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diff --git a/30029-h/30029-h.htm b/30029-h/30029-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dd7201 --- /dev/null +++ b/30029-h/30029-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,717 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lost in Translation, by Larry M. Harris + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} +.blockquot1 { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 25%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<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 & Fiction August 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </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> </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> </p> + +<h3>Illustrated by Schoenherr</h3> +<p> </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—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—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—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.</p> + +<p>"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.</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—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—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—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.</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—if +any—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—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—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.</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—not to mention the strongest personal inclinations—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—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—" 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 <i>right-saying</i>—"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"—<i>chulad-like</i> Korvin +translated—"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—"</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—"</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—"</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—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—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—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!</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—and that means no +translation.</i></p> + +<p><i>But—damn it—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> diff --git a/30029-h/images/image_001.jpg b/30029-h/images/image_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29c04d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/30029-h/images/image_001.jpg diff --git a/30029-h/images/image_t.jpg b/30029-h/images/image_t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efc0b6a --- /dev/null +++ b/30029-h/images/image_t.jpg |
