First Lensman Read Online Free PDF

the mind.
    "I know, Councillor Samms, what the Triplanetary Service needs; something vastly more than its meteor. I also know that the need will become greater and greater as the sphere of action of the Patrol expands. Without a really efficient symbol, the Solarian Patrol will be hampered even more than the Triplanetary Service; and its logical extension into the Space Patrol, or whatever that larger organization may be called, will be definitely impossible. We need something which will identify any representative of Civilization, positively and unmistakably, wherever he may be. It must be impossible of duplication, or even of imitation, to which end it must kill any unauthorized entity who attempts imposture. It must operate as a telepath between its owner and any other living intelligence, of however high or low degree, so that mental communication, so much clearer and faster than physical, will be possible without the laborious learning of language; or between us and such peoples as those of Rigel Four or of Palain Seven, both of whom we know to be of high intelligence and who must already be conversant with telepathy."
    "Are you or have you been, reading my mind?" Samms asked quietly.
    "No," Bergenholm replied flatly. "It is not and has not been necessary. Any man who can think, who has really considered the question, and who has the good of Civilization at heart, must have come to the same conclusions."
    "Probably so, at that. But no more side issues. You have a solution of some kind worked out, or you would not be here. What is it?"
    "It is that you, Solarian Councillor Samms, should go to Arisia as soon as possible."
    "Arisia!" Samms exclaimed, and:
    "Arisia! Of all the hells in space, why Arisia? And how can we make the approach? Don't you know that nobody can get anywhere near that damn planet?"
    Bergenholm shrugged his shoulders and spread both arms wide in a pantomime of complete helplessness.
    "How do you know—another of your hunches?" Kinnison went on. "Or did somebody tell you something? Where did you get it?"
    "It is not a hunch," the Norwegian replied, positively. "No one told me anything. But I know —as definitely as I know that the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen will yield water—that the Arisians are very well versed in that which I have called the science of the mind; that if Virgil Sammy goes to Arisia he will obtain the symbol he needs; that he will never obtain it otherwise. As to how I know these things … I can't … I just … I know it, I tell you!"
    Without another word, without asking permission to leave, Bergenholm whirled around and hurried out. Sammy and Kinnison stared at each other.
    "Well?" Kinnison asked, quizzically.
    "I'm going. Now. Whether I can be spared or not, and whether you think I'm out of control or not. I believe him, every word—and besides, there's the Bergenholm. How about you? Coming?"
    "Yes. Can't say that I'm sold one hundred percent; but, as you say, the Bergenholm is a hard fact to shrug off. And at minimum rating, it's got to be tried. What are you taking? Not a fleet, probably—the Boise ? Or the Chicago ?" It was the Commissioner of Public Safety speaking now, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. "The Chicago , I'd say—the fastest and strongest thing in space."
    "Recommendation approved. Blast-off; twelve hundred hours tomorrow!"
    Chapter Three
    The superdreadnought Chicago , as she approached the imaginary but nevertheless sharply defined boundary, which no other ship had been allowed to pang, went inert and crept forward, mile by mile. Every man, from Commissioner and Councillor down, was taut and tense. So widely, variant, so utterly fantastic, were the stories going around about this Arisia that no one knew what to expect. They expected the unexpected—and got it.
    "Ah, Tellurians, you are precisely on time." A strong, assured, deeply resonant pseudo-voice made itself heard in the depths of each mind aboard the tremendous ship of war. "Pilots