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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30029 ***
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+     This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August
+     1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+     U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                                 LOST
+
+                                  IN
+
+                             TRANSLATION
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                               LARRY M.
+
+                                HARRIS
+
+
+    _In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+    word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely.
+    And in space-type translation ... the effect may be the
+    same!_
+
+
+                      Illustrated by Schoenherr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en--and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.
+
+An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.
+
+Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.
+
+He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.
+
+In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.
+
+True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.
+
+He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.
+
+But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.
+
+As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.
+
+The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.
+
+He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid--that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.
+
+The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.
+
+It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.
+
+"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly--but no more than slightly--and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.
+
+"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech--apparently
+there was only one language on the planet--was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.
+
+"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"
+
+Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.
+
+"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.
+
+"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.
+
+Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."
+
+It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.
+
+"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."
+
+Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said--another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.
+
+But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en--and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.
+
+That, after all, was his job.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings--a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair--were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.
+
+The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.
+
+Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.
+
+The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex--if
+any--and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.
+
+Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."
+
+"Within what limits?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that--approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these _children_," he volunteered helpfully.
+
+"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."
+
+Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.
+
+"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.
+
+"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."
+
+"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."
+
+Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"
+
+"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."
+
+Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector--and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnopædic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.
+
+Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.
+
+He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job--not to mention the strongest personal inclinations--demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.
+
+He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.
+
+"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"
+
+"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.
+
+"Are you standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am sitting," Korvin said.
+
+"Are you a _chulad_?" the Ruler asked. A _chulad_ was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.
+
+"I am not," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am standing," Korvin said.
+
+The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."
+
+Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.
+
+He hoped they were right.
+
+The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"
+
+Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.
+
+The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't _ended_, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."
+
+The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."
+
+"I have told the truth," Korvin said.
+
+"But it is not--not the truth we want," the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"
+
+"I--" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"--the Tr'en word seemed to mean _right-saying_--"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."
+
+Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.
+
+The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"--_chulad-like_ Korvin
+translated--"attempts will get you nowhere."
+
+Korvin devoutly hoped so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."
+
+"Good," Korvin said.
+
+The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.
+
+"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.
+
+The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.
+
+"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.
+
+The silence this time was even longer.
+
+"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."
+
+Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.
+
+But it happened to be wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.
+
+"Sometimes," Korvin said.
+
+"It has other names?" the Ruler said.
+
+"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.
+
+"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.
+
+"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."
+
+"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.
+
+"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.
+
+There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.
+
+"I can," Korvin said.
+
+"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."
+
+"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"
+
+Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.
+
+A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"
+
+Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.
+
+"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.
+
+"It is," Korvin said.
+
+"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.
+
+The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.
+
+"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."
+
+"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"
+
+"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."
+
+"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.
+
+"True," Korvin said again.
+
+The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."
+
+The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"
+
+"It can be described," Korvin said.
+
+"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will not," Korvin said.
+
+It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.
+
+The plan was taking hold.
+
+The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.
+
+Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."
+
+"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.
+
+"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."
+
+Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"
+
+The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."
+
+"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."
+
+Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."
+
+The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"
+
+"None," Korvin said.
+
+"But you are governed?"
+
+Korvin nodded. "Yes."
+
+"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.
+
+"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."
+
+"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."
+
+"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."
+
+"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"
+
+"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."
+
+"Do you act against your own interests?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.
+
+"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.
+
+"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.
+
+The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples--"
+
+"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."
+
+"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions--"
+
+"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.
+
+"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"
+
+"We call our form of government _democracy_," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."
+
+One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."
+
+"That is our form of government," Korvin said.
+
+"You are lying," the expert said.
+
+One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us--"
+
+"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."
+
+Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.
+
+It took three days--but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.
+
+Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.
+
+On the third day Korvin escaped.
+
+It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.
+
+Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem _was_ insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.
+
+Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.
+
+But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.
+
+The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby--all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.
+
+He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.
+
+     _Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+     marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+     for thought--nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+     their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+     can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+     democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+     keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+     obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+     self-interest, of course--but try to make a Tr'en see it!_
+
+     _With one government and one language, they just weren't
+     equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+     to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+     no insight into my mind or their own--and that means no
+     translation._
+
+     _But--damn it--I wish I were home already._
+
+     _I'm bored absolutely stiff!_
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30029 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+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: Lost in Translation
+
+Author: Larry M. Harris
+
+Illustrator: Schoenherr
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2009 [EBook #30029]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN TRANSLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+     This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August
+     1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+     U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                                 LOST
+
+                                  IN
+
+                             TRANSLATION
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                               LARRY M.
+
+                                HARRIS
+
+
+    _In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+    word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely.
+    And in space-type translation ... the effect may be the
+    same!_
+
+
+                      Illustrated by Schoenherr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en--and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.
+
+An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.
+
+Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.
+
+He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.
+
+In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.
+
+True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.
+
+He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.
+
+But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.
+
+As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.
+
+The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.
+
+He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid--that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.
+
+The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.
+
+It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.
+
+"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly--but no more than slightly--and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.
+
+"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech--apparently
+there was only one language on the planet--was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.
+
+"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"
+
+Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.
+
+"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.
+
+"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.
+
+Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."
+
+It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.
+
+"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."
+
+Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said--another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.
+
+But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en--and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.
+
+That, after all, was his job.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings--a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair--were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.
+
+The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.
+
+Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.
+
+The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex--if
+any--and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.
+
+Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."
+
+"Within what limits?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that--approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these _children_," he volunteered helpfully.
+
+"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."
+
+Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.
+
+"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.
+
+"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."
+
+"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."
+
+Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"
+
+"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."
+
+Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector--and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnopædic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.
+
+Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.
+
+He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job--not to mention the strongest personal inclinations--demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.
+
+He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.
+
+"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"
+
+"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.
+
+"Are you standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am sitting," Korvin said.
+
+"Are you a _chulad_?" the Ruler asked. A _chulad_ was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.
+
+"I am not," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am standing," Korvin said.
+
+The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."
+
+Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.
+
+He hoped they were right.
+
+The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"
+
+Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.
+
+The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't _ended_, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."
+
+The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."
+
+"I have told the truth," Korvin said.
+
+"But it is not--not the truth we want," the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"
+
+"I--" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"--the Tr'en word seemed to mean _right-saying_--"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."
+
+Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.
+
+The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"--_chulad-like_ Korvin
+translated--"attempts will get you nowhere."
+
+Korvin devoutly hoped so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."
+
+"Good," Korvin said.
+
+The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.
+
+"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.
+
+The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.
+
+"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.
+
+The silence this time was even longer.
+
+"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."
+
+Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.
+
+But it happened to be wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.
+
+"Sometimes," Korvin said.
+
+"It has other names?" the Ruler said.
+
+"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.
+
+"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.
+
+"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."
+
+"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.
+
+"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.
+
+There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.
+
+"I can," Korvin said.
+
+"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."
+
+"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"
+
+Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.
+
+A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"
+
+Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.
+
+"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.
+
+"It is," Korvin said.
+
+"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.
+
+The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.
+
+"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."
+
+"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"
+
+"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."
+
+"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.
+
+"True," Korvin said again.
+
+The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."
+
+The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"
+
+"It can be described," Korvin said.
+
+"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will not," Korvin said.
+
+It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.
+
+The plan was taking hold.
+
+The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.
+
+Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."
+
+"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.
+
+"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."
+
+Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"
+
+The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."
+
+"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."
+
+Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."
+
+The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"
+
+"None," Korvin said.
+
+"But you are governed?"
+
+Korvin nodded. "Yes."
+
+"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.
+
+"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."
+
+"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."
+
+"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."
+
+"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"
+
+"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."
+
+"Do you act against your own interests?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.
+
+"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.
+
+"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.
+
+The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples--"
+
+"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."
+
+"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions--"
+
+"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.
+
+"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"
+
+"We call our form of government _democracy_," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."
+
+One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."
+
+"That is our form of government," Korvin said.
+
+"You are lying," the expert said.
+
+One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us--"
+
+"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."
+
+Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.
+
+It took three days--but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.
+
+Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.
+
+On the third day Korvin escaped.
+
+It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.
+
+Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem _was_ insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.
+
+Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.
+
+But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.
+
+The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby--all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.
+
+He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.
+
+     _Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+     marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+     for thought--nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+     their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+     can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+     democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+     keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+     obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+     self-interest, of course--but try to make a Tr'en see it!_
+
+     _With one government and one language, they just weren't
+     equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+     to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+     no insight into my mind or their own--and that means no
+     translation._
+
+     _But--damn it--I wish I were home already._
+
+     _I'm bored absolutely stiff!_
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30029 ***</div>
+
+<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact &amp; Fiction August 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>
+LOST<br />
+IN<br />
+TRANSLATION</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+<h2>LARRY M.<br />
+HARRIS</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="blockquot1"><i>In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely. And in
+space-type translation ... the effect may be the same!</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Schoenherr</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="50" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en&mdash;and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.</p>
+
+<p>An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.</p>
+
+<p>He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.</p>
+
+<p>In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.</p>
+
+<p>True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.</p>
+
+<p>He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.</p>
+
+<p>But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.</p>
+
+<p>As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.</p>
+
+<p>He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid&mdash;that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.</p>
+
+<p>It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly&mdash;but no more than slightly&mdash;and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech&mdash;apparently
+there was only one language on the planet&mdash;was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.</p>
+
+<p>"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.</p>
+
+<p>"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said&mdash;another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.</p>
+
+<p>But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en&mdash;and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.</p>
+
+<p>That, after all, was his job.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings&mdash;a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair&mdash;were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex&mdash;if
+any&mdash;and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."</p>
+
+<p>"Within what limits?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that&mdash;approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these <i>children</i>," he volunteered helpfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"My job required it," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector&mdash;and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnop&aelig;dic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.</p>
+
+<p>Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job&mdash;not to mention the strongest personal inclinations&mdash;demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.</p>
+
+<p>He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you standing or sitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sitting," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a <i>chulad</i>?" the Ruler asked. A <i>chulad</i> was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," he said.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am standing," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped they were right.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"My job required it," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't <i>ended</i>, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told the truth," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not&mdash;not the truth we want," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"&mdash;the Tr'en word seemed to mean <i>right-saying</i>&mdash;"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"&mdash;<i>chulad-like</i> Korvin
+translated&mdash;"attempts will get you nowhere."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin devoutly hoped so.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.</p>
+
+<p>The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The silence this time was even longer.</p>
+
+<p>"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.</p>
+
+<p>But it happened to be wrong.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"It has other names?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I can," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."</p>
+
+<p>"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.</p>
+
+<p>A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.</p>
+
+<p>"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."</p>
+
+<p>"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said again.</p>
+
+<p>The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"</p>
+
+<p>"It can be described," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.</p>
+
+<p>The plan was taking hold.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are governed?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nodded. "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."</p>
+
+<p>"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."</p>
+
+<p>"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you act against your own interests?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.</p>
+
+<p>"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"We call our form of government <i>democracy</i>," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."</p>
+
+<p>One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."</p>
+
+<p>"That is our form of government," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"You are lying," the expert said.</p>
+
+<p>One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.</p>
+
+<p>It took three days&mdash;but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day Korvin escaped.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.</p>
+
+<p>Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem <i>was</i> insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.</p>
+
+<p>But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.</p>
+
+<p>The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby&mdash;all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.</p>
+
+<p>He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+for thought&mdash;nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+self-interest, of course&mdash;but try to make a Tr'en see it!</i></p>
+
+<p><i>With one government and one language, they just weren't
+equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+no insight into my mind or their own&mdash;and that means no
+translation.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>But&mdash;damn it&mdash;I wish I were home already.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>I'm bored absolutely stiff!</i></p></div>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30029 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+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: Lost in Translation
+
+Author: Larry M. Harris
+
+Illustrator: Schoenherr
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2009 [EBook #30029]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN TRANSLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+     This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August
+     1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+     U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                                 LOST
+
+                                  IN
+
+                             TRANSLATION
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                               LARRY M.
+
+                                HARRIS
+
+
+    _In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+    word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely.
+    And in space-type translation ... the effect may be the
+    same!_
+
+
+                      Illustrated by Schoenherr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en--and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.
+
+An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.
+
+Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.
+
+He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.
+
+In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.
+
+True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.
+
+He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.
+
+But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.
+
+As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.
+
+The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.
+
+He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid--that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.
+
+The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.
+
+It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.
+
+"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly--but no more than slightly--and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.
+
+"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech--apparently
+there was only one language on the planet--was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.
+
+"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"
+
+Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.
+
+"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.
+
+"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.
+
+Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."
+
+It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.
+
+"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."
+
+Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said--another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.
+
+But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en--and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.
+
+That, after all, was his job.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings--a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair--were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.
+
+The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.
+
+Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.
+
+The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex--if
+any--and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.
+
+Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."
+
+"Within what limits?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that--approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these _children_," he volunteered helpfully.
+
+"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."
+
+Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.
+
+"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.
+
+"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."
+
+"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."
+
+Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"
+
+"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."
+
+Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector--and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnopaedic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.
+
+Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.
+
+He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job--not to mention the strongest personal inclinations--demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.
+
+He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.
+
+"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"
+
+"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.
+
+"Are you standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am sitting," Korvin said.
+
+"Are you a _chulad_?" the Ruler asked. A _chulad_ was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.
+
+"I am not," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am standing," Korvin said.
+
+The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."
+
+Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.
+
+He hoped they were right.
+
+The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"
+
+Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.
+
+The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't _ended_, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."
+
+The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."
+
+"I have told the truth," Korvin said.
+
+"But it is not--not the truth we want," the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"
+
+"I--" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"--the Tr'en word seemed to mean _right-saying_--"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."
+
+Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.
+
+The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"--_chulad-like_ Korvin
+translated--"attempts will get you nowhere."
+
+Korvin devoutly hoped so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."
+
+"Good," Korvin said.
+
+The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.
+
+"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.
+
+The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.
+
+"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.
+
+The silence this time was even longer.
+
+"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."
+
+Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.
+
+But it happened to be wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.
+
+"Sometimes," Korvin said.
+
+"It has other names?" the Ruler said.
+
+"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.
+
+"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.
+
+"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."
+
+"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.
+
+"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.
+
+There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.
+
+"I can," Korvin said.
+
+"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."
+
+"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"
+
+Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.
+
+A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"
+
+Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.
+
+"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.
+
+"It is," Korvin said.
+
+"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.
+
+The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.
+
+"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."
+
+"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"
+
+"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."
+
+"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.
+
+"True," Korvin said again.
+
+The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."
+
+The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"
+
+"It can be described," Korvin said.
+
+"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will not," Korvin said.
+
+It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.
+
+The plan was taking hold.
+
+The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.
+
+Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."
+
+"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.
+
+"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."
+
+Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"
+
+The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."
+
+"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."
+
+Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."
+
+The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"
+
+"None," Korvin said.
+
+"But you are governed?"
+
+Korvin nodded. "Yes."
+
+"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.
+
+"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."
+
+"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."
+
+"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."
+
+"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"
+
+"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."
+
+"Do you act against your own interests?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.
+
+"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.
+
+"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.
+
+The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples--"
+
+"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."
+
+"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions--"
+
+"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.
+
+"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"
+
+"We call our form of government _democracy_," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."
+
+One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."
+
+"That is our form of government," Korvin said.
+
+"You are lying," the expert said.
+
+One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us--"
+
+"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."
+
+Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.
+
+It took three days--but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.
+
+Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.
+
+On the third day Korvin escaped.
+
+It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.
+
+Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem _was_ insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.
+
+Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.
+
+But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.
+
+The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby--all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.
+
+He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.
+
+     _Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+     marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+     for thought--nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+     their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+     can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+     democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+     keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+     obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+     self-interest, of course--but try to make a Tr'en see it!_
+
+     _With one government and one language, they just weren't
+     equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+     to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+     no insight into my mind or their own--and that means no
+     translation._
+
+     _But--damn it--I wish I were home already._
+
+     _I'm bored absolutely stiff!_
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
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diff --git a/30029.zip b/30029.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+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: Lost in Translation
+
+Author: Larry M. Harris
+
+Illustrator: Schoenherr
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2009 [EBook #30029]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN TRANSLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+     This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August
+     1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+     U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                                 LOST
+
+                                  IN
+
+                             TRANSLATION
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                               LARRY M.
+
+                                HARRIS
+
+
+    _In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+    word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely.
+    And in space-type translation ... the effect may be the
+    same!_
+
+
+                      Illustrated by Schoenherr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en--and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.
+
+An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.
+
+Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.
+
+He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.
+
+In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.
+
+True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.
+
+He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.
+
+But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.
+
+As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.
+
+The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.
+
+He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid--that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.
+
+The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.
+
+It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.
+
+"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly--but no more than slightly--and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.
+
+"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech--apparently
+there was only one language on the planet--was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.
+
+"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"
+
+Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.
+
+"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.
+
+"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.
+
+Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."
+
+It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.
+
+"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."
+
+Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said--another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.
+
+But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en--and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.
+
+That, after all, was his job.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings--a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair--were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.
+
+The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.
+
+Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.
+
+The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex--if
+any--and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.
+
+Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."
+
+"Within what limits?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that--approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these _children_," he volunteered helpfully.
+
+"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."
+
+Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.
+
+"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.
+
+"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."
+
+"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."
+
+Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"
+
+"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."
+
+Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector--and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnopædic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.
+
+Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.
+
+He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job--not to mention the strongest personal inclinations--demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.
+
+He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.
+
+"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"
+
+"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.
+
+"Are you standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am sitting," Korvin said.
+
+"Are you a _chulad_?" the Ruler asked. A _chulad_ was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.
+
+"I am not," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am standing," Korvin said.
+
+The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."
+
+Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.
+
+He hoped they were right.
+
+The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"
+
+Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.
+
+The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't _ended_, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."
+
+The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."
+
+"I have told the truth," Korvin said.
+
+"But it is not--not the truth we want," the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"
+
+"I--" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"--the Tr'en word seemed to mean _right-saying_--"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."
+
+Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.
+
+The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"--_chulad-like_ Korvin
+translated--"attempts will get you nowhere."
+
+Korvin devoutly hoped so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."
+
+"Good," Korvin said.
+
+The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.
+
+"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.
+
+The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.
+
+"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.
+
+The silence this time was even longer.
+
+"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."
+
+Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.
+
+But it happened to be wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.
+
+"Sometimes," Korvin said.
+
+"It has other names?" the Ruler said.
+
+"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.
+
+"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.
+
+"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."
+
+"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.
+
+"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.
+
+There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.
+
+"I can," Korvin said.
+
+"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."
+
+"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"
+
+Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.
+
+A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"
+
+Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.
+
+"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.
+
+"It is," Korvin said.
+
+"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.
+
+The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.
+
+"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."
+
+"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"
+
+"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."
+
+"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.
+
+"True," Korvin said again.
+
+The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."
+
+The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"
+
+"It can be described," Korvin said.
+
+"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will not," Korvin said.
+
+It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.
+
+The plan was taking hold.
+
+The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.
+
+Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."
+
+"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.
+
+"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."
+
+Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"
+
+The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."
+
+"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."
+
+Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."
+
+The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"
+
+"None," Korvin said.
+
+"But you are governed?"
+
+Korvin nodded. "Yes."
+
+"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.
+
+"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."
+
+"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."
+
+"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."
+
+"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"
+
+"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."
+
+"Do you act against your own interests?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.
+
+"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.
+
+"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.
+
+The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples--"
+
+"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."
+
+"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions--"
+
+"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.
+
+"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"
+
+"We call our form of government _democracy_," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."
+
+One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."
+
+"That is our form of government," Korvin said.
+
+"You are lying," the expert said.
+
+One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us--"
+
+"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."
+
+Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.
+
+It took three days--but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.
+
+Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.
+
+On the third day Korvin escaped.
+
+It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.
+
+Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem _was_ insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.
+
+Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.
+
+But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.
+
+The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby--all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.
+
+He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.
+
+     _Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+     marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+     for thought--nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+     their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+     can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+     democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+     keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+     obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+     self-interest, of course--but try to make a Tr'en see it!_
+
+     _With one government and one language, they just weren't
+     equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+     to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+     no insight into my mind or their own--and that means no
+     translation._
+
+     _But--damn it--I wish I were home already._
+
+     _I'm bored absolutely stiff!_
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+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: Lost in Translation
+
+Author: Larry M. Harris
+
+Illustrator: Schoenherr
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2009 [EBook #30029]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN TRANSLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact &amp; Fiction August 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>
+LOST<br />
+IN<br />
+TRANSLATION</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+<h2>LARRY M.<br />
+HARRIS</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="blockquot1"><i>In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely. And in
+space-type translation ... the effect may be the same!</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Schoenherr</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="50" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en&mdash;and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.</p>
+
+<p>An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.</p>
+
+<p>He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.</p>
+
+<p>In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.</p>
+
+<p>True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.</p>
+
+<p>He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.</p>
+
+<p>But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.</p>
+
+<p>As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.</p>
+
+<p>He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid&mdash;that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.</p>
+
+<p>It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly&mdash;but no more than slightly&mdash;and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech&mdash;apparently
+there was only one language on the planet&mdash;was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.</p>
+
+<p>"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.</p>
+
+<p>"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said&mdash;another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.</p>
+
+<p>But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en&mdash;and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.</p>
+
+<p>That, after all, was his job.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings&mdash;a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair&mdash;were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.</p>
+
+<p>The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex&mdash;if
+any&mdash;and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."</p>
+
+<p>"Within what limits?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that&mdash;approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these <i>children</i>," he volunteered helpfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"My job required it," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector&mdash;and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnop&aelig;dic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.</p>
+
+<p>Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job&mdash;not to mention the strongest personal inclinations&mdash;demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.</p>
+
+<p>He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you standing or sitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sitting," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a <i>chulad</i>?" the Ruler asked. A <i>chulad</i> was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," he said.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am standing," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped they were right.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"My job required it," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't <i>ended</i>, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told the truth," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not&mdash;not the truth we want," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"&mdash;the Tr'en word seemed to mean <i>right-saying</i>&mdash;"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"&mdash;<i>chulad-like</i> Korvin
+translated&mdash;"attempts will get you nowhere."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin devoutly hoped so.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.</p>
+
+<p>The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The silence this time was even longer.</p>
+
+<p>"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.</p>
+
+<p>But it happened to be wrong.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"It has other names?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I can," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."</p>
+
+<p>"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.</p>
+
+<p>A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.</p>
+
+<p>"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."</p>
+
+<p>"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said again.</p>
+
+<p>The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"</p>
+
+<p>"It can be described," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.</p>
+
+<p>The plan was taking hold.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.</p>
+
+<p>"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are governed?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin nodded. "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."</p>
+
+<p>"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."</p>
+
+<p>"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you act against your own interests?"</p>
+
+<p>Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.</p>
+
+<p>"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"We call our form of government <i>democracy</i>," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."</p>
+
+<p>One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."</p>
+
+<p>"That is our form of government," Korvin said.</p>
+
+<p>"You are lying," the expert said.</p>
+
+<p>One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."</p>
+
+<p>Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.</p>
+
+<p>It took three days&mdash;but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day Korvin escaped.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.</p>
+
+<p>Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem <i>was</i> insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.</p>
+
+<p>Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.</p>
+
+<p>But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.</p>
+
+<p>The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby&mdash;all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.</p>
+
+<p>He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+for thought&mdash;nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+self-interest, of course&mdash;but try to make a Tr'en see it!</i></p>
+
+<p><i>With one government and one language, they just weren't
+equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+no insight into my mind or their own&mdash;and that means no
+translation.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>But&mdash;damn it&mdash;I wish I were home already.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>I'm bored absolutely stiff!</i></p></div>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
+
+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: Lost in Translation
+
+Author: Larry M. Harris
+
+Illustrator: Schoenherr
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2009 [EBook #30029]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN TRANSLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+     This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August
+     1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+     U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                                 LOST
+
+                                  IN
+
+                             TRANSLATION
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                               LARRY M.
+
+                                HARRIS
+
+
+    _In language translation, you may get a literally accurate
+    word-for-word translation ... but miss the meaning entirely.
+    And in space-type translation ... the effect may be the
+    same!_
+
+
+                      Illustrated by Schoenherr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The cell had been put together more efficiently than any Korvin had
+ever been in. But that was only natural, he told himself sadly; the
+Tr'en were an efficient people. All the preliminary reports had agreed
+on that; their efficiency, as a matter of fact, was what had made
+Korvin's arrival a necessity. They were well into the atomic era, and
+were on the verge of developing space travel. Before long they'd be
+settling the other planets of their system, and then the nearer stars.
+Faster-than-light travel couldn't be far away, for the magnificently
+efficient physical scientists of the Tr'en--and that would mean, in
+the ordinary course of events, an invitation to join the Comity of
+Planets.
+
+An invitation, the Comity was sure, which the Tr'en would not accept.
+
+Korvin stretched out on the cell's single bunk, a rigid affair which
+was hardly meant for comfort, and sighed. He'd had three days of
+isolation, with nothing to do but explore the resources of his own
+mind. He'd tried some of the ancient Rhine experiments, but that was
+no good; he still didn't show any particular psi talents. He couldn't
+unlock the cell door with his unaided mind; he couldn't even alter the
+probability of a single dust-mote's Brownian path through the somewhat
+smelly air. Nor could he disappear from his cell and appear, as if by
+magic, several miles away near the slightly-damaged hulk of his ship,
+to the wonder and amazement of his Tr'en captors.
+
+He could do, as a matter of fact, precisely nothing. He wished quietly
+that the Tr'en had seen fit to give him a pack of cards, or a book, or
+even a folder of tourist pictures. The Wonders of Tr'en, according to
+all the advance reports, were likely to be pretty boring, but they'd
+have been better than nothing.
+
+In any decently-run jail, he told himself with indignation, there
+would at least have been other prisoners to talk to. But on Tr'en
+Korvin was all alone.
+
+True, every night the guards came in and gave him a concentrated
+lesson in the local language, but Korvin failed to get much pleasure
+out of that, being unconscious at the time. But now he was equipped to
+discuss almost anything from philosophy to plumbing, but there was
+nobody to discuss it with. He changed position on the bunk and stared
+at the walls. The Tr'en were efficient; there weren't even any
+imperfections in the smooth surface to distract him.
+
+He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry; his captors had left him with a
+full stock of food concentrates.
+
+But he was almightily bored, and about ready to tell anything to
+anyone, just for the chance at a little conversation.
+
+As he reached this dismal conclusion, the cell door opened. Korvin got
+up off the bunk in a hurry and spun around to face his visitor.
+
+The Tr'en was tall, and slightly green.
+
+He looked, as all the Tr'en did, vaguely humanoid--that is, if you
+don't bother to examine him closely. Life in the universe appeared to
+be rigidly limited to humanoid types on oxygen planets; Korvin didn't
+know why, and neither did anybody else. There were a lot of theories,
+but none that accounted for all the facts satisfactorily. Korvin
+really didn't care about it; it was none of his business.
+
+The Tr'en regarded him narrowly through catlike pupils. "You are
+Korvin," he said.
+
+It was a ritual, Korvin had learned. "You are of the Tr'en," he
+replied. The green being nodded.
+
+"I am Didyak of the Tr'en," he said. Amenities over with, he relaxed
+slightly--but no more than slightly--and came into the cell, closing
+the door behind him. Korvin thought of jumping the Tr'en, but decided
+quickly against it. He was a captive, and it was unwise to assume that
+his captors had no more resources than the ones he saw: a small
+translucent pistollike affair in a holster at the Tr'en's side, and a
+small knife in a sheath at the belt. Those Korvin could deal with; but
+there might be almost anything else hidden and ready to fire on him.
+
+"What do you want with me?" Korvin said. The Tr'en speech--apparently
+there was only one language on the planet--was stiff and slightly
+awkward, but easily enough learned under drug hypnosis; it was the
+most rigorously logical construction of its kind Korvin had ever come
+across. It reminded him of some of the mathematical metalanguages he'd
+dealt with back on Earth, in training; but it was more closely and
+carefully constructed than even those marvels.
+
+"I want nothing with you," Didyak said, leaning against the
+door-frame. "You have other questions?"
+
+Korvin sighed. "What are you doing here, then?" he asked. As
+conversation, it wasn't very choice; but it was, he admitted, better
+than solitude.
+
+"I am leaning against the door," Didyak said. The Tr'en literalist
+approach to the smallest problems of everyday living was a little hard
+to get the hang of, Korvin told himself bitterly. He thought for a
+second.
+
+"Why did you come to me?" he said at last.
+
+Didyak beamed at him. The sight was remarkably unpleasant, involving
+as it did the disclosure of the Tr'en fifty-eight teeth, mostly
+pointed. Korvin stared back impassively. "I have been ordered to come
+to you," Didyak said, "by the Ruler. The Ruler wishes to talk with
+you."
+
+It wasn't quite "talk"; that was a general word in the Tr'en language,
+and Didyak had used a specific meaning, roughly: "gain information
+from, by peaceful and vocal means." Korvin filed it away for future
+reference. "Why did the Ruler not come to me?" Korvin asked.
+
+"The Ruler is the Ruler," Didyak said, slightly discomfited. "You are
+to go to him. Such is his command."
+
+Korvin shrugged, sighed and smoothed back his hair. "I obey the
+command of the Ruler," he said--another ritual. Everybody obeyed the
+command of the Ruler. If you didn't, you never had a second chance to
+try.
+
+But Korvin meant exactly what he'd said. He was going to obey the
+commands of the Ruler of the Tr'en--and remove the Tr'en threat from
+the rest of the galaxy forever.
+
+That, after all, was his job.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Room of the Ruler was large, square and excessively brown. The
+walls were dark-brown, the furnishings--a single great chair, several
+kneeling-benches and a small table near the chair--were light-brown,
+of some metallic substance, and even the drapes were tan. It was,
+Korvin decided, much too much of a bad idea, even when the color
+contrast of the Tr'en themselves were figured in.
+
+The Ruler himself, a Tr'en over seven feet tall and correspondingly
+broad, sat in the great chair, his four fingers tapping gently on the
+table near him, staring at Korvin and his guards. The guards stood on
+either side of their captive, looking as impassive as jade statues,
+six and a half feet high.
+
+Korvin wasn't attempting to escape. He wasn't pleading with the Ruler.
+He wasn't defying the Ruler, either. He was just answering questions.
+
+The Tr'en liked to have everything clear. They were a logical race.
+The Ruler had started with Korvin's race, his name, his sex--if
+any--and whether or not his appearance were normal for humanity.
+
+Korvin was answering the last question. "Some men are larger than I
+am," he said, "and some are smaller."
+
+"Within what limits?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Some are over eight feet tall," he said, "and others
+under four feet." He used the Tr'en measurement scale, of course; it
+didn't seem necessary, though, to mention that both extremes of height
+were at the circus-freak level. "Then there is a group of humans," he
+went on, "who are never more than a foot and a half in height, and
+usually less than that--approximately nine or ten inches. We call
+these _children_," he volunteered helpfully.
+
+"Approximately?" the Ruler growled. "We ask for precision here," he
+said. "We are scientific men. We are exact."
+
+Korvin nodded hurriedly. "Our race is more ... more approximate," he
+said apologetically.
+
+"Slipshod," the Ruler muttered.
+
+"Undoubtedly," Korvin agreed politely. "I'll try to do the best I can
+for you."
+
+"You will answer my questions," the Ruler said, "with exactitude." He
+paused, frowning slightly. "You landed your ship on this planet," he
+went on. "Why?"
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+"A clumsy lie," the Ruler said. "The ship crashed; our examinations
+prove that beyond any doubt."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"And it is your job to crash your ship?" the Ruler said. "Wasteful."
+
+Korvin shrugged again. "What I say is true," he announced. "Do you
+have tests for such matters?"
+
+"We do," the Ruler told him. "We are an exact and a scientific race. A
+machine for the testing of truth has been adjusted to your physiology.
+It will be attached to you."
+
+Korvin looked around and saw it coming through the door, pushed by two
+technicians. It was large and squat and metallic, and it had wheels,
+dials, blinking lights, tubes and wires, and a seat with armrests and
+straps. It was obviously a form of lie-detector--and Korvin felt
+himself marveling again at this race. Earth science had nothing to
+match their enormous command of the physical universe; adapting a
+hypnopaedic language-course to an alien being so quickly had been
+wonder enough, but adapting the perilously delicate mechanisms that
+necessarily made up any lie-detector machinery was almost a miracle.
+The Tr'en, under other circumstances, would have been a valuable
+addition to the Comity of Nations.
+
+Being what they were, though, they could only be a menace. And
+Korvin's appreciation of the size of that menace was growing hourly.
+
+He hoped the lie-detector had been adjusted correctly. If it showed
+him telling an untruth, he wasn't likely to live long, and his
+job--not to mention the strongest personal inclinations--demanded most
+strongly that he stay alive.
+
+He swallowed hard. But when the technicians forced him down into the
+seat, buckled straps around him, attached wires and electrodes and
+elastic bands to him at appropriate places and tightened some final
+screws, he made no resistance.
+
+"We shall test the machine," the Ruler said. "In what room are you?"
+
+"In the Room of the Ruler," Korvin said equably.
+
+"Are you standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am sitting," Korvin said.
+
+"Are you a _chulad_?" the Ruler asked. A _chulad_ was a small native
+pet, Korvin knew, something like a greatly magnified deathwatch
+beetle.
+
+"I am not," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ruler looked to his technicians for a signal, and nodded on
+receiving it. "You will tell an untruth now," he said. "Are you
+standing or sitting?"
+
+"I am standing," Korvin said.
+
+The technicians gave another signal. The Ruler looked, in his frowning
+manner, reasonably satisfied. "The machine," he announced, "has been
+adjusted satisfactorily to your physiology. The questioning will now
+continue."
+
+Korvin swallowed again. The test hadn't really seemed extensive enough
+to him. But, after all, the Tr'en knew their business, better than
+anyone else could know it. They had the technique and the logic and
+the training.
+
+He hoped they were right.
+
+The Ruler was frowning at him. Korvin did his best to look receptive.
+"Why did you land your ship on this planet?" the Ruler said.
+
+"My job required it," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler nodded. "Your job is to crash your ship," he said. "It is
+wasteful but the machines tell me it is true. Very well, then; we
+shall find out more about your job. Was the crash intentional?"
+
+Korvin looked sober. "Yes," he said.
+
+The Ruler blinked. "Very well," he said. "Was your job ended when the
+ship crashed?" The Tr'en word, of course, wasn't _ended_, nor did it
+mean exactly that. As nearly as Korvin could make out, it meant
+"disposed of for all time."
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"What else does your job entail?" the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin decided to throw his first spoke into the wheel. "Staying
+alive."
+
+The Ruler roared. "Do not waste time with the obvious!" he shouted.
+"Do not try to trick us; we are a logical and scientific race! Answer
+correctly."
+
+"I have told the truth," Korvin said.
+
+"But it is not--not the truth we want," the Ruler said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "I replied to your question," he said. "I did not
+know that there was more than one kind of truth. Surely the truth is
+the truth, just as the Ruler is the Ruler?"
+
+"I--" The Ruler stopped himself in mid-roar. "You try to confuse the
+Ruler," he said at last, in an approximation of his usual one. "But
+the Ruler will not be confused. We have experts in matters of
+logic"--the Tr'en word seemed to mean _right-saying_--"who will advise
+the Ruler. They will be called."
+
+Korvin's guards were standing around doing nothing of importance now
+that their captor was strapped down in the lie-detector. The Ruler
+gestured and they went out the door in a hurry.
+
+The Ruler looked down at Korvin. "You will find that you cannot trick
+us," he said. "You will find that such fiddling"--_chulad-like_ Korvin
+translated--"attempts will get you nowhere."
+
+Korvin devoutly hoped so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The experts in logic arrived shortly, and in no uncertain terms Korvin
+was given to understand that logical paradox was not going to confuse
+anybody on the planet. The barber who did, or didn't, shave himself,
+the secretary of the club whose members were secretaries, Achilles and
+the tortoise, and all the other lovely paradox-models scattered around
+were so much primer material for the Tr'en. "They can be treated
+mathematically," one of the experts, a small emerald-green being, told
+Korvin thinly. "Of course, you would not understand the mathematics.
+But that is not important. You need only understand that we cannot be
+confused by such means."
+
+"Good," Korvin said.
+
+The experts blinked. "Good?" he said.
+
+"Naturally," Korvin said in a friendly tone.
+
+The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his
+best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you
+call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different
+from the one we are occupied with."
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the
+indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?"
+he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper.
+
+"To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said.
+
+The silence this time was even longer.
+
+"The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last,
+in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet.
+You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly
+to aid us."
+
+Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the
+only logical deduction.
+
+But it happened to be wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had
+passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was
+still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor,
+but a logical race does not trust him.
+
+"Sometimes," Korvin said.
+
+"It has other names?" the Ruler said.
+
+"It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the
+Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names
+to it, that was all. It had none of its own.
+
+"Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said.
+
+"I do," Korvin said, "for convenience."
+
+"Do you know its location?" the Ruler said.
+
+"Not with exactitude," Korvin said.
+
+There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said.
+
+"I can," Korvin said.
+
+"And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able."
+
+"We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans
+and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision
+on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or
+does it exist alone?"
+
+Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said.
+
+A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have
+theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own
+decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This
+seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible
+system. Is it the system you mean?"
+
+Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said.
+
+"Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme,"
+the Ruler said.
+
+"It is," Korvin said.
+
+"Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said.
+
+The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that
+the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead
+of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time.
+
+"The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."
+
+"Any question of fact has an answer," the Ruler snapped. "A paradox is
+not involved here; a government exists, and some being is the
+governor. Perhaps several beings share this task; perhaps machines do
+the work. But where there is a government, there is a governor. Is
+this agreed?"
+
+"Certainly," Korvin said. "It is completely obvious and true."
+
+"The planet from which you come is part of a system of planets which
+are governed, you have said," the Ruler went on.
+
+"True," Korvin said.
+
+"Then there is a governor for this system," the Ruler said.
+
+"True," Korvin said again.
+
+The ruler sighed gently. "Explain this governor to us," he said.
+
+Korvin shrugged. "The explanation cannot be given to you."
+
+The Ruler turned to a group of his experts and a short muttered
+conversation took place. At its end the Ruler turned his gaze back to
+Korvin. "Is the deficiency in you?" he said. "Are you in some way
+unable to describe this government?"
+
+"It can be described," Korvin said.
+
+"Then you will suffer unpleasant consequences if you describe it to
+us?" the Ruler went on.
+
+"I will not," Korvin said.
+
+It was the signal for another conference. With some satisfaction,
+Korvin noticed that the Tr'en were becoming slightly puzzled; they
+were no longer moving and speaking with calm assurance.
+
+The plan was taking hold.
+
+The Ruler had finished his conference. "You are attempting again to
+confuse us," he said.
+
+Korvin shook his head earnestly. "I am attempting," he said, "not to
+confuse you."
+
+"Then I ask for an answer," the Ruler said.
+
+"I request that I be allowed to ask a question," Korvin said.
+
+The Ruler hesitated, then nodded. "Ask it," he said. "We shall answer
+it if we see fit to do so."
+
+Korvin tried to look grateful. "Well, then," he said, "what is your
+government?"
+
+The Ruler beckoned to a heavy-set green being, who stepped forward
+from a knot of Tr'en, inclined his head in Korvin's direction, and
+began. "Our government is the only logical form of government," he
+said in a high, sweet tenor. "The Ruler orders all, and his subjects
+obey. In this way uniformity is gained, and this uniformity aids in
+the speed of possible action and in the weight of action. All Tr'en
+act instantly in the same manner. The Ruler is adopted by the previous
+Ruler; in this way we are assured of a common wisdom and a steady
+judgment."
+
+"You have heard our government defined," the Ruler said. "Now, you
+will define yours for us."
+
+Korvin shook his head. "If you insist," he said, "I'll try it. But you
+won't understand it."
+
+The Ruler frowned. "We shall understand," he said. "Begin. Who governs
+you?"
+
+"None," Korvin said.
+
+"But you are governed?"
+
+Korvin nodded. "Yes."
+
+"Then there is a governor," the Ruler insisted.
+
+"True," Korvin said. "But everyone is the governor."
+
+"Then there is no government," the Ruler said. "There is no single
+decision."
+
+"No," Korvin said equably, "there are many decisions binding on all."
+
+"Who makes them binding?" the Ruler asked. "Who forces you to accept
+these decisions? Some of them must be unfavorable to some beings?"
+
+"Many of them are unfavorable," Korvin said. "But we are not forced to
+accept them."
+
+"Do you act against your own interests?"
+
+Korvin shrugged. "Not knowingly," he said. The Ruler flashed a look at
+the technicians handling the lie-detector. Korvin turned to see their
+expression. They needed no words; the lie-detector was telling them,
+perfectly obviously, that he was speaking the truth. But the truth
+wasn't making any sense. "I told you you wouldn't understand it," he
+said.
+
+"It is a defect in your explanation," the Ruler almost snarled.
+
+"My explanation is as exact as it can be," he said.
+
+The Ruler breathed gustily. "Let us try something else," he said.
+"Everyone is the governor. Do you share a single mind? A racial mind
+has been theorized, though we have met with no examples--"
+
+"Neither have we," Korvin said. "We are all individuals, like
+yourselves."
+
+"But with no single ruler to form policy, to make decisions--"
+
+"We have no need of one," Korvin said calmly.
+
+"Ah," the Ruler said suddenly, as if he saw daylight ahead. "And why
+not?"
+
+"We call our form of government _democracy_," Korvin said. "It means
+the rule of the people. There is no need for another ruler."
+
+One of the experts piped up suddenly. "The beings themselves rule each
+other?" he said. "This is clearly impossible; for, no one being can
+have the force to compel acceptance of his commands. Without his
+force, there can be no effective rule."
+
+"That is our form of government," Korvin said.
+
+"You are lying," the expert said.
+
+One of the technicians chimed in: "The machine tells us--"
+
+"Then the machine is faulty," the expert said. "It will be corrected."
+
+Korvin wondered, as the technicians argued, how long they'd take
+studying the machine, before they realized it didn't have any defects
+to correct. He hoped it wasn't going to be too long; he could foresee
+another stretch of boredom coming. And, besides, he was getting
+homesick.
+
+It took three days--but boredom never really had a chance to set in.
+Korvin found himself the object of more attention than he had hoped
+for; one by one, the experts came to his cell, each with a different
+method of resolving the obvious contradictions in his statements.
+
+Some of them went away fuming. Others simply went away, puzzled.
+
+On the third day Korvin escaped.
+
+It wasn't very difficult; he hadn't thought it would be. Even the most
+logical of thinking beings has a subconscious as well as a conscious
+mind, and one of the ways of dealing with an insoluble problem is to
+make the problem disappear. There were only two ways of doing that,
+and killing the problem's main focus was a little more complicated.
+That couldn't be done by the subconscious mind; the conscious had to
+intervene somewhere. And it couldn't.
+
+Because that would mean recognizing, fully and consciously, that the
+problem _was_ insoluble. And the Tr'en weren't capable of that sort of
+thinking.
+
+Korvin thanked his lucky stars that their genius had been restricted
+to the physical and mathematical. Any insight at all into the mental
+sciences would have given them the key to his existence, and his
+entire plan, within seconds.
+
+But, then, it was lack of that insight that had called for this
+particular plan. That, and the political structure of the Tr'en.
+
+The same lack of insight let the Tr'en subconscious work on his
+escape without any annoying distractions in the way of deep
+reflection. Someone left a door unlocked and a weapon nearby--all
+quite intent, Korvin was sure. Getting to the ship was a little more
+complicated, but presented no new problems; he was airborne, and then
+space-borne, inside of a few hours after leaving the cell.
+
+He set his course, relaxed, and cleared his mind. He had no psionic
+talents, but the men at Earth Central did; he couldn't receive
+messages, but he could send them. He sent one now.
+
+     _Mission accomplished; the Tr'en aren't about to come
+     marauding out into space too soon. They've been given food
+     for thought--nice indigestible food that's going to stick in
+     their craws until they finally manage to digest it. But they
+     can't digest it and stay what they are; you've got to be
+     democratic, to some extent, to understand the idea. What
+     keeps us obeying laws we ourselves make? What keeps us
+     obeying laws that make things inconvenient for us? Sheer
+     self-interest, of course--but try to make a Tr'en see it!_
+
+     _With one government and one language, they just weren't
+     equipped for translation. They were too efficient physically
+     to try for the mental sciences at all. No mental sciences,
+     no insight into my mind or their own--and that means no
+     translation._
+
+     _But--damn it--I wish I were home already._
+
+     _I'm bored absolutely stiff!_
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris
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