# Pythias explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Frederik Pohl.

## What happens

The narrator, a Senate guard named Dick, recounts his friendship with Laurence Connaught and the events leading to Connaught's murder. After Connaught saves his life by seemingly miraculously neutralizing a grenade, Dick deduces that Connaught possesses a secret technique that allows him to manipulate physical forces with his mind. Confronting him, Connaught demonstrates his powers and reveals the existence of a formula—twenty-three words—that grants such abilities. Fearing the corrupting influence of absolute power, Dick knocks Connaught unconscious, steals his notes, and then shoots him dead, confessing the murder to the police.

## Themes in this chapter

### Power and Corruption

The central dilemma: the secret formula grants absolute power, which the narrator believes inevitably corrupts, justifying murder to prevent its misuse.

### Crime and Punishment

The narrator confesses to premeditated murder and expects execution, framing the story as a confession of a crime with moral justifications.

### Alienation and Identity

The narrator's isolation as the sole keeper of a dangerous secret, and his fractured identity as both a friend and murderer.

## Character check-ins

### Laurence Connaught

The victim; a close friend of the narrator who discovered a secret technique for psychokinetic powers, which he demonstrates before being killed.

### Dick

The narrator and Senate guard; he murders Connaught to prevent the secret formula from falling into the wrong hands.

## Key lines

> They say power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The narrator reflects on the idea that unlimited power inevitably leads to corruption.

_Key thematic statement justifying the murder._

> I killed him in cold blood, knowing what I did, because he could not be trusted with the secret that could make him king of the world.

The narrator admits to deliberately murdering his friend to prevent him from wielding absolute power.

_Climactic confession revealing the narrator's motive._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/pythias
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_18_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters