A Short Story from our Publications Officer.

My name doesn't matter; in fact, I will be safer if you don't know it, but by way of introduction I will tell you that I am a sociologist, and I was on the first (and only) ship to land on Thexara. Thexara is practically unknown to anyone outside Space Control so I will quote from the "Astrogator's Manual"—

"Thexara: G145/11 (L.Mag). Mean O. Rad. 72.38 × 106; Mass ¾E : Ox'n 16.4%; Dom. Sp. Thex, Int. Ps. Ceph: Class 25."

In plain language, this means that Thexara is the second planet of a Sol-type star in the Lesser Magellanic Cluster, where the current exploration for colonies Is concentrated; that it has an orbit, weight, and atmosphere very like that of Earth. Also that the dominant species on Thexara is a type of pseudo-cephalopod with high intelligence, and that the planet is a member of Class 25, not to be landed on even In a case of extreme emergency.

Only about half of the surface area of Thexara is water-covered. Otherwise the planet is earth-like although there are no vertebrates. It is inhabited by the Thex, a retrogressive yet artistic race, who appear similar to Terrestial molluscs of the Cephalopod type. They have no central government, but regulate their society by conventions based on the decisions of mythical ancestors whom they term the Wise Founding Fathers. I wish to relate a story from the records of the Wise Founding Fathers that is not in any manual, and is unknown except to myself and the central committee of Space Control.

I

Alchreb was worried. He was always concerned at the behaviour of his students, so nobody paid any attention; although he claimed this occasion was different. It was extremely serious, he told himself, closing his respiratory aperture and letting a shiver run over his yellow-gray body. In a way, of course, this was a typical case, a young student at the academy was the cause as usual, but this was outrageous, the youth of today were too much, too much altogether . . . Alchreb wished that the Wise Founding Fathers had provided some form of government for these youngsters until they reached an age of mature thinking, say 70 or 80. It was always the young who created needless trouble.

The cause of Alchreb's jeremiad was a 50-year-old tutor in music at the Academy named Krababok, who had flagrantly defied the edicts of the Wise Founding Fathers. He had built a machine! The Founders, many thousands of years ago, had decided that the aims of Thex civilisation were to contemplate the beauties of the world and communicate them to each other by means of painting, sculpture, drama, poetry and prose. They had further decreed that these aims were the only worthwhile ones and these the only means of achieving them. The Founders, it appeared, had at the dawn of history attempted other methods of appreciating beauty, and come to the conclusion that they were valueless. In particular they warned against making and using machines, and to avoid confusion had described machines in great detail. But with all the care, they did not think of an individual like Krababok.

He was a renegade, a heretic, a social canker. He not only disagreed with the basic tenet of philosophy, he dared to put his revolutionary ideals into practise. Using the descriptions in the records, he built a machine to aid him. Krababok had decided that the accepted means of communication were by-ways, and the only way to formulate thought was not in words, action or time, but in thought itself. The solution was simple: build a machine to transfer thought to other minds. Being industrious in a perverse way, after several decades, Krababok built his machine. All would have gone well if Krababok had not rashly shown It to a fellow student, who reported the horrifying deviation to Alchreb.

This was the dilemma. What to do? Alchreb made up his mind, and set to work. The machine would be kept in the Hall of Records of the Wise Founding Fathers with a notice explaining its dangers. As for Krababok, 10 years solitary contemplation of the Beauties of the world would assist him to come to himself.

II

It says much for this organisation of disorganisation on Thexara that for over 800 years this machine lay in the Halls without more than an occasional shocked stare coming its way. Then, one warm rainy day, two students entered the room in which it lay, and subjected it to a close scrutiny. They studied this warning note and the machine itself for several days. Non one noticed them, but six weeks later, all the Thex knew of this happening, because an improved model of the machine had been built and the two delinquents, Lupan and Rodiq, transmitted their thoughts over the entire planet. They explained that their machine was a vast improvement on "the rudimentary equipment of our predecessors. This new machine was a boon to all Thex they claimed, as it was a "transceiver," so that now the Thex could receive the thoughts of inferior life-forms and appreciate fully the beauty of life.

This argument was accepted, more because the machine could not be located and was operating all day and night rather than because its "logic" was appealing. Soon every young Thex owned a K.L.R. transceiver, and spent much time thinking to plants, bacteria, and all kinds of arthropods. To facilitate localisation of reception, Lupan and Rodiq had added a mobile area to the machine, which enabled them to receive thoughts from areas of varying sizes; they also built a filter system to adjust the machine to the I.Q. of the mind they were studying.

Then Lupan made a strange discovery. If he set the area of reception to infinity and the I.Q. scale to infinity, he received strange thoughts, very strange thoughts indeed. He called Rodiq, and together they questioned this Intelligence. The mind they were in contact with was jumbled and incoherent, and they reported It like this:— Intelligence: "Gottim that time, dirty rotten E = mc2 space time food wanta drink wanna eat gimme gimme or I'll biff you blessed are they that ding-dong the witchisdead sessussle sossle google argle ardle cogito ergo some some somewhere over a reign . . ."

L. & R.: "Who are you?"

Intelligence: "My name is Ozymandias King of kings and Lord of Lords forever and ever Ahriman Shaitan Zeus Apollon Thor Loki . . ."

L. & R.: "Where are you?"

Intelligence: "On the M.T.A. in the Maginot line at the bottom of well in a dairy In a bayonet an A bomb poem star planet galaxy space space space electrons positions protons neurons fish grass Thex."

L. & R.: "Are you everywhere I then?"

Intelligence: "What is truth said jesting pilot and would not stay for a propellor rocket-ship submarine dark dark dark sky universe universal . . . universa univer . . ."

L & R.: "What do you do in this universe?"

Intelligence: "Create destroy play poker knit socks for heathens confound knavish tricks popish plots heretical slanders shake dice kill and be born again eat drink and be marry tomorrow I sell widow's whited sepulchres kill niggers and Jews brotherhood of men pious pies in skies ..."

L. & R.: "Do you do everything then?"

Intelligence: "Everything nothing anything something Sum look on me ye mighty and the hills tremble E = [m.v. v/2] velocity velocipede centipede gurgle garble doodle doodle Veronica 1+1 = faith e'en with losing his wits Right is Might is Right end justify means not by bread alone."

Lopan and Rodiq Immediately informed the rest of the Thex of this infantile being which appeared to its own satisfaction to be running the cosmos, and suggested that all the machines should be destroyed to avoid the risk of further contact with the amoral mind in space.

Here the Thex records close, and I am forced to draw my own conclusions from this story, which I feel should be published, in the interest of all mankind, nay all thinking animals. My own conclusions I intend to keep private, but I would like to say that I believe the story to be an accurate record of actual events, and to end my story with a quotation: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My way, saith the lord."

—art La Roche.