# Necronomicon Podcast: Cry From A Far Planet

An episode of [Forbidden Knowledge News](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1470192028), 2 Sep 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74811884/necrdd_sd_360p_medium_fr30_02092026.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Enjoy this full episode of Necronomicon Podcast. Get access to
[0:05] Speaker 1: every episode on our website and all podcast platforms.
[0:20] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Necronomicon Podcast. An exploration... of the works
[0:31] Speaker 2: of H.P. Lovecraft, and other Tales of Terror.
[0:47] Speaker 1: Cry from a Far Planet by Tom Godwin He listened
[0:52] Speaker 1: in the silence of the exploration ship's control room. He
[0:55] Speaker 1: heard nothing, but that was what bothered him. an ominous
[0:58] Speaker 1: quiet when there should have been a multitude of sounds
[1:01] Speaker 1: from the nearby village for the viewscreen's audio pickups to transmit.
[1:06] Speaker 1: And it was more than six hours past the time
[1:08] Speaker 1: when the native Throon should have come to sit with
[1:10] Speaker 1: him outside the ship as they resumed the laborious attempt
[1:14] Speaker 1: to learn each other's language. The viewscreen was black in
[1:17] Speaker 1: the light of the control room, even though it was
[1:19] Speaker 1: high noon outside. The dull red sun was always invisible
[1:24] Speaker 1: through the world's thick atmosphere. and to human eyes, full
[1:28] Speaker 1: day was no more than a red-tinged darkness. He switched
[1:32] Speaker 1: on the ship's outside floodlights, and the viewscreen came to
[1:35] Speaker 1: bright white life, showing the empty glades reaching away between
[1:39] Speaker 1: groves of purple alien trees. He noticed absently that the
[1:42] Speaker 1: trees seemed to have changed a little in color since
[1:45] Speaker 1: his arrival. The village was hidden from view by the
[1:49] Speaker 1: outer trees, but there should have been some activity in
[1:52] Speaker 1: the broad area visible to him. There was none. not
[1:55] Speaker 1: even along the distant segment of what should have been
[1:58] Speaker 1: a busy road. The natives were up to something, and
[2:00] Speaker 1: he knew, from hard experience on other alien worlds, that
[2:04] Speaker 1: it would be nothing good. It would be another misunderstanding
[2:07] Speaker 1: of some kind, and he didn't know enough of their
[2:09] Speaker 1: incomprehensible language to ask them what it was. Suddenly, as
[2:13] Speaker 1: it always came, he felt someone or something standing close
[2:17] Speaker 1: behind him and peering over his shoulder. He dropped his
[2:20] Speaker 1: hand to the blaster he had taken to wearing at
[2:22] Speaker 1: all times and whirled. Nothing was behind him. There never was.
[2:27] Speaker 1: The control room was empty, with no hiding place for anything,
[2:30] Speaker 1: and the door was closed, locked by the remote control
[2:33] Speaker 1: button beside him. There was nothing. The sensation of being
[2:37] Speaker 1: watched faded, as though the watcher had withdrawn to a
[2:40] Speaker 1: greater distance. It was perhaps the hundredth time within six
[2:43] Speaker 1: days that he had felt the sensation. And when he
[2:46] Speaker 1: slept at night, something came to nuzzle at his mind. Faceless. Formless.
[2:51] Speaker 1: Utterly alien. For the past three nights, he had not
[2:55] Speaker 1: let the blaster get beyond quick reach of his hand,
[2:58] Speaker 1: even when in bed. But whatever it was, it could
[3:01] Speaker 1: not be on the ship. He had searched the ship twice,
[3:04] Speaker 1: a methodical compartment-by-compartment search that had found nothing. It had
[3:08] Speaker 1: to be the work of the natives from outside the ship. Except, why,
[3:13] Speaker 1: if the natives were telepathic, did the one called Throon
[3:17] Speaker 1: go through the weary pretense of trying to learn a
[3:19] Speaker 1: mutually understandable form of communications? There was one other explanation,
[3:25] Speaker 1: which he could not accept, that he was following in
[3:27] Speaker 1: the footsteps of Will Garrett of Ship Nine, who had
[3:30] Speaker 1: deliberately gone into a white sun two months after the
[3:33] Speaker 1: death of his twin brother. He looked at the chair
[3:36] Speaker 1: beside his own, Johnny's chair, which would forever be empty,
[3:40] Speaker 1: and his thoughts went back down the old bitter paths.
[3:43] Speaker 1: The exploration board had been wrong when they thought the
[3:47] Speaker 1: close bond between identical twins was would make them the
[3:50] Speaker 1: ideal two-man crews for the lonely, lifetime journeys of the
[3:54] Speaker 1: exploration ships. Identical twins were too close. When one of
[3:58] Speaker 1: them died, the other died in part with him. They
[4:02] Speaker 1: had crossed a thousand light-years of space together, he and Johnny,
[4:06] Speaker 1: when they came to the bleak planet that he would
[4:08] Speaker 1: name Johnny's World. He should never have let Johnny go
[4:11] Speaker 1: alone up the slope of the honeycombed mountain, but Johnny
[4:15] Speaker 1: had wanted to take the routine record photographs of the
[4:18] Speaker 1: black tiger-like beasts which they had called cave cats, and
[4:22] Speaker 1: the things had seemed harmless and shy despite their ferocious appearance.
[4:27] Speaker 1: I'm taking them a sack of food that I think
[4:29] Speaker 1: they might like, Johnny said. I wanted to try to
[4:32] Speaker 1: get some good close-up shots of them. Ten minutes later,
[4:35] Speaker 1: he heard the distant snarl of Johnny's blaster. He ran
[4:38] Speaker 1: up the mountainside, knowing already that he was too late.
[4:42] Speaker 1: He found two of the cave cats lying where Johnny
[4:44] Speaker 1: had killed them. Then he found Johnny at the foot
[4:47] Speaker 1: of a high cliff. He was dead, his neck broken
[4:50] Speaker 1: by the fall. Scattered all around him from the torn
[4:53] Speaker 1: sack was the food he wanted to give the cats.
[4:56] Speaker 1: He buried Johnny the next day, while a cold wind
[4:59] Speaker 1: moaned under the lead-gray sky. He built a monument for him,
[5:03] Speaker 1: a little mound of frosty stones that only the wild
[5:06] Speaker 1: animals would ever see. A chime rang high and clear,
[5:10] Speaker 1: and the memories were shattered. The orange light above the
[5:13] Speaker 1: hyperspace communicator was flashing. The signal that meant the exploration
[5:17] Speaker 1: board was calling him from Earth. He flipped the switch
[5:20] Speaker 1: and said, Paul Jameson, Exploration Ship One. The familiar voice
[5:25] Speaker 1: of Brenda spoke. It's been some time since your preliminary report.
[5:29] Speaker 1: Is everything all right? In a way, he answered. I
[5:33] Speaker 1: was going to give you the detailed report tomorrow. Give
[5:36] Speaker 1: me a brief sketch of it now. Except for their
[5:39] Speaker 1: short brown fur, the natives are humanoid in appearance, but
[5:43] Speaker 1: there are basic differences. Their body temperature is cool like
[5:46] Speaker 1: their climate. Their vision range is from just within the
[5:49] Speaker 1: visible red on into the infrared. They'll shade their eyes
[5:54] Speaker 1: from the light of anything as hot as boiling water,
[5:57] Speaker 1: but they'll look square into the ship's floodlights and never
[5:59] Speaker 1: see them. And their knowledge of science, Brenda asked? They
[6:04] Speaker 1: have a good understanding of it, but along lines entirely
[6:07] Speaker 1: different from what our own were at their stage of development.
[6:11] Speaker 1: For example... They power their machines with chemicals, but there
[6:14] Speaker 1: is no steam, heat, or exhaust. That's what we want
[6:18] Speaker 1: to find. Worlds where branches of research unknown to our
[6:21] Speaker 1: science are being explored. How about their language? No progress
[6:25] Speaker 1: with it yet. He told Brenda of the silence in
[6:28] Speaker 1: the village and added, Even if Thrun should show up,
[6:31] Speaker 1: I could not ask him what was wrong. I've learned
[6:34] Speaker 1: a few words, but they have so many different definitions
[6:37] Speaker 1: that I can't use them. I know, Brenda said. Variable
[6:41] Speaker 1: and unrelated definitions, undetectable shades of inflection, and sometimes a
[6:46] Speaker 1: language that has no discernible separate words. The Singer brothers
[6:49] Speaker 1: of Ship 8 ran into the latter. We've given them
[6:53] Speaker 1: up as lost. The Singers? Dead? he exclaimed. Good God,
[6:58] Speaker 1: it's only been a month since the Ramon brothers were killed.
[7:02] Speaker 1: The circumstances were similar, Brenda said. They always are. There's
[7:06] Speaker 1: no way the exploration men can tell the natives that
[7:10] Speaker 1: they meant them no harm, and the suspicion of the
[7:12] Speaker 1: natives grows into dangerous hostility. The singers reported the natives
[7:17] Speaker 1: on that world to be both suspicious and possessing powerful weapons.
[7:21] Speaker 1: The singers were proceeding warily, their own weapons always at hand,
[7:25] Speaker 1: but somehow the natives caught them off guard. Their last
[7:29] Speaker 1: report was four months ago. There was silence. Then Brenda added,
[7:34] Speaker 1: their ship was the 9th. and we had only 15.
[7:37] Speaker 1: He did not reply to the implications of Brenda's statement.
[7:42] Speaker 1: It was obvious to them all what the end of
[7:44] Speaker 1: the plan would be, what it had to be. It
[7:48] Speaker 1: had been only three years since the 15 heavily armed
[7:51] Speaker 1: exploration ships set out to lead the way for Terran
[7:53] Speaker 1: expansion across the galaxy, to answer a cry from far
[7:57] Speaker 1: planets and to find all the worlds that held intelligent life.
[8:01] Speaker 1: That was the ultimate goal of the plan. to accumulate
[8:04] Speaker 1: and correlate all the diverse knowledge of all the intelligent
[8:07] Speaker 1: lifeforms in the galaxy. Among the achievements resulting from that
[8:11] Speaker 1: tremendous mass of data would be a ship's drive faster
[8:14] Speaker 1: than even hyperspace, the third level drive, which would bring
[8:19] Speaker 1: all the galaxies of the universe within reach. And now
[8:22] Speaker 1: nine ships were gone out of 15, and 19 men
[8:25] Speaker 1: out of 30. The communication barrier, Brender said, the damned
[8:29] Speaker 1: communication barrier, has been the cause behind the loss of
[8:32] Speaker 1: every ship, and there's nothing we can do about it.
[8:35] Speaker 1: We're stymied by it. The conversation was terminated shortly afterward,
[8:40] Speaker 1: and he moved about the room restlessly, wishing it was
[8:43] Speaker 1: time to lift the ship again. With Johnny not there,
[8:46] Speaker 1: the dark world was like a smothering tomb. He would
[8:49] Speaker 1: like to leave it behind and drive again into the
[8:51] Speaker 1: star clouds of the galaxy. Drive on and on into them.
[8:55] Speaker 1: A ghostly echo touched his mind, restless, poignantly yearning. He
[9:01] Speaker 1: swung to face the locked door, knowing there could be
[9:04] Speaker 1: nothing behind it. The first real fear came to him
[9:07] Speaker 1: as he did so. The thing was lonely. The thing
[9:10] Speaker 1: that watched him was lonely as he was. What else
[9:13] Speaker 1: could any of it be but the product of a
[9:15] Speaker 1: mind in the first stages of insanity? The natives came
[9:19] Speaker 1: ten minutes later. The viewscreen showed their chemically-powered vehicle emerge
[9:23] Speaker 1: from the trees and roll swiftly across the glade. Four
[9:27] Speaker 1: natives were in it while a fifth one lay on
[9:29] Speaker 1: the floor, apparently badly injured. The vehicle stopped a short
[9:33] Speaker 1: distance in front of the airlock, and he recognized the
[9:35] Speaker 1: native on the floor. It was Throon, the one with
[9:39] Speaker 1: whom he'd been exchanging language lessons. They were waiting for
[9:42] Speaker 1: him when he emerged from the ship, pistol-like weapons in
[9:45] Speaker 1: their belts and grim accusations in their manner. Throon was
[9:50] Speaker 1: muttering unintelligibly, unconscious. His skin, where not covered by the
[9:55] Speaker 1: brown fur, was abnormal in appearance. He was dying. The
[10:00] Speaker 1: leader of the four indicated Throon and said in a quick,
[10:03] Speaker 1: brittle voice, Co-Rigar-Feen-Nodron. Only one word was familiar. Co, which
[10:11] Speaker 1: meant you, and yesterday, and a great many other things.
[10:15] Speaker 1: The question was utterly meaningless to him. He dropped his
[10:19] Speaker 1: hand a little nearer his blaster as the leader spoke again,
[10:22] Speaker 1: a quick succession of unknown words that ended with a
[10:26] Speaker 1: harshly demanding, Crescent! Crescent meant now or very quickly. All
[10:32] Speaker 1: the other words were unfamiliar to him. They waited, the
[10:35] Speaker 1: grim menace about them increasing, when he did not answer.
[10:39] Speaker 1: He tried in vain to find some way of explaining
[10:42] Speaker 1: to them he was not responsible for Throon's sickness and
[10:45] Speaker 1: could not cure it. Then he saw the spray of
[10:48] Speaker 1: leaves that had caught on the corner of the vehicle
[10:50] Speaker 1: when it came through the farther trees. They were of
[10:53] Speaker 1: a deep purple color. All the trees around the ship
[10:56] Speaker 1: were almost gray, by contrast. Which meant that he was
[11:00] Speaker 1: responsible for Throon's condition. The cold white light of the
[11:04] Speaker 1: ship's floodlights, under which he and Throon had sat for
[11:07] Speaker 1: day after day, contained radiations that went through the violet
[11:11] Speaker 1: and far into the ultraviolet. To the animal and vegetable
[11:14] Speaker 1: life of the dark world, such radiations were invisibly short
[11:17] Speaker 1: and deadly. Throon was dying of hard radiation sickness. It
[11:22] Speaker 1: was something he should have foreseen and avoided, and that
[11:25] Speaker 1: would not have happened had he accepted old Throon's pantomimed
[11:29] Speaker 1: invitation in the beginning to go with him into the
[11:32] Speaker 1: village to work at the language study. There he would
[11:35] Speaker 1: have used a harmless battery lamp for illumination, but there
[11:38] Speaker 1: was no certainty that the natives were not planning to
[11:41] Speaker 1: lay a trap for him in the village. and he
[11:43] Speaker 1: had refused to go. It did not matter. There was
[11:47] Speaker 1: a complex radiation neutralizer and cell reconstructor in the ship,
[11:51] Speaker 1: which would return Throon to full normal health a few
[11:54] Speaker 1: hours after he was placed in its chamber. He turned
[11:57] Speaker 1: to the leader of the four natives and motioned from
[11:59] Speaker 1: Throon to the airlock. Go there, he said in the
[12:03] Speaker 1: native language. Bronn, the leader answered. The word meant no,
[12:08] Speaker 1: and there was a determination in the way he said
[12:10] Speaker 1: it that showed he would not move from it. At
[12:13] Speaker 1: the end of five minutes, his attempts to persuade them
[12:15] Speaker 1: to take Throon into the ship had increased their suspicion
[12:17] Speaker 1: of his motives to the point of critical danger. If
[12:21] Speaker 1: only he could tell them why he wanted Throon taken
[12:23] Speaker 1: into the ship. But he could not, and would have
[12:26] Speaker 1: to take Throon by first disposing of the four without
[12:29] Speaker 1: injuring them. This he could do by procuring one of
[12:32] Speaker 1: the paralyzing needle guns from the ship. He took a
[12:36] Speaker 1: step toward the ship and spoke the words that, to
[12:39] Speaker 1: the best of his knowledge, meant, I come back. Their
[12:44] Speaker 1: reply was to snatch at their weapons in desperate haste,
[12:47] Speaker 1: even as the leader uttered a hoarse word of command.
[12:51] Speaker 1: He brought up the blaster with the quick motion that
[12:53] Speaker 1: the long training had perfected, and their weapons were only
[12:56] Speaker 1: half drawn when his warning came. They froze, but did
[13:02] Speaker 1: not release their weapons. He walked backwards to the airlock,
[13:05] Speaker 1: his blaster covering them, the tensely waiting manner in which
[13:09] Speaker 1: they watched his progress, telling him, that the slightest relaxation
[13:12] Speaker 1: of his vigilance would mean his death. He did not
[13:15] Speaker 1: let the muzzle of the blaster wave until he was
[13:18] Speaker 1: inside the airlock and the outer door had slid shut.
[13:22] Speaker 1: He was sure that the natives would be gone when
[13:24] Speaker 1: he returned, and he was sure of another thing, that
[13:27] Speaker 1: whatever he had said to them, it was not what
[13:30] Speaker 1: he thought he was saying. He saw that the glade
[13:32] Speaker 1: was empty when he opened the airlock again. At the
[13:35] Speaker 1: same time, a bomb-like missile struck the ship just above
[13:38] Speaker 1: the airlock and exploded with a savage crash. He jabbed
[13:42] Speaker 1: the close button, and the door clicked shut barely in
[13:44] Speaker 1: advance of three more missiles which hammered at his impervious armor.
[13:49] Speaker 1: So that, he thought wearily, is that. He laid the
[13:52] Speaker 1: useless needle gun aside. The stage was passed when he
[13:55] Speaker 1: could hope to use it. He could save Throon only
[13:58] Speaker 1: by killing some of the others. Or he could lift
[14:01] Speaker 1: ship and leave Throon to die. Either action would make
[14:04] Speaker 1: the natives hate and fear Terrans, a hatred and fear
[14:08] Speaker 1: that would be there to greet all future Terran ships.
[14:11] Speaker 1: That was not the way a race gave birth to
[14:13] Speaker 1: peaceful galactic empire, was not the purpose behind the plan.
[14:17] Speaker 1: But always, wherever the exploration men went, they encountered the
[14:21] Speaker 1: deadly barrier, the intangible, unassailable communication barrier. With the weapons
[14:27] Speaker 1: an exploration man carried in his ship, he had the
[14:30] Speaker 1: power to destroy a world, but not the power to
[14:32] Speaker 1: ask simple questions that would prevent fatal misunderstandings. And before
[14:36] Speaker 1: another three years had passed, the last exploration man would die.
[14:40] Speaker 1: The last exploration ship would be lost. He felt the
[14:43] Speaker 1: full force of hopelessness for the first time. When Johnny
[14:47] Speaker 1: had been alive, it had been different. Johnny who laughed
[14:49] Speaker 1: whenever the outlook was darkest and said, we'll find a way, Paul.
[14:54] Speaker 1: The thought broke as suddenly, unexpectedly, he felt that Johnny
[14:57] Speaker 1: was very near. With the feeling came the soft enclosure
[15:00] Speaker 1: of a dreamlike peace in which Johnny's death was vague
[15:03] Speaker 1: and far away. Only something that had happened in another dream.
[15:07] Speaker 1: He knew without wondering why. that Johnny was in the
[15:10] Speaker 1: control room. A part of his mind tried to reject
[15:13] Speaker 1: the thought as an illusion. He did not listen. He
[15:16] Speaker 1: did not want to listen. He ran to the ship's elevator,
[15:19] Speaker 1: stumbling like one not fully awake. Johnny was waiting for
[15:23] Speaker 1: him in the control room, alive, alive. He spoke as
[15:27] Speaker 1: he stepped into the control room. Johnny! Something moved at
[15:30] Speaker 1: the control board, black and alien, standing tall as a
[15:32] Speaker 1: man on short hind legs. Yellow eyes blazed in a
[15:36] Speaker 1: feline face. It was a cave cat, like the ones
[15:40] Speaker 1: that Johnny had killed. Realization was a wrenching shock and
[15:44] Speaker 1: a terrible disillusionment. Johnny was not waiting for him, not alive.
[15:50] Speaker 1: He brought up the blaster. The dreamlike state was gone.
[15:53] Speaker 1: The paw of the cave cat flashed out and struck
[15:55] Speaker 1: the ship's master light switch with a movement faster than
[15:58] Speaker 1: his own. The room was instantly totally dark. He fired,
[16:03] Speaker 1: and pale blue fire lanced across the room to reveal
[16:06] Speaker 1: that the cave cat was gone, He fired again quickly
[16:09] Speaker 1: and immediately in front of him. The pale beam revealed
[16:12] Speaker 1: only the ripped metal floor. I am not where you think.
[16:17] Speaker 1: The words spoke clearly in his mind, but there was
[16:19] Speaker 1: no directional source. He held his breath, listening for the
[16:23] Speaker 1: whisper of padded feet as the cave cat flashed in
[16:26] Speaker 1: for the kill and made a swift analysis of the situation.
[16:30] Speaker 1: The cave cat was telepathic and highly intelligent and had
[16:33] Speaker 1: been on the ship all the time. It and the
[16:35] Speaker 1: others had wanted the ship and had killed Johnny to
[16:38] Speaker 1: reduce opposition to the minimum. He himself had been permitted
[16:42] Speaker 1: to live until the cave cat learned from his mind
[16:44] Speaker 1: how to operate the almost automatic controls. Now he had
[16:48] Speaker 1: served his purpose. You are wrong. Again, there was no
[16:52] Speaker 1: way he could determine the direction from which the thought came.
[16:55] Speaker 1: He listened again and wondered why I did not waylaid
[16:58] Speaker 1: him at the door. Its thoughts came. I had let
[17:02] Speaker 1: you see me or you would not have believed I existed.
[17:05] Speaker 1: It was only here that I could extinguish all lights
[17:07] Speaker 1: and have time to speak before you killed me. I
[17:11] Speaker 1: let you think your brother was here. There was a
[17:13] Speaker 1: little pause. I am sorry. I am sorry. I should
[17:17] Speaker 1: have used some other method of luring you here. He
[17:20] Speaker 1: swung the blaster toward what seemed to be a faint
[17:22] Speaker 1: sound near the astrogator unit across the room. We did
[17:26] Speaker 1: not intend to kill your brother. He did not believe
[17:29] Speaker 1: it and did not reply. When we made first telepathic
[17:33] Speaker 1: contact with him, he jerked up his blaster and fired.
[17:36] Speaker 1: In his mind was the conviction that we had pretended
[17:38] Speaker 1: to be harmless animals so that we could catch him
[17:41] Speaker 1: off guard and kill him. One of us leaped at
[17:43] Speaker 1: him as he fired the second time to knock the
[17:46] Speaker 1: blaster from his hand. We needed only a few minutes
[17:49] Speaker 1: in which to explain, but he would not trust us
[17:51] Speaker 1: that long. There was a misjudgment of distance and he
[17:55] Speaker 1: was knocked off the cliff. Again, he did not reply.
[17:59] Speaker 1: We did not intend to kill your brother, the thought came,
[18:02] Speaker 1: but you do not believe me. He spoke for the
[18:05] Speaker 1: first time. No, I don't believe you. You are physically
[18:08] Speaker 1: like cats, and cats don't misjudge distances. Now you want
[18:12] Speaker 1: something from me before you try to kill me too.
[18:14] Speaker 1: What is it? I will have to tell you of
[18:17] Speaker 1: my race for you to understand. We call ourselves the Varn,
[18:21] Speaker 1: insofar as it can be translated into a spoken word,
[18:24] Speaker 1: and we are a very old race. In the beginning,
[18:28] Speaker 1: we did not live in caves, but there came a
[18:30] Speaker 1: long period of time, for thousands of years, when the
[18:32] Speaker 1: climate on our world was so violent that that we
[18:35] Speaker 1: were forced to live in the caves. It was completely
[18:37] Speaker 1: dark there, but our sense of smell became very acute,
[18:40] Speaker 1: together with sufficient sensitivity to temperature changes that we could
[18:43] Speaker 1: detect objects in our immediate vicinity. There were subterranean plants
[18:48] Speaker 1: in the caves, and food was no problem. We'd always
[18:52] Speaker 1: been slightly telepathic, and it was during our long stay
[18:55] Speaker 1: in the caves that our intelligence and telepathic powers became
[18:58] Speaker 1: fully developed. We had only our minds. Physical science is
[19:02] Speaker 1: not created in dark caves with clumsy paws. The time
[19:06] Speaker 1: finally came when we could leave the caves, but it
[19:09] Speaker 1: was of little help to us. There were no resources
[19:12] Speaker 1: on our world, but earth and stone and the thin
[19:14] Speaker 1: grass of the plains. We wondered about the universe, and
[19:18] Speaker 1: we knew the stars were distant suns because one of
[19:20] Speaker 1: our own suns became a star each winter. We studied
[19:24] Speaker 1: as best we could, but we could see the stars
[19:26] Speaker 1: only as the little wild animals saw them. There was
[19:30] Speaker 1: so much we wanted to learn, and by then we
[19:32] Speaker 1: were past our zenith and already dying out. Thank you.
[19:40] Speaker 1: ship arrived, we thought we might soon be free. We
[19:43] Speaker 1: wanted to ask you to take some of us with
[19:44] Speaker 1: you and arrange for others of your race to stop
[19:47] Speaker 1: by on our world. But you dismissed us as animals,
[19:50] Speaker 1: useful only for making warm fur coats, because we lived
[19:54] Speaker 1: in caves and had no science, no artifacts, nothing. You
[19:57] Speaker 1: had the power to destroy us, and we did not
[19:59] Speaker 1: know what your reaction would be when you learned we
[20:02] Speaker 1: were intelligent and telepathic. A telepathic race must have a
[20:05] Speaker 1: high code of ethics and never intrude unwanted. But would
[20:09] Speaker 1: you have believed that? He did not answer. The death
[20:13] Speaker 1: of your brother changed everything. You were going to leave
[20:16] Speaker 1: so soon that there would be no time to learn
[20:18] Speaker 1: more about you. I hid on the ship so I
[20:21] Speaker 1: could study you and wait until I could prove to
[20:23] Speaker 1: you that you needed me. Now I can. Thrun is
[20:27] Speaker 1: dying and I can give you the proper words of
[20:29] Speaker 1: explanation that will cause the others to bring him into
[20:31] Speaker 1: the ship. Your real purpose, what is it? He asked.
[20:36] Speaker 1: To show you that men need the Varn. You want
[20:39] Speaker 1: to explore the galaxy and learn. So do the Varn.
[20:42] Speaker 1: You have the ships and we have the telepathic ability
[20:44] Speaker 1: that will end the communication problem. Your race and mine
[20:48] Speaker 1: can succeed only if we go together. He searched for
[20:52] Speaker 1: the true and hidden purpose behind the Varn's proposal and
[20:55] Speaker 1: saw what it would have to be. The long-range goal,
[20:59] Speaker 1: you failed to mention that. Your ultimate aim. I know
[21:02] Speaker 1: what you're thinking. How can I prove you wrong now?
[21:07] Speaker 1: There was no way for the Varn to prove him wrong,
[21:09] Speaker 1: nor for him to prove the treachery behind the Varn proposal.
[21:12] Speaker 1: The proof would come only with time, when the Terran-Varn
[21:15] Speaker 1: cooperation had transformed Terrans into a slave race. The Varn
[21:20] Speaker 1: spoke again. You refuse to believe that I am sincere.
[21:23] Speaker 1: I would be a naive fool to believe you. It
[21:27] Speaker 1: will be too late to save Throon unless we act
[21:29] Speaker 1: very quickly. I have told you why I am here.
[21:32] Speaker 1: There is nothing more I can do to convince you,
[21:34] Speaker 1: but to be the first to show trust. When I
[21:37] Speaker 1: switch on the lights, it will be within your power
[21:39] Speaker 1: to kill me. The Varn was gambling its life in
[21:43] Speaker 1: a game in which he would be gambling the plan
[21:46] Speaker 1: and his race. It was a game he would end
[21:48] Speaker 1: at the first sound of movements from the Astrogator unit
[21:51] Speaker 1: across the room. I have been here beside you all
[21:54] Speaker 1: the time. A furry paw brushed his face. Claws flicked
[21:58] Speaker 1: gently but grimly reminding along his throat. He whirled and fired.
[22:03] Speaker 1: He was too late. The Varn had already leaped silently
[22:06] Speaker 1: away and the beam only found the bare floor. Then
[22:09] Speaker 1: the lights came on, glaringly bright after the darkness, and
[22:12] Speaker 1: he saw the Varn. It was standing by the control board,
[22:16] Speaker 1: its huge yellow eyes watching him. He brought the blaster
[22:19] Speaker 1: into line with it, his finger on the firing stud.
[22:22] Speaker 1: It waited, not moving or shrinking from what was coming.
[22:25] Speaker 1: The translucent golden eyes looked at him and beyond him,
[22:28] Speaker 1: as though they saw something not in the room. He wondered...
[22:32] Speaker 1: if it was in contact with its own kind on
[22:35] Speaker 1: Johnny's world and was telling them it had made the
[22:38] Speaker 1: gamble for high stakes and had lost. It was not afraid,
[22:42] Speaker 1: not asking for mercy. The killing of it was suddenly
[22:45] Speaker 1: an act without savor. It was something he would do
[22:47] Speaker 1: in the immediate future, but first he would let it
[22:50] Speaker 1: live long enough to save Throon. He motioned with the
[22:53] Speaker 1: blaster and said, lead the way to the airlock. And afterward,
[22:57] Speaker 1: will you kill me? Lead the way, he repeated harshly.
[23:02] Speaker 1: It said no more, but went obediently past him and
[23:04] Speaker 1: trotted down the corridor like a great black dog. He
[23:08] Speaker 1: stood in the open airlock, the varn against the farther
[23:10] Speaker 1: wall where he had ordered it to stand. Throon was
[23:13] Speaker 1: in the radiation chamber, and he had held its first
[23:16] Speaker 1: intelligible conversation with the natives that day. The varn was
[23:20] Speaker 1: facing into the red-black gloom outside the lighted airlock, where
[23:23] Speaker 1: the departing natives could be heard crossing the glade. Their
[23:27] Speaker 1: thoughts no longer hold fear and suspicion, it said. The
[23:29] Speaker 1: misunderstanding has ended. He raised the muzzle of the blaster
[23:33] Speaker 1: in his hand. The black head lifted and the golden
[23:36] Speaker 1: eyes looked upon him. I made you no promise, he said.
[23:40] Speaker 1: I could demand none. I can't stop to take you
[23:43] Speaker 1: back to your own world, and I can't leave you
[23:45] Speaker 1: alive on this one. With what you've learned from my mind,
[23:48] Speaker 1: you would have the natives build the Varn as a
[23:51] Speaker 1: disintegrator-equipped space fleet equal to our own ships. We only
[23:56] Speaker 1: want to go with you. He told it what he
[23:59] Speaker 1: wanted it to know before he killed it, wondering why
[24:01] Speaker 1: he should care. I would like to believe you are
[24:04] Speaker 1: sincere and you know why I don't dare to. Trusting
[24:07] Speaker 1: a telepathic race would be too dangerous. The Varn would
[24:10] Speaker 1: know everything we knew and only the Varn would be
[24:13] Speaker 1: able to communicate with each new alien race. We would
[24:16] Speaker 1: have to believe what the Varn told us. We would
[24:19] Speaker 1: have to trust the Varn to see for us and
[24:21] Speaker 1: speak for us and not deceive us as we went
[24:23] Speaker 1: across the galaxy. And then in the end, Terrans would
[24:27] Speaker 1: no longer be needed except as the subject race. They
[24:31] Speaker 1: would be enslaved. We would have laid the groundwork for
[24:35] Speaker 1: an empire, the Varn Empire. There was a silence in
[24:39] Speaker 1: which his words hung like something cold and invisible between them.
[24:43] Speaker 1: Then the Varn asked, very quietly, why is the plan failing?
[24:48] Speaker 1: You already know, he said, because of the barrier, the
[24:51] Speaker 1: communication barrier that causes aliens to misunderstand the intentions of
[24:55] Speaker 1: of exploration men and fear them. There is no communication
[24:58] Speaker 1: barrier between you and I, yet you fear me and
[25:01] Speaker 1: are going to kill me. I have to kill you.
[25:04] Speaker 1: You represent a danger to my race. Isn't that the
[25:08] Speaker 1: same reason why aliens kill exploration men? He did not answer,
[25:13] Speaker 1: and its thoughts came quickly. How does an exploration man
[25:16] Speaker 1: appear to the natives of alien worlds? How did he appear?
[25:21] Speaker 1: He landed on their world in a ship that could
[25:23] Speaker 1: smash it into oblivion. He stepped out of the ship
[25:26] Speaker 1: carrying weapons that could level a city. He represented irresistible
[25:29] Speaker 1: power for destruction, and he trusted no one and nothing.
[25:33] Speaker 1: And in return, he hoped to find welcome and friendship
[25:36] Speaker 1: and cooperation. There, the Varn said, is your true barrier,
[25:41] Speaker 1: your own distrust and suspicion. You yourselves created on each
[25:45] Speaker 1: new world. Now you're going to erect it between my
[25:48] Speaker 1: race and yours by killing me and advising the exploration
[25:50] Speaker 1: board to quarantine my world and never let another ship
[25:53] Speaker 1: land there. Again, there was silence as he thought of
[25:57] Speaker 1: what Varn had said and of what it had said earlier.
[26:00] Speaker 1: We are a very old race. There was wisdom in
[26:03] Speaker 1: the Varn's analysis of the cause of the plan's failure.
[26:07] Speaker 1: And with the Varn to vanquish the communication stalemate, the
[26:10] Speaker 1: new approach could be tried. They could go a long
[26:12] Speaker 1: way together, men and Varn, a long, long way. Or
[26:17] Speaker 1: could they create the Varn Empire? And how could he
[26:20] Speaker 1: know which it would be? How could anyone know except
[26:23] Speaker 1: the telepathic Varn? The muzzle of the blaster had dropped,
[26:26] Speaker 1: and he brought it back up. He forced the dangerous
[26:29] Speaker 1: indecision aside, knowing he would have to kill the Varn
[26:32] Speaker 1: at once, or he might weaken again, and said harshly
[26:36] Speaker 1: to it, The risk is too great. I want to
[26:38] Speaker 1: believe you, but all your talk of trust and good
[26:40] Speaker 1: intentions is only talk, and my race would be the
[26:43] Speaker 1: only one that had to trust. He touched the firing
[26:47] Speaker 1: stud as the last thought of the Varn came. Let
[26:50] Speaker 1: me speak once more. He waited, the firing stud cold
[26:54] Speaker 1: and metallic under his finger. You are wrong. We have
[26:57] Speaker 1: already set the example of faith in you by asking
[27:00] Speaker 1: to go with you. I told you we did not
[27:02] Speaker 1: intend to hurt your brother, and I told you we
[27:04] Speaker 1: saw the stars only as the little wild animals saw them.
[27:08] Speaker 1: The years in the dark caves, you do not understand.
[27:12] Speaker 1: The eyes of the Varn looked into his and beyond him, beautiful, expressionless,
[27:16] Speaker 1: like polished gold. The Varn are blind.
[27:24] Speaker 2: Thank you.

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