Indirection | Page 8

doubtfully. "You think
the boy will develop?"
Kweiros nodded. "I'm quite sure of it," he said. "And he's got a big job

ahead of him. He may be instrumental in preventing a major disaster."
He waved at the tape reels.
"I got that little tape out just on an off chance," he added. "Didn't really
expect to find anything, but--" He flipped his hands out. "Anyway, I
pulled it." He leaned forward, looking at Jaeger.
"We may have run into a second, or even third growth culture," he said
slowly. "Once, before some ancient war of destruction, the people of
this planet might have been normally telepathic." He closed his eyes for
an instant. "Possibly they were unable to use their telepathic power.
And equally possibly, they could have had a highly developed
mechanical civilization. Something went wrong." He waved at the tape
reel.
"In this reconstruction, there's an hypothesis on just such a situation.
Here, a race reaches high development and wrecks itself--leaving no
trace of its accomplishments. Growth starts over from the most meager
of beginnings. Survival becomes a matter of the most bitter conflict,
with everyone becoming a hunter and being hunted in his turn. In this
situation, detection of an enemy becomes vital." He grinned wryly.
"Can you imagine what would happen to someone who radiated his
thoughts?"
Jaeger ran a finger over his lips. "He'd be easy to locate," he mused.
"And he'd have a hard time evading an enemy."
"Precisely." Kweiros nodded. "And he'd never be able to approach his
prey. In short, he'd fail to survive. Complete telepathic blankness would
have a high survival value. But an ability to detect mental radiation
would still be a big help." He waved a hand.
"So, a race like this one could evolve. And the author of this tape
extrapolated from there. A normal telepathic reception will be
accompanied, by a slight feedback. A completely black body, however,
will neither radiate nor feed back. It merely absorbs energy and, unless
it's super-imposed on a reflective background, it leaves no trace. Since
nothing in nature other than a telepathic mind can reflect telepathy, no

background would survive for long." He frowned a little.
"Of course, no mind we are familiar with could act as a telepathically
black body, but this author hypothesized a race that could do just
that--plus. There's a further hypothesis of an ability to detect and
localize radiations as such, without bothering to resolve them."
"Sounds like just what we have here," Jaeger admitted.
"It does, doesn't it?" Kweiros nodded. "And there's a further
extrapolation. Some of the members or the elder races have speculated
on a sort of second-order telepathy, undetectable to the normal telepath,
but capable of noting normal radiation. And some of the speculations
seem to make sense--though they're a little confusing. If you don't have
a specific sense, it's difficult to visualize it, or even to speculate on its
presence." He drew a deep breath.
"That leads us into a real problem. Our people roamed around this
planet for several cycles this time. And there may have been others
before us, who didn't record their visits, other than in the minds and
legends of the natives. And there may be other legends from that other,
older culture." He shrugged.
"We picked up what we could on the culture, but we didn't get the full
story on them. And we've probably left a thousand legends behind us,
including that beautiful mess at your station." He grinned.
"Right now, their folklore is loaded with sorcerers, warlocks, wizards,
and what not. After all, whatever their past is, they're primitive now. So
those stories are going to grow and continue. Eventually, long before
they really develop a stabilized ethic, someone's going to collate that
whole mess. And do you know what he'll come up with?"
"Us?"
"Us, yes. Us, in a distorted form." Kweiros nodded emphatically. "They
will come to a full realization that there are advanced entities running
around the cosmos, entities that have all kinds of mysterious powers.

And they'll invent still more powers and characteristics--mostly bad."
He spread his hands, then laid them on the desk in front of him.
* * *
"That way, they could develop a hopeless, planet-wide trauma--a sort
of super inferiority complex--and they could contract on themselves,
devote their time to an intensive study of demonology, and very
possibly come apart at the seams.
"Or, they could do something else. I was watching Elwar while I was
checking that tape. Did you notice anything peculiar?"
"He seemed disturbed."
"As though he were sensing my thoughts?"
"Something like that. But--"
Kweiros nodded. "But I had a shield up. You could detect no trace of
mental action. Right?"
"Yes, sir."
"That's what I thought." Kweiros shook his head and looked closely