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THINK YOURSELF TO DEATH
A "JOHNNY MAYHEM" ADVENTURE
By C. H. THAMES
[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories March1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Sidenote: _If you've never read a Johnny Mayhem story before, you arein for a treat. Johnny, who wears different bodies the way ordinarypeople wear clothes, is one of the most fascinating series characters inscience fiction._]
When he reached Ophiuchus, Johnny Mayhem was wearing the body of anelderly Sirian gentleman.
Nothing could have been more incongruous. The Sirian wore a pince-nez, adignified two-piece jumper in a charcoal color, sedate two-tone bootsand a black string-tie.
The loiterers in the street near the Galactic Observer's buildinglooked, and pointed, and laughed. Using the dignity of the dead Sirian,whose body he wore like other people wear clothing, Johnny Mayhemignored them. They had a point, of course. It was hot and humid onOphiuchus IX. The loiterers in the dusty, evil-smelling streets worenothing but loin cloths.
Mayhem went inside the building, which was air-conditioned. Probably itwas the only air-conditioned structure on the entire planet. Mayhemdabbed at his Sirian forehead gratefully, mopping at sweat. As near ashe could figure, his life expectancy in this body was down to threedays, Earth style. He wondered fleetingly why the Galactic League hadsent him here to Ophiuchus. He shrugged, knowing he would find out soonenough.
The Galactic Observer on Ophiuchus IX, a middle-aged Indian from Bombaynamed Kovandaswamy, wore an immaculate white linen loin cloth on hisplump body and a relieved smile on his worried face when Mayhem enteredhis office. The two men shook hands.
"So you're Mayhem?" Kovandaswamy said in English. "They told me toexpect you, sir. Pardon my staring, but I've never been face to facewith a legend before. I'm impressed."
* * * * *
Mayhem laughed. "You'll get over it."
"Well, at least as a Sirian gentleman, you're not very prepossessing.That helps."
"It wasn't my idea. It never is."
"I know. I know that, sir." Kovandaswamy got up nervously from his deskand paced across the room. "Do you know anything about Ophiuchus IX,Mayhem?"
"Not much. It's one of the Forgotten Worlds, isn't it?"
"Precisely, sir. Ophiuchus IX is one of scores of interstellar worldscolonized in the first great outflux from Earth."
"You mean during the population pressure of the 24th century?"
"Exactly. Then Ophiuchus IX, like the other Forgotten Worlds, was allbut forgotten. As you know, Mayhem, the first flux of colonizationreceded like a wave, inertia set in, and the so-called Forgotten Worldsbecame isolated from the rest of the galaxy for generations. Only in thepast fifty years are we finding them again, one by one. Ophiuchus IX istypical, isolated from the galaxy at large by a dust cloud that--"
"I know. I came through it."
"It was colonized originally with Indians from southern and easternIndia, on Earth. That's why the Galactic League appointed me Observer.I'm an Indian. These people--well, they're what my people might havedeveloped into if they'd lived for hundreds of years in perfectisolation."
"What's the trouble?"
Kovandaswamy answered with a question of his own. "You are aware of theGalactic League's chief aim?"
"Sure. To see that no outworld, however small or distant, is left inisolation. Is that what you mean?"
"Yes," agreed Kovandaswamy. "Their reason is obvious. For almost athousand years now the human race has outpaced its social and moraldevelopment with development in the physical sciences. For almost athousand years mankind has had the power to destroy itself. In isolationthis is possible. With mutual interchange of ideas, it is extremelyunlikely. Thus, in the interests of human survival, the Galactic Leaguetries to thwart isolated development. So far, the Forgotten Worlds havecooperated. But Ophiuchus IX is an exception."
"And the League wants me to find out why?"
"Precisely."
"How are they thwarting--"
Kovandaswamy was sweating despite the air-conditioning, despite hisalmost-naked state. "You have the right to turn this mission down, ofcourse. The League told me that."
"I'm here," Mayhem said simply.
"Very well, sir. Sooner or later, every outworlder who ventures outamong the Ophiuchans kills himself."
"I guess I didn't hear you. Did you say kills himself?"
"Suicide, Mayhem. Exactly."
"But how can you blame--"
"Like their ancestors from the Earthian sub-continent of India, Mayhem,the Ophiuchans are mystics. The trance, the holy man who sits incontemplation of his navel, the World Spirit--these are the things oftheir culture most important to them. Mayhem, did you ever see a hundredholy men of India working together?"
"Usually they don't work together."
"Precisely, sir. Precisely. Here on Ophiuchus, they do. And not merely ahundred. All of them. Virtually all of them. Working together, theirminds in trance, unified, seeking their World Spirit, they can doamazing things."
"Like mentally forcing the outworlders to kill themselves?"
"Yes, sir. Legally, they are innocent. Morally, they do not recognizethe outworlders as equals of themselves. The League wants to know whatthey are trying to hide. It could be a threat to peace and--existence."
"You have a body for me?" Johnny would be ready with that provided.
* * * * *
If anyone but Johnny Mayhem had asked that question, Kovandaswamy wouldnot have known what he was talking about, or would have thought himinsane, or both. But Johnny Mayhem was, of course, the legandary ManWithout a Body. How many corporeal shells had he inhabited in the pasthalf dozen years? He shrugged, not remembering. He couldn't remain inone body more than a month: it would mean the final death of his _elan_,his bodiless sentience. So far he had avoided that death.
The Galactic League would help him if it could. Every world which had ahuman population and a Galactic League post, however small, must have abody in cold storage, waiting for Johnny Mayhem if his services wererequired. But no one knew exactly under what circumstances the GalacticLeague Council, operating from the hub of the Galaxy, might summonMayhem. And only a very few people, including those at the Hub and theGalactic League Firstmen on civilized worlds and Observers on primitiveworlds, knew the precise mechanism of Mayhem's coming. To others it wasa weird mystery.
Johnny Mayhem, bodiless sentience. Mayhem--Johnny Marlow then--who hadbeen chased from Earth, a pariah and a criminal, almost seven years ago,who had been mortally wounded on a wild planet deep within theSaggitarian Swarm, whose life had been saved--after a fashion--by thewhite magic of the planet. Mayhem, doomed now to possible immortality asa bodiless sentience, an _elan_, which could occupy and activate a freshcorpse or one which had been frozen properly ... an _elan_ doomed towander eternally because it could not remain in one body for more than amonth without body and _elan_ perishing. Mayhem, who had dedicated hisstrange, lonely life to the service of the Galactic League because anormal life and normal social relations were not possible for him....
"Then you'll do it?" Kovandaswamy asked on Ophiuchus IX. "Even thoughyou realize we can give you no official help not only because theGalactic League approves of your work unofficially but can't sanction itofficially, but because an outworlder can't set his foot outside thisbuilding for long or off the spacefield without risking death...."
"By suicide?
"
"Yes. I'm practically a prisoner in Galactic League Headquarters, as ismy staff. You see--"
"What about the body?"
Kovandaswamy looked at him nervously. "A native, Mayhem. A native won'tbe molested, you see."
"That figures. What kind of native?"
"In top shape, sir. Healthy, young, in the prime of life you might say."
"Then what's bothering you?"
"Nothing. Nothing, sir."
"Your technicians are ready?"
"Yes, sir. And vowed to secrecy."
Mayhem found a tiny capsule in the pocket of his Sirian jumper, andpopped it in his mouth.
"What--what's that?"