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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..37143ed --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64415 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64415) diff --git a/old/64415-0.txt b/old/64415-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fb374b3..0000000 --- a/old/64415-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,913 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mind Worms, by Moses Schere - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Mind Worms - -Author: Moses Schere - -Release Date: January 29, 2021 [eBook #64415] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIND WORMS *** - - - - - MIND WORMS - - By Moses Schere - - Glowing softly out there in the black - nothingness--writhing evilly--what was - their terrible power that could drive a - ship's crew gibbering out the airlocks? - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Spring 1948. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The ambassador, whose smile had grown fixed, whose thin, broad-domed -face was lined and tired, bowed before the screen saying, "Thank -you--thank you." - -On Earth, 26,000,000 miles away, a billion saw his final bow and -cheered him. "Luck! Luck! Luck!" they roared. - -His screen in his suite on the space ship _Ceres_ finally went blank -and the voice of the ship's operator cut in nervously, "I'll j-jibe -with the Center Room beam in a moment, sir." The operator, a capable -man, was frightened. The Ambassador had more reason to be frightened; -he took the moment in which he was unlinked from Earth to wipe one hand -nervously down across his face. - -"On C-Center Room, Ambass--" - -The operator at either end was cut off as the tight official beams met -in mid space. A different voice, older and deep bass, said, "Relax, -Phil." The Ambassador let his silvery cloak fall from its dramatic -sweep about his shoulders and stood naturally, tall, a little stooped, -heavy-shouldered, greying in the prime of his life at seventy-five. -His screen, which had been flashing to him a montage of the crowds in -Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the Champ de Mars, in Red Square, -filled with a view of Center Room, from which the Earth was governed. - -The bass voice, backed by a large and friendly smile, belonged to the -President, who sat at the head of the great ivory table in the huge, -soft-lit room. They all were there, the men whom custom deprived of -a name when it gave them their titles--the Executive Secretary, the -Coordinator for Education, the Coordinator for Energy, the Terrestrial -and Astral Coordinators for Commerce and the half-dozen others who -possessed the ten-year term. If, privately, they called each other -George and Ahmed and Sven, it was for relaxation from the standard of -dignity expected of them. - -At the foot of the table sat a small group of important guests, and -all the white, black, yellow and brown faces were turned to the image -of the Ambassador who waited for permission from the Venusians to step -upon Venus. - -"Take it easy, Phil," the President said. - -The Ambassador forced a smile. "Alec, when it's all over, I will." - -"It can't fail. The very fact that after fifty years of trying they're -finally willing to receive an Earthman and will consider trade--" -The President made, a large, gathering gesture: _Everything's in the -force-field_. "For fifty years," he said with the reassurance the -Ambassador so greatly needed, "we've been dropping them capsules of -Earth goods and the means to learn our language. Drop, drop, drop, and -we've worn away the stone. Can't fail, Phil." - -"I know," the Ambassador said. He thought: It isn't that. It was the -triple-distilled inferiority complex which gripped him and shook him. -The dread of the terrible brains below Venus' mist. - -One by one around the table they gave him brief, friendly God-speed. -The distinguished guests were properly more formal with, "The Assembled -Physicists have asked me to convey to you all our best wishes, -Ambassador," and more on that style. He thanked them gravely. - - * * * * * - -One guest, however, distinctly annoyed him. It was Rupert Hoag, the -last of the pioneers, that walking fossil from the first days of -space travel. "Wide-open, Ambassador," he creaked with an antiquarian -reference to atom-jets and a wave of his one hand that was not formal -at all. Otherwise crippled from long-ago radiations was Hoag, but at -a hundred and forty his one eye was bright. Probably he had not been -invited to the gathering but just had barged in, being one of the -half-dozen holders of High Privilege, that peculiar, all-inclusive -reward for distinguished service. The trouble with Hoag was that he -never would confine himself, like a decent old-timer, to remarking on -the progress his years had seen. - -This official farewell had a purpose. The men on Earth, secure and -sane, were trying to give one last tenuous thread of security to the -very sane, very well-adjusted (on Earth) Ambassador who in space was -ready for a mental crack-up. No psychiatry or long-distance hypnosis -had yet prevailed against the rampant inferiority, the primitive and -infantile desire to crawl and hide which came often to Earthmen in the -presence of alien, superior races. A foreigner who came to Earth they -could respect and that was all; a foreigner met after a trip through -space they met with their every fear and complex laid naked perhaps by -artificial gravity, by unknown rays--by something. - -Lampell, the first to make contact with the first unworldly race--Good -Lord, Lampell actually had been a contemporary of leering old Hoag, -there!--had met on Mars a cynical bunch of mental wizards who had had, -and still had the most unholy good time with the bumbling Earthmen who -would dare anything for trade. Of Lampell's crew, twelve out of forty -returned sane, half-dead but sane, and the twelve did not include -Lampell, first to set foot on Mars. That had been eighty years ago. -Two other cultures were discovered in the next thirty years, those on -Jupiter and upon Saturn's moon Phoebe. Always, the first few to expose -their naked, terrified minds to a cosmic sophistication met the same -fate. There was an old saying which the Ambassador now remembered a -little too clearly: - -_Crazy as an ambassador...._ - -The Ambassador jerked his hand away from his face. But all in Center -Room had seen the desperate gesture, made as though one could wipe away -fear. - -"Say, Ambassador." That was old Hoag. "Say, Ambassador, I've been -saving up something to tell you." - -Annoyance ran around the ivory table. But High Privilege was High -Privilege. All Hoag had to tell the public was that the Ten-year men -hadn't been polite to him-- - -"Say, Ambassador, you know, I had a funny experience once, my first -trip to Phoebe. Was the second trip made there, by the way. Mighty -funny experience and it wasn't ever made public, because you know how -things were." The old man chuckled rustily. "Nobody wanted to say -anything against space travel until all the stock was sold. But I've -been saving it up for a time just like this, to tell an Ambassador -who's on a spot. Been saving up--" Hoag's mind seemed to skip, and -he banged the table, laughing. "Yes sir, that was years before the -Phoebean platinum scandal, and what Rupert Hoag ever had to do with -that scandal, I'm _not_ saying!" - -The Ambassador said pointedly, "I understand that you were rather -fortunate upon Phoebe, Captain Hoag." His voice was unsteady with -anger. The President signalled across space, anxiously, that he should -please be patient. - -Hoag, still laughing and shaking his bald, scarred head reminiscently, -settled back in his chair of little tension-bubbles. "Take a load off -your feet, Ambassador, and listen. Wish I could give you a cigar." - -The Ambassador took a load off his feet while the old man lit up in -great comfort. As well, the Ambassador thought, to bore himself with -Hoag while waiting for a Venusian signal as to pace about with jangling -nerves. Soothing music, escapist motion pictures he could not listen to -or look at, not in the grip of inferiority and fear. - - * * * * * - -Hoag blew a smoke ring. "Those days, a space ship didn't go much faster -than that ring compared to nowadays. You know how we had to do when we -headed for an outside planet? Took off in the direction of the Earth's -revolution so our speed would be greater than Earth's and we'd tend to -spiral away from the Sun, and we'd have to take a gravity-pull off a -planet here and a gravity-pull off a planet there to detour us wherever -we wanted to go. Many's the ship missed connections, or with the metal -of those days she blew her tubes away and she's out there yet in an -orbit, just a coffin. Or those that first tried for Venus but went into -the Sun ... a lot of good friends of mine, Ambassador." The old man -stared bleakly ahead of him for a moment. - -"And of course there was just the radar that never could follow you -much beyond five million miles. I was the first one to circle the Moon, -y'know," he put in with senile pride. "Repaired a jet in mid-course. My -hand came off a month later. - -"But, as I was saying, this was on the way to Phoebe, and about a month -out...." - -The old man finally dug into his story and as he warmed up to it so -did his listeners, although with a kind of self-apology for being -interested in one of those gaudy old adventure yarns of the times when -the long ships had to stand on their tails to blast off the Earth. -They'd wobble up on polymerized liquid fuel, not daring to start the -atom-blast till they were well beyond the atmosphere, then jerk away -at the heads of their beautiful, wasteful fiery trains. Even the early -atom-drive required conservation, so that it was necessary to take -those long leap-frog curves from gravity-field to gravity-field, during -which, as the ship coasted, its blast-eroded tube liners could be -replaced. - -The _Lone Star_, Hoag's ship--he was an unregenerate Texan--had to cut -her drive on one of these occasions. A number of her crew, in shielded -clumsy space suits, were at work at the stern upon those terrifically -radio-active liners while they hoped for the best. Her primitive -screens picked up some approaching objects and in a little while the -great worms, almost as long as the 500-foot ship, faintly glowing, swam -into plain view against the backdrop of illimitable stars. - -"Worms," Hoag repeated, waving his cigar. "Space-worms." - -They were perhaps ten times as long as they were thick, blunt-ended, -with a cluster of tentacles at each end and another cluster belting -them in the middle, all the tentacles gently moving and apparently -propelling them. They were covered, including the tentacles, with a -crystalline shell that had no visible opening, but there was an eye -that swam under this shell anywhere along the body. What metabolic -process they sustained in space could not be said. It probably was -similar to that of the solar nautilus which floats in great colonies, -paper shelled, on the pressure of light inside the orbit of Mercury, -each colony like one vast resentful brain. - -There were six of these worms. They gyrated in peculiar patterns, -at one time joining their bodies to form a gigantic hoop around the -ship. Different radiation patterns were made evident upon the ship's -dials, and it was obvious that these vermiform beings were trying to -communicate. Neither Hoag nor his two interpreters could make anything -of the radiation patterns, and one of the interpreters, after trying -hard, sat blindly in a corner and shivered. - -Inferiority complex. Or that for a beginning while alien minds strove -impatiently to penetrate the naked and shivering Earth minds. This was -space, and worse it was space in the old times before warp-vibrant -communication, before rattled Earthmen could scream to a home base for -moral support. - -The crew was still out there at the tubes when those worms came along, -and before they could crawl or jet their way to the airlock, one of the -worms plucked up a crew member. It was Able-bodied Spaceman Kroner, as -capable and steady and fearless a man who ever had boarded the _Lone -Star_. Kroner was seen at first to go rigid while the worm held him -with two tentacles and looked him over with that submerged, swimming -eye. - -Suddenly Kroner blasted his oxygen-alcohol shoulder jets. The worm let -him go and recoiled. - -[Illustration: _Suddenly Kroner blasted his shoulder jets._] - - * * * * * - -Kroner slammed away into space, into nothingness. Suddenly, almost -at the half-limit of his short supply of fuel, he turned on his own -axis. He was expert, this Kroner, and had flipped his jet control so -perfectly that he had turned a hundred and eighty degrees and for a -couple of seconds he kept going directly backward on momentum against -the jets' renewed forward blast. While that happened he jerked his arms -and legs in a wild, running motion, running as though forward while -still going backward. It was a comic thing to see. - -But at the instant of equilibrium between forward motion and backward -motion, those in the _Lone Star's_ control compartment caught Kroner's -face at a high magnification upon the screen. - -"He'd been frightened mad," Hoag said. "We didn't need any doctor to -tell us. We saw his face. And what he was shrieking all that time was, -'Ma--Ma--Ma--Ma--'" - -He came at _Lone Star_ like a meteor, his arms outstretched as though -running to the safety of maternal arms, and he hit the space ship so -hard that he started a seam in her outer skin. Whether he was killed -by the impact or by the rupture of his suit was a rhetorical question. -The man's body exploded outward in frozen streamers through the rents -in the suit. The space worm plucked him up, examined him, casually tore -the broken suit and the corpse into pieces.... - -And, in the control compartment, the Second Officer began to scream and -to hide, forcing his way into an impossible recess behind a switchboard. - -Inferiority complex. That, the helpless psychologists always said, was -at the root of the madness when space travelers' primitive fears and -emotions were lashed up by the whip of space. Lampell, long ago, seemed -to have brought back a virus from some planet, an endemic disease -that took control of all but the most hearty when confronted by new, -terrible, intelligent life forms. - -"It was the cold knowingness of those worms," Hoag said reflectively. -"It was the feeling that you were licked before you started. I felt -the complex, and I had a terrible desire to escape my death. The only -refuge for my mind, from those merciless minds, was in death. If I -hadn't been a captain, with responsibility such an instinct within me, -maybe I would have picked up a gun ... but I didn't." - -He forced himself to try to communicate. There was radio and radar -and the first model of the beam. They ignored them all. And finally, -with an effort of will against the fear which literally sickened him, -he put on a suit and went out upon the shell of _Lone Star_ with a -paint-spray. The worms watched while he painted for them that ancient, -universal mathematical proposition, _The sum of the squares of the -sides equals the square of the hypotenuse_. - -They looked, with their horrible eyes. And finally, all together, they -turned away in unmistakable disgust. - -They began to build a little solar system. - -Of nothingness they fashioned the black spheres--flipped them into -shape with complicated motions of their tentacles. Nine they made, -and set them in space with an approximation of the distances between -the planetary orbits. It was the same kind of approximation which is -necessary in any model of the solar system, for no model in which the -planets are of recognizable size can cope, in scale, with inter-orbital -distances. - -Finally the worms grouped themselves in the center of all, merging -their body glow into a fair replica of the sun. And all the eyes -watched the space ship while they waited for the stupid little beings -within to understand. - -"Couldn't reach our poor minds with their vibrations, so they gave -us something solid to look at. What did it mean? That they were the -architects of the solar system? Some of my crew were screaming we had -met God. All I knew was that we had to get out of there while a few -of us were sane. Finally I drove a work gang outside to the tubes -again, leading them myself, and we got to work on the liners, trying -not to look at the worms and their solar system but feeling their eyes -and feeling their awful, overpowering intelligence right through our -suits...." - -A buzzer cut in, not upon the tight beam but upon the _Ceres'_ -communicator. - -"Excuse me, Captain Hoag," the Ambassador said acidly. "There is word -from Venus: It seems I have _business_ to attend to." - -The old man, back on Earth, paused, and the President said, "We'll stay -on beam, Phil, till you go." - -"Say, wait a minute," Hoag said anxiously. "I didn't get to the point -of the story." - -But the Ambassador had walked out of the room. - -He met the _Ceres'_ captain hurrying toward him, white-faced. Infected -by the man's haste and half-hysterical injunction to waste no time, he -almost ran to the special communications compartment. - - * * * * * - -Here, in a screen whose outside viewer pointed downward, he saw the -smooth, liquid-seeming blanket of Venusian grey clouds, weirdly touched -with iridescence by a blinding sun. The clouds, believed to be over a -hundred miles thick, blanketed the entire planet. They might contain -water and oxygen somewhere below; here, where they touched space, -they were metallic vapor charged so heavily that no beam could ever -penetrate them. The Martians, who awesomely never lied, had told -Earthmen that Venusians existed; told them contemptuously. It would -not be wise to attempt a landing upon Venus without permission, the -Martians had said. Not wise for Earthmen, at any rate. - -Because of the peculiar vapor there never had been electronic or -warp communication with Venus. So far, the only message from below -those clouds had come a month before to one of the patiently waiting, -patiently capsule-dropping ships--the permission to land one unarmed -ambassador. The Ambassador saw now that communication this time had -been by the same means. A rocket had come up through the clouds, -trailing a wire, and had been caught in the great cable net extended -behind the space ship. - -"I had the wire plugged immediately," the sweating captain said. -"Expected to tell them to wait a minute and I'd put the Ambassador on. -But they're not listening to us, just telling us. And there's a time -limit. I would have had a line run to your suite if I'd known there was -a time limit, but I should have known there'd be a time limit, I should -have known how they act, all these races, because we're so feeble and -stupid compared--" - -The man almost was gibbering. The Ambassador slapped his shoulder -heavily and stopped him. The Ambassador wanted a slap himself and his -hand missed the first time as he reached for the loud-speaker stud. - -The voice came instantly, so mechanical and uninflected that it -occurred to him that a machine had spoken into a recording machine. The -Venusians must be so unearthly as to be unable to manage Earth sounds, -if they made sounds at all. - -"... authority will advise him on the question of trade with Earth. He -will be freed one hour thereafter. Your ship must remain in the same -position meanwhile. The ambassador from Earth will leave your ship in -precisely eighteen minutes proceeding directly downward. He will be -picked up by our ship within the clouds. In this ship a representative -of fifth authority will advise him on the question of trade with Earth. -He will be freed one hour thereafter. Your ship must remain in the -same position meanwhile. The ambassador from Earth will leave your -ship in precisely eighteen minutes proceeding directly--" - -The Ambassador snapped the stud, his teeth gritted hard against a -trembling. He was not even to land upon the alien planet, then. Not -even to talk to the head of government but with "a representative of -fifth authority." It was so condescending, so contemptuous--and so -deserved, of course, he thought, staring at the captain who stared -wild-eyed. You wanted to run. You wanted to hide. Already you felt -them inside your mind ruthlessly peering, destroying. _As crazy as an -ambassador._ - -Contemptuous time limit of eighteen minutes! They'd been told that it -took a minimum of sixteen minutes to get into a space suit. - -"My suit! The dressers!" shouted the Ambassador. Remembering the -Ten-year men who waited to reassure him, and badly needing one last -contact--"Bring everything to the Earth screen!" - -As he fled the room he saw, in the screen which showed Venus, a vast -silvery ovoid lift momentarily to the surface of the vapor, then sink -slightly and remain in a suggestion of menace neither in sight nor out -of sight, waiting to engulf him. - - * * * * * - -When he faced the Earth screen two expert dressers flung themselves -upon him with the pneumatic pads whose donning before the space suit -took care and time. In Center Room, all the perfectly sane, shielded -men attempted to convey by smiles their confidence in the shuddering -creature being lapped in weirdness. The Ambassador strove with all his -considerable mental power to hold the impression of those reassuring -smiles. - -And that doddering fool, Hoag, with his one arm waving unwanted -friendliness, said, "Ahoy Ambassador! Now we can get to the point of -that story." - -A story about superior merciless beings, calculated to break the last -weak thread of a man's confidence! "Shut up!" the Ambassador wanted to -scream across space. And would have, had not the dressers jammed his -mouth closed, at that moment, as they adjusted a throat pad. - -On Earth, too, they tried to shut up Hoag but they couldn't. "I'm not -the old fool you think I am," he said. "Listen! Ambassador--gentlemen, -High Privilege!--Ambassador," he said urgently, "I told you I've been -saving this story to tell an Ambassador at the last minute when he's in -the spot you're in. I've been waiting fifty years. Listen! - -"The vermiforms made this little solar system and we didn't understand, -couldn't understand. We got our liners replaced finally and no more -than half of us were capable of standing a watch when we blasted off. -Ambassador, we blasted the hell out of there! - -"The vermiforms stayed where they were for a few seconds. Then they -began to follow. We were streaming a good train, of course, the old -fission train, a couple of miles of very fancy destruction and waste. -So the worms came along. They overtook us easy. And they began to dance -in and out of our train. - -"Yes sir, Ambassador, they weaved and they circled in and out of that -awful atom-blast. And I knew that the atom-blast will kill anything, -chop through any armor. But not those worms! _Now_ they showed us how -superior they were! _Now_ they made fun of our power! - -"And I wanted to run and hide where my officer was hiding down among -the mattresses we rigged for him among the girders along the keel. My -mind was scarred by space and by everything that Earthmen were not born -to-- - -"And then it happened." - -Adjustments now had been made and the Ambassador could speak while the -dressers almost threw him into the inner suit. His hand clawed his face -and he said hoarsely, "For God's sake man, spare me!" - -"And then it happened!" old Hoag shouted, thrusting away from those in -the Center Room who were now trying physically to shut him up. "The -worms died! They died in the atom-blast!" - -The Ambassador stared, and around the ivory table they stared at the -last of the pioneers. - -"Died! The vermiforms' natural armor was proof against all the rays of -space and it held out against the atom-blast for a quarter of minute. -But then it went. One after the other they went limp and the blast -spewed them backward and we could see the spreading holes in them. And -then they were out of sight, dead, killed because they hadn't known -any better, by George! - -"And we went on to Phoebe and got along better than anyone else with -the things that sit inside their crystals, thinking. Got the platinum -nobody else could take. Because we knew that the universe can breed -morons, incompetents! The crystal people are smarter than Earthmen, -sure. But at least we knew we were smarter than somebody else! - -"Don't you see, Ambassador," the old man said earnestly, "that only the -inferiority complex kept us from knowing right away that those worms -were no better than children? They hadn't been trying to send us any -message with radiations. No, it had been only the natural radiations of -their bodies, changing as they changed their formations around us--as -they _played_. One of them picked up poor Kroner. Why not? The thing -was curious. Took him apart, later, the way a child will take apart a -toy. My business with the square on the hypotenuse? Hell, how could -they understand when they'd never learned any mathematics?" - -"How could they?" the Ambassador echoed, and he was smiling. - -"And that little trick of theirs, making a solar system. Well, don't -you see that they had to show off? One of their natural functions is -simply gathering and stacking together the scattered atoms of space. -I'll bet they can't make anything but black balls of amorphous matter. -It's possible they build themselves a little world here and there to -lay their eggs on, or something. So, there they were feeling kind of -abashed because they had no space ship or anything, so they just had to -show us what they could do, and that they actually had gone and counted -the planets of this system--on their tentacles, I'll bet, since they -had more than nine tentacles. And wasn't it childish, getting together -in the middle to show us a nice, glowing sun?" - - * * * * * - -They were locking the thorax section on the Ambassador. He stood -straight and silent. Very straight. - -"Ambassador," the old man pleaded over thirty million miles, "you -don't _know_ what you're going to meet on Venus. You don't _know_ -that they're particularly smart. And they don't know about you. Maybe -they're a little afraid of you. Maybe they're a _lot_ afraid of you. We -don't know one way. But we don't know the other. - -"But you know now, the best way and the best minute I can tell you, -that some pretty dumb creatures live beyond Earth. Now, the way my -grandfather's grandfather used to say, you wouldn't start selling your -horse to a stranger by telling him that your horse is no good?" - -Silence, then, on the beam from Earth to Venus. - -The dressers began to lower the helmet over the Ambassador's head. He -stopped them. "Wait a minute." - -Still that nakedness in his mind, and the fear ready to pounce again. -But that was only an effect of space, not Venusians. Or was it simply -Lampell's heritage. A conditioning? - -And that contemptuous message, with its almost-impossible time limit -and its pointed refusal to allow him to set foot upon Venus and its -"representative of the fifth authority." He didn't know one way and -he didn't know the other, but it could be a defense mechanism on the -Venusians' part. - -In Center Room an old, old man had slumped in his chair, exhausted, -reduced to crippled flesh that bore one bright, brave Earthman's eye. -The Ambassador waved. The old-timer waved back eagerly. - -"Gentlemen," said the Ambassador formally, but he spoke to the one -adventurer, "I thought I was in a hurry but I've decided I've plenty of -time. I think it will be a very good idea to open these negotiations by -keeping the other party waiting." - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIND WORMS *** - -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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Mind Worms</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Moses Schere</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 29, 2021 [eBook #64415]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIND WORMS ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>MIND WORMS</h1> - -<h2>By Moses Schere</h2> - -<p>Glowing softly out there in the black<br /> -nothingness—writhing evilly—what was<br /> -their terrible power that could drive a<br /> -ship's crew gibbering out the airlocks?</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Spring 1948.<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>The ambassador, whose smile had grown fixed, whose thin, broad-domed -face was lined and tired, bowed before the screen saying, "Thank -you—thank you."</p> - -<p>On Earth, 26,000,000 miles away, a billion saw his final bow and -cheered him. "Luck! Luck! Luck!" they roared.</p> - -<p>His screen in his suite on the space ship <i>Ceres</i> finally went blank -and the voice of the ship's operator cut in nervously, "I'll j-jibe -with the Center Room beam in a moment, sir." The operator, a capable -man, was frightened. The Ambassador had more reason to be frightened; -he took the moment in which he was unlinked from Earth to wipe one hand -nervously down across his face.</p> - -<p>"On C-Center Room, Ambass—"</p> - -<p>The operator at either end was cut off as the tight official beams met -in mid space. A different voice, older and deep bass, said, "Relax, -Phil." The Ambassador let his silvery cloak fall from its dramatic -sweep about his shoulders and stood naturally, tall, a little stooped, -heavy-shouldered, greying in the prime of his life at seventy-five. -His screen, which had been flashing to him a montage of the crowds in -Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the Champ de Mars, in Red Square, -filled with a view of Center Room, from which the Earth was governed.</p> - -<p>The bass voice, backed by a large and friendly smile, belonged to the -President, who sat at the head of the great ivory table in the huge, -soft-lit room. They all were there, the men whom custom deprived of -a name when it gave them their titles—the Executive Secretary, the -Coordinator for Education, the Coordinator for Energy, the Terrestrial -and Astral Coordinators for Commerce and the half-dozen others who -possessed the ten-year term. If, privately, they called each other -George and Ahmed and Sven, it was for relaxation from the standard of -dignity expected of them.</p> - -<p>At the foot of the table sat a small group of important guests, and -all the white, black, yellow and brown faces were turned to the image -of the Ambassador who waited for permission from the Venusians to step -upon Venus.</p> - -<p>"Take it easy, Phil," the President said.</p> - -<p>The Ambassador forced a smile. "Alec, when it's all over, I will."</p> - -<p>"It can't fail. The very fact that after fifty years of trying they're -finally willing to receive an Earthman and will consider trade—" -The President made, a large, gathering gesture: <i>Everything's in the -force-field</i>. "For fifty years," he said with the reassurance the -Ambassador so greatly needed, "we've been dropping them capsules of -Earth goods and the means to learn our language. Drop, drop, drop, and -we've worn away the stone. Can't fail, Phil."</p> - -<p>"I know," the Ambassador said. He thought: It isn't that. It was the -triple-distilled inferiority complex which gripped him and shook him. -The dread of the terrible brains below Venus' mist.</p> - -<p>One by one around the table they gave him brief, friendly God-speed. -The distinguished guests were properly more formal with, "The Assembled -Physicists have asked me to convey to you all our best wishes, -Ambassador," and more on that style. He thanked them gravely.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>One guest, however, distinctly annoyed him. It was Rupert Hoag, the -last of the pioneers, that walking fossil from the first days of -space travel. "Wide-open, Ambassador," he creaked with an antiquarian -reference to atom-jets and a wave of his one hand that was not formal -at all. Otherwise crippled from long-ago radiations was Hoag, but at -a hundred and forty his one eye was bright. Probably he had not been -invited to the gathering but just had barged in, being one of the -half-dozen holders of High Privilege, that peculiar, all-inclusive -reward for distinguished service. The trouble with Hoag was that he -never would confine himself, like a decent old-timer, to remarking on -the progress his years had seen.</p> - -<p>This official farewell had a purpose. The men on Earth, secure and -sane, were trying to give one last tenuous thread of security to the -very sane, very well-adjusted (on Earth) Ambassador who in space was -ready for a mental crack-up. No psychiatry or long-distance hypnosis -had yet prevailed against the rampant inferiority, the primitive and -infantile desire to crawl and hide which came often to Earthmen in the -presence of alien, superior races. A foreigner who came to Earth they -could respect and that was all; a foreigner met after a trip through -space they met with their every fear and complex laid naked perhaps by -artificial gravity, by unknown rays—by something.</p> - -<p>Lampell, the first to make contact with the first unworldly race—Good -Lord, Lampell actually had been a contemporary of leering old Hoag, -there!—had met on Mars a cynical bunch of mental wizards who had had, -and still had the most unholy good time with the bumbling Earthmen who -would dare anything for trade. Of Lampell's crew, twelve out of forty -returned sane, half-dead but sane, and the twelve did not include -Lampell, first to set foot on Mars. That had been eighty years ago. -Two other cultures were discovered in the next thirty years, those on -Jupiter and upon Saturn's moon Phoebe. Always, the first few to expose -their naked, terrified minds to a cosmic sophistication met the same -fate. There was an old saying which the Ambassador now remembered a -little too clearly:</p> - -<p><i>Crazy as an ambassador....</i></p> - -<p>The Ambassador jerked his hand away from his face. But all in Center -Room had seen the desperate gesture, made as though one could wipe away -fear.</p> - -<p>"Say, Ambassador." That was old Hoag. "Say, Ambassador, I've been -saving up something to tell you."</p> - -<p>Annoyance ran around the ivory table. But High Privilege was High -Privilege. All Hoag had to tell the public was that the Ten-year men -hadn't been polite to him—</p> - -<p>"Say, Ambassador, you know, I had a funny experience once, my first -trip to Phoebe. Was the second trip made there, by the way. Mighty -funny experience and it wasn't ever made public, because you know how -things were." The old man chuckled rustily. "Nobody wanted to say -anything against space travel until all the stock was sold. But I've -been saving it up for a time just like this, to tell an Ambassador -who's on a spot. Been saving up—" Hoag's mind seemed to skip, and -he banged the table, laughing. "Yes sir, that was years before the -Phoebean platinum scandal, and what Rupert Hoag ever had to do with -that scandal, I'm <i>not</i> saying!"</p> - -<p>The Ambassador said pointedly, "I understand that you were rather -fortunate upon Phoebe, Captain Hoag." His voice was unsteady with -anger. The President signalled across space, anxiously, that he should -please be patient.</p> - -<p>Hoag, still laughing and shaking his bald, scarred head reminiscently, -settled back in his chair of little tension-bubbles. "Take a load off -your feet, Ambassador, and listen. Wish I could give you a cigar."</p> - -<p>The Ambassador took a load off his feet while the old man lit up in -great comfort. As well, the Ambassador thought, to bore himself with -Hoag while waiting for a Venusian signal as to pace about with jangling -nerves. Soothing music, escapist motion pictures he could not listen to -or look at, not in the grip of inferiority and fear.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hoag blew a smoke ring. "Those days, a space ship didn't go much faster -than that ring compared to nowadays. You know how we had to do when we -headed for an outside planet? Took off in the direction of the Earth's -revolution so our speed would be greater than Earth's and we'd tend to -spiral away from the Sun, and we'd have to take a gravity-pull off a -planet here and a gravity-pull off a planet there to detour us wherever -we wanted to go. Many's the ship missed connections, or with the metal -of those days she blew her tubes away and she's out there yet in an -orbit, just a coffin. Or those that first tried for Venus but went into -the Sun ... a lot of good friends of mine, Ambassador." The old man -stared bleakly ahead of him for a moment.</p> - -<p>"And of course there was just the radar that never could follow you -much beyond five million miles. I was the first one to circle the Moon, -y'know," he put in with senile pride. "Repaired a jet in mid-course. My -hand came off a month later.</p> - -<p>"But, as I was saying, this was on the way to Phoebe, and about a month -out...."</p> - -<p>The old man finally dug into his story and as he warmed up to it so -did his listeners, although with a kind of self-apology for being -interested in one of those gaudy old adventure yarns of the times when -the long ships had to stand on their tails to blast off the Earth. -They'd wobble up on polymerized liquid fuel, not daring to start the -atom-blast till they were well beyond the atmosphere, then jerk away -at the heads of their beautiful, wasteful fiery trains. Even the early -atom-drive required conservation, so that it was necessary to take -those long leap-frog curves from gravity-field to gravity-field, during -which, as the ship coasted, its blast-eroded tube liners could be -replaced.</p> - -<p>The <i>Lone Star</i>, Hoag's ship—he was an unregenerate Texan—had to cut -her drive on one of these occasions. A number of her crew, in shielded -clumsy space suits, were at work at the stern upon those terrifically -radio-active liners while they hoped for the best. Her primitive -screens picked up some approaching objects and in a little while the -great worms, almost as long as the 500-foot ship, faintly glowing, swam -into plain view against the backdrop of illimitable stars.</p> - -<p>"Worms," Hoag repeated, waving his cigar. "Space-worms."</p> - -<p>They were perhaps ten times as long as they were thick, blunt-ended, -with a cluster of tentacles at each end and another cluster belting -them in the middle, all the tentacles gently moving and apparently -propelling them. They were covered, including the tentacles, with a -crystalline shell that had no visible opening, but there was an eye -that swam under this shell anywhere along the body. What metabolic -process they sustained in space could not be said. It probably was -similar to that of the solar nautilus which floats in great colonies, -paper shelled, on the pressure of light inside the orbit of Mercury, -each colony like one vast resentful brain.</p> - -<p>There were six of these worms. They gyrated in peculiar patterns, -at one time joining their bodies to form a gigantic hoop around the -ship. Different radiation patterns were made evident upon the ship's -dials, and it was obvious that these vermiform beings were trying to -communicate. Neither Hoag nor his two interpreters could make anything -of the radiation patterns, and one of the interpreters, after trying -hard, sat blindly in a corner and shivered.</p> - -<p>Inferiority complex. Or that for a beginning while alien minds strove -impatiently to penetrate the naked and shivering Earth minds. This was -space, and worse it was space in the old times before warp-vibrant -communication, before rattled Earthmen could scream to a home base for -moral support.</p> - -<p>The crew was still out there at the tubes when those worms came along, -and before they could crawl or jet their way to the airlock, one of the -worms plucked up a crew member. It was Able-bodied Spaceman Kroner, as -capable and steady and fearless a man who ever had boarded the <i>Lone -Star</i>. Kroner was seen at first to go rigid while the worm held him -with two tentacles and looked him over with that submerged, swimming -eye.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Kroner blasted his oxygen-alcohol shoulder jets. The worm let -him go and recoiled.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>Suddenly Kroner blasted his shoulder jets.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Kroner slammed away into space, into nothingness. Suddenly, almost -at the half-limit of his short supply of fuel, he turned on his own -axis. He was expert, this Kroner, and had flipped his jet control so -perfectly that he had turned a hundred and eighty degrees and for a -couple of seconds he kept going directly backward on momentum against -the jets' renewed forward blast. While that happened he jerked his arms -and legs in a wild, running motion, running as though forward while -still going backward. It was a comic thing to see.</p> - -<p>But at the instant of equilibrium between forward motion and backward -motion, those in the <i>Lone Star's</i> control compartment caught Kroner's -face at a high magnification upon the screen.</p> - -<p>"He'd been frightened mad," Hoag said. "We didn't need any doctor to -tell us. We saw his face. And what he was shrieking all that time was, -'Ma—Ma—Ma—Ma—'"</p> - -<p>He came at <i>Lone Star</i> like a meteor, his arms outstretched as though -running to the safety of maternal arms, and he hit the space ship so -hard that he started a seam in her outer skin. Whether he was killed -by the impact or by the rupture of his suit was a rhetorical question. -The man's body exploded outward in frozen streamers through the rents -in the suit. The space worm plucked him up, examined him, casually tore -the broken suit and the corpse into pieces....</p> - -<p>And, in the control compartment, the Second Officer began to scream and -to hide, forcing his way into an impossible recess behind a switchboard.</p> - -<p>Inferiority complex. That, the helpless psychologists always said, was -at the root of the madness when space travelers' primitive fears and -emotions were lashed up by the whip of space. Lampell, long ago, seemed -to have brought back a virus from some planet, an endemic disease -that took control of all but the most hearty when confronted by new, -terrible, intelligent life forms.</p> - -<p>"It was the cold knowingness of those worms," Hoag said reflectively. -"It was the feeling that you were licked before you started. I felt -the complex, and I had a terrible desire to escape my death. The only -refuge for my mind, from those merciless minds, was in death. If I -hadn't been a captain, with responsibility such an instinct within me, -maybe I would have picked up a gun ... but I didn't."</p> - -<p>He forced himself to try to communicate. There was radio and radar -and the first model of the beam. They ignored them all. And finally, -with an effort of will against the fear which literally sickened him, -he put on a suit and went out upon the shell of <i>Lone Star</i> with a -paint-spray. The worms watched while he painted for them that ancient, -universal mathematical proposition, <i>The sum of the squares of the -sides equals the square of the hypotenuse</i>.</p> - -<p>They looked, with their horrible eyes. And finally, all together, they -turned away in unmistakable disgust.</p> - -<p>They began to build a little solar system.</p> - -<p>Of nothingness they fashioned the black spheres—flipped them into -shape with complicated motions of their tentacles. Nine they made, -and set them in space with an approximation of the distances between -the planetary orbits. It was the same kind of approximation which is -necessary in any model of the solar system, for no model in which the -planets are of recognizable size can cope, in scale, with inter-orbital -distances.</p> - -<p>Finally the worms grouped themselves in the center of all, merging -their body glow into a fair replica of the sun. And all the eyes -watched the space ship while they waited for the stupid little beings -within to understand.</p> - -<p>"Couldn't reach our poor minds with their vibrations, so they gave -us something solid to look at. What did it mean? That they were the -architects of the solar system? Some of my crew were screaming we had -met God. All I knew was that we had to get out of there while a few -of us were sane. Finally I drove a work gang outside to the tubes -again, leading them myself, and we got to work on the liners, trying -not to look at the worms and their solar system but feeling their eyes -and feeling their awful, overpowering intelligence right through our -suits...."</p> - -<p>A buzzer cut in, not upon the tight beam but upon the <i>Ceres'</i> -communicator.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, Captain Hoag," the Ambassador said acidly. "There is word -from Venus: It seems I have <i>business</i> to attend to."</p> - -<p>The old man, back on Earth, paused, and the President said, "We'll stay -on beam, Phil, till you go."</p> - -<p>"Say, wait a minute," Hoag said anxiously. "I didn't get to the point -of the story."</p> - -<p>But the Ambassador had walked out of the room.</p> - -<p>He met the <i>Ceres'</i> captain hurrying toward him, white-faced. Infected -by the man's haste and half-hysterical injunction to waste no time, he -almost ran to the special communications compartment.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Here, in a screen whose outside viewer pointed downward, he saw the -smooth, liquid-seeming blanket of Venusian grey clouds, weirdly touched -with iridescence by a blinding sun. The clouds, believed to be over a -hundred miles thick, blanketed the entire planet. They might contain -water and oxygen somewhere below; here, where they touched space, -they were metallic vapor charged so heavily that no beam could ever -penetrate them. The Martians, who awesomely never lied, had told -Earthmen that Venusians existed; told them contemptuously. It would -not be wise to attempt a landing upon Venus without permission, the -Martians had said. Not wise for Earthmen, at any rate.</p> - -<p>Because of the peculiar vapor there never had been electronic or -warp communication with Venus. So far, the only message from below -those clouds had come a month before to one of the patiently waiting, -patiently capsule-dropping ships—the permission to land one unarmed -ambassador. The Ambassador saw now that communication this time had -been by the same means. A rocket had come up through the clouds, -trailing a wire, and had been caught in the great cable net extended -behind the space ship.</p> - -<p>"I had the wire plugged immediately," the sweating captain said. -"Expected to tell them to wait a minute and I'd put the Ambassador on. -But they're not listening to us, just telling us. And there's a time -limit. I would have had a line run to your suite if I'd known there was -a time limit, but I should have known there'd be a time limit, I should -have known how they act, all these races, because we're so feeble and -stupid compared—"</p> - -<p>The man almost was gibbering. The Ambassador slapped his shoulder -heavily and stopped him. The Ambassador wanted a slap himself and his -hand missed the first time as he reached for the loud-speaker stud.</p> - -<p>The voice came instantly, so mechanical and uninflected that it -occurred to him that a machine had spoken into a recording machine. The -Venusians must be so unearthly as to be unable to manage Earth sounds, -if they made sounds at all.</p> - -<p>"... authority will advise him on the question of trade with Earth. He -will be freed one hour thereafter. Your ship must remain in the same -position meanwhile. The ambassador from Earth will leave your ship in -precisely eighteen minutes proceeding directly downward. He will be -picked up by our ship within the clouds. In this ship a representative -of fifth authority will advise him on the question of trade with Earth. -He will be freed one hour thereafter. Your ship must remain in the -same position meanwhile. The ambassador from Earth will leave your -ship in precisely eighteen minutes proceeding directly—"</p> - -<p>The Ambassador snapped the stud, his teeth gritted hard against a -trembling. He was not even to land upon the alien planet, then. Not -even to talk to the head of government but with "a representative of -fifth authority." It was so condescending, so contemptuous—and so -deserved, of course, he thought, staring at the captain who stared -wild-eyed. You wanted to run. You wanted to hide. Already you felt -them inside your mind ruthlessly peering, destroying. <i>As crazy as an -ambassador.</i></p> - -<p>Contemptuous time limit of eighteen minutes! They'd been told that it -took a minimum of sixteen minutes to get into a space suit.</p> - -<p>"My suit! The dressers!" shouted the Ambassador. Remembering the -Ten-year men who waited to reassure him, and badly needing one last -contact—"Bring everything to the Earth screen!"</p> - -<p>As he fled the room he saw, in the screen which showed Venus, a vast -silvery ovoid lift momentarily to the surface of the vapor, then sink -slightly and remain in a suggestion of menace neither in sight nor out -of sight, waiting to engulf him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When he faced the Earth screen two expert dressers flung themselves -upon him with the pneumatic pads whose donning before the space suit -took care and time. In Center Room, all the perfectly sane, shielded -men attempted to convey by smiles their confidence in the shuddering -creature being lapped in weirdness. The Ambassador strove with all his -considerable mental power to hold the impression of those reassuring -smiles.</p> - -<p>And that doddering fool, Hoag, with his one arm waving unwanted -friendliness, said, "Ahoy Ambassador! Now we can get to the point of -that story."</p> - -<p>A story about superior merciless beings, calculated to break the last -weak thread of a man's confidence! "Shut up!" the Ambassador wanted to -scream across space. And would have, had not the dressers jammed his -mouth closed, at that moment, as they adjusted a throat pad.</p> - -<p>On Earth, too, they tried to shut up Hoag but they couldn't. "I'm not -the old fool you think I am," he said. "Listen! Ambassador—gentlemen, -High Privilege!—Ambassador," he said urgently, "I told you I've been -saving this story to tell an Ambassador at the last minute when he's in -the spot you're in. I've been waiting fifty years. Listen!</p> - -<p>"The vermiforms made this little solar system and we didn't understand, -couldn't understand. We got our liners replaced finally and no more -than half of us were capable of standing a watch when we blasted off. -Ambassador, we blasted the hell out of there!</p> - -<p>"The vermiforms stayed where they were for a few seconds. Then they -began to follow. We were streaming a good train, of course, the old -fission train, a couple of miles of very fancy destruction and waste. -So the worms came along. They overtook us easy. And they began to dance -in and out of our train.</p> - -<p>"Yes sir, Ambassador, they weaved and they circled in and out of that -awful atom-blast. And I knew that the atom-blast will kill anything, -chop through any armor. But not those worms! <i>Now</i> they showed us how -superior they were! <i>Now</i> they made fun of our power!</p> - -<p>"And I wanted to run and hide where my officer was hiding down among -the mattresses we rigged for him among the girders along the keel. My -mind was scarred by space and by everything that Earthmen were not born -to—</p> - -<p>"And then it happened."</p> - -<p>Adjustments now had been made and the Ambassador could speak while the -dressers almost threw him into the inner suit. His hand clawed his face -and he said hoarsely, "For God's sake man, spare me!"</p> - -<p>"And then it happened!" old Hoag shouted, thrusting away from those in -the Center Room who were now trying physically to shut him up. "The -worms died! They died in the atom-blast!"</p> - -<p>The Ambassador stared, and around the ivory table they stared at the -last of the pioneers.</p> - -<p>"Died! The vermiforms' natural armor was proof against all the rays of -space and it held out against the atom-blast for a quarter of minute. -But then it went. One after the other they went limp and the blast -spewed them backward and we could see the spreading holes in them. And -then they were out of sight, dead, killed because they hadn't known -any better, by George!</p> - -<p>"And we went on to Phoebe and got along better than anyone else with -the things that sit inside their crystals, thinking. Got the platinum -nobody else could take. Because we knew that the universe can breed -morons, incompetents! The crystal people are smarter than Earthmen, -sure. But at least we knew we were smarter than somebody else!</p> - -<p>"Don't you see, Ambassador," the old man said earnestly, "that only the -inferiority complex kept us from knowing right away that those worms -were no better than children? They hadn't been trying to send us any -message with radiations. No, it had been only the natural radiations of -their bodies, changing as they changed their formations around us—as -they <i>played</i>. One of them picked up poor Kroner. Why not? The thing -was curious. Took him apart, later, the way a child will take apart a -toy. My business with the square on the hypotenuse? Hell, how could -they understand when they'd never learned any mathematics?"</p> - -<p>"How could they?" the Ambassador echoed, and he was smiling.</p> - -<p>"And that little trick of theirs, making a solar system. Well, don't -you see that they had to show off? One of their natural functions is -simply gathering and stacking together the scattered atoms of space. -I'll bet they can't make anything but black balls of amorphous matter. -It's possible they build themselves a little world here and there to -lay their eggs on, or something. So, there they were feeling kind of -abashed because they had no space ship or anything, so they just had to -show us what they could do, and that they actually had gone and counted -the planets of this system—on their tentacles, I'll bet, since they -had more than nine tentacles. And wasn't it childish, getting together -in the middle to show us a nice, glowing sun?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They were locking the thorax section on the Ambassador. He stood -straight and silent. Very straight.</p> - -<p>"Ambassador," the old man pleaded over thirty million miles, "you -don't <i>know</i> what you're going to meet on Venus. You don't <i>know</i> -that they're particularly smart. And they don't know about you. Maybe -they're a little afraid of you. Maybe they're a <i>lot</i> afraid of you. We -don't know one way. But we don't know the other.</p> - -<p>"But you know now, the best way and the best minute I can tell you, -that some pretty dumb creatures live beyond Earth. Now, the way my -grandfather's grandfather used to say, you wouldn't start selling your -horse to a stranger by telling him that your horse is no good?"</p> - -<p>Silence, then, on the beam from Earth to Venus.</p> - -<p>The dressers began to lower the helmet over the Ambassador's head. He -stopped them. "Wait a minute."</p> - -<p>Still that nakedness in his mind, and the fear ready to pounce again. -But that was only an effect of space, not Venusians. Or was it simply -Lampell's heritage. A conditioning?</p> - -<p>And that contemptuous message, with its almost-impossible time limit -and its pointed refusal to allow him to set foot upon Venus and its -"representative of the fifth authority." He didn't know one way and -he didn't know the other, but it could be a defense mechanism on the -Venusians' part.</p> - -<p>In Center Room an old, old man had slumped in his chair, exhausted, -reduced to crippled flesh that bore one bright, brave Earthman's eye. -The Ambassador waved. The old-timer waved back eagerly.</p> - -<p>"Gentlemen," said the Ambassador formally, but he spoke to the one -adventurer, "I thought I was in a hurry but I've decided I've plenty of -time. 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