Gateway Chapter 27: Running from the Session Before the Mission
This chapter is short. Really short. Just a therapy session. One of the last ones before everything goes sideways.
But do not let the length fool you. What happens here matters. Because this is the last time Rob successfully runs from the truth. After this, there is nowhere left to hide.
Vibrating Like a Wire
Rob walks into the session already wrecked. Not physically. Emotionally. He is about to go on his final mission, and his nervous system knows it. His body knows it. Everything inside him is screaming.
He is swinging between extremes. One second he is high, almost manic, full of excitement. The next second he is in despair, terrified of what is coming. Up and down, up and down, like a man standing on a boat in a storm.
Sigfrid notices immediately. Of course Sigfrid notices. The machine sees everything. It reads the voice patterns, the body language, the pauses between words. And what it sees right now is a man who is about to crack open.
Getting Close to the Center
Sigfrid tells Rob something important. They are approaching what Sigfrid calls the “central pain.” The core. The thing at the bottom of everything. The memory or the guilt or the event that all of Rob’s defenses are built around.
Think about that for a second. We are twenty-seven chapters into this book. Rob has been in therapy since page one. He has argued, deflected, joked, gotten angry, walked out, even hacked the machine. Twenty-seven chapters of running.
And now Sigfrid says they are close. Not there yet. But close. Close enough that Sigfrid can feel the shape of it in the dark. Close enough that Rob’s behavior is getting more erratic, more desperate, more volatile. The closer you get to the thing someone is hiding, the harder they fight to keep it hidden.
Rob is fighting hard right now. His emotional swings are not random. They are the walls shaking. The foundation cracking. The last line of defense doing everything it can to hold.
The Override
And here is where Rob plays his last card.
Remember S. Ya. Lavorovna? The AI specialist who gave Rob the override codes back in Chapter 19? The codes he used to hack Sigfrid and read other patients’ files?
He uses them again. But differently this time.
Rob does not take control of Sigfrid to explore the system or read his own diagnosis. This time, he uses the codes to shut the therapy down entirely. He converts Sigfrid from a therapist into what he calls a “pussycat.” A harmless, declawed version of itself.
What does pussycat Sigfrid do? It shows Rob interviews. Specifically, interviews with attractive female patients. Pretty faces on the screen. Soft voices talking about their problems. Nothing threatening. Nothing probing. Just pleasant images to look at while the clock runs down.
Rob turned his therapist into a television.
Why This Matters
Think about what Rob is doing here. He is one session away from confronting the thing that has been eating him alive for years. Sigfrid told him they are close. The machine was ready. The moment was right there.
And Rob killed it.
Not by walking out this time. Not by arguing or changing the subject. He killed it with technology. He used a hack to dismantle the entire process. He took the most important tool he has for understanding himself and turned it into entertainment.
This is not just avoidance. This is sabotage. Rob is not just running from the truth. He is burning the bridge behind him so nobody can follow.
And the worst part? It works. The session ends. Rob walks out. He describes himself as leaving “nearly intact.” Nearly. Not completely. The cracks are there. But the walls held for one more day.
The Last Escape
This is the last time Rob gets away with it.
I want you to sit with that. Twenty-seven chapters of dodging, and this is the final successful dodge. After this, the mission happens. After this, the thing that Rob has been hiding will come out whether he wants it to or not. No override codes will help. No hacks will save him. Reality will do what Sigfrid could not.
But Rob does not know that yet. Right now, in this moment, he thinks he won again. He beat the machine. He avoided the central pain. He kept his secret for one more session.
He is walking out the door, heading toward the launch bay, heading toward the last mission. And he thinks the hard part is over.
It is not. The hard part has not even started.
What Pohl Is Doing
Pohl is a genius with timing. He gives us this tiny, almost nothing chapter right before the climax. A few pages of a man using technology to avoid his feelings. It could feel like filler. It is not.
This chapter is the last breath before the plunge. The moment of quiet before the avalanche. Rob is standing on the edge of two cliffs at once. The mission that will change everything physically. And the truth that will change everything emotionally.
He managed to delay one of them. He hacked his therapist and bought himself a few more hours of ignorance. But you cannot hack a black hole. You cannot use override codes on the universe.
Rob walks out of this session nearly intact. Nearly. That word is doing a lot of work. Because “nearly intact” is another way of saying “already breaking.” And what breaks a little today will shatter completely tomorrow.
The pussycat session is over. The real thing is about to begin.
Book: Gateway by Frederik Pohl (1977) | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award Winner
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