Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester by Alfred Bester

I’m grateful,” he said. “Grateful to all of you for what you’ve been trying to do. It would have been shameful if I’d been selfish … or mean… . Trying to use this for myself. But you’ve shown me the way. It’s to be used for good. Always!”
    Johansen nodded happily.
    “I’ll always listen to you,” Oddy went on. “I don’t want to make any mistakes. Ever!” He paused and blushed again. “That dream about being a king … I had that when I was a kid. But here at the school I’ve had something bigger. I used to wonder what would happen if I was the one man who could run the world. I used to dream about the kind, generous things I’d do… .”
    “Yes,” said Bellanby. “We know, Oddy. We’ve all had that dream too. Every man does.”
    “But it isn’t a dream any more,” Oddy laughed. “It’s reality. I can do it. I can make it happen.”
    “Start with the war,” Migg said sourly.
    “Of course,” said Oddy. “The war first; but then we’ll go on from there, won’t we? I’ll make sure the war never starts, but then we’ll do big things … great things! Just the five of us in private. Nobody’ll know about us. We’ll be ordinary people, but we’ll make life wonderful for everybody. If I’m an angel … like you say … then I’ll spread heaven around me as far as I can reach.”
    “But start with the war,” Migg repeated.
    “The war is the first disaster that must be averted, Oddy,” Bellanby said. “If you don’t want this disaster to happen, it will never happen.”
    “And you want to prevent that tragedy, don’t you?” said Johansen.
    “Yes,” answered Oddy. “I do.”
    On March 20, the war broke. The Comity of Nations and Der Realpolitik aus Terra mobilized and struck. While blow followed shattering counterblow, Oddy Gaul was commissioned subaltern in a line regiment, but gazetted to Intelligence on May 3. On June 24 he was appointed A.D.C. to the Joint Forces Council meeting in the ruins of what had been Australia. On July 11, he was brevetted to command of the wrecked Space Force, being jumped 1,789 grades over regular officers. On September 19 he assumed supreme command in the Battle of the Parsec and won the victory that ended the disastrous solar annihilation called the Six Month War.
    On September 23, Oddy Gaul made the astonishing Peace Offer that was accepted by the remnants of both Welfare States. It required the scrapping of antagonistic economic theories, and amounted to the virtual abandonment of all economic theory with an amalgamation of both States into a Solar Society. On January 1, Oddy Gaul, by unanimous acclaim, was elected Solon of the Solar Society in perpetuity.
    And today … still youthful, still vigorous, still handsome, still sincere, idealistic, charitable, kindly and sympathetic, he lives in the Solar Palace. He is unmarried but a mighty lover; uninhibited, but a charming host and devoted friend; democratic, but the feudal overlord of a bankrupt Family of Planets that suffers misgovernment, oppression, poverty, and confusion with a cheerful joy that sings nothing but Hosannahs to the glory of Oddy Gaul.
    In a last moment of clarity, Jesse Migg communicated his desolate summation of the situation to his friends in the Faculty Club. This was shortly before they made the trip to join Oddy in the palace as his confidential and valued advisors.
    “We were fools,” Migg said bitterly. “We should have killed him. He isn’t an angel. He’s a monster. Civilization and culture … philosophy and ethics … those were only masks Oddy put on; masks that covered the primitive impulses of his subconscious mind.”
    “You mean Oddy was not sincere?” Johansen asked heavily. “He wanted this wreckage … this ruin?”
    “Certainly he was sincere … consciously. He still is. He thinks he desires nothing but the most good for the most men. He’s honest, kind and generous … but only consciously.”
    “Ah! The Id!” said Hrrdnikkisch with an