The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction, American, General, Short Stories
ISBN: 9780385197823
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, c1986.
Published: 1986-08-15T02:35:04.640000+00:00

Roi’s mind flooded with shock. One moment he had been strapped in his chair in contact with the clear mind of Gan; the next (there was no consciousness of separation in time) he was immersed in a medley of strange, barbaric, and broken thought. He closed his mind completely. It had been open wide to increase the effectiveness of resonance, and the first touch of the alien had been Not painful--no. Dizzying, nauseating? No, not that, either. There was no word. He gathered resilience in the quiet nothingness of mind closure and considered his position. He felt the small touch of the Receiving Station, with which he was in mental liaison. That had come with him. Good! He ignored his host for the moment. He might need him for drastic operations later, so it would be wise to raise no suspicions for the moment. He explored. He entered a mind at random and took stock first to the sense impressions that permeated it. The creature was sensitive to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and to vibrations of the air, and, of course, to bodily contact. It possessed localized chemical senses That was about all. He looked again in astonishment. Not only was there no direct mass sense, no electro-potential sense, none of the really refined interpreters of the Universe, but there was no mental contact whatever. The creature’s mind was completely isolated. Then how did they communicate? He looked further. They had a complicated code of controlled air vibrations. Were they intelligent? Had he chosen a maimed mind? No, they were all like that. He filtered the group of surrounding minds through his mental tendrils, searching for a Tech, or whatever passed for such among these crippled semi-intelligences. He found a mind which thought of itself as a controller of vehicles. A piece of information flooded Roi. He was on an air-borne vehicle. Then even without mental contact, they would build a rudimentary mechanical civilization. Or were they animal tools of real intelligences elsewhere on the planet? No... Their minds said no. He plumbed the Tech. What about the immediate environment? Were the bugbears of the ancients to be feared? It was a matter of interpretation. Dangers in the environment existed. Movements of air. Changes of temperature. Water falling in the air, either as liquid or solid. Electrical discharges. There were code vibrations of each phenomenon but that meant nothing. The connection of any of these with the names given to phenomena by the ancestral surface folk was a matter of conjecture. No matter. Was there danger now? Was there danger here? Was there any cause for fear or uneasiness? No! The Tech’s mind said no. That was enough. He returned to his host mind and rested a moment, then cautiously expanded... Nothing! His host mind was blank. At most, there was a vague sense of warmth, and a dull flicker of undirected response to basic stimuli. Was his host dying after all? Aphasic? Decerebrate? He moved quickly to the mind nearest, dredging it for information about his host and finding it.

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