Return to Otherness

by Henry Kuttner

Gallegher screamed for beer. “And a razor,” he added, as Narcissus padded out of the room. “I want to cut my throat.”

  “Why?” the robot asked.

  “Just to amuse you, why else? Get that beer.”

  Narcissus brought a plastibulb. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” he remarked. “Why don’t you lose yourself in rapturous contemplation of my beauty?”

  “Better the razor,” Gallegher said glumly. “Far better. Three clients, two of whom I can’t remember at all, commissioning me to do jobs I can’t remember, either. Ha!”

  Narcissus ruminated. “Try induction,” he suggested. “That machine -”

  “What about it?”

  “Well, when you get a commission, you usually drink yourself into such a state that your subconscious takes over and does the job. Then you sober up. Apparently that’s what happened this time. You made the machine, didn’t you?”

  “Sure,” Gallegher said, “but for which client? I don’t even know what it does.”

  “You could try it and find out.”

  “Oh. So I could. I’m stupid this morning.”

  “You’re always stupid,” Narcissus said. “And very ugly, too. The more I contemplate my own perfect loveliness, the more pity I feel for humans.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Gallegher snapped, feeling the uselessness of trying to argue with a robot. He went over to the enigmatic machine and studied it once more. Nothing clicked in his mind.

  There was a switch, and he flipped it. The machine started to sing “St. James Infirmary.”

  “- to see my sweetie there She was lying on a marble sla-a-ab -”

  “I see it all,” Gallegher said in a fit of wild frustration. “Somebody asked me to invent a phonograph.”

  “Wait,” Narcissus pointed out. “Look at the window.”

  “The window. Sure. What about it? Wh -” Gallegher hung over the sill, gasping. His knees felt unhinged and weak. Still, he might have expected something like this.

  The group of tubes emerging from the machine were rather incredibly telescopic. They had stretched down to the bottom of the pit, a full thirty feet, and were sweeping around in erratic circles like grazing vacuum cleaners. They moved so fast Gallegher couldn’t see them except as blurs. It was like watching the head of a Medusa who had contracted St. Vitus’ Dance and transmitted the ailment to her snakes.

  “Look at them whiz,” Narcissus said contemplatively, leaning heavily on Gallegher. “I guess that’s what made the hole. They eat dirt.”

  “Yeah,” the scientist agreed, drawing back. “I wonder why. Dirt - Hm-m-m. Raw material.” He peered at the machine, which was wailing:

  “- can search the wide world over And never find another sweet man like me.”

  “Electrical connections,” Gallegher mused, cocking an inquisitive eye. “The raw dirt goes in that one-time wastebasket. Then what? Electronic bombardment? Protons, neutrons, positrons - I wish I knew what those words meant,” he ended plaintively. “If only I’d had a college education!”

  “A positron is -”

  “Don’t tell me,” Gallegher pleaded. “I’ll only have semantic difficulties. I know what a positron is, all right, only I don’t identify it with that name. All I know is the intensional meaning. Which can’t be expressed in words, anyhow.”

  “The extensional meaning can, though,” Narcissus pointed out.

  “Not with me. As Humpty Dumpty said, the question is, which is to be master. And with me it’s the word. The damn things scare me. I simply don’t get their extensional meanings.”

  “That’s silly,” said the robot. “Positron has a perfectly clear denotation.”

  “To you. All it means to me is a gang of little boys with fishtails and green whiskers. That’s why I never can figure out what my subconscious has been up to. I have to use symbolic logic, and the symbols … ah, shut up,” Gallegher growled. “Why should I argue about semantics with you, anyhow?”

  “You started it,” Narcissus said.

  Gallegher glared at the robot and then went back to the cryptic machine. It was still eating dirt and playing “St. James Infirmary.”

  “Why should it sing that, I wonder?”

  “You usually sing it when you’re drunk, don’t you? Preferably in a barroom.”

  “That solves nothing,” Gallegher said shortly. He explored the machine. It was in smooth, rapid operation, emitting a certain amount of heat, and something was smoking. Gallegher found a lubricating valve, seized an oil can, and squirted. The smoke vanished, as well as a faint smell of burning.

  “Nothing comes out,” Gallegher said, after a long pause of baffled consideration.

  “There?” The robot pointed.

  Gallegher examined the grooved wheel that was turning rapidly. Just above it was a small circular aperture in the smooth hide of a cylindrical tube. Nothing seemed to be coming out of that hole, however.

  “Turn the switch off,” Gallegher said. Narcissus obeyed. The valve snapped shut and the grooved wheel stopped turning. Other activity ceased instantly. The music died. The tentacles stretched out the window stopped whirling and shortened to their normal inactive length.

  “Well, there’s apparently no end product,” Gallegher remarked. “It eats dirt and digests it completely. Ridiculous.”

  “Is it?”

  “Sure. Dirt’s got elements in it. Oxygen, nitrogen - there’s granite under New York, so there’s aluminum, sodium, silicon - lots of things. No sort of physical or chemical change could explain this.”

  “You mean something ought to come out of the machine?”

  “Yes,” Gallegher said. “In a word, exactly. I’d feel a lot better if something did. Even mud.”

  “Music comes out of it,” Narcissus pointed out. “If you can truthfully call that squalling music.”

  “By no stretch of my imagination can I bring myself to consider that loathsome thought,” the scientist denied firmly. “I’ll admit my subconscious is slightly nuts. But it’s got logic, in a mad sort of way. It wouldn’t build a machine to convert dirt into music, even if such a thing’s possible.”

  “But it doesn’t do anything else, does it?”

  “No. Ah. Hm-m-m. I wonder what Hopper asked me to make for him. He kept talking about factories and audiences.”

  “He’ll be here soon,” Narcissus said. “Ask him.”

  Gallegher didn’t bother to reply. He thought of demanding more beer, rejected the idea, and instead used the liquor organ to mix himself a pick-me-up of several liqueurs. After that he went and sat on a generator which bore the conspicuous label of Monstro. Apparently dissatisfied, he changed his seat to a smaller generator named Bubbles.

  Gallegher always thought better atop Bubbles.

  The pick-me-up had oiled his brain, fuzzy with alcohol fumes. A machine without an end product - dirt vanishing into nothingness. Hm-m-m. Matter cannot disappear like a rabbit popping into a magician’s hat. It’s got to go somewhere. Energy?

  Apparently not. The machine didn’t manufacture energy. The cords and sockets showed that, on the contrary, it made use of electric power to operate.

  And so -

  What?

  Try it from another angle. Gallegher’s subconscious, Gallegher Plus, had built the device for some logical reason. The reason was supplied by his profit of thirty-three hundred credits. He’d been paid that sum, by three different people, to make - maybe - three different things.

  Which of them fitted the machine?

  Look at it as an equation. Call clients a, b, and c. Call the purpose of the machine - not the machine itself, of course - x. Then a (or) b (or) c equals x.

  Not quite. The term a wouldn’t represent Dell Hopper; it would symbolize what he wanted. And what he wanted must necessarily and logically be the purpose of the machine.

  Or the mysterious J. W., or the equally mysterious Fatty.

  Well, Fatty was a shade less enigmatic. Gallegher had a clue, for what it was worth. If J. W. was repre
sented by b, Fatty would be c plus adipose tissue. Call adipose tissue t, and what did you get?

  Thirsty.

  Gallegher had more beer, distracting Narcissus from his posturing before the mirror. He drummed his heels against Bubbles, scowling, a lock of dark hair falling lankly over his eyes.

  Prison?

  Uh! No, there must be some other answer, somewhere. The DU stock, for example. Why had Gallegher Plus bought four thousand credits’ worth of the stuff when it was on the skids?

  If he could find the answer to that, it might help. For Gallegher Plus did nothing without purpose. What was Devices Unlimited, anyway?

  He tried the televisor Who’s Who in Manhattan. Luckily Devices was corporated within the State and had business offices here. A full-page ad flipped into view.

  DEVICES UNLIMITED

  WE DO EVERYTHING!

  RED 5-1400-M

  Well, Gallegher had the firm’s ‘visor number, which was something. As he began to call RED, a buzzer murmured, and Narcissus turned petulantly from the mirror and went off to answer the door. He returned in a moment with the bisonlike Mr. Hopper.

  “Sorry to be so long,” Hopper rumbled. “My chauffeur went through a light, and a cop stopped us. I had to bawl the very devil out of him.”

  “The chauffeur?”

  “The cop. Now where’s the stuff?”

  Gallegher licked, his lips. Had Gallegher Plus actually kicked this mountainous guy in the pants? It was not a thought to dwell upon.

  He pointed toward the window. “There.” Was he right? Had Hopper ordered a machine that ate dirt?

  The big man’s eyes widened in surprise. He gave Gallegher a swift, wondering look, and then moved toward the device, inspecting it from all angles. He glanced out the window, but didn’t seem much interested in what he saw there. Instead, he turned back to Gallegher with a puzzled scowl.

  “You mean this? A totally new principle, is it? But then it must be.”

  No clue there. Gallegher tried a feeble smile. Hopper just looked at him.

  “All right,” he said. “What’s the practical application?”

  Gallegher groped wildly. “I’d better show you,” he said at last, crossing the lab and flipping the switch. Instantly the machine started to sing “St. James Infirmary.” The tentacles lengthened and began to eat dirt. The hole in the cylinder opened. The grooved wheel began to revolve.

  Hopper waited.

  After a time he said, “Well?”

  “You - don’t like it?”

  “How should I know? I don’t even know what it does. Isn’t there any screen?”

  “Sure,” Gallegher said, completely at a loss. “It’s inside that cylinder.”

  “In - what?” Hopper’s shaggy brows drew down over his jet-black eyes. “Inside that cylinder?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “For -” Hopper seemed to be choking. “What good is it there? Without X-ray eyes, anyhow?”

  “Should it have X-ray eyes?” Gallegher muttered, dizzy with bafflement. “You wanted a screen with X-ray eyes?”

  “You’re still drunk!” Hopper snarled. “Or else you’re crazy!”

  “Wait a minute. Maybe I’ve made a mistake -”

  “A mistake!”

  “Tell me one thing. Just what did you ask me to do?”

  Hopper took three deep breaths. In a cold, precise voice he said, “I asked you if you could devise a method of projecting three-dimensional images that could be viewed from any angle, front, back or side, without distortion. You said yes. I paid you a thousand credits on account. I’ve taken options on a couple of factories so I could begin manufacturing without delay. I’ve had scouts out looking for likely theaters. I’m planning a campaign for selling the attachments to home televisors. And now, Mr. Gallegher, I’m going out and see my attorney and tell him to put the screws on.”

  He went out, snorting. The robot gently closed the door, came back, and, without being asked, hurried after beer. Gallegher waved it away.

  “I’ll use the organ,” he moaned, mixing himself a stiff one. “Turn that blasted machine off, Narcissus. I haven’t the strength.”

  “Well, you’ve found out one thing,” the robot said encouragingly. “You didn’t build the device for Hopper.” “True. True. I made it for … ah … either J. W. or Fatty. How can I find out who they are?”

  “You need a rest,” the robot said. “Why not simply relax and listen to my lovely melodious voice? I’ll read to you “

  “It’s not melodious,” Gallegher said automatically and absently. “It squeaks like a rusty hinge.”

  “To your ears. My senses are different. To me, your voice is the croaking of an asthmatic frog. You can’t see me as I do, any more than you can hear me as I hear myself. Which is just as well. You’d swoon with ecstasy.”

  “Narcissus,” Gallegher said patiently, “I’m trying to think. Will you kindly shut your metallic trap?”

  “My name isn’t Narcissus,” said the robot. “It’s Joe.”

  “Then I’m changing it. Let’s see. I was checking up on DU. What was that number?”

  “Red five fourteen hundred M.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Gallegher used the televisor. A secretary was willing but unable to give much useful information.

  Devices Unlimited was the name of a holding company, of a sort. It had connections all over the world. When a client wanted a job done, DU, through its agents, got in touch with the right person and finagled the deal. The trick was that DU supplied the money, financing operations and working on a percentage basis. It sounded fantastically intricate, and Gallegher was left in the dark.

  “Any record of my name in your files? Oh - Well, can you tell me who J. W. is?”

  “J. W.? I’m sorry, sir. I’ll need the full name -”

  “I don’t have it. And this is important.” Gallegher argued. At last he got his way. The only DU man whose initials were J. W. was someone named Jackson Wardell, who was on Callisto at the moment.

  “How long has he been there?”

  “He was born there,” said the secretary unhelpfully. “He’s never been to Earth in his life. I’m sure Mr. Wardell can’t be your man.”

  Gallegher agreed. There was no use asking for Fatty, he decided, and broke the beam with a faint sigh. Well, what now?

  The visor shrilled. On the screen appeared the face of a plump-cheeked, bald, pudgy man who was frowning worriedly. He broke into a relieved chuckle at sight of the scientist.

  “Oh, there you are, Mr. Gallegher,” he said. “I’ve been trying to reach you for an hour. Something’s wrong with the beam. My goodness, I thought I’d certainly hear from you before this!”

  Gallegher’s heart stumbled. Fatty - of course!

  Thank God, the luck was beginning to turn! Fatty - eight hundred credits. On account. On account of what? The machine? Was it the solution to Fatty’s problem, or to J. W.‘s? Gallegher prayed with brief fervency that Fatty had requested a device that ate dirt and sang “St. James Infirmary.”

  The image blurred and flickered, with a faint crackling. Fatty said hurriedly, “Something’s wrong with the line. But - did you do it, Mr. Gallegher? Did you find a method?

  “Sure,” Gallegher said. If he could lead the man on, gain some hint of what he had ordered -

  “Oh, wonderful! DU’s been calling me for days. I’ve been putting them off, but they won’t wait forever. Cuff’s bearing down hard, and I can’t get around that old statute -”

  The screen went dead.

  Gallegher almost bit off his tongue in impotent fury. Hastily he closed the circuit and began striding around the lab, his nerves tense with expectation. In a second the visor would ring. Fatty would call back. Naturally. And this time the first question Gallegher would ask would be, “Who are you?”

  Time passed.

  Gallegher groaned and checked back, asking the operator to trace the call.

  “I’m sorry, sir. It was made from a dial visor. We cannot trace call
s made from a dial visor.”

  Ten minutes later Gallegher stopped cursing, seized his hat from its perch atop an iron dog that had once decorated a lawn, and whirled to the door. “I’m going out,” he snapped to Narcissus. “Keep an eye on that machine.”

  “All right. One eye.” The robot agreed. “I’ll need the other to watch my beautiful insides. Why don’t you find out who Cuff is?”

  “What?”

  “Cuff. Fatty mentioned somebody by that name. He said he was bearing down hard -”

  “Check! He did, at that. And - what was it? - he said he couldn’t get around an old statue -”

  “Statute. It means a law.”

  “I know what statute means,” Gallegher growled. “I’m not exactly a driveling idiot. Not yet, anyhow. Cuff, eh? I’ll try the visor again.”

  There were six Cuffs listed. Gallegher eliminated half of them by gender. He crossed off Cuff-Linx Mfg. Co., which left two - Max and Fredk. He televised Frederick, getting a pop-eyed, scrawny youth who was obviously not yet old enough to vote. Gallegher gave the lad a murderous glare of frustration and nipped the switch, leaving Frederick to spend the next half-hour wondering who had called him, grimaced like a demon, and blanked out without a word.

  But Max Cuff remained, and that, certainly, was the man. Gallegher felt sure of it when Max Cuff’s butler transferred the call to a downtown office, where a receptionist said that Mr. Cuff was spending the afternoon at the Uplift Social Club.

  “That so? Say, who is Cuff, anyhow?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “What’s his noise? His business, I mean?”

  “Mr. Cuff has no business,” the girl said frigidly. “He’s an alderman.”

  That was interesting. Gallegher looked for his hat, found it on his head, and took leave of the robot, who did not trouble to answer. “If Fatty calls up again,” the scientist commanded, “get his name. See? And keep your eye on that machine, just in case it starts having mutations or something.”

  That seemed to tie up all the loose ends. Gallegher let himself out of the house. A cool autumn wind was blowing, scattering crisp leaves from the overhead parkways. A few taxiplanes drifted past, but Gallegher hailed a street cab; he wanted to see where he was going. Somehow he felt that a telecall to Max Cuff would produce little of value. The man would require deft handling, especially since he was “bearing down hard.”