"Chapter 25" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Dickson - Forever Man)

C H A P T E R

25
"WHY? WHAT IS IT?" MARY ASKED.
"Our butterflies have fangs," said Jim.
"What do you mean . . . oh!" said Mary.
"?1," said Jim.
"Yes?" said ?1.
"Were you listening?"
"Of course not," said ?1. "It was determined, if you remember, that when you and Mary exchange concepts we do not hear you."
"Good. Thanks. We've got a few more words to say to each other and then we'll be back in conversation with you."
"I look forward to the prospect."
"Jim?" said Mary.
"Yes? "
"What is it about their stopping the Laagi that upsets you so much? It's not just what you said. I can feel you're upset."
"I guess it's because I've been a fighter pilot," said Jim. "I can put myself in their place."
"The place of the Laagi who were told to stop?"
"Yes. I've fought them; I've seen them fight when they hadn't a hope until we killed them; and now I've seen them on
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their own world. I can guess how they follow orders. I can imagine how it was for them, those who got stopped."
"How was it, then?"
"You studied them. You know as well as I do. They live to work; and for a Laagi fighter crewman what he does is his work. You can imagine for yourself what it must have been like to have the combined minds of our bodiless friends here tell them to stop."
"I'm sorry, Jim. Maybe it's because I never was a fighter pilot; but I still don't see why hearing about this upsets you so much."
"Maybe you're right. Maybe it's just me. But picture it for yourself. Those Laagi went out under orders to follow their version of the centerline down-galaxy. They were under those orders when the contrary order of the combined minds of these people told them to stop. And they stopped. That's why I said these little friends of ours have unexpected fangs. You remember how ?1 didn't seem to cane what happened to one of their own people after that particular mind-person was cast out-ignored?"
"Yes. How does that tie in?"
"Don't you see? Somehow these mind-people can set up a-they'd probably call it a concept-that says any living being that can't see or hear them has to stop at a certain point in space; and it's a concept that overrides anything else that being's been told or wants to do. When they say stop, they mean literally stop. And that's just what those Laagi crewmen did."
"You mean that's why they halted their ships where they were, why they didn't go back to their world to report what had happened?"
"I mean they couldn't go back. They couldn't do anything but what they'd been overridingly ordered to do. So they did it. Think of them, driving along. And an overriding order suddenly tells them to stop their progress, shut off their power, do nothing more. So they do it. They obeyed, because they weren't able to do anything else. They stopped . . . and there they sat, in the case of those ships we looked into, until we came to see what was going on. You've seen how the Laagi can't stand being idle. But they had to sit there and die. And there they'll sit until Judgment Day. them and all the rest

296 / Gordon R. Dickson

who brought ships close enough to this zone in space that oar mind-people've taken over for their own. You and I could see and hear them, so their order to stop didn't affect us. But otherwise you and I, Mary-we, too, we'd have been sitting there now, dead."
"1. . . see," said Mary.
"Think of those Laagi then, sitting there, not able to move, waiting to die; and finally, dying. Sitting there dead, killed by these nice, fluffy little friends of ours, here. No wonder they've been able to keep these worlds and this part of space to themselves for however long they have. And no wonder the Laagi are looking for other worlds to live on in any direction but this one."
.`Are you saying we shouldn't want the worlds that're here, either?" There was a hardness in Mary's answer.
"I'm not sure what I'm saying. But we don't want to bring people in here to live under the nonexistent noses of aliens who can suddenly just order them to stop what they're doing until they die in place, do we?"
"No. You're right about that. But what can we do to make sure they'd be safe, though?"
"I don't know. I've got to get more of a handle of ?l and his friends. Let's go back and talk to them some more.-?1?"
"Yes. Happily, you are with us once more, both of you."
"And we're very happy to be back."
"That makes us all happy together. What a fine thing."
"Yes. About the Laagi. I may have told you we were being chased by them when we came here."
"Don't you recall telling me that?"
"I think so, but I'm not sure."
"How strange. You seem very forgetful."
"I guess I am."
"However, be assured you did tell us that."