by James Gault
Chapter 3
“What we need to do,” Ogg announced, “is to lay all the facts out in front of us. Then we may have to make some assumptions. From these facts together with the assumptions, we can attempt, by a process of deduction, to formulate one or two hypotheses, or theories. If we then test our hypotheses by experimentation, we will be able validate our assumptions.”
“Or invalidate them.” Antonia chipped in. She wanted Ogg to know she was getting the hang of this logical thinking.
“Or invalidate them, and in the case of invalidation, we will revise our assumptions and repeat the process, on an iterative basis, until the truth becomes apparent.”
“Can I have a question?”
“Questions are the source of knowledge. Go ahead, Ant!”
“It is true,” she began, “that the process you have just described is of course the only correct way of thinking for humans. But I was just thinking that it is entirely possible that the non-humans - who may or may not be aliens; we agreed that that was an assumption - that these non-humans may think in a different way entirely. And if this is the case, might we not have to think in the same way as they do?”
Ogg shuddered. The thought of anyone thinking in an incorrect way always disturbed him. It was exactly that that kept the world in the horrible mess it always seemed to be in.
“Ant, there are too many people in this world incapable of thinking in the correct fashion. They frequently get into positions of great power and authority, and you only have to glance at the history books to see the kind of damage they can do. So, while there may be some merit in your suggestion, I don’t believe I could bring myself to think in any other way than the correct way. Besides, as we don’t know how the non-humans think, I don’t see how we will be able to imitate them.”
Antonia found Ogg’s response a bit disappointing. If there are non-humans with cogitative capacities there could well be more than one correct way of thinking. So what exactly might these other ways of thinking be? Wasn’t that one worthy of some reflection? Not to Ogg, apparently! Well, in her opinion,. his lack of adventure and deep-seated conservatism in this matter weren’t worthy of him. But she personally would dedicate some of her time to exploring this question, without Ogg’s help. It would be something to do while the Chemistry teacher was attempting those boring experiments that never worked. She was about to let her mind wander down that path right away, but Ogg’s voice brought her back to the present problem.
“Let’s look at the facts, Ant. Fact number one - the world ends next year.”
‘In the current circumstances, the world ends next year,” Antonia corrected him, proudly. “Our goal is to change these circumstances, and so save the world.”
“Yes…quite… er! Fact number two – while there have always been a certain number of minds which are closed to me, the number of minds I can’t read has been increasing dramatically recently.”
“And as you can read all human minds, these minds must belong to creatures who are in some way not human. Ogg, you couldn’t be wrong about your ability to read all human minds, could you?”
“Impossible, Ant! The ability to read every single human mind and to travel at will through all times is the very definition of ‘Oggness’. Why do you ask?”
“Because these two facts could be explained quite nicely by a diminution of your great powers, caused perhaps by the advent of old age.” Antonia said this with a small voice. First of all, nobody likes to be reminded they are getting on in years, and, secondly, she was afraid the idea of an Ogg with reduced powers might hurt his feelings. But the logic was totally correct, and after all it was Ogg himself who had insisted that they go down the path of clear and proper thinking.
“Your deduction is entirely reasonable, Ant, but my powers are an inviolable given, so you will have to abandon this theory. And, of course, the allusion to old-age is entirely out of place.”
‘Oh dear,’ Antonia thought, ‘I really have hurt his feelings.’
“Physically, I have the power to be any age I choose. And also, as a time traveller, it is impossible to put an exact start date to my existence. The whole idea of any age, either young or old, is therefore irrelevant in my case.”
Did she detect a slight emotional tremble in his voice? Were his reasons slipping in the direction of excuses? Better not upset him any more. Better stick to listing the facts.
‘Fact number three - the end of the world is getting earlier all the time.”
‘Not quite, Ant! At first there was no end to the world. Then I discovered that this had changed and suddenly it had decided to end in two years. And now, it appears that the end of the world has moved again, and is only one year away. However, your conclusion that the end of the world will continue to get earlier and earlier is not a deduction but a mere extrapolation of current events and we don’t actually know if there will be a further change, or, if there is, in which direction it will be. The events of the past are never an infallible predictor of the future.”
“Fact number three, then, is that the end of the world has just moved forward, once only, by one year,” Antonia corrected herself.
“Much better, Ant! A clear, exact, definition of the evidence! Now, let’s think! These are the facts, and now we need a theory.”
“Assumptions first! You remember, you told me. Facts, assumptions, then theory.”
Ogg frowned. He hated it when someone caught him out.. Of course it should never happen, but even Great Beings are human. Anyway, a mistake’s a mistake, all Ogg could hope for was that he didn’t sound too flustered when he scrambled through his reply.
“Really, Ant, you’re mixing up the explanation of theories with their formulation. Of course, to explain a theory, you start with facts, then it’s assumptions, and finally the theory. But when you’re trying to create a theory, you start from the facts, then you make up a theory, and finally see what assumptions you have made.”
“Ogg, that’s cheating!” Antonia almost shouted. “It’s like making up an answer and then deciding what the question is.”
“We live in a less than perfect world, Ant, even when it comes to the processes of correct thinking.”
In many ways, in spite of Ogg’s friendship and advice, the world was becoming more and more complicated for Antonia. First of all, it was so difficult to think in a correct fashion, and then there were all those annoying Great Philosophical Questions. It seemed that everything she wanted to know fell into the G.P.Q. category. And now it appeared that the process of logical thinking itself was not inviolate, and could be changed whenever it was felt to be convenient. If she lived to be thousand, she would never succeed in understanding the ways of the world.
“Let’s think for a minute, Ant. Let’s try to come up with a good sound theory.”
Ogg was lounging on the bedroom chair, rubbing his chin and screwing up his face in a puzzled frown, while Antonia was sitting up in bed, her head propped against the pillow, staring at the ceiling.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Ant,’ he said.
“Ogg, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. For one thing, it would have been much more polite to ask me like a proper person, instead of jumping inside my head and helping yourself. And for another, I hadn’t quite finished formulating the idea myself.”
“I just thought I would save some time.”
“Oh, really Ogg! As if time made any difference to you. If you need some more time you can just go back and start again. You were just being wicked.”
“Wicked is a bit strong, but I do admit to being a little naughty. But also I was testing out your deductive capabilities, and I’m glad to say you came through with flying colours.”
Antonia fixed him with the chilly gaze of an ice maiden. All this stupid messing about! She was glad she was a girl. Even Ogg’s mind was chained for ever to male silli
ness.
“If you would be so kind as to listen, I will explain my idea to you, now that I have had time to reflect on it and to construct it in a clear and understandable fashion.”
Ogg nodded. He knew never to cross a woman when her temper was up, no matter how young she was.
“It seems to me that the key to this mystery lies with the non-humans. We know nothing about them, and I think we need to know more. For example, how non-human are they? Is their non-humanness genetic? Is it handed down from father to son, from mother to daughter? Are they born non-human, or can they become non-human later in life?”
“Good questions, Ant, and I have to admit I don’t know the answers.”
Antonia was sitting up in bed and her eyes were gleaming. One hand she was stroking her chin, the other index finger was waving about as if she were in a swordfight. Her hair was dishevelled from her night’s sleep. Her white nightie had a strange ghostly look to it. Had her mother had peeked into the bedroom just at that moment, she would have thought her daughter had gone completely off her rocker. But Antonia’s mad dressmaking parent was fortunately sound asleep in her own bed, dreaming no doubt of ghastly grotesque garments she could make for her child She was spared the demonic spectacle of Antonia enthusiastically expounding her latest ideas, the impeccable results of a fecund imagination and a faultless process of correct thinking.
“In the absence of answers to these important questions,” Antonia ranted, ‘we will have to proceed on the basis of assumptions. Suppose, for example, that non-humanness is indeed hereditary. The growth in the number of minds closed to you could then be explained by the simple fact that these ‘people’ are reproducing at a much faster rate than we normal humans. I haven’t yet quite worked out what this has to do with the end of the world.
“On the other hand, should there be no hereditary element in non-humanness, then these non-humans must be coming from somewhere. This assumption would thus favour the ‘invasion of aliens from outer space’ theory. The end of the world may simply be the annihilation of the entire indigenous population of our planet by space invaders.
“However, in the case where it is possible to convert from humanness to non-humanness, simply by closing one’s mind to your excellent advice and support, another explanation is indicated. I don’t wish to hurt your feelings, but this would mean that you were suffering from a sharp decline in your popularity. Though why everyone in the world should suddenly sever all contact with you suddenly at the same time, and so cut you off completely from the future, is a bit of a mystery.”
Antonia clutched her knees in her arms and beamed at Ogg. Her logic was perfect, as any reader who tries to verify it with the aid of diagrams or to subject it to the rigours of algebraic proof will see. Ogg was impressed. It was surprising that it was Antonia and not Ogg who had produced such a deep and accurate analysis. With all his powers, Ogg had to be infinitely more capable of such a feat than a teenage girl. But any of Ogg’s friends will tell you that Ogg moves in mysterious ways. He scorns the problems of Great Philosophical Questions. He never ever expresses an opinion on the meaning of life, the nature of truth, or the hypocrisy of politicians. However, he does encourage his friends to speculate on such weighty matters. Then he proceeds to annoy them intensely by refusing to comment on their meagre attempts to resolve such insoluble problems. When Antonia beamed in the hope of some enthusiastic response, Ogg merely grinned back weakly and shrugged his shoulders. But it didn’t put her off.
“There are just too many things we don’t know, Ogg. We need answers to some of these questions. In your travels in space and time, you’ll have to talk to these non-humans, and find out more about them.”
“I can’t Ant!’ Ogg whimpered.
What was wrong with Ogg? Why was someone with such great powers so pathetic? Was he moving in one of his mysterious ways? Antonia was just a little suspicious.
“Why not?’ she asked, warily.
“I have terrible problems with these non-humans, Ant. You know that I can’t read their minds, as I can with normal people. And they don’t know I exist. They can’t see me or hear me, so there’s absolutely no way I can communicate with them.”
“But humans can communicate with them?”
“Oh, yes. To you, non-humans are indistinguishable from humans. So you can meet with them, talk to them and listen to them. But not me!”
Antonia put her hands over her ears, she didn’t want to hear this. Up to then her future had been completely in Ogg’s safe and capable hands. Apart from a few lapses of concentration, he was all-powerful, able to take care of everything. The impending end of the world hadn’t been really all that worrying. Ogg was there and in the end everything would work out all right. Now Ogg had revealed the true extent of his limitations. There was a large and apparently increasing section of the population completely out of his sphere of influence. This must be why, in spite of Ogg’s worthy intentions and tremendous efforts, the world was and always had been such a terrible place. Ogg’s failure to eradicate wars, disease and misery was now all too readily explainable. But, while it was impossible to deny the wickedness of the past, there had always been the prospect of a better future. Now the future might well be no better than the past, if indeed it was to happen at all.
“This is terrible news, Ogg. What are we going to do? Will we ever be able to save the world? Is the future doomed?”
Antonia’s mind filled up with an immense darkness, stretching into infinity in every direction. She was looking into a colourless void and only the rasping of her half sobs reminded her that she was still part of something. It was scary. Ogg noticed a little tear at the corner of each of her eyes, and to be honest her heavy breathing was deafening. But, he had been around since before the beginning of time. He had lived through an infinite number of lives an infinite number of eras. He had seen absolutely everything before. He knew nothing was either as good or as bad as it seemed, and he thought that this thought might comfort Antonia.
“Nothing’s as bad as it seems, Ant!’
Antonia sniffed. It was a thought she had heard too often from her mother.
“Don’t worry too much that I can’t communicate personally with those non-humans. That’s exactly why I need your help.”
Antonia wiped her nose with edge of her sleeve. It was a disgusting thing to do but her mother wasn’t there and Ogg was a friend. And it was the quickest way to remove the tell-tale signs of despair. Things weren’t so bad. If he needed her help Ogg must have a plan. Plans were good, there was something positive about plans. He had decided to move on from pointless platitudes to concrete actions. And she didn’t want to listen with a snotty nose.
“You’re completely right. We need to interrogate these non-human individuals further. That’s where you come in. I want you to travel with me in time and space, and talk to them for me. You’ll be my interpreter.”
Antonia managed a grudging smile. It seemed a good plan. All was perhaps not lost after all. The world could still be saved. And there was the added bonus of a bit of travel in time and space and the adventures that would bring.