Short Fiction Complete, page 10
The ultra-violet hued sun overhead beat hot against my unprotected skin as I squatted down to wait restlessly.
“How odd everything appears below,” I reflected. Never before had I voluntarily turned off my telekmass—mass sensing and telekinetic—faculties. Far below me, here and there across the brilliant tapestry of the valley floor, I could see animals, and plants too, appearing and disappearing at random. Nothing had pattern or made sense . . . except for the stupid Cien.
It was incapable of teleporting itself, so it stayed always steady as a rock, teleporting debris of every kind into its own huge stomach.
The heat was almost unbearable. I could do nothing about it. I knew if I were to use my indirect faculties to teleport away the molecules of high kinetic energy near my skin, thereby achieving comfort, I might all too easily become prey of the evil Tepen!
I crouched further behind the water-spray seeking its filtering protection from the mercilessly hot sun. Time passed while my body, unused to such energy burdens, quivered in agony. As my mind slowed, I dreamed fitfully.
I dreamed primarily of Eme . . . of her loss . . . of how I came to accept not only her twinning problem but the obligation to avenge her death. I dreamed of the long-distant day when I first came to Enithra, and she found me. . . .
The big red ball bounced before me as I crawled on hands and knees, reaching expectantly for the bright, elusive object. It stopped. I grabbed for it with my hands and arms, only to miss as it jumped away again.
Next I remembered the feel of the sharp prick-pain of the needle, the softness of my bed and covering pressure pushing against me, filling every centimeter of my six-month old body with the terror of falling. Then blessed sleep, so peaceful and calm, though each cell screamed still with its individual entrapped fear.
On that same day Eme’s thoughts were chiefly on her inability to twin, though she was long in years. When her telekmass receptors sensed the large, hot body falling through Enithra’s outer atmosphere, she extended her finetuning sensitivity to detect its twisted and tortured metallic compartments.
Even as the dropping object scooped out. ten miles or more of violet and ultra-violet jungle growth and dirt before coming to test, Eme teleported to the object.
Now it rested. Within it she sensed two fine layers of organic chemicals, charred and flattened on two formed holding platforms. Slightly forward of these were mechanical instruments which triggered great fear in her slight body. They might be traps built by Tepen—her hereditary enemies.
It was already too late for retreat; the activity of her masssensing probes and telekinetic movements would have given her away instantly. But nothing happened. She was greatly relieved when no Tepen energy net clasped at the magnetic structure of her being.
But when she sensed the strange shield of polarization surrounding, in turn, the exceedingly star-dense mass enclosing many direct-action instruments, her caution and fear sprang forth again unbounded.
In the center of this red-hot mass was me.
Was this a new kind of Tepen trap? Would the Tepen use ordinary animal life, surrounded by strange machines and materials, to capture the Ayor?
Fortunately for me, the code of twinning prevented her from seeking further help of her kind. This puzzle was only hers to solve!
Eme, like all other Ayorians except me, was transparent to every frequency except ultra-violet between 1012 and 1016 cycles—a fact which has occasionally been used by the Tepen in their capture. She found herself a well hidden cave several miles from the intensely radiating object where she could feel at least partially safe from Tepen while her indirect faculties continued to probe the wreckage.
She threw a protective telekinetic shield over the conglomerate of metal and fused plastic to protect it from the ever-seeking telekmass fingers of other Emithra plant and animal life. Then she carefully studied the shield of polarization and its associated heavy mass, the broken and twisted direct-action instruments and the animal body which, at that time, was mine.
She carefully studied every aspect of the gross geometry too, for one of the lowest philosophical levels in support of twinning requires knowledge of the geometry which replicates.
Just above the two flattened smears of organic matter and immediately before the shield of polarization were the strange figures;
HEART
OF THE HOUSE
OF THE GALACTIC COUNCIL
Her knowledge of natural statistical patterns suggested that these figures might represent forms of direct-action communications, Perhaps meaning lay in the spaces between each figure, or in their shapes.
She died before this part of her twinning problem could be confirmed.
My dozing mind screamed its grief helping to wake me as my muscles, too, began to shriek their anger as I crouched so long and steadily beneath the waterfall, waiting for the Tepen.
I longed to teleport the chemicals of fatigue away from the periphery of my muscles, thus decreasing die pain sensation. But I dared not.
The sun was lower now, only a few diameters above the tall mountain peak at the end of the valley. I stretched my leg and arm muscles with direct-action physical motion. It gave me considerable release from the pain for a moment; then I forcibly stilled my body again. The pain returned; and it and the burning sun once again drove my thoughts into reveries, back to Eme and her twinning problem, though every light and sound receptor of my being remained set on alert for Tepen. . . .
As Eme’s mass sense passed back and forth through the smouldering object, it slowly cooled until all that remained to be studied was the animal—which was me—in the center, surrounded all around by Tepen-like direct-action machines. Still wary of Tepen magnetic traps, she inspected the machines atom by atom. One, she discovered, seemed to move in periodic rhythm corresponding, roughly, to the period of motion of our planet Emithra; but always it moved a tenth of a cycle faster.
This same cyclical equipment seemed to control the flow of electrons in other parts of the complex apparatus. Wires and tubes attached to me pulsed with the life of chemicals or electrons. Fluids flowed in and out of me; while certain skin areas of my body changed density causing changes in electronic flows. These changes, in their turn, caused other equipments to blow heavier or lighter, air particles throughout the hollow cubicle.
Once she teleported radioactive particles away from the internal structure of the power source, noting how it affected the flow of electrons in support of the equipments—except one, the shield of polarization, which seemed to be generated as a by-product of the very dense metal surrounding all.
Fate had handed Eme a powerful puzzle as part of her twinning cycle; a puzzle which was completely foreign to either her personal experiences or those of her group!
Now satisfied that no Tepen traps existed here, she opened her philosophical self to assist in her studies. Would that flow be animal blood? Could the other flow be the product of animal waste? What chemical was it?
With her sensitive mass-receptor she explored the fine details of structure. She learned—iron so much, carbon so much, nitrogen so much, a little phosphorus here in just this shape. Swiftly, starting with the smallest chemical constituents and their structure she pieced together her conclusions.
Her original conjecture was verified. A form of animal life was trapped inside the hollow object.
Eme had need to call on creative aspects of her philosophy. Other than distorted information about the direct-action devices of the evil Tepen, she had no other experiences remotely connected to this. It wots a wonder she did not twin right at that point in time!
As the jungle hours passed, animal, but primarily Enithra plantlife, slowly reclaimed the charred area around the broken fragment from the sky. Eme, using the same methodical pattern she had used in study of the equipment surrounding me, now began study of my immature form.
How great her surprise must have been when, on exploring the neutral patterns of my mind having to do with ability to teleport and to sense mass, she discovered these patterns to be incomplete! I had no telesenses at all!
Time passed—I in my cubicle in drugged sleep and Eme in her cavern arranging and rearranging conjectures of her twinning problem. The jungle was now nearly covering all.
Though I was Eme’s personal twinning problem, the time of Ayorian grouping approached—the time when all Ayors, hemisphere to hemisphere, stack themselves in a line as long in length as there are Ayors to form it.
For much of my early life I was unclear as to what occurred during the grouping. I have the wrong shape for it. My arms and legs, my light and sound and chemical receptors, do not match the Ayors. To fit the grouping pattern one needs the “8” shape of the Ayorian, where the top hemisphere is hollow on one side and the bottom hemisphere is hollow in the opposite direction. Furthermore, my magnetic structure is weak. It is diffused cell by cell, rather than strong and unitary in nature.
Later I learned that the time erf grouping enables all twinning problems and their solutions to be shared by individual Ayors—as well as assisting the Ayor, as a racial whole, to achieve a higher evolutionary level.
It was easy to understand Eme’s dilemma when she found me. If she left for the grouping, she would miss her individual advancement by skipping her personal twinning problem—me. On the other hand, if she didn’t attend the grouping, she missed her opportunity to assist in the advancement of the Ayor as a racial whole. She also would lose other Ayorian experiences which might materially assist her toward her next twinning.
Since I was the central part of her twinning problem she resolved her difficult dilemma by teleporting me out from the well protected cubicle directly to the Ayorian grouping chamber some five miles below Enithra’s surface. . . .
Spray from the falling water chilled me in the here-and-now. The formerly broiling sun overhead was much cooler. Soon my skin shivered and tiny bumps formed from the cold. Thick haze appeared, consisting mostly of dust and vegetable oils. It thickened as the sun’s weakened image cast longer rays through the atmosphere. Along the valley floor, the teleporting plant and animal life merged into blurs of violet shadows.
Hunger pangs began. I relieved them by groping and grasping with my arms and hands for fruits and nuts lying along the waterfall’s edge. I wondered how long I could go without sleep. But somehow, I vowed, in spite of cold, in spite of the lack of use of my indirect faculties and other comforts which were yet to be taken from me, I would wait, catch and kill these evil Tepen!
Near the cliffs base I quenched my thirst in a novel way. I used my hands; I stooped over, cupped both hands, filled them with water, raised them to my lips and drank! Could the Ayorian children have seen me, many hours of philosophical games would have been stimulated by this novel way of drinking.
Between me and the Tepen traps lay the flat, thickened membrane of plant growth, designed by nature to cover and protect a maximum amount of soil nourishment from foreign seeds which might, by chance, have teleported to its base. The membrane provided a sufficiently strong telekinetic protective field to prevent such seeds from sprouting.
More by instinct than reason, I tore this plant membrane from the soil with my muscles. I shook the small nodules of earth loose from its underside and wrapped it around my shaking body. The protective membrane provided satisfactory warmth at last I reflected on how discovery of such a novel use, alone, would have helped me to win in the children’s philosophical games!
I tied long strands of fibers to the two Tepen traps, being very sure to hide the dead strands beneath the soil. Then I pulled the other ends to my hiding place overhead. Enithra’s insistent plant and annual life would eventually sense, then teleport needed materials from these dead, hidden strands, I knew. But probably they would last until morning.
My stomach was full now, though I had accomplished it through the most unusual—and fatiguing—way of chewing and swallowing. With my body warmed by the organic membranes and the Tepen traps secured, weariness filled my body. I slept to dream again. . . .
Deep below Enithra’s surface, Eme experimentally forced my neuronic growth, completing it. My indirect powers grew. This enabled my body to assume the autonomic duties of self-protection from other seeking Enithra life forms, as my slower body growth consciously and unconsciously began the arduous tasks which accompany use of telekmass faculties.
I recovered my conscious awareness for the first time on Enithra while the Ayorian grouping assembled overhead.
Everywhere around me were fascinating “toys” of different shapes, sizes and “fed”. I reached with my hands and arms to grasp arid jostle them. Though my new masssensing receptors assured me these “objects” were within “grasp”, my physical efforts were fruitless. My fingers came away empty.
Eventually I learned to reach for these new objects with my mind. By turning sensitivity for mass up or down, I could make small objects appear large or small according to my interest of the moment.
Though awakened in darkness, I perceived; though deep in the bowels of the earth, lacking food and oxygen, I nourished and breathed. Eme kept watch on my needs. All around me, on all sides of me, were the Ayor, every one aligning himself according to their respective polarities and their respective philosophical attitudes, each sharing his twinning problems and twinning experiences.
Even one of Eme’s wonderful talents could not completely solve my babyhood need for human attention and affection, though she came dose. By use of her telekinetic power, she could cause different parts of my body to feel warm with pressure—as would be the case if a genuine human held and cuddled me.
When an adult Ayorian “twins,” he becomes two independent, separated Ayorian “children.” Each Ayorian child has increased abilities along the lines which caused his “parent” to twin; but none has the memories of his parent.
Ayorian evolutionary progress can be measured by individual twinnings as well as group growth from group-accepted problems. My dreams, interrupted for but a moment, continued with my first grouping where the dialogue, weaved itself into my dreams.
“He is animal in body, thus non-Ayorian,” said one of the group.
“He has a completed neuronic growth giving him the indirect faculties,” another forced into the coordinated assemblage.
“He must be brought to full self-sufficiency,” another responded.
“Place him with the children until he develops; Eme shall guide him until her twinning.”
In my sleeping mind echoed, clearly the Ayorians booming tones over and over again, “Eme shall guide him; Eme shall guide him; Eme shall guide him . . .!”
But Eme was dead.
II
Searching, scorching heat of the sun woke me up.
Below and all around Enithra life stirred. It moved in jerky, discontinuous jumps, grasping with hungry power. No clouds hid the sun’s rays. And as far as my light receptors could perceive, no evil Tepen traveled on the valley floor Below.
I scurried quickly down to the waterfall’s basin, again using only my direct faculties of arms, legs and mouth to dean, move, eat, and drink. Though my muscles ached excruciatingly, I returned to await the Tepen.
I was fully conscious on this second day. Certainly I was suffering less from exposure to heat than the day before. Almost relaxed, I deliberately brought to mind my most early life with the children.
Constantly they laughed at me; my awkwardness in the use of indirect faculties was as clumsy as the very youngest of the Ayorian children.
“Spork!” they shouted with glee. In Ayorian language it means “moron.”
They could talk and hear by vibrating the concave side of the hemisphere which composed the top half of their body. It was my only advantage over them. I was far superior in these two faculties. But it was trivial. What was important was the telekmass—mass sensing and telekinetic—faculties.
Like children everywhere, Ayorian children played those games, which were supposed to prepare them for the serious responsibilities of maturity.
In “hide-and-seek”, one playing member teleports an object to an unknown location. When the signal is given, all others enlarge their telekmass network in ever-expanding radii in search of the hidden object. Though the object might be hidden, say, only twenty miles away, each position in a three-dimensional sphere surrounding each playing member must be inspected. At each linear increase” of the searching sphere’s radius, each member has need to strain; the volume of positions to be searched increases by the cube of the radius.
Though most Ayorian children rapidly achieve a capability which includes all of Enithra, I could never find an object beyond a forty mile radius. This will give some idea of just how moronic I was!
Another common game was called “squeezing”. Each player attempts to teleport the other; each resists the other. If the players are evenly matched, each feels as though he is “squeezed.” Eventually one gives way and loses.
During my very early childhood, I was better at “squeezing” than other Ayorian children because of my greater mass. But, all adult Ayorians could always handle me with great ease.
A third game was called “nullthought”. It consists of shutting off one’s thought processes. While most Ayorians, with their unified magnetic field of thought, were expert at it, I, with my biological processes and their associated small, cellular, independent magnetic-fields, continually broadcast loud identity waves in all directions.
My best game was “philosophical speculations”. An object or set of relationships of any kind is selected for the game. This object or set of relationships may be almost anything. Each of us children would contemplate on the object or relationship. If an object were chosen, we extended our mass-sensors down to lowest levels to learn and discuss composition of structure; or, if relationships, we all speculated and formed hypotheses.
Those who advanced the most novel conjecture—determined by majority vote—which also fitted consistently within the framework of past “accepted” conjectures, won.
