Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 42: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

40 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION and the forest. ‘““We’ll have to wait some, I guess. Give them time.” *Who?’’ “You'll see. Keep your eyes open; and speak softly, by the way. Am I being coy, Chang?” ‘*You certainly are.” “Don’t you think, though—” He began again, seriously: “I do it as a joke, Chang. You really don’t seem to want to tell me what you’re doing. What do you want, the glory of solv- ing the problem all by yourself? That doesn’t mean anything.” ““That’s true.” She didn’t think that ‘was what she wanted. “‘T’ll tell you as I learn things.” ‘But let me in on the difficulties, too. It’s so important. If we can com- municate with the nibblies, it’ll be tremendous. We'll understand the gross ecology of the planet in half the time, let alone—talking to a non- human! Chang, it’s the most wonder- ful thing, it’s the most important and exciting thing—”’ “I know,” said Chang, “‘that’s my job.” But she had felt so close and warm toward Balch while he was speaking; she had to say more! “I know,” she said again desperately, “T know.” For a moment she sat bit- ing her lip. ‘I shouldn’t moralize,”’ said Balch. Chang shot him a grateful look, but he was watching the forest. “How’s your nibbly?” he resumed casually. ‘‘Lackadaisical,”’ she told him. ““He just doesn’t care much. I show him stuff visually; he looks at it and goes on eating. Yet I know sight is his most important sense.” “Wave lengths wrong?” “No, I know it’s not that. And he doesn’t even seem particularly inter- ested in his surroundings, that’s the strangest part. He doesn’t investigate, Tim. I don’t expect him to start chatting with me, but he doesn’t even pay much attention to me, or to any- thing else but food. A few times he’s made a circuit of the wall of his room, sniffing with that active nose of his. I interpret this, for now, as loneliness.” *“Maybe.”’ “But that’s all. After two days of watching him do nothing, I decided I’d get nowhere unless I confronted him with an artificial problem. I rigged up a simple maze, with food reward and a light DC shock for failure. I was afraid he might feel insulted by its triviality, but after all, I figured, they’re not extremely civi- lized animals.” ‘No bridges, no airplanes,” Balch agreed; “not even any manual tools that we’ve seen. How did he do?” “He did well, as long as there was only the reward and no shock. About as well as a padzid or an Earth rat, but different from either. He gets dis- couraged very easily, that’s the best way to sum it up. But then I intro- duced the DC shock, and that was a bad idea. He touched the terminal with his nose and it knocked him for a loop.” “Oh? That’s bad. You should have started with a very small voltage and worked up, maybe?” ““That’s what I thought I was do- ing, you see. Anyway, I switched to AC. At the same voltage it didn’t seem to annoy him at all; I doubled the voltage and he was knocked out again.” “Think he’s injured?” “That’s my worry for today. Hilda Streloff’s coming up in an hour to look at him. I thought she might have some suggestions.” Chang felt Balch’s eyes on her; she studied the forest intently. ““There’s a lot more to tell, of course, even about his inactivity.” Her voice trailed off, then—‘‘Look! Over there!” | ~ Balch looked where she was point- connicloooks.c© inn