WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:07.759 Sweet Mental by Randal Garrett. This is a LibriVox recording. 2 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:11.320 All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more 3 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:18.280 information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording 4 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:25.359 by Julie Carter. Sweet Men Tell by Randal Garrett. Overture 5 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:31.879 a daggio mysterioso. The neurosurgeon peeled the thin surgical gloves 6 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:35.320 from his hands as the nurse blotted the perspiration from 7 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:39.719 his forehead for the last time after the long, grueling hours. 8 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.520 They're waiting outside for you, doctor, she said quietly. The 9 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:50.799 neurosurgeon nodded wordlessly. Behind him, three assistants were still finishing 10 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:54.799 up the operation, attending to the little finishing touches that 11 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.280 did not require the brilliant hand of the specialist, such 12 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.320 things as suturing up a scalp and applying bandages. The 13 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:06.200 nurse took the sterile mask no longer sterile now, while 14 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:09.959 the doctor washed and dried his hands. Where are they, 15 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:15.239 he asked, finally, out in the hall? I suppose, she nodded. 16 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.400 You'll probably have to push them out of the way 17 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:23.959 to get out of surgery. Her prediction was almost perfect. 18 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:28.000 The group of men in conservative business suits, wearing conservative 19 00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:31.879 ties and holding conservative soft felt hats in their hands, 20 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:35.719 were standing just outside the door. Doctor Mallan glanced at 21 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:38.120 the five of them, letting his eyes stop on the 22 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:42.560 face of the tallest. He may live, the doctor said, briefly. 23 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:46.120 You don't sound very optimistic, Doctor Mallan, said the FBI 24 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:50.760 man Malan shook his head frankly. I'm not. He was 25 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:53.359 shot laterally, just above the right temple with what looks 26 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:55.840 to me like a three fifty seven magnum pistol slug. 27 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:58.920 It's in there, he gestured back toward the room he 28 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.280 had just left. You can have it if you want. 29 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:04.120 It passed completely through the brain, lodging on the other 30 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:07.200 side of the head, just inside the skull. MOK kept 31 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:09.719 him alive. I'll never know, but I can guarantee that 32 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:11.960 he might as well be dead. It was a rather 33 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.080 nasty way to lobottomize man, but it was effective, I 34 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:21.159 can assure you. The Federal agent frowned, puzzledly. Lobottomized like 35 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:26.360 those operations they do on psychotics, similar, said Malin. But 36 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:29.240 no psychotic was ever butchered up like this, And what 37 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:30.960 I had to do to him to save his life 38 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:34.039 didn't help anything. The men looked at each other. Then 39 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.719 the big one said, I'm sure you did the best 40 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:40.439 you could. Doctor Mallin. The neurosurgeon rubbed the back of 41 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:43.400 his hand across his forehead and looked steadily into the 42 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:48.360 eyes of the big man. You wanted him alive, he 43 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.879 said slowly, And I have a duty to save life. 44 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:55.280 But frankly, I think we'll all eventually wish we had 45 00:02:55.319 --> 00:03:01.120 the common human decency to let Paul Wendell die. Excuse me, gentlemen, 46 00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:04.479 I don't feel well. He turned abruptly and strode off 47 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:08.199 down the hall. One of the men in the conservative 48 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:11.719 suits said, Louis Pastore lived through most of his life 49 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:13.599 with only half a brain, and he never even knew it. 50 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.719 Frank maybe, yeah, maybe, said the big man. But I 51 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.159 don't know whether to hope he does or hope he doesn't. 52 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:22.919 He used his right thumb nail to pick a bit 53 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.680 of microscopic dust from beneath his left index finger, studying 54 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:30.759 the operation without actually seeing it. Meanwhile, we've got to 55 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.120 decide what to do about the rest of those screw balls. 56 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:36.479 Wendell was the only sane one, and therefore the most dangerous, 57 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.319 but the rest of them aren't what you'd call safe either. 58 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:44.960 The others nodded in a chorus of silent agreement. Nocturne 59 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:50.840 temple du voce. Now, what's the matter with me? Thought 60 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:55.479 Paul Wendell. He could feel nothing, absolutely nothing, no taste, 61 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:00.759 no sight, no hearing, no anything. Am I breathing? He 62 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.960 couldn't feel any breathing, nor, for that matter, could he 63 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.080 feel heat, nor cold nor pain. Am I dead? No? 64 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:15.199 At least I don't feel dead. Who am I? What 65 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:21.800 am I? No answer? Coquito ergosum? What did that mean? 66 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:24.920 There was something quite definitely wrong, but he couldn't quite 67 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:28.120 tell what it was. I did seem to come from nowhere, 68 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:32.439 fragments of concepts that seemed to have no reference. What 69 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:37.639 did that mean? What is a reference a concept? He 70 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.360 felt he knew intuitively what they meant, but what use 71 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:43.160 they were? He didn't know. There was something wrong, and 72 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.560 he had to find out what it was, and he 73 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:48.160 had to find out through the only method of investigation 74 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:54.040 left open to him, So he thought about it. Sonata 75 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:58.639 Allegro Cumbrio, the President of the United States, finished reading 76 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:01.319 the sheaf of papers before him, laid them neatly to 77 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.759 one side and looked up at the big man seated 78 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:08.399 across the desk from him. Is this everything, Frank? He asked, 79 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:12.959 that's everything, mister President. Everything we know. We've got eight 80 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.240 men locked up in Saint Elizabeth's, all of them absolutely psychotic, 81 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.759 and one human vegetable named Paul Wendell. We can't get 82 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:23.199 anything out of them. The President leaned back in his chair. 83 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:28.639 I really can't quite understand it. Extrasensory perception, Why should 84 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:32.360 it drive men insane? Wendell's papers don't say enough. He 85 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:35.079 claims it can be mathematically worked out, that he did 86 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:37.560 work it out, but we don't have any proof of that. 87 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.639 The man named Frank scowled. Wasn't that demonstration of his 88 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:47.000 proof enough? A small, graying, intelligent faced man who had 89 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.519 been sitting silently listening to the conversation, spoke at last, 90 00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:55.759 mister President, I'm afraid I still don't completely understand the problem. 91 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:58.279 If we could go over it and get it straightened out, 92 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:04.920 he left the sentence hanging expectantly. Certainly, this Paul Wendell 93 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:10.600 is a well, he called himself a psionic mathematician. Actually, 94 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.560 he had quite a respectable reputation in the mathematical field. 95 00:06:13.959 --> 00:06:16.959 He did very important work in cybernetic theory, but he 96 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.720 dropped it several years ago, said that the human mind 97 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:24.040 couldn't be worked at from a mechanistic angle. He studied 98 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:27.879 various branches of psychology and eventually dropped them all. He 99 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.839 built several of those queer psionic machines, gold detectors, and 100 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.360 something he called a hexer. He's done a lot of 101 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:38.399 different things. Evidently, sounds like he was unable to make 102 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:42.399 up his mind, said the small man. The President shook 103 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:46.199 his head firmly. Not at all. He did new creative 104 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:48.759 work in every one of the fields he touched. He 105 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.639 was considered something of a mystic, but not a crackpot 106 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:54.800 or a screwball. But anyhow, the point is that he 107 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.839 evidently found what he'd been looking for for years. He 108 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:00.920 asked for an appointment with me. I okayed the request 109 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:03.920 because of his reputation. He would only tell me that 110 00:07:03.959 --> 00:07:07.120 he'd stumbled across something that was vital to national defense 111 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:10.199 and the future of mankind. But I felt that in 112 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.199 view of the work he had done, he was entitled 113 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:15.240 to a hearing. And he proved to you beyond any 114 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:18.160 doubt that he had this power, the small man asked. 115 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.319 Frank shifted his big body uneasily in his chair. He 116 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:27.079 certainly did, mister secretary. The President nodded. I know it 117 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:30.079 might not sound too impressive when her second hand, but 118 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:32.120 Paul Wendell could tell me more of what was going 119 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:34.839 on in the world than our central intelligence agents have 120 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.680 been able to dig up in twenty years. And he 121 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:40.560 claimed he could teach the trick to any one. I 122 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.600 told him I'd think it over naturally, my first step 123 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:45.519 was to make sure that he was followed twenty four 124 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.480 hours a day. A man with information like that simply 125 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.680 could not be allowed to fall into enemy's hands. The 126 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:55.079 President scowled, as though angry with himself. I'm sorry to 127 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.680 say that I didn't realize the full potentialities of what 128 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.959 he had said for several days until I got Frank's 129 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.040 first report. You could hardly be expected to, mister President, 130 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:08.560 Frank said, After all, something like that is pretty heady stuff. 131 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:12.759 I think I follow you, said the secretary. You found 132 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.879 he was already teaching this trick to others. The President 133 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:20.240 glanced at the FBI man. Frank said, that's right. He 134 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.279 was holding meetings classes. I suppose you'd call him twice 135 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:27.319 a week. There were eight men who came regularly. That's 136 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.240 when I gave the order to have them all picked up. 137 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:31.839 Can you imagine what would happen if everybody could be 138 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.840 taught to use this ability, or even a small minority, 139 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:40.120 they'd rule the world, said the secretary softly. The President 140 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:43.759 shrugged that off. That's a small item. Really, the point 141 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.759 is that nothing would be hidden from any one. The 142 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:48.559 way we play the game of life to day is 143 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:51.279 similar to playing poker. We keep a straight face and 144 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:53.759 play the cards tight to our chest. But what would 145 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.039 happen if everyone could see everyone else's cards? It would 146 00:08:57.080 --> 00:08:59.240 cease to be a game of strategy and become a 147 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.879 game of pure chain ants. We'd have to start playing 148 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:04.519 life another way. It would be like chess, where you 149 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:07.240 can see the opponents every move. But in all human 150 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:09.960 history there has never been a social analog for chess. 151 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:12.879 That's why Paul Wendell and his group had to be 152 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:17.399 stopped for a while at least. But what could you 153 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:21.240 have done with them? Asked the secretary. Imprison them, silarrowly, 154 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:25.519 have them shot? What would you have done? The President's 155 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.960 face became graver than ever. I had not yet made 156 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.679 that decision. Thank Heaven, it has been taken out of 157 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:36.240 my hands. One of his own men shot him. That's right, 158 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:38.799 said the big fb eye man. We went into his 159 00:09:38.840 --> 00:09:42.120 apartment an instant too late. We found eight madmen in 160 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:44.919 a near corpse. We're not sure what happened, and we're 161 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:47.639 not sure we want to know. Anything that can drive 162 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:50.200 eight reasonably stable men off the deep end in less 163 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.399 than an hour is nothing to meddle around with. I 164 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:56.799 wonder what went wrong, asked the secretary of No. One 165 00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:03.799 in particular, Scarce Presto. Paul Wendell, too was wondering what 166 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:08.600 went wrong. Slowly, over a period of immeasurable time, memory 167 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:12.200 seeped back into him. Bits of memory here and there, 168 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:15.799 crept in from nowhere, sometimes to be lost again, sometimes 169 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:19.759 to remain. Once, he found himself mentally humming an odd, 170 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:24.039 rather funeral tune. Now, though you'd have said that the 171 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:28.080 head was dead, for its owner, dead was he? It 172 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.960 stood on its neck with a smile, well bred, and 173 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:34.679 bowed three times to me. It was none of your 174 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:39.720 impudent off hand nods. Wendell stopped and wondered what the 175 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:46.679 devil seemed so important about the song. Slowly, slowly, memory returned. 176 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:51.399 When he finally realized, with crashing finality, where he was 177 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:55.240 and what had happened to him, Paul Wendell went violently insane, 178 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:58.279 or he would have if he could have become violent. 179 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:07.399 March funebra lento. Open your mouth, Paul, said the pretty nurse. 180 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.240 The hulking mass of not quite human gazed at her 181 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:14.080 with vacuous eyes and opened its mouth dexterously. She spooned 182 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:17.440 his mouthful of baby food into it. Now swallow it, Paul. 183 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:22.320 That's it now another in pretty bad shape, isn't he. 184 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:24.919 Nurse Peters turned to look at the man who had 185 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:27.960 walked up behind her. It was doctor Benwick, the new intern. 186 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:32.519 He's worthless to himself and any one else, she said. 187 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:35.120 It's a shame too, he'd be rather nice looking if 188 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:39.240 there were any personality behind that face. She shoveled another 189 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:43.600 spoonful of mashed asparagus into the gaping mouth. Now swallow it, Paul. 190 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.639 How long has he been here, Benwick asked, eyeing the 191 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:50.399 scars that showed through the dark hair on the patient's head. 192 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:56.000 Nearly six years. Miss Peters said, hum, but they outlawed 193 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:00.200 lobotomies back in the sixties. Open your mouth, Paul. Then 194 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.080 to Benwick, this was an accident, bullet in the head. 195 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:04.960 You can see the scar on the other side of 196 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:07.600 his head. The doctor moved around to look at the 197 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:11.679 left temple. Doesn't leave much of a human being, does it. 198 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:14.480 It doesn't even leave much of an animal. Miss Peters said, 199 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:18.720 he's alive. But that's the best you can say for him. Now, swallow, Paul. 200 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:23.440 That's it. Even an amoeba can find food for itself. Yeah, 201 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:25.639 even a single settle is better off than he is. 202 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.879 Chop out a man's forebrain and he's nothing. It's a 203 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:30.799 case of the whole being less than the sum of 204 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:35.159 its parts. I'm glad they outlawed the operation on mental patients. 205 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:38.279 Miss Peters said, with a note of disgust in her voice. 206 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:42.159 Doctor Benwick said, it's worse than it looks. Do you 207 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:45.159 know why the anti lobotomists managed to get the bill passed. 208 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:49.080 Let's drink some milk, now, Paul, No, doctor, I was 209 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.799 only a little girl at that time. It was a 210 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:55.159 matter of electro encephalographic records. They showed that there was 211 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:58.240 electrical activity in the prefrontal lobes even after the nerves 212 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:00.720 had been severed, which could mean a lot lot of things, 213 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:03.519 But the a L supporter said that it indicated that 214 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:07.159 the forebrain was still capable of thinking. Miss Peters looked 215 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:11.360 a little ill. Why that's horrible. I wish you'd never 216 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:14.759 told me. She looked at the lump of vegetablized humans 217 00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:18.679 sitting placidly at the table. Do you suppose he's actually 218 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:24.559 thinking somewhere deep inside? Oh? I doubt it, Benwick said hastily. 219 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:27.799 There's probably no real self awareness, none at all. There 220 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:32.440 couldn't be, I suppose not, Miss Peters said, But it's 221 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:36.000 not pleasant to think of. That's why they outlawed it, 222 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:44.120 said Benwick. Rondo Andante Manomboco. Insanity is a retreat from reality, 223 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.600 an escape within the mind from the reality outside the mind. 224 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:51.200 But what if there is no detectable reality outside the mind? 225 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:55.120 What is there to escape from? Suicide? Death in any 226 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.600 form is an escape from life. But if death does 227 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:03.000 not come and cannot be self inflicted, what then? And 228 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:05.480 when the pressure of nothingness becomes too great to bear 229 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:08.919 it becomes necessary to escape. A man under great enough 230 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.759 pressure will take the easy way out. But what if 231 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:15.000 there is no easy way, Why then a man must 232 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:17.559 take the hard way. For Paul Wendell, there was no 233 00:14:17.720 --> 00:14:20.879 escape from his dark, senseless gahenna by way of death, 234 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.879 and even insanity offered no retreat. Insanity in itself is senseless, 235 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:29.159 and senselessness was what he was trying to flee. The 236 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:33.279 only insanity possible was a psychosis of regression, a fleeing 237 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:37.200 into the past, into the crystallized, unchanging world of memory. 238 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:41.679 So Paul Wendell explored his past every year, every hour, 239 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:45.200 every second of it, searching to recall and savor every 240 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:49.960 bit of sensation he had ever experienced. He tasted and smelled, 241 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.639 and touched and heard and analyzed each of them minutely. 242 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:58.200 He searched through his own subjective thought processes, analyzing, checking, 243 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:03.519 and correlating them. Know thyself. Time and time again, Wendell 244 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:07.279 retreated from his own memories in confusion or shame or fear, 245 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.960 But there was no retreat from himself, and eventually he 246 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.440 had to go back and look again. He had plenty 247 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.200 of time, all the time in the world. How can 248 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:19.480 subjective time be measured when there is no objective reality? 249 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:23.080 Eventually there came the time when there was nothing left 250 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:26.080 to look at, nothing left to see, nothing left to 251 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:28.960 check and remember, nothing that he had not gone over 252 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:33.879 in every detail. Again, boredom began to creep in. It 253 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:36.159 was not the boredom of nothingness, but the boredom of 254 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:41.519 the familiar imagination. What could he imagine except combinations and 255 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:45.799 permutations of his own memories. He didn't know. Maybe there 256 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:49.000 might be more to it than that, So he exercised 257 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.360 his imagination. With a wealth of material to draw upon, 258 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:55.840 he would build himself worlds where he could move around, walk, 259 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:59.559 talk and make love, eat, drink, and feel the caress 260 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:03.000 of sunshine and wind. It was while he was engaged 261 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.360 in this project that he touched another mind. He touched it, 262 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.080 fused for a blinding second, and bounced away. He ran, 263 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:12.519 gibbering up and down the corridors of his own memory, 264 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:18.039 mentally reeling from the shock of identification. Who was he? 265 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:23.080 Paul Wendell? Yes, he knew with incontrovertible certainty that he 266 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:26.559 was Paul Wendell. But he also knew with almost equal 267 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:30.639 certainty that he was Captain Sir Richard Francis Purton. He 268 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.480 was living, had lived in the latter half of the 269 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:36.679 nineteenth century. But he knew nothing of the captain other 270 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.080 than the certainty of identity. Nothing else of that blinding 271 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:44.799 mind touch remained. Again, he scoured his memory, Paul Wendell's memory, 272 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:48.960 checking and rechecking the area just before that semi fatal 273 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:52.919 bullet had crashed through his brain. And finally, at long last, 274 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.120 he knew with certainty where his calculations had gone astray. 275 00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:01.360 He knew positively why eight men had gone insane. Then 276 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:03.879 he went again in search of other mines, and this 277 00:17:04.039 --> 00:17:09.119 time he knew he would not bounce Kazi unifantasia poco 278 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:14.359 andante pienis Simon. An old man sat quietly in his 279 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:18.039 lawn chair, puffing contentedly on an expensive briar pipe and 280 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:21.000 making corrections with a fountain pen on a thick sheaf 281 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:25.599 of typwritten manuscript. Around him stretched an expanse of green lawn, 282 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.599 dotted here and there with squat siecads that looked like 283 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.359 overgrown pineapples. In the distance, screening the big house from 284 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:35.640 the road, stood a row of stately palms, there fronds 285 00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:40.079 stirring lightly in the faint, warm California breeze. The old 286 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:41.920 man raised his head as a car pulled into the 287 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:46.039 curving driveway. The warm hum of the turboelectric engine stopped, 288 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:49.519 and a man climbed out of the vehicle. He walked 289 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:52.079 with easy strides across the grass to where the elderly 290 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:56.279 gentleman sat. He was lithe of indeterminate age, but with 291 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.319 a look of great determination. There was something in his 292 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:02.920 face that made the old man vaguely uneasy. Not with fear, 293 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:06.400 but with a sense of deep respect. What can I 294 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:09.519 do for you, sir, I have some news for you, 295 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:14.000 mister president, the younger one said. The old man smiled ryly. 296 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.799 I haven't been president for fourteen years. Most people call 297 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:21.839 me senator or just plain mister. The younger man smiled back, 298 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:27.000 very well, Senator, my name is Camberton, James Camberton. I 299 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.880 brought some information that may possibly relieve your mind, or 300 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:35.079 again it may not. You sound ominous, mister Camberton. I 301 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.599 hope you'll remember that I've been retired from the political 302 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:42.240 field for nearly five years. What is this shattering news? 303 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:47.160 Paul Wendell's body was buried yesterday. The senator looked blank 304 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:50.559 for a second, then recognition came into his face. Wendell, eh, 305 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:54.160 after all, this time, poor Chap, he'd have been better 306 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:57.359 off if he'd died twenty years ago. Then he paused 307 00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.960 and looked up. But just who are you, mister camp 308 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:03.039 And what makes you think I would be particularly interested 309 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:06.160 in Paul Wendell. Mister Wendell wants to tell you that 310 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:08.960 he is very grateful to you for having saved his life, Senator. 311 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.799 If it hadn't been for your orders, he would have 312 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:16.039 been left to die. The Senator felt strangely calm, although 313 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:19.720 he knew he should feel shocked. That's ridiculous, sir. Mister 314 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:22.920 Wendall's brain was hopelessly damaged. He never recovered his sanity 315 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:25.440 or control of his body. I know. I used to 316 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:28.759 drop over to see him occasionally, until I finally realized 317 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:31.119 that I was only making myself feel worse and doing 318 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:35.039 him no good. Yes, Sir, and mister Wendell wants you 319 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.640 to know how much he appreciated those visits. The Senator 320 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.920 grew red, What the devil are you talking about? I 321 00:19:42.119 --> 00:19:44.440 just said that Wendell couldn't talk. How could he have 322 00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:46.559 said anything to you? What do you know about this? 323 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:50.119 I never said he spoke to me, Senator. He didn't. 324 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:53.359 And as to what I know of this affair. Evidently 325 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:57.960 you don't remember my name. James Camberton. The senator frowned. 326 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:02.839 The name is familiar, but then his eyes went wide. Camberton, 327 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:05.599 you were one of the ape men who Why you're 328 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:09.200 the man who shot Wendell. Camberton pulled up an empty 329 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:12.119 lawn chair and sat down. That's right, Senator, but there's 330 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:14.279 nothing to be afraid of. Would you like to hear 331 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:19.640 about it? I suppose I must. The old man's voice 332 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.799 was so low that it was scarcely audible. Tell me 333 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.279 were the other seven released? Two? Ha? Have you all 334 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:31.920 regained your sanity? Do you remember? He stopped? Do we 335 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.680 remember the extra sensory perception formula? Yes we do, all 336 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:38.279 eight of us remember it well. It was based on 337 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:41.400 faulty premises and incomplete, of course, but in its own 338 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.839 way it was workable enough. We have something much better now. 339 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:49.720 The old man shook his head slowly. I failed. Then, 340 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.039 Such an idea is as fatal to society as we 341 00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:55.920 know it as a virus plague. I tried to keep 342 00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:59.240 you men quarantined, but I failed. After all those years 343 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:03.039 of insanity, Now the chess game begins. The poker game 344 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:07.240 is over. It's worse than that, Camberton said, chuckling softly. 345 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:12.200 Or actually it's much better. I don't understand. Explain it 346 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.359 to me. I'm an old man, and I may not 347 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:17.160 live to see my world collapse. I hope I don't, 348 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.839 Camberdon said, I'll try to explain in word, Senator, very inadequate, 349 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.720 but a fuller explanation will come later, and he launched 350 00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:28.160 into the story of the two decade search of Paul Wendell, 351 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:37.759 Coda Andantino telepathy time travel. After three hours of listening, 352 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.519 the ex President was still not sure he understood. Think 353 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:44.680 of it this way, Camberton said, Think of the mind 354 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.319 at any given instant as being surrounded by a shield, 355 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:51.440 a shield of privacy, a shield which you yourself have erected, 356 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:56.279 though unconsciously. It's a perfect insulator against telepathic prying by others. 357 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:58.799 You feel you have to have it in order to 358 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:02.720 retain your privacy, your sense of identity. Even but here's 359 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:05.160 the kicker. Even though no one else can get in, 360 00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:09.400 you can't get out. You can call this shield self consciousness. 361 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:12.759 Perhaps shame is a better word. Every one has it 362 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:17.000 to some degree. No telepathic thought can break through it. Occasionally, 363 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.480 some people will relax it for a fraction of a second, 364 00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:23.720 but the instant they receive something, the barrier goes up again. Then, 365 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:26.240 how is telepathy possible? How can you go through it? 366 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.920 The senator looked puzzled as he thoughtfully tamped tobacco into 367 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:35.640 his briar. You don't go through it, you go around it. Now, 368 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:37.960 Wait a minute, that sounds like some of those fourth 369 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:41.680 dimension stories I've read. I recall that when I was younger, 370 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:44.920 I read a murder mystery, something about a morgue, I 371 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.119 think it. At any rate, the murder was committed inside 372 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:50.720 a locked room. No one could possibly have gotten in 373 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.000 or out. One of the characters suggested that the murderer 374 00:22:54.039 --> 00:22:56.680 traveled through the fourth dimension in order to get at 375 00:22:56.680 --> 00:22:59.119 the victim. He didn't go through the walls, he went 376 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:02.279 around them. The Senator puffed a match flame into the 377 00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:04.359 bowl of his pipe, his eyes on the younger man. 378 00:23:05.240 --> 00:23:09.440 Is that what you're driving at? Exactly? Agreed Pemberton. The 379 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:12.960 fourth dimension time you must go back in time to 380 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:16.599 an instant when that wall did not exist. An infant 381 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.400 has no shame, no modesty, no shield against the world. 382 00:23:20.039 --> 00:23:22.680 You must travel back down your own four dimensional tube 383 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:25.799 of memory in order to get outside it. And to 384 00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:28.119 do that you have to know your own mind completely, 385 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.480 and you must be sure you know it. For only 386 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:33.599 if you know your own mind can you communicate with 387 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.480 another mind, Because at the instant of contact you become 388 00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:40.119 that person. You must enter his own memory at the 389 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:43.039 beginning and go up the hypertube. You will have all 390 00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:47.000 his memories, his hopes, his fears, his sense of identity. 391 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:51.119 Unless you know, beyond any trace of doubt, who you are, 392 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:55.640 the result is insanity. The senator puffed his pipe for 393 00:23:55.640 --> 00:23:58.960 a moment, then shook his head. It sounds like oriental 394 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:01.960 mysticism to me. If you can travel in time, you'd 395 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:06.039 be able to change the past. Not at all, Camberton said, 396 00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:08.440 that's like saying that if you read a book, the 397 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.880 author's words will change time. Isn't like that. Look, suppose 398 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:15.200 you had a long trough filled with super cooled water. 399 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:17.519 At one end, you drop in a piece of ice. 400 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:21.960 Immediately the water begins to freeze. The crystallization front moves 401 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.920