Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Interplanetary voyages -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space and time -- Fiction
President Benton had been introduced; had in turn finished introducing
Lola. The crowd, many thousands strong, was cheering. Lola was stepping
into the carefully marked speaker's place.
"You may disconnect these," she waved a hand at the battery of
microphones, "since I do not use speech. Not only do I not know any of
your various languages, but no one language would suffice. My thought
will go to every person on this, your world."
"World?" the President asked in surprise. "Surely not behind the
Curtains? They will jam you, I'm afraid."
"My thought, as I shall drive it, will not be stopped," Lola assured
him. "Since this world has no telepathy, it has no mind-blocks and I can
cover the planet as easily as one mind. Nor does it matter whether it be
day or night, or whether anyone is awake or asleep. All will receive my
message. Since you wish a record, the cameras may run, although they are
neither necessary nor desirable for me. Everyone will see me in his
mind, much better than on the surface of any teevee tube."
"And I was going to have her address _Congress_!" the President
whispered, aside, to General Cordeen.
Then Lola put her whole fine personality into a smile, directed
apparently not only at each separate individual within sight, but also
individually at every person on the globe; and when Brownie Montandon
set out to make a production of a smile, it had the impact of a
pile-driver. Then came her smooth, gently-flowing, friendly thought:
"My name, friends of this world Ormolan, is Lola Montandon. Those of you
who are now looking at teevee screens can see my imaged likeness. All of
you can see me very much better within your own minds.
"I am not here as an invader in any sense, but only as a citizen of the
First Galaxy of this, our common universe. I have attuned my mind to
each of yours in order to give you a message from the United Galaxian
Societies.
"There are four of us Galaxians in this Exploration Team. As Galaxians
it is our purpose here and our duty here to open your minds to certain
basic truths, to be of help to you in clearing your minds of fallacies,
of lies, and of undefensible prejudices; to the end that you will more
rapidly become Galaxians yourselves...."
"Okay. This will go on and on. That's enough to give you an idea of what
a trained and polished performer can do. What do you think of _them_
comfits, Chief?" Belle deliberately knocked the Secret Service man out
of his Lola-induced mood.
"Huh? Oh, yes." Avengord was still groggy. "She's phenomenal--good--I
don't mean goody-goody, but sincere and really...."
"Yeah, but don't fall in love with her. Everybody does and it doesn't do
any of them a bit of good. That's her specialty and she's _very_ good at
it. I told you she's a smooth, smooth worker."
"You can say _that_ again." Avengord did not know that he was repeating
himself. "But it isn't an act. She means it and it's true."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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