Interlopers by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780441008476
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2001-05-02T04:00:00+00:00

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Ten

The archaeologist was silent for a long moment, contemplating questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answered, knowing that if he wanted to help his wife he had no choice but to hear them.

“That—that was one of my main questions. I know it has something to do with human unhappiness.”

“Truly it does.” Oelefse shifted in the chair. “Tell me, my friend: Have you ever felt ill without knowing the source? Irritable, angry for no discernible reason, upset with a moment in life that was really of minor consequence? Have you ever yelled at others only to wonder why afterwards? Hurt another person for no good cause? Suffered from headaches that no pill would alleviate, such as migraines that seemed to materialize without cause? Acted in an irrational fashion that left you feeling later as if you had been acting in a dream?‘

“Who hasn’t?’ was all Cody could think of to say.

“Who indeed? Most of the time, such behavior can be traced to natural causes. But sometimes it cannot. The most severe examples arise from roots beyond the ability of medical science to detect. Though not beyond that of modern physics. How is your knowledge of subatomic particles?”

The change of subject took Cody aback. “Pretty limited. There’s not much call for it in archaeology, except for those of us who specialize in dating.”

“I will not go into details. Those Who Abide are detectable by devices that measure such things, but we who search them out and confront them cannot carry particle accelerators around with us.” Unexpectedly, he grinned. “They will not fit even in a German car.

“Different kinds of Interlopers induce different reactions. What they feed upon, what they derive from their incognizant human hosts, is misery. Unhappiness, despair, grief; these are all powerful emotions that generate particular sets of electrical impulses in the brain. As near as we have been able to determine, this is what the Interlopers feed upon. The greater the distress, the more extreme the anguish, the more food there is for Those Who Abide.” His voice fell slightly.

“Is it any wonder that they would revel, and multiply, and thrive, during a war, or a period of widespread misery in human history such as the Dark Ages, or the time of the Black Plague?”

“But that’s when their human hosts would perish in the greatest numbers.” Cody considered the ramifications. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“The only time an Interloper can move from one human to another is when the original host dies. At times of great crisis, people are always being buried. For the Interlopers, transfer then becomes a matter of picking and choosing among many potential new hosts, not of finding one.

“At the same time, while they are feeding, they can sometimes control more than their host’s emotions. Surely you have by now encountered evidence of this adaptation?”

Cody remembered: the auto accidents he had observed, people happy one moment and fighting the next, parents berating bewildered children: all evidence of the malicious intervention of hungry Interlopers.

“So they don’t just feed on negative emotions; they actually stimulate them.

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