Айзек Азимов - Before The Golden Age

As Professor Jameson came to, he became aware of a strange feeling. He was sick. The doctors had not expected him to live; they had frankly told him so — but he had cared little in view of the long, happy years stretched out behind him. Perhaps he was not to die yet. He wondered how long be had slept. How strange he felt — as if he had no body. Why couldn’t he open his eyes? He tried very hard. A mist swam before him. His eyes had been open all the time but he had not seen before. That was queer, he ruminated. All was silent about his bedside. Had all the doctors and nurses left him to sleep — or to die?

Devil tale that mist which now swam before him, obscuring everything in line of vision. He would call his nephew. Vainly he attempted to shout the word “Douglas,” but to no avail. Where was his mouth? It seemed as if he had none. Was it all delirium? The strange silence — perhaps he had lost his sense of hearing along with his ability to speak — and he could see nothing distinctly. The mist had transferred itself into a confused jumble of indistinct objects, some of which moved about before him.

He was now conscious of some impulse in his mind which kept questioning him as to how he felt. He was conscious of other strange ideas which seemed to be impressed upon his brain, but this one thought concerning his indisposition clamored insistently over the lesser ideas. It even seemed just as it someone was addressing him, and impulsively he attempted to utter a sound and tell them how queer he felt. It seemed as it speech had been taken from him. He could not talk, no matter how hard he tried. It was no use. Strange to say, however, the impulse within his mind appeared to be satisfied with the effort, and it now put another question to him. Where was he from? What a strange question — when he was at home. He told them as much. Had he always lived there? Why, yes, of course.

The aged professor was now becoming more astute as to his condition. At first it was only a mild, passive wonderment at his helplessness and the strange thoughts Which raced through his mind. Now he attempted to arouse himself from the lethargy.

Quite suddenly his sight cleared, and what a surprise! He could see all the way around him without moving his head! And he could look at the ceiling of his room! His room? Was it his room? No — It just couldn’t be. Where was he? What were those queer machines before him? They moved on four legs. Six tentacles curled outward from their cubical bodies. One of the machines stood close before him. A tentacle shot out from the object and rubbed his head. How strange it felt upon his brow. Instinctively he obeyed the impulse to shove the contraption of metal from him with his hands.

His arms did not rise, instead six tentacles projected upward to force back the machine. Professor Jameson gasped mentally in surprise as he gazed at the result of his urge to push the strange, unearthly looking machine-caricature from him. With trepidation he looked down at his own body to see where the tentacles had come from, and his surprise turned to sheer fright and amazement. His body was like the moving machine which stood before him! Where was he? What ever had happened to him so suddenly? Only a few moments ago he had been in his bed, with the doctors and his nephew bending over him, expecting him to die. The last words he had remembered hearing was the cryptic announcement of one of the doctors.

“He is going now.”

But he hadn’t died after all, apparently. A horrible thought struck him! Was this the life after death? Or was it an illusion of the mind? He became aware that the machine in front of him was attempting to communicate something to him. How could it, thought the professor, when he had no mouth. The desire to communicate an idea to him became more insistent The suggestion of the machine man’s question was in his mind. Telepathy, thought he.

The creature was asking about the place whence he had come. He didn’t know; his mind was in such a turmoil of thoughts and conflicting ideas. He allowed himself to be led to a window where the machine with waving tentacle pointed towards an object outside. It was a queer sensation to be walking on the four metal legs. He looked from the window and he saw that which caused him to nearly drop over, so astounded was he.

The professor found himself gazing out from the boundless depths of space across the cosmic void to where a huge planet lay quiet. Now he was sure it was an illusion which made his mind and sight behave so queerly. He was troubled by a very strange dream. Carefully he examined the topography of the gigantic globe which rested off in the distance. At the same time he could see back of him the concourse of mechanical creatures crowding up behind him, and he was aware of a telepathic conversation which was being carried on behind him — or just before him. Which was it now? Eyes extended all the way around his head, while there existed no difference on any of the four sides of his cubed body. His mechanical legs were capable of moving in any of four given directions with perfect ease, he discovered.

The planet was not the earth — of that he was sure. None of the familiar continents lay before his eyes. And then he saw the great dull red ball of the dying sun. That was not the sun of his earth. It had been a great deal more brilliant.

“Did you come from that planet?” came the thought impulse from the mechanism by his side.

“No,” he returned.

He then allowed the machine men — for he assumed that they were machine men, and he reasoned that, somehow or other they had by some marvelous transformation made him over just as they were — to lead him through the craft of which he now took notice for the first time. It was an interplanetary flyer, or spaceship, he firmly believed.

25X-987 now took him to the compartment which they had removed him to from the strange container they had found wandering in the vicinity of the nearby world. There they showed him the long cylinder.

“It’s my rocket satellite!” exclaimed Professor Jameson to himself, though in reality every one of the machine men received his thoughts plainly. “What is it doing here?”

“We found your dead body within it,” answered 25X-987. “Your brain was removed to the machine after having been stimulated into activity once more. Your carcass was thrown away.”

Professor Jameson just stood dumbfounded by the words of the machine man.

“So I did die!” exclaimed the professor. “And my body was placed within the rocket to remain in everlasting preservation until the end of all earthly time! Success! I have now attained unrivaled success!”

He then turned to the machine man.

“How long have I been that way?” he asked excitedly.

“How should we know?” replied the Zorome. “We picked up your rocket only a short time ago, which, according to your computation, would be less than a day. This is our first visit to your planetary system and we chanced upon your rocket So it is a satellite? We didn’t watch it long enough to discover whether or not it was a satellite. At first we thought it to be another traveling space craft, but when it refused to answer our signals we investigated.”

“And so that was the earth at which I looked,” mused the professor.

“No wonder I didn’t recognize it. The topography has changed so much. How different the sun appears — it must have been over a million years ago when I died!”

“Many millions,” corrected 25X-987. “Suns of such size as this one do not cool in so short a time as you suggest.”

Professor Jameson, in spite of all his amazing computations before his death, was staggered by the reality.

“Who are you?” he suddenly asked.