HARM

HARM by Brian W. Aldiss Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: HARM by Brian W. Aldiss Read Free Book Online
Authors: Brian W. Aldiss
you to see. Bromheed, bring the prisoners out for inspection.”
    As ordered, the warrior called Bromheed opened up the door of the wheeled cage. Using a stick, he made the five prisoners emerge from the cage into the square. They stood in a forlorn group, none higher than a ten-year-old human child. They had milky-white faces and hair of the same color. Fremant studied them with interest. Poor little creatures, he thought. Their bodies were entirely cloaked in a sort of furry material, down to the ankles. Their feet were bare.
    They stood motionless before the crowd, their heads lowered.
    The onlookers muttered uneasily to one another. Then, recognizing the helplessness of those small folk they had decided were their enemies, they began to laugh—to laugh scornfully, Fremant thought as he listened, not only at the Dogovers but at their own fears.
    This cruel noise affected the prisoners. They turned to one another, forming a small ring, linking arms over each other’s shoulders, putting their heads together.
    Essanits swore a holy oath and ran to break up the ring. But too late. The prisoners collapsed, slowly, to sprawl in an entangled mass at Essanits’s feet.
    Essanits fell to his knees and pulled one of the childlike folk to him. Its head lolled foolishly on its shoulders. Like the others, it was dead.
    He laid the corpse gently down before turning to address Astaroth and the watching crowd. “Oh, sadness! We have witnessed this strange occurrence before. These little people, rather than bear disgrace, can will themselves to die. It is an uncanny, alien talent which we humans do not possess.
    “I deeply regret my part in this…in all this…”
    Tears of compassion glittered in his eyes as he spoke.
    “Be a man, Essanits, damn you!” exclaimed the All-Powerful. “Whatever the cause, these weaklings committed suicide. Did not these feeble little creatures deserve to die? We would have killed them anyway.” He turned on his heel and strode back into the Center, closely followed by his guards. Meanwhile, the crowd had fallen silent. Conditions on Stygia were such that many had ended their own lives.
    The scene had made a deep impression on many, not least on Fremant. The people assembled in the square drifted away, in silence or muttering uneasily to one another.
    A scientific man, by name Tolsteem, one of Astaroth’s few researchers, stopped Essanits in the hall.
    “Excuse me, sir, I heard you refer to willed death as uncanny. That is not necessarily the case. In the human frame, the constant beating of the heart is part of our autonomic nervous system. I surmise that in the case of the Dogovers, so called, their hearts are controlled by parasympathetic nerves which can slow the heart so severely it can cause death. Inhibition of the heart is known in humans and—”
    “What does all this nonsense mean?” Essanits demanded. “They died, didn’t they?”
    “You miss my point, sir, if you will excuse me. If the heart is surrounded by parasympathetic vagus nerves, then it can be controlled on occasions—stopped, in fact. It’s not uncanny, but a simple biological fact. The little Dogovers are products of an evolution which differs from ours.”
    “You talk unholy rubbish,” said Essanits sternly. “Out of my way, if you please.”

    T O WILL YOURSELF TO DEATH… The prisoner lay sprawled on the floor of a room, the dimensions of which he did not know. To will yourself to death. He strained every nerve, yet could not die. His heart functioned as part of his autonomic nervous system.
    A sensation of burning numbness penetrated his entire body. He could think only of how good it would be to commit suicide simply by willpower, as the Dogovers did: their hearts must be, much like human breathing, part of a semiautonomic nervous system. Tolsteem had understood.
    A bowl of soup was passed through the door flap. The prisoner’s mouth was dry. He needed the liquid but could not order his limbs to move, to drag

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