Gordon Dickson - 8 Short Stories and Novellas Part 6

Like in a coffin.

Buried-- He began to scream. . . .

Much later, when he awoke again, he was in a strange place that seemed to have no walls, but many instruments. He floated in the center of mechanisms that pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed about him, touching, probing, turning. He felt touches of heat and Cold. Strange hums and notes of various pitches came and went. He felt voices questioning him.

Who are you?

"Eldridge Parker-Eldridge Timothy Parker-"

What are you?

"I'm Eldridge Parker-"

Tell about yourself.

"Tell what? What?"

Tell about yourself.

"What? What do you want to know? What-"

Tell about. . . .

"But I--"

Tell.. . .

. . . well, i suppose i was pretty much like any of the kids around our town . . . i was a pretty good shot and i won thefifth grade seventy-five yard dash . . . i played hockey, too . . . pretty cold weather up around our parts, you know, the airused to smell strange it was so cold winter mornings in Januarywhen you first stepped out of doors...it is good, open country,new england, and there were lots of smells . . .

there were pinesmells and gra.s.s smells and i remember especially the kitchensmells . . . and then, too, there was the way the oak benches in church used to smell on Sunday when you knelt with your nose right next to the back of the pew ahead. . . .

. . . the fishing up our parts is good too . . . i liked to fish but i never wasted time on weekdays... we were presbyterians, you know, and my father had the farm, but he also had money invested in land around the country... we havenever been badly off but i would have liked a motor-scooter. . . .

...no i did not never hate the germans, at least i did not think i ever did, of course though i was over in europe i never really had it bad, combat, i mean . . . i was in a motor poolwith the raw smell of gasoline, i like to work with my hands, and it was not like being in the infantry. . . .

. . . i have as good right to speak up to the town council as any man... i do not believe in pushing but if they push me i am going to push right back . . . nor it isn't any man's busi-ness what i voted last election no more than my bank balance . . . but i have got as good as right to a say in town doings as if i was the biggest landholder among them. . . .

. . . i did not go to college because it was not necessary . . . too much education can make a fool of any man, i told my father, and i know when i have had enough... i am a fanner and will always be a farmer and i will do my own studying asthings come up without taking out a pure waste of four years to hang a piece of paper on the wall. . . .

...of course i know about the atom bomb, but i am no scientist and no need to be one, no more than i need to be a veterinarian . . . i elect the men that hire the men that need to know those things and the men that i elect will hear from me johnny-quick if things do not go to my liking. . . .

...as to why i never married, that is none of your business... as it happens, i was never at ease with women much, though there were a couple of times, and i still may if jeanie lind. . . .

. . . i believe in G.o.d and the united states of america. . . .

He woke up gradually. He was in a room that might haveI been any office, except the furniture was different. That is, there was a box with doors on it that might have been a filing cabinet and a table that looked like a desk in spite of the single thin rod underneath the center that supported it. However, there were no chairs-only small, flat cushions, on whichI three large woolly, bearlike creatures were sitting and watchinghim in silence.

He himself, he found, was in a chair, though.

As soon as they saw his eyes were open, they turned awayI from him and began to talk among themselves. Eldridge Parkershook his head and blinked his eyes, and would have blinked his ears if that had been possible. For the sounds the creatures were making were like nothing he had ever heard before; and yet heunderstood everything they were saying. It was an odd sensation, like a double-image earwise, for he heard the strange mouth-noises just as they came out and then something in his head twisted them around and made them into perfectly under-standable English.

Nor was that all. For, as he sat listening to the creatures talk,he began to get the same double image in another way.Thatis, he still saw the bearlike creature behind the desk as the weird sort of animal he was, out of the sound of his voice, orfrom something else, there gradually built up in Eldridge's minda picture of a thin, rather hara.s.sed-looking gray-haired man in something resembling a uniform, but at the same time notI quite a uniform. It was the sort of effect an army general might g et if he wore his stars and aSam Browne belt over a civilian double-breasted suit. Similarly, the other creature sitting facing the one behind the desk, at the desk's side, was a young andblack-haired man with something of the laboratory about him, an d the creature further back, seated almost against the wall, was neither soldier nor scientist, but a heavy older man with a sort of book-won wisdom in him.

"You see, commander," the young one with the black-haired image was saying, "perfectly restored. At least on the physicaland mental levels."

"Good, doctor, good," the outlandish syllables from the onebehind the desk translated themselves in Eldridge's head. "And you say it... he, I should say... will be able to under-stand?"

"Certainly, sir," said the doctor-psychologist-whatever-he-was."Identificationis absolute--"

"But I mean comprehend-encompa.s.s--" The creature behindthe desk moved one paw slightly. "Follow what we tell him-"

The doctor turned his ursinoid head toward the third mem-ber of the group. This one spoke slowly, in a deeper voice.

"The culture allows. Certainly."

The one behind the desk bowed slightly to the oldest one.

"Certainly, Academician, certainly."

They then fell silent, all looking back at Eldridge, who re-turned their gaze with equivalent interest.

There was something unnatural about the whole proceeding. Both sides were regard-ing the other with the completely blunt and unshielded curiositygiven to freaks.

The silence stretched out. It became tinged with a certain embarra.s.sment. Gradually a mutual recognition arose that no one really wanted to be the first to address an alien beingdirectly.

"It... he is comfortable?" asked the commander, turning once more to the doctor.

"I should say so," replied the doctor, slowly. "As far as we know. . . ."

Turning back to Eldridge, the commander said, "Eldridge-timothyparker, I suppose you wonder where you are?"

Caution and habit put a clamp on Eldridge's tongue. He hesitated about answering so long that the commander turnedin distress to the doctor, who rea.s.sured him with a slight move ment of the head.

"Well, speak up," said the commander, "we'll be able tounderstand you, just as you're able to understand us. Nothing'sgoing to hurt you; and anything you say won't have the slightest effect on your...

er... situation."

He paused again, looking at Eldridge for a comment. El-dridge still held his silence, but one of his hands unconsciously made a short, fumbling motion at his breast pocket.

"My pipe--" said Eldridge.

The three looked at each other. They looked back at El-dridge.

"We have it," said the doctor. "After a while we may give it back to you. For now... we cannot allow...

it would notsuit us."

"Smoke bother you?" said Eldridge, with a touch of his na-tive canniness.

"It does not bother us. It is... merely . . . distasteful,"said the commander. "Let's get on. I'm going to tell you where you are, first. You're on a world roughly similar to your own, but many . . ." he hesitated, looking at the academician.

"Light-years," supplemented the deep voice.

". . . Light-years in terms of what a year means to you," went on the commander, with growing briskness. "Many light-years distant from your home. We didn't bring you here be-cause of any personal . . . dislike... or enmity for you; but for...."

"Observation," supplied the doctor. The commander turned and bowed slightly to him, and was bowed back at in return.

". . . Observation," went on the commander. "Now, do you understand what I've told you so far?"

"I'm listening," said Eldridge.

"Very well," said the commander. "I will go on. There is something about your people that we are very anxious to dis-cover. We have been, and intend to continue, studying you tofind it out. So far-I will admit quite frankly and freely-we have not found it; and the concensus among our best minds is that you, yourself, do not know what it is. Accordingly, we have hopes of... causing . . . you to discover it for yourself. Andfor us."

"Hey. . . ." breathed Eldridge.

"Oh, you will be well treated. I a.s.sure you," said the commander, hurriedly. "You have been well treated. You have been . . . but you did not know... I mean you did not feel--"

"Can you remember any discomfort since we picked you up?"asked the doctor, leaning forward.

"Depends what you mean-"

"And you will feel none." The doctor turned to the com-mander. "PerhapsI'm getting ahead of myself?"

"Perhaps," said the commander. He bowed and turned backto Eldridge. "To explain-we hope you will discover our answer for it. We're only going to put you in a position to work on it.Therefore, we've decided to tell you everything. First-the problem. Academician?"

The oldest one bowed. His deep voice made the room rinG.o.ddly.

"Ifyou will look this way," he said. Eldridge turned his head. The other raised one paw and the wall beside him dissolved into a maze of lines and points. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," said Eldridge.

"It is," rumbled the one called the academician, "a map of the known universe. You lack the training to read it in four dimensions, as it should be read. No matter. You will take my word for it... it is a map. A map covering hundreds of thou-sands of your light-years and millions of your years."

He looked at Eldridge, who said nothing.

"To go on, then. What we know of your race is based upon two sources of information. History. And Legend. The history is sketchy. It rests on archaeological discoveries for the most part. The legend is even sketchier and-fantastic."

He paused again. Still Eldridge guarded his tongue.

"Briefly, there is a race that has three times broken out to overrun this mapped area of our galaxy and dominate other civilized cultures-until some inherent lack or weakness in the individual caused the component parts of this advance to die out. The periods of these outbreaks has always been disastrous for the dominated cultures and uniformly without benefit to the race I am talking about. In the case of each outbreak, though the home planet was destroyed and all known remnants of the advancing race hunted out, unknown seed communities remained to furnish the material for a new advance some thousands of years later. That race," said the academician, and coughed--or at least made some kind of noise in his throat, "is your own."

Eldridge watched the other carefully and without moving.

"We see your race, therefore," went on the academician, and Eldridge received the mental impression of an elderly man put-ting the tips of his fingers together judiciously, "as one with great or overwhelming natural talents, but unfortunately also withone great natural flaw. This flaw seems to be a desire--almost a need--to acquire and possess things. To reach out, encompa.s.s, and absorb. It is not," shrugged the academician, "a unique trait. Other races have it-but not to such an extent that it makes them a threat to their co-existing cultures. Yet, this initself is not the real problem. If it was a simple matter of rapacity, a combination of other races should be able to con-tain your people. There is a natural inevitable balance of that sort continually at work in the galaxy. No," said the academician, and paused, looking at the commander.

"Go on. Go on," said the commander. The academicianbowed.

"No, it is not that simple. As a guide to what remains, we have only the legend, made anew and reinforced after each outward sweep of you people. We know that there must be something more than we have found--and we have studied you carefully, both your home world and now you, personally.

Theremust be something more in you, some genius, some capability above the normal, to account for the fantastic nature of your race's previous successes. But the legend says only--Danger, Human! High Explosive. Do not touch --and we find nothing in you to justify the warning."

He sighed. Or at least Eldridge received a sudden, unexpected intimationof deep weariness.

"Because of a number of factors-too numerous to go into and most of them not understandable to you-it is our race which must deal with this problem for the rest of the galaxy. What can we do? We dare not leave you be until you growstrong and come out once more. And the legend expressly warns us against touching you in any way. So we have chosen to pick one-but I intrude upon your field, doctor."

The two of them exchanged bows. The doctor took up the talk speaking briskly and entirely to Eldridge.

"A joint meeting of those of us best suited to consider the situation recommended that we pick up one specimen for in-tensive observation. For reasons of availability, you were the onechosen. Following your return under drugs to this planet, youwere thoroughly examined, by the best of medical techniques, both mentally and physically. I will not go into detail, since wehave no wish to depress you unduly. I merely want to impress onyou the fact that we found nothing. Nothing. No unusual poweror ability of any sort, such as history shows you to have had andlegend hints at. I mention this because of the further course of action we have decided to take. Commander?"

The being behind the desk got to his hind feet. The other tworose.

"You will come with us," said the commander.

Herded by them, Eldridge went out through the room's doorinto brilliant sunlight and across a small stretch of something like concrete to a stubby egg-shaped craft with ridiculous littlewings.

"Inside," said the commander. They got in. The commandersquatted before a bank of instruments, manipulated a sim-ple sticklike control, and after a moment the ship took to theair. They flew for perhaps half an hour, with Eldridge wishing he was in a position to see out one of the high windows, thenlanded at a field apparently literally hacked out of a small forest of mountains.

Crossing this field on foot, Eldridge got a glimpse of sometruly huge ships, as well as a number of smaller ones such as the one in which he had arrived. Numbers of the furry aliens moved about, none with any great air of hurry, but all with purposefulness. There was a sudden, single, thunderous sound that was gone almost before the ear could register it; and Eldridge, who hadducked instinctively, looked up again to see one of the huge shipsfalling--there is no other word for it--skyward with such unbelievable rapidity it was out of sight in seconds.

The four of them came at last to a shallow, open trench in the stuffwhich made the field surface. It was less than a foot wideandtheystepped across it with ease. But once they had crossedit, Eldridge noticed a difference. In the five hundred yard square enclosed by the trench-for it turned at right angles off to his right and to his left--there was an air of tightly-establisheddesertedness, as of some highly restricted area, and the rectangular concrete-looking building that occupied the square's verycenter glittered unoccupied in the clear light.

They marched to the door of this building and it opened withoutany of them touching it. Inside was perhaps twenty feetof floor, stretching inward as a rim inside the walls. Then a sort of moat--Eldridge could not see its depth--filled with a dark fluidwith a faint, sharp odor. This was perhaps another twenty feet wide and enclosed a small, flat island perhaps fifteen feet byfifteen feet, almost wholly taken up by a cage whose walls andceiling appeared to be made of metal bars as thick as a man's thumb and s.p.a.ced about six inches apart. Two more of thealiens, wearing a sort of harness and holding a short, black tube apiece, stood on the ledge of the outer rim. A temporary bridgehad been laid across the moat, protruding through the open door of the cage.

They all went across the bridge and into the cage. There, standingaround rather like a board of directors viewing an additionto the company plant, they faced Eldridge; and the commanderspoke.

"Thiswill be your home from now on," he said. He indicated the cot, the human-type chair and the other itemsfurnishing the cage. "It's as comfortable as we can make it."

"Why?" burst out Eldridge, suddenly. "Why're you locking meup here? Why--"

"In our attempt to solve the problem that still exists," interrupted the doctor, smoothly, "we can do nothing more than keep you under observation and hope that time will work with us. Also, we hope to influence you to search for the solution, yourself."

"And if I find it--what?" cried Eldridge. "Then," said the commander, "we will deal with you in the kindest manner that the solution permits. It may be evenpossible to return you to your own world. At the very least, once you are no longer needed, we can see to it that you are quickly and painlessly destroyed."

Eldridge felt his insides twist within him.