The Practice Effect Read Online Free PDF Page A

felt behind himself and sat heavily on one of the crates. Then, as his situation soaked in, he suddenly found himself beginning to laugh! He couldn’t stop. His eyes filled as he gave in to the giddy feeling.
    No one had ever been as cut off as he was, cast from Earth to a faraway world.
    People might read about adventures in faraway places, but the truth was that most, at the first hint of anything
truly
dangerous, would dig a hole and cry out for Mother.
    As an initial reaction, then, perhaps laughter wasn’t bad. At least he felt more relaxed afterward.
    From a crate nearby, the pixolet watched, apparently fascinated.
    I’m going to have to come up with a new name for this place
, Dennis thought as he wiped his eyes.
Flasteria just won’t do
.
    The initial crisis of isolation had passed. He was able to look to his left, to the other door, the only one that would now open—onto another world.
    Brady’s talk of a “different set of physical laws” continued to bother Dennis. Brady had probably just been trying to get to him. Even if he
was
telling the truth, it would have to be something pretty subtle, since biological processes were so compatible on both worlds.
    Dennis remembered a science-fiction story he had once read in which a minute change in electrical conductivity resulted in a tenfold increase in human intelligence. Could it be something like that?
    Dennis sighed. He didn’t
feel
any smarter. The fact that he couldn’t remember the story’s title sort of refuted that possibility.
    The pixolet glided from its perch to land on his lap. It purred, looking up at him with emerald eyes.
    “Now
I’m
the alien,” Dennis said. He picked up the little native. “How about it, Pix? Am I welcome? Want to show me around your place?”
    Pix squeaked. It sounded eager to be off.
    “Okay,” Dennis said. “Let’s go.”
    He strapped on his tool belt, with the needlegun holstered to one side. Then, taking an appropriate “explorerlike” stance, he pulled the lever to unlock the far door. There was a hiss of equalizing pressure, and his ears popped briefly. Then the hatch swung open to let in the sunshine of another world.

2
Cogito, Ergo Tutti Fruitti
.
1
    The airlock rested on a gentle slope of dry, yellow grass. The meadow fell away toward a green-rimmed watercourse a quarter mile away. Beyond the stream, rows of long, narrow hills rose toward whitecapped mountains. Swards of yellow interspersed unevenly with carpets of varitone green.
    Trees.
    Yes, they looked like real trees, and the sky was blue. White cirrus clouds laced across the almost cyan vault overhead.
    For a long moment it was eerily, unnaturally quiet. He realized he had been holding his breath since opening the door. It made him feel lightheaded.
    Inhaling, he tasted the crisp, clean air. The breeze brought sounds of brushing grass and creaking branches. It also brought odors … the unmistakable mustiness of chlorophyll and humus, of dry grass and what smelled like oak.
    Dennis stood in the airlock’s combing and looked at the trees. They sure
looked
like oak. The countryside reminded him of northern California.
    Could this place actually
be
Earth? Dennis wondered. Had the ziev effect played another trick on them all and given them teleportation rather than an interstellar drive?
    It would be amusing to hitchhike to a pay phone and call Flaster with the news. Collect, of course.
    Dennis felt a sharp stab as tiny claws bit into his shoulder. The pixolet’s wing membranes snapped wide with a soundlike a shot, and the creature soared off over the meadow, toward the line of trees.
    “Hey … Pix! Where are you …”
    Dennis’s voice caught in his throat as he realized this
couldn’t
be Earth. This was where Pix came from.
    He began noticing little things—the shape of the leaves of grass, a huge, fernlike plant by the riverside, a feeling in the air.
    Dennis made sure his holstered sidearm was unencumbered, and his boot cuffs well covered