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diff --git a/30029-0.txt b/30029-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73f97c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/30029-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,658 @@ +*** 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 *** |