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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83e9e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51735 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51735) diff --git a/old/51735-8.txt b/old/51735-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index abfc5fd..0000000 --- a/old/51735-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2152 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Big Baby, by Jack Sharkey - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Big Baby - -Author: Jack Sharkey - -Release Date: April 12, 2016 [EBook #51735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG BABY *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - BIG BABY - - By JACK SHARKEY - - Illustrated by GAUGHAN - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Magazine April 1962. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - The baby was lonesome, helpless and afraid. It - wasn't his fault he was seven hundred feet tall! - - -The dancing green blip traced an erratic course upon the glossy gray -screen, the jagged-line pattern repeated over and over, its outline -going from dim to sharply emerald brightness to dim again before -fading. The technician cut the switch. There was a sustained whir of -reorganization within the machine as the data-cards were refiled. - -"Care to see it again, sir?" asked the technician. His fingers hovered -over the dials, his body in an attitude of impending motion. - -Jerry Norcriss tilted his head in a brief, authoritative nod. The -technician started the machine again. With a soft humming, the gray -circular screen began to pulse once more with that dancing line of -brightness. - -"Now, here, sir," said the tech, "is where the scanner beam first -caught the pulse of the creature." - -Jerry nodded, his eyes riveted to that zigzag phosphor pattern upon the -screen. He noted the soaring peaks and plunging valleys with something -like dismay. "It's a powerful one," he marveled. It was one of his rare -comments. Space Zoologists rarely spoke at all, to any but their own -kind, and even then were typically terse of speech. - -The tech, almost as impressed by this--for Jerry--long speech as he had -been by the first warning from Naval Space Corps Headquarters on Earth, -could only nod grimly. His own eyes were as intent upon the screen as -Jerry's. - -"Here--" the line was glowing its brightest now--"here's where the -creature passed directly beneath the scanner-beam. That's the full -strength of its life-pulse." The line lost clarity and strength, faded. -"And here's where it was lost again, sir." - -"Time of focus?" snapped Jerry, trying to keep his voice calm. - -"Nearly a full minute," said the tech, still blinking at the screen. It -was now devoid of impulse, barren once more. "That means that whatever -the thing is, it's big, sir. Damned big, to stay at maximum pulse that -long." - -"I know very well what it means!" Jerry grated. "The thing's so--" - -The tech smiled bleakly. "--incredible, sir?" - -Jerry's nod was thoughtful. "The only word for it, Ensign." His inner -eye kept repeating for him that impossible green pattern he'd seen. The -strong, flat muscles of his shoulders and neck knotted into what could -easily become a villainous tension-headache. Jerry realized suddenly -that he was badly scared.... - - * * * * * - -"Sir," the tech said suddenly, "I was under the impression that -the roborocket scanners couldn't miss a life-pulse on a planet. I -mean, making a complete circuit of the planet every ninety minutes, -for a period of six months.... It's impossible for them to miss an -uncatalogued life-form." - -"I know it is," said Jerry Norcriss, pushing blunt fingers through his -shock of prematurely white hair. "Save for two precedents, I cannot -conceive of any way in which this pulse could have been overlooked." - -"Two precedents, sir?" said the tech, intrigued both by the unsuspected -fallibility of the scanner and by this unusual loquacity from the -zoologist. - -Jerry removed his gaze from the screen and regarded the young man -standing beside it. He made as if to reply, then thought better of it. -Any out-going on his part was an effort. A big effort. And a danger. -Only another Space Zoologist would understand the danger of speech, of -letting loose, of relaxing for a moment that terrible vigil over one's -personal psychic barricades. - -"Skip it," he said abruptly. The young ensign's smile tightened to -obedience at the words. - -"Yes, sir," said the tech, with strained cordiality. "Will that be all, -sir?" - -"Yes," said Jerry. Then, as the tech started out of the compartment, -"No, wait. Tell Ollie Gibbs in the Ward Room to bring up a pot of -coffee. Black." - -The man nodded, and went out the door, dogging it after him. - -Jerry listened to the booted feet clanking on their magnetic soles up -the passageway of the spaceship, and sighed. - -The situation, in Jerry's experience, was fantastic. Only twice, in -the history of Space Zoology, had there been oversights on the part -of the scanners. One, almost comically, had been on Earth, when the -scanners were first being tested. The chunky roborocket--its angles -and bulges and tapering pickup-heads unsuitable for flight in any -medium but airless space--had swept giddily about the planet, the -sensitive pickup-heads recording and filing on microtape the patterns -of the life-pulses of all sentient life below. And when the tape had -been translated onto the IBM cards, and the cards run through the -translation chambers, to get their incomprehensible sine-patterns -changed into readable English, it was found that there was an animal -missing. - -Six months of circling the planet had still left the index blank on -that animal's expected check-pattern. The animal was the brown bear, of -north central America. And only after agonizing hours of theorizing and -worrying did someone come up with the answer to the dilemma: - -It had been a long, hard winter. The bears were in extended -hibernation. Somehow, the fleeting flicker of their subdued life-pulses -had never managed to correspond with the inquisitive sweep of the -scanner-beams from the blackness of space overhead. And so, they'd been -left off, as though they did not even exist. - -A lot of sweat was dabbed from relieved foreheads in the Corps when a -secondary roborocket, sent into a short one-week orbit, had picked up -the animals' pulses with ease as soon as springtime was upon the land. -The odds against their being thus missed were fantastic, astronomically -unlikely. But it _had_ happened, despite the odds against it, and the -Corps was forcibly reminded that in a universe of planets, there is -infinite room for even the unlikely to occur. - -The only other oversight had been years later, when a just-settling -colony had been half-destroyed by a herd of immense beasts similar to -the buffalo of Earth, but viciously carnivorous. There had been no -indication, in the six-month scanning period, that such a species even -existed on the planet, the third planet of Syrinx Gamma, the sun of a -newly discovered system beyond the Coalsack. - -The reason was maddeningly simple. The herds were migratory. Their -migrations had corresponded in scope around the oceanless planet with -the sweep of the scanner-beam in such a way that the roborocket was -scanning either where the herd had just been or where it had not yet -arrived. Again, the odds were fantastic against the occurrence. Yet, -again, it _had_ happened. Other than these two events, though, there -had been no further error on the part of scanners for nearly a decade. - -Precautions had been taken against recurrence. - -Roborockets were now sent to scan a planet only at a time when there -would be an overlap of seasonal climes, so that the beam would inspect -the surface throughout both the mild and the rigorous weathers, thus -obviating a repeat of the brown bear incident. And the sweep of the -beam had been extended, so that no animal with migratory movement at -speeds less than that of a supersonic plane could have avoided being -duly detected and catalogued. That, they thought, should prevent any -more such incidents. - -All that Jerry knew. - - * * * * * - -And yet, here he was, descending through the black vacuum of space -toward an already-colonized planet, the second planet of Sirius, a -planet supposedly already scanned, catalogued, and long-since ready for -inhabitation. And now, after the colonials had been there for nearly -five years, something was starting to wipe them out. Some unsuspected -alien thing was present on the planet, a thing that a hastily lofted -roborocket had located in a matter of hours, and yet had missed in its -original six-month orbital check, before the settlers came. - -It was impossible. Incredible. And yet, again, it _had_ happened--_was_ -happening--and had to be stopped. - -A frantic appeal had been beamed to Earth through sub-space, an appeal -for a Space Zoologist to find the alien, learn its weaknesses, and -recommend its mode of destruction. - -"Some day," Jerry mused, waiting impatiently for Ollie Gibbs with the -coffee, "I'll come upon an invincible alien. What recommendation then!" -He could just imagine himself telling a second-generation village of -hardshell settlers that they'd best just pack up and get out.... - -Jerry's ruminations were interrupted by the soft tap on the door that -meant Ollie had arrived. He grunted an answer, and the ship's mess boy -came in, his face rigid in an expression of polite decorum as he set -the steaming pot and drab plastic cup down on the swing-out table at -Jerry's elbow. - -Jerry sensed the man's eyes flickering onto him each time the mess boy -felt the zoologist wasn't looking his way. He finally turned and caught -the youth in mid-stare. - -"What is it, Ollie?" said Jerry, not unkindly. "You'll burst if you -don't talk. Go ahead, spit it out." - -Ollie flashed a brief grin, a dazzle of white teeth that was all the -brighter in his bronze face. "If I'm bursting with anything, sir, it's -just plain nosiness." - - * * * * * - -Jerry glanced from Ollie to the wall clock--spaceship clocks were -always set at Eastern Standard Earth Time--and sighed. He was cutting -it terribly close this time. Suddenly, he wanted very much to have -someone to talk to. It didn't matter, all at once, that he'd be -exposing himself to danger by relaxing his mental grip on himself. If -the ship were not landed and his job begun within two hours he'd be no -worse off speaking than if he'd kept still. - -"Sit down, Ollie," he said abruptly. - -The mess boy's eyebrows rose at this unheard-of request, but he -perched obediently in a chair, almost poised for flight on the edge of -the seat. To have a chat with a Space Zoologist was without precedent -in Ollie's experience. - -Jerry carefully poured himself a cup of coffee, took a sip and settled -back comfortably in his chair. "What's on your mind, Ollie?" - -"Like I said, sir, just plain nosiness. I--I can't get over you -Learners, sir, that's all. I always wonder what gets you into the -business. Why you stay in it so long, why you die so quick if you quit -the Corps, or--Well, like that, sir." - -"Just general curiosity about my _raison d'être_, huh?" said Jerry. He -wasn't trying to floor the mess boy with a four-dollar word; even the -lowliest crewman on a spaceship had been chosen for brainpower, long -before brawn came into consideration at all. - -"That's about it, sir." Ollie nodded. "I mean, I watch you, sir, when -you come out on these trips. You get all keyed up and worried and -sick-looking, and I keep wondering, 'Why does he do it? Why doesn't he -get out of it if it affects him like that?'" - -Jerry stared ruefully at the wall before him, and didn't meet the mess -boy's eyes as he replied. - -"Every man gets keyed up and scared when he has an important -undertaking at hand. It's just worry, plain and simple. The thought of -failure keeps me all tightened up." - -Jerry paused, awaiting a response. When none was forthcoming, he turned -his gaze slowly to meet that of the mess boy, hoping he was doing it -casually enough to allay anything like suspicion in the other man. But -the smile he met was, affectionately, the smile of a man who hasn't -been fooled. - -"That's not it, sir," said Ollie. "I know it's not. Because you're -keyed up the wrong way. You're keyed up with worry that you _won't_ -have a job to do. Your big upset's a lot like a--Well, like a junky -waiting for his next fix.... If you'll pardon the expression, sir." - - * * * * * - -"I will _not_ pardon it!" Jerry bawled, then gripped the arms of his -chair and shook his head in instant apology as the other man's face -went slack with surprise. "No, Ollie, no. I take that back. I _asked_ -you to sit there, _told_ you to let me know what was on your mind. I -can't very well blow up just because you followed my lead." - -"Everyone blows up, now and then, sir," Ollie said. - -Jerry nodded glumly. - -Ollie got up. "I'll be in the ward room, sir, if you need anything -else," he said. "Unless you'd like me to stick around awhile?" - -Jerry considered the offer, then shook his head. "No.... I'd better -not, Ollie." The barest ghost of humor glowed a moment on the -zoologist's face. "You're too damned easy to talk to." - -"Yes, sir," Ollie grinned, then went out and closed the door after him. - -Jerry sat in the chair a second longer, then jumped up and pulled the -door open again. Ollie, a few steps down the passageway, turned about -in curious surprise. - -"Sir?" - -"Tell Captain--" Jerry began, then realized his voice was nearly a -ragged shout, and lowered it. "Would you please tell the captain to -speed things up if he can, Ollie?" - -Ollie hesitated. "The vector--" he started, then stiffened militarily -and replied, "Yes, sir. At once, sir." - -"No," Jerry groaned, closing his eyes and hanging onto the metal edge -of the doorframe. "Forget it. He's got a course to follow in. He can't -get there any faster." - -Ollie, knowing this already, just stood there. - -"Just go have a cup of coffee," Jerry added, lamely. "And about what I -said--" - -"_You_ know I wouldn't say anything about it, sir," Ollie said. - -"I know," Jerry admitted. "Sorry. Space nerves or something of the -sort, I guess." - -"Sure, sir." - -The mess boy turned and continued down the passageway. Jerry shut the -door slowly, then sat down in his chair once more, and stared at the -clock, and sipped the hot coffee, and fought the cold needle-pricks of -fear in every muscle and joint of his body.... - - -II - -The colony on the second planet of Sirius existed solely due to one of -those vicious circles of progress. Just as iron is needed to make the -steel to build the tools and equipment necessary to mine the raw iron -ore, so this colony was needed to mine the precious mineral that made -such colonies possible in the first place. - -The mineral was called Praesodynimium, a polysyllabic mouthful which -meant simply that it was an unstable crystalline isotope of sodium -that broke down eventually into ordinary sodium (hence "prae-":before; -"sod-":sodium), which was possessed of extreme kinetic potentials -("dyn-":power), and was first extracted from sodium compounds by a -Canadian scientist ("-imium" instead of the more American "-inum" or -even "-um"). - -This crystal had the happy habit of electrical allergy. When -subjected to even a mild electric current, it avoided the consequent -shakeup of its electronic juxtaposition by simply vanishing from -normal space until the power was turned off. The nice part about its -disappearance--from an astronaut's point of view--was that the crystal -took not only itself, but objects within a certain radius along with -it. It turned out that a crystal of Praesodynimium the moderate size -of a sixteen-inch softball would warp a ninety-foot spaceship into -hyperspace without even breathing hard. Of course, it would warp -anything _else_ within a fifty-foot radius, too; so it was only turned -on after the ship had ascended beyond planetary atmosphere, lest a -large scoop of landing-field, not to mention a few members of the -ground crew, be carried away with the ship. - -In her eagerness to investigate the now-attainable stars, Earth had -soon exhausted her sources of the mineral. Worse, the crystal, being -unstable, had a half-life of only twenty-five years. That meant that a -ship using it had a full-range radial margin of about five years before -the crystal ceased warping the ship-inclusive area. - -Until some way was discovered to get into hyperspace without using -Praesodynimium--and its actual function was as much a mystery to -scientists as an automobile's cause-and-effect is to a lot of drivers; -very few people can describe the esoteric relationships between the -turning of the ignition key and the turning of the rear wheels--the -mineral was worth ten times its weight in uranium 235. - -Sirius II had been found to be as rife with the mineral as a candy -store is with calories. Hence the colony. - -For so long as the ore held out the planet would be regarded with -fond respect and esteem by any and all persons who had investments, -relatives or even just interest in the Space Age and its contingent -programs. - - * * * * * - -So it was with considerable trepidation that Earth received the news -that the mines on Sirius were no longer being worked. Oh, yes, there -was still ore--enough to keep the planet profitable for another -century. The trouble was the miners. They weren't coming out of the -mines anymore. And no one who went inside to look for them was ever -seen again, either. - -Naturally, mining slacked off. The men refused to set foot in the mines -until somebody found out what had happened to their predecessors. - -So the officials of the colony resurrected a scanner-beam and -roborocket from the cellar of the spacefield warehouse and storage -depot. They sent the rocket into an orbit matching planetary rotation. -In effect it simply hovered over the mines while it scanned the area -for uncatalogued alien life. - -And when they brought the rocket down and checked the microtape -against the file of known species on the planet, they found that no -such beast had ever been catalogued. Its life-pulse gave a reading of -point-nine-nine-nine. - -Since life-pulses are catalogued on a decimal scale based on the -numeral one (with Man rated at point-oh-five-oh), the colonial -administration staff immediately ordered the mines officially closed -and off-limits. This brought no results on Sirius II which had not been -already achieved, but the declaration made the miners feel a little -less guilty over their dereliction of duty. - -An SOS was swiftly sent to Earth, explaining the situation in detail -and requesting instructions. - -Earth sent word to hang on, keep calm and leave the mines closed until -an investigation could be made--all of which the colony was trying to -do anyway. - -A duplicate of the microtape had been transmitted along with the SOS. -Earth had checked the pattern against every known species filed in -U.S. Naval Space Corps Alien-Contact Library, a collection of the -vast alien multitude gathered by Space Zoologists in the methodical -colonization and exploration of the universe. It was found to be not -only _unknown_ anywhere in the thus-far-explored cosmos, but totally -_unlike_ any life-pulse previously encountered. - -Earth decided the only way to get any satisfaction would be by the -unorthodox method of sending in a Space Zoologist to Contact the alien, -though this would be the first time in the history of Contact that this -had ever been done on an already-settled planet. - -And so the badly frightened colony lingered behind bolted doors, and -peered through locked windows at the sky--awaiting the arrival of Jerry -Norcriss, and praying he'd locate the alien and tell them how it might -be dealt with.... - - * * * * * - -"Begging your pardon, sir," grinned the tech, doing some last-minute -fiddling with the machine, "but you never had it so good." Jerry dabbed -at the cold sweat-film on his forehead and upper lip, and nodded -silently. - -In all his previous Contacts, done before any colonization was even -attempted, things were a bit more rustic. His present environs -were luxury compared to those setups. If the six-month orbit of the -roborocket found the planet safe for humans, well and good; Jerry did -not have to go. But if a new life-form were spotted--one that did not -correspond in life-pulse to any known species--then it was Jerry's job -to land on the planet and Learn the beast, to determine its probable -menace, if any, to man. - -The tech was referring to the fact that Jerry's usual base of -operations was out on the sward beside the tailfin of the rocket, the -only power-source on a non-colonized planet. There, in his Contact -helmet, relaxed upon his padded couch, he would let his mind be -sent right into that of the alien, to Learn it from the inside out. -Here, though, on a settled world, his accommodations were pleasantly -out of the ordinary. He was in the solarium of the town's research -laboratory-hospital. He gazed up through quartz panes at soothing blue -skies, in air-conditioned comfort spoiled only by a fugitive scent of -disinfectant lingering in the building. - -Some half-dozen curious members of the building's staff were gathered -in the room. None of them had ever seen a man go into Contact before. -In vain the tech had assured them, before Jerry's arrival, that there -was nothing to be seen. Jerry would lie on the couch and adjust the -helmet upon his head, and then the tech would throw a switch. And for -forty minutes there would be nothing to see except Jerry's silent -supine body. - -Later, of course, the information transmitted by Jerry's mind through -the helmet pickups to the machine would be translated into English. -Then they could all read about the new animal. That would be the -interesting part, for them; not this senseless staring at the young -man, white-haired at thirty-plus, who would, so far as they'd be able -to tell, merely doze off for an uneventful forty-minute nap. - -For Jerry, however, things would be anything but dull for those forty -minutes. - -Once the process was begun, there was no way known even to the -discoverer of the Contact principle to extend or reduce the -time-period. When Jerry's mind had traveled to that of the alien, he -would remain there for the full time. Anything that happened to the -alien in that period would also happen to Jerry. Including death. - -If the alien somehow perished with Jerry "aboard," as it were, the -group in the solarium would wait in vain for him ever to bestir himself -and rise from the couch again. - -Jerry, fighting the waves of nausea that burned in the pit of his -stomach, lay there in his helmet and waited for the tech to finish -adjusting the machine. - -A scanner-beam, sent toward the suspected locale from the solarium, had -instantly retriggered that same green blip in response, as jagged and -powerful as before. Jerry would soon be sent right into the center of -the response-area, and his mind imbedded in the brain of the alien. - -"Hurry it up, will you?" Jerry called over to the tech, trying not to -shout. - -"Ready, sir," the other man said abruptly. "Are you all set?" - -"All set, Ensign," Jerry replied, then shut his eyes to the clear blue -sky and the stares of the curious and let his mind relax for the brief -shock of transport.... - -A flare of lightning, silent, white and cold in his mind--and Jerry -Norcriss was in Contact.... - - * * * * * - -One of the nurses, crisp and efficient in white starched cotton, took -a hesitant step toward the figure on the couch, then spoke to the tech -without looking at him, intensely. "What are his chances? It's so -important that he succeed!" - -About to brush her off with a noncommittal reply, the tech turned his -gaze from the control panel to meet, turning to face him, a pair of the -deepest blue eyes he'd ever seen, and a smooth-skinned serious face -beneath a short-cropped tangle of bright yellow hair. The eyes were -troubled. His manner softened instantly. - -Trying not to show the sudden warmth he felt, he pointed with offhand -authority at the tall metal machine, its face alive with leaping lights -and quivering indicator needles. - -"This'll tell the story, one way or the other," he said. "A Space -Zoologist's chances are always fifty-fifty. He either succeeds and -returns in perfect health, or he fails and doesn't return at all. -But whatever data he picks up in Contact will be punched onto the -microtape. It may help us deal with the menace. Or it may not." - -She looked surprised. "Then this is simply a recorder? I'd thought it -was the thing that sent his mind out to the mine area...." She faltered -on the last few words, and looked more concerned than ever. - -The tech was tempted to ask her about it, but decided to stay on the -neutral ground of simple mechanics for a while. "No, his mind sends -itself. That is, the helmet triggers a certain brain-center; his mind -follows a scanner-beam directed toward the alien and he Contacts. After -that, this machine could be turned off, so far as maintaining Contact -goes. After a forty-minute interim, his mind would return to his -body by itself. The brain-center gets triggered sort of like a muscle -reacts to a blow. It gets paralyzed for a certain time. Forty minutes. -Beyond that limit, or short of it, no Contact or breaking of Contact is -possible...." - -His voice trailed off as he realized her responsive nods were -abstracted and vague, her thoughts elsewhere. "Look," he said -awkwardly, "I'm no psyche-man, but--maybe it'd help if you talked about -it." - -A faint smile touched her mouth. "I didn't realize it showed." - -He grinned and shrugged. - -"My name's Jana," she said. "Jana Corby." She was trying to ease some -of the natural tension between strangers. - -"Bob Ryder," said the tech. He stood and waited for her to make the -next move. - -"My father--" she said, and for the first time, some of the tension -behind her eyes flowed over into her voice. "My father was one of the -miners. He was on the morning shift. The day the men didn't come home -was the day before my wedding." - -Bob frowned. "I don't understand." - - * * * * * - -She blinked at the moisture that had come to her eyes, and flashed -him a sad little smile. "I'm sorry. I was telescoping events. You -see, with Dad missing, I postponed the ceremony, naturally, till I -could learn what had happened. Jim--that's Jim Herrick, my fiance--was -wonderfully understanding about it. He's a miner, too. On the -night-shift, thank God. But if Lieutenant Norcriss doesn't succeed--if -he can't find a way to destroy this beast, whatever it is--we can't get -married, ever." - -Bob shook his head slowly. "You can't? I don't follow." - -"You're in the Space Corps," she said. "Maybe you don't know about -interstellar colonies. It costs plenty to send people to the stars. The -investors want some kind of guarantees for their money. So we're all -signed to a ten-year contract. If we fail to fulfill the terms we're -sent back to Earth on the next ship going that way." - -"Well--I know you're still within the limit," said Bob, "but how does -this upset your marriage plans?" - -"We go where we're sent," she said simply. "If this colony fails, we'll -be sent to a new planet. It may not be the same one. I'll be sent where -they need nurses, Jim where they need miners." - -Bob felt funny, talking against the colonial program, but the weary -despair in the girl's eyes outweighed economic considerations. "You -could both renege on your contracts." - -"And go back to Earth together?" Jana shook her head. "I couldn't do -that, for Jim's sake. He's spent his life at mining, and this is the -kind of mining he knows best: Praesodynimium. And there just _is_ no -more on Earth." - -"He could get something else," said Bob. - -"I know. But he might not be happy. After a while, he might blame me -for it. Or I'd blame myself. Either way, things just wouldn't be the -same. I--I suppose you think I'm foolish, feeling so strongly about -him?" - -Bob said softly, "Honey, any guy would cut his arm off to get a girl -like you. Myself included." - -Embarrassed, she looked once more toward the silent figure upon the -couch. "You're very kind." - -"Not kind," said the tech. "Wistful." - -Behind them, a myriad banks of lights and switches flickered, shifted -with electric monotony, slowly recording the details, down to the most -minute sensory awareness, of the Contact between Jerry Norcriss and the -alien.... - - -III - -There was at first the feeling of warm sunlight on his flesh, then a -pungent scent of crushed foliage, green and heady, very strong and -familiar. - -As his mind took hold, a whisper of wind hummed into his consciousness -and a shimmering golden brightness began to grow upon his closed -eyelids. Abruptly, unity of sensation was achieved. Jerry Norcriss -"was" in a sunlit part of the woods near the mines, feeling the alien's -perceptions as though they were his own. - -He crinkled his eyes against the glare, then slowly opened them. - -As he blinked his eyes to focus the golden glare, he spotted a strange -little cluster of tiny sticks, with miniature leaves sprouting -greenly on thread-like branches. Halfway between his face and this -fragile copse slithered a brilliant blue line, ribbon-thin, through -a serpentine gouge along the earth. On the far side of this trickle -lay a rich tumble of soft green velvet, ending at a group of more of -those twig-copses. Puzzled, Jerry turned his gaze skyward. Within the -warm blue canopy overhead he saw clouds ... but clouds unlike any he'd -ever seen for size. None of them could have been more than a foot in -diameter. They hung against the sky like cotton-covered basketballs. - -He returned his gaze groundward, and for the first time saw the -scuffed grayish area of earth between himself and the trickle. A wiry -network of metal glittered there, the wires in pairs, and the pairs -disappearing into small square punctures against a wall of banked soil. - -Then Jerry gasped. His mind had apprehended the implications of his -vista so suddenly that he was staggered. - -All the facts sprang into proper perspective. The twigs were actually -tall trees, the tumble of velvet a wide stretch of grassy sward, the -trickle was a rushing blue river, and the tiny wire-network in the -grayish area was the tracks for the mine-cars, leading down into the -planet through those tiny square adits. - -Jerry had unconsciously been receiving sensations in terms of his -host's size. A quick calculation showed him that his head must be -easily five hundred feet in the air. - -Cautiously, he glanced for the first time toward the body of his host, -to see what sort of creature he was in Contact with. - -There was nothing whatever to be seen. - -Yet when he closed his eyelids once again, golden opacity returned. -He reopened them thoughtfully. The alien, apparently, could cut off -its vision. Yet the eyes of a creature so high must be many feet in -diameter. And, at this height, twin opacities would be spotted even -from the nearby town. - -But no such sight had been reported. Therefore, the lids were opaque -only from the inside. Which was ridiculous. Yet it was happening. - -Jerry's thoughts were interrupted by a giddy realization. He, in this -alien body, was not standing. He was seated cross-legged on the ground. -That meant a height of not five hundred feet, but nearer seven hundred. - - * * * * * - -Cautiously, he extended a hand toward one of the tiny mine-cars. He had -a little difficulty directing a hand and arm he could not see; but, by -feeling along the earth, he got hold of the dull gray object and tried -to lift it. It came up with featherweight ease. - -Then, halfway to his eyes, it began to glow, to smoke, to grow terribly -hot. And as Jerry released it with a reflex of pain, it burst into -white flame and hit the ground as a shapeless gobbet of molten slag. -Jerry's hand came to his mouth automatically. He sucked and licked at -the sore surfaces of his finger and thumb, trying to drain some of the -hurt out of them. - -Then he froze. - -After a heartbeat, he felt carefully about the interior of his mouth -with a forefinger. Gums. Warm, wet, soft-boned toothless gums. -Whatever the alien looked like--it was still only a baby. - -Which meant-- - -Quickly Jerry looked at the sky again. Not a cloud had moved. Their -rotund fleeciness might have been carven there. He gave himself a -mental kick. Hadn't one of his first alien awarenesses been the sound -of wind? And yet the grass lay still. The trees stood silent. And the -clouds, so nearly over his head that he could have touched one, hung -quietly against a perfectly calm sky. - -It was not the wind he had heard. It was air. Just molecules of air, as -they shifted and flew about at incredible speeds. - -The alien-baby's time-sense was occluded, as that of any Earth-baby, by -shortness of life. It was the paradox of relative lifetime. - -A lifetime, Old Peters had said, training the eager young men who were -to become graduate Space Zoologists, is a lifetime. He'd written it on -the blackboard so they might understand he was not speaking in circles. - -"A lifetime," he'd said, "is the time one spends from birth until any -present moment. A lifetime is the actual count of moments of existence -from birth. When a baby has been born for an hour, its lifetime is -sixty minutes. And to the baby, that sixty minutes is a lifetime." - -He'd written the two words on the board, and would point from one to -the other as he spoke, so the class could understand the distinction -visually, and not have to rely on his inflection to tell which term -he'd used. - -"A lifetime," he'd continued, "is subjective; a lifetime is objective. -The first deals in one's personal sense of time passed. The second is -simply readings from a clock. When a man turns ninety, he is usually -surprised to find how short a life he's seemed to have had. His ninety -years seem hardly longer to him than a single day seemed when he was a -baby. - -"It is a lucky thing that we cannot penetrate the mind of an -intelligent creature. If any of us got into the mind of a baby, we'd -soon start going out of our minds with the maddening length of a day's -time, seen from a baby's viewpoint. Remember, when you are in Contact -with an alien mind, for that immutable forty minutes your _sensation_ -of elapsed time will be subject to that of your host. To a baby, forty -minutes is forever." - - * * * * * - -And here Jerry Norcriss was, in a baby's mind. - -No wonder no tree had rippled, no cloud had blown. The baby-senses -were geared to a near-eternal forty minutes. For all practical -purposes, Jerry was stuck in one frame of a movie film, trapped for -who-knows-how-long till the next frame came by. - -"_That's_ why the car melted!" he realized. "The movement of the car -toward me, in my hand, must have been infinitely shorter than the few -seconds it seemed to take. I tried to make the mine car move more -than five hundred feet, in an actual time less than a thousandth of a -_second_!" - -Jerry wasn't overly concerned about the duration itself. He'd been in -subjectively-slow creatures before. If things got too boring, he could -always doze off; that usually served to pass the time. Even a baby's -time-sense jumps long gaps when it sleeps. - -The thing that puzzled him was this: If the mine car had burnt up -from moving too far too fast, why hadn't the baby's hand and arm been -scorched by the motion? The heat of the car had affected it, so that -let out inborn heat-resistance.... - -His hands once again went to his face. He felt not only the -features--familiar features, eerily like a human baby's--but the -skull-size. When he'd finished, he no longer had reason to doubt that -the baby was of an intelligent species. Too much cranial allotment to -think any differently. - -The whole situation, Jerry mused with grim humor, was screwy. The -six-month roborocket could not have missed a creature with such an -intense life-pulse, but it had. Contact could not be achieved with an -intelligent mind, but it had been. Invisibility--except for certain -species of underwater, creatures--was supposed to be impossible for a -living organism. Yet here it was. - -Three separate impossibles ... all accomplished. - -"Still," said Jerry to himself, "that's not the main puzzle. The -vanishing of those two shifts of miners is still beyond me. They could, -of course, have simply walked head-on into this invisible leviathan. -But how fast can a man walk? And would they _all_ have done it? Now, if -this kid happened to pick one of them _up_--" Jerry gave a shudder at -the thought of what had happened to that metal mine car. "Still," he -sighed, baffled, "a man who bursts into flame is no more fun to hold -than a hot mine car. After maybe two or three deaths at the _outside_, -the kid would've learned not to touch them." - -Then he had an even eerier thought. If this creature were a baby--where -did its mother and father lurk? - -The thought of two more invisible giants at large on the planet was -unbearable. - - * * * * * - -Jerry decided to chance losing control over the alien mind, to let its -own instincts come to the fore. - -There was the possibility that it knew where its folks were, and would -try moving in that direction. Or it might cry for its mother, and she'd -hurry back. If there _were_ invisible giants, the sooner the colony was -informed the better. - -As Jerry's control of his host grew tenuous, he could feel the baby's -mind taking over once again. Feeble pulsations reached him--nothing -like solid thought, but mere urgencies about comfort, food and -affection. - -Jerry waited, in the background of the unformed mind, for something to -happen. Then, suddenly, there was a shifting, something like a metal -earthquake. A cold hard light of awareness focused on him, where he'd -thought he was safely hidden in the background. - -"Who are you?" asked the awareness. - -It is not in so many words, of course. A mind speaks to another mind -in incredibly swift shorthand. The actual thought-impulse that came to -Jerry was a thick wave of curiosity, its stress laid upon identity. - -"I am a Learner," Jerry's thought replied. It was a self-sufficient -response, since Jerry's concept of all that a Learner was was -incorporated in the thought. - -"I see," said the alien. "You have memories of antagonism which are now -gone from your intent. Explain." - -"I came to find a menace. I found a helpless child." - -"I see," came the cold, thoughtful reply. "Yes, that is how I sensed -it." - -"Is your mother around?" asked Jerry. "Or father?" - -"Dead," said the awareness. "I am alone." - -At the thought, the intense thought of loneliness, a kindred spark -flared in Jerry's own mind. The alien caught at the spark, recognized -it. - -"Strange," it said. "You, too, are alone. But it is a different -aloneness." - -Jerry's thoughts were whirling in confusion. To be read so easily by a -baby was incredible to him. Yet the situation was without precedent. -Perhaps a baby's mind was brighter than science gave credit. Since a -mind needed no words or manual skills, the mind of a baby might be open -to learn the thousand things necessary for adult survival. Maybe as a -man learned to use his body, he forgot in proportion how to use his -mind. - -"How can you know my aloneness?" asked Jerry. - -"I see it, there in your mind. It is plain to me. You have been -misled. You are a helpless pawn of a singularly wicked scheme. The -victim of a lie." - - * * * * * - -Jerry's recollection flashed to his conversation with Ollie Gibbs, to -the things he had wanted to tell the other man but was unable to put -into words. All the heaviness he had borne alone these many years was -apparent to this mind he enhosted. The alien mind knew. _Knew!_ - -"I see," it said again, though Jerry was unaware of expressing any -conscious thought. "It is clear to me now. You have suffered much--will -suffer much. No hope for you, is there?" - -There was warmth in the words--warmth, friendship and compassionate -understanding. Suddenly, to this mind of an alien in its incongruous, -invisible baby's body, Jerry found himself blurting the things he -had never told to any man. Things which no Space Zoologist had ever -discussed even with another member of that hapless clan. - -"They never told us," he said to the alien. "I don't hold any rancor -because of it; they dared not tell us, lest we refuse to become one -with them. They were fair, though. Long before we were indoctrinated, -long before we'd been allowed to attempt our first Contact, we were -told that there were dangers. Not the dangers we had heard about, -such as the imminent peril of dying if the host died while we were in -Contact. Another danger was implied, one which we could only learn of -by actually becoming Learners, and one which--once we had learned of -it--would be impossible to escape. - -"With a little thought along the proper lines, we might almost have -guessed it. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. -One of Newton's laws, applied in an area he did not even suspect -existed. - -"Oh, we were a brave, adventurous lot, all of us. We would be Learners; -no alien mind but we could enter it, and actually become the alien for -the period of Contact. Thrills, danger and hairsbreadth escapes would -be ours. Ultimate adventurers, they called us. And all along, we were -fools." - -The alien refrained from comment, although Jerry could feel its mind -waiting, listening, assimilating. - -"Contact had a drawback. A basic one which we might have guessed, if -we hadn't been going around with stars in our eyes and a delightful -feeling of superiority over the men who would never know the interior -on any minds but their own. In Contact, just as in sunbathing, there is -a delayed reaction, a kickback." - -"Sunbathing?" thought the alien. - -Jerry's mind swiftly opened for the alien's inspection his full -storehouse of information on the subject. In an instant, the alien -apprehended the fate that lay in wait for the careless Space Zoologist-- - - * * * * * - -"Sure is warm in here," said Bob, running a finger around inside his -sweat-dampened uniform collar. - -"You have to be careful," said Jana, indicating the quartz panes that -formed the ceiling and three walls of the solarium. "The quartz passes -ultraviolet, unlike glass. You can pick up a severe burn if you sit out -here too long without some sort of protection for your skin." - -The tech nodded. "The insidious thing about sunburn is that you only -turn a little pink as long as you're out in the sunlight. It's when -you've gone indoors, or the sun has set, or you put your clothes back -on that the red-hot burn begins to show up on your flesh." - -"It's the light-pressure," said Jana. "As long as there's an influx -of ultraviolet, the flesh continues to absorb it without showing much -reaction. But as soon as you get away from the rays--the burns show -up.... I wonder how Norcriss is making out." - - -IV - -"You mean, then," said the alien to Jerry, "that all the experiences -you undergo in Contact are held back under the surface of your mind, -waiting there until you let up on the incoming Contact experiences?" - -"That's it," said Jerry, miserably. "In some of my Contacts, I've -undergone pretty painful experiences. I've had an eye twisted out, an -arm eaten and digested, been poisoned, nearly strangled--you name a -near-death; I've been through it." - -"And your reaction?" thought the mind. - -"Nil," said Jerry, ruefully. "When I awakened from a Contact, my memory -of my experiences was strictly a mental one. Like something I'd read in -a book. There was no emotional reaction whatsoever. My heart beat its -normal amount, my glands excreted normal perspiration, my muscles were -relaxed. Not a trace of shock or any other after effect." - -"And later?" the mind asked gently. - -"Back on Earth," said Jerry, "the Space Zoologists have a thing we -call the Comprehension Chamber. It's a room filled with couches and -helmets, in which we can listen--through replayed microtapes--to all -the Contacts our confreres have ever made. Perhaps 'listen' is a weak -word. For all practical purposes, we are in Contact, so long as the -tape runs. I thought this room was a wonderful adjunct to my education, -but nothing more. I went there a lot at first. It was even more fun -than the real thing because there was no danger of perishing. Tapes of -zoologists who died while in Contact are never used in the Chamber." - -The mind waited, listening patiently. - -"So one week--" Jerry's mind gave a mental twinge akin to a -physical shudder--"one week I got bored. I decided not to go to the -Comprehensive Chamber. I went out on a few dates, instead. Tennis, the -movies, like that. And on the third day, I woke in the morning with -a heart trying to pound its way through my ribs, with my bedsheets -dripping with cold perspiration, and lancing agony in my eye, my hand -knotted into a fist of pain, lungs burning for air...." - -"Delayed reaction," said the mind. - -"Yes," said Jerry. "That was it. I recognized the pains right away, -having been through them personally in Contact only a month before -them. I had a horrible inkling of what was occurring. I called the -medics at Space Corps Headquarters before I passed out. They came, -shot me full of morphine and stuck me into a helmet for twenty-four -hours straight, to cram my reactive agonies back beneath an overload -of vicarious Contacts. It worked pretty well. The pain was gone when -I awakened. But my nerves weren't the same afterward. I used to look -forward to Contacts because I enjoyed them. Now I look forward to them -because I dread what will happen if I don't have another one in time." - -"In time?" - - * * * * * - -"I find that I _must_ get to a Contact--real or vicarious--at least -once in forty-eight hours. I've been trapped by my job. I'm doomed to -do this job or die horribly. Some men, desperate for escape from this -treadmill, have quit the Corps, tried to battle this kickback-effect. -None of them have made it. They were found, all of them, in various -states of agony. Dead, broken, burnt, torn...." - -"Psychosomatic pressures?" asked the mind. - -"Yes. Their minds, overborne by their emotions, self-hypnotized them -into re-undergoing their experiences. And their bodies, duped by -their minds, reacted. On a normal man, a hypnotically suggested burn -can raise an actual blister. On a man who's opened his mind to the -Contact-power--his body can break, burn, dissolve or even evaporate." - -"Poor Jerry," said the alien mind, soothingly. A tingle formed slowly -in Jerry's mind, a growing warmth, a vibration of utter affection. He -was being consoled, being loved by the alien. It knew his troubles. It -understood the sorrow of his life. It wanted only to keep him close, -to tell him not to be afraid, to make him happy, comfortable, safe.... -Safe, and secure, and-- - -The glare of silent lightning leaped through Jerry's consciousness, -jerking him back from the unnervingly delightful torpor he'd been -letting overcome his thoughts. - -Something hard bumped against his forehead. He realized that he'd just -sat up on the couch, knocking the helmet from his head with the shock -of the breaking Contact. - -"Sir!" said the tech, pausing only to snap off the circuit switch -before dashing to his side. "What the hell happened? I never saw you -break Contact like that! Did you see the alien? Can it be destroyed?" - -Jerry groaned, tried to speak, then fell back onto the thick padding, -unconscious. - -"What's the matter with him?" cried Jana, sensing the fright in the -tech's attitude. - -"I don't know," he whispered. "I've never seen him act this way -before. Whatever's out there, it's unlike anything we've ever -encountered before! Here, you get some of your medics up here to see to -him. I'm going to process this damned tape and see what's what!" - -Her face pale, Jana hurried off to do his bidding. The tech began to -reset the machine so that the coded information on the tape might be -translated into legible words. - -And Jerry Norcriss lay on the couch, sobbing and groaning like a man on -the rack, although his mind was blanked by merciful unconsciousness. - - * * * * * - -"A baby?" choked the tech. "That thing out there is a _baby_?" - -"Does the tape ever lie?" sighed Jerry, relaxing against the plump -white pillows Jana had arranged under his back and shoulders. - -"Well, no," faltered the tech. "But a baby! Five hundred feet high--and -invisible--and able to carry on an intelligent conversation?" - -"Which reminds me," said Jerry, sternly. "I am going to ask you to edit -both the tape and that typewritten translation of that conversation. -It's just as well too many people don't get the inside story on my job, -and its rather rugged drawback. And as for yourself.... Well, I can't -order you to forget what you've read there." - -"I won't talk about it, sir, if that's what you mean," said the tech. -"It's not such a hard secret to keep. All the crewmen on the ship know -there's _something_ pretty awful about your job. I just happen to know -_what_. All I'd get for spilling the inside dope would be, 'Oh, is -_that_ what it is!' Hardly worth it." - -"That's hardly a noble reason to keep a secret," Jerry murmured, -looking narrow-eyed at the tech. - -The man grinned, then shrugged. "Makes my life easy, too. Now when you -flare up at me, I'll know why, and skip it." - -"Thanks a hell of a lot," Jerry muttered. - -The tech laughed aloud. - -"But," the zoologist added soberly, "we did learn one surprising lesson -today. The forty-minute Contact period can be broken, under certain -stresses." - -The smile left the tech's face, and he looked earnestly puzzled. "I -don't follow you, sir. There was nothing on the tape about--" - -"Tape?" said Jerry. "You _saw_ how quickly I came out, didn't you? -What's that got to do with the tape?" - -"Sir," the tech said hesitantly, "you were under the helmet for the -full forty." - -Jerry flopped back upon the pillows, staring at the other man as if -he'd suddenly gone berserk. "That can't _be_," he said slowly. "I was -in a long-life host. The clouds weren't even moving. That baby was -living many subjective days in the forty-minute period." - -"Begging your pardon, sir," said the tech, "but you must be mistaken. -You were gone the full forty." - -"That's impossible," said Jerry. - -Jana, who'd been standing back from the two men, stepped forward -cautiously, apprehensive at butting into something that was not really -her affair. - -"Excuse me, Lieutenant Norcriss," she said softly, "but Bob's right. -You were gone as long as he says." - -"You don't understand, either of you!" Jerry snapped. "My -time-awareness in a host is subject to the host's time-awareness. So -far as this host was concerned, a day was a confoundedly long period. -But I could tell the elapsed time by watching the clouds, the height of -the sun. They didn't move, either of them, visibly...." - -"How's that again, sir?" asked the tech. "How long did you _seem_ to -spend?" - -"Possibly an hour." - -"Well, then." The tech shrugged. - -"But this had nothing to do with the host's subjective sense of _time_, -Ensign. It was my own knowledge of _objective_ time through watching -the sun, the trees, the clouds. None of them moved during my subjective -hour in the host-alien. So no time--or very little time; barely a few -minutes--could have passed while I was enhosted, do you see?" - -"Lieutenant Norcriss," said Jana, abruptly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, -but did you say clouds?" - -"Yes," said Jerry, puzzled by her intensity. "Why?" - -"There hasn't been a cloud in the sky today," she said awkwardly. "I -mean--Well, look for yourself!" - -Jerry turned his gaze upward through the quartz ceiling of the -solarium. The sky, a rich turquoise, was smooth and unbroken save for -the glaring gold orb of the sun, Sirius. He sat up then, looking out -through the likewise transparent walls. As far as he could see, over -storetops, cottage roofs, and distant green glades, the sky was that -same unbroken blue. - -"But that's crazy!" he said, sinking back against the pillows. "It -couldn't have been like that all the time I was in Contact. Could it?" - -Jana and Bob exchanged an uncomfortable look. - -"Well, sir," the tech said, "we weren't exactly _watching_ the sky, if -you know what I mean. But it was clear when you went into Contact. And -it's clear _now_." - -His voice trailed off, uncertainly, but Jerry gave a slow thoughtful -nod. "You're right, Ensign. It is, and it was. The likelihood of its -clouding up for forty minutes, and then clearing again is so ridiculous -I can't even consider it.... And yet, I _saw_--" - -Jerry stopped speaking, and shook his head. Then he waved a hand at the -tech, abstractedly. "Get me some coffee, Ensign. I have to think, hard." - - * * * * * - -When nightfall had cloaked the planet in dark purple folds, Jerry was -still gazing intently at nothingness, racking his brain for an answer. -Bob, meantime, had checked the card against the ship's files on dealing -with alien menaces, and had found--much as both he and Jerry had -suspected--that there was no recommendation available. The menace was -new. It would have to be approached strictly _ad libidum_. Whatever -method served to rid the planet of the menace would then, not before, -be incorporated into the electronic memory of the brain on the ship, to -serve future colonies who might meet a similar alien species. - -"Any ideas, sir?" asked the tech, after a long silence from his -superior. - -"None," Jerry admitted, not turning his head. "It's pretty damned -difficult to find a solution to a problem until you're sure what the -problem _is_." - -"Well," said the tech, "we played the radar all over the area where the -tape said the thing was located. We got nothing. Maybe the kid's mother -came back." - -"Just a second--" said Jerry. "Ensign, could you rig the machine to -give us, not a written transcript of that alien's description, but a -drawing of it?" - -"Jeepers, sir!" choked the tech, taken aback. "I don't know. I'd have -to talk with the engineers." - -"It should be possible. Hell, it's got to be. When I was enhosted, my -mind transmitted back every bit of info on that body. A man who only -knew mechanical drawing could sketch that shape, simply by following -the measurement specifications as my mind recorded them. Go on, Ensign, -get with it. One way or the other, I want a look at what we're dealing -with." - -It was nearly midnight when Bob shook Jerry gently awake and handed him -a small glossy rectangle of paper. - -Jerry, blinking his eyes against the sudden onslaught of light in the -room as the tech threw the wall switch, stared blearily at the paper -for a moment, blank and disoriented. - -"It's the picture, sir," Bob said, recognizing the bafflement on his -superior's face for what it was. "I finally had the bright idea of -turning the problem over to the brain, aboard the ship. It followed the -specifications from the tape by drawing the picture in periods." - -"In what periods?" Jerry mumbled, still trying to come awake. - -"Not time-periods, sir. Punctuation. Then, when it had the thing done, -on a ten-by-fourteen-inch sheet of feed-paper from its roller, I had -the ship's photographer take a snapshot and reduce it in size, so it -looks at least as good as the average newspaper half-tone job." - -Jerry nodded, absorbing the information even as his eyes crept over the -image in his hands. "Looks strangely familiar," he said, studying it -closely. - -"If you'll pardon what sounds like a gag, sir," began the tech, "I -think that the picture--in fact, we all think--" - -"Yes?" said Jerry, looking at the man. - -"Well, the consensus among the crew was that this baby here looks a -hell of a lot like _you_, sir." - -Jerry sat where he was, his eyes on Bob's face, for a long moment, -as fingers of ice took hold of his spine. Then, with unreasoning -apprehension, he turned his gaze back upon the near-photographic -likeness he held. "Ensign," he said, after a minute. "This _is_ a -picture of me." - -"But sir, it can't be," said the tech. - -"You're wrong," said Jerry, letting the paper drop to the floor. "It -can be, because it is. And all at once I think I know why." - -Without warning, Jerry swung his legs over the side of the couch and -jumped to his feet. - -"Listen," he said urgently, "there's no time to lose. Get the hospital -staff together, fast, and bring me back their best psyche-man. I need a -hypnotist." - -"A h-hyp--?" the tech blurted, confused, then gave an obedient nod and -hurried out, shaking his head all the way to the switch-board. - - * * * * * - -"Never mind _why_, Doctor. Can you _do_ it? That's all I care to know," -Jerry's voice crackled, his eyes flashing with authority. - -"Y-Yes, I think so," quavered the other man. "If you _can_ be -hypnotized, I mean." - -"All Space Zoologists have the brainpower necessary to be perfect -subjects," Jerry snapped. "Quickly, now, Doctor. I've wasted one -Contact already." - -"Very well, sir," said the man. "If you'll lie back, now, and make your -mind blank--" - -"I know, I know! Get _on_ with it, will you!" - -Bob and Jana stood back in the shadows beside the towering metal -control board, listening in silence as the hypnotist put Jerry under, -deeper and deeper, until his mind was readily suggestible. Then he -made the statements Jerry had told him to make, and with a snap of his -fingers brought the zoologist out of hypnosis. - -"You heard, Ensign?" asked Jerry. "Did he do exactly as I told him to?" - -"Sir!" protested the doctor. - -"I mean no offense," said Jerry. "But if your words left my mind too -free, too human somehow, the alien would sense it. And a ruse like -this one might not work on a second attempt, once the alien had been -apprised of our intent." - -"He did, sir," said Bob. "Word for word, as you told it to him." - -"Good," Jerry said. "Thank you, Doctor. And good night." - -"Uh--yes," said the man, finally realizing he was being peremptorily -dismissed after coming all the way across the town from his warm bed in -the black morning hours. "Good night to you, sir." - - * * * * * - -He fumbled his way out the door, and Jana, after a glance at Bob, shut -it after him. Bob stood beside the control board, waiting as Jerry once -more adjusted the helmet upon his head and lay back on the couch. - -"All right?" he called to the tech, as Jana, now walking nervously on -tiptoe, though there'd been no injunction against noise, hurried to -Bob's side and took his arm. - -"Ready, sir," Bob said, keeping his voice steady. - -"You've set the stopwatch?" warned Jerry. - -"I depress the starter the same instant I turn on the machine," said -Bob. - -"All right, then," said Jerry. - -Bob's right hand threw a switch. - -Even as it snapped home, his left thumb had jabbed down upon the -stopwatch button. The long red sweephand began clicking with relentless -eagerness about the dial. - -On the couch Jerry stiffened, then relaxed. - -"You'd better stay with him," Bob cautioned Jana. "The machine's on -automatic. If I'm not back on time, it'll take care of itself." - -"Back on time?" she gasped. "But you can't be, Bob. If what he said -about the timing--" - -Bob shut his eyes and gripped his forehead between thumb and fingers. -"Yes, of course. I'm being an idiot. This maneuver is something new. -But--" he withdrew his hand from his face and smiled at the girl--"you -stay with him anyhow. I'd feel better--safer--if you weren't with me -and the others." - -"Yes, Bob," she said, in a faint shadow of her normal voice. "Be -careful." - -Bob grinned with more confidence than he felt, turned and hurried from -the room. - -Jana moved slowly across the floor to the couch where Jerry Norcriss -lay in unnatural slumber, and stood staring down at his strange, -young-old face, and her eyes were bright with quiet wonder.... - - -V - -"What's this, what's this?" rasped Jerry's mind. "Where have I gotten -to, now?" - -"It's all right," said a soothing voice. "You're with _me_, now." - -"Oh? Oh?" Jerry's mind said, snickering. "And who might _you_ be?" - -It was dark as he looked out through the alien eyes, but a quick -patting of his paw across his face reassured him that his sharp white -incisors, muzzle and stiff gray whiskers were intact and healthy. - -"How can I be you?" asked Jerry. "If I'm a gray rat and you're a gray -rat, what am I doing here?" - -"You've come to spy on me, I know," said the soothing voice. "But see? -You have nothing to fear, nothing at all. I'm not going to hurt you. -You find no menace in me. Do you?" - -"No. No menace. No danger. I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm warm and loved...." - -"Relax," said the alien. "Relax, and let me have full control again. -You can sleep if you do. You can rest. _I'll_ take care of you, trust -in that." - -"Yes. Sleep. Rest. No more running, hiding, fearing...." said Jerry -Norcriss, the gray rat-mind in the invisible body of another rat much -like himself.... - - * * * * * - -"Come on with that flashlight, damn it!" Bob raged, leading the other -three crewmen through the woods. Two of them carried rifles, one had -a flamethrower, and Bob himself carried one of the new bazookas with -a potent short-range atomic warhead. Ollie, the man with the light, -hurried up to him with a quick apology. - -"Okay, okay," Bob said. "But I've got to see this dial--Ah, yes. This -is the way, all right. Come on. Ollie, keep that beam so it spills on -the tracking-cone dial as well as on the earth. We don't dare risk -losing our way. There are only seven minutes left until Contact is -broken." - -"Yes, sir. I'll keep it right on there," Ollie said. "But about the -lieutenant--are you _sure_ he won't--" - -"That's what the stopwatch is for. We _must_ strike just as Contact -is being broken. Any sooner, and we kill Lieutenant Norcriss with the -alien. Any later, and the alien kills us. The same way it did the -others who came upon it." - -"But what does it do? What does it look like?" Ollie persisted. - -"Damn it, there's no time to talk now! Just keep that light steady, and -hurry!" - -The men plunged onward through the woods, the white circle of light -from the arc-torch splashing the cold leaves and damp, colorless grass -with sickly, stark illumination. - - * * * * * - -"If you would only release your hold," the alien was saying. Then its -mind-voice stopped. - -Jerry, too, had seen the dancing white freckles that spattered the -boles and branches of the nearby trees. The darkness of the woods was -rent by streamers of ruler-straight light beams. They began to radiate -like luminous wheel-spokes through the tangled leaves of the woods. - -"Men!" cried the alien mind. "Men are coming here. Men, our enemies!" - -Jerry, still in partial control of the invisible rat-body, fought the -flight-impulse that began to stir beneath the unseen skin. - -"Run!" shrieked the alien mind. "You fool, can't you see that we must -flee this place? Quickly, or we are done for!" - -"Run--Flee--" Jerry said dully, within the alien mind. "Yes. Run from -men ... the eternal enemy, men. Run, hide, a dark corner, under a bush, -behind a tree...." - -He felt his own mind joining that of the alien in the preliminary -tension that comes before flight.... Then the glaring beam of the -arc-torch was full in his eyes, and the hypnotic illusion, at this, the -trigger of his psyche, was shattered. And Jerry once again knew himself -to be a man. - -A man in the body of a rat--the animal which Jerry Norcriss loathed -most of all creatures! - -"Run!" screamed the alien. "Why don't you--!" Its commands ceased as it -realized the difference within the mind that had invaded its body. "You -again!" it cried, trying wildly to reassume the placid plump image of -that unseen baby once more. - -"You're too late," said Jerry, fighting its will with his own as the -crewmen broke from the underbrush into the clearing, and the tech, -pointing straight at him, yelled a caution to the man with the flame -thrower. The man bringing up the terrible gaping mouth of that weapon -halted, waiting, as the tech stared at the stopwatch in his hand. - -"Five seconds!" cried the tech. "Four ... three ... two ... one.... -_Get_ it, quick!" - -Jerry, still within the mind and watching with the same horrified -fascination as his host, saw the puff of flame within the flame-tube of -the weapon, then saw the insane red flower blossoming with its smoking -yellow tendrils toward his face-- - -And the silent white lightning flared-- - -And he sat up on the couch, back in the solarium. - - * * * * * - -Jana hurried over to him. - -"Did it work? Did it work, sir?" she cried. "Is Bob--" - -Jerry patted her hand. "Bob's all right. He was on time. _Just_ on -time." - -"I still don't understand, sir," said the nurse, sinking onto the couch -beside him without waiting for an invitation. "I don't understand _any_ -of this!" - -For an instant, Jerry resented this familiarity, then felt slightly -overstuffed, and slipped an arm paternally across her slim shoulders. - -"I'll explain," he said. "It'll pass the time till he gets back." - -Jana nodded. - -"The alien," Jerry said softly, "was a mimic. A perfect mimic. It -was, while non-intelligent, of an abnormally well developed mind in -one function: telepathy. That's how it could carry on apparently -intelligent mental conversation with me, during my first contact. -It could sense my questions, then probe my mind for the answers I -wanted most to hear--and play them back to me. For my forty minutes -of contact, it told me only what I wanted to know, like a selective -echo. It needed no understanding of my questions, nor of the answers it -plucked from my mind. It had one instinct: self-preservation. It could -sense my question, select an uncontroversial answer from my mind and -feed it back to me, without really understanding how it warded me off -as a menace to it, any more than a dog understands why lowering its -ears and hanging its head as it whines can fend off the wrath of its -master. It works; that's all the creature cares about." - -"But how did you _know_--?" Jana asked. - -"I didn't," Jerry replied. "It fooled me completely. Until the -Ensign--Bob told me that my full forty minutes in Contact had elapsed, -despite my knowledge that the sun and clouds had remained motionless -during my Contact. That threw me, I'll admit, for quite a while. It -just didn't make sense." - -Jana's eyes widened as she suddenly understood. "And then you realized -that you had seen the sun and clouds motionless because that was what -you _expected_ to experience when enhosted in a baby!" - -"That's it," Jerry nodded. "It made an error with the baby, though. It -was able to duplicate it in almost every respect except two: Size and -appearance." - -"Why?" asked Jana. "And why appear as a baby at all?" - - * * * * * - -"I'm coming to that," said Jerry. "The size was off because the first -thing I saw when I blinked open my eyes was a distant copse of trees, -which I took to be an upright pile of leafy twigs. Since my mind -possessed information regarding the relative size of babies and twigs, -the alien immediately made sure my mind saw other things in the same -perspective. By the time it realized it had made an error, it was too -late to normalize the baby's dimensions; that would have given its -fakery away." - -"But why did the thing choose a baby?" - -"Because that was the thing's protection! It had a powerful hypnotic -power, one that worked on its victims' minds directly through its -telepathic interference with sensory perception. It always appeared as -the thing the victim would be least likely to harm. In my case, a baby. -But it made a slight error there, too. I'm a bachelor, Jana. There's -only one baby with whom I ever had any great amount of experience: -myself." - -"And the invisibility?" - -"I have no recollection, even now, of my body when I was a baby. I may -have stared at my toes, played with my fingers, but they just never -registered on my consciousness as being part of _myself_. So the thing -was stuck when it came to reproducing me visually, since it depended -upon my own memory for details. But it was able to supply the way I'd -_felt_ as a baby. Every baby has an acute awareness of its own skin; it -will cry if any particle of its flesh is bothered in the slightest. So -the alien fed the 'feel' of my baby-body back to me, if not the view. -Which is why the electronic brain on the ship was able to duplicate the -detail into an almost perfect replica of my babyhood likeness." - -Jana nodded, as she finally understood the meaning of that strange -illusion. "And this time? That post-hypnotic suggestion you had the -doctor give you, I mean: that you'd think you were a gray rat until -such time as the light of the arc-torch caught you directly in the -eyes...." - -"Duplicity, Jana. It had to be that way. The alien was very sure of its -powers. If I returned, and it were a baby again, I couldn't attack it -or thwart its ends. And such an attack was necessary. I had to be able -to fight it, to hold it in place for that last moment before it was -destroyed. Which is why I chose a gray rat, an animal I cannot bear the -sight of. When the light struck my eyes and I became myself again, I -caught the alien unawares. Then, before it could change to a baby, and -start lulling me back into camaraderie, it was too late. Bob had given -the order to fire. And here I am." - - * * * * * - -Hurrying footsteps sounded in the corridor. The door burst open and Bob -rushed in, his face anxious and creased with worry until he saw Jerry -sitting on the couch, alive and well. - -"Whoosh!" The tech expelled a mingled chuckle and sigh as he sank into -a chair opposite the zoologist. "Well, sir, I can't tell you how glad I -am to see you. I couldn't be sure you'd gotten out of that thing alive -until I got back here. Glad you made it, sir. Damn glad!" - -"That 'thing' you mentioned," said Jerry. "What did it _actually_ look -like?" - -Bob jerked his head toward the corridor. "The other guys are bringing -it along. I kind of thought you'd want a peep at it." - -As more footfalls were heard from the corridor, Bob bounced to his feet -again, and stepped to the door. "Hold it a minute, guys," he said, -then turned back into the room. "Jana, I don't think you'd better stick -around for this. It's not very pretty." - -The girl hesitated, then flashed him a smile and shook her head. -"I'll stay. It can't look as ugly as a bad case of peritonitis on the -surgeon's table. If I can take that without upchucking, I can take -anything." - -Bob shrugged. "Suit yourself, honey. Just remember you got fair -warning." He leaned back out the door. "Okay. Bring it in." - -The crewmen, looking a little ill, came slowly into the room, bearing -a bloated, scorched object on a stretcher they'd contrived from two -long poles and their jackets. They set it onto the tiled floor before -the zoologist, then stepped away, all of them wiping their hands hard -against their trousers in ludicrous unison, though their grip on the -poles had not brought them into actual contact with the alien's corpse. - -"There it is, sir," said Ollie Gibbs. "And you are very welcome to it." - -Jana, to her credit, had not upchucked, but she went a shade paler, and -her mouth grew tight. - -Jerry studied the burnt husk, from its sharp-fanged mouth--easily -eighteen inches from side to side--to its stubby centipedal cilia under -the grossly swollen body. - -"Damn thing's all bloat, slime and mouth," said the tech, suddenly -shuddering. "I wonder if its victims felt those jaws rending them open, -or if it kept their minds fooled through to the end?" - -"I don't think we'll ever know that, Ensign," said Jerry. "Unless you -feel like going out there and playing victim to one of this thing's -confreres?" - -"No thanks, sir," said Bob, so swiftly that Jana laughed. "I'd rather -fall out an airlock in hyperspace." - - * * * * * - -"Well, here's what we do to get rid of this thing, then," said Jerry. -"Since it assumes a form that's the least likely to be harmed by -whatever presence stimulates its mimetic senses, we'll have to trick -it. Before this thing decomposes too far, rig it up with an electrical -charge, and stimulate its nerve-centers artificially. That ought to -give you an accurate microtape of its life-pulse. Then hook the tape -to a scanner-beam, and _send_ the life-pulse into the mine-area. When -the fellows of this creature react to it, they'll assume the safest -possible form: their own." - -"I get you, sir!" said Bob. "Then all the miners have to do is see it -for what it is, and shoot it." - -Jerry nodded. "It'll mean all miners will have to go armed for awhile. -But that's better than getting eaten alive by one of these." - -"You sure their presence won't trigger the thing's mimetic power?" -asked Bob, uneasily. - -"Not if you give full power to the scanner-beam," Jerry replied. "It'll -muffle their life-pulse radiations under the brunt of the artificial -one." - -"Good enough, sir," said Bob. "I'll rig it right away." - -Jerry shook his head. "No need. You could use some rest, I'm sure. The -morning'll be soon enough. Meantime, you can see this young lady home. -The rest of you," he said to the hovering crewmen, "are dismissed, too." - -The men, eager to be away from the thing, saluted smartly and hurried -out of the solarium, buzzing with wordy relief. - -Jana paused a moment, staring at the creature whose strange powers had -destroyed her father. Then she turned to Bob. - -"I think I'll go to Jim's place," she said. "I want him to know." She -moved her gaze to Jerry. "I owe you a lot," she said. "We all owe you a -lot." - -Embarrassed by the warmth of her praise, Jerry could only mumble -something diffident and look the other way. He was taken quite by -surprise by the pressure of cool moist lips against the side of his -face. - -When he looked back at the pair, Bob and Jana were on their way out -the door. - -Only when he heard the elevator doors at the end of the corridor -close behind them did he move to the still-warm corpse of his onetime -adversary, with a look of deepest compassion on his face. - -"Well," he said gently, "you've lost. The planet goes back to -the invaders. Once again, Earth has successfully obliterated the -opposition." - -He reached out a hand and touched the hulking thing on the floor. -"Good-by," he said. "And I'm sorry." - -Jerry Norcriss wasn't thinking about the deadliness of the thing, -nor of the deaths of the hapless miners, nor of the billions of -dollars he'd saved the investors holding Praesodynimium stock. He was -thinking of a voice that--even unintelligently, even in the course -of deception--had said, "Poor Jerry. Rest.... Relax. You're safe.... -Secure...." - -"You really had me going for a while, baby," he said, then blinked at -the sudden sharp sting in his eyes, and hurried from the room. - - * * * * * - -Outside, the sun was glowing pink against the black eastern sky, and -the air was cool and fresh in his nostrils. As he crossed the street -from the hospital, heading toward the landing field and his shipboard -bunk, a hurrying figure from the end of the block caught up with him -and began to pace his stride, panting slightly. - -"Talk about happy," said Bob, glumly. "When Jana told her boy friend -the news, they went into such a clinch I didn't even stick around to -be introduced. Seemed a nice enough guy, I guess. Hope she'll be happy -with him." - -Jerry recognized the gloominess of the tech's mood, and its cause, so -didn't say anything. After a moment, Bob seemed to recover himself a -little. - -"Sir," he said, "there's one thing still bugs me about this alien." - -"Oh?" said Jerry, halting. "What's that, Ensign?" - -"How'd the initial roborocket miss the thing and its kind when it -circled the planet before colonization began?" - -"That's a moot question," said Jerry. "But my conjecture is that the -scanner always caught it when it was assuming some other form. Since -its victims were always indigenous to this planet, the things familiar -to them were also of this planet, and the scanner-beam couldn't detect -any life-pulses which were dissimilar to already-known species." - -"I'll be damned," said Bob. "It's almost childishly simple when you -explain it." Then, as Jerry went to start off again, Bob stopped him -with an exclamation. - -"What about that melting mine car I read about on the translation -sheets? Was that for real, or wasn't it?" - -Jerry shook his head. "Part of the general mimetic illusion, like the -motionless clouds and unmoving trees. It let me see what I expected to -see. In reality, I was just in the woods near the mine area, where you -came upon the creature to destroy it." Jerry started slowly moving away -once more. - -A few steps further, and Bob halted again. "One final point, sir. That -life-pulsing reading of point-nine-nine-nine. If the thing's pulsation -was that powerful, I should think it would've been a lot harder to -knock off than it was." - -"You're right," said Jerry. "It would have been. But its life-pulse -wasn't nearly that high." - -"But the scanner-beam--" Bob protested. "When the colony sent up -that roborocket, after those miners vanished, it reported an unknown -life-pulse of point-nine-nine-nine. If that wasn't the alien's -life-pulse, what the devil was it?" - -Jerry patted Bob on the shoulder. "You're forgetting the mimicry. The -roborocket they sent up caught the alien off-guard, in its own shape, -not imitating some other life-form's pulsations. It detected the beam, -since a scanner picks up mental pulses, and it instantly assumed the -life-pulse of a creature it assumed no roborocket would worry about." - -"What? What life-pulse, sir? What kind of life?" - -"Atomic life, Ensign," said Jerry. "That bright green blip you and I -studied so assiduously was the life-pulse of an atom-powered creature. -It was another roborocket." - -And as Bob stared after him, stupefied, Jerry Norcriss made his way -across the landing field toward a well-earned bed--and oblivion. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Big Baby, by Jack Sharkey - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG BABY *** - -***** This file should be named 51735-8.txt or 51735-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/3/51735/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Big Baby - -Author: Jack Sharkey - -Release Date: April 12, 2016 [EBook #51735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG BABY *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>BIG BABY</h1> - -<p>By JACK SHARKEY</p> - -<p>Illustrated by GAUGHAN</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Magazine April 1962.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="600" height="138" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>The baby was lonesome, helpless and afraid. It<br /> -wasn't his fault he was seven hundred feet tall!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The dancing green blip traced an erratic course upon the glossy gray -screen, the jagged-line pattern repeated over and over, its outline -going from dim to sharply emerald brightness to dim again before -fading. The technician cut the switch. There was a sustained whir of -reorganization within the machine as the data-cards were refiled.</p> - -<p>"Care to see it again, sir?" asked the technician. His fingers hovered -over the dials, his body in an attitude of impending motion.</p> - -<p>Jerry Norcriss tilted his head in a brief, authoritative nod. The -technician started the machine again. With a soft humming, the gray -circular screen began to pulse once more with that dancing line of -brightness.</p> - -<p>"Now, here, sir," said the tech, "is where the scanner beam first -caught the pulse of the creature."</p> - -<p>Jerry nodded, his eyes riveted to that zigzag phosphor pattern upon the -screen. He noted the soaring peaks and plunging valleys with something -like dismay. "It's a powerful one," he marveled. It was one of his rare -comments. Space Zoologists rarely spoke at all, to any but their own -kind, and even then were typically terse of speech.</p> - -<p>The tech, almost as impressed by this—for Jerry—long speech as he had -been by the first warning from Naval Space Corps Headquarters on Earth, -could only nod grimly. His own eyes were as intent upon the screen as -Jerry's.</p> - -<p>"Here—" the line was glowing its brightest now—"here's where the -creature passed directly beneath the scanner-beam. That's the full -strength of its life-pulse." The line lost clarity and strength, faded. -"And here's where it was lost again, sir."</p> - -<p>"Time of focus?" snapped Jerry, trying to keep his voice calm.</p> - -<p>"Nearly a full minute," said the tech, still blinking at the screen. It -was now devoid of impulse, barren once more. "That means that whatever -the thing is, it's big, sir. Damned big, to stay at maximum pulse that -long."</p> - -<p>"I know very well what it means!" Jerry grated. "The thing's so—"</p> - -<p>The tech smiled bleakly. "—incredible, sir?"</p> - -<p>Jerry's nod was thoughtful. "The only word for it, Ensign." His inner -eye kept repeating for him that impossible green pattern he'd seen. The -strong, flat muscles of his shoulders and neck knotted into what could -easily become a villainous tension-headache. Jerry realized suddenly -that he was badly scared....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Sir," the tech said suddenly, "I was under the impression that -the roborocket scanners couldn't miss a life-pulse on a planet. I -mean, making a complete circuit of the planet every ninety minutes, -for a period of six months.... It's impossible for them to miss an -uncatalogued life-form."</p> - -<p>"I know it is," said Jerry Norcriss, pushing blunt fingers through his -shock of prematurely white hair. "Save for two precedents, I cannot -conceive of any way in which this pulse could have been overlooked."</p> - -<p>"Two precedents, sir?" said the tech, intrigued both by the unsuspected -fallibility of the scanner and by this unusual loquacity from the -zoologist.</p> - -<p>Jerry removed his gaze from the screen and regarded the young man -standing beside it. He made as if to reply, then thought better of it. -Any out-going on his part was an effort. A big effort. And a danger. -Only another Space Zoologist would understand the danger of speech, of -letting loose, of relaxing for a moment that terrible vigil over one's -personal psychic barricades.</p> - -<p>"Skip it," he said abruptly. The young ensign's smile tightened to -obedience at the words.</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said the tech, with strained cordiality. "Will that be all, -sir?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Jerry. Then, as the tech started out of the compartment, -"No, wait. Tell Ollie Gibbs in the Ward Room to bring up a pot of -coffee. Black."</p> - -<p>The man nodded, and went out the door, dogging it after him.</p> - -<p>Jerry listened to the booted feet clanking on their magnetic soles up -the passageway of the spaceship, and sighed.</p> - -<p>The situation, in Jerry's experience, was fantastic. Only twice, in -the history of Space Zoology, had there been oversights on the part -of the scanners. One, almost comically, had been on Earth, when the -scanners were first being tested. The chunky roborocket—its angles -and bulges and tapering pickup-heads unsuitable for flight in any -medium but airless space—had swept giddily about the planet, the -sensitive pickup-heads recording and filing on microtape the patterns -of the life-pulses of all sentient life below. And when the tape had -been translated onto the IBM cards, and the cards run through the -translation chambers, to get their incomprehensible sine-patterns -changed into readable English, it was found that there was an animal -missing.</p> - -<p>Six months of circling the planet had still left the index blank on -that animal's expected check-pattern. The animal was the brown bear, of -north central America. And only after agonizing hours of theorizing and -worrying did someone come up with the answer to the dilemma:</p> - -<p>It had been a long, hard winter. The bears were in extended -hibernation. Somehow, the fleeting flicker of their subdued life-pulses -had never managed to correspond with the inquisitive sweep of the -scanner-beams from the blackness of space overhead. And so, they'd been -left off, as though they did not even exist.</p> - -<p>A lot of sweat was dabbed from relieved foreheads in the Corps when a -secondary roborocket, sent into a short one-week orbit, had picked up -the animals' pulses with ease as soon as springtime was upon the land. -The odds against their being thus missed were fantastic, astronomically -unlikely. But it <i>had</i> happened, despite the odds against it, and the -Corps was forcibly reminded that in a universe of planets, there is -infinite room for even the unlikely to occur.</p> - -<p>The only other oversight had been years later, when a just-settling -colony had been half-destroyed by a herd of immense beasts similar to -the buffalo of Earth, but viciously carnivorous. There had been no -indication, in the six-month scanning period, that such a species even -existed on the planet, the third planet of Syrinx Gamma, the sun of a -newly discovered system beyond the Coalsack.</p> - -<p>The reason was maddeningly simple. The herds were migratory. Their -migrations had corresponded in scope around the oceanless planet with -the sweep of the scanner-beam in such a way that the roborocket was -scanning either where the herd had just been or where it had not yet -arrived. Again, the odds were fantastic against the occurrence. Yet, -again, it <i>had</i> happened. Other than these two events, though, there -had been no further error on the part of scanners for nearly a decade.</p> - -<p>Precautions had been taken against recurrence.</p> - -<p>Roborockets were now sent to scan a planet only at a time when there -would be an overlap of seasonal climes, so that the beam would inspect -the surface throughout both the mild and the rigorous weathers, thus -obviating a repeat of the brown bear incident. And the sweep of the -beam had been extended, so that no animal with migratory movement at -speeds less than that of a supersonic plane could have avoided being -duly detected and catalogued. That, they thought, should prevent any -more such incidents.</p> - -<p>All that Jerry knew.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And yet, here he was, descending through the black vacuum of space -toward an already-colonized planet, the second planet of Sirius, a -planet supposedly already scanned, catalogued, and long-since ready for -inhabitation. And now, after the colonials had been there for nearly -five years, something was starting to wipe them out. Some unsuspected -alien thing was present on the planet, a thing that a hastily lofted -roborocket had located in a matter of hours, and yet had missed in its -original six-month orbital check, before the settlers came.</p> - -<p>It was impossible. Incredible. And yet, again, it <i>had</i> happened—<i>was</i> -happening—and had to be stopped.</p> - -<p>A frantic appeal had been beamed to Earth through sub-space, an appeal -for a Space Zoologist to find the alien, learn its weaknesses, and -recommend its mode of destruction.</p> - -<p>"Some day," Jerry mused, waiting impatiently for Ollie Gibbs with the -coffee, "I'll come upon an invincible alien. What recommendation then!" -He could just imagine himself telling a second-generation village of -hardshell settlers that they'd best just pack up and get out....</p> - -<p>Jerry's ruminations were interrupted by the soft tap on the door that -meant Ollie had arrived. He grunted an answer, and the ship's mess boy -came in, his face rigid in an expression of polite decorum as he set -the steaming pot and drab plastic cup down on the swing-out table at -Jerry's elbow.</p> - -<p>Jerry sensed the man's eyes flickering onto him each time the mess boy -felt the zoologist wasn't looking his way. He finally turned and caught -the youth in mid-stare.</p> - -<p>"What is it, Ollie?" said Jerry, not unkindly. "You'll burst if you -don't talk. Go ahead, spit it out."</p> - -<p>Ollie flashed a brief grin, a dazzle of white teeth that was all the -brighter in his bronze face. "If I'm bursting with anything, sir, it's -just plain nosiness."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerry glanced from Ollie to the wall clock—spaceship clocks were -always set at Eastern Standard Earth Time—and sighed. He was cutting -it terribly close this time. Suddenly, he wanted very much to have -someone to talk to. It didn't matter, all at once, that he'd be -exposing himself to danger by relaxing his mental grip on himself. If -the ship were not landed and his job begun within two hours he'd be no -worse off speaking than if he'd kept still.</p> - -<p>"Sit down, Ollie," he said abruptly.</p> - -<p>The mess boy's eyebrows rose at this unheard-of request, but he -perched obediently in a chair, almost poised for flight on the edge of -the seat. To have a chat with a Space Zoologist was without precedent -in Ollie's experience.</p> - -<p>Jerry carefully poured himself a cup of coffee, took a sip and settled -back comfortably in his chair. "What's on your mind, Ollie?"</p> - -<p>"Like I said, sir, just plain nosiness. I—I can't get over you -Learners, sir, that's all. I always wonder what gets you into the -business. Why you stay in it so long, why you die so quick if you quit -the Corps, or—Well, like that, sir."</p> - -<p>"Just general curiosity about my <i>raison d'être</i>, huh?" said Jerry. He -wasn't trying to floor the mess boy with a four-dollar word; even the -lowliest crewman on a spaceship had been chosen for brainpower, long -before brawn came into consideration at all.</p> - -<p>"That's about it, sir." Ollie nodded. "I mean, I watch you, sir, when -you come out on these trips. You get all keyed up and worried and -sick-looking, and I keep wondering, 'Why does he do it? Why doesn't he -get out of it if it affects him like that?'"</p> - -<p>Jerry stared ruefully at the wall before him, and didn't meet the mess -boy's eyes as he replied.</p> - -<p>"Every man gets keyed up and scared when he has an important -undertaking at hand. It's just worry, plain and simple. The thought of -failure keeps me all tightened up."</p> - -<p>Jerry paused, awaiting a response. When none was forthcoming, he turned -his gaze slowly to meet that of the mess boy, hoping he was doing it -casually enough to allay anything like suspicion in the other man. But -the smile he met was, affectionately, the smile of a man who hasn't -been fooled.</p> - -<p>"That's not it, sir," said Ollie. "I know it's not. Because you're -keyed up the wrong way. You're keyed up with worry that you <i>won't</i> -have a job to do. Your big upset's a lot like a—Well, like a junky -waiting for his next fix.... If you'll pardon the expression, sir."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I will <i>not</i> pardon it!" Jerry bawled, then gripped the arms of his -chair and shook his head in instant apology as the other man's face -went slack with surprise. "No, Ollie, no. I take that back. I <i>asked</i> -you to sit there, <i>told</i> you to let me know what was on your mind. I -can't very well blow up just because you followed my lead."</p> - -<p>"Everyone blows up, now and then, sir," Ollie said.</p> - -<p>Jerry nodded glumly.</p> - -<p>Ollie got up. "I'll be in the ward room, sir, if you need anything -else," he said. "Unless you'd like me to stick around awhile?"</p> - -<p>Jerry considered the offer, then shook his head. "No.... I'd better -not, Ollie." The barest ghost of humor glowed a moment on the -zoologist's face. "You're too damned easy to talk to."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," Ollie grinned, then went out and closed the door after him.</p> - -<p>Jerry sat in the chair a second longer, then jumped up and pulled the -door open again. Ollie, a few steps down the passageway, turned about -in curious surprise.</p> - -<p>"Sir?"</p> - -<p>"Tell Captain—" Jerry began, then realized his voice was nearly a -ragged shout, and lowered it. "Would you please tell the captain to -speed things up if he can, Ollie?"</p> - -<p>Ollie hesitated. "The vector—" he started, then stiffened militarily -and replied, "Yes, sir. At once, sir."</p> - -<p>"No," Jerry groaned, closing his eyes and hanging onto the metal edge -of the doorframe. "Forget it. He's got a course to follow in. He can't -get there any faster."</p> - -<p>Ollie, knowing this already, just stood there.</p> - -<p>"Just go have a cup of coffee," Jerry added, lamely. "And about what I -said—"</p> - -<p>"<i>You</i> know I wouldn't say anything about it, sir," Ollie said.</p> - -<p>"I know," Jerry admitted. "Sorry. Space nerves or something of the -sort, I guess."</p> - -<p>"Sure, sir."</p> - -<p>The mess boy turned and continued down the passageway. Jerry shut the -door slowly, then sat down in his chair once more, and stared at the -clock, and sipped the hot coffee, and fought the cold needle-pricks of -fear in every muscle and joint of his body....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">II</p> - -<p>The colony on the second planet of Sirius existed solely due to one of -those vicious circles of progress. Just as iron is needed to make the -steel to build the tools and equipment necessary to mine the raw iron -ore, so this colony was needed to mine the precious mineral that made -such colonies possible in the first place.</p> - -<p>The mineral was called Praesodynimium, a polysyllabic mouthful which -meant simply that it was an unstable crystalline isotope of sodium -that broke down eventually into ordinary sodium (hence "prae-":before; -"sod-":sodium), which was possessed of extreme kinetic potentials -("dyn-":power), and was first extracted from sodium compounds by a -Canadian scientist ("-imium" instead of the more American "-inum" or -even "-um").</p> - -<p>This crystal had the happy habit of electrical allergy. When -subjected to even a mild electric current, it avoided the consequent -shakeup of its electronic juxtaposition by simply vanishing from -normal space until the power was turned off. The nice part about its -disappearance—from an astronaut's point of view—was that the crystal -took not only itself, but objects within a certain radius along with -it. It turned out that a crystal of Praesodynimium the moderate size -of a sixteen-inch softball would warp a ninety-foot spaceship into -hyperspace without even breathing hard. Of course, it would warp -anything <i>else</i> within a fifty-foot radius, too; so it was only turned -on after the ship had ascended beyond planetary atmosphere, lest a -large scoop of landing-field, not to mention a few members of the -ground crew, be carried away with the ship.</p> - -<p>In her eagerness to investigate the now-attainable stars, Earth had -soon exhausted her sources of the mineral. Worse, the crystal, being -unstable, had a half-life of only twenty-five years. That meant that a -ship using it had a full-range radial margin of about five years before -the crystal ceased warping the ship-inclusive area.</p> - -<p>Until some way was discovered to get into hyperspace without using -Praesodynimium—and its actual function was as much a mystery to -scientists as an automobile's cause-and-effect is to a lot of drivers; -very few people can describe the esoteric relationships between the -turning of the ignition key and the turning of the rear wheels—the -mineral was worth ten times its weight in uranium 235.</p> - -<p>Sirius II had been found to be as rife with the mineral as a candy -store is with calories. Hence the colony.</p> - -<p>For so long as the ore held out the planet would be regarded with -fond respect and esteem by any and all persons who had investments, -relatives or even just interest in the Space Age and its contingent -programs.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So it was with considerable trepidation that Earth received the news -that the mines on Sirius were no longer being worked. Oh, yes, there -was still ore—enough to keep the planet profitable for another -century. The trouble was the miners. They weren't coming out of the -mines anymore. And no one who went inside to look for them was ever -seen again, either.</p> - -<p>Naturally, mining slacked off. The men refused to set foot in the mines -until somebody found out what had happened to their predecessors.</p> - -<p>So the officials of the colony resurrected a scanner-beam and -roborocket from the cellar of the spacefield warehouse and storage -depot. They sent the rocket into an orbit matching planetary rotation. -In effect it simply hovered over the mines while it scanned the area -for uncatalogued alien life.</p> - -<p>And when they brought the rocket down and checked the microtape -against the file of known species on the planet, they found that no -such beast had ever been catalogued. Its life-pulse gave a reading of -point-nine-nine-nine.</p> - -<p>Since life-pulses are catalogued on a decimal scale based on the -numeral one (with Man rated at point-oh-five-oh), the colonial -administration staff immediately ordered the mines officially closed -and off-limits. This brought no results on Sirius II which had not been -already achieved, but the declaration made the miners feel a little -less guilty over their dereliction of duty.</p> - -<p>An SOS was swiftly sent to Earth, explaining the situation in detail -and requesting instructions.</p> - -<p>Earth sent word to hang on, keep calm and leave the mines closed until -an investigation could be made—all of which the colony was trying to -do anyway.</p> - -<p>A duplicate of the microtape had been transmitted along with the SOS. -Earth had checked the pattern against every known species filed in -U.S. Naval Space Corps Alien-Contact Library, a collection of the -vast alien multitude gathered by Space Zoologists in the methodical -colonization and exploration of the universe. It was found to be not -only <i>unknown</i> anywhere in the thus-far-explored cosmos, but totally -<i>unlike</i> any life-pulse previously encountered.</p> - -<p>Earth decided the only way to get any satisfaction would be by the -unorthodox method of sending in a Space Zoologist to Contact the alien, -though this would be the first time in the history of Contact that this -had ever been done on an already-settled planet.</p> - -<p>And so the badly frightened colony lingered behind bolted doors, and -peered through locked windows at the sky—awaiting the arrival of Jerry -Norcriss, and praying he'd locate the alien and tell them how it might -be dealt with....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Begging your pardon, sir," grinned the tech, doing some last-minute -fiddling with the machine, "but you never had it so good." Jerry dabbed -at the cold sweat-film on his forehead and upper lip, and nodded -silently.</p> - -<p>In all his previous Contacts, done before any colonization was even -attempted, things were a bit more rustic. His present environs -were luxury compared to those setups. If the six-month orbit of the -roborocket found the planet safe for humans, well and good; Jerry did -not have to go. But if a new life-form were spotted—one that did not -correspond in life-pulse to any known species—then it was Jerry's job -to land on the planet and Learn the beast, to determine its probable -menace, if any, to man.</p> - -<p>The tech was referring to the fact that Jerry's usual base of -operations was out on the sward beside the tailfin of the rocket, the -only power-source on a non-colonized planet. There, in his Contact -helmet, relaxed upon his padded couch, he would let his mind be -sent right into that of the alien, to Learn it from the inside out. -Here, though, on a settled world, his accommodations were pleasantly -out of the ordinary. He was in the solarium of the town's research -laboratory-hospital. He gazed up through quartz panes at soothing blue -skies, in air-conditioned comfort spoiled only by a fugitive scent of -disinfectant lingering in the building.</p> - -<p>Some half-dozen curious members of the building's staff were gathered -in the room. None of them had ever seen a man go into Contact before. -In vain the tech had assured them, before Jerry's arrival, that there -was nothing to be seen. Jerry would lie on the couch and adjust the -helmet upon his head, and then the tech would throw a switch. And for -forty minutes there would be nothing to see except Jerry's silent -supine body.</p> - -<p>Later, of course, the information transmitted by Jerry's mind through -the helmet pickups to the machine would be translated into English. -Then they could all read about the new animal. That would be the -interesting part, for them; not this senseless staring at the young -man, white-haired at thirty-plus, who would, so far as they'd be able -to tell, merely doze off for an uneventful forty-minute nap.</p> - -<p>For Jerry, however, things would be anything but dull for those forty -minutes.</p> - -<p>Once the process was begun, there was no way known even to the -discoverer of the Contact principle to extend or reduce the -time-period. When Jerry's mind had traveled to that of the alien, he -would remain there for the full time. Anything that happened to the -alien in that period would also happen to Jerry. Including death.</p> - -<p>If the alien somehow perished with Jerry "aboard," as it were, the -group in the solarium would wait in vain for him ever to bestir himself -and rise from the couch again.</p> - -<p>Jerry, fighting the waves of nausea that burned in the pit of his -stomach, lay there in his helmet and waited for the tech to finish -adjusting the machine.</p> - -<p>A scanner-beam, sent toward the suspected locale from the solarium, had -instantly retriggered that same green blip in response, as jagged and -powerful as before. Jerry would soon be sent right into the center of -the response-area, and his mind imbedded in the brain of the alien.</p> - -<p>"Hurry it up, will you?" Jerry called over to the tech, trying not to -shout.</p> - -<p>"Ready, sir," the other man said abruptly. "Are you all set?"</p> - -<p>"All set, Ensign," Jerry replied, then shut his eyes to the clear blue -sky and the stares of the curious and let his mind relax for the brief -shock of transport....</p> - -<p>A flare of lightning, silent, white and cold in his mind—and Jerry -Norcriss was in Contact....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>One of the nurses, crisp and efficient in white starched cotton, took -a hesitant step toward the figure on the couch, then spoke to the tech -without looking at him, intensely. "What are his chances? It's so -important that he succeed!"</p> - -<p>About to brush her off with a noncommittal reply, the tech turned his -gaze from the control panel to meet, turning to face him, a pair of the -deepest blue eyes he'd ever seen, and a smooth-skinned serious face -beneath a short-cropped tangle of bright yellow hair. The eyes were -troubled. His manner softened instantly.</p> - -<p>Trying not to show the sudden warmth he felt, he pointed with offhand -authority at the tall metal machine, its face alive with leaping lights -and quivering indicator needles.</p> - -<p>"This'll tell the story, one way or the other," he said. "A Space -Zoologist's chances are always fifty-fifty. He either succeeds and -returns in perfect health, or he fails and doesn't return at all. -But whatever data he picks up in Contact will be punched onto the -microtape. It may help us deal with the menace. Or it may not."</p> - -<p>She looked surprised. "Then this is simply a recorder? I'd thought it -was the thing that sent his mind out to the mine area...." She faltered -on the last few words, and looked more concerned than ever.</p> - -<p>The tech was tempted to ask her about it, but decided to stay on the -neutral ground of simple mechanics for a while. "No, his mind sends -itself. That is, the helmet triggers a certain brain-center; his mind -follows a scanner-beam directed toward the alien and he Contacts. After -that, this machine could be turned off, so far as maintaining Contact -goes. After a forty-minute interim, his mind would return to his -body by itself. The brain-center gets triggered sort of like a muscle -reacts to a blow. It gets paralyzed for a certain time. Forty minutes. -Beyond that limit, or short of it, no Contact or breaking of Contact is -possible...."</p> - -<p>His voice trailed off as he realized her responsive nods were -abstracted and vague, her thoughts elsewhere. "Look," he said -awkwardly, "I'm no psyche-man, but—maybe it'd help if you talked about -it."</p> - -<p>A faint smile touched her mouth. "I didn't realize it showed."</p> - -<p>He grinned and shrugged.</p> - -<p>"My name's Jana," she said. "Jana Corby." She was trying to ease some -of the natural tension between strangers.</p> - -<p>"Bob Ryder," said the tech. He stood and waited for her to make the -next move.</p> - -<p>"My father—" she said, and for the first time, some of the tension -behind her eyes flowed over into her voice. "My father was one of the -miners. He was on the morning shift. The day the men didn't come home -was the day before my wedding."</p> - -<p>Bob frowned. "I don't understand."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She blinked at the moisture that had come to her eyes, and flashed -him a sad little smile. "I'm sorry. I was telescoping events. You -see, with Dad missing, I postponed the ceremony, naturally, till I -could learn what had happened. Jim—that's Jim Herrick, my fiance—was -wonderfully understanding about it. He's a miner, too. On the -night-shift, thank God. But if Lieutenant Norcriss doesn't succeed—if -he can't find a way to destroy this beast, whatever it is—we can't get -married, ever."</p> - -<p>Bob shook his head slowly. "You can't? I don't follow."</p> - -<p>"You're in the Space Corps," she said. "Maybe you don't know about -interstellar colonies. It costs plenty to send people to the stars. The -investors want some kind of guarantees for their money. So we're all -signed to a ten-year contract. If we fail to fulfill the terms we're -sent back to Earth on the next ship going that way."</p> - -<p>"Well—I know you're still within the limit," said Bob, "but how does -this upset your marriage plans?"</p> - -<p>"We go where we're sent," she said simply. "If this colony fails, we'll -be sent to a new planet. It may not be the same one. I'll be sent where -they need nurses, Jim where they need miners."</p> - -<p>Bob felt funny, talking against the colonial program, but the weary -despair in the girl's eyes outweighed economic considerations. "You -could both renege on your contracts."</p> - -<p>"And go back to Earth together?" Jana shook her head. "I couldn't do -that, for Jim's sake. He's spent his life at mining, and this is the -kind of mining he knows best: Praesodynimium. And there just <i>is</i> no -more on Earth."</p> - -<p>"He could get something else," said Bob.</p> - -<p>"I know. But he might not be happy. After a while, he might blame me -for it. Or I'd blame myself. Either way, things just wouldn't be the -same. I—I suppose you think I'm foolish, feeling so strongly about -him?"</p> - -<p>Bob said softly, "Honey, any guy would cut his arm off to get a girl -like you. Myself included."</p> - -<p>Embarrassed, she looked once more toward the silent figure upon the -couch. "You're very kind."</p> - -<p>"Not kind," said the tech. "Wistful."</p> - -<p>Behind them, a myriad banks of lights and switches flickered, shifted -with electric monotony, slowly recording the details, down to the most -minute sensory awareness, of the Contact between Jerry Norcriss and the -alien....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">III</p> - -<p>There was at first the feeling of warm sunlight on his flesh, then a -pungent scent of crushed foliage, green and heady, very strong and -familiar.</p> - -<p>As his mind took hold, a whisper of wind hummed into his consciousness -and a shimmering golden brightness began to grow upon his closed -eyelids. Abruptly, unity of sensation was achieved. Jerry Norcriss -"was" in a sunlit part of the woods near the mines, feeling the alien's -perceptions as though they were his own.</p> - -<p>He crinkled his eyes against the glare, then slowly opened them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="356" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>As he blinked his eyes to focus the golden glare, he spotted a strange -little cluster of tiny sticks, with miniature leaves sprouting -greenly on thread-like branches. Halfway between his face and this -fragile copse slithered a brilliant blue line, ribbon-thin, through -a serpentine gouge along the earth. On the far side of this trickle -lay a rich tumble of soft green velvet, ending at a group of more of -those twig-copses. Puzzled, Jerry turned his gaze skyward. Within the -warm blue canopy overhead he saw clouds ... but clouds unlike any he'd -ever seen for size. None of them could have been more than a foot in -diameter. They hung against the sky like cotton-covered basketballs.</p> - -<p>He returned his gaze groundward, and for the first time saw the -scuffed grayish area of earth between himself and the trickle. A wiry -network of metal glittered there, the wires in pairs, and the pairs -disappearing into small square punctures against a wall of banked soil.</p> - -<p>Then Jerry gasped. His mind had apprehended the implications of his -vista so suddenly that he was staggered.</p> - -<p>All the facts sprang into proper perspective. The twigs were actually -tall trees, the tumble of velvet a wide stretch of grassy sward, the -trickle was a rushing blue river, and the tiny wire-network in the -grayish area was the tracks for the mine-cars, leading down into the -planet through those tiny square adits.</p> - -<p>Jerry had unconsciously been receiving sensations in terms of his -host's size. A quick calculation showed him that his head must be -easily five hundred feet in the air.</p> - -<p>Cautiously, he glanced for the first time toward the body of his host, -to see what sort of creature he was in Contact with.</p> - -<p>There was nothing whatever to be seen.</p> - -<p>Yet when he closed his eyelids once again, golden opacity returned. -He reopened them thoughtfully. The alien, apparently, could cut off -its vision. Yet the eyes of a creature so high must be many feet in -diameter. And, at this height, twin opacities would be spotted even -from the nearby town.</p> - -<p>But no such sight had been reported. Therefore, the lids were opaque -only from the inside. Which was ridiculous. Yet it was happening.</p> - -<p>Jerry's thoughts were interrupted by a giddy realization. He, in this -alien body, was not standing. He was seated cross-legged on the ground. -That meant a height of not five hundred feet, but nearer seven hundred.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Cautiously, he extended a hand toward one of the tiny mine-cars. He had -a little difficulty directing a hand and arm he could not see; but, by -feeling along the earth, he got hold of the dull gray object and tried -to lift it. It came up with featherweight ease.</p> - -<p>Then, halfway to his eyes, it began to glow, to smoke, to grow terribly -hot. And as Jerry released it with a reflex of pain, it burst into -white flame and hit the ground as a shapeless gobbet of molten slag. -Jerry's hand came to his mouth automatically. He sucked and licked at -the sore surfaces of his finger and thumb, trying to drain some of the -hurt out of them.</p> - -<p>Then he froze.</p> - -<p>After a heartbeat, he felt carefully about the interior of his mouth -with a forefinger. Gums. Warm, wet, soft-boned toothless gums. -Whatever the alien looked like—it was still only a baby.</p> - -<p>Which meant—</p> - -<p>Quickly Jerry looked at the sky again. Not a cloud had moved. Their -rotund fleeciness might have been carven there. He gave himself a -mental kick. Hadn't one of his first alien awarenesses been the sound -of wind? And yet the grass lay still. The trees stood silent. And the -clouds, so nearly over his head that he could have touched one, hung -quietly against a perfectly calm sky.</p> - -<p>It was not the wind he had heard. It was air. Just molecules of air, as -they shifted and flew about at incredible speeds.</p> - -<p>The alien-baby's time-sense was occluded, as that of any Earth-baby, by -shortness of life. It was the paradox of relative lifetime.</p> - -<p>A lifetime, Old Peters had said, training the eager young men who were -to become graduate Space Zoologists, is a lifetime. He'd written it on -the blackboard so they might understand he was not speaking in circles.</p> - -<p>"A lifetime," he'd said, "is the time one spends from birth until any -present moment. A lifetime is the actual count of moments of existence -from birth. When a baby has been born for an hour, its lifetime is -sixty minutes. And to the baby, that sixty minutes is a lifetime."</p> - -<p>He'd written the two words on the board, and would point from one to -the other as he spoke, so the class could understand the distinction -visually, and not have to rely on his inflection to tell which term -he'd used.</p> - -<p>"A lifetime," he'd continued, "is subjective; a lifetime is objective. -The first deals in one's personal sense of time passed. The second is -simply readings from a clock. When a man turns ninety, he is usually -surprised to find how short a life he's seemed to have had. His ninety -years seem hardly longer to him than a single day seemed when he was a -baby.</p> - -<p>"It is a lucky thing that we cannot penetrate the mind of an -intelligent creature. If any of us got into the mind of a baby, we'd -soon start going out of our minds with the maddening length of a day's -time, seen from a baby's viewpoint. Remember, when you are in Contact -with an alien mind, for that immutable forty minutes your <i>sensation</i> -of elapsed time will be subject to that of your host. To a baby, forty -minutes is forever."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And here Jerry Norcriss was, in a baby's mind.</p> - -<p>No wonder no tree had rippled, no cloud had blown. The baby-senses -were geared to a near-eternal forty minutes. For all practical -purposes, Jerry was stuck in one frame of a movie film, trapped for -who-knows-how-long till the next frame came by.</p> - -<p>"<i>That's</i> why the car melted!" he realized. "The movement of the car -toward me, in my hand, must have been infinitely shorter than the few -seconds it seemed to take. I tried to make the mine car move more -than five hundred feet, in an actual time less than a thousandth of a -<i>second</i>!"</p> - -<p>Jerry wasn't overly concerned about the duration itself. He'd been in -subjectively-slow creatures before. If things got too boring, he could -always doze off; that usually served to pass the time. Even a baby's -time-sense jumps long gaps when it sleeps.</p> - -<p>The thing that puzzled him was this: If the mine car had burnt up -from moving too far too fast, why hadn't the baby's hand and arm been -scorched by the motion? The heat of the car had affected it, so that -let out inborn heat-resistance....</p> - -<p>His hands once again went to his face. He felt not only the -features—familiar features, eerily like a human baby's—but the -skull-size. When he'd finished, he no longer had reason to doubt that -the baby was of an intelligent species. Too much cranial allotment to -think any differently.</p> - -<p>The whole situation, Jerry mused with grim humor, was screwy. The -six-month roborocket could not have missed a creature with such an -intense life-pulse, but it had. Contact could not be achieved with an -intelligent mind, but it had been. Invisibility—except for certain -species of underwater, creatures—was supposed to be impossible for a -living organism. Yet here it was.</p> - -<p>Three separate impossibles ... all accomplished.</p> - -<p>"Still," said Jerry to himself, "that's not the main puzzle. The -vanishing of those two shifts of miners is still beyond me. They could, -of course, have simply walked head-on into this invisible leviathan. -But how fast can a man walk? And would they <i>all</i> have done it? Now, if -this kid happened to pick one of them <i>up</i>—" Jerry gave a shudder at -the thought of what had happened to that metal mine car. "Still," he -sighed, baffled, "a man who bursts into flame is no more fun to hold -than a hot mine car. After maybe two or three deaths at the <i>outside</i>, -the kid would've learned not to touch them."</p> - -<p>Then he had an even eerier thought. If this creature were a baby—where -did its mother and father lurk?</p> - -<p>The thought of two more invisible giants at large on the planet was -unbearable.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerry decided to chance losing control over the alien mind, to let its -own instincts come to the fore.</p> - -<p>There was the possibility that it knew where its folks were, and would -try moving in that direction. Or it might cry for its mother, and she'd -hurry back. If there <i>were</i> invisible giants, the sooner the colony was -informed the better.</p> - -<p>As Jerry's control of his host grew tenuous, he could feel the baby's -mind taking over once again. Feeble pulsations reached him—nothing -like solid thought, but mere urgencies about comfort, food and -affection.</p> - -<p>Jerry waited, in the background of the unformed mind, for something to -happen. Then, suddenly, there was a shifting, something like a metal -earthquake. A cold hard light of awareness focused on him, where he'd -thought he was safely hidden in the background.</p> - -<p>"Who are you?" asked the awareness.</p> - -<p>It is not in so many words, of course. A mind speaks to another mind -in incredibly swift shorthand. The actual thought-impulse that came to -Jerry was a thick wave of curiosity, its stress laid upon identity.</p> - -<p>"I am a Learner," Jerry's thought replied. It was a self-sufficient -response, since Jerry's concept of all that a Learner was was -incorporated in the thought.</p> - -<p>"I see," said the alien. "You have memories of antagonism which are now -gone from your intent. Explain."</p> - -<p>"I came to find a menace. I found a helpless child."</p> - -<p>"I see," came the cold, thoughtful reply. "Yes, that is how I sensed -it."</p> - -<p>"Is your mother around?" asked Jerry. "Or father?"</p> - -<p>"Dead," said the awareness. "I am alone."</p> - -<p>At the thought, the intense thought of loneliness, a kindred spark -flared in Jerry's own mind. The alien caught at the spark, recognized -it.</p> - -<p>"Strange," it said. "You, too, are alone. But it is a different -aloneness."</p> - -<p>Jerry's thoughts were whirling in confusion. To be read so easily by a -baby was incredible to him. Yet the situation was without precedent. -Perhaps a baby's mind was brighter than science gave credit. Since a -mind needed no words or manual skills, the mind of a baby might be open -to learn the thousand things necessary for adult survival. Maybe as a -man learned to use his body, he forgot in proportion how to use his -mind.</p> - -<p>"How can you know my aloneness?" asked Jerry.</p> - -<p>"I see it, there in your mind. It is plain to me. You have been -misled. You are a helpless pawn of a singularly wicked scheme. The -victim of a lie."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerry's recollection flashed to his conversation with Ollie Gibbs, to -the things he had wanted to tell the other man but was unable to put -into words. All the heaviness he had borne alone these many years was -apparent to this mind he enhosted. The alien mind knew. <i>Knew!</i></p> - -<p>"I see," it said again, though Jerry was unaware of expressing any -conscious thought. "It is clear to me now. You have suffered much—will -suffer much. No hope for you, is there?"</p> - -<p>There was warmth in the words—warmth, friendship and compassionate -understanding. Suddenly, to this mind of an alien in its incongruous, -invisible baby's body, Jerry found himself blurting the things he -had never told to any man. Things which no Space Zoologist had ever -discussed even with another member of that hapless clan.</p> - -<p>"They never told us," he said to the alien. "I don't hold any rancor -because of it; they dared not tell us, lest we refuse to become one -with them. They were fair, though. Long before we were indoctrinated, -long before we'd been allowed to attempt our first Contact, we were -told that there were dangers. Not the dangers we had heard about, -such as the imminent peril of dying if the host died while we were in -Contact. Another danger was implied, one which we could only learn of -by actually becoming Learners, and one which—once we had learned of -it—would be impossible to escape.</p> - -<p>"With a little thought along the proper lines, we might almost have -guessed it. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. -One of Newton's laws, applied in an area he did not even suspect -existed.</p> - -<p>"Oh, we were a brave, adventurous lot, all of us. We would be Learners; -no alien mind but we could enter it, and actually become the alien for -the period of Contact. Thrills, danger and hairsbreadth escapes would -be ours. Ultimate adventurers, they called us. And all along, we were -fools."</p> - -<p>The alien refrained from comment, although Jerry could feel its mind -waiting, listening, assimilating.</p> - -<p>"Contact had a drawback. A basic one which we might have guessed, if -we hadn't been going around with stars in our eyes and a delightful -feeling of superiority over the men who would never know the interior -on any minds but their own. In Contact, just as in sunbathing, there is -a delayed reaction, a kickback."</p> - -<p>"Sunbathing?" thought the alien.</p> - -<p>Jerry's mind swiftly opened for the alien's inspection his full -storehouse of information on the subject. In an instant, the alien -apprehended the fate that lay in wait for the careless Space Zoologist—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Sure is warm in here," said Bob, running a finger around inside his -sweat-dampened uniform collar.</p> - -<p>"You have to be careful," said Jana, indicating the quartz panes that -formed the ceiling and three walls of the solarium. "The quartz passes -ultraviolet, unlike glass. You can pick up a severe burn if you sit out -here too long without some sort of protection for your skin."</p> - -<p>The tech nodded. "The insidious thing about sunburn is that you only -turn a little pink as long as you're out in the sunlight. It's when -you've gone indoors, or the sun has set, or you put your clothes back -on that the red-hot burn begins to show up on your flesh."</p> - -<p>"It's the light-pressure," said Jana. "As long as there's an influx -of ultraviolet, the flesh continues to absorb it without showing much -reaction. But as soon as you get away from the rays—the burns show -up.... I wonder how Norcriss is making out."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">IV</p> - -<p>"You mean, then," said the alien to Jerry, "that all the experiences -you undergo in Contact are held back under the surface of your mind, -waiting there until you let up on the incoming Contact experiences?"</p> - -<p>"That's it," said Jerry, miserably. "In some of my Contacts, I've -undergone pretty painful experiences. I've had an eye twisted out, an -arm eaten and digested, been poisoned, nearly strangled—you name a -near-death; I've been through it."</p> - -<p>"And your reaction?" thought the mind.</p> - -<p>"Nil," said Jerry, ruefully. "When I awakened from a Contact, my memory -of my experiences was strictly a mental one. Like something I'd read in -a book. There was no emotional reaction whatsoever. My heart beat its -normal amount, my glands excreted normal perspiration, my muscles were -relaxed. Not a trace of shock or any other after effect."</p> - -<p>"And later?" the mind asked gently.</p> - -<p>"Back on Earth," said Jerry, "the Space Zoologists have a thing we -call the Comprehension Chamber. It's a room filled with couches and -helmets, in which we can listen—through replayed microtapes—to all -the Contacts our confreres have ever made. Perhaps 'listen' is a weak -word. For all practical purposes, we are in Contact, so long as the -tape runs. I thought this room was a wonderful adjunct to my education, -but nothing more. I went there a lot at first. It was even more fun -than the real thing because there was no danger of perishing. Tapes of -zoologists who died while in Contact are never used in the Chamber."</p> - -<p>The mind waited, listening patiently.</p> - -<p>"So one week—" Jerry's mind gave a mental twinge akin to a -physical shudder—"one week I got bored. I decided not to go to the -Comprehensive Chamber. I went out on a few dates, instead. Tennis, the -movies, like that. And on the third day, I woke in the morning with -a heart trying to pound its way through my ribs, with my bedsheets -dripping with cold perspiration, and lancing agony in my eye, my hand -knotted into a fist of pain, lungs burning for air...."</p> - -<p>"Delayed reaction," said the mind.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Jerry. "That was it. I recognized the pains right away, -having been through them personally in Contact only a month before -them. I had a horrible inkling of what was occurring. I called the -medics at Space Corps Headquarters before I passed out. They came, -shot me full of morphine and stuck me into a helmet for twenty-four -hours straight, to cram my reactive agonies back beneath an overload -of vicarious Contacts. It worked pretty well. The pain was gone when -I awakened. But my nerves weren't the same afterward. I used to look -forward to Contacts because I enjoyed them. Now I look forward to them -because I dread what will happen if I don't have another one in time."</p> - -<p>"In time?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I find that I <i>must</i> get to a Contact—real or vicarious—at least -once in forty-eight hours. I've been trapped by my job. I'm doomed to -do this job or die horribly. Some men, desperate for escape from this -treadmill, have quit the Corps, tried to battle this kickback-effect. -None of them have made it. They were found, all of them, in various -states of agony. Dead, broken, burnt, torn...."</p> - -<p>"Psychosomatic pressures?" asked the mind.</p> - -<p>"Yes. Their minds, overborne by their emotions, self-hypnotized them -into re-undergoing their experiences. And their bodies, duped by -their minds, reacted. On a normal man, a hypnotically suggested burn -can raise an actual blister. On a man who's opened his mind to the -Contact-power—his body can break, burn, dissolve or even evaporate."</p> - -<p>"Poor Jerry," said the alien mind, soothingly. A tingle formed slowly -in Jerry's mind, a growing warmth, a vibration of utter affection. He -was being consoled, being loved by the alien. It knew his troubles. It -understood the sorrow of his life. It wanted only to keep him close, -to tell him not to be afraid, to make him happy, comfortable, safe.... -Safe, and secure, and—</p> - -<p>The glare of silent lightning leaped through Jerry's consciousness, -jerking him back from the unnervingly delightful torpor he'd been -letting overcome his thoughts.</p> - -<p>Something hard bumped against his forehead. He realized that he'd just -sat up on the couch, knocking the helmet from his head with the shock -of the breaking Contact.</p> - -<p>"Sir!" said the tech, pausing only to snap off the circuit switch -before dashing to his side. "What the hell happened? I never saw you -break Contact like that! Did you see the alien? Can it be destroyed?"</p> - -<p>Jerry groaned, tried to speak, then fell back onto the thick padding, -unconscious.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter with him?" cried Jana, sensing the fright in the -tech's attitude.</p> - -<p>"I don't know," he whispered. "I've never seen him act this way -before. Whatever's out there, it's unlike anything we've ever -encountered before! Here, you get some of your medics up here to see to -him. I'm going to process this damned tape and see what's what!"</p> - -<p>Her face pale, Jana hurried off to do his bidding. The tech began to -reset the machine so that the coded information on the tape might be -translated into legible words.</p> - -<p>And Jerry Norcriss lay on the couch, sobbing and groaning like a man on -the rack, although his mind was blanked by merciful unconsciousness.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"A baby?" choked the tech. "That thing out there is a <i>baby</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Does the tape ever lie?" sighed Jerry, relaxing against the plump -white pillows Jana had arranged under his back and shoulders.</p> - -<p>"Well, no," faltered the tech. "But a baby! Five hundred feet high—and -invisible—and able to carry on an intelligent conversation?"</p> - -<p>"Which reminds me," said Jerry, sternly. "I am going to ask you to edit -both the tape and that typewritten translation of that conversation. -It's just as well too many people don't get the inside story on my job, -and its rather rugged drawback. And as for yourself.... Well, I can't -order you to forget what you've read there."</p> - -<p>"I won't talk about it, sir, if that's what you mean," said the tech. -"It's not such a hard secret to keep. All the crewmen on the ship know -there's <i>something</i> pretty awful about your job. I just happen to know -<i>what</i>. All I'd get for spilling the inside dope would be, 'Oh, is -<i>that</i> what it is!' Hardly worth it."</p> - -<p>"That's hardly a noble reason to keep a secret," Jerry murmured, -looking narrow-eyed at the tech.</p> - -<p>The man grinned, then shrugged. "Makes my life easy, too. Now when you -flare up at me, I'll know why, and skip it."</p> - -<p>"Thanks a hell of a lot," Jerry muttered.</p> - -<p>The tech laughed aloud.</p> - -<p>"But," the zoologist added soberly, "we did learn one surprising lesson -today. The forty-minute Contact period can be broken, under certain -stresses."</p> - -<p>The smile left the tech's face, and he looked earnestly puzzled. "I -don't follow you, sir. There was nothing on the tape about—"</p> - -<p>"Tape?" said Jerry. "You <i>saw</i> how quickly I came out, didn't you? -What's that got to do with the tape?"</p> - -<p>"Sir," the tech said hesitantly, "you were under the helmet for the -full forty."</p> - -<p>Jerry flopped back upon the pillows, staring at the other man as if -he'd suddenly gone berserk. "That can't <i>be</i>," he said slowly. "I was -in a long-life host. The clouds weren't even moving. That baby was -living many subjective days in the forty-minute period."</p> - -<p>"Begging your pardon, sir," said the tech, "but you must be mistaken. -You were gone the full forty."</p> - -<p>"That's impossible," said Jerry.</p> - -<p>Jana, who'd been standing back from the two men, stepped forward -cautiously, apprehensive at butting into something that was not really -her affair.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, Lieutenant Norcriss," she said softly, "but Bob's right. -You were gone as long as he says."</p> - -<p>"You don't understand, either of you!" Jerry snapped. "My -time-awareness in a host is subject to the host's time-awareness. So -far as this host was concerned, a day was a confoundedly long period. -But I could tell the elapsed time by watching the clouds, the height of -the sun. They didn't move, either of them, visibly...."</p> - -<p>"How's that again, sir?" asked the tech. "How long did you <i>seem</i> to -spend?"</p> - -<p>"Possibly an hour."</p> - -<p>"Well, then." The tech shrugged.</p> - -<p>"But this had nothing to do with the host's subjective sense of <i>time</i>, -Ensign. It was my own knowledge of <i>objective</i> time through watching -the sun, the trees, the clouds. None of them moved during my subjective -hour in the host-alien. So no time—or very little time; barely a few -minutes—could have passed while I was enhosted, do you see?"</p> - -<p>"Lieutenant Norcriss," said Jana, abruptly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, -but did you say clouds?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Jerry, puzzled by her intensity. "Why?"</p> - -<p>"There hasn't been a cloud in the sky today," she said awkwardly. "I -mean—Well, look for yourself!"</p> - -<p>Jerry turned his gaze upward through the quartz ceiling of the -solarium. The sky, a rich turquoise, was smooth and unbroken save for -the glaring gold orb of the sun, Sirius. He sat up then, looking out -through the likewise transparent walls. As far as he could see, over -storetops, cottage roofs, and distant green glades, the sky was that -same unbroken blue.</p> - -<p>"But that's crazy!" he said, sinking back against the pillows. "It -couldn't have been like that all the time I was in Contact. Could it?"</p> - -<p>Jana and Bob exchanged an uncomfortable look.</p> - -<p>"Well, sir," the tech said, "we weren't exactly <i>watching</i> the sky, if -you know what I mean. But it was clear when you went into Contact. And -it's clear <i>now</i>."</p> - -<p>His voice trailed off, uncertainly, but Jerry gave a slow thoughtful -nod. "You're right, Ensign. It is, and it was. The likelihood of its -clouding up for forty minutes, and then clearing again is so ridiculous -I can't even consider it.... And yet, I <i>saw</i>—"</p> - -<p>Jerry stopped speaking, and shook his head. Then he waved a hand at the -tech, abstractedly. "Get me some coffee, Ensign. I have to think, hard."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When nightfall had cloaked the planet in dark purple folds, Jerry was -still gazing intently at nothingness, racking his brain for an answer. -Bob, meantime, had checked the card against the ship's files on dealing -with alien menaces, and had found—much as both he and Jerry had -suspected—that there was no recommendation available. The menace was -new. It would have to be approached strictly <i>ad libidum</i>. Whatever -method served to rid the planet of the menace would then, not before, -be incorporated into the electronic memory of the brain on the ship, to -serve future colonies who might meet a similar alien species.</p> - -<p>"Any ideas, sir?" asked the tech, after a long silence from his -superior.</p> - -<p>"None," Jerry admitted, not turning his head. "It's pretty damned -difficult to find a solution to a problem until you're sure what the -problem <i>is</i>."</p> - -<p>"Well," said the tech, "we played the radar all over the area where the -tape said the thing was located. We got nothing. Maybe the kid's mother -came back."</p> - -<p>"Just a second—" said Jerry. "Ensign, could you rig the machine to -give us, not a written transcript of that alien's description, but a -drawing of it?"</p> - -<p>"Jeepers, sir!" choked the tech, taken aback. "I don't know. I'd have -to talk with the engineers."</p> - -<p>"It should be possible. Hell, it's got to be. When I was enhosted, my -mind transmitted back every bit of info on that body. A man who only -knew mechanical drawing could sketch that shape, simply by following -the measurement specifications as my mind recorded them. Go on, Ensign, -get with it. One way or the other, I want a look at what we're dealing -with."</p> - -<p>It was nearly midnight when Bob shook Jerry gently awake and handed him -a small glossy rectangle of paper.</p> - -<p>Jerry, blinking his eyes against the sudden onslaught of light in the -room as the tech threw the wall switch, stared blearily at the paper -for a moment, blank and disoriented.</p> - -<p>"It's the picture, sir," Bob said, recognizing the bafflement on his -superior's face for what it was. "I finally had the bright idea of -turning the problem over to the brain, aboard the ship. It followed the -specifications from the tape by drawing the picture in periods."</p> - -<p>"In what periods?" Jerry mumbled, still trying to come awake.</p> - -<p>"Not time-periods, sir. Punctuation. Then, when it had the thing done, -on a ten-by-fourteen-inch sheet of feed-paper from its roller, I had -the ship's photographer take a snapshot and reduce it in size, so it -looks at least as good as the average newspaper half-tone job."</p> - -<p>Jerry nodded, absorbing the information even as his eyes crept over the -image in his hands. "Looks strangely familiar," he said, studying it -closely.</p> - -<p>"If you'll pardon what sounds like a gag, sir," began the tech, "I -think that the picture—in fact, we all think—"</p> - -<p>"Yes?" said Jerry, looking at the man.</p> - -<p>"Well, the consensus among the crew was that this baby here looks a -hell of a lot like <i>you</i>, sir."</p> - -<p>Jerry sat where he was, his eyes on Bob's face, for a long moment, -as fingers of ice took hold of his spine. Then, with unreasoning -apprehension, he turned his gaze back upon the near-photographic -likeness he held. "Ensign," he said, after a minute. "This <i>is</i> a -picture of me."</p> - -<p>"But sir, it can't be," said the tech.</p> - -<p>"You're wrong," said Jerry, letting the paper drop to the floor. "It -can be, because it is. And all at once I think I know why."</p> - -<p>Without warning, Jerry swung his legs over the side of the couch and -jumped to his feet.</p> - -<p>"Listen," he said urgently, "there's no time to lose. Get the hospital -staff together, fast, and bring me back their best psyche-man. I need a -hypnotist."</p> - -<p>"A h-hyp—?" the tech blurted, confused, then gave an obedient nod and -hurried out, shaking his head all the way to the switch-board.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Never mind <i>why</i>, Doctor. Can you <i>do</i> it? That's all I care to know," -Jerry's voice crackled, his eyes flashing with authority.</p> - -<p>"Y-Yes, I think so," quavered the other man. "If you <i>can</i> be -hypnotized, I mean."</p> - -<p>"All Space Zoologists have the brainpower necessary to be perfect -subjects," Jerry snapped. "Quickly, now, Doctor. I've wasted one -Contact already."</p> - -<p>"Very well, sir," said the man. "If you'll lie back, now, and make your -mind blank—"</p> - -<p>"I know, I know! Get <i>on</i> with it, will you!"</p> - -<p>Bob and Jana stood back in the shadows beside the towering metal -control board, listening in silence as the hypnotist put Jerry under, -deeper and deeper, until his mind was readily suggestible. Then he -made the statements Jerry had told him to make, and with a snap of his -fingers brought the zoologist out of hypnosis.</p> - -<p>"You heard, Ensign?" asked Jerry. "Did he do exactly as I told him to?"</p> - -<p>"Sir!" protested the doctor.</p> - -<p>"I mean no offense," said Jerry. "But if your words left my mind too -free, too human somehow, the alien would sense it. And a ruse like -this one might not work on a second attempt, once the alien had been -apprised of our intent."</p> - -<p>"He did, sir," said Bob. "Word for word, as you told it to him."</p> - -<p>"Good," Jerry said. "Thank you, Doctor. And good night."</p> - -<p>"Uh—yes," said the man, finally realizing he was being peremptorily -dismissed after coming all the way across the town from his warm bed in -the black morning hours. "Good night to you, sir."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He fumbled his way out the door, and Jana, after a glance at Bob, shut -it after him. Bob stood beside the control board, waiting as Jerry once -more adjusted the helmet upon his head and lay back on the couch.</p> - -<p>"All right?" he called to the tech, as Jana, now walking nervously on -tiptoe, though there'd been no injunction against noise, hurried to -Bob's side and took his arm.</p> - -<p>"Ready, sir," Bob said, keeping his voice steady.</p> - -<p>"You've set the stopwatch?" warned Jerry.</p> - -<p>"I depress the starter the same instant I turn on the machine," said -Bob.</p> - -<p>"All right, then," said Jerry.</p> - -<p>Bob's right hand threw a switch.</p> - -<p>Even as it snapped home, his left thumb had jabbed down upon the -stopwatch button. The long red sweephand began clicking with relentless -eagerness about the dial.</p> - -<p>On the couch Jerry stiffened, then relaxed.</p> - -<p>"You'd better stay with him," Bob cautioned Jana. "The machine's on -automatic. If I'm not back on time, it'll take care of itself."</p> - -<p>"Back on time?" she gasped. "But you can't be, Bob. If what he said -about the timing—"</p> - -<p>Bob shut his eyes and gripped his forehead between thumb and fingers. -"Yes, of course. I'm being an idiot. This maneuver is something new. -But—" he withdrew his hand from his face and smiled at the girl—"you -stay with him anyhow. I'd feel better—safer—if you weren't with me -and the others."</p> - -<p>"Yes, Bob," she said, in a faint shadow of her normal voice. "Be -careful."</p> - -<p>Bob grinned with more confidence than he felt, turned and hurried from -the room.</p> - -<p>Jana moved slowly across the floor to the couch where Jerry Norcriss -lay in unnatural slumber, and stood staring down at his strange, -young-old face, and her eyes were bright with quiet wonder....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">V</p> - -<p>"What's this, what's this?" rasped Jerry's mind. "Where have I gotten -to, now?"</p> - -<p>"It's all right," said a soothing voice. "You're with <i>me</i>, now."</p> - -<p>"Oh? Oh?" Jerry's mind said, snickering. "And who might <i>you</i> be?"</p> - -<p>It was dark as he looked out through the alien eyes, but a quick -patting of his paw across his face reassured him that his sharp white -incisors, muzzle and stiff gray whiskers were intact and healthy.</p> - -<p>"How can I be you?" asked Jerry. "If I'm a gray rat and you're a gray -rat, what am I doing here?"</p> - -<p>"You've come to spy on me, I know," said the soothing voice. "But see? -You have nothing to fear, nothing at all. I'm not going to hurt you. -You find no menace in me. Do you?"</p> - -<p>"No. No menace. No danger. I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm warm and loved...."</p> - -<p>"Relax," said the alien. "Relax, and let me have full control again. -You can sleep if you do. You can rest. <i>I'll</i> take care of you, trust -in that."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Sleep. Rest. No more running, hiding, fearing...." said Jerry -Norcriss, the gray rat-mind in the invisible body of another rat much -like himself....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Come on with that flashlight, damn it!" Bob raged, leading the other -three crewmen through the woods. Two of them carried rifles, one had -a flamethrower, and Bob himself carried one of the new bazookas with -a potent short-range atomic warhead. Ollie, the man with the light, -hurried up to him with a quick apology.</p> - -<p>"Okay, okay," Bob said. "But I've got to see this dial—Ah, yes. This -is the way, all right. Come on. Ollie, keep that beam so it spills on -the tracking-cone dial as well as on the earth. We don't dare risk -losing our way. There are only seven minutes left until Contact is -broken."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir. I'll keep it right on there," Ollie said. "But about the -lieutenant—are you <i>sure</i> he won't—"</p> - -<p>"That's what the stopwatch is for. We <i>must</i> strike just as Contact -is being broken. Any sooner, and we kill Lieutenant Norcriss with the -alien. Any later, and the alien kills us. The same way it did the -others who came upon it."</p> - -<p>"But what does it do? What does it look like?" Ollie persisted.</p> - -<p>"Damn it, there's no time to talk now! Just keep that light steady, and -hurry!"</p> - -<p>The men plunged onward through the woods, the white circle of light -from the arc-torch splashing the cold leaves and damp, colorless grass -with sickly, stark illumination.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"If you would only release your hold," the alien was saying. Then its -mind-voice stopped.</p> - -<p>Jerry, too, had seen the dancing white freckles that spattered the -boles and branches of the nearby trees. The darkness of the woods was -rent by streamers of ruler-straight light beams. They began to radiate -like luminous wheel-spokes through the tangled leaves of the woods.</p> - -<p>"Men!" cried the alien mind. "Men are coming here. Men, our enemies!"</p> - -<p>Jerry, still in partial control of the invisible rat-body, fought the -flight-impulse that began to stir beneath the unseen skin.</p> - -<p>"Run!" shrieked the alien mind. "You fool, can't you see that we must -flee this place? Quickly, or we are done for!"</p> - -<p>"Run—Flee—" Jerry said dully, within the alien mind. "Yes. Run from -men ... the eternal enemy, men. Run, hide, a dark corner, under a bush, -behind a tree...."</p> - -<p>He felt his own mind joining that of the alien in the preliminary -tension that comes before flight.... Then the glaring beam of the -arc-torch was full in his eyes, and the hypnotic illusion, at this, the -trigger of his psyche, was shattered. And Jerry once again knew himself -to be a man.</p> - -<p>A man in the body of a rat—the animal which Jerry Norcriss loathed -most of all creatures!</p> - -<p>"Run!" screamed the alien. "Why don't you—!" Its commands ceased as it -realized the difference within the mind that had invaded its body. "You -again!" it cried, trying wildly to reassume the placid plump image of -that unseen baby once more.</p> - -<p>"You're too late," said Jerry, fighting its will with his own as the -crewmen broke from the underbrush into the clearing, and the tech, -pointing straight at him, yelled a caution to the man with the flame -thrower. The man bringing up the terrible gaping mouth of that weapon -halted, waiting, as the tech stared at the stopwatch in his hand.</p> - -<p>"Five seconds!" cried the tech. "Four ... three ... two ... one.... -<i>Get</i> it, quick!"</p> - -<p>Jerry, still within the mind and watching with the same horrified -fascination as his host, saw the puff of flame within the flame-tube of -the weapon, then saw the insane red flower blossoming with its smoking -yellow tendrils toward his face—</p> - -<p>And the silent white lightning flared—</p> - -<p>And he sat up on the couch, back in the solarium.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jana hurried over to him.</p> - -<p>"Did it work? Did it work, sir?" she cried. "Is Bob—"</p> - -<p>Jerry patted her hand. "Bob's all right. He was on time. <i>Just</i> on -time."</p> - -<p>"I still don't understand, sir," said the nurse, sinking onto the couch -beside him without waiting for an invitation. "I don't understand <i>any</i> -of this!"</p> - -<p>For an instant, Jerry resented this familiarity, then felt slightly -overstuffed, and slipped an arm paternally across her slim shoulders.</p> - -<p>"I'll explain," he said. "It'll pass the time till he gets back."</p> - -<p>Jana nodded.</p> - -<p>"The alien," Jerry said softly, "was a mimic. A perfect mimic. It -was, while non-intelligent, of an abnormally well developed mind in -one function: telepathy. That's how it could carry on apparently -intelligent mental conversation with me, during my first contact. -It could sense my questions, then probe my mind for the answers I -wanted most to hear—and play them back to me. For my forty minutes -of contact, it told me only what I wanted to know, like a selective -echo. It needed no understanding of my questions, nor of the answers it -plucked from my mind. It had one instinct: self-preservation. It could -sense my question, select an uncontroversial answer from my mind and -feed it back to me, without really understanding how it warded me off -as a menace to it, any more than a dog understands why lowering its -ears and hanging its head as it whines can fend off the wrath of its -master. It works; that's all the creature cares about."</p> - -<p>"But how did you <i>know</i>—?" Jana asked.</p> - -<p>"I didn't," Jerry replied. "It fooled me completely. Until the -Ensign—Bob told me that my full forty minutes in Contact had elapsed, -despite my knowledge that the sun and clouds had remained motionless -during my Contact. That threw me, I'll admit, for quite a while. It -just didn't make sense."</p> - -<p>Jana's eyes widened as she suddenly understood. "And then you realized -that you had seen the sun and clouds motionless because that was what -you <i>expected</i> to experience when enhosted in a baby!"</p> - -<p>"That's it," Jerry nodded. "It made an error with the baby, though. It -was able to duplicate it in almost every respect except two: Size and -appearance."</p> - -<p>"Why?" asked Jana. "And why appear as a baby at all?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I'm coming to that," said Jerry. "The size was off because the first -thing I saw when I blinked open my eyes was a distant copse of trees, -which I took to be an upright pile of leafy twigs. Since my mind -possessed information regarding the relative size of babies and twigs, -the alien immediately made sure my mind saw other things in the same -perspective. By the time it realized it had made an error, it was too -late to normalize the baby's dimensions; that would have given its -fakery away."</p> - -<p>"But why did the thing choose a baby?"</p> - -<p>"Because that was the thing's protection! It had a powerful hypnotic -power, one that worked on its victims' minds directly through its -telepathic interference with sensory perception. It always appeared as -the thing the victim would be least likely to harm. In my case, a baby. -But it made a slight error there, too. I'm a bachelor, Jana. There's -only one baby with whom I ever had any great amount of experience: -myself."</p> - -<p>"And the invisibility?"</p> - -<p>"I have no recollection, even now, of my body when I was a baby. I may -have stared at my toes, played with my fingers, but they just never -registered on my consciousness as being part of <i>myself</i>. So the thing -was stuck when it came to reproducing me visually, since it depended -upon my own memory for details. But it was able to supply the way I'd -<i>felt</i> as a baby. Every baby has an acute awareness of its own skin; it -will cry if any particle of its flesh is bothered in the slightest. So -the alien fed the 'feel' of my baby-body back to me, if not the view. -Which is why the electronic brain on the ship was able to duplicate the -detail into an almost perfect replica of my babyhood likeness."</p> - -<p>Jana nodded, as she finally understood the meaning of that strange -illusion. "And this time? That post-hypnotic suggestion you had the -doctor give you, I mean: that you'd think you were a gray rat until -such time as the light of the arc-torch caught you directly in the -eyes...."</p> - -<p>"Duplicity, Jana. It had to be that way. The alien was very sure of its -powers. If I returned, and it were a baby again, I couldn't attack it -or thwart its ends. And such an attack was necessary. I had to be able -to fight it, to hold it in place for that last moment before it was -destroyed. Which is why I chose a gray rat, an animal I cannot bear the -sight of. When the light struck my eyes and I became myself again, I -caught the alien unawares. Then, before it could change to a baby, and -start lulling me back into camaraderie, it was too late. Bob had given -the order to fire. And here I am."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hurrying footsteps sounded in the corridor. The door burst open and Bob -rushed in, his face anxious and creased with worry until he saw Jerry -sitting on the couch, alive and well.</p> - -<p>"Whoosh!" The tech expelled a mingled chuckle and sigh as he sank into -a chair opposite the zoologist. "Well, sir, I can't tell you how glad I -am to see you. I couldn't be sure you'd gotten out of that thing alive -until I got back here. Glad you made it, sir. Damn glad!"</p> - -<p>"That 'thing' you mentioned," said Jerry. "What did it <i>actually</i> look -like?"</p> - -<p>Bob jerked his head toward the corridor. "The other guys are bringing -it along. I kind of thought you'd want a peep at it."</p> - -<p>As more footfalls were heard from the corridor, Bob bounced to his feet -again, and stepped to the door. "Hold it a minute, guys," he said, -then turned back into the room. "Jana, I don't think you'd better stick -around for this. It's not very pretty."</p> - -<p>The girl hesitated, then flashed him a smile and shook her head. -"I'll stay. It can't look as ugly as a bad case of peritonitis on the -surgeon's table. If I can take that without upchucking, I can take -anything."</p> - -<p>Bob shrugged. "Suit yourself, honey. Just remember you got fair -warning." He leaned back out the door. "Okay. Bring it in."</p> - -<p>The crewmen, looking a little ill, came slowly into the room, bearing -a bloated, scorched object on a stretcher they'd contrived from two -long poles and their jackets. They set it onto the tiled floor before -the zoologist, then stepped away, all of them wiping their hands hard -against their trousers in ludicrous unison, though their grip on the -poles had not brought them into actual contact with the alien's corpse.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"There it is, sir," said Ollie Gibbs. "And you are very welcome to it."</p> - -<p>Jana, to her credit, had not upchucked, but she went a shade paler, and -her mouth grew tight.</p> - -<p>Jerry studied the burnt husk, from its sharp-fanged mouth—easily -eighteen inches from side to side—to its stubby centipedal cilia under -the grossly swollen body.</p> - -<p>"Damn thing's all bloat, slime and mouth," said the tech, suddenly -shuddering. "I wonder if its victims felt those jaws rending them open, -or if it kept their minds fooled through to the end?"</p> - -<p>"I don't think we'll ever know that, Ensign," said Jerry. "Unless you -feel like going out there and playing victim to one of this thing's -confreres?"</p> - -<p>"No thanks, sir," said Bob, so swiftly that Jana laughed. "I'd rather -fall out an airlock in hyperspace."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Well, here's what we do to get rid of this thing, then," said Jerry. -"Since it assumes a form that's the least likely to be harmed by -whatever presence stimulates its mimetic senses, we'll have to trick -it. Before this thing decomposes too far, rig it up with an electrical -charge, and stimulate its nerve-centers artificially. That ought to -give you an accurate microtape of its life-pulse. Then hook the tape -to a scanner-beam, and <i>send</i> the life-pulse into the mine-area. When -the fellows of this creature react to it, they'll assume the safest -possible form: their own."</p> - -<p>"I get you, sir!" said Bob. "Then all the miners have to do is see it -for what it is, and shoot it."</p> - -<p>Jerry nodded. "It'll mean all miners will have to go armed for awhile. -But that's better than getting eaten alive by one of these."</p> - -<p>"You sure their presence won't trigger the thing's mimetic power?" -asked Bob, uneasily.</p> - -<p>"Not if you give full power to the scanner-beam," Jerry replied. "It'll -muffle their life-pulse radiations under the brunt of the artificial -one."</p> - -<p>"Good enough, sir," said Bob. "I'll rig it right away."</p> - -<p>Jerry shook his head. "No need. You could use some rest, I'm sure. The -morning'll be soon enough. Meantime, you can see this young lady home. -The rest of you," he said to the hovering crewmen, "are dismissed, too."</p> - -<p>The men, eager to be away from the thing, saluted smartly and hurried -out of the solarium, buzzing with wordy relief.</p> - -<p>Jana paused a moment, staring at the creature whose strange powers had -destroyed her father. Then she turned to Bob.</p> - -<p>"I think I'll go to Jim's place," she said. "I want him to know." She -moved her gaze to Jerry. "I owe you a lot," she said. "We all owe you a -lot."</p> - -<p>Embarrassed by the warmth of her praise, Jerry could only mumble -something diffident and look the other way. He was taken quite by -surprise by the pressure of cool moist lips against the side of his -face.</p> - -<p>When he looked back at the pair, Bob and Jana were on their way out -the door.</p> - -<p>Only when he heard the elevator doors at the end of the corridor -close behind them did he move to the still-warm corpse of his onetime -adversary, with a look of deepest compassion on his face.</p> - -<p>"Well," he said gently, "you've lost. The planet goes back to -the invaders. Once again, Earth has successfully obliterated the -opposition."</p> - -<p>He reached out a hand and touched the hulking thing on the floor. -"Good-by," he said. "And I'm sorry."</p> - -<p>Jerry Norcriss wasn't thinking about the deadliness of the thing, -nor of the deaths of the hapless miners, nor of the billions of -dollars he'd saved the investors holding Praesodynimium stock. He was -thinking of a voice that—even unintelligently, even in the course -of deception—had said, "Poor Jerry. Rest.... Relax. You're safe.... -Secure...."</p> - -<p>"You really had me going for a while, baby," he said, then blinked at -the sudden sharp sting in his eyes, and hurried from the room.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Outside, the sun was glowing pink against the black eastern sky, and -the air was cool and fresh in his nostrils. As he crossed the street -from the hospital, heading toward the landing field and his shipboard -bunk, a hurrying figure from the end of the block caught up with him -and began to pace his stride, panting slightly.</p> - -<p>"Talk about happy," said Bob, glumly. "When Jana told her boy friend -the news, they went into such a clinch I didn't even stick around to -be introduced. Seemed a nice enough guy, I guess. Hope she'll be happy -with him."</p> - -<p>Jerry recognized the gloominess of the tech's mood, and its cause, so -didn't say anything. After a moment, Bob seemed to recover himself a -little.</p> - -<p>"Sir," he said, "there's one thing still bugs me about this alien."</p> - -<p>"Oh?" said Jerry, halting. "What's that, Ensign?"</p> - -<p>"How'd the initial roborocket miss the thing and its kind when it -circled the planet before colonization began?"</p> - -<p>"That's a moot question," said Jerry. "But my conjecture is that the -scanner always caught it when it was assuming some other form. Since -its victims were always indigenous to this planet, the things familiar -to them were also of this planet, and the scanner-beam couldn't detect -any life-pulses which were dissimilar to already-known species."</p> - -<p>"I'll be damned," said Bob. "It's almost childishly simple when you -explain it." Then, as Jerry went to start off again, Bob stopped him -with an exclamation.</p> - -<p>"What about that melting mine car I read about on the translation -sheets? Was that for real, or wasn't it?"</p> - -<p>Jerry shook his head. "Part of the general mimetic illusion, like the -motionless clouds and unmoving trees. It let me see what I expected to -see. In reality, I was just in the woods near the mine area, where you -came upon the creature to destroy it." Jerry started slowly moving away -once more.</p> - -<p>A few steps further, and Bob halted again. "One final point, sir. That -life-pulsing reading of point-nine-nine-nine. If the thing's pulsation -was that powerful, I should think it would've been a lot harder to -knock off than it was."</p> - -<p>"You're right," said Jerry. "It would have been. But its life-pulse -wasn't nearly that high."</p> - -<p>"But the scanner-beam—" Bob protested. "When the colony sent up -that roborocket, after those miners vanished, it reported an unknown -life-pulse of point-nine-nine-nine. If that wasn't the alien's -life-pulse, what the devil was it?"</p> - -<p>Jerry patted Bob on the shoulder. "You're forgetting the mimicry. The -roborocket they sent up caught the alien off-guard, in its own shape, -not imitating some other life-form's pulsations. It detected the beam, -since a scanner picks up mental pulses, and it instantly assumed the -life-pulse of a creature it assumed no roborocket would worry about."</p> - -<p>"What? What life-pulse, sir? What kind of life?"</p> - -<p>"Atomic life, Ensign," said Jerry. "That bright green blip you and I -studied so assiduously was the life-pulse of an atom-powered creature. -It was another roborocket."</p> - -<p>And as Bob stared after him, stupefied, Jerry Norcriss made his way -across the landing field toward a well-earned bed—and oblivion.</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Big Baby, by Jack Sharkey - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG BABY *** - -***** This file should be named 51735-h.htm or 51735-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/3/51735/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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