Уильям Берроуз: Nova Express

"It wouldn't touch me-Not with the habit I got-"

"How do you know? — Have you tried?"

"Of course not-If I allowed anyone to develop the formulae he would be out you understand? And it only takes one out to kick over my hypo tray."

"After all you don't have much choice Mr. D."

Again the image snapped back fading now and flickering like an old film-

"I still have the Board Room Reports-I can split the planet wide open tomorrow-And you, you little rat, you'll end up on ice in the ovens-Baked Alaska we call it-Nothing like a Baked Alaska to hold me vegetable-Always plenty wise guys waiting on the Baked Alaska." The dwarf's eyes sputtered blue sparks-A reek of burning flesh billowed through the room-

"I still mushroom planet wide open for jolly-Any hick poet shit out pleasures-Come closer and see my pictures-Show you something interesting-Come closer and watch them flop around in soiled linen-The Garden Boys both of us good as we used to be-Sweet pictures start coming in the hanged man knees up to the chin-You know-Beauty bare and still as good- Cock stand up spurting whitewash-Ever try his crotch when the egg cracks? — Now I got all the images in backward time-Rusty black pants-Delicate gooks in the locker room rubbing each other-I got screams-I watched-Burning heavens, idiot-Don't mind if I take another shot Jimmy Sheffield is still as good as he used to be-Flesh the room in pink carnival-"

A young agent turned away vomiting; "Police work is not pleasant on any level," said the D.S. He turned to Winkhorst: "This special breed spitting notice on your dirty pharmaceuticals-Level—"

"Well some of my information was advantage-It is done with a cyclotron-But like this-Say I want to heat up the mescaline formula what I do is put the blazing photo from Hiroshima and Nagasaki under my cyclotron and shade the heat meal in with mescaline-Indetectible-It's all so simple and magnificent really-Beauty bare and all that-Or say I want `The Drenched Lands' on the boy what I do is put the image from his cock under the cyclotron spurting whitewash in the white hot skies of Minraud."

The death dwarf opens one eye-"Hey, copper, come here-Got something else to tell you-Might as well rat-Everyone does it here the man says-You know about niggers? Why darkies were born? — Travel flesh we call it-Transports better-Tell you something else-" He nods out.

"And the apomorphine formula, Mr. Winkhorst?"

"Apomorphine is no word and no image-It is of course misleading to speak of a silence virus or an apomorphine virus since apomorphine is anti-virus-The uh apomorphine preparations must be raised in a culture containing sublethal quantities of pain and pleasure cyclotron concentrates-Sub-virus stimulates antivirus special group-When immunity has been established in the surviving preparations-and many will not survive-we have the formulae necessary to defeat the virus powers-It is simply a question of putting through an inoculation program in the very limited time that remains-Word begets image and image is virus-Our facilities are at your disposal gentlemen and I am at your disposal- Technical sergeant I can work for anybody-These officers don't even know what button to push." He glares at the dwarf who is on the nod, hands turning to vines-

"I'm not taking any rap for a decorticated turnip- And you just let me tell you how much all the kids in the office and the laboratory hate you stinking heavy metal assed cunt sucking board bastards."

Technical Deposition of the Virus Power. "Gentlemen, it was first suggested that we take our own image and examine how it could be made more portable. We found that simple binary coding systems were enough to contain the entire

image however they required a large amount of storage space until it was found that the binary information could be written at the molecular level, and our entire image could be contained within a grain of sand. However it was found that these information molecules were not dead matter but exhibited a capacity for life which is found elsewhere in the form of virus. Our virus infects the human and creates our image in him.

We first took our image and put it into code. A technical code developed by the information theorists. This code was written at the molecular level to save space, when it was found that the image material was not dead matter, but exhibited the same life cycle as the virus. This virus released upon the world would infect the entire population and turn them into our replicas, it was not safe to release the virus until we could be sure that the last groups to go replica would not notice. To this end we invented variety in many forms, variety that is of information content in a molecule, which, enfin , is always a permutation of the existing material. Information speeded up, slowed down, permutated, changed at random by radiating the virus material with high energy rays from cyclotrons, in short we have created an infinity of variety at the information level, sufficient to keep so-called scientists busy for ever exploring the ‘richness of nature.'

"It was important all this time that the possibility of a human ever conceiving of being without a body should not arise. Remember that the variety we invented was permutation of the electromagnetic structure of matter energy interactions which are not the raw material of nonbody experience.

Note From The Technical Department of Nova Police : Winkhorst's information on the so-called "apomorphine formulae" was incomplete-He did not mention alnorphine-This substance like apomorphine is made from morphine Its action is to block morphine out of the cells-An injection of alnorphine will bring on immediate withdrawal symptoms in an addict It is also a specific in acute morphine poisoning- Doctor Isbell of Lexington states in an article recently published in The British Journal of Addiction that alnorphine is not habit-forming but acts even more effectively as a pain killer than morphine but can not be used because it produces "mental disturbances"-What is pain? — Obviously damage to the image-Junk is concentrated image and this accounts for its pain killing action-Nor could there be pain if there was no image-This may well account for the pain killing action of alnorphine and also for the unspecified "mental disurbances"-So we began our experiments by administering alnorphine in combination with apomorphine.

Coordinate Points

The case I have just related will show you something of our methods and the people with whom we are called upon to deal.

"I doubt if any of you on this copy planet have ever seen a nova criminal-(they take considerable pains to mask their operations) and I am sure none of you have ever seen a nova police officer — When disorder on any planet reaches a certain point the regulating instance scans POLICE — otherwise — SPUT — Another planet bites the cosmic dust — I will now explain something of the mechanisms and techniques of nova which are always deliberately manipulated — I am quite well aware that no one on any planet likes to see a police officer so let me emphasize in passing that the nova police have no intention of remaining after their work is done — That is, when the danger of nova is removed from this planet we will move on to other assignments — We do our work and go-The difference between this department and the parasitic excrescence that often travels under the name `Police' can be expressed in metabolic terms: The distinction between morphine and apomorphine. `Apomorphine is made by boiling morphine with hydrochloric acid. This alters chemical formulae and physiological effects. Apomorphine has no sedative narcotic or addicting properties. It is a metabolic regulator that need not be continued when its work is done. I quote from Anxiety and Its Treatment by Doctor John Dent of London: `Apomorphine acts on the back brain stimulating the regulating centers in such a way as to normalize the metabolism.' It has been used in the treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts and normalizes metabolism in such a way as to remove the need for any narcotic substance. Apomorphine cuts drug lines from the brain. Poison of dead sun fading in smoke-'