Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

SAVIOUR we needn’t consider them right now. After all that comes a group of abilities that are really speeded-up versions of normally accepted abilities; things like lightning calcula- tion, photographic memory and so on. Now we've al- ready come across cases of all these abilities. Some people, as Whittam told you, have perhaps one or two together, while others may have more. But we’ve never come across a complete set of what we call the psi faculties existing all together under the same roof, so to speak. Never, that is, until you cropped up. That’s one reason why you’re important. The other is the more important one.”’ Patrick nodded slowly. “‘Go on,” he prompted, wondering vaguely what reason could be more important to these people than the one he had just been hearing about. “Well, I don’t suppose the word telergy means anything to you, but it’s used to signify the action of one person’s mind on that of another. It’s a very elusive thing indeed and, thanks to the war and all that’s followed as a result of the war, we’re still a long way from finding out much about it. But you, Patrick Vane, apparently pos- 69 sess telergetic power to a fantastic degree, though you can’t control it consciously. That is why you’re so im- portant.” “You mean because I’m the first person you’ ve come across who’s got this—this telergetic ability ?”’ “Not just that. As Whittam said, one of our clairvoyants saw a probability path on the Fan in which you figured prominently. You figured prominently because, on that path, you had complete con- scious control over what we cancallthenormalpsifaculties, and also complete control of your telergetic power. And that last power, apparently, is something so vast as to be almost beyond the under- standing and comprehension even of people of our group who know something about such things.” Patrick felt a chillness ex- ploring his body and his mind alike. He licked his lips. ‘“‘On this—this probability path, now,” he said, “how was I using all this power ?”’ The answer was spoken simply and quietly. “To end - the war.” To end the war! To break the society in which he’d been brought up; break it and force it to see the idiocy of its own comiclbooks.cormn