Title: The Klygha
Author: Fyfe, H. B. (Horace Bowne)
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Klygha" ***


                              The KLYGHA

                             By H. B. FYFE

                       Illustrated by SCHELLING

                  _It is a considerable talent--to be
                 able to use the minds of other beings
                  to see for you, to talk for you. It
                     is also a considerable risk._

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
                    Amazing Stories December 1963.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


It is hard ... to be made a server by a being from outside the herd. It
is hard to remember who is who. Another is inside the head. The Klygha.
He dreams to wake the cat. What is sleep?

Who is a ... _why_ is a cat? It is not the herd-mind, the mover of the
Terrans. Yet, it is not served by them nor does it serve.

The cat dreams--it fears. We fear with it. The mouth chasing us is
filled with shining teeth. The cat dreams that it runs. What is it to
run? _We_ ache to flop into the sea and swim away. The cat makes growls
and hisses.

Partly, it is served by the Terrans. With food, with tickles. It
does not work or hunt. Yet it is not their herd-mind. They have
not a ... no, they have _many_ independent minds, many movers. The
Klygha has one; but there is one of him and four Terrans. One in his
travelling-shell, back ... _there_. Four in _this_ shell balanced,
pointing high, before us. And the cat. And we along the sea-edge,
watching while feeding among the breakers.

The cat wakes. Its eyes open and it sees the inside of the Terran
travelling-shell. The Klygha sees with it. Since he has entered our
mind, we see with the Klygha; but neither of us can see the true
colors because the cat sees no color.

One of the Terrans is there. He is a large being, three times as
tall as the largest of us, almost twice as tall as the Klygha. Like
the Klygha, he wears someone else's covering. The cat wears its own
covering, as do we.

The Terran bends in a strange way, to rest himself on a place
shaped for that. He has four limbs. So does the Klygha, but _he_
looks and bends differently when he sees his reflection within his
travelling-shell. The Terran is bigger and thicker, and his skin is
tighter.

He works on a shining thing held in two of his grippers. The cat
watches but does not know what the thing does. The Klygha sees it
only by the mind of the cat, but he knows what it does. We know with
him--the thing hears noises that cannot be heard, for the Terrans
talk with noises and with noises that cannot be heard which are made
by another shining thing. The Klygha knows what all the things in the
Terran travelling-shell will do because he has made the cat watch for
him as the Light rose many, many times.

Another Terran enters this part of the shell. He is thinner and lighter
colored than the first. He makes noises. The Klygha knows that one of
the noises means the first Terran.

       *       *       *       *       *

"How about it, Joe? Will you have it in time for me to hike up the
beach this afternoon?"

"Maybe. I dunno why you have to have it," says Joe. "We never saw
anything that'd make you radio for help. Anyway, Foggy's going with
you, isn't he?"

"That's what the bulletin board claims. 'Marvin Sussman and George
Vogel--collect biological specimens.' That means me; Foggy's a swell
space tech but he wouldn't know a fungus from a fern."

The cat sees him point to a place behind them where there are marks
of white on black. Some marks mean the Terrans--called Bill Halloran
or Marvin Sussman or George Vogel or Joe Ramirez--and some explain
what they or the shining things in the shell do. The Klygha cannot
understand all the marks yet. If he could, he would know all there is
to know about the Terrans and go back to his own star.

Until he learns more, he makes us stay nearby.

Now, we feel the Klygha. He is excited; he means to take action ... we
feel it will be with the cat somehow....

Yes, he is making the cat speak a Terran sound.

"Mmar-min ... Mmar-min!"

The Terrans make large eyes at the cat. They bend in their strange way
to have a close sight of it.

"Did you hear what I thought I heard, Joe?"

"I ... I ... Teufel said _miaou_, I think."

The cat makes the sound again.

"Like hell he said _miaou!_ He said 'Marvin.' Now who taught him that?"

The Terran called Joe Ramirez unbends himself, lurches in their fashion
to an opening at the side, and makes loud noises.

Two other Terrans come. One is large and heavy, with bright fuzz at
his top. The other is shorter and thicker with hair the shade of our
beach. The Klygha knows that these are called Halloran and Foggy, and
we remember it with the Klygha.

He makes the cat speak to each of them; and they all make big eyes at
the cat.

"Bull!" says Halloran. "Who's the wiseguy ventriloquist?"

"It iss a spirit in t'e little Teufel," says Foggy.

"I speak to you from outside the ship," says the Klygha. "I must
contact you through the mind of your pet."

They all make noises. Those of Halloran are Terran words that even the
Klygha does not know, so we do not understand either. Vogel runs out of
the chamber. When the cat sees this, the Klygha makes many of us along
the beach rear up and turn toward the Terran shell.

He lets the cat go, partly, and we can feel that it is unhappy. It
backs into a corner and bends itself into a lump. Then the Klygha is
with us.

It is hard to have another in the mind. He makes us turn our eyestalks
toward the shell and watch. Nothing on it seems to move, except once
there is a small flicker near the top.

Then, by the cat, we see the Terran named Vogel hurry back into the
chamber.

"I see t'em outside on the scanner," he says. "About t'irty of t'ose
lumpy t'ingss like hound-sized starfish wit' fringed edges!"

"What about it?" says Halloran. "There's a herd on every other beach."

"T'ey are watching us! Who else would be doing t'iss to little Teufel?"

       *       *       *       *       *

The Klygha enjoys a strange feeling we do not understand. It is
pleasure, but more complicated ... he thinks the Terrans are
interesting to watch while back in his own travelling-shell he rolls on
his back and makes noises to himself. The cat also rolls on its back
and makes noises, but the Klygha forces it to stop that and speak again
to the Terrans.

"It is my opinion that an exchange of information would be of value to
all of us," says the cat.

The Terrans make grunts and growls. Marvin says, "That was not too
clear, Teufel. Try it again."

The Klygha makes the cat say the words again, more slowly, and the
Terrans seem to understand.

"What do you want to know?" says Marvin.

"And what do you have to offer?" says Joe.

"That is to be discovered," says the cat. "To begin--from where did you
come?"

The Terrans look at each other a long time before Halloran says, "From
a star called Sol. And you?"

"I lived here before you arrived," says the cat for the Klygha.

This is not very true, and it seems strange to us that the Terrans do
not realize it.

"How is it," says Marvin, "that you have the ... ah ... are
sufficiently advanced to contact us in this manner, and yet have built
none of the usual appurtenances of civilization?"

The Klygha makes him say it another way before he understands and can
answer.

"In the first place," the cat says for him, "we are an aquatic race.
You see us only at the meeting of the sea and land. In the second,
there may be civilization without complicated physical structures. We
do not know of any other kind, since you are the first beings to come
here from a star."

The Terrans seem not to hear the slip he makes, that should reveal to
them he has again not told the truth. The Klygha always fools them;
they still believe the shells we made for the Klygha are what they
call "fossils." They do not know that by a natural body process we can
draw substances from seawater and form them as we wish. The Klygha
learned this almost at the beginning. Besides the objects he wanted for
deceiving the Terrans, we made for him some of the liquids he uses to
make his travelling-shell go--but he was impatient that it took us so
long.

"Perhaps," says Halloran, "we could both benefit by exchanging
information; that is, if you are really what you say!"

He looks suspiciously at the other Terrans, as if he does not entirely
believe the cat is controlled by another mind.

From then on, the talk is strange to us. When the Klygha answers
questions, the cat talks as if it were one of us here on the beach--but
we learn that the Klygha understands us only a little. The answers he
gives are mostly wrong. He has never troubled to learn how we live
underwater, but only used us for his own purposes.

The Terrans do a stranger thing. They do not give many answers that are
not so, but they pretend not to know the answers the Klygha wants. Many
times they tell him about their star, Sol; but never do they explain
clearly where it is in the sky. The Klygha is so disappointed that we
feel him in the mind, and it is a bad feeling.

Then he agrees with the Terrans to talk again when the Light has gone
and returned. He makes us leave that place and flop along the shore
a long way, but we can still see through the eyes of the cat while
the Klygha is in our mind. The Terrans have left the cat alone in the
chamber from which they talked. Perhaps they have gone somewhere to
watch us; the cat can neither see nor hear them.

       *       *       *       *       *

Before the Light is gone, the Klygha lets us go beneath the water. Even
in the shallows, it is restful.

Still, we can touch minds with the cat and know that it is yet dark
when one of the Terrans comes to pack the cat in a small, soft
place. The Klygha does not know, for he rests in darkness inside his
travelling-shell.

Then a bright light pulses, even through the water that shields us
from the cool of the darkness. We feel that the cat is moving away from
us.

After a time, a Terran returns to the cat. He removes it from the
small, soft place in which it rested. The cat then floats, as do we
when underwater.

We swim ashore with the first Light, and wait for the Klygha to wake.

The Light rises in the sky. He wakes, seeks the mind of the cat ...
and finds it far distant in the sky. Many pictures flow through the
Klygha's mind, with the speed and violence of waves driven by a great
storm.

We all shiver when he turns to us, but he makes us scan the beach and
the marks left by the Terrans' travelling-shell in the blackened and
glittering sand.

Then he draws from us the memories of the darkness, and small lights
flicker within the Klygha's mind.

He hurries to another chamber of his shell. We feel that he means to
pursue the Terrans. He will ride to the sky on a wave of flame, as
did they; and he will finally learn of their star by following their
shell beyond the sky where--strange as it feels in his mind--there is
nothing, except the stars.

He has forgotten us. We wait, and watch through the Klygha's mind as
he touches the shining things within his shell that do for him what
similar shining things do for the Terrans. Thus, we know as soon as he
when he makes his mistake....

The Klygha's travelling-shell bursts through the surface he has spun
above it to look like the side of a mountain; but it does not go
straight and it does not go far. He has a terrible fear. We feel it
with him, and try to bury ourselves in the sand.

There are noises and flares of light.

There is dizziness, the feeling of being tossed about by the currents
created when the land shakes.

There is pain ... fear of death ... silence.

For a time, we see with the Klygha visions of the world from which he
comes. It is confusing; for sometimes the Klygha is small and happy
amid others of his breed, sometimes he is grown and talks to others
equally, and sometimes we see him with beings and objects which are
strangely wrong, though neither we nor the Klygha understand why.

Then these things fade away, and the Klygha returns to his mind--which
is worse.

He frees himself of what holds him in place, scans the many shining
things that tell him of his situation, and crawls outside to the
ground. When he looks back, he sorrows ... deeply ... and we grieve
with him since--though he now forgets us--he is still in our mind. We
realize that he is unable to return to his world.

There is no way he can repair his travelling-shell in this place
occupied only by uncivilized, brutish life-forms. He thinks of the
Terrans, and knows that he must make a decision--whether to be a Klygha
or a coward....

There is a short doubt. Then the Klygha gropes far out above the sky
for the mind of the cat. He is a coward.

"Mmmar-min!" says the cat.

       *       *       *       *       *

We see with it a chamber of the Terran travelling-shell. There is no
Terran present, so the Klygha makes the cat go in search of one. We
feel with the cat as it goes, for it almost swims. It pushes against a
side with two of its feet and floats through the air toward the opening
it wishes to pass through.

Now we understand the tail of the cat--it is for swimming in air. It
whirls and twists, and the cat spins as it goes. It touches another
side, plunges through the opening into a long but narrow space, twists
again, and pushes itself along that space. It is very much more clever
than it seemed on this world.

It is also very good with sounds, and knows where to find the Terrans
by hearing them.

"Mmmar-min!" it says again, as it enters another chamber.

This place in the Terran shell is much like the Klygha's, with many
shining and flashing things. There are differences, but the Klygha can
understand many of the objects; therefore so can we.

"Mmmar-min, we mmust go back!" says the cat.

"Back where?" says Marvin. He does not seem completely awake, for he
continues to stare at the shining things and the lighted things and to
listen to the tiny sounds coming from some of them.

Then he suddenly unbends himself and makes large eyes at the cat.

"You can still talk!" he says. "Which one are you now?"

The Klygha hesitates. Then he makes the cat speak the truth, for he is
now a coward.

"I am the one who spoke through your pet before," the cat says for him.
"Please return! I need your help."

Through the cat's vision, we see the Terran's large, five-divided
grippers reach out at us. The view shifts ... he has picked up the cat
and put it on a flat space before some of the shining things. We twitch
about on the beach until we realize that it is the cat twitching its
ears and tail. It is not happy on the flat space and it is not happy
with the Klygha in its mind. We know.

The Terran called Marvin moves clicking things in front of him and
speaks. With the Klygha, we understand that his sounds are carried
along a string of metal to other parts of the travelling-shell. Soon,
other Terrans answer, and a little later they arrive.

Then the noise increases. They all talk at once, and their opinions
are much less to be understood than ours when all of us communicate at
once. They do not add to each other's strength; they lessen it. The cat
is irritated--it looks away at the shining lights. The Klygha wishes
the cat could see in color, for then he would be able to understand
more about the Terrans' controls, but this wish is weak. He wants more
that the Terrans return, and he listens anxiously to them.

"But I heard him _say_ it!" says Marvin. "There's another spacer
there--it _couldn't_ be those lumpy beach-crawlers!"

"T'at would make senss," says Foggy. "I never believed t'ose tings
looked smart enough."

"No, and neither do you guys!" says Halloran. "Come on, Marvin--admit
you dreamed it!"

"He did not dream it," says the cat. "I desperately need your help."

They turn to look at the cat.

"Say it again, Teufel, and slower," says Marvin. "You don't talk too
plainly, you know."

The cat says it again.

"And you are right about the beach amphibians. They have nothing to
do with me. Like yourselves, I am an explorer from another planetary
system."

       *       *       *       *       *

They watch the cat with different attitudes. Marvin twitches a little,
as if excited. The front of Halloran's head wrinkles and his teeth show
threateningly. The mouths of the other two hang open.

"My ship suffered an accident as I attempted to take off," says the
cat. "It is wrecked. Unless you return to help me, I shall be marooned
here forever!"

"You see?" says Marvin. "We'll have to go back."

"Wait a minute!" says Halloran. "First, we have to decide if any of
this is real."

"I guess it's gotta be," says Joe.

"Whaddya mean?"

"How could a black cat make up a story like that? He never talked
before."

"I do not understand t'at myself," says Foggy. "And ven I do not
understand somet'ing, I tink it iss a good time to be careful."

"What could happen?" says Marvin. "If there is somebody back there--and
there's no reason not to believe it--just imagine all the things we
could learn from him!"

"But if the cat really was talkin' for somebody," says Joe, "he was
pretty cagey about giving out information. What if it does turn out
to be those squids on the beach, tryin' to con us into coming back in
range where they can get control of us all?"

"Yess. Remember--t'at iss why we left so quick!"

The cat feels bad because the Klygha worries. We also worry, but it is
hard--with another in the mind--to know if we worry that the Terrans
will return for the Klygha, or that they will not and we will have him
with us always.

The cat watches the big Terran, Halloran, as he lurches back and forth
before the others. His face is dark, and we feel that it must be red if
only the cat could see that color.

"Enough of this!" he says loudly. "Whaddya want to do? Go chasing into
all sorts of wild orbits on account of a talking cat, for Chrissake?
We're well off the damn' planet with our skins and our data. Let's stay
off!"

He is angry. We hate him. No ... the Klygha hates him.

He makes the cat yowl at Halloran, and Halloran catches the cat.

We bite him!

No ... the _cat_ bites Halloran. The Klygha makes the cat bite
Halloran, but we see it. We feel it. We hear Halloran's words, but his
mouth twists and is not to understand. His mind is to understand. He
strikes out. He will kill....

It is hard to see, because everything whirls about, as when one is
caught below in a strong, tumbling current. Then the other Terrans have
their grippers all over Halloran and the cat is free of him.

It fears and rages mightily for so small a being. It swims under
something low, where it crouches to snarl hate at the feet of the
Terrans. Somehow--we wish we knew!--it has forced the Klygha out of its
mind.

Then, from the Klygha, we feel true despair!

If the Klygha did not feel so bad, we could interest ourselves in the
cat, for _we_ still see and feel with it. Are we better at this than
the Klygha? Did he, too, feel Halloran's mind for an instant? It cannot
be ... yet perhaps we are better at remembering. Until the Klygha,
memory was our all.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Klygha is with us again. Desperation has made him quick, and he
knows that we are with the cat. We feel him struggle ... and all our
minds struggle with him.

Slowly, the cat creeps out into the open. It raises itself and speaks.

"There is no hoax, no trap," it says for the Klygha. "I could not
control any being of advanced intelligence."

The Terrans silence their talk to look at the cat.

"I know you have a helicopter," says the cat. "To verify what I tell
you, it is necessary only for you to send someone out in it when you
return. The wreck of my ship will be easy to locate and observe."

They make the cat repeat this twice more, because it does not talk well
by their standards. Then they speak among themselves for a long time
while the Klygha fears to interrupt them.

In the end, Halloran bends himself into the comfortable place where
Marvin had rested and begins to make the Terran travelling-shell return
to us.

The Light goes and comes again before they arrive. It must be a very
great distance that they travel. Finally, terrible noises tear apart
the clouds and the Terrans return in a burst of flame streaking down
from the sky.

The noise fades. Once again, the tall thing stands upright on our
beach, where now more of the sand is blackened and smoking.

The Klygha sees this through individuals whom he has forced to watch.
When the flames stop, he allows the rest of us to come out of the
breakers.

The sand no longer smokes and steams by the time two of the Terrans
appear. We watch for the Klygha as they lower what he called a
helicopter down the side of their shell on a long strand of metal;
because it is no longer easy for him to watch through the cat. The
Terrans, since they started back, do not always permit the cat to see
what they do or hear what they say.

Now, however, the one called Joe Ramirez takes the cat with him inside
the helicopter. He makes the branches on top spin around, until the
helicopter floats into the air and swims through it toward the hills.

When it approaches the place where we feel the Klygha to be, the cat
sees him standing in an open space near the wreck. Joe sees him only
when the cat speaks, because he looks at the wreck. We wish the cat
would also observe the wreck--for it would give us pleasure to see the
Klygha's mistake--but it is not allowed, lest it lose sight of the
Klygha. For the first time, we see him through another mind than his
own.

       *       *       *       *       *

He is halfway between the size of a Terran and of one of us. Having
only four limbs like them, he still looks different. His skin is loose
and baggy, covered with fine, dark gray down; but most of it is hidden
by a covering cleverly made to fit around the Klygha's body and limbs.
The cat sees this as light gray, but we remember that when the Klygha
considered himself in his travelling-shell the covering seemed to him
the color of the sky.

For the rest, he resembles the picture he had of himself--he did not
trouble to deceive us. His head is flatter and longer than those of the
Terrans, and grows from his body in a different way. Because he has two
eyes, large and gleaming black, he reminds one of a Terran. That is,
the two eyes set right in the head and the four limbs make him look
more like a Terran than the small mouth like that of a sucking fish
makes him look different. We wonder if all beings from the stars have
this general similarity.

He is quite nimble as he runs over to meet the landing helicopter. Now
we see what it is to run. At times, no part of the Klygha touches the
ground, any more than we touch sand in skimming along the sea bottom.
But to do this on land! It must be wonderful.

Joe does not act surprised. We have seen the Terrans walking on the
beach but perhaps they can run also. Joe seems more interested in
examining the Klygha carefully after he halts beside the helicopter.
The Terran then raises a shining thing to his mouth and speaks.

"He looks clean, for all I can see. Somehow, he seems to look worried,
too."

Noises answer him, and the cat understands them as the voice of
Halloran.

"Okay, then; bring him in with you. See if you can get him to
understand that he'll have to live on what we have."

"I, too, am an oxygen-breather," says the cat for the Klygha. "That
is why I was interested in exploring this planet. As for incidental
supplies, I can get what I need from my ship."

"Good enough!" says the voice of Halloran. "Go with him, Joe!"

"How long a trip will it be?" says the cat.

There is silence among the Terrans. Through the cat sitting on his
forelimb, we feel Joe tighten his muscles. Then Halloran's voice
answers through the air.

"We'll let you know later ... when we understand each other's
chronology better. Bring as much as you can, to be sure."

Once again, they will not tell him anything about where their star is.
Now, however, the Klygha understands that he must obey. He has a deep
fear of being left on this world.

There is little cause for him to fear. We have learned that we could
make for him, from the waters of the sea, all the things he needs.
There is a little of everything in the sea, but he is too impatient. He
considers that life does not last long enough. Is it possible that a
Klygha does not live as long as we do?

Joe takes the Klygha into the helicopter, which he moves closer to the
wreck. They both crawl inside to get the things the Klygha wants. He
would like not to take the Terran inside but is afraid to deny him. Joe
helps him carry some supplies outside. He also makes a bright light
to flash many times. Through the Klygha's mind, we understand that
Joe makes what he calls "pictures" as a way to remember what he sees.
We do not entirely understand--if one sees something, he remembers it
always, and sometimes his offspring also. These beings from the stars
are different.

       *       *       *       *       *

We are much disturbed, and flop nervously about the beach until the
helicopter returns to the Terran travelling-shell. There is always the
chance that they will not take him. Perhaps Joe learned enough inside
the wreck to make it needless.

It is hard, with another half in the mind and half out, to be sure
whose idea that is. We feel it must be Halloran's. We wonder if we
will always have that little touch of the Terran's mind that we learned
from the cat during Halloran's rage. The Klygha does not bother with us
any more and the cat does not care.

There is no difficulty. The Terrans are still interested in the Klygha
and the things he can teach them. They find a soft, enclosed place for
him larger than the one into which they afterward put the cat. Then
they prepare to go away beyond the sky.

We hurry to get off the beach. It is hard ... after so long with the
Klygha in the mind. We must decide for ourself, and move all the herd.

When it is dark, flame and noise are once again to be sensed through
the shallow water. We can feel the cat and the Klygha ... and someone
else ... moving further away. It is not the direction we remember from
the Klygha's mind. They must really be headed for the Terrans' star. We
swim deeper into the water, to await the Light.

When we emerge, it is to a good feeling. There is no other in the head.
All is as it was ... almost. Perhaps more of us now have the strength
to be potential movers.

Still, at what must be a huge distance, we faintly but distinctly sense
the star-minds--the Klygha, the cat, and even Halloran. It is enough
to show us the direction of the Terran's star. We feel this direction
change as the Light moves across the sky, and now we realize that the
world beneath us spins. We will always remember the star of the Terrans
and its direction, while we collect other herds of people to help
examine the wreck of the Klygha's ship.

The star of the Klygha we will also remember ... and its direction ...
for this was in the Klygha's mind when he refused to tell it to the
Terrans.

Other things we remember are those that were told to the Klygha, or
remembered by him, or seen by the cat, or seen since then in color by
the Klygha ... and even some of the things understood by Halloran. It
is enough to know how to build a ship of our own, for in the sea are
all the substances needed and our bodies can filter and form deposits
of any required shape.

Much time will be needed. To reach the stars, many herd-minds must be
joined together; but we will follow the Terrans, and the Klygha ... and
perhaps find others. And the leader, the controller of all of them,
will be ... we? ... will be I! _I_ shall lead my people to the stars,
now that we can ... can _think_!

The Klygha does not know what he has done!


                                THE END




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