V
Priam's Maw
My occupation was "short-order cook", as it is called. I practiced it ina locus entitled "The White Heaven," established at Fifth Avenue,Newyork, between 1949 and 1962 C.E. I had created rapport with severalof the aboriginals, who addressed me as Bessie, and presumed to approvethe manner in which I heated specimens of minced ruminant quadrupedflesh (deceased to be sure). It was a satisfactory guise, althoughtiring.
Using approved techniques, I was compiling anthropometric data while "I"was, as they say, "brewing coffee." I deem the probability nearlyconclusive that it was the double duty, plus the datum that, as stated,"I" was physically tired, which caused me to overlook the first signalfrom my portatron. Indeed, I might have overlooked the second as wellexcept that the aboriginal named Lester stated: "Hey, Bessie. Ya got analarm clock in ya pocketbook?" He had related the annunciator signal ofthe portatron to the only significant datum in his own experience whichit resembled, the ringing of a bell.
I annotated his dossier to provide for his removal in case it eventuatedthat he had made an undesirable intuit (this proved unnecessary) andretired to the back of the "store" with my carry-all. On identifyingmyself to the portatron, I received information that it was attuned to aBailey's Beam, identified as Foraminifera 9-Hart, who had refusedtreatment for systemic weltschmerz and instead sought to relieve hisboredom by adventuring into this era.
I thereupon compiled two recommendations which are attached: 2, aproposal for reprimand to the Keeper of the Learning Lodge for failureto properly annotate a volume entitled _U.S.A. Confidential_ and, 1, aproposal for reprimand to the Transport Executive, for permittingBailey's Beam-class personnel access to temporal transport. Meanwhile, Ileft the "store" by a rear exit and directed myself toward the locus ofthe transmitting portatron.
* * * * *
I had proximately left when I received an additional information,namely that developed weapons were being employed in the area towardwhich I was directing. This provoked that I abandon guise entirely. Iwent transparent and quickly examined all aboriginals within view, todetermine if any required removal; but none had observed this. I rose toperhaps seventy-five meters and sped at full atmospheric driving speedtoward the source of the alarm. As I crossed a "park" I detected thedrive of another Adjuster, whom I determined to be Alephplex Priam'sMaw--that is, my father. He bespoke me as follows: "Hurry, BesplexPriam's Maw. That crazy Foraminifera has been captured by aboriginalsand they have taken his weapons away from him." "Weapons?" I inquired."Yes, weapons," he stated, "for Foraminifera 9-Hart brought with himmore than forty-three kilograms of weapons, ranging up to and includingelectronic."
I recorded this datum and we landed, went opaque in the shelter of adoorway and examined our percepts. "Quarantine?" asked my father, and Ihad to agree. "Quarantine," I voted, and he opened his carry-all andset-up a quarantine shield on the console. At once appeared the silveryquarantine dome, and the first step of our adjustment was completed. Nowto isolate, remove, replace.
Queried Alephplex: "An Adjuster?" I observed the phenomenon to which hewas referring. A young, dark aboriginal was coming toward us on the"street," driving a group of police aboriginals before him. He wasarmed, it appeared, with a fission-throwing weapon in one hand and somesort of tranquilizer--I deem it to have been a Stollgratz 16--in theother; moreover, he wore an invulnerability belt. The police aboriginalswere attempting to strike him with missile weapons, which the beltdeflected. I neutralized his shield, collapsed him and stored him in mycarry-all. "Not an Adjuster," I asserted my father, but he had alreadyperceived that this was so. I left him to neutralize and collapse thepolice aboriginals while I zeroed in on the portatron. I did not envyhim his job with the police aboriginals, for many of them were "dead,"as they say. It required the most delicate adjustments.
* * * * *
The portatron developed to be in a "cellar" and with it were some nineor eleven aboriginals which it had immobilized pending my arrival. Onespoke to me thus: "Young lady, please call the cops! We're stuck here,and--" I did not wait to hear what he wished to say further, butneutralized and collapsed him with the other aboriginals. The portatronapologized for having caused me inconvenience; but of course it was notits fault, so I did not neutralize it. Using it for d-f, I quicklylocated the culprit, Foraminifera 9-Hart Bailey's Beam, nearby. He spokedespairingly in the dialect of the locus, "Besplex Priam's Maw, forGod's sake get me out of this!" "Out!" I spoke to him, "you'll wish younever were 'born,' as they say!" I neutralized but did not collapse him,pending instructions from the Central Authority. The aboriginals whowere with him, however, I did collapse.
Presently arrived Alephplex, along with four other Adjusters who hadarrived before the quarantine shield made it not possible for anyoneelse to enter the disturbed area. Each one of us had had to abandonguise, so that this locus of Newyork 1939-1986 must require newAdjusters to replace us--a matter to be charged against the guilt ofForaminifera 9-Hart Bailey's Beam, I deem.
* * * * *
This concluded Steps 3 and 2 of our Adjustment, the removal and theisolation of the disturbed specimens. We are transmitting same disturbedspecimens to you under separate cover herewith, in neutralized andcollapsed state, for the manufacture of simulacra thereof. One regretsto say that they number three thousand eight hundred forty-six,comprising all aboriginals within the quarantined area who hadfirst-hand knowledge of the anachronisms caused by Foraminifera'simportation of contemporary weapons into this locus.
Alephplex and the four other Adjusters are at present reconstructingsuch physical damage as was caused by the use of said weapons.Simultaneously, while I am preparing this report, "I" am maintaining thequarantine shield which cuts off this locus, both physically andtemporally, from the remainder of its environment. I deem that ifreplacements for the attached aboriginals can be fabricated quicklyenough, there will be no significant outside percept of the shielditself, or of the happenings within it--that is, by maintaining aquasi-stasis of time while the repairs are being made, an outsideaboriginal observer will see, at most, a mere flicker of silver in thesky. All Adjusters here present are working as rapidly as we can to makesure the shield can be withdrawn, before so many aboriginals haveobserved it as to make it necessary to replace the entire city withsimulacra. We do not wish a repetition of the California incident, afterall.
Transcriber's Note
This etext was produced from _Future Science Fiction_ No. 30 1956.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errorshave been corrected without note.
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