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diff --git a/23099.txt b/23099.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1c850e --- /dev/null +++ b/23099.txt @@ -0,0 +1,576 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth Invasion, by Henry Josephs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fourth Invasion + +Author: Henry Josephs + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23099] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH INVASION *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _Psychopathology has offered possible answers to why, from + time to time, people in large quantities "see" strange + things in the sky which manage to evade trained scientific + observers, or conform to what is known about the behavior + of falling or flying bodies. And mass hysteria is by no + means a product of the present century. But--what if these + human foibles were deliberately being exploited?_ + + + THE FOURTH INVASION + + by Henry Josephs + + +Dr. Clayton's face was impassive as a marble mask when he turned to +young Corelli. For a moment, the little group stood there in embarrassed +silence in the classroom, shifting uneasily from one foot to the other, +feigning interest in the paperweights upon Clayton's desk, or in the +utterly uninspiring scenes on the sidewalk outside the window. + +"You say, Corelli, that you saw three--er, Martian--ships. Can you +describe them?" + +Corelli blinked as he felt the weight of his colleagues' eyes boring +into him. "I didn't say they were _Martian_, sir--only that they seemed +to be unearthly. And they were not the conventional saucer-shaped +things--they _acted_ like saucers skimming across the water. That's what +made me think they were genuine. And they didn't seem to be going fast +enough so that I'd expect to hear a roar like a jet-plane. + +"It struck me that this might not be the way they fly, naturally, but +the way they might fly if the pilots were having trouble adjusting the +controls to a heavier atmosphere than they were used to." + +Clayton tapped the tabletop with his fingers. "What about you, Marty? +Did you see three ships?" + +Big Gene Marty, football star, was the least nervous. "Can't be sure +about _ships_, Doc," he rumbled. "I did see something strange +disappearing over the horizon. It--I mean they--might have been what +Tony says; but whatever it was, there were three of them. But I saw +something else, because I was looking in another direction. What I saw +first was a couple of funny-looking shapes floating down near the +ground. Didn't look like parachutists, yet they seemed big enough to be +men--or at least, small men." + +"Interesting. All right, what about the rest of you? How many saw the +ships?" + + * * * * * + +A chorus answered him. "I see," Clayton mused. "You all agree on the +behavior. And you all think there were three--not four--not two. Three?" + +It was agreed. + +Clayton rustled the pile of newspapers. "The reports in here vary. I +learn with amazement that you gentlemen seem to have missed completely +the spurts of flame that issued from the alien ships--flame which is +reported to have set a house on fire. And no one seems to have noticed +that the invaders, in descending, glided on huge black wings." + +Corelli blushed a fiery crimson. "Dr. Clayton," he protested, "we aren't +making these things up for popular consumption. We're just telling you +what we actually saw--that is--what--what--we--saw looked like to us." + +Clayton nodded. "Of course. That is all people were doing back in 1938 +when the Martians landed in New Jersey, at the time Orson Welles +presented a radio version of H. G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds'. Or when +the 'Flying Saucer' craze first started. Or when Fantafilm put on their +big publicity stunt for the improved 3-D movie, 'The Outsiders', and +people saw the aliens over Broadway and heard them address the populace +in weird, booming tones. + +"Gentlemen, I am not pleased to find students of this University +engaging in such unwanted extra-curricular activity as inventing +interplanetary scares. I don't think Washington will be amused, either." + +Corelli clicked his heels. "Sir," he stated in dignified tones, "I +resent these implications. I assume they have been directed at me. At no +time have I talked about this to reporters, or in any way engaged in +what you accuse me of. If you want my resignation from this school, you +may have it." + +"Really? You think that an air of dignified innocence will undo the +damage done? I am well aware of your experiments with the _y_ wave, +gentlemen--and it was on the _y_ wave that the messages came. You may be +interested to know that the number of lives lost, the property damage, +the business losses due to the panic, have not yet been fully +determined; but it makes the hysteria following the Fantafilm hoax very +small potatoes by comparison. + +"You may withdraw now, gentlemen; this affair will be discussed at +greater length later, regardless of what the FBI decides. I had hoped +that the main culprit would try to save unwitting accomplices from a +measure of grief. That is all." + +The seven students left Dr. Clayton's office in record time. + + * * * * * + +Professor Elton rapped the table for silence. "Gentlemen," he began, +"Dr. Clayton and I both extend our sincere apologies." He smiled wanly. +"Of course, that does not exonerate anyone from the charge of +gullibility. But Harvey Gale's confession has been fully confirmed by +the FBI, and you--and this University--have been cleared. The public +knows now that your testimony helped lead to the facts in the case. + +"To me, the most interesting feature of this business is the fact that +Gale was able to put over this hoax, despite the fact that the public +had been taken in three times before. The Orson Welles scare rode on a +wave of war-hysteria; the Flying Saucer craze followed world war; the +Fantafilm hoax came when the world was still in dread of sudden +bombings. But the Gale Hoax--what can we call it but what is loosely +known as the continuing gullibility of human beings? + +"We trust that this demonstration you have just observed will help you +to remember that while seeing may be believing, it's wise not to believe +until it has been established just what you saw." + + * * * * * + +In his private office, Dr. Clayton leaned forward over his desk. Or, to +be more exact, something that looked like Dr. Clayton leaned over the +desk. The face was impassive as marble, but, from out a slit in his +chest, a pair of black antennae-like feelers were vibrating into a +framed picture on the wall, from which the picture had been slid aside. + +_"Landing safely effected. Brief panic when several Terrestrials sighted +ships; all clear now. Full report, containing details on latest +successful persuasion of Earthlings that Martians or other aliens are +imaginary, will follow."_ + +From the speaker beneath the desk came sounds of gasps, heavy breathing, +then shuffling footsteps. Clayton pushed the picture back into place, +then took off the skin-painted vest he wore, with the flat box on its +inside. He snapped a switch on the side of his desk. + +"There; now they can't hear--if any are still hanging around." + +Professor Elton looked at him bewilderedly. "I don't get it. After all +the risk we went to, to convince the public that there ain't no +ghosts--as the old saying goes--you arrange to have students hear you +going into a 'report to the home planet' act. And you use a code they +all know. What's the point in undoing it?" + +Clayton nodded. "It looks somewhat mad, doesn't it? Well ... the +Psychology Team was sure of the necessity. You see, more and more humans +remain unconvinced each time one of these hoaxes are exposed. The +unconvinced are sure that something fiendish is going on beneath the +surface, that the authorities--all kinds from civil to scientific--are +engaged in a vast cover-up. We can't prevent this belief; we don't know +how to keep it from spreading. So--the alternative is to direct it." + +Elton nodded slowly. "I can see possibilities along that line--but just +what direction was this supposed to kind of bring about?" + +"Why, obviously, if large-scale invasion from Mars is imminent--and this +is the belief that we're all catering to--then it follows that the +invasion hasn't already taken place. The two of us, and Harvey Gale, +will disappear shortly in one way or another, and gradually public cries +for effective planetary defense will mount. + +"You know who will direct the defense." + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Future Science Fiction_ No. 30 1956. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth Invasion, by Henry Josephs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH INVASION *** + +***** This file should be named 23099.txt or 23099.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/9/23099/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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