The Silkie

by A. E. van Vogt

  The definition deepened Cemp's gloom. It seemed like truth. Yet if it was literally so, then how could the Nijjan have spanned those enormous distances in apparently no time at all? One or more of the assumptions needed to be modified. Or so it seemed.

  Cemp said unhappily, 'We've got to remember we're looking at an evolved universe. Perhaps, in its younger days, space was less — what did you say? — neutral. The speculative question arises, what might an unorderly space have been like?

  'This is something that can be learned, now that logic of levels is applicable.'

  'Eh!' That was Baxter, astounded. 'Logic of levels will work here? How?'

  'Consider!' said the computer. 'A command to operate the space-control areas will have to come from the central self of a Nijjan. Our problem is, we don't know what that command is, but some kind of thought stimulates it. Once it is stimulated, a basic action response occurs. Naturally, someone will have to force a dangerous confrontation in order to trigger such a cycle.'

  Cemp said quickly, 'Do you still have the feeling that what we might trigger is bigger than what happened to the Glis and more basic?'

  'Definitely.'

  'But' — baffled — 'what could be bigger than an apparently small object like the Glis expanding into the largest sun in the known universe?'

  'This is something you will discover, and I presume you are the one who will discover it.'

  Cemp, who hadn't thought about it, presumed instantly that he would indeed be the one.

  Thinking thus, feeling the irony but resigned nonetheless, Cemp transformed to his Silkie body. He expected that he would immediately perceive the distant tug on all his cells.

  But there was nothing. No awareness in him of a far-away segment of space. He had not the faintest sense of being unbalanced at some deep level. His entire body was at peace and in a state of equilibrium with his surroundings.

  Cemp reported the situation to Baxter — and then warily transformed to human. But there was no distant pull on him in that state either.

  A few minutes later the computer expressed what was already obvious. 'They're taking no chances. They never did with Silkies. You'll have to seek them out ... or else be exterminated one by one, now that they have found you.' From the corner of his eye, Cemp noticed Baxter as that analysis came through. The man's face had a strange look: sort of hypnotic, sort of inward-turning.

  Cemp was quick. He grabbed the man and yelled, 'What's the thought? What command is being given?'

  Baxter twisted weakly in that iron grip, abruptly stopped his resisting, and whispered, 'The message I'm getting is absolutely ridiculous. I refuse —'

  * * *

  XXIX

  THE DOORBELL rang with a soft, musical note. Joanne Cemp stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and thought, The time has come for revelation. The night of no memory is over.

  Having had the thought, casually, as if it were an ordinary concept, she headed for the door. And then she simultaneously realised two things. The shock of each of the two brought a reaction of an intensity that she had not previously experienced in her entire life.

  The first realisation was, Night of no memory! ... Revelation! ... Why, that's crazy! Where would I get an idea like that?

  The second realisation was that she was getting no thoughts from whoever had rung the doorbell.

  She felt a chill. She could read minds even better than her Silkie husband by the direct telepathic method. But from the person at the door she perceived no thoughts. It had always been a point of wonder that the Special People were so great in this area of mind reading — something about a unique DNA-RNA combination in the cells of a few human beings that was not duplicated in other humans or in Silkies.

  And that ability sensed no presence at the door. Nothing. Not a sound, not a thought, not a sign of another mind or being.

  Joanne veered down the hall and into her bedroom and secured her gun. That was pretty weak stuff against what she now suddenly suspected might be a space Silkie woman making a second visitation. But the first Silkie woman had not been mentally silent.

  Still, against a human the gun would be effective, particularly since she had no intention of opening the door. A moment later, Joanne turned on the closed-circuit TV and found herself gazing at — nothing.

  She had the thought: The bell was rung from a distance, from many light-years away, to tell you that someone will come. You have done your duty. The painful laboratory change from Nijjan to human will now be reversed. ... Unfortunate that Nijjans have had no natural way of transforming from one shape to another. However, by changing shape in this difficult way you were enabled to marry an Earth Silkie. By so doing you have lulled him and understand him; and now that the space Silkies have finally revealed themselves, we can finally decide what to do with this dangerous race; and what you and the other Special People have done will determine the fate of these universe endangerers.

  Joanne frowned at the message, but she made no answer; she simply stood there silent and disturbed. what kind of nonsense! ...

  The thought went on, You are skeptical, no doubt, but it will soon be proved, and you may now ask any questions you wish.

  After many heartbeats, during which Joanne considered, remembered, decided, she still refused to reply.

  She saw the message as a trap, a lie, an attempt to locate her if she replied. Actually, even if it was true, it didn't matter. Her involvement on Earth was total. She thought to herself, This is the final Silkie-Nijjan confrontation, and it's all a bunch of Nijjan madness.

  She didn't have to accept such a solution, no matter if her own background was Nijjan.

  During all these intense moments, Joanne had kept her own thoughts out of the telepathic band. Yet the fear was already in her, the realisation that this message, or a variation of it, was probably being received by all 4,700-odd Special People on Earth. And the fear that almost petrified her was that among these numerous persons, somebody would be foolish, somebody would answer.

  The awful conviction came that any reply would mean disaster for everybody, because all the Special People without exception knew so much that was basic about Silkies.

  Even as she had the anxiety, somebody did answer. Two women and three men almost simultaneously projected their outraged replies, and Joanne received every nuance of the emotion that accompanied each unwise reply.

  Said one, 'But many of the Special People have died in the past two hundred years.'

  A second chimed in, 'So they can't be immortal Nijjans.'

  A third mind said, 'If what you say is true, it proves that Silkies and Nijjans could live together,'

  The fourth person — a man — was scornful. 'This time you crazy killers have run up against more than you bargained for.'

  And the fifth telepathic human reply to the Nijjan trap was, 'I don't know what you expect to gain from this lie, but I reject it.'

  That was as far as the doomed five got with their response. The best later reconstruction of what happened then was — in each instance, answering located the individual to the remote watching minds of the Nijjans. At once a Nijjan arrived on the scene — in the house, on the street, wherever — and seized the person.

  At the moment of seizure a single mental scream of despairing realisation came from one of the women. The remaining four went silently to their fates.

  What had happened was this: Shortly after the space Silkie Ou-Dan left Cemp in the ship near the dead body of Lan Jedd, he saw a rapid movement beside him.

  That was all Ou-Dan had time to observe. The next split instant he was subjected to an internal pressure against which he had no defense. It could have been his moment of death, for he was completely surprised and helpless. But the Nijjan G'Tono, having already had his double failure with Nat Cemp, wanted a prisoner and not a dead body. Not yet.

  Moments later, he had the unconscious Ou-Dan on his own planet.

  The resultant study of the internal workings of a Silkie was somewhat disa
ppointing to the various Nijjans who came from distant places to look him over. There was nothing in Ou-Dan's memories that explained how Cemp had escaped destruction in his confrontation with G'Tono.

  His captors quickly discovered the differences between the space and Earth Silkies and learned from Ou-Dan that Cemp was an Earth Silkie. The Nijjans thereupon reasoned accurately that the space Silkies, being considered unreliable, had simply never been given the secret of the special technique that Cemp had used.

  In their study of Ou-Dan, the great beings were delayed for many minutes, perhaps even an entire hour, by an attitude that radiated from him. Ou-Dan so thoroughly dismissed and downrated the human-Silkie relationship that his emotion about it was a barrier. Thus, for a decisive time, the Nijjans did not note in his mind that the Special People were a unique human group.

  During that vital period, Baxter extended the information about the Nijjans to the Special People, and Cemp and he met with the space Silkies and talked to the computer. And so, when the five Special People were captured, Earth was as ready as it would ever be.

  The Nijjans secured the basic clue from all five of their human prisoners. Moments later, the knowledge of logic of levels was going down the Nijjan line of planets, multimillions of them.

  * * *

  XXX

  ON G'TONO's planet was a tall mountain that rose thousands of feet sheer from the ground. On top of that mountain stood the palace of G'Tono.

  Inside the throne room, the octopus people hurried and bustled and shuffled in a steady stream of activity, partly ritual and partly in relation to the five human prisoners and to the space Silkie Ou-Dan.

  The quintet of Special People were beginning to feel a little easier; they were no longer so certain that they would be murdered out of hand. Ou-Dan, who had been internally damaged as a result of his interrogation, lay unconscious in one comer, ignored by all except a few guards.

  Across the room from the humans — a distance of more than a hundred yards — was a great, glittering throne. On the throne sat a figure even more glittery in his natural state than any of the inanimate objects that framed him — G'Tono himself!

  About a dozen of the octopus people lay face down on the marble in front of their tyrant. Their gentle, bulbous faces pressed against the hard floor. It was a priceless privilege for those who were there, and every half hour the dozen or so personages reluctantly gave up their places to another group of the same size, all of whom were equally appreciative.

  G'Tono paid no attention to these, his servant people. He was engaged in a mental conversation with N'Yata 2,400 light-years away, and the subject of their concern was the fate of the prisoners.

  G'Tono believed that the five Special People and Ou-Dan had served their purpose and should be put to death on the betrayal principle. N'Yata felt that no final decision should be made about prisoners until the Earth Silkie situation was entirely resolved, which could happen only if all the Silkies were destroyed.

  She pointed out that the betrayal idea did not apply except where it was part of a control system. No control existed yet for human beings, and none would exist until a Nijjan took over Earth as his domain.

  G'Tono was beginning to feel very boldly masculine in relation to N'Yata. So he took the attitude that her answer showed a lovable feminine weakness, a caution unnecessary now that the human Silkie problem was solved. For all Nijjan purposes, he felt, the procurement of the logic-of-levels concept ended the danger.

  'You seem to believe that something can still go wrong,' he protested.

  'Let's wait,' said N'Yata.

  G'Tono replied scathingly that Nijjans, after all, had their own rationality, long-tested by experience. It was not necessary to await the outcome of a logical sequence once it had been reasoned through.

  He thereupon listed for N'Yata the reasons why the Silkies were defeated for all practical purposes. Nijjan attacks, said G'Tono, would in the future be made in such a way that no Silkie could ever again hitch a ride as the Silkie Cemp had so skillfully done. Furthermore, the vast majority of Nijjans, though allowing through their mind barriers the information about logic of levels, had fortunately refused to be involved in the actual struggle.

  G'Tono explained, 'Contrary to our initial irritation with their refusal to participate, what they have done — or rather, not done — is really favorable to our side.' He broke off for purposes of clarifying his point. 'How many helpers do we have?'

  'You saw most of them,' N'Yata answered. 'About a hundred.'

  The smallness of the number momentarily gave pause to G'Tono. He had a natural cynicism about things Nijjan; yet his rationalisation seemed true to him. It was true that Nijjans had a hard time getting along with one another. So many proud individuals, each with his planet — of which he or she was absolute master. where everyone without exception was a king or a queen, egos had a tendency to soar out of sight.

  Once in a while, of course, a queen would accept a communication from a king, as N'Yata had done with him. And at certain times kings were receptive to a communication from a queen, G'Tono had observed with jealousy that the hundred odd who had responded to N'Yata's call for volunteers were all males.

  But that very aloofness of the great majority was now, G'Tono argued, a sign of the indestructibility of the Nijjan race. Scattered all over the universe, out of contact with their own kind, individual Nijjans in their total numbers couldn't be hunted down in a million years, even assuming that somebody existed with the ability and power to kill Nijjans; but there was no such person, group, or race.

  'And now that we have the only dangerous Silkie weapon, logic of levels, our position is absolutely impregnable,' G'Tono pointed out.

  N'Yata replied that she was still studying logic of levels and that it wasn't the mistakes Nijjans might make in the future that worried her; indeed, she conceded that the chance of additional errors was unlikely. The question was, could G'Tono and she recover from the errors that had already been made?

  G'Tono was astonished. 'The only mistake that would matter,' he objected, 'would be if we had left this Silkie Cemp some means of forcing me or you to transport him here by our space-control system. Though I,' he continued scornfully, 'would certainly like to be the first to know of such a method, I find myself wondering, would he dare to come? Because what could he do in a direct confrontation with me, who is basically more powerful than any Silkie?'

  He had been thinking hard while he was speaking, and now he saw an opening in her logic and a way of gaining his own point.

  'As I see it,' he said, 'the one way in which we might be vulnerable is through these prisoners. So I think you will agree that instant extermination is a safety precaution, if nothing more. Don't try to interfere!'

  He did not wait for N'Yata's reply but sent a high-level energy blast at the two women and three men and at the help less Ou-Dan. All six prisoners were literally dissolved into their component elements; death was as rapid as that.

  Having taken the action, G'Tono proceeded with his listing of favorable points. 'After all,' he said, 'lacking space control, Silkies are trapped on or near Earth or at best are subject to the slow speeds of ordinary space travel. I estimate that in three Earth weeks I could perhaps expect to have an Earth ship arrive at my planet, whereupon if you were to invite me, I could visit you for a while. And frankly, what could they do? Where could they look? A Nijjan can disappear into distance in a split instant —'

  He broke off, feeling suddenly dizzy. N'Yata telepathed sharply, 'what's happening?'

  'I — ' faltered G'Tono.

  That was as far as he got. The dizziness had become an all-enveloping madness, and he fell from his throne to the marble floor — fell hard, rolled over on to his back, and lay there like one dead.

  * * *

  XXXI

  THE NIJJANS had lied; that was what snatched Cemp's most intense interest.

  A quick check of records by the computer had established with thousands of detailed doc
umentations that the Special People could not possibly have been Nijjans.

  It was hard to believe that the Nijjans could have exposed one of their number to a counterattack on that level. But it looked as if they had.

  Cemp shared his analysis with Charley Baxter and watched Baxter become excited. The thin man said, 'You're right, Nat. A lie is a complete disaster in a world where people under stand the energy flows involved and can control them, as Silkies can.'

  ... Because an existing object is truth incarnate. There it is — whatever it is — unparadoxical, without an opposite.

  It cannot not-be. Or at least, it cannot not-have-been; if it was matter and has been converted to energy, or vice versa, it still exists in some aspect of its ever-form.

  A lie about such an object is a mental attempt to alter the 'is' of it. Basically, the effort implicit in the lie is to create a dichotomy where none can exist. There is no opposite; yet the lie says there is.

  Hence, the moment a dichotomy is evoked in somebody's mind, a confusion is simultaneously created.

  It was too potentially great a possibility to miss.

  In telling his plan to Baxter, Cemp pointed out, 'You'll have to send a ship after me, because I'll be stranded there.'

  'You don't think the method of getting you to Nijja will also get you away?' Baxter asked doubtfully.

  'No, somebody will be riding herd on all this, and they'll notice.'

  'It'll take three weeks for a ship to get there,' Baxter objected.

  Cemp couldn't take the time to consider that. The pace of this battle was superspeed. Since the struggle had begun out there between G'Tono and himself, the enemy had taken time only to make brief studies of new data before striking again.

  After all,' said Cemp, 'I can't be sure how successful I'll be. I expect to get whoever told the lie, but that won't solve the problem. And I'll set it up so that whoever helps him is doomed also. But a chain reaction like that can go only so far before somebody gets wise.'