Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Psychological fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
He gave up. He gave in to an overpowering drawing force. Immediately
there was no fear. It was as though he had stopped struggling against
a strong current in a vast ocean, and was now floating serenely away,
buoyed without effort, drifting forever.
He seemed to glimpse the cloudy, shapeless motion of shadows, like
storm clouds boiling and driven before a gale. Familiarity grew,
impressions, inchoate mental patterns. Shadows and shapes appeared
in the cloudy whiteness, ghostly and strange, and wavering outlines
darkened and altered.
And then he became a part of IT, of something else. And he knew. He
had been tested, and there had been the madness of shock as he was
being investigated, and finally accepted and absorbed. None of it
was incredible to Bronson after he had been taken in. The truth came
through then--clear and bright.
IT was far greater than Bronson, but he was part of IT, and IT was part
of him. And he knew.
Morrow was waiting for him. As Bronson came into the control room,
Morrow's face paled and he slowly licked his lips then plunged his
hand toward the neurogun. His hand froze, then crept back guiltily. He
tried to speak, but his lips moved wordlessly. Sweat began pocking his
face.
Bronson sat down facing Morrow. He could see Morrow now for what he
was. A disease. Rather a symptom of long forgotten sickness. Maybe he
could be cured.
* * * * *
Bronson said, "You were curious, but you would never have gotten THE
CALL. You were curious and you helped me and the world, Morrow, so I'm
going to explain it to you. You want to hear about it?"
"What?" Morrow said hoarsely. His eyes were sharp with fear. "Three
hours--back in three hours. You look--different, so different--your
eyes and--"
"I found out things, Morrow. About the War, about the Plan. Some
scientists calling themselves Freedom Unlimited, bio-chemists,
physicists and geneticists, organized and said they were going to bring
about the realization of man's unlimited potentialities. Create a
Paradise on Earth. An old dream. Those who get THE CALL haven't been so
far wrong, basically. But the Psychologists reconditioned them so the
real nature of THE CALL was distorted."
Morrow shook his head.
"No, and you probably won't understand after I tell you," Bronson said.
"But so what? I promised to tell you. Freedom Unlimited took hold,
wiped out national barriers, started to sweep the world. They had found
the secret of the human mind and nervous system, adopting the methods
of atomic physicists. X-rays tear an electron from an atom. They did
the same thing with genes, with the cells of the nervous system. Genes
and cells, the roots of life. The rock-bottom of life. The problem of
the gene and that of the atom were the same. Anyway, they learned the
secret of the human brain, that it was a perfect calculating machine."
Morrow was struggling with himself, not moving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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