"We are Security Police," barked a voice aloft, through an amplifying loud-speaker. "A man jumped from a ship overhead, last night. Have you seen or heard of any strangers around?"
Jim Hunt waited to be revealed. The sudden completeness of his disaster numbed him. He felt practically no emotion. It was too sudden. But he did notice a strange new tensity in the people about him.
Thoughts came yammering into his head. Agitated, angry, raging thoughts.
"No ... No ... No Strangers ... Nobody at all ... No....No...."
The farmer cupped his hands and shouted: "Ain't seen no strangers. Ain't seen nobody but my own kinfolk for a week!"
The amplified voice from the helicopter said, "He didn't have a parachute. If you find his body, there's a reward."
The helicopter moved on above the treetops. It was gone. There was silence. The farmer lowered his gaze and looked bewilderedly at Jim Hunt.
"Now—why'd I say that?" he asked in a weak irritation. "Why'd I tell 'em there wasn't no strangers around when there was him right here?"
The grown girl said quickly, "You was told, Paw. I was scared you wouldn't ketch it. You was told!"
The farmer shook his head, his forehead creased.
"Maybe ... maybe," he said helplessly. "Seems to me like I'm goin' crazy sometimes. Things come to me, an' I do 'em, an' afterwards seems like I don't know why— an' then I do...."
Jim Hunt swallowed.
"I know why," he said. "It's like a voice speaking in your mind. Mostly it says, "Nice ... this is nice ... that is nice....' Isn't that so?"
The farmer stared at him.
"How'd you know, Stranger?"
Jim smiled very grimly. He knew that he was deathly pale, from the nearness of his capture by Security. But he rather suspected that there was at least as much danger here, trying to be free, as in the defiance of Security.
"Some people," said Jim, "just take that voice for granted. Some people don't. That's all." Then he said deliberately. "How about me working with you long enough to earn some food to carry along with me—" he tried not to let his voice vary by the fraction of a semitone—"and a pot to cook it in?"
The farmer stared at him again. He had been stirred up and enormously stimulated in some fashion. Now the stimulus was wearing off. He said weakly, "All right ... You get somethin' to eat an' then come out in the field. Bring a hoe with you... But I don't understan'."
He went feebly back to the place where he had been working. The grown girl spoke softly. Jim turned with a start. She was no longer listless. Her eyes were wide and intent. She smiled at him warmly.
"Come in the house, Stranger," she said softly. "We'll give you somethin' to eat an' you can help Paw later." Then she said in an amused, confidential tone, "Paw's funny. The Little Fella don't like Paw much. He'll like you, though..." Then she said in an eager voice, "Maybe he'll want you to say here. For good! That'd be nice..."
Jim Hunt felt his spine crawling as he went into the house. He wasn't sure, of course. He was in a turmoil of emotion, now, and emotion—particularly rage—tends to block out such things as transmitted thoughts. It was the means he'd used to defend himself the night before. But it seemed to Jim that ideas were trying gently and ever so smoothly to worm their way into his mind. And it seemed to him that something was trying to make him think: "Nice.... This is nice.... It would be terrible to go away from here ... This is nice ... It will be good to stay here...."
A surge of fury swept over him. Someone was trying to control him with the very thing Security had condemned him to life custody for trying to understand.
Transmitted thought. But fury was an excellent defense against it
4
Thoughts in the moonlight. Undulating hills and upward-rearing mountains. Spreads of waving forest underneath the stars, Armies of trees, charging valorously over the hilltops. Here and there small clearings and little log cabins with tiny yellow glows in their windows.
And thoughts in the night. Thoughts of glee and gluttony. Of reckless, rebellious zest. Of uproarious and horrible satisfaction—And a cold and icy thought which raged at the others. The native life on this planet was intelligent. Aroused, it could be dangerous. There was need for planning. What had been done was sound enough, but they did not yet control a fraction of the planet's inhabitants. With their numbers, they could not yet control the whole. They must be cautious! They must be wise!
Thoughts of laughter and defiance. Then soberer, drowsy, satiated agreement. Yes. They must be cautious. But these folk, these "men" were such easy prey! They had no idea that thoughts could be projected. They could not communicate with each other save by speech, and their thoughts were feeble and did not carry. It was inconvenient that even stronger minds could not pick up the feeble thoughts of men—but it was convenient because those stronger minds could communicate freely with each other. And since men were such easy prey...
Thoughts of sensuous, infinitely agreeable satiation went through the moonlight. The cold, icy thought came savagely again. Caution! It was necessary to learn more about these men before all would be safe! All men were not like those under control. Some knew more. Much more. They had ground-vehicles and primitive flying craft and they could speak to a great distance by their machines. For that matter, a flying craft had been searching these hills today for a man who had jumped from another flying craft. There was organization among these men. If they cooperated—.
A thought said comfortably that the man who had jumped was known. He was under—. The thought hesitated and then said angrily that he was not yet under control. Not yet. But he would be! He was awake, and he raged when thoughts were sent to him, so the thoughts had not yet sunk into his brain. But he would be controlled! There was a female who would be made to lull him....
In the moonlight the icy thought came sharply. If the man raged when thoughts were sent to him, he might know of the sending of thought! It was important that he be controlled immediately and then be made to tell all that these creatures knew, in the primitive speech they used. It was very important. It was imperative! The safety and the—the thought was gluttony—of all of them might depend on what this man knew! They must learn every detail that men knew of control by thought...
The moonlight was bright and tranquil. The trees waved their branches gently in the night-wind. There were little clearings in the forest, and little houses in them, and there was a village down in a valley. There was a city, too, not many miles away, where many folk slept like the people in the mountain cabins. They were pale and thin and they looked as if they had labored to the very edge of collapse. But the face of each and every one wore an expression of an odd, unearthly tranquility, —especially those who were asleep.
The thoughts in the moonlight dwindled. But suddenly there came a triumphant, strong, clear thought. The man who was a fugitive, who had resisted by fury when thoughts were sent to him—that man no longer resisted. Thoughts sent to him no longer—the concept was indescribable, but it meant that they did not remain unabsorbed. Doubtless the man slept now. When he woke he would be definitely controlled, and then everything the wiser men knew would be available....
5
The world, of course, was bright and new and shining on its sunlit side, and restful and peaceful and secure where night clothed it. In the countries where the sun shone, men and women worked and children played, and where the stars looked down they slept quietly. But all assured themselves that they were secure. They were perfectly, perfectly safe. The world was made safe by Security, which was an organization of quite the wisest men on earth. They were at once the greatest of scientists and the most able of administrators. They had the welfare of everybody in mind.