Children of the Lens by Edward Elmer ('Doc') Smith

Author:Edward Elmer ('Doc') Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, science fiction
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1954-08-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

RED LENSMAN IN GRAY

Karen Kinnison was worried. She, who had always been so sure of herself, had for weeks been conscious of a gradually increasing—what was it, anyway? Not exactly a loss of control . . . a change . . . a something that manifested itself in increasingly numerous fits of senseless—sheerly idiotic—stubbornness. And always and only it was directed at—of all the people in the universe!—her brother. She got along with her sisters perfectly; their tiny tiffs barely rippled the surface of any of their minds. But any time her path of action crossed Kit’s, it seemed, the profoundest depths of her being flared into opposition like exploding duodec. Worse than senseless and idiotic, it was inexplicable, for the feeling which the Five had for each other was much deeper than that felt by ordinary brothers and sisters.

She didn’t want to fight with Kit. She liked the guy! She liked to feel his mind en rapport with hers, just as she liked to dance with him; their bodies as completely in accord as were their minds. No change of step or motion, however suddenly conceived and executed or however bizarre, had ever succeeded in taking the other by surprise or in marring by a millimeter the effortless precision of their performance. She could do things with Kit that would tie any other man into knots and break half his bones. All other men were lumps. Kit was so far ahead of any other man in existence that there was simply no comparison. If she were Kit she would give her a going-over that would . . . or could even he . . .

At the thought she turned cold inside. He could not. Even Kit, with all his tremendous power, would hit that solid wall and bounce. Well, there was one—not a man, but an entity—who could. He might kill her, but even that would be better than to allow the continued growth within her mind of this monstrosity which she could neither control nor understand. Where was she, and where was Lyrane, and where was Arisia? Good—not too far off line. She would stop off at Arisia en route.

She did so, and made her way to Mentor’s office on the hospital grounds. She told her story.

“Fighting with Kit was bad enough,” she concluded, “but when I start defying you, Mentor, it’s high time that something was done about it. Why didn’t Kit ever knock me into a logarithmic spiral? Why didn’t you work me over? You called Kit in, with the distinct implication that he needed more education—why didn’t you pull me in here, too, and pound some sense into me?”

“Concerning you, Christopher had definite instructions, which he obeyed. I did not touch you for the same reason that I did not order you to come to me; neither course would have been of any use. Your mind, daughter Karen, is unique. One of its prime characteristics—the one, in fact, which is to make you an all-important player in the drama which is to come—is a yieldlessness very nearly absolute.

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