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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3165c3f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #61050 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61050) diff --git a/old/61050-8.txt b/old/61050-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 91ca177..0000000 --- a/old/61050-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,835 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lorelei, by Charles V. DeVet - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Lorelei - -Author: Charles V. DeVet - -Release Date: December 30, 2019 [EBook #61050] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORELEI *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - LORELEI - - By CHARLES V. DeVET - - She was everybody's sweetheart--but - not every man's at once! - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1961. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Seven days stranded on Europa. Seven days without hope. The courage -that had sustained me, like the numbness after a fatal blow, was -beginning to slip away. All that seventh day my nerves balanced on a -thin jagged edge. And that night the anamorph visited me in my bubble -cubicle. - -I caught the sheathed rustle of a crinoline skirt and a scent of Peri -fragrance, and I knew she had come. Stubbornly I kept my face averted, -and tried my best not to think of her. If I did I was lost. My fingers -dug into the sponge fabric beneath me until they ached. I sucked breath -deep into my lungs and held it. - -I wanted no visitors. But that of course was why she had come. She had -a way of divining who needed her most, the one whose morale was nearest -breaking. - -"Poor Bill," she murmured. She knelt beside me. I felt her forehead -press against my temple and a tear--from eyes which I knew would -now be a clear candid blue, deep in the shadows, appearing almost -black--traced a salty path down my cheek. - -The wall of my resistance broke. I reached up impulsively and pulled -her to me. She was all soft, yielding femininity, live and warm and -vibrant, the antidote to the raw need that was like a bleeding wound -deep within. - -Still I tried to resist. I summoned my last dregs of resistance and -pushed her roughly from me. I opened my eyes, deliberately keeping my -mind locked against her. - -She swayed back at my shove. - -I saw that her features had not yet set into the mold she had probed -from my mind. Her head was round and shapeless, with doughy white skin -and the characterless face of a baby. The auburn mat on her head was -loose and coarse, with a consistency that was hair and yet not hair; -her body was too thin, too rigid, too stringy. - -Yet she was Lois. Sweet, gentle, loving Lois, the bride I had left -behind on Earth, the girl I would never see again. Lois. - -My breath came out in a ragged sigh of surrender, and my mind opened to -her unconditionally. - -She altered visibly as I watched. It was too late to go back now. -Lois stood before me, full-fleshed and delicately tall, with her rich -brown hair curling inward at the ends, and her shapely shoulders all -honeyed-gold from the sun. Her supple body was straight, poised and -proud, her head back and her breasts pressing against her blouse. Just -as I remembered her. - -I could have sent her away no more than I could have stopped the beat -of my heart. "Hi, hon," I whispered. - -She laughed happily, and sat on the mat beside me and rumpled my hair. -We kissed gently, tentatively. I pulled her closer. As we kissed again -she kept her eyes open, looking at me sidewards in her fondly teasing -way. "It's good to be back, dear," she breathed against my cheek.... - -Long she lay at my side, regarding me with eyes that were filled with -her love, her only movement the throb of a pulse beneath my fingers as -they fondled her arched throat. I sighed contentedly. At the moment I -was filled with a warm serenity that had quite effectively subdued my -anxiety. - -Once a man let himself go, there was no companion, male or female, who -could compare with the anamorph. She caught his every thought, crested -the tides of his every mood. She became the idealization of woman, -without flaws, formed and molded into a perfection beyond possible -actuality, her beauty and desirability greater than any real woman's -could ever be. - -When full rapport had been achieved she was able to keep mentally ahead -of a man. She could gauge his every reflex, and match her speech and -actions to every subtle anticipation. - -I felt almost happy then. The tragedy of being stranded here was -something apart, and the reality was the delightful woman-creature -warm against me ... until at last my passions grew sated with the -luxuriance of her charms and I slept. - - * * * * * - -In the morning the anamorph was gone. - -Eight other men had fears that must be eased. She might have spent -parts of the night with any one or all of them. The thought would -have been distasteful, except that absence made the sense of her less -all-pervading. I even experienced a kind of grateful relief. I was -able to regard her now, not as the real Lois I wanted, but as merely a -source of solace I had badly needed. - -The anamorph's presence during the night had drained all my pent-up -frustrations. I was not happy, but I no longer felt the desperate -loneliness and need that had goaded me before. I dressed leisurely and -went out into the main compartment of the bubble. - -Except in the sleeping rooms the plastic walls were transparent. I -looked outside at the surface of Europa, covered with a white material -I had been told was solid carbon dioxide. - -A mild storm was brewing. The hydrogen, helium and methane in the -atmosphere were colorless, and the argon and krypton too minute to be -detected without instruments. But I could see and hear small particles -of liquid ammonia as they pattered against the plastic wall. The bubble -sagged in several places. But there was no danger of it collapsing. - -In the space ship galley (to which the bubble had been attached) I -found the captain, Mark Burgess, and the anamorph having coffee. - -She was no longer Lois. Now she was an older woman, with a bit of added -weight and thickness. She was still beautiful, but more matronly than -she had been as Lois. About her was none of the warm-blooded ardor she -had displayed the night before. And no remembrance of it in her eyes. - -I poured a cup of coffee. - -"Just how long do you figure we've got?" I asked Burgess. - -"Mr. Lutscher--" he addressed me by my last name, as was his custom -with junior officers--"I will not equivocate. We have fuel enough to -furnish us with heat and electricity for well over a year. But our food -will last less than two months, even with strict rationing." - -So there it was. In two months we'd probably all be dead. - - * * * * * - -Someone back on Earth had erred badly. In their calculations every item -had been gauged closely, as was necessary. But they should have allowed -safety margin. - -The take-off had been calculated nicely. Ships had already been sent to -the moon and to Mars. But this was the first trip this far out. We had -not intercepted Europa quite as plotted. We had to chase it halfway -around Jupiter, and land with the satellite going away, rather than -meeting us. After we landed and new calibrations been made, we made a -discovery. Our fuel was too short for the return trip. - -Kohnke was our lone hope. A metallurgist, he knew the properties of the -ship's pile. - -But Kohnke was insane. - -I had not liked the man from the first. With his nervous, subservient -personality, he had been a constant irritant in the confining quarters -of the ship. And during the early weeks of the flight I observed the -slow dawning of an awful awareness in our weak-charactered member. -He was realizing for the first time the prodigious and unpredictable -forces to which he had exposed himself. Soon he was convinced of the -certainty of death. - -He did not have the mental stamina to cope with that certainty. When we -missed Europa on the first pass, Kohnke's mind cracked. - -My attention returned to the anamorph. She was staring at me now, -her features white and strained. She must have read what I had been -thinking of Kohnke. - -What was there about the crazed man that frightened her so? I wondered -again. - -I went out into the bubble. The rocket man, Andrews and I spent the -next several hours adding another compartment to the main room. Andrews -fed dirt into the hopper of the converter while I operated the nozzle. - -This was more difficult than the original bubble had been. Normal -air pressure was enough to keep that expanded; but here we had to -make supports and rig up an auxiliary vent. Also it was cold near the -walls, a cold that sucked at the heat in our bodies; Europa has a mean -temperature of -140° Centigrade. - -When our job was finished I left Andrews at the door of his cubicle. I -glanced back and saw that he hadn't gone in. He was standing with his -head down and his shoulders slumped. - -Andrews I had always regarded as an extrovert, and a good man. He was -big, active and almost always cheerful. Even his bald head seemed to -add to his masculine virility. He had a vast fund of stories. Everyone -liked him. - -I suspected, however, that his bland acceptance of our predicament was -not all it seemed. He was an instinctive psychologist. He was doing his -part to keep up the spirits of the rest of us. In my judgment Andrews -was quite a man. - -But now his capacity for dissimulating had apparently reached its limit. - -At that moment a woman-form drifted past me from the ship. The -anamorph had come to perform her self-appointed duty. - -She was a robust woman now with a body designed for love-making, the -wide-hipped form made to propagate the race with healthy offspring. Her -dress was cut low at the neck, innocently immodest. - -Andrews looked up, still brooding. - -It was he who had discovered the anamorph, the second day after our -landing. Where she had come from, or how she had gotten through the -plastic wall without rupturing it, we never did learn. She had had this -identical form when Andrews found her. - -The anamorph began to dance. A slow, languid pirouetting. The sound of -a wordless crooning song reached me. The tempo of her dance heightened -and her wide green skirt came up around her waist, exposing fair thighs. - -Andrews grunted and shifted position. Abruptly he reached out and -grasped her wrist. "Come here, baby," he said hoarsely. - -The anamorph kicked and squealed in mock protest as Andrews swept her -off her feet and into his arms, but she made no real effort to free -herself as he strode with her into his compartment. - - * * * * * - -The next morning when I stopped in with Kohnke's breakfast I found him -wearing a gold crown. - -With strictly amateur knowledge, I had diagnosed his illness as -schizophrenia, and this latest display seemed to confirm the diagnosis. -Now he had escaped harsh reality into a world of his own, a world where -he was obviously a personage of considerable eminence. - -Kohnke smiled at me and greeted me condescendingly. I went along with -his delusion. If I were to help him it was good that he accepted me -as part of his world. I sat at his feet and made as one of the unseen -audience he was addressing. I was wryly amused a few minutes later when -I understood who he thought he was. - -However, it was the gold crown that fascinated me. Where had he gotten -it? There could be only one answer. And if what I suspected was true, -there were startling implications. - -I had to speak again soon with the anamorph.... - -She did not keep me waiting. - -I returned to my compartment. The pseudo-Lois entered soon after and -stretched out indolently on my cot. "You wanted to see me, Bill?" - -Incongruously I found myself staring at her low-heeled shoes, the ones -she always wore when we danced at the Prom. I restrained the impulse -to take her in my arms. "I saw the crown you made for Kohnke," I said -carefully, making a special effort to keep my inner thoughts hidden. -"It's beautiful." - -"Thank you." - -Those simple words meant much to me. I had succeeded in getting her to -admit that she had made the crown. - -Which meant we still had a chance! - -"Then you'll be able to make the fuel we need," I said casually. - -Her expression became wary, shifting instantly to petulance. She -reached over and put one hand on my arm. "Why do you want to leave me, -Bill?" - - * * * * * - -I tried to explain, but she couldn't or wouldn't understand. - -I tried another tack. "Why are you afraid of Kohnke?" I asked. My -theory was that she did not understand insanity, and so her inability -to follow the illogical thought processes of the demented man -frightened her. - -"He is so intelligent," she startled me by saying. - -"He's crazy," I protested. - -"What is crazy?" - -"His reasoning faculties do not function properly." - -She seemed to be reading my thoughts carefully, trying to understand -better what I meant. After a minute she smiled and her teeth showed -white and even against her tan. "Isn't it possible that his mind works -too swiftly for you to follow, and the only way you can explain your -lack of understanding is to say that he is insane?" - -So that was why she feared Kohnke. To her he was a brilliant intellect. -So great that she could neither understand nor influence him as she did -the others of us. His aborted reasoning, his sudden shifts of interest, -his small concern with a situation that aroused our distress, were all -evidence of that superior intellect. I did not try to disabuse her of -the belief. It fitted well with my semi-formed plan. - -"He is like the Masters," the anamorph interrupted my thoughts. - -I quickly took up the diversion she offered: I did not want her to see -what lay in my thoughts. Also she had aroused my curiosity. "Who are -the Masters?" I asked. - -"I'm not certain. I think...." Her voice trailed off. "I'm never too -sure that what I'm thinking are my own thoughts, or what I'm reading in -your mind, or have read in others," she said. "Perhaps if I looked away -from you.... - -"Many years ago the Masters landed on this small world to make repairs -on the meteor shield of their space ship," she began again in a low -voice. "They were passing through this part of the Galaxy on their -way home from a distant planet. I belonged to one of them. For some -reason they left me behind when they went away." She stopped talking, -saddened by the recollection of her desertion. - -I saw her in a new light then. She had been a pet, a plaything, who -perhaps had strayed just before ship leaving time. - -She nodded, smiling brightly. "A pet," she exclaimed, clapping her -hands. "That is right." I realized then, with mild astonishment, that -she was not very intelligent. Her apparent wit and sharpness before had -been only reflections of what she read in our minds. - -"Are you all Kohnke's pets?" she caught me unprepared. - -I coughed uncomfortably, and shook my head. - - * * * * * - -Her mood changed. "I've been so lonesome, Bill. When I do not belong to -someone I am so unhappy. But I won't be unhappy anymore." For the first -time I felt sorry for her. - -"Bill?" Her voice was timid. "Do you believe I will be punished for -leaving the Masters? I did not mean to." - -"Who would punish you now?" I asked. - -"The Masters' God. They always told me he would punish me if I were -bad. And he is such a terrible God." Her expression became bright with -hope. "Is your God terrible, Bill?" - -I tried to reassure her, to pacify this naive creature with her own -private terrors, but she must have read in my mind how our Christian -God could also be terrible in his wrath and justice, for she gave a -small cry and pulled herself close to me. - -Several minutes went by while she trembled in my arms and wept -disconsolately. Finally she quieted and in a young girl's voice asked, -"May I use your hanky, daddy?" - -In surprise I held her out from me and saw that now she was my -daughter, Joanie, with her newly bobbed hair, and her sweet face still -wet with tears. - -Of course. While I held her I had been thinking of her as a child. As -my child, Joanie. - -I wiped away her tears and blew her nose. - -I thought swiftly. Perhaps this was my opportunity. Speaking as I would -have to Joanie I asked gently, "Won't you help us get the fuel we need, -honey?" - -"I can't." Her childish wistfulness was replaced by the stubbornness I -had encountered before. - -I was careful to restrain my impatience. "You could come with us to -Earth," I argued, without raising my voice. "You wouldn't be lonesome -there." - -"I couldn't live that long out of the sun," she answered. - -"How did you live on the Master's ship?" I asked. - -"They could bring the sunlight inside. You can't." - -"Isn't there any way we could keep you alive?" I asked. - -She shook her head. - -Which left nothing except my desperate plan. - - * * * * * - -Burgess made the preparations I requested, without question, and I -returned to Kohnke. It took me some time to get him in the frame I -wanted. When he began to blubber, "I want to go home, I want to go -home," I led him from the ship. - -The anamorph was outside, as I knew she would be. The men were all in -the ship. - -I bowed deeply to Kohnke and turned to the anamorph. "He would speak -with you," I said impressively. - -Her eyes widened with apprehension. I was not concerned about her -reading my thoughts now. What she read in Kohnke's mind would be more -believable to her. - -"We must have fuel!" I shouted at Kohnke. "She can give it to us!" I -pointed at the anamorph. "Command her!" - -Kohnke concentrated his wild gaze on the girl and mouthed something -inaudible. - -The anamorph drew back. Her features seemed to lose their character, to -be melting together. - -This was the critical moment. "Tell her about your Father," I commanded. - -His lips writhed damply and he began again his inarticulate muttering. - -The anamorph cried out plaintively and covered her face with her hands. -I shifted my attention to the pile of soil I had asked Burgess to -prepare. - -It quivered, flattened ... and hardened into six fuel ingots! - -Twenty minutes later we were in space. - -Our last glimpse of the anamorph was the dejected figure of a small -girl, standing alone in the middle of the bubble. - -She had had to obey Kohnke, of course. For she believed what she read -in his mind. - -And Kohnke thought he was the Son of God. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lorelei, by Charles V. 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DeVet - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Lorelei - -Author: Charles V. DeVet - -Release Date: December 30, 2019 [EBook #61050] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORELEI *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="359" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>LORELEI</h1> - -<h2>By CHARLES V. DeVET</h2> - -<p class="ph1">She was everybody's sweetheart—but<br /> -not every man's at once!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1961.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Seven days stranded on Europa. Seven days without hope. The courage -that had sustained me, like the numbness after a fatal blow, was -beginning to slip away. All that seventh day my nerves balanced on a -thin jagged edge. And that night the anamorph visited me in my bubble -cubicle.</p> - -<p>I caught the sheathed rustle of a crinoline skirt and a scent of Peri -fragrance, and I knew she had come. Stubbornly I kept my face averted, -and tried my best not to think of her. If I did I was lost. My fingers -dug into the sponge fabric beneath me until they ached. I sucked breath -deep into my lungs and held it.</p> - -<p>I wanted no visitors. But that of course was why she had come. She had -a way of divining who needed her most, the one whose morale was nearest -breaking.</p> - -<p>"Poor Bill," she murmured. She knelt beside me. I felt her forehead -press against my temple and a tear—from eyes which I knew would -now be a clear candid blue, deep in the shadows, appearing almost -black—traced a salty path down my cheek.</p> - -<p>The wall of my resistance broke. I reached up impulsively and pulled -her to me. She was all soft, yielding femininity, live and warm and -vibrant, the antidote to the raw need that was like a bleeding wound -deep within.</p> - -<p>Still I tried to resist. I summoned my last dregs of resistance and -pushed her roughly from me. I opened my eyes, deliberately keeping my -mind locked against her.</p> - -<p>She swayed back at my shove.</p> - -<p>I saw that her features had not yet set into the mold she had probed -from my mind. Her head was round and shapeless, with doughy white skin -and the characterless face of a baby. The auburn mat on her head was -loose and coarse, with a consistency that was hair and yet not hair; -her body was too thin, too rigid, too stringy.</p> - -<p>Yet she was Lois. Sweet, gentle, loving Lois, the bride I had left -behind on Earth, the girl I would never see again. Lois.</p> - -<p>My breath came out in a ragged sigh of surrender, and my mind opened to -her unconditionally.</p> - -<p>She altered visibly as I watched. It was too late to go back now. -Lois stood before me, full-fleshed and delicately tall, with her rich -brown hair curling inward at the ends, and her shapely shoulders all -honeyed-gold from the sun. Her supple body was straight, poised and -proud, her head back and her breasts pressing against her blouse. Just -as I remembered her.</p> - -<p>I could have sent her away no more than I could have stopped the beat -of my heart. "Hi, hon," I whispered.</p> - -<p>She laughed happily, and sat on the mat beside me and rumpled my hair. -We kissed gently, tentatively. I pulled her closer. As we kissed again -she kept her eyes open, looking at me sidewards in her fondly teasing -way. "It's good to be back, dear," she breathed against my cheek....</p> - -<p>Long she lay at my side, regarding me with eyes that were filled with -her love, her only movement the throb of a pulse beneath my fingers as -they fondled her arched throat. I sighed contentedly. At the moment I -was filled with a warm serenity that had quite effectively subdued my -anxiety.</p> - -<p>Once a man let himself go, there was no companion, male or female, who -could compare with the anamorph. She caught his every thought, crested -the tides of his every mood. She became the idealization of woman, -without flaws, formed and molded into a perfection beyond possible -actuality, her beauty and desirability greater than any real woman's -could ever be.</p> - -<p>When full rapport had been achieved she was able to keep mentally ahead -of a man. She could gauge his every reflex, and match her speech and -actions to every subtle anticipation.</p> - -<p>I felt almost happy then. The tragedy of being stranded here was -something apart, and the reality was the delightful woman-creature -warm against me ... until at last my passions grew sated with the -luxuriance of her charms and I slept.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In the morning the anamorph was gone.</p> - -<p>Eight other men had fears that must be eased. She might have spent -parts of the night with any one or all of them. The thought would -have been distasteful, except that absence made the sense of her less -all-pervading. I even experienced a kind of grateful relief. I was -able to regard her now, not as the real Lois I wanted, but as merely a -source of solace I had badly needed.</p> - -<p>The anamorph's presence during the night had drained all my pent-up -frustrations. I was not happy, but I no longer felt the desperate -loneliness and need that had goaded me before. I dressed leisurely and -went out into the main compartment of the bubble.</p> - -<p>Except in the sleeping rooms the plastic walls were transparent. I -looked outside at the surface of Europa, covered with a white material -I had been told was solid carbon dioxide.</p> - -<p>A mild storm was brewing. The hydrogen, helium and methane in the -atmosphere were colorless, and the argon and krypton too minute to be -detected without instruments. But I could see and hear small particles -of liquid ammonia as they pattered against the plastic wall. The bubble -sagged in several places. But there was no danger of it collapsing.</p> - -<p>In the space ship galley (to which the bubble had been attached) I -found the captain, Mark Burgess, and the anamorph having coffee.</p> - -<p>She was no longer Lois. Now she was an older woman, with a bit of added -weight and thickness. She was still beautiful, but more matronly than -she had been as Lois. About her was none of the warm-blooded ardor she -had displayed the night before. And no remembrance of it in her eyes.</p> - -<p>I poured a cup of coffee.</p> - -<p>"Just how long do you figure we've got?" I asked Burgess.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Lutscher—" he addressed me by my last name, as was his custom -with junior officers—"I will not equivocate. We have fuel enough to -furnish us with heat and electricity for well over a year. But our food -will last less than two months, even with strict rationing."</p> - -<p>So there it was. In two months we'd probably all be dead.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Someone back on Earth had erred badly. In their calculations every item -had been gauged closely, as was necessary. But they should have allowed -safety margin.</p> - -<p>The take-off had been calculated nicely. Ships had already been sent to -the moon and to Mars. But this was the first trip this far out. We had -not intercepted Europa quite as plotted. We had to chase it halfway -around Jupiter, and land with the satellite going away, rather than -meeting us. After we landed and new calibrations been made, we made a -discovery. Our fuel was too short for the return trip.</p> - -<p>Kohnke was our lone hope. A metallurgist, he knew the properties of the -ship's pile.</p> - -<p>But Kohnke was insane.</p> - -<p>I had not liked the man from the first. With his nervous, subservient -personality, he had been a constant irritant in the confining quarters -of the ship. And during the early weeks of the flight I observed the -slow dawning of an awful awareness in our weak-charactered member. -He was realizing for the first time the prodigious and unpredictable -forces to which he had exposed himself. Soon he was convinced of the -certainty of death.</p> - -<p>He did not have the mental stamina to cope with that certainty. When we -missed Europa on the first pass, Kohnke's mind cracked.</p> - -<p>My attention returned to the anamorph. She was staring at me now, -her features white and strained. She must have read what I had been -thinking of Kohnke.</p> - -<p>What was there about the crazed man that frightened her so? I wondered -again.</p> - -<p>I went out into the bubble. The rocket man, Andrews and I spent the -next several hours adding another compartment to the main room. Andrews -fed dirt into the hopper of the converter while I operated the nozzle.</p> - -<p>This was more difficult than the original bubble had been. Normal -air pressure was enough to keep that expanded; but here we had to -make supports and rig up an auxiliary vent. Also it was cold near the -walls, a cold that sucked at the heat in our bodies; Europa has a mean -temperature of -140° Centigrade.</p> - -<p>When our job was finished I left Andrews at the door of his cubicle. I -glanced back and saw that he hadn't gone in. He was standing with his -head down and his shoulders slumped.</p> - -<p>Andrews I had always regarded as an extrovert, and a good man. He was -big, active and almost always cheerful. Even his bald head seemed to -add to his masculine virility. He had a vast fund of stories. Everyone -liked him.</p> - -<p>I suspected, however, that his bland acceptance of our predicament was -not all it seemed. He was an instinctive psychologist. He was doing his -part to keep up the spirits of the rest of us. In my judgment Andrews -was quite a man.</p> - -<p>But now his capacity for dissimulating had apparently reached its limit.</p> - -<p>At that moment a woman-form drifted past me from the ship. The -anamorph had come to perform her self-appointed duty.</p> - -<p>She was a robust woman now with a body designed for love-making, the -wide-hipped form made to propagate the race with healthy offspring. Her -dress was cut low at the neck, innocently immodest.</p> - -<p>Andrews looked up, still brooding.</p> - -<p>It was he who had discovered the anamorph, the second day after our -landing. Where she had come from, or how she had gotten through the -plastic wall without rupturing it, we never did learn. She had had this -identical form when Andrews found her.</p> - -<p>The anamorph began to dance. A slow, languid pirouetting. The sound of -a wordless crooning song reached me. The tempo of her dance heightened -and her wide green skirt came up around her waist, exposing fair thighs.</p> - -<p>Andrews grunted and shifted position. Abruptly he reached out and -grasped her wrist. "Come here, baby," he said hoarsely.</p> - -<p>The anamorph kicked and squealed in mock protest as Andrews swept her -off her feet and into his arms, but she made no real effort to free -herself as he strode with her into his compartment.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The next morning when I stopped in with Kohnke's breakfast I found him -wearing a gold crown.</p> - -<p>With strictly amateur knowledge, I had diagnosed his illness as -schizophrenia, and this latest display seemed to confirm the diagnosis. -Now he had escaped harsh reality into a world of his own, a world where -he was obviously a personage of considerable eminence.</p> - -<p>Kohnke smiled at me and greeted me condescendingly. I went along with -his delusion. If I were to help him it was good that he accepted me -as part of his world. I sat at his feet and made as one of the unseen -audience he was addressing. I was wryly amused a few minutes later when -I understood who he thought he was.</p> - -<p>However, it was the gold crown that fascinated me. Where had he gotten -it? There could be only one answer. And if what I suspected was true, -there were startling implications.</p> - -<p>I had to speak again soon with the anamorph....</p> - -<p>She did not keep me waiting.</p> - -<p>I returned to my compartment. The pseudo-Lois entered soon after and -stretched out indolently on my cot. "You wanted to see me, Bill?"</p> - -<p>Incongruously I found myself staring at her low-heeled shoes, the ones -she always wore when we danced at the Prom. I restrained the impulse -to take her in my arms. "I saw the crown you made for Kohnke," I said -carefully, making a special effort to keep my inner thoughts hidden. -"It's beautiful."</p> - -<p>"Thank you."</p> - -<p>Those simple words meant much to me. I had succeeded in getting her to -admit that she had made the crown.</p> - -<p>Which meant we still had a chance!</p> - -<p>"Then you'll be able to make the fuel we need," I said casually.</p> - -<p>Her expression became wary, shifting instantly to petulance. She -reached over and put one hand on my arm. "Why do you want to leave me, -Bill?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I tried to explain, but she couldn't or wouldn't understand.</p> - -<p>I tried another tack. "Why are you afraid of Kohnke?" I asked. My -theory was that she did not understand insanity, and so her inability -to follow the illogical thought processes of the demented man -frightened her.</p> - -<p>"He is so intelligent," she startled me by saying.</p> - -<p>"He's crazy," I protested.</p> - -<p>"What is crazy?"</p> - -<p>"His reasoning faculties do not function properly."</p> - -<p>She seemed to be reading my thoughts carefully, trying to understand -better what I meant. After a minute she smiled and her teeth showed -white and even against her tan. "Isn't it possible that his mind works -too swiftly for you to follow, and the only way you can explain your -lack of understanding is to say that he is insane?"</p> - -<p>So that was why she feared Kohnke. To her he was a brilliant intellect. -So great that she could neither understand nor influence him as she did -the others of us. His aborted reasoning, his sudden shifts of interest, -his small concern with a situation that aroused our distress, were all -evidence of that superior intellect. I did not try to disabuse her of -the belief. It fitted well with my semi-formed plan.</p> - -<p>"He is like the Masters," the anamorph interrupted my thoughts.</p> - -<p>I quickly took up the diversion she offered: I did not want her to see -what lay in my thoughts. Also she had aroused my curiosity. "Who are -the Masters?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"I'm not certain. I think...." Her voice trailed off. "I'm never too -sure that what I'm thinking are my own thoughts, or what I'm reading in -your mind, or have read in others," she said. "Perhaps if I looked away -from you....</p> - -<p>"Many years ago the Masters landed on this small world to make repairs -on the meteor shield of their space ship," she began again in a low -voice. "They were passing through this part of the Galaxy on their -way home from a distant planet. I belonged to one of them. For some -reason they left me behind when they went away." She stopped talking, -saddened by the recollection of her desertion.</p> - -<p>I saw her in a new light then. She had been a pet, a plaything, who -perhaps had strayed just before ship leaving time.</p> - -<p>She nodded, smiling brightly. "A pet," she exclaimed, clapping her -hands. "That is right." I realized then, with mild astonishment, that -she was not very intelligent. Her apparent wit and sharpness before had -been only reflections of what she read in our minds.</p> - -<p>"Are you all Kohnke's pets?" she caught me unprepared.</p> - -<p>I coughed uncomfortably, and shook my head.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Her mood changed. "I've been so lonesome, Bill. When I do not belong to -someone I am so unhappy. But I won't be unhappy anymore." For the first -time I felt sorry for her.</p> - -<p>"Bill?" Her voice was timid. "Do you believe I will be punished for -leaving the Masters? I did not mean to."</p> - -<p>"Who would punish you now?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"The Masters' God. They always told me he would punish me if I were -bad. And he is such a terrible God." Her expression became bright with -hope. "Is your God terrible, Bill?"</p> - -<p>I tried to reassure her, to pacify this naive creature with her own -private terrors, but she must have read in my mind how our Christian -God could also be terrible in his wrath and justice, for she gave a -small cry and pulled herself close to me.</p> - -<p>Several minutes went by while she trembled in my arms and wept -disconsolately. Finally she quieted and in a young girl's voice asked, -"May I use your hanky, daddy?"</p> - -<p>In surprise I held her out from me and saw that now she was my -daughter, Joanie, with her newly bobbed hair, and her sweet face still -wet with tears.</p> - -<p>Of course. While I held her I had been thinking of her as a child. As -my child, Joanie.</p> - -<p>I wiped away her tears and blew her nose.</p> - -<p>I thought swiftly. Perhaps this was my opportunity. Speaking as I would -have to Joanie I asked gently, "Won't you help us get the fuel we need, -honey?"</p> - -<p>"I can't." Her childish wistfulness was replaced by the stubbornness I -had encountered before.</p> - -<p>I was careful to restrain my impatience. "You could come with us to -Earth," I argued, without raising my voice. "You wouldn't be lonesome -there."</p> - -<p>"I couldn't live that long out of the sun," she answered.</p> - -<p>"How did you live on the Master's ship?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"They could bring the sunlight inside. You can't."</p> - -<p>"Isn't there any way we could keep you alive?" I asked.</p> - -<p>She shook her head.</p> - -<p>Which left nothing except my desperate plan.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Burgess made the preparations I requested, without question, and I -returned to Kohnke. It took me some time to get him in the frame I -wanted. When he began to blubber, "I want to go home, I want to go -home," I led him from the ship.</p> - -<p>The anamorph was outside, as I knew she would be. The men were all in -the ship.</p> - -<p>I bowed deeply to Kohnke and turned to the anamorph. "He would speak -with you," I said impressively.</p> - -<p>Her eyes widened with apprehension. I was not concerned about her -reading my thoughts now. What she read in Kohnke's mind would be more -believable to her.</p> - -<p>"We must have fuel!" I shouted at Kohnke. "She can give it to us!" I -pointed at the anamorph. "Command her!"</p> - -<p>Kohnke concentrated his wild gaze on the girl and mouthed something -inaudible.</p> - -<p>The anamorph drew back. Her features seemed to lose their character, to -be melting together.</p> - -<p>This was the critical moment. "Tell her about your Father," I commanded.</p> - -<p>His lips writhed damply and he began again his inarticulate muttering.</p> - -<p>The anamorph cried out plaintively and covered her face with her hands. -I shifted my attention to the pile of soil I had asked Burgess to -prepare.</p> - -<p>It quivered, flattened ... and hardened into six fuel ingots!</p> - -<p>Twenty minutes later we were in space.</p> - -<p>Our last glimpse of the anamorph was the dejected figure of a small -girl, standing alone in the middle of the bubble.</p> - -<p>She had had to obey Kohnke, of course. For she believed what she read -in his mind.</p> - -<p>And Kohnke thought he was the Son of God.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lorelei, by Charles V. 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