Damon Knight by Beyond the Barrier

Author:Beyond the Barrier
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

His head ached. He was sitting on the floor, holding his head in his hands to quiet the throbbing pain. He looked around, moving with exaggerated caution, for the slightest motion made his head feel as if it were about to split.

The headband lay across the room, bent out of shape. Churan was staring at him, breathing hard; sweat was beaded on his narrow forehead.

“How do you feel?” he asked hoarsely.

Naismith tried to sit up, groaned and slumped back. “Pain in my head,” he answered indistinctly. “What happened?”

“You tore off the helmet halfway through,” Churan muttered. “It’s lucky for you that I had neutralized the gun. Make no mistake—it’s locked on again now!” He twitched, and resumed, “I don’t understand how— You are not supposed to be able to resume voluntary control until after the memory unit has stopped working. … Do you understand everything I say?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Naismith asked, and then halted, trans-fixed by a realization that almost drove his pain into the background.

He and Churan were not speaking English. They were talking in the language of his dreams—the same hissing, guttural tongue the aliens used—but now every word was clear.

“Who is the Highborn?” Churan demanded, inching nearer.

“The hereditary aristarch,” Naismith answered impatiently.

“She—” Once more he stopped, in total dismay. The knowledge that he found in his mind, a complete and detailed history of the Highborn and her court, had not been there before.

“The process was successful, then,” Churan said with evident relief. “You missed the end of the disk, of course, but we can supply that later, if necessary. I was afraid that— Sit still until you feel better.” He turned, retreated.

He was back in a moment, followed by Lall. Both aliens were staring at him with an air of suppressed excitement.

Churan, muttering something under his breath, stepped over to the wall and picked up the damaged headband, showing it to Lall.

Her muddy complexion paled. She held out her hand for the headband, fingered the bent metal unbelievingly. “He did that?

While the educator was turned on?”

Both aliens stared at Naismith. “Does he have the compulsion?”

“Obviously not.”

Lall snarled at him, “How do you know?”

The pain in Naismith’s head had eased a little. He got gingerly to his feet and retreated with cautious movements to the wall. He leaned back, watching and listening, while the aliens erupted into a sudden furious argument.

“How, then?” Churan demanded, thrusting his face into Lall’s. “Tell me how.”

“Try it yourself!” she returned, and thrust the headband into his hand.

Churan looked at it with surprise; his amber eyes narrowed, then glinted with understanding.

“The disk will begin at the moment it was interrupted,”

Lall said. “Go ahead, put it on—what harm can it do you?”

Churan grinned mirthlessly. “True. Very well.” He pried dubiously at the bent framework. “I do not know if it will function—” He shrugged and put the headband on. His eyes closed, then opened again.

“Well?” the woman demanded.

Churan took the headband off slowly. “You were right. The compulsion formula was almost all there—he could have heard only the first syllable of it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.