“And the main duty of your brain is to translate to your consciousness the needs of the entire body, just as your radio instrument translates to you the waves that come from out of the ether. You believe that you ‘pick up’ your brain impulses the moment they are formed by that wonderful mechanism of your body; that you ‘receive’ them as quickly as they are made, but this is not true. Let us suppose that you are filled with an emotion. It sweeps through the body, it causes the heart to contract, the blood rushes to the head, the hands grow cold, they perspire. Can you translate this emotion immediately, can you place it, understand it? No. First you must consider it, you must ask your brain what it means, then the brain tells you . . . it is love, it is hate, it is fear. This, then, is one of the first functions of the brain—to translate into words for you the impressions received, whether it is hunger, thirst, weariness, disgust or sorrow. The very beauty of your emotions, the color of your hates, the longing of your desires are all unintelligible, incomprehensible to you, until the brain gathers these impressions, mixes them for you and translates them just as your radio set gathers, mixes and translates sounds for you. You understand me?”
I nodded, “I think so.”
“Good! And now perhaps you can understand just what the Abruian mind does, for it also is a receiver to gather from your brain your impressions, and just as you yourself translate these things for yourself, so does the Abruian accept the abstract and translate it for himself. This is telepathy. It is evident to us that our remote ancestors learned this method of communicating with each other before they had speech, and their descendants are born with the faculty of gathering each other’s brain impulses.
“It does not matter to me what language you speak, for on receiving your thoughts, I receive them in the abstract and my own brain unconsciously does the work of translating them into understandable words for me. However, in the matter of grasping these brain impulses of yours, my brain has first to be attuned to the same wave-length that yours makes use of. Each brain uses a different wave-length, varying as much as the finger prints of the race vary, and only for one aware of this science it takes but a moment’s hesitation to ‘feel’ out and adjust his brain to another’s. Once the frequency on which a particular brain broadcasts is known, the other can ‘hear’ what passes through that brain.”
For several moments I sat in thought before speaking. “It sounds highly technical, but still I do not grasp how you are able to ‘hear’ as you say, what passes through my mind, especially since the impulses are of so low a frequency.”
“That is a matter I hardly try to understand myself, although I employ it all the time. Moura-weit could tell you better than I, but as I have said, it is a science inherited by us from our thousands of generations, and is, in a sense, as familiar to us as our other five senses.”
“I see—but I wonder if it were possible for one not born of your planet to learn the system?”
“Perhaps Sa Dak could teach you, Miss Rollins. I am not a very capable teacher. The construction of your brain differs from ours, and though I can gather your thoughts, I do not know that I could teach you to read mine.”
“Do you think him incapable of nothing whatsoever, Ubca-tor?” I demanded.
The tor grinned affably. “When I find something he can not accomplish, I will say, yes, but until then . . .
I concede Moura-weit master of everything he does!”
I HAD no answer for that and since I did not wish to dwell upon Moura-weit’s powers, I brought the conversation back to what was uppermost in my mind. “Isn’t it possible for one to keep another from reading his thoughts?”
“Oh, yes,” he. said, “that is as everyday a thing as reading the other’s mind, for it would be insufferable to have your mind always open to others. Yet, again, Sa Dak is the one man against whom it is difficult to close the brain. I no longer attempt it, and my mind is always accessible to him.”
“But could you not teach me how to do it?”
“I can try to help you if you wish it.”
“Do so right away!” I cried.
He shook his head. “It can not be learned in an hour or a day, Miss Rollins, but perhaps if you train yourself constantly in time you may learn the secret.”
That was discouraging, but with youth’s intrepidity I thought I might accomplish the trick in short order, and I needed it right away. “What must I do?” I asked.
“First you must learn the power of utter concentration. You must make your mind so pliant and flexible that you may carry a thought with you hour after hour, day after day so that no matter what else occupies your mind you can not lose it. I understand that few Earthlings know what true concentration means.”
“How is it done?”
“Well, let us take—this flower,” and Ubca stooped and plucked a delicate bloom that was growing in the pots around the pool. “You will note the shape of the flower, the shape of its white heart, its violet-black petals. You see the veins in the petals, the contour of its sheaf, the size and design of each individual part. You breathe in its perfume, you know its odor, but can you carry the thought of it around with you throughout your day? Will its color tint the rest of our thoughts? Will its delicate perfume stay with you above the odor of all other things your sense encounters? Can you carry the thought of it in your dreams, and recall it vividly even weeks later after this blossom is dead and gone? Can you remember its every detail so accurately that you can draw it upon paper months later and not miss a slightest vein? If you can do that, Miss Rollins, then you can make your brain pliant and flexible enough so that you are prepared for the next lesson to come.” Taking the little flower from his fingers I looked at it, twirled it about and stared at it in wonder, seeing the difficulty of the task. I said nothing more about it, but when I again had leisure, I commenced to learn this new science. Yet it took many months and many flowers to accomplish that first step.
Now, as I sat considering all this, an interruption came in the form of Urto, who rushed into the room in a state of fright. “Tee Poofossee,” he was crying, “Tee Proofossee.”
We were both on our feet immediately. I ran from the room without stopping to learn the trouble, but Ubca-tor was wise enough to question the golden man as to what was wrong. I had run directly to the laboratory but not finding him there, was on my way to the pilot room when Ubca caught up with me. “Your uncle has gone outside and Urto can not find him in the darkness. Come, we had better search. Urto will wait here if he returns and give us a signal.” He stopped in the anteroom to pick up a torchlight and then we ran out into the night calling Uncle’s name.
END OF PART I
[1] Meaning “Ship of the Void.”
[2] Moura-weit had made himself Ur-tor (overprince) once, and had his people thought he had gained that high position fairly his son would have been born a tor instead of a weit. On the return of Mount’s wife and son the Taboranas had wished to dub them with princely rank, but this Elsie Rollins-weiti refused, preferring to call herself weiti (Lady) instead, as her husband had called himself weit after his exile.
[3] On Abrui is the legend that Moura-weit was not born of flesh but was the offspring of a group of scientists who believed the foundation of Life is Thought and through their combined efforts had brought forth a child without the aid of flesh, endowing him with the power of their own brains. And because of his extraordinary powers the Abruians liked to think that Moura-weit was that child because of his seeming supernatural power of invention and perception. In speaking here, his wife may have intended to convey such a thought, but it is more likely that she was referring merely to the fact he was in truth a superman.
[4] The albedo of a body is the ratio of light which it reflects to that which it receives. The amount reflected depending to a considerable extent upon whether or not the body is surrounded with a cloud-filled atmosphere. A surface having little or no atmosphere, consequently, has a low albedo
[5] Sa Dak, master in Abruian. Ubca-tor alway
s referred to Moura so.
The Conquest of Gola
How the strange people of Gola repelled the barbarians who came to conquer
AMERICANS are fond of ridiculing the customs, habits and temperaments of people of other nations. Similarly other nations pick our peculiarities as a source of amusement. We all think that what we do, think or say is natural and inevitable, and that the actions of others are “queer”.
Similarly if we were to travel to a strange world, and find different forms of intelligent life, we would be monstrosities to those people, as much as they would be to us. We would find it more difficult than we imagine to even establish the most elementary form of communication, because our mental processes would have practically nothing in common. That is all assuming that our mission is friendly. But if it is hostile, there is no doubt but that our career on that strange world, would be, as our author shows here, short and sweet. Here is a different and unusual story that you cannot help but enjoy and chuckle over.
HOLA, my daughters (sighed the Matriarch) it is true indeed, I am the only living one upon Gola who remembers the invasion from Detaxal, I alone of all my generation survive to recall vividly the sights and scenes of that past era. And well it is that you come to me to hear by free communication of mind to mind face to face with each other.
Ah, well I remember the surprise of that hour when through the mists that enshroud our lovely world, there swam the first of the great smooth cylinders of the Detaxalans, fifty tas[*] in length, as glistening and silvery as the soil of our land, propelled by the man-things that on Detaxal are supreme even as we women are supreme on Gola.
In those bygone days, as now, Gola was enwrapped by her cloud mists that keep from us the terrific glare of the great star that glows like a malignant spirit out there in the darkness of the void. Only occasionally when a particularly great storm parts the mist of heaven do we see the wonders of the vast universe, but that does not prevent us, with our marvelous telescopes handed down to us from thousands of generations before us, from learning what lies across the dark seas of the outside.
Therefore we knew of the nine planets that encircle the great star and are subject its rule. And so are we familiar enough with the surfaces of these planets to know why Gola should appear as a haven to their inhabitants who see in our cloud-enclosed mantle a sweet release from the blasting heat and blinding glare of the great sun.
So it was not strange at all to us to find that the people of Detaxal, the third planet of the sun, had arrived on our globe with a wish in their hearts to migrate here, and end their days out of reach of the blistering warmth that had come to be their lot on their own world.
Long ago we, too, might have gone on exploring expeditions to other worlds, other universes, but for what? Are we not happy here? We who have attained the greatest of civilizations within the confines of our own silvery world. Powerfully strong with our mighty force rays, we could subjugate all the universe, but why?
Are we not content with life as it is, with our lovely cities, our homes, our daughters, our gentle consorts? Why spend physical energy in combative strife for something we do not wish, when our mental processes carry us further and beyond the conquest of mere terrestrial exploitation?
On Detaxal it is different, for there the peoples, the ignoble male creatures, breed for physical prowess, leaving the development of their sciences, their philosophies, and the contemplation of the abstract to a chosen few. The greater part of the race fares forth to conquer, to lay waste, to struggle and fight as the animals do over a morsel of worthless territory. Of course we can see why they desired Gola with all its treasures, but we can thank Providence and ourselves that they did not succeed in “commercializing” us as they have the remainder of the universe with their ignoble Federation.
AH yes, well I recall the hour when first they came, pushing cautiously through the cloud mists, seeking that which lay beneath. We of Gola were unwarned until the two cylinders hung directly above Tola, the greatest city of that time, which still lies in its ruins since that memorial day. But they have paid for it—paid for it well in thousands and in tens of thousands of their men.
We were first apprised of their coming when the alarm from Tola was sent from the great beam station there, advising all to stand in readiness for an emergency. Geble, my mother, was then Queen of all Gola, and I was by her side in Morka, that pleasant seaside resort, where I shall soon travel again to partake of its rejuvenating waters.
With us were four of Geble’s consorts, sweet gentle males, that gave Geble much pleasure in these free hours away from the worries of state. But when the word of the strangers’ descent over our home city, Tola, came to us, all else was forgotten. With me at her side, Geble hastened to the beam station and there in the matter transmitter we dispatched our physical beings to the palace at Tola, and the next moment were staring upward at the two strange shapes etched against the clouds.
What the Detaxalan ships were waiting for we did not know then, but later we learned. Not grasping the meaning of our beam stations, the commandants of the ships considered the city below them entirely lacking in means of defense, and were conferring on the method of taking it without bloodshed on either side.
It was not long after our arrival in Tola that the first of the ships began to descend toward the great square before the palace. Geble watched without a word, her great mind already scanning the brains of those whom she found within the great machine. She transferred to my mind but a single thought as I stood there at her side and that with a sneer “Barbarians!” Now the ship was settling in the square and after a few moments of hesitation, a circular doorway appeared at the side and four of the Detaxalans came through the opening. The square was empty but for themselves and their flyer, and we saw them looking about surveying the beautiful buildings on ail sides. They seemed to recognize the palace for what it was and in one accord moved in our direction.
Then Geble left the window at which we stood and strode to the doorway opening upon the balcony that faced the square. The Detaxalans halted in their tracks when they saw her slender graceful form appear and removing the strange coverings they wore on their heads they each made a bow.
Again Geble sneered for only the male-things of our world bow their heads, and so she recognized these visitors for what they were, nothing more than the despicable males of the species! And what creatures they were!
Imagine a short almost flat body set high upon two slender legs, the body tapering in the middle, several times as broad across as it is through the center, with two arms almost as long as the legs attached to the upper part of the torso. A small columnlike neck of only a few inches divides the head of oval shape from the body, and in this head only are set the organs of sight, hearing, and scent. Their bodies were like a patch work of a misguided nature.
Yes, strange as it is, my daughters, practically all of the creature’s faculties had their base in the small ungainly head, and each organ was perforce pressed into serving for several functions. For instance, the breathing nostrils also served for scenting out odors, nor was this organ able to exclude any disagreeable odors that might come its way, but had to dispense to the brain both pleasant and unpleasant odors at the same time.
Then there was the mouth, set directly beneath the nose, and here again we had an example of one organ doing the work of two for the creature not only used the mouth with which to take in the food for its body, but it also used the mouth to enunciate the excruciatingly ugly sounds of its language forthwith.
Guests From Detaxal
NEVER before have I seen such a poorly organized body, so unlike our own highly developed organisms. How much nicer it is to be able to call forth any organ at will, and dispense with it when its usefulness is over! Instead these poor Detaxalans had to carry theirs about in physical being all the time so that always was the surface of their bodies entirely marred.
Yet that was not the only part of their ugliness, and proof of the lowliness of thei
r origin, for whereas our fine bodies support themselves by muscular development, these poor creatures were dependent entirely upon a strange structure to keep them in their proper shape.
Imagine if you can a bony skeleton somewhat like the foundations upon which we build our edifices, laying stone and cement over the steel framework. But this skeleton instead is inside a body which the flesh, muscle and skin overlay. Everywhere in their bodies are these cartilaginous structures—hard, heavy, bony structures developed by the chemicals of the being for its use. Even the hands, feet and head of the creatures were underlaid with these bones, ugh, it was terrible when we dissected one of the fellows for study. I shudder to think of it.
Yet again there was still another feature of the Detaxalans that was equally as horrifying as the rest, namely their outer covering. As we viewed them for the first time out there in the square we discovered that parts of the body, that is the part of the head which they called the face, and the bony hands were entirely naked without any sort of covering, neither fur nor feathers, just the raw, pinkish-brown skin looking as if it had been recently plucked.
Later we found a few specimens that had a type of fur on the lower part of the face, but these were rare. And when they doffed the head coverings which we had first taken for some sort of natural covering, we saw that the top of the head was overlaid with a very fine fuzz of fur several inches long.
We did not know in the beginning that the strange covering on the bodies of the four men, green in color, was not a natural growth, but later discovered-that such was the truth, and not only the face and hands were hare of fur, hut the entire body, except for a fine sprinkling of hair that was scarcely visible except on the chest, was also bare. No wonder the poor things covered themselves with their awkward clothing. We arrived at the conclusion that their lack of fur had been brought about by the fact that always they had been exposed to the bright rays of the sun so that without the dampness of our own planet the fur had dried up and fallen away from the flesh!
Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks) Page 38