The Whisperers
by
Donald Wandrei
(Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1935)
It is doubtful whether anything in the annals of medicine or the history of mankind made a deeper impression than "The Whisperers," though there may have been deadlier diseases or more repulsive scourges in the far past. Great plagues swept Europe in the Middle Ages and depopulated whole countries. They ran their virulent course through months or years, claimed millions of lives, and left an indelible memory in such writings as Defoes Journal of the Plague Year and Boccaccio's introduction to the Decameron.
Bubonic plague, yellow fever, malaria, typhus, and other epidemic diseases have raced with a fury more destructive than war through the Far East and the tropics, through civilized peoples and savages, during ancient times and modern. Appalling though these pestilences were, they lacked the peculiarly frightening quality that distinguished The Whisperers.
In the fabulous years of Atlantis, or the prehistoric existence of Mu, it is possible that some now-forgotten malady imperiled the race. It is even possible that in the dawn of time, the priests of Lemuria, in an effort to preserve their continent from impending doom, consulted the Archaontic Symbols, those mysterious petroglyphs which are said to have summarized all conceivable life forms.
It is within the limits of credence that some weird fate may have overwhelmed Mayan culture, or brought oblivion to the race whose existence is known only by the sculptures on Easter Island. But history affords no parallel to The Whisperers; and neither history nor legend presents more than the vague speculation that any affliction as strange as The Whisperers ever before entered human life.
Historians writing in this, the Twenty-first Century, can recall the appearance of The Whisperers with greater understanding but no less alarm than the general public. The scientists of the Twentieth Century had made vast strides toward extending the boundaries of knowledge, and toward solving the ultimate secrets of space, matter, and life. Their theoretical and experimental work was disseminated through the press, but doubtless received less attention than sensational murders or economic conditions. Scientists were prepared to investigate, analyze, and combat the mystery of The Whisperers; but in this case, the explanation caused as much alarm as The Whisperers themselves.
Not that we know the whole truth yet. Parts are still missing. But it is a probability tha we may some day know more about the nature and origin of The Whisperers, for the outposts of knowledge are constantly being pushed farther, and the cosmos made to yield up one by one its deeper riddles. In the absence of complete data, however, we can only speculate as to the truth, while accepting the best explanation that scientists have advanced.
The first item concerning The Whisperers to be published was a short news dispatch sent out by the Soviet government from Moscow. The item was not used by the majority of newspapers in Europe and America. Those that did print it treated it either as a curiosity or an inside filler.
Moscow, April 2 -- Villagers of Kutsk, a trading post in northern
Siberia, recently witnessed the fall of a glowing object from
the sky, according to delayed reports which have just reached
civilization. Investigation disclosed the object on the outskirts
of the village in a small area of newly melted snow and ice. The
object proved to be an ovoid of greenish metal a foot long and shaped
somewhat like a toy Zeppelin.
Unable to find an opening, but discovering by tapping that it was
hollow, the villagers smashed the object. This is said to have
been done with great difficulty owing to the toughness of the
peculiar metal. The inside was completely filled with a jellylike
substance. Most of this was iridescent and evil-smelling, but part
was reddish-gray and odorless. Government chemists will analyze
the substance in an effort to determine whether foreign powers or
reactionary interests within the party have been experimenting with
new war devices.
The item was followed a day later by an additional bulletin which, though briefer, received wider publication.
Moscow, April 3 -- The small metal object that was yesterday reported
to have fallen in Kutsk, Siberia, is the source of a further mystery
according to word now received. The reddish-gray substance that filled
part of the object is said to make a low sound which is barely within
the range of audibility. The smashed container and contents are now
on the way to Moscow for chemical analysis.
In the early days of the Soviet Régime, even such scant information as this would have been rigidly censored. Fortunately for civilization, time and experience had modified many of the Soviet's principles. In the Twenty-first Century, her scientists gave close cooperation to scientists in other lands, and news of all kinds, including unfavorable reports, was issued as rapidly as available.
The third bulletin, issued two days later, won fairly general publication, but rather for its oddity than for any disturbing quality it contained.
Moscow, April 4 -- A medical mystery has just been reported in
Kutsk, the Siberian village where a strange metal object was recently
found. One of the villagers, Serge Aleighileff, by an odd coincidence
the very man who found the object, has been stricken by fever. His
body gives off a low, murmuring sound that is distinctly audible.
Observers declare the sound to have no connection with his vocal
cords, and that trickery is impossible.
The villagers regard M. Aleighileff as having supernatural
powers. They put up a strenuous resistance when an airplane was sent
from Zelingrad, the nearest town with facilities, to take the man
to the hospital there.
Physicians here are much interested in the case. M. Vilanov, commissar
of public health, states that he has never heard of a similar case
and believes it to be unique in medical history.
The next bulletin again resorted to brevity, and simply stated that the metal object and contents reached Moscow by airplane, but that the jellylike substance, contrary to earlier reports, was of a uniformly iridescent and malodorous nature. None of the stuff had a reddish-gray color. It was not disclosed whether some of the material had been lost in transit, whether the first report was inaccurate, or whether exposure to air had reduced it to a single state.
A separate paragraph declared that Aleighileff had reached Zelingrad, and that hospital attachés were mystified by the symptoms of his illness. No explanation had yet been advanced for the whispering sound that emanated from his flesh.
The report that really made the headlines and began to attract widespread attention was the following announcement:
Moscow, April 8 -- The U. S. S. R. today declared a state of extreme
emergency to exist in the Siberian village of Kutsk and summarily
executed the entire population of 230 men, women, and children. This
drastic step was taken for the benefit of the public and only after
careful investigation. No visitors are allowed to approach within
ten kilometers of the village, under penalty of instant execution
by the rules of martial law.
A total of 64 other individuals have been seized in Zelingrad and
Moscow and placed in absolute isolation under military guard.
The reasons given for these extraordinary measures are based on the
finding of a small metal object shaped like a projectile near Kutsk
&nbs
p; several days ago. The object was taken to Zelingrad and transshipped
to Moscow. A second airplane departed for Kutsk and flew back with
Serge Aleighileff for hospitalization. M. Aleighileff had contracted
a hitherto unknown fever that caused his entire body to give off a
murmuring sound. The aviator who flew the victim to Zelingrad reported
that every individual in Kutsk emitted the same puzzling sibilance,
and that hysteria had seized the populace.
Aleighileff was admitted to the hospital at Zelingrad but died within
a few hours. Until the end, his body was the source of a singular
rustling sound no unlike the movement of a swarm of maggots, but
without visible cause. At death, his body rapidly passed from the
fever flush which had reddened it and changed to an iridescent play
of colors accompanied by a foul odor before putrefaction had begun.
The whispering sound persisted but gradually became fainter and was
no longer audible several hours after death.
A scouting plane, instantly ordered to Kutsk, sent a radio report
that the streets of the village were strewn with dead, and that the
remainder of the population suffered from the whispering fever. As
a matter of public welfare, airplanes loaded with lethal gases were
immediately dispatched to the scene. The epidemic is considered
more remarkable because of the bitter cold weather, temperatures
of 40 to 60 degrees below zero having prevailed in the district for
the past week.
Aleighileff was the first person to find, handle, and open the metal
object that fell on the outskirts of the village. Authorities are
convinced that a definite connection exists between the object and
the outbreak of the malady. This view is supported by the fact that
several nurses, internes, and surgeons at the Zelingrad Hospital who
treated the patient have developed both the fever and the whispering.
A general order was then issued for the military police to detain
and isolate but avoid contact with all persons who had any direct
or indirect part whatsoever in the handling of the metal object or
of Aleighileff.
Public health and military officials are coöperating to control
the situation. Grave suspicion is entertained that disease microbes
of a new and malignant kind were deliberately loosed by a foreign
power, and that only an accident caused the carrier to fall in a
sparsely populated area.
All workers are requested to keep a vigilant watch for additional
projectiles, but to avoid direct contact with any that may be found,
and to report them immediately.
Meanwhile, the intelligence division of the military police has
been given the sterilized container for inspection to determine its
workmanship and origin. Metallurgic chemists and other technical
experts have also been detailed to analyze the metal.
M. Vilanov, in a preliminary report before his detention and
isolation, declared that he had found no trace of bacteria in the
iridescent substance. He advance the theory that it may be a toxic
poison capable of being absorbed through the skin and of creating
further body toxins communicable to other persons through skin
contact.
Thus far, the exact nature of the substance is unknown, and the parts
of the greenish container have puzzled experts. It is expected that
further analysis will disclose the unidentified metal to be an alloy
of the tungsten-chromium-cobalt group.
There is no cause for alarm and the U. S. S. R. announces that the
situation is well in hand. The prompt measures taken effectively
checked the outbreak. The general warning was issued purely as a
precautionary measure, to facilitate the swift destruction of any
further projectiles that may be found.
The Whisperers reduced flood and legislation, national and local events to insignificance. They made the records of murder trials dull reading. They sent practically all other news into the wastebasket. In six days, The Whisperers leaped from oblivion to the international limelight. In ten days, they advanced fro single-deck to four-deck streamers on even the most conservative papers. They were news. The were the only news that mattered.
Through the entire duration of The Whisperers, two brilliant young American scientists played a leading part. These two men have since become famous, but at the time they were comparatively obscure. Dr. A. E. Chard at thirty was already achieving notice in medical circles as an outstanding diagnostician with a specialized interest in infectious diseases. Warren E. Langley, Sc.D., at thirty-five was drawing a fat salary from the Optical Instrument Supply Co. for research work in the field of photomicrography.
These two men were intimately connected with the history of The Whisperers, but worked behind the scenes in their own quiet way. Their names were seldom mentioned and did not make the headlines until the latter phases of the epidemic.
By that time so many theories had been offered, so many remedies suggested, so many accredited scientists fallen by the wayside along with the usual number of cranks and quacks that the proposals of Langley and Chard, while welcome as any ray of light was, met with a considerable degree of sketicism.
The two scientists obtained their first association with The Whisperers when Chard walked into the O. I. S. Co.'s laboratories late on the afternoon of April 6th to see Langley. They had known each other for a number of years and saw each other frequently. A close friendship had developed because each had a vital interest in the other's field. Chard was attempting to isolate and classify the filterable viruses, those bacteria so tiny that they pass through the finest porcelain filters. Most of all, Chard hoped that some one would perfect equipment to see and photograph the viruses. Langley was exactly the man, for Langley was experimenting with lenses and methods for ever higher magnification.
The physician found Langley tinkering with a hopelessly elaborate mechanism of slides, focal beams, interferometers, interference refractometers, coils, amplifiers, prisms, projection beams, microspectroscopes, micrometric electrical devices, and other parts.
The physicist glanced up. "Hello, Chard, what's the news?"
"Not much, except that they've captured a whispering man somewhere in Russia."
"A whispering man? What's news about that?"
Chard shrugged. "He's supposed to have a fever that makes his body give off a whispering sound, but it's probably just some reporter's imagination getting the best of him. What's new in superphotomicrography?"
Langley frowned wearily. "Very little, if anything. We haven't been able to obtain magnifications of much more than 10,000 diameters."
"And how high will you have to go to make filterable viruses visible?"
"At least 1,000,000, if not more," Langley replied. "It will be no small feat to accomplish. If we could raise the power to 1,000,000,000, we might be able to get at the heart of the riddles of energy and matter. We might even see what an electron looks like, or the point at which energy becomes matter. We could open up new worlds that are scarcely dreamed of. The trouble is that when magnification exceeds 10,000 diameters, the true image acquires such distortions from atmospheric interference and from the limitations of optical instruments as to be worthless for serious study. I don't think that lenses alone will ever solve the problem."
Chard looked at the complicated mechanism beside Langley. "How will it be solved?"
"I don't know yet, but possibly by the use of microscopic photo-electric cells and the conversion of one form of energy into another form. Sound
can be converted into electric impulses and reconverted into sound as in the telephone, and then amplified to almost any degree. The is no theoretical reason why the same process couldn't be used on micro-organisms.
"What I am trying to do is to reflect an infinitesimal beam of light from a micro-organism, thus throwing its image on a minute photo-electric cell of extremely delicate sensitivity. The various light values of the image will then be converted to electric values of micromillimetric intensity, whose current probably won't exceed .000000001 to .000001 of an ampere.
"The next step will be the amplification of this current and then reconversion of the electric values to light values directly upon a photoscreen or projected upon the ordinary cloth screen. It's a terrifically difficult problem, all in all, because the measurements are so microscopic and the conversions must be absolutely accurate, without loss or distortion."
Langley, if anything, understated the difficulties of the problem. For a few minutes, Chard silently watched the other man tinker with his invention before continuing on his way. Langley by then was so absorbed in the complex creation that he did not notice Chard's departure.
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