[Several reports are omitted here, dealing chiefly with the gradually acquired skill of the expedition in reading a portion of the biped’s thought patterns and in speaking a few words of his language.]
Report of First Interplanetary Exploratory Expedition, presented by Falzik, specialist in reporting:
Halov and Trubz agree that we should stay with this man (for such we have by now learned is the name of his race) until we have learned as much from him as we can. He has accepted us now and is almost at ease with us, though the morning after our arrival, for some peculiar reason, he seemed even more surprised to see us than when we first appeared.
We can learn much more from him, now that he is used to us, than we could from the dwellers in the large massed structures, and after we are well versed in his civilization we stand much more chance of being accepted peaceably.
We have been here now for three of the days of this planet, absorbed in our new learning. (All save Lilil, who is fretful because he has not practiced his art for so long. I have occasionally seen him eyeing the man speculatively.) By using a mixture of telepathy, sign language, and speech, we can by now discuss many things, though speech comes with difficulty to one who has used it only on formal and fixed occasions.
For instance, we have learned why this man lives alone, far from his fellows. His speciality is the making of pictures with what he calls a camera, a contrivance which records the effect of differing intensities of light upon a salt of silver—a far more complex method than our means of making pictures with photosensitized elduron, but one producing much the same results. He has taken pictures of us, though he seems doubtful that any other man will ever believe the record of his camera.
At present he is engaged in a series of pictures of aspects of the desert, an undertaking that he seems to regard not as a useful function but as an art of some strange sort. Trubz is working on the psychology of it and says that a reproductive and imitative art is conceivable, but Lilil is scornful of the notion.
Today he showed us many pictures of other mans and of their cities and structures. Man is a thin-skinned and almost hairless animal. This man of ours goes almost naked, but that is apparently because of the desert heat. Normally a man makes up for his absence of hair by wearing a sort of artificial fur of varying shapes known as clothes. To judge from the pictures shown us by the man, this is true only of the male of the species. The female never covers her bare skin in any way.
Examination of these pictures of females shown us by our man fully confirms our theory that the animal man is a mammal.
The display of pictures ended with an episode still not quite clear to us. Ever since our arrival, the man has been worrying and talking about something apparently lost—something called a kitten. The thought pattern was not familiar enough to permit us to gather its nature, until he showed us a picture of the small white beast which we had first met, and we recognized in his mind this kitten-pattern. He seemed proud of the picture, which showed the beast in its ritual with the ball, but still worried, and asked us, according to Trubz, if we knew anything of its whereabouts. Transcription:
YOUWOULDNTANYOFYOUBIGBUGSKNOWWHATTHEDEVIL’SBECOME OF THAT KITTEN, WOULD YOU?
Thereupon Lilil arose in his full creative pride and led the man to the place where we had met the kitten. The corpse was by now withered in the desert sun, and I admit that it was difficult to gather from such a spectacle the greatness of Lilil’s art, but we were not prepared for the mans, reaction.
His face grew exceedingly red, and a fluid formed in his eyes. He clenched his digits and made curious gestures with them. His words were uttered brokenly and exceedingly difficult to transcribe. Trubz has not yet conjectured their meaning but the transcription reads:
YOU DIDTHAT?TO APOOR, HARMLESS LITTLE KITTEN? WHY, YOU—[10]
His attitude has not been the same toward us since. Trubz is working on the psychology of it.
Murvin to Falzik:
Tell Trubz to work on the major psychological problem. Your backers are getting impatient.
Falzik to Murvin:
I think that last report was an aspect of it. But I’m still puzzled. See what you can make of this one.
Report of First Interplanetary Expedition, presented by Falzik, specialist in reporting:
Tonight Halov and Trubz attempted to present the great psychological problem to the man. To present such a problem in our confusion of thoughts, language, and gesture is not easy, but I think that to some extent they succeeded.
They stated it in its simplest form: Our race is obsessed by a terrible fear of extinction. We will each of us do anything to avoid his personal extinction. No such obsession has ever been observed among the minute mammalian pests of our planet.
Now, is our terror a part of our intelligence? Does intelligence necessarily imply and bring with it a frantic clinging to the life that supports us? Or does this terror stem from our being what we are, rather than mammals? A mammal brings forth its young directly; the young are a direct continuation of the life of the old. But with us a half dozen specialized individuals bring forth all the young. The rest of us have no part in it; our lives are dead ends, and we dread the approach of that black wall.
Our psychologists have battled over this question for generations. Would another—say,
