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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..5afaee8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60946 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60946) diff --git a/old/60946-h.zip b/old/60946-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a424640..0000000 --- a/old/60946-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60946-h/60946-h.htm b/old/60946-h/60946-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 1a8543f..0000000 --- a/old/60946-h/60946-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1433 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mindsnake, by Jim Harmon. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mindsnake, by Jim Harmon - -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: Mindsnake - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: December 17, 2019 [EBook #60946] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINDSNAKE *** - - - - -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="360" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p class="ph1"><i>Let them think anything they wished of<br /> -him and his dog. All that mattered was<br /> -the black thought slithering of the</i> ...</p> - -<h1>MINDSNAKE</h1> - -<h2>By JIM HARMON</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, November 1960.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Witch! Witch!" The cry was among the walkers, but he didn't bother to -track it down. It was no longer a fighting word to Hammen. He wore it -like a badge of honor. It tasted of brass, but it gleamed on him.</p> - -<p>A puzzled growl came from the Familiar at his heels. The dog could -never understand how people could hate Hammen. Lad, the dog, often -asked Hammen how anyone could possibly hate Hammen, and Hammen always -told him to shut up; he couldn't understand—he was only a dog.</p> - -<p>The walk ramp was crowded this afternoon with people fresh from the -transmatter stations, eager to tell themselves they were walking on -a strange planet. Hammen passed among the nudists, the cavaliers, -the zip-suiters, the zoot-suiters, the Ivy-coated, the Moss-covered, -walking not for novelty or exercise but because he preferred to go -everywhere under his own power. Even to the stars.</p> - -<p>Hale and Lora saluted him a few paces away from the entrance to the -station. They were a beautiful blond couple, with brightly polished -faces. Hammen didn't much like them, but he didn't feel sufficiently -pressed to be rude enough to let them become aware of it.</p> - -<p>"How goes it, kids?" he asked them.</p> - -<p>"Couldn't be better," Hale said.</p> - -<p>"Of course not," Lora added.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hammen's slate eyes moved from the man to the woman. "Are you troubled?"</p> - -<p>"This isn't the time to talk about it, not before you and Lad transmit -yourself," the girl said quickly.</p> - -<p>It wasn't, Hammen admitted to himself. Only now that they had let it -slip, he would rest better knowing the whole truth of it.</p> - -<p>"Come on," Hammen urged. "It's not as if I wasn't interested."</p> - -<p>Hale looked at his wife. "Lora doesn't like Wagner any more."</p> - -<p>"Perdition!" said Hammen. "I <i>never</i> liked Wagner. She's growing up."</p> - -<p>Lora put a half-closed fist to her lips, and didn't look at either of -the men, or at the dog who stood with freshly pointed ears.</p> - -<p>"No," she said softly. "I lost something on the last one. Gee, I wonder -if the Mindsnake likes Wagner now? Still, it's not as if I had stopped -liking music altogether, or books. Not this time."</p> - -<p>Hale grabbed her arm roughly. "You're sure doing a great job of getting -Hammen ready for the jump."</p> - -<p>Lora's eyes clouded. "I'm sorry, Ham." She looked up, smiled warmly, -kissed her fingertips and placed them on Hammen's lips. "Companion's -Code, huh?"</p> - -<p>He took her hand and for the moment liked her. "Okay, honey. I guess -even a Witch squeezes in under the wire for that."</p> - -<p>The young team was abruptly embarrassed. "Oh, well, Witch," Hale said -deprecatingly, "what does cargo know, anyway?"</p> - -<p>Hammen laughed and scratched Lad's ears. "They know I'm a Witch. But -it has its advantages. I don't have to worry about Lad losing his taste -for Wagner. A dog does not have that much to lose. If it comes to that, -he's just gone."</p> - -<p>Lora shuddered delicately, the way of a watered flower. "How could you -stand to lose a Companion with so little feeling?"</p> - -<p>"I've lost three Companions, and got myself and my cargo into port. -They were only dogs."</p> - -<p>Hale looked at him sharply. "But you were Companioning with them. It -must have been," he selected a word, "difficult for you."</p> - -<p>"Don't absorb the cargo's superstitions about Witches and their -Familiars. They have fogged, even dirty, ideas. They were just dogs to -me. Like Lad."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"A dog, that's all he is," Gordus said in a manner designed to explain -the thing patiently to Hammen.</p> - -<p>"Lad is a dog."</p> - -<p>"Why do you emphasize the point now?" Hammen demanded.</p> - -<p>The Companion sat on a seat formed from a single S-shaped plastic -surface. Hammen studied the bulk of Gordus, Coordinator of -Transmatters, who sat hulked in his utility chair in the bubble office -overhanging the City of the Sea, on the world of Lanole. Hammen -was comfortable, cooled, relaxed, amused by a light play of sensory -electron music, and aggressively unhappy.</p> - -<p>Gordus sat in his great chair patting the hair on the back of his left -hand with his right palm, as if the fist were a sleeping kitten. At -Hammen's feet, Lad's neck muscles quivered uneasily.</p> - -<p>"Your record, Hammen," Gordus said at last, "is a good one."</p> - -<p>"How could it be better? I've never lost one member of a cargo."</p> - -<p>"But you have lost three Companions."</p> - -<p>"Familiars. Dogs."</p> - -<p>"But it shows weakness."</p> - -<p>Hammen's face heated. "I never show weakness."</p> - -<p>"Not <i>your</i> weakness, my dear, dear boy," Gordus said in exaggeration. -"The weakness of the Witch-Familiar relationship, the weakness of -Witches as Companions at all. Don't take it personally."</p> - -<p>Hammen leaped to his feet. Lad's muzzle gleamed white.</p> - -<p>"Not take it personally?" Hammen cried. "How else can I take it? You -are questioning the worthiness of my profession, of my way of life. You -question the honor of many of my friends—my associates. Witchery is an -ancient profession. My grandmother and uncle were Witches before me. -Witches have an unparalleled record of service to Transmatters and to -the human race. How dare you, sir!"</p> - -<p>Gordus waved a fat hand in front of him, laughing up and down the -scale. "No, no, no. Peace, please. You have no need to plead so -strongly for the cause of Witches. <i>You</i> don't have to be a Witch, -you know, Hammen. You're good enough to be a regular, full-fledged -Companion. The reason you get so many of your cargo through is that you -in the most literal sense Companion them all. It would be possible for -you to use a fellow Companion on your jumps instead of a Familiar."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hammen sat down, no longer angry, or energetic. "No. No, it wouldn't be -possible for me to do that. I can take people on an occasional jump, -for high pay. But I couldn't stand the same kind of contact, day in, -day out, with another human being. Pay doesn't come that high."</p> - -<p>Gordus gave another laugh, and killed it sharply. "And there you were a -few moments ago bragging about all the service Witches had been to the -human race, and when we get down to it, it turns out you hate the human -race."</p> - -<p>Hammen tasted the inside of his dry mouth and longed for a way out. "I -don't <i>hate</i> it; I just can't stand it. There's a difference."</p> - -<p>"If you say so. But tell me, do you like your fellow Companions, or -even your fellow Witches, any better than you do your cargo?"</p> - -<p>"No," Hammen admitted.</p> - -<p>"Good. Then we can stop this foolish talk about the Witches' service -to mankind, since you don't give a damn about either Witches or -mankind. You care only about one Witch; your interests are entirely -self-interests. Correct?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Good. Better. Now I suppose you are not entirely satisfied with -the benefits you now receive as a Witch? You would like more money, -pleasure, power, prestige? You have ambition, greed, hunger, desire?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Fine. I didn't think you had altogether ceased to be human. Then I can -tell you that the Transmitter Service has to perform its most important -mission, and you are thought to be the best man for it."</p> - -<p>"Most important mission?" said Hammen. "Best man?"</p> - -<p>Gordus became happy. "Those are questions? But I can't tell you the -answers. Not yet. First, you must promise us the added protection of -taking a human Companion for this assignment."</p> - -<p>"Why should I want to do that, Gordus?"</p> - -<p>"Because I have promised that you would, and I never fail."</p> - -<p>Hammen stood for the second time. "Sorry. Not a good enough reason for -me."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Gordus' face splintered into confusion. "But as your superior, as your -coordinator, I order you to take a human Companion for this assignment."</p> - -<p>"Gordus," Hammen said, "you were once a Companion yourself."</p> - -<p>"When I was younger, while my wife was alive."</p> - -<p>"Then rescind your order or I'll kill you—under the Code, in a duel."</p> - -<p>Gordus sneered. "I have never been beaten."</p> - -<p>"Obviously," Hammen said. He didn't point out anything about his own -status.</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>It was a final thing.</p> - -<p>"Are you armed at this instant?"</p> - -<p>The coordinator shook his heavy head.</p> - -<p>"Then I plead grievance and choose weapons. Appeal?"</p> - -<p>The other shrugged. "Choose."</p> - -<p>Hammen was breathing deeply and regularly, in preparation. "Before this -is closed, I want to remind you that the Law and the Code both state -that no one can interfere in the relationship between a Team."</p> - -<p>"Doesn't apply," Gordus said. "The act of '97 recognized the -Companionship of Witches, but it did not extend the privilege to -Familiars. Naturally not. You are a Companion and I could not separate -you from a human Companion, but I can order you to break from Lad."</p> - -<p>"That isn't just."</p> - -<p>"I know. But we're talking about law, not justice."</p> - -<p>"Do you wish aid from your fellow Companion?" Hammen asked.</p> - -<p>"In later years, I have often wished for it, but my formal reply: No."</p> - -<p>"Then," Hammen said, "I name our weapon as the body. The time, this -instant. I can kill you easily with my bare hands, and Lad will help -with his teeth."</p> - -<p>An eyebrow-hedged ridge of fat above Gordus' left eye angled. "Use the -dog and you'll get in trouble."</p> - -<p>"Not before a Companions' Court. But if you so state your preference, -I'll only use my own body."</p> - -<p>"Hammen, about this matter," the coordinator said. "I'll think about -it."</p> - -<p>"An hour," Hammen said, and turned on his heel.</p> - -<p>"Hammen," Gordus called out.</p> - -<p>Hammen looked back to face a leveled destruction gun.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="342" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"You know the Code," Gordus explained. "The Challenge wasn't withdrawn. -You struck the field. A coward may be killed by any weapon."</p> - -<p>"You are too modest," Hammen told him.</p> - -<p>Gordus smiled and fed the gun to a compartment of his utility chair. "I -only wanted to prove a point. I can kill you anytime, anywhere. No one -can beat me. Can they? Can they, Hammen?"</p> - -<p>The sweat stung Hammen's palms so hard he could almost taste the salt -in it with his fingers.</p> - -<p>"I'll do it."</p> - -<p>"Gratitude is a part of honor. Yes. The Code. You do believe in that. -But you haven't asked me yet who your human Companion on the jump will -be."</p> - -<p>"Who?" Hammen asked.</p> - -<p>"As you yourself pointed, I still come under the Code myself."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I agreed to take a human Companion, but I did not agree to take Gordus -himself," Hammen explained to his wristphone in the alcove outside the -coordinator's office.</p> - -<p>"I think it's a terrible thing," Lora said. "But why won't you jump -with him—Gordus, I mean?"</p> - -<p>"I hate him," Hammen explained.</p> - -<p>"Oh, sure. I guess I do too. I'd never thought of being a Companion -with him. Ugh! Oh, Hale's swimming in now." Aside: "Over here, -darling. Ham's calling."</p> - -<p>From afar: "Who?"</p> - -<p>Aside: "Hammen. The Witch."</p> - -<p>"Why didn't you say so?" Into the phone: "Hi, fellow. What can we do to -you?"</p> - -<p>"You can do a lot for me."</p> - -<p>"For you, huh? That comes high, you know. What'll it be?"</p> - -<p>Hammen retold his story, and finished with, "That's why I called you -two. I need a human Companion, anybody other than Gordus."</p> - -<p>A slithering of voice, then faint, but distinct, from Lora: "I couldn't -do it and I can't let you do it. Afterward, whichever of us, it would -be as if I were no better than a dog."</p> - -<p>Hammen stared ahead of him at the alcove wall.</p> - -<p>"Ham," Hale said, "why did you come to us with this?"</p> - -<p>"You were friends of mine," Hammen said.</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"No?"</p> - -<p>"We aren't friends of yours, Ham," Hale said patiently. "We're just -acquaintances of yours. We'd like to help you out, but not enough to -split our team for you. Surely you've got some real friends, people you -look better to than us.... Hell, man, don't you know what a friend is?"</p> - -<p>Hammen thought of it. "I suppose not."</p> - -<p>"But there must be <i>someone</i>," Hale said in embarrassment, "a woman."</p> - -<p>"I know a woman Witch on another world. We make love together -sometimes. But I know her only well enough to know better than to ask -favors of her."</p> - -<p>"There are lots of Witches," Hale said in nervous exasperation. "One of -them is bound to Companion with you on a thing like this."</p> - -<p>Ham touched his fingers to his wrist. "I think not. No other Witch is -going to help me set a precedent to put them out of the trade."</p> - -<p>"But the Code!" Hale said furiously. "Surely you can count on your -fellow Witches under the Code."</p> - -<p>"Why? I couldn't count on my fellow Companions under the Code," said -Hammen, and pressed his wristphone into silence.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hammen stepped from the alcove back into Gordus' office to find -a lovely golden woman groveling at the coordinator's feet. The -coordinator was smiling at the pleasure of the thing.</p> - -<p>"What's this?" Hammen demanded.</p> - -<p>"Cargo," Gordus said.</p> - -<p>"Is she ill?"</p> - -<p>"Mad."</p> - -<p>"Then she can't be transmitted. No one could hold together a -disintegrating personality in transmission," Hammen said.</p> - -<p>"It will be difficult. Unprecedentedly difficult. That is why it will -take the two of us acting as Companions to bring her safely to Earth."</p> - -<p>"Why is it so important that she get to Earth?"</p> - -<p>"Ask her," Gordus suggested.</p> - -<p>Hammen glanced down and saw Lad nosing pointedly at the woman. Often he -forgot that the dog was constantly at his side. His eyes lifted up to -the woman.</p> - -<p>She had fine features, impressive blonde hair, and she was wrapped in a -frazzled blanket, indigo rubbed away to white threads here and there.</p> - -<p>"What's your name, woman?" Hammen asked.</p> - -<p>"I know what it is."</p> - -<p>"Of course you do," he said sharply, "but I don't."</p> - -<p>"I know you don't."</p> - -<p>"There isn't much that you don't know, is there?"</p> - -<p>"I know everything," she confessed humbly, honey eyes down.</p> - -<p>Hammen whirled to Gordus. "What do they want with her on Earth?"</p> - -<p>The coordinator gestured eloquently. "She knows everything. Do you -think they know everything on Earth? Don't believe propaganda. There -are things she can tell them."</p> - -<p>Hammen looked again to the creature huddled on the floor. "What could -she tell anyone?"</p> - -<p>"There are words buried in any conglomeration of letters. Confusion is -the basis of all codes. There is always a cipher for any code."</p> - -<p>Hammen exhaled. "Never mind. What do I care what they want with her? -All right, I'll try to take her through. You don't want me to use the -dog?"</p> - -<p>"No. It won't do."</p> - -<p>"Then let me take her alone. I could do it this once."</p> - -<p>"Negative. Besides, need I remind you that you have already graciously -agreed to take a human Companion?"</p> - -<p>"And," Hammen said ponderously, "I can't get any Companion other than -you to go with me."</p> - -<p>"You can't? Sad. But why wouldn't I be acceptable?"</p> - -<p>"I hate your soul."</p> - -<p>"No doubt," Gordus sighed. "But I believe you said you hated all -people."</p> - -<p>"I can't stand people, only some people especially do I hate."</p> - -<p>"I see. But surely it is only a small difference in degree, not kind, -between the contempt and aversion you hold for humanity at large and -that which you hold for me. Surely that difference is too small to -cause you to break your word, given under the Code."</p> - -<p>"I suppose it is." The words tasted bad in his mouth. "Very well. I'll -transmit with you."</p> - -<p>"<i>Of course</i> you will," the coordinator said smoothly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Are you ready to transmit now?"</p> - -<p>"Of course we are."</p> - -<p>Hammen stood within the platform diagram with Gordus and the woman. -Beyond the boundaries stood the technicians, one at the control mosaic, -the other holding to the neck of Lad, who suffered it under orders.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="394" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Wiggle away from the Mindsnake, citizens," a technician called.</p> - -<p>A native, Hammen thought. He had never been in transmission himself. No -one who had ever joked about the Mindsnake, or rarely even spoke of him.</p> - -<p>Hammen looked around him, slate eyes chalking the outline of the -diagram in which they stood. It was only a rectangle, but shouldn't it -be rather a pentagram?</p> - -<p>From the time of Aristotle, the populace equated science with magic. -Wasn't the diagram only a sign to conjure the demon, Spatium, to do the -boon of transporting his servants across the void without decay of time?</p> - -<p>No. Instantaneous transmission of matter wasn't magic. It had always -been a part of folklore as teleportation, but just as machines had been -made to duplicate the legendary feats of human extrasensory perception, -machines made to let men speak over great distances to duplicate the -strange voices of mystics, and machines made that would indeed show -strange visions over vast expanses, science had made the Transmatter -for null-time object displacement.</p> - -<p>Transmatters were a logical, progressive theoretical implementation. -If electrical impulses could recreate patterns first in sound, then -in light, it followed relentlessly that someday some form of impulses -would be found to recreate matter. Energy and matter were only -different forms of one unity.</p> - -<p>Fortunately, matter duplication had come before matter transmission. As -the researches of Phillips established, an exact duplicate is <i>not</i> the -original.</p> - -<p>A duplication of a man is only a duplicate, not the original, unless -the <i>elan vital</i>, the spirit, the soul, is transmitted, for it cannot -be duplicated. A duplicated man is a perfect robot, capable of memory -and learning, and developing into a human being in time. But it is not -a human being immediately, and it can <i>never</i> become the original of -the duplicate. Every human viewpoint is unique and irreplaceable.</p> - -<p>Duplication of matter was uneconomical. The power outlay was too great, -the equipment too costly to build and operate. So transportation by -transmission was investigated. Again, it was too expensive except for -very great distances, trips of light-years to worlds established over -the generations by the spaceships which had reached virtual light-speed -and could not go beyond it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Personalities of transmittees got lost among the stars.</p> - -<p>Transmitted poets arrived with a dim itch for a brutal fight, due to -some residue of glandular acid from a parting insult affecting their -birth trauma on the new world.</p> - -<p>Great conductors solidified, hating music.</p> - -<p>Competent engineers were imported with an infantile urge toward lyric -verse.</p> - -<p>And the Companions came into being as a profession.</p> - -<p>Men with will power, psionic abilities, strength of character. You -could call it what you liked, depending on your profession, your -politics, your religion. At any rate, men (and women) who could hold -human personalities together on the long, instantaneous voyage through -null space.</p> - -<p>But still some personalities drifted away.</p> - -<p>Or, some darkly superstitious people suggested, were they sucked away?</p> - -<p>They were.</p> - -<p>Personalities in transmission were being captured by an intelligent -entity, unimaginably vast in size, which some believed used the -movements of galaxies as the synapse responses of its brain.</p> - -<p>It was a vast entity, but not a very intelligent one, due to the -square of signal decay and noise over light-years. Moreover, it was -psychopathic. From contact with human minds, it had decided it was, or -would become (it was obviously confused on the point) the god of the -humans.</p> - -<p>It proposed to do this by eventually incorporating all intelligence -into itself. But, seemingly, only intelligences in transmission were -soft enough for the Mindsnake to get a hold on.</p> - -<p>The Companions were harder-shelled.</p> - -<p>But the Mindsnake grew stronger.</p> - -<p>And Companions began traveling with other Companions, as teams, to -resist the Mindsnake.</p> - -<p>And there came a class of Companions who did not need the help of -any other man or woman, but only a touchstone of reality, something -familiar of Earth—the mind of a dog or a cat or some other animal. -Familiars. So was born the Corps of Witches.</p> - -<p>And here, Hammen wondered, was this where the Witches came to an end?</p> - -<p>He looked at the bulging head of Gordus. He couldn't see inside it. -Maybe there would ultimately be men who could, but he could only -contact other minds when they were taken off the level of matter and -energy, and placed in null-space. Where there is no space, there can be -no barriers.</p> - -<p>There was nothing but confusion in the woman's mind if he could touch -it. Nothing but boredom and routine in the minds of the technicians.</p> - -<p>Hammen's eyes moved to the dog. He suddenly decided Lad looked sad. But -dogs have human facial muscles, and it would be impossible between a -man and a dog for one to look into the other's mind, while they weren't -in transmission.</p> - -<p>Uselessly, he permitted himself to wish Lad was going with him....</p> - -<p>The heavy shoulder muscles of the dog ripped him free from the -technician's grasp and Lad threw himself across the diagram line as the -coordinants of the transmatter phased.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Transmission. No time. No space. Hammen felt an overblown wave of force.</p> - -<p>"How's that for power?" Gordus demanded.</p> - -<p>It came as words to him, as communication between people had come to -him all of his life. Deaf-mute Companions had told him communication in -transmission came to them as hands and fingers feeling of words.</p> - -<p>"You've never had a <i>real</i> Companion before, have you?" Gordus asked. -"You've never felt <i>real</i> power like this before?"</p> - -<p>"Power? I've heard members of the cargo scream as loud from terror and -horror. We don't scream in transmission, Coordinator. Let the Snake -sleep."</p> - -<p>"Power," the coordinator repeated. "I always held my cargo together -with power."</p> - -<p>"When you were a Companion, the Snake wasn't as strong as it is now. -Quiet, please."</p> - -<p>Hammen felt out for his Familiar. A tail wagged somewhere. A head -cocked to one side in puzzlement, concern. What wasn't a hand petted -that which wasn't a head.</p> - -<p>"Just us—just the two of us—to see after the woman," Gordus said with -a leer in his voice.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Didn't he know about Lad crossing the diagram? Hadn't he seen?</p> - -<p>"You sound as if you were about to suggest we team up and rape her. -It's hardly practicable here."</p> - -<p>"But that's it, Hammen! That's it! I want to rape her mind!"</p> - -<p>"Go away, Gordus. I don't believe in you. Nobody really makes a career -out of being that swinish."</p> - -<p>"My profession is power, Hammen. I find your attitude unprofessional."</p> - -<p>Hammen reached out for the girl. "What do you want from her?"</p> - -<p>"She knows everything, Hammen. Don't you want to know everything?"</p> - -<p>"No," Hammen said. "I'd never be able to remember it."</p> - -<p>The girl was retreating from them. Had she been snagged by the -Mindsnake? No. Only drift. Hammen threw an anchor into her, braced -himself against his Familiar, and pulled. She came apart at the seams -and flew off in all directions, gibbering.</p> - -<p>He raced after all the pieces of the woman at a practiced, steady -trot and gathered them all in. He made a rough boundary and -compartmentalized her.</p> - -<p>For an instant, he looked through the jumble that was her mind. -Sensuality, sloth, greed, hate, envy, pride, hunger, death wish—it was -the usual human pattern well enough, but they were letters that spelled -out no words. It would be impossible to find any information in that -psychic junk heap.</p> - -<p>Deftly, Hammen turned Gordus back on.</p> - -<p>"... must know. You'll have to help me, Hammen."</p> - -<p>"Why must I?"</p> - -<p>"Simplicity. You must. We stay here until you do. You can't close the -transmission without me, and I will not do it until you help me pick -the woman's mind. We can wait forever until you decide to do as I -order. There is no time here."</p> - -<p>Gordus was a blind old man stumbling in the dark. He hadn't seen Lad -join them inside the diagram. He probably wasn't even aware that Hammen -had the woman under tow.</p> - -<p>"Listen to me, Gordus. That about there being 'no time' here is a -mathematical abstraction. <i>Practically</i>, it has its limitations. There -is some flow of some kind of duration here, otherwise our questions and -answers would come at the same time."</p> - -<p>"What are you trying to teach me?" Gordus demanded. "I was a Companion -before you were born."</p> - -<p>"But then the Mindsnake wasn't so active or so powerful. If the -'duration' of our transmission is too long, he'll get a clear fix on -us—and that will be that."</p> - -<p>"I'll risk that. <i>Will you?</i>"</p> - -<p>"No," Hammen said. "You're a fool out here in transmission. You don't -know what you're doing. What do you expect of me?"</p> - -<p>"Link with me, Companion, as you should. Help me gain her knowledge."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hammen knew that he was being asked to help gain access to information -intended for the Federation authorities on Earth. But he rarely thought -of himself as a Federal, and he knew very few worlds would allow -extradition of him on a Federal charge. At the moment, he was mainly -concerned with saving himself and his cargo from the Mindsnake. As -distasteful as it was, Gordus was a part of his cargo, and a man had to -have a few ideals. Gordus was not qualified to be a Companion after the -generations of growth of the Mindsnake. He was only a pitiful fool now. -(How long before the Snake gets so big I will not be qualified? How -long before <i>no one</i> is qualified? How long before the Snake comes out -of null-space and stalks the planets?)</p> - -<p>Hammen shrugged and joined Gordus.</p> - -<p>They struck for the mind of the woman.</p> - -<p>Her name, they warned, Isodel.</p> - -<p>They found that out, and incredibly, more.</p> - -<p>In some way Gordus' mind paralleled the girl's. There was much of a -kind about them, and Gordus could piece together the fragments of -her identity. But then he was reaching down for something, and he -prestidigitated it up and out of sight.</p> - -<p>Hammen realized that Gordus had succeeded in getting what he wanted and -in keeping it from him. He was less of a doddering old fool than he -appeared.</p> - -<p>"What was that?" Hammen demanded. "What did you take?"</p> - -<p>He tried to shake it loose from the coordinator.</p> - -<p>"Let go of me!" Gordus cried out in immaterial indignity.</p> - -<p>Hammen released him.</p> - -<p>Completely.</p> - -<p>Gordus screamed soundlessly as he retreated toward infinity.</p> - -<p>"Shall I catch you?" Hammen asked.</p> - -<p>The scream changed in pitch.</p> - -<p>The Witch brought him back.</p> - -<p>"You stayed," Gordus said. "Somehow you stayed. That dog. Somehow -you've got your damned Familiar with you, haven't you, Witch?"</p> - -<p>"No," Hammen lied fluently. "Only feeble minds like yours require a -contact. Shall I tell you something about Witches? The Familiars are a -deception. We don't need them at all. We are lone wolves."</p> - -<p>"Wolves, are you? So now I know what your grandmother before you was."</p> - -<p>Hammen laughed.</p> - -<p>And sobered.</p> - -<p>"What did you take, Gordus?" he demanded.</p> - -<p>"What do you know about her?" asked Gordus.</p> - -<p>"Her name is Isodel."</p> - -<p>"Isodel Van Der Lies."</p> - -<p>"I've heard of her. Somewhere," Hammen said hesitantly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"A great theoretician," the coordinator explained sullenly. "Probably -the first authentic female genius of the race of man. On a par with -Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Einstein."</p> - -<p>"What theory of hers were you after?" Hammen pursued.</p> - -<p>"A method of destroying the Mindsnake."</p> - -<p>"You want to take the credit from her."</p> - -<p>"I want only to take the theory from her, Hammen."</p> - -<p>"You mean you don't want the Mindsnake to be destroyed. You are afraid -its destruction would mean the end of the Companion Corps which you -head."</p> - -<p>"Not at all. I only want the theory so I can reverse it. Once you know -how to destroy the Mindsnake, you also know how to create one. You -see, I intend to become another Mindsnake, one who knows too much of -destruction to ever be destroyed."</p> - -<p>"Listen carefully, Gordus," Hammen said with infinite care. "You're -ill. You don't know what you're talking about. It can't be done."</p> - -<p>"The ultimate dream—ultimate power."</p> - -<p>"That's pure psychosis, Gordus!"</p> - -<p>"Is it? Watch how easily I begin to grow. I have the woman's mind now."</p> - -<p>It was true.</p> - -<p>The poor, mad genius woman was gone.</p> - -<p>"Stop it, Coordinator. You don't know what you're doing!"</p> - -<p>Hammen tried to reach him.</p> - -<p>"That's it, that's it. Come ahead, my boy. I'm becoming a Mindsnake. -Now I am a Mindsnake. Come ahead. Let me swallow you next."</p> - -<p>"You fool," Hammen broadcast. "You are <i>the</i> Mindsnake now. Don't -you think anyone's ever wanted power before? Won't you let yourself -remember how it was when you were a Companion? This is how it <i>always</i> -happens. You've let yourself be swallowed by the Snake. You ran right -into its jaws."</p> - -<p>"No." Gordus thought furiously. "I—"</p> - -<p>And the Snake digested the tiny egg in its gullet and "I" blurred and -was washed over by "All."</p> - -<p>Hammen struck at it in anger and humiliation and terror and it -retreated with frictionless speed.</p> - -<p>The Snake took something with it.</p> - -<p>It took Gordus, and it left that part of the woman, Isodel, that he had -been able to capture. But the part of Isodel matched by Gordus' mind -was jerked free.</p> - -<p>She was freed of hate, anger, lust....</p> - -<p>She was left an impossibly ideal woman—all Mother, Sister, Lover....</p> - -<p>Against his will, by immutable laws of nature, Hammen fell monstrously -in love with her.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hammen was among the first of Companions or Witches to join the Suicide -Squadron.</p> - -<p>He did it to protect Isodel and her descendants for all time to come, -and he did it in impotent fury at his reason for doing it.</p> - -<p>The Companions transmitted in droves to abolish their profession. They -transmitted against the Mindsnake.</p> - -<p>The Federation on Earth had made use of Isodel's theories. They -were only a formal mathematical statement of what had always been -known—destruction reaches a critical mass and destroys itself by -turning against itself.</p> - -<p>Where Hammen had refused to join one human mind, he joined countless -ones in a huge drive against the Snake.</p> - -<p>They became one with each other and they became one with the Snake, -and the Snake turned on itself and destroyed itself and them, and they -turned on themselves—and stopped.</p> - -<p>They hung together for an unmeasurable time—and broke apart.</p> - -<p>They were a super-entity like the Snake. But where the Snake had been -mad, they were sane.</p> - -<p>They drifted through the haze of twilight and broke apart, their hands -gliding away into the shadows.</p> - -<p>Hammen was gloriously happy. He had never been happy before and he was -not at all sure he liked it.</p> - -<p>"Jobs are so hard to find these days," Isodel said, her lovely face -brightly sane. "What will you take up, darling?"</p> - -<p>"There's still need for Companions—and Witches," he explained. "There -seems more of a tendency for members of the cargo to drift away than -ever. The Mindsnake at least gave them something to resist, a foothold -of friction. Now there is nothing—nothing to do but drift, drift, -drift. People in transmission will need Companions for a long time to -come."</p> - -<p>"I need a Companion," lovely Isodel said.</p> - -<p>His heart leaped ridiculously.</p> - -<p>"But not a Witch," said gorgeous Isodel.</p> - -<p>Pain, very great physical pain.</p> - -<p>"I love you," priceless Isodel went on. "How could I help it? I am a -woman and I love the father image. You are my father—symbolically, -fortunately, not biologically. You held the sane part of me while -Gordus dragged off the unsane part. You gave me—<i>this</i> me—birth. I -love you. But I don't love your dog."</p> - -<p>"My dog?" said Hammen.</p> - -<p>"No woman can marry a man <i>and</i> his dog."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Hammen, seeing it all, and living.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>You could see everything about yourself and live. It wasn't easy, but -you could do it. Especially if you had the training and experience of -being a Companion. Or a Witch.</p> - -<p>"It would kill Lad to separate him from me for long, you know," Hammen -said.</p> - -<p>Isodel's beautiful eyes misted. And she said in all her infuriating -gentleness, "Then it is impossible for us, if we have to destroy a -living—"</p> - -<p>"He's just a dog," he pointed out. "I would wring his neck cheerfully -if it would do any good. But it wouldn't."</p> - -<p>Isodel looked sad, and brave, and wonderful.</p> - -<p>"Don't you see, Isodel? It's <i>impossible</i> for me to do the <i>right</i> -thing. If it wasn't Lad, it would be another dog, and if it wasn't a -Familiar to make me a Witch, it would be something else to make me -different, because I am different. I have to live with that. Among the -right people, I am the left man."</p> - -<p>So he left her, and walked out of the Floating Gardens onto the walkway -and Lad fell in at his side, and he listened without anger to the -hushings and keenings of the crowd.</p> - -<p>"Witch! Witch!"</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mindsnake, by Jim Harmon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINDSNAKE *** - -***** This file should be named 60946-h.htm or 60946-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/9/4/60946/ - -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: Mindsnake - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: December 17, 2019 [EBook #60946] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINDSNAKE *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - _Let them think anything they wished of - him and his dog. All that mattered was - the black thought slithering of the_ ... - - MINDSNAKE - - By JIM HARMON - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, November 1960. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -"Witch! Witch!" The cry was among the walkers, but he didn't bother to -track it down. It was no longer a fighting word to Hammen. He wore it -like a badge of honor. It tasted of brass, but it gleamed on him. - -A puzzled growl came from the Familiar at his heels. The dog could -never understand how people could hate Hammen. Lad, the dog, often -asked Hammen how anyone could possibly hate Hammen, and Hammen always -told him to shut up; he couldn't understand--he was only a dog. - -The walk ramp was crowded this afternoon with people fresh from the -transmatter stations, eager to tell themselves they were walking on -a strange planet. Hammen passed among the nudists, the cavaliers, -the zip-suiters, the zoot-suiters, the Ivy-coated, the Moss-covered, -walking not for novelty or exercise but because he preferred to go -everywhere under his own power. Even to the stars. - -Hale and Lora saluted him a few paces away from the entrance to the -station. They were a beautiful blond couple, with brightly polished -faces. Hammen didn't much like them, but he didn't feel sufficiently -pressed to be rude enough to let them become aware of it. - -"How goes it, kids?" he asked them. - -"Couldn't be better," Hale said. - -"Of course not," Lora added. - - * * * * * - -Hammen's slate eyes moved from the man to the woman. "Are you troubled?" - -"This isn't the time to talk about it, not before you and Lad transmit -yourself," the girl said quickly. - -It wasn't, Hammen admitted to himself. Only now that they had let it -slip, he would rest better knowing the whole truth of it. - -"Come on," Hammen urged. "It's not as if I wasn't interested." - -Hale looked at his wife. "Lora doesn't like Wagner any more." - -"Perdition!" said Hammen. "I _never_ liked Wagner. She's growing up." - -Lora put a half-closed fist to her lips, and didn't look at either of -the men, or at the dog who stood with freshly pointed ears. - -"No," she said softly. "I lost something on the last one. Gee, I wonder -if the Mindsnake likes Wagner now? Still, it's not as if I had stopped -liking music altogether, or books. Not this time." - -Hale grabbed her arm roughly. "You're sure doing a great job of getting -Hammen ready for the jump." - -Lora's eyes clouded. "I'm sorry, Ham." She looked up, smiled warmly, -kissed her fingertips and placed them on Hammen's lips. "Companion's -Code, huh?" - -He took her hand and for the moment liked her. "Okay, honey. I guess -even a Witch squeezes in under the wire for that." - -The young team was abruptly embarrassed. "Oh, well, Witch," Hale said -deprecatingly, "what does cargo know, anyway?" - -Hammen laughed and scratched Lad's ears. "They know I'm a Witch. But -it has its advantages. I don't have to worry about Lad losing his taste -for Wagner. A dog does not have that much to lose. If it comes to that, -he's just gone." - -Lora shuddered delicately, the way of a watered flower. "How could you -stand to lose a Companion with so little feeling?" - -"I've lost three Companions, and got myself and my cargo into port. -They were only dogs." - -Hale looked at him sharply. "But you were Companioning with them. It -must have been," he selected a word, "difficult for you." - -"Don't absorb the cargo's superstitions about Witches and their -Familiars. They have fogged, even dirty, ideas. They were just dogs to -me. Like Lad." - - * * * * * - -"A dog, that's all he is," Gordus said in a manner designed to explain -the thing patiently to Hammen. - -"Lad is a dog." - -"Why do you emphasize the point now?" Hammen demanded. - -The Companion sat on a seat formed from a single S-shaped plastic -surface. Hammen studied the bulk of Gordus, Coordinator of -Transmatters, who sat hulked in his utility chair in the bubble office -overhanging the City of the Sea, on the world of Lanole. Hammen -was comfortable, cooled, relaxed, amused by a light play of sensory -electron music, and aggressively unhappy. - -Gordus sat in his great chair patting the hair on the back of his left -hand with his right palm, as if the fist were a sleeping kitten. At -Hammen's feet, Lad's neck muscles quivered uneasily. - -"Your record, Hammen," Gordus said at last, "is a good one." - -"How could it be better? I've never lost one member of a cargo." - -"But you have lost three Companions." - -"Familiars. Dogs." - -"But it shows weakness." - -Hammen's face heated. "I never show weakness." - -"Not _your_ weakness, my dear, dear boy," Gordus said in exaggeration. -"The weakness of the Witch-Familiar relationship, the weakness of -Witches as Companions at all. Don't take it personally." - -Hammen leaped to his feet. Lad's muzzle gleamed white. - -"Not take it personally?" Hammen cried. "How else can I take it? You -are questioning the worthiness of my profession, of my way of life. You -question the honor of many of my friends--my associates. Witchery is an -ancient profession. My grandmother and uncle were Witches before me. -Witches have an unparalleled record of service to Transmatters and to -the human race. How dare you, sir!" - -Gordus waved a fat hand in front of him, laughing up and down the -scale. "No, no, no. Peace, please. You have no need to plead so -strongly for the cause of Witches. _You_ don't have to be a Witch, -you know, Hammen. You're good enough to be a regular, full-fledged -Companion. The reason you get so many of your cargo through is that you -in the most literal sense Companion them all. It would be possible for -you to use a fellow Companion on your jumps instead of a Familiar." - - * * * * * - -Hammen sat down, no longer angry, or energetic. "No. No, it wouldn't be -possible for me to do that. I can take people on an occasional jump, -for high pay. But I couldn't stand the same kind of contact, day in, -day out, with another human being. Pay doesn't come that high." - -Gordus gave another laugh, and killed it sharply. "And there you were a -few moments ago bragging about all the service Witches had been to the -human race, and when we get down to it, it turns out you hate the human -race." - -Hammen tasted the inside of his dry mouth and longed for a way out. "I -don't _hate_ it; I just can't stand it. There's a difference." - -"If you say so. But tell me, do you like your fellow Companions, or -even your fellow Witches, any better than you do your cargo?" - -"No," Hammen admitted. - -"Good. Then we can stop this foolish talk about the Witches' service -to mankind, since you don't give a damn about either Witches or -mankind. You care only about one Witch; your interests are entirely -self-interests. Correct?" - -"Yes." - -"Good. Better. Now I suppose you are not entirely satisfied with -the benefits you now receive as a Witch? You would like more money, -pleasure, power, prestige? You have ambition, greed, hunger, desire?" - -"Yes." - -"Fine. I didn't think you had altogether ceased to be human. Then I can -tell you that the Transmitter Service has to perform its most important -mission, and you are thought to be the best man for it." - -"Most important mission?" said Hammen. "Best man?" - -Gordus became happy. "Those are questions? But I can't tell you the -answers. Not yet. First, you must promise us the added protection of -taking a human Companion for this assignment." - -"Why should I want to do that, Gordus?" - -"Because I have promised that you would, and I never fail." - -Hammen stood for the second time. "Sorry. Not a good enough reason for -me." - - * * * * * - -Gordus' face splintered into confusion. "But as your superior, as your -coordinator, I order you to take a human Companion for this assignment." - -"Gordus," Hammen said, "you were once a Companion yourself." - -"When I was younger, while my wife was alive." - -"Then rescind your order or I'll kill you--under the Code, in a duel." - -Gordus sneered. "I have never been beaten." - -"Obviously," Hammen said. He didn't point out anything about his own -status. - -"No." - -It was a final thing. - -"Are you armed at this instant?" - -The coordinator shook his heavy head. - -"Then I plead grievance and choose weapons. Appeal?" - -The other shrugged. "Choose." - -Hammen was breathing deeply and regularly, in preparation. "Before this -is closed, I want to remind you that the Law and the Code both state -that no one can interfere in the relationship between a Team." - -"Doesn't apply," Gordus said. "The act of '97 recognized the -Companionship of Witches, but it did not extend the privilege to -Familiars. Naturally not. You are a Companion and I could not separate -you from a human Companion, but I can order you to break from Lad." - -"That isn't just." - -"I know. But we're talking about law, not justice." - -"Do you wish aid from your fellow Companion?" Hammen asked. - -"In later years, I have often wished for it, but my formal reply: No." - -"Then," Hammen said, "I name our weapon as the body. The time, this -instant. I can kill you easily with my bare hands, and Lad will help -with his teeth." - -An eyebrow-hedged ridge of fat above Gordus' left eye angled. "Use the -dog and you'll get in trouble." - -"Not before a Companions' Court. But if you so state your preference, -I'll only use my own body." - -"Hammen, about this matter," the coordinator said. "I'll think about -it." - -"An hour," Hammen said, and turned on his heel. - -"Hammen," Gordus called out. - -Hammen looked back to face a leveled destruction gun. - -"You know the Code," Gordus explained. "The Challenge wasn't withdrawn. -You struck the field. A coward may be killed by any weapon." - -"You are too modest," Hammen told him. - -Gordus smiled and fed the gun to a compartment of his utility chair. "I -only wanted to prove a point. I can kill you anytime, anywhere. No one -can beat me. Can they? Can they, Hammen?" - -The sweat stung Hammen's palms so hard he could almost taste the salt -in it with his fingers. - -"I'll do it." - -"Gratitude is a part of honor. Yes. The Code. You do believe in that. -But you haven't asked me yet who your human Companion on the jump will -be." - -"Who?" Hammen asked. - -"As you yourself pointed, I still come under the Code myself." - - * * * * * - -"I agreed to take a human Companion, but I did not agree to take Gordus -himself," Hammen explained to his wristphone in the alcove outside the -coordinator's office. - -"I think it's a terrible thing," Lora said. "But why won't you jump -with him--Gordus, I mean?" - -"I hate him," Hammen explained. - -"Oh, sure. I guess I do too. I'd never thought of being a Companion -with him. Ugh! Oh, Hale's swimming in now." Aside: "Over here, -darling. Ham's calling." - -From afar: "Who?" - -Aside: "Hammen. The Witch." - -"Why didn't you say so?" Into the phone: "Hi, fellow. What can we do to -you?" - -"You can do a lot for me." - -"For you, huh? That comes high, you know. What'll it be?" - -Hammen retold his story, and finished with, "That's why I called you -two. I need a human Companion, anybody other than Gordus." - -A slithering of voice, then faint, but distinct, from Lora: "I couldn't -do it and I can't let you do it. Afterward, whichever of us, it would -be as if I were no better than a dog." - -Hammen stared ahead of him at the alcove wall. - -"Ham," Hale said, "why did you come to us with this?" - -"You were friends of mine," Hammen said. - -"No." - -"No?" - -"We aren't friends of yours, Ham," Hale said patiently. "We're just -acquaintances of yours. We'd like to help you out, but not enough to -split our team for you. Surely you've got some real friends, people you -look better to than us.... Hell, man, don't you know what a friend is?" - -Hammen thought of it. "I suppose not." - -"But there must be _someone_," Hale said in embarrassment, "a woman." - -"I know a woman Witch on another world. We make love together -sometimes. But I know her only well enough to know better than to ask -favors of her." - -"There are lots of Witches," Hale said in nervous exasperation. "One of -them is bound to Companion with you on a thing like this." - -Ham touched his fingers to his wrist. "I think not. No other Witch is -going to help me set a precedent to put them out of the trade." - -"But the Code!" Hale said furiously. "Surely you can count on your -fellow Witches under the Code." - -"Why? I couldn't count on my fellow Companions under the Code," said -Hammen, and pressed his wristphone into silence. - - * * * * * - -Hammen stepped from the alcove back into Gordus' office to find -a lovely golden woman groveling at the coordinator's feet. The -coordinator was smiling at the pleasure of the thing. - -"What's this?" Hammen demanded. - -"Cargo," Gordus said. - -"Is she ill?" - -"Mad." - -"Then she can't be transmitted. No one could hold together a -disintegrating personality in transmission," Hammen said. - -"It will be difficult. Unprecedentedly difficult. That is why it will -take the two of us acting as Companions to bring her safely to Earth." - -"Why is it so important that she get to Earth?" - -"Ask her," Gordus suggested. - -Hammen glanced down and saw Lad nosing pointedly at the woman. Often he -forgot that the dog was constantly at his side. His eyes lifted up to -the woman. - -She had fine features, impressive blonde hair, and she was wrapped in a -frazzled blanket, indigo rubbed away to white threads here and there. - -"What's your name, woman?" Hammen asked. - -"I know what it is." - -"Of course you do," he said sharply, "but I don't." - -"I know you don't." - -"There isn't much that you don't know, is there?" - -"I know everything," she confessed humbly, honey eyes down. - -Hammen whirled to Gordus. "What do they want with her on Earth?" - -The coordinator gestured eloquently. "She knows everything. Do you -think they know everything on Earth? Don't believe propaganda. There -are things she can tell them." - -Hammen looked again to the creature huddled on the floor. "What could -she tell anyone?" - -"There are words buried in any conglomeration of letters. Confusion is -the basis of all codes. There is always a cipher for any code." - -Hammen exhaled. "Never mind. What do I care what they want with her? -All right, I'll try to take her through. You don't want me to use the -dog?" - -"No. It won't do." - -"Then let me take her alone. I could do it this once." - -"Negative. Besides, need I remind you that you have already graciously -agreed to take a human Companion?" - -"And," Hammen said ponderously, "I can't get any Companion other than -you to go with me." - -"You can't? Sad. But why wouldn't I be acceptable?" - -"I hate your soul." - -"No doubt," Gordus sighed. "But I believe you said you hated all -people." - -"I can't stand people, only some people especially do I hate." - -"I see. But surely it is only a small difference in degree, not kind, -between the contempt and aversion you hold for humanity at large and -that which you hold for me. Surely that difference is too small to -cause you to break your word, given under the Code." - -"I suppose it is." The words tasted bad in his mouth. "Very well. I'll -transmit with you." - -"_Of course_ you will," the coordinator said smoothly. - - * * * * * - -"Are you ready to transmit now?" - -"Of course we are." - -Hammen stood within the platform diagram with Gordus and the woman. -Beyond the boundaries stood the technicians, one at the control mosaic, -the other holding to the neck of Lad, who suffered it under orders. - -"Wiggle away from the Mindsnake, citizens," a technician called. - -A native, Hammen thought. He had never been in transmission himself. No -one who had ever joked about the Mindsnake, or rarely even spoke of him. - -Hammen looked around him, slate eyes chalking the outline of the -diagram in which they stood. It was only a rectangle, but shouldn't it -be rather a pentagram? - -From the time of Aristotle, the populace equated science with magic. -Wasn't the diagram only a sign to conjure the demon, Spatium, to do the -boon of transporting his servants across the void without decay of time? - -No. Instantaneous transmission of matter wasn't magic. It had always -been a part of folklore as teleportation, but just as machines had been -made to duplicate the legendary feats of human extrasensory perception, -machines made to let men speak over great distances to duplicate the -strange voices of mystics, and machines made that would indeed show -strange visions over vast expanses, science had made the Transmatter -for null-time object displacement. - -Transmatters were a logical, progressive theoretical implementation. -If electrical impulses could recreate patterns first in sound, then -in light, it followed relentlessly that someday some form of impulses -would be found to recreate matter. Energy and matter were only -different forms of one unity. - -Fortunately, matter duplication had come before matter transmission. As -the researches of Phillips established, an exact duplicate is _not_ the -original. - -A duplication of a man is only a duplicate, not the original, unless -the _elan vital_, the spirit, the soul, is transmitted, for it cannot -be duplicated. A duplicated man is a perfect robot, capable of memory -and learning, and developing into a human being in time. But it is not -a human being immediately, and it can _never_ become the original of -the duplicate. Every human viewpoint is unique and irreplaceable. - -Duplication of matter was uneconomical. The power outlay was too great, -the equipment too costly to build and operate. So transportation by -transmission was investigated. Again, it was too expensive except for -very great distances, trips of light-years to worlds established over -the generations by the spaceships which had reached virtual light-speed -and could not go beyond it. - - * * * * * - -Personalities of transmittees got lost among the stars. - -Transmitted poets arrived with a dim itch for a brutal fight, due to -some residue of glandular acid from a parting insult affecting their -birth trauma on the new world. - -Great conductors solidified, hating music. - -Competent engineers were imported with an infantile urge toward lyric -verse. - -And the Companions came into being as a profession. - -Men with will power, psionic abilities, strength of character. You -could call it what you liked, depending on your profession, your -politics, your religion. At any rate, men (and women) who could hold -human personalities together on the long, instantaneous voyage through -null space. - -But still some personalities drifted away. - -Or, some darkly superstitious people suggested, were they sucked away? - -They were. - -Personalities in transmission were being captured by an intelligent -entity, unimaginably vast in size, which some believed used the -movements of galaxies as the synapse responses of its brain. - -It was a vast entity, but not a very intelligent one, due to the -square of signal decay and noise over light-years. Moreover, it was -psychopathic. From contact with human minds, it had decided it was, or -would become (it was obviously confused on the point) the god of the -humans. - -It proposed to do this by eventually incorporating all intelligence -into itself. But, seemingly, only intelligences in transmission were -soft enough for the Mindsnake to get a hold on. - -The Companions were harder-shelled. - -But the Mindsnake grew stronger. - -And Companions began traveling with other Companions, as teams, to -resist the Mindsnake. - -And there came a class of Companions who did not need the help of -any other man or woman, but only a touchstone of reality, something -familiar of Earth--the mind of a dog or a cat or some other animal. -Familiars. So was born the Corps of Witches. - -And here, Hammen wondered, was this where the Witches came to an end? - -He looked at the bulging head of Gordus. He couldn't see inside it. -Maybe there would ultimately be men who could, but he could only -contact other minds when they were taken off the level of matter and -energy, and placed in null-space. Where there is no space, there can be -no barriers. - -There was nothing but confusion in the woman's mind if he could touch -it. Nothing but boredom and routine in the minds of the technicians. - -Hammen's eyes moved to the dog. He suddenly decided Lad looked sad. But -dogs have human facial muscles, and it would be impossible between a -man and a dog for one to look into the other's mind, while they weren't -in transmission. - -Uselessly, he permitted himself to wish Lad was going with him.... - -The heavy shoulder muscles of the dog ripped him free from the -technician's grasp and Lad threw himself across the diagram line as the -coordinants of the transmatter phased. - - * * * * * - -Transmission. No time. No space. Hammen felt an overblown wave of force. - -"How's that for power?" Gordus demanded. - -It came as words to him, as communication between people had come to -him all of his life. Deaf-mute Companions had told him communication in -transmission came to them as hands and fingers feeling of words. - -"You've never had a _real_ Companion before, have you?" Gordus asked. -"You've never felt _real_ power like this before?" - -"Power? I've heard members of the cargo scream as loud from terror and -horror. We don't scream in transmission, Coordinator. Let the Snake -sleep." - -"Power," the coordinator repeated. "I always held my cargo together -with power." - -"When you were a Companion, the Snake wasn't as strong as it is now. -Quiet, please." - -Hammen felt out for his Familiar. A tail wagged somewhere. A head -cocked to one side in puzzlement, concern. What wasn't a hand petted -that which wasn't a head. - -"Just us--just the two of us--to see after the woman," Gordus said with -a leer in his voice. - - * * * * * - -Didn't he know about Lad crossing the diagram? Hadn't he seen? - -"You sound as if you were about to suggest we team up and rape her. -It's hardly practicable here." - -"But that's it, Hammen! That's it! I want to rape her mind!" - -"Go away, Gordus. I don't believe in you. Nobody really makes a career -out of being that swinish." - -"My profession is power, Hammen. I find your attitude unprofessional." - -Hammen reached out for the girl. "What do you want from her?" - -"She knows everything, Hammen. Don't you want to know everything?" - -"No," Hammen said. "I'd never be able to remember it." - -The girl was retreating from them. Had she been snagged by the -Mindsnake? No. Only drift. Hammen threw an anchor into her, braced -himself against his Familiar, and pulled. She came apart at the seams -and flew off in all directions, gibbering. - -He raced after all the pieces of the woman at a practiced, steady -trot and gathered them all in. He made a rough boundary and -compartmentalized her. - -For an instant, he looked through the jumble that was her mind. -Sensuality, sloth, greed, hate, envy, pride, hunger, death wish--it was -the usual human pattern well enough, but they were letters that spelled -out no words. It would be impossible to find any information in that -psychic junk heap. - -Deftly, Hammen turned Gordus back on. - -"... must know. You'll have to help me, Hammen." - -"Why must I?" - -"Simplicity. You must. We stay here until you do. You can't close the -transmission without me, and I will not do it until you help me pick -the woman's mind. We can wait forever until you decide to do as I -order. There is no time here." - -Gordus was a blind old man stumbling in the dark. He hadn't seen Lad -join them inside the diagram. He probably wasn't even aware that Hammen -had the woman under tow. - -"Listen to me, Gordus. That about there being 'no time' here is a -mathematical abstraction. _Practically_, it has its limitations. There -is some flow of some kind of duration here, otherwise our questions and -answers would come at the same time." - -"What are you trying to teach me?" Gordus demanded. "I was a Companion -before you were born." - -"But then the Mindsnake wasn't so active or so powerful. If the -'duration' of our transmission is too long, he'll get a clear fix on -us--and that will be that." - -"I'll risk that. _Will you?_" - -"No," Hammen said. "You're a fool out here in transmission. You don't -know what you're doing. What do you expect of me?" - -"Link with me, Companion, as you should. Help me gain her knowledge." - - * * * * * - -Hammen knew that he was being asked to help gain access to information -intended for the Federation authorities on Earth. But he rarely thought -of himself as a Federal, and he knew very few worlds would allow -extradition of him on a Federal charge. At the moment, he was mainly -concerned with saving himself and his cargo from the Mindsnake. As -distasteful as it was, Gordus was a part of his cargo, and a man had to -have a few ideals. Gordus was not qualified to be a Companion after the -generations of growth of the Mindsnake. He was only a pitiful fool now. -(How long before the Snake gets so big I will not be qualified? How -long before _no one_ is qualified? How long before the Snake comes out -of null-space and stalks the planets?) - -Hammen shrugged and joined Gordus. - -They struck for the mind of the woman. - -Her name, they warned, Isodel. - -They found that out, and incredibly, more. - -In some way Gordus' mind paralleled the girl's. There was much of a -kind about them, and Gordus could piece together the fragments of -her identity. But then he was reaching down for something, and he -prestidigitated it up and out of sight. - -Hammen realized that Gordus had succeeded in getting what he wanted and -in keeping it from him. He was less of a doddering old fool than he -appeared. - -"What was that?" Hammen demanded. "What did you take?" - -He tried to shake it loose from the coordinator. - -"Let go of me!" Gordus cried out in immaterial indignity. - -Hammen released him. - -Completely. - -Gordus screamed soundlessly as he retreated toward infinity. - -"Shall I catch you?" Hammen asked. - -The scream changed in pitch. - -The Witch brought him back. - -"You stayed," Gordus said. "Somehow you stayed. That dog. Somehow -you've got your damned Familiar with you, haven't you, Witch?" - -"No," Hammen lied fluently. "Only feeble minds like yours require a -contact. Shall I tell you something about Witches? The Familiars are a -deception. We don't need them at all. We are lone wolves." - -"Wolves, are you? So now I know what your grandmother before you was." - -Hammen laughed. - -And sobered. - -"What did you take, Gordus?" he demanded. - -"What do you know about her?" asked Gordus. - -"Her name is Isodel." - -"Isodel Van Der Lies." - -"I've heard of her. Somewhere," Hammen said hesitantly. - - * * * * * - -"A great theoretician," the coordinator explained sullenly. "Probably -the first authentic female genius of the race of man. On a par with -Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Einstein." - -"What theory of hers were you after?" Hammen pursued. - -"A method of destroying the Mindsnake." - -"You want to take the credit from her." - -"I want only to take the theory from her, Hammen." - -"You mean you don't want the Mindsnake to be destroyed. You are afraid -its destruction would mean the end of the Companion Corps which you -head." - -"Not at all. I only want the theory so I can reverse it. Once you know -how to destroy the Mindsnake, you also know how to create one. You -see, I intend to become another Mindsnake, one who knows too much of -destruction to ever be destroyed." - -"Listen carefully, Gordus," Hammen said with infinite care. "You're -ill. You don't know what you're talking about. It can't be done." - -"The ultimate dream--ultimate power." - -"That's pure psychosis, Gordus!" - -"Is it? Watch how easily I begin to grow. I have the woman's mind now." - -It was true. - -The poor, mad genius woman was gone. - -"Stop it, Coordinator. You don't know what you're doing!" - -Hammen tried to reach him. - -"That's it, that's it. Come ahead, my boy. I'm becoming a Mindsnake. -Now I am a Mindsnake. Come ahead. Let me swallow you next." - -"You fool," Hammen broadcast. "You are _the_ Mindsnake now. Don't -you think anyone's ever wanted power before? Won't you let yourself -remember how it was when you were a Companion? This is how it _always_ -happens. You've let yourself be swallowed by the Snake. You ran right -into its jaws." - -"No." Gordus thought furiously. "I--" - -And the Snake digested the tiny egg in its gullet and "I" blurred and -was washed over by "All." - -Hammen struck at it in anger and humiliation and terror and it -retreated with frictionless speed. - -The Snake took something with it. - -It took Gordus, and it left that part of the woman, Isodel, that he had -been able to capture. But the part of Isodel matched by Gordus' mind -was jerked free. - -She was freed of hate, anger, lust.... - -She was left an impossibly ideal woman--all Mother, Sister, Lover.... - -Against his will, by immutable laws of nature, Hammen fell monstrously -in love with her. - - * * * * * - -Hammen was among the first of Companions or Witches to join the Suicide -Squadron. - -He did it to protect Isodel and her descendants for all time to come, -and he did it in impotent fury at his reason for doing it. - -The Companions transmitted in droves to abolish their profession. They -transmitted against the Mindsnake. - -The Federation on Earth had made use of Isodel's theories. They -were only a formal mathematical statement of what had always been -known--destruction reaches a critical mass and destroys itself by -turning against itself. - -Where Hammen had refused to join one human mind, he joined countless -ones in a huge drive against the Snake. - -They became one with each other and they became one with the Snake, -and the Snake turned on itself and destroyed itself and them, and they -turned on themselves--and stopped. - -They hung together for an unmeasurable time--and broke apart. - -They were a super-entity like the Snake. But where the Snake had been -mad, they were sane. - -They drifted through the haze of twilight and broke apart, their hands -gliding away into the shadows. - -Hammen was gloriously happy. He had never been happy before and he was -not at all sure he liked it. - -"Jobs are so hard to find these days," Isodel said, her lovely face -brightly sane. "What will you take up, darling?" - -"There's still need for Companions--and Witches," he explained. "There -seems more of a tendency for members of the cargo to drift away than -ever. The Mindsnake at least gave them something to resist, a foothold -of friction. Now there is nothing--nothing to do but drift, drift, -drift. People in transmission will need Companions for a long time to -come." - -"I need a Companion," lovely Isodel said. - -His heart leaped ridiculously. - -"But not a Witch," said gorgeous Isodel. - -Pain, very great physical pain. - -"I love you," priceless Isodel went on. "How could I help it? I am a -woman and I love the father image. You are my father--symbolically, -fortunately, not biologically. You held the sane part of me while -Gordus dragged off the unsane part. You gave me--_this_ me--birth. I -love you. But I don't love your dog." - -"My dog?" said Hammen. - -"No woman can marry a man _and_ his dog." - -"I see," said Hammen, seeing it all, and living. - - * * * * * - -You could see everything about yourself and live. It wasn't easy, but -you could do it. Especially if you had the training and experience of -being a Companion. Or a Witch. - -"It would kill Lad to separate him from me for long, you know," Hammen -said. - -Isodel's beautiful eyes misted. And she said in all her infuriating -gentleness, "Then it is impossible for us, if we have to destroy a -living--" - -"He's just a dog," he pointed out. "I would wring his neck cheerfully -if it would do any good. But it wouldn't." - -Isodel looked sad, and brave, and wonderful. - -"Don't you see, Isodel? It's _impossible_ for me to do the _right_ -thing. If it wasn't Lad, it would be another dog, and if it wasn't a -Familiar to make me a Witch, it would be something else to make me -different, because I am different. I have to live with that. Among the -right people, I am the left man." - -So he left her, and walked out of the Floating Gardens onto the walkway -and Lad fell in at his side, and he listened without anger to the -hushings and keenings of the crowd. - -"Witch! Witch!" - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mindsnake, by Jim Harmon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINDSNAKE *** - -***** This file should be named 60946.txt or 60946.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/9/4/60946/ - -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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