They were enormously heavy, and he could not lift them. With immense, clumsy fingers he strove to undo the buckles that held them together. Again there was a ringing in his ears and things were going dark.
What had he told the outlaws? That men sometimes staggered up to the space post so weak from lack of oxygen he had to attach flasks for them. And now he was that way. He had twenty flasks of oxygen, but not enough strength in his fingers to untie them and hook one to his airhose. It was almost funny, and the funniest thing was that he was too tired to care much. The buckles slipped out of his hands, and he knew there was no time to try again. Because even now he was sinking into that soft darkness where nothing mattered.
It was daylight and Queel was bending over him where he lay on the landing field. The Ootlandah hissed gently as Blakston opened his eyes.
“Must apologize for clumsiness of useless digits,” said Queel, which was an overstatement because he had none. “Not intended for making tank connections, which mastered only after much trying.”
Blakston grinned up at him. So Queel had saved him again. Good old Queel—
“Fire devil is dead,” continued the Ootlandah. “For that, and because man friend is okey dokey, gratitude is unbounded.”
Blakston nodded, satisfied. But Queel’s eyes, green-rimmed and unutterably mournful, contracted suddenly.
“Regret imminent passing which— Look out!”
The native tensed, trembled violently, and sneezed himself asunder. Pale dust drifted where he had stood a moment before, and Blakston watched, fascinated, for that miracle of mushroom growth to occur. Seconds ticked past. From the mound of yellow dust a particle sprang up, danced madly as it grew with explosive violence.
Blakston sighed. His resignation from Space Post 291 was on file at I.R.C.C. headquarters. It was eight years old now, because he’d sent it in after his first month here, “to take effect one month from date.” He saw now that it wouldn’t do. He didn’t want to leave Dhee Minor. Lonely? Sure. Smells? He was used to them. Friends? Enough—and not all of them wore air helmets.
Queel stood before him. Queel stood erect and quivering, and said, by rote: “Queel the younger salutes you.”
And Blakston merely grunted. For a grunt, he knew, meant a lot between the two of them.
<
~ * ~
The Shape of Things
BY RAY BRADBURY
H
e did not want to be the father of a small blue pyramid.
Peter Horn hadn’t planned it that way at all. Neither he nor his wife imagined that such a thing could happen to them. They had talked quietly for days about the birth of their coming child, they had eaten normal foods, slept a great deal, taken in a few shows, and, when it was time for her to fly in the helicopter to the hospital, her husband, Peter Horn, laughed and kissed her.
“Honey, you’ll be home in six hours,” he said. “These new birth-mechanisms do everything but father the child for you.”
She remembered an old-time song. “No, no, they can’t take that away from me!” and sang it, and they laughed as the helicopter lifted them over the green way from country to city.
The doctor, a quiet gentleman named Wolcott, was very confident. Polly Ann, the wife, was made ready for the task ahead and the father was put, as usual, out in the waiting room where he could suck on cigarettes or take highballs from a convenient mixer. He was feeling pretty good. This was the first baby, but there was not a thing to worry about. Polly Ann was in good hands.
Dr. Wolcott came into the waiting room an hour later. He looked like a man who has seen death. Peter Horn, on his third highball, did not move. His hand tightened on the glass and he whispered:
“She’s dead.”
“No,” said Wolcott, quietly. “No, no, she’s fine. It’s the baby.”
“The baby’s dead, then.”
“The baby’s alive, too, but—drink the rest of that drink and come along after me. Something’s happened.”
Yes, indeed, something had happened. The “something” that had happened had brought the entire hospital out into the corridors. People were going and coming from one room to another. As Peter Horn was led through a hallway where attendants in white uniforms were standing around peering into each other’s faces and whispering, he became quite sick. The entire thing had the air of a carnival, as if at any moment someone might step up upon a platform and cry:
“Hey, looky looky! The child of Peter Horn! Incredible!”
They entered a small clean room. There was a crowd in the room, looking down at a low table. There was something on the table.
A small blue pyramid.
“Why’ve you brought me here?” said Horn, turning to the doctor.
The small blue pyramid moved. It began to cry.
~ * ~
Peter Horn pushed forward and looked down wildly. He was very white and he was breathing rapidly. “You don’t mean that’s it?”
The doctor named Wolcott nodded.
The blue pyramid had six blue snake-like appendages, and three eyes that blinked from the tips of projecting structures.
Horn didn’t move.
“It weighs seven pounds, eight ounces,” someone said.
Horn thought to himself, they’re kidding me. This is some joke. Charlie Ruscoll is behind all this. He’ll pop in a door any moment and cry “April Fool!” and everybody’ll laugh. That’s not my child. Oh, horrible! They’re kidding me.
Horn stood there, and the sweat rolled down his face.
Dr. Wolcott said, quietly, “We didn’t dare show your wife. The shock. She mustn’t be told about it—now.”
“Get me away from here.” Horn turned and his hands were opening and closing without purpose, his eyes were flickering.
Wolcott held his elbow, talking calmly. “This is your child. Understand that, Mr. Horn.”
“No. No, it’s not.” His mind wouldn’t touch the thing. “It’s a nightmare. Destroy the thing!”
“You can’t kill a human being.”
“Human?” Horn blinked tears. “That’s not human! That’s a crime against God!”
The doctor went on, quickly. “We’ve examined this—child— and we’ve decided that it is not a mutant, a result of gene destruction or rearrangement. It’s not a freak. Nor is it sick. Please listen to everything I say to you.”
Horn stared at the wall, his eyes wide and sick. He swayed. The doctor talked distantly, with assurance.
“The child was somehow affected by the birth pressure. There was a dimensional distructure caused by the simultaneous short-circuitings and malfunctionings of the new birth-mechs and the hypnosis machines. Well, anyway,” the doctor ended lamely, “your baby was born into—another dimension.”
Horn did not even nod. He stood there, waiting.
Dr. Wolcott made it emphatic. “Your child is alive, well, and happy. It is lying there, on the table. But because it was born into another dimension it has a shape alien to us. Our eyes, adjusted to a three dimensional concept, cannot recognize it as a baby. But it is. Underneath that camouflage, the strange pyramidal shape and appendages, it is your child.”
Horn closed his mouth and shut his eyes and wanted to think. “Can I have a drink?” he asked.
“Certainly,” said Wolcott “Here.” A drink was thrust into Horn’s hands.
“Now, let me just sit down, sit down somewhere a moment.” Horn sank wearily into a chair. It was coming clear. Everything shifted slowly into place. It was his child, no matter what. He shuddered. No matter how horrible it looked, it was his first child.
At last he looked up and tried to see the doctor. “What’ll we tell Polly?” His voice was hardly a whisper. It was tired.
“We’ll work that out this morning, as soon as you feel up to it”
“What happens after that? Is there any way to—change it back?”
“We’ll try. That is, if you give us permission to try. After all, it’s your child. You can do anything
with him you want to do.”
“Him?” Horn laughed ironically, shutting his eyes. “How do you know it’s a him?” He sank down into darkness. His ears roared.
Wolcott was visibly upset. “Why, we—that is—well, we don’t know, for sure.”
Horn drank more of his drink “What if you can’t change him back?”
“I realize what a shock it is to you, Mr. Horn. If you can’t bear to look upon the child, we’ll be glad to raise him here, at the Institute, for you.”
Horn thought it over. “Thanks. But he’s still my kid. He still belongs to me and Polly. I’ll raise him. I’ll give him a home. Raise him like I’d raise any kid. Give him a normal home life. Try to learn to love him. Treat him right” His lips were numb, he couldn’t think.
“You realize what a job you’re taking on, Mr. Horn? This child can’t be allowed to have normal playmates, why, they’d pester it to death in no time. You know how children are. If you decide to raise the child at home, his life will be strictly regimented, he must never be seen by anyone. Is that clear?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s clear. Doc. Doc, is he okay mentally?”
“Yes. We’ve tested his reactions. He’s a fine healthy child as far as nervous response and such things go.”
“I just wanted to be sure. Now, the only problem is Polly.”
~ * ~
Wolcott frowned. “I confess that one has me stumped. You know it is pretty hard on a woman to hear that her child has been born dead. But this, telling a woman she’s given birth to something not recognizable as human. It’s not as clean as death. There’s too much chance for shock. And yet I must tell her the truth. A doctor gets nowhere by lying to his patient.”
Horn put his glass down. “I don’t want to lose Polly, too. I’d be prepared now, if you destroyed the child, to take it. But I don’t want Polly killed by the shock of this whole thing.”
“I think we may be able to change the child back. That’s the point which makes me hesitate. If I thought the case was hopeless I’d make out a certificate of euthanasia immediately. But it’s at least worth a chance.”
Horn was very tired. He was shivering quietly, deeply. “All right doctor. It needs food, milk and love until you can fix it up. It’s had a raw deal so far, no reason for it to go on getting a raw deal. When will we tell Polly?”
“Tomorrow afternoon, when she wakes up.”
Horn got up and walked to the table which was warmed by a soft illumination from overhead. The blue pyramid sat upon the table as Horn held out his hand.
“Hello, baby,” said Horn.
The blue pyramid looked up at Horn with three bright blue eyes. It shifted a tiny blue tendril, touching Horn’s fingers with it.
Horn shivered.
“Hello, baby.”
The doctor produced a special feeding bottle.
“This is woman’s milk. Here, baby.”
~ * ~
Baby looked upward through clearing mists. Baby saw the shapes moving over him and knew them to be friendly. Baby was new-born, but already alert, strangely alert. Baby was aware.
There were moving objects above and around Baby. Six cubes of a gray-white color, bending down. Six cubes with hexagonal appendages and three eyes to each cube. Then there were two other cubes coming from a distance over a crystalline plateau. One of the cubes was white. It had three eyes, too. There was something about this White Cube that Baby liked. There was an attraction. Some relation. There was an odor to the White Cube that reminded Baby of itself.
Shrill sounds came from the six bending down gray-white cubes. Sounds of curiosity and wonder. It was like a kind of piccolo music, all playing at once.
Now the two newly arrived cubes, the White Cube, and the Gray Cube, were whistling. After awhile the White Cube extended one of his hexagonal appendages to touch Baby. Baby responded by putting out one of its tendrils from its pyramidal body. Baby liked the White Cube. Baby liked. Baby was hungry. Baby liked. Maybe the White Cube would give it food . . .
The Gray Cube produced a pink globe for Baby. Baby was now to be fed. Good. Good. Baby accepted food eagerly.
Food was good. All the gray-white cubes drifted away, leaving only the nice White Cube standing over Baby looking down and whistling over and over. Over and over.
~ * ~
They told Polly the next day. Not everything. Just enough. Just a hint. They told her the baby was not well, in a certain way. They talked slowly, and in ever tightening circles, in upon Polly. Then Dr. Wolcott gave a long lecture on the birth-mechanisms, how they helped a woman in her labor, and how the birth-mechs were put together, and how, this time, they short-circuited. There was another man of scientific means present and he gave her a dry little talk on dimensions, holding up his fingers, so! one two three and four. Still another man talked of energy and matter. Another spoke of underprivileged children.
Polly finally sat up in bed and said, “What’s all the talk for? What’s wrong with my baby that you should all be talking so long?”
Wolcott told her.
“Of course, you can wait a week and see it,” he said. “Or you can sign over guardianship of the child to the Institute.”
“There’s only one thing I want to know,” said Polly.
~ * ~
Dr. Wolcott raised his brows.
“Did I make the child that way?” asked Polly.
“You most certainly did not!”
“The child isn’t a monster, genetically?” asked Polly.
“The child was thrust into another continuum. Otherwise, it is perfectly normal.”
Polly’s tight, lined mouth relaxed. She said, simply, “Then, bring me my baby. I want to see him. Please. Now.”
They brought the “child.”
The Horns left the hospital the next day. Polly walked out on her own two good legs, with Peter Horn following her, looking at her in quiet amaze.
They did not have the baby with them. That would come later. Horn helped his wife into their helicopter and sat beside her. He lifted the ship, whirring, into the warm air.
“You’re a wonder,” he said.
“Am I?” she said, lighting a cigarette.
“You are. You didn’t cry. You didn’t do anything.”
“He’s not so bad, you know,” she said. “Once you get to know him. I can even—hold him in my arms. He’s warm and he cries and he even needs his triangular diapers.” Here she laughed. He noticed a nervous tremor in the laugh, however. “No, I didn’t cry, Pete, because that’s my baby. Or he will be. He isn’t dead, I thank God for that. He’s—I don’t know how to explain— still unborn. I like to think he hasn’t been born yet. We’re waiting for him to show up. I have confidence in Dr. Wolcott. Haven’t you?”
“You’re right. You’re right.” He reached over and held her hand. “You know something? You’re a peach.”
“I can hold on,” she said, sitting there looking ahead as the green country swung under them. “I can wait. As long as I know something good will happen. I won’t let it hurt or shock me. The mind is a great thing. If it has some hope, then it’s cushioned all around. I’ll wait six months,” she said. And she looked over the edge of the helicopter. “And then maybe I’ll kill myself.”
“Polly!”
She looked at him as if he’d just come in. “Pete, I’m sorry. But this sort of thing doesn’t happen. Once it’s over and the baby is finally ‘born’ I’ll forget it so quick it’ll never have occurred. But if the doctor can’t help us, then a mind can’t take it, a mind can only tell the body to climb out on a roof and jump.”
“Things’ll be all right,” he said, holding to the guide-wheel. “They have to be.”
She said nothing, but let the cigarette smoke blow out of her mouth in the pounding concussion of the helicopter fan.
Three weeks passed. Every day they flew in to the Institute to visit “Py.” For that was the quiet calm name that Polly Horn gave to the blue pyramid that lay on the warm sleeping-table an
d blinked up at them. Dr. Wolcott was careful to point out that the habits of the “child” were as normal as any others; so many hours sleep, so many awake, so much attentiveness, so much boredom, so much food, so much elimination. Polly Horn listened, and her face softened and her eyes warmed.
At the end of the third week, Dr. Wolcott said, “Feel up to taking him home now? You live in the country, don’t you? All right, you have an enclosed patio, he can be out there in the sunlight, on occasion. He needs a mother’s love. That’s trite, but nevertheless true. He should be suckled. We have an arrangement where he’s been fed by the new feed-mech; cooing voice, warmth, hands, and all.” Dr. Wolcott’s voice was dry, “But still I feel you are familiar enough with him now to know he’s a pretty healthy child. Are you game, Mrs. Horn?”
Travelers of Space - [Adventures in Science Fiction 03] Page 15
