Were these the beings of the new planet which had come to attack us?
But how could this helpless creature, incapable of almost everything,
obviously, save thought, do the work of its world?
Then I recalled again that insulated room of the Red Spark Cafe: the
thin, ten-foot hooded shape which was carrying the box. Was that,
perhaps, an opposite type of being with the brain submerged, dwarfed,
and the body paramount? Were there, on this mysterious planet, two
co-existing types, each a specialist, one for the physical work and
the other for the mental?
I stood with Snap and Grantline in that dark balcony doorway, gazing
down to where the giant brain stood braced upon its shriveled arms and
legs, and realized why we of Earth and Venus and Mars are all cast in
the same mould we call human. It is a little family of planets, here
in our solar system; for countless eons we have been close neighbors.
The same sunlight, the same general conditions of life, the same
seed, were strewn here by a wise Creator. A man from the Orient is
different from an Anglo-Saxon; a man of Mars differs a little more.
But basically they are the same.
Yet, confronting us now was a new type, from realms of interstellar
space, far beyond our solar system.
"For the last time, will you talk?" snapped Brayley.
There was another interval of silence. The eyes of the brain were very
watchful. Its gaze roved the hall as though it were seeking for help.
It shifted its little arms on the table, seemingly exhausted from the
physical effort of supporting itself.
Brayley's voice came again. "Doubtless you can feel pain acutely. We
shall see."
With what effort of will to overcome his revulsion we may only guess,
he reached forward and pinched the little arm. The result was
electrifying. From the upended slit of mouth in that goggling face,
came a scream. It pierced the heavy tense silence of the hall, ghastly
in its timbre, like nothing any of us had ever heard before. And in it
was conveyed agony as though Brayley had not merely pinched that
flabby arm, but had thrust a red-hot knife into its vitals.
The brain could feel pain indeed. It crouched with stiffened arms and
legs. The membrane of its great head seemed to bulge with greater
distension; the knotted blood-vessels were gorged with purple blood.
The eyes rolled. Then it closed its mouth. Its gaze steadied upon
Brayley's face, so baleful a gaze that as I could see the reflection
of its luminous purple glow a shudder of fear and revulsion swept me.
"So you did not like that?" Brayley steadied his voice. "If you don't
want more, you had better speak. How did you get here on Earth? What
are you trying to do here?"
There seemed an interminable silence; then Nippor took a menacing step
forward. "Speak! We will force it from you!"
And then it spoke. "Do--not--touch--me--again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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