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18 - World in a Mirror · Famous Sci-Fi Stories Collection

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  Speaker 1: World in a Mirror by Albert Teichner. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrew Gaunce. World in a Mirror by Albert Teichner.
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  Speaker 1: God knows I didn't want Hacker in the preliminary delegation
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  Speaker 1: right from the start. I wasn't thinking either of the
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  Speaker 1: screwball Way's history can go about poetically repeating itself sometimes.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I just knew that an uppity, smart alecky kid of
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  Speaker 1: fifty could only cause trouble. He already had. Rayina had
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  Speaker 1: been our earlier landfall on the first Interstellar Expedition. It
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  Speaker 1: possessed a fairly intelligent form of life, even if the
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  Speaker 1: rainins were a viparous and technologically retarded. Hacker had taken
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  Speaker 1: over the bulldozer to clear the area around our craft,
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  Speaker 1: Tara I, and he had been repeatedly told to stay
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  Speaker 1: very close to it, but no, he insisted on flattening
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  Speaker 1: out the peat like top of the nearest hill too. Unfortunately,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that hilltop was an incubation bed for rain and fledglings.
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  Speaker 1: The massacre involved not only a vast number of hatchling eggs,
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  Speaker 1: but five adult females, and we had to get away
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  Speaker 1: pronto while thousands of paper limbs waved threateningly at the
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  Speaker 1: murderers from Earth. I'm only the science chronicler of this expedition,
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  Speaker 1: but doctor Barnes's chief medical officer. His protests should have
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  Speaker 1: mattered where mine didn't. I'm a hundred percent behind Johnson.
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  Speaker 1: He told Captain Webber that kid's no damned good. The
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  Speaker 1: three of us will go into town with these Newtonians,
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  Speaker 1: and sure as I'm standing here, Hacker will do something wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Captain Webber, looking worried as usual, tried to explain he'll
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  Speaker 1: just do the chauffeuring, but he got off that tack
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  Speaker 1: immediately when he saw we were not following along. Look.
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  Speaker 1: I know he's a pest, but this is a political
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  Speaker 1: matter for the good of the Space Corps. His great
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  Speaker 1: great uncle is president of the World Council, for all
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  Speaker 1: I know. The old man hates his guts. Won't listen
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  Speaker 1: to a word he says. But let's not take any chances.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: We're going to need plenty of these expeditions and hyperdrive
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: craft take an awful lot out of the economy. The
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  Speaker 1: upshot of the matter was that we patriotically agreed to
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  Speaker 1: the set up. The Captain gave Hacker a good chewing
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  Speaker 1: out about respecting the rights of the Newtonians. The kid
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  Speaker 1: turned out to be surprisingly amenable on that score. They're human,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and I could see he was very sincere
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  Speaker 1: about it. I wouldn't do anything to hurt them, sir.
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  Speaker 1: What's more, they must be almost as smart as we are,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not about to commit suicide. So the three
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  Speaker 1: of us got into the jeep and rolled out of
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  Speaker 1: Tarawan onto Nutane's soil. I still felt uncomfortable about Hackers,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: though he had tasted blood on Reina, and the effect
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  Speaker 1: of that on him had been unusually bad. He had
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  Speaker 1: acquired a reckless attitude toward the rights of intelligent life,
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  Speaker 1: his own included. As if to prove me wrong, he
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  Speaker 1: drove very carefully over the special road the Newtanians had
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  Speaker 1: laid out overnight from our landing area to the highway
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  Speaker 1: a mile or so away. The three car loads of
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  Speaker 1: scowling plenipotentiaries up ahead looked appealingly funny, while the Newtanians
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  Speaker 1: were remarkably even handsomely like us. Except for a certain
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  Speaker 1: closeness of the eyes and reversed ordering of their fingers,
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  Speaker 1: their facial muscles carried a different emotional convictions on our landing.
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  Speaker 1: Ten hours before, those officials had thought our smiling faces
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: indicated angry aggressiveness, and we had been equally uncertain about
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  Speaker 1: their intentions, But their semanticizer had eventually made the true
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  Speaker 1: state of affairs clear. Evolution had determined that an upward
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: set of Neutanians facial muscles meant a bad situation, a
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  Speaker 1: downward set pleasure and cordiality. The more they scowled, the
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  Speaker 1: more we smiled, and everybody was happy about the potential
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  Speaker 1: flowering of transgalactic culture that we were instituting. When we
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  Speaker 1: turned on to the Magnificent super Highway, however, Hacker became furious.
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  Speaker 1: He kept trying to pull over to the right, but
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  Speaker 1: a steady stream of scarab shaped cars filled with curious
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  Speaker 1: sight seaters kept getting in his way. This is crazy,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, I think they drive on the left here.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Barnes tried to explain, that's what I mean. They're crazy.
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  Speaker 1: They did it that way in England for centuries. I
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  Speaker 1: said it took a long time to get them to change. Fine. Fine.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly he laughed, as if pleased with his capacity for tolerance.
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  Speaker 1: If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for
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  Speaker 1: us visitors. They sure now had to build beautiful roads.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose I should have been pleased with this shift
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  Speaker 1: toward good humor, but I wasn't. I could just not
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  Speaker 1: like the youngster. He had been forgivably cocky for his
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  Speaker 1: age before, but now something nasty had been added. Still
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  Speaker 1: he remained on his best behavior as we approached Krona,
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  Speaker 1: the capital city. Its golden towers gleamed in the sun,
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  Speaker 1: and everywhere there were crowds of beautiful tan people waving
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  Speaker 1: to us and happily scowling their welcome. The lead cars
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  Speaker 1: stopped before a particularly elegant skyscraper that was set in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of vast symmetrical gardens. We got out and
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  Speaker 1: were greeted by dignitaries accompanied by technicians with semanticizing equipment.
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  Speaker 1: If this equipment worked slowly, it was still faster than
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  Speaker 1: any weed developed. The men who came toward us were
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  Speaker 1: puzzled when we extended our hands, but once the translation
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  Speaker 1: came through and they understood it, was an Earth custom.
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  Speaker 1: They copied our gesture, only they all put out their
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  Speaker 1: left hands. It took a while before reasonable contact could
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  Speaker 1: be made. Interesting, said doctor Barnes. They all seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be left handed. I don't see what's so interesting about that,
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  Speaker 1: Hackers snorted through his puggish nose. I've seen left handed
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  Speaker 1: people on Earth. Good for you, the doctor answered dryly.
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  Speaker 1: Hacker looked a little annoyed, but for once managed to
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  Speaker 1: keep quiet. I explained to the receiving delegation how hyper
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  Speaker 1: radio contact could be established with our system for information exchanges,
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  Speaker 1: and then told them tomorrow's group from Tara I would
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  Speaker 1: be much larger. It would be in a position to
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  Speaker 1: set out the technical arrangements in all the necessary detail.
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  Speaker 1: The dialogue crept along as translations were made, but finally
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  Speaker 1: an especially regal figures stepped forward and told us the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the proceedings would take place within the building.
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  Speaker 1: We followed the Newtonians into a hall so vast that
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  Speaker 1: we still seemed to be out subtle. Colors were playing
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  Speaker 1: free form patterns on the walls, and the synesthetic reaction
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  Speaker 1: was that of hearing a music too beautiful, too perfect
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  Speaker 1: for the relative crudity of the human ear to grasp alone, this,
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  Speaker 1: Hacker laughed, is my idea of heaven. I wasn't about
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  Speaker 1: to unbend and openly agree with him on anything but
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  Speaker 1: celestial it really was. And then the subtly rich smells
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  Speaker 1: of the food began to play on our nostrils. It
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  Speaker 1: was brought out on great automatic servers and robot arms,
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  Speaker 1: set heaping steaming plates before the fifty Neutanians. We of
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  Speaker 1: course had to refuse taking out our compacted rations and
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  Speaker 1: setting them before us. All the Newtonians were still meat eaters.
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  Speaker 1: The main course was a small fowl, thoroughly browned and gravy.
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  Speaker 1: For me, the most interesting thing about it was that
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  Speaker 1: four drumstick legs stuck out of each torso, rather than
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  Speaker 1: the regulation two found on all earth based birds. For Hacker,
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  Speaker 1: though a more practical matter was involved. I'd sure like
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  Speaker 1: to try a helping of that bird, he said. The
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  Speaker 1: two of us naturally were shocked. That must have been
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  Speaker 1: a living creature, once said Barnes, So what, well, our
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  Speaker 1: civilization is essentially vegetarian. They just haven't reached our level
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  Speaker 1: as yet in that respect. Nuts loaf to you, Hacker snapped,
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  Speaker 1: and synthetic yeast pie too. I've eaten flesh that really
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  Speaker 1: upset me. I know there's still a little surreptitious meat
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  Speaker 1: consumption on Earth. Genetics show we must get a few
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  Speaker 1: throwbacks in every generation, but I'd never before met anyone
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  Speaker 1: who openly boasted about it. Synthetic foods meet gourmet needs
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  Speaker 1: better than traditional ones do anyway. Of course, I don't
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  Speaker 1: mean the dull, compacted stuff we get on long space hops,
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  Speaker 1: but the food served on terran planets themselves. Any Earthman
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  Speaker 1: eating flesh back home is deliberately trying to taste the
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  Speaker 1: atavistic sensations of savagery. You know how immoral that is.
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  Speaker 1: I told him, Hacker, let's forget the moral issue, Barnes said,
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  Speaker 1: considering him with disgust. Let's just be sensible. We don't
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  Speaker 1: know enough about newtone yet to eat anything. Hacker laughed.
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  Speaker 1: Why it smells just like our own food, only better.
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  Speaker 1: He picked at his vita concentrate. Oh, let's forget about
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing, we tried to. Several dignitaries rose to
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  Speaker 1: their full seven feet and spoke slowly into semanticizers, flinging
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  Speaker 1: their queer hands out for emphasis with their thumbs waving
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  Speaker 1: where our pinkies do. Suddenly, though, Hacker got up from
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  Speaker 1: his seat and hurried down the long table to the
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  Speaker 1: place where the leading spokesman was eating. He leaned over him,
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  Speaker 1: speaking into the nearest translator, and I could see the
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  Speaker 1: Newtanian smiling broadly as if trying to refuse something, while
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  Speaker 1: Hacker fra Finally, the smile faded into a friendly scowl.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing good could be coming out of this. A minute later,
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  Speaker 1: a robot arm proffered a loaded plate to Hacker, and
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  Speaker 1: he started back to us with it. Barnes rose to
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  Speaker 1: stop him, but before Hacker reached us, he had taken
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  Speaker 1: two mouthfuls of the meat. I have never seen such sheer,
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  Speaker 1: self satisfied delight on a human face as after those
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  Speaker 1: first bites. You shouldn't be doing that, Barnes said, when
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  Speaker 1: he sat down next to us. Again, you're just old Fogy's,
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  Speaker 1: Hacker grunted through a meat stuffed mouth. This is the
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  Speaker 1: best food I've ever eaten. He somehow shoveled another load
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  Speaker 1: of meat between his lips. Thirty seconds later, his face
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  Speaker 1: twisted into a caricature of the human physiognomy, all writhing
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  Speaker 1: lines as if every muscle were breaking loose from its neighbors.
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  Speaker 1: The last unswallowed portion of food erupted from his mouth,
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  Speaker 1: and he fell forward into the vile mess. He was dead.
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  Speaker 1: Pandemonium spread through the hall everywhere, Wildly smiling faces expressed
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  Speaker 1: to despair at such an end for an honored guest.
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  Speaker 1: Barnes sprang into action, pulling the portable medical kit from
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  Speaker 1: his belt in immediately starting blood tests, while some Native
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  Speaker 1: doctors joined him with their emergency equipment. Must start revitalizing immediately,
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  Speaker 1: he said, then stopped, ashen faced as he studied an
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  Speaker 1: analyzer tube. Fantastic, No, it can't be. The Newtonians were
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  Speaker 1: equally bewildered. They rushed Hacker to a nearby treatment chamber.
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  Speaker 1: All I could do was wait while the Newtanian leader
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  Speaker 1: explained that Hacker had told him we had authorized his
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  Speaker 1: trying the food. There was no need to doubt his story.
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  Speaker 1: It was just what the kid would have done. I
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  Speaker 1: did my best to assure him that we knew his
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: intentions had been honorable. A half hour later, Barnes returned
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  Speaker 1: a robot platform, following with hacker body covered by a
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  Speaker 1: preservative glaze on it. Nothing can be done, he said,
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  Speaker 1: I've tried everything. Hacker's too thoroughly dead for anything ever
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  Speaker 1: to bring him back. We'll just have to take his
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  Speaker 1: body home for further study. But what killed him? I
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  Speaker 1: demanded a dozen or so things out of a thousand possibilities.
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  Speaker 1: You mean you don't have any idea? Oh? I have
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  Speaker 1: some idea, too many ideas. In fact, Look, Johnson, chemistry's
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  Speaker 1: not your specialty. But this is fairly elementary. All life
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  Speaker 1: contains protein, right right, and all protein consists of amino acids.
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  Speaker 1: Every natural protein back home is built on levo left
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  Speaker 1: turn amino acids. Here it is just the opposite, the
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  Speaker 1: mirror image of what we know. Every amino acid is
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  Speaker 1: dextro to the right. But how can it be different here, Johnson?
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  Speaker 1: They could ask the same question about us with equal justification,
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  Speaker 1: or rather equal lack of justification. I was trying to
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  Speaker 1: feel my way through the confusion, Barnes. I know a
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  Speaker 1: world could be made of antimatter, but no, No. Antimatter
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  Speaker 1: is a reversal of changes within the atom. These atoms
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  Speaker 1: are the same as ours. It's the organization that is different.
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  Speaker 1: Regular molecules with a different twist. But why should it
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  Speaker 1: have killed him. Then we absorb starch and reject cellulose,
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  Speaker 1: which is closely related. But the body just refuses to
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  Speaker 1: accept the cellulose. It doesn't necessarily go ahead and die.
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  Speaker 1: Starch and cellulose are both dextro old man. This is
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  Speaker 1: a more fundamental difference. Maybe the body just throws off
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  Speaker 1: some of these compounds too, but there were some plenty.
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  Speaker 1: I suspect it couldn't throw off. He glanced toward the
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  Speaker 1: stiffening corpse sympathetically. The poor kid couldn't leave well enough alone. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we are two universal days out from Newtane, and soon
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  Speaker 1: we will drop from hyperdrive as we reach the orbit
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  Speaker 1: of Pluto. I shouldn't still be feeling uneasy as I do.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure I shouldn't. We have had five friendly, informative
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  Speaker 1: days with the people of a great civilization remarkably like ours,
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  Speaker 1: and President Hacker has radioed he understands perfectly that we
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: were not responsible for the tragedy. Nobody was The kid,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it seems, wasn't the apple of his eye anyway. Ninety
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  Speaker 1: men in one corpse, returning to the security of Terra Firma.
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  Speaker 1: I should, when all is said and done, be happy
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: with the way most things have worked out. But I
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  Speaker 1: am a chronicler, and I know the peculiarly symbolic, seemingly
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: superficial ways in which history manages to repeat itself. It
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: is more than three centuries since the last war on
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Earth between rightists and leftists that was a matter of
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: differing concepts of economics and politics. I can't help wondering, though,
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  Speaker 1: whether there were not even more fundamental points of eventual
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: conflict in the universe that we have barely discovered. If
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: there are, I'm beginning to suspect they'll still have something
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to do with the unfathomable difference between right and left,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a difference that took many lives centuries ago and may
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: not be through with us yet. End of World in
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  Speaker 1: a Mirror by Albert Teichner