Hal Clement: Natives of Space

Kirk moved aside to let them enter, and watched as the pair settled to the air-lock floor. Talker made no attempt to write; he simply stood and looked at the Earthman with an expression of hopeless resignation in his very carriage that sent a stab of pity through Kirk’s heart.

The man stared back for a few moments, and then began speaking softly.

“You know, now. I did not think of it until you had gone — but I should have, from what you told me; and you should long since have known from your own observations. When we first learned to communicate with each other, you told me that my thought-wave pattern was different from that of your race, which was natural enough, as you finally realized. You did not carry that reasoning, which told you it was natural, to its logical conclusion; nor did I. Your people all ‘think’ alike — so far as either of us is able to tell what thought is. The patterns you broadcast are mutually intelligible to members of your race, but not to me, because you have received those wares from others of your kind from earliest childhood, and I am a stranger. But my people do not communicate in that fashion; as you have learned, we have organs capable of impressing fine modulations on sound waves, and of detecting these modulations. The activity that occurs in our brains is never directly transmitted to other brains — it is first `coded’ and then broadcast.

“The waves yoùhear’ arise from chemical activity in your nervous systems, activity that accompanies thought.

They are — must be — controlled to a vast extent by the structure of the nerve pattern in your brains; a structure which is itself controlled during your growth by the impressed waves from outside, in conjunction with whatever strange process accompanies learning.”

Kirk held out a hand to the herald.

“Look closely at the ends of my fingers. In the skin you will see a complex pattern of ridges and hollows. That pattern, stranger, is unique in me; every one of my people has a similar, but individual, pattern — no two have identical fingerprints. They form the most positive means of identification we possess, although there are more than two billion beings on this planet.

“And yet, friend, I think I am safe in saying that there are many times as many chances that two of us should bear identical fingerprints as there be chances that two human brains should be exactly alike, nerve for nerve. From birth, each brain is isolated, can be reached only through the means of communication natural to us; there is no reason that all should develop alike.

“On that assumption, the tiny currents that pass from nerve to nerve and give rise to the waves that you can sense cannot possibly be the same for any two of us; and so no two sets of ‘thought waves’ could be identical. You learned some of my pattern, and thought that you had the key to communicate with all my kind; but I tell you sincerely that you will have to learn afresh the ‘thought language’ of every new human being with whom you wish to converse. You have just discovered that for yourself.

“These cerebral radiations are not entirely unknown to us. Certain devices, in the nature of extremely sensitive electric detectors, have been able to measure and record them; but the only pattern shared by any significant number of human minds is that characterizing sleep — mental inactivity. The instant the subject wakes, or even has a dream, the ‘alpha pattern’ breaks up into a seemingly disorganized jumble.

“We also know a little concerning direct thought exchange. Some of our scientists have experimented for many years, in the attempt to determine its nature and cause. Many people — not the scientists — assume that it is due to radiations like those recorded by the devices I mentioned; they imagine the possibility of perfecting those machines and using them for communication.

They have heard of the experiments in telepathy, but have not bothered to investigate their details.

“The experimenters themselves have pointed out that the phenomena of telepathy and clairvoyance, which seem to be closely connected, are quite inconsistent with the known laws of radiation, such as the inverse square law. I don’t remember all the details, and, anyway, I’m not a physicist; but the best known of those scientists claims that our present science of physics does not contain the explanation of the experimental results.

“Whatever the true state of affairs may be, I am sure you will never get anything from any human mind but my own. I hate to tantalize you, but if you had not made this attempt to deceive me, my emotions would probably have overcome my common sense sufficiently to force me to help you; even now I am tempted to do so, because I can’t help feeling that your mind contains the roots of curiosity, with which I sympathize — I wouldn’t have pursued my studies this far, otherwise. But I could never trust you, now. My intelligence, such as it is, gave one estimate of your character, and my feelings gave another; and unfortunately for you, your actions showed the intelligence to be at least partially correct. Your character probably isn’t your fault, but I can do nothing about that. My advice to you is to take on supplies and get away from here while some of you are still alive; the fact that you found an inhabited planetary system at the first try suggests that others may not be too hard to locate. I wish you luck, so far as good luck for you doesn’t mean bad for us.”

Allen Kirk turned, swung the pack to his shoulder, and walked away from the spaceship. He was acutely aware, as he went, of the two pairs of yellow eyes gazing after him; but he didn’t dare to look back.