There was a haze about him hiding the rocks, the island valley with its
radiant plants, the night sky, the bright beam of the torch. Now he
moved through that haze as one walks through a dream approaching
nightmare, striding with an effort as if wading through a deterring
flood. Sound, sight--one after another those senses were taken from him.
Desperately Shann held to one thing, his own sense of identity. He was
Shann Lantee, Terran breed, out of Tyr, of the Survey Service. Some part
of him repeated those facts with vast urgency against an almost
overwhelming force which strove to defeat that awareness of self, making
him nothing but a tool--or a weapon--for another's use.
The Terran fought, soundlessly but fiercely, on a battleground which was
within him, knowing in a detached way that his body obeyed another's
commands.
"I am Shann--" he cried without audible speech. "I am myself. I have two
hands, two legs.... I think for myself! I am a _man_----"
And to that came an answer of sorts, a blow of will striking at his
resistance, a will which struggled to drown him before ebbing, leaving
behind it a faint suggestion of bewilderment, of a dawn of concern.
"I am a _man_!" he hurled that assertion as he might have thrust deep
with one of the crude spears he had used against the Throgs. For against
what he faced now his weapons were as crude as spears fronting blasters.
"I am Shann Lantee, Terran, man...." Those were facts; no haze could
sweep them from his mind or take away that heritage.
And again there was the lightening of the pressure, the slight recoil,
which could only be a prelude to another assault upon his last
stronghold. He clutched his three facts to him as a shield, groping for
others which might have afforded a weapon of rebuttal.
Dreams, these Warlockians dealt in and through dreams. And the opposite
of dreams are facts! His name, his breed, his sex--these were facts.
And Warlock itself was a fact. The earth under his boots was a fact. The
water which washed around the island was a fact. The air he breathed was
a fact. Flesh, blood, bones--facts, all of them. Now he was a struggling
identity imprisoned in a rebel body. But that body was real. He tried to
feel it. Blood pumped from his heart, his lungs filled and emptied; he
struggled to feel those processes.
With a terrifying shock, the envelope which had held him vanished. Shann
was choking, struggling in water. He flailed out with his arms, kicked
his legs. One hand grated painfully against stone. Hardly knowing what
he did, but fighting for his life, Shann caught at that rock and drew
his head out of water. Coughing and gasping, half drowned, he was weak
with the panic of his close brush with death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account