The Second Randall Garrett Megapack Page 21

  He closed his eyes as he sat in his room, the fluctuating colors on the walls going unappreciated. He had nothing to do now except wait for the final judgment of the Gods.

  At first he had been terrified. But terror could only last so long, and, as the time ticked by, the idea of that coming judgment had almost stopped troubling his mind. Either he had passed the tests or he hadn’t. There was no point in worrying about the inevitable. He felt anesthetized, numb to any sensation of personal danger. There was nothing whatever he could do. The Gods had him; very well, let the Gods worry about what to do with him.

  Freed, his mind turned over and over a problem that seemed new to him at first. Gradually, he realized it wasn’t new at all; it had been somewhere in the back of his thoughts from the very first, when Venus had told him that he had been chosen as a double for Dionysus, so many months ago. It seemed like years to Forrester, and yet, at the same time, like no more than hours. So much had happened, and so much had changed.…

  But the question had remained, waiting until he could look at it and work with it. Now he could face that strange doubt in his mind, the doubt that had colored everything since his introduction to the Gods, that had grown as his training in demi-Godhood had progressed, and that was now, for the first time, coming to full consciousness. Every time it had come near the surface, before this day, he had expelled it from his mind, forcefully getting rid of it without realizing fully that he was doing so.

  And perhaps, he thought, the doubt had begun even earlier than that. Perhaps he had always doubted, and never allowed himself to think about the doubt. The floor of his mind seemed to open and he was falling, falling.…

  But where the doubt had begun was unimportant now. It was present, it had grown; that was all that mattered. He could find facts to feed the doubt and strengthen it, and he looked at the facts one by one:

  First there was the angry conversation between Mars and Venus, on the night of the Bacchanal.

  He could still hear what Mars had said:

  “…worse than your predecessor.”

  And then he’d shut Venus up before she gave away too much—realizing, maybe, that he had given away a good deal himself. That one little sentence was enough to bring everything into question, Forrester thought.

  He had wondered why it had been necessary to have a double for Dionysus, but he hadn’t actually thought about it; maybe he hadn’t wanted to think about it. But now, with the notion of a “predecessor” for Venus in his mind, he had to think about it, and the only conclusion he could come to was a disturbing one. It did more than disturb him, as a matter of fact—it frightened him. He wanted desperately to find some flaw in the conclusion he faced, because he feared it even more than he feared the coming judgment of the Pantheon.

  But there wasn’t any flaw. The facts meshed together entirely too well to be an accidental pattern.

  In the first place, he thought, why had he been picked for the job? He was a nobody, of no importance, with no special gifts. Why did he deserve the honor of taking his place beside Hercules and Achilles and Odysseus and the other great heroes? Forrester knew he wasn’t any hero. But what gave him his standing?

  And, he went on, there was a second place. In the months of his training he had met fourteen of the Gods—all of them, except for Dionysus. Now, what kind of sense did that make? Anyone who’s going to have a double usually trains the double himself, if it’s at all possible. Or, at the very least, he allows the double to watch his actions, so that the double can do a really competent job of imitation.

  And if an imitation is all that’s needed, why not hire an actor instead of a history professor?

  Vulcan had told him: “You were picked not merely for your physical resemblance to Dionysus, but your psychological resemblance as well.”

  That had to be true, if only because, as far as Forrester could see, nobody had the slightest reason to lie about it. But why should it be true? What advantage did the Gods get out of that “psychological resemblance”? All he was supposed to be was a double—and anybody who looked like Dionysus would be accepted as Dionysus by the people. The “psychological resemblance” didn’t have a single thing to do with it.

  Mars, Venus, Vulcan—even Zeus had dropped clues. Zeus had referred to him as a “substitute for Dionysus.”

  A substitute, he realized with a kind of horror, was not at all the same thing as a double.

  The answer was perfectly clear, but there were even more facts to bolster it. Why had he been tested, for instance, after he had been made a demi-God? In spite of what Vulcan had said, was he slated for further honors if he passed the new tests? He was sure that Vulcan had been telling the truth as far as he’d gone—but it hadn’t been the whole truth. Forrester was certain of that now.

  And what was it that Venus had said during that argument with Mars? Something about not killing Forrester, because then they would have to “get another—”

  Another what?

  Another substitute?

  No, there was no escape from the simple and obvious conclusion. Dionysus was either missing, which was bad enough, or something much worse.

  He was dead.

  Forrester shivered. The idea of an immortal God dying was, in one way, as horrible a notion as he could imagine. But in another way, it seemed to make a good deal of sense. As far as plain William Forrester had been concerned, the contradiction in the notion of a dead immortal would have made it ridiculous to start with. But the demi-God Dionysus had a somewhat different slant on things.

  After all, as Vulcan had told him, a demi-God could die. And if that was true, then why couldn’t a God die too? Perhaps it would take quite a lot to kill a God—but the difference would be one of degree, not of kind.

  It seemed wholly logical. And it led, Forrester saw, to a new conclusion, one that required a little less effort to face than he thought it would. It should have shaken the foundations of his childhood and left him dizzy, but somehow it didn’t. How long, he asked himself, had he been secretly doubting the fact that the Gods were Gods?

  At least in the sense they pretended to be, the “Gods” were not gods at all. They were—something else.

  But what? Where did they come from?

  Were they actually the Gods of ancient Greece, as they claimed? Forrester wanted to throw that claim out with the rest, but when he thought things over he didn’t see why he should. To an almost indestructible being, three thousand years may only be a long time.

  So the Gods actually were “Gods,” at least as far as longevity went. But the decision didn’t get him very far; there were still a lot of questions unanswered, and no way that he could see of answering them.

  Or, rather, there was one way, but it was hellishly dangerous. He had no business even thinking about. He was in enough hot water already.

  Nevertheless.…

  What more harm could he do to his chances? After the Bacchanal fiasco, there was probably a sentence of death hanging over his head anyhow. And they couldn’t do any more to him than kill him.

  It was ridiculous, he told himself, with a return of caution and sanity. But the notion came back, nagging at his mind, and at last it took a new form.

  The Gods had the rest of the information he needed. He had to go to one of them—but which one?

  His first thought was Venus. But, after a moment of thought, he ruled her regretfully out as a possibility. After all, there was Mars’ mention of her “predecessor.” If that meant anything, it meant that the current Venus wasn’t the original one. She would have a lot less information than one of the original Gods.

  If there were any originals left.…

  He tabled that thought hurriedly and went on. Vulcan had told him at least a part of the truth, and Vulcan looked like a good bet. Forrester didn’t like the idea of bearding the artisan in his workshop; it made him feel uncomfortable, and after a while he put his finger on the reason. His little liaison with Venus made him feel guilty. There was, he knew, no real
reason for it. In the first place, he hadn’t known the girl was Venus, and in the second place she may not have been the same one who had been Vulcan’s original wife, thirty and more centuries ago.

  But the guilt remained, and he tabled Vulcan for the time being and went on.

  Morpheus, Hera, and most of the others he passed by without a glance; there was no reason for them to dislike him, but there was no reason for comradeship, either. Mars popped into his mind, and popped right out again. That would be putting his head in the lion’s mouth with a vengeance.

  No, there was only one left, the obvious choice, the one who had helped him throughout his training period—Diana. She genuinely seemed to like him. She was also a good kid. The thought alone was almost enough to make him smile fondly, and would have if he had not remembered the peril he was in.

  He turned away from the window to look at the color-swirled wall across the room. He had remained in his room ever since Mars and Venus had brought him back from New York, and he wasn’t at all sure that he could leave it. In the normal sense of the word, the place had neither exits nor entrances. The only way of getting in or out of the place was via the Veils of Heaven—matter transmitters, not something supernatural, he realized now.

  As far as Forrester knew, they still worked. But the Gods could generate a Veil anywhere, at any time. Forrester, as a demi-God, could only will one into existence on sufferance; he could only work the matter-transmitting Veils if the Gods permitted him to do so. If they didn’t, he was trapped.

  Well, he told himself, there was one way to find out.

  He walked over to the wall and stood a few feet away from it, concentrating in the way he had been taught. He was still slower at it than the Gods themselves, and hadn’t developed the knack of forming a Veil as he walked toward the place where he wanted it to be, as they had.

  But he knew he could do it—if he was still allowed to.

  Minutes went by.

  Then, as the blue sheet of neural energy flickered into being, Forrester slumped in sudden relief. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  The Veil was there—but was it what he hoped, or a trick? Possibly he could focus the other terminal where he wanted it, but there was also the chance that the Gods had set the thing up so that, when he stepped through, he would be standing in the Court of the Gods facing a tribunal for which he was totally unprepared.

  It would be just like the Pantheon, he thought, to pull a lousy trick like that.

  But there was no point in dithering. If death was to be his fate, that would be that. He could do nothing at all by sitting in his room and waiting for them to come and get him.

  He focused the exit terminal in Diana’s apartment. There was no way of knowing whether the focus worked or not until he stepped through.

  He opened his eyes and walked into the Veil.

  He felt almost disappointed when he looked around him. He had steeled himself to do great battle with the Gods—and, instead, he was where he had wanted to be, in Diana’s apartment.

  She was standing with her back to him, and Forrester didn’t make a sound, not wanting to startle the Goddess. She was totally unclad, her glorious body shining in the light of the room, her blue-black hair unbound and falling halfway down her gently curved back. But she must have heard him somehow, for she turned, and for half a second she stood facing him.

  Forrester did not move. He couldn’t even breathe.

  Every magnificent curve was highlighted in a frozen tableau.

  Then there was a sudden flash of white, and she was clad in a clinging chiton which, Forrester saw, served only to remind one of what one had recently seen. It worked very well, although Forrester did not think he had any need for an aid to his memory.

  “My goodness!” Diana said. “You shouldn’t surprise a girl like that! I mean, you really gave me a shock, kid!”

  Forrester took his first breath. “Well,” he said, “I could be dishonest, not to mention ungallant, and tell you I was sorry.”

  “But?” Diana said.

  “Being of sound mind and sound body, I’m a long way from being sorry.”

  And Diana dropped her eyes and blushed.

  Forrester could barely believe it.

  But it did show a part of the Goddess’s personality that was entirely new to him. He was sure that any of the Gods or Goddesses could sense when a Veil of Heaven was forming near them, and get prepared before it was well enough developed to allow for passage. But Diana—who was, after all, one of the traditionally virgin Goddesses, like Pallas Athena—had chosen to pretend surprise.

  Forrester had a further hunch, too. He thought she might have deliberately vanished her chiton only a second or so before he entered. And that put a different—and a very interesting—face on things.

  Not to mention, he thought, an entire figure.

  But he didn’t say anything. That wasn’t his main business in Diana’s apartment. Instead, he watched her smile briskly and say: “Well, you’re here, anyhow, kid, and I guess that’s enough for me. Want a drink? I could whip up some nectar—and maybe an ambrosia sandwich?”

  “I’ll take the drink,” Forrester said. “I’m not really hungry, thanks.”

  Diana held out her hands, fingers curved inward, and a crystal cup of clear, golden liquid appeared in each—matter transmission, of course, not magic. She handed one over to Forrester, who took it and looked the Goddess straight in the eyes.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Diana, I’ve got some questions to ask you, and I hope I’ll get the answers.”

  She touched the rim of her cup to his. Her voice was very soft, but she didn’t hesitate in the least. “I’ll answer any questions I have to. Sit down.”

  They found chairs along the walls of the room and sat facing one another. Forrester took a sip of his drink, settled back, and tried to think where to begin. Well, God or no God, Zeus had the key to that one. He had said it years ago, and it had passed almost into legend:

  “Begin at the beginning, go on until you reach the end, and then stop.”

  Very well, Forrester thought. He cleared his throat. Diana looked at him inquiringly.

  “I don’t know how far into the noose I’m putting my head with this one, Diana,” he said. “But I trust you—and I’ve got to ask somebody.”

  “Go ahead,” she said quietly.

  “First question. The original Dionysus is dead, isn’t he?”

  She paused for a moment before answering. “Yes, he is.”

  “And I was scheduled to take his place.”

  “That’s right.”

  “As a full God,” Forrester said.

  Diana nodded.

  There was a little silence.

  “Diana,” Forrester said, “what are the Gods?”

  She got up and crossed to the window. Looking out, she said: “Before I answer that, I want you to tell me what you think we are.”

  “Men and women,” he said. “More or less human, like myself. Except you’ve somehow managed to get so far ahead of any kind of science Earth knows that, even today, your effects can only be explained as ‘magic’ or ‘miracle.’”

  “How could we get that far ahead of you?”

  Forrester took a leap in the dark to the only conclusion he could see. “You’re not from Earth,” he said. “You’re from another planet.” The words sounded strange in his own ears—but Diana didn’t even act surprised.

  “That’s right,” she said. “We’re from another planet—or, rather, from several other planets.”

  “Several?” Forrester exclaimed. “But—oh. I see. Pan, for instance—”

  Diana nodded. “Pan isn’t even really humanoid. His home is a planet where his type of goatlike life evolved. Neither Pluto nor Neptune is humanoid, either; they’re a little closer than Pan, but not really very close when you get a good look. The rest of the Gods are humanoid—but not human.”

  “Wait a minute,” Forrester said. “Venus is human. Or, anyhow, she’s a rep
lacement, just the way I was slated to be a replacement for Dionysus.”

  Diana drained her cup and clapped her hands together on it. The cup vanished. Forrester did the same to his own. “Correct,” she said. “Venus just—just disappeared once. They got an Etruscan girl to replace her. She’s not the only replacement, either.”

  Forrester stared. “Who else?”

  “You tell me.”

  He thought the list of Gods over. “Zeus,” he said.

  Diana smiled. “Yes, Zeus is a long way from the great hero of the legends, isn’t he? Using the old calendar, Zeus died in about 1100 B.C., not too long after the close of the Trojan War. As far as anybody knows, Neptune did the actual killing, but it’s pretty clear that the original idea wasn’t his.”

  “Hera’s,” Forrester guessed.

  “Of course,” Diana said. “What she wanted was a figurehead she could control—and that’s what she got. Though I’m not sure she’s entirely happy with the change. If the original Zeus was a little harder to control, at least he seems to have had an original thought now and again.”

  Forrester sat quietly for a time, waiting for the shock to pass. “What about Dionysus?”

  Diana shrugged. “He—well, as far as anybody’s ever been able to tell, it was suicide. About three years ago, and it drove Hera pretty wild, trying to find a substitute in a hurry. I suspect he was bored with the wine, women and song. He’d had a long time of it. And, too, he’d had some little disagreements with Hera. As you may have gathered, she is not exactly a safe person to have as an enemy. He probably figured she’d get him sooner or later, so he might as well save her the trouble.”

  “And Hera had to rush to get a replacement? Why couldn’t there just have been some sort of explanation, while the rest of you ran things?”

  “Because the rest of us couldn’t run things. Not for long, anyhow. It’s all a question of power.”

  “Power?” Forrester said.

  “Everything we have,” Diana said, “is derived, directly or indirectly, from the workings of one machine. Though ‘machine’ is a long way from the right word for it—it bears about as much resemblance to what you think of as a machine as a television set does to a window. There just isn’t a word for it in any language you know.”