The Planet of the Blind

by Paul Corey

  Doctor Rhoa made a whistling sound, apparently calling for attention. The crowd became respectfully silent. They were evidently well aware of this momentous occasion for their planet

  He turned to me. “Would you care to say a few words to our student body, Doctor Stone? I will be happy to translate for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said. Then, raising my voice, I addressed the throng of eyeless faces.

  “Students of Lonwolt, inhabitants of the planet Grenda. This is an historic occasion. I come from many millions of miles away. I am not an official visitor. I cannot speak officially for my planet Earth.”

  I waited while Rhoa translated, listening intently to the waxing and waning of his buzz.

  “I am only a sightseer in space, temporarily stopping here.” It took longer for Rhoa to get buzzing on that. The crowd laughed a little and I wondered what was funny about what I had said.

  “It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to have this opportunity to see your beautiful world and be welcomed by such a sea of shining faces.”

  For a moment I thought that Rhoa wasn’t going to say anything. Finally he sputtered, buzzed and squeaked to a stop.

  “I thank you for your welcome,” I finished.

  He buzzed that out easily enough. The crowd applauded by clapping their hands like any similar Earth crowd.

  Switching back to my language, Rhoa said stiffly, “I was unable to translate all that you said because I did not understand it.”

  I felt rebuked.

  He took my arm. “Let’s go into our laboratory and make some studies.”

  “Fine,” I said. “A Space Rescue ship will be along for me shortly and I will have to leave. Let’s make the most of our time together.”

  We crossed the lawn. Students drew aside to let us through, buzzing as we passed. Occasionally an arm came out, fingers feeling towards me. We went up three steps to the front of a wide one-story building. The wall split and we entered.

  I was aware that my three hosts had climbed those steps without the slightest hesitation. It wasn’t that easy for me. Try walking up transparent steps sometime. You’ll find you’re not so sure where you put down your feet.

  As the wall split closed behind us, Doctor Zinzer said, “There will be no rescue ship, Doctor Stone.”

  “What do you mean?” I said indignantly. “Of course a rescue ship will come. Space Rescue never fails.”

  Doctor Rhoa spoke gently. “I’m sorry, Doctor Stone. Your distress signal never got past our grip on your ship.”

  That hit me hard. I had been taken in by their show of friendliness. Automatically I reached for my stunner.

  “Your weapon won’t help you,” said Zinzer. “Before you could use it, we would have you restrained like this.”

  I felt as if a cord were being drawn through my chest. It was a terrifying feeling. From the set of Zinzer’s jaw, I got the notion that he was enjoying what he did.

  Mun buzzed harshly and the tug of the cord vanished.

  But Zinzer continued, “That vibration was benign. However, we can change it faster than you can move.”

  This time Doctor Rhoa buzzed something and Zinzer subsided. Then Rhoa turned to me. “Don’t be alarmed. Doctor Stone. We don’t mean to harm you. Our space probe pulled your ship in because we wished to study an inhabitant of your planet. If you will let us study you, I assure you, we will be grateful. At the end of it you will be able to return to your world in good health. And you will be able to study us at the same time.”

  My first reaction was to resent being made a guinea-pig of. Then it struck me that Earth was lucky that the people of this planet had me, the Director of TERRA-TESTING, as their first contact with my world. Suppose they had dragged in one of our space bums. They might have got a very mistaken impression.

  “Fine,” I said. “I don’t like this space-raiding, but as long as proper respect is maintained, I’ll go along.”

  “We respect intelligence highly,” said Doctor Rhoa bowing.

  “Then our approach is mutual,” I said. “Let’s get on with our studies.”

  The building we were in—I suppose it might be called a “Science Building,” or something like that—first struck me as a big room cluttered with people and things. I could see what looked like classes going on, several of them. I could see other Grendans in sitting positions at what could be desks. Then I realised that these various activities were partitioned off, but the partitions, like the walls and roofs and floors, were transparent.

  Doctor Rhoa led the way. He walked without hesitation, his arms swinging. But instead of his arms swinging forth and back, both of them, his right arm described a narrow arc as it swung from his side around and across his front and back again, index finger extended.

  When I noticed this, it reminded me of blind people on Earth, tapping with their white canes.

  Then Rhoa’s left hand came up as if to push something and the filminess I had come to know as a transparent wall, split. We moved through. We went down what I assumed now to be a corridor because for quite a distance there was no more wall-splitting. Doctors Mun and Zinzer came along behind me.

  Many things pulled at my attention. I extended an arm exploringly to one side. My fingers finally made contact with the filmy transparency that was a wall. I kept pressure against it as we went along.

  Doctor Rhoa turned right. This time his right arm came up in a sort of salute. The filminess split and we went through into an area that was empty. Yes, it was empty. All around I could see Grendans doing a lot of different things. But in a rectangular area in front of me, there was no activity.

  This must be Rhoa’s special laboratory, I concluded. My eyes were getting accustomed to picking out transparent objects and identifying them—desks, tables, chairs. An orderly grouping of objects that seemed suspended in space I took to be a row of filing cabinets full of records.

  One of the things I found hardest to get used to was this wall-splitting instead of using a door. At that moment I saw a young woman approaching what I was certain was the far wall of the laboratory. She seemed to wave at me. Then the filminess separated and she came in.

  She was lovely. I mean it. With or without eyes, she was lovely. She was as slender as Karen, but older—maybe eight or ten years older. The added years made her even more attractive.

  Her off-white pyjama-style ensemble fitted her without a wrinkle. The fabric was similar to some of Earth’s synthetic textiles. But it wasn’t the fabric that counted, it was the fit. Her arms and face were a light golden tan. Her sky blue hair—What a magnificent colour for hair—was cut short. Her nose was just a little snubbed and her lips were full and rose red without any make-up evident. Only the absence of eyes distracted.

  But when my glance started at her nose and went down, I felt ten years younger. I suddenly realised that with all my preoccupation with TERRA-TESTING and with Karen, I had been missing something in life.

  Doctor Rhoa said, “I would like you to meet my daughter, Ello. She is also my secretary.”

  She held out a slender hand. “An Earth custom, isn’t it? Shaking hands?” She had a most charming smile.

  I shook her hand gently. The fingers were strong. She had gone farther in Earth ways than the scientists, evidently.

  “On Earth,” I said, “you would be called a ‘cute chick’.”

  She laughed then. The first laugh I had heard separate and isolated on Grenda. How ringing and gay it sounded! And her teeth were beautiful.

  SEVEN

  There was a grumbling buzz behind me. Then Zinzer said, “Let’s get started with the examination. That bag you carry and your weapon first, Doctor Stone.”

  I handed over my stunner with some reluctance. They didn’t seem to care much for it. I suppose it was considered not very effective compared to that vibration trick of theirs.

  Briefly, I wondered how they could direct that thin beam of energy they used without some gadget to activate it. No such device was evident. This
was something I needed to find out about before leaving the planet.

  They shrugged off my Boy Scout hatchet and knife with hardly a buzz. But my sun-torch got more attention.

  Doctor Rhoa snapped the switch and passed his hand through the light.

  “Six hundred millimicrons. Seventy degrees. What could you possibly use this for, Doctor Stone? It certainly could not keep you warm.”

  “For light. To see in the dark with.”

  “Light, see, dark. Meaningless words,” muttered Doctor Mun. He seemed really unhappy about that.

  My survival kit came in for even more careful examination. Such items as first-aid, tissue and similar things didn’t puzzle them. My emergency food ration did.

  I suggested they taste the packet. That was a stupid thing to do, I realised later. But at the moment I was cooperative, expecting them to reciprocate.

  My two stereoid cameras really bothered them. When I explained about taking pictures in colour and in black and white, they repeated the words: “Pictures, colour, black, white.” They buzzed together for several minutes. Zinzer said, “meaningless” once, contemptuously, and went on buzzing.

  He turned his attention to my sun-glasses, fondling them, trying to make them out. These were a type with a dual purpose. They fitted tightly around my eyes and kept out dust and irritating air like smog as well as taming bright light.

  When I explained their purpose, the word “dim” was added to their list of “meaningless” words.

  Each of them took turns buzzing over these various things, while Ello’s fingers worked swiftly on a gadget she had with her, apparently taking notes. At last they seemed satisfied and my belongings were set aside on a table.

  “Now, you will permit us to examine you, Doctor Stone, if you please,” said Doctor Rhoa. “Please remove your clothing.”

  “But your daughter’s here,” I said.

  “Why should that bother you, Doctor Stone?”

  I was being foolish, of course. Obviously, on the planet of the blind, covering one’s nakedness could mean very little. Just the same I glanced toward Ello. She was facing me and smiling. I took a deep breath.

  “All right,” I said, and took off my clothes article by article.

  They examined each with the same care they had my other tilings. I thought of an old old story on Earth about the four blind men examining and describing an elephant. Were each of these Grendans getting a different picture of me? Picture? That made me smile. Impression? What impression would these three blind scientists on this planet of the blind have of me?

  Maybe they’d tell me after a while.

  I felt a little on the chilly side as soon as I stripped. Then the feeling went away. Perhaps I imagined it. But something happened that I didn’t imagine. The wall behind me had turned a slightly pinkish colour as if it were blushing.

  The buzzing of the three scientists over my apparel ceased and Doctor Rhoa asked me to stretch out on a table. I lay on my back looking up through the greenish ceiling or roof and wondered about it. Beyond was the sky, a blue sky dampened by the green, and a sun was sliding down it into a cushion of clouds on the distant horizon.

  Zinzer tweaked one of my toes and I forgot about what was above me. Logically, they began their examination of my body at my feet. They worked methodically. They touched, probed and felt. The flexed, stroked and titillated. And from a man who had been celibate for ten years, they got certain inevitable results.

  My face burned with embarrassment. My entire naked body was flushed, and I noticed that the pinkish colour had gone from the wall. I looked toward Ello. Her fingers worked feverishly on the note-taking gadget, keeping up with the buzzing of the scientists. The smile on her face, at the moment, would have been called Mona Lisa-esque where I came from.

  The humiliation of the examination, I assured myself, was all for the sake of science—Grendan science. This was undoubtedly the first time they had ever examined a native of another planet. Their buzzing was steady, matter-of-fact and businesslike.

  When their exploring fingers reached my neck, Doctor Rhoa switched over to Terranese. “You are very like us, Doctor Stone, very.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, “but with one difference.”

  “And what is that?”

  “You are blind.”

  “Blind?”

  Doctor Mun said anxiously, “Explain, please.”

  “Discover for yourselves,” I said. “Go on with your examination.”

  They did, resuming their buzz-buzz. However, when their exploring fingers reached my eyes this conversive tone shot up to a disturbed twitter. They poked, prodded, felt, pawed, groped, twiddled. They even tried to pluck out one of them. I fluttered my eyelids and they drew back their hands as if they were afraid of being bitten.

  “What have we here, Doctor Stone?” Rhoa demanded. “What are those two squirming things on your face? Are those two globe-like manifestations that twitch and flutter some parasite? They certainly can’t be part of your real body.”

  “But they are,” I said. “They are eyes. I just got through telling you, the one difference between you and me. You are blind. I have eyes. I can see.”

  Their buzzing became more excited. Ello put down her note-taking gadget and came to the table. She ran her fingers swiftly around and over my eyes, then drew back with a little gasp. The smile was gone from her face. She didn’t buzz a sound or say a word.

  Mun kept insisting almost pathetically, “Blind, eyes, see. Explain, please.”

  I sat up.

  “With my eyes,” I said. “I see shape, colour, light. When no light is present, they tell me it is dark.”

  “Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless. Eyes, see, shape, colour, light, dark.” Zinzer’s lips curled as he mounted these words, as if he were repeating the stupid prattling of a child.

  Mun waved his hands about despairingly.

  “Let me try again,” I said. “When your universal heat source, which Earth people call the sun, is over you, my eyes see light.” How could they possibly understand the word “light”? I hurried on. “When your planet turns and your sun disappears, my eyes tell me it is dark.” Again, how could they possibly understand “dark”?

  I became frantic. “Look,” I said. (No good.) “Try this then. In the presence of your primary energy-converter, my eyes see red, which you call merely a vibration of 739 millimicrons. Maybe this is better. Doctor Rhoa, my eyes tell me that your daughter is tall, slender, and very agreeable to look—to contemplate, in spite of her absence of eyes.”

  They drew away from me then. Their attitude did not seem to indicate fear so much as it did revulsion, a sort of disgust. I saw Zinzer wipe his hands on the loose upper part of his pyjamas as if he had handled something slimy.

  Their manner irritated me. What in the name of the Milky Way went on here?

  Silence grew between us. Then Doctor Mun gave a short buzz. The buzzing became general again. Doctor Rhoa droned. Mun twittered. Zinzer squeaked. But there wasn’t a sound for Ello.

  She came over to me again. Her hand hesitated a moment before she ran her fingers around and over my eyes once more. She gave a short buzz in a quite normal tone.

  There came another squeak from Zinzer.

  Suddenly, I felt the cord pulling through me again, pulling lengthwise this time. The beam grew stronger. It seemed to be sprouting barbs, tearing at my insides.

  “Hey,” I yelled. “Stop that!”

  Ello swung on Zinzer, shrilling something at him as loud as a scream. The tearing beam softened, disappeared.

  All buzzing stopped. Once it sputtered to life briefly. Then there was silence.

  Doctor Rhoa took a deep breath. He approached the table and stood close to me. He conveyed the impression that he had everything under control.

  “Doctor Stone,” he said. “You are an animal.”

  EIGHT

  By any Earth standards. Doctor Rhoa’s tone and manner would be considered insulting.

  “Of c
ourse I am an animal,” I said. “All mammals are animals. You are an animal unless you are using vibrations for bones.”

  They didn't answer me. They resumed buzzing. Once I felt the beam again, but Ello shrilled and it went away. I felt that she, at least, was on my side.

  She no longer took notes. She was doing as much buzzing as any of the others now. They seemed to be having some sort of argument. Finally her father turned to me.

  My daughter insists that we explain certain things Doctor Stone. We have a number of species of animals on Grenda with orbs such as you have. Most of them perambulate, on four feet instead of two. However, some say there are two-legged creatures out in the wild lands. I’ve never checked it out. Anyhow, all our animals here wear no clothing but have hair over their entire bodies.”

  I interrupted, “We have many such lower forms of mammals on Earth. They have spines, vertebrae, like you have. They suckle their young the way I presume your young are fed. The only difference between you and them, you and me, is eyes. They can see. I can see. You can't”

  He let me finish without stopping me.

  “Long ago” he said, “the people of Grenda determined that those orbs, or eyes as you call them, such as you and the animals on our planet have, were used to invade privacy.” He pondered a moment. “When we came in over the residential section of Lonwolt and your temperature indicated you were upset, we didn't understand you. We do now. We know you were invading the privacy of bedrooms.”

  My mouth must have hung open for several seconds.

  “Can I help it if you have transparent walls?”

  I heard Mun mumble the word “transparent”, but I didn’t pay any attention. “Besides, even if you are blind, you must know what goes on in a bedroom between two people.”

  “Of course we know,” he said.

  “But isn’t that invading privacy?”

  “Absolutely not. To know is to understand. To use those orbs of yours is to invade privacy.”