Hal Clement - Impediment

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Impediment

Boss ducked back from the outer lock as a whir of wings became audible outside. The warning came

barely in time; a five-foot silvery body shot through the opening, checked its speed instantly, and settled

to the floor of the lock chamber. It was one of the crew, evidently badly winded. His four legs seemed to

sag under the weight of the compact body, and his wings drooped almost to the floor. Flight, or any other

severe exertion, was a serious undertaking in the gravity of this world; even accelerine, which speeded up

normal metabolism to compensate for the increased demand, was not perfect.

Boss was not accustomed to getting out of anyone's way, least of all in the case of his own

underlings. His temper, normally short enough, came dangerously near the boiling point; the wave of

thought that poured from his mind to that of the weary flier was vitriolic.

"All right, make it good. Why do I have to dodge out of the path of every idiotic spacehand who

comes tearing back here as though the planet was full of devils? Why? What's the rush, anyway? This is

the first time 1 ever saw you in a hurry, except when I told you to hop!"

"But you told me this time, Boss," was the plaintive answer. "You said that the moment that creature

you were after turned into the path leading here, I was to get word to you. It's on the way now."

"That's different. Get out of sight. Tell Second to make sure everybody's in his quarters, and that all

the doors along the central hall are locked. Turn out all lights, except for one at each end of the hall. No

one is to be visible from that hallway, and no other part of the ship is to be accessible from it. Is that

understood?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Clear out, then. That's the way you wanted things, isn't it, Talker?"

The being addressed, who had heard the preceding dialogue with more amusement than respect, was

watch-ing from the inner door of the air lock. Like the blustering commander and the obsequious crew

member, he supported his body almost horizontally on four slender legs. Another pair of appendages

terminated in prehensile organs as efficient as human hands, and a double pair of silvery-gray,

membranous wings were folded along the sides of his streamlined, insectile body.

He could best be described to an Earthman as a giant hawk moth, the resemblance being heightened

by the broad, feathery antennae projecting some eighteen inches from a point above his eyes. Those

appendages alone differentiated him from the others of his kind; those of the captain and crew were a

bare eight inches in length, narrower, and less mobile.

His eyes were the most human characteristics—more accurately, the only ones—that he possessed.

Two disks of topaz, more than three inches across, they lent a strangely sagacious expression to the

grotesque counte-nance.

"You have understood well, commander," radiated Talker, "even though you seem unable to realize

the necessity for this action. The creature must see enough of the ship to arouse his curiosity; at the same

time he must gain no inkling of our presence."

"Why not?" asked Boss. "It seems to me that we could learn to communicate much more quickly if

we capture him. You say he must be allowed to come and go as he pleases for many days, and must

remain under the impression that this ship is deserted. I know you've been trained to communication all

your life, but—"

"But nothing! That one fact should make it evident that I know more than you can hope to understand

about the problem we're facing. Come up to the control room —that native will arrive shortly, and that's

the only place from which we can watch him without being seen ourselves."

Talker led the way forward along the dimly lit main corridor, into which the inner door of the air lock

opened directly. At its end, a low doorway opened, and a spiral ramp led to the control deck, half a level

higher. Here the two paused. Metal grillework, its interstices filled with glass, formed the rear wall of the

room and afforded a view the whole length of the corridor. Talker extinguished the control-room lights,

and settled himself at this van-tage point.

His name was no indication of his temperament. The narrator, in fact, must accept full blame for the

former. Had it been merely a question of translating from one vocal language to another, it would have

been possible to set down a jumble of vowels and consonants, the more unpronounceable the better, and

claim that the English alphabet provided no means of coming closer to the true pronunciation.

Unfortunately, these beings were able to sense directly the minute electrical disturbances that accompany

nerve currents; they conversed by broadcast-ing reproductions of the appropriate sensory impressions.

The "language," if it could be so called, might be thought of as possessing the elements of a vocal

tongue—nouns, verbs, and modifiers; interjections were replaced by the appropriate emotions, but most

of the conversation was reproduced visual imagery.

Obviously, personal names were nonexistent; but theknowledge of identity was in no way impaired.

An individual was thought of with respect to his position; temporary or permanent, in the group, or by his

personal characteristics. The names used are attempts to show this fact.

No name would suit the arrogant, peppery commander of the vessel, other than the one we have

used; but the cognomen "Talker" merits further explanation.

The rulers of his home planet had many of Boss' characteristics. They were the outcome of ages of

govern-ment similar to the feudal systems of Earth's Middle Ages. Ranks corresponding to kings, lords,

and dukes existed; warfare was almost continuous. Talker belonged to a class having almost exactly the

same duties as medieval heralds; he had been trained from infancy in the traditions, obligations, and

special abilities of that class. He was one of a clique which, within itself, formed an international fraternity

almost as powerful as any of the governments. Their indispensability protected them; they formed, in

addition, probably the most intelligent group in the world. The rulers, and through them, the other

inhabitants, looked up to them, and perhaps even feared them a little. The enormously developed faculty

of communication implied an unparalleled ability to catch and decipher the mental radiations of others; the

development of that power was the "herald's" chief exercise. These last facts should suffice to explain the

power of the group, as well as the origin of Talker's name.

Once comfortably settled, Talker again addressed the captain.

"I can't blame you too much for failure to understand the need for this procedure. You lack the

training, as you have said; and in addition, there is a condition present whose very possibility never before

occurred to me. Tell me, Boss, could you imagine someone—one of your engineers, let us say—acting

quite normally, and yet ra-diating impulses that meant absolutely nothing to you?"

"None of them knows enough to think anything I couldn't understand," was the incredulous answer.

"If one of them did, I'd lock him up for examination."

"Exactly. You can't imagine a perfectly sane mind giving off anything but clear thoughts. But what are

the thoughts, the waves, that you hear?"

"I hear what he's thinking."

"You don't. Your antennae pick up waves which are generated by the chemical processes going on in

his brain. Through long practice, you have learned to interpret those waves in terms of the original

thoughts; but what thought actually is, neither you nor I nor anyone else knows. We have `thought' in the

same fashion all our lives; one brain radiates just like another. But this creature, with whom we have to

communicate, is a member of another race; the same thoughts in his mind produce different

radiations—the very structure of his brain is, quite likely, different from ours. That was why I was so long

finding him; I could not disentangle his radiations from the nerve waves of the other relatively unintelligent

life forms around here, until I actually saw him performing actions that proved unquestionably that he

does possess a reasoning brain. Even then, it was some time before I realized just what was wrong—it

was so new and different."

"Then what can you do? What good will those obser-vations do us!" asked Boss, almost

tremulously. "I don't get it entirely, but you seem to. If you can't talk to him, how can we get the stuff we

need? And if we don't get it, please tell me how we dare show our faces again within five light-years of

home!"

"I am far from sure of just how much can be done," replied the other. "It will be necessary to

determine, if possible, the relation between what this creature thinks and what he radiates; I don't think it

will be easy. These observations are for the purpose of getting a start in that direction. ,

"As to the other questions, they are entirely your business. You command this ship; and this is the first

time I ever saw you want to talk to someone before you helped yourself to his belongings. If you find

yourself unable to do so, we can go back, anyway—if labor is scarce, we might get off with a life

sentence in the King's mines on the big moon."

"If they still belong to the King by then. I think I'd rather die here, or in space."

"At least, there would be no trouble in getting hold of arsenic," said Talker dryly. "Those mines

produce more of that stuff than anything else. If there is any at all on this planet, we have no time to waste

on a probably fruitless search, we must get it from the natives, if they know what it is and have any."

"And to find out if they have any, we must talk to them," answered Boss. "I wish us luck, Talker. Go

to it."

The astroplane rested in a small arroyo not much wider than its own hull. The banks of this gully rose

nearly to the control-room ports, and from where he lay, Talker could see the gap which marked the

point where the trail across the main valley emerged from among the trees. Down that trail the native must

come; he had been seen coming through the gap in the hills that bounded the valley on the south side, and

no other trail led to the pass in the northern boundary, which was marked by even higher and far steeper

cliffs. There seemed little in the valley itself to attract an intelligent being, except animals of various

species; and the Talker knew that the camp on the other side of the southern hills was well supplied with

food, so that the native would probably not be hunting.

Would he be superstitiously afraid of the ship, or intelli-gently curious enough to examine it more

closely?

The question was not long in being answered. Talker sensed the nearness of the creature some time

before it became visible; the herald judged, correctly, that it had seen the vessel first and was

approaching cautiously, under cover. For several minutes, nothing happened; then the man walked boldly

to the edge of the bank and stood there, carefully examining the long metal hull.

Both aliens had seen him before, but only at a considerable distance. Talker's chief surprise at the

hu-man form was that a being should support a mass about four times his own, against the relatively

enormous gravity of Earth, on but two legs—though the legs, it is true, resembled tree trunks when

compared to the stalk-like limbs of the visitors.

The man held a rifle in one hand. The watchers recognized it as a weapon of some sort, but were

unable to make out its details even in the midmorning sunlight which shone upon the native. They waited,

even Boss maintained an unaccustomed silence, while the new-comer took in the details of the

forty-meter, cigar-shaped spaceship. He noticed that there were ports—round win-dows along the sides;

these were covered, except for some near the bow, with metal shutters. The exposed windows contained

round panes of glass or quartz; the room or rooms within were dark, however, and he could see nothing

through them.

A little more than a quarter of the vessel's length back from the nose, was a larger port, evidently an

entrance. It was elliptical, and about five feet high and twice as wide. It was half open, giving a curiously

deserted appearance to the ship.

Talker and Boss could see the indecision in the man's attitude, although his thought waves, which the

former could perceive clearly, were completely indecipherable.

The doubt manifested itself in restless motion; the man paced toward the stern of the ship, passing out

of the watchers' sight, and reappeared a few minutes later on the opposite bank of the gully. He crossed

once more, under the curve of the ship's nose, but this time did not climb the bank. Instead, he

disappeared sternward again, evidently having made up his mind.

Talker was sure he knew the decision that had been reached; for a moment he was jubilant, but an

instant later he came as close to cursing himself as anyone can without benefit of language. The being

quite evidently could not fly; the port was ten feet above its head and fifteen feet from the bank. Even if

the man wished to, how could he enter?

Climbing, for obvious reasons, did not occur to Talker; he had never in his life had to climb, except in

buildings too cramped for flying. He caught a glimpse of the man disappearing among the trees, and

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Hal Clement - Impediment

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