I Speak for Earth by John Brunner Read Free Book Online Page A

think what anyone would select me for,” he burst out at last. “Why? What have I got that’s special?”
    “I’ll tell you,” said Schneider calmly. “You have a gift for escaping from patterns of ordinary thinking. For example, no one but you had thought of employing this polarized-gravity device for welding metals—yet you say it was obvious, and doubtless it was, to you.”
    Schneider settled himself a little more comfortably in his chair and began to use his cigar as a sort of conductor’s baton, directing the course of his little lecture.
    “You have heard it said, I am sure, that our representative at the capitol of the Federation of Worlds will be like a savage in New York, yes? Our savage will see it in terms of what he is used to, and not consider other possibilities. You have this gift for visualizing unfamiliar possibilities. You will without doubt need it.”
    Joe felt a frown begin to crease his forehead. He said again, but less dogmatically this time, “If I am the one chosen to go—?”
    “Precisely.”
    “But—are the other candidates being chosen on similargrounds? I mean, are they all people with this so-called gift? Have you got it?”
    Schneider shook his head. Suddenly he glanced at his watch and got to his feet. “I cannot stay longer,” he said. “I must go to an appointment with the secretary-general. I will give you time to finish your letter; then at nine o’clock tonight you will be taken to the airplane and you will be tomorrow morning in the middle of the Pacific, where the final testing station has been established, far from anywhere else.”
    “Will my letter get to her?” said Joe stonily, not moving.
    Schneider met his eyes. He nodded. “I will myself see to that,” he promised.
    When Schneider had left the room, Joe sat meditating for a few minutes. His frown grew more and more pronounced. At last he picked up his stylo and began to write on.
    Schneider just broke in on me to tell me I’ve passed; I’m on the short list of candidates. He says he’s another of the candidates—the first I’ve met
.
    There’s something fishy here. I’m sure of it
.
    Then he started to put down what he felt about Maggie, and the frown faded into a reminiscent smile.
    In his palatial apartment, Briaros waited, turning one of his precious wineglasses around and around in his hands. It was some minutes after the appointed time that the doorbot announced the arrival of Schneider.
    The white-haired psychologist came in without ceremony when the door opened, and dropped himself into an armchair. He said, “We have your six candidates, Sr. Briaros.”
    Briaros nodded, waiting.
    “That’s including myself,” added Schneider. “About that, I am unhappy!”
    “Why?” said Briaros. He put aside the cut glass on a table and leaned forward.
    “I will tell you this,” said Schneider, “not, believe me, because I do not think I will be valuable, nor from lack of courage to face the unknown. If I had lacked courage I could have borrowed from the candidates who do not know what is in store. They have much confidence. They are anxious, but reasonably anxious, that is all. They are tough, mentally, resilient, readily able to adjust to—anything?” He utteredthe last word on a faintly questioning note, as though momentarily losing trust in his own powers of judgment.
    “No, it is not unwillingness or timidity,” Schneider reaffirmed after a pause. “It is something deep and beyond my control. You know, Sr. Briaros, that I was the first person on whom I tried my little trick?”
    “I wouldn’t call it a little trick,” said Briaros soberly. “It’s more like a small miracle.”
    “I give you that. No matter. But listen. I had thought and believed that I and my wife were as close after thirty years of marriage as any two people could be. Our friends have said sometimes that we are telepathic now, because we think alike, we sometimes do not have to say to each other what we want. So!