Colin Kapp - The Imagination Trap

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The Imagination Trap

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Professor Carl Diepenstrom, Director of Tau Research Corporation, switched off the

intercom.

“Well, at least he’s come to see us, Paul.”

Paul Porter nodded. “I thought he would. Eric Brevis can’t resist the lure of curiosity any

more than we can. In fact, if we can score with him, it will be on that very point.”

“I see.” Diepenstrom raised his large and greying head and studied Porter seriously for a

moment or two. “And you still think it vitally necessary that we go through with this project,

Paul?”

“You know it is. It’s the only chance we have. We can’t continue with the present research

line. It isn’t humanitarian, and it isn’t giving us a glimpse of a coherent pattern. Besides which,

you know how the Government’s attitude is hardening.”

“Yes, I know it,” said Diepenstrom gravely. “And that’s the reason I’ve backed you as far as I

have. I can’t see any practical alternative. But I’d be happier if it didn’t have to be you who

went out there. Tau Research can’t afford to lose you, Paul.”

“There won’t be any Tau Research if this project folds. Anyway, I don’t think the risk will

be too great—not if we can persuade Eric Brevis to join the team.”

“You think a great deal of Dr Brevis, don’t you?”

“I do. He has an intuitive understanding of the irrational, and that can be a prime factor for

survival under extreme Tau conditions. With him on the team we have a very real chance of

making a breakthrough.”

“Very well,” said Diepenstrom. “If you want Dr Brevis, you shall have him. But you’d better

leave the interview to me. It may just be that he isn’t very willing to offer his life for

somebody else’s cause. In which case he will have to be . . . ah! . . . persuaded.”

As the psychologist entered the room, Diepenstrom rose in greeting.

“Dr Brevis, thank you for coming.”

Brevis seated himself carefully and took a cigar from the offered box. “Being in receipt of

such an intriguing communication, I could scarcely have refused.”

Diepenstrom repressed a mischievous smile. “That was, shall we say, contrived. Curiosity

is a force far more potent than most people allow.”

Brevis studied the Director’s face carefully for a moment. “True,” he said. “Though I don’t

think you asked me here just to discuss the psychology of curiosity.”

“Indeed not. I wanted to discuss the possibility of death.”

“Whose death—yours or mine?”

“Yours.”

Brevis exhaled sharply. “I suppose there’s some sense in this cryptic nonsense?”

“There is indeed, my dear Doctor, and shortly I’ll tell you what it is. But first let me

enquire how much you know about Tau?”

“Not very much. I know it’s a system in which solid bodies are resonated in such a way

that their atoms can pass through the spaces in the atomic structure of other solid bodies. I

know you use the method for transport, bringing the big Tau ships to resonance and then

driving them through the earth by the shortest mean path to their destination.”

“Go on,” said Diepenstrom.

“I know also that in its resonant state such a ship passes into an inter-atom domain called

Tau-space which is incongruent both physically and psychologically with conditions existing

in normal space.”

“That will do for the moment,” said Diepenstrom. “I recall that you were concerned with

Paul Porter on the epic voyage of the old Lambda I Tau raft. I also recall that the impact of

some of the things you discovered on that journey caused a radical re-thinking of some major

portions of the Tau concept. I put it to you, Dr Brevis, that this is a remarkable record for one

who claims very little knowledge of Tau techniques.”

“Suppose we come to the point,” said Brevis abruptly.

“I was just going to,” said Diepenstrom. “Does the phrase deep-Tau mean anything to you?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll tell you. Deep-Tau is the Tau-space analogue of conventional deep space. We

are actively researching into the possibility of achieving interstellar spaceflight by travelling

in the Tau-space analogue.”

“I don’t see . . .” said Brevis.

“Let me finish first, please. Now, deep-Tau as an alternative to conventional spaceflight

promises some remarkable advantages in simplified technique. Indeed, it may be the only

technique to make star travel possible. Superficially, deep-Tau travel would appear to be

easier than terrestrial Tau work. Unfortunately there are a number of impossible and irrational

reasons why this is not so.”

“I fail to see,” said Brevis, “what all this has to do with me.”

“A great deal. The present pattern of Tau research consists of sending manned telemetry

probes into deep-Tau. We’ve sent some twenty-four to date. Some have returned and some

haven’t, but each has piled paradox on paradox—and each has cost the life of the probe pilot.

Now we’re approaching our last chance. If we fail, the Government will probably close down

our activities completely. Such an action would be a setback to this research from which it

might never recover.”

“So?”

“Paul Porter wants to take a four-man vessel fitted out as a laboratory into deep-Tau, and

he wants you to go with him. It’s my job to persuade you to go, while at the same time leaving

you in no doubt that to do so is tantamount to committing suicide.”

“So that’s it! I refuse, of course. I still have the scars to show from the last time Paul Porter

took me into Tau.”

“I have a contract here on which you can write your own price for one successful

deep-Tau vector.”

“No, Professor. If Paul wants to seek an anguished grave in the corner of some dark and

twisted hypothetical continuum, that is his own affair. I’ve no such ambition.”

“A fair statement, Dr Brevis. I appreciate your position. Faced with the same situation, I

should probably adopt a similar standpoint. Let me thank you again for coming, and apologize

for wasting your time.”

Brevis watched him narrowly for a moment. “What are you up to, you old fox? You aren’t

a man to accept defeat that easily.”

Diepenstrom raised his ponderous head. His smile was a mere ghost haunting the corners

of his mouth.

“Ah, yes! There was something else. I’m glad you reminded me. While you’re here I

wonder if you’d care to see some of our deep-Tau exhibits.”

“Seeing the whole point of this interview seems to turn on this apparent afterthought, I

have no objection. But I warn you that nothing you can show me will make me change my

mind.”

“Perish the thought, my dear Doctor. I merely wish to show you our little museum of

paradoxes. I think you’ll find them rather fascinating. Would you care to step this way?”

The vaults beneath Tau Research were olive-drab and vast in extent, and the footsteps of the

two men echoed hollowly down the steel and concrete corridors. Brevis had previously had

no idea that Government influence extended to the point of including armed servicemen

alongside Tau Corporation’s own formidable security force. The two men were checked and

counter-checked at each level and intersection with a meticulous care which placed a sinister

stamp on the ultimate importance of the project.

Brevis smiled wryly. “If I have as much trouble getting into Heaven as we’ve had getting

into here, I don’t think I’ll bother.”

“Don’t worry,” said Diepenstrom. “The qualifications for entry are somewhat

different—one might almost say mutually exclusive.”

“That’s a rare piece of cynicism.”

“Wait,” said the Director, “until you’ve seen what we have to show you. There are more

things in Heaven and on Earth than are dreamed of in your psychology.”

They reached the appointed door, and Diepenstrom withdrew the bolts with a heavy

clatter and stood aside for the psychologist to enter.

“This is one of the ten or so probe vessels which we have been able to recover. It came

back to us on an automatic-recall vector from deep-Tau, and it’s not the least of our

curiosities.”

Brevis entered the room and walked around the exhibit, his face registering a melange of

fear and fascination.

“What sort of trick is this?”

“No trick, Doctor. Simply one of those things that we at Tau Research have had to learn to

live with.”

“And the pilot?” Brevis asked at last the question he had been avoiding.

“He came back alive but died in hospital. He was completely to scale with the craft. He

was desperately mad and measured exactly one and a quarter inches tall. Do you want to see

any more?”

“Not just now. One has to learn to re-adjust.”

“You’re not feeling ill, are you?”

“No. I was just thinking what a remarkable character your pilot must have been.”

“You’ve got beyond me there,” said Diepenstrom, with sudden interest. “What did you have

in mind, Doctor?”

“I was reflecting that you sent him into a complex so vast that it doesn’t include the

limiting concept ‘universe’. The wonder to me is not that he came back minute, but that he

didn’t come back microscopic.”

A trace of light flickered across Diepenstrom’s brow.

“I think you’re on to something, Dr Brevis. Paul Porter was right. You do have an intuitive

understanding of the irrational. Won’t you have second thoughts about joining our team?”

“Damn you, Diepenstrom! You’ve pushed the ball right into my court.”

“I merely showed you the ball. You did the pushing.”

“But you knew which way it would roll.”

“Certainly. With the pitch inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees in the right direction, I

could scarcely miss. It’s what I call an imagination trap. Give an expert an outstanding

problem in his own field, and you have one of the most infallible mousetraps ever devised.

Now suppose we go upstairs and sign that contract?”

“I still haven’t said I agree,” Brevis said.

“No, but you will. You see, if you walk out now you’ll always be haunted by the vision of

the Tau probe vessel which came back only twenty-two inches long and with a pilot not as big

as your thumb. I don’t think a man with your imagination could live with himself with that

problem unresolved.”

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