“Think about it.” The two uhalti officers were conferring behind the glass. You could be the key to winning this war.” “We think you have a physiological immunity. “So as far as we can tell, the enemy’s weapon just didn’t affect you.” “And you haven’t suddenly turned pacifist, have you? No reservations about military service?” Have you ever taken Evidence as a recreational drug, spaceman?” No unexplained new memories, no personality changes, no shift in opinions. “We see no change in your brain’s internal models as a result of the attack. “It’s normal to think about sex,” said Kenta.
You could tell what they were thinking about.
This lets us do a fair comparison.”Ī second cauliflower was dropped onto Kenta’s plate. “The point is moot,” said the shrink, “because in the comparison scan taken one hour ago, you were also thinking about non-reproductive sex. “I didn’t think anyone would ever look at the scan, aer.” Instead, you apparently spent the duration of the scan thinking about non-reproductive sex.” “In this scan you were told to think about your home town. “Spaceman Imura, this is a brain scan taken during your induction physical two years ago.” Kenta looked at his own brain like it was being served up to him at a fancy restaurant. Thon dropped a 3-image into Kenta’s terminal: a cauliflower lit up around the edges. “Okay,” said the rre doctor, shifting into a voice that told Kenta he should regard being interrupted here as a form of mercy. And then-I remember this-the fire alarm goes off, and I’m thinking, why is there a fire alarm when we’re going to die? I go out in the hall to see if there’s something I can do about the fire and… there’s Niyazov, and he’s on fire, and…” And even if we were feeling great, three people can’t run a whole swarm. Me and Heshlathl are feeling nauseous, and at some point he drops his rations. They go into the Evidence hallucination, maybe they’re talking to themselves, but effectively it’s down to me and Heshlathl and Tun-Rusj in drone control.” The call goes out, we’ve been hit with an Evidence weapon, but, duh, because my buddies in drone control have stopped working. My squad’s deploying drones to kill the thirty. “Uh, we skip in, the depot’s guarded by thirty ships. “I didn’t even see anything,” said Kenta. “Before we get started, these fellas-” a status light flashed on the shrink’s exobody, the equivalent of a human casting a glance at the officers behind the glass “-want to hear your version of what happened at Mas’pl.” He tried again, trying to sound enthusiastic. The rre psychologist stayed safe encased in a milky-white plastic surgical exobody. A couple of uhaltihaxl officers stared at him through a thick glass window in his hospital room. Everyone was looking at him but no-one wanted to be in the same room with him: he gave off fear like a gas. Spaceman Kenta Imura was in the worst trouble of his life. “Right off, I want you to know,” said the rre psychologist, “that you are not in any trouble.” * * * We, the Unwilling by Leonard Richardson For readers of Leonard Richardson’s subversive, widely acclaimed Situation Normal, this story unfolds after the battle of Mas’pl, in which the Fist of Joy summarily rendered the Outreach fleet impotent by stealth chemistry. Here is an inside glimpse of how this vital task gets accomplished. It’s a well-known though closely guarded fact that troop loyalty & morale depend on timely delivery of holiday meals.