[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.This emotion,requiring as it does nothing except its own substance upon which to feed, became afantastically spreading, caustically corrosive blight.To name each ugly, noisome passion or trait resident in that dome is to call thecomplete roster of the vile; and calmly, mercilessly, unmovedly, ultra-efficiently, Nadreckmanipulated them all.As though he were playing a Satanic organ he touched a nervehere, a synapse there, a channel somewhere else, bringing the whole group, with thelone exception of the commander, simultaneously to the point of explosion.Nor was anysign of this perfect work evident externally; for everyone there, having lived so longunder the iron code of Boskonia, knew exactly the consequences of any infraction ofthat code.The moment came when passion overmastered sense.One of the monstersstumbled, jostling another.That nudge became, in its recipient's seething mind, a lethalattack by his bitterest enemy.A forbidden projector flamed viciously: the offended onewas sating his lust so insensately that he scarcely noticed the boh that in turn rivedaway his own life.Detonated by this incident, the personnel of the base exploded asone.Blasters raved briefly; knives and swords bit and slashed; improvised bludgeonscrashed against preselected targets; hard-taloned appendages gouged and tore.AndNadreck, who had long since withdrawn from the mind of the psychologist, timed with astop-watch the duration of the whole grisly affair, from the instant of the first stumble tothe death of the last Onlonian outside the commander's locked and armored sanctum.Ninety-eight and three-tenths seconds.Good—a nice job.The commander, as soon as it was safe to do so, rushed out of his guarded roomto investigate.Amazed, disgruntled, dismayed by the to him completely inexplicablephenomenon he had just witnessed, he fell an easy prey to the Palainian Lensman.Nadreck invaded his mind and explored it, channel by channel; finding—not entirelyunexpectedly—that this Number One knew nothing whatever of interest.Nadreck did not destroy the base.Instead, after setting up a small instrument inthe commander's private office, he took that unfortunate wight aboard his speedster anddrove off into space.He immobilized his captive, not by loading him with manacles, butby deftly severing a few essential nerve trunks.Then he really studied the Onlonian'smind—line by line, this time; almost cell by cell.A master—almost certainly Kandronhimself—had operated here.There was not the slightest trace of tampering; no leads toor indications of what the activating stimulus would have to be; all that the fellow nowknew was that it was his job to hold his base inviolate against any and every form ofintrusion and to keep that speedster flitting around all over space on a director-by-chance as much as possible of the time, leaking slightly a certain signal now and then.Even under this microscopic re-examination, he knew nothing whatever ofKandron; nothing of Onlo or of Thrale; nothing of any Boskonian organization, activity,or thing; and Nadreck, although baffled still, remained undisturbed.This trap, hethought, could almost certainly be used against the trapper.Until a certain call camethrough his relay in the base, he would investigate the planets of this system.During the investigation a thought impinged upon his Lens from Karen Kinnison,one of the very few warm-blooded beings for whom he had any real liking or respect."Busy, Nadreck?" she asked, as casually as though she had just left him."In large, yes.In detail and at the moment, no.Is there any small problem inwhich I can be of assistance?""Not small—big.I just got the funniest distress call I ever heard or heard of.On ahigh band—way, "way up— there.Do you know of any race that thinks on that band?""I do not believe so." He thought for a moment."Definitely, no.""Neither do I.It wasn't broadcast, either, but was directed at any member of aspecial race or tribe—very special.Classification, straight Z's to ten or twelve places,she— or it—seemed to be trying to specify.""A frigid race of extreme type, adapted to an environment having a temperatureof approximately one degree absolute.""Yes.Like you, only more so." Kay paused, trying to put into intelligible thought apicture inherently incapable of reception or recognition by her as yet strictly three-dimensional intelligence."Something like the Eich, too, but not much.Their visibleaspect was obscure, fluid.amorphous.Indefinite?.skip it—I couldn't reallyperceive it, let alone describe it I wish you had caught that thought.""I wish so, too—it is very interesting.But tell me— if the thought was directed, notbroadcast, how could you have received it?""That's the funniest part of the whole thing." Nadreck could feel the girl frown inconcentration."It came at me from all sides at once—never felt anything like it.NaturallyI started feeling around for the source—particularly since it was a distress signal—butbefore I could get-even a general direction of the origin it.it.well, it didn't reallydisappear or really weaken, but something happened to it.I couldn't read it anymore—and that really did throw me for a loss." She paused, then went on."It didn't somuch go away as go down, some way or other.Then it vanished completely, withoutreally going anywhere.I'm not making myself clear—I simply can't—but have I givenyou enough leads so that you can make any sense at all out of any part of it?""I'm very sorry to say that I can not."Nor could he, ever, for excellent reasons.That girl had a mind whose power,scope, depth, and range she herself did not, could not even dimly understand; a mind tobe fully comprehended only by an adult of her own third level.That mind had in factreceived in toto a purely fourth-dimensional thought.If Nadreck had received it, hewould have understood it and recognized it for what it was only because of hisadvanced Arisian training—no other Palainian could have done so—and it would havebeen sheerly unthinkable to him that any warm-blooded and therefore strictly three-dimensional entity could by any possibility receive such a thought; or, having received it,could understand any part of it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl przylepto3.keep.pl
.This emotion,requiring as it does nothing except its own substance upon which to feed, became afantastically spreading, caustically corrosive blight.To name each ugly, noisome passion or trait resident in that dome is to call thecomplete roster of the vile; and calmly, mercilessly, unmovedly, ultra-efficiently, Nadreckmanipulated them all.As though he were playing a Satanic organ he touched a nervehere, a synapse there, a channel somewhere else, bringing the whole group, with thelone exception of the commander, simultaneously to the point of explosion.Nor was anysign of this perfect work evident externally; for everyone there, having lived so longunder the iron code of Boskonia, knew exactly the consequences of any infraction ofthat code.The moment came when passion overmastered sense.One of the monstersstumbled, jostling another.That nudge became, in its recipient's seething mind, a lethalattack by his bitterest enemy.A forbidden projector flamed viciously: the offended onewas sating his lust so insensately that he scarcely noticed the boh that in turn rivedaway his own life.Detonated by this incident, the personnel of the base exploded asone.Blasters raved briefly; knives and swords bit and slashed; improvised bludgeonscrashed against preselected targets; hard-taloned appendages gouged and tore.AndNadreck, who had long since withdrawn from the mind of the psychologist, timed with astop-watch the duration of the whole grisly affair, from the instant of the first stumble tothe death of the last Onlonian outside the commander's locked and armored sanctum.Ninety-eight and three-tenths seconds.Good—a nice job.The commander, as soon as it was safe to do so, rushed out of his guarded roomto investigate.Amazed, disgruntled, dismayed by the to him completely inexplicablephenomenon he had just witnessed, he fell an easy prey to the Palainian Lensman.Nadreck invaded his mind and explored it, channel by channel; finding—not entirelyunexpectedly—that this Number One knew nothing whatever of interest.Nadreck did not destroy the base.Instead, after setting up a small instrument inthe commander's private office, he took that unfortunate wight aboard his speedster anddrove off into space.He immobilized his captive, not by loading him with manacles, butby deftly severing a few essential nerve trunks.Then he really studied the Onlonian'smind—line by line, this time; almost cell by cell.A master—almost certainly Kandronhimself—had operated here.There was not the slightest trace of tampering; no leads toor indications of what the activating stimulus would have to be; all that the fellow nowknew was that it was his job to hold his base inviolate against any and every form ofintrusion and to keep that speedster flitting around all over space on a director-by-chance as much as possible of the time, leaking slightly a certain signal now and then.Even under this microscopic re-examination, he knew nothing whatever ofKandron; nothing of Onlo or of Thrale; nothing of any Boskonian organization, activity,or thing; and Nadreck, although baffled still, remained undisturbed.This trap, hethought, could almost certainly be used against the trapper.Until a certain call camethrough his relay in the base, he would investigate the planets of this system.During the investigation a thought impinged upon his Lens from Karen Kinnison,one of the very few warm-blooded beings for whom he had any real liking or respect."Busy, Nadreck?" she asked, as casually as though she had just left him."In large, yes.In detail and at the moment, no.Is there any small problem inwhich I can be of assistance?""Not small—big.I just got the funniest distress call I ever heard or heard of.On ahigh band—way, "way up— there.Do you know of any race that thinks on that band?""I do not believe so." He thought for a moment."Definitely, no.""Neither do I.It wasn't broadcast, either, but was directed at any member of aspecial race or tribe—very special.Classification, straight Z's to ten or twelve places,she— or it—seemed to be trying to specify.""A frigid race of extreme type, adapted to an environment having a temperatureof approximately one degree absolute.""Yes.Like you, only more so." Kay paused, trying to put into intelligible thought apicture inherently incapable of reception or recognition by her as yet strictly three-dimensional intelligence."Something like the Eich, too, but not much.Their visibleaspect was obscure, fluid.amorphous.Indefinite?.skip it—I couldn't reallyperceive it, let alone describe it I wish you had caught that thought.""I wish so, too—it is very interesting.But tell me— if the thought was directed, notbroadcast, how could you have received it?""That's the funniest part of the whole thing." Nadreck could feel the girl frown inconcentration."It came at me from all sides at once—never felt anything like it.NaturallyI started feeling around for the source—particularly since it was a distress signal—butbefore I could get-even a general direction of the origin it.it.well, it didn't reallydisappear or really weaken, but something happened to it.I couldn't read it anymore—and that really did throw me for a loss." She paused, then went on."It didn't somuch go away as go down, some way or other.Then it vanished completely, withoutreally going anywhere.I'm not making myself clear—I simply can't—but have I givenyou enough leads so that you can make any sense at all out of any part of it?""I'm very sorry to say that I can not."Nor could he, ever, for excellent reasons.That girl had a mind whose power,scope, depth, and range she herself did not, could not even dimly understand; a mind tobe fully comprehended only by an adult of her own third level.That mind had in factreceived in toto a purely fourth-dimensional thought.If Nadreck had received it, hewould have understood it and recognized it for what it was only because of hisadvanced Arisian training—no other Palainian could have done so—and it would havebeen sheerly unthinkable to him that any warm-blooded and therefore strictly three-dimensional entity could by any possibility receive such a thought; or, having received it,could understand any part of it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]