Spare me the lecture, snarled Anglesey.
I was only rehearsing the obvious, said Cornelius, because every now and then it is the obvious answer which is hardest to see. Maybe it isnt the K tube which is misbehaving. Maybe it is you.
What? The white face gaped at him. A dawning rage crept across its thin bones.
Nothing personal intended, said Cornelius hastily. But you know what a tricky beast the subconscious is. Suppose, just as a working hypothesis, that way down underneath, you dont want to be on Jupiter. I imagine it is a rather terrifying environment. Or there may be some obscure Freudian element involved. Or, quite simply and naturally, your subconscious may fail to understand that Joes death does not entail your own.
Um-m-m. Mirabile dictu, Anglesey remained calm. He rubbed his chin with one skeletal hand. Can you be more explicit?
Only in a rough way, replied Cornelius. Your conscious mind sends a motor impulse along the psibeam to Joe. Simultaneously, your subconscious mind, being scared of the whole business, emits the glandular-vascular-cardiac-visceral impulses associated with fear. These react on Joe, whose tension is transmitted back along the beam. Feeling Joes somatic fear symptoms, your subconscious gets still more worried, thereby increasing the symptoms. Get it? Its exactly similar to ordinary neurasthenia, with this exception, that since there is a powerful amplifier, the K tube, involved, the oscillations can build up uncontrollably within a second or two. You
should be thankful the tube does burn outotherwise your brain might do so!
For a moment Anglesey was quiet. Then he laughed. It was a hard, barbaric laughter. Cornelius started as it struck his eardrums.
Nice idea, said the esman. But Im afraid it wont fit all the data. You see, I like it down there. I like being Joe.
He paused for a while, then continued in a dry impersonal tone:
Dont judge the environment from my notes. Theyre just idiotic things like estimates of wind velocity, temperature cariations, mineral propertiesinsignificant. What I cant put in is how Jupiter looks through a Jovians infrared-seeing eyes.
Different, I should think, ventured Cornelius after a minutes clumsy silence.
Yes and no. Its hard to put into language. Some of it I cant, because man hasnt got the concepts. But … oh, I cant describe
it. Shakespeare himself couldnt. Just remember that everything about Jupiter which is cold and poisonous and gloomy to us is right for Joe.
Angleseys tone grew remote, as if he spoke to himself. Imagine walking under a glowing violet sky, where great flashing clouds sweep the earth with shadow and rain strides beneath them. Imagine walking on the slopes of a mountain like polished metal, with a clean red flame exploding above you and thunder laughing in the ground. Imagine a cool wild stream, and low trees with dark coppery flowers, and a waterfallmethanefall, whatever you likeleaping off a cliff, and the strong live wind shakes its mane full of rainbows! Imagine a whole forest, dark and breathing, and here and there you glimpse a pale-red wavering will-o-the-wisp, which is the life radiation of some fleet, shy animal, and… and…
Anglesey croaked into silence. He stared down at his clenched fists, then he closed his eyes tight and tears ran out between the lids. Imagine being strong!
Suddenly he snatched up the helmet, crammed it on his head and twirled the control knobs. Joe had been sleeping, down in the night, but Joe was about to wake up androar under the four great moons till all the forest feared him?
Cornelius slipped quietly out of the room.
In the long brazen sunset light, beneath dusky cloud banks brooding storm, he strode up the hill slope with a sense of days work done.
Across his back, two woven baskets balanced each other, one laden with the pungent black fruit of the thorn tree and one with cablethick creepers to be used as rope. The ax on his shoulder caught the waning sunlight and tossed it blindingly back.
It had not been hard labor, but weariness dragged at his mind and he did not relish the household chores yet to be performed, cooking and cleaning and all the rest. Why couldnt they hurry up and get him some helpers?