MAREK BARANIESKI

The Hired Man

The Transgalactic Survey Ship was in its second month of travel
through the endless void of the Universe. The quasi-temporal warp
encased the Ship like a cocoon, severing its contact with the Earth
for the next twenty years or so. Most of the members of the ten-man
crew were asleep in their separate cabins. Commander Alan Kalpern,
First Officer of the mission, looked at the corridor clock and realized
that it was high time to go to the Navigation Center and take over
from the Captain.

He stared wearily at the slowly opening door and did not take in the
interior of the control cabin at once. But he froze after taking his
first step inside. In the middle seat, with its back to the control
panels, Kalpern saw the lifeless body of Cargini, the ship's Captain.
His unnaturally twisted legs barely touched the soft surface of the
floor. His hands, flung aside, hung above the arms of the chair, giving
Kalpern a view of Cargini's massive chest and the bloody mass of guts
spilled over his light-brown suit and below it.

Cargini was dead.

His seat was stained with blood. The large red pools around the chair
had not yet managed to soak into the spongy lining of the floor. The
blood had ricocheted off the tall back of the seat onto the dome and
the computer panels. The thousands of drops and rivulets of blood
interspersed with the colored dots on the big holoscreen which took
up most of the wall space and formed an avant-garde type of painting.
The drops of blood betrayed the real surface of the screens,
contrasting with the star dots which hung in a multitude of planes.
The Captain's face was purple, twisted in a grimace of fear mixed with
an overtone of frozen surprise.

A taut-faced Commander Kalpern looked slowly away and quietly said to
nobody in particular:

"Battle procedure A3. Full scan of the ship and the surrounding space.
First degree information block. Red observation alert!"

The purple LEDs of the emergency units came to life all over the
panels. Behind Kalpern's back the two halves of the door slid
together, cutting off the control cabin from the rest of the ship. Still
motionless, the First Officer thought fast. Captain Cargini had been
murdered - in an inconceivable way and in a totally improbable
situation. Actually, what Kalpern was now seeing was supposed to be
impossible to happen. It had never happened in the whole history of
Galactic flights. The crew always consisted of ten people, carefully
singled out after many years of testing, and all checked out
psychologically as absolutely reliable. There were androids as well -
but, contrarily to the ancient SF movies, there was absolutely no
chance that any of the robots might harm a human being. Only a man
could, and still did, that. But how? And why? In such a situation, in a
state of Red Alert, the Operation Manual said Kalpern needed another
crew member to help him. He went to the farthest seat and called the
cabin of Chief Programmer Samson Hewel. He had to wait a moment for
Hewel to acknowledge the call.

"What's up?" The voice of the chief programmer was sleepy.

"Come to the lab. I can't resolve the field analysis of the seventh zone
emitter. Haven't got the keys to the structural memory."

"Comin'."

To reach the lab, Hewel had to pass the door of the Navigation Center.
When Kalpern heard him coming, he opened the door and pulled the
programmer in. They remained silent for a while. When Hewel's initial
shock had passed, Kalpern said:

"It must have happened less than ten minutes ago. What were you doing
then?"

"I was sleeping." Hewel replied, adding with his usual common sense:
"The computer should've recorded all on-board door movements. Have
you checked?"

"No!"

They went to the programming console. Hewel encoded the question. The
monitor displayed the codes of the doors and locks which had been
opened within the past hour. None of them were in the cabin section,
except for the door to the Navigation Center in which they were now.
It had been opened for forty-eight seconds when Kalpern came in.

All the new data, recorded after Kalpern had put on the information
block, was now being stored in the autonomous Emergency System,
which was separated from the main memory. This meant that all the
data could be retrieved and read only after the ship's return to the
Earth. In twenty years.

"What now?" Asked Hewel.

"Can you get into this program?"

"I could try." Hewel said slowly, but didn't move.

"We have to decide now, haven't we?" It was more of a statement than
a question. Kalpern's eyes met Hewel's for a brief moment. Both men
were calm and intent. When they looked aside at last, the tension had
visibly subsided.

"OK, go ahead." Said Kalpern. Still, there was some inner tremor in him
while he watched the Chief Programmer lay bare all codes and systems
in his bid to identify the program which hid the opening of the
Navigation Center door just prior to the Captain's death. In the end,
when every effort had failed, Kalpern allowed himself a sigh.

"Thanks, Samson. You knew it, thought, didn't you?"

"I couldn't have known." Hewel replied. "But I suspected something of
the sort. What shall we do now?"

They felt a sort of relief, as if the fact that the computer system
wasn't of any help gave them a chance to trust each other.

"First the place," Kalpern ordered, "then the body."

Hewel nodded. He sat down and started working on a computer
reconstruction of the event. For more than ten minutes he tried to
program what he had made up in his mind. Kalpern watched as Hewel's
forehead grew beady with sweat, watched his fingers, flashing over
the keyboard - and thought that fate had given him the best
programmer in the whole Galactic Corps. When he had almost lost the
thread of Hewel's thoughts, embodied as they were in the new
program, the programmer banged his fist on his arm-rest and hissed:

"This program is better than anything I know of. We won't find out
anything. That's the best I can do..."

In front of them one of the many screens displayed an animated
version of the event. The Captain was standing up, facing the door in
which there was an irregular green splotch. The splotch emitted a dot
which hit the standing figure just below the chest. The figure backed
up and folded in two, with a fading afterimage marking the subsequent
steps. The blow was very strong. The hands fanned up above the head
and then folded down over the arms of the seat when the body fell
into it. Lines of dots spread out from its chest. This was blood! At
this moment the simulation ended. The following words were displayed
on the screen: TWO BULLETS. LOCALIZATION - BACK OF THE SEAT. THE
BODY IS NOT SUITABLE FOR REANIMATION. RECOMMENDATION - FREEZER.

"We have to dispose of the body." Kalpern said. There was nothing else
to do. The robots hauled in a gleaming container and put the Captain's
body in it. One of them cleaned the floor, the panels and the ceiling.
Another removed the two bullets from the back of the seat and put
them on a panel, having registered their features in the ship's
memory. The robot faced the two humans and asked a silent question
which glowed on one of the monitors: SHALL I CHANGE THE SEAT?

Hewel gave a vocal reply:

"No. Prepare a substitute and place it in the intermediate chamber.
Accept orders only from the Navigation Center."

His words were displayed on the screen just below the robot's
question.

"End of order," he said.

The doors slid quietly back after the robots had left. Kalpern and
Hewel went to the panel and took one of the bullets each. They were.
35's, metal jacketed and with a cross cut in their tops.

"Nobody uses such missiles on Earth any more. They're ancient
history." Said Kalpern.

"Not quite. I heard of a murder committed with firearms." Hewel
frowned. "It was a hired killer. The man who told me about that was
the chief of the criminal investigations department that is near our
Flight Center."

There was a long silence. Kalpern finally broke it.

"We have seven suspects," he said. "Each one is equally improbable. Is
there any procedure for something like this happening on the Ship?"

"No. You yourself know all the procedures. There are no arms except
blasters on board. And you can't take out a blaster without the
consent of the whole crew."

Kalpern was aware that the chief programmer knew more about the
ship than anybody else, including himself. That was his duty. Now he
was no doubt acting with a lot of safeguards arising out of his
practical common-sense. As officer-in-charge, Kalpern was grateful to
him for opening up the computer. Hewel had broken a number of rules
- but the situation had changed the whole basis for those rules. Now
there was no point in sticking to the old set of references.

"Where do we start?"

It seemed as if Hewel did not want to take decisions on his own.

"With a complete scan." Kalpern voiced his thoughts and added: "Can
you block the cabins?"

"Yes, if you give me such an order."

"So I do; the situation requires a violation of the rule of
non-interference. We'll start a full search of every part of the ship."

The scanners tore into the crew's cabins and tuned to the infrared
spectrum. The computers did not question the human's order, finding
it justifiable. The crew members slept, alone or in pairs. Their pulse
was steady; their sleep was deep and undisturbed. The naked bodies
were proof of calm and relaxation. Their postures were, together with
their intimacy, so close to the natural, internal dream projection, so
peaceful, that both observers felt a shiver creeping up their spines.
Someone who had killed only half an hour ago couldn't be so calm. On
the other hand, all members of the crew had been very carefully
selected with special emphasis being placed on their psychological
reactions to extreme stress. Kalpern and Hewel stood together in
silence, both thinking the same thing: if not a member of the crew,
then who or what?

"Two couples and three single persons." Mused Kalpern. "It's rather
improbable that those in pairs might pretend so well. That leaves us
Rita, Lea and Vera."

One of them had to say that. Hewel tried to hide his tension when
Vera's name was mentioned, but Kalpern did not fail to notice it; he
himself had felt a heat-wave wash over him when he had started with
Rita's name. Still, they had to start somewhere.

"The weapon should still be on the ship, Samson." Kalpern said.

"Good, there's something else to do yet." Hewel sighed with visible
relief.

"I'll go to Cargini's cabin. OK?" Suggested Kalpern.

They parted at the door of the Navigation Center. On his way out
Kalpern wondered whether the murderer had shot Cargini while the
door was still open. If it was so there was a chance that the sound
had been registered by some system located in another section of the
ship and independent of the main memory. If the assassin had not
thought of it first, of course. The scanners in the cabin section
showed nothing. The recording had been very skillfully erased. Kalpern
hoped he would find something in the Captain's cabin, something that
would put his mind on the right track.

The door had been blocked according to his orders. Kalpern took out
Cargini's personal magnetic key and inserted it in a slot near the
door. Then he went into the cabin. It looked as if its owner had left
it just seconds ago. The Captain's personal badge was on the table, as
well as some cigarettes and a piece of chewing gum. A pocket edition of
some book was on the bed. Kalpern picked it up: it was a thriller.
Cargini loved thrillers; he read and re-read them again and again on
every mission, even on the longest ones. Kalpern opened the closet. A
few suits, souvenirs from previous missions, and a mascot, probably a
present from Lea. Underwear and a funny bow-tie for a non-existent
shirt.

He was about to leave when he thought of looking in the bathroom. He
switched on the light and looked around the small, light-brown cabin.
It was completely empty, except for the shelf below the bathroom
mirror on which there was a cassette. One of the countless
game-cassettes which littered all the shops on Earth in their millions.
He took it, puzzled, and looked at the holographic cover. A grim man
in a spotless business suit, no doubt straight from the shop of a
Paris tailor, looked right at him from the dark cover. The man's big,
hairy hands were holding a sawed-off shotgun. He was aiming at
Kalpern. There was a smile on his lips. A terrible smile, meaning only
one thing: DEATH!

There was a title over the figure: 'THE HIRED MAN. A Synchronous
Computer Game', and a yellow star in the bottom-right corner
proclaimed the trade mark: Heine-Comtronic. There was more on the
back of the cover: 'Fight the computer! It's you - or it!'

Something stuck in his throat; he tried to clear it but couldn't. He
read on: 'Are you fascinated with Risk? Danger? Playing with the
Unknown? The Heine-Comtronic thriller games are something specially-
made just for you! H-C is the Ultimate Trial of Nerves, Horror and
Black Entertainment! Your evenings will not be empty any more! The
H-C parasystematic programs will take you to the world of violence,
crime and finely-drawn characters. At your request, and depending on
the program, you can become a murderer or a victim, an enforcer or a
passive observer of the misfortunes and tragedies started by
yourself. All of that for just $75 or its equivalent in any world
currency. The instructions are included in a program. REMEMBER!
Heine-Comtronic thrills with you!'

The dryness in his throat had become unbearable. He cleared it a few
more times. The sounds echoed around, bouncing off the stillness of
the cabin's walls. Kalpern pocketed the cassette and went back to the
scene of the crime. He sat down on a seat next to the captain's, took
up the bullet, looked at it gloomily and shifted his eyes towards the
holes in the back of the seat and the stains, which were visibly
darker now. He put the bullet in his pocket.

Hewel came back ten minutes later. When he appeared in the doorway,
his expression was an answer in itself.

"Nothing." He said.

"I've got something." Kalpern replied, taking the cassette out of his
pocket. "It was in Cargini's cabin."

He gave it to Hewel. The programmer looked at it for a long while
without saying a word. Then he opened the box and took out a silver
disk with a hole in the middle. He held it out.

"Do you know what it is?" He asked, and, not waiting for Kalpern's
reaction he answered the question himself. "Pirate production. Illegal
publishing. The Earth markets are full of such things, coming from
dozens of pirate manufactures, such as Heine-Comtronic. This one is
among the biggest and it is far from being stopped yet. Such
manufacturers don't pay taxes and are therefore able to hire the best
programmers, to devise programs the outcome of which nobody can
foresee. And it is very difficult to prove that these hackers
collaborate with the pirates. The games are worked out on unlicensed
computer systems. It is an enormous underground business. There have
been instances of Galactic Corps programmers accepting commissions
from the pirates."

They looked at each other in silence. Both of them had the same
thought, and both felt themselves drawn towards a ridiculous line of
investigation. Kalpern had heard of illegal cassettes. Their production
was forbidden and prosecuted. Even the possession of such a cassette
carried with it the threat of a large sentence. But the cassettes were
the equivalent of a modern drug - only much more dangerous because
the programs in them were uncontrollable, often designed by morally
irresponsible madmen who had been stripped of their programmer
licenses for various other criminal reasons. Kalpern had never been
interested in that sort of thing. In his opinion, anybody who wanted
to play at crime was to some extent a psychopath. And he had always
been contemptuous of the captain's obvious pleasure in reading
thrillers.

"OK, let's have a look at it." Kalpern suggested.

"Sure," said Hewel frowning. He looked at the disk and punched a few
keys.

"Something wrong?" Kalpern asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's foolish but I have a premonition... a
suspicion... I don't know how to put it in words..."

"Go ahead. The situation has already passed beyond the boundaries of
mere logic and right now anything may be of importance."

"It's just a premonition," Hewel repeated, and nodded at the display.
"You see, the computer, when asked whether this game had ever been
entered into it, answered 'No'. And Cargini must have played it... at
least once. Of course, I am not suggesting anything, it's just that..."
Feeling helpless and embarrassed, he nodded at the captain's seat. "As
far as I can tell from his character, he was bound to play it." He
ended firmly.

"Do you mean that the answers are false?"

"I mean that they are as true as the recordings of the door
movements."

Hewel reddened and said with a visible effort:

"I think that what we have here is a double program."

Kalpern bridled up and jumped from the seat. "You mean to say that
this shit has overridden tons of computing and control systems?
That's pure paranoia!" He raised his voice. It was a purely reflex
defensive action, brought about by the first tendrils of fear.

"It's parasystematic program. You can't tell what this bastard can do."
The chief programmer countered. "What I suspect does not necessarily
mean 'overriding'. You have to take into account the fact that the
ship's memory has perfect safeguards against any interference or
danger. Even I myself could not get under its proverbial skin if that
meant a direct threat to the mission's safety. But I can do things
which by assumption are overtly simulated actions - and this cassette
could probably do the same. I don't know how, but I can imagine a
hypothetical program which registers a real threat as a simulation
game."

"But if you broke a man's contact with the system or the continuity
of his signal registrations, there would be an alarm, wouldn't there?"

"We can't know how it works. Maybe it would react to my negative
action, and not to any other incidents. Such things do happen. All
those games are hellishly sophisticated. That is why they have been
outlawed."

"So you admit that the producer might have used a parasystematic
program, a better one than everything we have here?"

Hewel bitterly smiled.

"I told you that such commissions usually go to corruptible geniuses,
didn't I? The underworld has money - and people have brains."

Kalpern felt a momentary urge to ask Hewel about his past, but bit
his tongue in time. He turned his back to the programmer and walked
silently around the room pretending that he was deep in thought. The
pounding of his heart made him fear that Hewel might have noticed his
reaction. He'll notice, thought Kalpern, but when he once more turned
to Hewel, the programmer was watching the screen.

"If this is what we suspect it is, then I'm not willing to enter this
program into the memory. It might get into the Autonomous System.
You've opened it, remember?" Hewel said all that without turning his
head.

Kalpern secretly exhaled his relief. It looked as if Hewel hadn't
noticed anything. But his remark had been so astonishing that Kalpern
almost forgot his suspicions.

"Hell," he muttered, "we won't get anywhere this way."

He went to the keyboard and punched out:

'REGISTRATION OF THE CREW'S PULSE IN THE PAST HOUR'

The answer appeared almost instantly:

'CARGINI: T MINUS 38 MINUTES, PULSE 240, THEN 0. CREW: PULSE BELOW
90'

He asked another question:

'T MINUS 38 MINUTES. HOW MANY PERSONS IN CENTER 12C?'

'ONE, CARGINI. THEN T MINUS 27 MINUTES, KALPERN. THEN NOBODY.'

"That was when you put the information block. From that moment
onward the main memory has been empty." Hewel remarked. "Everything
we are saying now is not registered, either."

Kalpern bit his lips. It didn't help much, knowing that he had acted
according to the book.

"We are going round in circles." He said. "After all, the murderer is
not a program. There was a weapon, a real one, not a figment of some
computer's imagination. And it must have been hidden - before and
after the murder itself!"

Hewel shrugged.

"The walls are intact, the transportation and ventilation shafts, too...
Anything hidden would be discovered within two months. On the other
hand, it might have been in the cargo section - but nobody could have
gotten there in fifteen minutes, even with that gadget keeping an eye
on the pulse and door movement registration."

Kalpern watched the programmer gesticulate and his hands somehow
reminded the officer of those belonging to the killer on the cover of
the cassette. They were big, strong and hairy. It was a momentary and
totally irrational association - but it sowed another seed of suspicion
and Kalpern's analytical mind knew he must check this angle too. Even
if for no other reason than that time was short and he had no real
starting point yet.

"I'll take the risk. We have to know what we're up against and see the
killer's face. Maybe we should provoke him, or whatever."

Hewel stood still. He hadn't expected that.

"You are in charge." He shrugged. "Let's do it. I hope you are aware of
the risk."

Kalpern inserted the disk and Hewel programmed a block preventing
the recorded information from getting into the Autonomous System.
They were going to use the main memory.

The biggest screen displayed a sketched compilation of skulls, figures
of cops, vampires, shocked faces and blood-stained corpses accompanied
by a macabre musical background. The final detail was the producer's
trademark. The music stopped. In total silence a message appeared,
printed against a black background:

'THE CUSTOMER MAY REQUEST ANYTHING - EVEN THE LOSS OF HIS LIFE.
THE ONLY THING HE HAS TO DO IS START PLAYING WITH THE COMPUTER.
THE GAME - THE HIRED MAN!'

Then one by one, the lines of the instructions started to creep up the
screen:

'WHAT IS READING THRILLERS? WATCHING HORROR MOVIES? REMEMBERING
OLD CRIMES? THE ANSWER IS: THE DEGENERATION OF PASSIVE
CONSUMPTION. THE TRUE FOLLOWER OF HORROR AND CRIME CAN NEVER
GIVE UP A CHANCE OF PERSONAL PARTICIPATION IN A THRILLER STORY,
ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORY IS COMPILED BY THE BEST PROGRAMMERS
AND FOLLOWERS OF MASCULINE ENTERTAINMENT. BY STARTING AN
HOUR-LONG GAME YOU AGREE TO FACE A PROFESSIONAL KILLER. THE
PROGRAM ON THIS DISK WILL REACH INTO THE TOP-SECRET POLICE FILES.
IT WILL UNERRINGLY SELECT FROM THEM THE BEST AVAILABLE
PROFESSIONAL WHO AT THIS MOMENT IS FREE FROM THE CLUTCHES OF THE
LAW. OVERRIDING ANY SECURITY SYSTEMS, THE PROGRAM WILL GET TO HIM
WHEREVER HE MIGHT BE AT THAT VERY MOMENT. IT WILL OPEN A FALSE
ACCOUNT IN A RANDOMLY CHOSEN BANK, AND WILL THEN CONTACT THE
KILLER AND PAY FOR HIS SERVICES - THE DISPOSAL OF YOURSELF. IT WILL
WARN HIM THAT YOU EXPECT AN ATTEMPT ON YOUR LIFE. YOUR TASK IS
TO AVOID THE EXECUTION OF THE COMPUTER'S ORDER FOR THE NEXT SIXTY
MINUTES - THE DURATION OF THE GAME. IF THE KILLER DOES NOT
SUCCEED WITHIN THAT HOUR, THE PROGRAM WILL WITHDRAW THE
COMMISSION OR PREVENT ITS EXECUTION BY ANY MEANS. IN THIS CASE YOU
WILL BE AWARDED A POINT AND THE RIGHT TO JOIN THE ONLY
EGALITARIAN ORGANIZATION ON EARTH - THE CLUB OF MASTERS OF
THRILLER GAMES. REMEMBER THAT THE COMPUTER HAS AN ADDITIONAL
ADVANTAGE: IF WITHIN THOSE SIXTY MINUTES IT CANNOT FIND A
PROFESSIONAL, IT WILL CHECK ALL PERSONS WHOM YOU MIGHT HAVE
SOMETIME HARMED. IT WILL SELECT A PERSON TO TAKE UP THE MISSION, A
PERSON WHOM IT CAN PERSUADE TO DO SO BY MEANS OF A FAKE INTRIGUE,
AND WHO, ACCORDING TO HIS PERSONALITY DESCRIPTION ENCODED IN THE
MEMORY BANKS OF THE RELEVANT PSYCHIATRIC CENTER, WOULD BE THE
MOST SUITABLE ONE FOR VIOLENT DEEDS.'

With a swift movement of his hand the officer pushed the pause
button. His voice trembled.

"How can it get any data to select a potential murderer in our case?
How can it check interpersonal relationships?"

Hewel grimly looked at the screen and then turned to face Kalpern. His
face was easy to read. He felt reluctant to say what he knew was
true:

"You remember, Alan, I once told you that all conflicting relations and
emotions are monitored by the computer. To be able to interpret, the
memory has in it almost all pattern simulations, as well as a
practically unlimited logical analyzer. In order to compare, it must use
the personality patterns, the encoded full personality images of all of
us. Only the programmers on each ship know that, for a variety of
reasons. On every mission exceeding three months the psychometric
and psychoanalytical data for each crew member are entered into the
memory."

"It means that the game has an unlimited access to this knowledge. It
can select anyone of us..."

"Theoretically, yes... I think so, but this information is in the
Autonomous System. Nobody can get into it from the outside. There is
only input in it, never an output."

Kalpern started the readout running once again.

'EXPECT A THREAT FROM ANY DIRECTION. THE GAME HAS A NUMBER OF
OPTIONS. THESE ARE:

- INTRODUCTION INTO THE GAME OF THIRD PERSONS WILLING TO DO SO;

- INTRODUCTION INTO THE GAME OF THIRD PERSONS WITHOUT THEIR
KNOWLEDGE AND WITH A THREAT TO THEIR LIFE;

- CONTINUATION OF THE GAME FURTHER THAN THE PRESCRIBED ONE HOUR
IF THE ACTION SO REQUIRES. THIS INCLUDES THE ELIMINATION OF THE
PERSONS WHO DURING THE FIRST HOUR HAVE EXPRESSED THEIR
WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GAME WITH INTENTIONS TO HELP
YOU, OBSTRUCT YOU, OR, IN PARTICULAR, ENDANGER THE HIRED MAN;

- USE OF A COUNTER-GAME WHICH CAN BE BOUGHT FROM US;
UNFORTUNATELY, DEAR CUSTOMER, THE PRICE IS TEN TIMES AS MUCH AS
FOR THIS ONE. YOU CAN USE THE SAME CODE WORD AS YOU DID WHEN
BUYING THIS CASSETTE.

THOSE OPTIONS MAY BE USED ONLY AT YOUR SPECIFIC REQUEST. THE
GAME, ONCE STARTED, CANNOT BE STOPPED.

REMEMBER! YOUR WORLD CONSISTS OF YOUR ENEMIES. YOUR LIFE IS WORTH
LIVING ONLY BECAUSE OF THEM. HEINE-COMTRONIC WILL MAKE YOU PROUD
OF HAVING ENEMIES. H-C WILL MAKE YOU FIND THE ESSENCE OF LIFE FOR
THE FIRST TIME. AND MAYBE FOR THE LAST TIME. EVEN SHERLOCK HOLMES
WOULD HAVE BEEN GLAD TO HAVE MET THE CHALLENGE OF THE HIRED MAN.
REMEMBER: H-C THRILLS WITH YOU!'

They looked at each other.

"You checked all the cabins?" Asked Hewel.

"Yes! But if he had it then, where..." The Commander fingered his chin
nervously. "I'll check once again."

"Wait." Hewel turned to the keyboard. He tapped:

'IS THE PROGRAM THE HIRED MAN RUNNING AT OPTION?'

The answer was:

'THE HIRED MAN. NO DATA. SPECIFY.'

'HAS ONE HOUR PLUS ELAPSED SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GAME
THE HIRED MAN?'

'NO. THE TIME PASSED IS 47 MINUTES 30 SECONDS.'

They looked at each other in surprise. It was something, at least,
although the time gap was difficult to explain. Hewel went to the door.

"I'll go check Cargini's cabin once again while you monitor all the
corridors."

"Just a second, Samson. What if this is an option?"

Kalpern straightened up and suspiciously looked at the programmer.
This was not exactly the question he had had in mind. Hewel wanted to
go to Cargini's cabin. It looked like a pure reflex, and yet...

Hewel guessed the officer's thoughts. A cloud passed over his face. He
paled a little.

"Don't be a fool, Alan. It doesn't make any sense. We trusted each
other. I too, might think it was you. There are seven other persons.
Or an eight one..." His laugh was dry and very brief. He shook his
head and became serious. "Although I have a feeling it's one of us."

Kalpern felt his blood rushing to his cheeks. His first impulse was to
go instead of Hewel, but he rejected that at once. His position seemed
stronger here.

"Go! I'll scan the whole ship." He said that in a low voice. He looked at
a timer. "And not just the next eleven minutes, either, in case of an
option." He put a hand into his pocket and took out the magnetic keys
for his and Cargini's cabin. He tossed them to Hewel one by one.

"Run to my cabin if there is an option. I have a bayonet in the
drawer..." He broke off and smiled uncertainly. He added, as if in
explanation: "It's a 19th century family souvenir. I always take it on
missions."

Hewel opened the door and made a slight gesture, as if to say that it
didn't matter. It seemed to Kalpern that the doors closed in slow
motion after the programmer. When the edges had finally sealed the
lips of the pressurization valves together, he immediately switched on
the internal scan. He watched the screens, one after another, as they
showed Hewel walking slowly away from the Navigation Center. Why so
slowly, thought Kalpern. The timer showed that ten more minutes were
left until the end of the game. Kalpern switched off the main lights so
as to see better. Hundreds of multi-colored indicators glowed with
nuclear-powered internal light. The officer looked briefly at them,
then at the empty seat in the middle of the room and finally at the
big screen full of stars, connected with possible trajectories and rows
of figures. On the central green line there was a purple triangle which
represented the ship. The distance behind it was no bigger than an
inch, while in front of it lay an arc spanning the whole trajectory
screen. Whole yards of immeasurable and absolute Nothing. A road from
which there was no turning back.

He closed his eyes and imagined for a moment that everything which
had happened was just another dream. A crazy nightmare. In that
dream there was a killer, a partner in real life, who had slipped
Cargini the cassette in order to divert attention from himself. A
killer who had been planning his crime for many years. The perfect
crime, probably. A dedicated killer who had agreed to undertake the
qualifying procedures for this mission. Who had not hesitated to spend
the rest of his life here in order to seek revenge for some earthy
affair. Was it a man? Or maybe a woman? He opened his eyes. No, that
was wrong. The killer must have used an opportunity, probably this
very cassette. But this means an accident, pure chance. Though so
many crimes have been committed by chance...

The screen showed eight minutes until the end of the game. Kalpern
swore under his breath. He switched on the picture in Cargini's cabin
to the main screen, wiping off the stars. The giant-sized
three-dimensional image was so life-like that the Commander felt he
was inside the cabin. He looked at the numbers chasing each other on
the timer and felt his heart beating faster and faster. He thought
about Hewel and saw no other possibility. Having analyzed the other
options one by one he had returned to the conclusion that only the
big, muscular programmer had had the opportunity of preparing and
controlling the whole scheme. Only he knew the whole computer system
of the ship. He knew about such cassettes. He was the only man from
whom Kalpern had not taken a pulse reading. And even if he had, Hewel
would have had an explanation for anything out of the ordinary - the
same explanation as Kalpern might have. For whom could the First
Officer call to the Navigation Center after finding the captain dead?
The rule book pointed that out explicitly - only the programmer.

Seven minutes. Hewel was still walking. He had half a corridor to
cover yet. Kalpern looked at the bank of cabin scanners. The crew
slept soundly - which convinced him all the more in the correctness of
his suspicions.

At last he took a long, relieved breath. The door of Cargini's cabin
opened and Hewel walked in. Without a moment's hesitation he went to
the bed and started to rip it up. He threw everything onto the floor,
tore the pillow open and emptied it on the floor as well. The sheet had
been fastened to the mattress; he pulled it away. There was nothing in
the bed. Hewel opened the cabinets and threw everything out. His face
was set and his eyes filmed over with stress. Only now did Kalpern
understand that his words had struck stronger than he had expected.
They must have hit the target! What is he looking for? He's slipping
up, he thought, and said aloud:

"Samson!"

Hewel faced the camera's lens above the door.

"Samson," repeated the officer, "everything points against you."

Hewel's breathing was fast and shallow.

"Why?"

It was bluff time now. The timer showed that only three minutes were
left. Just enough time to provoke Hewel and catch the right track.
Kalpern put his finger on the key which blocked the door of Cargini's
cabin and continued:

"Where is the gun?"

Hewel's reaction took him completely by surprise. The programmer bent
down and picked up a small notebook with a green cover. He started
flipping over the pages without a word.

Two minutes left.

Kalpern suddenly felt a wave of helplessness pass over his body. Hewel
had reacted so naturally that the officer wasn't able to interpret the
effect of his question.

The screens flickered and one of them displayed a text. Kalpern read
it quickly.

'YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PLAYER. BECAUSE THE SITUATION HAS NOT BEEN
RESOLVED, THE GAME GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO AN OPTION. THE OPTION
MIGHT GIVE YOU THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION THAT IS BOTHERING YOU.
AT THE SAME TIME, HOWEVER, YOU ARE OPENING A NEW ROUND OF THE
GAME. ANY DISCOVERY MADE BY YOU OR SOME OTHER PERSON MAY
ENDANGER THE KILLER OR THE GAME. IF YOU DECIDE, SELECT AN OPTION.
YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO DO SO. HEINE-COMTRONIC IS WITH YOU.'

He rubbed his eyes and looked at the monitor. Hewel was looking at
him. Things started happening very quickly then, almost faster than
he could control them. Hewel made a fast move towards the door and
Kalpern's hand blocked it as if acting of its own. Hewel pressed the
door button and called out:

"Alan, open it!"

Kalpern didn't take long to up his mind. The accumulated stress in him
found a way out. "I'm going on with the game." He said.

Hewel must have heard it, for his face grew even paler. The display on
the monitor changed. A new text appeared on it.

'H-C IS VERY GLAD TO HAVE FOUND A TRUE PLAYER IN YOU. THIS DOES
NOT HAPPEN OFTEN. NOW, AS AN AWARD TO YOU, THE RULES OF THE GAME
ARE CHANGED. THE KILLER IS NO LONGER PROTECTED BY THE GAME. YOU
CAN ELIMINATE HIM IF YOU FIND A WEAPON AND IF YOU GET A CHANCE.
THE TIME FOR THIS STAGE OF THE GAME IS NOT LIMITED. H-C WISHES YOU
SUCCESS.'

"Alan, you are mad!" Hissed Hewel. Kalpern felt a queer satisfaction
with the way things had gone.

"No! I just have to sort this out."

"Alan!" Hewel broke out, then stopped and remained speechless for some
time. Suddenly he loudly, very slowly said:

"I know who the killer is!"

The silence that followed was so total that one could hear the murmur
of the panels and the breathing of the men on both ends of the visual
link.

"So I thought," the officer said quietly. "Who?"

The programmer did not answer and Kalpern noticed out of the corner
of his eye that the pictures of the other cabins were not there any
more. Surprised, he turned his head. The screens now displayed the
familiar opening logo of the game. He pressed the scanner's keys but
the display still didn't change. Kalpern felt large drops of sweat
running down his spine. He looked at Hewel on the screen as if he
didn't believe what he had just seen. Sweat was rolling down his brow;
he brushed it off. Hewel had kept silent up to now, but he had noticed
the change in Kalpern's manner.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I can't scan the cabins." Kalpern felt in his throat the same dryness
that he had felt in Cargini's cabin, only this time it was much
stronger.

"Check the door blocks." Hewel said.

Kalpern ran his fingers over the keyboard.

'NO DATA', the computer answered.

"Alan!" The programmer hissed, narrowing his eyes angrily. "You've
opened the Autonomous System. The game is already inside it. I won't
forgive you for that!"

The Commander lost all his self-confidence.

"Listen, Samson, I never thought--"

"No, you listen now!" Hewel took the reins. "The computer can be
disconnected only by switching off the power flow to the cabin
section. The emergency switch is behind a quartz plate above the
seventy-fourth power stabilization section, in the upper-left corner.
Can you see it?"

"Sure. I never thought it was the emergency switch--"

"You weren't supposed to. If there is an emergency, try to break it,
though I don't think you'll succeed. Only I know how to open it, but I
can do that only from inside the Navigation Center. If you don't
succeed, then there is a last - but very dangerous - chance of
erasing the Autonomous Memory with a so-called information shock.
This will cause a full power block of the piles. After forty-eight
hours, and the air tanks should last us that long, the robots will open
us from the outside. Then we'll be able to reprogram the life support
and food processing systems. What you have to do is cross the T 706
and H 14 procedures and push the red key marked 'FULL CHANNELING'.
Try to remember that!"

Kalpern was surprised.

"You once said that the Autonomous Memory cannot be erased..."

"I've said many things, but never mind that now. Man just ought to be
able to do more than a mere machine. This is how mission programmers
are selected. But remember! Only in an emergency!"

"I don't understand, what kind of emergency..." the officer started to
say but stopped suddenly in mid-sentence.

Another screen had died out - the one that had scanned a corridor on
the seventh level, near the cabins. Kalpern did not at once understand
what it meant. Only when yet another screen, which covered the
neighboring corridor section, had also faded, did understanding come.

"Samson!" Kalpern stammered. "He is going down the corridor."

"Can you see him?" Hewel answered.

"No! The scanners are shutting down one by one."

"Let me out!" This time Hewel's voice was trembling.

Kalpern punched the necessary keys.

"No effect." He announced.

Very slowly Hewel put the notebook in his breast pocket and zipped it
shut. He straightened up in front of the door.

"Stand close to section sixteen." He told Kalpern, who did that at once.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

"Press the green button three times."

"Done: three times"

"Now punch the following keys: seven, four, three, zero, zero, five."

"Done."

"What does the screen show?"

"A yellow arrow turned upwards and the number 531."

"That's the control channel. Press the key marked '36 INDUCTION'."

"Done."

"Where is he?" Asked Hewel.

"On the fourth... Just a second... He is coming back."

"Return to your former seat and open the door."

This time the door slid open silently.

"I can't see you on the screen." The programmer said. "There's still
only that crazy logo of the game there."

"He's coming back your way. Take the bayonet from my cabin." Kalpern
pressed a few keys. "It's open now. Then try to come here."

"OK, give me vocal directions. If we lose contact, do whatever you
think is right."

He left Cargini's cabin and ran to Kalpern's door. The officer started
scanning his cabin at the very moment Hewel went in.

"The left drawer." Kalpern said, and, when the polished steel flashed in
Hewel's hands, he shouted: "He's running! Hurry!"

It was already too late. To reach the Navigation Center Hewel had to
go along the circular corridor whose scanners were at this moment
fading out, section after section being replaced on the screen by the
game's logo.

"There is no time! He has gotten in front of you!"

Kalpern's shout reached the programmer at a corner of the corridor.
Hewel stopped with his hands pressed against the wall. Gasping, he ran
in the other direction. There were fewer and fewer screens that
showed the running man. They were already fading out six sections
behind Hewel. The pursuer was fast; the distance was dwindling down
as if he was a predator with supernatural power. When Hewel ran
through the pressure door at the end of the level, Kalpern closed and
locked it. The programmer was just a few doors away from the
Navigation Center, when the display of the pressure door died out. "He
opened the lock!" Kalpern's shout resounded throughout the ship's
corridors. He wanted to say more but the screens displayed another
text:

"H-C HOPES YOU ARE HAVING FUN. IT WILL BE YOUR TURN AFTER THE
RUNNING MAN. THE GAME HAS JUST GIVEN YOU THE LAST CHANCE OF
INTERFERING BY SLOWING DOWN THE CHASE. THE PROGRAM IS NOW
PROTECTING THE AUTONOMOUS MEMORY FROM YOUR INTERFERENCE. H-C
WISHES YOU MORE FUN.'

The Commander jumped to the red key plate and ran through the
prescribed emergency procedure. The local monitor displayed:
'AUTONOMOUS MEMORY SEPARATED'

Kalpern smashed his fist in powerless fury against the quartz plate.

"The System is now protected against erasure!" He shouted.

Hewel stopped.

"Good!" He shouted back. "Now run to your cabin and push the disk
into your room playback. The System won't take that, it will think
that two games are being played concurrently and short-circuit itself.
The door is open, I blocked it with your bayonet."

The pictures of subsequent corridor sections were now dying out as
fast as if the pursuer had wings. The best professional, as The Game
had promised, thought Kalpern and pushed the door button praying
that the door would open. It moved, surprisingly enough. So The Game
allowed that, he thought. He ran to the Navigation Center player and
pushed the key. The disk did not move and the monitor displayed a
sign saying: 'EJECT MALFUNCTION'

"So this is how you want it! You--" He growled and after a moment's
thought took out the bullet from his pocket. It was long enough. He
pushed it between the disk and the drive. It gave a little. He pushed
with all his might; his fingers whitened like chalk. He gritted his
teeth; feeling as if his nails were being torn off the fingers, he
glimpsed Hewel reaching the end of the corridor and turning his back
towards the wall. Kalpern screamed with pain as the drive broke apart
at this very moment. Scratching his partly torn-off nails on the
panel, he caught the disk and jumped to the door. The disk fell out of
his hands and rolled on the floor. He snatched at it on the run,
almost tangibly feeling the seconds passing by. He raced along the
corridors faster than a bullet. He slammed his hands against the walls
at the intersections to help himself change direction. Rushing into his
cabin he hit his shoulder on the bayonet which had been driven into
the door to prevent it from closing.

He jumped into the second compartment. Far away Hewel screamed
horribly. Kalpern almost drove the disk through the playback in his
haste... and suddenly, everything was switched off. The lights, the
control LEDs on the panel, the cabin monitor, even the eternal glow of
the medical system stopped. The whole ship vibrated. The machinery
was stopping; with hydraulic shocks the liquids circulating along the
pipes transmitted the vibration through the bulkheads and floors.
Kalpern's breathing was shallow and fast; he tried to grasp more air
in vain. He calmed down very, very slowly and felt a terrible pain in
his arms and legs. His fingers were as if on fire. Very, very slowly he
went to his room and took out a pocket calculator. He tapped out many
eights, filling up the whole display of the calculator with them. Then
he held the calculator straight in front, like a flashlight. The
visibility was about two yards.

He stepped into the corridor and stood there for a while, gathering
his strength. Then he started forward. He suddenly felt Space in the
utter darkness. The omnipresent Cosmos which they had pierced with a
supramaterial hole to reach a distant star system. Space was right
here just behind the walls. There were no energy screens protecting
the mission now; it was totally vulnerable. Kalpern passed in silence
through open doors and passages gaping blackly as the cosmic void.
Time had slowed down. When he reached the end of a corridor, he
discerned the outline of a motionless figure lying on the floor at the
edge of the green glow. He came closer. It was Hewel. Kalpern stood
motionless, feeling that he had stopped breathing and that time was
standing still.

As if in slow motion Hewel raised his head and looked up.

"You made it, Alan!" He said and grinned.

"Where is he?" Whispered Kalpern.

"I don't know. He must have vanished - I never heard him walk away."
The programmer replied, also in a whisper.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Kalpern thought for a moment that
Hewel had gone mad.

"It's quite simple. Would a living man drop his target in such a
moment?"

The officer slid to the floor, gritting his teeth with pain. He looked
down at the floor.

"When you were in Cargini's cabin you said you knew who the killer
was."

Hewel laughed drily.

"That was pure bluff. I said it when I found the Cargini's notes. The
Game could not know what he'd written, so it reacted as if it was in a
situation which threatened it with discovery. The machine doesn't
know what bluff is. The stupid machine doesn't... know... how... to...
bluff."

"Didn't you see him at least?"

"You switched the lights off one second too early." Hewel said.

They were both silent for a while.

"We might have avoided that and found the killer." Kalpern said
reproachfully.

"Yes? So why did you continue with the game?"

They looked at each other in the greenish darkness.

"Maybe it was someone from the crew." Hewel mused. "And then again,
maybe not... The memory is wiped out as utterly as my brain,
Commander! We'll now have something to keep us busy throughout the
following years. And how shall we deal with the knowledge--" He didn't
finish.

He had suddenly realized that that same knowledge would be keeping
them company for the next twenty years.

"What's in it, anyway?" Kalpern asked, pointing at Cargini's notebook.

Hewel gave it to him. The officer turned to the last written page and
in the green glow of the display read:

'Wednesday. For a whole month now I've been tempted to try the game.
The dealer assured me it's the newest bestseller. I like H-C games;
they're like an old-fashioned drug of good quality. I like the feeling
of it. They'll know I had it only when we return and then it won't
matter. It's just a tiny part of the far-off Earth. Today we enter FTL
Two. The course is controlled on a temporal bases. Crew OK.'

Kalpern put the notebook away and switched the calculator off. They
listened to the distant voices of the crew, surprised and trying to
communicate through shouts. Kalpern and Hewel tried to count those
voices, to remember them. But when somebody called for Cargini, they
turned towards each other.

"The doors of all the cabins were open." Kalpern said.

"Yes, all of them were open." Echoed Hewel.

It did not take long for the small group of people to find the First
Officer and the Chief Programmer. Meanwhile, the ship continued on its
mission to the stars. 