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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31392-h.zip b/31392-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2d197a --- /dev/null +++ b/31392-h.zip diff --git a/31392-h/31392-h.htm b/31392-h/31392-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd4ef3c --- /dev/null +++ b/31392-h/31392-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1436 @@ +<!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=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Inhabited, by Richard Wilson + </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;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold; font-size:smaller;} + +.p1 { margin-left:70%; } + +/* 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> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inhabited, by Richard Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Inhabited + +Author: Richard Wilson + +Illustrator: Ashman + +Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31392] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INHABITED *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="600" height="411" alt="Containing a foe is sound military thinking—unless +it's carried out so literally that everybody becomes an innocent +Trojan Horse!" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Containing a foe is sound military thinking—unless +it's carried out so literally that everybody becomes an innocent +Trojan Horse!</span> +</div> + +<h1>The Inhabited</h1> +<p> </p> + +<h3>By</h3> +<p> </p> +<h2>RICHARD WILSON</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>Illustrated by ASHMAN +</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t2.jpg" alt="T" width="45" height="50" /></div> +<p>wo slitted green eyes loomed up directly in front of him. He plunged +into them immediately.</p> + +<p>He had just made the voyage, naked through the dimension stratum, and +he scurried into the first available refuge, to hover there, gasping.</p> + +<p>The word "he" does not strictly apply to the creature, for it had no +sex, nor are the words "naked," "scurried," "hover" and "gasping" +accurate at all. But there are no English words to describe properly +what it was and how it moved, except in very general terms. There are +no Asiatic, African or European words, though perhaps there are +mathematical symbols. But, because this is not a technical paper, the +symbols have no place in it.</p> + +<p>He was a sort of spy, a sort of fifth-columnist. He had some of the +characteristics of a kamikaze pilot, too, because there was no telling +if he'd get back from his mission.</p> + +<p>Hovering in his refuge and gasping for breath, so to speak, he tried +to compose his thoughts after the terrifying journey and adjust +himself to his new environment, so he could get to work. His job, as +first traveler to this new world, the Earth, was to learn if it were +suitable for habitation by his fellow beings back home. Their world +was about ended and they had to move or die.</p> + +<p>He was being discomfited, however, in his initial adjustment. His +first stop in the new world—unfortunately, not only for his dignity, +but for his equilibrium—had been in the mind of a cat.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt=" +I" width="16" height="40" /></div> +<p>t was his own fault, really. He and the others had decided that his +first in a series of temporary habitations should be in one of the +lower order of animals. It was a matter of precaution—the mind would +be easy to control, if it came to a contest. Also, there would be less +chance of running into a mind-screen and being trapped or destroyed.</p> + +<p>The cat had no mind-screen, of course; some might even have argued +that she didn't have a mind, especially the human couple she lived +with. But whatever she did have was actively at work, feeling the +solid tree-branch under her claws and the leaves against which her +tail switched and seeing the half-grown chickens below.</p> + +<p>The chickens were scratching in the forbidden vegetable garden. The +cat, the runt of her litter and thus named Midge, often had been +chased out of the garden herself, but it was no sense of justice which +now set her little gray behind to wriggling in preparation for her +leap. It was mischief, pure and simple, which motivated her.</p> + +<p>Midge leaped, and the visitor, who had made the journey between +dimensions without losing consciousness, blacked out.</p> + +<p>When he revived, he was being rocketed along in an up-and-down and at +the same time side-ward series of motions which got him all giddy. +With an effort he oriented himself so that the cat's vision became +his, and he watched in distaste as the chickens scurried, scrawny +wings lifted and beaks achirp, this way and that to escape the +monstrous cat.</p> + +<p>The cat never touched the chickens; she was content to chase them. +When she had divided the flock in half, six in the pea patch and six +under the porch, she lay down in the shade of the front steps and +reflectively licked a paw.</p> + +<p>The spy got the impression of reflection, but he was baffledly unable +to figure out what the cat was reflecting on. Midge in turn licked a +paw, rolled in the dust, arched her back against the warm stone of the +steps and snapped cautiously at a low-flying wasp. She was a contented +cat. The impression of contentment came through very well.</p> + +<p>The dimension traveler got only one other impression at the +moment—one of languor.</p> + +<p>The cat, after a prodigious pink yawn, went to sleep. The traveler, +although he had never known the experience of voluntary +unconsciousness, was tempted to do the same. But he fought against the +influence of his host and, robbed of vision with the closing of the +cat's eyes, he meditated.</p> + +<p>He had been on Earth less than ten minutes, but his meditation +consisted of saying to himself in his own way that if he was ever +going to get anything done, he'd better escape from this cat's mind.</p> + +<p>He accomplished that a few minutes later, when there was a crunching +of gravel in the driveway and a battered Plymouth stopped and a man +stepped out. Midge opened her eyes, crept up behind a row of stones +bordering the path to the driveway and jumped delicately out at the +man, who tried unsuccessfully to gather her into his arms.</p> + +<p>Through the cat's eyes from behind the porch steps, where Midge had +fled, the traveler took stock of the human being it was about to +inhabit:</p> + +<p>Five-feet-elevenish, thirtyish, blond-brown-haired, +blue-summer-suited.</p> + +<p>And no mind-screen.</p> + +<p>The traveler traveled and in an instant he was looking down from his +new height at the gray undersized cat. Then the screen door of the +porch opened and a female human being appeared.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="48" height="40" /></div> +<p>ith the male human impressions now his, the traveler experienced some +interesting sensations. There was a body-to-body togetherness +apparently called "gimmea hug" and a face-to-face-touching ceremony, +"kiss."</p> + +<p>"Hmm," thought the traveler, in his own way. "Hmm."</p> + +<p>The greeting ceremony was followed by one that had this catechism:</p> + +<p>"Suppareddi?"</p> + +<p>"Onnatable."</p> + +<p>Then came the "eating."</p> + +<p>This eating, something he had never done, was all right, he decided. +He wondered if cats ate, too. Yes, Midge was under the gas stove, +chewing delicately at a different kind of preparation.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of eating. The traveler knew from the +inspection of the mind he was inhabiting that the man was enormously +hungry and tired almost to exhaustion.</p> + +<p>"The damn job had to go out today," was what had happened. "We worked +till almost eight o'clock. I think I'll take a nap after supper while +you do the dishes."</p> + +<p>The traveler understood perfectly, for he was a very sympathetic type. +That was one reason they had chosen him for the transdimensional +exploration. They had figured the best applicant for the job would be +one with an intellect highly attuned to the vibrations of these +others, known dimly through the warp-view, one extremely sensitive and +with a great capacity for appreciation. Shrewd, too, of course.</p> + +<p>The traveler tried to exercise control. Just a trace of it at first. +He attempted to dissuade the man from having his nap. But his effort +was ignored.</p> + +<p>The man went to sleep as soon as he lay down on the couch in the +living room. Once again, as the eyes closed, the traveler was +imprisoned. He hadn't realized it until now, but he evidently couldn't +transfer from one mind to another except through the eyes, once he was +inside. He had planned to explore the woman's mind, but now he was +trapped, at least temporarily.</p> + +<p>Oh, well. He composed himself as best he could to await the awakening. +This sleeping business was a waste of time.</p> + +<p>There were footsteps and a whistling noise outside. The inhabited man +heard the sounds and woke up, irritated. He opened his eyes a slit as +his wife told the neighbor that Charlie was taking a nap, worn out +from a hard day at the office, and the visitor, darting free, +transferred again.</p> + +<p>But he miscalculated and there he was in the mind of the neighbor. +Irritated with himself, the traveler was about to jump to the mind of +the woman when he was caught up in the excitement that was consuming +his new host.</p> + +<p>"Sorry," said the neighbor. "The new batch of records I ordered came +today and I thought Charlie'd like to hear them. Tell him to come over +tomorrow night, if he wants to hear the solidest combo since Muggsy's +Roseland days."</p> + +<p>The wife said all right, George, she'd tell him. But the traveler was +experiencing the excited memories of a dixieland jazz band in his new +host's mind, and he knew he'd be hearing these fantastically wonderful +new sounds at first hand as soon as George got back to his turntable.</p> + +<p>They could hardly wait, George and his inhabitant both.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="34" height="40" /></div> +<p>is inhabitant had come from a dimension-world of vast, contemplative +silences. There was no talk, no speech vibrations, no noise which +could not be shut out by the turning of a mental switch. Communication +was from mind to mind, not from mouth to ear. It was a world of +peaceful silence, where everything had been done, where the struggle +for physical existence had ended, and where there remained only the +sweet fruits of past labor to be enjoyed.</p> + +<p>That had been the state of affairs, at any rate, up until the time of +the Change, which was something the beings of the world could not +stop. It was not a new threat from the lower orders, which they had +met and overcome before, innumerable times. It was not a threat from +outside—no invasion such as they had turned back in the past. Nor was +it a cooling of their world or the danger of imminent collision with +another.</p> + +<p>The Change came from within. It was decadence. There was nothing left +for the beings to do. They had solved all their problems and could +find no new ones. They had exhausted the intricate workings of +reflection, academic hypothetica and mind-play; there hadn't been a +new game, for instance, in the lifetime of the oldest inhabitant.</p> + +<p>And so they were dying of boredom. This very realization had for a +time halted the creeping menace, because, as they came to accept it +and discuss ways of meeting it, the peril itself subsided. But the +moment they relaxed, the Change started again.</p> + +<p>Something had to be done. Mere theorizing about their situation was +not enough. It was then that they sent their spy abroad.</p> + +<p>Because they had at one time or another visited each of the planets in +their solar system and had exhausted their possibilities or found them +barren, and because they were not equipped, even at the peak of their +physical development, for intergalactic flight, there remained only +one way to travel—in time.</p> + +<p>Not forward or backward, for both had been tried. Travel ahead had +been discouraging—in fact, it had convinced them that their normal +passage through the years had to be stopped. The reason had been made +dramatically clear—they, the master race, did not exist in the +future. They had vanished and the lower forms of life had begun to +take over.</p> + +<p>Travel into the past would be even more boring than continued +existence in the present, they realized, because they would be +reliving the experiences they had had and still vividly remembered, +and would be incapable of changing them. It would be both tiresome and +frustrating.</p> + +<p>That left only one way to go—sideways in time, across the dimension +line—to a world like their own, but which had developed so +differently through the eons that to visit it and conquer the minds of +its inhabitants would be worth while.</p> + +<p>In that way they picked Earth for their victim and sent out their spy. +Just one spy. If he didn't return, they'd send another. There was +enough time. And they had to be sure.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_g.jpg" alt="G" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>eorge put a record on the phonograph and fixed himself a drink while +the machine warmed up.</p> + +<p>The interdimensional invader reacted pleasurably to the taste and +instant warming effect of the liquor on George's mind.</p> + +<p>"Ahh!" said George aloud, and his temporary inhabitant agreed with +him.</p> + +<p>George lifted the phonograph needle into the groove and went to sit on +the edge of a chair. Jazz poured out of the speaker and the man beat +out the time with his heels and toes.</p> + +<p>The visitor in his mind experimented with control. He went at it +subtly, at first, so as not to alarm his host. He tried to quiet the +beating of time with the feet. He suggested that George cross his legs +instead. The beating of time continued. The visitor urged that George +do this little thing he asked; he bent all his powers to the +suggestion, concentrating on the tapping feet. There wasn't even a +glimmer of reaction.</p> + +<p>Instead, there was a reverse effect. The pounding of music was +insistent. The visitor relaxed. He rationalized and told himself he +would try another time. Now he would observe this phenomenon. But he +became more than just an observer.</p> + +<p>The visitor reeled with sensation. The vibrations gripped him, twisted +him and wrung him out. He was limp, palpitating and thoroughly happy +when the record ended and George got up immediately to put on another.</p> + +<p>Hours later, drunk with the jazz and the liquor, the visitor went +blissfully to sleep inside George's mind when his host went to bed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="400" height="592" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>He awoke, with George, to the experience of a nagging throb. But in a +few minutes, after a shower, shave and breakfast with steaming +coffee, it was gone, and the visitor looked forward to the coming day.</p> + +<p>It was George's day off and he was going fishing. Humming to himself, +he got out his reel and flies and other paraphernalia and contentedly +arranged them in the back of his car. Visions of the fine, quiet time +he was going to have went through George's mind, and his inhabitant +decided he had better leave. He had to get on with his exploration; he +mustn't allow himself to be trapped into just having fun.</p> + +<p>But he stayed with George as the fisherman drove his car out of the +garage and along a highway. The day was sunny and warm. There was a +slight wind and the green trees sighed delicately in it. The birds +were pleasantly vocal and the colors were superb.</p> + +<p>The visitor found it oddly familiar. Then he realized what it was.</p> + +<p>His world was like this, too. It had the trees, the birds, the wind +and the colors. All were there. But its people had long since ceased +to appreciate them. Their existence had turned inward and the external +things no longer were of interest. Yet the visitor, through George's +eyes, found this world delightful. He reveled in its beauty, its +breathtaking panorama and its balance. And he wondered if he was able +to appreciate it for the first time now because he was being active, +although in a vicarious way, and participating in life, instead of +merely reflecting on it. This would be a clue to have analyzed by the +greater minds to which he would report.</p> + +<p>Then, with a wrench, the visitor chided himself. He was allowing +himself to identify too closely with this mortal, with his +appreciation of such diverse pursuits as jazz and fishing. He had to +get on. There was work to be done.</p> + +<p>George waved to a boy playing in a field and the boy waved back. With +the contact of their eyes, the visitor was inside the boy's mind.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he boy had a dog. It was a great, lumbering mass of affection, a +shaggy, loving, prankish beast. A protector and a playmate, strong and +gentle.</p> + +<p>Now that the visitor was in the boy's mind, he adored the animal, and +the dog worshiped him.</p> + +<p>He fought to be rational. "Come now," he told himself, "don't get +carried away." He attempted control. A simple thing. He would have the +boy pull the dog's ear, gently. He concentrated, suggested. But all +his efforts were thwarted. The boy leaped at the dog, grabbed it +around the middle. The dog responded, prancing free.</p> + +<p>The visitor gave up. He relaxed.</p> + +<p>Great waves of mute, suffocating love enveloped him. He swam for a few +minutes in a pool of joy as the boy and dog wrestled, rolled over each +other in the tall grass, charged ferociously with teeth bared and +growls issuing from both throats, finally to subside panting and +laughing on the ground while the clouds swept majestically overhead +across the blue sky.</p> + +<p>He could swear the dog was laughing, too.</p> + +<p>As they lay there, exhausted for the moment, a young woman came upon +them. The visitor saw her looking down at them, the soft breeze +tugging at her dark hair and skirt. Her hands were thrust into the +pockets of her jacket. She was barefoot and she wriggled her toes so +that blades of grass came up between them.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Jimmy," she said. "Hello, Max, you old monster."</p> + +<p>The dog thumped the ground with his tail.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mrs. Tanner," the boy said. "How's the baby coming?"</p> + +<p>The girl smiled. "Just fine, Jimmy. It's beginning to kick a little +now. It kind of tickles. And you know what?"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Jimmy. The visitor in the boy's mind wanted to know, +too.</p> + +<p>"I hope it's a boy, and that he grows up to be just like you."</p> + +<p>"Aw." The boy rolled over and hid his face in the grass. Then he +peered around. "Honest?"</p> + +<p>"Honest," she said.</p> + +<p>"Gee whiz." The boy was so embarrassed that he had to leave. "Me and +Max are going down to the swimmin' hole. You wanta come?"</p> + +<p>"No, thanks. You go ahead. I think I'll just sit here in the Sun for a +while and watch my toes curl."</p> + +<p>As they said good-by, the visitor traveled to the new mind.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="48" height="40" /></div> +<p>ith the girl's eyes, he saw the boy and the dog running across the +meadow and down to the stream at the edge of the woods.</p> + +<p>The traveler experienced a sensation of tremendous fondness as he +watched them go.</p> + +<p>But he mustn't get carried away, he told himself. He must make another +attempt to take command. This girl might be the one he could +influence. She was doing nothing active; her mind was relaxed.</p> + +<p>The visitor bent himself to the task. He would be cleverly simple. He +would have her pick a daisy. They were all around at her feet. He +concentrated. Her gaze traveled back across the meadow to the grassy +knoll on which she was standing. She sat. She stretched out her arms +behind her and leaned back on them. She tossed her hair and gazed into +the sky.</p> + +<p>She wasn't even thinking of the daisy.</p> + +<p>Irritated, he gathered all his powers into a compact mass and hurled +them at her mind.</p> + +<p>But with a swoop and a soar, he was carried up and away, through the +sweet summer air, to a cloud of white softness.</p> + +<p>This was not what he had planned, by any means.</p> + +<p>A steady, warm breeze enveloped him and there was a tinkle of faraway +music. It frightened him and he struggled to get back into contact +with the girl's mind. But there was no contact. Apparently he had been +cast out, against his will.</p> + +<p>The forces of creation buffeted him. His dizzying flight carried him +through the clean air in swift journey from horizon to horizon, then +up, up and out beyond the limits of the atmosphere, only to return him +in a trice to the breast of the rolling meadow. He was conscious now +of the steady growth of slim green leaves as they pressed confidently +through the nurturing Earth, of the other tiny living things in and on +the Earth, and the heartbeat of the Earth itself, assuring him with +its great strength of the continuation of all things.</p> + +<p>Then he was back with the girl, watching through her eyes a butterfly +as it fluttered to rest on a flower and perched there, gently waving +its gaudy wings.</p> + +<p>He had not been cast out. The young woman herself had gone on that +wild journey to the heavens, not only with her mind, but with her +entire being, attuned to the rest of creation. There was a continuity, +he realized, a oneness between herself, the mother-to-be, and the +Universe. With her, then, he felt the stirrings of new life, and he +was proud and content.</p> + +<p>He forgot for the moment that he had been a failure.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he soft breeze seemed to turn chill. The Sun was still high and +unclouded, but its warmth was gone. With the girl, he felt a prickling +along the spine. She turned her head slightly and, through her eyes, +he saw, a few yards away in tall grass, a creeping man.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the man were fixed on the girl's body and the traveler +felt her thrill of terror. The man lay there for a moment, hands flat +on the ground under his chest. Then he moved forward, inching toward +her.</p> + +<p>The girl screamed. Her terror gripped the visitor. He was helpless. +His thoughts whirled into chaos, following hers.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the creeping man flicked from side to side, then up. The +visitor quivered and cringed with the girl when she screamed again. As +the torrent of frightened sound poured from her throat, the creeping +man looked into her eyes. Instantly the visitor was sucked into his +mind.</p> + +<p>It was a maelstrom. A tremendous conflict was going on in it. One part +of it was urging the body on in its fantastic crawl toward the young +woman frozen in terror against the sky. The visitor was aware of the +other part, submerged and struggling feebly, trying to get through +with a message of reason. But it was handicapped. The visitor sensed +these efforts being nullified by a crushing weight of shame.</p> + +<p>The traveler fought against full identification with the deranged part +of the mind. Nevertheless, he sought to understand it, as he had +understood the other minds he'd visited. But there was nothing to +understand. The creeping man had no plan. There was no reason for his +action.</p> + +<p>The visitor felt only a compulsion which said, "You must! You must!"</p> + +<p>The visitor was frightened. And then he realized that he was less +frightened than the man was. The terror felt by the creeping man was +greater than the fear the visitor had experienced with the girl.</p> + +<p>There were shouts and barking. He heard the shrill cry of a boy. "Go +get him, Max!"</p> + +<p>There was a squeal of brakes from the road and a pounding of heavy +footsteps coming toward them.</p> + +<p>With the man, the visitor rose up, confused, scared. A great shaggy +weight hurled itself and a growling, sharp-toothed mouth sought a +throat.</p> + +<p>A voice yelled, "Don't shoot! The dog's got him!"</p> + +<p>Then blackness.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m1.jpg" alt="M" width="55" height="40" /></div> +<p>ersey." The voice summoned the visitor, huddling in a corner of the +deranged mind, fearing contamination.</p> + +<p>The eyes opened, looked up at the ceiling of a barred cell.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Cloyd is here to see you," the voice said.</p> + +<p>The visitor felt the mind of his host seeking to close out the words +and the world, to return to sheltering darkness.</p> + +<p>There was a rattle of keys and the opening of an iron door.</p> + +<p>The eyes opened as a hand shook the psychotic Mersey by the shoulder. +The visitor sought escape, but the eyes avoided those of the other.</p> + +<p>"Come with me, son," the doctor's voice said. "Don't be frightened. +No one will hurt you. We'll have a talk."</p> + +<p>Mersey shook off the hand on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Drop dead," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't help anything," the doctor said. "Come on, man."</p> + +<p>Mersey sat up and, through his eyes, the traveler saw the doctor's +legs. Were they legs or were they iron bars? The traveler cringed away +from the mad thought.</p> + +<p>A room with a desk, a chair, a couch, and sunlight through a window. +Crawling sunlit snakes. The visitor shuddered. He sought the part of +the mind that was clear, but he sought in vain. Only the whirling +chaos and the distorted images remained now.</p> + +<p>There was a pain in the throat and with Mersey he lifted a hand to it. +Bandaged—gleaming teeth and a snarling animal's mouth—fear, despair +and hatred. With the prisoner, he collapsed on the couch.</p> + +<p>"Lie down, if you like," said Dr. Cloyd's voice. "Try to relax. Let me +help you."</p> + +<p>"Drop dead," Mersey replied automatically. The visitor felt the +tenseness of the man, the unreasoning fear, and the resentment.</p> + +<p>But as the man lay there, the traveler sensed a calming of the +turbulence. There was an urgent rational thought. He concentrated and +tried to help the man phrase it.</p> + +<p>"The girl—is she all right? Did I...?"</p> + +<p>"She's all right." The doctor's voice was soothing. It pushed back the +shadows a little. "She's perfectly all right."</p> + +<p>The visitor sensed a dulled relief in Mersey's mind. The shadows still +whirled, but they were less ominous. He suggested a question, exulted +as Mersey attempted to phrase it: "Doctor, am I real bad off? Can...?"</p> + +<p>But still the shadows.</p> + +<p>"We'll work together," said the doctor's voice. "You've been ill, but +so have others. With your help, we can make you well."</p> + +<p>The traveler made a tremendous effort. He urged Mersey to say: "I'll +help, doctor. I want to find peace."</p> + +<p>But then Mersey's voice went on: "I must find a new home. We need a +new home. We can't stay where we are."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he traveler was shocked at the words. He hadn't intended them to come +out that way. Somehow Mersey had voiced the underlying thoughts of his +people. The traveler sought the doctor's reaction, but Mersey wouldn't +look at him. The man's gaze was fixed on the ceiling above the couch.</p> + +<p>"Of course," the doctor said. His words were false, the visitor +realized; he was humoring the madman.</p> + +<p>"We had so much, but now there is no future," Mersey said. The visitor +tried to stop him. He would not be stopped. "We can't stay much +longer. We'll die. We must find a new world. Maybe you can help us."</p> + +<p>Dr. Cloyd spoke and there was no hint of surprise in his voice.</p> + +<p>"I'll help you all I can. Would you care to tell me more about your +world?"</p> + +<p>Desperately, the visitor fought to control the flow of Mersey's words. +He had opened the gate to the other world—how, he did not know—and +all of his knowledge and memories now were Mersey's. But the traveler +could not communicate with the disordered mind. He could only +communicate through it, and then involuntarily. If he could escape the +mind ... but he could not escape. Mersey's eyes were fixed on the +ceiling. He would not look at the doctor.</p> + +<p>"A dying world," Mersey said. "It will live on after us, but we will +die because we have finished. There's nothing more to do. The Change +is upon us, and we must flee it or die. I have been sent here as a +last hope, as an emissary to learn if this world is the answer. I have +traveled among you and I have found good things. Your world is much +like ours, physically, but it has not grown as fast or as far as ours, +and we would be happy here, among you, if we could control."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he words from Mersey's throat had come falteringly at first, but now +they were strong, although the tone was flat and expressionless. The +words went on:</p> + +<p>"But we can't control. I've tried and failed. At best we can co-exist, +as observers and vicarious participants, but we must surrender choice. +Is that to be our destiny—to live on, but to be denied all except +contemplation—to live on as guests among you, accepting your ways and +sharing them, but with no power to change them?"</p> + +<p>The traveler shouted at Mersey's mind in soundless fury: "Shut up! +Shut up!"</p> + +<p>Mersey stopped talking.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said the doctor softly. "This is very interesting."</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" said the traveler voicelessly, yet with frantic urgency.</p> + +<p>The madman was silent. His body was perfectly still, except for his +calm breathing. The visitor gazed through his eyes in the only +possible direction—up at the ceiling. He tried another command. "Look +at the doctor."</p> + +<p>With that glance, the visitor told himself, he would flee the crazed +mind and enter the doctor's. There he would learn what the +psychiatrist thought of his patient's strange soliloquy—whether he +believed it, or any part of it.</p> + +<p>He prayed that the doctor was evaluating it as the intricate raving of +delusion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>lowly, Mersey turned his head. Through his eyes, the visitor saw the +faded green carpet, the doctor's dull-black shoes, his socks, the legs +of his trousers. Mersey's glance hovered there, around the doctor's +knees. The visitor forced it higher, past the belt around a tidy +waist, along the buttons of the opened vest to the white collar, and +finally to the kindly eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses.</p> + +<p>Again he had commanded this human being and had been obeyed. The +traveler braced himself for the leap from the tortured mind to the +sane one.</p> + +<p>But his gaze continued to be that of Mersey.</p> + +<p>The gray eyes of the doctor were on his patient. Intelligence and +kindness were in those eyes, but the visitor could read nothing else.</p> + +<p>He was caught, a prisoner in a demented mind. He felt panic. This must +be the mind-screen he'd been warned about.</p> + +<p>"Look down," the visitor commanded Mersey. "Shut your eyes. Don't let +him see me."</p> + +<p>But Mersey continued to be held by the doctor's eyes. The visitor +cowered back into the crazed mental tangle.</p> + +<p>Gradually, then, his fear ebbed. There was more likelihood that Cloyd +did not believe Mersey's words than that he did. The doctor treated +hundreds of patients and surely many of them had delusions as fanciful +as this one might seem.</p> + +<p>The traveler's alarm simmered down until he was capable of +appreciating the irony of the situation.</p> + +<p>But at the same time, he thought with pain, "Is it our fate that of +all the millions of creatures on this world, we can establish +communication only through the insane? And even then to have only +imperfect control of the mind and, worse, to have it become a +transmitter for our most secret thoughts?"</p> + +<p>It was heartbreaking.</p> + +<p>Dr. Cloyd broke the long silence. Pulling at his ear, he spoke calmly +and matter-of-factly:</p> + +<p>"Let me see if I understand your problem, Mersey. You believe yourself +to be from another world, from which you have traveled, although not +physically. Your world is not a material one, as far as its people +are concerned. Your civilization is a mental one, which has been +placed in danger. You must resettle your people, but this cannot be +done here, on Earth, except in the minds of the mentally ill—and that +would not be a satisfactory solution. Have I stated the case +correctly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Mersey's voice said over the traveler's mental protests. +"Except that it is not a 'case,' as you call it. I am not Mersey. He +is merely a vehicle for my thoughts. I am not here to be treated or +cured, as the human being Mersey is. I'm here with a life-or-death +problem affecting an entire race, and I would not be talking to you +except that, at the moment, I'm trapped and confused."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he madman was doing it again, the traveler thought +helplessly—spilling out his knowledge, betraying him and his kind. +Was there no way to muffle him?</p> + +<p>"I must admit that I'm confused myself," Dr. Cloyd said. "Humor me for +a moment while I think out loud. Let me consider this in my own +framework, first, and then in yours, without labeling either one +absolutely true or false.</p> + +<p>"You see," the doctor went on, "this is a world of vitality. My +world—Earth. Its people are strong. Their bodies are developed as +well as their minds. There are some who are not so strong, and some +whose minds have been injured. But for the most part, both the mind +and the body are in balance. Each has its function, and they work +together as a coordinated whole. My understanding of your world, on +the other hand, is that it's in a state of imbalance, where the +physical has deteriorated almost to extinction and the mind has been +nurtured in a hothouse atmosphere. Where, you might say, the mind has +fed on the decay of the body."</p> + +<p>"No," said Mersey, voicing the traveler's conviction. "You paint a +highly distorted picture of our world."</p> + +<p>"I theorize, of course," Dr. Cloyd agreed. "But it's a valid theory, +based on intimate knowledge of my own world and what you've told me of +yours."</p> + +<p>"You make a basic error, I think," Mersey said, speaking for the +unwilling visitor. "You assume that I have been able to make contact +only with this deranged mind. That is wrong. I have shared the +experiences of many of you—a man, a boy, a woman about to bear a +child. Even a cat. And with each of these, my mind has been perfectly +attuned. I was able to share and enjoy their experiences, their +pleasures, to love with them and to fear, although they had no +knowledge of my presence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_003.jpg" width="400" height="543" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Only since I came to this poor mind have I failed to achieve true +empathy. I have been shocked by his madness and I've tried to resist +it, to help him overcome it. But I've failed and it apparently has +imprisoned me. Whereas I was able to leave the minds of the others +almost at will, with poor Mersey I'm trapped. I can't transfer to you, +for instance, as I could normally from another. If there's a way out, +I haven't found it. Have you a theory for this?"</p> + +<p>In spite of his distress at these revelations, the traveler was +intrigued, now that they had been voiced for him, and he was eager to +hear Dr. Cloyd's interpretation of them.</p> + +<p>The psychiatrist took a pipe out of his pocket, filled it, lighted it +and puffed slowly on it until it was drawing well.</p> + +<p>"Continuing to accept your postulate that you're not Mersey, but an +alien inhabiting his mind," the doctor said finally, "I can enlarge on +my theory without changing it in any basic way.</p> + +<p>"Your world is not superior to ours, much as it may please you to +believe that it is. Nature consists of a balance, and that balance +must hold true whether in Sioux City, or Mars, or in the fourth +dimension, or in your world, wherever that may be. Your world is out +of balance. Evidently it has been going out of balance for some time.</p> + +<p>"Your salvation lies not in further evolution in your world—since +your way of evolving proved wrong, and may prove fatal—but in a +change in course, back along the evolutionary path to a society which +developed naturally, with the mind and the body in balance. That +society is the one you have found here, in our world. You found it +pleasant and attractive, you say, but that doesn't mean you're suited +to it.</p> + +<p>"Nature's harsh rules may have operated to let you observe a way of +life here that you enjoy, but to exclude you otherwise—except from a +mind that is not well. In nature's balance, it could be that the +refuge on this world most closely resembling your needs is in the mind +of the psychotic. One conclusion could be that your race is mentally +ill—by our standards, if not by yours—and that the type of person +here most closely approximating your way of life is one with a +disordered mind."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>r. Cloyd paused. Mersey had no immediate reply.</p> + +<p>The traveler made use of the silence to consider this plausible, but +frightening theory. To accept the theory would be to accept a destiny +of madness here on this world, although the doctor had been kind +enough to draw a distinction between madness in one dimension and a +mere lack of natural balance in another.</p> + +<p>Mersey again seized upon the traveler's mind and spoke its thoughts. +But as he spoke, he voiced a conclusion which the traveler had not yet +admitted even to himself.</p> + +<p>"Then the answer is inescapable," Mersey said, his tone flat and +unemotional. "It is theoretically possible for all of our people to +migrate to this world and find refuge of a sort. But if we established +ourselves in the minds of your normal people, we'd be without will. As +mere observers, we'd become assimilated in time, and thus extinguished +as a separate race. That, of course, we could not permit. And if we +settled in the minds most suitable to receive us, we would be in the +minds of those who by your standards are insane—whose destiny is +controlled by the others. Here again we could permit no such fate.</p> + +<p>"That alone would be enough to send me back to my people to report +failure. But there is something more—something I don't think you will +believe, for all your ability to synthesize acceptance of another +viewpoint."</p> + +<p>"And what is that?"</p> + +<p>"First I must ask a question. In speaking to me now, do you still +believe yourself to be addressing Mersey, your fellow human being, and +humoring him in a delusion? Or do you think you are speaking through +him to me, the inhabitant of another world who has borrowed his mind?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he doctor smiled and took time to relight his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Let me answer you in this way," he said. "If I were convinced that +Mersey was merely harboring a delusion that he was inhabited by an +alien being, I would accept that situation clinically. I would humor +him, as you put it, in the hope that he'd be encouraged to talk freely +and perhaps give me a clue to his delusion so I could help him lose +it. I would speak to him—or to you, if that were his concept of +himself—just as I am speaking now.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand, if I were convinced by the many unusual nuances of +our conversation that the mind I was addressing actually was that of +an alien being—I would still talk to you as I am talking now."</p> + +<p>The doctor smiled again. "I trust I have made my answer sufficiently +unsatisfactory."</p> + +<p>The visitor's reaction was spoken by Mersey. "On the contrary, you +have unwittingly told me what I want to know. You'd want your answer +to be satisfactory if you were speaking to Mersey, the lunatic. But +because you'd take delight in disconcerting me by scoring a +point—something you wouldn't do with a patient—you reveal acceptance +of the fact that I am not Mersey. Your rules would not permit you to +give him an unsatisfactory answer."</p> + +<p>"Not quite," contradicted Dr. Cloyd, still smiling. "To Mersey, my +patient, troubled by his delusion and using all his craft to persuade +both of us of its reality, the unsatisfactory answer would be the +satisfactory one."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="42" height="40" /></div> +<p>ersey's voice laughed. "Dr. Cloyd, I salute you. I will leave your +world with a tremendous respect for you—and completely unsure of +whether you believe in my existence."</p> + +<p>"Thank you."</p> + +<p>"I am leaving, you know," Mersey's voice replied.</p> + +<p>The traveler by now was resigned to letting the patient be his medium +and speak his thoughts. Thus far, he had spoken them all truly, if +somewhat excessively. The traveler thought he knew why, now, and +expected Mersey to voice the reason for him very shortly. He did.</p> + +<p>"I'm leaving because I must report failure and advise my people to +look elsewhere for a new home. Part of the reason for that failure I +haven't yet mentioned:</p> + +<p>"Although it might appear that I, the visitor, am manipulating Mersey +to speak the thoughts I wished to communicate, the facts are almost +the opposite. My control over either Mersey's body or mind is +practically nil.</p> + +<p>"What you have been hearing and what you hear even now are the +thoughts I am thinking—not necessarily the ones I want you to know. +What has happened is this, if I may borrow your theory:</p> + +<p>"My mind has invaded Mersey's, but his human vitality is too strong to +permit him to be controlled by it. In fact, the reverse is true. His +vitality is making use of my mind for its own good, and for the good +of your human race. His own mind is damaged badly, but his healthy +body has taken over and made use of my mind. It is using my mind to +make it speak against its will—to speak the thoughts of an alien +without subterfuge, as they actually exist in truth. Thus I am +helplessly telling you all about myself and the intentions of my +people.</p> + +<p>"What is in operation in Mersey is the human body's instinct of +self-preservation. It is utilizing my mind to warn you against that +very mind. Do you see? That would be the case, too, if a million of us +invaded a million minds like Mersey's. None of us could plot +successfully against you, if that were our desire—which, of course, +it is—because the babbling tongues we inherited along with the bodies +would give us away."</p> + +<p>The doctor no longer smiled. His expression was grave now.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he said. "Now I am not sure any longer. I'm not +certain that I follow you—or whether I want to follow you. I think +I'm a bit frightened."</p> + +<p>"You needn't be. I'm going. I'll say good-by, in your custom, and +thank you for the hospitality and pleasures your world has given me. +And I suppose I must thank Mersey for the warning of doom he's +unknowingly given my people, poor man. I hope you can help him."</p> + +<p>"I'll try," said Dr. Cloyd, "though I must say you've complicated the +diagnosis considerably."</p> + +<p>"Good-by. I won't be back, I promise you."</p> + +<p>"I believe you," said the doctor. "Good-by."</p> + +<p>Mersey slumped back on the couch. He looked up at the ceiling, +vacantly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="32" height="40" /></div> +<p>or a long time there was no sound in the room.</p> + +<p>Then the doctor said: "Mersey."</p> + +<p>There was no answer. The man continued to lie there motionless, +breathing normally, looking at the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"Mersey," said the doctor again. "How do you feel?"</p> + +<p>The man turned his head. He looked at the doctor with hostility, then +went back to his contemplation of the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"Drop dead," he muttered.</p> + +<p class="p1">—<b>RICHARD WILSON</b></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inhabited, by Richard Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INHABITED *** + +***** This file should be named 31392-h.htm or 31392-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/9/31392/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Inhabited + +Author: Richard Wilson + +Illustrator: Ashman + +Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31392] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INHABITED *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration: _Containing a foe is sound military thinking--unless + it's carried out so literally that everybody becomes + an innocent Trojan Horse!_] + + + The Inhabited + + + By + + + RICHARD WILSON + + + Illustrated by ASHMAN + + * * * * * + + + + +Two slitted green eyes loomed up directly in front of him. He plunged +into them immediately. + +He had just made the voyage, naked through the dimension stratum, and +he scurried into the first available refuge, to hover there, gasping. + +The word "he" does not strictly apply to the creature, for it had no +sex, nor are the words "naked," "scurried," "hover" and "gasping" +accurate at all. But there are no English words to describe properly +what it was and how it moved, except in very general terms. There are +no Asiatic, African or European words, though perhaps there are +mathematical symbols. But, because this is not a technical paper, the +symbols have no place in it. + +He was a sort of spy, a sort of fifth-columnist. He had some of the +characteristics of a kamikaze pilot, too, because there was no telling +if he'd get back from his mission. + +Hovering in his refuge and gasping for breath, so to speak, he tried +to compose his thoughts after the terrifying journey and adjust +himself to his new environment, so he could get to work. His job, as +first traveler to this new world, the Earth, was to learn if it were +suitable for habitation by his fellow beings back home. Their world +was about ended and they had to move or die. + +He was being discomfited, however, in his initial adjustment. His +first stop in the new world--unfortunately, not only for his dignity, +but for his equilibrium--had been in the mind of a cat. + + * * * * * + +It was his own fault, really. He and the others had decided that his +first in a series of temporary habitations should be in one of the +lower order of animals. It was a matter of precaution--the mind would +be easy to control, if it came to a contest. Also, there would be less +chance of running into a mind-screen and being trapped or destroyed. + +The cat had no mind-screen, of course; some might even have argued +that she didn't have a mind, especially the human couple she lived +with. But whatever she did have was actively at work, feeling the +solid tree-branch under her claws and the leaves against which her +tail switched and seeing the half-grown chickens below. + +The chickens were scratching in the forbidden vegetable garden. The +cat, the runt of her litter and thus named Midge, often had been +chased out of the garden herself, but it was no sense of justice which +now set her little gray behind to wriggling in preparation for her +leap. It was mischief, pure and simple, which motivated her. + +Midge leaped, and the visitor, who had made the journey between +dimensions without losing consciousness, blacked out. + +When he revived, he was being rocketed along in an up-and-down and at +the same time side-ward series of motions which got him all giddy. +With an effort he oriented himself so that the cat's vision became +his, and he watched in distaste as the chickens scurried, scrawny +wings lifted and beaks achirp, this way and that to escape the +monstrous cat. + +The cat never touched the chickens; she was content to chase them. +When she had divided the flock in half, six in the pea patch and six +under the porch, she lay down in the shade of the front steps and +reflectively licked a paw. + +The spy got the impression of reflection, but he was baffledly unable +to figure out what the cat was reflecting on. Midge in turn licked a +paw, rolled in the dust, arched her back against the warm stone of the +steps and snapped cautiously at a low-flying wasp. She was a contented +cat. The impression of contentment came through very well. + +The dimension traveler got only one other impression at the +moment--one of languor. + +The cat, after a prodigious pink yawn, went to sleep. The traveler, +although he had never known the experience of voluntary +unconsciousness, was tempted to do the same. But he fought against the +influence of his host and, robbed of vision with the closing of the +cat's eyes, he meditated. + +He had been on Earth less than ten minutes, but his meditation +consisted of saying to himself in his own way that if he was ever +going to get anything done, he'd better escape from this cat's mind. + +He accomplished that a few minutes later, when there was a crunching +of gravel in the driveway and a battered Plymouth stopped and a man +stepped out. Midge opened her eyes, crept up behind a row of stones +bordering the path to the driveway and jumped delicately out at the +man, who tried unsuccessfully to gather her into his arms. + +Through the cat's eyes from behind the porch steps, where Midge had +fled, the traveler took stock of the human being it was about to +inhabit: + +Five-feet-elevenish, thirtyish, blond-brown-haired, +blue-summer-suited. + +And no mind-screen. + +The traveler traveled and in an instant he was looking down from his +new height at the gray undersized cat. Then the screen door of the +porch opened and a female human being appeared. + + * * * * * + +With the male human impressions now his, the traveler experienced some +interesting sensations. There was a body-to-body togetherness +apparently called "gimmea hug" and a face-to-face-touching ceremony, +"kiss." + +"Hmm," thought the traveler, in his own way. "Hmm." + +The greeting ceremony was followed by one that had this catechism: + +"Suppareddi?" + +"Onnatable." + +Then came the "eating." + +This eating, something he had never done, was all right, he decided. +He wondered if cats ate, too. Yes, Midge was under the gas stove, +chewing delicately at a different kind of preparation. + +There was a great deal of eating. The traveler knew from the +inspection of the mind he was inhabiting that the man was enormously +hungry and tired almost to exhaustion. + +"The damn job had to go out today," was what had happened. "We worked +till almost eight o'clock. I think I'll take a nap after supper while +you do the dishes." + +The traveler understood perfectly, for he was a very sympathetic type. +That was one reason they had chosen him for the transdimensional +exploration. They had figured the best applicant for the job would be +one with an intellect highly attuned to the vibrations of these +others, known dimly through the warp-view, one extremely sensitive and +with a great capacity for appreciation. Shrewd, too, of course. + +The traveler tried to exercise control. Just a trace of it at first. +He attempted to dissuade the man from having his nap. But his effort +was ignored. + +The man went to sleep as soon as he lay down on the couch in the +living room. Once again, as the eyes closed, the traveler was +imprisoned. He hadn't realized it until now, but he evidently couldn't +transfer from one mind to another except through the eyes, once he was +inside. He had planned to explore the woman's mind, but now he was +trapped, at least temporarily. + +Oh, well. He composed himself as best he could to await the awakening. +This sleeping business was a waste of time. + +There were footsteps and a whistling noise outside. The inhabited man +heard the sounds and woke up, irritated. He opened his eyes a slit as +his wife told the neighbor that Charlie was taking a nap, worn out +from a hard day at the office, and the visitor, darting free, +transferred again. + +But he miscalculated and there he was in the mind of the neighbor. +Irritated with himself, the traveler was about to jump to the mind of +the woman when he was caught up in the excitement that was consuming +his new host. + +"Sorry," said the neighbor. "The new batch of records I ordered came +today and I thought Charlie'd like to hear them. Tell him to come over +tomorrow night, if he wants to hear the solidest combo since Muggsy's +Roseland days." + +The wife said all right, George, she'd tell him. But the traveler was +experiencing the excited memories of a dixieland jazz band in his new +host's mind, and he knew he'd be hearing these fantastically wonderful +new sounds at first hand as soon as George got back to his turntable. + +They could hardly wait, George and his inhabitant both. + + * * * * * + +His inhabitant had come from a dimension-world of vast, contemplative +silences. There was no talk, no speech vibrations, no noise which +could not be shut out by the turning of a mental switch. Communication +was from mind to mind, not from mouth to ear. It was a world of +peaceful silence, where everything had been done, where the struggle +for physical existence had ended, and where there remained only the +sweet fruits of past labor to be enjoyed. + +That had been the state of affairs, at any rate, up until the time of +the Change, which was something the beings of the world could not +stop. It was not a new threat from the lower orders, which they had +met and overcome before, innumerable times. It was not a threat from +outside--no invasion such as they had turned back in the past. Nor was +it a cooling of their world or the danger of imminent collision with +another. + +The Change came from within. It was decadence. There was nothing left +for the beings to do. They had solved all their problems and could +find no new ones. They had exhausted the intricate workings of +reflection, academic hypothetica and mind-play; there hadn't been a +new game, for instance, in the lifetime of the oldest inhabitant. + +And so they were dying of boredom. This very realization had for a +time halted the creeping menace, because, as they came to accept it +and discuss ways of meeting it, the peril itself subsided. But the +moment they relaxed, the Change started again. + +Something had to be done. Mere theorizing about their situation was +not enough. It was then that they sent their spy abroad. + +Because they had at one time or another visited each of the planets in +their solar system and had exhausted their possibilities or found them +barren, and because they were not equipped, even at the peak of their +physical development, for intergalactic flight, there remained only +one way to travel--in time. + +Not forward or backward, for both had been tried. Travel ahead had +been discouraging--in fact, it had convinced them that their normal +passage through the years had to be stopped. The reason had been made +dramatically clear--they, the master race, did not exist in the +future. They had vanished and the lower forms of life had begun to +take over. + +Travel into the past would be even more boring than continued +existence in the present, they realized, because they would be +reliving the experiences they had had and still vividly remembered, +and would be incapable of changing them. It would be both tiresome and +frustrating. + +That left only one way to go--sideways in time, across the dimension +line--to a world like their own, but which had developed so +differently through the eons that to visit it and conquer the minds of +its inhabitants would be worth while. + +In that way they picked Earth for their victim and sent out their spy. +Just one spy. If he didn't return, they'd send another. There was +enough time. And they had to be sure. + + * * * * * + +George put a record on the phonograph and fixed himself a drink while +the machine warmed up. + +The interdimensional invader reacted pleasurably to the taste and +instant warming effect of the liquor on George's mind. + +"Ahh!" said George aloud, and his temporary inhabitant agreed with +him. + +George lifted the phonograph needle into the groove and went to sit on +the edge of a chair. Jazz poured out of the speaker and the man beat +out the time with his heels and toes. + +The visitor in his mind experimented with control. He went at it +subtly, at first, so as not to alarm his host. He tried to quiet the +beating of time with the feet. He suggested that George cross his legs +instead. The beating of time continued. The visitor urged that George +do this little thing he asked; he bent all his powers to the +suggestion, concentrating on the tapping feet. There wasn't even a +glimmer of reaction. + +Instead, there was a reverse effect. The pounding of music was +insistent. The visitor relaxed. He rationalized and told himself he +would try another time. Now he would observe this phenomenon. But he +became more than just an observer. + +The visitor reeled with sensation. The vibrations gripped him, twisted +him and wrung him out. He was limp, palpitating and thoroughly happy +when the record ended and George got up immediately to put on another. + +Hours later, drunk with the jazz and the liquor, the visitor went +blissfully to sleep inside George's mind when his host went to bed. + +[Illustration] + +He awoke, with George, to the experience of a nagging throb. But in a +few minutes, after a shower, shave and breakfast with steaming +coffee, it was gone, and the visitor looked forward to the coming day. + +It was George's day off and he was going fishing. Humming to himself, +he got out his reel and flies and other paraphernalia and contentedly +arranged them in the back of his car. Visions of the fine, quiet time +he was going to have went through George's mind, and his inhabitant +decided he had better leave. He had to get on with his exploration; he +mustn't allow himself to be trapped into just having fun. + +But he stayed with George as the fisherman drove his car out of the +garage and along a highway. The day was sunny and warm. There was a +slight wind and the green trees sighed delicately in it. The birds +were pleasantly vocal and the colors were superb. + +The visitor found it oddly familiar. Then he realized what it was. + +His world was like this, too. It had the trees, the birds, the wind +and the colors. All were there. But its people had long since ceased +to appreciate them. Their existence had turned inward and the external +things no longer were of interest. Yet the visitor, through George's +eyes, found this world delightful. He reveled in its beauty, its +breathtaking panorama and its balance. And he wondered if he was able +to appreciate it for the first time now because he was being active, +although in a vicarious way, and participating in life, instead of +merely reflecting on it. This would be a clue to have analyzed by the +greater minds to which he would report. + +Then, with a wrench, the visitor chided himself. He was allowing +himself to identify too closely with this mortal, with his +appreciation of such diverse pursuits as jazz and fishing. He had to +get on. There was work to be done. + +George waved to a boy playing in a field and the boy waved back. With +the contact of their eyes, the visitor was inside the boy's mind. + + * * * * * + +The boy had a dog. It was a great, lumbering mass of affection, a +shaggy, loving, prankish beast. A protector and a playmate, strong and +gentle. + +Now that the visitor was in the boy's mind, he adored the animal, and +the dog worshiped him. + +He fought to be rational. "Come now," he told himself, "don't get +carried away." He attempted control. A simple thing. He would have the +boy pull the dog's ear, gently. He concentrated, suggested. But all +his efforts were thwarted. The boy leaped at the dog, grabbed it +around the middle. The dog responded, prancing free. + +The visitor gave up. He relaxed. + +Great waves of mute, suffocating love enveloped him. He swam for a few +minutes in a pool of joy as the boy and dog wrestled, rolled over each +other in the tall grass, charged ferociously with teeth bared and +growls issuing from both throats, finally to subside panting and +laughing on the ground while the clouds swept majestically overhead +across the blue sky. + +He could swear the dog was laughing, too. + +As they lay there, exhausted for the moment, a young woman came upon +them. The visitor saw her looking down at them, the soft breeze +tugging at her dark hair and skirt. Her hands were thrust into the +pockets of her jacket. She was barefoot and she wriggled her toes so +that blades of grass came up between them. + +"Hello, Jimmy," she said. "Hello, Max, you old monster." + +The dog thumped the ground with his tail. + +"Hello, Mrs. Tanner," the boy said. "How's the baby coming?" + +The girl smiled. "Just fine, Jimmy. It's beginning to kick a little +now. It kind of tickles. And you know what?" + +"What?" asked Jimmy. The visitor in the boy's mind wanted to know, +too. + +"I hope it's a boy, and that he grows up to be just like you." + +"Aw." The boy rolled over and hid his face in the grass. Then he +peered around. "Honest?" + +"Honest," she said. + +"Gee whiz." The boy was so embarrassed that he had to leave. "Me and +Max are going down to the swimmin' hole. You wanta come?" + +"No, thanks. You go ahead. I think I'll just sit here in the Sun for a +while and watch my toes curl." + +As they said good-by, the visitor traveled to the new mind. + + * * * * * + +With the girl's eyes, he saw the boy and the dog running across the +meadow and down to the stream at the edge of the woods. + +The traveler experienced a sensation of tremendous fondness as he +watched them go. + +But he mustn't get carried away, he told himself. He must make another +attempt to take command. This girl might be the one he could +influence. She was doing nothing active; her mind was relaxed. + +The visitor bent himself to the task. He would be cleverly simple. He +would have her pick a daisy. They were all around at her feet. He +concentrated. Her gaze traveled back across the meadow to the grassy +knoll on which she was standing. She sat. She stretched out her arms +behind her and leaned back on them. She tossed her hair and gazed into +the sky. + +She wasn't even thinking of the daisy. + +Irritated, he gathered all his powers into a compact mass and hurled +them at her mind. + +But with a swoop and a soar, he was carried up and away, through the +sweet summer air, to a cloud of white softness. + +This was not what he had planned, by any means. + +A steady, warm breeze enveloped him and there was a tinkle of faraway +music. It frightened him and he struggled to get back into contact +with the girl's mind. But there was no contact. Apparently he had been +cast out, against his will. + +The forces of creation buffeted him. His dizzying flight carried him +through the clean air in swift journey from horizon to horizon, then +up, up and out beyond the limits of the atmosphere, only to return him +in a trice to the breast of the rolling meadow. He was conscious now +of the steady growth of slim green leaves as they pressed confidently +through the nurturing Earth, of the other tiny living things in and on +the Earth, and the heartbeat of the Earth itself, assuring him with +its great strength of the continuation of all things. + +Then he was back with the girl, watching through her eyes a butterfly +as it fluttered to rest on a flower and perched there, gently waving +its gaudy wings. + +He had not been cast out. The young woman herself had gone on that +wild journey to the heavens, not only with her mind, but with her +entire being, attuned to the rest of creation. There was a continuity, +he realized, a oneness between herself, the mother-to-be, and the +Universe. With her, then, he felt the stirrings of new life, and he +was proud and content. + +He forgot for the moment that he had been a failure. + + * * * * * + +The soft breeze seemed to turn chill. The Sun was still high and +unclouded, but its warmth was gone. With the girl, he felt a prickling +along the spine. She turned her head slightly and, through her eyes, +he saw, a few yards away in tall grass, a creeping man. + +The eyes of the man were fixed on the girl's body and the traveler +felt her thrill of terror. The man lay there for a moment, hands flat +on the ground under his chest. Then he moved forward, inching toward +her. + +The girl screamed. Her terror gripped the visitor. He was helpless. +His thoughts whirled into chaos, following hers. + +The eyes of the creeping man flicked from side to side, then up. The +visitor quivered and cringed with the girl when she screamed again. As +the torrent of frightened sound poured from her throat, the creeping +man looked into her eyes. Instantly the visitor was sucked into his +mind. + +It was a maelstrom. A tremendous conflict was going on in it. One part +of it was urging the body on in its fantastic crawl toward the young +woman frozen in terror against the sky. The visitor was aware of the +other part, submerged and struggling feebly, trying to get through +with a message of reason. But it was handicapped. The visitor sensed +these efforts being nullified by a crushing weight of shame. + +The traveler fought against full identification with the deranged part +of the mind. Nevertheless, he sought to understand it, as he had +understood the other minds he'd visited. But there was nothing to +understand. The creeping man had no plan. There was no reason for his +action. + +The visitor felt only a compulsion which said, "You must! You must!" + +The visitor was frightened. And then he realized that he was less +frightened than the man was. The terror felt by the creeping man was +greater than the fear the visitor had experienced with the girl. + +There were shouts and barking. He heard the shrill cry of a boy. "Go +get him, Max!" + +There was a squeal of brakes from the road and a pounding of heavy +footsteps coming toward them. + +With the man, the visitor rose up, confused, scared. A great shaggy +weight hurled itself and a growling, sharp-toothed mouth sought a +throat. + +A voice yelled, "Don't shoot! The dog's got him!" + +Then blackness. + + * * * * * + +"Mersey." The voice summoned the visitor, huddling in a corner of the +deranged mind, fearing contamination. + +The eyes opened, looked up at the ceiling of a barred cell. + +"Dr. Cloyd is here to see you," the voice said. + +The visitor felt the mind of his host seeking to close out the words +and the world, to return to sheltering darkness. + +There was a rattle of keys and the opening of an iron door. + +The eyes opened as a hand shook the psychotic Mersey by the shoulder. +The visitor sought escape, but the eyes avoided those of the other. + +"Come with me, son," the doctor's voice said. "Don't be frightened. +No one will hurt you. We'll have a talk." + +Mersey shook off the hand on his shoulder. + +"Drop dead," he muttered. + +"That wouldn't help anything," the doctor said. "Come on, man." + +Mersey sat up and, through his eyes, the traveler saw the doctor's +legs. Were they legs or were they iron bars? The traveler cringed away +from the mad thought. + +A room with a desk, a chair, a couch, and sunlight through a window. +Crawling sunlit snakes. The visitor shuddered. He sought the part of +the mind that was clear, but he sought in vain. Only the whirling +chaos and the distorted images remained now. + +There was a pain in the throat and with Mersey he lifted a hand to it. +Bandaged--gleaming teeth and a snarling animal's mouth--fear, despair +and hatred. With the prisoner, he collapsed on the couch. + +"Lie down, if you like," said Dr. Cloyd's voice. "Try to relax. Let me +help you." + +"Drop dead," Mersey replied automatically. The visitor felt the +tenseness of the man, the unreasoning fear, and the resentment. + +But as the man lay there, the traveler sensed a calming of the +turbulence. There was an urgent rational thought. He concentrated and +tried to help the man phrase it. + +"The girl--is she all right? Did I...?" + +"She's all right." The doctor's voice was soothing. It pushed back the +shadows a little. "She's perfectly all right." + +The visitor sensed a dulled relief in Mersey's mind. The shadows still +whirled, but they were less ominous. He suggested a question, exulted +as Mersey attempted to phrase it: "Doctor, am I real bad off? Can...?" + +But still the shadows. + +"We'll work together," said the doctor's voice. "You've been ill, but +so have others. With your help, we can make you well." + +The traveler made a tremendous effort. He urged Mersey to say: "I'll +help, doctor. I want to find peace." + +But then Mersey's voice went on: "I must find a new home. We need a +new home. We can't stay where we are." + + * * * * * + +The traveler was shocked at the words. He hadn't intended them to come +out that way. Somehow Mersey had voiced the underlying thoughts of his +people. The traveler sought the doctor's reaction, but Mersey wouldn't +look at him. The man's gaze was fixed on the ceiling above the couch. + +"Of course," the doctor said. His words were false, the visitor +realized; he was humoring the madman. + +"We had so much, but now there is no future," Mersey said. The visitor +tried to stop him. He would not be stopped. "We can't stay much +longer. We'll die. We must find a new world. Maybe you can help us." + +Dr. Cloyd spoke and there was no hint of surprise in his voice. + +"I'll help you all I can. Would you care to tell me more about your +world?" + +Desperately, the visitor fought to control the flow of Mersey's words. +He had opened the gate to the other world--how, he did not know--and +all of his knowledge and memories now were Mersey's. But the traveler +could not communicate with the disordered mind. He could only +communicate through it, and then involuntarily. If he could escape the +mind ... but he could not escape. Mersey's eyes were fixed on the +ceiling. He would not look at the doctor. + +"A dying world," Mersey said. "It will live on after us, but we will +die because we have finished. There's nothing more to do. The Change +is upon us, and we must flee it or die. I have been sent here as a +last hope, as an emissary to learn if this world is the answer. I have +traveled among you and I have found good things. Your world is much +like ours, physically, but it has not grown as fast or as far as ours, +and we would be happy here, among you, if we could control." + + * * * * * + +The words from Mersey's throat had come falteringly at first, but now +they were strong, although the tone was flat and expressionless. The +words went on: + +"But we can't control. I've tried and failed. At best we can co-exist, +as observers and vicarious participants, but we must surrender choice. +Is that to be our destiny--to live on, but to be denied all except +contemplation--to live on as guests among you, accepting your ways and +sharing them, but with no power to change them?" + +The traveler shouted at Mersey's mind in soundless fury: "Shut up! +Shut up!" + +Mersey stopped talking. + +"Go on," said the doctor softly. "This is very interesting." + +"Shut up!" said the traveler voicelessly, yet with frantic urgency. + +The madman was silent. His body was perfectly still, except for his +calm breathing. The visitor gazed through his eyes in the only +possible direction--up at the ceiling. He tried another command. "Look +at the doctor." + +With that glance, the visitor told himself, he would flee the crazed +mind and enter the doctor's. There he would learn what the +psychiatrist thought of his patient's strange soliloquy--whether he +believed it, or any part of it. + +He prayed that the doctor was evaluating it as the intricate raving of +delusion. + + * * * * * + +Slowly, Mersey turned his head. Through his eyes, the visitor saw the +faded green carpet, the doctor's dull-black shoes, his socks, the legs +of his trousers. Mersey's glance hovered there, around the doctor's +knees. The visitor forced it higher, past the belt around a tidy +waist, along the buttons of the opened vest to the white collar, and +finally to the kindly eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses. + +Again he had commanded this human being and had been obeyed. The +traveler braced himself for the leap from the tortured mind to the +sane one. + +But his gaze continued to be that of Mersey. + +The gray eyes of the doctor were on his patient. Intelligence and +kindness were in those eyes, but the visitor could read nothing else. + +He was caught, a prisoner in a demented mind. He felt panic. This must +be the mind-screen he'd been warned about. + +"Look down," the visitor commanded Mersey. "Shut your eyes. Don't let +him see me." + +But Mersey continued to be held by the doctor's eyes. The visitor +cowered back into the crazed mental tangle. + +Gradually, then, his fear ebbed. There was more likelihood that Cloyd +did not believe Mersey's words than that he did. The doctor treated +hundreds of patients and surely many of them had delusions as fanciful +as this one might seem. + +The traveler's alarm simmered down until he was capable of +appreciating the irony of the situation. + +But at the same time, he thought with pain, "Is it our fate that of +all the millions of creatures on this world, we can establish +communication only through the insane? And even then to have only +imperfect control of the mind and, worse, to have it become a +transmitter for our most secret thoughts?" + +It was heartbreaking. + +Dr. Cloyd broke the long silence. Pulling at his ear, he spoke calmly +and matter-of-factly: + +"Let me see if I understand your problem, Mersey. You believe yourself +to be from another world, from which you have traveled, although not +physically. Your world is not a material one, as far as its people +are concerned. Your civilization is a mental one, which has been +placed in danger. You must resettle your people, but this cannot be +done here, on Earth, except in the minds of the mentally ill--and that +would not be a satisfactory solution. Have I stated the case +correctly?" + +"Yes," Mersey's voice said over the traveler's mental protests. +"Except that it is not a 'case,' as you call it. I am not Mersey. He +is merely a vehicle for my thoughts. I am not here to be treated or +cured, as the human being Mersey is. I'm here with a life-or-death +problem affecting an entire race, and I would not be talking to you +except that, at the moment, I'm trapped and confused." + + * * * * * + +The madman was doing it again, the traveler thought +helplessly--spilling out his knowledge, betraying him and his kind. +Was there no way to muffle him? + +"I must admit that I'm confused myself," Dr. Cloyd said. "Humor me for +a moment while I think out loud. Let me consider this in my own +framework, first, and then in yours, without labeling either one +absolutely true or false. + +"You see," the doctor went on, "this is a world of vitality. My +world--Earth. Its people are strong. Their bodies are developed as +well as their minds. There are some who are not so strong, and some +whose minds have been injured. But for the most part, both the mind +and the body are in balance. Each has its function, and they work +together as a coordinated whole. My understanding of your world, on +the other hand, is that it's in a state of imbalance, where the +physical has deteriorated almost to extinction and the mind has been +nurtured in a hothouse atmosphere. Where, you might say, the mind has +fed on the decay of the body." + +"No," said Mersey, voicing the traveler's conviction. "You paint a +highly distorted picture of our world." + +"I theorize, of course," Dr. Cloyd agreed. "But it's a valid theory, +based on intimate knowledge of my own world and what you've told me of +yours." + +"You make a basic error, I think," Mersey said, speaking for the +unwilling visitor. "You assume that I have been able to make contact +only with this deranged mind. That is wrong. I have shared the +experiences of many of you--a man, a boy, a woman about to bear a +child. Even a cat. And with each of these, my mind has been perfectly +attuned. I was able to share and enjoy their experiences, their +pleasures, to love with them and to fear, although they had no +knowledge of my presence. + +[Illustration] + +"Only since I came to this poor mind have I failed to achieve true +empathy. I have been shocked by his madness and I've tried to resist +it, to help him overcome it. But I've failed and it apparently has +imprisoned me. Whereas I was able to leave the minds of the others +almost at will, with poor Mersey I'm trapped. I can't transfer to you, +for instance, as I could normally from another. If there's a way out, +I haven't found it. Have you a theory for this?" + +In spite of his distress at these revelations, the traveler was +intrigued, now that they had been voiced for him, and he was eager to +hear Dr. Cloyd's interpretation of them. + +The psychiatrist took a pipe out of his pocket, filled it, lighted it +and puffed slowly on it until it was drawing well. + +"Continuing to accept your postulate that you're not Mersey, but an +alien inhabiting his mind," the doctor said finally, "I can enlarge on +my theory without changing it in any basic way. + +"Your world is not superior to ours, much as it may please you to +believe that it is. Nature consists of a balance, and that balance +must hold true whether in Sioux City, or Mars, or in the fourth +dimension, or in your world, wherever that may be. Your world is out +of balance. Evidently it has been going out of balance for some time. + +"Your salvation lies not in further evolution in your world--since +your way of evolving proved wrong, and may prove fatal--but in a +change in course, back along the evolutionary path to a society which +developed naturally, with the mind and the body in balance. That +society is the one you have found here, in our world. You found it +pleasant and attractive, you say, but that doesn't mean you're suited +to it. + +"Nature's harsh rules may have operated to let you observe a way of +life here that you enjoy, but to exclude you otherwise--except from a +mind that is not well. In nature's balance, it could be that the +refuge on this world most closely resembling your needs is in the mind +of the psychotic. One conclusion could be that your race is mentally +ill--by our standards, if not by yours--and that the type of person +here most closely approximating your way of life is one with a +disordered mind." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Cloyd paused. Mersey had no immediate reply. + +The traveler made use of the silence to consider this plausible, but +frightening theory. To accept the theory would be to accept a destiny +of madness here on this world, although the doctor had been kind +enough to draw a distinction between madness in one dimension and a +mere lack of natural balance in another. + +Mersey again seized upon the traveler's mind and spoke its thoughts. +But as he spoke, he voiced a conclusion which the traveler had not yet +admitted even to himself. + +"Then the answer is inescapable," Mersey said, his tone flat and +unemotional. "It is theoretically possible for all of our people to +migrate to this world and find refuge of a sort. But if we established +ourselves in the minds of your normal people, we'd be without will. As +mere observers, we'd become assimilated in time, and thus extinguished +as a separate race. That, of course, we could not permit. And if we +settled in the minds most suitable to receive us, we would be in the +minds of those who by your standards are insane--whose destiny is +controlled by the others. Here again we could permit no such fate. + +"That alone would be enough to send me back to my people to report +failure. But there is something more--something I don't think you will +believe, for all your ability to synthesize acceptance of another +viewpoint." + +"And what is that?" + +"First I must ask a question. In speaking to me now, do you still +believe yourself to be addressing Mersey, your fellow human being, and +humoring him in a delusion? Or do you think you are speaking through +him to me, the inhabitant of another world who has borrowed his mind?" + + * * * * * + +The doctor smiled and took time to relight his pipe. + +"Let me answer you in this way," he said. "If I were convinced that +Mersey was merely harboring a delusion that he was inhabited by an +alien being, I would accept that situation clinically. I would humor +him, as you put it, in the hope that he'd be encouraged to talk freely +and perhaps give me a clue to his delusion so I could help him lose +it. I would speak to him--or to you, if that were his concept of +himself--just as I am speaking now. + +"On the other hand, if I were convinced by the many unusual nuances of +our conversation that the mind I was addressing actually was that of +an alien being--I would still talk to you as I am talking now." + +The doctor smiled again. "I trust I have made my answer sufficiently +unsatisfactory." + +The visitor's reaction was spoken by Mersey. "On the contrary, you +have unwittingly told me what I want to know. You'd want your answer +to be satisfactory if you were speaking to Mersey, the lunatic. But +because you'd take delight in disconcerting me by scoring a +point--something you wouldn't do with a patient--you reveal acceptance +of the fact that I am not Mersey. Your rules would not permit you to +give him an unsatisfactory answer." + +"Not quite," contradicted Dr. Cloyd, still smiling. "To Mersey, my +patient, troubled by his delusion and using all his craft to persuade +both of us of its reality, the unsatisfactory answer would be the +satisfactory one." + + * * * * * + +Mersey's voice laughed. "Dr. Cloyd, I salute you. I will leave your +world with a tremendous respect for you--and completely unsure of +whether you believe in my existence." + +"Thank you." + +"I am leaving, you know," Mersey's voice replied. + +The traveler by now was resigned to letting the patient be his medium +and speak his thoughts. Thus far, he had spoken them all truly, if +somewhat excessively. The traveler thought he knew why, now, and +expected Mersey to voice the reason for him very shortly. He did. + +"I'm leaving because I must report failure and advise my people to +look elsewhere for a new home. Part of the reason for that failure I +haven't yet mentioned: + +"Although it might appear that I, the visitor, am manipulating Mersey +to speak the thoughts I wished to communicate, the facts are almost +the opposite. My control over either Mersey's body or mind is +practically nil. + +"What you have been hearing and what you hear even now are the +thoughts I am thinking--not necessarily the ones I want you to know. +What has happened is this, if I may borrow your theory: + +"My mind has invaded Mersey's, but his human vitality is too strong to +permit him to be controlled by it. In fact, the reverse is true. His +vitality is making use of my mind for its own good, and for the good +of your human race. His own mind is damaged badly, but his healthy +body has taken over and made use of my mind. It is using my mind to +make it speak against its will--to speak the thoughts of an alien +without subterfuge, as they actually exist in truth. Thus I am +helplessly telling you all about myself and the intentions of my +people. + +"What is in operation in Mersey is the human body's instinct of +self-preservation. It is utilizing my mind to warn you against that +very mind. Do you see? That would be the case, too, if a million of us +invaded a million minds like Mersey's. None of us could plot +successfully against you, if that were our desire--which, of course, +it is--because the babbling tongues we inherited along with the bodies +would give us away." + +The doctor no longer smiled. His expression was grave now. + +"I don't know," he said. "Now I am not sure any longer. I'm not +certain that I follow you--or whether I want to follow you. I think +I'm a bit frightened." + +"You needn't be. I'm going. I'll say good-by, in your custom, and +thank you for the hospitality and pleasures your world has given me. +And I suppose I must thank Mersey for the warning of doom he's +unknowingly given my people, poor man. I hope you can help him." + +"I'll try," said Dr. Cloyd, "though I must say you've complicated the +diagnosis considerably." + +"Good-by. I won't be back, I promise you." + +"I believe you," said the doctor. "Good-by." + +Mersey slumped back on the couch. He looked up at the ceiling, +vacantly. + + * * * * * + +For a long time there was no sound in the room. + +Then the doctor said: "Mersey." + +There was no answer. The man continued to lie there motionless, +breathing normally, looking at the ceiling. + +"Mersey," said the doctor again. "How do you feel?" + +The man turned his head. He looked at the doctor with hostility, then +went back to his contemplation of the ceiling. + +"Drop dead," he muttered. + + --RICHARD WILSON + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inhabited, by Richard Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INHABITED *** + +***** This file should be named 31392.txt or 31392.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/9/31392/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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