalion hardly tried to suppress a slight snicker. "Well, that second dream wasn"t our idea," Temple protested. "Once there, we acted ... and--"
"And...." said Sophia.
"And nothing," Arkalion told them. "You haven"t time. This is a s.p.a.ceship, not like the slow, blumbling craft your people use to reach Mars or Jupiter."
"Our people?" Temple demanded. "Not yours?"
"Will you let me finish? Light is a laggard crawler by comparison with the drive propelling this ship. Temple, Sophia, we are leaving your Galaxy altogether."
"Is that a fact?" said Sophia, her Jupiter-found knowledge telling her they were traveling an unthinkable distance. "For some final contest between us, no doubt, to decide whether the U. S. S. R. or the U. S.
represents Earth? Kit, I l-love you, but...."
"But Russia is more important, huh?"
"No. I didn"t say that. All my training has been along those lines, though, and even if I"m aware it is indoctrination, the fact still remains. If your country is truly better, but if I have seen your country only through the eyes of Pravda, how can I ... I don"t know, Kit. Let me think."
"You needn"t," said Arkalion, smiling. "If the two of you would let me get on with it you"d see this particular train of thought is meaningless, quite meaningless." Arkalion cleared his throat.
"Strange, but I have much the same problem as Sophia has. My indoctrination was far more subtle though. Far more convincing, based upon eons of propaganda methods. Temple, Sophia, those who initiated the Nowhere Journey for hundreds of worlds of your galaxy did so with a purpose."
"I know. To decide who gets their vast knowledge."
"Wrong. To find suitable hosts in a one-way relationship which is hardly symbiosis, really out and out parasitism."