The Chaos Weapon Read Online Free PDF

entirely,” said Tun Tse.
    “It’s really quite easy. Every day, all over the galaxy, catastrophes occur. Some people die in them, some escape. And every man has a few incidents in life where he has missed death by a narrow margin. Marshal Wildheit, do you follow me so far?”
    “I can’t take issue with what you say. I’ve had many close calls myself.”
    “Then try this. Suppose one of those nearly fatal incidents had happened differently—perhaps a little sooner, or later, a bit to the left or the right, or quicker or slower.”
    “Then there are probably a few tales I shouldn’t be around to tell,” said Wildheit.
    “Good! We’re nearing the crux of the problem. Let me postulate the existence of a device capable of modifying the conditions of a catastrophe with such selectivity that for a given individual his chance of surviving the incident becomes almost nil.”
    “There you leave me. I don’t see how such a thing can be.”
    “Yet all our evidence suggests such a device does exist. Hover and I have seen its effect with our own eyes. For want of a better name, we call it the Chaos Weapon.”
    “Let me get this straight,” said Tun Tse. “Are you saying this device creates catastrophes?”
    “No. It merely resultsin the displacement of an event that would have happened anyway. The event itself can neither be created or nullified, because its signature is already recorded in the patterns of entropy which we call Chaos.”
    “I may have it wrong,” said Hover, “but in Edel, didn’t the weapon actually add to the scale of the catastrophe?”
    “It did. And for a very good reason. You can’t hold up an event containing all those billions of ergs of energy without supplying an equal and opposite amount of energy to hold the balance. And the longer you hold it, the more energy you have to pour in. When your control finally does slip, all that energy is released at once.”
    “I’m still not convinced,” said Wildheit. “But assuming for the sake of argument that what you say is right, who built such a thing, and why is it being used on us?”
    “I don’t think there’s much doubt about why it was built. Since we broke into space, human expansion has grown at an exponential rate, and we’re already investigating the possibilities of populating other galaxies. Somebody wants us cut back—and fast. Chopping out our prime intellects must seem a more rewarding alternative than all-out spacewar. In the long run it could also be more effective.”
    “But have we no clues as to who?”
    “Would you care to speculate on how many alien races there may be in the universe? And how many of these might view our expansion with alarm? I do have a few suspects, Marshal, but not one shred of evidence. That’s why this meeting was called. You know the places and frontiers of space better than any other men alive. We need your help, because unless we can find and destroy the Chaos Weapon, it’s going to destroy us.”
    Delfan took control of the meeting again.
    “The matter has been discussed by the Security Committee of the General Council. Our instructionsare that we cooperate with ChaosCenter in establishing the location of the weapon and identifying its operators. If we succeed in this mission, we can then call on aid from any of the armed services to secure its annihilation. Cass Hover has been posted to Chaos-Center to handle liaison work. Jym Wildheit will take over as the operating agent. The rest of you will be given specific assignments from time to time. The public will not be informed at this stage. Nonetheless it is my duty to instruct you that we are officially at war, though the first thing we have to do is find the enemy.”
    The communicator on the conference table shrilled a sudden summons. Saraya took up the handset and listened to it gravely, asking a few crisp questions. Then he dropped the instrument suddenly and rose to his feet.
    “Gentlemen, we already have an emergency on our