The Psychological RegulatorKornbluth, C. M. (Cyril M.)
Science
The Psychological Regulator
Kornbluth, C. M. (Cyril M.)
Psychological fiction; Science fiction
Dr. Alfreed awoke to realize that he had committed a serious breach
of experimental technique. It had been a mistake not to observe the
screen during the process of rehabilitation, and it had been a grievous
mistake not to check on the patient's reactions. He cursed softly to
himself when he saw clearly enough to be sure that neither patient nor
nurse were anywhere in the room.
Alfreed was a thoughtful man; he realized that, in the old days,
someone would have gotten hell for a blunder of this nature and scope.
In the old days technical superiors would have fired the responsible
party for the incompetency when revealed, so Alfreed was thankful
that these were not the old days. But further than that he did not
think. Perhaps, therefore, he was the truly responsible party for what
was to happen to his snug little world of file numbers, ventilated
houses, air-conditioned clinics, amiable objectives and pneumatically
complacent nurses.
He wasn't spectacularly worried, having no technical superiors to whom
to answer. But he had failed in a social duty. Enough of his careful
conditioning had remained to remind him of that.
"Oh, Hell!" he swore softly, thinking of the consequences.
He reached over to his hyper-typer, banged out a full report of the
affair and shot it into a tube system, one of whose many mouths
gaped from a nearby wall. This, too, was routine. If anything worked
to correct his mistakes this would. Section headquarters all over
the city would be semi-automatically notified, bulletins flashed to
rural districts. Within half an hour millions of citizens would be
informed--_not_ alarmed--by the quick-changing public information
screens.
And with a sense of duty well done he retired to his quarters on the
same floor and stared for a while at a forbidden bottle of wine. Then
he got drunk.
Clark Stevens carried Markett Travenor as far as the elevator door.
Glancing back at the prostrate form of the man he had hit in the jaw
his eyes narrowed. Something of cold reason was coming back. Then,
suddenly, he became aware--but acutely--of the girl he was carrying in
his arms. "Ah," he said. Abruptly he shifted one of his hands a trifle;
the girl shivered and giggled.
Slowly awareness returned to Stevens. Then he let her drop to the
floor. She looked at him again, quizzically, like a trusting child.
This man, she thought, is masculine. But not with the familiar air of
equality to which I am accustomed--but overbearingly male. A sort of
aura covered his body--she sensed something brutish, irresponsible,
uncivilized. Everything he did confirmed this idea:
"What--?" said the girl. She scrambled to her feet, not taking her eyes
off Stevens.
The man shook his head dazedly. "I won't hurt you," he said. "I'm all
right." He hesitated. "I'm--different." Markett nodded. "What I did
back there in England--" he said slowly, and paused. "Do you know?" he
asked. "Could you see what I did?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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