Childhood's End (13 page)

George eyed the device with profound distrust. He noted that the letters of the alphabet were placed at regular intervals

-though in no particular order-round the circumference of the table. In addition there were the numbers one to nine, scattered at random among the letters, and two cards bearing the words "~s" and "NO". These were on opposite sides of the table.

"It looks like a lot of mumbo-jumbo to me," he muttered. "I'm surprised that anyone takes it seriously in this age." He felt a little better after delivering this mild protest, which was aimed at Jean quite as much as Rupert. Rupert didn't pretend to have more than a detached scientific interest in these phenomena. He was open-minded, but not credulous. Jean, on the other hand-well, George was sometimes a little worried about her. She really seemed to think that there was something in this business of telepathy and second-sight.

Not until he had made his remark did George realize that it also implied a criticism of Rashaverak. He glanced nervously round but the Overlord showed no reaction. Which, of course, proved absolutely nothing at all.

Everyone had now taken up their positions. Going in a clockwise direction round the table were Rupert, Maia, Jan, Jean, George, and Benny Shoenberger. Ruth Shoenberger was sitting outside the cirde with a notebook. She apparently had some objection to taking part in the proceedings, which had caused Benny to snake obscurely sarcastic remarks about people who still took the Talmud seriously. However, she seemed perfectly willing to act as a recorder.

"Now listen," began Rupert, "for the benefit of sceptics like George, let's get this straight. Whether or not there's

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anything supernormal about this, it works. Personally, I think there's a purely mechanical explanation. When we put our hands on the disc, even though we may try to avoid influencing its movements, our subconscious starts playing tricks. I've analysed lots of these seances, and I've never got answers that someone in the group mightn't have known or guessed- though sometimes they weren't aware of the fact. However, I'd like to carry out the experiment in these rather-ah- peculiar circumstances."

The Peculiar Circumstance sat watching them silently, but doubtless not with indifference. George wondered just what Rashaverak thought of these antics. Were his reactions those of an anthropologist watching some primitive religious rite? The whole set-up was really quite fantastic, and George felt as big a fool as he had ever done in his life.

If the others felt equally foolish, they concealed their emotions. Only Jean looked flushed and excited, though that night have been the drinks.

"All set?" asked Rupert. "Very well." He paused impressively; then, addressing no-one in particular, he called ~ut: "Is there anybody there?"

George could feel the plate beneath his fingers tremble ~lightly. That was not surprising, considering the pressure teing exerted upon it by the six people in the circle. It ilithered around in a small figure-eight, then came to rest back at the centre.

"Is there anybody there?" repeated Rupert. In a more conversational tone of voice he added, "It's often ten or fifteen minutes before we get started. But sometimes-"

"Hush!" breathed Jean.

The plate was moving. It began to swing in a wide arc between the cards labelled "yEs" and "NO". With some difficulty, George suppressed a giggle. Just what would it prove, he wondered, if the answer was "NO"? He remembered the old joke: "There's nobody here but us chickens, Massa. .. ."

But the answer was "YES". The plate came swiftly back to the centre of the table. Somehow it now seemed alive, waiting fir the next question. Despite himself, George began to be impressed.

"Who are you?" asked Rupert.

There was no hesitation now as the letters were spelled out. The plate darted across the table like a sentient thing, moving

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/

so swiftly that George sometimes found it hard to keep his fingers in contact. He could swear that he was not contributing to its motion. Glancing quickly round the table, he could see nothing suspicious in the faces of his friends. They seemed as intent, and as expectant, as he himself~

"IAMALL" spelled the plate, and returned to its point of equilibrium.

"'I am all,'" repeated Rupert. "That's a typical reply. Evasive, yet stimulating. It probably means that there's nothing here except our combined minds." He paused for a moment, obviously deciding upon his next question. Then he addressed the air once more.

"Have you a message for anyone here?"

"No," replied the plate promptly.

Rupert looked around the table.

"It's up to us; sometimes it volunteers information, but this time we'll have to ask definite questions. Anyone like to start?"

"Will it rain tomorrow?" said George jestingly.

At once the plate began to swing back and forth in the YES-

NO line.
   
-

"That's a silly question," reproved Rupert. "It's bound to be r2ining somewhere and to be dry somewhere else. Don't ask questions that have ambiguous answers."

George felt appropriately squashed. He decided to let someone else have the next turn.

"What is my favourite colour?" asked Maia.

"BLuE," came the prompt reply.

"That's quite correct."

"But it doesn't prove anything. At least three people here knew that," George pointed out.

"What's Ruth's favourite colour?" asked Benny.

"RED."

"Is that right, Ruth?"

The recorder looked up from her notebook.

"Yes, it is. But Benny knows that, and he's in the circle."

"I didn't know," retorted Benny.

"You darn well ought to-I've told you enough times."

"Subconscious memory," murmured Rupert. "That often happens. But can we have some more intelligent questions, please? Now that this has started so well, I don't want It to peter out."

Curiously enough, the very triviality of the phenomenon was

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beginning to impress George. He was sure that there was no supernormal explanation; as Rupert had said, the plate was simply responding to their unconscious muscular movements.

But this fact in itself was surprising and impressive: he would never have believed that such precise, swift replies could have been obtained. Once he tried to see if he could influence the board by making it spell out his own name. He got the "G", but that was all: the rest was nonsense. It was virtually unpossible, he decided, for one person to take control without the remainder of the circle knowing it.

After half an hour, Ruth had taken down more than a dozen messages, some of them quite long ones. There were occasional spelling mistakes and curiosities of grammar, but they were few. Whatever the explanation, George was now convinced that he was not contributing consciously to the results. Several times, as a word was being spelt out, he had anticipated the next letter and hence the meaning of the message. And on each occasion the plate had gone in a quite unexpected direction and spelt something totally different. Sometimes, indeed

-since there was no pause to indicate the end of one word and the beginning of the next-the entire message was meaningless until it was complete and Ruth had read it back.

The whole experience gave George an uncanny impression of being in contact with some purposeful, independent mind. And yet there was no conclusive proof one way or the other. The replies were so trivial, so ambiguous. What, for example, could one make of:

BELIEVEINMANNATURRISWITHYOU.

Yet sometimes there were suggestions of profound, even disturbing truths:

RIMEMBERMANISNOTALONENEARMANISCOUNTRYOFOTHERS.

But of course everyone knew that-though could one be sure that the message merely referred to the Overlords?

George was growing very sleepy. It was high time, he thought drowsily, that they headed for home. This was all very Intriguing, but it wasn't getting them anywhere and you could have too much of a good thing. He glanced around the table.

Benny looked as if he might be feeling the same way, Maia and Rupert both appeared slightly glazed, and Jean-well, she had been taking it too seriously all along. Her expression worried

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George; it was almost as if she were afraid to stop-yet afraid to go on.

That left only Jan. George wondered what he thought of his brother-in-law's eccentricities. The young engineer had asked no questions, shown no surprise at any of the answers. He seemed to be studying the movement of the plate as if it was just another scientific phenomenon.

Rupert roused himself from the lethargy into which he appeared to have fallen.

"Let's have one more question," he said, "then we'll call it a day. What about you, Jan? You've not asked anything."

Surprisingly, Jan never hesitated. It was as if he had made

his choice a long time ago and had been waiting for the opportunity. He glanced once at the impassive bulk of Rashaverak, then called out in a clear, steady voice:

"Which star is the Overlord's sun?"

Rupert checked a whistle of surprise. Maia and Benny showed no reaction at all. Jean had closed her eyes and seemed to be asleep. Rashaverak had leaned forward so that he could look down into the circle over Rupert's shoulder.

And the plate began to move.

When it came to rest again, there was a brief pause: then Ruth asked, in a puzzled voice:

"What does NGS 549672 mean?"

She got no reply, for at the same moment George called out anxiously:

"Give me a hand with Jean. I'm afraid she's fainted."

9

"THIS man Boyce," said Karellen. "Tell me all about him." The Supervisor did not use those actual words, of course,

and the thoughts he really expressed were far more subtle. A human listener would have heard a short burst of rapidly modulated sound, not unlike a high-speed Morse sender in action. Though many samples of Overlord language had been recorded, they all defied analysis because of their extreme coinplexity. The speed of transmission made it certain that no Interpreter, even if he had mastered the elements of the

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language, could ever keep up with the Overlords in their normal conversation.

The Supervisor for Earth stood with his back to Rashaverak,

staring out across the multicoloured gulf of the Grand Canyon.

Ten kilometres away, yet scarcely veiled by distance, the terraced walls were catching the full force of the sun. Hundreds of metres down the shadowed slope at whose brim Karellen stood, a mule-train was slowly winding its way into the valley's depths. It was strange, Karellen thought, that so many human beings still seized every opportunity for primitive behaviour. They could reach the bottom of the canyon in $ fraction of the time, and in far greater comfort, if they chose. Yet they preferred to be jolted along tracks which were probably as unsafe as they looked.

Karellen made an imperceptible gesture with his hand. The great panorama faded from view, leaving only a shadowy blankness of indeterminable depth. The realities of his office and of his position crowded in upon the Supervisor once more.

"Rupert Boyce is a somewhat curious character," Rashaverak answered. "Professionally, he's in charge of animal welfare over an important section of the Main African ReservaLion. He's quite efficient, and interested in his work. Because he has to keep watch over several thousand square kilometres, he has one of the fifteen panoramic viewers we've so far issued cm loan-with the usual safeguards, of course. It is, incidentilly, the only one with full projection facilities. He was able to make a good case for these, so we let him have them."

"What was his argument?"

"He wanted to appear to various wild animals so that they could get used to seeing him, and so wouldn't attack when he was physically present. The theory has worked out quite well with ~nirna1s that rely on sight rather than smell-though he'll probably get killed eventually. And, of course, there was an)ther reason why we let him have the apparatus."

"It made him more co-operative?"

"Precisely. I originally contacted him because he has one rf the world's finest libraries of books on parapsychology and illied subjects. He politely but firmly refused to lend any of them, so there was nothing to do but to~it him. I've now read ibout half his library. It has been a considerable ordeal."

"That I can well believe," said Kardllen dryly. "Have you fiscovered anything among all the rubbish?"

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"Yes-eleven dear cases of partial breakthrough, and twenty-seven probables. The material is so selective, however, that one cannot use it for sampling purposes. And the evidence is hopelessly confused with mysticism-perhaps the prime aberration of the human mind."

"And what is Boyce's attitude to all this?"

"He pretends to be open-minded and sceptical, but it's

clear that he would never have spent so much time and effort in this field unless he had some subconscious faith. I challenged him on this and he admitted that I was probably right.

He would like to find some convincing proof. That is why he Is always carrying out these experiments, even though he pretends that they are only gaines."

"You are sure he doesn't suspect that your interest is more than academic?"

"Quite sure. In many ways Boyce is remarkably obtuse and simple-minded. That makes his attempts to do research in this, of all fields, rather pathetic. There is no need to take any special acon regarding him."

"I see. And what about the girl who fainted?"

"This is the most exciting feature of the entire affair. Jean Morrel was, almost certainly, the channel through which the information came. But she is twenty-six-far too old to be a prime contact herself, judging by all our previous experience. It must, therefore, be someone closely linked to her. The conclusion is obvious. We cannot have many more years to wait. We must transfer her to Category Purple: she may be the most important human being alive."

"I will do that. And what of the young man who asked the question? Was it random curiosity, or did he have some other motive?"