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Authors: Marc Stiegler
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number than I.
Then the phone rang.
The psychologists of today have a boxful of explanations for such events. I myself prefer any one of a dozen of their explanations to the mystical alternative. Still, it is most important to remember the incidents in your life that violate your expectations. Psychologists have also proved that the surprising, disconcerting incidents are the ones we are most likely to forget. This is perhaps the ultimate tragedy—for these incidents are the only ones that point out the flaws in our views, that would enable us to fix and improve the models of the world we use to mold our expectations.
And let's face it—no matter how many times we prove that ESP does not exist, we will never be able to disprove it entirely. Just as the experiments in physics that endlessly seek a proton decay can only increase the number of billions of protons needed to detect one, so we can only restrict the probability of psychic events to increasingly smaller odds. We can never reach zero.
And for anyone who believes in psychic phenomenon, I have good news as well: I have every faith that, if someone were to prove the existence of ESP one day, the physicists and the psychologists would have plausible explanations for it the day after. Goodness, the people who brought us outrageously counterintuitive explanations of the universe like quantum chromodynamics and Heisenberg uncertainty should surely be able to explain a simple thing like telepathy!
Too Loving A Touch
Veddin's eyes closed as his warship skipped into normal space. His concentration focussed on his ship's sensors. Images poured through the shiplink embedded in his cerebellum. He had expected to find yet another Squishy ambush, but he floated safe and easy amidst his own robot fleet.
He opened his eyes, to see the beauty of normal space himself. The hard points of starlight and the brilliant sun of the Hydra system blazed with cheer.
Veddin's vision merged again with the images from the DareDrop 's sensors. The scene telescoped. The sun brightened, then dimmed as the DareDrop 's computer screened its rays. Soon Hydra floated just beyond Veddin's nose. It was a lustrous blue and white jewel, unlike anything in the FreeFed. His own home planet, Kaylanx, was perhaps more colorful with its violent swirls of red, green, and violet, but Kaylanx was not warm , as was Hydra.
He nudged his ship towards the planet. A small contingent of the main fleet followed. Senships scattered into early-warning array around the system.
This was foolish, Veddin realized—using standard military tactics just outside the one invincible planet in the galaxy. He almost ordered the senships back to the main fleet. But with a shrug he let them go. What else could he do with them, after all? For the first time, he understood why the Directorate had let him bring his fleet; now that FreeFed had been found by the larger human civilization, the Directorate had less use for the fleet than Veddin now had for the senships.
Something about Hydra disturbed Veddin. A troubled frown formed, then faded as he realized what was missing: There were neither moons nor battle-stations around the planet. His sensors backed off a bit and caught a single space station glinting in the sun. It was surrounded by gigantic freighters from the rest of human space. They were beautiful, and Veddin felt awed by the builders of these craft that dwarfed the DareDrop .
He also felt an unreasonable surge of joy, being here. It was different from anything he'd ever felt before, a joy that filled parts of his soul that until now had been empty.
Alerted by the sensation, almost alarmed, Veddin searched for an explanation. Meanwhile the joy grew stronger.
"Commander of the unidentified war fleet, this is maneuver control. Please identify yourself." The voice came not through any of the DareDrop 's communications channels, but through his mind itself. It reminded him of his first contact with a Hydran Couple, as the
Then the phone rang.
The psychologists of today have a boxful of explanations for such events. I myself prefer any one of a dozen of their explanations to the mystical alternative. Still, it is most important to remember the incidents in your life that violate your expectations. Psychologists have also proved that the surprising, disconcerting incidents are the ones we are most likely to forget. This is perhaps the ultimate tragedy—for these incidents are the only ones that point out the flaws in our views, that would enable us to fix and improve the models of the world we use to mold our expectations.
And let's face it—no matter how many times we prove that ESP does not exist, we will never be able to disprove it entirely. Just as the experiments in physics that endlessly seek a proton decay can only increase the number of billions of protons needed to detect one, so we can only restrict the probability of psychic events to increasingly smaller odds. We can never reach zero.
And for anyone who believes in psychic phenomenon, I have good news as well: I have every faith that, if someone were to prove the existence of ESP one day, the physicists and the psychologists would have plausible explanations for it the day after. Goodness, the people who brought us outrageously counterintuitive explanations of the universe like quantum chromodynamics and Heisenberg uncertainty should surely be able to explain a simple thing like telepathy!
Too Loving A Touch
Veddin's eyes closed as his warship skipped into normal space. His concentration focussed on his ship's sensors. Images poured through the shiplink embedded in his cerebellum. He had expected to find yet another Squishy ambush, but he floated safe and easy amidst his own robot fleet.
He opened his eyes, to see the beauty of normal space himself. The hard points of starlight and the brilliant sun of the Hydra system blazed with cheer.
Veddin's vision merged again with the images from the DareDrop 's sensors. The scene telescoped. The sun brightened, then dimmed as the DareDrop 's computer screened its rays. Soon Hydra floated just beyond Veddin's nose. It was a lustrous blue and white jewel, unlike anything in the FreeFed. His own home planet, Kaylanx, was perhaps more colorful with its violent swirls of red, green, and violet, but Kaylanx was not warm , as was Hydra.
He nudged his ship towards the planet. A small contingent of the main fleet followed. Senships scattered into early-warning array around the system.
This was foolish, Veddin realized—using standard military tactics just outside the one invincible planet in the galaxy. He almost ordered the senships back to the main fleet. But with a shrug he let them go. What else could he do with them, after all? For the first time, he understood why the Directorate had let him bring his fleet; now that FreeFed had been found by the larger human civilization, the Directorate had less use for the fleet than Veddin now had for the senships.
Something about Hydra disturbed Veddin. A troubled frown formed, then faded as he realized what was missing: There were neither moons nor battle-stations around the planet. His sensors backed off a bit and caught a single space station glinting in the sun. It was surrounded by gigantic freighters from the rest of human space. They were beautiful, and Veddin felt awed by the builders of these craft that dwarfed the DareDrop .
He also felt an unreasonable surge of joy, being here. It was different from anything he'd ever felt before, a joy that filled parts of his soul that until now had been empty.
Alerted by the sensation, almost alarmed, Veddin searched for an explanation. Meanwhile the joy grew stronger.
"Commander of the unidentified war fleet, this is maneuver control. Please identify yourself." The voice came not through any of the DareDrop 's communications channels, but through his mind itself. It reminded him of his first contact with a Hydran Couple, as the
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