Tactics of Conquest Read Online Free PDF Page B

match between players representing the two contending forces, at the end of which the winning side could be assumed to have scored a clear victory and the Overlords would then put the other side out of business through the use of incendiary and entropic devices far too complex to be gone into at this time. “You have been selected as one of the representatives,” the Overlord concluded, “and at this moment the other representative, similarly recruited, is being talked to. Which would you rather represent? Good or evil?”
    I admit that I was rather stunned. “I don’t understand that at all,” I said.
    “Oh,” the Overlord said, with a very human shrug, “I forget the system under which you people live, the ethos which penetrates the universe of which I am speaking, the forces and highly charged emotions behind those two qualities. Actually, you know, it’s completely arbitrary. Good, evil—the point is that they are implacably opposed forces in your universe and the struggle and structure of existence comes from contention between those two poles. Actually, we go completelybeyond such concepts. They are quite arbitrary, you know. It makes no difference; the important thing, alas, is just to get that struggle over with. Which would you rather have? You were recruited first by a millisecond, so you have first choice.”
    “You mean we’re truly going to play for the fate of the universe?”
    “Exactly,” the Overlord said, “a forty-one-game chess match to be broadcast throughout all the civilized sectors of your universe so that everyone may witness it; coverage by all races, media, and so on. Consider it an opportunity.”
    “But why chess? Why me? Why this planet?”
    “Because chess in the judgment we have made is ideal for such a final judgment; it is a, methodical game with absolutely no element of luck and therefore there can be no complaints by the loser that he was unjustly handled. Chess is known only to your planet, and to answer your other question, we wanted two accomplished chess players who were as evenly matched as possible. According to studies carried out over a long period of time by our excellent statisticians, your opponent and you are the most evenly matched living chess players. There’s not a bit of difference between you. No other two chess players are as close in true and potential abilities. There’s no other reason.”
    “Well,” I said, “that’s quite astonishing.” Events of this sort are always quite astonishing, compounded by the fact that for all my brilliant, logical play I have a rather superstitious and intuitive cast of mind which enabled me to take this rather amazing interview in context. “Who is my opponent?”
    “Louis Wilson,” the Overlord said. “You know him rather well, of course.”
    “Louis Wilson!” I said. “Why, that’s absolutely amazing! We grew up together.”
    “We know that.”
    “I’ve been playing on the grandmaster circuit with Louis for over three decades. How can I possibly play against him for the fate of the universe?”
    “Why not?” the Overlord said and brushed the query away with a casual tentacle. “It’s better to get involved in crucial issues with friends than with enemies, isn’t it? Besides, you know his game quite well, I take it.”
    “That’s absolutely astonishing,” I said, noticing a thin, high odor, not unpleasant but strangely sweet and sticky in the nostrils. “Is that cyanide?” I asked.
    “I’m afraid it is,” the Overlord said regretfully. “We had to select a mutually agreeable environment for this first interview; later on we can build up your tolerance to our atmosphere, of course, but for the moment it was felt necessary to arrive at a compromise of low cyanide content for myself but, unfortunately, rather high for you. We’ll have to get you out of here, I fear; you’re apt to collapse within a few moments. We still want to know whether you’d rather play for good or evil,